Garanos

This was a little survey/meme I got from Emy on Deviantart, but I thought it would be fun to share them here as well, for those who don’t subscribe to my DA gallery.  ^_^  Some information on the cast and their creation!

OC Meme
1) How you thought of their name
2) What made you create the character in the first place
3) How the character has changed over time (if they have changed)
4) Any random fun fact about that character

Garanos

1) The name was actually given to me by a friend years ago. It doesn’t have any real-life etymology, though there is a Los Garaños in Colombia.

2) She was my character in a group project in high school, which we eventually wanted to make into a manga.  I also used her as a roleplaying character on Gaia Online for a little while before I wrote the prose version.

3) Probably the biggest difference is that, in the old project, Garanos had been male in his past life, but was reborn female, which eventually evolved into the Harbinger physically manifesting into a male version of Garanos in the comic today. There are even a few early drawings of Man-Garanos in my old sketchbooks from 2003.

4) In-universe, Garanos and Selaranos’ mother’s name is Ranos, which essentially means they were each named after her. All three names are the names of varieties of flowers in Caywien. I never found a good place to insert this in the story, though, so this is the only place it’ll actually be specified.

Styx

1) It’s clearly a reference to the river Styx from Greek mythology, which runs between the Earth and the Underworld.  It provides a good allegory on Styx’s position as mediator between Garanos and the villagers of Kaigan.  I didn’t completely intend this when I named it, so it was a happy accident.

2) When planning the short story, Garanos needed a partner to tango with, as it were.

3) I originally imagined him as more of an ambiguous, almost-antagonist to Garanos, but as I actually wrote the story, he became a much more mellow person and fell squarely into the role of protagonist.

4) Styx’s mother’s name is Charon.

Maryoku

1) Maryoku is a Japanese word meaning “magical power.”  (魔力.) I was going to use it for another character in another, completely unrelated story, but this story ended up getting made first.

2) Someone was going to die in Volume I, so one day in my Senior Comp class, I called out to my classmates and asked, “Who wants to die in my story?” and my classmate Jessica was the first to respond.  So Maryoku is based on a girl named Jessica from my class.

3) Hmm, Maryoku is largely the same as she was when I made her. I later elaborated on her character by making her the vessel for the Red Moth, and left hints of it in Volume I in case I did decide to go through with Volumes II and III.

4) I wish I had changed her name to something else, since a Japanese name among all these Anglo and made-up-fantasy names sticks out like a sore thumb.

Geilen

1) It started with Gail, then I fantasy’d it up by making it Gailen.  Then changed the spelling to Geilen so it wouldn’t be pronounced “Guy-len” by mistake.  Which still happens anyway…

2) She was actually created for a forum RPG called “World of Tarem” on Gaia Online.  Then I realized she was perfect for becoming the female supporting role I wanted to add to Volume II.

3) Not a whole lot, actually.  The disease was the most recent addition to her character, but she was always going to be a mole.

4) Geilen may or may not have known Charon when she was still alive.

Senberan

1) Caywien names are always invented, and so was Senberan.

2) Needed a Caywienite to come after Garanos.

3) Senbe was going to be more of an adorable bishounen type, but then I made this not-a-manga, which made him the annoying, arrogant little berk he is now.

4) Senbe was going to have a comical, floppy hat at one time.

Zellner

1) This is another name I stole borrowed.  I was hanging out with some friends once, and one of the guys was playing Final Fantasy X, and he’d renamed the character of Tidus to Zellner.  I Googled it, and it doesn’t appear to be from anything other than a German surname, but I liked it.

2) Every ship needs a captain, and I didn’t think I could get away with having them on a boat and not getting to know any of its crew.

3) Not much.

4) Zell may or may not have had a different name before Zellner, but I can’t remember what it was anymore.

Let me know of any other characters you’d like me to do in the comments!