Knights knights knights knights YAY!!! - RP Blog Hoshiko, knight captain of the Mercantile District. Eilona, knight under Sergeant Aksoy, of the Noble district. Mike, half-knight under Hoshiko, of the Mercantile District. Sean, knight under General Gregory in the Commons and Palace Districts. )(If you want you can ask Lealand and Gregory questions too I just don't have them drawn yet so...)(
because I had to use sai instead of ps (ps sees my tablet as 1/4 the size it is and also no pen pressure, restarting my computer fixes this but it doesn't like to turn on) and, mostly, because I am me, and of course I draw them
(the bottom is the only one with any story behind it and that is. page saer is very afraid of rey right when they meet. rey tries to be friendly, sits next to saer at mealtime, for example, but saer is still very worried that rey is Actually a Bully and so saer scooches away for a while)
I was going through stuff yesterday and found that there was a picture I drew exactly a year ago and generally when I find a picture I've drawn exactly a year ago I've no choice but to redraw it.
So.... here we are. Hoshiko in a irotomesode kimono ft. Hoshiko redesign.
Saer: biromantic heterosexual
Sean: heteroromantic heterosexual what a boring man
Mike: heteroflexible I guess?? that or bi with a really really REALLY strong preference towards girls. he's not all too adverse to being with a guy though.
Eilona: panromantic pansexual (+DEFINITELY polyamorous ayyyyyy)
Chise:aromantic asexual
Maayan: polyromantic asexual?? possibly to change
Aksoy: demi-panromantic demi-pansexual
Sunitha: so homoromantic homosexual
Medea: biromantic homosexual
Is your character a romantic? Do they consider themselves a romantic?
….Aaaaaaaaand, we’re back! I thought of several questions (the place I went to get them pretty much ran out of good ones that would work for these characters, so I had to think of them myself). I’ll be queuing things!
Sean; is a romantic, considers himself one
Mike; is a romantic but a pretty big dweeb and not really a suave romantic, more a awww you tried <3 romantic, annnd he kinda does. Not as much as Sean though.
Eilona; HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA she laughs at you and me and everyone
Aiko; not that romantic, but she considers herself to be
Chise; is aromantic ;) ;) but uh uh uh mm
Saer; mmm I'd say yeah, kinda. She doesn't consider herself to be very romantic though.
Aksoy; hmmm he might not be that bad. Ze doesn't really consider zirself to be that romantic though. But ze doesn't think ze's that not romantic either.
Maayan; hmmmmmm not that romantic, doesn't consider verself that romantic either.
So. Some of the Ushian events were the commoner-robberies, the commoner-robbery executions, and the attempted murder of the king.
Some people lived through these events and remember them as they were happening. But there are others who would be too young to remember. They’d still hear from it from family, friends, or neighbors (unless it was deliberately hidden), since it was a pretty big deal. Some are foreign but might have heard of it even in their places, or been told or overhear a citizen talking about it.
What are your characters’ opinions on these events? Did they see the commoner-robberies as just or wrong? Were the executions a fair punishment, or too much? Were the commoner extremists in the right when they tried to assassinate the king?
Characters of this blog who lived to see the executions and were old enough to remember: Saer, Sean, Maayan, Em.
Characters of this blog who lived to remember the failed murder of the king: +Mike, +Eilona
General opinion;
Saer; they were doing what they had to but wow it was scary being right among all of the nobles when it happened
Sean; they shouldn't have done those things but poor commoners, the king was a bit harsh
Maayan; commoners in the right, nobles in the wrong, it's so hard to protect commoners when nobles are like this
Em; can't believe commoners got away with ANYthing and some punishments weren't even enough
Mike; scary.
Eilona; that was years ago, why do people still care
Aiko; very scary. commoners trying to do just a little and getting injustice in return
Commoner-robberies just/wrong?:
Saer; they were doing what they had to.
Sean; wrong. They might need some help, but that doesn't mean stealing is the way. They can work.
Maayan; they were doing what they had to. Ve might have been sergeant at the time too(?) and ve actually tried to let as many people slip by as ve could.
Em; WRONG. and in their mind, it doesn't make any sense how people could see it as just or necessary. It's thievery, and it's common scum stealing from nobles.
-
Eilona; 'who cares'
Mike; kinda iffy on thinking right or wrong
Aiko; stealing isn't right but-
Executions fair/unjust?
Saer; unjust. And she was very confused at first. You don't execute for stealing ?????????????
but then they do and it's terrible and scary.
Maayan; unjust. This is blatant classism and ve knew it.
Sean; thought it was a bit much but accepted it. The king was doing what he had to.
Em; fair. he was one of those ones that got excited about things.
-
Aiko; -but they didn't deserve execution
Mike; too much
Eilona; ----
Assassination of king?
Saer; she can't think of it as just or not. She was really afraid of the guy herself though.
And. She's very upset it happened.She was knighted right before they tried to kill the king. Her knighthood? 1599. Assassination? 1600. There was that good conservative chunk saying she was a traitor and how could they let a commoner in the castle when they tried to kill the king. Hoshiko probably got a ton of death threats around the time is what I'm saying.And since she was a knight she'd probably have to see the king himself sometimes and man after this he was even scarier than before and and-- she'd probably be clinging to Rey a ton around then.
Sean; will admit it. he got caught up in the scared hype. He was kinda afraid of Hoshiko too. The commoner had just happened to be knighted right before this.
Didn't see it as just at all.
Maayan; was pretty shocked. But understood, at least. Saw it as just. Tried to keep people together and convince them that no, the commoners are not out to get you too, be rational, my knights- don't fucking kill them just because you think they're going to attack!! good gods.
Ve would've tried to help Hoshiko too but ve was pretty preoccupied with vis own knights of the noble district killing any commoner out after dark because it was sooooo suspicious
Mike; ppppppppprobably more scared than anything else. I kinda think he might've been pretty sheltered too so it was confusing? maybe....?????? can't say just or not.
Eilona; was pretty shocked. Was a little scared for a while. Wouldn't admit it though. unjust.
-
Aiko; she's heard what Hoshiko's said and has concluded that the old king was a mustache twirling villain and yes he deserved to be killed
I posted this and then Magic mentioned oooo what if it were emotional things too and that makes it more fun so
Knight Saer would, at RP end, have the whole whoa
I served an effing villain
that's
that........ huh
And Blacksmith and Knight Saers would have their stuff with the nobles.
Blacksmith's got a biiiiiig insecurity about being common. Way bigger than Knight's. She got her worst injuries around the end of her pagehood. I'm thinking the biggest thing was right before she left. Tried to fight back for once, so the nobles were able to go all out. Hell she could have been beaten to death by them but she wasn't. Probably got a broken rib or few though.
Mike suffers from sick burns from Iso. I don't know what the worst one was!....AHahaahah seriously though he's got like 0 confidence and depending on Iso's behavior he could have a ton more. Eilona's at fault too. Seriously.
Eilona herself had her being forced into knighthood thing and her biggest 'injury' would uh, ,,,,, be apathy I guess? She just. does. not. care.
Sean. hmmmmmmmmmmm he's got a pretty good life. I dunno about emotional injuries.... hmmm
Oh, Hoshiko probably crushed him several times when he was being a creep about ReyesxHoshiko. Emotionally. Physically. Both.
Aiko had this thing where she like. Fell. Off of a ledge in the barn. So like a one story-ish drop and yep. Lots of bones broken.
leeeeeeessee I've got a ton new characters now too so
Maayan is a complete mystery to me because I don't know ver at all yet. But ve..... might have.... uhh.
Uh.
Mm. ._.
Emery has a ton of privilege and has been called out on it because of xir classism a lot but she's never been hurt by it so
hmmm
Aaaaahahaaaa there was one time Hoshiko beat him up so badly (in self defense, in self defense). Well one time I've thought of. It's probably happened several times. Possibly a lot of times.
Sunitha and Medea had the watching their son be executed and wow that took a toll.
Sun got her lip scar there too.
Zhi might have seen some pretty scary stuff. Thinking like, noble to commoner brutality.
She was in pretty bad shape when Medea found her. He'd not gotten enough food and might have been beaten a bit himself, actually. hmmmmm
Remember back when we were going to have it be like. Get them at so many hearts with the prince and then they get a clone from Dark?
Well that would be way too busy for the plot now, but what sorts of plans would you have had for them? What would their names be? And…. eye colors, Dark’s eyes were the only difference from Austin’s being.
yeah the best i have for pictures is this and this and considering it's been so long already i don't really wanna.... wait longer... before answering...... maybe i'll draw something nice some other day just randomly...
anyway i did think of stuff for both knight hoshiko and actually roleswap because i have a fascination with her
My thought with the clones which actually took a while to remember was that they were there basically to make the characters fail somehow in how to get Austin back on the throne
So like, they'd take their respective original's fears, desires, etc and try to make them not help Austin, or in particularly difficult cases, just make them think of some "brilliant idea" that would make them fail. Like uh, I dunno. Like rushing into the throne room without everyone else ready?
Although. I don't think the clones would be above killing the original if they had to. They'd just kill the original and take their place if they couldn't get the original to quit/serve Dark.
I also have come to really like the idea that the clones could, like, shapeshift. If the person had a fear/desire/whatever when they were smaller, the clone could transform to their younger self and be like "hey, remember this?"
KNIGHT HOSHIKO'S CLONE:
Was originally going to have "icy" blue eyes which was kinda the color I got when I inverted Hoshiko's eye color. I think now though, that she might look exactly the same. And maybe wear heels to get that towering over feel. Or not.
Probably would wear the same clothes so Hoshiko would recognize her as herself. If you think about it, people might not have recognized their clones since they only see themselves in mirrors. Or maybe the clones appear as a mirror self to the original but not to the other people? Idk.
Anyway.
Context would be that Hoshiko got fired from her job, she's not even supposed to be in the kingdom. She's got some mixed feelings already on the clone thing. On one hand she knows Austin, he's a good guy. On the other hand, his story is kinda hard to swallow.
So when she gets to the break in, Hoshiko's kinda iffy on everything. The other people in the group have noticed this though. They make her stay with someone.
However, everyone gets separated. Hoshiko is alone, until she comes face to face. With herself.
"This isn't right." Dead serious, very ominous.
Hoshiko stares. This isn't a mirror. It couldn't be! It's got a different pose than her. So....
Clone answers. Now warm and friendly. 'Oh, I'm sorry. I should introduce myself. I'm you. Your inner thoughts that you've shoved so far down you won't acknowledge. Unless you face me.
And I'm telling you, this isn't right.'
"what isn't?"
Helping Austin to get on the throne, of course.
"why?"
The clone sighs. 'Hoshiko,' she pleads. 'I know we've grown reluctant to mention it... but you have to remember the magic.'
Original stiffens.
The double explains. 'They said it was a spell. They said there was a spell, and it was used to clone Austin.'
A nervous "...yes...?" and?
'Such a spell is impossible. You're being played.'
silence.
And then, 'Remember when we were younger? we said that we would do anything to protect the king. No matter what the cost.
Then we swore it when we became a knight.
I realize that this is what you've been trying to do all along, but you have the wrong guy.
Sabotage them. Warn Dark they're here. Defend him when they attack.
Maybe he'll even lift your sentence.
But if he doesn't, at least you'll die doing the right thing.'
-----
Blacksmith Hoshiko though.
Unlike Knight's, her clone doesn't say the prince is fake. Her clone just takes advantage of her fears and insecurities. Ritter has a fear of being found as a commoner, as Saer instead. Ritter has a fear of nobles knowing her as a commoner. Ritter has insecurities about being common in general and her failure as a page still gets to her. Her clone would ask her a question she hadn't wanted to ask herself: are you even worthy to be a hero, knowing who you are?
I think I wrote some stuff up earlier mmmmm- yeah there it is--
she'd introduce herself like 'hello hoshiko saer' or something making sure to get the saer in there, she's probably hiding at this point to be ominious as you do
and so ritter's just what?? who's there? How did you know that? Very terrified
And clone comes out 'I am you, Hoshiko Saer. Your conscience made living. And I have a question for you.
tell me. Who in the stories saves the prince?'
'the knight.'
'a noble knight, at that.
What place does a blacksmith, a commoner, have in the story?'
'they don't. Well, they might make weapons for the heroes, but...'
'they never save the day. That isn't their job. So why are you here?'
'I....'
'The commoner doesn't save the prince. The prince saves the commoner.'
'maybe I don't want to be a commoner'
'ah. That's right. You have your fake name. I forgot. My apologies, Hoshiko Ritter. Although we both know that's a lie.'
'….'
'and if you managed to save the day, if you succeeded on putting the prince back on the throne....
you would be put in the spotlight.
Someone is sure to recognize you. You'll be revealed as a fraud. And once they find that you impersonated a noble, well...
Well. Your noble friends you've made will hate you. I warned you earlier that it was a bad decision, but you didn't listen and got close to them anyway, like the idiot you are.
And your boyfriend? That. That was the worst decision you've ever made. Why would you accept love that isn't yours? He loves Hoshiko Ritter, not Hoshiko Saer. You've made it so no one loves Hoshiko Saer.'
'i- ….......'
'if you turn back now, maybe you can change that. Cut off all ties to nobles, if you're willing, reveal to your commoner friends that you too are common, let them know the real you.
Stay here, become an out of place hero, and then you'll be found as a fake, and remember last time? (changes into page hoshiko) you were young then. This time, they would show no mercy. You'd be tortured, and excruciating hours later, find a release only in death.
headcanon: saer sees sera and rey as little siblings-ish and thus must protect their innocence
iso and eilona know this and are big butts about it because of course they are. if it's ONE hoshiko will just cover their mouth
if it's BOTH of them teaming up hoshiko will cover sera/rey's ears and probably shout so they will definitely not hear
if it's iso, eilona, sera, and rey she yells at rey to cover sera's ears and then covers rey's ears herself (even though it would probably all go over his head)
she tries to keep it up but man sometimes she just can't take listening to it anymore it's embarrassing
sergeant emmerich aksoy on the left, possible eilona redesign on the right, which I'll probably keep because that hair is way more fun to draw
anyway. aksoy.
aksoy used to be called lealand, that was his name from osu. i renamed him because ehhh
emmerich is his first name. he's genderfluid, he prefers emmerich as a he, she prefers emery as a she (heeheheh emery flower and nobles). either's okay when he's not really feeling the he or the she
any pronouns are fine though. i mean. xe doesn't really care for being called he or she while not being either but in general you can use any pronouns to refer to her.
oh, by the way, they're dmab s o yeah
race wise they're half dwarf (well ushia dwarf so a bit mixed but mainly dwarf) and half black dragon. because of the black dragon they've got freaking gradient hair and look like a mary frickin sue but it's fun to draw so w/e
they're actually pretty nice to their fellow nobles. very classist though.
So. If you're anything like me I've bet you're probably wondering! How the hell do the good people of Ushia know who is a knight and who isn't when no one wears a uniform?
Well here's what I've come up with. It's not a uniform, but it is at least a sign (and proof) of knighthood.
Badges!!
The knights have to (or at least SUPPOSED to) wear these at least while on duty so they're clearly visible.
The front's pretty simple. It's got the Ushian logo ish with a shield and a dragon there. The top has 'THE USHIAN GUARD', the bottom has 0, 1, 2, or 3 gems depending on the rank of the knight.
The back is somewhat like a dog tag? There's some basic information about the knight.
NAME (obviously this is to show hey this is this person so people don't get them confused)
RACE (there could be some medical stuff between races? maybe?? I have no idea. Most of my knights have a bit of mixed blood but it's trace enough for them to be considered one thing. If it's indistinguishable it would just say 'MIXED')
GENDER (pretty straightforward I think? Male/female are the easier options. A "C." in front of male/female means cis, a "T." in front means trans, and an "I." would mean intersex.
For other genders there's either "DMAB" (designated male at birth) "DFAB" designated female at birth, or the same "I." used for the male/female knights. They also have pronouns since those aren't always clear. Ex. Emmerich is fine with any, so it has ANY. Maayan prefers ve/ver/vis, so it has VE.)
BIRTH YEAR (doesn't need an explanation I don't think)
KNIGHT YEAR (also pretty straightfoward)
PROVINCE (that they're serving in, probably. I don't think there are THAT many knights serving outside of Alae, the Capital, but even less would be not-from the capital, you know?)
No I did not forget Mike, Mike was never actually knighted. Poor guy.
The biggest question about ver is: is ve the current knight general, or the former knight general? Leaning toward the first one even if ve might not have been what Osu had in mind with that one sentence where his General Gregory was a plot device to explain how Austin survived.
Anyway. Vis name is Maayan Gregory. Ve is a noble with some dark elf blood and ve's one of the better nobles who has Basic Human Decency toward commoners. Ve probably helped Hoshiko get her title honestly. I could see ver doing that. I could see ve and Hoshiko being friends too.
