A little blog for me to put down ideas and try to sort out issues I have with Sage's development and design while she's still growing up. Not everything is going to make its way into Sage's character development, it's all just brainstorming. A place for me to jot everything down so I can come back to it and look it all over without forgetting any crucial details. Probably going to end up pretty rambly at times, and might be image-heavy. Feel free to give your opinion, since any input can help spark new ideas.
This will be updated fairly frequently until I make some solid decisions.

Recent Additions:
- New antler idea
- More species information for if I decide to go down that rabbit hole

Appearance —

Pelt Ideas:

#1.) "A Hint of Olive"
In-Game: Real Deer Pelt (either works)




#2.) "Go Green" (aka I tried to make a less pink version of the kirin pelt look for my kirin charater)
In-Game: Kirin Pelt




#3.) "This Started as 'Champagne' but then it turned into 'Salmon'"
In-Game: Barn Owl


#4.) "Imma Snek"
In-Game: ???
somebody smack me if I don't use this for Sage and then let this design sit around and not get used somewhere else


NEW!
#5.) "Ripped Leggings"
In-Game: Dark Real Deer
An attempt at mixing the looks of #1 and #4 (to make it more eye catching than #1 but easier to translate to an in-game look than #4). Olive-y green will show up more as an accent color (hooves, tips of her tail hairs, antlers, etc.). Really strong contender now. Final pattern will be slightly different.

Antler Ideas:

#1.) "May as well be a Triceratops" or "I'm Trying Too Hard"
-- NOTE: The antlers have normal bases, and begin growing as if they were separate antlers. However, they join together while they're still developing, like when two trees grow together.


NEW!
#2.) "Skyrim Vale Deer"
Unlikely, but now I want to make any green markings on her final pelt glow when she uses magic now.
...or just make a character entirely based on the Vale Deer and their bioluminescent adorableness

Additional Appearance Ideas:

• Feathers???


• Scales???


• Heavier built, some horse-like influence? (I have Georgian Grandes on the mind)


• Look to fallow, chital, and sambar deer for other antler inspiration?

Mask

Not so much an "idea" as it is a sneak preview. I know for a fact that I'm probably going to base the design of her mask (the whistling mask) off of Scythian horse masks. This may not be the final design (or at least not her first mask, she might upgrade later), but this gives a good idea of how it will look on her grown head:

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Magic —

Forest Caretaker/Guardian:

HIGHLY unlikely now, but I'm keeping the notes for reference.

Enchanter:

Spells:

Now that I know it exists, I might be able to pick and choose appropriate (fitting but not overpowered)
spells (and spells to be interpreted as passive abilities) from either the druid, paladin, or ranger spell lists. Some of the first ones she might learn could be:

• Detect Poison: Detects poison in one creature or object.


• Flare: Dazzles one creature.


• Mending: Makes minor repairs on an object.

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Misc. —

Mythological Inspiration Notes:

• Both unicorns and kirin were depicted as pure and holy creatures. Strong connection to the ruins and the twin gods statues possible?


• Unicorn horns were believed to purify water of poisons and other toxins. (The idea behind the potential water purifying ability)


• With the unicorn link to purity, perhaps Sage may feel instinctively drawn to the kind-hearted and gentle souls of the forest? Not like an outright "oh yeah I can tell you're pure at heart" but a "wow look at them, there's something about them that I just like" sort of thing. It's not obvious to her.


• Kirins were said to appear as an omen for peace and prosperity, or upon the birth of someone exceptionally wise.


• Kirins myths stated that they often would float on clouds or walk on water (inspiration behind Sage's waterwalking).


• Some kirins were depicted as very dragon-like and sometimes would have holy fire surrounding themselves. Potential for a more powerful "form" in the far future (likely would require a lot of magic to perform and may leave her temporarily very, very weak afterwards, or possibly even something she couldn't control, only being called on in moments of dire need)? Probably overkill.


• To bring kelpies into the mix, or to not...


• I love mythology.

NEW!

Species(?):

• In order to tie in all the different mythological influences, Sage may origin from a particular species from another plane where all of these things are explained.


• Potential species name: Erdhuf / Erdhufe (German for "Earth Hoof" or "Earth Hooves" respectively)


• A species page could be made to give some insight for those curious.


• Could even be an open species?? Anyone in TEFc could make one if they followed the species description.


• Different "categories" of magic that the species can learn. Sort of like an RPG class system. Examples: guardian (combat), diplomat, crafter, scholar, cleric, etc. Likely only 4-5 major classes, with some possible niche-classes that end up mostly falling under the major classes.


• The magic they learn while growing up determines what class they are as an adult. However, changing classes is possible, but at some point you have to give up stronger spells from the original class to learn higher-level ones of another class.


• Leaders of the species clans are the leading elders of each "major class" encompassed by those who focus on certain magic types.


• Possibly prey for another magical species?

Behavior/Other Notes:

• May like to gather small "interesting" things. If she becomes an enchanter, she may use some of these as things to be enchanted.


• Likely going to be around the size of #26 once fully grown.


• Potential adolescent stage? Highly unlikely, since I'm more than ready to play her as a young adult, but a possibility nonetheless.


• Somewhere in my heart of hearts I want her to have moments of "holy, righteous vengeance" in order to kick butt in true mythological style. But she's probably going to be pretty passive 9/10 times.


• So after lurking around on older posts, I ran into mentions of another "Sage" character that apparently a couple of deer were familiar with. I have no idea if this is going to be a problem (at least for me, I can get hung up on that sort of stuff).