Hellenica Characters: Diona!

This week we're revealing character art for our main protagonist, Diona, the huntress of Artemis.

Diona is fiercely independent, spending most of her time in the wilderness, away from the bothersome laws and customs of Greece's more metropolitan areas. As a disciple of the Goddess of the Hunt, she excels at hunting and survival, and she prides herself on her abilities and strength. Along with that pride comes a general disdain for other humans, and her interactions with them are usually as short-lived as her hunting quarries.

For Diona, we had a fairly clear image of what we wanted visually. There are a lot of great examples of hunters out there. San from Princess Mononoke was certainly a major influence for us. We also looked to characters like Aragorn, as well as more generic reference material like Ranger, Druid and Barbarian archetypes in various role-playing games.

Once again, our talented artist, Cotton, was able to quickly transform our ideas into sketch form.

The key elements we focused on to capture the huntress look were the draped fur, the animal teeth pendant and knife, the body paint, and the long, wild hair. We also introduced some smaller details to ground her in ancient Greece: the thin sandals, the geometric details on her tunic, and a moon icon on her headband to signify her relationship with Artemis.

Next we tackled the pose. We really wanted Diona to come off as the natural predator she is, perhaps stalking her prey or actively pouncing for an attack. Cotton put together this pose, with her knife drawn and ready to strike.

For colors, we wanted her to look natural as well as sensible. Her self-reliance meant that her clothing would likely be self-made, and she would need darker colors to allow her to stalk her prey effectively. The headband and icon are sacred relics, so we chose a slightly more ethereal blue color to contrast with the rest of her huntress garb.

Thanks for taking a look at how we developed Diona! There will be more character updates to come in the future so check back soon.