Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-26173711-20190509052121/@comment-25396609-20190627040217

Double posting on this one because it is LONG:

In regards to deeply tying a character’s Semblance to their personality and personal history:

I have a number of characters whose Semblance is closely connected with more than just their immediate personality; they connect to their hobbies, their passions, and their lives outside of just fighting Grimm.

My personal favorite amongst all my characters is Rost Smith. His goal was never to become a Huntsman; he’s an archeologist, he desired to search the world for relics and tales forgotten by time; he was the type to constantly observe his surroundings, noting down every little detail and cataloguing it for later review (or just for fun because he’s a huge dork at heart; he thinks taking notes makes him look important and his students would agree).

His Semblance is an incredibly simple one, and equally weak of its own accord; he calls it Scribe and, long story short, it allows him to create (and telekinetically control) ink. I’ll skip the extended training required, but it evolved from what amounted to the ability to record constant stream of consciousness notes straight from brain to paper. At his current level of experience he can, purely by thought, sketch out detailed shapes in the air, combining his Semblance with Dust to conjure up objects from stone, ice, or even obsidian as he feels best suits the situation; among other things. using his own intelligence and dedication to mastering an otherwise sub-par Semblance to great effect.

Next up Umuthi Iqhawe. He was an orphan, a Faunus raised in a questionable family environment by somewhat wealthy humans who basically used him as a way of going “look what good people we are, helping this poor orphaned Faunus boy.” His only escape and solace in that life was gardening (they wouldn’t let him get a pet even though his ‘brother’ had one; not great people.) When he started at combat school and his Aura was unlocked, the first sign of his Semblance was that some of the plants in his garden that were on the verge of death suddenly resurged to full health and the garden as a whole began to thrive. His Semblance empowers plants, making them grow faster and stronger; initially it was purely a passive effect, but with training he learned how to manipulate it to guide their growth and further accelerate it.

His Semblance now allows him to keep plants alive even if they are deprived of nutrition and, by combining it with Earth (to fortify them) and Water Dust (further boosts growth rate), grow the woven rose-vine armband he wears into a wall of thorns or (in a pinch) grow a thorn out into the shape and size of a sickle (his weapon of choice is a pair of them each with one of the two Dust elements needed to maximize his Semblance; though his clothes have spare woven into them and he carries a few reserve canisters on top of it. Redundancy saves lives.)

Jet Nimbus is a bit of an interesting character; also an orphan like Umuthi but much more fortunate. He was raised by an older Huntress who rescued him after his parents died and his home village was destroyed (She always wanted a family but never found the time to settle down). Jet has a naturally analytical mind and keen gut instincts. He had a knack for figuring out the how and why of things as a kid and watching one too many police dramas got it into his head that a Huntsman would make one HELL of a private investigator; so he had his Nana (as his adoptive mother preferred to be called; acted in the role of a grandparent to help him cope with the loss of his blood family rather than try to replace them; she also adopted a baby girl named Cloud whose mother was a good friend to her when she went missing on a mission).

His Semblance is an extension of his natural perceptiveness and greatly augments all of his senses; not just the base five we usually think about. Combined with gut instincts and his naturally analytical mind he has achieved a level of situational awareness bordering on precognition and crime-solving talent that gives Batman a run for his money. On top of being a Huntsman with 30+ years experience he is, in fact, one HELL of a private investigator.

His little sister Cloud's Semblance isn't tied in as closely as his is but she is fun, I'm sure you'll get the rundown on her eventually.

--- And, the creme de la creme of my personal writing in binding Semblance to personality and backstory: Sabrina Magnus.

Sabrina actually comes from a military family on her dad’s side, and she did train at Atlas, but didn’t enlist as a Specialist because her boyfriend and eventual husband was from Mistral and she was never huge on how Atlas did things.

Her parents had a siamese cat by the name of Oliver before she was born and literally from the moment they brought her home from the hospital that cat refused to leave her side if she was in the house. He would sleep underneath her crib (later bed as she got older) or in other hidden spots in her bedroom, stand guard over her when unfamiliar people were visiting, and as she grew up was her best friend; died at the ripe old age of 17 while she was in her final year of combat school. (My saddest backstory of all time is the tale of a girl and her pet; naturally.)

You’re probably wondering how the cat is so important; he IS her Semblance. Kind of. She’s a mage type, a summoner sorta like the Schnees but without the fancy glyph-based Dust abilities and only one summon available. It initially manifested as a vague feline silhouette that only responded to direct orders; but after Oliver died it transformed, taking on not only his form but also his personality, gaining the ability to act independantly. It’s not LITERALLY her cat (though she used to and still kind of does believe it is), and is instead controlled by the piece of her subconscious mind storing her memories of him.

She is, because of her Semblance, easily one of my most powerful characters; she is a skilled melee fighter and, Oliver gained the ability to ‘evolve’ into more powerful forms as she grew in strength as a Huntress; going from an ordinary house cat to something the size of an Ursa and strongly resembling Chinese guardian lions. Her summon being able to act fully independantly his a HUGE edge in combat because she doesn't need to focus on two things at once or actively give it orders.

I’ve got a few others with similarly intimate ties between the core of the character and their Semblance, but these are kinda my top list.