So, I promised I'd make blog posts about my original characters, so I shall start with Wiike. Ironically, she was a minor character that has recently piqued my interest. I will start from the beginning.
Here is Wiike in her first iteration - an asura from Guild Wars 2. She is one of the characters I made in a game with the intention of staying within that universe. In fact, GW2 Wiike is vastly different from OC Wiike, I can't even call it an AU, it's like character evolution that leaves footprints.
Since I had no warriors and no asura I made Wiike. In universe a warrior asura seemed a bit odd to me - they're an inventive race, not really brutes. I know, Vigil asura exist and so on but I still went the "warrior asura are not common" route. So Wiike was made into a "runt", I even wanted to make it that she has a learning disability that put her behind her peers, but since she was a minor character I never actually looked into such characterization. She has her own story alongside Lieire, a charr, in the Vigil. They went to Orr, got stranded in the Maguuma jungle, lost many friends and so on. Wiike's story was stuck in limbo because I focused on other characters I actually played, warrior was simply not for me.
So I decided to turn Wiike into an independent character. An original character without a trace of Guild wars 2 (you now, to avoid copyright infringement among other things).
This is one of the first (?) human drawings of Wiike. As you can see, I kept the hairstyle and hair color, even added a lab coat to indicate that she's some sort of scientist. In truth Wiike has nothing to do with science, I wanted to give her a sort of dissonant look - she wears casual clothes and throws on a lab coat to make it appear as if she's some sort of mad scientist, to put others off.
Since my story needed a villain I decided Wiike will fill that role. Her purpose is to be a character that seems harmless but turns out to be much worse. She is a puppeteer - Wiike never moves a muscle to hurt anyone, in fact, she is not even a good fighter. She controls other people and makes them do her bidding.
Recently we hear talks about "strong female characters" and then sometimes they get backlash because a physically strong woman who can take down several men is just unrealistic. So I thought - hey, let's make the main villain and the most feared person a tiny, frail girl. A sort of "power is power" type where no brute can harm her because in the end, Wiike pulls all the strings. Also I really like female villains or just character types that are seen as "lesser" or "weaker" as the big bad (or hero for that matter). A sort of expectation reversal I suppose?
At this point her development stagnated - I decided she's the villain, had a basic outline and that was it. Her signature item is a pair of scissors that she uses as a hair accessory. Paired with a lab coat I wanted her "dark" side to be sort of a butcher imagery - cutting off fingers with the scissors and other evil things. At one point I considered making Wiike "evil beyond reason", a sort of Ramsay Snow type, where her viciousness knows no bounds. I thought that would increase the fear factor combined with the "small girls can't possibly hurt anyone" vibe.
Later I decided that was lazy writing. I mean, a character who's pointlessly sadistic fits for a shock horror story but wasn't my cup of tea, however I didn't have any new ideas for Wiike.
Until I listened to the following song.
You can see from the preview a scene - a girl is having dinner with a Jiangshi, a type of vampire in Chinese folklore. The song has a story about the girl inviting the vampire and giving it all sorts of different dishes until they become friends. Then someone comes and shoots the vampire, the girl tries to fix it (a lyric reads - "Since I'm the mad scientist, proclaimed by myself". She constantly praises her on her craftiness.) but in the end she can't turn the vampire back to it's previous charm. The name of the song is RTRT - retort. In the comment section you can see people trying to decipher the meaning of the song but I think the general theme is of loneliness and trying to find someone to hang onto. Perhaps even in an unhealthy, codependent way.
So, suddenly I got a completely new idea for Wiike. First of all I decided that she'd have a set race and yet another redesign.
My story takes place in a fictional world and maybe one day I will show off a map and cultural and ethnic groups but that's not important now. Wiike is now less blue and more Asian, I gave her a Japanese last name (Saito). These are all just fluff details that won't really matter in the long run, just felt like addressing them anyways.
I suppose now the "petite seemingly harmless girl actually being a mastermind criminal" seems even more appropriate, since Asian girls are usually seen as meek or submissive. Ironically I wasn't specifically going for reversing this stereotype, since I found the song and musician on accident and it just happened to fit a certain character arc for Wiike.
Anyways, Wiike is the leader of the rogue familiars - a group of familiars who have distanced themselves from witches and often partake in criminal activity. Many of them come from troubled families or had criminal records prior to meeting Wiike. She hides her mafia like group behind a chain restaurant, which happens to be very popular. Many dark things take place in the restaurant, however, and terrible rumors spread around town.
Basically I took the aesthetic of the song to create a setting for Wiike and her group, I also kept the "retort" part of the song, which was the main inspiration for Wiike's overhaul. Her obsession with someone.
Tobias. There is one thing they have in common which makes Wiike enthralled with Tobias and pretty much sets in motion the story itself. I suppose I won't reveal the details of that as it would spoil the story.
I guess this concludes my first character musing post. I will try to make more soon. I almost want to promise at least one post a week. We'll see.
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