It's one of the villains in the story, not a main antagonist or anything like that I was wondering what's a good way to make an ice creature original? I wanted to make him jagged looking with ice and he would manipulate ice elements but I could make him look tall slender looking and base him on a wendigo? Or make him an ice yeti? Or just an ice spectre? How to make an ice character original and not seem so boring an lame?
Picture how frost can form on a window, the webs and lines. When it is really cold out and you can see your breath. Ice comes from cold, so picture how cold feels on your skin. Windigo or wendigo's are man eaters, comes from folklore that a hunter became lost became so hungry he hate his cohorts. That's more of a boney and starved look, Yeti's are huge fur covered human like forms. In my mind, cold can sneak up on you. It can slowly penetrate your body, you start to shiver as it creeps into your marrow. It could be seductive, think how people get hypothermia.
How about a slushy monster? Freezing but fluid. A creature that can grow icicles as stabbing blades. For a laugh, an ice monster that wields an ice pick. Evil snowman. A being that freezes blood with a touch. Probably female this one.
Yeah yeti's are more big, furry and strong and aggressive and wendigos are like starved humanoid creatures so I like the idea you mention about ice being something more sneaky and stealth like that deeply penetrates within you as you slowly freeze to death, so maybe I can work on some form of a seductive female, but like a spirit? Alien? Nature witch? Icy ninja assassin? Which one seems the least overplayed?
I like those ideas too. I really wanted to make this an ice creature but maybe something very sneaky and stealth like. I tried looking up ideas for inspiration like mythologies and stuff and all I find or yeti's and wendigo's and other creatures similar, just monsters that live in the cold but nothing that manipulates and controls ice. I know there are Norse gods and ice dragons but that's overdone for me. I like the snowman idea a lot. I just don't think anyone would take it serious and find it stupid unless the snowman was made to be intimidating enough and convincing, and there is already that Jack Frost killer snowman guy. Someone that freezes you when they touch you would be a great ability I'd like to give them.
Maybe they antag could have lost/abandoned their human form and is now, like, a freezing wind with ice powers? That would give it a very sneaky edge, besides the coldness of the air, and the sort of worry that they might be right next to you at any time? Then the protags would have to get creative with how they'd deal with the antag?
What does the ice monster want? What kind of person is it? How does it use its ice powers in unique ways?
It's supposed to be actually for a story fighting game since I was planning on getting into writing for both games and visual novels. It would be a character that fights from the Arctic. It's mysterious, deadly and sneaky. It can turn it's ice parts into sharp ice blades, freeze it's enemy, cause frost bite coldness and death.
Personally, I think you've said enough. Sometimes it's good to let readers come up with their own imagery, which can be powerful stuff. If the monster's actions and dialogue are awesome, the other details will fill themselves out. You might even challenge fans to submit artwork later on, which could be used to provide inspiration for a game version!
But how do I make it believable that it can survive without melting like when near heat? Or manage to stay cold? And how to explain it's existence? Could I just leave that part a mystery? Fanart work would be great!
Ice witch? Maybe Mermaid by a frozen pool? But I never understood ice powers, I think it would be too easy to beat them with fire.
Unless it's magic based ice that can survive against fire and other temperatures? Maybe I can do something like that I just can't think of how it will make sense lol.
Funnily enough, you can make anything make sense if you give it the right amount of details! Once upon a time, a dying child wandered into the frozen mountains. Shivering, desperate, he called out to the freezing winds for someone to save him--and the snow took pity. It reached up around him, pulled out his breath, and replaced it with ice. It froze his limbs, took away his pain, and encased his heart. Now he wanders the mountains, looking for other lost travelers to aid. He can take their pain away, too. That right there doesn't even make any sense, but I'd buy it as a fighter's backstory in a video game.
Perhaps it is not even an entity, but a force, or an avatar of a force. In the Andromeda series, there were avatars for celestial bodies. Perhaps your elemental evil is the incarnation of the winter cold. Perhaps the elemental is a woman who is both beautiful and deadly, with a literal heart of ice. Her skin might always have frost on it, and her breath might always cloud as though she were in a perpetually sub-zero environment. Or you could follow in the footsteps of Mortal Kombat and make an ice ninja. They're cliche but fun.
This actually made me think of an evil snowman for some reason with a ghost of wind. But design wise would be pretty difficult to be convincingly intimidating. I really like this. I think it would be very convincing if it's an incarnation of winter or the deadly woman, maybe a nature ice witch? But that is overplayed right? The ice ninja might be overdone too I think and they might call it a Sub Zero knockoff
Maybe I can make her a female ice alien with a cold deadly attribute and freezes others to death? Or an evil ice hockey player? Lol Which of all these choices seems the best? Evil ice hockey player? Evil snowman? Cold hearted ice witch? Ice ninja assassin? Ice alien? Or incarnation of a ruthless cold winter avatar?
Magic needs to have it's limitations. So maybe someone who can manipulate fire could defeat someone with ice magic, but anyone else is susceptible.
But what if it's for a fighting game story? Like in Mortal Kombat they have Scorpion who uses fire and Sub zero who uses ice and it doesn't need to be explained about magic limitations. The characters are who they are.