#ldknightshade.txt
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morality: a character creation guide
creating and understanding your oc’s personal moral code! no, i cannot tell you whether they’re gonna come out good or bad or grey; that part is up to you.
anyway, let’s rock.
i. politics
politics are a good way to indicate things your character values, especially when it comes to large-scale concepts such as government, community, and humanity as a whole.
say what you will about either image; i’d argue for the unintiated, the right image is a good introduction to some lesser discussed ideologies… some of which your oc may or may not fall under.
either way, taking a good look at your character’s values on the economic + social side of things is a good place to start, as politics are something that, well… we all have ‘em, you can’t avoid ‘em.
clearly, this will have to be adjusted for settings that utilize other schools of thought (such as fantasy + historical fiction and the divine right of kings), but again, economic/social scale plotting will be a good start for most.
ii. religion + philosophy
is your oc religious? do they believe in a form of higher power? do they follow some sort of philosophy?
are they devout? yes, this applies to non-religious theist and atheist characters as well; in the former’s case… is their belief in a higher power something that guides many of their actions or is their belief in a higher power something that only informs a few of their actions? for the atheists; do they militant anti-theists who believe atheism is the only way and that religion is harmful? or do they not care about religion, so long as it’s thrust upon them?
for the religious: what is your oc’s relationship with the higher power in question? are they very progressive by their religion’s standards or more orthodox? how well informed of their own religion are they?
does your oc follow a particular school of philosophical thought? how does that interact with their religious identification?
iii. values
by taking their political stance and their religious + philosophical stance, you have a fairly good grasp on the things your character values.
is there anything they value - due to backstory, or what they do, or what they love - that isn’t explained by political stance and religious and/or philosophical identification? some big players here will likely be your oc’s culture and past.
of everything you’ve determined they value, what do they value the most?
iv. “the line”
everyone draws it somewhere. we all have a line we won’t cross, no matter the lengths we go for what we believe is a noble cause. where does your character draw it? how far will they go for something they truly believe is a noble cause? as discussed in part iii of my tips for morally grey characters,
would they lie? cheat? steal? manipulate? maim? what about commit acts of vandalism? arson? would they kill?
but even when we have a line, sometimes we make exceptions for a variety of reasons. additionally, there are limits to some of the lengths we’d go to.
find your character’s line, their limits and their exceptions.
v. objectivism/relativism
objectivism, as defined by the merriam-webster dictionary, is “an ethical theory that moral good is objectively real or that moral precepts are objectively valid.”
relativism, as defined by the merriam-webster dictionary, is “a view that ethical truths depend on the individuals and groups holding them.”
what take on morality, as a concept, does your character have? is morality objective? is morality subjective?
we could really delve deep into this one, but this post is long enough that i don’t think we need to get into philosophical rambling… so this is a good starting point.
either way, exploring morality as a concept and how your character views it will allow for better application of their personal moral code.
vi. application
so, now you know what they believe and have a deep understanding of your character’s moral code, all that’s left is to apply it and understand how it informs their actions while taking their personality into account.
and interesting thing to note is that we are all hypocrites; you don’t have to do this, but it might be fun to play around with the concept of their moral code and add a little bit of hypocrisy to their actions as a treat.
either way, how do your character’s various beliefs interact? how does it make them interact with the world? with others? with their friends, family, and community? with their government? with their employment? with their studies? with the earth and environment itself?
in conclusion:
there’s a lot of things that inform one’s moral compass and i will never be able to touch on them all; however, this should hopefully serve as at least a basic guide.
#ldknightshade.txt#writing#writing tips#creative writing#writing ideas#writing inspiration#writing advice#writing help#how to write#writing tumblr#writeblr
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how to write a morally grey character (and keep them from being a total bore)
so. your other characters have a “clear” distinction of good and evil - that is, from your perspective, your other characters have a distinction of good and evil that aligns with your own and would generally be considered by societal standards to fall under one of two groups… but now you want to make a guy that breaks those boundaries.
look no further.
i. myths
first step is giving them a balance of good and bad traits
1. every character should have this???
2. every trait works on a sliding scale; when amped up to 11, good traits can become bad ones
those who are morally grey are unpredictable
to YOU and those they interact with, maybe… if they do not have a clear moral code of their own, of course they’ll seem this way. but they’re actually quite predictable if you actually comprehend what their motives and values are.
example: Herbert West from Re-Animator’s only motivation is re-animation of the dead. this may be evil to some, noble to others… but is it unpredictable? not really. i think we all know not to trust this man around corpses.
example: Charles Foster Offdensen from Metalocalypse’s only motivation is ensuring the health, safety, and happiness of Dethklok. he goes incredible lengths (war crimes, literally) to do so; this is evil to some, noble to others… but it he unpredictable? not really. if Dethklok is in danger, then he has dropped everything to save them and is doing so as we speak.
they’re relatable / more human
see above examples. moral greyness is not inherently relatable; in some cases, it would be argued that they shouldn’t be. either way, their moral greyness does not make them any more or less human than any other character. their moral greyness makes them morally grey and that’s that.
you need to show them doing both good things and bad things
wrong. you need to show them doing things that align with their personal motivations and values. if your character wouldn’t do it, why force it? this goes both ways.
they need to be sympathetic / have understandable reasons
anyone saying this is afraid of making characters truly morally grey. sympathy is not something that defines morals, anyway; but regardless, sugarcoating their actions and motives by making them a poor little meow meow on purpose is… bullshit. if every morally grey character was sympathetic, fiction as a whole would be dull.
ii. values
this is the real meat of it. what does your character value? is it something practical, like revenge or power? or something wackier like the previously mentioned examples?
clearly define the values your character holds and how it shapes their goals.
iii. motivation / lengths
now… how hard does motivation hit them? how far do they go? where do they draw the line? is there a line for them?
would your character lie to meet their goals? cheat? steal? manipulate? maim? vandalize? kill?
even amongst those, is there specific lines they won’t cross? would your character go as far as killing, but draw the line at children and animals?
and amongst those lines… what would make them cross it? does your character value honesty, but would lie to protect someone? are they a pacifist… but believe followers of certain schools of thought deserve a baseball to kneecaps and won’t hesitate to act on that?
draw out the line for them and then examine their exceptions. this is what will make it seem to other characters that their morality is a roulette wheel; when, in actuality, there is a line of logic that your morally grey character is following.
#ldknightshade.txt#writing#on writing#creative writing#writeblr#writers on tumblr#writers#writing advice#writing help#writing tips#writing inspiration
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need to know because this is probably the most bizarre fandom fiasco we have ever witnessed in our life
#no separate tag for which host is posting we’re both invested now#ldknightshade.txt#toki cube#metalocalypse#mtl#toki wartooth
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mtl scent/fragrance hcs
nathan: one signature scent. no clue what it smells like, but he sticks to one and one only… UNLESS he is dating someone, in which he diversifies his roster a bit, but it’s usually based off what his partner likes
skwisgaar: clean scents, masc, idk what else to say
pickles: keeps buying scents while drunk/high, now has more than he knows what to do with and as such, layers different scents on the daily. if he’s sober enough at the time of application, master of layering.
murderface: has no idea what works for him so 9/10 times it doesn’t work with his body chemistry but he exclusively buys scents he deems “macho” or includes leather as a note
toki: layers sugary scents with woody scents. this has had varying results, but his favorite is when he winds up smelling like a bakery
charles: day-to-day cologne is clean/woody… his date night cologne is probs woody w dark masc vibes and a subtle floral note
magnus: this man doesn’t use cologne really, his fragrance is cigarette smoke and incense atp
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screw it, I’m cataloguing the toki cube saga simply because it’s so BIZARRE
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now that i think abt it.
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21hr playlist of songs i think nero would listen to
presented without further comment
#i could do this for dante and vergil too but i was just POSSESSED to start w nero#am i crazy? i feel crazy#anyway idk someone’s bound to like this#dmc#nero#dmc nero#devil may cry#ldknightshade.txt#🎭🎨#🎧🎶#Spotify
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the sexual tension between me and the really fucked up piece of art i wanna make simply to spite the cultural puritans
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i did take photos of the mysterious fnv save couriers too
but my tv screen is busted
so if you’re interested in seeing what they look like uhhh lmk and i’ll use picrew i suppose
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actually you know what, screw it, i’m actually gonna bitch about this on main: the metalocalypse fandom is small but actually fucking insane
i say this having run one of the rp blogs, the fandom has a very feral and unhinged underbelly of folks that are prone to disturbing parasocial relationships
and the asks i posted were half of the ones i got; there were far too many people open to dark jokes without consideration for the muns, trying to suggest muses to commit acts of violence that muns were uncomfortable with, death threats, violence threats, slur usage, and sexual harassment (geared towards muses but done w/o mun consent)
and i’m not sure if all of them were adults, but i do think part of this is because it’s an adult media for adults but teens are invested in the fandom anyway combined with the fact that my younger gen z peers seem to slowly have lost any concept of online etiquette over time.
like yeah, was i annoying and fucking with the tags? admittedly yes, i won’t deny this. i really wasn’t expecting the attention, especially for my chosen character.
but i don’t think a little disregard for tag etiquette creates exception for sexual harassment which is, yknow, a larger breach of online - and general - etiquette
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i think at this point what perplexes me the most about the Cube isn’t necessarily the mystery behind it anymore, but like… why it unlocked the Documentation part of my brain that i haven’t seen since my 2016 Slenderverse/ARG era
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“our ocs should hang out” “our ocs should date” wrong. our ocs should be pitted against each other in gladiatorial combat so we may see which one emerges victorious
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john reilly is the type of man who would try to impress me with telling me that he listens to led zeppelin and ac/dc after seeing me in a blind guardian shirt, asking abt the band, and getting told they’re metal
and unlike most men i would entertain it because he may be pathetic and wet but he’s also a dilf
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dropping the self indulgent badly drawn tarot card fanfic art y/n
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the evil clergyman was such a treat
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