User:Thirty7
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If you'd like to know more about me, visit my userpage over at the ParagonWiki.
Purpose
I want to use this page to talk about my process in creating each of my characters. How did they come to be, why do I like them or dislike them, and what if any changes have they gone through since initial thought or first creation? From the list that follows, any characters who have their own Ouro Page will be linked. In contrast, those pages will focus specifically on the character as it exists in-game. What motivates him, and how does he fit into the greater City of Heroes universe.
Each server on which I have characters will get its own section, and characters will be further broken down on that server between my Level 50s and my non-50s. I have also added images formatted like cards from a CCG with information to go alongside each of the little snippets below to give some details about each character's in-game existence, and then a page will be created to detail them more fully.
Justice
On Justice, I only play Villains and help to maintain a VG there called The Legions of Fate. All of my characters on Justice are a part of that VG, and I am in close contact with the active Super Leader of that group. I began playing on Justice after moving our VG there from Guardian, which seemed just a bit too slow on red-side for our tastes. After Hanging out on Justice for a good while and getting involved in some of the global channels, it became clear that Justice was going to be my new home server and that Infinity would begin to play second fiddle. As such, I payed to have my main badging character move to Justice where he was able to team with my significant other's main badging character, Agent Inhakos (who happened to be the Super Leader of the VG).
Level 50s
Bioflux
Bioflux was created so that I could mess around with Electric Melee... but especially Lightning Rod. Once I had him close to 30ish, it all became a mad dash to get LR, and then once I had it, I realized that I wanted to IO this character. For me, that desire is exceedingly rare. But, I managed to get him to 45% Def on all positions, a Purple Proc in Caltrops, and a bit of +HP to boot. He is a fun character and will likely be one of the only other characters that I take through some Incarnate content.
This character was meant to be the younger, and evil, brother of another character I was playing on Infinty but have since deleted. The idea was for them to have a sort of Cyclops/Havok rivalry, but since the one character was never played, this one drifted from that concept. Then, it was reintroduced when I made Twostripe... and he is now the older and crazier big brother.
Pointsphere
This character was the first character I ever created for City of Heroes. When I started the CoH Bootleg trial from the disc I got for free from a GameStop, I tried to create a character who was telekinetic. Essentially, I was trying to make the character I would want to be if I had super powers. And so, I stumbled upon Gravity Control and sorta settled on Force Fields. I had originally created this character a few years earlier as a tentative concept for a Hero System RP Group that never really got started, and there, he was called Wildefire. So, I eventually had to settle on the name Wylde-Fire because so many other versions were taken. However, I grew to like the name quite a lot.
Wylde survived innumerable costume changes and minor adjustments to his bio. He underwent countless respecs as well as I learned about the game and what the true purpose of a Controller was. Also, with him being my oldest character he was the one on which I had begun to earn all of my badges, and he became the first character I got to 50... in something like nine months of playing him.
Later, once my main server began to switch from Infinity to Justice, I realized that Wylde was going to get left in the dust, and I was too attached to him to let that happen. As such, I moved him to Justice, turned him into a Rogue, and he came to be called Pointsphere (due to the bubbles and a bit of inspiration from the Zero Point Energy gauntlets used by Syndrome in The Incredibles).
Project Alcatraz
Among my most recent Lvl 50s!
Alcatraz is a character who I was very excited about for awhile, then got very frustrated with due to his endurance problems (Claws/Dark Armor). But, I loved his concept so much, that I persevered and made it through to Epic Powers and began to outfit him with some IOs designed to help with End. I succeeded, and he is one of my favorite characters to play, who is just beginning his journey into Incarnatehood (and taking advantage of some of the new powers to boot).
Alcatraz's costumes are also perhaps the most varied of any character I have ever made. He was designed to be a "cosmic horror" in the vein of Lovecraftian creatures, an entity born outside our natural universe who was imprisoned by arcane forces eons ago. It was not until science tapped into the reality in which he was imprisoned that he was able to escape, rending the mind of a scientist on that project (codenamed Project Alcatraz) he was able to breach our world and enter his body.
Schwarzpunkt
Schwarzy was my second villain ever created. He was intended to be a sort of evil Batman with a touch of Ozymandias. In a way, I think that is about what I came up with in time. But, what this character really did, more than anything else, was bring me to legitimately enjoy Stalkers and the Rogue Isles. It was this character duoed with a Stone Brute on my significant other's account that was my first villain to 50. Originally, he only existed to unlock VEATs, but it didn't take long for him to become my villain badger... until Going Rogue came out, and the need for having two badging characters fell by the wayside.
Now, he is my second favorite Stalker, and one of my go-to characters whenever I want to make and/or test an AE arc.
Level 1 - 49s
Agent Vermillian
Vermillain was the first VEAT I had ever made. He was designed as a duo of Praetorian versions of Shadow Spider and Crimson... before Going Rogue launched. So, a few things about their bios needed to change once new information was available about Praetoria. Another thing that encouraged me to make him in the first place was the idea of making a Huntsman. So, naturally, that was the path I went down for him.
Unfortunately, Vermillian is a very rarely played Alt, and is still sitting at 45 if I recall correctly despite the fact that he was created when you still had to get a villain to 50 before VEATs unlocked. The good news is, that without the drive to make a VEAT I might not have forced myself to play red-side. I wasn't a big fan of the Rogue Isles at the time, but by the time I got a character to 50 there, I was starting to like them.
Corridor
This guy is the evil antagonist in the storyline involving Spiritglass and the magical alternate reality of Ærth. Corridor's costume is one I spent a long time trying to get right. But, once I realized how cool a black skull mask could look with the "empty hood" effect I was going for, I realized I had hit on his look. An alternate costume shows him without the mask, and is nifty, but no where near the wow factor. When I make a costume for a character from Ærth I try to incorporate a magical/fantasy element as well as a sort of militaristic element... but also, since all of these characters are of the nobility, a certain touch of class is necessary as well. All of those features prove to be somewhat challenging to incorporate, but I think I've done it adequate justice.
Bloodspore
This is a character that has failed to get off the ground several times. First, he was to be an AR/Pain Corruptor directly after Pain Domination was added to the game. However, I found out just how much I dislike playing a set with a lot of healing and that character sat fallow for a good long while.
- When I was fighting in First Ward, I realized that I could re-make him and use the Dregs' looks as an inspiration. In fact, the magical blood curse that gives Bloodspore his name also fit well into the idea that First Ward really does revolve around magic!
As almost an afterthought, when I was writing his bio, I thought that mayhap he should speak in the plural "we do this" and "you test our patience", etc. The idea cemented him for me.
Decimal
In my quest to have one of each non-healing set active on my account, I realized that a few sets were yet to be represented... and one whole AT was woefully underplayed by me. So, with those two things in mind, a Blaster using Elec/Dev was created. I had no idea whatsoever what type of character he should be, and that is rare for me. I almost never create a character around his powersets instead of around his personality.
The good news is that as I was mucking around in the character creator, the idea of him being somewhat of a technopath struck me... and that he could use all the robotic Vet Pets as a little entourage really struck a chord with me. Soon thereafter I discovered much to my surprise that the name Decimal was available.
Dusklight
Dusklight began his life in a failed excursion into the world of a themed weekly RP team with folks I didn't know from the forums. The idea was that you would create a character based on the Freedom Phalanx, but from a different reality in which their powers and/or personality manifested differently. In my case, I used Sister Psyche and took the idea that she was mind-riding a male Warshade.
Eventually the team fizzled, but my liking of the concept and costume sure didn't. So, he was reborn as a Warshade (sans the Sister) duoed with a Peacebringer who were both going to become villains. Once we got them to 20+ and switched to red-side our determination waned and now he sits... waiting for me to get motivated to play him some more.
Geistlos
I was inspired by some 5th Column costumes I saw in the "Best Costume" thread on the forums and wanted to make my own. Hence, the creation of this monstrosity to fill the need. Not to mention I had never played Energy Melee for any length of time.
I realized later that the bio of Geist was very similar to a Praetorian character I had made. Soooo, I decided that Geistlos would be the Primal version of Soulforged my other soul-bound Brute of destruction.
Lockhide
Lockhide began life with the thought of his name and the introduction of Praetoria. I thought of the idea that the skin (hide) of a character is just a veneer that rests over a core of pure energy. As such, the hide locked the power within. And so Lockhide was born as an Elec/Psi Dominator. Lockhide was a through and through Loyalist all but blinded by the fact that he was caught in a Resistance attack when he was young.
Unrelatedly, I designed a costume for a character who was to be a cross between a Mu Mystic and a Praetorian Seer, and I so liked the costume and idea, that I wanted to use it for a character of mine, but didn't really want to make a new character. Later I logged into Lockhide to fix some menus or whatnot and realized that a Mu and a Seer could very well produce an Elec/Psi Dom... it was almost too perfect. And so, Lockhide became a flunked out Seer who had an ancient tie to the Mu Bloodline and was still (literally) blindly fanatical about Emperor Cole and the Empire itself.
How precisely I will tie the Mu Bloodline idea in with Praetoria, and the Seer program is something I will have to come up with at a later date. Perhaps I will be able to link the Awakened and the magic that dwells in First Ward with it somehow. Lockhide is a rarely played alt, and one that is very much a work in progress.
Mulcibre
Mulcibre is part of a shelved Carnie duo with my significant other. Mulcibre is a fire-eater and uses the zombie face to simulate burns. I like the character's look, concept and powers, but he hasn't seen very much play. Also, contrary to a lot of my duos, I really like the character with which he is playing as well.
Ophidius Rex
Ophidius Rex began as a sort of re-imagining of Cobra Commander. He was a Mercs/Posion and I just never got into him at all. Later, he was shelved and collected dust for a long time. Then, Issue 21 rolled in and I decided he should be re-born as a Robotics/Sonic MM. And, as such, I am liking him a bit more. Also, he has been manipulated from a Cobra Commander-type character into one closer to a Dr. Mindbender mad scientist. One who has experimented on himself a good deal and has robotic parts, reptillian skin, and very likely the new brain-in-a-jar head.
Rustblight
Rustblight is a character that was created for the specific purpose of making use of the rusted katana customization option. And so, my Rust Eidolon was born, a willing volunteer to join Dr. Vahzilok's twisted minions. Why would he be willing? Because his wife had been killed in Kings Row by the Vahzilok and he wanted to be able to kill the good Doctor with powers that were given to him by the Doctor himself. Irony runs a bit high with this dude.
Also, I love his bio in-game, it is written as if it were a chunk of a newspaper article about the attack in which his wife was killed, and it is smeared with blood. I find it to be an excellent hook when I can create a bio that is NOT just another boring biography page.
Skull-Force
This was the first villain I ever made. He was created on Guardian and I soon discovered that I wasn't a big fan of red-side, or the somewhat slowness of red-side Guardian. So, I played him a bit, but never made much progress. Later, I had leveled a different villain to 50 and had grown to like the Isles a lot more, so Skull came out of retirement. Alas, red-side Guardian was still slow and so Skull went into moth balls once again. Finally, I moved him over to Justice to join the rest of his VG and hope to finally push him from the 40s to 50!
Svyx Qordlin
I think of all of my characters, this one has been through the most incarnations. At a guess, I would safely say that he has been re-invented one way or another at least six times. In fact, I can't actually remember all the different permutations he has had. The two I remember best are his current look and bio, and one that was called Aperture. Aperture was meant to be a being alien to our reality. He was pure thought, and as such had no real body, but could use telekinesis and also create energy (which I played off as Fire Assault). When it came to a costume, he was far too boring at first. His next look was too "space-y" and looking too human.
Finally, I took a version of that human looking costume, made it look like a "normal" alien and re-named him Svyx and moved him to Justice.
Twostripe
I had seen a picture of a certain kind of snake with very striking orange and blue markings on it... and it inspired me to make a costume. That costume didn't go to use at the time, but I did decided on the name for the character if and when he got created: Twostripe (based on the scientific name of the snake having "bivurgatus" in it, which means "two striped").
When I finally created this character it was on a whim... so that I had a lowbie to use to team with one in-game friend or another. Most characters like that don't stick around long, but since he filled my Dual Blades requirement and used my nifty costume, I kept him around and grew to like him. Essentialy, he is Deadpool, fifth-wall breaking dialogue is his forte.
Infinity
On Infinity, I only play Heroes and maintain an SG there called The Strands of Fate. All of my characters on Infinity are a part of that SG, and I am the active Super Leader of that group. Infinity had been my main server since I started playing City of Heroes around the release of Issue 10. It wasn't until recently that I essentially switched focus from considering Infinity as my home, to considering Justice as my home. Mainly, this was due to my liking of Villains more than heroes, and the ability concept-wise, of my hero to transition to being a Rogue without much issue.
Level 50s
Lost Emissary
Lost Emissary was my second 50, and the first character I played in tandem with my significant other. I discovered by playing him, that if I am going to play a Defender, I really enjoy when its powers are enemy-focused (i.e. Debuffs) more so than when they are teammate-focused. So, it is fortuitous that Lost is a Dark/Dark/Dark Defender.
After reaching 50, my significant other's character fell to the wayside, and that gave me the opportunity to re-invent Lost's bio. He went from a scientist working against the Family and the Marcone family in particularly, into a somewhat amoral scientist who meddled with inter-dimensional travel and crossed into an alternate reality. When he got back, he found he had little to no memory of either world.
Truepath
Ahhh, Truepath. He was born as a vigilante cop out to take down the man who killed his family... cliché to the max, I know. And he is an MA/Regen Scrapper... which I found out around Level 30, is not really my cup o' tea. Compound this with the fact that I got bored with the character concept. It took years for him to hit 50. And, now that he has, he was given a name change (from Jon Zander), and a complete biographical overhaul. He is now an honor-bound Native American using his somewhat unwanted mystic gifts to fight crime on behalf of the Great Spirit who bestowed his "path" upon him.
Level 1 - 49s
75646 00083
Taking the immensely creative name from the numbers found on the Bar Code chest detail, Eighty-Three is another robot in my stable of characters. It was created by Mantis Engine, and is a Traps/Psi Defender. Mostly I thought that having an underused damage type, and a debuff Defender set would assure that I enjoy him. And, while I played him, I liked him quite a bit. Unfortunately, I believe he will be one that sits around for a good while collecting dust. Eighty-Three formerly was going to be named according to the Morse Code for the word "bar code" taking the form of a lowercase L for bars and a lowercase I for dots, resulting in something like "iiillliliilli," or some similarly impossible to type name. It looked cool, but in practice, was untenable. And so I hit upon using the digits on the barcode symbol that I had intended to use for the character all along.
Eighty-Three is the only character of mine whose name is only a number, which might seem odd to some considering my global. In fact, the only character that uses the numbers three and seven together is Helix Black!
Chrysophract
Chrys is someone who was created on a whim for both the desire to team with a friend who was playing some lowbies at the time, as well as mess around with Earth Control and Thorny Assault. Chrys is a character who got left-behind in First Ward and got converted into a Devouring Earth creature. Somehow he maintained his personality, and instead of trying to destroy humanity, joined the Resistance to fight those who had all but quarantined him... only to get Devoured. He sees Cole's entire regime as evil, and would rather the DE win and kill everyone than see Cole remain in power. Fortunately, he also has a somewhat unique perspective on the DE, making him useful to the Resistance.
Dr. Sikuliaq
Doc here was born from the desire to have one of the capes from the Origin Pack be the source of someone's abilities. In this case, the ability to weild the forces of arctic storms. Thus the good doctor was born.
I found that I wanted to play Storm Summoning as well... but wanted to make sure I could immobolize enemies to counteract some of the KB in the set. Which is why I picked a Controller and not a Defender. He does not get played much, but I like his look and powers well enough.
Duneshadow
Duneshadow will be re-made as soon as Staff Fighting comes out. His costume struck me, almost fully formed (colors and all) from looking at the Circle of Thorns hood! From that point on, I needed to figure out how to use the costume. Finally I struck upon the idea of him being Middle Eastern, and his real name sprang into my mind... it was not soon after that his code-name occurred to me. In the meantime, he waits.
Fulgent
My second homage to Green Lantern. This time, purple and not yellow. I just loved Electric Armor when I played it briefly, and realized that I didn't have an Axe character anymore. So, Fulgent appeared. Another thing I realized that if I play a Tanker, it must be one in which some risk of death is involved... it just gets too boring for me otherwise. Which I suppose is why I kinda hated playing my Invuln/SS Tank.
Geocore
Geocore has gone through a lot. Grant Houser, has been named a few too many things as well. I believe he began life as a Mace/Stone Tanker named Palissade. That didn't last too long. He re-started life as Palissade a Shield/Stone Tanker. And now, he has been re-born yet again as a Shield/Stone Tanker with the name Geocore. As Geocore, Grant is an every-man type of character. A guy who made his own costume to fight crime and uses his mutant powers for good. I especially like about him the fact that his costume is totally feasible and made from bits like goggles and some belts that could be found most anywhere. I also like that his burly size is just this side of normal... and matches his past as a mechanic oh-so-well.
Helix Black 3-7
I absolutely adore this character. He is a TA/Sonic Defender, and I think he has cemented the idea that I really do like Debuff sets. I like how little Endurance he uses, how he looks, his past and I love that I don't have to mess around with toggles, and teammate focused powers. He is all about turnging the enemies into paper-thin cutouts of something that used to be intimidating. Helix is an ex-Malta member who moved on into heroing, but keeps his old designation out of habit. He is in the mid 20s and moving through the First Ward arcs with my significant other's Tanker.
Mantis Engine
After hearing for a long time just how glorious an Ill/Rad can be, I finally convinced myself to make one. He is a robot created to fight crime on behalf of his inventor. Mantis sits at somewhere around 24 due to my attention being split across far too many characters. Illusion seems to be a great set, and I really love his look and bio. Not to mention the fact that I created a "cousin" robot who was created by Mantis Engine itself to also fight crime.
Mender Cocytus
He's icey! Mender is an Ice Cubed Tanker (Ha ha, a pun... and an accurate description, he will definitely be using the Ice Epic). He is also my first try at making a character look like a Mender of Ouroboros. At the time he was created, I didn't do much in the way of borrowing game lore to add to characters I have created. This dude was the first, and though he isn't played a ton, I definitely like him now that he has gotten over the "hump" if you will, in Ice Armor.
Rootvine
Kyren Legathe as he is known in his home reality, Ærth. Kyren is a friend of Aarik's and seeks to find his friend and defeat the villainous Corridor. As soon as I heard that Poison was coming to Controllers, I knew that I had a perfect opportunity to create a Plant Control character. And so I did. It also gave me an opportunity to run through the newer arcs on hero-side.
Slashblot
This character is like Joker crossed with Rorschach. He had an accident in the printshop he used to work at in Praetoria. This shop was responsible for creating pretty much ALL of the propoganda material used by Cole's Regime. It also printed the newspapers. Slashblot got caught in such a way that all he could see for hours were the pages of propoganda that were running through the press.
After that, he went a bit nuts and got taken out of a Psych Ward and experimented on by Neuron. At this point, he is seven shades of crazy and very fanatical in his devotion to Cole.
All of Slash's powers are colored to resemble ink, as well as being a perfect way to make use of the Clunker Path Aura. Plus, I loved writing his bio, rarely do I get to think in such an off-kilter way while interspersing my dialgoue with noises from a printing press! Great fun!!
Slashblot will very likely be re-rolled once the somewhat inkier version of Dark for controllers gets created: Darkness Control and Dark Affinity. In order to do that, though, I would have to drop the fun of Dual Pistols... my final decision on that is up in the air at the moment.
Soulforged
Essentially, he is the Praetorian version of Geistlos, except with Kinetic Melee and Fiery Aura (two sets I hope to play more). Soulforged died, and had his soul bound to the armor and chains that he wears by his crazy sorceress fianceé at the time. He is somewhat of an automaton... and is scarred permanently by the fact that the chains and armor were essentially forged around his corpse!
Soulforged began life as a poem I got inspiration to write called "Soulburnt" and that became his bio when he was made into a character of the same name. That character had a horrid costume, and became one that I just wasn't attached to. As such, he fell into disuse, and was shelved indefinitely. Later, I tweaked the poem, created a backstory that is told in his fianceé's bio and became Soulforged.
The most interesting part of this character, to me, is picturing the exact ritual that his fianceé at the time performed... she litterally took his soul, bound it to chanins and armor and put them onto her lover's corpse while they were still nearly molten. The smell must have been intense.
Spiritglass
Aarik Targreve, otherwise known as Spiritglass, was the first character I made who resides in a parallel Earth called Ærth. His world is one in which magic and sorcery developed instead of technology, and where we use physics chemistry and engines, they would use mysticism, alchemy and magical artifacts. There are a few other characters in my stable that hail from the same location, and are in fact directly interrelated to Aarik. In his world, another key detail is that America is called not the United States, but the Vesprian Union (taking Amerigo Vespucci's surname instead of his first name to name the continent).
Whiptech
Whiptech almost became my first Petless Mastermind. But, I felt that such an endeavor might overly gimp my character, so instead of being Whip/TA he is a proper Demons/TA MM who plays his Demons as though they were all powerful illusions generated by holographic imagers. In fact, I will take advantage of the fact that the I and L are mostly indistinguishable when used together to name all of his pets Illusion.
Guardian
On Guardian I play both Heroes and Villains. At one time, I used Guardian as the base for the now defunct VG, The Tendrils of Fate. But, as mentioned above, it became clear to me that red-side was no where near as active on Guardian as it was blue-side. I loved the community of folks there, but it seemed just too hard, sometimes, to get together the activities I wanted to do. And so it was that the VG was dumped, and we re-located to Justice during one of the periods where Paragon Studios was offering free server transfers.
Now, Guardian has been re-purposed as the RP server for me and my group of in-game friends. We have made several themed RP teams and related SGs and VGs on Guardian, and play over there a fair amount. But, it is by no means a "home" server in the same way that Justice and Infinity are. Also, it has become a sort of graveyard for unplayed 50s who are then used to create the various SG/VGs for the RP characters to play in.
Level 50s
Ora Kalhu'u
Ora was created the very next day after my first hero hit 50. And, then, was named Last Grula'ak, which was meant to be more like a title or designation then a name. But, for whatever reason, he stagnated for me and sat at something like 31 for a long time. I am not sure what broke me out of my funk with him, but I presume it had to do with discovering some binds that helped his playability and one change or another to the AT. But, I dusted him off and played him almost everyday for a while to get him to 50. When that finally happened... I, totally unexpectedly, stopped playing him. I think it was the fact that his "goal" had been attained that caused it...
Finally, when the free server transfers were offered I used them to give him a name and move him to his current home on Guardian.
Drachenblut
This character began as an Archery/Energy Blaster and got up to the lofty level of 15 not that long after I began playing the game. I deleted him from not having touched the character in a long time. Then, I convinced myself that I needed a Fire/Kin Controller and re-created this character with the idea that he would start human, ans slowly become more and more draconic each time he recieved a new costume slot. Unfortunately, since his progression directly tied to his in-game story, I didn't have any justification to switch his costumes... which I found disheartening, and I lost interest as soon as the push to 50 was complete.
I forced myself to farm with the character a little... but hated it. As such, I didn't really enjoy playing him and moved him from Infinity where he was born and put him on Guardian where he became the founder of one of the RP SGs. Now he gathers dust.
Level 1 - 49s
Ariath'el
Araxes
Operative Bulwark
Sangarios
Vergiz
Exalted
I have but one lonely character on Exalted, who is a member of a themed Time Manipulation RPSG. This one, like the ones on Guardian was created specifically for my in-game friends. I doubt that I will voluntarily make anymore characters here... but, it is always a possibility.
