Lady Rosenkreuz’s Office

My main goal overall was to focus on shape language, silhouette, color palettes, and overlapping motifs. I thought these designs had a lot of missed potential, and I noticed a couple instances of shared motifs between two brothers that would not be present in the third. For example, both Nazir and Aurelius have roses included in their design, while Serin doesn’t. Serin and Nazir have those oval gems in their design, while Aurelius doesn’t. I liked that they had differences, but I didn’t feel like they look especially related to each other. I wanted to find ways to keep their differences, but show some connections between the two.

Since the MC is a Rosenkreutz, I thought it would be really apt for them all to have a rose motif as a way to visually show the connection between tutor and student. I decided to combine that with the gems as a common theme amongst all three princes.

My favorite part about Nazir’s original design was his rose cloak so I decided to make it a major focus. I used it to imply flow, and tried to make it shaped like flames along the bottom. This additionally gives the impression that maybe it’s been singed from him practicing powerful fire magic, and could be considered as “signs of his prowess” (Or signs of his carelessness to detractors). I also feel like it has a flowy vibe suited well to his wind magic. Overall I wanted to make his clothes read more light and airy. I like that he looks different than his brothers, but I felt that his clothes lacked specificity and status. I wanted to make him look like he enjoys casual stylings (maybe inspired by the fashion of the common people, who he enjoys connecting with) but with nicer materials. This would show the inherent disconnect between his love and connection with the common people, and his isolated status as a prince. I liked the pink, since it felt in tune with his kind and compassionate nature. I decided to also include some warm muted bronze tones and yellow-greens since I associate them with wind magic (and to give his color palette a connection with Serin. A fun note is the more desaturated green could imply a fading relationship between two formerly closer brothers in the face of dire circumstances.) and made the black/brown of his hair/the darker aspects of his design warmer/closer to red. I also thought it would be fun if his jewelry involved glass beads, which are canonically popular and widely produced in Eskia. Initially I was going to keep the double braid on the side like in the original design, but I thought it would be perfect for covering the petals on his neck that appear during his romance route (I assume this is the case for whomever you romance, so I kept neck coverings in mind for everyone).

I found Serin’s design to be the most underwhelming. Which is a shame, because I’m intrigued by his character. I like the idea of a crown prince who is kind, but standoffish. Self isolated and mysterious, trying to constantly meet expectations and becoming more of a symbol than a person in the face of rising to the occasion. There were aspects of his design that I enjoyed — I like the teal, the embellishments on his clothes, the cut outs on his pants, and the overall feeling of being top heavy adds nicely to the metaphorical weight/pressure on his shoulders. However I didn’t feel like I could get a read on him through his design or that his magical affinities came through clearly either. I entertained the idea that maybe he was wearing all black because he was still in mourning. However I never got the sense of that being the case from what I’ve played thus far, so I decided to go with my gut. I thought it would be interesting that, after a period of mourning, he would lean into his court stylings as much as possible to focus on making himself appear as a symbol of unity and stability for the kingdom (and maybe secretly hoping it can make him feel more stable himself). Since he’s repeatedly described and discussed as the obvious choice for candidacy (other than the occasional discussion on if Aurelius has the potential to disrupt things) it seems that for most people it’s less of a discussion of “Should Serin be king” and “When will Serin be king”. Therefore I wanted him to look as if he already is playing the part, and that he looks like he should already belong there. I also wanted him to look like a classic prince, and since he has an affinity for light magic I wanted to dress him in lighter colors to reflect that (and also contrast Aurelius), as well as introducing some complimentary browns and greens into his palette to represent his wood magic. I was also surprised that none of these characters wear gloves? It feels so princely to me. I figured if anyone should have them it’s Serin, because of how regal. It also shows another subtle sign of his reserved nature, since it’s another separation between himself and vulnerability with others. I gave him the smallest and most decorative cape, since he cannot be hidden away (additionally, it’s loosely colored like the northern lights). I made it asymmetrical to add visual interest to his silhouette. Also they aren’t visible but I imagine his pant cut outs would be on the back (unfortunate that they can’t be seen here…alas). I made Serin’s color palette the most isolated from his brothers to show how he has chosen to rise to the occasion of his position in a symbolic way. His shared colors are secondary colors of his brother’s palettes (orange-brown and dark blue/teal respectively). What I would want to imply with this is that while he’s isolated himself, he still considers and cares about them in subtle ways. As a side note, I saw online while looking for references that potentially Serin has something happen to his eye. While that’s cool as hell I don’t know the details surrounding it, so I figured I would keep things as how they’d look at the beginning of the game.

Aurelius’s design was actually my favorite of the three, and I didn’t really have major problems with it. I mostly wanted to play around with the proportions/shapes, since I felt like it had a lot of potential. I loved his gothic fancy lad vibes, and his cape. Especially since it had a fur accent. I wanted to exaggerate the fur hood to strength his silhouette, and because it would simultaneously give an imposing/intimidating air to outsiders, but also function as something heavy to hide into (like a security blanket lol). I decided that I also wanted to lean into a thorn motif since he had prominent rose features and already had some dainty line-based embellishments on his outfit. Plus it adds to his prickly and defensive nature. I wanted to keep his outfit mostly dark, so I used a lot of the dark blue and purple present in his design. I wanted the primary focus to be on his face/chest and his hand holding the rapier, so I made everything else lower contrast in order to draw the eyes. I still added details to his clothing, but focused more on the seams and detailings of the garment rather than additional colors or layers. I made his hair the same color as Serin’s, which due to their skin tone difference gives the impression of different hair colors but is another subtle similarity. I also wanted to give his hair a water-like curl to slightly match Nazir’s wavy flame-like hair, and it lowkey came out looking a little like Disney’s Aurora/Briar-Rose core which I like lmao. I was genuinely surprised when I learned he was such a Fight Boy and that he was going to be like, The Guy Who Likes Combat of the game. I had initially assumed he’d be exclusively a turbo nerd. I liked that he was the shortest brother but also weirdly buff, it tickled me. I liked the idea of this goth pretty boy being yoked as hell, so I tried to lean into it. Since his combat interest/prowess seemed to be an important facet of his character I wanted to put some thought into designing him a rapier. I leant into the rose and thorn motif, especially as a protective symbol. Additionally in the Nazir romance route he becomes like a prominent figure in the royal military. Since Green is their shared color, I thought it would be an interesting representation of him as “Serin’s hand” while Nazir remains the heart. I made the shared accent colors for Aurelius subtle but close to the core, since he is rather closed off. Meanwhile Nazir, who in his route often mentions a fondness for Aurelius and wished they had a closer relationship, proudly and boldly exemplifies the shared pink in their palettes. Considering they both had pink in their original designs, I thought it was a nice touch. Additionally I used the same teal/green for their eyes, but Nazir and Aurelius are inverses (green with pink vs. pink with green) while Serin is singularly green.