Ryl - Rigged 3D Model

This elf character, Ryl, is the deuteragonist of a medieval fantasy game. She is a young squire that accompanies the protagonist Wren, a disgraced knight trying to regain honor. Due to Wren’s status, the pair are given “lowly” tasks and mysteries to solve. Ultimately, however, it is these “lowly” tasks that lead to an important discovery.

Ryl views Wren as not just a mentor but a parental figure. She refuses to see Wren’s faults and is happier believing that Wren being disgraced was a mistake. Throughout the game, Ryl learns a bit more about the events leading up to Wren’s disgrace. Ultimately, Ryl has to learn that unconditional love is not ignoring someone’s flaws but embracing them.

Ryl is commonly underestimated due to her short stature and calm manner but is in truth nimble with her bow and two shortswords. This contrasts with and complements Wren’s slow but powerful method of attack. While Ryl isn’t the main character, she is playable. The game can be played alone or with a second player. When there are two players, one player plays as Wren and the other player plays as Ryl.

When designing Ryl, I referenced medieval fantasy character designs from sources such as The Legend of Zelda, The Dragon Prince, and Dungeons and Dragons. This informed my costuming choices and elf ear design. Moreover, Ryl’s weapons are inspired by the ranger class in Dungeons and Dragons. I gave Ryl fluffy, tousled hair to indicate her outdoorsy nature. Moreover, because long hair can get in the way of shooting arrows, I thought it would make sense for Ryl to keep her hair short.

A couple of details that could be easily missed are the drawn textures applied to the skin and the eyeballs. The skin texture gives Ryl some freckles and differing color tones to mimic variation in skin tone in a real body (for example, there are pinker colors at the lips, cheeks, ears, and nose). The eye texture gives the iris its special pattern.