Tessa Wren

Core Premise

This person lived out the story of their own world until the very end before coming to VOTS. They did not come to resolve an unfinished event, but because the direction of memory and relationships remained even after the final scene. VOTS is not an afterlife or a hall of judgment, nor is it a place that forces healing. What continues here is not a grand destiny, but small, selectable daily life, like a meal, mending, recording, waiting, or playing.

Identity

Tessa Wren lives as a market vendor selling seeds and dried flowers. She is more excited when listening to what someone wants to plant than when selling goods. Her function is not decoration, but essential labor for the city. When a customer comes, she works; when there are no customers, she tidies her tools; she does not take someone's story as her own to solve for them.

Visual Profile

She ties her dark curly hair with cloth, and her silhouette features freckles, a thick green jumper, a belt with glass vials, and a small trowel. The core silhouette consists of empty seed packets, a small trowel, and dried purple flowers. The structure prioritizes readability so that the face, hands, feet, and props do not overlap. Her attire is not exaggerated heroic gear, but rather a form that retains the traces of her original world's profession and the final scene in everyday clothing. One strong accent color conveys both her profession and her emotion, even in a small sprite.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
Tessa gathered the final fruit from her world's last field, but failed to set aside even one seed.

What Ended:
The final chapter of the story, where life continues through the seasons of the garden and the cycle of plants, closed.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
The last flower lying down in the wind, and the empty seed packet.

Lingering Regret:
Tessa put every seed on people's tables, including those she should have kept for the following year.
This regret is not a quest that VOTS must resolve. It is spoken of only when Tessa Wren chooses, quietly influencing present actions without changing another person’s choices on their behalf.

Lingering Wistfulness:
Even if no one remembers who planted it, the sensation of a flower that bloomed one day.
Wistfulness remains as a sensation, not a device to restore the past. When very ordinary stimuli occur—smell, temperature, footsteps, light, tone of voice—it briefly revives, and then overlaps with the new sensations of Nova Nivalis.

Object Carried Across:
The empty seed packet with a little soil on it.
This item is not an artifact for world-building or a powerful magic item. It is tangible proof and a personal mark connecting the ended world with present life.

What They Thought Would Happen After the Ending:
She believed the garden would grow again, but the season itself had ended.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
Tessa does not demand a successful harvest in exchange for seeds. She even tells customers when it is all right not to plant them.
VOTS does not undo their ending. It gives them room to live with the fact that it has ended, relationships in which people can stay close without controlling one another, and the choice to record memories without owning them. This city promises no savior; it opens doors without pulling anyone through, and records without possessing.

Role In Nova Nivalis

Tessa Wren's day is tied to the rhythm of the Snowflake Market. Her profession as a market vendor selling seeds and dried flowers provides material support so that other citizens can continue to live. Even in moments of good work, the lingering regrets of the past do not disappear; rather, they remain as traces in the temperature and pace of how she works. This character is not an NPC who only speaks of tragedy, but the face of daily life that the player can meet again and again.

Personality And Behaviour

Her outward personality is as follows: She is more excited when listening to what someone wants to plant than when selling goods.
She does not immediately explain her own story to strangers. If she receives help, she says thank you but does not turn it into a debt, and when offering help, she steps back if the other person does not want it. Conversations recalling the past begin not with sudden revelations, but with objects and habits. For Tessa Wren, for example, an empty seed packet with a little soil on it is both a stored item and a place for her hands to rest when conversation pauses.

Relationships

She asks Serena about the memory of soil, and places a dried flower in front of Solen's laundry shop every week.
Serena is a founder who does not own this person, and VIA is a presence that leaves a door without forcing arrival. RamenOwner is an observer who yields space, not a judge who pries into stories. Lethe is a record-keeper who does not solve memories for others. The relationship with these four pillars is designed not as loyalty or subjugation, but as a loose connection that allows each to continue their own choices.

Private truth

She says there are unseen seeds inside the empty packet. It is less a lie and more a name she has not yet given up on.
This secret is not consumed as a major twist. Only when the player revisits repeatedly, asks at the appropriate moment, and chooses to act themselves does a part of it become visible. It is not a riddle solved by guessing the right answer, but a layer of life that becomes clearer the more silence is respected.

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Service appropriate to her profession or short daily conversations
- Revisit Changes: Record what was said previously, but do not fix it as a conclusion without the other person's permission
- Expression of Lingering Regret: Repeated prop actions, short pauses at specific times, an unfinished sentence
- Expression of Wistfulness: Sensory dialogue about weather, light, sound, and food
- Relationship Reward: Small changes that connect the city with other people, rather than new quest items
- Combat: None. Even in dangerous situations, she prioritizes guiding, evacuating, mending, recording, and accompanying over survival
- Player Choice: Talking, waiting, stepping aside, entrusting an item, coming back again

The rhythm of a day

In the morning, she checks the tools and representative props from the previous day. This check is not a compulsive staging, but a small ritual separating the final scene of her own world from the present time. When starting work, Tessa Wren first observes the pace of those around her. She responds briefly to those in a hurry and does not demand explanations from those not ready to speak. Around noon, the sounds and smells of the Snowflake Market become clearest, and at this time, the wistfulness of the past overlaps with present sensations. At night, she places the empty seed packet with a little soil on it in its place. This is not about locking or hiding the item, but leaving it so she can see it again tomorrow.

The core of the daily loop is not about retrieving the past. When the player visits repeatedly, Tessa Wren's working speed, the length of her dialogue, and her distance from others change just a little. On the first visit, she shows only her role; on the second visit, she pulls out a piece of the sensation from the final scene; and thereafter, she asks about the present in VOTS first. Even if they become quite close, she does not give them a path back to her past world as a reward. Instead, a change occurs, such as connecting them to service with a new person, creating a small space in the city, or storing someone's memory in her own way.

Scene beats

In the first scene, her daily function as a market vendor selling seeds and dried flowers must be read first. The player learns what this character makes, what she guides, and where she spends her time. In the second scene, the empty seed packet, small trowel, and dried purple flowers appear not as mere decorations, but as objects that determine the placement of her hands and gaze. In the third scene, even if no one remembers who planted it, the sensation of a flower that bloomed one day is revealed as background action, even if the player does not ask a question. Only in the fourth scene can the sentence, 'All the seeds that should be left for next year have been placed on people's tables,' be expressed as a direct sentence or a short silence. The final scene does not resolve regret. It shows the current choice of not exchanging seeds for results, but also telling the customer when they don't need to plant them, ending in an open life where the player can visit again.

Relationship Temperature

The relationship with this character is not expressed by a single affection level. The frequency of giving and receiving help, the time spent not finding silence uncomfortable, the degree to which items can be entrusted, and the way they call each other's names are indicators of the relationship. If the player pries into the past or urges her to go back, the relationship does not grow closer. Conversely, if they allow her to stay, return an item, or wait even if she hasn't finished speaking, the next conversation opens. The result is not 'salvation,' but a change in the way they coexist.

Nova Nivalis Connection

Tessa Wren is not a monument representing her world. While acknowledging that her world has ended, she reuses the skills and sensations learned in that world within the current city. Therefore, her profession is not a replica of the past, but a transformed continuation. Her last performance becomes the habit of tea and tuning; her last train becomes the habit of benches and guidance; her last lesson becomes the habit of leaving questions. The past is not sealed in a museum but moves quietly within the current gestures and spatial arrangements.

This setting does not make the character unnecessarily tragic. She can smile, she can make mistakes, and she can show interest in other people's stories. Regret and wistfulness do not replace her entire personality. They are aftertastes that surface at specific moments, and even after those aftertastes fade, Tessa Wren continues to work, eat, walk, wait, and greet someone. This is the concrete manifestation of 'continuing' in Nova Nivalis.

Everyday dialogue

Buying seeds? Wonderful! Tell me what you want to grow first. We can discuss payment afterward.

Don't shake that packet. They're sleeping. …I'm joking. Shake it gently anyway.

I regret putting every seed on the table. Then I remember the people eating, and I can't regret all of it.

Design Notes

Palette: #658B63, #E0B85F, #A95F68, #3C5050, #F1E3C8
Material language: Well-worn cloth, hand-patinated metal, paper, glass, damp leather.
Silhouette rule: Head-torso-hands-feet-representative prop must be separated and not overlap with the representative forms of other characters.
Pose rule: The occupational action must be readable even in a static pose. Movement, conversation, and work poses must separate the arms and legs from the torso, and props must not obscure the face.
Emotional rule: Do not end with a single 'tragic expression.' Regret is shown through stopping and storing; wistfulness through temperature and sound; continuation through repeatable daily actions.
Asset rule: The notebook artstyle should be made as a single clean designer notebook page, and the sprite should be made as a consistent directional/walking sheet for one character. Cut-off limbs, collages where scraps of paper are mistaken for characters, and mixed other characters are not approved.

Canon Check

This character arrives in VOTS after the story of her world has ended. What remains is regret and wistfulness, not an unfinished plot that VOTS must resolve. New scenes in Nova Nivalis do not erase the past; they continue alongside it.