Random OC asks!! What inspired you when you were creating your Shaye?
Thank you for the question, @theroyalmage!
The creation of Shaye was quite the whirlwind. You could say that at first, she was inspired by the need to have a villain that wasn’t Lucio. Of course, that’s not how she stayed.
Shaye started out as nothing more than a character for the Ilya I RP with to despise. She was first introduced to one of our RPs as this harsh, evil character that kept tabs on Asra as he traveled and had harmed him severely in the past. She was created to give Asra more reason to leave Vesuvia as often as he did, keeping his reasons secret and trying to protect MC from her. Cold, calculating, manipulative - a villain. That all she was supposed to be.
That’s... not how things went. One idea led to another and before I knew it, I had created a deeply flawed, but redeemable character who uses her seeming harshness to shield others from herself because she knows what destruction she can cause. She’s broken and hurt, but strong and independent as well. She’s been f#cked over many times in her life and is at the point where she’s sick of it. She longs for love and connections, but has been betrayed and let down enough that she pushes people back in order to protect herself. As my best friend described her, “She’s vicious to cover up her own insecurities, but deep down she wants an emotional connection with someone she can trust complicity.“
I didn’t keep my friend updated on Shaye’s development as I created more and more backstory for her, so he got to find out her past the same time Ilya in the RP did, which made him hilariously frustrated. In his own words:
To me, that’s an incredible compliment. If you’d like me to share specifics of her backstory and overall character, I’d be happy to explain it.
