"In Izar Palace gold jewelry is the sign of special status and royalty. Even though His Royal Highness, Prince Vlad, could not wear gold jewelry until his sister became Queen, he freely gives. Each member of his circle is gifted gold jewelry by Prince Vlad himself. Even though none of them are nobles. Even though, His Highness, Prince Vlad, hardly adorns himself."
Fun lore here we go! For those that do not know, Vlad is one of my antagonists in The Ashen Magus. He's a bit of a personal fave. He grew up in Izar Palace as the second in line to the throne. He and his older sister Hypatia were the only of the many royal children that actually carried royal blood. However, they were neglected by his father as his mother, the rightful queen, started to lose her mind. He was neglected, abused and bullied. He never got to wear any gold jewelry until his older sister, Hypatia, murdered their father and then took the throne.
Who are each of the characters here? So they're part of Vlad's personal circle. A mismatched group of people who ended up serving him willingly or unwillingly. It should be fairly obvious who Vlad is, so lets go in order from the top.
With a large bangle on his wrist is Kalei. He's young, though not the youngest member of the group. He is first because he is the latest addition to the circle. Kalei was born in the Gray Class, a group of humans with no magic and unable to even perceive magic. This makes their lifespans incredibly short in a world that basically runs on magic. He was a slave who was then trained to be an assassin and kill Mehr, another one of Vlad's circle. Mehr ended up catching him and deciding he actually liked him and so asked if Vlad could keep him. Vlad ended up agreeing. The members of the Gray Class are not looked upon well and so Vlad gave him a gold bangle that stood out a lot so that no one in the palace would ever dare to look down on him. Kalei is a bit shy and soft spoken. He likes makeup and mostly blends in the the background.
Second in line is angry boy with the eyebrow piercings, Daire. He's the youngest of the group. He's 14 years old. Daire comes from a fairly normal background. But the only problem was that despite having so much magic inside of him, he was unable to use any of it. Vlad found him picking a fight with people on the streets and took him in because he decided to test and see if he could get Daire to use his magic differently. Daire is loud, very opinionated. He can and will cuss you out. He is somewhat best friends with Kalei and will yell at people for Kalei because Kalei will not. He gets into trouble for being rude a lot.
Third is Brinley. half human, half dura (@maddyisenough's oc). She ended up joining Vlad's circle against her will. She gets arrested for attacking a corrupt noble and Vlad notices her unique magic and decides to convince her to join him. When she refuses, he ends up learning that her lover snuck into Izar Palace to try and save her. So he ends up holding her lover's life hostage and ends up managing to get both of them to work for him (although her lover ends up a death mage in the general army instead). Brinley is hot headed and full of naive justice. She's not a fan of Vlad or his circle, but eventually ends up seeing way too much of who they really are to actually hate them. She struggles a lot as a result. Especially with Aruna. WHO IS NEXT.
Aruna started out as a noble and she was actually against the Vlad Order. She planned on running away with her best friend in order to join the rebel army and fight the Vlad Order. Her family ended up being moved to a city on the outskirts of Ignosi and although they were kind and benevolent, people who said they were part of the rebel army raided their residence and killed, tortured and paraded them like war prisoners. Aruna ended up being the last of her family alive and then as she was on her last legs, Vlad and his circle arrived to quell the rebellion. He looked at her and then asked her "are you going to die? just like that?" and then she realized that he was asking her if she was going to fight back. The entire time she had been trying to beg for mercy and prove her innocence. And Vlad told her to fight back and save herself instead. So she ended up using her magic to murder everyone in the area and then joined the Vlad Order instead. Being a parallel and opposite of Brinley, Aruna and Brinley struggle to get along. In another universe they would be best friends though.
Then is Zal. Zal's super fun. He's carried a one sided love for Vlad for a very very very long time (in another universe vlad finds out and decides to reciprocate but not in this one). He's very quiet and straight laced. He's kind of Vlad's personal bodyguard. (Prince and bodyguard romance anyone?). Zal is a mix of various different races. Kind of a rare one of a kind. His mother tried to kill him a bunch of times as a child and when Vlad was much younger he came across Zal who was escaping a murder attempt and then took him in because he could tell that he would be quite the useful addition to his trusted personal circle (which at the time only consisted of Lamya and Mehr).
Mehr is a personal fave. He's one of the fire folk but he has night folk blood in him too. Well tbh, mostly night folk. He's like a fourth fire folk. The Night Folk are a closed community (the result of almost being completely eradicated in wars). So when Mehr was born with both fire folk magic and night folk magic (which involves their voices), his family decided he could only have one. and since he looks like one of the fire folk they decided he couldn't be allowed to have his night folk magic. So when he was 12 his family held him down and cut out his vocal chords. That's why Vlad gave Mehr a choker like necklace, to cover the scars. Mehr is a feral and absolutely terrifying fighter. If you cut off his arms, he'll use his legs to kill you. If you cut off his legs, he'll bite you to death. He's the strongest in hand to hand combat and no magic combat of the group. But he's also the mom of the group. He makes sure everyone has had their food, he stops fights, he protecc, he makes sure if anyone's hurt they go get treated. This is also why Vlad has Mehr take care of his son, Prince Einar.
And lastly is Lamya, Vlad's right hand and most trusted. She's been with him the longest. Her mother was bribed by a noble to poison Hypatia. She was caught and Hypatia murdered her brutally. Lamya who was a budding spellcaster at the time was horrified. Vlad tricked her into thinking that Death Magic would save her mother which turned her into a Death Mage. This resulted in Vlad having control over her. She's a human and so should have died over a century ago, but because of Vlad's control she has remained alive and still looks youthful. Lamya is loyal and steadfast. There was once a time where she resented Vlad. But since she was his first loyal servant she ended up seeing that this child who was younger than her was treated like dirt even by his own servants, she realized that he had used whatever he could to make sure he didn't die. Even if it meant using her. Lamya eventually comes to understand and value Vlad deeply. Although it certainly didn't start out very well.
And finally, one small character who isn't in the art but deserves an honorable mention. Vlad has a son named Einar who isn't even a teenager yet in canon. Einar rarely receives Vlad's direct attention and always only does as he's told to do. The general consensus is that Vlad is a horrible parent to Einar. I'm not going to lie, he isn't a good parent. But Vlad has had a very interesting life and so the way he views family is interesting. He made sure everything Einar ever needed would be provided for. He assigned Mehr, one of his strongest men and yet most caring to take care of Einar. He gave Einar a sappy-as-hell middle name. He made sure Einar was always fitted with gold jewelry, no matter how quickly he outgrew them. I could write a whole essay about Vlad and Einar's relationship but not here. Yeet.
This page was drawn after I read A Study of Dragons of Eastern Europe by Ronesa Aveela. Here are some notes for context on the designs:
Lamya - Body is reptilian and huge with scarlet or yellow scales. Possesses webbed wings and dog-like heads (3/7/9) with horns and jaws wide enough to swallow a buffalo whole
Smok - Derived from ordinary snakes that, after incredibly long lives, grow to enormous sizes
Zmey - As they fly, sparks form from their scales
Balaur [which is Romanian, not Slavic] - Comes from a snake that fulfills a certain task (not being seen, not biting a human, not letting sun fall on it, etc.), Three types, living in the skies (come down to drink water, which is stored in the tail), land, or water
I really liked the design for the sky balaur, which stands out compared to the more generic land and water varieties. The water-filled tail acting as a pressure sprayer is also a super cool idea. The lamya design was refined into this drawing with Drake.
i know you like wraith scratch, so i'm curious: what would your your s/i's reaction be to him being in his body again?
she'd honestly feel horrible for him.
it kinda depends on which version of the theory you go with, but ultimately, if the reason he became a wraith was because he got so sad he didnt want to be himself anymore, then she would be heartbroken. she thought scratch was just a ghoul who lived to scare people and didnt expect to get so close to humans. she had no idea he was the ghost of a regular person who just got really, really sad, let alone someone who was currently alive who was basically dissociating to the supernatural realm to get out of his painful memories.
she would completely understand him too, about life being so cruel and unfair to the point where you basically just, dont wanna be alive anymore.
she would promise to be there for him while he tries to go back to being human. reminding him to pace himself when eating, making sure be doesnt sleep too much, to keep himself clean and to do a bunch of needed activities.
and in return he would help her with self care too. seeing her slackin in feeding or sleeping and he'd "if i have to take care of this dumb flesh body then so do you" and he'd like making food together or cuddling until they fall asleep.
and slowly she'd help him in dealing with his bad memories. reminding him its not his fault that things turned out the way they did and that it wasnt fair he had no one there for him when he needed it. she'd be there to help him through it and remind him he's worth it and that he matters.
For if I bow, they'll say it was for fear;
And if I vow, they'll say it wasn't real.
some rambles under the cut 🥀
I’ve mentioned this on my other social medias but given the state of 2020 I think that it’s safe to say that my goal of releasing Larvatus’ first chapters will probably be delayed further than expected. Between my job, the pandemic and just being unmotivated to an unprecedented degree (like...I’ve never had a break from art that long, since I was about fifteen or so??) I’m going to have to take some more time off to keep developing stuff.
The more I look at the project in its current state, the less I’m happy with elements of it.. I want to keep refining, but keep certain elements public so that I’m not leaving everyone in the dark again like I did for most of this year. I think I’m going to aim for a smaller project goal to complete by the end of the year, e.g. new reference art or Lore entries on WorldAnvil that are available for public access, maybe some world-building stuff like an updated map, etc. I’ll think on it!
Thanks for your patience everyone!! ❤️
tl;dr comic unlikely to be released in 2020 due to a lot of Shit Going On. will aim for a smaller related project in the meantime.
