Another important feature of the steampunk genre is the character archetype. An archetype is a recurring character that you see throughout a genre, like wizards in high fantasy stories, or the rule-breaking detective in crime novels. It's sort of like a cliché, but like those, they aren't necessarily a bad thing: they're just characters that, thanks to the nuances of a genre, are likely to show up. Use this list how you like: avoid these like the plague, follow them to the letter to get your steampunk gears turning, or put a nice spin to them.
The Adventurer
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What would steampunk be without that adventurous soul that wants to travel to the ends of the earth for fortune and glory? These guys show up everywhere in steampunks, since many of them are adventure stories, and come in all shapes and sizes. Some examples of adventurers in fiction in general include Indiana Jones from "Indiana Jones" and Eren Jaeger from "Attack on Titan".
The Aristocrat:
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If you'll remember from our little discussion about the Victorian Era awhile back, the Victorian era, the time period in history steampunk is based in, was the height of the British Empire. And what do you think of when you think of empires? The nobility. Just as these guys ran the show back in the day, these guys run the show in steampunks. Some examples of this in general fiction include Elend Venture from Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn Trilogy" and Alice from "Pumpkin Scissors".
The Aviator
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