The inspiration for my character came from:

[Manuel the White]

If it wasn't original, tell us where the concept came from and who the person (fictional or otherwise) was.

[Katroine]

Grace was my great grandmother.
Dane was Agatha's last name already so I didn't get to pick.


**edit**
I thought this was inspiration for name only. Gracie is a lot like me but she is definitely evolving into something else.

[Krator]

Original, although influenced by a lot of things, mostly books.

[Talwin Hawkins]

Book for me. hence my forumn name. in the book his tribe is wiped out. he was just a native tribesman but became the greatest swordsman in the world. this was my original idea.

it changed over time of course, as all rp things do. My parents were soldiers for tnanshi, and talon has vowed revenge, though he is yet to tell anyone this. Weapon master/rogue/sd was my original concept, but due to the fact that two PRCs are unheard of i decided to do fighter with focuses all on one weapon type to simulate the greatest swordsman bit.

...damn i really should write my history up.

GREAT POLL!

[Sathsarrion]

hmm... ex-slave turned wizard. Sounds like a book I read once . It wasnt really based off anything in particular though, I just liked the ex-slave thing, then I wanted to do something unusual, hence a wemic wizard.

[denor firefly]

Arkn is an original character which is born and evolved here on avlis.

Erin is a reflection of one of my pnp druids

[Talwin Hawkins]

ex slave turned wizard sounds like magician - raymon e feist

[Havoulov]

Its all coming from my head so it must be from ME. Wrong? But colleagues family and friends are included. And of course i dont speak about the name but about the personality....

[Krator]

ex slave turned wizard sounds like magician - raymon e feist

Ooh, good book. Those guys were kinda Krator like, except for the ex-slave

[Gairus]

/me points to Andrinor and Dru'el and some nastier gods

them, depending on which PC I am on at the time

[JollyOrc]

I voted Original, although it's not entirely honest. Let me spill the whole story:

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, I was to make a new character for a PnP campaign. I had just watched the Mel Gibson Maverick movie, and wanted to play a fast talking, hard gambling rogue. Enter Janur da Medican: Looking like a musketeer, acting like a wild west gambler.

Janur was much fun to play in PnP, and he had really nice adventures. He dabbled in trading, diplomacy, piracy, he rescued damsels in distress, spent all his earned gold in casinos and brothels, smoked cigars, drank good wine...

... he was real fun.

Enter january 2003, me finally installing NWN which has been lying on the shelf for half a year, as I haven't gotten around to install it yet... ...and me discovering Avlis.

First name that popped into my mind when looking at the character creation screen was Janur da Medican. Initially, I wanted to more or less continue the original character.

But this Janur completely failed to do the things the PnP variant did regularly, and ended up to be much different. I really can't name anything that inspired him. So there you have it: He's an original

[spokeydonkey]

PnP campaign I ran. The party's evil Rogue/Assassin (who had a habit of killiing of friends and family of various party members) was named Dala. Hence when making an evil b*tch, I chose it in loving tribute.

[XuafXuaf]

Original. I toss a coin/roll a dice for everything including his/her bio (using information on the world I'm in obviously)

[TiVO25]

The background for Khondar is original, but the fact that he's a dwarven mage came from these boards actually. I still hadn't settled on a character yet when someone asked about what there wasn't enough of on Avlis. To which someone else replied jokingly that they hadn't seen many dwarven mages. I liked the idea, so enter Khondar . . .

[Fifty]

Of the characters I still actually play, they are pretty much original.

Kered is 100% original.
Laen is a bit more like me.
Shaktar is basically a standard Shaahesk - not much originality there.
Ba-althazar is completely original.
Selwonk Sirch is a cross betweem Indiana Jones and The Doc from Back to the Future, in a gnomes body.

Aleksandr Voltaire is a Nikolai Dante rip-off.
My no-floaty character is a rip-off Gasherman from the Dark Tower by Stephen King.

[Fifty]

The background for Khondar is original, but the fact that he's a dwarven mage came from these boards actually. I still hadn't settled on a character yet when someone asked about what there wasn't enough of on Avlis. To which someone else replied jokingly that they hadn't seen many dwarven mages. I liked the idea, so enter Khondar . . .

Was it me that said that? I have thought for ages we are lacking in dwarven mages.

[TiVO25]

The background for Khondar is original, but the fact that he's a dwarven mage came from these boards actually. I still hadn't settled on a character yet when someone asked about what there wasn't enough of on Avlis. To which someone else replied jokingly that they hadn't seen many dwarven mages. I liked the idea, so enter Khondar . . .

Was it me that said that? I have thought for ages we are lacking in dwarven mages.

It's quite possible actually. I tried searching through some of your posts to see if I could find it, but had no luck.

[Eponine]

Although her name is from a book, Eponine's character is a composite of myself and many women I met while volunteering in a battered woman's shelter.

[Naieth]

Bits from an old PnP character, personal traits of myself, but mostly a character from a movie inspired me for my little elven maiden.

[Malathyre]

Eloryn is equal parts original concept, based upon characters I met in game, and based upon a real person. I voted for the real person option.

[Buddha]

Selwonk Sirch is a cross betweem Indiana Jones and The Doc from Back to the Future, in a gnomes body.

Hmm... Wonder where you got that idea?

Indiana Jones, of course; though getting that rolling on the RP side has been a bit slow (come on over to Elysia, Fifty!). I'll try to stick with the debonair archaeologist concept, but the bottom line is that he gets shaped by events around him.

[TheElvenKing]

*scratches head*

Well, Talin's full name I created years ago for other games and its stuck with me since. However, as for the character himself he's a hodge-podge of various influences that is continually evolving. I think originally the biggest influence was from a character in a book, but that didn't last long and ever since it's been more of a 'whatever strikes me' kind of PC.

[Soshus Eblum]

Tromso is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited and It was the perfect name for the background I have rolled out for him.

http://www.vg.no/foto/kamera/tromso.hbs

I was inspired to make Tromso to play out a part of a life I want but would go to jail if I executed.

[Aloro]

Cha'reth was based on several RL people: Attila, Vlad the Impaler, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Fred Rogers...

OK, maybe not. Honestly, Cha'reth was designed to be as prototypical a Dru'El follower as possible; as completely Chaotic and as completely Good as I could make him. Throughout his life, I took inspiration for Cha'reth from various RL sources like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr (those are tough examples to live up to, and I won't say I succeeded, only that I tried). The story of how Cha'reth was built and why I made him a cleric (instead of a rogue) has been told elsewhere, so I sha'n't repeat it here.

Jenny Thistlethrush is kind of Janeane Garofalo on PMS.

Thragg is a bit like the monster from Young Frankenstein, only marginally smarter.

Boris, whom I imagine few still here will remember, was based loosely on Ted Logan from the Bill and Ted movies.

Saeth, the elven psychopath and erstwhile gang leader, was based on Alex from A Clockwork Orange.

NPCs I run are usually made from whole cloth, and spring fully formed out of my head like Pallas Athena. Ouch!

- Aloro

[Wyrmwing]

Eldraea's name is original, her personality very much isn't, though I try to give her a place of her own.

Tan'tzeleth is an attempt at Nanshilae that very loosely translates into 'Shadow of the Land'. Obviously that's not his real name though. His personality is part book and part movie-inspired.

Both of them also carry an aspect or two of myself.. as all my D&D characters up to date have had.