Portfolio Class- Character Development!

[Thomas Mahon]

For Merlin i'm exploring the elderly 'sensei' archetype seen in Japanese folklore and culture. I noticed in popular Japanese culture, a few of the teachers like Master Roshi from Dragonball Z and another character from Naruto have a pet giant tortoise, upon doing a little more research, I found these characters are based on a japanese myth ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D ) "Urashima Tarō (浦島 太郎?) is a Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin, the Dragon God, under the sea. He stays there for three days and, upon his return to his village, finds himself 300 years in the future."



I figure this could work well in conjunction with Merlin characters backstory of being associated with the magical realm and creatures. Dan mentioned he's also very in tune with nature and is shamanistic.



Another figure that I'm planning on basing Merlin on is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune, 'Jurojin' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jur%C5%8Djin) Who is the god of longevity and wisdom, he's also often depicted with animals such as deer, cranes and tortoises.