I have been considering posting how I came up with some of my characters. I'm actually pretty amazed at how they all started out and came to where they are now. Most died by the wayside, others simply evolved, some died completely but were resurrected years later, you get the idea. My first spotlight is a semi... special one. My first ever 'furry' character:
IashaFormer aliases: Ieasha, Iyasha, ect?
Species: Formerly a Helarion Vulpes Variation but is now simply... Vulpes Vulpes.
Height: Once a healthy 5 feet tall... now a cuter 3 feet tall.
Universe Appearances: Silent Dawn V (Now "The Silent Dawn Chronicles") The Overgrown Lands II.
Iasha's origins are as mysterious to me as it is mysterious as to how I was even inspired by it. I have absolutely NO idea where this character originated in the absolute first place. I only remember that I added her to my long running 'Silent Dawn' universe as a middle ground character. In that era she was called Iasha (pronounced Aie-Sha back then till I realized it sounded like that character from Outlaw Star) who was a Helarion of Helar. The story is long winded and rather -bad- so I'll skip it. Essentially they were more humanish looking anthros, not digitigrade. Back then I didn't know what it was. Here is possibly the only surviving remnant of what Iasha was back then... which is UGLY! I shudder to remember this!
After some soul searching I realized that Silent Dawn is waaaaaaaaay too serious and dark to have anthro foxes or any kind really. This was a story of intense action and what not... having this kind of character felt counter productive... and so Iasha was buried and never came back... till the idea had a revival...
In one way, this idea never really died. Anthro fox aliens? >_>;. I still think the idea is kinda silly so I envisioned to modify her to appear less than what she was then. A certain signature revision is the implementation of the 'shaved' tail.
But this was also counter productive to the ultra serious Silent Dawn... she looked even more cartoony. After a few nods and jokes... this idea was dropped for good and Iasha was buried in a grave for a second time. Poor girl... she's had such a traumatizing birth...
A few years later...
Boom! I envision "The Overgrown Lands!"
The story needed characters so I decided to include characters from my other universes as a sort of nod to them such as Hanse and Greg who were originally for A Fox in Time. Searching for additional characters... I re-found Iasha! She felt almost perfect for this position... till I gave her guns. I felt that she deserved something more... but I kept the designs coming.
This design was cute... but she looked like a maid. So I scrapped that iteration and made a return to her original "Goggles" iteration.
These recent iterations are what came to define the Iasha we know. The bigger forehead, green eyes, really pointed ears, thin profile, ect.
After referencing a good deal of art and stuff... and one more iteration... I finally pumped this out... the final and true to form iteration that defines the witty, sharp, and attractive Iasha fitting for OL.
I plan for Iasha to be the lead character for OL2 who will discover a hidden past that threatens to tear down the world as they know it. =P
Maybe I will do this for my other characters!