Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
- Nikrosnil
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Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
So I was wondering, when you create WoW-based or Original characters, do you ever change their appearances at all? Some I know consider it a sin, whilst others change their characters' hairstyles, hair colours, outfits, and even race. Also, do you deviate from in game character design?
The reason I am wondering is because I have had art commissioned of characters such as my Gobbie Pirate, and I like to adapt my characters. I find the in-game appliance options very limiting and therefore prefer to create my own variations on details such as hair, without deviating from the in game character design too much. At the moment i'm in the process of creating the designs for my Night Elf Druid, my Blood Elf Warlock, and my Goblin Hunter, and i'm very tempted to completely change the designs for their hair and details such as horns for my warlock.
P.S. My warlock's appearance is closer to that of an incubus, with hooves, horns and a tail. Which background would fit in with WoW's lore most appropriately? 1. He is half Sin'dorei, Half Sayaad, born to a Succubus and fathered by a male warlock. 2. He is a warlock, so consumed by the fel-energy he has used that he has transformed into something resembling a male sayaad. 3. He is half Satyr, Half Sin'dorei, born to a female warlock fathered by a male satyr.
- Lupis
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
As for your warlock, I suggest option 2. Half-demons are geeeenerally pretty iffy lore wise- very very uncommon and they'd be killed as soon as they entered a city or town. But a warlock that just went too far? That's a lot more reasonable, a lot less likely to be killed (though people would probably not be okay with him) and a lot more likely. Plus you can play with all sorts of motivations- why did he go that far? Did he know the risks? Why did he need that power? Did he need it at all?
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
I agree with Lupis too - half demons are abit iffy from what i understand. Go with option 2!
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
Like the others, I do agree that option 2 is the best. Half-demons tend to be a bit shaky lore-wise. Demons would kill half-demons, mortals would kill half-demons, it'd just be ugly all around.
- Niabi
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
The best example would be my blood elf Auroryn, who isn't actually a blood elf at all, but due to the game limitations on race selection, is presented in the game as so. She's a half elf: the product of a high elf (maternal) and human (paternal) union. I'm still deciphering whether she'd be first or second generation since the conception happens shortly after the Troll Wars and Auroryn is only a few hundred years old (24-25ish in appearance and physicality). Due to her mixed heritage, she's more curvaceous than normal blood elves. She also has no addictive desire for arcane magic. Most of her young life has been spent in hiding from the Alliance and Horde due to the old prejudices bestowed on those of impure bloodlines. Her ears are shorter than most blood elves' and she possesses heterochromia iridis. Her right eye is a soft green while her left eye is a bluish lavender.
As others have already advised, I'd go with option 2.
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- Aweena
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
am a beginner my self so this is just my view after reading guides like mad the past 3 days.
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
Makoes, my BM hunter is a bit different then the in-game options allow. For one, she's far more savage in appearance. Her fangs are stronger and more pronounced, her nails are more claw-like, her ears aren't so floppy, but are thicker/sturdier. She doesn't have the soft voice the characters have, but has an undertone of growl in it. Her expression either says "I will help you kill shit" or "I think I'll rip your throat out for fun."
Like-wise her armor (tallgrass Guerilla set) is more primal, having more furs covering it, and the claw-designs are actual claws.
atm she has purple hair only because the red is strictly available on the NE DK...else her hair would be as red as Nanaki's fur.
And Nanaki (red hyena) Still carries his head up, is bulkier (more muscular), has a perma grin, laughs as he rips things apart, and is fiercely loyal to Makoes. He has a number or scars, and nicked ears.
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
Which. This reminds me. I need to change the hair on a few of my girls again.
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- Nikrosnil
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
If anyone's interested, here's a blurry image of a rought sketch of the hairstyle i've decided upon for my night elf girlie.
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- Niabi
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
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- Moonlost
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
I am 100% behind the idea of deviating from the stock standard options Blizzard has given for us in-game, especially as there are so relatively few options for us to pick from. While it's not necessary to create a character that you love to deviate away from the stock standard, I love seeing what other people come up with. And, well, it helps to make a character that feels uniquely yours, in a way.
A lot of my Warcraft-based characters were designed outside the game world, and I think my best example (and favouritist character of all time <_<) is my Draenei mage, Zaruuk. I love the draenei as a species, but the males are superbly bulky looking in any outfit. I wanted a character who looked like he spent most of his time hidden away in a room studying the powers arcane, rather than hitting the inter-dimensional gym, along with giving him little traits here and there that alluded to the eredar blood in his veins.
The downside, of course is the further one deviates away from the WoW base, the harder it is to substitute that image you have of them into the game. To use my earlier example, I cannot create Zaruuk in-game, just because the best result I'm able to make is still leagues away completely different from what he looks like. That might well be my own mental blockage though, I've heard tales of plenty of in-game roleplayers who happy play as Arakkoa, half-elves, dragons and all manner of critters while still using the default models.
As for your fellow, I agree 100% with everyone else and their pick of number 2.
And I love the look of your Night Elf's hair, very classy and something I could easily see being worn in that society.
- Nikrosnil
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Re: Do you change your characters' appearances/backstories?
Ahah not at all, Moonlost, i'm only glad that so many of you were willing to give me your views and advice!
I think I like deviating from the standard options because I like my characters to feel as though they are mine. When someone else's character looks exactly the same as yours, you feel as though you lose a little ownership, if that makes sense?
Zaruuk looks great! I can completely understand, sometimes I feel that Blizzard doesn't provide enough diversity in body type and skintone in the game.
Thank you very much for the compliment! I wanted to create a hairstyle that felt as though it belonged in Darnassus, without actually existing in the game. I actually went through about 20 variations of hairstyle before I settled on this one.