I have seen so many unique and wonderful characters since I started RPing on WoW in 2016. It’s quite nice to engage with a community and never really see the same OC twice. Certainly similar themed characters are a thing just as specific race x class combinations are.
But tell me about where your OC originated from.
For example, Celassa was born from the imagery that was evoked whilst exploring Winterspring. A song popped on, mus_winterspring_gu5, and I just saw her. Clear as day in my mind.
Literally WarCraft 2 Elvish Ranger.
Yonara is an avatar for several Pandaren characters of mine, first and foremost being Zhaoyang Cloudpaw. She is primarily based on Zatoichi and more broadly the general concept of a competent blind combatant. She was pretty much the very first idea I had for a Pandaren character, name included.
While she was originally conceptualized as simply fempanda Ichi, she has since become much more nuanced.
One of my older DK characters, Bremuleth Autumnriver, AKA Sinothyr Skyfire, had a few inspirations. At the time I perceived a certain sentiment regarding portraying Death Knights, that they all had to be emotionless automatons or ever-dour despots. In protest I endeavored to have Sinothyr be, at least outwardly, jollier and more macabre whilst still having those more typical moments many commonly associate the class with. A large part of her portrayal is inspired somewhat by Witchblade, particularly the anime adaptation as that is the only one I’ve personally consumed. The concept of deriving pleasure from act of killing is a central theme of the character, along with the unnatural need to fight and kill, though I suppose the latter should perhaps go without saying.
My guy is a Kronk from Emperor’s Groove rip off. He also has influences from Zangief from the American Street Fighter movie and various Arnold/Terminator in him. His name (Juspion) is also from an old sentai show.
Original character totally not stolen.
I been on a break from WoW due to IRL work but when I return I may retire him and come up with a new Draenei guy to play. Juspion can take a happy vacation, next newest original character is totally not a rip off of Domon from G Gundam
The Ogden siblings are a conglomerate of ideas. First there’s the twins, Sarsi and Resa. “The nice one” and “the mean one”. And their older trans brother, Ali, a non-binary knight of Stromgarde.
They are the children of separated co-parents who accepted their children’s lives without question. From Sarsi’s lesbian leaning to Ali’s transition into a man. They’re a glimpse into what a family should be, and perhaps a personal fantasy and wish for the family I lacked growing up as a queer woman myself.
And even more, Ogden women; from Sarsi, to her mother and onward up the tree are based on the idea of women who have influence and platform standing up, fighting for and defending other women who might not have the same platform to speak. Their entire arc is about giving voice to the voiceless. Defending those who need it.
That’s my inspiration. Maybe it’s too convoluted but female empowerment has always been important and dear to my heart, as a woman myself, and these characters let me depict that.
Kirsy was originally a meme character based on Starfire from Teen Titans. She grew into a real character.
Destrie has Jessica Jones’ personality.
Callie is clearly Evelyn from The Mummy.
I have no idea where Larisi came from.
I don’t know, blame my parents.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the idea that there are “Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.” In particular, this quote stuck with me:
“Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to a mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on a rock." - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
These other quotes were also influential:
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” - Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
“As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold.” - H.P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror
Kai here was a footnote in another character’s backstory. I decided she was the tomboy that hung out with my character and his husband (back then, just friends), and preferred to be at his house because her home life was rough. Her older brother was an incel and died at the fall of Quel’thalas. She was a mage and got into trouble a lot. That was as much as I had for her. My paladin’s stories never mentioned what happened to her, just her name.
I decided she should be alive as of Legion dropping and releasing demon hunters. I also thought it’d be cool if she were an antihero sort. I think it was mostly girly rock that got me into the headspace to write her. But she had few other inspirations despite being a girl my blood elf paladin knew once.
I literally saw a Night Elf that had gray skin and white hair as I was playing a Dwarf and thought that looked really cool, but would look better with short hair.
Years later, I am still searching for a decent pixie cut.
my kingdom for better short and very long hairs. sometimes i want something that isn’t shoulder-length.
Humans have three different really good short hairstyles they should move to other races. Ali can have his hair in something akin to a mullet even, and he can get surprisingly masc presenting on the femme model because of it. They need to give that customization ability to other races. (Also looking for a bust slider specifically so Ali can have a flatter chest, for now his chest piece is just one of those bubble breastplates you saw in the midevil era)
(Ignore the R in the character name I couldn’t get just “Ali” on character select)
Ryka is an elfy version of Rain from the first Resident Evil movie with a cringy dash of self-insert, rounded out with a bit of generic 90s/aughts sci-fi/fantasy heroine.
‘Sefa’ was a character in a story I was chipping away at in what feels like my youth now but was, in fact, simply my early 20s… when I got back into games, I started using the name ‘Sefa’ and ‘Sefo’ and when TBC rolled around, I made a Belf with that name, who became ‘Sef’ on WrA.
The WoW Sef is not like the original character at all, but it did become a name I like to use in games e.g. my bunny in FFXIV is Sef Dior (now male).
Sarestha was inspired by the Warcraft 3 campaign. I liked the juxtaposition between the human campaign in Reign of Chaos and the Forsaken parts of the undead campaign in Frozen Throne and kinda wanted to combine the two - an undead trapped between two moralities. A devout follower of the Light who also was deeply loyal to the Dark Lady. I thought it was a neat combination with a lot of fun moral contradictions and conflicts.
Estiara, believe it or not, was inspired by my reading of Byzantine history over the years. I was fascinated by this notion the Byzantines had throughout their history by which they justified not controlling Rome itself, despite claiming to be the continuation of the Roman Empire. Ecclesiastical writers pointed out that Augustus (the first Roman Emperor) and Jesus (you know who he is) were roughly contemporaries, and that therefore what they perceived to be true civilisation was born in Rome, while true religion was born in Jerusalem. The two came together and met in the middle: Constantinople, seen as the culmination of both legacies. Anyway that sort of self identification intrigued me and I thought it could be fun to apply to an Arathi character’s perception of the human kingdoms and Quel’thalas. Just a hint of snobbery, but not bound to any real desire to go and retake Strom.
Shisu is about equal parts …
Calvin and Hobbes
Little Rascals
Ransom of Red Chief
Lord of the Flies (if it was cubs from Tian rather than British public school brats it’d be a different story)
Tiger Lily (Peter Pan)
all rolled up into an answer to the question “what would a cub whose parents and their friends are all “champions” think the everyday world was like?”
I had my sand troll inspired by through characters off from personality wise:
Alucard from Hellsing
Hidan from Naruto Shippuden
Hannibal Lecter
Skarlet from MK 11
Joker (Heath Ledger)
Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Carribean
I do not get to play much horde but main is hunter and horde, been playing her more now, and enjoying this server a little more. I love the druidic style and wanted a hunter vibe. Still unsure of her thing yet, mostly an explorer XD
Brakkarion had a much humbler beginning than the massive, high-profile fire-breathing mercenary people may be familiar with. The ‘Original’ Brakkarion was actually just Brakka, a Kobold Champion Fighter and the self-proclaimed GRANDEST PATRIARCH OF DA BESTEST CLAN in one of our D&D 5E campaigns a good 5~6 years ago.
Of course, the character evolved multiple times when introduced to other settings, the kobold’s original plan was to survive long enough for one of his underlings (another part of the trio of Bestest Clan Kobolds played by the boyfriend) learned the magic of True Polymorph to turn him into a True dragon, and while still very much the self-serving Lawful Evil type, the Brakkarion version of him takes after the Post-Polymorph Brakka.
I made this druid in Cata because I was annoyed that the Cenarion Circle had nothing to say about the invasion of Ashenvale. I knew the game wouldn’t make a neutral faction into an Alliance one, but I at least thought they’d write some reaction to all the logging and killing of nature spirits and protectors. But nope. So I decided to write my own.
I set out to make the inverse of the old, wise, aloof druid: a young, emotional trainee who got so angry about the Hode’s actions that she ran away from her apprenticeship and lied about her age and skill to sign on to the war effort. She’s a volatile mix of a teenager who thinks she knows everything, a self-trained druid who’s horribly insecure about her capability, and a person so hurt by the Horde that she can’t believe anything good from them anymore.
Unfortunately, I pretty much stopped RPing her in BfA. I made her to be paranoid and reactionary - to be wrong most of the time. It stopped being fun when Blizz went and justified (and then went beyond) all her worst presumptions.