Designing Characters (Patreon)

Hi everyone!

Today I wanted to write a little bit about our characters and how we designed them. When we first started creating The Divine Speaker, I had to clue what our characters should look like. We didn't know if we should have 2, 3 or 4 love interests, but finally settled on 3.

Thus Fawn, Cyne and Leos were born. Well, it wasn't really that easy.

The first romanceable character we designed was Fawn. My original idea for him was a tinkerer that lived on the junkyard just outside of Aurelia Cavella. He wore glasses and had a big scarf. This gradually changed to becoming "lives in the forest" and "collects items that come down the river". In my mind, he's always been a cute character that you want to protect, and I think that's reflected in his final design. When I started writing his character profile, the name "Fawn" instantly came to me, and we kept it. In the end, these are what we decided on:

• Light, silvery eyes
• Messy chin length pale blue hair, with a front fringe
• Short but fit
• Odd fashion sense
• Animals and singing - like a disney princess
• Quiet, but has a lot to say
• Wise and kind
• Taller than Raen

Leos was similar in that we based him off one word. "Assassin". We knew he'd be wearing dark clothes, but we decided on long, red hair to contrast this. He could cut his hair short, but he keeps it long anyway. Maybe it's his way of saying that even if it sticks out, he can still win. We always knew he was going to be kind of cocky and sarcastic, but he has a soft side to him as well. At first we wanted him to always be after Raen, attacking him at any given moment, but we decided to soften him a little and show other sides to him. He isn't all anger, or cockiness or sarcasm, after all. These the notes we decided on:

• Dark Metal Coloured eyes, specks of dark blue
• Deep scarlet long red hair (tied up while on a job), straight with a slight fringe
• Tall and Lean
• Hot headed, but calculating
• The tallest of the group, towers over them

Cyne was the hardest, and came last. Fawn and Leos were our ideas from the start, and we had no clue what our last character should look like. We toyed with having an older love interest, but ultimately decided against it. I'd love to one day include one, though.

Our idea for Cyne started as a trickster, but we wanted him to have something Fawn and Leos didn't have. Status, money, popularity, power. At first we decided on him being a prince, forced around by his parents and acting out to go against them. In the end, we changed this to being from a noble family that's hungry for more power. Our original notes on him said this:

• Tan skin
• Light blonde hair, perfectly styled.
• Cute
• Shortish - Shorter than Raen
• Young face
• Vibrant green eyes
• Boyish but mischievous 
• Spoiled
• Tricks and practical jokes
• Freedom

A lot has changed over the course of our production. We have characters that we're so happy with now, and we'll continue adding side characters that we find interesting too.