And here I am, holding my breath and squeeing internally because now there's ART and I love all of it. I love that you feel like drawing these characters again, too. I now need to know everything about Rannon and his father figure, though. Who was he and why kill him? Dark powers in a ring aside, there must have been a passable reason, wasn't there? (The comic scene with Isokell was an utter treat and made my day but more about that hopefully sometime later.) ~Lawenta
Hee hee! I’m thrilled with all this inspiration! I mean, I should be working, producing actual illustrations, but... It is nice to see all these idiots take shape on the screen again. XD
First off, it has to be said Rannon has a very complicated relationship with father figures, as his and Shayari’s father pretty much went to the Denethor school of parenting. Maybe with some Tywin Lannisterevening classes in child-blaming.
After his own father died (very mixed feelings about that, again, complicated) and he had kingship thrust upon him, Rannon set out to prove everyone’s preconceptions about the useless younger prince wrong by dedicating himself to be the best king ever. It actually worked pretty well, for the first ten years. Largely because he chose the leader of the warrior caste, Keela’s father Tajkhan, as his right-hand man and advisor.
Then... came the drought. If not for that, things could have gone very differently. But the harvests kept failing, people starved, and in the end, despite everyone’s best efforts, it was beginning to tear Kayalana apart at the seams. It is a lot harder to be king when the going’s not good, and all those “this is the unprepared king we had to settle for” sentiments started rearing their heads again. Again, if he had commanded everyone’s respect from the beginning, maybe things could have gone differently.But as it was, when he was forced to make the very hard decision to sacrifice parts of the country and the people to be able to salvage the rest, the warrior caste simply said no.The threat of civil war kept mounting, as the king relies on the support of the warriors to enforce his rule, and many of them started claiming they were loyal to Kayalana, not necessarily the person on its throne.As the leader of the army, Tajkhan came to try and reason with his regent and friend one last time. Feelings were quite tense all around, and in the end Rannon stated that if Tajkhan would not obey his orders, he would be executed a traitor and replaced with someone who would.Funnily enough, killing their leader did not in fact make the army fall into line, but caused a great rift between those loyal to the crown and those loyal to their own leader, and the civil war was a fact.And yes, the swords Rannon carries, Dragon and Serpent, are two out of ten legendary swords, forged many hundred years ago by the virtually divine swordsmith ...somethingsomething, whose name I have most annoyingly forgotten. XD Most of those swords are lost, and they’re precious beyond measure. They were a gift from Tajkhan to cement their alliance, when Rannon first ascended the throne - and, bitterly, finally used to slay him as punishment for his perceived betrayal.(Because that’s what fathers do. Turn their backs and abandon you when you need them the most.)
