Song of the Abyss Character Introduction - The Visitor

Song of the Abyss is a yuri mermaid short form visual novel.

In this blog update, I'll be introducing the second main character of the novel: The Visitor, who can optionally be named whatever you like.

While in the planning stages of this story, the first page of my design document had the character that later became the Visitor being the player's window into my world: a human who meets a mythological creature and learns more than she ever thought possible.

While I appreciate this trope with all my heart, a friend noted to me that it was a bit similar to something else I was working on at the time. As a result, I thought that it might be fun to play with the opposite:

The mythical creature instead meets the normal human, and is drawn instead into a world that is alien to her.

Cnidra, the point of view character, meets the Visitor after the newly minted intern comes upon her singing.  With no chorus or companions, the Visitor finds Cnidra's song to be lonely, its singer not only unlike any she's seen, but also a very, very sad.  You can learn more about Cnidra and the game's setting here.

The Visitor - Character art by Aya

As Song of the Abyss takes place from Cnidra's point of view, my goal with the Visitor's sprite is for her to be indistinct.

Cnidra has limited sight due to spending her life in the deep sea, and so what she sees of the visitor is more of a human-shaped blur.  A lot of the detail here is for the player's sake - but it's also because Cnidra's imagination is filling in the blanks.

A work-in-progress image.

When you live in the deep ocean, hair cutting isn't necessarily a priority.  Cnidra's people almost universally have longer hair to help entrap prey - and so her limited sight views the Visitor's hair as what is familiar to her, not necessarily what it is.  Her skin and features are equally vague, as Cnidra is barely able to make out the Visitor's expressions without drawing very near.

Cnidra and her kind communicate through electric signal and Song. Overcoming their differences is part of the main characters' mutual learning experience.

Just as the Visitor learns from Cnidra, so does Cnidra learn from the only human who has ever heard her Sing.