How to Create a Character

So you want to create a character. Awesome! If you're familiar with creating characters, you can take a look at the lore of Ragnarok Online and our server-specific additions and work out what you want to be. If you're new to roleplaying and need a bit of help, read on.

Creating a Character

1. Start With a Concept

What sort of character would you like to play? If that's too hard a question to answer, think of a character from something that caught your attention. We'll use that concept as a base. For this example, we will use Phoenix Wright form the Ace Attorney series. Let's have a quick examination of his character.

Phoenix's personality:

• a strong sense of justice
• not swayed from his path by intimidation
• uses logic to solve problems as opposed to force
• loyal to his friends

There are probably a number of others that players of the series can think of, but for the purpose of this example, that is enough. The next steps involve taking those traits, adding some of your own and then working out why your character is like that.

2. Refining

That done, we're going to take Phoenix's traits and reshell them. We can use him as a lawyer, as he is in the game, or we can make him something else. In this case, we're going to make Phoenix a human wizard who was born and raised in Geffen. He is a member of Geffen Tower's guard. Let's give this character a name and age, too. We'll call him Kieran Dufore. Kieran, as a guard, is more likely to go out on adventures compared to if he was a lawyer!

3. Polishing

Now that we have the basics of Kieran worked out, let's make Kieran his own character rather than a simple Phoenix clone. We're going to add some traits to Kieran. The following are taken from our list of character quirks.

• Frail
• Judgemental
• Liar
• Predictable

Now we add the following traits we worked out earlier:

• Logical
• Loyal
• Brave
• Just

Kieran is someone who believes in loyalty and justice. Perhaps it is these things that make him judgemental, which may circumvent the more logical parts of his personality and thought processes. Though he is brave, he has a frail body, and his actions often follow a predictable pattern. The fact he lies is an interesting one -- perhaps his sense of justice is teleological; in which the ends justify the means; or perhaps his frailty causes him to use mistruths. It is okay if there are tensions between parts of a character's personality; we see this all the time in the real world.

The eight traits we have pulled together are a good starting point for an interesting character. There is no set number of traits that make an interesting character, and as you roleplay, you may discover more facets of the character as they interact with others and the world. Like people in the real world, characters grow through experience.

4. Final Touches

4.1 Description

Now that we have the beefy parts of character creation down, it's time to decide on the character's shell. What will the character look like? If you intend to use an image on your profile, it is often best to find an image first. In order to fit in with the aesthetics of Ragnarok Online, it is expected that you will use an illustration if you wish to use a picture, not a photograph. There are various manners in which to find usable pictures, but anime *booru sites are useful in that they allow you to search by tags. For people who wish to use it, there are numerous AI image generators that can produce suitable images. Images for the character box are displayed best with a width of 310 pixels, and the height can be whatever you wish it to be.

You can build a description from the image, starting with basic features and expanding and refining as you go.

Now we have a description of Kieran's personality and physical appearance. We've decided that he's going to be a wizard and as he's a member of the Tower's guard, he probably wants to join Geffen Tower properly, but cannot for one reason or another.

4.2 Background

Using this, we'll make his background. This section does not need to be especially detailed, but the more you write, the more helpful it will be for you when working out how your character will react to certain things. It is important to keep your character's personality in mind while writing your character's history. It's very unlikely that a knight will come from a family of carrot farmer's, and it's very unlikely that a person who has suffered their entire life will be genuinely happy (though they may put on a good act).

5. Adding Your Character to the Wiki

Now that you've done all that work, we would love to see it on our wiki! Visit our page on creating a page for your character!