LORE ACCURATE SAMAEL <3
ACTUALLY SHORT LORE:
(it looks like i didn't write it out anywhere before rip???)
tw violence/death
samael is a guardian of a small village, he dotes on the village orphans and loves playing with them when he has free time. one day some bandits attack the village. samael abandons his post to protect the kids when bandits sneak in, which leaves his two fellow guardians unable to hold the gate (for long) and they are killed. the village chief orders samael to get back to the front and he remorsefully leaves the kids, promising to come back.
the bandits set fire to the village, pillaging resources and dipping. samael helps the chief and remaining ppl evacuate the survivors. he goes back in to find the kids, since they aren't out with the others. the orphanage collapsed in the fire </3 he is devastated, clawing through the burning rubble and getting severely burned in the process. he ends up passing out from his wounds and the smoke and the burns, and eventually he wakes up in the evacuated villagers' makeshift camp with his wounds being treated.
the chief berates him for abandoning the main gate and letting the bandits in, and the devastated villagers sorta blame him too. they say they could've protected the orphanage, he should've stayed with his comrades. the chief is extremely upset and severs ties with samael on impulse.
once he is well enough to function on his own, samael--now a ronin aka wandering samurai--is super depressed and leaves the ruins of his village behind. he dons black and red armor to forever wear his shame and grief for the kids, his fellow guardians, and everyone else he failed to protect. but he can't let go of the ribbon in his hair, which the orphans of the village gave him his "birthday" (the day he himself was taken in by the orphanage many years ago).
(dlc to come at some point)
design notes:
since samael is based off a samurott, which are based off samurai, i wanted to give him some more samurai-like armor than the ??? he was sporting before.
BUT, since his name is samael, i guess he's canonically wasian now?? and bc of that i'll give myself the Slight liberty of making his post-trag shoulderplate slightly more western-core than it already is. overall these designs are certainly not 100% accurate to historical jp armor but at least they're better than Gold Ingot
he has gingko leaf motifs <3
idk why they have sclera either
rip i didn't record the process this time, i actually started recording then deleted it midway through the lineart (skull emoji)
here's also a version of post-trag samael with an incorrectly-worn jinbaori SDFHJSD it's a light outer coat worn by some samurai, but like. OVER their armor. and unless samael's has holes for his shoulder spike, i fear he cannot wear it properly so this is just. a coat lowkey