Hirara concept

Sketch by Henry

The idea for Hirara spent a long time being bounced around in my head.  Pretty since I decided to do a tale focusing on Xing Yi it was decided that it had to be some sorts of martial arts journey, even before then I know I had to go back to that theme with her.  And any such journey needs to have a master of sorts who teaches the fighting style and contributes to the character growth. The initial idea had a standard master, just some old character who teaches their fighting style to Xing Yi.  The archetype works and as long as the design and character were strong they'd serve the purpose so it was left as for a while.   As I began to flesh things out more I settled on her being a woman and having her look more like a mother over a grandmother to Xing Yi when it came to appearance.  With the change in look I decided to make Hirara more of a primary fighter and Xing Yi fall into a sidekick or partner role over Hirara simply being her Master.  The idea behind that was so that Xing Yi could grow and develop her own journey while taking part in her master's.  

I started think about how in some stories a big part of the training of swordsmen is to forge their blade, uniquely to their ability and soul.  It inspired me to do something like it with her, only for martial arts in general. Instead of Hirara teaching her student a specific style, she would help build a foundation and philosophy within the girl and help branch it into it's own unique fighting style.  Besides liking the idea, the choice gave me much more room in what to do with both characters since they no longer had to match up. Eventually resulting in me making Hirara a more mysterious legendary figure who just appears place without any known story of where she came from.  This is furthered by her clothing style being very different from the royal fighter look of Xing Yi or even the random Zhu garb, to hopefully give the feeling of a woman not bound by that specific land.