Nceba Cebisa
Final version. Got the patterns, got the boots that lock into the ground for upright sniper shots, the railgun sniper rifle with assegai rounds and the pistol with lightning discharge potential. I'm a big fan of where this design ended up.
Earliest sketches. Went a little too combat heavy with these but digging the kirby crackle
Tried to bring in the civilian outfits more for these three. But I swung too far that direction
These two were trying to get more armor/ornamental elements into the armor, and also brought about the red had-which I loved
Here's where I found the sweet spot, balancing the coat vs the form armor, the high order augmentation vs the places where the finer details would go. So you can see where the final pieces came together.
Nceba Cebisa
The setting is the Empire Arcane, a 3,000 year old science fantasy empire. Earth is a distant memory. The empire is divided into Major Houses. Our character, Cebisa, belongs to House Xhosa, which is responsible for first contact with alien civilizations. They take their job seriously and they protect new species they encounter, avoiding colonialism and integrating these new worlds peacefully with the empire while ensuring the empire does not obliterate their culture.
Visually, the empire is baroque and kind of over-wrought, it’s an ancient culture that is kind of slowly collapsing under various tensions. I have used art nouveau and European art influences like Moebius, and even some Jack Kirby New Gods when it comes to the fashion of what people wear. But House Xhosa is explicitly a place for Afro-futurism themes,
Nceba Cebisa is a young black woman. She was marked for a leadership role in the House from a very early age, and sent to another house for “computation training,” which is more or less like being a Mentat in Dune; she is now a living computer. But she was also trained how to use these abilities to kill, to be an assassin. She had no say in this.
Upon graduation, Cebisa went home and discovered what real life was like, outside of her training. She was overwhelmed by it all and decided to forsake the career path she was assigned in favor of seeing the galaxy and seeking out new experiences. She has mixed feelings about her house and her training; she admires their mission and what it’s used for, but she wants to live her own life.
She is athletic and physically fit, brilliantly intelligent, confident, but a little naive. She is the person off trying new things, hungry for new experiences. In this far future space fantasy setting, she’s an adventurer but she tries to do what’s right.
She wears a suit of futuristic skin tight body armor but might have other clothing on over that. She has a pistol that fires electric bolts that can render a victim unconscious without killing them; holstered or out as you think best. She also has a sniper rifle for when shit gets real, but you may decide there’s no room for this slung over her back or anything. In hand to hand combat she relies on a switchblade knife or martial arts, of which she is a master. She might have a “utility belt” with various tools and gadgets.