[Quiet Man Cometh]

Aaaaaanother list! No numbers this time, at least not officially. ;)

Characters can add a lot to a game, even if they are only bit-part. Talk about your favourite characters here. They don't need to be central to a story, but they should have some permanency to a game, as in, other people playing the same game can encounter them, too. (So no Dragonborn or other customizable types. Sorry).

Just post the character (a description of what they do if they have no name, eg. "NPC shopkeeper"), what game they come from, and what you enjoy about them. Post as many times as you like, but only one character per post.

No numbers, but you still get bullet points. Hah!

• Canach (Guild Wars 2)
• Wiegraf Folles )Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions)
• Elazul (Legend of Mana)
• Nick Valentine (Fallout 4)
• Alistair (Dragon Age)
• Minsc (Baldur's Gate 1 & 2)
• Xan (Baldur's Gate)
• The Advent (Penultima - mod)
• Mike Toreno (GTA: San Andreas)
• Tiny Tina (Borderlands 2)
• Max Payne (Max Payne)
• Solaire (Dark Souls)
• Polka (Eternal Sonata)

Canach (Guild Wars 2)

I confess, his guy is the reason I made the thread. I only know him from the Heart of Thorns expansion story, but he's my favourite NPC so far. I've read the lore on him, but really it's all about his personality. He's blunt, he has an attitude, and is just downright amusing. He's a nice change from Trahearne.

(Player): [blah blah] Canach, you're with me.
Canach: Don't want to leave the plant with the plant food, Commander?
(Player): I just enjoy your company.
Canach: I don't blame you. Lead on, then.

I like this pic from the wiki:

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Wiegraf Folles (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions)

Hard to pick one character from my favorite video game plot, but I really do think it's Wiegraf. As a villain he's just so incredibly human, to the point I think it'd be very interesting to see a spin-off where you play as him instead of Ramza. On top of his wonderful characterization, he has the added mystique of having a badass class and being one of the hardest boss fights of all time if you don't know he's coming (though, like everything else in that game, he's pitifully easy once you've mastered the mechanics). (AND THEN YOU PLAY THE EXTREME DIFFICULTY MOD)

For those not in the know, Wiegraf here was the leader of a peasant army during the 50 Years War, fighting for Duke Larg and doing a lot of dirty-work along the way. After the war ended, money was a little tight in the duchy's coffers, and they didn't exactly feel that compensating Wiegraf's soldiers for their work was a high priority. In response to this slight from the nobility, Wiegraf rallied them once more and formed the Corpse Brigade, a band of marauding bandits preying on the nobility in retribution for the injustices they'd received. Far from being any run-of-the-mill highwaymen, these men and women had a distinct agenda -- they only targeted nobility and fancied themselves heroes to the common folk. They were essentially trying to start a class war that would result in the overthrow of the aristocracy.

Eventually, Wiegraf's sister Mileuda is killed in battle by the main character Ramza (who is the bastard son of one of the most powerful commanders in Larg's duchy. Basically John Snow.) Enraged by this, and having had his soldiers wiped out by Ramza's army, Wiegraf falls into a deep despair, realizing that he failed everyone who trusted him and led all his loyal soldiers to a pointless death. He is then contacted by the Knights Templar, who recognize both his skill in battle, and the despair in his heart, which serves their more sinister ends.

Driven by the hopelessness he feels, Wiegraf turns to religion, rising high in the ranks of the Templarate, and eventually sells his soul to the devil Belias in exchange for the power to right the wrongs he has suffered (War of the Lions is a very anti-organized-religion sort of story). And yet, by the time Ramza encounters him again, he claims to no longer hold any regard for his sister's death, nor any of his comrades-in-arms. His only desire now is to spread chaos and destruction throughout the realm, all to facilitate the resurrection of an entity known as the Angel of Blood.

Wiegraf is just such a tragic character, his motivations are entirely real. He shows the harsh truth of war that the nobility doesn't see from the balconies of their castles and palaces, and despite how malign he becomes, he is ultimately a devil of necessity, created by the very corrupt institution that Ramza eventually rebels against. As a player, you can't help at least partially empathizing with him all the way to the end, wondering how much of a role you had in making him the monster he eventually became.

Yes, I just wrote an essay on a video game character. Deal with it. :P

[Glitch]

Elazul from Legend of Mana!! When I was a young girl he just made me swoon like nobodies business haha. He's so cool and and protective and charming and I don't know. . . . He's just amazing. You should play that game. XD

Elazul game artwork
Here he is in game, being all demanding *fans self off*

Elazul (瑠璃 Ruri, lit. Lapis Lazuli) is a major character from the Jumi story arc of Legend of Mana. With piercing blue eyes and a cape of sand, Elazul is the Jumi knight of Pearl and possesses a core of lapis lazuli. Making a stunning impression on all who behold him, Elazul, alongside Pearl, embarks on a mission to search for fellow survivors of the nigh extinct Jumi race. <-- from the wiki

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I had such a strange relationship with Legend of Mana. I know I beat the entire game, but I remain convinced that I never even slightly understood how it worked or what I was doing. I do recall Elazul being pretty badass, though.

[Salone]

Nick Valentine, Fallout 4

For once, I will be actually using the spoiler tag for its intended purpose. Obviously the below contains spoilers for the game Fallout 4. Obviously it contains spoilers.

Nick Valentine is an old gen 2 Synth (Synth being a robot built in the likeness of a human, going from gen 1, the frames with no covering, to gen 3 with living tissue who can pass for human). However, instead of having the usual standard Synth personality (none), he has the mannerisms and attire of an old pre-war detective. His fake skin has been ripped and torn, and you can tell he and his clothes have been put through the ringer multiple times. Nick knows he's a Synth, and explains that all of his memories and personality comes from an actual detective named Nick Valentine from long before the war started.

Obvious love of Noir meets sci fi robot aside, Nick himself is a very sad character. While he calls himself Nick and has all the mannerisms of the old Nick, he is fully aware that he is simply a machine and that everything he knows and feels are not even his to feel. He struggles with the 'What the hell am I?' question and spends quite some time attempting to come to terms with it. As a quest, you can help him get revenge on a mob boss who hurt the real Nick Valentine before the war, who was able to escape the effects of the war and old age because ghoulification as a plot point. It's during this time that it's hammered home just how much of a copy he is, nothing more than a robot mimicking feelings and thoughts and that he isn't a real person, despite how much he attempts to act like one. The girl he loved before the war wasn't his. His memories aren't his. His desire to help those around him aren't his. He's just a blank slate that someone was copied to as a project and then abandoned to the wasteland, and it burns him up inside knowing that everything he is will never let him be his own person.

For those who don't want spoilers: A badass noir styled robot who fancies himself a hard boiled detective who actually has a very deep and troubled past.

Have a Nick.

[Ireland]

Alistair - The Dragon Age series.

I love him. Seriously. It's unhealthy. >____>;
I'm still trying to play through the entire series, but I really am enjoying the game and the characters.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

"Where Minsc goes, evil stands aside!"



Yes, he says that. Minsc is my one of my favourite characters from the Baldur's Gate series (the other will make an appearance here, later). He's pretty much comic relief, but it's pretty good comic relief.

For those of you familiar with Forgotten Realms lore, Minsc is a Rashemi ranger on his dujemma and is accompanying the wizard Dynaheir (Hathran witch in Rashamen) and the two go as a unit, so if you ditch one, the other goes, too. Luckily Dynaheir is pretty useful, and so is Minsc as he's probably the best fighter character in the game.

Minsc's dialogue is really what makes his character. He's totally upbeat, loudly proclaims against evil, and all that good stuff.

He does have one failing as far as mechanics though, that being that he can only carry two quick items instead of three, as one slot is taken up with his pet hamster, Boo, the miniature giant space hamster. (No, really, they're a thing)

I'm guessing he's pretty darn popular as he's the only non-default character to get ported to the start of BG2.

"Ah, we are all heroes...you and Boo and I...hamsters and rangers everywhere! Rejoice!"

[Espy]

...I will definitely have to post actual characters here...eventually.

Also yes, Alistair is awesome. "He's not mangy!"

..."Swooping is bad."

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I guess I never did specify that one should wait until another person has posted before, but I do like to wait...

If no other characters show up in the next few hours you get to suffer Xan!

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Alright, nobody posted. You get Xan.

Xan! - Baldur's Gate

"We are all doomed."



Xan is the anti-Minsc. Where Minsc is positive and full of adventuring fervor , Xan is morose and fatalistic. I'm not really sure he's a favourite character, as much as I haven't seen anyone else like him so far. He's not the most useful character, as being an Enchanter to Dynaheir's Evoker, she's generally more powerful (and comes with Minsc), and his drawling commentary can get trying at times. My brother in particular gets annoyed with his repeated "our quest is vain!"

[Espy]

...He sounds like me :|

[Lawtan]

...Can it be a character from a mod of a game?

[Coda]

I don't see why not.

[Lawtan]

Ah, most excellent.

The Advent (Antagonistic God of Roleplaying Adventures) - Penultima

In a popular mod storyline set place in the realm of Penultima, a deity makes deals with potential heroes to give them heightened glory. Said deity has an economy, creating a product in adventure and selling epics. It created a kid demigod known as Khaos, and put magic at the core of Penultima for the contracted "heroes" to defeat.

Centuries later, the heroes were forgotten, but the Advent sought new epics. Come in your player character from another land - an excellent target for the Advent to make into a great hero. At first, the Advent provides things like the ability to resurrect D&D style, but gradually the greater threats appear. The Heroes, stripped of their memories (their souls bound to Advent as tools or tropes for future epics) attack the kingdom and take the crown.

Your character and companions (a Scythe-spirit enslaved to a demon, a kleptomaniac thrillseeking rogue, a social justice half-dragon agnostic paladin, a retired barbarian grandma, a master wizard girl, and Khaos) are commisioned by the kingdom to fight the forces of this deity, and after all your companions are mindzapped too, you have to fight the god to return the world to the mundane life.

The idea of a God as metaphor for the exploitative work in the name of adventure and pleasure is something that has been an inspiration, and the mix of humor and cold declarations makes the Advent as human as most businessmen and political folk who have the view of "ends justify the means".

[Quiet Man Cometh]

As long as someone else playing the game can also meet the character, it's okay.

[Coda]

Sadly, MY favorite characters are disqualified, though, because the things that make them my favorite are entirely fanon. XD