Kaveh as a classical Persian dancer. Some notes about this below:
First of all, I want to point out that all of this is based on research and I’m not Persian myself (I’m Puerto Rican). It’s not 100% accurate but I tried to gather as much information as I could.
From what I read, historic performances of male dancers were common until the end of the Qajar Dynasty and beyond. Male dancers were viewed negatively due to the Iranian world’s perception of masculinity. It implied effeminacy and could even lead to disinheritance. Because of that, male dancers were (and still are) considered individuals who failed to realize idealized gender roles. As far as clothing goes, a lot of them tended to wear ambiguous clothing that had male and female elements to it.
The Qajar Dynasty had a lot of influence on the current form of Persian classical dance (that’s why it’s sometimes called Qajar Dance, and it got coined as “court dance” during that time too). I wanted to mostly base Kaveh’s outfit on fashion from that era, while still keeping elements of his in-game design. Anyway, onto the actual design!
Dancers usually use henna to draw attention to their hands and feet as they carry out movements.
Ghungroos: the anklets are used to highlight their rhythm and footwork
Jewelry: same as ghungroos, things like earrings, necklaces and bracelets were used to emphasize movementss
Khussa: during the Qajar Dynasty, many people would use those shoes with upturned toes because of how comfortable and convenient they are. They can be seen in a number of historical paintings.
Headpiece: Usually, dancers would wear something similar to a tiara or a small decorated hat with a feather at the front. The outfit is meant to be very ornate looking with bright colors to stand out and draw attention on stage.
The reason I didn’t make the skirt longer was due to a picture I found of a group of classical dancers where the male dancers seemed to wear them at knee-length.
To close this off: fuck the orientalism in this fandom.
[ID: Traditional art of a humanised P03 from Inscryption, though now repurposed into a original character named Sohrab. Sohrab is a tan skinned Iranian nonbinary with a rectangular face, a large nose, and combed over black hair. Xe wears a black jumper with black trousers and shoes. Sohrab's legs and right arm (our right) are prosthetics due to being a triple amputee. First image has Sohrab greet and say "Yo!" with a mischievous look as he waves hi with xer prosthetic clawed hand.
Second image is a small fullbody of Sohrab standing whilst holding a cane with xer prosthetic, now looking more like a anatomical hand. Next to the fullbody is a half body of a shirtless Sohrab putting on its prosthetic arm. Third image shows Sohrab with a disappointed expression. End ID.]
What was originally a human P03 design became its own thing due to me liking the design too much. Hopefully the inscryption crowd will still like my 'grumpy Iranian lad' design xD
On the more oc side... say hi to Sohrab! Xe is a Iranian roboticist that goes by it/xe pronouns! Sohrab is in the same headworld as John and takes care of them and their robotic body.
@ anyone here who knows something about Persian names: I want to rename a Sumeran character and I’m currently contemplating the name Iliyan, which Wikipedia states is Persian and more or less means “My God is Yahweh.”
I wanted to corroborate the name’s origins and meaning, but I wasn’t able to find any sources that did so.
So I wanted to ask:
1. Does the name Iliyan truly mean “My God is Yahweh” and will it work for a Persian character (or Persian-coded character)?
2. Would it even be appropriate to use this name? Sumeru appears to draw lots of inspiration from Zoroastrianism, and I’m not sure how this deity relates or even if it can relate
3. If the name doesn’t work, what are some good alternatives that start with the letter i?
[ID: Traditional pencil sketches of Dr. Jazi Toma, the mad biologist, with shorter hair. First image is Jazi adjusting his purple rubber gloves with a devious expression. Second image is Jazi holding a syringe at the viewer and says “Silly, don’t worry, it will only hurt for a moment <3″. Third image is monster Jazi with also a resulting shorter mane, there is a halfnody and a closer bust, his hair is much more spikier looking. End ID.]
[ID: A digital art reference of Dr. Jazi Toma. Jazi is a transmasculine Iranian biologist who goes by he/they/it pronouns. Jazi has both a human and monster form. His personality is characterised as charismatic, caring, eccentric, and secretive. The background of the sheet are dna strands. Rest of the images are close ups.
First close up shows human form Jazi, he is 5′8 and has light grey brown hair with brown streaks, tan skin, a tooth gap, a beauty spot on his forehead, and wears a white lab coat with a purple belt and gloves and boots. To the left are expressions. From top to bottom the expressions are: happy and smiling, confused and tired, looking very annoyed and grumpy, and a shadowed Jazi looking down smugly whilst holding a syringe. To the right is a ref on the palms of his hand both human and monster form, human form appears to have claws, monster form is a full on paw with a mini thumb.
Second close up shows his monster form, it is a quadruped draconic monster with tan scales, has two big eyes and three smaller bug-like eyes across his forehead, his mouth has become beak-like from rodent-like teeth and has bug mandibles on the side, his hair has turned into a mane that covers across his spine and tail, has a teal wattle with purple sags, and his back feet are like bird talons.
Third close up shows details of his monster form’s face. From left to right, it shows a front view of his face with his rodent teeth-beak and three bug eyes, a side view without his hair and opening his mouth and mandibles, an above doodle of the mandibles, a pattern of Jazi’s wattles and their colours, and a more angry looking monster jazi roaring, showing its teal gums and turquoise tongue with its mandibles out. Fourth close up shows the pattern of Jazi’s back footprint. End ID.]
Full ref of my mad scientist oc/sona, Dr. Jazi Toma! The weird biologist that makes weird monstrosities and can turn into one as well.
More info on him under the cut!
Dr. Jazi Toma is a transmasc Iranian scientist who was a eccentric, but respected man in his fields. Studying biology and genetics, his research had helped many, from easing genetic diseases, splicing livestock and crops to become more healthy, and advocating ecological preservation. He had also worked in teaching at various universities, and had even worked in hospitals and performed surgeries for those in need.
Despite being so respected, Jazi was also incredibly controversial, as he had created many spliced creatures from merging genetics of various animals together, and has even experimented with his own genetics, whilst all his creations are perfectly healthy and he has claimed his modifications have made him healthier, the implications his work gave in how malleable genetics seem to be had raised many questions and concerns for ethics by other scientists. There had even been rumours of Jazi experimenting and splicing the genetics of other humans, but he had made no comment on these rumours and tends to dodge them when confronted about it.
However, these criticisms and rumours eventually came to give Jazi a low reputation, and it was found that he was giving unauthorised surgeries to patients, though Jazi claimed he was only helping those in need, it was found said surgeries gave unauthorised genetic modifications to them from nonhuman material. Whilst the patients after the modifications were found to be healthy and otherwise normal and some even claimed to have requested the modifications in the first place to survive, Jazi was dubbed a mad scientist and ostracised from the scientific communities.
Regardless of how people now percieve him, Jazi mostly prefers to keep to himself nowadays, and lives alone working in his lab with all of his genetically modified critters that he treats as his own beloved pets and babies.
Personality wise, Jazi is a... strange man, he is known to be affable and caring, but his fascinations in biology can go to even a morbid degree, often curious to see what he can create with his monsters. As a result of mostly being isolated in his lab and not having a lot of interaction nowadays, Jazi can also at times act touch starved to anyone who has managed to grow close to him.
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Jazi was made as a sona to express both my transition goals, and... also cuz I think mad scientist monsters are super gender lol. He's in the middle ground of a sona and his own character, but he is very personal as a result.
Jazi also has a monster form as a result of his genetic experimentation, for convenience he rarely turns into this form, but it is sometimes more comfortable for him to turn into this form and its a good way for him to relax or defend himself from any intruders that want to harm his laboratory.
