One of the biggest challenges with role-play is building a character. We hope this guide can help you along the way! You'll find helpful tips for making a character from choosing a personality up to choosing a design. Keep in mind that we allow some degree of human element (implied speech, herbal knowledge, human-like thought) but that otherwise your character should be largely realistic.

If you've read this guide and are ready to submit your character, then set them to "pending" in your character hub and afterward, click the "submit for review" button at the bottom of the character edit page. This automatically submits them to the New Arrivals board for staff to review. Tip: We have a character generator that might help you with coming up with new ideas!

Personality Choices

The personality of your wolf is what makes them who they are. This is the core feature of any character and is likely going to shape how others see them both in and out of character. Personalities should be complex with a variety of layers. No one is perfect and we shouldn't expect the characters we play to be either. This means that your character should have both positive and negative traits.

Flaws & Weaknesses
When it comes to creating positive and negative traits, think about scenarios your character may encounter. Do they get along well with others? Are they generally helpful and benevolent? Are they selfish? A well-rounded character should have a balance of good and bad traits. These traits may look like: altruistic, moody, energetic, loyal, or insecure.

This means your character should be a dynamic individual who is not perfect. They are not the epitome of good or evil. They may make mistakes, should have unique attributes, or have little quirks. Just like us, the writers, each character is meant to be unique. Useful Websites for Traits:

prowritingaid.com

onestopforwriters.com

self-publishingschool.com

In addition to positive and negative traits, consider some scenarios your character may go through and how they may respond:

Your character meets an injured stranger, how do they act?

They find an abandoned puppy who is whining for food.

Another wolf is talking way too much, do they get frustrated?

How do they feel about waiting a long time for something?

If someone threatens their friends do they stand up for them? Watch quietly? Flee?

Do they care about whether they harm others?

When yelled at by someone they're close to, how do they react?

Appearance & Design

The next difficult thing about a wolf is their physical attributes. What do they look like? How tall are they? Are they muscular, lean, emaciated? These are all key features that will stand out to other characters who meet your wolf or spend time around them. Wolves on Nocturne are not strictly restricted to realistic colors, though they are restricted on the type of markings they can have and the tone/hue of the colors (see below). They should have markings that are mostly wolf-like and should not have any markings which are too dog-like; example: they should not have white markings that make them look like a border collie, but they can have tan markings.

Important: Nocturne is allowing special breed-only mutations for the duration of the Summer season. These traits include: albino (pink nose, white fur), vitiligo, chimera, somatic mutation, leucistic, melanistic, liver (brown nose, all black appears brown), dilute (gray nose, all black appears gray), abnormal eye colors (red, pink, violet, or teal eyes). In the future, these traits will only be accessible through breeding as a random mutation, and they can be passed down to offspring!

Wolf Eye Colors

While wolves in real life typically have amber or brown eyes, we allow a variety of eye colors. These include amber, brown, orange, hazel, yellow, green, blue, gray, and mixed (heterochromia). The chart below will give you a general idea of the acceptable colors, though there will always be some variance. You can go slightly lighter/darker or lean slightly towards another hue. The important thing to remember is that eyes cannot be too highly saturated, neon, or glowing.

Special Eye Colors: There are 4 special eye colors (marked below with red text) that are only obtainable by breeding. These include red, pink, violet, and teal. These are rare mutations that some pups may be born with and can pass on to their future offspring!