AealZX: Harlow Santil
Hehehehe |D Got Falin already, so may as well do Harlow too. My drama baby. (Like I have a shortage of those =u=;a)
1. Origin
So Harlow was made at about the same time that Falin was, but he was kind of an accident baby. We have those right? |D I’d made Falin, and at the same time I was playing the MMORPG Aion, and I made a character in there to play with a friend (Dante-Aran) and he ended up forcefully turning himself into a character. I didn’t really have a place to put him, but Falin was an angel and the AIon game everyone has wings, and I was currently focusing on Falin so I made Harlow Falin’s mentor. The Aion character was a priest, because that’s all I ever play 8′D, but I obviously changed stuff up when converting him into an actual character. Falin used swords and had racial magic etc so Harlow had the same stuff but was better at it. Simple enough.
2. His Name
The name “Harlow Santil” was just something I had stuck in my head at the time I made the Aion character. I really liked the name, so I put it to use. He got a second name, his ‘true name’ of sorts again to mimic Falin, who also had a second name that was his first name that he kept hidden. Originally it was a racial/cultural trait where all the Angels had two names, one that was their first name and then an alias that they chose to keep their real name hidden. That kiiiinda carried over, but less strict.
Yeulen just popped into my head while I was thinking about him, and it actually came to me faster than Falin’s ‘real name’ |D. It wasn’t until I was looking up meanings for names that I had to figure out what Harlow’s meant. ‘Harlow’ means ‘Army’ but the other two don’t have strict meanings that I know of/ could find. So I broke each name up into parts and looked up meanings for those parts. “Santil” is a combination of “sandpiper bird” and “strength in battle”, and “Yeulen” is “beloved light/only love”.
3. His Appearance
The basics of his appearance were from the Aion character, but there were some major changes made 8′D
This is what the Aion character looked like:
And this was his first version: (look at that disgusting fail at proportions |D )
Pulled back blonde hair with braids, green clothes, armor around the waist, tight sleeves. Then a bunch of personal customization from there. I never designed his angel form until I actually needed it for TE plot stuff, so this version doesn’t have that one.
Then, after figuring out more about him, there’s this version:
Fussed with the sword design, and actually got the designs for the little trinkets he wears in his hair |D
Angel form: (big pain in the butt complicated thing)
References that were used for this were Titania from Fire Emblem, some random henna design on someone’s back, and this snowflake generator based on names. And even though I had those refs the details on the armor was mostly designed based on trial and error scribbling until I found something I was happy with. |D The drapery was designed based on my personal like for that style of a front panel in robes, and then having a split in the back so there was a seam to allow for the outfit to be taken off. That halo took 5ish hours to design. BI And yes I used Aragorn’s king crown thing as a reference.
That sword went through a bunch of different versions because I kept going back and changing it over the weeks that I had before official release of the TE flash that had him in it. |D
First one was “Yey let’s try to incorporate ‘wings’ into the deign,” and then Harlow complained that it was too bulky, so I tried to ‘slim it down’, and then the complaint that it was too ostentatious and I had to simplify it a little more. Then there was just a bit more fussing on the small details on the guard before I posted the ‘final’ version online.
4. Personality
Harlow was aaaaalways supposed to be the obnoxious, crazy, weirdo mentor with that hella scary powerhouse side type character. |D And he wasn’t supposed to have this dramatic backstory, other than the average warrior issues, but then TE happened. |D Even at the start of TE he wasn’t supposed to be all that major of a character, but stuff started to just spill in. It wasn’t until I was in an RP and Nagini asked the question “Is that why all his smiles are fake?” that I started to really get the details. 8I It was a case of “What? His smiles aren’t faaaake- awwww dammit BI They are aren’t they.” And from that there were more details on his past with Falin, and then more from before then, and yey drama background. =,= Oops. Oh well.
5. Extras
i. I didn’t initially think about his Aura being just like honey until I got through each of the details, went back and looked at them, and realized it was just like honey.
ii. I ‘found’ his voice sample (Dandelion - Ivan Torrent) when I was watching Sarim LS and it came on. |D I spazzed pretty hard, it was funny in a way. Both the choir and the non choir parts are what he sounds like, it just depends on if he has that trinket on that unlayers his voice.
iii. Thoughts on women: this is mostly because of Aesa and Anima being women, him having a protective nature, and women (usually) being the ones who birth children and fuss over them. He just finds them so precious. >u<