Signe Hero Character Design

It struck me that fantasy dwarves would be deeply invested in crystals and their powers. Considering the epic landscapes of ancient rock formations, and the mystical beliefs in crystals, Arizona makes a unique and compelling inspiration for dwarves. I was compelled to bring this vision to life.

Research

I wanted this dwarven crystal healer character to fit within a FPS/MOBA hybrid game, like Overwatch. Once I knew what sort of game the character was for, I designed around those parameters. For example, I couldn’t give the character 10 different healing crystals if they only had 4 different abilities!

With further research, I was inspired by the breadth of crystal healing beliefs. For the most part, the folks who believe in crystal healing tend to also believe in many other branches of mysticism like palmistry, astrology, and sacred geometry. An amalgam of healing power!

Regionally, I was also inspired by the silversmithing of the Navajo peoples. (Dwarves are the greatest blacksmiths of course!) But after further consideration, the adaptation of Native American craft and symbolism was inappropriate for this application. In my fiction, these dwarves would be existing in an environment with features similar to Arizona, not actually living in real-world Sedona. So that idea got chopped.

In terms of the climate, the fashion of the region made sense for this character. Sandals for the dusty, dry desert, plus the classic western poncho. Perhaps a wide brimmed hat and leggings? Some of the patrons in the crystal shops of Sedona were dressed this way, so it stuck in my mind.

As I sketched and iterated on the character’s props and equipment, I became increasingly aware of a lack of dwarvish-ness. This character was looking like a wild-eyed, stout human who probably used magic of some sort.

Trying to explore color and reworking the props to be more dwarvish still wasn’t doing it for me.

The character still wasn’t coming together successfully, and worst of all: This was not a character I wanted to play as.

She didn’t seem at all formidable, and—given the gaming context—she didn’t feel like someone who would have my back in a fight.

So, it was time to rework the design. I started again, only retaining the core features that I felt were still working: big crystals, big braids, the poncho, and the sandals.

I reworked the silhouette and major shapes. The previous version put too much importance on small details, so I aimed for the opposite: the character needed to look good and be recognizable from far away. In MOBA style games, every character needs to be quickly identifiable at a glance.

I finally decided to abandon the wild-eyed look. For whatever reason, Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter would not get out of my head. The big mane of braids was starting to work for me here, especially combined with the metal brow crown element.

With the major shapes identified, I was free to iterate on the details. She needed to be able to “hold her own” in a teamfight. If she was caught alone in the open, she needed to look like she was capable of fighting back. It’s just no fun to feel helpless in games. It’s much more fun to feel like a badass.

I combined the most successful designs and experimented with adding the poncho back in.

Color explorations: It wasn’t until this step that I remembered, Arizona is known for its red rocks! Red armor looks cool, especially with blue crystals…

My redesign solved all of the issues I had with the original concept. She’s now definitely a dwarf who has a thing for gems/crystals, and I’d gladly pick her to be on my team. Most importantly:

She looks fun and interesting to play as!

In terms of her gameplay as a hero character, I still had to flesh out her abilities. According to crystal healing lore, the clear quartz is the jack of all trades. So rather than adorn her with a rainbow of crystals, she’s using a stylized variation of the clear quartz: the glowy blue crystal cluster. As a crystal practitioner, all of her abilities source from her floating crystal cluster, or from the crystals embedded in her gear.

As a support character in a FPS/MOBA, allies won’t be laying down on massage tables for meditative healing. Instead, she’s going to be launching crystal shards in streams or bursts to heal allies or damage enemies. Supports do more than just heal, so her Spire ability creates cover for allies to hide behind, or to reach high ground. To cancel out negative effects like CCs, DoTs, or debuffs, she can Aura Cleanse allies. For her ultimate ability, she can help her allies have an Open Mind to be more accepting of their current circumstance by converting incoming damage into healing.

Lastly, I couldn’t keep calling this character “crystal healer dwarf woman.” She needed a name.

In Overwatch, the only dwarf character is named Torbjorn, a Swedish name derived from Old Norse/Icelandic (roughly meaning thunder bear). This is in-line with classic dwarf lore, as dwarves are (typically/traditionally) designed with Scandinavian/Norse aesthetic inspiration. So even though this crystal healer is southwest-inspired, the Swedish/Norse roots still felt right.

Thus, Signe (meaning ‘victory’) became our healer. It’s supposed to be pronounced ‘seen-ye,’ which was not my first thought seeing the name, but also adds to its interest. After all, I’m not a dwarf, my culture is far different from her culture, so why should I be able to flawlessly pronounce her name on the first attempt?

With her southwest Dwarven crystal healer roots, Signe is the type of powerful, aura cleansing, crystal throwing hero you want on your team.