Some of you have been wondering about Tara’s mom, which is why I’m now officially introducing you all to this beauty of a woman!✨💕
Meet Ratri Moonshield Sunspear, Surya’s late wife and Tara’s mother. As you can see here, her daughter inherited literally everything from her mama and barely a single thing from her dad (Surya’s genes didn’t even try, lmao).
While her character is still relatively in development, here is a concept explanation I have about her in general because she has had quite the significant impact on her husband and daughter:
The Moonshield family was said to be the exact opposite of the Sunspears in everything besides wealth, from their Tamas to their temperaments. They were considered a mystery to most people because with their powers and vague origins, they quite literally lived in the shadows of Asteria despite being one of the oldest families in the world. It was even stranger when the head of the Moonshields (Ratri's father) suddenly proposed an arranged marriage between his daughter and a son of the Sunspears to connect the two families together, even though they were complete opposites in almost everything.
At first, young Surya, who was still a student of Kal Asterock at the time, obviously wasn't looking forward to being set up with someone he barely knew, especially when they had a Tama that was naturally weak to his because he believed it would corrupt the gene pool of the proud Sunspear family. Not to mention, his fiancée was apparently not even a Gorotama player herself, so he had no interest in such an arrangement whatsoever.
It wasn't until he officially got to meet Ratri for the first time that he began to think otherwise. He tried to dismiss her in his typical arrogant manner at first, only to be caught off-guard when she unexpectedly showed that despite her gentle nature, she was not exactly someone who just tolerates disrespect. Their first meeting was a bit rocky at first, but as time passed, they slowly started to warm up to each other after Ratri revealed herself to be a woman of many surprises.
They eventually went through with their marriage in their mid 20s, and not long after, their daughter Tara was born. Because of the contrasting nature of her parents' Tamas, however, there were a couple of complications with her birth, which made it all the more relieving when she managed to grow into a healthy little girl. For the following years, they lived a happy life together despite their differences: a narcissistic but responsible father, a mysterious but affectionate mother, and a mischievous child with lots of energy.
Tragedy ultimately shatters this family apart when the incident with Edina's dragon happens. Ratri saw her husband become momentarily consumed by the blue flames and ran to save him, only to be caught in the crossfire of a particularly brutal attack from the dragon. Blue fire is so much hotter than ordinary flames, so by the time Surya barely managed to put out the fire burning him to hold her in his arms, it was already too late for her.
Ratri's untimely death completely broke the family, and everything just started to go downhill from that point forward. The severe trauma Surya experienced from both losing half of his face and his wife in the worst possible way pushed him to become overprotective of their daughter, but because of his own narcissism and arrogance, that protectiveness only made him extremely controlling with Tara as years went on, which only got worse.
It didn't help that she was exactly like Ratri in both appearance and powers, and it was especially bad back when the trauma was still fresh with Surya. When she unlocked her Tama, everything only got even more complicated because since Ratri was a Moonshield, the Sunspears didn't exactly have the proper Gorotama training methods for her specific Tama because not only was it a power completely weak against them, but they expected her to have inherited the Sunspears' main Tama and not her mother's. So throughout her childhood, Tara had to grow up with a brutal training regime that wasn't even compatible with her own Tama in the first place. She even had to take some extreme self-defense lessons courtesy of Surya, mostly because he wanted her to learn how to defend herself without relying on her Tama.
Despite this, Tara never once blamed her mother for inheriting the Tama that caused her a lot of grief in her life, instead deciding to hold everything against the entire Sunspear family in general for putting her through so much. It even becomes one of the reasons why she decides to enroll herself in Kal Asterock under Ratri's maiden name.
Because if being a Sunspear like her father was going to give her nothing but hardships, then she'd rather be a Moonshield just like her mother instead.
Additional Fun Facts about Ratri:
1. The brooch she wore was a gift from Surya back when they were engaged, which he had mustered up the courage to buy in Mestras because he was quite the prideful individual and had to push himself to do that in public. Now Tara secretly keeps it stashed away in her dorm room, but she never once wore it.
2. She used to call Tara her "Little Star" because of what the name means in Sanskrit.
3. Her maiden name "Moonshield" also references how her Tama is mainly used for defense and support, a stark contrast to how the Sunspears' Solar Rays work in Gorotama.
4. When Surya saw Odward cradling a severely burned Casper in the aftermath of Key's fire, his PTSD was immediately triggered because it reminded him exactly of Ratri's final moments.
5. The green bracelets Surya wears in the present day used to belong to Ratri.
And last but not least, a little sketch I made of chibi Surya x Ratri!✨💕
