I'm just now starting to get my pet plans together, and I want to give them all well-developed treasures, minions and backstories like I see in the pet spotlight, but I'm still a little clueless as to how to go about it. I know the colors and species I want for most of them, and the general idea I have for some of their characters, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any tips on fleshing them out. Also, share the stories on how YOU came up with your pets' characters!

Well, I'm not participating in the pet spotlight stuff so I'm not sure if I'm a good example but I got my ideas for example from: rpg's, tv shows, books, documentaries, history, songs, movies, sagas, real life incidents, dreams, random internet research...seriously there's so much that can influence my ideas that I cannot list everything here. :')

I agree with ! :) All of my pets are either inspired by my favorite eras in history (Glorify, Cathar, Evangelic...), my favorite musician (Verotik and Malefical are inspired by this), and even my RL pets (Lionhead and Frank)! Once I have a general idea of what I want my pet to be, I go on intense treasure hunting to find the perfect treasures (which I noticed slowly forms a story). And from there I can start typing out ideas, draw them, or even begin making a pet profile! ^_^ I hope that helps you!

I tend to get ideas for a pet based on their name and then just write out their story within one go. Afterwards, it's mostly just a matter of correcting grammar and making sure tenses are right.

As for getting inspiration: The majority of pets I have( that aren't fan pets,) are usually set within certain historical periods, 17-19th century and up to world war I-II mostly. I have a handful set in modern period as well, but most generally tend to be within those particular historical periods. Inspiration can really come from anywhere, favorite historical periods, movies, books, tv shows. Charming, for instance was actually a Disney fan pet based off of Prince Charming from various Disney versions of Prince Charming, though mostly the Cinderella version.

Also, internet research can be amazing for getting general ideas down, I didn't really have an idea of what to make Constable until I randomly stumbled upon a gold rush miners' artifacts site, and then it just kind of spun from there.

Treasures, afterward are mostly just a reflection of that. I.e. if you have a pet set in 1920s US for instance, items should reflect that.

First of all, i LOVE your signature. Warf (or Worf, i forgot how it is spelled)

And I didnt know what i was going to do with Riblayn (now a reborn serpenth, but that may change in light of the new pets) until my imagination left for a bit of a stroll through imagine land (it comes back...eventually). I thought "hey, he is a reborn serpenth...and reborn pets are like, Phoenixes. Why dont I make a story about a boy who longed to be a Phoenix to fly in the sky like a fireball or comet?" So, I just went from there. I now have a story about his father filling his imagination with fantasy and power. The boy, at that time in childhood innocence and ignorance, foolishly wished he could become one. Well when he grew up and his family died in a car accident, he became like a phoenix but he found out the real meaning of being a phoenix and he didnt like the reality of it. He is now immortal and filled with regret because of the pain of sorrow.

I just made up a pet based on Ned from Pushing Daisies. I just looked on wiki and made a summary of Ned before the events of the first episode. Let's see..Thravalas is like King Thranduil with a twist of the forest is him and he is the forest...I just let my imagination run wild.

Well, if my pet isn't a fan pet, they're just based on my OCs. So I try to match the pet with the OC. Names actually don't matter that much to me. A few of them actually have different names like Ah-Dol, Daniel, Meander, and Kresnik. I like the names but never could figure out what to do with them until I decided that I can use them as a stand in for my OCs.

The pets I have stories up and I think I can explain a bit on:

Son Goku is based on Goku from Saiyuki with a little bit of an OC, Pillow (the horny little chain smoking monkey), I created with a friend thrown in. So that explains some of the odder items in his TC. I was going to place food items in his TC since the character is always hungry but when the food counter came out it helped loads in that department. Now instead he just eats everything!

Paper Witch is based on a dream I had twice. After that I kept "seeing" the character in other dreams even though its appearance never was the same, I knew it was it. There is a lot more to its story than the part I have up. Witch doesn't know any of its past and those who know the story aren't even sure if its the truth or a fairytale.

Meander is also based on a dream. Or I should say the world he lives in. He's going to be changed into the new owl pet whenever I finally get an elixir. This world actually shapes the people that live in it so these people do end up child like.

Ah-Dol actually got his story because I really thought that color needed someone unhinged. lol So I had a story going on in my head about another OC and he just kind of came to be. He was also the one I was a bit hesitant in putting the story up seeing as how he actually is in love with his sister. I tried to not really play up that part.

For these pets the TC items are things that reflect them. It can either be something of theirs or things that are found in their world. Ah-Dol though, feel really sorry for those minions he has. It's not going to be pretty.

The really easy ones: Princess Butterball and Sir Rodney are based on my real life cats. Princess was very easy to give a personality to though I'm still finding it hard to do Sir Rodney. He's my memorial pet.

It's Worf! And thank you for the compliment! :D

I'm not too expirienced with making characters but I was thinking the same thing...how can I give my pet some personality? For my first pet I thought I'd base her off of my interest and expiriences, just that alone helped me come up with ideas on how I want her to look and how I'd like her personality to be. I'm not too sure but I like how she's turning out in my head. Now all I need to do is fix up her profile and add some pictures.