#brolly mage

[grifalinas]

And a size chart as promised! These are the seven fair races that inhabit the fair realm. From left to right: troll, goblin, orc, elf, gnome, sprite, pixie

These are just basic generalizations of the various races; they have a variety of features among them (such as the goblins I posted the other day), but the basic idea is there. I might hash up a few variations over the next few days, depends on how I feel.

[grifalinas]

This was supposed to be an orc but it didn’t turn out right so I think I might use the design for some other fantasy critter instead. Trolls maybe? We’ll see.

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totally canon: skylar is ace, the ‘sex talk’ she had went like this

Mom: So honey...when a girl and boy love each othe-

Skylar: mom sex is weird dont do this

Mom: Alright

[grifalinas]

I’ve been drawing goblins all weekend! Some things:

Goblins tend to be on the small side (compared to humans) but they have a pretty big range of size in general

Goblins don’t really have gender as part of their culture; they never got around to it, although some who work with humans a lot will take on a gender identity just for fun

Their skin, hair, and eye colors cover a pretty wide spectrum of blues, greens, reds, and yellows; the blues and greens are the mountain goblins while the reds and yellows are desert goblins. Skin tones tend to be more washed out shades, while eyes will always be very bright, and hair can go either way

They like to wear bright, colorful clothing

They have excellent dark vision because

Their natural habitat is caves; they colonize caverns and burrow tunnels through them, even through solid rock

They also have excellent hearing and can enhance their vision using sonar

Their tusks are much smaller than their orc cousins

They have a communal living style, and it’s rare to have a goblin on their own; if you see one goblin, even if you can’t see more there’s at least a dozen out of sight somewhere nearby

Children are the province of the community; once they’re able to leave their mother (generally after about the first year) the entire swarm minds them

Sometime during adolescence some adult or other will take them on to train them in a trade or profession; those who don’t get taken on will generally attach themselves to either the guard or the honey wagons, or something that doesn’t require a great deal of training

Despite a reputation for being dirty they’re actually quite clean; with such close quarters they have to be, and most goblin caverns will have multiple bathing areas with constantly circulating water where they can wash; these are very social areas

They don’t have a currency of their own; instead, they use an elaborate system of trade and taxation, whereby individuals will trade their own goods and services with others or what they need, but a portion of what they produce (or their time, if their service is intangible) is taken by their system of government to see to the needs of those who are unable to produce sufficient trade

Their ruler is chosen by Klingon succession, it generally being considered that the best person to rule has to be both stronger and more clever than anyone else, and if a ruler isn’t strong and clever enough to prevent assassination then the person who assassinated them is more clever and strong and therefore more qualified to rule

The ruler is referred to as the Tyrant from the moment they take command and never as anything else; stripping them of their name is meant to be a reminder that they are a servant of their people, not the other way around, and by having the same name as every one of their predecessors they’re telling them that they are ultimately expendable should they cease to be of use to their people

They’re scrappy and they enjoy fighting, but they don’t have a particularly violent culture on the whole; fighting is just something they do for fun, and it gives them a chance to release any tensions (important for such close quarters living)

They’re a very curious people, and the most technologically advanced of the fair races by a wide margin. Knowledge is their main ‘currency’ with the rest of the fair realm, both in acquiring and giving

They tend to accumulate names since they consider a name ‘whatever someone calls them’, so even quite a young goblin will have several names, and it’s not uncommon for a goblin to have a different name from every person they know. Generally they’ll have one name for themself that they consider their ‘proper’ name but they don’t give it out (the power behind true names is a common theme in the fair realm)

There are some goblins who will even consider it the height of rudeness not to be given a new name when they meet someone, though most generally only expect it from groups that they know. There’s an etiquette to the thought that goes into a name and someone that they know casually will have less thought behind their name than someone they know very well

They also sometimes have multiple names from the same people, with new ones being added as they go from ‘someone we just met’ to ‘someone I know quite well’, though often the ‘stiff’ name will be dropped for the ‘soft’ one

Their memories are very good, which is how they remember all their names, and because of this they’re fast learners too

Sex is pretty casual for them and threesomes, foursomes, and moresomes are fairly common

Despite this casual approach to sex and reproduction, they always know how closely related they are to a given other goblin, even if they’ve never met before. They call it a bond and it’s a type of magic inherent to their species

They also don’t have committed relationships or marriages in the way that we understand them

They have them, just not in the same way

Within the cities they generally form smaller groups, of between four or five and a whole dozen. These ‘families’ will occupy a single burrow together (smaller caves set off the main caverns and tunnels)

Within a family group each goblin will have a specific name that the whole family uses for them

They like records and have extensive libraries of them

They can cling to any surface, so they can climb walls and other structures like nobody’s business

On the whole they’re pretty friendly (and in fact are the friendliest of the fair races overall) but they’re also pranksters it’s always good to keep one eye on them when they’re around

[grifalinas]

Testing out Goblin designs for Brolly Mage

Lookit this cute

[brollymage]

So. I don’t feel like doing up proper cast bios right now, but here’s a full spread of the working cast as of right now. There will likely be more characters added as I go along, but for now, this is all of the characters who will be acting within the primary, secondary, or tertiary spheres of the Brolly Mage story.

The Main Three:

Rye: (center) The titular character, who uses a wand shaped like an umbrella and specializes in defense magic. Rye wants to be a member of magical enforcement for the Council, and the tying force of the first arc is Rye studying for the entry test to train as an enforcer. Rye is also, though he doesn’t know it yet, the only other person in the world able to use Spirit Magic, a branch of magic used by elves and thought to be exclusive to the Overmage.

Tana: (left) A mundane who lives in the house because there were limited options and she didn’t want to carry on living at home anymore. Tana is cheerful and optimistic, which is seemingly at odds with being so accident prone- Tana’s sentences are often punctuated by the word ‘whoops’.

Ellory: (right) Rye’s best friend, the two decided to get a place together and ended up at the house when they started college. Ellory is a scholar at heart, preferring to study magic academically rather than any hugely practical magic. Her specialty is small spells, and unlike the other two she can keep many going at once. However, large spells tend to fall apart quickly.

Everyone else, starting at the top banner, under the cut:

Kirikikiri (Kiri for short): The Harp that lives on the roof of the gang’s house, on their widow’s walk. She’s their unofficial roommate, and doesn’t have to pay rent like the rest of them, because it’s considered good luck to have a Harp living on your land. (More accurately, it’s bad luck to tell a Harp not to live on your land, and since anything that’s not bad luck is good luck then clearly it’s good luck to let them stay there. This is an old superstition with origins in violence, like most superstitions that survive.)

Holly: An elf who was exiled from the fair realm and stripped of his magic, so now he’s trying to make it in the magic realm but having no magic, he’s discovered that he’s actually quite useless. However, he’s very intelligent and knows quite a bit about magic all the same, and the rest of the gang like him, for the most part, even if he can be irritating sometimes.

Mada: Sam’s Sprite familiar. Mada has been bound to several mages before Sam and is a seasoned veteran of guiding mages, most of them healers like Sam. Mada is a lot meaner than the other two sprites, with a much firmer hand, but she has a heart of gold and doesn’t like to see anyone hurt.

Sam: The oldest mage in the house, with several years experience on Rye and Ellory. Sam practices mainly healing magic and fills the “witch” role within the trio primarily, though this is not a rigid casting.

Jidi: Rye’s sprite familiar. Rye is Jidi’s first mage, and so both of them are learning together. Being the youngest of the other sprites by quite a lot, Jidi is still full of magic and tends to be more prone to mischief than Mada and Horo, though it as to be said that Horo is more malicious in his mischief than Jidi.

Horo: Ellory’s familiar, who is only a familiar as penance for some crime. He’s taken to it quite well, though, and is exceedingly loyal to Ellory, though it seems he has it out for everyone else, especially Holly. He and Jidi are often found in the midst of some prank or other, with each pulling the other in a constant tug-o-war of morals.

Sunna: An anthro who hangs around with Lofty in Amity. She also can often be found prowling around the city on her own, where she is undisputed ruler of the feral cats in the town, and keeps animal control in check to boot. Since anthros are uncommon in populated areas the mages are tasked with keeping an eye on her by the council, though they have the deep hope they never have to do anything to command her because they have a distinct impression that it wouldn’t go well for them.

Lofty: A local bum who is often more concerned with enjoying a lovely day than doing anything that might be considered productive, and happens onto the mages quite often. Since everyone tends to like him, this isn’t considered a bad thing, though it’s disconcerting how much he knows about magic given he isn’t actually a mage.

Stas, Reggie, Sebastian, Emmanuel, Jo, Terry-Marie, and Dru: Friends of Rye, Tana, and Ellory from school. I’ll talk about their individual personalities in a later post.

King Oak and Queen Ash: The king and queen of the fair realm, and the fair realm’s link to the spirits of wild and earth- Oak being the unruly and unpredictable nature of the wild and Ash being the nurturing and vengeful nature of the earth.

Toby: An old elf, from the Days Before, referred to by Holly as one of the “eldest”. Toby is vengeful and hates humans and fair ones alike, preferring only the forest, and the main conflict of the story is his attempt to rip the world apart and destroy all sentient life so that the forest can grow unchecked.

Song: A timid young human stolen away and raised in the forest by Toby. Eagle-eyed viewers will recognize him as my redesigned Doyle from RvB; I decided to stick with my original design and didn’t want this one to go to waste.

Dune, Rose, and Maple: Rose is the son of Oak and Ash, and Dune and Maple are his companions. The three come to the magic realm to cause mischief and get mixed up in Toby’s plot. (And Maple gets mixed up with a human girl, but that’s a post for later.)

[deadprogram]

Okay but consider: Brolly Mage in Dungeons and Dragons for

[grifalinas]

All together now!

From left to right, top to bottom: Tana, Rye, Ellory, Stas, Reggie, Sebastian, Emmanuel, Jo, Terry-Marie, and Dru