Name: Christelle Mireille Fournier
Nationality: French47Please respect copyright.PENANAlOSBdUmbIP
Class: Animator
I'mma level with you: Christelle's original character concept was basically just "Aggressively French". Everything else just sort of grew from there, style, ability, and personality-wise. Now, as she evolved as a character I was able to tone her down a little, but original Christelle still shows itself in her attitude every now and then :P
Christelle's character arc is more interesting than it has any business being, especially as she's not even a particularly important character. Her original motivation and ability were strikingly bland, fitting for an early villain. However, as I thought about her, I ended up coming up with a far more elaborate history, and an ability that ends up being pretty essential to the final battle in book 8. Why did you do it, young me?
The irony is, her arc doesn't really fit into my game plan for my upcoming books, so I'll probably have to include it in a side story if I want to use it. A whole side story. For an early villain. I feel like every author can relate to this though, when a side character starts stealing the show from the mains and you have to give them the axe. Still, I want to drop some hints in the main story, and see if some people can guess her secrets.
Class-wise, she's an Animator, which has nothing to do with drawing FYI. She can "animate" inanimate objects, turning them into golems that can obey simple commands. I was honestly inspired by Sherry Blendy's magic from Fairy Tail (which I used to watch when I was younger), but as she used a singular golem, I wanted to move away from that fighting style quickly so as not to be a direct copy. At first, Christelle uses her powers to build a squad of big, rocky soldiers to fight for her, but as she evolves and decides to take a more active role in fighting, she starts animating smaller things, carrying them in her purse of holding. Her favourite use of this is shown in the above art, turning bladed chains into golems which she can control with a command, having them spring out of her purse and attack her foes.47Please respect copyright.PENANAJEpc0zLe1m
Design-wise, I just let Nor go wild with the French fashion, and I think the result turned out nicely. I mean, it's hard to go wrong, as when you think "fashion" you kinda can't help thinking "France", but she really gives off those "sexy evil" vibes. A fun little fact I hope to include in the actual books is that Marie is Quebecois, and Christelle is Parisian, which instantly made her Christelle's bitter enemy. My Belgian godmother was rather colourful whenever she talked about Quebec "French", so I have come to understand that Quebecois is a heavily Anglicized language, with every second word being straight-up English. If this could "trigger" a "proper French" speaker like my sweet godmum, I figured it would trigger an angry Parisian, and so Christelle and Marie are destined to be rivals from day one.
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