Well, the mobster's name is Lizbit. She hails from a world that is essentially a film noir mixed with the occult and some more general magic (it's even in black and white) set during Prohibition. She was born a necromancer and she wasn't always... morally questionable.

Long story short, she was informally accused of using spirits to kidnap, torture, and murder some anti-necromancer peers. The real culprit turned herself in and the matter was dropped, though it would later come back to bite Lizbit in the ass even though she had no part in it. Her dream was to work for the occult division of the city police department, but when she tried to apply for their entry-level stuff, they would not allow her to do so because of the previous accusation against her. She felt this was bullshit (and rightly so) but there wasn't much she could do about it. A presumably-benevolent spirit tried to cheer her up by deciding to help her out. Unfortunately for her, this spirit was in cahoots with a powerful demon and was manipulating her into making a contract with the demon, which she did. The contract basically said that the demon would give her power to get back at cops with in exchange for part of her soul.

This was not a very good idea, as you can imagine, though not entirely surprising:

Firstly, the spirit exploited her cockiness and used that mixed with her relative inexperience to talk her out of her original plan (go do something else for awhile and then try again) and got her moving in the direction it wanted. It then convinced her that she wasn't powerful enough to be able to get proper revenge, further pushing her towards the demon.

Secondly, she was in so deep that she didn't realize just how fucking sketchy the deal was. Normally, demons would give you what you wanted then some number of years later, they'd claim your entire soul. This one wanted just part of her soul right then and there in exchange for power. In this particular world, a human soul becomes unstable if a piece is missing and bad shit happens to it unless the piece is returned or something else is substituted. What the demon did, in this case, was take a piece of her soul as payment, then grant her more power by replacing the missing piece with a bit of itself. It would then continue to grant more power by having that piece of itself consume another part of her soul and spread to keep her soul stable whenever she was killed. This has yet to happen as no one has killed her yet. (Not that they haven't tried nor come close. She almost died at one point from blood loss due to a bullet wound, but someone found her and got her to a hospital in time.)

In addition, this little bit of demon stuck to her soul is slowly contaminating the rest of it. The contamination is mostly harmless in that it is merely influence. It messes with her personality and her emotions, leaving her somewhat moody and grumpy, a bit short tempered, and her morals more than a bit skewed. Some of the changes are new, some are just things that were already a part of her but are now being brought to the surface and amplified some. The influence, however, is two-way. While the chunk of demon is influencing the human portion of her soul, the human portion has some influence on the demonic portion. There isn't much, but it has enough influence to ensure that regardless of how much of her humanity she loses, she will remain more or less herself.

The temper and the grumpiness developed slowly over time. The morals were more immediate and was put on full display when she first joined up with another local mobster who was in need of a necromancer (humans are expensive to employ, corpses are not.)

She's since parted ways with that particular mobster and is now off on her own, waiting for the day he finally gets around to putting a hit out on her for leaving. The mobsters of her hometown all have their specialties including her. While the others deal in things like sex, weaponry, and money, she deals in alcohol. Her main supply is a demon she's on good terms with, though she does occasionally deal with human suppliers if their wares are up to her standards. She has a few speakeasies spread out around the city and are a sign you're in her territory. They're usually hidden by legitimate cafes and restaurants that are also owned by her under a different name (this is helped by the fact that she actually pays her taxes, ensuring the authorities have little reason to take a good look at what's actually going on unless they're working off a tip.)

She's a lot of fun to play with because she's actually pretty versatile for a necromancer who now finds herself slowly turning into a demon. With some alterations to make her fit the setting, I'm actually sticking her into that DnD campaign I mentioned as a notable NPC. I dunno how familiar with Pathfinder you are, but they had a player race called Fetchlings and they're pretty perfect for her, so instead of a human bound to a demon, she's instead the result of what happens when humans get it on while stuck in the Plane of Shadows (or Shadowfell, if you look at the DnD 5th Edition version.)

Oh wow! That sounds all really well thought out. :D Uhm, I am only a little familiar with Pathfinder. I am more familiar with the normal Dungeons and Dragons. But I really like the story around your Neocromancer lady.

AND!

I have finished Kousa's (Kimo) story. But if you go take a look, I do warn you it's a lot longer than it used to be.

Thanks! I've had her for about two years at this point so I've had a lot of time to work on her. I mainly use her for this Facebook RP/LARP group that I'm in (we would do a forum RP if our website was up, but we've taken to Facebook in the meantime. If we're at cons or various events, we LARP together, though there's usually significantly less action than LARPing usually has) so she's got even more story to tell. That post was a massive TL;DR of the stuff I have for her. lol

Pathfinder is similar to DnD 3.5 edition, if you're familiar. Basically, it's the same thing but the people behind it rebalanced it a bit and cleared up rules to make it easier to play. Since they couldn't legally call it DnD, they called it Pathfinder instead. c:

I'll have to take a look in the morning. I'm interested to see it. :0

So you guys got any um.. Char 101 sorta things? I have a rather vague idea for a Steamsona but I'm not very good at making char personalities..

Take your time reading it, it's pretty long anyway, and at some point it might be longer if I decide to go back through to extend anything. Again.

I like attending anime conventions, but when I cosplay, I don't enjoy acting out the character. I just prefer running around looking like the character. x3 I'm really too shy to do an LARPing myself. But I like watching other people do it.

I would really like to help you Wolf, but I'm afraid I'm not well versed in making persona characters. Though, I like to think that I am pretty good at making characters. So, if you don't mind taking instruction from a Non-Persona player, I'd be happy to help you.

I find that making a persona character and a regular character to be pretty much the same thing. The only difference is that persona characters tend to be much more similar to the person who made them to make it easier to RP them in person.

Take Lizbit for example. She is my diesel noir persona. She has details that make her fit within the genre (in this case, she's a necromancer and a mobster/bootlegger due to diesel noir's focus on civilian life during the 1920s-1950s-ish with occult elements added in) and then past that, it's normal character creation.

For her personality, I decided to make her fall somewhere within the mobster stereotypes to make that more recognizable when I write her (or act like her), so she's paranoid and fairly untrusting, but loyal and generally helpful to those who manage to gain her trust. To bring in her demonic aspects, she's tricky, conniving, and will always make good on her contracts and deals (but will abuse every loophole she can find the entire time if it would benefit her.)

How she looks was dictated by her profession and her genre. Though a strict adherence to history would keep her in dresses and skirts, neither are particularly practical for digging up corpses to turn into thrall or for running from the cops, so I gave her a suit and tie that would fit the period. Since suits like her's tend to be seen as more masculine (even though her's is obviously tailored to fit her figure properly), I continued to toy with that particular detail by giving her short hair, though styled in a way that isn't historically accurate for women.

The rest came through toying with ideas and seeing what I liked and what I didn't like. For example, I took how she looked and how she dressed and used that to round out her personality a bit (and used her personality to adjust her appearance), then used both to determine what her tastes were. Given she wears tailored suits (and usually the nicest ones she can afford unless intended for conducting rather messy business,) I figured she'd gravitate towards things that tend to be considered high(er)-class: fine wine, stylish cars, ornate (but still practical) furniture, etc. She lives in a brownstone, which is somewhat contrary to the rest of her tastes due to them actually being somewhat more affordable to the average person by the time she started living in her's. Given the rest of her look, however, I feel it fits her fairly well (especially since brownstone used to be used for tombstones.)

Does that help any?

Peridotite: I love how you expanded Kousa's story. So many feels. ;n;

I believe you missed a word, though: "Despite the angered , Kousa didn't regret what he had said he is much too angry to feel anything but resentment."

Well I think my Steamsona is a bit different part inherently a part of me. He is an alchemist with limited magical abilities in a vast Clockwork themed world. He is an archaeologist for hire but primarily works for the Magic Academy and is a teacher of advance alchemy. He always has a few potions to get him out of a fix and carries an enchanted pocket watch he uses as a whip. The chain extends when he swings it in a vertical direction and lasts for a few hours then reverts back.

The Academy is a school on a train. The train is large and is run by a mix of clock and steamworks. The train is about 300 feet tall and 1000 feet long and is 50 car lengths long. (there is the main train the huge one and then there are 49 linked cars. The massive train is where all the teaching takes place etc the other trains are diner cars cargo and dorms.)

Oh! Thank you, I guess it got snipped out during my edits. BUT I am very happy you like how I had expanded it story. :D I might edit the end a little, to fill it out more and be less abrupt.

As for my suggestions.

When making a new character I usually work from an inspiration of an idea that springs to me about a characteristic I want to build around. Then I usually work up from there. And usually, I tend to a lot of research.

But lets work from what you already know. So, you know you want a character that's part of the Steampunk genre/world. And you should consider the ethnicity of your character, where they are from. The next thing to do, is decide the gender and appearance of your character. For some it's as easy as deciding between male or female, but there is a lot of gender identities in the world. But this is a very important aspect because for this era or type of setting the gender of your character regulate really how a lot of society is going to treat the character and the kinds of hardships they'll experience. Though, Males have had an easier time in a sense in social, work, and political fields so he isn't going to experience the same prejudices as a female character will. (I would suggest researching the hardships of both gender roles)

Next, you'll need to understand how old this character will need to be or is, and if you want him to be a young character then he needs to be, this is also going to require to research how long people lived in this time period. Given the level of medical advances (Which should be accurate to the time period.) And that way, you can judge how realistic you want to be with their success in terms of social acceptance, job skill level, and how far they have advanced.

Okay. Once this part is figured out. Consider the field he or she will be in, and what's available in this time period. And depending on the gender of your character, you need to take a moment to think of what this character had to go through to get to where they are. In retrospect of his age, because that's a really big factor as well. Because a person who is viewed as very young isn't going to get the same respect as an older person. Realistically. Not unless, this person has worked long enough with the group of people they are going to be working among to earn that respect and level of reputation.

Though... Really, you can do any of this in any order, but it's just easier for me to explain things to start somewhere.

Personality in anyone is shaped by their history. How they were raised, influences from people outside their family as they grew up, and the influences of the people and their experiences as an adult. Along with some characteristics they developed on their own, things that people say they were born with. In a human character this is very important to have first some times... However, I didn't think of it first. So that's why it's down here.

I really can't tell you what to make of this Steamsona. However, finding inspiration from other places. Like city themes, stories, or other characters is really great... As long it is just inspiration. Honestly, I don't see how anyone can take all the characteristics of a character already made, make some minor changes and call it their own OC.

Well I want him to be based off Indiana Jones you know a traveling adventurous archaeologist. While yes their both teachers archaeologists and have whips. Indy is often searching for stuff on a whim and rarely is actually forced to do anything my guy is payed to find stuff and is often looking for more then just an antique. Indy tries to get stuff and seems to have little concern for history and just wants to preserve said item. Alex seeks the history of every item he finds and whereas Indy is often on run from Nazis Alex battles rogue countries hellbent on obtaining magical powers. Alex and Indy are inherently the same as in skill sets but all the bad guys rarely or not at all have magical powers Alex is often being chased by various well adept spellcasters. Also I was thinking that my setting would be Victorian but have several vastly differing rules. There is no king or queen or parliment but several noble houses that rule the steampunk country. I wasn't really going for a real world setting just.. 'punked' but more a fictional world entirely but clockwork.

... Indiana doesn't have to seek the history of the relics he finds because he usually already knows it. Because most of them were Biblical relics, and the history of them were studied by his father that made him learn everything. And was SO completely wrapped up in finding important religious artifacts that his dad neglected him to the that Indiana did eventually run away from home. Because he felt unloved, and he wanted to make something of himself that his father can be proud of. Archaeology is the field he ended up being part of because he's enamored with treasure hunters and he did value history. Enough that he believed that the things he had to get were put into a museum. Museums are institutes of education, and accessible by the public in a greater way than had he given them to a private collector. And not everything he retrieved were taken to museums, but he had returned relics to their original places before. Like in the movie Temple of Doom, he was begged by a small village to find and return something to them that is very important. Which he did do, and he saved a lot of children by chance a long the way.

He doesn't do things on a whim, it might look like it. But he's motivated more than just whimsical fancies. He has a father to prove himself too as well, he's a man caught between wanting to be his own person and living up to his father's expectations. Indiana is a very intelligent person, and has a weakness for the ladies.

But, his personality is carved by his experiences through life. Starting with his father and influenced by other people, that hat he has that he cares so much about. Was given to him by a guy that he met as a young man, when he was trying to be a treasure hunter. This man was very cool, he could use a whip like nobody's business, he was suave and everything that Indiana wanted to be. And I think the guy even had saved his life, during a scuffle on a train.

A person's character is not just personality. It's ideals, beliefs, and influences from the world that they are part of. It is shaped by the way they understand and rationalize, and by people who inspire them.

Ooooo alright. :0

I'd say that's an excellent start, if you wanted to take it deeper with Peri's suggestions of what to look at when making a character.

Looking at a character's motivations is fairly important to understanding what makes them tick. With Lizbit, for example, her current motivation is basically to get back at the cops that refused to let her apply. Why she she seeking revenge? Because a spirit convinced her of a "better way" to get what she wanted. How was the spirit able to do that? It took advantage of her pride, cockiness, and relative inexperience with spirits.

Your alchemist. What are his motivations? Why does he want to learn the history of these artifacts?

Also, I suggest watching the Indiana Jones movies again (if possible) and take notes on Indiana Jones as a character and how he interacts with the world around him. Why does he treat women the way he does? Why is he going after a particular artifact? How did he come to know its history? What's his personality? And so on and so forth.

Depending on how far you want the influence to go for your Steamsona, that should give you a good idea of what makes Dr. Jones tick and give you ideas for your Steamsona. Other than that, a fairly easy way to make a character that's inspired by him would be to make a history-loving treasure hunter who donates his finds to museums instead of selling them to the highest bidder, then fill in the blanks of appearance, personality, and motivation however you want.

Worldbuilding may help you as well. While I was coming up with Lizbit, I built her world around her. It's currently somewhere in the 1920s there, and the city looks to be some bizarre mixture of Prohibition-era Chicago, Boston, and New York. It's in all black and white (this includes the people.) Necromancers are a marginalized group thanks to religious objectors, though direct practice of it is not illegal (making thrall out of corpses is not illegal, stealing corpses from a graveyard to do so is.) True to the time, her world is also set during Prohibition, so the production, selling, and consumption of alcohol is illegal. Stuff like this helped me figure out some of the stuff I was having issues nailing down while I was coming up with her character.