Seijō Suzume/Crown Princess Suzume, an old magical girl character who’s recently been updated for a TTRPG
One of the things my group decided on was that we were going to play a group of older magical girls/boys, so she needed to be aged up.
So far, her backstory is that when she was 10, fairies from the Kingdom of Sonoria chose her as their Crown Princess and Protectress. Among the candidates they had been watching, Suzume showed the most compassion, grace, and determination. The oath of protection and loyalty she swore granted her magical powers, but then the training began.
Etiquette lessons, agility and swordsmanship classes under the best instructors Sonoria could offer, the overseeing of important ceremonies and programs, fairy school on top of normal human school, lessons on the politics of fairy society…all beginning before she even understood what she signed up for. She just kind of heard “princess” and went with it.
It’s been 13 years, and her responsibilities have taken their toll on her. College is a slow process, due to her duties requiring she travel between worlds often for different classes. But she’s used to it by this point. Dreams in the traditional mahou shoujo sense are foreign to her, and her two states of mind seem to be burnt-out and stressed. Despite being pretty good at masking her emotions, her eyebrows have gained a seemingly permanent worried expression.
She does want one thing, and that’s to make everyone around her happy. But of course, that means that she’s left feeling empty. That’s what it means to give your all in order to serve the greater good, right? So, she’ll follow along and do what others think is best for her. She’s got no reason to do anything else, she’s on a tight schedule and her duties won’t wait.
I wonder what she’ll end up discovering?
Also, hilariously, she’s for (a slightly modified version of) Thirsty Sword Lesbians but isn’t particularly thirsty, and isn’t a lesbian. Funny how things can turn out that way lol
Originally, her character had a lot more of a traditional magical girl look to her (almost Madoka-like, even though Madoka wasn’t an inspiration). Puff sleeves, puff skirt, twin tails, fairy tale motifs (the more family friendly version of Swan Lake)…
The inspiration for her new look leans more into traditional tragic ballets (specifically Giselle with some leftover Swan Lake pieces). On top of that, my group’s got a 9 Muses thing going, so I added in a neckline that’s vaguely Greco-Roman. I’m pretty sure her Muse is going to end up being Euterpe, since Sonoria is a kingdom based around sound and music.
Suzume’s name in Japanese is spelled 誓上 鈴女, with “Seijō” using the kanji for “oath” and “above/up/top” and “Suzume” literally meaning “bell girl”. I wanted to try and make a meaningful name in the style of Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, where everyone’s names tie into their magical identities! PreCure does the whole “sounds like a real surname” thing a lot, and it took ages to come up with Seijō (jō is pretty rare as a nanori reading of 上). Seishita (literally vow-under) was my first choice, but “under oath” in Japanese is associated with 上, not 下. So, Seijō it is!
