chapter 1.
during the maze segment, follow susie the third time she appears. run into the trees on the right, which will contain a darkened, secret path, until you come across a piece of seaglass. you will find ether right next to it, claiming she had gotten lost and panicked trying to escape the maze. then, interact with the glass.
the glass will not be added to your inventory, but judging by her room in chapter 2, it is implied ether brought it to her castle town room.
below is the dialogue of the cutscene that plays upon interacting with the glass. actions during the cutscene are not accounted for.
Decided to try and practice more painterly style again, and there's one thing I've noticed with it that keeps happening to me when I do it; I keep making the character's noses too wide, when compared to the more comic-booky look that includes very distinct lineart.
(To be fair, I did draw his face slightly different in general to try for a more, I guess western comic book-like vibe, as my style is usually more Japanese manga influenced)
Anyway, That's not really a starry cape but one of his three pairs of wings he tends to use as a cloak.
For the first time in 10+ years, I FINALLY have a design for the mother of Azul/Chester and Reuben. I took notes from her father Amir/Amaros' outfit.
Rest of the fam: Dad I Uncle I Hubby I Son 1 I Son 2 (& the adoptive fam) I Dad's new LI
Bio Below:
Name: Saba Samaros
Nicknames: Soul Guide (official Deity title) Soul princess/princess of Souls (less official but often used - she dislikes this one) Lady Saba.
Age: Old. but she roughly appears as someone around their thirties as that's when she died and was resurrected as a Deity.
Height: 172 cm
The Daughter of Soul Eater Deity Amaros, typically taking the shape of a Panther familiar. She also performs the task of guiding the souls of Soul Eaters and those connected to their families (spouses,children,etc. who aren't naturally S.E themselves) into the afterlife.
Family: Father Amir (now known as Amaros), late mother Theya, hubby/partner in crime Shaell, sons Azul and Reuben, uncle Samar.
Role: A companion to her father/guide for her sons later on.
Love interest: Shaell (An orphan raised by the Witch Covenant who was adapt with extremely rare and powerful magic type called the Void - he became known as the Void God later on)
Rival: Shaell (in a playful manner)
Powers:
Flame magic: Saba inherited very powerful fire magic from her late mother Theya, and her powers still take the shape of flames even when she's not using actual fire.
Immortality: being a Deity essentially, she does not age from the moment she was turned, and doesn't get sick either. Like her hubby, she is also incredibly difficult to damage.
Swordsmanship: She was always an excellent swordswoman, trained by her uncle and continuing to practice with her hubby later on.
Soul Eater powers: Being a Soul eater deity essentially, Saba can manipulate souls near freely like her father (telepathy, possession, blocking abilities, devouring them, etc), though she cannot grant Soul Eater powers to anyone like Amaros can.
Transformation: Saba is capable of transforming between her human form and the panther, with panther being her current default.
Weaknesses:
Saba cannot remain in her human form for too long, and her life-force is tied to her father currently; if he is hurt, so is she.
(MORE TBA)
Personality:
Saba is quite strong-willed and passionate, known for being impulsive. She is quick to think on her feet and generally able to compensate her impulsivity with her sharp wit. She has very good intuition and can tell quite fast what kind of person someone is. (an ability her younger son Reuben inherited)
She has little patience for politics and what she finds needless chit-chat, preferring to take action over waiting for permission to do things. (a trait she shares with Shaell)
While very fiery in nature, Saba is also known to be empathetic and having a very strong sense of justice, where she is willing to even go against her loved ones if necessary. She had a lot of arguments with her father and uncle about their actions during the war-times she lived in, shortly before dying/being resurrected as the Godly Panther.
Like Shaell, she can be quite mischievous as well, known for pulling harmless pranks on people since she was a child.
BG Story
Saba was born to two powerful sorcerers of high status in her Kingdom at the time, Amir and Theya. Sadly her mother passed away in childbirth, leaving her father rising her alone, though he had help from his brother Samar. Saba as a result was very close with both, learning how to use her wit from Amir, and her strength from Samar.
During a crisis with tensions rising between her kingdom and another, Saba ends up meeting a man from the nearby Witch Covenant known to raise a lot of orphans with potent magic in them. They end up working together to foil a secret assassination coup that could've triggered a war. Her and Shaell remain as close friends for a while, before they actually fall in love.
At some point, Saba gives birth to their first son Azul, whom she births in the Covenant grounds as Shaell had been concerned for her health, thinking it'd be safer for her, as the witches understood the dangers and troubles of pregnancy far better than the doctors in the kingdom (who were often male).
Some years later their second child is born, but shortly after that a war breaks out. During an invasion and battle, Saba is fatally wounded by the enemy and her soul is almost destroyed. Her father performs an ancient forbidden ritual to try and save her life, which ends up transforming her soul into something akin to a Deity - but with the cost of her human form. She is also separated from her family, as her husband and children get thrown into the flow of time, seemingly dying in the process.
She finds out eons later that Shaell is actually alive during a battle against her now insane uncle - and then seemingly dies again, until she finds out her sons are ALSO alive and Shaell ALSO did not die either and is guiding their older son to rescue him from the prison he was put in.
FUN FACTS
Saba is bi
She doesn't mind her father's relationship with Helias, glad to see him happy with someone again after so long.
In the beginning Saba didn't even ask Shaell's name at first upon finding out he could help her foil the conspiracy coup; She just called him "The covenant man" (he went along with it thinking she was ignoring his name on purpose due to her higher status, only realizing later she just....forgot to ask in the heat of the situation.)
Saba is a lil salty neither of her sons inherited her eyes, but also really loves the sunrise-look of Shaell's so she can't be too mad. (Reuben at least got her glorious hair color)
Saba's uncle didn't really approve their relationship as he had a biased negative opinion of the Witch Covenant men, who tended to prefer using their heads and be strategic (I.E "be deceitful and full of trickery" in Samar's eyes) rather than facing things head on.
Saba's first reaction to finding out her hubby had semi-accidentally created a following was "I turn my back for FIVE seconds and you're already starting personality cults - without me." (it was a joke of course)
While her and Shaell tend to be very witty and sarcastic towards each other, people can still tell they are very much in love from just the way they tend to look at each other.
Their love language in general tends to be more physical affection and acts of service rather than words.
Saba is especially fond of the daughter of one of the Soul eaters more directly related to her through her uncle's affair with the last person ever that her father turned into Soul Eater;the distant descendant of a woman known as "Lady Araknos," a little girl called Hitomi Blackthorne. She often visits her and helps her learn more about her abilities.
Finally made this thing for Shaell as well. I decided that a hood just doesn't really make sense for his character to wear tbh, so I redesigned his godly look. Also decided to keep the name from the Arcane AU as I really prefer Voidguard over just "void god."
Now the only Deity I'm missing is the big boss herself, Spectra. (Shaell is talking to his son Azul btw) I decided that in full Deity form he'd also have nonhuman skintone.
Other members of this Occasionally Chaotic Deity family:
Anyway, I recently watched some playthroughs of Hades 2 (and 1) and I really loved the character illustrations they had, so I wanted to try and sort of take inspiration from the style, and see what I can learn from it.
I decided to draw Helias for this experiment, as he needed a design upgrade anyway. I have few other characters on the drawing list too that I'd like to utilize for this.
(I'm imagining Helias is speaking to the kids of my story's main fam, Hitomi and Ichirou, in that bottom fake screenshot. Shaell is their 'Deity/King' as their family are Soul Eaters, although only Helias refers to him by his first name, he's mainly known as Amaros)
I left the BG for the last one simple as I currently had no proper ideas for it.
(ALSO. I can't believe it took me almost 10 years to realize that Helias' name came from a greek myth. I LEGIT forgot about Helios being a thing, I did not give my boy a similar name on purpose I swear)
Today I managed to finish two of my W.i.ps, the new main outfit for Hayden, and this. I was trying to decide between "accurate colors" and "Having fun with it" and ended up going with the latter. (His actual color palette for this form is a bit warmer/less green)
While I was drawing this, I kind of realized that "ah yeah, Alexander clearly has some Logan/Wolverine in his DNA lol" which makes sense; Logan is likely one of my several inspo sources/reasons for preferring certain type of dad characters.
Since this is the only nonhuman form he has that doesn't include the dog skull mask, I decided that his skintone bleaches out to reference the whole bone thing.
This is the pair piece for the earlier Helias one I made; I ended up upgrading Amaros' design, and finally drew his familiar who is important for the story lore. More rambling/info below
I'm not great at drawing animals though, so Saba looks a bit wonky OTL Amaros' OG name is Amir Samaros btw, His Deity name just ended up becoming a mashup of the first name and surname overtime.
(Also, he's talking to my friend's character Hitomi, as he was having a chat with her dad Jurou/Alistair)
This guy is quite important character for my world lore AND some of the more central characters, specifically for the Starknight tag protagonist Azul/Chester (and Azul's brother Reuben), as, well, he's their grandpa.
Final character for the antagonist group for Starknight tag, and arguably the true main antagonist overall.
His looks is fairly simple in human form, given the flashier part will be the Deity form. Also I guess this reveals Amaros' former hair color (he's now bald)
Info below:
Name: Sam (Full name Samar Samaros)
Age: Old. but he roughly appears as someone around their forties.
Height: 180 cm
A Mysterious Soul Eater who is actually a Half-Deity, due to being the brother of the Soul Eater King & the first ever Soul eater created.
Family: Brother Amir (now known as Amaros), late sister-in-law Theya, Niece Saba, Nephew-in-law Shaell, Grandnephews Azul and Reuben.
Role: One of the antagonists for the Sterling family, often behind whatever chaos they are trying to solve. Later the main antagonist once he gets his memory back.
'Love interest': There's some sexual tension between him and Cornel, that the latter tends to take advantage of occasionally to mess with him. (Samar finds the fact he's attracted to Cornel lowkey irritating, because Cornel reminds him of his nephew-in-law lol)
Comrades: Vincent DeVos (A plaque demon) Cornel Sala(An Ether born vampire) His boss Camilla Barone (Human mobster)
Rival: His brother & his nephew-in-law
Powers:
Soul manipulation: Like all Soul eaters he can study, track, manipulate and devour souls, but on top of those things he can ALSO full on destroy them from existence, something S.E can't typically do. (Devouring doesn't destroy the soul, it just eventually moves it forward in life-cycle once the soul eater dies)
Immortality: being a Deity essentially, he does not age from the moment he was turned, and doesn't get sick either. He is also incredibly difficult to damage, and his injuries heal almost completely very fast majority of the time
Swordsmanship: he is an excellent swordsman, capable of summoning a blade reminescent of the one his brother carries.
Immense physical strength: This guy, while he doesn't look like much, is incredibly durable to the point human weapons don't do shit to him, and he can break people's bones with ease or tear off their limbs. (He is insanely strong even by Ether standards)
Soul Eater form: his form is far more powerful than any other Soul Eater in existence (with the exception of his distant descendant, Jurou Alistair Blackthorne who has the unique ability to even affect the souls of Deities like Samar and Shaell) and this form is basically a Deity rather than a mortal, where his strength grows tenfold from what it already is by default.
Weaknesses:
Due to his injuries from the previous battle against Amaros and Shaell, his strange scar is often aching where he struggles to move that side arm and shoulder. It also constantly bleeds energy when in his Deity form, and is a weak spot to strike in a fight.
He is not the best at handling people being attracted to him, and tends to get flustered by flirting easily.
His desire for vengeance has somewhat blinded him for the actual harm his crusade could cause, and sadly his stint without his memory didn't help soften his position and give him important perspective he needs, resulting in him eventually going back to his old ways of trying to hunt down and kill his brother. (Basically, this guy is stubborn to a major fault when he's angry)
Personality:
He is mostly seen as very quiet and calm individual, who seems to be the one helping to keep Camilla's more eccentric duo of mythical subordinates in check. He has somewhat of a parental side to him he often aims at her and Vincent/Vee especially, and is most likely to check and make sure everyone is alright.
While he seems calm, if you know how to push his buttons (like Cornel) he can be very easily angered and pulled into a loud debate or even a fight. He is also notoriously stubborn once he's made a decision, and it can be hard to persuade him to change his mind.
He is somebody who tends to care about people he's close with intensely, which in part resulted to his burning hatred for his brother after being made to think Amir killed his own family, even if accidental. (This turns out not to be even fully true; his sons survived and were simply thrown forward in time) It also manifests with his high protectiveness over Camilla.
BG Story
Samar is the older brother of Amir Samaros, a former Soulcaster Sorcerer-turned-Soul Eater. He used to have close and good relationship with his sibling and his sibling's wife Theya, being a very supportive presence for Amir and his daughrer Saba after They sadly passed away in childbirth. He did not approve Saba's choice of a husband that much, namely because he and Shaell's personalities clashed naturally, and he felt Shaell was too unpredictable and reckless (failing to realize his niece was very similar)
Things changed however when Amir, in an attempt to save his newborn daughter's life after she'd been severely wounded in battle AND find a way to end the massive war going on at the time, performed a forbidden ritual he'd been studying, and seemingly ended up killing both his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in the process. This ritual also turned Samar into a Soul eater against his will.
grief stricken and driven mad with anger, Samar attempted to kill his brother, but at the time was far too weak given he was not the one directly involved in the ritual. He then spent eons trying to discover where his brother had gone after the war, clashing with him and losing the fight each time. Amir, unable to get through to him, eventually decided to just erase his memory and send him to the human realm with the help of his son-in-law who turned out to be alive, hoping that would finally calm Samar down enough so he could see reason again.
Samar was taken in by the Barone family after witnessing his strength, and he has been working for them for a long time now, not remembering anything about his past apart from his name being "Sam" or something akin to it. However, as a young Shadowcaster Chester Knight starts digging into his past and thus has run-ins with them, his memory ends up eventually coming back....
FUN FACTS
Samar is bi
He tends to get annoyed when people imply he sleeps with Camilla (because he sees her like a honorary niece)
Cornel and him bicker constantly about how to approach situations, but while it seems they can't stand each other, there is a level of mutual respect between the two, and both are equally protective of their boss Camilla. This dynamic mimics his relationship with his Nephew-in-law Shaell from the past (minus the whole attraction part)
Samar is very parenty with Vee, and also feels sympathetic for his unrequited love, though he can also tell exactly why he was rejected...
He does find it a bit annoying that Cornel is taller than him, then again Cornel is very good at pissing him off no matter what. (and he ALSO finds it annoying he's attracted to the vampire without him even needing to use his charm powers)
His scar from the battle against his brother glows white when he uses his powers, both in human and Deity form.
When it is revealed that "Chester Knight" and his brother Reuben are his grandnephews, he refuses to believe it at first, thinking it is another ploy his brother is pulling to try to get him off his back, just like what he did last time with Shaell.
The main reason why him killing Amaros is a major bad thing, is because that would essentially strip every single Soul Eater in existence from their power as well - and would in many cases kill the person. Samar is not aware of this, and initially doesn't believe this claim either when confronted about it.
Eventually his grandnephews do get through to him though, and after that final major fight, he disappears for a while in shame of his actions.
