What are your biggest inspirations for your OCs?

Did you already have an OC in mind before playing each game or was it something you just winged? Sometimes we base OCs off favorite characters or even ourselves.

Who/what is the biggest inspiration for your DA OCs?

For my Amell, it was Princess Azula from AtLA, since she was one of my favorite characters growing up. They also share some personality traits, though I'll say Amihan is probably not as evil haha.

They even have a bun hairstyle:

I use a lot of poetry for inspiration? My first step with creating a character is figuring out their emotional conflict that's at the heart of them as a person, if that makes sense?

Also! I've come to realize I also used an ATLA character as inspiration! Katara definitely shaped my Lavellan, Arravir. The line "I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me" ....Formative

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It's not reflected in her appearance at all, but my Angharad Lavellan got her name from Splendid Angharad from Mad Max: Fury Road. She also has some of her leaderly qualities.

My Adaar (non-canon inquisitor) basically came about because I wanted to romance Josie with a character who is "Han Solo but a lesbian" lol. She's an ex-criminal, and she's very sarcastic and initially skeptical of the Inquisition but comes to believe in their goals in the end, at least the ones about making sure Thedas doesn't get torn apart. And, of course, she has a thing for bun-headed diplomats.

MMFR is one of the best movies ever made (in my humble opinion) and Angharad is so amazing...I love that inspiration

Also "Han Solo but a lesbian" is the most powerful sentence in the world

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I don't know if I've ever used other characters as inspiration. I might have subconsciously but I can't really think of one at the top of my head.

My main inspiration is canon lore tbh, lmao. I will read a codex entry or a meta post on Tumblr and think "Oh, that's interesting! What if I incorporated it in my OC's backstory?" That's how I ended up with my Surana being a Circle baby. Or how the Fereldan Rebellion became a part of my Inquisitor's backstory, because she's Orlesian and old enough to have experienced it.

Other than that, I mostly develop their personality as I go along. Sometimes, they're based on which character I want to pair them with romantically. Sometimes, they're based on events I want to see happening to them. Like, for example, my Cousland is going to spare Loghain, so I decided to make her a pacifist character who only uses violence as a last resort.

My first character in a new videogame is generally based on previous characters I created in other games I played; as I ease my way into things, I tend to wing it based on random OC concepts that flash through my mind (like 'What if it was a Qunari but one raised in a Circle?' or 'What if it was a city elf smuggler rather than a spy from Clan Lavellan?' or 'What if Hawke was only human on their mother's side?').

@martyrjoan MMFR is my favorite movie ever tbh, it's so beautiful. And yeah when I thought "Han Solo but a lesbian" I was just like... well now I HAVE to make this character!

@CocotteJenn oh same about using canon lore/headcanons! My Aeducan is a trans woman, and the reason I made her look very different from her brothers is that she has a different mother. I wanted her mother to be a noble hunter who had a "son", allowing her and the child to join the nobility, and once Magda started expressing that she's actually a girl they kind of went "eh, whatever, she's already entered in the shaperate so we can't kick her out now."

@ohhgreywarden Ooof, Magda's family was definitely more accepting than my Jade's, who was also perceived as a 'son' of a noble hunter and had to run away to the surface to live as her true self.

@ohhgreywarden & @NorroenDyrd This is such a great concept! And I love how you developed it in different ways, both equally interesting.

When I first played DAO in 2014, my original version of Neikea was just winged. So was my Hawke and Inquisitor, though neither of them ever really... fit well with me. Or stuck around for long either. Neikea was the only one that's stuck, but she's changed races.

Honestly, most of my DA characters are just characters from other projects/role plays I've done shoved into Thedas and played around with. It's fun, because I get some quick bases established but can still mess around with them. My three main heroes are actually the oldest three OCs I have - I created them all in 2005.

Otherwise the only thing I've got inspiring anything is that all my elves - regardless of origin - are named after Greek spirits that represent their character or some major influencing aspect of their stories. Neikea = arguments; Charites = charm, beauty, etc.; Keres = violent death; Moirai = destiny. The only exception is Neikea's daughter, Duncan.

@NorroenDyrd @CocotteJenn: I mostly used the whole "the nobles are desperate to bolster their numbers" thing as my justification for why they accepted her, that and her being a bit of a daddy's girl so it had gotten to the point where Endrin couldn't say no to her haha.

@Kelloggs It's always fun to put OCs you already have into the DA universe. It's a new way to explore them, and possibly see different sides of them!

In a way, it's sort of a "Thedas-sona" lol.

I always like basing them off stuff I liked from other games I've played or media I've seen or interact with a lot! For example, my Inquisitor, Lira Lavellan, is based off magical girls from anime I've watched when I was a kid. But Lira was also made from an old demon OC I made 5-ish years ago? Whose design I just recycled for her

On the other hand, my warden Marika has been heavily inspired by a lot of shoujo manga heroines and k-pop fashions for what I like to call her "cute charm" cuz it be like that sometimes LOL

Besides the Dresden Files, Ivy is based a lot off things I loved as a child. Mainly the Arabian Nights stories, and "Sheherazade," which used to drive my parents crazy because I wanted to hear it over and over again.

Eurydice was pretty much a carbon copy of Lady Amalthea. I had another design for her that was opposite of how she ended up looking, but I was going through a depressive episode at the time and the Last Unicorn is one of my comforts. I go into the CC and next thing I know, Eurydice's got white hair and purple eyes.

I mean she's changed lot since then in both personality and appearance but I think you can still see she was heavily influenced by the movie. Which I don't mind. Anything to make me happy :D