Original Characters Anonymous

[Yumetou]

Do you know what is one thing I miss from the old days of the internet? OCs, Original Characters. For all the cringey self-inserts, Donut Steel jokes and recolors of Sonic the Hedgehog, there was a charming innocence to them. Most were a child or teen’s attempt at creating something new for a world they loved. Some did not fit the source material, but felt genuinely good enough to have their own story. Others fit flawlessly. For some reason though, I seldom see people talk about their Original Characters today. I’m not sure if it’s gone out of vogue with the rise of multiplayer games or I just don’t know where to find them.

Touhou itself I have seen few OCs for, though I am sure there were a number of them in the 00s. The material is ripe for creativity, and there are OCs I have seen referenced as characters in fan games. In fact, I am willing to bet that all of you had an OC at some point.

In honor of the innocence of youth and the joys of creation, let’s play a game. Post a character meant for the world of Gensokyo that you or someone else made. Write a little bit about them, their backstory and motivation. Any stories about them which make you proud or make you cringe. I’ll start, even if mine is a little unusual.

 

A few months ago, I was having burnout from tabletop games, which have been largely the same in the West for more than a decade. D&D makes up the lion’s share of the game space, and most other big games imitate it. To shake me out of my rut, I had a group of friends on Discord pick out an indie or fan game they enjoyed the look of and we would run it. On the list was Danmaku Yuugi Flowers. A Touhou fan game I had put on the list for how different it was. My game was set in a homebrew world, but I wanted the characters to be authentic to Touhou's style. Starting my slide into the fandom. Naturally, a tabletop game needs NPCs. My first creation for the world was a vampire named Hope Black. I wanted to give her a wholesome, Midwest country girl vibe. Though I also designed her to be an inversion of Remilia. Instead of opulent glamor, she has a homely charm. She lives alone in a log cabin, and keeps a farm on her own. She’s also one of the guardians of the land, who I really should come up with a name for. Though she is still new to the role and uncertain in herself.

I wish I could tell you more about her and what the others thought. Sadly my workload at my day job has spiked again, keeping us from playing. So now I am just left with this character concept and a doodle I made over a lunch break.

[Sir I]

Is it okay to just write and describe our OC without drawing?

[Yumetou]

Of course. I just made this goofy doodle and felt like sharing.

[Sir I]

Ok, I'll post my OC here.

Masao Shinobu.pdf

[Yumetou]

I'll take a look when I can later. :) What can you tell us about her? How did you come up with her? How old were you? What relationship did you imagine she had with the other characters and the world?

[Sir I]

7 hours ago, Yumetou said:

I'll take a look when I can later. :) What can you tell us about her? How did you come up with her? How old were you? What relationship did you imagine she had with the other characters and the world?

1.) He is a man. He's basically a Christian who hates youkai's, even though he is one himself.

2.) I think after planning to put one of my OC to my original story, I was thinking about a guy who accidentally entered Gensokyo through the Great Hakurei Border and turned into a youkai by some malicious youkai. At first, he was supposed to be a haniwa, but I scrapped that idea in my mind and made him a nopperabo, because I felt it's basically defying any logic and it makes him the odd one out. Also, because there are no nopperabo characters in the official games, nor in fan games.

3.) 16, so he is recent.

4.) I don't really know (¬_¬ )... But it really depends what kind of people he talks to.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Maniac Privateer

[Sir I]

So, what do you think about him?

[Yumetou]

A Nopperabu's legit. Not the first concept someone would hone on, very in keeping with the game series. That part fits nicely. :) I think he's nifty. Brings back some nostalgia from the old days.

 

How did he lose his face? Give me the juicy details. It has to be an interesting story. Was it a super powerful yokai he came upon? Was it a unique yokai with special powers? A gang of them with a unique artifact or dangerous magics?

[Sir I]

10 hours ago, Yumetou said:

How did he lose his face? Give me the juicy details. It has to be an interesting story. Was it a super powerful yokai he came upon? Was it a unique yokai with special powers? A gang of them with a unique artifact or dangerous magics?

Hm. I don't really know. All I can say is that he has an unfortunate experience of dealing a malicious youkai who have an ability to take people's faces.

[NetsumuNico7]

I originally created an OC for the Touhou (and Paper Mario, kinda) called Shurinoku, man that was the most cringe thing i created at my 2020' ish era (i think even worse than Yuuto, but im exaggerating), however at the same time she turned into the 2nd most important OC i created due i just created her when everything went well IRL and Discord, She now is not longer considered in 2hu universe, but now in my own canon; and She is now known as "Shuri Dokugan"

For short she is a Peruvian-Japanese Girl disguised as a witch with a red dress fore and blue shirt back the dress, she has a big BubbleBlower witch uses to smash enemies or make bubbles that can explode or trap small enemies. Originally when she was a Touhou OC, her bubbles are big but every mid second it turns into even smaller bubbles, and sometime she will attempt to get close to you and shoot little bubbles or use her BubbleBlower as a melle attack(it will make some bubbles at the process), yeah not that original but i was 14 at the time welp.

A image of her last design:

[Nyoko]

Ah, yes, OC's, a microcosm of your own character development. You draw from your own experiences about the world to create them and call for them to help guide you in the eternal march of life towards death.

My OC... well, there's an entire history for her. While I never designed her to be a Gensokyan, the entire reason I created her was as a self-insert that could fit everywhere.
Originally called Nyoko Hakui, she first went through multiple story arcs as I was going through them in FNAF and later Undertale. I don't remember every single franchise she went through, but eventually, likely due to a desire to stave off boredom, she got killed. There was another OC ready to replace her, of course. This new person, named Shinso Hakui, came into being shortly after I discovered Touhou, I think. Yet my imagination acts in mysterious ways where I have to work to actually catch a story, so she might've existed before then.

Why all that history? Well, I have had to attend enough funerals for a lifetime, and my parents still live... I suppose Shinso here was my brain trying to grasp the concept of having my parents funeral in my lifetime.
Shinso, while filling the role of Nyoko, still has a different personality. In a way, if I ever were to cross-reference the decisions Shinso made with the decisions Nyoko would have made, I'd come with two different universes.
Shinso, while maybe not made for Gensokyo again, does enjoy living in Gensokyo and if I were to ever retire the character, she would choose the place. As for her actual place she comes from... well, I call it Yru.

Yru is a future where the Earth has gone to hell and hasn't come back yet. Humanity got destroyed by aliens and experimented upon by them turning some into creatures similar to catgirls (with two tails and they call themselves Nekomata... I'm not hiding my inspiration there.) or people with wings for arms. Those were then sent to a planet named Yru that the aliens commit suicide on. The same substance that causes the aliens to commit suicide also summons lesser beings of a faith, (It does not care which.) and allows some people to perform feats of magic. It is in this Universe that Shinso was born in, as a (Shinto) Nekomata, she exists purely for vengeance. Her adoration of humans prevents her from being vengeful towards her, so she directs her anger towards the aliens who put the humans in this poor position. I'll also mention that those aliens caused a particular part of the planet to always be devoid of a sun.
Yet she is also powerful enough to be considered a Kasha, which makes her an interesting character in her own right.

She appears as a Nekomata in her everyday form, wearing the usual black full-body suit of the Nekomata of the Eternal Night. Though she has been trying out more casual clothes as of recent. She has full-on bloodred eyes, though not bloodshot ones. Quite tall for our standards, standing at just over two meters. But average for that universe, and considering that Shinso needs to fit in, you can infer why she chose that tall. I explain this with the real world example of breeding to make people giant, which worked in Prussia and Darwin even gave that as an example for his theory of evolution. She has pure black hair and keeps semi-long so it doesn't get in the way of her view when battling.

Thanks for reading this far. I encourage you to be inquisitive about things you don't understand or want more information about; I'll be happy to answer you... Though now I have my reservations about the legality of such things. I can hardly remain on topic for half the post, now can I?

[Macbeth]

I never had an OC, but I gotta say I gotta give respect to those dudes who would make walfa videos of their oc in the touhou universe. TRUE POWER!!!

[Macbeth]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:16 AM, Sir I said:

Ok, I'll post my OC here.

Masao Shinobu.pdf 15.18 kB · 5 downloads

i KNEEL

[Yumetou]

On 9/11/2023 at 11:53 PM, NetsumuNico7 said:

I originally created an OC for the Touhou (and Paper Mario, kinda) called Shurinoku, man that was the most cringe thing i created at my 2020' ish era (i think even worse than Yuuto, but im exaggerating), however at the same time she turned into the 2nd most important OC i created due i just created her when everything went well IRL and Discord, She now is not longer considered in 2hu universe, but now in my own canon; and She is now known as "Shuri Dokugan"

For short she is a Peruvian-Japanese Girl disguised as a witch with a red dress fore and blue shirt back the dress, she has a big BubbleBlower witch uses to smash enemies or make bubbles that can explode or trap small enemies. Originally when she was a Touhou OC, her bubbles are big but every mid second it turns into even smaller bubbles, and sometime she will attempt to get close to you and shoot little bubbles or use her BubbleBlower as a melle attack(it will make some bubbles at the process), yeah not that original but i was 14 at the time welp.

A image of her last design:

Very nice. I used to be a sprite artist when I was young. Even if it never went anywhere. I know what a pain in the neck it can be to make a custom or even modified sprite. That level of dedication is impressive. Would you be Peruvian? Her heritage seems very specific.

 

On 9/12/2023 at 11:35 AM, Nyoko said:

Ah, yes, OC's, a microcosm of your own character development. You draw from your own experiences about the world to create them and call for them to help guide you in the eternal march of life towards death.

My OC... well, there's an entire history for her. While I never designed her to be a Gensokyan, the entire reason I created her was as a self-insert that could fit everywhere.
Originally called Nyoko Hakui, she first went through multiple story arcs as I was going through them in FNAF and later Undertale. I don't remember every single franchise she went through, but eventually, likely due to a desire to stave off boredom, she got killed. There was another OC ready to replace her, of course. This new person, named Shinso Hakui, came into being shortly after I discovered Touhou, I think. Yet my imagination acts in mysterious ways where I have to work to actually catch a story, so she might've existed before then.

Why all that history? Well, I have had to attend enough funerals for a lifetime, and my parents still live... I suppose Shinso here was my brain trying to grasp the concept of having my parents funeral in my lifetime.
Shinso, while filling the role of Nyoko, still has a different personality. In a way, if I ever were to cross-reference the decisions Shinso made with the decisions Nyoko would have made, I'd come with two different universes.
Shinso, while maybe not made for Gensokyo again, does enjoy living in Gensokyo and if I were to ever retire the character, she would choose the place. As for her actual place she comes from... well, I call it Yru.

Yru is a future where the Earth has gone to hell and hasn't come back yet. Humanity got destroyed by aliens and experimented upon by them turning some into creatures similar to catgirls (with two tails and they call themselves Nekomata... I'm not hiding my inspiration there.) or people with wings for arms. Those were then sent to a planet named Yru that the aliens commit suicide on. The same substance that causes the aliens to commit suicide also summons lesser beings of a faith, (It does not care which.) and allows some people to perform feats of magic. It is in this Universe that Shinso was born in, as a (Shinto) Nekomata, she exists purely for vengeance. Her adoration of humans prevents her from being vengeful towards her, so she directs her anger towards the aliens who put the humans in this poor position. I'll also mention that those aliens caused a particular part of the planet to always be devoid of a sun.
Yet she is also powerful enough to be considered a Kasha, which makes her an interesting character in her own right.

She appears as a Nekomata in her everyday form, wearing the usual black full-body suit of the Nekomata of the Eternal Night. Though she has been trying out more casual clothes as of recent. She has full-on bloodred eyes, though not bloodshot ones. Quite tall for our standards, standing at just over two meters. But average for that universe, and considering that Shinso needs to fit in, you can infer why she chose that tall. I explain this with the real world example of breeding to make people giant, which worked in Prussia and Darwin even gave that as an example for his theory of evolution. She has pure black hair and keeps semi-long so it doesn't get in the way of her view when battling.

Thanks for reading this far. I encourage you to be inquisitive about things you don't understand or want more information about; I'll be happy to answer you... Though now I have my reservations about the legality of such things. I can hardly remain on topic for half the post, now can I?

Very cute. I approve. What inspired the alien background?

[NetsumuNico7]

1 hour ago, Yumetou said:

Very nice. I used to be a sprite artist when I was young. Even if it never went anywhere. I know what a pain in the neck it can be to make a custom or even modified sprite. That level of dedication is impressive. Would you be Peruvian? Her heritage seems very specific.

Thanks for your words! It really makes me happy the years of improvement! And yes, a Peruvian youkai is on the shrine, so there she is... she is kinda based of myself(in how i can be IRL or the internet) in some form, as for the country i came. 

We need more HISPANIC or LATAM represented in the shrine!

[Nyoko]

"What inspired the alien background?"

Stellaris. I wanted a uniform country of my own to roleplay as. After I had my share of fun playing Stellaris (for now), I didn't want all that lore I created to go to waste and came up with what happened to humanity there. The Republic of the Eternal Night is the name of the country I created for Stellaris, and it is the name of the country on Yru whom I am currently working on in terms of lore for maybe a potential book about Yru sometime in my lifetime. For now I just work on it when I have the time and I want to write in the first place.

[ReisenFanatic17]

Well, my OC is basically a self-insert Mary Sue that got to Gensokyo Sumireko-style.

Planning to make a comic series about her.

[NetsumuNico7]

9 hours ago, ReisenFanatic17 said:

Well, my OC is basically a self-insert Mary Sue that got to Gensokyo Sumireko-style.

Planning to make a comic series about her.

She looks so simple, but for some reason i like her. Like, i'm not fan of Mary Sues but i actually made a little pixelart for her!

Why i did this? Why not?, I mean, i can also experiment some things and make your OC more cooler (i decided to do some changes for the original design because welp it's MS Paint) , also it's a long time that i didn't do other sprites about other users OC's more than MY OCs, and some characters from other games i like besides Touhou. Overwise, i had fun doing this! May i can do more if i'm on a mood and have time.

[Yumetou]

12 hours ago, ReisenFanatic17 said:

Well, my OC is basically a self-insert Mary Sue that got to Gensokyo Sumireko-style.

Planning to make a comic series about her.

I am convinced you are trolling, but I'm not even mad. This makes me so nostalgic for the old internet. Reminds me a little of Lumagician Yuuto Ichika. Fairly simple design, very youthful, but it conveys a lot to the viewer. I like it.

 

1 hour ago, NetsumuNico7 said:

She looks so simple, but for some reason i like her. Like, i'm not fan of Mary Sues but i actually made a little pixelart for her!

Why i did this? Why not?, I mean, i can also experiment some things and make your OC more cooler (i decided to do some changes for the original design because welp it's MS Paint) , also it's a long time that i didn't do other sprites about other users OC's more than MY OCs, and some characters from other games i like besides Touhou. Overwise, i had fun doing this! May i can do more if i'm on a mood and have time.

Well done, she's gorgeous! :)

[ReisenFanatic17]

On 10/24/2023 at 2:44 AM, NetsumuNico7 said:

She looks so simple, but for some reason i like her. Like, i'm not fan of Mary Sues but i actually made a little pixelart for her!

Why i did this? Why not?, I mean, i can also experiment some things and make your OC more cooler (i decided to do some changes for the original design because welp it's MS Paint) , also it's a long time that i didn't do other sprites about other users OC's more than MY OCs, and some characters from other games i like besides Touhou. Overwise, i had fun doing this! May i can do more if i'm on a mood and have time.

so cute!!!!!!

btw her eyes are red

[NetsumuNico7]

1 hour ago, ReisenFanatic17 said:

so cute!!!!!!

btw her eyes are red

Thank you! And sorry for that mistake, i mean.... Look at her. There is not much to do with the intrepetation of your drawing... I can barely her Red eyes. (I had less bright on my PC while doing this, so that was a thing too)

                                                                                        
Anyways... Fixed.

                                                        (And it's even a bigger png!)

Now, good luck on that comic you mentioned before! If you are gonna do that obviously.

[NetsumuNico7]

On 7/21/2023 at 7:12 PM, Yumetou said:

A few months ago, I was having burnout from tabletop games, which have been largely the same in the West for more than a decade. D&D makes up the lion’s share of the game space, and most other big games imitate it. To shake me out of my rut, I had a group of friends on Discord pick out an indie or fan game they enjoyed the look of and we would run it. On the list was Danmaku Yuugi Flowers. A Touhou fan game I had put on the list for how different it was. My game was set in a homebrew world, but I wanted the characters to be authentic to Touhou's style. Starting my slide into the fandom. Naturally, a tabletop game needs NPCs. My first creation for the world was a vampire named Hope Black. I wanted to give her a wholesome, Midwest country girl vibe. Though I also designed her to be an inversion of Remilia. Instead of opulent glamor, she has a homely charm. She lives alone in a log cabin, and keeps a farm on her own. She’s also one of the guardians of the land, who I really should come up with a name for. Though she is still new to the role and uncertain in herself.

I wish I could tell you more about her and what the others thought. Sadly my workload at my day job has spiked again, keeping us from playing. So now I am just left with this character concept and a doodle I made over a lunch break.

Interesting! I remember being influenced with PC-98 Marisa (from SoEW) while doing my first and now separated OC from the Touhou universe. As for her, She reminds me of so many characters from older danmaku games from the 2000's. I did Hope Black a little sprite. I promised i was gonna try to do more! Here she is at 4 diferent versions, because there is not much i can do with only one reference image, and some of the differences may be distinct from the original idea.



Having Fun doing her! 

[Yumetou]

She is absolutely gorgeous! I will admit, I am all smiles at seeing my little doodle in the flesh. I was half sure I will never see or use her again, and half sure if I do it'll be months from now. Hopefully one day, she will have a story all her own I can share with you all. Thank you for making my day a little brighter.

I did have an idea she and Remilia are related, but only distantly. Second cousins or some-such. And there is some family dispute between the Blacks and Scarlets. In the way that old distinguished families develop their rivalries, neither one can remember what the disagreement was, much less how it applies to their lives today. Though part of it is because Hope has a bigger bust.

[NetsumuNico7]

Thank you! I'm happy too, i wish some showcase more OCs and have their experiences!

And interesting lore! It would work on a story/fangame!

[ReisenFanatic17]

On 10/30/2023 at 9:37 PM, NetsumuNico7 said:

Thank you! And sorry for that mistake, i mean.... Look at her. There is not much to do with the intrepetation of your drawing... I can barely her Red eyes. (I had less bright on my PC while doing this, so that was a thing too)

                                                                                        
Anyways... Fixed.

                                                        (And it's even a bigger png!)

Now, good luck on that comic you mentioned before! If you are gonna do that obviously.

i promise i'll finish it asap

sorry btw