First up are the basic identifiers for the character.
Identity example:
Character Name: Xenos
Gender: Male
Age: 30
The physical description is used for the concept artist and character designer to develop to major attributes of the character. This is also what makes them recognizable to the audience. This includes the hair, skin, body composition, height, wardrobe, and accessories they use.
Physical Description:
Physical Description- Xenos has black spiked medium length hair. His eyes are white and catlike, his skin is pale white with swirl tattoos, and he has a tail in the back of his head that has a glow to it. He is 6 ft 6 inches tall and weighs in at 265lbs of pure muscle. He wears Airsteme issued uniform, which is a faint black vest that has fur on the shoulders and collar of the vest and a silver strip along the seam of the zipper and wider strip on the side of the vest. Under his vest he wears a maroon shirt. The pants are loose but tight around the ankles and also have a wide strip stride running down the side of the pants. His accessories include an arm cannon that he mounts on his left arm and his CSD is on his right arm. He also wears a single lens targeting device on his left eye.
Relationships are the part of the profile where you describe the relationship status that the character has with the other characters or groups in the story.
Relationship example:
Relationships- Spouse: Kassiea Family: unknown friends: Kassiea and Ace rivals: Kyshumu Enemies: Kyshumu Allies/group affiliations: Airsteme and Cyvolters
Strengths. This section of the character description explains special skills as well talents that are unique to the person. These strengths should be within the framework given by the setting of the story. An example is that there are no animals on the planet so their strength shouldn’t be hunting animals.
Strengths example:
Strengths: Xenos has the elemental power of air and he has the ability to fly along with super strength. He also has long range fighting skills. His Talent is that he can unlock the potential of young cyber fighters.
Weaknesses is something that holds the character back, such as fear causing a mental barrier or a physical weakness causing a fear creting a physical barrier. It can be things they can’t do because they are afraid (a mental barrier) or they simply don’t have the ability to do it (a physical barrier).
Weakness example:
Weakness: Xenos is afraid of letting anyone he is in charge of getting hurt therefore at times won’t let his understudies fight. This gets him into trouble since he’d die before letting his team members die. His physical weakness is that he is not a great close range fighter.
Of course the character also has some type of occupation, even if it is a self employed thief its. Basically it is what they do for a living or part of their normal routine. They don’t have to enjoy it but it’s something they want to do to or have to do to drive the story.
occupation example:
Occupation: A trainer for rookie cyber fighters
Personality is probably one of the most difficult parts of developing a character. I like to do this part last or second to last, since all the other attributes of the characters can be what drives their personality. It primarily describes how they will act in certain situations. It also explains what they like or don’t like based on values or even habitual things they may do. This will help make the character seem like an actual person. Habits can be actions or phrases they may say. Values create rules for what a character will do or won’t do in a situation based them. These rules usually aren’t broken but if they are it must create an internal conflict within the character.
Personality example:
Personality: Xenos is extroverted and enjoys working with others and tends to observe them to discover something about the person they might not have known about their self. He also doesn’t like the help of others but won’t hesitate to help someone else in an instant. Although he is an extrovert he hides his emotions like how most of the people of Airstreme are trained to be. His values are that he believes in sharing resources that he doesn’t need, which is why he doesn’t take something for the sole purpose of glorification. He doesn’t like it when people don’t put in the effort to use their full potential or people that kill for gain. He has a habit of saying superstar when referring to his trainees.
The background story describes the events that took place before the story that has shaped the character into who they currently are. This includes their origin which is where they are from and their race. This background story then influences the character goals for the story. It can also determine skills they may have or physical attributes based on their origin or what they learned in the past.
Background Story example:
Background: Xenos is a Cyver who was born and raised in Airstreme. Xenos started his career as a Network Relations Member (NRM), which is a company directly owned by Airstreme. His job was to help other networks in their missions, they also maintain the order of their own network. When he started he was trained by the captain of his team Rollo. Eventually his captain died on a mission protecting him. This is when Xenos developed the notion of being over protective of his comrades. He felt it was his fault for holding back and not fighting because he was scared that caused his captain to die. After of which he decided to become a mentor himself and opened a Training company to train cyber fighters. His whole point of becoming a trainer was so he could train others to protect their self so they wouldn’t be killed. He also wanted to end war for future generations by teaching them how to avoid conflict. Xenos’ number one rule for his trainees is to fight without killing since he believes this is wrong. He feels conflicts should be resolved without death. Xenos’ goals are to make the world better by mentoring and training as many young cyber fighters as possible that way he can influence the future generation of leaders to make a difference.
Extra concepts are details for your character that is specific for this story. This includes technology or technique specific to your story.
Extra Concepts example:
Series extras: Xenos is a yellow type so he can only create long range attacks with his element. He is best suited as a support fighter since yellow types can’t conserve energy well enough to fight continuously without an extensive recharge period. The Cyber.Beast that he uses is a raven that has the wind style element.
Conclusion
Although the protagonist provides the perspective that the audience sees the story through there’s also other characters the protagonist interacts with. The first is the antagonist and in my opinion is the most important character since they make the story become interesting. These are the characters that give the protagonist a purpose or create an obstacle for achieving their goal. Sometimes the antagonist may come into play at the beginning of the story other times at the end after the main protagonist’s introduction is complete.
The then there is the confidant of the main character or supporting role. This is the person that the protagonist reveals and explains secrets or nuances of the story they also are the one that reveals things to the protagonist. It is usually someone close to the protagonist. Sometimes the antagonist will have a confidant as well depending on how involved they are in the story. Other times the confidant might turn out to be the antagonist at the end of the story.
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