Final Project: The Travelling Sage

As I reflect upon this now, it's kind of easy to see the mistakes I made with the first design. When designing this character, I wanted to create a character that was both interesting and plain at the same time. I know this sounds contradictory, however there needs to be a balance between the two and I aimed to try and achieve this. 

My first design was to create character that was interchangeable between genders, to be able to allow players of either to be able to slip into a role. Then again, the players' gender shouldn't matter, and neither should the main character's, all things considered. 

Anyway, this was the original design and I wasn't happy with it. Naturally I called for feedback, and the general consensus was that this design didn't fit the bill of a traveling scholar, which was essentially what I was trying to go for. And it was considered too boring. There was nothing interesting enough to make them want to know more.

 

The only thing really noticeable about these designs was the face scarf, but it took away from the less combat-oriented nature that I was trying to get across. 

As a result, I revisited how to get across a strong character that would provide enough interest. I didn't want an overly eccentric physical design. 

 

 This design was met with a much better reception when I asked for feedback. Although there was some debate about the use of colour, it helped me come to the conclusion that the most appropriate would be blues. This is, in real life terms, often associated with prestige or with wealth (take royal blue for example) and given that this character was intended to be one on a journey towards knowledge, I determined this appropriate. Another factor in favour of this is the fact that she, as a character, has no permanent home. She has traversed numerous terrains and blue is a colour that suits almost no terrain (unless she can live and breathe underwater or something!). In other words, it hints at the fact she doesn't really have a suited environment and doesn't really belong anywhere.

The way I decided to provide details about her, who is deliberately unnamed (she is known as the Aura Sage and has the initials F.M) , was through a journal written from her point of view. This way viewers would be able to learn about her piece by piece, with subtle suggestions being made from her personally, and at the same time uncover different things about the other characters and environments of the world in which she (and they) exists.