How to bring a polymer clay character to life

How do you bring a polymer clay character to life. The obvious answer is - you imagine it and you make it. But this is a logical sequence of events and life doesn't always go that way. Well, sometimes it does, but mostly it doesn't. As far as the making is concerned it is the making of the eyes that brings the character to life. And then you bake it. This is where the hard part begins. People come to you and ask 'Who is this?'. Not a simple 'what is this?' that can be answered quite easily 'This is a knight.' But 'who'. They want to know who and that would include background, history, character and so on, and so on.
After I made this knight I had to answer the 'who' question. Well... He is not special in any way, he is rather ordinary, but ordinary is such a boring word. A few hours later I thought of the word 'moderate'. So I tried to do some rhyming - not very successfully I have to say, but here is what I came up with.
This is Sir Dorian - the moderate warrior. He is moderately brave, his war strategies are moderately safe. He is moderately fat, sometimes his temper is moderately bad. Overall he is a nice lad. His nose is moderately small. Dorian is moderately tall. He is nice to all fantasy folk - he even has a friend who is an orc. Dorian's armor is moderately strong, his sword is moderately long. His life is moderate in all, except a bad habit, that is too small to be called a habit at all - Dorian likes to dance at every ball.
And even though the story does not cover a life from the cradle to the grave it gives some idea of 'who' this is. So in my opinion what brings the polymer clay characters to life and makes them complete are the stories you have about them.
Boris