Dragon warband (1305 AE, 16-17 years old, at graduation from the fahrar)
Ardea Dragonblaze - Legionnaire, elementalist
Aurelia Goredragon - Ardea's partner, warrior
Sidonia Chaindragon - Ardea's older half-sister, guardian
Odhran Dragonfly - Obsius's albino twin, mesmer
Obsius Dragonprowl - Aurelia's best friend, thief
Kouran Dragonheart - the mom friend, engineer
Reeva Dragonblast - the one with the joke, engineer-ish
Lupita Wilddragon - the quiet one, ranger
Rorick Dragonbreath - the Orr nerd, necromancer
Can't believe I had them since late 2017, but years later they finally have a design!
Now to draw them around 15 years later, and finish their small refs for their fullbody design... sometimes in the future, gotta catch up on the easy oc-tober challenge first (9 out of 31).
Some trivia from the wip, and some new trivia!
- Having just gotten out of the fahrar, they're full of confidence and bravado. Granted, they're quite capable, more than their age shows, but they still have some important growing up to do at this point.
- The necklace Ardea wears was made from an amber gem Aurelia found during training when they were younger. She gifted it to her because it was the same color of her eyes and Ardea had it made into a necklace.
- When they became official, Ardea started braiding unruly tufts of her mane with locks of Aurelia's (she keeps it short anyway).
- Sidonia is not only more buff and tall than most female charr, but she's also extremely fluffy, especially in winter. She doesn't mind it that much, and luckily her sister is always up for helping her out with grooming.
- After Rorick, Lupita gets along the most with Obsius and Odhran. One wouldn't say so from how the twins mostly ignore her (she's always quiet anyway), but there's never been a team like them in the fahrar when it comes to kitchen raids and similar nighttime expeditions.
- Reeva never really figured out what she wanted to be, which played heavily into her insecurities during the first years in the fahrar. Kouran helped her a lot after she stopped bullying him, and she became a bit of a jack of all trades. While she doesn't like calling herself an engineer, she considers herself a top-tier engineer assistant.
- Rorick got quite fucked up during a spell gone wrong, months before he joined the fahrar when he was still figuring out his magic. The result was much uglier and zombie-looking for a while, as the spell had quite literally consumed life force out of his body, with his face and hands having taken the brunt of it, but after lots of healing his skin became just furless and kind of wrinkly (think of a sphynx cat, but less squishy because it is technically all scars). Too bad his fur remained thin and sparse all over, never regaining its full strength.
Based on this prompt by @whumpster-dumpster. Also, I'd like to place a little blame on @shellalana for inspiring me to do this
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Roland hadn't finished speaking to Maya, but he reflexively looked around to where he could hear the heavy gait and loud voice of Brick.
"Hey, move aside," Brick said, not unkindly, to the Psycho. The Psycho shouted something about a ribcage, but did as he was asked. "Roland, the hell happened?!"
Roland, slightly peeved at being interrupted, gave Brick a look, but as he did he saw Brick's cheerful smile drop.
It was rare to see Brick being serious, except when he was murderous, and that was how he looked at that moment. Not too long ago, seeing that expression directed at him would have made Roland's stomach flip.
Although, to be honest, it still flipped. Brick just didn't look at him like that.
Brick pushed past the new Vaul Hunters without paying them any mind. Roland took a small step back, but before he got too far, Brick's hand caught him by the shoulder, while the other cupped his jaw with the outmost care.
Brick tilted Roland's face up and studied his swollen eye, his busted lip, with the attention of someone attempting to commit what he was seeing to memory.
Brick's expression tensed and he looked at Roland in the eye.
"Who did that?" he growled.
Roland's stomach flipped again, although in a much less unpleasant way. "I'm fine."
Brick didn't budge. "Who?"
Roland pulled away and Brick let him - though he didn't move away from Roland's space.
"Brick -"
"Who?"
Roland looked at the other Vault Hunters, who seemed to be pretty stunned by this, but not concerned enough to step in yet. It still made Roland's skin pickle uncomfortably, to know that they were watching this.
"I'm fine, let's just go back -"
Brick got in Roland's face again, forcing him look up.
"They dead? 'Cause if not, they're gonna be."
Despite himself, and all his common sense, Roland felt touched by this. Again, that wouldn't have been the case not too long ago, but Pandora had a way of changing people.
"Yes, you just killed them all," Roland said, pointing around. Brick followed the direction of Roland's hand and smiled, just a little. "I'm fine. You're the one who gets beaten up all the time."
It was surprising to see Brick react with such concern, since he rarely did after most shootouts, let alone when he was the beaten up one.
"Yeah, but I can take it."
Roland frowned. "Hey! I've been getting shot at and punched up just like you, this whole time."
Brick reached up and, very carefully, rubbed his thumb under Roland's split lip. Roland flinched at the slight twinge of pain.
"Yeah, but they never get you. On the face, I mean. Or kidnap you."
Roland's face heated up. He was keenly aware of the many pairs of eyes on them, and he didn't like it. He wasn't ashamed, exactly; he felt exposed. And he'd never liked that feeling.
Still, Roland placed a hand over Brick's, if nothing else to get this over with.
"I'm fine. I swear."
Brick made a non-committal noise, but he seemed reassured enough. Brick backed off, but not before placing a small kiss on the uninjured corner of Roland's mouth.
Roland cleared his throat and tried to seem as dignified as he could.
Blab, similar, different, doing, psst (with Zarak) and dream for Sul, and Mwah and shh for both rorick and kogar? >w>
I’m gonna put the answers under a “read more” because this is gonna be long as fuck.
Lets just start with Sul’Jari since he’s gonna take the longest, right?
Blab: Three secrets they're keeping.
Okay so Sul’s such an open person so most of his secrets arent really ones he keeps alone but rather stuff only very few people know about.
When he acts like Zaraks is annyoing him or is being too pushy it’s actually mostly because he’s way, waaaay to shy and bad with emotional talk to reveal to him that he basically crushes on everyone all the time. Zarak, Chiki und Naz very included.
Ever since he was on his own for so long after the destruction of Zul’Gurub, he’s had an addiction problem to some kind of plant or root. Chewing it or inhaling the smoke when it’s lit on fire really raises his spirits. He first discovered it when he was looking for something edible and quickly discovered that it would help him get out of the whole “all my friends are dead”-depression-hole for some time at least.
Lastly ever so often Sul’Jari, even though he’s a very social and outgoing person, likes to klimb up into one of the higher tree branches that span the city and just watch everyone going on their daily business from above. Those moments are one of the very few where he really likes being alone and he would probably never tell anyone about it in fear of losing that one point he can retreat to.
Similar: Three members of the same sex they find attractive.
First and foremost Zarak of course but that shouldnt really be a surprise should it, because who couldn’t fall for that damn nerd?Apart from that he really liked the looks of one of the Hexdocs he used to spy on in Zul’Gurub, but more in an appreciative kinda sense.And not to forget: He just feels like Naoba is extremely fucking cute.
Different: Three members of the opposite sex they find attractive.
This one is a tiny bit simpler, since the people he finds attractive are also some of the ones he spends most time with.
First we have Chiki because how couldnt he like someone who is just as much of a frog nerd as he is. Aside from that he really feels drawn to her on a pure “personality” level. Then of course there’s Naz who happens to be one of the closest friends he has and lastly, though he has never ever talked to her but just seeing Kyu’cana from a far made him appreciate her looks quite a bit.
Doing: Three habits that they have.
Sul is a person who tries to be friends with pretty much anyone he meets and correlating to that he has the habit of often going out of his way to find out about a persons favorite food or drink since he feels like thats the fastest way to get to know someone.Then theres a habit regarding his pet frog, Moochie. As some people might have learned recently Sul kisses Moochie goodnight every evening because he firmly believes that his Frogbaby won’t be able to sleep otherwise.The final habit I can think of is from way back when he was a child, but he has a habit of avoiding raptors. Even the nice, mounty ones he doesnt really like interacting with on his own.
Psst: Three things that they've always wanted to tell Zarak.
These are all things he really would like to tell Zarak but would never have the courage to do so in his curent state.
Firstly: Please don’t act stronger that you are to impress me. I’m already incredibly impressed by you and if you were to get hurt because of the way you want me to see you, I’d hate myself for it.Secondly: I love finally having a teacher, and I love having you as my teacher even more. But in your lessons there’s way too much talking and way to little setting things on fire with voodoo magic. Just sayin’And finally: Since I arrived this tribe has replaced the one I have lost. But you were the one who replaced the family I’ve been missing since and for that I love and appreciate you.
Dream: Three wishes they have.
Since the usual wishes including other people would be the usual boring “he wants everyone to be happy” type of wishes, I’ll try to name three more selfish ones.
First he’d love to become a hexdoc one day, but honestly pretty much everything that is using Voodoo magic and stuff would work fine for him. Big, bad and feared but not by people he actually cares about. That would be terribleEven though he’s kinda afraid of them, he’d really like to overcome his fear and own a rinding raptor one day. Or a panther, but while scaring him more, raptors always seemed more interesting to him. Also just because he really wants to give it some silly name.Lastly he’d wish for him to get his whole addiction situation cleaned up because deep down that stuff really bothers him and he doesn’t want to rely on anything to be himself anymone.
So much for the Sul asks. Let’s go on with the Rorick and Kogar ones.
Mwah: Three people they'd like to kiss.
Rorick: He’s not really the “kissing a lot of people” type (anymore) but there’s a few people he would definetely not deny a kiss from or even give one to himself. These people include:The lovely goblin bank lady in Dalaran, though he suspects that somethings odd about her.The giant tauren warrior woman that almost tripped over him during his last trip (heh) to Thunderbluff.And of course the gnome monk that once gave him a pretty bad beating... thinking of it maybe he really has a thing for stronger women.Kogar: First and foremost: Rekra. I mean seriously how could he resist that buff, muscular face of hers. Short answer: He couldn’t.Than Bömbur, his best friend and mentor for his time with the argent dawn. For an Orc that’s pretty proud of being part of the Horde, he really grew fond of that little dwarf during that time.And lastly: He’d probably have liked to kiss Zaela at some point. But more in a “I love your work” kind of way.
Shh: Three things they wouldn't want their parents to know.
Both their parents have been severely deathened by now, but if they were still alive (or come back in some way) there’s a few things they wouldn’t really want them to know.
Rorick: His parents were strict, but pretty honest and generous folks. And thats saying a lot for goblins. They always tried to teach him an relatively honest and good way of life. He’d love his parents to know that he made it to be a successful merchant and madequite a fortune for himself. On the other hand he would be really afraid of them finding out that he earned that fortune by selling useless junk to old people. On a sadder sidenote, he’d not want them to know that his younger brother already died a few years ago. But thats something he himself tries to forget as best as he can.Also he wouldn’t want them to know really how much of the things they tried to teach him he abandoned over time in favor of making a quick buck or selling someone out.Kogar: His father was a Warsong Clan shaman back in Nargrand but after him going all in with the whole demon situation, Kogar didn’t really feel like becoming his successor anymore so there’s always been kind of a unpleasant atmosphere between him and his parents. But from a pure “still his parents” way of looking at it there’s a few things he wouldn’t want them to know probably.He wouldn’t want them to know, just how deep friendships he has formed not only with non-orc horde members but even, to some extend, with the likes of dwarves and humans.He’d also probably be ashamend for them to learn that, while his decision to not wanting to become a shaman was purely his own decision, he later learned that even had he decided he wanted to become a shaman, there wouldn’t have been any way he could have, since he has little to no connection to the elements whatsoever.Lastly he wouldn’t want them to know, that the Warsongclan is basically non existant anymore. Though his own connection to the horde in itself is far stronger than to that what’s left of the clan he was born in, knowing what proud warsong orcs his parents were, he’d feel like it’d break their hearts to learn that their clan is nothing more than a shadow of the big, orcy awesomeness it has once been.
I was writing, but then I ended up sketching how the Dragon warband looked in their early years (after they left the fahrar at ~16yo), right before the mission that led Kouran to retire from active duty in 1308 AE. After that, they decided to rename the warband to Wing, and continued their streak of successful missions (or "creative interpretation of orders").
I really want to finish this headshot lineup, but I gotta determine some design elements first (and fix those things that aren't supposed to be there yet oops). Maybe I'll even do a 12 years later pic.
Some fun facts in the meantime:
- Odhran and Obsius are non-identical twins, which is obvious given that the first is albino while the rest of their family has dark fur. What they lack in strength and bulk, they make up for in craftiness and trickery.
- Ardea and Sidonia are half-sisters, with the first being almost a year younger. Their mother was a Flame Legion refugee and the only one of her family to reach safety when she was just a cub, and taught them not to be ashamed of their powerful fire magic.
- Aurelia and Ardea are fahrar sweethearts. Gross and cute at the same time, I know.
- Aurelia and Obsius became friends the day she arrived the fahrar. Specifically, she saw Obsius being picked on for being scrawny, decided she'd protect him, and then proceeded go to pick him up in spite of him being a few months older than her.
- Kouran and Reeva were a thing for a few years in the fahrar, now they're insufferable besties.
- Kouran is the designated group mom.
- Lupita and Rorick were thought to be a couple, but they've always been just close friends. She was non-verbal cub and he liked hanging out with her because she didn't mock his furless face (result of a spell gone wrong) and liked his stories.
- Aurelia is the tallest, Sidonia is the buffest, Obsius and Odhran are the smallest (Obsius is lither).
I'm in waaay over my head with the warband portraits since I want to add small refs for body markings/general body shape next to them :')
Tried to keep these on the same base, buuut then started changing the lines and that quickly got lost in transit lol... and yet I didn't scale them properly because of that >:T
Probably just gonna clean these sketches up and quickly slap color on them + the "pelt" view I made... or keep the heads and then put them on the same one lol
just a fun little thing/excuse to draw some bats and suppose lore dump a little about bats in my AU. They’re probably the thing I’ve put the most effort into lol. just love them all so much