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Character Introductions: Ceaira

  • unity
  • 01/12/2017 07:19 PM
  • 8307 views
As we progress with the project and get assets for characters completed, I'd like to introduce them to you, one by one! We've got nine main characters, so this might take a little while. Your patience is much appreciated!

While Eye of Uzola has mostly what you'd call an ensemble cast, the closest we have to a main character is Ceaira.



Trapped in the Sealed Ruins for as long as she can remember, Ceaira's only companions were the odd shadow-beings that sprout from the ancient floors. In her dreams she was haunted by a strange entity that whispers of a fallen god, the world beyond, and Ceaira's fate.

Everything changed when the giant sealed door to the outside mysteriously opened. As she stepped through, she was warped to an unfamiliar place, the outside world that the rest of humanity inhabits. She met Felise, a very strange Ruins Hunter with the desire to see the world, and their adventure began.

But Ceaira's freedom was not intentional, and the Holy Knights of Zerymos are dispatched to fix that mistake. Will she be able to survive long enough to find the truth of why she was sealed away for so long?


Awesome sketch of Ceaira by Joseph Seraph :DDDD


Ceaira is shy, withdrawn, and naive about the world around her, but she has a kind heart and a love for books and languages. Ceaira is one of the two offensive mages in the game (the other being Urien). Unlike Urien, she's not a well-studied mage and has instead been self-taught and does most casting by intuition. Her specialty is the forbidden Infernal magic she seems to be able to do naturally.

Click here for a sneak-peek at the Sealed Ruins where Ceaira is trapped at the beginning of the game, still a work in progress, with amazing pixel tileset art by Jo! :D

Posts

Pages: first 12 next last
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Hnngh that tileset is freakin gorgeous
This game looks flat-out awesome.

Seriously what the hell - JosephSeraph, those tiles are so beautiful it makes me sick, haha.

Looking forward to seeing more!

JosephSeraph should be banned for being too good, haha. The concept art by Sooz is also great!
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
This is better than drugs.
Waaaaaaaaaa thank you guys lol >v< ) / ~ <3 hah
Working on this has been so fun! Sooz's character designs are sooooo great and I love adapting them (I PARTICULARILY LOVE THE LAST ONE I'VE SEEN BUT IT'LL TAKE A WHILE UNTIL HE'S FEATURED OHOHO~)
Not to mention Uni's great at breathing life into my tiles and making awesome games, I couldn't possibly be happier with a project! ; v ;) ~ <3

I feel like working with Sooz's designs is helping me become a better character designer myself, as well~ <3

Anyway THIS GAM GONNA BE DOPE and im so happy to be on it~ <3
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Those walls are very unsettling, to say the least. Really impressive work on the tilesets there!

I do have two questions, though. Firstly, what's the reasoning behind the semi-isometric looking character sprites? Specifically, why did you choose to make them look like Ceaira faces towards the screen even when walking to the left or right?

And secondly, if Ceaira is such a shy, withdrawn and kind person, why is her combat role to be an offsensive mage? Unless there's a specific connection with her backstory and/or otherworldy powers, that doesn't seem to fit at all.

Just some thoughts I wanted to share.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=NeverSilent
Those walls are very unsettling, to say the least. Really impressive work on the tilesets there!

I do have two questions, though. Firstly, what's the reasoning behind the semi-isometric looking character sprites? Specifically, why did you choose to make them look like Ceaira faces towards the screen even when walking to the left or right?

We're specifically going for a style similar to the SNES Romanacing SaGa 3 sprites, as I feel like they have a very cool SNES era feel to them. For example, here are some screenshots from that game:



author=NeverSilent
And secondly, if Ceaira is such a shy, withdrawn and kind person, why is her combat role to be an offsensive mage? Unless there's a specific connection with her backstory and/or otherworldy powers, that doesn't seem to fit at all.

Hidden for very vague spoilers XD

I generally agree, and try to fit a characters' abilities to their personality, but in some cases I make exceptions. Without getting into major spoilers, some characters in Eye of Uzola have a bit more going on with their personalities than it seems on the surface, and Ceaira is one such character. There is a hidden part of her that makes the choice for offense make a little more sense, but you'll have to wait and see what I mean in the game itself.

Not to mention that the contrast of her perceived self and her role in battle appeals to me. I like a character who wants to be reserved and kind but just happens to be naturally gifted with a destructive power and has to come to terms with that.


Thanks for your insightful comments! ^_^
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
I see. Thanks for the explanations! I'm excited to see how this all plays out in the actual game.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Dude, you can be shy and still annihilate someone with eldritch pain. Shyness just means you don't social well, it has no bearing on your combat prowess.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
It was more the combination of shy, withdrawn and kind that gave me pause. I never meant to imply that I underestimate the power of eldritch blasts of shyness.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I could say the same thing about kindness, unless you believe that the armed forces are made up solely of callous individuals.
Well, a Coup de Grâce is often called an act of kindness!
Makes your brain go for a spin.

You're seeing kindness as something kinda flat, which is fine becasuse JRPG characters often fall to that side.
That's part of why I'm so excited to work on this project!~ <3
Besides, I too have the same fondness of this character / role / personality contrast and I tend to apply it to my own characters quite a bit!

But yeah, the fact that you are kind and shy doesn't mean you don't have the strength and will -- or even sheer ire -- to be offensive and destructive when needed (or not). 8^D

Also thanks for the compliments! \ ~v~)/<3
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Or a person can be kind but also willing to go all in when the situation calls for it!

Or even have had to develop offensive skills for survival, and learned kindness later.

There are so many cool opportunities for variation like that! :D
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
author=Sooz
I could say the same thing about kindness, unless you believe that the armed forces are made up solely of callous individuals.

Well, I do believe that being part of an armed force is a horrible way of leading your life, but that's beside the point. Anyway, since you seem to be much more serious about this topic than I originally thought, I'll give you a more in-depth answer.
I never asked unity to change Ceaira's personality or combat abilities. I just pointed out something I found strange and hoped for an explanation that would make what seems like a contradiction on the surface turn out to be intentional and believable on a deeper level. Possibilities like the "cornered animal" had also crossed my own mind, as in when a normally shy and reserved person/being can turn into a raging monster when brought into a dangerous or traumatic situation. I can also absolutely see it work for a person who is infused with powers they have no complete control over, or someone who has a very naive or detached perspective on combat and isn't fully aware of what they're doing. And so on and so forth. All that is perfectly reasonable to me. It's just that in the little blurb of information about Ceaira we got so far, none or very little of the reasons that bridge the gap between those two sides of the character were pointed out yet.

The point I'm trying to make isn't that a shy and kind person can't have destructive abilites. I myself am theoretically capable of picking up a knife and stabbing someone to death. But even though I could, I don't want to, so I don't use that ability. I don't actually think that kindness and potential for violence are mutually exclusive. But I do think that the combination of a kind personality and the willingness to actively use that destructive potential requires some sort of additional information or explanation to be believable as a character concept. That is what I asked unity about, and that is what I received from her.
I'm super shy and nice and withdrawn but when provoked I have a lot of fire within.
Ceaira reminds me, at least at this basic level, of FFX's Yuna; that dichotomy of shy and kind, with massive offensive capabilities.

I love exploring those sorts of contrasts in characters too, so Eye of Uzola sounds more interesting the more that's revealed about it.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
Personally, I think its easier to be offensive sometimes, even if you're a kind person. You can already read that she was on her own for a very long time. You can't be a supportive character in that kind of situation and you're likely to become socially aware and shy. Yet you can easily develop respect for your surroundings. I expert her companion to be the cheeky one.
I think kind as a word may be little misleading. Your granny can be a kind person, yet she's not a pacifist and kills a hen every other week. In my eyes kind is a soft non-violent word, but in this case I imagine her as someone who is quietly caring about others and that can mean being so kind to take fire on herself.
I know a kind, quiet person who, when angered (which takes a lot, to be fair) is someone you would NOT want to mess with. He's also very protective of his friends and family, so much so that I once saw him knock another man out who was much bigger and buffer than him, because he wouldn't leave his little sister alone. The big, silent, kind but deadly type exists in cinema for a reason - there are people like that out there.

In fact, I think a fair amount of those who have the power to destroy with a blink of the eye would likely be quite kind and shy, because they'd understand that if they weren't they might do a lot of damage to people who didn't deserve it and probably be embarrassed about having such power, especially if they initially couldn't control it and did hurt someone they loved due to it. They'd understand their own strength and would want to tame it so that it was working only towards the goals that they want - to protect, mainly.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
These are absolutely gorgeous!

Seriously, I don't know what the fuss is about, though. This sounds like the kind of character I would write.
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