Character Blog #5: The design process of Hudson's Bay Company

(full pic here) 

Hello! Sorry for the long wait between this blog and Sokoto's! It's been a very hectic holidays for me so I didn't had much time to write, very very sorry. Poor Sokoto (and non-Patrons) had to wait a month for her to leave paywall, so so sorry Sokoto! Oh, am I apologising too much? Sorry, sorry! So sorry for sorrying, I must've been bitten by a wild Canadian.

Actually, speaking of wild Canadians...

That's right, this character blog will travel up north to the boreal forests of Canada. A land of maple syrup and moose. And by the shores of the Hudson Bay, somewhere within Ontario or Manitoba, we will find the hardy yet fair Canuck known as Hudson's Bay Company.

Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) is another Waifu Britannica original character (the second WB OC made in fact) and also one of the earliest portraits, having been made back in May 2022. HBC is arguably one of the more famous Canadians in Waifu Britannica, being seen by the community as the 'big sister' among the other Canadian colonies due to her appearance despite not being the 'main' Canadian (that distinction would go to Waifu Universalis' Canada herself, representing Ontario).

But why does she look like that, what was the reasoning behind her appearance? Well, before we start that we need to talk about the real Hudson's Bay Company first.

The Hudson's Bay Company is one of the oldest still operating companies in the Anglosphere, having been established in 1640. Today the company is a series of department stores selling merchs such as apparels. But back in the day, the company had its specialty in the fur trade.

The HBC had a commercial monopoly and governorship in an area that was once known as Rupert's Land, named after the HBC's first governor Prince Rupert of the Rhine. The company profited off the ravenous European demand for fur, and between 1640 to 1870 they held a near monopoly over the fur trade in British North America. The fur trade was conducted by Europeans and Indigenous peoples alike, with Indigenous trappers trading the fur with manufactured goods. The company's famous stripey blankets/towels are one such products that was traded with the First Nations people back then.

 
I could've sworn I used to own one of these HBC towels...

It's this image of a fur trading company that is most prominent in the public conscious of pre-20th century HBC. So for the character HBC, I wanted to design her around a European fur trapper. The painting known as 'Ballantyne and Barnston at Tadoussac in 1846' (the far left pic) was very influential in the costume design process, as it had the HBC's iconic stripes.

So HBC was designed with that heavy fur coat bearing the HBC stripes, but in the style of the trapper in the bottom painting. Of course, I didn't want her to dress in a simple trapper coat. She's a stylish lady, so her coat should be stylish. So I gave her coat and boots some fur trims, and gave her a fur hat to top it off. I guess her coat isn't a traditional trappers' coat, but more akin to a high fashion one. But the reasoning again comes to stylishness; it looks cool :) . Plus I wanted to show off her figure and to draw the shirt and vest underneath to give the costume more complexity. I nice red vest in the colour of the British red ensign.

For her physical design, 'snow' and 'winter' were the themes that were floating in my mind. So I made her a tall and imposing lady, with my reasoning that it makes her look like a hardy person who could easily weather through a harsh winter (I mean obviously not realistically, but I hope you get the idea). Her long and messy blonde hair was incorporated into the design because it made her look like a rough and wild snow lady, and an unkept beauty of sorts. The unbuttoned shirt, very unwise in such a frigid landscape, is again to reinforce that rough look. Rough, yet bold and daring, as if inviting the cold to challenge her resilience.

Her red eyes is actually an interesting story. See, she was designed before Victoria 3 was released in October 2022. In Waifu Universalis, the eye colour of the characters usually corelates with their map colour in Europa Universalis IV. But I didn't know what was the HBC's true map colour in Vic3 back in May 2022. I only had the red as seen in pre-released screenshots that I know was due to the HBC being a subject of Great Britain. In retrospect, the red eyes is a nice complement to the overall colour balance of her design.

Left is British red, and right is the HBC's true in-game colour

Before I end this blog, I know I need to address something. I know there's one, maybe two specific people reading this who wants to know the answer behind this question.

Why did I make her busty?

...

Don't ask such silly questions. Woe upon ye.

A Québécois demonstrating woe 

(It's to reinforce that 'big and imposing' look I had going on for her. Probably helped in making her look like a big sister figure in the community.)

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Thank you again for reading through another edition of the character blogs! Sorry if this one came out a month after the previous blog, but in the end I could only make these when I have the time to. The next character again is undecided, so feel free to recommend who you would like to discuss next!