Character design: Element-Based Personality Traits (2024)

I am creating a ensemble of charcters wielding the powers of the eight elements. The personality of each character is aligns to the element they wield. Right now, I've struck a creative roadblock trying to assign personality traits to the elements for each character

The empty spaces represent the missing personality traits for the elements that I haven't thought out. Any suggestions for the missing personality traits would be welcome for this.

EDIT: This is the list of agreed character blurbs.

The Wielder of Earth is considered the leader of the group. He is strong and very reliable. He is hardworking and durable. He fights with pragmatism and brute force, preferring to manipulate earth in simple, effective attacks as well creating earth constructs to defend others. He's of average intelligence, able to think up combat ploys as he is a football player but quite gullible

The Wielder of Water is the deputy of the group. She's an adaptable girl, able to adjust to the ever-changing conditions. She quite caring and protective of her fellow companions. However, she is very fickle as she shift from being a calm girl to a fierce girl. Her combat style involves manipulating water from her surroundings so that it would take any shape.

The Wielder of Air is a pretty, independent girl. She's quite breezy, expressing out her emotions in swift, nimble ways. She's also honest as in telling the truth without embellishments. Despite being spoiled and sometimes vain, she is a free spirit that enjoys the most on what she has while maintaining her chastity. Unfortunately, she also comes off as naive and very airheaded.

Edited by AdeptGaderius on May 30th 2021 at 3:18:13 AM

A few suggestions:

Lightning : Unforgiving, swift to judgement

Earth: I would have said "stubborn" here, but I see that it's taken. In that case, given "leadership" as a positive quality, why not "unwillingness to take others in

Water: Fickleness

Air: I would have said "distant" here, but I see that you have "aloofness" taken elsewhere. In that case, what about "naivety"?

Wood: Old-fashioned

My Games & Writing

Thanks for the suggestions. But I would prefer a more... comprehensive answer for the characters. It's basically a discussion about character development. The characters that I salvaged from the notes written when I was younger was really weak.

For reference, this is the characterization for the wielder of Earth written when I was younger:

He is considered the leader. He is steady and headstrong, never afraid to show his raw power when the situation calls for it. Despite it, he's quite a nice guy. He often likes playing football every weekend.

I intend to update the characterization by making their personalities thematically aligned with the element they wield. However, I'm still finding the appropriate personality traits for each character. I may sound quite needy, but it's my first time remaking things and creating thematically-appropriate personalities.

Well, let's break this down, starting with Earth:

First off, what sort of "earth" are you talking about? Because it can mean soil and dirt, or it can mean solid rock, and those have different connotations, though since he's "steady and headstrong" I'll assume for now you mean rock.

So, when I was in the shower, I thought this over and came up with some ideas. Rock can often be associated with brute strength and power, as well as pragmatism. See for example the trope Boulder Bludgeon, which carries connotations of aggression and brutality. So your Earth character could be a pragmatic fighter, or someone who fights relying on his brute strength without much strategy or flashiness. Simple and effective, but sometimes overboard, in the "crushing someone's bones" sort of way. He does play Football, so he probably knows strategy, but then again if he's not the leader of the team then he might just be the one who follows orders and tackles people. As a leader, he'd probably be strong and likable, but not the most forward-thinking...The Lancer might be the strategist.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Earth in the context of story is encompasses solids such as soil, sand, clay, crystals, silt, dust and even oils. In other words, mineral solids and non-heated semi-solids from the ground.

The fighting style of the earth character relies on creating defensive structures such as walls, domes and other solid shapes. Offensively, he fights by generating earth constructs or manipulating it to provide in attacks of varying power.

Now for the next character, the wielder of water. For reference, this is her characterization from the notes:

She is quite an adaptable girl. On peaceful times, she is calm as the waters in a lake - but when trouble comes, she is dangerous as the stormy sea. She is flowing and graceful but a very fickle girl. She is a swimmer

Hang on, are we done with the Earth dude? Because that didn't actually resolve anything, since his description doesn't seem to match up with my idea and you just sort of moved on without coming up with anything.

Dirt and soil is malleable, so another route could be to make the guy very gullible or easily-manipulated. He's strong and reliable, but easily molded, much like clay.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Earth = silent, stoic, slow when moving and the most likely candidate to just "do what they are told" without saying anything about it.

But once they do something, you can bet that they can carry the job out, regardless how long it might take.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Here's my resolution for the earth character.

The Wielder of Earth is considered the leader of the group. He is strong and very reliable. He is hardworking and durable. He fights with pragmatism and brute force, preferring to manipulate earth in simple, effective attacks as well creating earth constructs to defend others. He's of average intelligence, able to think up combat ploys as he is a football player but quite gullible

What do you think of this write-up?

Edited by AdeptGaderius on May 22nd 2021 at 10:32:30 AM

I think it's pretty good. Might want to incorporate some of Titan's ideas as well, since the "stoic and hard working" part is also pretty good.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

But I would prefer a more... comprehensive answer for the characters.

My apologies. For what it's worth, I was patterning my answer after the examples given in your original post, and the request for "traits"—filling in the blank spaces on the chart, in essence.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on May 23rd 2021 at 11:35:50 AM

My Games & Writing

Sure thing.

Water is hard because I can't think of too many negative associations it has. The best I can come up with are:

• A volatile temper (due to water being extremely deadly and destructive when it wants to be)
• Again, malleability, this time because of how water fits the container. Maybe instead of gullibility it'd be something like having a follower's mentality and being an unintentional copycat.
• Mood swings (due to the quick boiling, freezing, and condensation points, as well as water's general periods of calm and periods of chaos)

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Right, if were to choose a negative personality trait for the water character, I would choose mood swings since a volatile temper would be associated with fire and malleability, as in follower's mentality and becoming an unintentional copycat, be associated with metal.

The positive association of waters would be healing and purity because of Holy Water in various religions across the worlds such as the Zamzam Well (Islam), the Ganges (Hinduism), the Lourdes Spring (Catholicism) and blessed water. Still, that's the only positive association of water other than adaptability.

Not really, water has plenty of good connotations. From the connection to life (all things need water), to the concept of change...sometimes water can be connected with being calm and relaxed, though that's not helpful here if we're going with the Mood-Swinger concept.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Thank you for the clarification. I understand the positive connotations of water element with change and connection to all life. But we can skip water's association with calmness and replace it with ability to take shape and change so that the negative character trait of volatility can be used. And for now, here's the write up:

The Wielder of Water is the deputy of the group. She's an adaptable girl, able to adjust to the ever-changing conditions. She quite caring and protective of her fellow companions. However, she is very fickle as she shift from being a calm girl to a fierce girl. Her combat style involves manipulating water from her surroundings so that it would take any shape.

What do you think?

I will throw my hat into this. (since frankly, that doesn't feel like a good description of water at all.)

"The wielder of water is a mood-swinger to the extreme. When she's happy, she can be as flexible and smooth as a expert-conman, but when she gets cold, turns into a complete frigid "bitch" that isn't shy to break you, physically and mentally, if you try and pull her in your direction and end up getting her over you. Keeping her happy is the better option but don't get her too excited, as she will show zero willpower whatsoever and follow all suggestions made without hesitation, since she can't think straight when she gets too hot/riled up. Proceed with caution. She is the kind of person that "you can't live with and you can't live without" in the purest sense. She will kill you if you spend too much time with her."

And her powers would be "Summoning" allowing her to summon different golems and slimes depending on how much water she has access to in the immediate area, and within herself, since "water is the source of all life" after all.

It would be clay golems and slimes, as limitation, since a being of pure water can't hold up well enough, unless it is snow-golems, but they are fragile and won't last in areas above the freezing temperature.

And why my harsh description and idea of what water is like?

It will kill you from sheer size and cold in the winter. It will scald and peel your skin off like a sad*st as steam, and it is only when it is a fluid that it can be dealt with by mere mortals, but even then, can still kill you if you drink too much or too little off it and not to mention drowning if you don't know how to swim when thrown into it in larger quantities.

Aka: a soulless, sad*stic, frigid, mistress that only allow you to live when under the precisely right conditions. A control-freak to the extreme that doesn't give a damn about anyone else's opinion and gives you only the choice of "sink or swim" when dealing with her.

(speaking from my bad experiences with water, multiple ones, that left quite the impression on me, literally in one case.)

Sorry, but if you want someone "nice and friendly" then your best shot would be with "Air".

Edited by TitanJump on May 25th 2021 at 6:04:25 PM

Now, I'll introduce the Wielder of Fire's description from the notes:

The whole description sounds pretty lackluster and flat. It sounds like his only character trait is to get angry.

Here is my hat.

"Fire is passionate, hotblooded, and once you get him going into something, good luck stopping him afterwards. burns for romance, hits on every pretty girl he sees, and most of the time gets the cold shower in form of rejections and Water's control freak tendencies(since she likes him, but is too tsundere to admit it, hence she ruins every attempt he makes on flirting with other girls instead)"

Just part of it, of course.

This sounds like an interesting face of the fire wielder's personality, but I wouldn't focus on too much romance. Otherwise, it would lead to Strangled by the Red String and Romantic Plot Tumor situations.

The wielder of fire is basically an aggressive fighter, a type of character who would put all his stat points on Attack and Strength in role-playing games. He generates and manipulates forms of fire and heat such as flames, lava and smoke in combat.

I need ~War Jay 77's input about the positive and negative associations of fire as well character traits associated with the element.

Brock from Pokemon hits on any woman he sees and that doesn't make it romance in the slightest.

Besides, "anger" and the "fire inside" are not synonym with one another, so the notion that "anger = fire" is actually quite inaccurate.

"Passion" does not just equal "romance" after all.

Besides, when I hear "fire", I would peg him as someone that would put all his stat-points into "Stamina" and "Mana" (Which would allow him to keep using fire for as long as possible, without running out of fuel to do so in the process due to massive mana-reserves brought from investing in the "Mana"-stat.)

In short: Fire needs to be a "Mage" in order to get the most out from his powers.

"Attack" and "Power"? Physical attributes?

That's more like "Earth's" main stats.

...

Just personal opinion, of course, but logically speaking.

Edited by TitanJump on May 26th 2021 at 3:31:07 PM

Other "fire" associations are with creativity and craftmanship, warmth and protection, and chaos, destruction and evil (due to the hellfire).

Why not make this character an artist or an engineer or some sort? When I think fire, I often think of things like blacksmiths and primitive humans inventing tools- and the Greek god Hephaestus, who was both the god of fire and blacksmiths.

I also see what Titan is saying about the fire character needing more endurance than raw strength, since they're not relying on muscles but on energy- which is all that fire is. So I'd also imagine the fire character to be rather hyperactive, or conversely, low-energy to conserve their power for the fight. Maybe like a fire itself they start out calmly and slowly, and when they hit their stride they get stronger and more destructive.

I also imagine them as the sort to hold grudges- their proverbial wounds would still simmer and burn long after they should've gotten over it.

Edited by WarJay77 on May 26th 2021 at 9:43:40 AM

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Alright, here's the writeup for the fire element character:

What do you think?

The "rage" part is too much.

Remove that and you're good to go.