Anatu the Babylonian Necromancer

Introduction

My character is a young Babylonian Necromancer named Anatu. Anatu has a kind hearted and warm personality and other puts others before herself. She is very energetic and is at times a bit too much for others, this is due to being spoiled because of her incredible powers of necromancy. She inherited the knowledge for necromancy for her father. The version of necromancy she uses is very kind, it requires sacrifice of her own energy and is also not forceful. I want my character to invoke a feeling of benevolence and purity, to achieve this I will concentrate greatly on my choice of colours as well as appropriate clothing choices.

The biggest thing that appeals to me about this character is the fantasy of getting another chance to talk to people you have lost. It’s not uncommon to feel regret for not saying something or for saying something to a deceased loved one, it’s definitely something I had felt before so this characters means a lot to me. I had recently watched a show called ‘Anohana’ which had acceptance and regret as its main themes and it really resonated with me and acted as a great inspiration for me. ‘Full Metal Alchemist’ is another of my favourite shows and also includes themes of longing for lost loved ones however there were major consequences for attempting the reawakening of the dead. In Star Wars and Kung Fu Panda the dead communicate with the living mentoring the main characters in the most critical of moments, this was a great influence for one of the side characters in my story.

I was also interested in creating a character with strong and informed ancient culture influences. I chose Babylonia specifically for its ruler at the time, Nebuchadnezzar II who allowed a great amount of spiritual freedom as well as general freed om of interests, especially for the time. There was also a very interesting environment of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, this reminded me a lot of the beautiful setting of Laputa Castle in the Sky which has always been one of my favourite movies for its deep respect for nature and generally dazzling aesthetics. The character Sheeta for that movie would be a useful reference and inspiration for more specific parts of my character. Babylonian cosmology was also a huge influence for my backstory and how powers work and Babylonians are said to be the race that originated the practice of necromancy.

Conclusions

I have a had a great amount of fun taking part in search for a star,  but sadly due to university commitments I had little time to work on the project so the end product came out in a rush and is rather unfinished and the documentation is also incomplete and incoherent. It will be carried forward and completed though, I have grown fond of this character. I also couldn't find time to make more poses, properly sort out lighting, textures were put together in a big rush and no background was created sadly. I learned a lot of cool techniques whilst working on it though and have learned so much about Babylon amongst the other ancient civilisations. It's also been useful gauging my abilities under time pressure. I'm looking forward to improving and speeding up my workflow.