I'm not fighting you, I'm pointing something out. As for the importantce of player characters, that should be obvious. The "Redeemer" our nondescript "something something male person" mission giver, obviously doesn't fight. It is clear,(to me) that it is your own Author Avatar. He moves along the plot, yes? but without interest in the plot or idea, the RP dies from said lack of interest. Player Characters interact and follow along with the plot and world you created, possibly even changing it a bit. Whether or not they are "Canon" from an existing work or not should not matter. As a matter-of-fact, I am a long time RP partner with Gardevoir(Gummi Bunnies), and she has quite interesting and original characters from a series she created, fyi & tyvm, so I think it is quite clear what they "do", my friend. To ask that as a GM, is quite possibly the silliest question I've heard. If you are curious, why not go ask the people who write in the Advanced Section with well written, and thought out original characters, what it is they "do" exactly for the story.