Finally a break! I've been so swamped with calculus and physics I haven't drawn in literally 3 weeks. I was chatting with a friend and got an idea to draw part of a magical girl transformation with Irida, so here's the result of that!
In Mahoumas, divine particles are quite literally everywhere in the world, to the point that seeing the world through a Champion's blessed sight makes everything look like it's glowing with holy light. When Champions undergo transformation to form their weapons and regalia, they pull loose particles from the environment to solidify into what they need using their soul stone.
I thought it would be fun if Irida's transformation pulls particles into a liquid form before they solidify, since Palkia is pearl themed and water type. It matches her actual Champion form too, with her flowing sleeves and obi.
Also bonus doodle! Divinities are varied in personality but Palkia has historically been very eager to have Champions unlike Dialga.
We got Volo!! I've been thinking about Mahoumas again now that my school workload is lighter, so I finally got to draft Volo's champion design. Worst to ever do it, can't wait to draw him fighting our main duo.
Since I've had time to think about it, I've also done some more refining on where the magic comes from. Essentially in this AU, legendaries are such powerful divinities that just being in a place will cause immense damage to the nearby environment and creatures as a result of the energy they let off. In ancient times they would "resolve" conflicts by whaling on each other, which would obliterate any nearby settlements and mess up the ecosystem. Arceus then decided that the best way to protect all his children would just be to simply stop them from doing that by only allowing proxies to fight.
The basic idea is that a legendary has a divine champion (diplomatic assistant) that meets with the champions of others in order to discuss and settle issues. This ensures no region ending damage and also makes sure that decisions aren't rash, spur of the moment actions. The champions are protected under the rules too; once in contract to a legendary, they aren't to be attacked or harmed by other champions unless they've already been cleared and confirmed for trial by combat. There's some other specifics too but in essence they're basically just there to keep the peace and represent their divinity.
What makes Volo different (and such a pain to deal with) is that he's Giratina's first champion, so he got a lot more benefits that champions generally shouldn't have. Giratina had never had to set up a champion before, plus was excited to have one after eons, so Volo was lavishly spoiled. Since Giratina doesn't talk to other legendaries, he was also pretty much unchecked and just doing whatever he wanted without any regulation. This is a problem in general but it is especially troublesome when another champion (cough, Ingo) tries to revert the "corrections" he's making.
Anyways bonus doodle: since he was the first, Giratina wanted a little whimsy for him.
Let me know if you guys want to see more of this bastard, I'm off to take a nap
I went to hang out with a friend over the break and that finally gave me enough motivation to draw again! I wanted to draw one of the scenes from Ingo and Emmet's fight in Hisui. Like I've said in the past I work on this all out of order, so this was mostly just to draw a really tense moment. It's also a good moment to demo the change in Emmet's eyes after being captured by Volo, to show the excessive dilation in them that makes them look black. Volo put pins in him to help control him and part of that is messing up his visual processing, which is how he convinces him to associate Ingo's appearance with himself so he'll attack him. He also has more trouble focusing his vision and seeing in general, things tend to look overexposed due to how wide his eyes are and the fact they stay dilated even in bright environments.
I'll probably talk more about Volo's conditioning process to make Emmet more amicable and willing to fight once I flesh it out a bit more. You guys let me know if you'd be interested in hearing about that. Anyways I hope you guys like the art and I'll see you next year ^^!
also bonus unrelated doodle from my loose work bin:
this was from november I think, I had to wring this out of my hands
I tend to work on Mahoumas in bursts where I am able, and since I'm working everywhere at different times, I might focus more on the backstory, beginning, middle, end, epilogue, such and such in random order. Adaman and Irida only start serving a greater purpose in the story around the second half of the story when Ingo starts to remember more of his past and realizes how much worse his current problem is. It's also around the time Sinnoh's Divinities decide to pick up some champions to handle the rift problems before they get out of hand.
I had a lot of fun designing these guys! I think my favourite thing to work on was their new clothes (especially Irida's, it was so fun to mess with the transparent aspects of her clothes). The main thing with the regalia in Mahoumas is that they work off what you already wear, they just build them up into your divine armour, so it was fun to look at how I could convert different articles for their champion designs.
A short note on the major design inspirations:
crowns/hairpins: both of their headwear are based on the metal frames around Dialga and Palkia's faces! They're a little exaggerated to be sharper/curved but the general shapes come from them
hakama: both of them are wearing hakama, with Adaman wearing tattsuke-bakama in place of his baggy cuffed pants, and Irida wearing hakama that have been clipped at the crotch to match her usual shorts
Adaman's fans: these are based on the shape of Dialga's tail! I wanted to give him an obscure weapon since he's usually not the one directly attacking (Irida is), but they still have their uses in battle. Iron tessen were also actually used and they match Dialga's steel type
Irida's naginata and tasuki: when I was drafting, I wanted to give Irida a naginata just because Palkia's origin form is built like a horse and polearms were the standard weapon for horseback thanks to their reach. I also wanted to try something like a hagoromo for her made of clear silk to look like water. While researching for references and related design elements, I found out about onna-musha, who specialized in using naginata. Of course for fighting you need to tie long kimono sleeves back and out of the way, so they had tasuki for that. In the end I decided to giver her a clear silk kimono almost as an overcoat, with the tails of her sleeves floating around
I hope you guys like these guys as much as I do! also sorry about going MIA for a few months but my classes this year are super heavy so I'm gonna be posting less often (I only get to draw one thing per weekend due to time constraints 💔), so see you later!
also bonus shitpost. Fun fact Irida's bracelets and anklet become her armour pieces which is why she only has three.
An old sketch but for Mahoumas, this is one of the dreams Ingo has while he's failing to use his bow during training. It's fun to draw their new modified uniforms, but their first uniforms have their charm.
I didn't get to draw it (even though I planned to after finishing this), but Emmet is faster to pick up the blessing after they both sign to be champions. He learnt to how to transform first, cast with the staff first, and he used that to guide Ingo. Part of what makes using the bow so difficult for him is that it's a weapon he's not used to that he has to master alone. There aren't even many pro archers in Hisui, so it's hard to get anything done with it.
I have a sketch for that, a different nightmare Ingo had prior:
Volo walked through his rift from one problem directly into another
I was talking with my friend the other day about some of the fight scenes between/with Emmet and Volo in Mahoumas. Before Emmet loses the penultimate match, Volo actually tries to play nice in earlier interactions. He tries to get people on his side so it's easier to enact his plans, but since that failed with Ingo, he tries it on Emmet. Spoiler: it still doesn't work.
For some extra background details, the reason it doesn't work is because as part of the blessings they are given, Ingo and Emmet are able to see chaos and disordered energy. Champions (ones that are hired properly at least) are completely free of this energy naturally, that's what makes them "pure of heart" and safe to employ under divinities. Regular humans have varying amounts of this, which can range from the average noneffective amount to higher concentrations that lead to malice or suffering. Volo on the other hand, because he made his deal with the very source of chaos, basically lost his human body to be remade out of this corrupted energy entirely. To Ingo and Emmet, he doesn't even look human. He looks like a diseased mass taking the shape and mannerisms of a person. That's why no amount of him talking nice and being friendly will make them let up, he is something to be eradicated to them.
Bonus: what makes Emmet hard-hitting but brittle is corruption. Losing Ingo made him lose his stability, which is why he couldn't transform for a while after. In his eyes, he is no longer pure, because that break let that energy into his heart. It's what makes him inevitably fail later on. This is an old sketch but this is what he sees in his reflection.
Let me know if you guys would be interested in a worldbuilding lore post about the Divine Code for champions, holy weapons, chaos as a force in humans and pokemon, or anything else regarding the way things work in this AU. I'm more of an artist than a writer which is why I haven't put it down yet, but I'll be happy to share if you guys want to know more.
I'm lowkey releasing spoilers for my own story since I don't draw all of the little slow paced moments between bigger action scenes, but I just had to draw this scene!
If you go back down my page, you'll see a comic where Emmet and Volo have a face-off on their first meeting. They actually have many more fights like that, happening whenever Ingo gets too close to shooting Volo out of the sky which causes him to portal away. He doesn't play fair in the fights he has with either of the twins, which is inevitably what leads to him being able to beat Emmet. He doesn't follow Divine Code, nor does he have the biological or physical limits humans have. The sheer volume of corrupting energy that comes off him makes Emmet sicker and sicker in every fight until eventually his body collapses. It splits him clean in two, pouring blood and divine energy out like water in a cracked vase. Volo takes Emmet's body to Hisui for his divine energy, so he can use it to make himself stronger and to use him as a destructive weapon.
He's barely conscious in there, which is for the best considering what he's been put through. The world looks blurry and unfocused to him, only sharpening when he's forced into battle. The red pins and shards Volo put all over him are meant to keep him immobilized, with the pins being dispelled once Volo needs him to fight. The shackles however are meant to be felt, piercing into his neck, wrists, and ankles in order to aggravate him. They're like the prods for bull fighting, they get and keep him aggressive enough to start lashing out at random.
If you guys want to hear any more of the details, feel free to ask. I'm trying not to make this post too long, but it's nice to get this stuff out!
