I'm mostly bored, so I hijacked this little...er...thing.

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Write out the names of your characters and explain
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
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name: Athan Cole

1) I came across Athan like I do any other first name. I do a google search for baby names based on their meaning, then pick and choose between what comes up. I can't remember what I searched for when I got Athan, but I thought it sounded cool, so there you go.

Cole actually wasn't Athan's original last name, and I kind of regret keeping it as Cole because the last name doesn't actually 'fit' with the first. Cole sprung up from my obsession with the game Breakdown, who's protagonist was named Derrick Cole.

2) I blame Gaia for this one. I wanted to create a new character for this alternate 'universe' or whatever, separate from all of my Yahoo creations. Maybe it's by coincidence, but I took bits and pieces from all of my very first characters (the ones that sucked), and kind of fused them into what is Athan. I've always been partial to human characters in fantasy settings, since they always seem like they're the underdogs. I gave Athan a huge sword to kind of emphasize that feeling, trying to give the impression of a character who's going above and beyond a perceived weakness in order to emerge victorious.

Or something.

3) Athan went through several stages when I was trying to get a feel for him. When I first started playing the guy he was originally 5'10" or 5'11", and his sword wasn't as enormous. He was initially a normal human, and I think his only real power was an over sized adrenal gland that never really found much use in freeform RP. In his very first appearance, Athan was actually a scrawny red-headed guy, styled after a character of mine from Yahoo named Evander.

For some reason I got it in my head that Athan wasn't powerful enough, so I decided to test 'owered Athan' out, giving him special equipment that basically turned him into some sort of bastardized version of a gladiator from Lineage 2. This definitely made Athan more versatile, but he wasn't fun to play anymore. I scrapped the idea within a month, retconned out everything that had happened, and went back to the drawing board.

Eventually original Athan returned, but I made some changes. I made him a descendant of a custom race that a friend and I designed called the Tyr'Kana. His heritage originally wasn't going to be much of a big deal aside from giving Athan an excuse for wielding a gigantic weapon, but it eventually turned into a major plot point and one of his main motivations. Athan grew about eight inches, put on a lot more weight, and became a physical juggernaut. I gave him a berserker rage ability for a short while, but eventually came to the conclusion that I couldn't pull BERSERKCAR off very well. His short temper is still there, but I've managed to make it take a back seat to more important character motivations.

4) Athan was supposed to be a throwaway character, as I had every intention of killing him off when I first started playing him.

While I still think it would be interesting to have Athan die in the future, I'm now forced to actually find a situation for his death to have any real meaning.