Sendells

Tribute is planned as a relatively grounded game. Some may see this as an issue, especially since we can find fairy-tale-like creatures in the Twinsun universe. Reality is that it is not so hard if you approach it the right way. Let's look at sendells:

"Sendell is thought to be the goddess of Twinsun, but actually, there is a race of Sendells that lives in the core of Twinsun. They have been contacting Twinsen's ancestors to preserve the Legend that will save the planet in the future from FunFrock's dictatorship.

She and other Sendells are watching over a Stellar Entity that is in gestation in the centre of Twinsun."

https://lba.fandom.com/wiki/Sendell

You know, a blue, semi-transparent being with a head, tails, and hands. If you try to take it as it was in the original game, it will not work in this more grounded style.  But like always, if you think about something weird, nature probably done it. We just need to be open to the inspirations.

Image by Atlantic Ambience from Pexels:

https://www.pexels.com/pl-pl/zdjecie/morze-ocean-podwodny-meduza-12861703/

You may say that they do not look anything like the Sendells, but let's take a little bit from axolotl and tiger salamander:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl

Tiger Salamander juvenile - J. Clare

https://naturealberta.ca/tiger-salamanders/

And we are almost there :] To make it more familiar lets give it a little bit of a human look but with elf-like ears, so it was not too human. We can also remove the mouth as we know that it communicate telepathic and lives in the core of the planet. This way, we will also avoid this uncanny valley look. 

Now it would feel weird if we assume they are naked, so let's add cloth-like skin that will also better sell this jellyfish look. This leaves us with the hands and ghost-like tail. If you think about it literally, it would feel more like a salamander. Thank goodness we as a people have a tendency to see things that are not always there:

So why do them at all? Let's just use the jellyfish tentacles and form them into three separate bundles. One longer in the middle, which will look like a tail, and a shorter one, which will look like hands. With a little bit of waving movement, this will also better sell the idea that they are hovering in the air.

The final touch will be a clover-like core inside. This way, we add a nice element that makes use of the fact that its skin is semi-transparent, but also grounds this character in the Twinsen world. Now we have a perfect explanation of why clover gives you life. 

Result:

Which is a perfect example of what I mean by grounded look. It does not mean realistic. Just plausible to exist, so when people look at it, they feel: yeah, this could be a real thing. 

Because tomorrow is Friday, I may skip the post. Still not sure, but I will be back Saturday with some mysterious topic (I still do not know what it will be, any interesting ideas?)