Kenna Kei
The original character
Not sure where the name came from, or how coincidental it is that it’s similar to the series name (“Kei”-Rush, which I also sometimes pronounce Key) but in 3030X she was the main character. I’m going to be discussing her this time around, with what her backstory was and what I think it’s going to be (I’m considering it unfinished). Here’s her profile so far for 3034X.
Kenna’s father loved racing. He loved sharing it with those around him and he dreamed of becoming a race pilot. He would constantly share his passion for the culture and the tournaments, and the engineering side, and Kenna would watch him work on his own racer as well as watch him race. Through her love and admiration over him, she absorbed both racing and his love for it.
And after his passing when Kenna was still young, she inherited that dream from him too.
I always have issues with conceptualizing main characters. I think generally my brain tries to generate them to be as middle of the ground as possible when designing them, like being unoffensive and generic with their designs, so seeing their tame design just makes me feel unfulfilled. This is the first time I’m showing the character template, and I’ll talk about it specifically another time, so let’s just keep going over Kenna’s details.
Looking at her character sheet, she was always imagined as a character with glasses (which doesn’t really make sense? in a sci-fi setting), red hair, and as a character who has 2 prosthetic legs. She has a modified 2-piece version of the bubble suit (the racer suit) with overalls on top. I’ve never been happy with deciding how her robotic legs look, so I think there’s still experimenting to be done there. She sports the number 17: her father’s number from his first and only professional race.
She was the main character and winner for the previous 2 seasons of Ki-Rush in 3030X and 3032X, and I thought about how to reflect that in her traits. A lot of her story has aspects that is already realized and she’s taking a back seat this time around.
The same process happened when designing her team sheet. I considered an evolved Kenna for 3034X. where she’s now in charge of KeiMS (taking over from her grandfather), and she’s cycled from a number of sponsors and contributors over the years. I’ve listed 3 major ones and when designing their ship, you could be adding a lot more on the livery:
Salem’s Sandwich Parlor: A small sandwich shop in the midcity alleys over on Cecil Station - the warp station located on Sol.
Everhold Sealants and Adhesives: A corporation who helps supply her workshop. Locally based on Mars where Kei Mechanical Standard is.
Upwind Associates: A marketing agency that runs all over JIGSAU space.
In the story of Kenna and Boots, her ship is referred to as boots (KMS-b0075), her makeshift replacement to her legs as she plugs directly into it when piloting. It’s also important to consider the evolution of her racecraft, as even during tournaments she’s had to adapt and evolve, and now we’re at her sixth professional racing year and third Ki-Rush GP, so a lot of Boots’ design should have shifted to grow with Kenna too.
Kenna was the first character I made in this story, and the world was generated around her: 3030X, the race tournament, her family and workshop, and her rivals, and now this idea of what it’s become 4 years later. And so despite being a character I don’t consider flashy, she is one of my strongest pillars in the idea of Ki-Rush.
Thanks for reading. If you have any questions (not about the character template, talking about that some other time) about things that are unclear, or have opinions about important things I’ve talked about that would be cooler to display on her sheet, I’m keen to hear. I’ll be releasing one-page comics for Kenna and other main actors in my story (as well as some other lore-based comic pages) sometime soon and I’ll talk about them here too. Not sure where I want to put them online, and I could always put them in multiple places of course, probably at least webtoon (which I already have a comic on about a tomato cat ! read it !)
This will only happen when the topic calls for it but I think I’m going to partially paywall topics about characters and locations for deep lore stuff and maybe just some brainstorming that may be spoilers? That said if you have enjoyed reading about my (hard to navigate) thought processes I’d appreciate the support.
I think the next article will be about the character and team template - the sheets people will be using to submit their character, team, and racing ships to the group.