Some char refs for backstories of Aeollis and Arkos, or more specifically their mother and the conspiracy surrounding her heritage and upbringing. Plotted with @djkalis.
It's fun drawing older people! The lines are interesting. :D
Story under the cut.
Zylin Skerr
One of the most successful oblations from the most prominent Elevated Family of Sastrugia, Zylin Skerr, who was offered for lifelong service to her country at the age of two, had proven to be a prodigy in material physics and weaponry. Such skills and knowledge culminated in her unique ability to cleave through matter with the application of little strength and magic, securing her a place in a covert military force as an assassin before she reached her teenage years.
She was offered special exemptions, from access to training and resources usually only open to veterans who have earned them through years of service, to the exemption to keep long hair and wear makeup and jewelry.
Riesa of Yardan
At thirteen years of age, Zylin participated in the final battle that saw to the completion of the annexation of Yardan. During the height of the battle, she slayed a woman regarded by the Yardani clans as "hand of the gods": Riesa of Yardan, a young woman whose gentle disposition and powerful earth-moving magic were believed to be able to bring Yardan to internal peace, self-reliance, and cultural advancement.
With her death, the battle and the nation of Yardan itself were lost, and the remaining people cursed Sastrugia to "never obtain the power for which it lusts" as they were either killed or taken prisoner.
Nel of Clan Feran
The Yardani prisoners were subjected to procedures of brainwashing, experimentation, or both; eventually, only a twelve-year-old girl would survive - Nel of Clan Feran, a talented warrior-mage with power over the winds.
Nel was tenacious - this had in fact caught Zylin's attention, and she petitioned for the younger girl to be spared harsher treatment. After months in captivity, however, the procedures inflicted upon her caused her to be subservient to the very people that destroyed her nation, people, and history.
Renamed Petronilla Ferani, she was deemed "successfully reformed" and integrated into Sastrugian society. Three years after her capture, she was serving as a sharpshooter in the army.
A mere six years later, Petronilla was forcibly retired from field duty due to a serious injury to her hand sustained during a skirmish. She became coupled with her ex-subordinate - Aren Fjorde, an oblation from another Elevated Family - almost immediately.
Aftermath
Zylin would eventually mentor Aren and Petronilla's children - a pair of twins, brother and sister - in combative magic and material physics, respectively. She cared little for these "Yardani mutts", but strove to do her job well, nevertheless. She had sundered the hope of Yardan, and she would carve its endlings.
As she aged, she continued to hone her skills, and made a name for herself by successfully completing high-profile missions one after another, only putting a short pause in her career when she had a child - a son - for the sole purpose of having a progeny. Several of her grandchildren inherited at least a fraction of her talents.
Still, the thrill of snuffing out a "hand of the gods" as Riesa called upon her power was etched into her being. Even after decades of fighting, hurting, and killing, the memory would still evoke a stinging heat that spread under her skin, like an itch she could not reach.
Oh how she wished that before her death, she would get to kill another "hand of the gods"...
crying because we all know zylas would’ve tried to save robin anyway even if he thought claude’s contract would work even if it meant losing his autonomy
Sometimes it strikes me how much time has rlly passed in demonized and i kind of just sit there shook for a hot minute- how could it only be 3 months?
-but then I remember how if i’d gotten stuck bonded to a creature from a hellish dimension, gone through numerous life-or-death incidents with said creature, saved him and been saved by him multiple times in those high-risk situations, and coincidentally through it all have developed both an empathetic and telepathic tether to him where we can literally read each other’s minds and have been living together during the entire duration of our acquaintance-
then lethal bloodthirsty demon or no id fall in love with him too
Military Uniforms of Sastrugia
Ft. The four active Oblations of War
Yay for finishing a piece of digital artwork since over 2 years ago.
Infodump under the cut.
Sastrugia, as much as it may lag behind in the study of magecraft relative to the world's leading nations, advances in research and development of technological weapons (including firearms) and combat gear.
Figure 1: Dress Uniform
Ft. (a) Zylin Skerr "Cleaver", (b) Salem Skerr "Tremor".
Sastrugia's dress uniform presents the national colours of hunter green and antique gold, with accessory colours of silver, brown, and charcoal. It is styled for the weather of the nation's origin of cold deserts.
All military personnel can wear and should maintain a set of regular dress uniform (Fig. 1b). Senior officers and those given specific permission are able to wear an alternative style of the dress uniform (Fig. 1a) with a long coat, beret, and trousers tucked into long boots.
Notes for Oblations:
Most soldiers wear two identical pins with the national insignia of the Sastrugian dunes on their collars; Oblations however must wear the pin of their family insignia (see Fig. 4) on their left collar.
Oblations of War, specifically, wear blank epaulets where military rank would otherwise be denoted - Oblations of War are directly assigned to a supervisor per mission, thus have undefined ranks.
Oblations of War are given allowance to keep long hair, however must still adhere to styling code when in dress uniform.
Fun fact: the standard design (Fig. 1b) is based on the first outfit I designed for Aeollis in AoH.
Figure 2: Combat Uniform
Ft. (a) Serrak Tjarn "Winter", (b) Eryth Rogen "Harvest".
While Sastrugia's dress uniform reflects the nation's history and identity, its combat uniform embodies its values in practicality and efficiency.
There are modular components in the uniform that can be altered and arranged according to climate, terrain, and exposure; for example: the hood is detachable, the collar can be standing or stand-and-fall, and sleeves can be rolled up and fastened into position.
There are four colour themes for the combat uniform - see Fig. 3. Presented here are Sand (Fig. 2a) and Steel (Fig. 2b).
Notes for Oblations:
As for the dress uniform (Fig. 1), Oblations of War wear blank epaulets with their combat uniform to denote the fluid status of their rank.
Where soldiers would usually wear their surnames on a patch sewn onto the hem of their left chest pocket, Oblations wear patches presenting their family insignia (see Fig. 4).
Figure 3: Themes
Presented here are four colour schemes for the combat uniform (Fig. 2), named thematically for convenience:
Shrub: used in vegetated terrain - forests, woodlands, fields.
Snow: presents the colours of the oldest combat uniform, used mostly in snowy and icy terrain, rarely also in ashy terrain.
Sand: the most used theme in recent history due to the amount of troops deployed to the southern front facing the deserted deadlands of the Southern (Yardan) Exclusion Zone.
Steel: used in recent history in urban and suburban warfare; the colours are also versatile enough to be used in low-light environments.
Figure 4: Insignia
Each of the six Elevated Families have their unique insignia to conveniently denote their members (especially their Oblations of War, which is an important matter of pride). These symbols are designed to be simple, recognisable, and able to be easily crafted into accessories.
Etymology and design concepts - theme: glacial geomorphology
Skerr - skerry: small rocky island/islet formed at the outlets of fjords
Fjorde - fjord/fiord: sea inlet bound by cliffs in a glacial valley
Os - esker/eskar/eschar/os: ridge formed by deposited sediments revealed by melted glacier
Sandr - outwash plain/sandar/sandr: plain of meltwater outwash at terminus of glacier
Tjarn - tarn/corrie loch: mountain lake in a glacier-excavated cirque
Rogen - Rogen moraine/ribbed moraine: a type of hummocky moraine formed under a glacier
Technically ArkAeo (as one unit) counts as well but they're decommissioned and so wiped from the record lol.
I wanted to shade this with backlights but ran out of steam. _:D/L
More info (i.e. worldbuilding braindump) under the cut.
Oblations
Per the contract between the decision-making High Chamber of Sastrugia and each of the six Elevated families holding high magical potential in their bloodlines:
Each member of the Elevated households are considered upper class of society and will have their needs covered for life; in exchange, each family must offer one male and one female per generation for the nation and its causes.
These offered individuals are known as Oblations, and - as national property - are under the duty of care of the government. In turn, all their pursuits are to be for national interest. The process by which an offered individual is officially approved as an Oblation is called approbation.
Contract of Approbation
"Two Oblations per generation" is defined as follows:
Starting from when the last pair of Oblations of the family is approbated, the next pair of Oblations must be approbated within thirty years. This pair must consist of one male and one female, and both must be under the age of ten.
These children should have been selected due to being outstanding or displaying potential valuable to the country in some way. The pair undergoes approbation at the same time.
Classification
In service to a military dictatorship, the Elevated families are regarded for their historically potent talent in magic, and each Oblation of Sastrugia carries the wishes of the nation and their families to become a military resource. As such, they undergo frequent and regular assessments throughout their formative years to determine the most suitable path.
A large fraction of Oblations are eventually deemed unsuitable for military use, and are relegated to working for the government in other ways, mostly administrative and clerical work. These are the Oblations of Support.
Some Oblations are not fit for field deployment (due to e.g. showing little magical talent, being physically or mentally unsuitable for the field, possessing magical skills not for battlefield application), but have the mind, skills, and/or will to work in furthering the country militaristically, politically, or socially. As such they are put into positions of decision-making, education, or research and development. These are the Oblations of Advancement.
The most directly valuable Oblations are those that display magical potential and are suitable for the battlefield. These Oblations are formed and educated in such a way that their magical skills are developed for combat. They are integrated into the military forces, but answer directly to the High Chamber, and are given a codename*. These are the Oblations of War.
*All Oblations of War are codenamed, but not all with codenames are Oblations of War. Any individual who has the need for a codename for internal use by the High Chamber and its delegates is given one (e.g. Petronilla Ferani codenamed "Missy", Myrah Os codenamed "Poison").
Current Oblations of War
Sastrugia is presently in a state of relative stability, but persistent paranoia has kept the nation far from complacency. There are currently six living Oblations of War, though only four of these are officially active. The two conditional Oblations of War are:
Aren Fjorde: no longer field-worthy
Kaoli Fjorde: still in development
Not all of the six Elevated families have living Oblations of War at this time: Oblation of War Rauen Os was killed in action during the aforementioned years of unrest, and the family's most notable current Oblation is one of Advancement, Myrah Os. The Sandr family has not boasted Oblations of War for three generation to date.
Ages shown are approximate for War on Sastrugia (assuming the Galen Fjorde twins are 34 years old).
Zylin Skerr
Codename: Cleaver
Age/Sex: 59/F
Status: active
Key ability: atomic bond negation
The oldest living and active Oblation of War, Zylin Skerr has always been exceptional: offered at the age of two and blooded at the age of ten, she slayed catalyst Riesa of Yardan at thirteen years of age. Since then she has participated in both field battles and covert assassinations, and disposed of many magic wielders. She has also mentored multiple Oblations, and is regarded as the ideal Oblation of War.
The Skerr family's magical specialty has historically been rooted in the comprehension and manipulation of material properties at the atomic level; for Zylin, her magic manifests in the ability to detect or induce planes of weakness in matter through negating specific atomic bonds, through which she can then cleave with little strength.
Aren Fjorde
Codename: Haze
Age/Sex: 57/M
Status: retired
Key ability: aerosol manipulation
Having grown up amidst unrest in Sastrugian fringe territories arising from the encroachment and annexation of Yardan, Aren Fjorde was crafted to fill a niche on the battlefield and deployed at the young age of fourteen, when he became a sapper for the Sastrugian army. At the age of twenty-one, he was forcibly retired after suffering severe head trauma and losing his left eye. His superior officer at the time, Petronilla Ferani, was also injured during and retired following the incident. They would soon after enter a committed relationship and parent the Galen twins (Arkos and Aeollis), who were offered as Oblations.
The Fjorde family has historically contributed their magic in the form of battlefield manipulation, utilising their mastery of fluid mechanics. Aren's specialty is the manipulation of aerosols (e.g. vapour, dust, smoke).
Salem Skerr
Codename: Tremor
Age/Sex: 32/M
Status: active
Key ability: chaotic resonance
Of the current roster, Salem Skerr is considered the second most powerful Oblation of War, after his predecessor Zylin Skerr. His potential is expected to be stifled by his mental state, however, as he appears to suffer from some amount of traumatic stress following particularly intense fights. He also experiences anxiety associated with the expectations set upon him by Zylin's legacy, and otherwise lacks personal ambition and self-motivation.
Carrying on the tradition of the Skerrs, Salem uses his knowledge of material properties to apply precise resonant frequencies through touch. This ability is particularly effective on homogeneous materials and causes matter to break down on a molecular level.
Serrak Tjarn
Codename: Winter
Age/Sex: 25/M
Status: active
Key ability: perpetual chill
With his ability to manipulate thermal energy and cause extreme drops in temperature, Serrak Tjarn's role on the battlefield has been compared to that of Aren Fjorde. The effectiveness at which he is able to fuel his magic with energy removed from the system, thus enforcing a positive feedback cycle, makes him an asset in long battles against large groups. The potential to make his abilities directly offensive in combat is recognised, but not yet explored. He is also considered to possess the perfect psyche for an Oblation.
The Tjarn family's magical specialty is historically based on the field of thermodynamics, and their Oblations of War have mostly mastered heat, fire, and combustion. Serrak, however, belongs to a branch that focuses on the removal of thermal energy, which manifests as cold and chill.
Eryth Rogen
Codename: Harvest
Age/Sex: 21/F
Status: active
Key ability: interpersonal ether transfer
Born as a commoner, Eryth Rogen was scouted for her inherent aptitude in manipulating ether for the purpose of healing, and after further assessment, she was also found to be able to harness ether leaking from the dying or recently-dead with unusual ease. At present her abilities are limited to healing and - very circumstantially - ether transfusion, but investigations are underway for the possibility of her power being extended to leeching ether from the living.
As the herald of her family's Elevation, Eryth is the first and currently only Oblation of the Rogens. Exceptions were made to secure her - she has no male counterpart as a fellow Oblation for her generation, and she was eleven years old when offered.
Kaoli Fjorde
Codename: Husk
Age/Sex: 13/F
Status: in development
Key ability: desiccation (TBC)
Barely a teen and still in development as an Oblation, Kaoli Fjorde is only to be deployed in the most desperate of situations. Her magical abilities are not well-defined, but at present, she is able to access and manipulate pore water, drawing it out and desiccating the object affected. If applied appropriately, this can also lead to structural collapse of the material. Uses for the water drawn out by this process are yet unexplored.
As one of the Oblations offered by the Fjorde family following the fiasco that were their predecessors (the Galen Fjorde twins), Kaoli has high and heavy hopes on her shoulders, and has been directed to explore her family's historical prowess of magic related to water and earth.
Potential Oblations of War
The following are younger Oblations who are hopeful candidates for being classified as Oblations of War.
Marl Fjorde
Age/Sex: 8/M
Like his counterpart Kaoli Fjorde, Marl has been selected to compensate for the failure of the previous generation of Fjorde Oblations. Assessment is still ongoing to determine his magical inclination, however his focus is exceptional for a child of his age. If deemed not suitable as an Oblation of War, he will likely be delegated as an Oblation of Advancement.
Ionae Skerr
Age/Sex: 6/F
As the granddaughter of Zylin Skerr, Ionae appears to have an innate sense for the manipulation of matter, especially metals.
