The final version of my Leaf Sorter, I added a backpack for keeping the sorted leaves, a pair of green gloves and a belt
Charactober has already started and and some character prompts are easy to draw and then move on from. Others make me want to give more time, stop and figure out where this character would actually belong, what they would do, and what their life might look like outside the drawing.
After a long pause, today I had been inspired to create a new character I didn't give it a name yet because deciding takes time for me. I need to make sure it fits my conlang phonology as I intend to add this character to the world that I am building. Let's start with this one , the Leaf Sorter prompt from the Charactober character design challenge in our small community .I started imagining how this character might fit into the world of Nivukti.
*I thought this is the finished look but see the difference from the image above. I am glad I revised it and looking forward to improving it further when I have time
This cute character belongs to the Thummok kin they look like the animal weasel. I think this is a good fit for the character's compact shape and curious expression. Rather than redesigning everything to make the character fit the setting, I wanted to preserve the original personality and build the lore around it.
A job for Clymar
In Nivukti, autumn is called Clymar. It is a season worth paying attention to, especially for the forest kin who gather, preserve, and prepare things before the colder weather arrives.
A leaf sorter's work is not as simple as picking up pretty fallen leaves. A good leaf sorter needs to distinguish leaves by their color, shape, condition, and salvage ability. Some might be suitable for making a decoration, while others are better left to return to the forest floor and recycled.
The color vocabulary was already waiting in the dictionary that I worked on for a number of times before, which made this part especially satisfying.
- Gokor — red
- Gorvon — orange
- Ruvon — yellow
- Spedan — green
- Keladun — brown
It helps that these are already established Nivukti words that I can refer you if need be . I am thinking rather than a new set of autumn-specific names. Maybe I can use Gokor or Gorvon without needing a special seasonal vocabulary just for foliage. Even a single leaf might show more than one color as it changes.
Sylmothir
While working on the design of the leaf sorter occupation, I also returned to the names that I had been developing. Sylmothir is the Thummok associated word I chose to keep for this character's occupational tradition. I had explored it through the older form sylmo- referring to soft living greenery or leaf matter and -thir to an arranger. That's my counterpart for a leaf sorter for now in my conlang but I may change it if I could create a more beautiful
The Skrindle
The leaf sorter character needs a tool that makes sense for the work as per the Charactober design briefing. So, my first thought was a comb, but the ordinary hair-comb shape did not really say leaf sorting. I wanted something that could slide underneath a pile of overlapping leaves and lift them without tearing their edges but I'm trying to avoid making a rake LOL.
That led me back to Skrindle, an existing Nivukti word for a flexible vine strip used in binding, weaving, securing, and crafting. I adapted the idea into an improvised tool in the garden: a sturdy rootwood handle, pale smooth prongs, and a tightly wrapped Skrindle grip. The tool can satisfyingly separate leaves, gather and move them into groups, and help arrange them on a tray or in a basket.
I specifically told myself that I would not require inventing an entirely unrelated word for another tool. We are taking an existing material and craft tradition and giving it a practical use in the character's daily work.
And what about the little citrus fruit?
The bright orange fruit on the head is a Sümkel it is an established citrus fruit in my conlang vocab.
My dictionary already has related words:
- Sürauti — sourness or tartness
- Vaghar — peel or rind
- Murmela — pulp
- Münli — juice
- Sümke-ommu — citrus seed
I like these little details because they make the setting feel as though it existed before I started drawing this particular character.I am not naming everything from scratch today if there is already something in place in the vocabularies
My leaf sorter is still a work in progress character, the design of which has been in my vault I just kept iterating it when applicable. I finally classified it under the Thummok kin base on its size and look. Looking back now, the Clymar season, the color vocabulary, the existing Skrindle tool , and the seasonal Sümkel fruit I already have something to begin this character design.
For now, this unnamed Thummok who spends the autumn sorting leaves, carrying a basket on its back , and using a Skrindle-wrapped tool to separate the good specimens from the rest is efficiently created. this one character has given me another reason to revisit the Nivukti dictionary and see what else we have already built. I must admit it gets a little overwhelming reading through a growing list of words and it takes time making a decision
Nivukti vocabulary featured in this post
- Gorku — personal name; proposed but not final for this character
- Thummok — weasel like kin
- Clymar — autumn
- Sylmothir — Thummok-associated leaf-sorter term
- Skrindle — flexible vine strip; adapted here as a leaf-sorting tool
- Sümkel — citrus fruit
- Gokor — red
- Gorvon — orange
- Ruvon — yellow
- Spedan — green
- Keladun — brown
- Sürauti — sourness / tartness
- Vaghar — peel / rind
- Murmela — pulp
- Münli — juice
- Sümke-ommu — citrus seed
Thanks to 