how did you come up with your oc?

[narwhaliagames]

so i think its alot of fun to know what gave people the idea for some of their ocs (i've got some pretty stupid stories for some of them) so i wanted to hear how some of you came up with your ocs k thx bai

[MetalBronyATL]

My main OC Moonshield (pictured in my avatar) is named after a song called "Moonshield" by In Flames, who are my favorite band. I just really wanted my OC to be named that because I thought I would be a good pony name, plus I'm just THAT in love with In Flames, so I just worked his color scheme, cutie mark, backstory around that name. Originally he was going to be an earth pony, but I decided to make him a crystal pony because I've always been fascinated by them and wanted to see them more in the show, plus not a lot of people make crystal pony OCs.

The next characters I plan on creating will be named December Flower and Gyroscope, also In Flames' songs.

[RedCedar]

I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, so when I set about creating an OC it was a natural that he would be from the pony equivalent, Vanhoover. I decided to connect him in some way to trees, since Vancouver is in a rainforest, after all, and from there it was a quick decision to name him Red Cedar, not only because it sounded good, but also as a bit of an in joke because the Western Red Cedar is the official provincial tree of B.C.

[RarityDash]

Hmm, this might take a while with all my OCs.... going to be brief for each.

Pegasi:

• Radiant Steel - My first OC. I basically just wanted a guard character, since they seemed cool and kind of different, and making it a female guard seemed interesting. Appearance wise she's kind of inspired by Erza Scarlet from the anime Fairy Tail. She has a white coat as a nod to the standard pegasus guard design. Personality wise I drew from a number of anime archetypes, particularly tsundere
  
• Hopesong - She was constructed mostly just as an accessory to her mother Midnight Brand and mostly intended just to contrast her. There really probably wasn't enough put into her character.
  
• Snowfall - I made Snowfall after marathoning the entirety of Batman The Animated Series. I was inspired to make a wealthy CEO, kind of in a Bruce Wayne vein. Elements of Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3 went into her design as well, though Snow is a lot more lighthearted and playful. I put her in Stalliongrad because I had just read Dio's lore for it and really wanted a character for it.
  
• Damask Luster - He was created because I wanted to give Radiant siblings that contrasted her. The core idea was just to create a character in the Steel family who was at odds with the REA/military image of the rest of the family. The Damask is meant to reference both damask steel, tying into the family name and a damask rose, signifying his nature.
  
• Serendipity - It was after playing Tales of Graces f that I decided I wanted to make a really eccentric, free spirited character with a weird energy to her like Pascal. With Las Pegasus added to the map, I also wanted to make a character who captured a sort of Vegas vibe, which I tried to add through the casino background, sexuality and maybe some tone downed shades of Hunter S. Thompson. Appearance was just a combination I thought looked attractive together; Purple Bird, the first person to draw her gave her shades, which have been an accesory I now always have her wear as I think it just fits her well.
  
• Crystal Snowflake - The concept for her was drawn up when I wrote Snowfall's app. I don't know why I decided to expand her and make her a full character. I basically just wanted this sort of cold, stuffy nouveau riche mare who contrasted Snowfall well and to some extent was interesting and sympathetic in her own right.
  

Earth Pony:

• Lady Luck - Lady Luck was in part based on a character for a non-pony RP on another site that never happened. Wanted a character I could play in the western regions like Appleloosa, and making her an outlaw seemed like the most interesting thing to do on it. Not sure what I was thinking with the colors; their kind of odd for a western pony (though I think they look okay together).
  
• Midnight Brand - I wanted a cool adventurer character, but I really wanted to try and make it different. Came up with the idea of a retired REA officer/single mother. I probably made her closed off an not interesting enough in retrospect. Her design is really cool though, I think. Wasn't really inspired by anything.
  
• Ardent Fate - I like the whole concept of the hopeless dreamer working with the odds against her. I had read Dio's Destriers lore and wanted to use it in a more playful way to create a kind of silly character. I tried to give her a mix of overblown tragic backstory and simple naive idiocy.
  
• Starless Shroud - QuickLime was doing pony pirates, so I just decided to twist some ideas I had into something that might work with it. The idea was kind of for a shifty, morally ambiguous thief type. Gave her an eyepatch just for sake of pirates and her hats just came to add a touch of whimsy to what was otherwise a kind of dark character.
  
• Harlequin Salad - This was all Rosewind. Her name is some really old fashioned dish that Rose was talking about one day which sounded absolutely disgusting. Eventually we concluded that it would be a good name for a pony and I wrote an app for her that very day. As a nod to the dish she was named after, she is a chef who makes absolutely disgusing food. The core concept was pretty similar to Ardent Fate in terms of hopeless dreamer, except she's almost even more hopeless.
  
• Slick Noir - pretty much everything in him is inspired by film noir, which is a genre I've always found pretty cool. I just thought it'd be an interesting character concept for the then new CC section of the board and I always like introducting new characters with connections to older ones.
  

Unicorns:

• Spirit Flame - another very early character, and like Radiant she was based in anime archetypes, this time mostly dandere. Her crazy backstory was created as just a way to faciliate her emotionally muted side. It of course draws from the whole raised by wolves trope, but yeah, elements of it probably weren't good ideas. Appearance wise, I just wanted stark contrast and something kind of spectral like.
  
• Dazzle Dawn - Dazzle was made to be the protagonist of a fanfic project I abandoned. The idea for her character was to be a sort of Madoka Kaname-esque protagonist, pure, sweet and shining, though with more silly airhead added in to make her more fun for RP. For her appearance I just wanted bright happy character for the bright happy pony.
  
• Arcana - Arcana was made for the same fanfic project as Dazzle and was to be the sympathetic antagonist. She was to contrast her and be the darkness to Dazzle's light. I didn't initially think I could play her in RP, but having seen some darker OCs around Canterlot I went for it, though I had to tone her down a little for that purpose. With her darkly colored pointed hat there was kind of a sorceress motif to her, and the characters were chosen to emphasize her character.
  
• Steel Dagger - For the first male character I made, I decided I wanted to make one related to an earlier character. Dagger was made to be the basic scoundrel type, who would contrast with Radiant and be able to tease her. I had also read more of Dio's lore of the day, and there being an intelligence aspect to the REA Honor Guard made me want to do a sort of cloak and dagger type. Appearance wise, I wanted him to be kind of similar to Radiant but different. Gray instead of white, orange instead of red.
  
• Gray Lexis - The concept for Gray came just in thinking of the sort of pony who would find Spirit and take her away from the forest. Eccentric, adventure loving older scholar type seemed to fit. I wanted to make him fun and have an interesting way of looking at things.
  

Crystal Ponies:

• Alexandrite Tilt - She was largely inspired by my favorite anime character, Saber, from Fate/Stay Night. Wanted a mix of strength and cool and class that would have made for a good leader and champion in the bygone era the Crystal Empire was originally from. I also wanted to take special care to make her very distinct from my other guardsmare, which really influenced her more elegant, refined and collected mannerisms. Appearance wise, mane shows Saber influence; coat is a color the gemstone she is named for sometimes is, I think.
  
• Tourmaline Glass - I just wanted a really intensely precocious kid who was easier and more fun to play than Ardent. The Crystal Empire seemed like a good backdrop for that sort of character. I threw in a lot of brooding and angst and shot for a kind of melancholy, glum fantasy obsessed. Name was meant to sound very pretentious. Tourmaline is a gemstone that is black sometimes.
  

Others:

• Verity Essence - I read about REIN in Dio lore and wanted to make something from it. Made her a zebra because I didn't have one. My aim was for this zebra who had been cut off from her roots and was basically the most un-zebra zebra I could make. For the stripes I just wanted one dark color and one light color. I'm not sure they really look good together though.
  
• Sierra - she was sort of a take on Spike's story initially, but spun in a different way. Eventually it became somewhat different. There really wasn't a strong inspiration for her personality. I wanted her to be different from ordinary dragons, without so much greed and selfishness, and thus smaller than most dragons despite being teen. Colors were just chosen to be feminine.
  
• Vivid Flair - someone made an OOC thread about super hero ponies and I made Vivid for that idea, even though it never came to fruition. She sort of connectied into the Batman inspiration Snowfall had by working for the same company but doing the superhero thing. rather than a dark knight though, I wanted to present her as a white and light knight, which is why I gave her an interest in actual knights and ties tot he Destriers. She is a hippogriff just to be different.
  
• Insara - She was just meant to be a take on a fortune teller/mystic. Her history was already laid out Verity's app.
  
• Brenda Razorclaw - She was originally an NPC in a long running thread, created to be a dominant and sort of violent and sadistic source of authority. I liked her character though, so when CC became a thing I introduced her there to be a sort of antagonist character. In a way she's meant to be opposed to my take on Gilda, but like Gilda is also an eagle/lion combination.
  
• Luxuria - her character concept came about when the event team was planning the Nightmare Night event last year. She was made to be a changeling to replace Rarity. In a lot of ways the idea was to make a sort of twisted mirror version of Rarity. A character who was similar in some ways but also sat opposed to her.
  

[QuickLime]

Oh I'd LOVE to do a thing like Phil!

...Except I have like 50 OCs so..

[SymphonicFire]

I only have two official OCs but I'm still making a lot. It takes inspiration and maybe a bit of yourself to make an oc

[narwhaliagames]

most of my oc's were based off of songs that the lyrics just got stuck in my mind and suddenly voila i've made an oc without even knowing it

[TheAddictedFangirl]

My main OC - Sugar Rush (which you guys probably never heard of cause I never used her cause I'm new ) was inspired by a character in South Park. (I'll hug you if you guys can guess who.. )

I've tried making one by scratch... But it didn't work out AT ALL..... My imagination sucks...XD

But I'm working on a new one named Drowzy Daze which was made from scratch... She's going good... So maybe my imagination doesn't suck... I dont actually know anymore... XD

[foxfire]

Assuming she gets approved Wandering Star is based off a character idea for another MLP game I'm on (that pony went in a completely different direction when I was half-way through writing the bio, going from a Guardsmare to a runaway petty thief). I used the original idea here.

The name on the other hand is all Lee Marvin's fault.

[Adorkable]

I actually don't have an OC (yet?), but I do have a ponysona! Does that count?

[CrazyScion]

My OC that I'm currently waiting for approval on is a changling inspired by another character I created on another RP site. This character I called Scion, was an M-verse charater designed for traveling across RP's. He had slight manipulation of self, as well as mild copy cat abilities, and owned a watch that had a sentient being talking through it called Dennis. A changling really was the perfect embodiment of this character thanks to the shapeshifting as well as being a weaker mix of all the other races abilities. Though unofficial, since it would break canon, Quickshot Scion is the same Scion from the other RP's. There is much more to the story of Scion and Stich then I put in their history, but I included enough to get the character started. If people want to find out the true depth of their story, then they will need to RP with Stich and find out the details from him.

Link to the character aplication

[RainbowBlast]

My OC Brush Colors, she's kinda based on myself. Only I don't have much of an artistic ability.

[SirJude]

Most of the OC's I tend to create are based off of interests, either at the time or long lasting loves that I'll never seem to lose.

SleetShock is based from my love of snow, Hyjinx is based off of my love of illusions and shadows. I have a Zebra in the making who's interests delve from more natural forms of magic and life. Another who's sole purpose is business. There's always just so many options when building a character that it's hard to keep up with them all.

[TwoBits]

(Huh. Could've sworn I already posted something like this for my first two ponies, but it seems my memory is playing tricks on me. I did get some more characters since then, though, so why not!)

Nightflight - my very first pony OC, though it took me a while to get her conceptualized and seperate her current "thing" from the other half of possible "things" I was pondering for an OC. Eventually I realized that I liked the concept of flying, I prefered nighttime, and I ESPECIALLY liked the idea of flying over everything else when the moon's out--bam. I decided to go ahead and make a nighttime-exclusive stunt flying Pegasus before I could have more time to overthink the matter. Like many of my OCs, her personality was formed in part from little facets of my own, not out of self-inserting fantasies but because I tend to write best when a character's perspective is more or less one I can identify with. I was just becoming obsessed with corvids at the time I was making her, so that sort of ended up influencing her color scheme to be more neutral and subtle, yet still easily connected with "night" themes.

Crystal Clear - A unicorn was the other pony race option I was considering back when I was starting to plan a pony OC. All I really knew was that I wanted her theme to be something pretty and esoteric and magical, but even after Nightflight was made I still had only a vague sense of what I was trying for. I started playing with the idea of having her main magic talent be light-based, but after failing to think of how to incorporate that into a lifestyle I set it aside as a secondary, self-taught trait, and after a while I hit on the far more tangible idea of a glassblower pony. Her color scheme was based off of the Aurora Borealis.

Spinel Fix - Was based more or less off of an old WoW RP character of mine. The original character was a healer, mixing druidic nature magics with traditional medicines to do her job, and after quitting WoW I realized I was really starting to miss her. Thus, Spinel Fix happened. I made her a crystal pony rather than a zebra simply because I had more cannon source material that I felt comfortable working with, and much of her personality was pretty much ported over and then revised to be more of a fit into the MLPverse. The green/emerald/aquamarine color scheme was intended to tie back into the original's heal-y, mellow, gentle nature.

Fuchsia Foster - Probably the most random conception any of my pones have been formed from. While working a temp job at the garden center in Lowes', I found out first-hand what a fuchsia flower looked like, fell in love with it, and decided I wanted to make a pony with a fuchsia based theme or coloring. Some time later, I was reading Tumblr posts about the screwed-up American education system because I have no willpower and delight in griping with others, and started thinking, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if more teachers actually had a vested interest in their students' overall welfare and not just their grades, and were patient and nice and worked on building up kids' curiosity and confidence rather than reducing them to a bunch of numbers--oh. Oh, right, I do have an OC sitting around unfinalized. What a coincidence." Bam. Fuschia Foster became a schoolteacher. It's fairly obvious what I based her color scheme off of, but I also used her as an opportunity to try making a taller, more slender, fetlock-y OC based off some of the more curvy "model" ponies we've seen in the show.

Tripp Hardy - I realized a little while ago that I was lacking both a foal and a more extroverted, bold character, and decided to combine the two. Tripp Hardy was based partly off of the personality of an old, out-of-fandom OC that I never got around to using, and partly off of some choice Hyperbole And a Half childhood stories like "The God of Cake", "Please Stop" or "The Scariest Story". Basically, Tripp is my experimental venture when it comes to playing a small child, playing a more reckless and outgoing character, and venting the portion of my brain that secretly wishes it could bring itself to namecall and argue and charge forth into things like Tripp does. Tripp's color scheme took the longest of all my OCs to settle on--I think I ended up going onto the Legends of Equestria character creator and hitting randomize until I accidentally found one I felt like building off of.

[Solfire]

Solfire was created through the thought process of six different OCs that I have yet to reveal (Not including Brightlight).

1. Bravery - He is always rising above dangerous task and there to protect those who need it.

2. Cunning - Being many steps ahead, even when he looks to be in mortal danger, he always has some kind of exit plan.

3. Calculative - To him, everything has a chance. It's up to him to factor himself into that chance to make the best of everything.

4. Silent - He believes that action speaks louder than words do.

5. Friendly - Hard to break his 'shell', but once you get to know him, he's very kind and generous.

6. Stubborn - Due to being as brave as he is, he hardly backs down or denies a challenge.

Added with his own special touches and a fiery drive, Sol may very well be one of the unique characters I'll be making; not saying that I'll intentionally make my other characters boring or anything.

[Discorderly]

I only have one OC so far ON this site and he hasn't been accepted yet so crosses fingers, but I can still talk about some of my OCs

I'll link to their refs as well c:

http://tinypic.com/m/i70q53/3

Lantern Light - My OC that is currently pending approval, I've always been fascinated by the history and aesthetic of the plague doctors, especially the masks, I really wanted my main OC to show that, but I didn't want him to be your typical broody dude wearing a scary mask. So despite his sort of spooky mask, he's actually really sweet and friendly.

http://i60.tinypic.com/2uz2bux.jpg

Doodles - I know this is a fandom taboo but technically she's a pony-sona rather than an OC, I just really wanted a ME pony, so she's an incredibly goofy prankster, she isn't a princess and isn't particularly powerful magic wise, she's just a junk food and video game obsessed weirdo.

These are my main two and I have a ton more, some which I might try and bring here, but these two matter the most really

[Elssir]

Hmm... about my main OC Elssir van Hellpony (my profile picture)

Originally this character isn't a pony. It's a character from my book where he's not a pony but a anthro fox. It's also why I changed his name from Elssir van Hellfox to Elssir van Hellpony.

And where I've get the idea of him as a pony? Well it's all the work of my friend. Cause she just for fun created the ponified version of him.

And about his name Elssir: at first it was just a random name what I create for an elf ranger from my first book. But cause it is a pretty original name and I liked it I started to use it as my nickname.

And than I wanted to create an OC what will symbolize myself. And the fox-Elssir was born.

[Kulstor]

You folks are very creative. And to have so many character ideas fit in here. Great. Not like the ideas I get. it was fun to read these.

[WhiteLightning18]

A spark of imagination really. I loaded the well-known Pony Creator by General Zoz and went to work. I was satisfied with what I came up with after a few tries, and it stuck ever since. Yep, that's how White Lightning was born.

His personality however is largely based off myself.

[RazorWing]

When I say my character was nearly 14 years in the making...I'm not pulling your leg. O-o The character I will mainly rp on this site is merely the converted version of my main sona character. I've had my main sona since I was a child and she had the most basic [if not hugely mary sue] design at the time. She grew as I grew and changed as I changed for the good and the bad. She was originally meant as a self insert upon first design, a version of myself as some sort of alternate dimension/reality of which I had power [as I felt so powerless as a child thanks mostly to a lot of medical problems and constantly being in and out of the hospital for years on end]. As I grew older and more mature [not to mention getting into new series and fandoms] I changed her over the years but at the core element she remained the same.

There will be two version of here on here. One for Canterlot Chronicles and another version for the FFA. In CC she is a Rogue Bat Pony and in FFA I was going to have her be a Vamp-pony. Here name.....Night Fury. [really hoping that name isn't taken]

[TheDarkGods]

My OCs. (I've RP'ed on other sites, so there's stuff that happened that your missing)

Physics shift

I was in a fire loving mood when I was creating a character for the Legends of Equestria open alpha, but Fire Bolt was taken, and my mind wandered to Tzeentch, a fictional god that somewhat had a affinity for fire so I based the name, color scheme, and cutie mark off him. The personality was mostly just a self-insert with some minor edits.

SnapShot, Red Dawn, Scroll Scriptor

Just some family I made for Physics to flesh out the character.

Vizer Nectar & Cocoon

Changelings I made to be the villains of a RP I did on another site, their importance has kinda been reduced, but I still pull them out every once in awhile I need to spice things up.

Shallow Grave

I felt like I needed a more overarching villain, and I though, Necromancers are cool, I'll make a necromancer villain.

[Lux]

Having 15 OCs it would be hard to explain how I made them all in detail. I'll give an overview about my inspiration.

Earth Pony

Sweet Surprise - My homage to Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Russet Apple - My interest in Blacksmith arts and my desire to create a male Apple Family pony.

Watermelon Gush - After eating a watermelon I thought of this cute sweet pony.

Pegasus Pony

Sky Flare - Stunt performers in movies and TV shows and daredevils like Evel Kineval.

Night Watcher- My desire to create a military pony, one who is trying to define herself as beyond her occupation.

Snow Dancer- Based on the Ice Dance song from Edward Scissorhands and a little of challenge to make a snow inspired Pegasus that is not like Snowdrop.

Unicorn Pony

Lore Weaver- My ponysona with the personality that is very close to mine.

Fire Heart - My desire to create a unicorn that has powerful magic but lacks control. Kind of a spin on those unicorns that are developing their magic.

Guiding Light- My interest in making a pony that knows his talent but doesn't know how to use it to help others.

Crystal Pony

Heart Healer - Inspired a little by Patricia Tannis from the Borderlands video games and by the scene when Twilight plays psychologist with Rainbow Dash in Lesson Zero.

Diamond Cut - Based on my love of crystals and gems.

Garnet Facet- a Crystal Pony based of my favorite Organization XIII character from Kingdom Hearts, Axel.

Griffon

Riptide- Based off of the 1990s surfer craze in certain movies and the love of the ocean.

Raven Duskwing- Based off of Maud pie and Raven from Teen Titans.

Gale Force - a big city griffon.

[PrinceTailstretch]

I was sitting around thinking about how ridiculous of an oc I could make. Like my original plan was to make a terrible,god-awful oc, but it ended up turning out as something that I liked. The name actually came from the grace of a name generator, and it just went from there.

He's also supposed to be me so. Ya' know.

[Hawkeye12]

My main OC, Hawkeye, is a lot like me. Competitive, fun-loving, a bit cocky... and so on. He was originally based off my love for archery, and pretty much developed into a pony(griffon?)sona XD The only difference I can think of is that he's a little more outgoing than me. (Believe it or not, I do have a bit of a shy side in real life.)

I also have a colt OC in mind who's a bit of a troublemaker/prankste I'm kind of basing him off a friend of mine. I might app him soon, I don't know. Having trouble thinking of a name though.

[MidnightRose]

Originally, my Oc, (MidnightRose) went through MANY stages before i got her the way i liked her, when i first started to like MLP, i was a HUGE fan of the Alicorn race, (dont ask why...) just because of the idea of having a pony that could use magic AND fly, but then again, i was young. so as i went along to create an idea for her, i thought about a Albino alicorn with Maroon hair, (it looked kinda like twilight hair/tail, because i was NOT creative at that time) and as i looked upon the internet one day, i found Lauren Faust's Alicorn, so i compared her to mine and they looked EXACTLY the same, except with darker hair. As the days went by, i acually started to change around a couple things for Rose, (as some people call her) i imagined a black haired, yellow eyed, earth pony, i liked her at first, until i met the Pegasus race, i changed her to a nice little Pegasus, that lasted up until a year ago. i thought about what my oc looked like and i thought "why not?" and changed her to a unicorn, i experimented with a couple hairstyles and dident like any of them, till i mixed RD hairstyle and Lyra's hairstyle, and i got a good result that i decided to keep, then i decided to mix the tail style with MANY of other characters until i got one that was kinda strait, with a curl near the base. I then decided to change her eye color to a pure color with no pupil, this was a yellow color, i decided to keep the Albino base color and Maroon hair, and i love her to this day ^^

(hint: this is my ONLY Oc that went through this many changes o-0)