Main Character design#

Character design notes for a project.

Physical attributes:

• Rather small by the standards of the cast, and so she has more body shapes than most flower gatherers that were once women, even if it's not much. Most flower gatherers are taller than other people due to the sap in their body. Due to malnutrition during her youth that prevented a normal growth, she is as tall as a standard tall man.
• When not prepared for a long trip, rather thin yet always muscular due to sustained physical activity. Takes more body weight and gets more square physically when preparing for long trips, with hips and waist harder to delimit and broader shoulders, thights and abs.
• Face is oval, as well as her rather large eyes, that take all her eyes sockets. She has a staring gaze with pupils going from light grey to dark grey. Eyesbrows are naturally frowned even when relaxed, giving her an unwelcoming attitude. Nose is straight, with a round shape at the end. Mouth is normal, with small lips, stained by blackberries based food. Teeth are not 100% straight and she has two or three facing teeth slightly overlaping. Natural dark circles around the eyes. Hair is dark and dense, often hides her ears, long enough to go just below collar bones.
• Voice is cranky and low. She is not speaking a lot, speaks more slowly than most people, in a very articulate way.

Floral attributes:

• Has bramble branches on her head. When the cursus at the botanical school is over, the school values the student debt relative to the species and number of flowers on their head, whose seeds are given by the student's family. As the school only accept skull flowers as payment, students without any are forever indebted with no way to escape. She avoided this situation by grafting brambles to her skull, a plant with little value, and thus found a loophole allowing her to reimburse the school without coming from a wealthy family.
• Has a distinctive trait: most of her flowers were sprouted around her tailbone in the hope of her gaining more height with roots taking over the spine upside (normally sized children have sprouts located between the shoulder blades).
• Has 3 distinctive flowers: a carnivorus one (akin to Dionaea Muscipula) located in the back, a light emitting flower (akin to Lily of the Valley) and a decorative type of white lilies planted at the back of her neck, that sprouts on her skull. The carnivorous one was imposed to her, the light emitting one was a necessity for her to continue exploring some dark places, while the decorative one was choosen by herself for her pledge ceremony.

Character:

• Due to her survival lifestyle in the slums before she joined the order, which required discretion and intelligence, she is a fast learner with a determined, sometimes obsessive character, which can make her stubborness. She is not very talkative and not a very warm person, most people don't enjoy spending time with her and those close to her are also loners and off the charts people.
• An excellent pupil of the order, she excels at almost anything and is an honor student. She naturally expects people to be on her level and loses interest very fast in other people that can't follow her. She is respectful of superiors and masters both in the way she speaks and tone, but sometimes crosses the line and speaks her minds without anyone asking.
• She is strongly attached to her independance, despite joining the order and pleding allegence to a Flower Lord. She sees it as a mean of survival and a way of doing what she wants without having too many strings attached. She eventually wants to regain her full independance, which is not something that happens a lot.
• Does not feel happiness a lot. What makes her happy are some meals from when she was a kid, planting her tent in a quiet place and in the sun to feed her flowers, drawing and documenting her discoveries.
• Even if she can feel love and had a few partner, she is not very demonstraive and her character makes her a hard to follow lover.

Abilities:

• Extremely good at drawing and documenting discoveries. Her notebooks are among the most appreciated by the Order librarians.
• Excellent fighter, but she doesn't enjoy it and will, most of the time, try to avoid conflict through negociation.
• Ingenious and good at crafting, makes most of the tools she needs herself.

Weaknesses:

• Has a hard time understanding other people feelings.
• Bad at handling responsibilities.
• Harsh towards people who are on her side but not on her level.

Clothing and gear:

• Due to her allegence to the order and her Flower Lord, has to wear a large fabric collar around her neck, on which is attached with a metal chain ring the symbol of her Flower Lord.
• During the classes, wears the traditionnal unisex black clothes of the order. A large gow that hides most of the body with an opening to let flowers go through. The gow has a white collar that descends on the chest in two pans. The gow lenght stops mid calves. Students also wear black boots and, when going out black capes (to avoid strangers looking at them and protect their safety) and black gloves. They also have to wear a kind of nun's hat that hides their skull due to the decorative flowers growing on it, and scalpers wanting to steal and resell them. The hat covers the forehead with a fabric bandage, and is the source of a drape that goes on the skull. Depending on the type of flower, the hat can be more or less high. The whole hat stays in place with a strap that goes under the jaw and slightly covers the chin.
• During her missions, wears a close to the skin top that starts at her neck, goes under the shoulder and let the colarbones and shoulders free, and ends around her her waist. She also wears a special, leather made small armor at the end of her back and on her hips to protect her flowers when their are not needed. The armor is made of several striped of leather rounded on top of each other and can be opened by unfolding a lace. She had special tight trousers, with big pockets on the sides, with a strap that goes under the foot. She also wears big boots with reinforced leather to avoid spikes. Her hair is attached most of the time and she cuts her decorative sprouts very often.
• Her gear consists mostly of a big travel bag where she stores food supplies, notebooks, pens, plants, maps, shears, a vivarium. She also attachs saws on the outside for bigger cutting work.
• Most flower gatherers carry a dagger with them to defend themselves against wild animals and people. But when she discovers the chosen ones that are made of bramble wood, she orders a set of special saws that she can use in combat. Those saws come with a long wooded handle finished by two sided blade made of teeths. Contrary to traditionnal saws, they cut when they are pulled, not pushed, which allow her to fight by getting close, placing her weapon, and immediately retreat while doing damage.