Character Blog #1: The design process of the United Baltic Provinces

(full pic here)

Hello! So as the first Waifu Britannica character design blog I'll be discussing design process of the United Baltic Provinces/Baltic Governates, and all the inspiration and reasoning that went into her design.

Now Waifu Britannica uses Claivin's Waifu Universalis girls wherever it can, so the UBP is actually WU's Livonian Order (who I'll refer to as Livonian from now on). The reasoning behind this was because the historical Baltic Governates covered the area of the old Livonian crusader state, and the Baltic Germans that descended from the Northern Crusades continued to rule as the elites of the land until Latvia and Estonia achieved their independence in the early 20th century.

But enough history, look at this cutie! Claivin definitely gave her a more plucky energy compared to her more dour northern crusader sisters. This energy was the first thing I tried to preserve when carrying her over to WB.

Knowing this history behind her, I wanted to give her a design that meshed both the look of a Victorian-era general and the vibes of a Livonian crusader. So the main inspiration for her design was this painting of Alexander Arkadyevich Suvorov, a Russian politician who ruled as governor of the Baltic Governates from 1848 to 1861. Besides being a figure in Baltic history, I was also drawn to the fur-trimmed cape he was using. It screamed very a 'woodlands' vibe to me, and when I think of the Baltics' natural environment I think of its forests. Hence, that's why his cape made it into Livonian's design.

For her Livonian Order design, I retained her Teutonic horned headgear and spear which gave her a slight anachronistic look. And besides the Teutonic and Livonian badges scattered throughout her person, I gave her some leather belts/straps on her waist and her thighs to finish that mismatch look.
 Because brown = medieval is the height of creativity

 Left artwork is by JiuJiangzi

To finalise the design, I wanted a look that was more to the... uhhh... 'sexier' side. Those who are familiar with WB know of the prevalence military uniforms with miniskirts and thighhighs 😅 (and it's not changing any time soon guys), so now you'll know who is my inspiration.

I design I wanted to capture was heavily inspired by a concept artwork of Banner of the Maid (the left image) by artist JiuJiangzi (her Banner of the Maid designs is my main inspiration for drawing military girls btw!). I later discovered that she described the design as 'Prussian' in a blog post , which was fitting because the very militaristic vibes of her design was what I wanted to capture for Livonian. I absolutely adore how she can mesh the short skirts and thighhighs in her designs. Authoritative yet alluring.

Now the image to the right is an earlier WB portrait, the military junta outfit for Mexico. Her bursting thighs in this outfit is a highlight many had pointed out, so I was itching to try that design again for another character. It had been a long while since I've designed a Western military outfit in WB at this time, so I figured the plucky, energetic, and soldier girl Livonian was the next best candidate for this design. Somehow.

Yeah, that's really all the reasoning behind her prominent zettai ryouiki 😌
But I was very happy at how it turned out.

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Anyway, that is all about the design process for the United Baltic Provinces! Any future write-up may not be as detailed and lengthy as this, since the UBP is rather unique in that the inspirations themselves have quite a story to tell. I can't tell when the next character design blog post will be posted, though I will try to keep this semi-regularly. So stay tuned until then.

Edit 10 Nov 2024: These character blogs will be made public only after the blog post immediately after it has been posted for paid members.