#ibunet

Name: Ibunet

Description: A cobra/komodo dragon zoanite, Ibunet is a princess of the Dragon Empire, granddaughter of the current emperor, and twin sister of Prince Qing Long. Ibunet is a driven young woman, seeking ways to obtain wealth, power, and influence within the Emperor's court. This is out of spite for her underachieving brother, whom she feels is unworthy of the throne.

Ibunet takes after her mother, who was herself a noblewoman from the lands to the South of the Empire. Not being born a true dragon zoanite like Qing Long, Ibunet takes pride in her mother's heritage, choosing to follow the fashion and customs of her mother's home. This includes the worship of Nehebu-Xuan, the snake god of the afterlife.

Ibunet's uncle, a high-ranking advisor and her mother's brother, took Ibunet under his wing and taught her their people's brand of sorcery, a form many consider dark and twisted. Ibunet is able to send forth blasts of eldritch green fire, but her most powerful talents are in miasmas and mind tricks. Still, in terms of sheer combat prowess, her brother has the edge with his lightning.

Like Qing Long though, Ibunet loves to bask in the luxury of royal life, and especially enjoys sampling the finest of desserts and delicacies from all over the empire, utterly spoiling herself.

One day, after having had enough of her brother's arrogance, Ibunet made the decision to leave the empire and carve out her own kingdom in the Wilds. She discovered lore of an ancient weapon hidden somewhere in the Forgotten Lands and went searching for it in hopes of using its power to tame the Wilds. Ibunet's search would lead her to a certain individual with similar ambitions...

Concept: Ibunet is one of the main villains early on, and I deliberately designed her to seem that way, from her visual design to her backstory. I wanted her to be as surface-level "evil" as she reasonably could be for the story I want to tell, short of murdering her minions. Less "evil" and more a mean, elitist snob who looks down on everyone. While she is spoiled, that's not to say she isn't talented or driven either. Ibunet is highly ambitious, and what she wants she gets, but she's really not that bad.

Aesthetically, she's sort of a mix of South-East Asian and Egyptian, as cobras and monitor lizards are native to both those regions. I also wanted to give Ibunet a more distinctive body type, being a sort of Golden Age Hollywood voluptuous. Think something like Christina Hendricks for someone more contemporary. She's a big, beautiful woman. Ibunet's figure is partially a result of her rich diet and the fact that her fighting style is more stationary than most of the other warriors, so she doesn't need to exercise that much to be effective.

And when I say she's big, I mean it. Ibunet is around 183 cm tall, or 6 feet. She really stands out in a crowd, and rather than be made to feel self-conscious of it, it just fuels Ibunet's vanity. Her size and stature are partially meant to contrast the main character Lygron, who is only average height for a guy at 173 and shredded with hard, chiseled, lean muscle, as opposed to Ibunet's squishier, curvier form.

Personality-wise Ibunet is based on Naga from Slayers (if you can't tell from the pose), with a dash of Azula. Ibunet can be cold and calculating when she needs to be, but when she's relaxed she can be very playful, teasing, and flirty, even towards her enemies. She is prone to the noblewoman's laugh when she's feeling humorous, and can even be a bit of a goofball. Ibunet lives for pleasure, but she feels like she's earned it and deserves it.

I had originally thought of having Ibunet be an outcast and raised by a cult or be a servant to play up the idea that she had grown up without fun or pleasure. That way, when she grew up, she would overcompensate by spoiling herself rotten, and it would give her a ympathetic backstory. Overall though, I think it overcomplicated things, so I decided to just let her be a princess from the get-go, albeit an envious one. I don't want her to be too sympathetic.

I reworked her design a little since the last time I drew her, but the colors are basically the same. I changed the eyebrows and the hairband a bit, as well as her staff. I'm a lot happier with how the second sketch came out, a much better conveyance of her demeanor;

Let’s say I wanted to set up a villainess to seem irredeemable and unsympathetic. Let’s say I made her a seductress who toys with her enemies and has little remorse for her actions, who dresses provocatively and looks down on others. She has all the trappings and framing of a wicked witchy succubus.

Now let’s say at one point in my story, I suddenly pull the rug out from under the audience and show this villainess in a state of complete vulnerability and desperation as she’s about to be killed by her own hubris. Everything she’s done up to that point makes it SEEM like she’s had this coming… and then one of the heroes makes a last second decision to save her.

There’s a specific type of female villain I see every once in a while, and they usually get killed in some ironic death they bring on themselves. I want to take a character like this and give them a second chance. I want them to seem undeserving of salvation, but it’s a trick.

What would you do to make this moment feel appropriately shocking yet still believable? Would you drop little hints that she’s not so bad, so it would make sense that the hero would try to save her? Would that make the save less shocking? Or would you just make her play up her villain role without crossing the line into being irredeemable? How bad could you make her actions?

I’m obviously wanting to do my spin on an Azula-type character, but I want to do it right. I want to get the audience to find her unsympathetic, or love to hate her, and then I want to make the audience feel guilty about wanting to see her dead or punished.

I don’t want saving her just to prop up the hero. Saving the villainess does serve a part in his own character development, but she has her own story beyond this moment. I just can’t reveal that she has depth and character yet because I need the audience to feel things from the hero’s POV; this evil woman has been a nasty thorn in his side for some time. She isn’t his nemesis, but she has earned his ire by being a major obstacle.

There comes a moment where his goal is finally within his reach, and a window of time that he can save himself. He almost does, as she thrashes about angrily, trapped as the area around them crumbles, shouting obscenities at those who wronged her. But her cries get more frantic, she begins to beg as she fears for her life, and then starts to cry when it seems like no one is coming for her, her death inevitable. And the hero can’t ignore his conscious, because his journey began when he found himself trapped, helpless, and awaiting death. So, he gives up his chance to finish his mission, runs back and saves her.

It costs him even more than his mission, as they both end up trapped but alive. It’s from this point that I can finally delve deeper into the villainess and start turning her into more of an anti-hero. I don’t exactly want to redeem her, and I don’t want to change her. What I want to do is to reframe and recontextualize her, show what she’s like when she isn’t being an antagonist, just an uneasy ally.

Without really making her act that different, I want her to go from being seen as this evil, alluring witch to just being a playful, teasing flirt, one who is a thrill seeker and lives her life to the fullest. She does have a loose moral compass, but with more focus on here is becomes clearer that she does have some standards. She can be mean to her enemies, but not excessively cruel even if she threatened to be so. Her time as an antagonist to the heroes was still bad, but I want to show there’s more to her than what was seen in that time frame.

I’ll probably have more to say later, but if you’ve ever seen Slayers, imagine if Naga the Serpent was, for half a season, played as a straight villain before suddenly revealing what a stupidly charming loon she actually is.

An emperor sires two daughters, one of them is deemed his heir, the other one is cast out from royalty while still only a baby.

The outcast daughter, Ibunet, is taken in by a mysterious sect. They raise her and teach her along with other wayward children, learning dark magic. They have a very strict upbringing though, and are denied normal pleasures like games or even treats.

Ibunet proves to be adept at dark magic. One day she gets her hands on a piece of candy, and it's a huge burst of dopamine right into her brain. She makes a vow to become the best student, in hopes that the sect will let her see the outside world and she can experience the joys it had to offer.

Ibunet grows into adulthood and she passes her final exams perfectly. She's excited, believing that her time has come. However, it's just the opposite. Because of her talent exceeding expectations, the sect wants her to stay with them permanently in studying the dark arts.

Driven to the edge, Ibunet steals the sect's ancient staff and tomb of spells. She runs away for good, setting off to live her life to the fullest, one of hedonism and selfishness. Ibunet makes a new vow, to live the rest of her life in supreme luxury.

New character profile; Ibunet, based on an earlier concept.

Ibunet is a poisonous reptile woman from the desert. She wields a pole arm with a curved blade designed to deliver her own venom to her enemies via special grooves running down the handle and blade. Her venom is secreted from her claws and fangs, and she can spit it as well.

Ibunet is a priestess of a mysterious sect, and has learned various types of debilitating curses and hexes, including creating miasma clouds and paralyzing victims with a gorgon stare.

She also possesses a long, prehensile tail that she can whip when in a jam. Ibunet can also inject venom via biting with her fangs or scratching with her claws.

Ibunet has a cold and haughty exterior with a mischievous streak, looking down on the weak, the unambitious, and the common. Ibunet enjoys using her mysterious allure to tease and lull others into dropping their guard before she strikes.

She enjoys the wealth, luxury, and power she has attained, but it is all to distract her from the lonely emptiness she feels deep down.

I designed Ibunet with an ancient Egyptian aesthetic in mind. Her hair is meant to resemble both a pharaoh's headdress and a cobra's hood. I gave her high, prominent cheekbones and upturned eyes to give her a more "evil" look. Her facial markings are inspired by Kyoshi's makeup from Avatar as well as Narti from Voltron.

Finalized my design for Tynan. Gave him a leather/gator skin vest. Not so sure about the shin scutes, but I'm okay with it for now.

Lysha, a melanistic tiger zoanite and a student of the Rending Claw style. She is spunky and hotheaded, loves to eat and fight. Lysha is the granddaughter of the leader of the Panthera clan, who is also the grandmaster of the Rending Claw. She is the daughter of Sundiata, the exiled rebel if their clan, and rival to Sundiata's own disciple, Tynan.

I'm really happy with how this design came together. I took a lot more inspiration from Street Fighter's Makoto than I was expecting, but also plenty from Aisha Clan Clan from Outlaw Star as well as a bit from Elle Ragu from Shadow Skill.

Here's a height chart including Ibunet, Tynan, and Lysha.