The Touhou Original Character Compendium

Welcome to your one-stop center for the creation and discussion of Troper-made Original Characters for Touhou Project!

The rules:

• Step 1 - I will begin with one of my OC ideas, to start the thread. I'll make a write-up of my OC, explaining some visual and personality details.
• Step 2 - We will discuss the newly-presented OC, giving it about a page of discussion at least. Other people post ideas for the character, maybe some people can draw pictures, etc.
• Step 3 - When discussion dies down, other people can start submitting ideas for their OCs, and a vote will be made on who to do next. In this phase, only give a brief paragraph about your OC, and you can only submit one OC per time this step is run through.
• Step 4 - After a bit of voting, the thread leader (me for now, but I may abdicate at a later date) will tally up the votes and open the gate for the next OC to be discussed based on said votes.
• Step 5 - Whoever proposed the OC idea that got the most votes will write up a more detailed description of their OC.
• At this point, the cycle returns to step 2, and repeats.

I'm hoping for a flow similar to the Alternate Character Interpretaion Compenium's. What I don't want is everyone submitting their OC ideas all at once and none of them getting any discussion.

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POLLING RULES:

• Polling begins when I announce it, and continues for 72 hours.
• You may only submit one toon per poll. Polls close to submissions 48 hours after opening. To submit, post the following:
  • Your character's name.
  • A title. (optional)
  • A paragraph of no more than three sentences, describing your toon. Please don't be coy with run-on sentences, keep it short and Beige.
  • A quote that your character makes. If you type a quote, the combined sentence count of the descriptive paragraph and the quote must no exeed 4. (optional)
• Here is an example of a good poll entry, written for the character described below.

• If you won the previous poll, you can not enter the current poll.
• Everyone gets 1 vote, but can change it at any time up until closing. If you submitted an entry, you can still vote, but you cannot vote for your own entry.

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Here is a list of every OC discussed so far:

• Amber by XionGaTaosenai (She's right here, numbnuts!)
• Kagamichi Glace by Ruki Motomiya
• Nozomi Tsurumi by Kyler Thatch
• Kusari Omoriku by WORLD Tree
• Natsune Tsugunai by Dr Pravd
• Yamako Yayoi by Ruki Motomiya
• Natsumi Kyushu by Ruki Motomiya (resident beast of thread)
• Adela Ranpoteza by Durazno
• Shinkusu by Ruki Motomiya (again)
• Yukine Genshi by Kyler Thatch
• The Three Heavenly Staff Sargents by Durazno

To start with, I will submit a simple, meager, stage 1 boss:

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Amber

An Agressive, Aimless Alien

(Picture sketched by Fawriel, colored my me)

Amber is a Youkai based on a creature called a Daggerwrist from a speculative documentary called "Alien Planet". (I have three more OC's based on Alien Planet creatures, all of which will come in due time.) Her power is "Manipulation of Tree Sap". Her birthday is September 27. She is the stage 1 boss of Expedition of Xenic Dream, where she attacks the heroines (or is attacked by them) for no apparent reason, and later appears as a playable character in the 6th game, where she's been driven out of her territory by rival daggerwrists and is seeking new territories in Gensokyo proper.

The big reason I made Touhou Characters based on bizzare aliens was as a visual design challenge. I greatly admire the visual aspects of characters like Nitori & Utsuho, who have that classic Touhou Cute Girl image while still retaining the aspects of their monstrous sides, and sought to do something similar with Amber. The characteristic dagger-like forelimbs extend out of her wrists (think like Wolverine, except she can't retract them), and the detatching-lower jaw thing is nestled inside her mouth. The cheap way to do it would be to simply have it replace her tounge, but I went a step further, and had it replace not only the tounge, but the lower set of teeth as well, so she only has the upper row of "human" teeth. This is not seen often though, because she rarely opens her mouth when not feeding. The leathery gliding membranes are there, but don't attach any farther down than her mid torso, so that if she opens her arms wide, it looks like she has rectangle-shaped wings. Just like a daggerwrist, she has no eyes, or even eye sockets, but she keeps it hidden via a grey blindfold she wears where eyes would be. Unlike a daggerwrist, she has hair, black hair down to her shoulders that has an unkempt, feral look to it. She has the back spines, but not the tail. She also has the glowing patches on her back, but they cannot be seen under her clothing. Said clothing is thick brown cloth, similar to the dirty peasant's garb often seen in movies, with a pair of brown boots. Unlike most skirted Touhou Characters, she wears pants.

(expect long visual descriptions for any character I make, because I can't draw on a computer and need to make sure not to miss a single detail for whoever else wants to draw them.)

She is feral and boisterous. Most of her personality is based off the maenads of Greek Myth. Other than that, I have little for Amber personality-wise, as is typical for stage 1 bosses, which she is designed to be. Like many early-stage Touhou bosses, she can be a bit overconfident of her abilities, but she tends to be overconfident of her hunting and tracking skills and physical combat skills (which are formadible, but nowhere near as good as she says they are) rather than her magical/danmaku skills.

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Tropes associated with Amber (will be updated as discussion goes on):

• What Kind of Lame Power is Manipulation of Tree Sap Anyway?
• Boisterous Bruiser - She thinks of herself as one, and has the boisterous part down. While she's above-average for a Youkai in the physical department, compred to true heavyweights like Suika, Yuugi, or even China Meiling, she's virtually nothing.
• The Blank - she lacks eyes, or even the sockets, so if she removed the blindfold on her head, she'd look a lot like this. However, she still has a nose & mouth, so it's not played completley straight.
• Genre Savvy - On harder difficulties, she tries to lure you into trouble-spots with fake 1-ups.
• Added Alliterative Appeal - In game #6. Amber, an Agressive, Aimless Alien

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edited 10th Dec '10 8:02:36 PM by XionGaTaosenai

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

Unusual starting choice. Frankly, she sounds kind of disgusting from your description, although by the end I had a nice image of a scruffy looking person.

...sorry, I'm not good at this creativity thing, I just wanted to comment.

edited 18th Aug '10 9:23:14 PM by Clarste

Really, she'd look almost Hermit-y, wouldn't she? I sort of imagine that Cirno would want her for Team 9 but then Rumia is disgusted by her and Mystia creeps her out, so she doesn't bother with them. (Actually, Mystia would be doubly annoying when you rely on hearing...)

Thematically, Amber's a little odd. Do you suppose she might have been intentionally crafted or altered to be more like a Daggerwrist? Is she a minion or product of the Incident that introduces her?

Fanon would probably waste no time in turning her into a simpering woobie, though. Or something equally outlandish.

Well, fanon will turn anything into a simpering woobie. Mainly because there are none in canon, since having a submissive character like that attacking with ferocious danmaku moves just doesn't gel.

I have a message from another time...

.....This is the one thread I never would have guessed to ever be created.

But I approve. Good Lord, I approve.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

I have an awkward feeling that a lot of Mary Sues are going to be in this thread...

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Well, if you described Utsuho as a three-legged hell-raven (which is what the Yatagarasu is), it would sound pretty wierd, no? I deliberatley took such precautions as making the gliding-membranes look more like wings-as-arms, the rarely opening her mouth to hide a lack of lower teeth, and the blindfold to hide her lack of eyes to avoid her falling too much in the Uncanny Valley. In my vision of her, the job is done rather well, and she looks no more disgusting than any Cute Monster Girl. Wether this gets pulled off in any pictures of her, we'll see.

I remember once hearing a documentary about how Dragons are actually scientifically plausible, if unlikely to exist. After watching Alien Planet, and pondering it's status as a "Speculative" documentary, I concluded that those aliens are in a similar state of "plausible but unlikely to be real" that Dragons are.  ^*

Thus, they have a decent shot at being in Gensokyo.

I had the idea that there is a special area of the 'Soak where they live, with a magic crystal changing the gravity and atmospheric effects in that area to simulate their home planet. The hypothetical game Amber appears in involves the crystal being stolen, and Reimu/Marisa/whoever has to go to this place and find the thief before the crystal is taken from it's borders, at which point it's magic effects would cease and the inhabitants would swiftly die.

edited 19th Aug '10 7:27:36 AM by XionGaTaosenai

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

A challenge, it is.

I will try my hand at this! Let's hope I'll find a way to scan my drawings when I'm in Essen. I have my rather own way of drawing cute monster girls, though, so it may not end up looking very Touhou.

I think you should wait for some bona-fide pictures before drawing any conclusions. Regardless, Rumia can't be disgusted by Amber, because she can't see her.

And why would Mystia creep out Amber? I can see the doubly annoying part, but not the creep-out part.

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

Oh, god, not another dumbass who's trying to gain internet cred by spouting off an untrue belief.

You guys never give up, do you? A much as you low-lifes want to believe it, not all OC's are Mary Sues.

edited 19th Aug '10 7:51:11 AM by Chagen46

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

Chagen.

Calm down about your victim complex, settle down, and eat your beans. If the least bit of hinted-at criticism against any original characters upsets you like that, I suggest that you leave. If you don't want to leave, follow the steps outlined above. This is not the place for flailing about at people.

And I do not want an argument about this to fill the rest of this page, so please just heed this advice and be done with it, okay?

I wasn't getting upset at the insult of OC's. I was getting tired of people spouting off the ideology of "OC = Mary Sue" when that's not true.

And, then, just like in Real Life, I get in trouble. I can't win.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

My own OCs are mostly not from Gensokyo, but one of them has recently moved in with a little help from Sukima. Maybe I'll upload her story and profile.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

I will say only that Touhou needs a nurikabe-girl.

OCs of Touhou already exist and are fairly popular with the fanbase, like Mitori and Sashiromiya. However, setting barely any restrictions and asking as for what sorts of characters you would make is reckless considering the amount of Wish-Fulfillment humans desire.

But then again, there's also the Canon Sues...

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

So, I made a crappy MS Paint drawing of Amber. It's not very detailed, and only gives a general idea of what she looks like, but I think it could make a nice springboard for more detailed/quality drawings. However, I don't know how to upload it to TV Tropes so I can show it.

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

I was going to make a rule stating that no character you make can be Shipped with a canon character, but I was afraid that that would infuriate & alienate Chagen.

Your OC also has to be approved by a vote before getting a major entry & discussion (Amber being the exeption, merely to start the thread), so hopefully that can keep the obvious Mary Sues out of the picture.

edited 19th Aug '10 8:41:03 AM by XionGaTaosenai

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

Use this.

Oh and, don't worry about art quality.

Its not like the original game art is much ebtter anyway.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Yeah, that's the thing. Pretty much every single Touhou Girl above stage three are Mary Sue's. Most of them are pretty bad, but characters like Remilia, Flandre, Yukari, and Yuyuko take it to Beyond the Impossible levels.

edited 19th Aug '10 8:38:14 AM by Chagen46

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

Define Mary Sue.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

I meant that they have ridiculous powers and are pretty much capable of destroying reality. That and you can't really define Mary Sue, as it's subjective.

Basically, with a little ingenuity when it comes to writing their powers, pretty much half of the cast are God Mode Sues

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

You can't be a God-Mode Sue if you lose. Almost every single character in Touhou has lost to someone.

The canon sues I was talking about were the Watatsuki sisters.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Crappy MS Paint!

First, a Front-view.

Then a Rear-view, sporting arms outstretched to show the appearance of the gliding membranes.

It's not much, but it's a start. Fails to show the quirks reagarding her mouthparts, and I can't make the hair look as unkempt as I want it to be in this limited medium.

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.

Okay, I probably should have waited for the picture before speculating about how Team 9 would react... I didn't and don't think that she looks disgusting, but I figured that since Rumi is supposed to be childish, she probably has a few totally arbitrary things that gross her out.

I thought that Mystia would be creepy because I'm not sure what, if anything, her singing would do to Amber when she lacks eyes. I guess in my mind, it doesn't have an effect specifically on your vision, but it takes your whole attention, making you, er, deaf to all but the song. It'd probably be a disturbing effect for anyone to be around, let alone someone who relies on her ears.

I had two interesting ideas for Amber gameplay-wise. First, in the second half of her stage, she dashes around super-fast and slashes at the trees in the background, then proceeds to have the sap pour out as danmaku.

Secondly, Daggerwrists hunt their prey by using the tree-sap as a lure. So, one one of her spellcards that only apppears on hard+ difficulty, she produces fake 1-ups in an attempt to lure you into troublesome spots.

I make video games! Or plan to, anyway.