#aph illyria

[peonycats]

Ancients Chibis!

from top to bottom, left to right:

Illyria, Iberia (+bby Port), Etruria (more accurately, Tarquinia), Dacia

Thrace, Numidia (more accurately, Masaesyli), Persia/Iran, Gaul

Pontus, Kush, Judea, Ancient Libya

Obligatory disclaimer that Illyria, Iberia, Dacia, Thrace, Gaul, and Ancient Libya had other personifications due to the number of diverse tribes inhabiting these regions they’re just standing in as overall representatives haha

These are just some cute ancients chibis I’ve been working on! If there’s interest, I might turn them into stickers hehe, but for now I’m pretty satisfied with how these designs turned out, and I definitely want to draw them more later!

[ask-the-yugoslavbunch]

🌻 - Their Father / 🌷 - Their Mother

//baww thank you~ I have fun running this blog and drawing my oc’s so it’s very easy to update it! ❤

Anyways, this ask is based on my headcanons on how nations are born. I’ve always seen them as being born like Wonder Woman--made from dirt and given life by some mystical force. So, technically, none of the nation’s are related to each other by blood. Yet, there’s a whole comic about how Iceland and Norway are actual siblings, but also a strip showing when Iceland was born he knew of Norway despite having never seen him before.

So, in my mind, nation’s are born knowing whether they have relatives or not, and even though none of them are born in the regular way they would still come up as being blood related if you tested them because magic. There’s only a small amount that are actually siblings/parents, the rest just kind of claim others are in order to have a family.

So, technically all of them on this blog would have the parents of either Slav or Illyria, but the only ones who are ‘blood’ related are Serbia, Kosovo, and Vojvodina.

Also, some of my ancient oc’s! Illyria’s had a design for a while, but not much more than that, and I completely created Slav for this, and who knows if he’ll stay or not.

[peonycats]

Do u think u could draw illyria 👉🏼👈🏼

of course 😩 Anything for my pirate wife

Historical Footnotes (+bonus sketches!):

She prbly wasn't the only Illyrian tribe representation running around- the Illyrians were a diverse group of numerous tribes, and it's even believed that the name Illyria was the name of whatever tribe the Greeks happened to run into and write down first. She prbly represents the Ardiaei, the dominant tribe of the united Illyrian kingdom.

Illyria is pretty notable compared to their neighbors in that women held a lot more freedoms than their counterparts, and in fact, even customarily led their armies into battle. For example, Alexander the Great’s half sister Cynane had an Illyrian mother who trained her in weapons, martial arts, and military endeavors from birth, and Cynane herself was rather popular among the troops.

Many traditional tattoos in the Balkans still retain symbols from the Illyrian religion, like the Cult of the Sun, so I gave her some of those tattoos!

I based her outfit primarily on one reconstruction of an Illyrian noblewoman’s dress so idk who entirely accurate this is lmao

Man “doesnt hold a grudge” is gonna become real ironic woof

Here's a preliminary drawing I did to get her features down!

You may notice that she has two pupils in her right eye! I read somewhere that Pliny the Elder wrote that Teuta, the last queen of the Illyrians, had two pupils in her eyes, but I was unable to track down where exactly he said that; the jury's still out on 1) if Pliny the Elder actually said that and 2) if Teuta really did have two pupils in her eyes. I kept it cuz I thought it looked cool, and two pupils/iris holes, or "polycoria", does really happen, if extremely rarely.

...I gave her shark teeth cuz 1) ocean man and 2) I thought it looked very cool sdfjsfldskllkfs

I scrapped the lipstick cuz i think it made her look too mature (at least pre roman times), and plus, she’s always been more rough and tumble vibes for me? I also gave her freckles on her body because she’s always running in the sun getting tan!

[askhetaliancients]

INTRODUCING: ILLYRIA!!! Friend: hiya guys, some of you requested to put Illyria part of this and so we finally did it! Me: yep! Let's get Illyria here to introduce herself, shall we? Illyria: hiya all! My name is Illyria and I'm the mother of the Western Balkan region, which include Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, and Slovenia! I was taken by Rome... Unfortunately, and we fought a whole battle on that too! I'm pretty close to Greece since we're practically neighbours, and I think there's a myth about me from her house. Illyria: as for my appearance, I have short wavy brown hair that reaches just below my shoulders, my hair is braided at the top, and I have two pins holding my bangs. I also have freckles on my face, and my eye colour is light green. I usually wear a light blue dress with a brown belt and matching brown cape around me, a bronze circle holds my cape around me. Oh, my sandals are also brown. Hmmmm... What else... Oh, and I usually carry a dagger or a bow wherever I go! Anyone can ask questions to me, I'm all ears!

[askhetaliancients]

I was wondering do you have illyria as an ancient here?? And great blog btw😄

Me: awww, thank you :3 

Friend: as for Illyria, we don’t have her in here, but we’re more than happy to add her if you’d like! We don’t really have a great knowledge of her, but we’ll try to answer some questions about her and find out about her personality!

Me: and for those who don’t know who Illyria is, she’s considered the mother or mother figure of Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. She had fought against Rome multiple times, though resulting in defeats in the end. She became part of the Roman Empire after the capture of her king in 168 B.C.E.

Friend: she is called Illyria by the older ancients, and Illyricum by Rome. Although she had lost to Rome many times, but we think she may be close to him later on the Roman Empire years. After the fall of Rome, she didn’t become close with Byzantium due to religious reasons. But the cool thing about her is that although she may not be known by many, her name became a legacy throughout Europe!

Me: she seemed to us as a very independent and strong wielded woman, who will not stand those who orders her around. She has a mind of her own, and none can change it unless she willingly does herself. But she, like Rome, looks up to Ancient Greece and her cultures, and she seems to like other cultures imbedded in hers too. 

Friend: overall, she’s emotionally strong, accepting, and I guess a bit serious at times. She’s sometimes hard to read, but she somehow gets along with Rome most of the times, which is a bit weird… 

Me: I hope we answered it well, sorry for our limited knowledge of her :( Thank you for suggesting her though :)