#ralia

[zestreek]

Guess who's the imposter

Giggles

THE CUTIES EVER❤💚

Their ship name is Ralia idc if u weren't curious anyway

[fozmeadows]

hi, i love the tithenai chronicles!! it was a breath of fresh air to see a fantasy society where queerness was more accepted! i'm curious about the worldbuilding and was wondering what you drew inspiration from to write the culture and cuisine of ralia & tithena the way you did! (and thank you for bringing markel to life, he's the BEST and i adore him!)

Thank you so much!

Ralia is very loosely inspired by Britain/Europe during the Age of Sail: I wanted it to feel western in terms of the class and social structure, but not unambiguously reminiscent of a specific time and place. Tithena, by contrast, is meant to read as somewhere wholly invented, so while my imagination is still indelibly informed by my knowledge of real history and places, I was making a specific effort not to draw from any one location. Partly this is because it's a queernormative society, which strongly incentivizes trying to build its religious and social institutions from the ground up rather than copying something from Earth, but mostly it's because I wanted there to be a clear contrast with Ralia. Growing up, I read a lot of fantasy novels that situated European-inspired settings as the obvious center of their various worlds, with other places frequently othered, exoticised and/or stereotyped; and with ASASE and ATHP, I wanted to subvert that dynamic. We start out in Ralia, the familiarity of which is explored through the lens of it being an oppressive society, not an enlightened one, and then we go to Tithena, which is the actual narrative center of the story, and whose culture expressly contrasts and highlights Ralia's failings. Obviously, this doesn't mean Tithena is perfect or that Ralia is completely without redeeming qualities - something ATHP explores more than ASASE - but it's meant to invert our sense of who, to put it simplistically, the barbarians are, and why.

Which leads to one of the many ways in which Velasin and Asrien are narrative mirrors/foils. For Vel, Ralia is like a Gothic mansion from which he's finally escaped - even if he goes back one day to deal with his unfinished business there, it'll never be home again, and he doesn't want it to be. Whereas for Asri, Ralia is a ghost that haunts the narrative: something beloved that was taken from him before its time, and which he'd reclaim if he could, even while knowing that it never loved him back, and likely never will.

[quibbs126]

So some days ago, I was trying to draw/redraw these guys, and today I got around to drawing the rest of the page. Mostly while waiting for my first class to start, and then after that

Anyways, so if you remember, these guys (above) are these guys (below)

Mercury, Venus and Saturn are all siblings, Ariel and Salt are their parents, and then there’s their uncle Erik, who’s mostly just here because Ariel’s albino, so you can’t really tell what colors she’s passing down

I will admit, I’ve considered the possibility of cutting out the middle man and just having Salt and Erik be yaoi together, but also the kids get their weird powers from their mom, not him, and also he has his own kid, so I’m not sure. But I can maybe try to have more gay pairings this time around, considering I originally made these characters when I was 12 and didn’t understand how gay people worked at the time

Anyways, their hair was my main concern this time around, since I think by the latter two of these old sketches I figured out how I wanted to draw their hair. And yeah, I think they look much better here. Ariel might need a bit more tweaking on her hair though

Admittedly, I did just slap on some outfits, especially with the latter three I drew today, but I also don’t think they look entirely bad. I do need to at some point finalize their designs though

I also need to flesh out the details of their world. Like, I say Ariel and the kids have weird powers, by which I originally meant psychic but with some added non-specified weirdness, but I also don’t know how weird psychic powers should be in this world. Originally everyone had elemental powers, but I don’t know if I should continue that. Like, magic still exists, but does everyone just naturally have it? Are they elemental or just random? Also what’s the country they’re living in, and what government is Mercury working for? Because I don’t really want to keep my old ideas for it. Also do they have last names? What do I do for those?

I’m gonna need to figure out proper worldbuilding again. Well, I’m not sure how much I knew it prior, but still

But anyways yeah, have these guys

[sunshinexvibes]

It's always,"I won the world but lost my heart" and never, "Jogan tera maara rasiya, jag jeeta dil haara rasiya."

In frame- a still from movie Brahmastra

[jalebi-likes]

Ayan Mukherjee and Sanjay Leela Bhansali really keep putting their OTPs on sets until they end up getting married. 

Tbh, it’s the perfect set up. Making sure the OTP get together and are employed.

Better than most desi parents. 

[elazare]

PVLCHER INVENITVS

seyðamaður av Býflugur

Il me semble qu’aujourd’hui c’est l’anniversaire de @lehoedagan

Alors du coup voilà deux ptites illu de Lancelot et de son oc Ralia hehehe

Allez lire solivagant par pitié

[platonic-prompts]

Remember that one thing I wrote for my one prompt? This is Ralia and the spirit Matias mentioned, Opis. Magic farmer? Yep.

[aramielles]

okay another drawing of my friend Rarou : lancelotortue

Les deux personnages ce sont Niall et Ralia, deux de mes ocs dans ma fic Solivagant ! et puis Lancelotortue qui boude dans son coin.