Chameleon
Chameleon was my first-ever OC that stuck around! She was originally an OC for the Static Shock universe, because when I was a kid I thought it was the best cartoon ever. I still basically think that. She was a Bang Baby who was soooo cool and had shapeshifting powers and got to be in charge of all the gangs because she was soooo cool. I was like eleven, it's just like that when you're eleven. Later, when I was a freshman in high school in 2009, my friend Sahoni wanted to make a roleplay forum on Proboards (as was the style at the time) themed around superhero adventures. This kicked off a long tradition of repurposing Chameleon for various roleplay settings.
In this one, she was a teenage girl with an abusive mother that she ran away from (in real life, all my issues are with my father, so I thought I was being very sneaky by not making a COMPLETE self-insert) to live alone in an abandoned apartment. She had shapeshifting powers and her "alter ego" was Chameleon, a cool adult woman who she was shapeshifted into 100% of the time that she was conscious. Chameleon wore a teal ringer crop top, huge baggy cargo pants (think Kim Possible meets Tripp NYC), and a completely sick trench coat. Her hair was brown, with green tips, and her eyes glowed green when she used her powers. She could turn into anything or anyone, but there were a few limits- shapeshifting took a lot of energy, so she could only do it so many times a day, and if she wanted to shapeshift into something particularly big it would take up all her energy for the day. Shapeshifting into Chameleon didn't count, though, because it was an identity she inhabited so fully that turning into her was as easy as breathing. That RP didn't get very far, but it did get far enough for our group of heroes to infiltrate a government facility and Chameleon got to have a big cool moment where she turned into a T-Rex and sacrificed herself (at least temporarily) so her friends could go on. Classic. I kept kicking her around for a while after that, even if I didn't have a setting for her. Here's my old tag for her on my old blog, with two whole pictures from 2012! Sadly all the rest of the art of Chameleon was lost when I deleted my old DeviantArt, which is something I regret doing without archiving the art first.
Later, in 2014, one of my beloved tumblr mutuals posted that they were looking for people to roleplay OCs with and that mutuals were welcome to message them if they were interested. I had been jonesing for a good roleplay for years, and I also thought they were extremely cool and wanted to be their friend so bad, so I replied to the post. That decision turned out to be lifechanging, as that mutual ended up becoming my real-life roommate for years and years as well as one of my best friends in the world. I even got to give them away at their wedding! But back in 2014 I didn't know any of that. We added each other on Skype on my 19th birthday (y'all remember Skype???) and began plotting out a whole new continuity. Wait hold on I just found the tag we had for posts for them. Click through if you want a beautiful time capsule. Anyway, in this universe Chameleon was a mage's rights activist (because people born with magic were oppressed) and Kita was a mage who had just escaped from a Government Facility and they were on the run together. Chameleon didn't have any powers in this setting, she was just cool. This is the iteration that the picture on this page is from. She also had a kid named Casey who was actually her sister's child, but her sister was killed or disappeared by the government for being a mage. It quickly went from a dramatic on-the-run-from-the-government story to a cute cozy domestic RP. Then, in order to maintain our edginess quotient, we made a roleswap AU where Kita was a mage leading a secret resistance movement against the government and Chameleon was a government experiment gone rogue who Kita sheltered. She was possessed by a demon who gave her shapeshifting powers, but she couldn't control them, and a lot of angst ensued. It was literally awesome.
I don't get to take her out of the toy box very much, but Chameleon is still one of my favorite ever OCs, and I love all the different ways she's changed over the years. Who knows, maybe I'll find another use for her soon!
Neely
Neely is a character who was made for a RP group that started from a dream. Literally a dream one of my friends had that got turned into a semi-Homestuck-style "play the game to save/create/destroy the world" scenario. We didn't get very far but it was a lot of fun! We came up with a hell of a lot of lore and I think I'm going to archive it here.
Neely is a trans woman (she/xe/they) who lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. I even picked out a specific apartment building for her to live in! Xe's a basement dweller goth with long badly-dyed black hair. They make their money as a speedrunner/twitch streamer with a low poly vtuber avatar who specializes in janky old 3d games and out of bounds glitches. They also do freelance web design work, but otherwise they're gainfully unemployed. She made her own oracle deck out of illustrations that she cut out of books, but is embarrassed by how often she uses it to genuinely make decisions. I actually made the whole oracle deck with lore and explanations and everything! She also grows her own psychedelic mushrooms and does weird research chemicals modern day oracle of delphi style. Xe has recurring nightmares of drowning and hates the beach despite living in a coastal town.
Hero
Hero was made for a friend's rp setting that sadly never got off the ground. However, I still had a lot of fun designing them, so they get to live on forever in my OC directories. They lost all their memories and woke up in the middle of a forest with a magic sword that talks to them in their head and refers to them only as the "chosen hero" so they just started going by Hero. They're a sweetie who tries to do their best every day despite their missing memories. They're also a sneakerhead and drawn generally to bright colors and fun patterns.
Their sword has its own consciousness and can control their body if Hero lets it. It's very clear who's in control at any given time, since the sword's personality is cold and cynical. When the two of them work together and efffectively fuse consciousnesses, Hero's eyes glow and their hair floats in the air and it looks very cool.
Elatê, aka "Lottie"
Lottie is a D&D character that I made to join a Greek-mythology-themed campaign that sadly fizzled out. She was a bard/monk multiclass character with a quarterstaff and a blowgun as her weapons of choice. I only got to play as her a couple of times but it was still very fun. I even made her a custom monk path and bard subclass! The Path Of The Goatherd and The Bardic College Of Rhetoric can be found here. She's cute, so I kept her design for later. Maybe I'll have a chance to play her and her classes eventually!
I've got more space than I have things to say about her, so check out this gif I found.
Emergency D&D OCs
In March 2020 I decided to make a D&D OC for every 5th edition main class I hadn't played yet. Only a few of them got super fleshed out with art and everything, but I managed to write backstories for all of them. Here they are!
Marianne Hollypaw
Marianne Hollypaw is a Tabaxi with a custom Warlock subclass that I made to mimic the mechanics of being a magical girl. I hope that some day a DM is brave enough to let me use it.
"Marianne was just a normal girl like any other! She grew up in a small Tabaxi clan-town with her six siblings and three mothers. She thought that her whole life would be boring, until ONE DAY a magical creature appeared! It told her that its name was Yib’shugganoth, Devourer of Stars and Lord Beyond Dream, and that it needed HER to fight the forces of evil and save the world! She agreed, and raised her new magical scepter aloft to become Nya’gōtha the Dream-Vessel, Chosen of Yib’shugganoth and defender of justice! Now she travels the world to rid it of evil and keep dreams alive for children everywhere! She’s only a Junior Dream Princess right now, but if she works hard and does her best, some day she just might earn enough Star Hearts to become a full-fledged Princess Unknowable of the Kingdom Beyond The Stars!"
Mossy Zek
Mossy was created so I could explore some speculative goblin biology and culture, focused primarily around arboreal living and mangrove swamps. They are a druid with a mushroom theme because that's objectively the best subclass. I was only a little bit influenced by Moonshine Cybin from NADDPod.
"The way that Rinta and Daro Zek tell it, years ago, two certifiably insane humans showed up in the swamp. They were crazy, sure, but they were nice enough, and they seemed to have good intentions, so they didn’t get run out of the goblin community at spearpoint. They learned the local language quickly and started asking a lot of questions and taking a lot of notes. They said they were “cultural anthropologists,” which was not really translatable into the local dialect. When a devastating plague befell the community, they jumped in with both hands to help, and though they saved lives with their fearless insanity, they were two of the last casualties. Their infant child, however, survived. Rinta and Daro, who had become fond of the strange humans, and who had lost their own child in the plague, decided to raise it in honor of its parents’ bravery. Mossy inherited their human parents’ boundless curiosity and their goblin parents’ healthy respect for the swamp.
Like the other goblin children, Mossy grew up climbing mangroves and wrestling alligators. They were always the kid most likely to suggest exploring the half-submerged ruins that filled the swamp. They were also the most likely one to need rescuing from the dungeons inside. As they grew up, their curiosity grew larger than the swamp could contain, and they set off with the well-wishes of their community to explore the larger world and crack into its most secret places."
Niko Martellis
"Niko grew up as the son of a wealthy merchant who had close ties to the nobility of their tiny island. He spent his childhood in and out of wealthy houses as his mother flattered and bargained her way to profit. He never knew his father, but never felt the absence, and looked up to his mother as the pinnacle of ambition. When he turned eighteen, he entered service in the temple of Sharess- a diety that his family had always served. He found a wonderfully fulfilling community there, and happily took the position of wandering cleric in order to spread Sharess’ doctrine of self-knowledge through enjoyment. He and his mother regularly exchange letters. He is planning on visiting home at some point if possible, since it has been a few years since he was last home."
Arrem Jane and Arrem Adeline
These are probably the OCs of this set who I'm the least likely to ever get to play, because they only work as a pair, and that would necessitate either a DM letting me play two characters or one of my dear friends willingly signing on with my Homestuck-induced Juggalo interest. Nevertheless, I like their designs a lot, and I spent a lot of time coming up with worldbuilding for the cult they're from, so they remain in a special place in my heart. I don't think I ever put it down in the worldbuilding, but "Arrem" is a ceremonial title, not a name.
"Twenty-two years ago, two children were left on the doorstep of a cathedral of the Church of the Mirthful- a screaming infant and a silent toddler. They were taken in by the church’s faithful and raised in their secretive traditions. The youngest was given the name Jane, and the eldest was given the name Adeline. Jane took to the church’s teachings of salvation through violence with enthusiasm. Adeline was raised in the church’s tradition of monastic scholarship. Upon reaching adulthood, the two sisters were given the position of Arrem- a combination of crusader, missionary, and covert operative- and sent to carry out a secretive mission to further the goals of the church."
Carissa Frayne
Carissa was made because I have always wanted to play a con artist, because I love lying and being the face of the party. D&D doesn't really support a con artist backstory, at least not in the backstories from base 5th edition, so I had to wrangle her mechanics a little bit.
"Born and abandoned on the streets of a large city, Carissa never knew who her parents were. She knew who her family was, though- the caretakers and orphans at Sister Delia’s Home for Wayward Youths. Sister Delia, a gnomish priestess ostensibly devoted to Garl Glittergold, provided food, shelter, and valuable pickpocketing training to those youths that needed it. Carissa showed no talent for pickpocketing, but after a turn as a lookout where she managed to not only convince a city guard to look the other way during a heist but also to donate to the ministry, Sister Delia decided that she needed specialized training. She was apprenticed to Klarkh N’ughmann, a dwarven bard with a talent for grifting and con artistry. Klarkh taught her how to fleece people out of their hard-earned coin, and during the years of her apprenticeship he also taught her dwarven tales of valor and heroism that inspired her to become an adventurer. Since then, she has been very interested in collecting folklore and history from various cultures, and will sometimes even forget about payment on a job if she has gathered enough lore. Like other graduates of Sister Delia’s, Carissa regularly sends gold home to support the ministry. In return, she stays connected with the extensive network of alumni and allies that Sister Delia has built in the wider world."
Sid
Sid was made for a hypothetical grittier urban adventure. I tried to make OCs that fit a variety of tones and themes so I'd be able to use them for any setting!
"Humanoid experimentation was outlawed long ago in most centers of civilization. However, for the rich and powerful, there are always loopholes. In most cities’ laws, there are limits on who is considered humanoid. Goblins are rarely included.
Sid was part of a group of goblins imprisoned by a wizard who was researching the effects of spells on living beings. Each goblin was branded on the left side of their skull with the wizard’s sigil, which allowed him to punish them if they defied him and track them if they escaped. He had made them into livestock. Most had broken under the inescapable power that the wizard had over them, but Sid was one of the youngest, and never stopped looking for a way to escape. Their chance finally came through the wizard’s carelessness. He had been testing the effect of a spell that would prevent wounds from closing, a grisly spell in high demand. Sid tries not to think about the particulars of that experiment, but they will never forget the accident that gave them their freedom. The wizard discarded them when he was done, throwing them against the wall and nearly splitting their skull open. By luck, fate, or the intervention of a capricious god, the wound split the wizard’s mark in exactly the right place, destroying the sigil’s magical power and freeing Sid from its influence.
The minute they realized this, they turned tail and ran from the house. They knew that they had no hope of freeing the others without killing the wizard first, and they were far too weak to kill the wizard in their current state. They stowed away on a merchant ship that night and sailed to the first city that they felt was far enough away to be safe. Sid spent a few years on the streets building their skills and finding spotty employment as a bruiser and prizefighter. Unfortunately, their work as muscle-for-hire got them on the wrong side of local organized crime, and they had to skip town yet again and offered their services as an adventurer to a mercenary group in order to escape. Since then, they have continued to hire out to adventuring parties. They see it as a good way to accumulate enough power and skill to kill their former captor and free those still trapped by him."
Vilthrandur Durothil Orivaris Veth’diandrinien
Vilthrandur is the biggest joke character in this lineup. I think elves are pretty funny if you don't take them too seriously. He's a little freak!
"Born as the noble scion of a high elven family, Vilthrandur never had an ambition in his whole life beyond the next moment of pure aesthetic pleasure. That all changed on the day that a pack of dire wolves attacked his elven settlement. The elves, being unconcerned with petty mortal matters such as “walls” or “sharp sticks”, were wholly unprepared and got extremely wrecked by these big nasty dogs. The only reason that nobody died was that somehow Vilthrandur got his hands on an ornamental bow. The bow awakened a long-buried genetic instinct within him. Wielding the beautiful work of art with a ferocity not seen by the enclave in generations, Vilthrandur managed to drive the pack away. The community decided to shore up its defenses and Vilthrandur decided to set off into the wider world in search of that same adrenaline rush."
Khair al-Hizir
Khair is the character who I did the most research for. Consequently, their backstory is wayyy longer than anyone else's. I looked up so many historical Muslim and North African pirates for this backstory.
"People say that it takes a village to raise a child. In Khair’s case, it took a crew. Specifically the crew of the Comet’s Tail, a ship headed by Captain Hizir al-Wattasi. Captain al-Wattasi was a terror of the coast, respected by fellow pirates and feared by imperial officers. He liked to style himself as a Robin Hood type, but was certainly more chaotic neutral than chaotic good. As he approached the ripe old age of thirty-five, he began to see retirement looming, and knew that he needed to find a way to avoid the constant pursuit of the imperial navy. To that end, he decided to establish a township for himself and his crew, a port that would be a haven for those on the wrong side of the law but that would also provide refuge for others who had reason to flee the empire. He finally found the perfect island- situated near enough to major shipping routes to be useful, abundant in natural resources, but somehow deserted of any humanoids. It was only after he had begun his settlement that he realized why the island had remained unclaimed. It was the creation of a long-dormant volcano whose underwater slopes formed the central city of Theutitan, the most powerful Triton province for leagues. His ragtag settlement of outlaws was met with a delegation of regal Triton ambassadors dripping with sulfurous gold who gave them a week to pack their things and leave the island. Instead, Hizir spent that time doing what he did best: scheming.
On the settlement’s seventh day on the island, a Triton war party rose out of the waves, their scales dyed red and their tridents gleaming in the hot sun. They were met not with scimitars and flintlocks, as they had been expecting, but with a lone man sitting unarmed on the beach. Hizir, dressed in his finest coat and largest hat, smiled at the bewildered warriors and asked, in passable Triton, to be taken to their commander. He was immediately imprisoned in a magical bubble and dragged deep into the ocean. The hour he spent being pulled further and further away from the sunlight was the most terrifying hour of his life. For the first time in his thirty-three years, Hizir considered that he may have miscalculated.
He was held in a lightless cell for what felt like days but was most likely the length of one panic attack. Finally, with Waterbreathing cast on him, he was brought into the audience chamber of Sayyida, the governor of Theutitan. Shaken, waterlogged, lungs full of water, and deeply afraid, Hizir laid out his offer. He and his settlement could be an asset to the Tritons- a way for them to access the goods and knowledge of the surface world without compromising their sovereignty by acknowledging surface governments who claimed ownership over the oceans and islands within Theutitan. The pirate settlement would take care of the island and act in the best interests of both themselves and the Tritons. In return, Theutitan would give aid to the fledgling settlement and allow them to establish themselves on the island as a base for their continuing piracy.
Sayyida was impressed by Hizir’s courage enough to let him return to the surface while she conferred with her council. Three days passed- three days of Hizir staying as far away from water as the settlement would allow- before Sayyida herself met Hizir on the beach. The two of them struck a deal- the Tritons would allow the settlement on the uninhabited island, the settlement would operate at least partially under the oversight of Theutitan, and Hizir al-Wattasi would be joined in marriage to Sayyida. Part political alliance, part hostage-taking, the union was both a symbolic and strategic move on Sayyida’s part to ensure the acquiescence of the pirate’s crew, who were deeply attached to their leader. For his part, Hizir never expected it to be anything more than a marriage of convenience. But it was not even a year before the two warmed from mutual respect to friendship to romance. They were unsure if their union could even produce a child, so Khair came as quite the surprise.
Khair al-Hizir grew up bouncing between the administrative halls of the deep sea and the tall ships of their father’s fleet. They loved listening to their mother work through affairs of state as much as they loved late nights on the ship’s deck listening to sea shanties. The one storm in their skies was the knowledge that to commit fully to one life would be to forsake the other. Searching for clarity of purpose, they decided to leave their upbringing behind entirely, reasoning that they would know what life to choose based on whichever they missed the most. They first considered joining a thieves’ guild, but hated the constant secrecy it would require. They thought about apprenticing out to a diplomat, but craved more adventure than that life would allow. Khair finally settled on the life of a mercenary adventurer as their best option for now, even though they still dream of the open ocean."
Kroth Deadeye
Kroth is, like Sid, made for a grittier campaign tone. He didn't get a lot of development but I think he's probably a nice guy.
"There wasn’t much remarkable about Kroth’s life before his death. He was a low-level petty criminal with few prospects and fewer goals in life. He lost the use of his left eye in a bar fight, which earned him the nickname Deadeye. He got into trouble, went in and out of jail, broke a few laws, and overall tried to keep his head down. Unfortunately, he wasn’t successful, and his life came to an end when a high-level criminal chose him to take the fall for a botched job. Kroth Deadeye was hanged by the neck in the city square, left to rot for a day as an example, and then buried in an unmarked grave outside of the city. Two days passed. And then, at midnight, a gray hand clawed its way through a thin layer of dirt. Kroth pulled himself out of his own shallow grave and coughed rot out of his shrunken lungs. He had no idea what had happened or why he now felt the pull of magic in his blood, but he knew that he had to find answers. Kroth chose to become an adventurer because he figured that it would be the best way to find someone who could discover how he had come back to life, and maybe make some coin on the way."
