- This topic has 156 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I have been meaning to post in this forum for a while now.
I mean, I would assume it’s Ottoline’s, since her picture is on it… Oh, wait XD it’s Ottoline and Hugo!
I was like, wait why are there skateboard pictures there?
Here’s what I would do with those eyes.
- Copy everything around the eyes, but not the eyes themselves. (You can paste them into an empty image if you need a place to store them.)
- Paste the eyes into the original image, lining them up as well as possible over the original ones. Don’t worry if they stick out.
- Paste the part you copied in part one back into the picture. It will cover up any of the eyes that are sticking over the edge.
That’s option one. The other option, which is probably easier, is:
- Select one of the irises.
- Go to Hue and Saturation. (Whatever program you’re using should have something like this.
- By adjusting hue, you should be able to get the color you want. If you need to, adjust the saturation as well.
- Do it for the other iris.
Okay, on to my stuff.
What’s interesting is when I saw this topic, I realized that a lot of my characters don’t really have backstories. That might sound bad, but I think that a lot of them are actually living through their backstory in the WIP that they are in. I just thought that was interesting. If anyone wants me to go into more detail about that I can, but for now, I’ll share one for a character who does have a backstory. He’s one of my most underrated characters in my opinion. (Underrated by me that is—I’ve barely talked about him on here.)
Ridril Vaminin
(A lot of you already know the basic setting of this WIP, so if you do, you can skip this paragraph.) The kingdom of Arvendor, since its founding, was protected by eight elite warriors known as the Eìvir. Their purpose is to protect the kingdom and it’s king. The eight knights have passed down their positions to their heirs throughout the ages.
At the end of the Fourth Age, nearly 25,000 years after Arvendor and the Eìvir were founded, the Dragon Wars began. During this time, Ridril Vaminin was training to succeed his father as an Eìvir. He was in most ways typical for an Eìvir’s heir—no particular talent, but no particular lack of it either.
Ridril’s father died late in the war. Ridril was less than 20 years old. He first saw combat in the final battle of the war, the Siege of Galthor itself.
No training could truly prepare a person for this war, and so Ridril fled the city, leaving behind the king and the other Eìvir to die in defense of the city. Though they did manage to defeat the Dragon Lord Argaroth, Arvendor was destroyed, and the world descended into instability—wars and border squabbles erupted as minor lords tried to seize power.
Ridril was left to be consumed by guilt. He hated himself for what he did.
But instead of it destroying him, guilt made him a better person. He became ready to sacrifice his own life for anyone else, and he would do anything to help his kingdom’s cause, not because he thought he could make up for his betrayal, but because he didn’t see anything else for him to do.
This is his situation when he appears in the main story of this WIP. The heirs of the Eìvir and the heir of the king reassemble to fight for and restore Arvendor. Ridril finally gets a chance to fight for his kingdom, though he still thinks he is past redemption. He eventually dies in the war, with Prince Dalaman’s forgiveness for his betrayal.
…so that’s him. A relatively minor character in this story, but honestly he has one of the best character arcs in my opinion.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksI KNOW!!!!!!! I stayed up until like 10 last night making it…it was worth every minute of sleep I lost, lol
you are correct!
Lukas&Livia
#Lalbert
Sef&Chase
#HOTTOLINE
LEFSE FOREVER!!!!!! <333I don’t think number one will work…I’m not techy at all .(besides pushing random stuff to see what it does XD) and the fiery eyes pic that I stole it from was black and white, with only the iris colored.
I’ll attempt the second. Thank for the advise!
If this works I should make a picture of Nahim…
#Justiceforsandwichclone
#theclonesdeservedbetter
#HugRikerSquad
#HugHans@rae @freedomwriter76 @jonas @acancello @grcr @anyone-else
Sooooo you guys remember Jraldath right?? The evil Pythonos that terrorizes everyone…
And you also remember his wife Selena?
Well…they’re evil for a reason…because they have a TRAGIC BACKSTORY!! bwahaha!
Anyways…when Jraldath and Selena were newly married, they had a son.
And then their son got sick and they took him to the doctor but the doctor wouldn’t even try to help save him just because they were Pythonos. Their son eventually dies.
And so then they murder the doctor and his wife for revenge…blah blah blah…and THEN they join a new movement to overthrow the government. So then they do that…and the reason they experiment on Paynes is to search for a cure for the disease that took their son (even though there is no cure, but they refused to believe that)
Anyway, so they’re constantly searching for a cure and trying to avenge their son’s death and just so broken and confused and believing so many lies…
I almost feel bad for them…
But then I remember what they do to Otto and Lilitu and Marcurious and Neveah and basically everyone important in my story!!! AHHHH!
Lukas&Livia
#Lalbert
Sef&Chase
#HOTTOLINE
LEFSE FOREVER!!!!!! <333I almost feel bad for them…
But then I remember what they do to Otto and Lilitu and Marcurious and Neveah and basically everyone important in my story!!! AHHHH!
I knowwwwwwww! I have the same problem with Grathmere! Like, he literally gave his own son a disease on purpose that causes a lot of pain…like who? But then his back story is soooooooooo sad!
He wants to murder my fav nation/charries/culture and I LOVE him?!!?!
#Justiceforsandwichclone
#theclonesdeservedbetter
#HugRikerSquad
#HugHansWell…they’re evil for a reason…because they have a TRAGIC BACKSTORY!! bwahaha!
I remember that scene. But I thought that all Pythonos were just evil by nature?
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksOh, interesting!!
(I didn’t know his wife’s name was Selena though lol)
I almost feel bad for them…
But then I remember what they do to Otto and Lilitu and Marcurious and Neveah and basically everyone important in my story!!! AHHHH!
Lol, Ahhh…. that’s how I feel about my antagonist Neon…💛
“What be a cretin?”
“Of course you wouldn’t know. It’s a… bread you put in salad.”I’m going into this topic completely blind other than reading the first post, so um, yeah, let’s see how this goes XD
YES I’M LATE XD
Of course a character’s backstory is going to influence their perspective on life. Absolutely. And writing them is so fun – the funnest thing ever.
Personally though, I’ve seen a pile of characters where the backstory is kind of the only thing interesting about them? If you took the backstory away, they’re almost boring. For example, if you had a young man who is despairing and empty of love because he loved a girl and she was murdered, what if that murder never happened? If he isn’t unique for any reasons necessary to himself, it’s almost too classic of a character to be memorable. Not that it’s bad to have a character like that – they’re just not memorable. I even know characters where the backstory cheapens their growth. That’s when I rethink the character and make them naturally interesting or different by personality alone.
Take Rocket the Raccoon. (Marvel fans out there! Guardians of the Galaxy is my favorite XD) His backstory isn’t fully revealed until the third movie, but he’s debatably the most likable character beforehand, just because he’s got his hilarious Rocket personality. And if you took away the bad parts of the backstory, hypothetically he would be a whole lot more optimistic, but still interesting.
Additionally a tragic backstory comes with one huge setback… the cringe factor XD There, I said it. If I had a nickel for every trauma-induced breakdown I’ve read, I’d be a millionaire. It’s impossible to avoid the predictability unless you are very aware of how the reader might react, and even then, someone isn’t going to find it compelling.
Anywho, that’s what I think.
I almost never share character backstory, with people irl, in my posts, in roleplay. I’ll suggest a few things, but it’s not like my characters would share their personal life in a roleplay, and it would take away from the buildup anyway. I’ve heard that telling someone the juicy secrets of your story could reward your brain before you’ve actually done the written work and it will hinder the process. And I wouldn’t believe it if it hasn’t actually happened to me, but it has, so I don’t share as much stuff as some other people do because that’s just what works for me.
Buuuuuuuut like I said, I can suggest things and it doesn’t reward me too much XD
KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...
I have a question @anyone
Do characters actually need backstories?
I mean, I love writing them. Tragic backstories of course (in small doses), cheerful backstories with fun family dynamics… but I’ve realized that very few of my characters actually have backstories.
Eddie and Ellie, for example, the MCs of my Paper Stars story, have literally no backstory at all. They are just kinda there, wandering the stars in their tiny rv spaceship. But they still fulfill their roles in the story just fine. Every time I try to make a backstory for them, it seems to mess up their characters and motivations.
So do you think I just haven’t figured out the right backstory yet, or are there just some characters who don’t need any backstory?
Space Princess ✨🪐 intp artist
Short answer: no.
Technical answer: yes.
I think there’s always going to be things in a character’s past that shapes them later on, but they might be subtle things that are not explicitly stated, or even specifically defined by the author.
A lot of my characters also don’t really have “backstories,” meaning they start out without having any particularly notable events that influenced who they are at the beginning of the story.
Hope that makes sense!
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksI don’t think so. I’ve watched a lot of shows where you’re just thrown into what the characters are doing right now, and sometimes the backstories come in later, but it’s not a big deal. It’s endearing because the present is what’s important, not the past. Plus some stories shouldn’t try to be “deep” because they are all about the small, cheerful things in life. It would be disappointing if they gave that up.
I’ve always liked your characters, and I never knew anything about their past. They’re interesting enough without that 😉
KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...
Yes, that does make sense, thanks!
So when they they don’t have backstories, that just means they’ve led a normal, unremarkable life up until the start of the story, right?
Space Princess ✨🪐 intp artist
I also like emphasizing in my stories the fact that people don’t need trauma or terrible tragedy in their lives in order to struggle with sin. Everyone has problems to overcome, even Average Joe with his calm, happy, suburban childhood.
Space Princess ✨🪐 intp artist
I also like emphasizing in my stories the fact that people don’t need trauma or terrible tragedy in their lives in order to struggle with sin. Everyone has problems to overcome, even Average Joe with his calm, happy, suburban childhood.
YES, this. I’ve tried to explain this to some people and they don’t get it for some reason.
KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...
Like Gravity Falls! (Have you seen it? It’s the best) You never even see the parents’ faces.
I’ve always liked your characters, and I never knew anything about their past. They’re interesting enough without that 😉
Awww thanks :]
Space Princess ✨🪐 intp artist
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
