Character Shrine

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This page is for web-based shrines. For physical shrines, see Merch Shrine.
Synonyms: fan site
See also: fanlisting
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

A character shrine generally refers to a small website dedicated to a single character. These were very common fanworks in online fandoms during the 1990s. Pairing shrines, devoted to a particular pairing, also exist.

A fan in 2006 asked: "Where ARE the character shrines? I haven't found any for my new fandoms: Dr. Who, Torchwood, SGA... Very odd. Maybe the time of character shrines has passed. Like the Jurassic Age. [1]

Characteristics

Some common characteristics of a character shrine are:

  • A profile of the character, containing age, coloring, blood type, astrological sign and similar information
  • Essays on the character's actions, attitude and motivations
  • Discussion of the character's possible romantic relationships, both canonical and extra-canonical
  • Screen captures or scans of the character, sometimes showing a specific event such as 'The Duncan's Tears Shrine'.
  • Fanart or fanfic focusing on the character, or links to the same
  • In TV/movie fandoms, information about the actor playing the character

Plenty of shrines were and are hosted on private domains but, during their heyday, hosting on free services such as Tripod or Geocities was somewhat more common.

Examples

Meta & Resources

  • Character Shrines by Kris, an essay posted at a Cloud Strife character shrine. "More and more domain owners are cracking out shrines, but often I wonder why most of them even bother. Oh wait, that's right, so that they can have a place to put their pretty layouts." Written in 2003 or before.
  • charactershrine, a LiveJournal community "dedicated to serving shrine-makers for video game characters." Founded in 2006.

References