A nearly thousand-year-old Asari Justicar, Samara is a member of a highly respected and feared ascetic order of mystic warriors. She is noted by BioWare staff as one of the most difficult characters to nail down design-wise; a trial-and-error approach was used where the character artists would try to get as many rough ideas and sketches onto a page as possible to figure out what makes Samara iconic and stand out as a character, and the final design would be polished until the team has reached a consensus. Variations for her head accessory have been considered, including religious headgear and regal-looking crown-like adornments. For airless or toxic environments, the team decided to go with a small breather device to allow for more facial expression after various designs were considered. Samara's revealing clothing in her final design indicates that her primary method of defense is her uniform's "near-invisible kinetic-barrier technology".