After choosing Asclepius as the inspiration behind my character, I started brainstorming what I would do for his appearance and the characteristics I wanted to focus on. I started by looking at preexisting depictions of his physicality, most of which were statues or older paintings. There wasn’t anything particularly distinguishing feature wise, most statues feeling like a generic male in a ‘godly’ pose.

I decided to pivot and focus mainly on the characteristics and how they would manifest in game. As a symbol of healing, it seems obvious for the boon from Asclepius to have some kind of healing aspect or it could serve as a death defiance boon, like Skelly’s, in reference to Asclepius being able to resurrect the dead.

In addition to this, or as an alternative, the snake motif surrounding this god could be the focus of their power. For example, giving the protagonist a venomous snake companion after advancing in the relationship with Aslepius. The snake could poison enemies, or deal critical damages.

I think it would also be interesting to show Asclepius’ nature and the way he has become a comforting symbol to those with ongoing illnesses by having my interpretation of him have a visible disability, The idea could be that they use all their focus healing others and not themselves, or that in order to heal others, they need to maintain balance by taking from their own lifeforce. This could help normalise visible and invisible disabilities, if the 2d dialogue version of the character has different medical aid at times, or none at other times.

Hades ii already has non playable characters with visible disabilities, most obvious being Hephaestus, who uses a wheel chair and had a prosthetic limb.

As I have a sibling who uses a wheelchair ambulatorily, I was able to get reference images, as well as ask them about their experiences and what they would want to see.

In my Informed Practice unit, I briefly touched on the lack of intersectional representation, and how in media you rarely see induviduals belonging to multiple marginalised groups.

I wanted to put in the work to make the change I want to see and decided to depict Asclepius as  female presenting and black. Even if this doesn’t fit the traditional depiction of the God, the beauty of omnipotence is that it can be used to change a gods appearance.

I asked Tifah if I could use her as a reference for the face of my character, as I struggle to maintain consistency of angles when using online references.