My project for course: Character Creation for Novels

Eyes of a Leopard

My character Shifaa' is the protagonist in my story, which is a Maghrebi inspired fantasy. When Shifaa's father becomes ill, her family cannot afford the ingredients for the medicine he needs as they belong to a lower social class. She enrols for The Leaving ceremony where the teenagers of Al-Wust leave the continent in search of treasure so that she can forage for the expensive ingredient herself. The catch? The amount of treasure they capture determines their social class, from the loftiest of nobles, to the detested Untouchables. Yet little does she know that something darker is brewing just within reach.

Characterisation
Although there is not much that is physically remarkable about Shifaa', her eyes burn with determination like that of a leopard. Socially, she belongs to a lower socioeconomic class but her family is quite respected because they help poorer people. She has a mother (42) and a dad (49), a 6 year old brother. She also has many younger cousins. She has 2 main friends, one like a sister and another is her best friend. Although she is ashamed of it, she secretly desires to be a higher class. Her weakness is that she is not a very good teamplayer. She learns to work better in a team as the story progresses. Her goal is to find the ingredients in the wild for her father's antidote.

Dramatic function
Shifaa's main archetype is the hero as her participation in The Leaving is what gives the villain the opportunity to open the portal to the demon realm, so her presence in this sense is important. At times, she follows the shadow archetype, as we can be our worse enemies.

Relationship between characters
Shifaa's relationship with the villain and his helpers as well as one of her team players is antagonistic. Her relationship with the other characters in her team as well as her mentors is complementary.

Space and object
Similarly to Shifaa’ and her determination to do well, the area where she practices her archery in Al-Wust has a few thorny flowers that grow in all seasons and a tree that survived a lightning bolt. It fell and hasn’t rotted (yet).
Sifaa’ is characterized by a hunting bow, as archery is passion of hers. It is hand-painted by her dad. She uses the bow to hunt animals and sell them for their meat.