#wispiria

[midnighttiger]

For my mental health I am NOT shading them nor giving them an actual background.

Happy Pride Month! My gay tigers love you for who you are!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🐯💜

[midnighttiger]

Lord of the Taiga, Warrior of Bloodstained Snow...

Hear the prayer of your kin.

Grant good hunting, valiant battles...

May you grant us a warrior's death...

Sorry for the edgy name LMAO. That was the best I could come up with in 2023, and I haven't changed it yet.

I originally uploaded this to my dA to share some lore in Wispiria: The Endless Summer and to elaborate on the culture Melodia and Anadari practice.

This drawing is unfinished, but I imagine that Anadari and other legends would have some more decorative elements to their design (think things akin to halos behind Jesus and angels in Christian iconography). Things like antlers, bones, branches, berries, etc.

Warning for a LOT of info below:

Mythology

Melodia, Prowl, and (by extension) Anadari are originally from the taiga. The dominant culture there, besides what is essentially atheism, is a sort of polytheistic mythology that explains the origins of various animals and their roles in the ecosystem. There can be as many legends, heroes, figures, etc. as you wish, but the most popular ones that I will be exploring are Anadari, a tiger associated with hunting and battle, and Kokhruga, a brown bear associated with protection, strength, and resolve. I will probably change and elaborate on this stuff later on.

Legends are NOT referred to as "gods" in Wispiria. They may be referred to as "deities", but animals tend to just stick with "legends".

Legends aren't really associated with morality and moral systems. They're primarily associated with the origins of the world, explanation of natural phenomena, and standards of animal behavior. To put the last part in other words, WBS Anadari doesn't care if you kill, steal, or run off another animal from its territory. They only care that you do these things in a "tiger-ly" way.

Side note - the Sangai Tribe (Hunter's birth-tribe) would be prejudiced toward this culture, not just because it's from such a different part of the world, but because the general philosophy behind it is very concerned with one's own species and upholding the standards of such. Sangai's teachings, as they understand them, were concerned with all animals, even if she put her own kind first. This may make taiga animals seem "narrow-minded" and "uneducated" in their eyes.

Name info

Anadari, the red-orange guy you see me draw a lot, is named after WBS Anadari. Usually when I use the name "Anadari", I am referring to the character unless otherwise stated or denoted with stuff like "(legend)", "(WBS)", etc.

Names in this culture are genderless. Legends themselves are technically genderless, but you may hear animals refer to WBS Anadari by masculine (he / him) pronouns. Any pronouns are fine. It's just common usage.

Furthermore, it is "untraditional" for animals involved in this culture to name their young directly after a legend. The Endless Summer will feature a living Anadari and a living Kokhruga, but often animals use diminutives of legend's names to pay tribute to those of their choosing. Kokhruga names his son "Kokhura", and, hypothetically, an animal named after Anadari would be called something like "Adari" or "Anari".

Design notes

WBS Anadari will not have a set stripe design (unless I create a simplified version ofc). I prefer that their appearance is ambiguous, lost to time, subject to the traits of oral history, and dependent on one's own imagination. I think this gives off the idea that anyone can be great like them.

In the same vein, they should look more realistic than my other tiger characters, who should be stylized in some way.

They do not have pupils.

Again, their design will have "decorative" elements. They may be simplified but present to demonstrate WBS Anadari's status.

For illustrations, I would prefer to use a textured brush of some kind, but a solid brush / pen brush is fine. It's just to emphasize the "fairytale" feeling.

[midnighttiger]

The King and Queen, rulers of the Sapphire Mountain Tribe.

They also happen to be Nikita's parents...

In the Sapphire Mountain Tribe (or simply Sapphire Tribe), monarchs lose their given names upon ascending "to the throne", so to speak. The tribe's ancestors speak through the leaders, whom are treated as gods amongst mortals. It is prohibited to refer to the rulers as anything but their titles, "King" and "Queen", as this would be an affront to the heavens themselves.

(I'm trying to upload a version without the little snow-covered outcrops, but I currently cannot. A more readable version without these can be viewed on my DeviantArt.)

The King and Queen 2025 by Lovely-Tigress on DeviantArt

[midnighttiger]

Super sorry bc I JUST posted the Markhor ref on its own, reblogged the Pangolin one just to share a playlist, and now I'm posing them all together for no real reason. I just like them all being together LMAO.

The main point of this is just to show off Shikra's (he/she) concept ref. I should have drawn him with the missing eye, but I think I got lazy and didn't account for it.

Shikra is the youngest of these three and the one who gets screwed over after the tribe's first leader disappears. Long story short, the original leader, Sangai (she/her), cared very much for Markhor (he/him) and Shikra, who never liked each other to begin with but put aside their differences to make the whole "tribe" thing work. Markhor feared Shikra would be named Sangai's successor, but she ended up naming him instead.

After she leaves the tribe, however, him being her ultimate decision isn't enough. While Markhor struggles with handling leadership, two of Pangolin's cubs are killed in a skirmish with outside hunters. Markhor uses the tragedy to his advantage, making Shikra a scapegoat and exiling her. He chases her away violently, which is how she loses her eye.

Pangolin (who is Markhor's "sixth-claw" or second-in-command) isn't really innocent in all this, but he sides with Markhor, because he believes him. After Shikra is gone, they agree to split control of the tribe's territory between themselves (with Markhor having final say in all decisions, obviously).

No music for Shikra yet, but eventually... Maybe.

Notes transcription:

Full color - starting at the top of his head, clockwise

3-tuft crest

lines connect at inner eye corner

beard

talon-like marking on dew claw

middle toe color =/= outer color

2 tufts

Profile sketch

aerodynamic profile

3 tufts

Front-facing sketches

pre-exile (top sketch)

return to tribe (bottom sketch)

[midnighttiger]

Fallen Star

[midnighttiger]

Ok Cobra design for real this time.

I make such a big deal about never drawing her, because she's an important character. Besides Anadari, she's Hunter's best friend and his initial love interest, but they are both competing for future leadership of their tribe. When Hunter eventually becomes tribe leader, she tries to support him but ends up plotting to make him step down - before she has to resort to extreme measures...

Notes:

forehead marking (followed by sketch of said marking)

ear markings (followed by sketch of said markings)

hood-like neck fur

freckles!

[midnighttiger]

Hunter shuddered at the thought. Even after all the time he had spent with his mentor, he couldn't see how Markhor had shaped him into a stronger leader. That he may always sit in his predecessor's shadow made the bile rise in his throat and the world shift out of focus.

Alt. version and original piece from 2020

[midnighttiger]

Komodo is the Sangai Tribe's first healer, Melodia's dear friend and colleague when she joins the tribe, and Anadari's primary father figure.

Notes transcription

From top middle, clockwise:

neck ruff poorly groomed between shoulders

bushy brows, scraggly cheek fluff near ears

perm. squint + dilated pupil

foreleg fringe

permanently kinked tail

standard musc. build, poor posture