Each ‘generation’ of characters has a theme colour associated with it. These colours variably appear as accents in their designs, accessories or clothing.
Early characters used a yellow-orange theme colour. Tori’s shirt, Alexander’s goggles & Grey’s eye colour and cutie mark.
Characters designed after I came out as transgender use magenta and purple theme colours, including Kim’s eye colour and cutie mark & Meredith’s clothing.
Characters in the current generation use a green theme colours, such as Emy’s chassis detailing and Ash’s fur colouration in amphimorpho form.
Although part of the ‘green era’ of characters, Olive’s collar and eye colour are anachronistically purple, in reference to them being transgender non-binary.
Names
ADA is named for Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician and writer generally considered to be the first computer programmer.
ADA’s unit number, 229, is from my date of birth (22nd of September, the ninth month).
Alexander’s first and last names, Alexander Grey, are appropriated (and corrupted) from Alexander the Great, a king of ancient Greece known for his military strategy.
Alexander’s middle name, Amadeus, is taken from the middle name of the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Alexander used to go by the mononym nickname “Grey”. This was dropped when a separate character, also named Grey, was introduced.
Ash’s first name, Ashley, is derived from actress and writer, Ashly Burch.
Ash’s surname, Altmann, is a contracted form of ‘alterhuman’, which she could be reasonably described as being. It’s also a real Germanic surname, so that’s neat.
Carter’s name is taken from the character of Sheriff Jack Carter from the sci-fi television series Eureka.
Emy’s name is taken from the musician, Emmy the Great. This is itself a reference back around to the origin of Alexander’s name.
Emy was also chosen because it is a name (supposedly) popular in Honduras, and Emy’s design is based on a Honduran white bat.
Emy’s AI designation, SH-10151, is the same designation as an orbital weapons platform described in the Hooverphonic track “2Wicky”. This is itself a reference to the Roland SH-101 synthesiser.
Grey’s name is literally borrowed from Alexander’s last name. Continuity!
Kim’s name was taken from the YouTuber and Yogscast member, nanosounds (real name: Kim Richards).
Both Grey and Kim have middle initials that have never been explained. Blame their parents.
Novella is named after… well, novellas, the name given to shorter-than-average works of fiction.
Olive chose her own first name. That’s plurality for you.
Olive was originally named Ashley. After Olive corrected this situation, the name Ashley was instead given to Olive’s partner.
Olive’s surname, Ossory, is in reference to the medieval Irish kingdom of Osraige (which is anglicised as Ossory) and the werewolves of Ossory, a legend regarding a group of people who ‘wolf-shaped’ when hunting. The name was chosen as a reference to Olive’s Irish roots and eventual transformation.
Phalena’s name derives from original scientific name given to the Luna moth, Phalena plumata caudata. The species was later renamed to Phalaena luna and is today Actias luna.
Tori Belliachi’s name is derived from that of science educator and former MythBusters host, Tory Belleci.
Universes
Different characters exist in different ‘universes’. Characters that share a universe may canonically interact with one another, whilst those that don’t cannot.
Universe C is roughly equivalent to 21st century Earth, but with slightly more advanced technology and limited magical elements. All inhabitants of Universe C are sentient anthropomorphic animals. It is by far the most populated of the universes, with residents including ADA, all versions of Alexander, Carter, Emy, Grey, the ‘default’ version of Kim, Meredith, Novella, Phalena and Tori.
Universe D focuses on a fantasy medieval time period, where magic is rife and numerous species evolved sentience. Crow is the only known resident of this universe.
Universe E hosts an agrarian planet in the early stages of an industrial revolution and where magic is commonplace. Only ungulates and certain (normally, mythical) species attained sentience in this universe. Residents of Universe E include Fuller Figures, Grey, and the Equestrian version of Kim.
Universe H is equivalent to 21st century Earth, with humans as the dominant species. Magic exists, but is not prevalent and isn’t widely known about. Residents of Universe H include Ash and Olive.
Kim is the only character to have a noticably different appearance and personality between universes in which they appear.
ADA-229
ADA was the first entirely synthetic character in the roster, being created before Emy permanently became a robot and Olive’s transformation into a living plush.
ADA is still the only synthetic character who was intentionally built as one, rather than becoming synthetic through circumstance.
Alexander Grey
Alexander was my second fursona. Although he doesn’t hold the record for the longest serving fursona, he is the character to have seen the longest continuous use across stories and artwork.
Although always depicted as a bat, the particular species of bat Alex is has changed over time. Initially he was a long-tongued fruit bat (Macroglossus sobrinus), he became a Honduran white bat (Ectophylla alba) in 2011, before returning to being a fruit bat in 2017.
Early versions of Alexander wore a beret with a red star on the front, blatantly marking him as being a communist. (He still is, it’s just less blatant now.)
The Glaztek and slorg variants of Alexander are alternate timelines that diverged from the ‘default’ Alexander in the past. They all share the same history up until the point of the divergence.
Ash Altmann
Ash was originally an secondary character to complement Olive’s origin story. She was later promoted to a full character when I first read up on amphimorphos and felt that the species was a good fit for Ash’s established character traits.
Carter
Carter was purposefully created to fulfil a demographic hole in my stories. Several stories already featured characters who were overweight and interested in gaining more, or thinner characters who were coerced or forced into gaining weight. There were no characters who began thin and intentionally wanted to gain. Carter fulfils that role.
Carter is the oldest character in the roster.
Emy
Emy is my third and current fursona.
Emy’s transformation into a robot was initially going to be temporary and would be reverted at some point. After ten months of being a robot, it was eventually made permanent.
The abandoned facility that Emy was exploring when she was turned into a robot belonged to the same company that manufactured Alexander’s cybernetic implants.
Fuller Figures
Fuller Figures is physically designed to be a slimmer, more ‘proper’ version of Kim, wearing glasses and keeping her mane tied into a bun. She’s a self-insert for story purposes and that’s entirely by design.
Grey and Kim Birdhorse
Grey was originally designed to be a ‘ponified’ version of Alexander, explaining their (formerly) identical colour schemes, similar names, and wearing of orange-yellow goggles.
Grey (and, subsequently, Kim) is a pegasus because this was the closest equivalent to a bat that existed in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic canon at the time. Bat ponies would be introduced to the show a month after Grey was debuted.
Grey and Kim weren’t originally separate characters. Kim originally replaced Grey in the roles he held before I decided to keep both characters and make them siblings.
Grey’s personality and attributes were dramatically changed when he became a standalone character, and earlier depictions of him could (and probably should) be considered non-canon to the current timeline.
Kim’s placeholder design had a brown mane and tail rather than them being black. This design was based on a background pony from the show named Dusty Gust.
Grey’s original cutie mark was an interrobang, a combination of a question mark and exclamation mark, representing me not really knowing what to put there.
Both Grey and Kim both have variations of Mayor Mare’s cutie mark. The initial reason for this was unexplained, but has been retroactively described as representing Grey’s proficiency at dealing with bureaucracy and Kim’s (mostly theoretical) culinary knowledge.
Meredith
Meredith is capable of unaided flight.
Meredith’s arms and hands are her wings. Being feathery, they’re dextrous enough for simple tasks but are unable to lift heavy objects. Their relative softness also poses a barrier at times. On these occassions, she resorts to using her beak to carry things and perform certain tasks (such as knocking on doors).
Novella
Novella is my only character purposefully designed to be almost entirely unlikeable.
Olive Ossory
Olive was originally created based on a spontaneous desire to create a plush suit character. It quickly turned out that maybe there was more to them than just being a character.
Olive as a headmate is not the same thing as Olive the character. You can probably consider Olive the character to be Olive the headmate’s own fursona.
Olive’s in-universe appearance is different depending on the time period being depicted. Immediately following their transformation, their body is uniformally coloured and unadorned. Over time, patches are sewn on to represent Olive’s interests. In the later future, it is more obvious that some parts have been worn and the colours faded, with some areas having needed repairs.
Olive is dyslexic.
Phalena
Phalena is the only native alien character in the roster, having been born on a different planet to most other characters in Universe C and residing primarily in space. (Ash doesn’t count, as she was transformed into an alien species via viral infection.)
Tori Belliachi
Tori was my first fursona. He is kept around, but not actively used, in recognition of his service.
This is also why he’s still a teenager, as I was a teenager when I created him. Subsequently, he is the youngest character in the roster.
The very first iteration of Tori had beige-ish pink fur. This lasted for less than a week before being changed, as it looked too similar to human skin tones for my liking.
Originally, Tori was a wolf, rather than being a wolf/fox hybrid.
Tori’s original backstory involved him being the result of a genetic experiment that made him periodically ‘regenerate’, taking on different physical attributes on a 13 month cycle. This was used to explain how he went from initially being a wolf to being a hybrid, and then later becoming a bat.
This ability was abandoned just prior to the fourth regeneration, in which he was to change from a bat to a dragon, because I liked being a bat too much to want to change.