The Magic Council

Welcome to the Developer's Notes! These are a set of explanations that go through my thought process--at least some of it--when creating these seven (technically six) characters for the Magic Council that might answer some questions, comments, or concerns.

First and foremost I would like to apologize for their personalities and appearances being quite vague. The only character I have ever Roleplayed with is my own, Deniel. Creating one more is a challenge enough, but not only that, I had to create SEVEN more of them. I haven't really gone that deep into any other characters I've ever made, so doing it was quite the challenge for me. In addition to that, I thought it might be best if I didn't lay out each and everything about them, and keep some it a mystery, which is why I left out things such as Likes, Dislikes, Fears, and Motivations. It was simply too much for me to cover, and I wanted to get this out without exactly rushing it.

Secondly, their appearance was quite tough; I have a tough time describing some of the clothes they wore, but I did my best. Regardless, there's still pictures there, and you can just look up the Face Claims. A picture is worth a thousand words; certainly more than a thousand of mine.

Lastly, there are no tattoos. Do the Council Members have tattoos? I have no idea, but I kept it out just in case.


Now aside from that, some other things I would like to address is my thought process, and why I made these characters the way they are. Construction of this Council came when a certain someone told me to just do it and see what people think (you know who you are). At the time, I based it heavily off of this thread right here, in which my character pledged to follow the Council. Myself, like everyone else, has no idea what the Council looks like, or what they act like, so I kind of just made up my own stuff. Some of the ideas carried on to my rough draft and initial ideas. The ideas of an old man, a middle aged man, and twins. And at the start of my long journey to making these guys, those are the names I dubbed them all. They were literally just:

Old Man
Middle Aged Man
Young Man
Strong Woman
Twins
Harsh Man

After that, I started thinking of a title--rather than a name--and a theme for each of these characters. Based on my imagination, that's what spawned the aliases that they all go buy, such as the Middle Aged man become "The Juggernaut", because I imagined Jecht from Dissidia's version of him. He's a brawler type person who uses 0 Magic whatsoever, but has the strength to block or parry any kind of attack that comes his way, as well as beat the hell out of anyone that gets between him and victory.

Speaking of their names and titles, you might be noticing: They have no last names? Why? The simple answer is that I'm not creative enough. The names themselves were quite hard to come up with, and I do admit "Jacob" and "Matthew" are kinda' meh, but I'm not the best with names. I found their titles to be much more threatening, awesome, and just badass, so those are their "last" names, their titles, and what they are addressed by.

Spoiler:

Once their titles had been established, I started to think of Magic. Jacob's was the easiest since I imagine Jecht's Dissidia character, which is also his FC. The Twins were also fairly easy because I thought of two prodigies of Magic wielding cool stuff: Time and space. Musashi I got  the idea of a samurai in my head, and you get the picture. That being said, you might notice I give 0 details on what exactly their Magic does. I did that intentionally because I didn't want any of them to appear TOO powerful, or make it seem like they're just a bunch of OP nutjobs. I just gave a name, and that's it.

For their appearances, it was quite literally the hardest part besides the names. What do these guys look like? In fact, the Twins don't even have a Face Claim. It's just an image I stumbled across that I thought worked. Anyways, I chose Gabranth for someone like Matthew because I thought that the look and personality lined up. I never played Final Fantasy XII, but I have played Gabranth's Dissidia incarnation, and a lot of inspiration for Matthew is taken from him. The idea of this guy going on spouting out his "Hatred" for someone while dealing out "Justice" seemed kind of cool for a twist on the Magic Council. And that same process went in for Musashi as well when it comes to Yasuo, but I imagined a Yasuo who was blind, and a little more quiet. One of the biggest questions might be: Why did I chose Reinhardt for the Chairman?

First I wanted it to be an old man. That was the hard part. I had a Yamamoto kind of guy in my head, but didn't want to chose him because I thought it was a little too... expected. I went with Reinhardt without his helmet because he looks old, but strong, and displays his own set of battle scars with the one on his left eye, showing he has experience. It was a hard decision, but it's subject to change if need be.

In terms of their power, not all of them are H rank, but they're all A rank and above. Why? Well, all H ranks makes it seem like they're just OP event NPCs, but at the same time, I didn't want them to be weak either. With all of the attacks on Era going on, I didn't want a Council that could be killed just by one high ranked person, or a small invasion force. It's lame, it really is, and quite unrealistic. The Council didn't survive against Dark Guilds for so long because Dark Guilds are too weak, it should be because the Council is fairly strong. They shouldn't be underestimated, but they shouldn't be invincible either. I gave their ranks diversity to show that some of them still have a lot to learn, such as the twins in spite of being young prodigies, but that they can also hold their own. If the Council can't defend itself, they're subject to lame, out-of-nowhere attacks that just "kill" them. They may be NPCs, but they shouldn't be weak job monsters you can defeat in one post.

I also tried my damnest to give these guys flaws, and not make them Mary and Gary Sues, but not make these flaws easily exploitable. They should have weaknesses, but not ones just anyone can come and take advantage of. For instance, Matthew may be cruel and reckless, but he does have the rest of the Council backing him up. Taliya may care very little about politics, but she's a very good woman in battle and protects innocents. I also tried to give diversity, and I imagined these characters in meetings and chatting with each other outside of them. That's how I gave them the personalities. I imagined Matthew being the "We go in and kill them all" kind of person who starts the meetings off with a heated argument, and someone that would counter him, but not some goody two shoes righteous person. Rather just someone who is more experienced: Jacob. I also thought that making the twins inexperienced and idealistic kind of cool, since that's how some teenagers can be, especially in midst of adults. I think you get the picture.

The reason why I only gave their personalities what they are like in council, out of council, and in combat is because I didn't want to go TOO deep because I couldn't. I don't think I would physically be capable of making these 7 guys complete entities, but rather leave that up to whomever plays them (if they are accepted), but still give them something to work with.

Why did I put down only their goals, which is very vague, and their favorite/least favorite Guilds? Well because I thought it would be cool. I made the goals very simple and vague so that it could be compared and contrasted with their personalities, and some inferences to be made about what kind of person they are at meetings. And the same goes with their favorite and least favorite Guilds. I did NOT do it because I dislike those Guilds, or have favoritism, so please don't accuse me of that. I did it so people have something to think about. Matthew hates Fairy Tail? Well, that might make sense. They hate the Council, and he hates anyone who opposes the Council. Even sometimes his fellow Council members. Keep in mind that I know Fairy Tail is now Dark, but I still included it in there; now that it's Dark, someone like Matthew could have even more reason to hate them. It's just one example.

Spoiler:

Aside from that, I don't think there's anything else I can say, and... let the comments flow fourth. I'll try and see if I can keep this updated with my own comments and viewpoints, but have at it. And have fun~