Creating Katris Tikaar

Today, I made it my goal to work on one of the characters we'll be seeing in Ven's story. My plans for him were that he was Ven's major rival in the short story and possibly would be an alien. My main ideas were that he'd be sort of tricky and arrogant.

When I sat down to finally work on the design, I went through a lot of ideas. I knew I wanted a humanoid figure that was lean and quick. I wondered if I should use an animal as a basis for my design, and what sort. First, I tried experimenting with the idea of an arctic fox, but that didn't sit right in my head. Eventually, I settled down and loosely sketched out some basic body proportions, settling to work on sort of 'pushing and pulling' at a human form.

The overall idea I began to develop was that of a semi-reptilian/aquatic form. The design draws inspiration from lizards, largely, as well as things like Bioware's Mass Effect series, or even the Zora race from The Legend of Zelda. The body markings are reminiscent of facepaint or simplified tribal tattoos, and they vary from person to person.

Further ideas developed as I went, and I've considered that they may be an exlusively male race. They are terrestrial beings, but they can also function underwater, and have a set of internal gills.

Then, I went on to clothing. The general idea was something sneaky and futuristic. I wanted him to look prepared, and generally have a high contrast with Ven's look. Clothing tended to cut along the basic shapes I made in the Koroh anatomy. Katris' gauntlets consist of a thick, hard outer plate which remains open on the inside of the arm, allowing for flexibility of movement. Not visible is the leather lining inside them, with straps to secure them snugly to the forearm.

In regards to naming, I chose to derive names from words. Koroh comes from 'corona' (Latin - crown). Katris Tikaar is derived from 'cicatrice' (French - scar) and 'tikari' (Finnish - dagger).

I think that about covers everything so far in the development of Katris and the Koroh race. I'll see you another time with some more information on Ven's story and concepts!