Background Info, Behind the scenes

[Franco]

OK, so this is a little extra thing I decided to put in. Basically, as the description suggests, this is a place to put in information about what the inspiration was for a character, horse, move etc. and/or original ideas about character background. Since it's easier to show than it is to explain, here goes:

Franco Aldwulf: "Franco" was a nickname I had from a friend from Mexico. "Aldwulf" was kind of inspired by Beowulf.

There were a number of ideas for the background story. Originally, I wanted him to be a regular Exeter knight who studied abroad, if you will, in Ardara. Then, I decided it was too simple. At some point, he was an orphan who was kidnapped by pirates and then raised by Ardaran swordsmen. Then, eventually, came the current back story.

As for fighting style, I wanted him to be versatile, having three blades (one dagger, two swords) and a shield. He was meant to be a mix of quickness, finesse and strength. Wind magic was mostly thrown in after MD recommended it (it was not in mind when I was designing the character). Like most other incarnations of Franco, he had a laid back persona between fighting, usually making snide remarks (in this case toward Blad and Janet, and anyone who felt like being an asshole that moment).

Mammon Tindarius: My ideal villain was someone of vanity and a rapier (and, for some reason, a wig). He was partly inspired by Rafael from Soul Caliber, but became more like Nightmare. I always had him as a devil worshiper of some kind, and having a back story involving Franco.

Originally, he was cursed by someone he stole something from to have skin so pale that he would go up in flames in the mere touch of sunset. MD ruled this one out. Then, the demon arm came in and the rest wrote itself.

"Mammon" is the name of the demon of greed, which I felt was fitting for a thief. "Tindarius" which was mentioned once in the entire RP, was a variation of Tindar, a nemesis of Reploid Franco. Though not the reason why, both incarnations use an electrical like attack.

Rostam: Named after a mythical Arabian hero (which later became the name of an Ardaran founding hero). He was created the night that the RP started (quickly thrown together with the thought of "Oh, wait, he should have a horse"). It was a mix of Ganondorf's horse and Zebra (which are known for vicious attacks, causing more Zoo related deaths than most predators). Honestly, I don't know why I gave him the meanstreak that he had. Most of Rostam was just thrown together.

Mary: Though there was a regrettably little amount of detail outside of a damsel in distress, Mary was named after a grandmother (the grand father being named Frank). It was a small tribute to the family.

Alric: The name came from a misspelling of William Thatcher's cover up name in "A Knight's Tale". He is a character who I used in various stories, always being the legendary swordsman. He is almost never the main character in any of the stories, but he played an important role and was always the one that the protagonist looked up to. At some point, I modeled him after the Warrior Within version of the Prince of Persia. This was before this RP, so it is interesting where it ended up.

[Mr. Death]

Okay, here goes.

Sir Michael Drachos: As his initials would suggest, this is basically MD, and in this case he's in the style of a Final Fantasy dragoon, mostly because I think they're cool. For the record, I came up with his weapon (Scythe on one end, spear on the other) before Soul Calibur III came out.

For this Drachos, my original intent was to make him a younger, more brash version than had appeared previously, but I think I abandoned that idea fairly quickly, at least I didn't focus on it very much.

Evylinn: The name originally came from a fantasy idea I had, and Evylinn would have ended up the party's black mage. The name was first applied to Sir Drachos's love interest waaaaay back in the original RP, where Drachos was a vampire. For her, I mostly wanted to make her also a younger version than had appeared previously, and my first idea was to make her around 15 before I aged her up a bit. The idea was she was inexperienced, untested, and probably a little sheltered, too.

Sebastian: "Sebastian" is basically the name I use when "Erocs" would be too out of place, and originates in a boss from Blood Omen 2. I first used the name for one of the vampires that Drachos had to defeat back when he was a vampire, and there his power was based on telepathic and telekinetic abilities. In this RP, though, Sebastian became your basic soul-sucking lunatic, which fits the vampiric aspects. He was meant to be a "Dark side" version of Drachos.

His mount was a demon mostly because, well, so was he.

Sleipnir: Named after Odin's horse from Norse mythology. He's a warhorse, pretty simple.

That's more or less it for my main characters. Maybe I'll do some bits about the countries later.