[ERF] Character Template

The following is an example of a complete character meeting Erfbound's style, in a detailed format. It comes with all fields filled in to a rough minimum. Do keep in mind that not all of this is expected out of a submitted character. Behavior, Goals, and Relationships can all be completely omitted for any reason.

BIG FIDDLES (Chieftain)
Aliases: Asakam, Wannadadum Gangon Harrg, Ubu, Gangon Gungon Gabaarti, Tango Mike November, HVT Bravo-Foxtrot 01
Affiliation: Sabaniska Valley Tribes, Clan Chieftain
Species: Pseudocrustacean (Resker's Clawfish - Male)
Birthplace: Sabaniska Valley, Mendit Wall
Birthdate: March, 1305 OSC (Estimated)
Height: 2'7" (79cm)
Length: 6'2" (1.87m)
Width: 2'5" (74cm)
Weight: 760lb - 800lb (345kg - 363kg)

SUMMARY
Your average pseudocrustacean - just smart enough to have an ego. Big Fiddles is the name for the head chief of the Sabaniska Valley tribes. He's an accomplished crab. Instead of eating dirt and corpses, he's eating sticks and cousins. Instead of slapping other lobsters over the head to get them to shut up, he's slapping them to go away. He's done absolutely nothing of significance in his entire life. For some reason, the Loonies of Fort Neuropathy just can't get enough of him. He's their mascot, star celebrity, and arch-nemesis. Some day, he's going to be their dinner.


APPEARANCE
There's not much to define this crab. He's big. That's it. He's like just about every other Resker's clawfish; a run-of-the-mill, ten-legged, tan-and-carmine pseudocrustacean, with enlarged claws and a thorny tail. He's got extra pincers on each hand and a double set of antennae, but that's all that sets him apart. He's a touch shorter in height and length compared to other clawfish, the slightest bit heftier, and just a little more weathered for all his years. It's still not enough to tell him from any of the other six thousand crabs in the valley.

What really sets Fiddles apart is what he wears. He's got a sense of style most pseudocrustaceans can't tell from lunch. On most days, he's got some kind of twiggy headdress that falls off every two steps. Leaves and grass are tied together over his back in a cape that's actually rather charming. Handmade green dyes streak across his limbs to keep up his status as the valley's chief of chiefs. Most days, whatever aura of civilization he's trying to give off is broken up by gristle and raccoon blood on his jaws.


BEHAVIOR
"Big Fiddles" wasn't some kind of pun at fiddler crabs. It was actually a jab at one of Fiddles' tics; he can never stop preening his claws, twiddling things, or just tapping the dirt. If he hasn't had anything to eat lately, it's a manic kind of drumming and grinding that never stops. Beyond that, there's absolutely nothing to set him apart. He's a crab. He's hungry. He's never not hungry. He's supposedly "intelligent", but that's relative to other crabs. It's a miracle anyone stopped to give him a name.

Someone did - and Fiddles didn't stop. If there's anything Fiddles has, it's names. He invents new names on a daily basis in his lobster bastard tongue. It's a favorite pasttime for Loonies in Neuropathy to figure out just what it is he's even saying. They've kept count of everything that sounds halfway intelligible - their last count, as of 1311, was up to 28. There's a betting pool on how many names he'll have once he goes into the pot. Culture, language, background, perspective - Fiddles doesn't have any of that. He's just got names.


GOALS

• Fiddles wants food. He's a giant lobster. Depth is not his strong suit.
• As terrifying as it sounds, this lobster's got ambition. He wants to lead his tribe to...victory...salvation...something like that. He's got a vague grasp on the idea of "bigger and better", he's just not all that clear on what it is.

RELATIONSHIPS

• Most Loonies would just shoot Fiddles on sight. He's a crab. Loonies don't deal with crabs. Fort Neuropathy - they just love him. He's the dumbest thing they've ever seen. When he's not chasing squirrels and raccoons, he's pretending to be part of a society. He's adorable. Command staff even assigned him a top spot on their list of threats; "Bravo-Foxtrot 01", just shy of the Cult and Space Loonies. Fiddles doesn't even realize any of this is going on. He's too hungry to care.
• The Space Loonies don't know about Fiddles. Still, if a research team found him, he'd be gone to orbit before anyone could notice. Spacers need something to laugh about, too. Fiddles doesn't even know they exist. He's too hungry to care.
• The Cult of Meat would graciously accept Fiddles into their flock and treat him with as much respect as any other deserving worshipper. That's the official line. He's a crab. They don't want him. Fiddles doesn't even know he'd be let in. He's too hungry to care.

HISTORY
Chronicling Big Fiddles' rise to glory has been a labor of love for Fort Neuropathy. He was born in a clutch of somewhere between 80 to 100 other pseudocrustaceans, some time in March of 1305. Legend has it that he was the only survivor; the one who rose to the top by feasting on his siblings. Really, no one knows. Odds were his brothers and sisters were too busy trying to eat dirt and grass to stay alive. Fiddles was the one with the brains. He knew better. He ate trees instead.

The political acumen and charismatic maneuvering behind Big Fiddles is the stuff of legend. That is to say that it's entirely invented. The tale goes that he scoured the valley for a relic of his ancestors, after a cruel, bitter exile. He found a mangled blade in a raging river of lava. He reforged it by his own claws, as smith, hammer, and anvil all at once. He took his family pride as his weapon of choice and slew the tyrant crabs of his valley. He hid the Moltanos, his blade of myth, somewhere in the valley - that, should he ever fall, a noble successor might find it and restore justice.

Really, Fiddles was never like that. He rose to the top of the tribes in his valley by eating his cousins. He smacked dumber crabs around to build a little army he could flex his power with. Looking at it from the outside, it looked a bit more like a bar brawl mixed with a stampede, going on for about three years. In 1308, he made chief of his own tribe, when the old one got a bit too close to one of Neuropathy's scout teams. After that, in 1310, he made chief of chiefs - stole the throne when the senior crab got too old to keep his cannibal cohorts off his back.

All that power's amounted to nothing. Big Fiddles has just been playing lobster politics ever since. What that means is not a whole lot more than whacking other crustaceans across the antennae. On occasion, one tribe gets too big or too uppity. Fiddles goes in with his lobster elite to shut them up. Sometimes, he eats them when they're done. He can't keep his crabs safe from the Loonies, he can't expand, and he's not exactly encouraging sapience in his tribes. Word is that, if he ever hits a hundred names total, the Loonies are going to come in and take him off for a banquet. For the smartest crab in the valley, the future isn't exactly looking up.

Locked, unlocked, and lost details are simple, special markers and markup, intended to tease hidden information about a character without saying it outright. They can be used wherever seems appropriate to keep the juicier details a secret until they come up. The following is an explanation on what each of them are, with examples of all three.


LOCKED DETAILS are information that is not readily available, as it requires special insight into a character to obtain. This may be something that is not public information and that the character is keeping as a personal secret. It may also be something that's simply never been asked, and has never had a reason to come up spontaneously.

For locked details:
[ ! LOCKED: A detail of this character's profile is hidden and must be discovered before it can be revealed. ]


UNLOCKED DETAILS are previously-locked details that were brought out into the open, ideally through dialogue or interactions with the holding character. Consider as an author about whether or not it's appropriate to unlock a locked detail. Just because someone knows doesn't mean that everyone knows.

For unlocked details:
[ ✓ UNLOCKED: The following passage was unlocked through story actions. ]
[ Unlocked text follows. ]


LOST DETAILS are locked details that are still relevant to the character, but are no longer accessible by any means possible. This may include the death of the character, the death of someone who knew something about the character, or even memory loss. Try to avoid making details too easy to lose. Think hard about whether or not you want to put in the lost marker to let everyone know or whether it'd be better to just strike the detail entirely.

For lost details:
[ ✗ LOST: A detail of this character's profile was lost as a result of critical story developments and can no longer be uncovered. ]

Included with this post is an attached file containing formatted examples of locked, unlocked, and lost markers. Be sure to use them sparingly!