Hello there, ladies and gentelmen!
It's come to my attention that a lot of people lately seem to have issues creating themselves a proper character personality. And a lot of people do not seem to realise that sometimes you have to try and keep such things consistent. SO i'm going to give you a quick run through of something that i believe will help you understand how a character /should/ be built up a little better.
CHARACTER ARCH-TYPES.Now i KNOW what you're thinking... "BUT ELIONS, THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING FROM A SILLY MMO". And i'd agree, it does sound silly, but it's very usefull to keep this in mind when you're developing your character, or when you're writing up a character that you want to play out in a certain way, so hear me out!.
An archetype is what you'd reffer to normally when speaking of any fictional character who has a set stereotype or generic style. In other words, Archetypes are the base of a character. There exist as many archetypes as definitions for a person, but i'll go through some that are regular to the good old Outlands server, you can feel free to apply any of these to other RP servers or even your own stories. You can normally use one or more archetypes for a character, as they are bases to work on, simply put, they're guides.
Let's keep in mind that archetypes come in several variations, and i'm only covering a few (even then, there are several names for archetypes, and technically there exist as many archetypes as there are imaginable scenarios for characters)
THE PROTECTOR ARCHETYPE:
A character that is protective of the people around him or of the land in itself. Usually this kind of character has some sort of weaponry or expertise in combat as well as the will to defend who or what he believes in. You could qualify guards, ex-soldiers, or simply characters who feel like they /have/ to protect people because it's their duty, whatever the cost. You can qualify characters such as Matthew Henderson or Joseph Connors in here. Where they work towards protecting people out in the city 45 outskirts as they work their way through the place.
THE ROGUE ARCHETYPE:
A type of character that is usually seen as a wild card. This character archetype refers to anyone who has no real affiliation and has no real care for any of the people who surround them, usually working for themselves or if they do help someone, simply because they were in their way and not any particular /need/ to do it. This kind of character is usually a loner, though their identities are never really a mystery. Sometimes the rogue archetype can do things that can be morally wrong in the general eye, causing some serious conflict with other such archetypes like the protector. Characters like 'Beans' and 'Beef' (hehe, the food duo) would fit into this category (Though they also fit the Insane archetype, we'll get to that in a bit). Where they honestly do not truly care for other people, and their actions can be depicted as both good and bad.
THE MYSTERY ARCHETYPE:
A type of character that is literally a total mystery to people. This character can be seen either as good or bad by the rest and usually works towards a goal that may or may not be shared to other people. The mystery archetype usually is a character that /does not/ reveal their true name, or goes by a nickname that everyone calls them for. This kind of character /usually/ has a skil set that revolves around stealth or long range attacks, and is no stranger to hiding things in their person from other people. Characters like 'Devil' or '45' fit in this category. Working with their identities mainly secret, or with people knowing them by a new name altogether, and with their final goals being a rather blurry thing for most people. This Archetype can sometimes be mixed with another one, such as the Protector archetype, like in the case of 'Stalker'. (And 'lo and behold, this is my personal favourite, as obvious as that is by now, mainly because i love fucking with people's minds)
THE INSANE ARCHETYPE: 
A type of character that is literally insane. Someone who has one or many mental disorders and has a very strange sense of morality to them thanks to it. Usually this type of character end sup being a conflictive, if not evil character. Wreacking havoc for their own twisted goals that don't necesarily make sense to other people, or 'fixing' things in the strangest of ways for a overdeveloped and overly-complicated sense of morality. Harley Morrison on her first appearance or Needles Kane work into this category since they both have mental disorders that can be either genetical or psychological in cause and have an overdeveloped sense of either help people or destroy them Once again, this archetype can be mixed with another archetype, so it's very flexible as a base for a character, but it's difficult to play out properly, so don't abuse it!.
THE EVIL ARCHETYPE: 
This is the one that most people tend to not go for, mainly because playing characters with an evil base is, quite obviously, hard as all hell, specially when you want your character to survive a long time because most people will probably want to see you dead. The evil archetype is a character that necesarily has no good intentions in any way or form. And if he does help anyone it's for his or her own gain. Usually Evil archetype characters are killers, thieves, rapists, particularly vicious combine. Or simply put, someone who wants to fuck shit up. One thing that you MUST remember when playing an evil character is that you /always/ need to have a clear goal with it. Something like "Those who survive my wrath are worthy of the freedom the outlands give." or "I'll make each and every one of you just as insane and broken as i am.". An objective is something MANDATORY for an evil character, since someone who just goes about killing for shits and giggles is simply not interesting both to play as or against. And ends up causing more issues than it's worth. Characters that fall into this category would be Achim Bartholomeus or Harley Morrison's first appearance , though Achim didn't really have a set goal so take his example of an evil character as tongue in cheek.
There are obviously quite a few other archtypes, but these examples are shown and applied to the characters of the outlands. An archtype is only the BASE of your character, what you build on top of the archetype you've chosen is entirely up to you, as well as how it will develop, and in some cases, how it will inevitably end. (If this helps everyone, i'll make some more archetype descriptions)
Keep these in mind next time you plan to make a cool character, and remember to keep them consistent throughout their development, otherwise you'll just be a very confusing player and have a very confusing story for yourself alltogether
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