Concept Art - Warren Skeffington
Warren was created back in 2009 and his role in the original school story kept changing. Originally he had dated Ivy and left her for Violet, but I ended up reversing it for the final version of the school story and it made it more exciting. When I noticed that I was more interested in Warren and Ivy's affair over Marie's fitting into school, I realized that I needed to make the affair the focal point of the story. From all of the things that I scrapped when I transitioned into the MMORPG plot, the affair was the only thing I deliberately preserved.
Oddly, Warren's design was inspired by Daichi Misawa from Yugioh GX and Ryoji Mochizuki from Persona 3, although I never managed to get into either products or their fandoms.
These are early concepts of Warren where I was intentionally trying to give him a sinister appearance.
More recent concepts of Warren, I decided to focus on giving him a calm demeanor, as opposed to the sinister one I began with. This change was due to not wanting him to look as evil as his sister. I was drawing inspiration from the placid, seriousness of the character Norway from Hetalia. I feel like I found a strange spot in the middle I could live with.
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I don't remember at what point in the story line I wanted to make alternate costumes for the characters, but I found myself plotting out these Magic Item Transformations and working them into the plot.
This is Cyber Thunder God Pērkons. When I first envisioned Warren's magic item, I always pictured it being a lightening sword, the trouble was finding a mythical figure that used one. A golden horse and a silver rider, Pērkons is the Latvian version of the common Baltic God of thunder, rain, mountains, oak trees and the sky. He's most popularly depicted as a well-armed, elderly rider, on a golden horse and carrying various weapons. In a specific story, Pērkons is said to have used his arms to create thunder and lighting and that alone was enough to make him the prime choice for a video game character, however my final decision to choose him came about by the sheer variety of weapons he was said to wield. I gave Warren long, white hair to represent the long, white beard that Latvian's illustrated him having. Unfortunately, my references showcase Pērkons wearing white and blue, but I made Warren wear red, to contrast Harbour's blue ensemble and Giselle's yellow ensemble. I aimed for a red similar to the red of the Latvian flag and I'm pleasantly surprised by how it turned out! |
The diamond shape designs on his shoulders, elbows, and knees are a parody of the thunder cross, Pērkons' symbol. I was afraid people would confuse the Pērkoņkrusts with the Nazi swastika so I edited the design a little. You can imagine how worried I was during the productions of the official chapters.
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