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Character Library // Build Them

Character Types

Pick a shape, then break it.

Eighteen character types with concept fragments, not dictionary definitions.

Starter ideas

  1. 01
    A villain whose plan would genuinely improve the world, if it didn't require one specific person to suffer.
  2. 02
    A hero who is quietly relieved every time the quest is delayed.
  3. 03
    A mentor who has been wrong about the prophecy since chapter one.

Full pages on this shelf

Morally Gray Characters

Right reasons, wrong methods.

Browse by type

Protagonists

  • · A night-shift pharmacist who notices the same stranger filling the same prescription in four different towns.
  • · Someone whose best quality is that they keep showing up, even when they've stopped believing it helps.
  • · A minor character in somebody else's tragedy who decides, late, to make it their story.

Antagonists

  • · A neighbour who is right about everything except the one thing that matters.
  • · Someone who wants exactly what the hero wants, and got there first.
  • · A kind administrator whose only weapon is a waiting list.

Antiheroes

  • · A debt collector who only takes jobs against people richer than her.
  • · He saves the town every time, then sends it an invoice.
  • · Someone who does the right thing for reasons they'd be embarrassed to say out loud.

Morally Gray Characters

  • · A defense attorney who knows their client did it, and knows the victim was far more dangerous than anyone realises.
  • · A forger who only fakes documents for people the law forgot to protect.
  • · A loyal second-in-command who has quietly decided which of the leader's orders to lose.

Reluctant Heroes

  • · The only person who read the manual.
  • · A retired lifeguard who still can't walk past water without counting heads.
  • · Someone who keeps saying no, and keeps packing a bag anyway.

Tragic Heroes

  • · Their loyalty is perfect. That's the problem.
  • · A healer who can't stop fixing things that were meant to break.
  • · Someone who wins every argument and loses everyone they argued with.

Tragic Villains

  • · He became the monster because the monster was the only one who got listened to.
  • · She is still keeping a promise made to someone who died twenty years ago.
  • · A villain whose plan would have worked beautifully in the world they grew up in.

Sympathetic Villains

  • · Every terrible thing she does is to buy one more year for her sister.
  • · A tyrant who remembers every citizen's name and birthday.
  • · Someone who would stop instantly if anyone, once, apologised.

Corrupted Heroes

  • · The town's saviour, who started charging rent on the walls he built.
  • · She kept the dangerous power just in case. Then the cases kept coming.
  • · A former rebel now writing the rules she used to break, with very good reasons.

Redeemed Villains

  • · He's good now. He still knows exactly where to stand to hurt someone.
  • · A former enforcer who volunteers at the same hospital where she sent people.
  • · Everyone has forgiven him except the person who matters, and they're right not to.

Rivals

  • · Two people who've been competing so long they're the only ones who understand each other's work.
  • · A rival who keeps quietly fixing the hero's mistakes before anyone notices.
  • · They were best friends until one of them got the scholarship.

Mentors

  • · A teacher who is very good at the skill and very bad at the life it costs.
  • · A mentor who is training their replacement, and hasn't told them.
  • · Someone who gives excellent advice they've never once followed.

False Allies

  • · The friend who always has the snacks, the map, and a second employer.
  • · He's on your side, for now, at this price.
  • · She genuinely likes the hero, which makes the betrayal worse for both of them.

Secret Antagonists

  • · The one who suggested the plan, every single time.
  • · A kind narrator who is quietly editing what the reader is allowed to know.
  • · The grieving widow who doesn't seem to need the inheritance.

Love Interests

  • · Someone who remembers how the protagonist takes their tea, from one conversation, six years ago.
  • · They are wonderful and completely wrong for this exact moment in the protagonist's life.
  • · A love interest with their own plot that has nothing to do with romance.

Side Characters

  • · A café owner who knows everyone's order and nobody's real name.
  • · The cousin who is somehow at every disaster, holding a casserole.
  • · A side character who is clearly the hero of a much stranger book.

Unreliable Narrators

  • · A narrator who is honest about everything except how long ago this was.
  • · Someone recounting a wedding they insist they were invited to.
  • · A narrator who keeps apologising for things the reader hasn't learned about yet.

Wildcards

  • · A stranger who joins the group, solves one problem brilliantly, and refuses to explain how.
  • · Someone whose loyalty depends entirely on the weather.
  • · The person everyone forgot to plan around.
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