This week, I’m going to talk a bit about one of the characters in Aurora’s Nightmare.  Specifically, Aurora herself.  To begin with, here is the character profile I created for her when first planning the game (with a couple things removed to prevent spoilers).  Sorry about the somewhat dodgy grammar and sentence structure.  I wrote this as a quick reference for myself and the character artist, so making it read smoothly wasn’t a priority.

Aurora Haeres
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Height: 5’ 6”
Build: Average, Pretty (but not beautiful), Somewhat Childlike
Hair: Brown (medium length, slightly unkempt)
Eyes: Green (large and piercing)
Dominant Hand: Ambidextrous
Clothing: Typical Angellus clothing (loose and comfortable, a bit more colorful than average)
Additional Notes (Appearance): Doesn’t care a lot about her appearance.  Dresses in whatever is comfortable.  Usually ends up looking cute and a bit younger than her age as a result.  Playful and fun most of the time, though she can be very serious and thoughtful when the situation calls for it.  Her eyes are her most prominent feature.
Character Summary: She grew up with Ars and Tia.  She’s always been a little odd.  Most people would call her carefree and childlike, even as an adult.  However, she often possesses surprising insight about people and the world around her.  She always refers to herself in the third person.

Despite being the title character, Aurora isn’t the “main” character (that’s Ars).  But she’s a central figure in the story, as Ars’ childhood friend and in many other ways.  By the time players have gotten through the first storyline, they’ll understand why it’s her name in the title and what her nightmare is.  Or one interpretation anyway.  As this is a visual novel, there are many things that will only come to light as players repeat the game and explore the other paths that the story can take, which will often challenge their past interpretations of the story.

Based on the above description, here are a few of the sketches of Aurora’s done by my character artist, Hanbee Lee.

Sketches of Aurora

In the description, I mention that Aurora is a little odd.  That applies both to her dress and actions.  There are a number of things that set her apart from others, even her own friends. One of her most obvious personality quirks, however, is the way she always refers to herself in the third person.  For example, always saying her own name rather than “I” or “me.”  This was a part of her character from the very beginning, back when I was planning to tell the story of Ars, Tia, and Aurora in a regular novel.  While I didn’t know it at the time, referring to themselves in the third person is actually common among young Japanese children, who haven’t yet mastered the language’s nuanced use of personal pronouns.  While most kids grow out of the habit fairly quickly, some girls keep it up through high school or even college, believing that it makes them sound young and cute (cuteness, rather than sexiness or coolness, is the height of Japanese fashion and pop-culture).  As it turned out, that’s very appropriate, both for Aurora’s character and the game’s heavy Japanese influence.

To wrap things up, here’s one of Aurora’s poses cleaned up, colored, shaded, and ready to go in the game.  I hope you look forward to learning more about her, both in future posts and in the game itself!

Aurora Normal Pose