For this character, I've had a hooded bear character casting spells in my sketches for a while but couldnt quite think of a more solid design beyond that concept.

I realised I hadn't done a polar bear yet and I suddenly recalled a bit of lore I had made for my homebrew dnd setting and decided to incorporate it into the character design!

Basically a forest god settles their domain in a northern cold territory, and through perseverance slowly uses their body to bring life to the area to keep the forest alive. The deity replaced their body parts with woven red string until only their head remained. Through such sacrifice, the forest remained strong, infused with the god's blood and essence to form The White Forest, that would continue living.

Locals would use red string to guide others through the forest to avoid being lost to the mists, and would provide offerings at the shrines around the entrances of the forest.

I liked the idea of using this to make a shrine guardian type character. A sweetheart that acts tough but is quite cuddle bug.