So as I am redesigning the characters for The Music Box as well as rewriting the book, I realized that Runora is the one that had changed the most out of all of the characters visually. Seeing this, and seeing that she has the most drawings out of all the characters, I decided to make this little... thing.

Okay, so let's go AAAAAAALLLLLLLL the way back to where she first began. Her inspiration, I mean. If you didn't know, I had begun reading the Inheritance Cycle, my favorite series in the world, around the beginning of my sixth grade year. I was probably somewhere in the middle of Eldest (second book in the series), when I began to think of Eragon (who is actually Argon's loose inspiration) and Saphira in the modern world. I toyed with this idea for awhile, before making them interact with Rachel (cough cough loosely inspired by Arya cough). Then they ended up in a ditch, and Eragon--who will soon be known as Argon--had broken his leg... for some reason. See where these things are starting to line up?

... Of course you don't, none of you have read The Music Box. So anyway, what I'm basically saying is that Runora came from:

Sorry for the blurry image. ANYWAY!

After the beautiful Saphira made her impression, I would put her aside for some time for something different: a blue thrush. If you don't know what a thrush is, it's a small/medium sized songbird species. Here's a picture:

The bird's breast spot things look like weird seeds.... But it's cool! Anyway, so this thrush was going to be named Hurricane, and was going to be Argon's companion (note that Argon didn't have a name during this time. It's like in the Polar Express, how the main characters don't actually have names except for Billy, they are just Hero Boy, Hero Girl, and Know-It-All. Seriously. Those are their names in the credits.)

Hurricane did not stay long, as I saw a different bird that would suit yet-to-be-named-Argon better:

Original photos taken by Jim Sullivan (first) and Tony Margiocchi (second).

LOOK HOW FLIPPING MAJESTIC! The peregrine falcon was the perfect fit. Fastest animal in the world, the peregrine (also known in North America as the duck hawk) is known for it's strong, fast, powerful divebombs. It can reach up to speeds of 220 mph when diving, and with one swift hit, can kill its prey in an instant at those speeds. Sadly, this animal is endangered, and needs help getting its population back up. Yes, I obviously did research XD

So for awhile, she was just a peregrine, before one day, I began thinking of her being a dragon. I wanted both, though, and then I thought about still-yet-to-be-named-Argon having a blue dragon and a falcon. That went on for awhile, but I just thought it was too much.

Then genius struck! Why not I just make them combine?! She can be a falcon, but can turn into a dragon and vice-versa! I still did not have a name for her yet, but I soon came up with the species: dragether. I came up with it by thinking of "dragon-feather." Runora's scales became feathers, and her blue hue became a rich brown. Sadly, I can't find a peregrine falcon the color Runora is, but maybe someday they'll appear! The second picture was really close, though.

Personality wise, Runora used to be very timid, shy, and quiet. She was sweet (still is but much more sarcastic than before) and wanted the best for Argon (still does), but wouldn't put up a fight and would always try to go around it. She usually had her tail tucked in between her legs when she walked, too. However, I didn't like the idea of Runora being that, so instead I went with what she is now.

She is sarcastic, strong, loud, show off-ish but not arrogant, proud, powerful, and incredibly protective of Argon. She is also quite childish, and loves to horse around whenever she can.

Going back to Saphira, I ended up keeping her blue eyes, as well as her bond. If you've never read Eragon or the rest of the series (which I highly recommend), Eragon and Saphira have a mental bond where they can feel each other's pain, talk through their minds, and look through each other's eyes in a sense you wouldn't even imagine. It's awesome! So again, I kept that little element of Saphira on my journey into creating Runora. I found a name for her soon after (Argon finally came next, but it took a little longer to think of something), and drew a few things for her, but this picture is probably the best thing I have on me currently to give you an idea of what she looked like:

My tablet sucks at taking pictures, so I apologize for all the grainyness. Here's a painted picture that looks off because I'm still not good at paint:

And that was the Runora in The Music Box. Her spine feathers were much shorter, her beak was still only on her nose, and she had membrane for wings instead of feathers. If you were to see her without any context about her, you would never imagine that she was even remotely bird. Trying to get her to look more like a bird was actually a huge challenge.

Now as the rewrite came along, I decided to redesign the characters. Argon got a redesign, Anden got a redesign, Kevin kinda got one too, Rachel hardly even changed but her hair is shorter than before I think I can't remember, Richweld kinda did, personalities changed a bit as well with all the characters, and so on and so forth. Anyway, the point is, I knew Runora needed a redesign. I could only find Version 3, 4 and 5 of the redesigns, but hopefully just by these two you can see how far the imagination for her went. (Note that I took a few characteristics from some of the designs that I liked and carried them along the way.)

And here we have the "finished" product. The white belly is now higher up her neck, the beak (thanks to my friend Tristan) is no longer on her nose but apart of her mouth, she got the nick name Granola Bar, the spine feathers are longer and curl at the tip of her beak, she has spots on her chest, her wings have a peregrine falcon-like underside, her horns are sleeker, her neck is longer, and her eyes have an interesting thing going on (the edges are incredibly dark blue, but it gets lighter and lighter until its almost white as it reaches the pupil).

However, something was still missing. She wasn't bird enough. Still, I didn't know how to fix it, so instead I began trying to get better at her anatomy.

At this time, I also made her wings different. They would fold in on themselves and stick to her sides when they were closed, as is somewhat demonstrated in the last picture.

Last Sunday, I got a slight dream thing, giving me perfect markings for Runora. It was only two days ago when I struck gold.

I experimented with this for a little while, but always went back to the first version of the markings, despite how much I love the others. I decided I'll make all the markings various markings for different dragethers, but Runora has the first one.

And then I changed up the ears....

And there we go! We have our finished redesign of Runora! I'll post a picture of her digitally if I ever get around to it. Maybe a reference sheet or something, I dunno.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I actually loved making this, and I wanna know your thoughts on all of this. What do you think? What are your favorite markings?

Until then, guys!