There’s a short story buried near the end of Dallas Snell’s lengthy update to the Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter page, which was posted today. In it, we learn that when Portalarium’s concept artist Stephen Daniele set out to create the concept for the Ranger class, he turned to the community for inspiration:

When I started the fighter-ranged character I wanted to concept a woman. Richard’s inspiration for the avatar was a female version of Aragorn; strong, capable, rugged, alone, attractive and someone you don’t want to mess with. My first thought of that kind of character was someone like Xena or Wonder Woman. A raven haired woman with dark expressive eyes. A woman that leaves no doubt she can take care of herself.

During an episode of Pen of the Avatar, I asked the community to submit photos of those who fit the description that I would base the concept on. We received some excellent examples of strong capable woman. One of our community members, Thunder Chicken, submitted photos of his wife, Lisa, who I felt was the most appropriate for our fighter-ranged avatar.

The results speak for themselves:

We’ve added the main Ranger concept piece to our Shroud of the Avatar concept art gallery.

In somewhat related news, Portalarium are looking for input from the community as to the clothing and armour style(s) that should be featured in Shroud of the Avatar:

• Clothing Style 1 – Colorful Court Clothing
• Clothing Style 2 – Romantic Renaissance
• Clothing Style 3 – Aristocratic Victorian
• Clothing Style 4 – Gothic Highwayman
• Clothing Sytle 5 – Gypsy Pirate
• Clothing Style 6 – Tribal Warrior

You can see a reference image here. Votes, meanwhile, can be cast in this forum thread.