#natlan redesign

it was suggested to me that i try my hand at redesigning the natlan cast…i’m a bit apprehensive of sharing this bc i’ve seen some truly fantastic redesigns by other artists, but i gave it a shot anyway, at the very least to expand my own mental library of clothing styles. some of these redesigns are much more drastic, others mostly in the details…still, it was fun to explore some of the missed potential in the game :)

design notes:

a quick disclaimer that i do not come from any of the cultures referenced/represented by natlan. please do not consider me an authority on how any character “should” look…i did some basic research for each of them but can’t make promises as to thoroughness or accuracy, so apologies if anything is misrepresentative!

i personally prefer to design characters as a group because it pushes me to give them more variation…ik their shapes and body types are quite a departure from the in-game limitation of a standard 3d model, but this is just for fun. if i weren’t trying to preserve the anime gacha appeal of the original characters, i’d push them even more (esp in terms of age variation! i think citlali would be a lot of fun as an actual old lady w the personality she has)

a challenge i immediately ran into is that natlan is a hodgepodge of a gazillion different cultures across west africa, the americas, the pacific…for these redesigns, i mostly took cues from what i thought were the inspirations for the characters’ respective tribes, their existing appearances, and/or the origins of their names

mualani – hawaiian + samoan + maori + other various polynesian

kinich – mayan + mexican

kachina – navajo + pueblo

xilonen – aztec + mexican

iansan – cherokee

mavuika – aztec

chasca – peruvian + argentinian

citlali – aztec

ororon – west african + emo (which is not historical by any means but i couldn't resist lol)

ifa – argentinian + yoruba

perhaps this is personal preference but imo the brown skin + white hair combination is a very tired look…sure it can look good on individual characters, but when you do it to nearly every dark skinned character you can see a pattern emerge. i could write a whole essay on how i think of it as an attempt to create a head-in-the-sand, completely apolitical fantasy type of black/brown person while leaning into whiteness/lightness as beauty, but…well, long story short, i’m giving the characters dark hair where i can

also, you may notice varesa is missing from the group – maybe i ran out of brain juice or something, but i spent a solid hour on her design and just could not get it to look good lol

one last note – in regard to research and references, i tried my best to look for clothing/accessories predating colonization…but tbh it was difficult to find those, so inevitably some historical european and contemporary western clothing styles got mixed in. perhaps an artist better versed in history and these particular cultures could do a better job at envisioning a cast of characters whose nations were never colonized…

Chasca and Chuychu Redesigns! (Extra Notes Below!)

Augh, this took me like around 2 weeks, several hours of my sleep and a lot of my little remaining sanity- Also disclaimer I did draw over the outline of Chasca's official in-game weapon because respectfully wtf is that (I always draw weapons by myself as a massive weapon fan, but I was feeling fairly burnt out and that is perhaps the most extremely complex bow design I have ever seen in my whole life-)

ANYWAYS, onto some of the thoughts that went into the redesigns! For Chasca, I changed her vision to Pyro due to Ch'aska (the Inca goddess that Chasca is most likely inspired by) being associated with the morning star (along with being goddess of dawn, the twilight and dusk, as well as the goddess of beauty, virgin women and the flowers). Ch'aska's association with flowers also influenced the decision to add flowers in Chasca's design. I was thinking that Chasca's charged shot on her bow would be like a very bright burning star with ribbons of stardust + fire flowing behind her. The starry motif can be seen in her pants and in the inside of her hat. I had given Chuychu a hydro vision as Chuychu is a rainbow in Inca mythology and a rainbow is created by light that is refracted, reflected and dispersed by water droplets. I also had a fun idea of rainbows being created in the battlefield when Chasca and Chuychu work together.

Helllooo there

Today, I present you : the Pyro traveler 🔥🔥🔥🔥 !

Hoyoverse won't give us nation skin for the traveler ? I'm gonna do that myself

Also the reason why I haven't been active lately is because I may have re-installed genshin on my PC... And my addiction to genshin as reappeared 🤡

Tell me what you think of the design!

If you like it, I may have something prepared for other regions skins... 🤫

Changes:

-I replaced her fish motifs, hearing from hawaiians that it's very disrespectful to them, cuz these fishes are a symbol of christianity and christians colonized them long ago and stuff like that. (Open for more enlightment on the topic)

-ofc tan, Natlan is a hot place. That's how melanin works. Plus it makes her tan lines show better!

-morw tattoos/markings/tan lines

-swimsuit change!

-hair change, she looks blonde only for now. That was supposed to be white as a placeholder but looks blond. Anyways, plus curly hair cuz I can't believe her hair would stay straight with all the time around water, and cuz for some reason her front hair just pissed me off. and it's not visible, but I gave her 3 of those braids in the back.

-hibiscus flowers!

-again, not visible cuz not finished, but I'm giving her scars. I prefer to believe that when warriors get resurrected, they still retain their scars. As strong as Mualani is now, I don't belieive she never got hurt before as a warrior. Plus.. more reasons to give badass scars!

-keep in mind, this isn't a finished redesign! There's still stuff I'll be changing. Like the dang shark teeth I forgot from her necklace.