probably not full videos like the Nahida redesign but i've made a few that i've posted on my art social media since (also thank you!!!)

if it makes you feel any better i clicked on the timestamp to see which vine you were talking about with my headphones on full blast aswell :'D

@@tea_n_ink R.I.P

Thank you sm!!! this was so interesting to read, it's nice that because the regions are based on real countries/collections of countries which means i have a reason to look into cultures i otherwise wouldn't be familiar with, the unfortunate part is that it's often because those places are HORRIBLY represented (Sumeru really fucked up by naming several characters after real historical/mythological figures)

My guy does not know what's she's supposed to be

@@Remisaku what do you mean

@@TobyStan First, Sumeru is divided between jungle people (who are fair-skinned and used to be ruled by Rukkadevata), and desert people (who are brown-skinned and used to be ruled by "Scarlet King" Deshret). Cyno and Dehya are desert people, as are all Eremites. While most scholars are jungle people. There is some racism between the two groups, and the current crop of sages (academiya's scholar-rulers) are making it worse. Nahida is a god of both kinds of people, so it might be interesting to give her a piebald look or something like that. Second, Nahida is not related by blood to either of the two groups. She is decidedly non-human. Her closest relatives, besides Rukkadevata, are Aranaras, a race of small and cute plant-people, and Irminsul, a mysterious magical computer tree. Other archons, like Venti and Zhongli, are probably more closely related to her than both the desert people and jungle people. It is not clear if other long-eared people, like Klee and Layla, are her relatives, but they're all fair-skinned. Irminsul itself is usually depicted as silver with blue streaks. The branches that Abyss Mages drop, are branches of Irminsul. As Nahida is both avatar and system administrator of Irminsul, it would make sense for Nahida to look more like it. Third, Nahida spent about 500 years locked up in her sanctuary. She has every reason to be pale even if her genetics allows her to get tanned easily. Finally, all the archons have highlights of their elemental color in their hair. These redesigns of Nahida really lack them. I guess this isn't really part of the answer to your question, I'm just venting at this point.

@@kotarouinugami1745 Wow, thats actually super interesting! Thank you!! I get the Jungle/desert seperation so I understand why Tighnari for example would be paler (thats why Ive mentioned Cyno and Dehya) but as for Nahida.. especially BECAUSE shes supposed to represent her people, a more darker skinned archon would be interesting. Her design and Sumerus inspiration are based on countries with a more darker skinned leaning population. I guess if the other characters who have a far stronger case as to why they should be darker had been made darker, there wouldnt be much to argue about... But they arent :/ so it just really feels like Hoyoverse is actively deciding against making any of their characters anything but translucent. Sure there could be arguments made but looking at the bigger picture its just kind of obvious what the actual reason is....

Thank you!!!

:D

@@tea_n_ink :,) Good Cover

@@thesmilyguyguy9799 thank you sm!!

@@tea_n_ink Takk Til Deg Også = Thank You Too In Norwegian

Yeah if i ever did a redo of this redesign, i would probably have her eyelashes be white. i have no idea why i scrapped that idea

thank you sm!!

Yeah my main criticism of my own design is she doesn't look like a character from genshin and it's not just my art style. Like if i pictured my design of her in game, she would look very off.

while although it feels racist to say that lower skin = darker skin, it's importance as a social status was quite true for past countries such as Asia. For example, a trending anime, "Apothecary diaries", One of MaoMao's most identifiable features is her freckles, which alot of people (generally) found "ugly" --> because it was an indication of working in the fields. glad it's not like that anymore though.

also, as the video said, she was inspired by Saraswati - which also, she was described to be "As white as the moon" so tht was probably an inspriation idk

I did notice that often desert characters would have darker skin and characters from the city of Sumeru would have lighter skin, however it's not really brought up in game and there any some inconsistencies (like Cyno having darker skin and being from Sumeru city), so it's not so important to the world building that me just kinda saying "yeah imma just ignore that" feels like too much of a cop out. Also naturally dark skinned middle eastern and souteast asian people exist (arab people are in the top 5 most common ethnicities and they have naturally dark skin), it's not that every ethnicity from that area of the world is naturally pale and just gets super tanned on account of living there

@@tea_n_ink “Cyno” - his skin is darker because he spends a lot more time outside (desert regions including) investigating things. So there is no inconsistency there. “It’s not so important to worldbuilding” - it’s definitely not a crucial part but just a tiny detail. And tiny details like these make the world more believable. It’s not like it’s a crime to draw Nahida with dark skin. I mean it’s just a drawing. But if you’re seriously trying to sell it as a proper redesign - the more lore accurate it is - the better. “Naturally dark skinned people exist” - yes, but the thing is it’s not just a tan. Because of how these societies worked there was close to no mixing between nobles and lower class. And over time people of the lower class would get more and more darker from birth. Darker skin protects from sun exposure. Which means people with naturally darker skin would have a better chance of survival. Natural selection would do its thing and voila - after hundreds of years you can tell a lower class from nobility by just looking at someone even if he’s just 1 day old. So a person with darker than average skin being a noble in a setting like this is highly unlikely. If not impossible. Unless there’s been a revolt recently and people from the lower classes took over or something. Which is not the case here. A person won’t get a lot darker just by moving to some place, but back then most people couldn’t move anywhere. They stayed in one village for countless generations. So the effect accumulated.

yeah it sucks that there are probably laws preventing them from giving character darker skin, i probably should have acknowledged that in the video and also included that within the magical world of concept art (and not a real corporate environment with tech, time limitations and a marketing team dictating what character are allowed to me) im allowed to do what i want, but actual companies might have limitations and people above them that suck You are DEFINITELY right, about the background of my splash art not working. I kinda got stuck for ideas and was taking forever to get it done, and also at the time of conceptualising the splash art, didn't know anything about her gameplay and official slash art, so it kinda looked vague cause i didn't wanna make up what her gameplay would look like.

Yeah now that it's been a year since i made the video, the biggest criticism i have of my work is that she doesn't look like a genshin design anymore. This whole project began way back when she was only a leak, so several of the concepts were made without me knowing her story, and the project took so long that by the time we actually had a good idea of her story and personality i kinda just wanted to be done with the video. I completely get where your coming from, the colours were definitely the worst thing about my design by far

@@tea_n_ink Personally, I like the colors. Also I feel like the redesign of Nahida doesn't have to be put away forever, instead she could be repurposed as an OC.(unless you already did that)

btw if u had two messages don't mind the first one i deleted it by accident. But i haven't heard about the snow faires one before, but more about Saraswati and how the goddess was described for having skin as white as snow. might have missed that if the video mentioned that idk

@@yours__ Yes, I probably messed up with clarification, because I've heard something about snow skin in tiktok or somewhere else, so maybe fairies are a completely different story

@@whoevencares123 Yeah when i was trying to look into Middle eastern and southeast asian fairies, i couldn't find much at all apart from her being based on kusanali jataka, who has no correlation to snow. So i assume it was made up

Thank you sm!!

Thank you sm!!!

these are some pretty valid criticisms, I feel that I'm still justified in giving Nahida naturally dark skin, since Arabs are one of the most common ethnic groups in the middle east, and are typically dark skinned-brown people, they dont get their dark skin from being tanned. This video's been out for a year and if i redid it i would DEFINITELY be nicer about the colours since i was using concept art against a grey background and not considering the environment of the game and what she'd look like against that, and the turquois colour scene just deletes all the cool green elements, in favour for one i personally liked more, rather than one that actually served communicating she is the god of dendro. Also you are SO right for liking the green elements of her design, i should have keep more of the patterns from her original outfit cause they slapped

THANK YOU SM!!!