Rave about your steampunk characters/personas!

[Caledonian]

here is some art for illustration:

Spoiler: ShowHide

(by stonebandid)
(by me)
(by antumbra)
(by aygee)

spoilered because huge.

Not seeing them here. Image links from Facebook tend not to work very well on BG..

they're from FurAffinity, actually. weird.

let me try from another site:

Spoiler: ShowHide

(by me)
(by antumbra)
(by aygee)
(by stonebandid)

with a bonus Pre-steampunk dalzell for the inconvenience
(i have no idea who made this as the forum i got it from was taken out of air shortly after i downloaded the picture)

[von Corax]

Is that first one perchance a Crocodile Dundee reference? 

[Prof Marvel]

I came onto this genre' via a circutious route - "Mountain Man Rendezvous" and Historical Reenactments, where a persona
is virtually mandatory for anyone playing those games seriously. It began for me first with the SCA, and
later when I wandered onto the "Feast of the Hunters' Moon" reenactment at Fort Ouiatenon, near Lafayette, Indiana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ouiatenon

near the site of the
historic "Battle of Tippecanoe" ( site of the battle between Wm Henry Harrison and the Natives led by Tecumseh)  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tippecanoe

I was literally a "walk-on" to the Feast, with no gear or costume, but was welcomed warmly by the re-enactors
when they learned I wanted to "participate" rather than "watch". On a college-student budget I immediately bought a correct
shirt and clay pipe and borrowed a Voyager Cap, and managed to fit in for the weekend.
I was gifted Kinnickinik to smoke and loaned a Tomahawk for the 'Hawk Throw competition. Ironically,
as a unaffiliated "walk-on" stranger, I won the Hawk throw.... and the prize was a forged custom Tomahawk!

My Hawk collection now stands at nearly two dozen, and one of my current hobbies is restoring or remodeling old crappy
axes into useful tools and tomahawks.

Jump ahead about ten years ( with more SCA and Science Fiction conventions in between) and things progressed in earnest
when I took a part-time volunteer postion at Historic Fort Snelling in Saint Paul, MN as a blacksmith's apprentice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Snelling

Besides blacksmithing, I learned about serious re-enacting and the requisite persona development.

By that time I was including Native American Powows and developed the first part of what became Professor Marvel:
a runaway blacksmith apprentice, lost and starving on the American Great Plains, found and taken in by the Lahkotah Souix.

First of all, who is your character?


~~~~~Professor Algernon Horatio Ubiquitous Marvel The First~~~~~~
President, CEO, Chairman,  and Chief Bottle Washer of

Professor Marvel's Traveling Apothecary and Fortune Telling Emporium

Acclaimed By The Crowned Heads of Europe
Purveyor of Patent Remedies, Snake Oil, Cleaning Supplies, Dry Goods, and Picture Postcards
Offering Unwanted Advice for All Occasions and Providing Useless Items to the Gentry Since 1822

What do they look like? What kind of clothes do they usually wear?
What gadgets do they carry around with them, and what kind of weapons do they use?

Professor Marvel commonly wears, by preference, browns, tans, and blues. and black. yup, defintiely black.
- Fedoras, Vests, collarless shirts,  trousers, stout leather gear and sensible shoe/boots.
Sport Coat, Morning Coat, Frock Coat, and/or Great Coat as req'd.

Goggles are used as needed, but they look good!

He wears Specialty attire as req'd. This can vary such as Airship Jumpsuits & boots, Blacksmithing apron,
Laboratory and workshop Safety equipment, exploration gear, fancy ballroom dress, Snake Oil Show outfit, Powow
Outfit, Travelling clothes, etc.  Proper Headwear is always necessary, usually a fedora but on occasion a modified
topper or bowler. Vests are always worn except in exceptionally hot weather ( including as part of the Powow rig).

The Powow rig consists of traditional muslin trade shirt, re trade cloth breechclout, fringed deerhide leggings, hardsole moccasins.
broad leather belt supports belt knife & beaded sheath, beaded flint & steel pouch, beaded moosehide "misc pouch", tomahawk, pipe bag.

Deerhide possibles bag holds "possibles & shooting gear" .  Elkhide medicine bag holds esoteric ceremonial items and herbs.
both bags are slung from broad straps over a shoulder and rest on the opposite hip. I get a sort of cross-bandalier effect.

Traditional archery rig of bow, bowcase, quiver, arrows, and very heavy rawhide shield slung across back, via a strap across the chest.
face is painted per event. One year for holloween I did the full above powow rig, painted my face for a raid, and danced around a fire in front of the house until midnight. Younger kids loved it, came up and got candy. Older ones with T.P. and eggs truned and left.


Weapons and tools are selected based upon the tasks at hand, and include a variety of Archery Gear, (some of my own
manufacture) cap and ball revolvers, shotguns, and rifles, a wide variety of folding and fixed blade knives, tomahawks,
hatchets, axes, machetes, hammers, tongs, shovels, picks, saws, pliers, forceps, powerful lenses, drills, files,
chisels, turn-screws, planes, adzes, etc.

Always, a small medicinal kit of emergency herbal remedies and "first responder" bandages and gear and accompanies me.
Often, a "mid-size" herbal and culinary kit is included, and at an event the Large Apothecary Box is de riguer.

These days, Professor Marvel participates mainly online in this forum and several late 1800's oriented forums, and at
Cowboy Action Shoots. I hope to have a complete 1/2 hour snake-oil show in the near future.

Do they come from a past version of this world, an alternate history, the future

Prof Marvel lives in the alternative 1870-1899 Victorian period of alternative scientific development and exploration.


What makes this world (or the part of it you're concerned with) steampunk?
Victoriana and Steam Power! I am still striving to acquire a small live steam engine and put it to good use. I may have to settle for
a lister diesel running on veggy oil.

steampunk character type:  
mildly annoyed scientist
inventor
engineer
herbalist/healer
explorer
photographer
aeronaut
astronomer
historian
amateur martial artist
collector of walking-sticks and umbrellas
collector and refurbisher of Hats
student of a wide variety of mythos and origination stories
Librarian! ( our private library must by now number in the several thousands of physical books, as well as uncounted
            digital tomes)
carpenter
blacksmith
knifesmith
map-maker
toolmaker
instrument maker
amateur clock maker
student of various languages and religious practices including but not limited to
Buddhism, Zen, Hindu, Mohammedanism, Talmudic Jewish teaching, esoteric Christian Teachings,  
Native American religious ceremonies, spiritualism, and debunker of fakes and shysters.

How have they changed over time
Through continued education and development ,as in real life.., and via attending and presenting symposiums, lectures
and snake-oil presentations.


How would you describe your character in a single sentence?
- Totally friggin nuts, but in a good "quirky uncle" sort of way... aspiring to become a Buddhist Bodhisattva, a calm fellow; very hard to anger - but Do Not make him paint his face black.
-

What are some of your character's quirks?
Disregards time as a fallacy.
Old Fashioned Gentleman.
Peacemaker.
Man of his word.  
Defender of the weak.
Values truth and honesty.
Will not abide charlatans, liars, cheats, thieves or bullies .
Amateur Shrink. He had to actively work to break out of his Introvert Shell.  
Once considered a High Functioning Sociopath until he demonstrated altruistic actions
with utter disregard for his own safety. Did I mention "Do not make him paint his face black." ?

Motto:
Above all else, Do No Harm
"Do not make me paint my face black."

Philosophy:
You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain.

As the spirit becomes like water and adapts to its container, so you must adapt.

A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result.

Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie.

In time, all things work to your advantage when you pursue them with an open heart.


How does your character interact with others?
via wit and humor until it becomes necessary to paint ... (never mind Mrs. just hit me in the with the fry pan)

How would they respond to the characters already introduced in this thread?
rather well I should think, thank you kindly, as demonstrated by our decade long interactions on Brass Goggles.

Are they similar to you, or completely different?
Well.... we share the same ... head?

---

photos will follow (eventually - see "disregards time above") in a separate thread


I remain,
Your Humble Servant
Professor Algernon Horatio Ubiquitous Marvel The First

[Caledonian]

Is that first one perchance a Crocodile Dundee reference? 

It's actually a reproduction of this meme

Except Bread (the sergal/brown creature) is actually an irish character so i opted out on calling him an "english spoof"

[J. Wilhelm]

Necromancing this thread (has it REALLY been that long?? Sheesh!) because I don't know quite where to place these pictures, since these costumes are not mine, but rather they resemble some of my concepts.   I wonder if someone has been looking at my pages?

Anyhow, I stumbled on these pictures posted on Pinterest. The original source is an Austrian cosplayer on Instagram and Tumblr who goes by the name of @endlessteatime. The two costumes resemble some of my character designs and I thought they were rather clever.

The first one is an "Ouji" ("Prince") Lolita Goth ensemble, by definition androgynous, which in some way resembles my Steampunk character design for the 3rd gender "Engelfolk" (in civilian clothes) in my story, "The Valkyrie and the Eagle."

The second one is interesting because it follows somewhat the "coat modification thread" in Anatomical, whereby you are putting together a military costume entirely out of store bought items, modified or not. The gender blurring in high fashion is pretty obvious. In this case it fits perfectly what could be a Regency Era (or even Georgian) uniform:

[J. Wilhelm]

Wow!  I had not even seen this thread for a very long time.  Sorry for the necro-posting of this Prepandemic thread, but given the advent of online Artificial Intelligence illustrators around mid of last year, and thanks to Mr. SeVeNeS earlier this year, I've made a lot of progress in giving life to my characters from "The Valkyrie and the Eagle."

I can honestly say that AI has made it easy for the "artistically challenged" like me to create illustrations, and while it takes a lot of practice to actually get what you want to see, I'm getting better at manipulating the different AI models to come close enough, so that I just need a bit of digital manipulation using Gimp or Photoshop to get what I want.

And so I'll post my latest batch of illustrations of Valkyrie-related characters, to see if maybe someone else takes an interest on this type of illustrations for their own characters. Feel free to ask questions!

Cadet Bahlmann recently engaged and training aboard the airship KuK Walkür, a few years before this young engineer's life would forever change over the Desert of Sonora. Bahlmann is one of the semi mythical Engelfolk people.

A newly engaged young Engelfolk, around 20 years old, blossoms into womanhood after being paired according to ancient Engelfolk custom. Could this be Cadet Bahlmann's bride?

I've also updated a bit of the background on the Engelfolk since the last time I described them. While I've described them as a "Third Gender" people, I haven't explained their biological form and physical appearance. Gender relates to studies on sexuality, psychology and social science, and not only on biology, so I felt like I needed a more basic explanation for the Engelfolk's androgynous nature (i.e. "High Elf" appearance). It's the way I converted elves into human beings.

Gender and sexuality aren't entirely disconnected from biology, but all three cover very different concepts. The former involves your identity of self, the middle, who you're attracted to, and the latter the machinery of your body.  What follows is more of a biological origin of Engelfolk's physical appearance, as well as a bit of detailed history involving their Diaspora as I present it on my gallery at Deviant Art:


The Engelfolk are an ancient race of nomadic people who first made their appearance during the 4th Century AD when mentioned by the Roman historian, Sulpicius Alexander, who chronicled the history of Germanic tribes before the death of Valentinian II in 392 A.D.

Below is what I imagine an Engelfolk priestess would look like in the Iron Age, prior to the Engelfolk coming into contact with a sprawling Rome (The Engelfolk weren't known by that name at the time).

According to Sulpicius, the Engelfolk were thus nicknamed after angels by the Early Roman Church. They were said to be a permanently persecuted people due to a hereditary characteristic which gave them unnatural youthful and androgynous looks well into adulthood, as well as curiously pointed ears. According to Sulpicius, males and females began to differentiate only after pairing in arranged matrimony per the customs of their people. Another curious fact is that they always come in light skinned and swarthy varieties.

Engelfolk youth in the Alps ca. 1860. Engelfolk boys and girls are very similar from one another, due to a hereditary trait that involves delayed puberty. This process can last an undefined amount of time, leading to long lasting androgyny well into adulthood, but differentiation is triggered when a pair of Engelfolk fall in love. Engelfolk physically can't hide when they're ready for pairing, and so it's marked by a special ceremony that dates back millennia, according to Engelfolk elders. In some cases, if pairing never happens, puberty never arrives. As a consequence, Engelfolk are seen collective as androgynous by "regular" humans.

The geographic origin of the Engelfolk is unknown, but it's speculated they settled around Scandinavia after coming from Middle Asia, which might explain the apparent binary nature of their complexion. Some historians believe that they may have been the inspiration for the Scandinavian "Alfar," or Elves, as described in the Prose Edda, written by the Icelandic scholar, Snorri Sturluson, around the year 1220.

What is known about the Engelfolk is that by the start of the 19th century, they were under full persecution in northern German states, particularly Prussia, where they were regarded as agents of the Devil. As a result, a diaspora ensued with the Engelfolk migrating south through the Catholic region of Bavaria and finally Austria, where they found refuge and employment as maintenance crewmen for the numerous military dirigibles developed during the post Napoleonic Era.

Engelfolk housekeeper, unknown age, circa 1880, Bern, C.H.

An adult Engelfolk woman in the Alps ca. 1880;  she's around 30 years old and married according to Engelfolk custom. At this stage of her life, she has fully developed into womanhood after a delayed puberty, a hereditary condition shared by all Engelfolk but very misunderstood by "normal" humans in the 19th. C.

The Engelfolk were prized for their strength and intelligence as well for their small stature and gracile nature, which made them adept for serving aboard airships. It was then that they acquired the nickname "Luftschiffengel," that is, "Airship Angels."