5. Malandra Shorespine

This post is special for two reasons. First, because I’m only posting the text, because the artist is also participating in the challenge, and will be posting the visual design for her later in the month. (Keep an eye out!) Second, because the inspiration for the character came first as a visual image in my head, rather than along with a complete story idea. She has a lot of potential for creating good stories, though, so I wanted to get her down on paper.

Imagine Malandra as a both predatory sea-creature and a beautiful woman, dark and slick and dangerous. She hunts the sea for prey, but isn’t afraid to come onto the land either. She’s most at home in deep wet caverns, either far beneath the ocean, or very near land. She’s an unknown quantity, with her nature and origins still shrouded in mystery.

Here are the notes that I gave the artist…

Malandra Shorespine is a beautiful female, but also a dangerous underwater creature at home only at the greatest depths, or in hidden caverns. She’s very dark looking, except for a few bio-luminscent markings. Her appearance is dominated by soft organic curves, except for hints of sharpness coming from natural barbs and gills.

She is humanoid, but not human. Her charcoal gray skin is smooth and slick, like a shark or a ray. She has subtle ridges or barbs in appropriate places, such as her spine, her knuckles, her elbows, her heels, and perhaps her brows or cheekbones.

She has perhaps a dozen slender tendrils on her head, which usually stay back on her head giving the impression of hair that has been slicked back. (Giving the impression of a human swimmer, at first glance.) Her feet and hands have slight webbing and claws, and only four fingers/toes.

It’s hard to tell whether she is dressed in very organic clothing that matches her skin closely, or has natural markings and plating that give the impression of clothing. If it’s clothing, it gives the impression of a one-piece swim suit or body suit, with hints of corsetry or armor. (Her body is curvy, and suggest a human female, but her chest gives the appearance of being covered in tight clothing.) Her shoulders have plates or ridges giving the impression of short sleeves or slim pauldrons.

She always gives the impression of being wet, because of her glossy skin. She’s sinewy, with muscles always tense and poised. Her teeth are sharp, though almost human-looking.

She is dark even in areas where a human should be light– However, she has areas of bio-luminescence.  Her eyes are dark where the whites should be, with luminescent irises and unusually shaped pupuls. Even her gums are dark. However, she has an natural pattern (predatory stripes or patterened uneven spots perhaps) of bio-luminescense on her upper arms and legs.

She has a small dark dagger strapped to one calf, and carries a dangerous and almost organic-looking spear that gives the impression of a short harpoon.