Isaac
Battalion Minioneer (Magic [Origin] Other)
Roman Catholic
Canadian (Irish-Russian)
Fun fact: First-draft Isaac from the BRYZ I wrote when I was 16 was a self-insert, plain and simple. That obviously wasn’t gonna fly for the rewrites, but I didn’t want to crush anything young-me had started, so I swapped him out for the caricature other folks have of me. You know the feeling where you realize that the person other people see in you is disturbingly different from how you see yourself, to the point that they become their own person that you almost feel obligated to mimic? It’s like that. I just took that alter-me (who is basically a character in and of himself) and turned him into Isaac. It works, because he’s a complete stranger to me anyway.
Tenshi
Pod Kaiser (Martial [Technology] Loner)
Agnostic
AI (?)
Fun fact: I’ve had multiple people assume Tenshi is modeled after Tachibana Kanade from Angel Beats, but that’s incorrect. Aesthetically, I may have subconsciously taken some cues, but Tenshi was actually inspired by a combination of the Misaka Mikoto “Sisters” from A Certain Scientific Railgun, and Miss Michiko from Dennou Coil. Of course, she’s gone through multiple evolutions since the first draft, so I can confidentially call her my own character now.
Charles
Escutcheon Knight (Martial [Equipment] Defender)
Low Anglican
American (English)
Fun Fact: In the second draft of BRYZ, at the start of the first eight chapters there was a “mini-prologue” that would give a short, nameless, characterless introduction to one of the final party members, in a purposefully ambiguous way so the reader could get excited for what was coming, without being spoiled the important details like name and physical description. It would also have teased important backstory points, including why they spend some much of their time on BRYZ even at the risk of their digital presence, letting the readers try to guess which intro belonged to which character. In Charles’ short, it would’ve revealed (among other things) why he always has so many shotguns on him. He rescued a travelling merchant from monsters in the first hours of BRYZ, and was rewarded with a bunch of his stock. Unfortunately, I trimmed the intros out for the current draft, as it felt largely unnecessary. I mean, some characters don’t join the party until book 6ish! Do people really need teasers for what the final party will look like, all the way in book 1? Unfortunately, now the reader has no idea why Charles has so many shotguns… I may have to elaborate at some time in-story.
Marie
Improv Brawler (Martial [Prowess] Hit-Taker)
Atheist (Secular French Catholic)
Canadian (French)
Fun Fact: Marie was originally going to fight using Krav Maga (an Israeli fighting style developed by the IDF), and would later on in the story gain Sun Wukong’s Ruyi Jingu Bang for a weapon. I did end up scrapping this though, since I changed her class to the Improv Brawler, after which having a weapon wouldn’t make sense. It still keeps me up at night thinking about what equipment I actually can give her as the story progresses, though…
Nor (Celica)
Colossal Fortress (Martial [Technology] Defender)
Roman Catholic
Canadian (Irish-Russian)
Fun Fact: Celica is still the only one aware that Isaac is her brother IRL. She’s not staying anonymous out of animosity, she just wants to do her own thing in BRYZ, and has a feeling that if Isaac were aware of her identity, he’d feel the need to start tagging along and checking in on her. She’s keeping it a secret from the rest of her team because she’s nearly certain that if she tells them, it won’t remain a secret for long.
Nico⭐ (Nicole)
Fomorian Highlander (Martial [Equipment] Hit-Taker)
Atheist (Secular Buddhist)
Canadian (Italian-Taiwanese)
Fun Fact: I’ve always had a hard time writing characters that aren’t my own, so first-draft Nicole was borderline-murderous, young-me’s interpretation of what service-industry work would do to somebody. Then I actually got a job at Tim Hortons, and realized it sucks so much of your soul away, you can’t even muster up the energy to be angry anymore. Thus, Nicole was mollified (although she still never made Isaac his sandwich).
Kage
Inkcast Shadowkin (Magic (Forbidden) Afflicter)
Theist
Mythsian (Half non-Earth Human)
Fun Fact: Kage was actually indirectly responsible for the creation of Isaac’s Alveus. On one of her world-hopping tours to Earth, she accidentally left a world history tome she had been in charge of at a local Jim Mortons. When she realized this, she immediately went looking for it, but it hadn’t been turned in to the lost-and-found. In actuality, a young Isaac picked up the book, and reading it changed his life. He began committing the world inside to memory, and even used it as a base for his D&D campaigns. And then, one day, Kage located him and stole the book back while he was sleeping. Waking up to find the book gone with no trace of it having ever existed, Isaac began to think that maybe he came up with Alveus on his own, and began writing down everything he remembered about it, and even making his own adjustments as he went. This is why the real world of Alveus, while similar to BRYZ, also has many differences.
Cataliszt
Minstrel Bard (Magic [Origin] Supporter)
Latter-day Saint
Māori
Fun Fact: Cataliszt wasn’t even a part of Peppermint Eyeglass originally, nor did he have a name. He was just some poor dude Nor kidnapped to try and heal Tenshi, who was immediately returned afterwards. However, my sis decided to start actually making the future members of Peppermint Eyeglass, and he was one of them, so I decided to include him in the story canonically. Fun facts about Peppermint Eyeglass itself: They recruit players based solely on levels and attractiveness, so it’s a guild of exclusively high-level hotties of both sexes. Surely this can’t end badly. Also, Peppermint Eyeglass is a reference to Mint Eye, the cult from the Korean dating sim Mystic Messenger. It just seemed fitting.
Arthur
Orator Silvertongue (Martial [Devotion] Afflicter)
Roman Catholic
Canadian (French)
Fun Fact: Arthur was originally going to have a fairly large role in the series as it went on. You would get to see his political ambitions slowly darken after repeated failures, and the general scorn and mockery of his goals by the public. He was set to eventually be a kind of antihero/villain who ran contrary to Isaac, determined to use BRYZ to manipulate the world in the direction he thought it should go, because the citizens were incapable of making decisions for themselves. That really got away from the whole story of BRYZ though, so I had to shelf it. I still haven’t ruled it out of the canon though…
Jason
Bloodspiller Assassin (Martial [Devotion] Striker)
Roman Catholic
Canadian (Anglo-Dutch)
Fun Fact: Jason was originally supposed to be heavily flawed, so he could undergo a greater character evolution as the story progressed, going from Arthur’s lackey who did everything asked of him, to a one-man army trying to stop his friend from going through with his dark ambitions. Unfortunately, as with Arthur’s story, this arc had to be axed. He’s still deeply flawed, but he’ll get better. Canonically, he’ll end a couple with Selina Wyss, the Top Support Player.
Walter
Bunker Inertist (Martial [Technology] Hit-Taker]
Evangelical (EKD)
Canadian (Anglo-German)
Fun Fact: I really, really like the Inertist class. I did in fact design it as a kind of McGuffin to get the party through the front gates, but the longer I thought about it, the more fun I had sculpting it into a genuinely awesome class of its own. I really hope I get to showcase a leveled-up version of Walter, when his mech suit becomes big enough to form an entire bunker, with mounted machine guns and mortars.
Riley
Sea Bushi (Martial [Devotion] Frontliner)88Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbc0R21S1le
Evangelical (EKD)
Canadian (Anglo-German)
Fun Fact: I just want to come out and say I have no clue what Riley’s accent is. I just sorta winged it, because I wanted my characters to sound distinct from each other. I also don’t know why Walter doesn’t have the same accent. In spite of that, I still really do like how it turned out. I do, however, regret that I didn’t get to showcase her in combat more.
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and then Add to home screen.