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[Ace]

Disclaimer: I cannot represent every personality, as everyone is different and no two characters (or people) are alike. All I can do is represent main histories and what the personality following would be. Please feel free to add your own personal touches to the below (sticking to realistic additions, of course). =)

Histories and personalities--definitely one of the most challenging parts in signing a character up. The things you need to keep in mind about histories is that ones personality must always revolve around their history. It is completely unlikely for someone who was born evil to see the light and suddenly become the most selfless person on Earth. If you were raised in a family where your parents taught you that killing redheaded people sent you to heaven, you would likely be a 20-year-old serial killer.

Realistically, people who grow up in families with parents who are smokers are more likely to be a smoker than someone who grew up with parents who aren't, even if they gain the same education about cigarettes. Your personality is based off how you were raised and in what sort of environment--and the exact same goes for your characters in roleplay.

Often times, you could just simply not bother and put "rp out (roleplay out)", but in case you would rather actually go in-depth and form your character already, here's how you should go about doing such:

Start with your history first. One's past is an excellent way to shape one's personality. You could start with your personality first if you already know it, but if you don't, start with your history.

Now, look at your character. There are two main questions that you should always ask yourself before creating a character. For now, we'll focus on the first, and move on to the second later on in the Article.

One: do you want them to be mainly happy, or sad?

If you choose happy, then your character would most likely have a good past. As I'm sure everyone is well aware, life is not always a happy, carefree thing and often times have sad moments. Nonetheless, here are options you can take for a happy character.

- Give them a past where their parents/friends were supportive in times of need, causing your character to want to give what they took (the support). This will make your character fragile, as they're used to be given support and friendship. This is the sort of character that could be a girly girl who is obsessed with clothing. They aren't worried about stressful things, as they assume their friends or family will be there for them anyway, so they turn to happier things to think and make busy with themselves.

- Give them a bad past, but cause the character to want to forget everything. To just move on and forget the past and focus on the now. There are more problems at hand to worry about rather than the past. This would cause your character to have a more sturdy life. A girly girl who is more concerned about her clothing would not seem very likely. They've had a bad past and want to make things better--clothes should be the last thing on your characters mind. Of course, your character can still like fashion in a sense and cause them joy, but it should not be a main asset.

- Give them an average past, full of one or the other, but make it so they nonetheless want to make a difference and make people happy anyway. Characters like these tend to be silent, not very talkative and maybe even shy, as they aren't really used to talking to people. However, they've seen in the past friendship and love and caring for one another, and perhaps your character wants to give other people (or themselves) the sensation of being cared for and loved. This doesn't have to be a sad character, and when (if ever) they meet someone and want to be friends, they tend to smile and laugh and be happy. One doesn't always have to be sad to have a bad past. These types of characters tend to be hurt if insulted, but still able to carry on well enough and keep going until they meet their breaking point.

Keep in mind: Characters who had a bad past usually means that they're more willing to do bad things as well. If you take a character who had a good, supportive history, then they will most likely be unfamiliar with doing things such as stealing, or killing, or whatever the roleplay entails. If the roleplay is something that will cause your character to do bad things, such as killing or stealing, then they would be more shy or careful about what they do. Of course, you could always give them a very happy and supportive past and just make the character suffer in morals, but it's all your choice.

If you chose sad, then more often than not, your character will have a bad past. Unless your character is selfish and mean at heart, just because (which is somewhat unlikely, no one is really born evil), then any sad character must have a bad past that will explain why they are selfish or mean.

- Give your character a past where they were raised in a nonsupportive environment except one person, who cared for them (be it through true love, or companionship, or best friendship), and then either died or disappeared, leaving your character alone. This will cause your character to like to pretend they have a hard heart, or want to turn their cheek away from everything to avoid getting hurt like such again. This is definitely a common history for romances, so keep that in mind if you ever wanted to use this.

- Give your character a past where they had no support whatsoever--horrid, judgemental parents, no friends, terrible grades, ect. This type of character will definitely be someone who is not looking for help or friendship of any kind. Seeing as how they grew up in an environment without support, they will not look to expect support as an adult (or later on in life), or to give any support (which will make for a poor relationship character). These kind of characters tend to be emotionless, and often strive to not feel anything, which does mean turning away from friendship or companionship. However, this blank feeling often makes them keep pressing on. If they want something, it won't be hard for them to strive for it. They won't get caught up in morals, or regrets, to get whatever they want (which is whatever you decide they want).

- Give your character a past where something tragic happened at a young age that changed them forever. This could range from death of a loved one, to being caught in the middle of a robbery and being held hostage, or witnessing the death of someone they didn't know, but still cherish each life nonetheless. These types of characters are often easy to provoke, so they tend to be emotional, or spook easily, or tend to be shy and quiet.

Sad characters must and always will have sad pasts. Evil characters included, because no one is really truly born evil. There's a difference between instinct to steal and survive, and doing things because you know it's wrong but doing it anyway, and no one does things wrong and does it anyway without motive.

Now, the second question you should always ask yourself is this: are they good, or evil?

If they're good, then here are some options:

- Give them a good past where they were supportive and want to give back what they took, much like the happy/sad question option. These characters are often always going to want to strive toward good things, even if it puts their life at risk. They will, however, still be somewhat fragile. They might not be used to physical or emotional blows from the past, and won't know how to react to it very well later on in life.

- Give them a bad, sort of unsupportive past, but make the character want to make a difference. Make them want to give people hope, or happiness, even though they had a bad past. These kind of characters tend to be a 'learn from my mistakes' or 'I've been there, and wouldn't wish my worst enemies to go there'. They could, also, have good advice. These sort of characters will most likely be more willing to agree to insults. That doesn't make them weak, just think of themselves as bad or terrible. Often times, insults could give them courage to move on. They want to prove to themselves that the past is the past and now they are making a difference, and in such, changing themselves or the lives of others. In a physical battle, insults or jeering or such could make this character dangerous, but it also weakens them by making them feel as though they should just give up.

- Give them a sad past, such as having all your family die, but make them selflessly giving anyway. These characters tend to think that all they have left in the world is to make it a better place and do what they can to save lives, or make the world a better place and give people an understanding that they're loved. These characters tend to be a little easier in the way of insults. If they hear it, they might not take it so personally. Not unless it's something directly involved with a loved one, or someone very important to them. That person is all they have, or if they're all dead, they want to respect them and hearing insults about them drives them into a rage. That is most likely one of the only sore spots they have, and probably don't like talking about that in their past, but they could still nonetheless be the sort of person who enjoys shopping at the mall and having fun and a happy life.

Anyone who makes a good character must have some sort of a reason for wanting to be good as much as a reason for doing what they do.

If they're evil, then here are some options:

-Give the character a bad past where they had no support whatsoever and don't find it fair that others get support where your character didn't. This will make characters sort of weak, as they're in a sort of desperation to destroy whatever would make anyone happy, especially children or a certain age group that was the worst for your character (high school being a good example as well).

-Give your character a happy past in the beginning, but someone who was closest to them died, and so they feel that because your character no longer has anyone close to them anymore, others shouldn't either. Could be a child, or a parent, or a best friend, anything, really. These sort of characters just have sore spots with love or care in general. Anything else is just icing on the cake that doesn't have any flavour.

-Give your character a happy past, filled with wonderful memories of a few specific people. Make one of those people die (I suggest the youngest, the most innocent, or the one that held the most importance) and cause your character terrible grief. Make it so that perhaps instead of random people, they want to exact revenge on the person who killed the youngest/most innocent/most important, and they will do everything in their power to make sure they reach that point, be it to attract attention, or kill to climb their way to more information on where to find the killer.

Everything that I have listed above are all really simple ways to go. If you look at other roleplays, you'll find that some people go all out. I've seen characters who act sort of hyper, even though they've had a sad past and move on anyway. I've seen some that kill because it's the only happiness it brings them in life (which isn't being born evil, maybe they could be killing because it reminds them of being set free from the troubles of Earth?). I personally have a character who is bent on revenge on killing the organization responsible for killing her younger brother, but she's also known for taking naps in the sun and enjoying sitting back and relaxing (she's an evil character, but that doesn't mean she couldn't be a good one with the same motive). I watch a series where one character enjoys helping the police solve murders and hates guns, but has spent 8 years of his life searching for the man who killed his wife and daughter so he could exact his revenge on him.

You can create any kind of history that you want, you just have to keep in mind that you have to make their personality correspond with it. Life is very much like a domino effect, and if there's one key part missing, then the others don't fall in place quite right and it fails.

But use those dominoes to your advantage! Set up the dominoes so they make those cool pattern things when they all fall down, or spell out some words, or make a picture, or whatever you want. Experiment with a bunch of different pictures or patterns with dominoes, it's all yours to create, just make sure you do it right the first time and avoid the messy clean up later.

Hope this helped and happy roleplaying! =D