#indes

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory.

I'll be honest, I don't do a lot of particularly tragic backstories. Some troubled pasts? Sure. Complications that may come back to haunt them? Love 'em! Maybe one impactful death here or there, but the real tragic ones are few and far between. For example, I think the only characters I have that have lost both parents are Tala and Ledo, but for Tala they passed when she was a literal baby (due to a plague) so she was raised by her grandparents instead. Their deaths were not something she actually remembers and have little effect on her as a character. And for the few older characters I made back during my first few years writing/RPing, the ones who did have somewhat tragic backstories often ended up getting rewritten as I matured and decided they were more cringe than provoking.

Of my current, active characters, Ledo would probably have the most tragic one, even though she also has come to terms with about half of it at this point. However, to avoid possible spoilers for you and the rest of our little dnd gang snooping around here, I'm gonna actually briefly describe her old backstory, which got a complete rework in Sam's world so this won't really be spoiling anything major if stuff does come up.

This would have been the basic bullet points if something had happened to Ori in the last campaign since Ledo was the backup for it. Originally, Ledo was gonna be in a similar situation to Tala where she didn't really get to know her parents before they passed. Unlike Tala, she would not know who they were at all and would not be aware of any other immediate family. All she would know is that she was given to an orphanage at a young age. She would eventually run away for reasons, and find herself taking shelter in the workshop of a dwarf tinker. The tinker and his wife would take pity on her and give her a place to stay for a while as they tried to decide what to do, but since they had never been able to have children of their own, they take her in and eventually adopt her. She would grow up and eventually take up an apprenticeship with her adoptive father and found that she had a bit of a natural talent with working in the forge and with tinkering. But the real tragedy would strike when a large explosion goes off in the workshop, killing the tinker and seriously injuring Ledo. In the aftermath, she would have found hints that the explosion was not an accident, but a planned sabotage. She would not know who the culprit was, though she may have had suspicions (in the case of the last campaign, I probably would have used her suspecting Cobalt or someone he worked with as a catalyst to get her to join up with the party). Obviously the current backstory is a lot different considering she comes from a Tiefling culture instead, but there's still a couple of nods to the original version.

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want.

The problem with this question is that I simultaneously want to talk about all the things but I'm also really bad when I'm put on the spot and asked to just talk about something. SO... I'm gonna talk about Aubrey so I'm not just talking about more dnd stuff.

Aubrey is an innkeeper, a witch, and an informant. She's currently set in a low-fantasy world that is heavily based on the 1300s medieval period so it's been a fun exercise in making more subtle fantasy looks and finding appropriate design and referenced art-wise. But she's such a fun character to play and think about, even if I have not gotten to do too many exciting things with her just yet (unfortunately the arpg she was made for has been pretty low with activity the last couple of years). Her magic is limited in the current setting because it's low fantasy, but her main thing is divination and getting visions from spirits. I also want her to have a magpie familiar eventually that she can use as her little scout but that may or may not happen depending on what eventually happens with the setting. One of the things I would love, love, love to do with her eventually is come up with some sort of plot that would take her away from the inn because of either some information she has found through her usual channels, or from a vision that is more intense than usual, and get her tangled up with more secretive organizations outside of the city she lives in.

33. Your shyest OC?

This is honestly a bit of a hard one. I have plenty of quiet/introverted characters, but I don't consider most of them as genuinely shy. Most have no problem socializing, even if they do not have a ton to say. Likely either as the result of myself being the same way or because most are RP characters that kind of depend on interactions.

I will say pre-campaign/younger Oriana was definitely in the shy camp, though as a result of being uncertain and scared of her magic rather than her personality. Gaining confidence with that and her fighting skills definitely got her in the previously mentioned "quiet but not shy" category.

I do have one character I can think of that is definitely shy in a literal sense. My witchy-innkeeper, Aubrey, has a member of her staff, Annabelle, who came from a servant background and was not treated very well in her previous job, so as a result she became very shy and anxious. To the point where if she is berated by anyone outside of the rest of the staff, she will either run away or freeze up. Aubrey has her mostly cleaning to help keep her from having to interact with bad customers, but not always foolproof. Everyone's trying to help her, though it's a slow process.

The night sky-themed air genasi I've drawn before (whose working name is Stellara/Stellari maybe) may also end up kinda on the shy side if I ever do get to play her. Mostly because I imagine her as a bit of a hermit who just doesn't do socialization very well in general.

34. Do you have any twin characters?

I do! Jayni, my halfling wizard (previously bard) that was originally made for a short-lived Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign, has a twin brother named Finn. He was originally taking on an apprenticeship to a tinker in the city, but if the characters ever came back, I'm not sure if I would keep that or have him doing something else.

The art is old and Jayni specifically has strawberry blonde hair now, but Finn still looks mostly the same c:

And technically, though I never did make any official art for them and they would be shared and not just mine, it was decided between me and the other player that Indes and Korgul's first biological kids would be a set of twins (Uram and Taram), so I figure they may count as well.

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer?

Easily Wisteria, the Eladrin glamour bard (who I drew here) that I really wanna play someday. The entire idea behind her was that I wanted a bard that didn't necessarily having singing or instruments as their main "thing" and I wanted an excuse to make a character that would feel natural dressing in very flashy, hanfu-inspired dresses, and she was born out of those two thoughts. Instead of playing an instrument, her magic is triggered by her dancing and her fan, which would act as her arcane focus.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

If we talked about all of my fond memories with my OCs we would be here forever. I have literally been making OCs and RPing them since the end of middle school/beginning of high school, and I still occasionally lurk around my old stomping grounds to see what old buddies are up to and reminisce on the nostalgia.

For the sake of being relevant to this post and the people I know here, I'm gonna go back to my Elder Scrolls RP days in the shipyard here on tumblr. Some highlights of my time RPing as Indes and Nidhel, as well as a family friend, Vialgo (an Imperial Dawnguard member) include:

The player of Tor-Acr, an Argonian were-croc, asking for a spar RP literally a day before I said I was gonna start looking for threads and sparking Indes' first friendship in that community.

Watching Indes' and Korgul's relationship grow from occasionally butting heads, to genuine friends, to secret feelings for each other, to admitting everything when Korgul was at a low point and sparking honestly one of the best RP romances I have every had the pleasure of being a part of and that made both of our characters better as a whole.

Getting to host a tourney event for the other Companion players and watching everyone get to enjoy it and building closer relationships between the characters.

Vialgo talking down one of his commanders when he almost slipped up and realizing I could actually play a smooth-talking character rather than just the blunt, gruff ones or super sweet, honest ones.

A whole multi-part story where Herryk, another player's Dragonborn character and one of the Companions that Indes is closest to (basically a little brother to her), is almost killed by a dragon and she witnesses him literally fall from the sky when he gets dropped by the dragon. And she plays an integral part in his return and the emotional payoff was just amazing.