It was sometime in the autumn of 2005; the modeler known as Black_Stan was producing exquisite custom models for wc3 that he chose to publish on this very site. While the original textures for these models were confidently painted, I believed venues existed for my own interpretations of the skins. Thus I chose a few of his more choice models and began to retexture them. However, as I completed each skin, an interested item I noticed. Much the same as my other skins, while the textures were highly praised, the downloads were typically in limited amounts.
Thinking perhaps that my style did not appeal to the average downloader of wc3 skins, I decided to gander at the most downloaded textures on the website. What I glimpsed was that the most used skin on wc3sear.ch was "Shandris" by Black_Stan himself. It was at this point I considered the difference between this skin and every other texture I had ever created; it was of a woman. Not to demerit the texture in any way, it is very well done. But it seemed rational in my mind to consider that the average visitor was intoxicated by the textures more "risque" features (read the comments if you don't believe me). It was for this reason that I decided that I would conduct an experiment. I would create my own "sexy" warrior texture and observe the result.
Simply put, I was staggered by the popularity of the skin. It is, and has been for a quite a while, the second most downloaded texture on this website. A fact made more bizarre by the fact that only a couple of months after the release of this skin, Black_Stan removed all the custom models my textures were made for from this site. This popularity led me to rather hollow feeling. I had wished for people to appreciate my work for its merit, and not simply because I had managed to produce an attractive female. While I'm glad to claim this texture as my own, I would never consider it one of my better works.
Excuse me, you'll have to excuse the ramblings of a drunk fool.