Making my own region for a dnd out of spite for lack of mesoamerican (in the case of this region, Nahua) cultures and cities as well as also inserting the names of cities from my country because of their meanings (like for example Nahuizalco means "Four places of obsidian" god thats so cool)

Doodleverse part 3

I’ve been studying character design for years self taught but someday I wanna be a professional designer OR storyboardist and I’ve always heard that a good way to start off designing is to have a good enough knowledge of shape language, silhouette, color pallette, exaggeration, pose, and body type. So here is half of those things that I’ve worked on so far!

Shape language helps identify the personality of the character (circles, triangles, squares)

Circles = Friendly, Good, Bouncy, Soft, Welcome, Warm, Happy

Triangle = Edginess, Danger, Intensity, Speed

Squares = Stability, Trust, Stubborness

Silhouette is very important if you wanna have a clear design. Your character must be recognizable from silhouette alone. (its kinda like the Who’s That Pokemon challenge)

These two characters below are from a webcomic by @hasanistories​ that I’m making my OC for. You can read the comic Doris Doodle here on tumblr or on webtoon. Also follow Dawn Doodle on here too to get more context @dawnanddorisqna​ Im making an AU where these three girls have a friendship trio dynamic. So far I’ve broken down thier character designs according to the terms above. I’ve tried to make sure my oc design seemed recognizable and easily fit into the story’s unique art style.

My OC is named Daisy Dischord, but her stage name is DJ Mary Melodies. She's supposed to be the new mascot for the Frame x Frame Club so I really wanted to use a lot of animation/Hollywood themed elements in her design.

Shes a rabbit girl around the same age as Dawn and the deer girl (I made a whole backstory for the deer too which I will elaborate more on in a later post) a signature feature of her design I tried to make was her big rabbit ears. I wanted to make them look like a movie clapperboard since shes supposed to represent the animation\film industry and the black and white stripes match perfectly with Dawn's/Doris' stripe pattern too. Her choker is supposed to resemble the pegboards on an animator’s desk. Her headphones are made to look like hollywood film reels.

The name Daisy is a reference to the official early concept design of Lola Bunny (previously called Daisy Lou as a placeholder name) Then Daisy’s last name Dischord is a play on words mostly. Discord is another word for Chaos, which is what my Daisy’s personality is like and it also has the word Chord to reference her occupation as a DJ at the Frame x Frame Club. I’ve also wanted to keep her name in the same naming style as older cartoons where the initials are the same letter (Mickey Mouse=M.M, Bugs Bunny=B.B, Roger Rabbit=R.R, Doris/Dawn Doodle=D.D) Her stage name Mary Melodies is a reference to the looney tunes Merrie Melodies shorts.

The color pallette and her WHOLE aesthetic is based off the color pallette that animators use during the “rough animation\tie-down” phase of the animation process pipeline. The red translates to highlights/details and the blue translates to shadows. More specifically I chose a maroon outlining color bcuz I wanted to make a reference to “Maroon Cartoons”. I’ve also made the under-section of her hair the same exact color as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s blue pants. The marks on her cheek are the animation timechart symbols. When shes casual she has “2D” as a reference to 2D animation and when shes in work-mode it changes to “A12″ as a reference to “the 12 principles of Animation”. Shes like a personified love letter to animation!

I’ll post more details and backstory next time!

I've started reading a new webcomic that is actually very good, but it makes me realize what bothers me everytime with this kind of webcomic in general...

The lack of homosexuality is overwhelming. I mean yeah i can care for the main couple but give me some treats on the side please.

The lack of other pairs in general. Yeah there's only one genuine love story and that's the main ! All others are proved fake or flawed if it's even there at all (and that's sad)

Which unfortunately is often due to the fact that everyone loves the heroine (except villains...but sometimes even them love the heroine and want to make her their URGH) is it too hard to have some nuances? People who just don't care about the heroine ? Some people who don't like her but aren't villains defacto ? Apparently it is.

Always rich family setting and nobles. I get it it's a good excuse for heroine to have new outfit every chapter, but...elitist much?

Transmigration is sometimes so unecessary. Here there's two layers of transmigration. First the heroine is a korean girl...Then she fails her first life, dies and returns in the past. Why the first transmigration even there? She never uses her knowledge from Korea. It has no tie to the story / her personality, nothing.

Despite how much the narrative tells how the heroine is CLEVER and all, i have yet to see a single one use the excuse (in a fantasy magic settings) "yeah i can see the future through dream". I'm sorry but that's the most convenient excuse. What are you going to do once you've reached the point you turned back in time and you no longer know the future? Suddenly you're not as amazing as you were and people are going to notice. At least with a superpower you can go "oh no it's gone :/" Here the heroine is a small child, but sorry she doesn't act like a 7 years old child and it shows (people notices but not enough) and she really shows she knows the future and even those who notice something is wrong are purposely stupid in those moments.

In general i don't like when at the end of the story the transmigrator keeps it secret that they transmigrated to their loved one. I'm like "yeah true love and pure and all...based on a big lie that doesn't bother the main culprit in the slightest" i'm not for "couple should share everything" and a big supporter of "never lie" but...come on that's one big secret how am i supposed to root for you if you don't respect the other to tell them that ???

Now that i complained i feel a bit better and it's time to tell what the webcomic do well >>

-For once the heroine is smart and really DO things in the story. (I've read countless webcomic where the heroine is supposedly strong but she gets married and get saved by ML from this point to the end)

-Grampa and Papa, and family in general (minus like 5 scumbags) are actually very lovable and have their moment to shine and that's GREAT. I mean she is here to save her family so you better have me love them xD

-Male lead is a bit of a doormat at the beginning (but very much traumatized so i forgive him) and his personality is almost 100% "im in lovce with HEROINE) but he has his moment to shine, his own goal / nemesis and he has one moment that is very cute where he saves the heroine in a very original way (not truly saves her, but help him save the one she loves which i find MUCH MUCH CUTER) and so far his jealous moment are tamed. I still keep my veto if his jealousy level goes from normal to annoying.

-So many beautiful robes, and while there are 3D assets it's not that visible.

...Anyways i like this webcomic despite its flaws (because it's like the genre's flaws) i think i will the novel a try if i find a translation that is not cut every 10 sentences by some pub.

If i don't find it i will spend my time thinking of transmigration AU for MDZS. I have two in the back of my mind, one where "the reincarnation system is not what people thinks : when you die you give your life another try and you get to the after life only when you manage to live a life where at the end you're sastisfied with the way you lived" and where it's Yanli and Jin Zixuan who are the protag.

And of course the one where it's MY who is the protag and the only one who is smart enough to pull "yeah i have dreams of the future" excuse.

I have an important question regarding Sevilsoleia! How was a suitable vessel decided? Is there anything in common with the, vessels they inhabited? Or did the vessels volunteer themselves or were they chosen?

OKAY SO......... okay so uh big disclaimer that iphimery is just a fun oc sandbox that i'm deliberately NOT turning into a writing/webcomic project or anything, like i MIGHT create stuff for it, but it's meant to be just this fun zone where i am not putting ANY pressure on myself to actively work out every aspect of the story or the worldbuilding. the reason for this is that i'm no good at active worldbuilding, and the idea of having to think every single detail and consequence through and through is very stressful to me and tends to halt my creative outlet. WHICH IS TO SAY i'm just making stuff up as i go. almost all of the ideas i get for this world or the characters happen almost accidentally - either because there's a specific trope or aesthetic i want to include, or because i buy a character design or dig up an old OC and just want to give them a place to live, and by adding them i add a new piece of the puzzle. but it is still very much a work in progress, and the lore might change down the road! here are the factors behind Swivel's existence from my narrative level: - timian, from the moment he existed, had to have a Repressed Trauma Tragic Backstory which would preferably include dead family members, survivor's guilt, being an incredibly proficient fighter, and an immense need to protect e v e r y o n e and put other people's needs above his own. think gregor hartway and kaladin stormblessed. - the concept of an android that can use her chestplate as a shield while exposing her core is something i doodled ages ago, but never found anywhere to include. UNTIL NOW. i had already decided to link her to Florence, and then i linked Florence to Iphimery, and then i just wanted to make her relevant to the "main story," as it were. all of this was in the slow cooker of my brain for a pretty long time. the fact that i realized florence is timian's uncle who immigrated to iphimery ages ago is also a fairly New idea. - i've also tried to think about the vibe of timian's hometown. i needed it to be a place that wasn't super big, in a way that most everyone knows everyone else to some degree, and i wanted it to have some kind of Tradition deep in its bones as well, that would be relevant to WHY disaster befell this town at all. at some point i got the idea that the main export of Sevilder is medicine made by local flora & resources, and a process that was a guarded tradition. this could explain why anyone would attack such a small town and why so much was sacrificed for it all. (just for funsies: in the modern setting, Sevilder is very traditional and religious - Sevilsoleia is worshipped and heeded as a deity, but they don't have a physical presence like in the fantasy setting! both the town and timian's family survive just fine, and timian moves to iphimery to attend the university. his backstory here is far less tragic, but he has an arc about coming from a small, tight-knit town with all the pros and cons that entails, and finding his place in a vast and messy metropolis. it's a story about exploring your identities and your wants while also reshaping and reaffirming your relationship with your religion and culture and traditions.) ALL OF THIS funneled into the Obviously Very Logical And Intuitive Plot Decision that "timian fable was the chosen guardian for the godly vessel that was his younger sister, rocks fall everyone dies except timian who carries the trauma with him for the rest of his life :)" so uh none of this has answered your actual question. mostly because it's a piece of worldbuilding i haven't had the chance to actually piece together yet. i can probably say that since the town wasn't The Biggest Town Ever, there weren't THAT many vessels to pick from for each generation. i do think Swivel ended up having a preference for what kind of people they liked working together with and that they thought were worthy of wielding their power and keep their knowledge. so there's probably several factors: - the family of the vessel, what their work was, their social status, etc., mostly relating to like, how close they are to the Tradition of sevilder, right - the willingness and determination of the potential vessel, like you can absolutely argue that even if a child is 10000% wanting to become a godly vessel, it's stilla choice they are making as a CHILD, so the ethical concerns around consent are. they're there. that's the narrative point here - ""pure of heart"" type bullshit. again, it's a child, this whole concept is Flawed and Weird and i want to poke holes at it - it probably doesn't have to be a child, but it's usually young people so swivel doesn't have to jump between old people super frequently (although they've probably tried lots of things over the centuries) i'm sure there's MANY MORE factors involved, including sevilder tradition lore that hasn't dropped yet. this question would be equally interesting about "how are the Chosen Protectors picked?" regarding how timian came to be who he came to be. i still haven't decided how much is Ancetral Duty, and how much is "im volunteering to protect my sister NO MATTER WHAT", or if it is traditional for siblings. stay tuned, i suppose!!!!

hello icha!! i finally got around to finishing the stranger haha,, by which i mean i just watched it today. was veryyyy excited for it as i really like the poster design for this one. anyways. this event starting w/ the sort of portrait format or whatever / that narration is like. god. threw me right back to autumn troupe. I kind of love that the storytelling format itself is so distinct for autumn! the moment I realized it was omi I started getting teary… like oh man oh man… omi…. And the connection with him taking photos! ahh!! now that I think about it… omi kind of seems a bit like early version tsumugi, huh? also I keep forgetting this man is a college student lol. suspension of disbelief I suppose. onto the play i think like. mankai should invest in a fainting courch for tsuzuru. i also went to watch the play and 1) im betting yuki had a hell of a time costume design wise like the vines on the body? such fun costuming wise and 2) the ethical implications of whatever this play has,,, fun fun. tsuzuru was clearly having some kind of thoughts. i love zeros design and am always up for a3 characters crossdressing bc 1) i think its fun and 2) the costume design. i also dearly wish this whole thing was animated bc I feel like it’d be o fun to see taichi act as zero. or at least I hope this event gets full voiced one day... moving on to the scene where omi adds soy sauce to the paella I know it’s just like haha homare funny so lets five him a lil bit but like everyone in autumn troupe making their comments on the paella and like homare just jumping in. homare autumn troupe besties. just thinking. also the way they just r like. no no no omi it’s fine if u made a mistake!! it’s ok! we like it (you) anyways <3 it’s got it’s own special taste. something something omi’s perfectly pleasant as he is now but even if he weren’t on his a-game and was dealing with all of the biker gang stuff they would love him just as hard. another thing that got me was omi telling banri that he’ll give him something sweet so juza will stop grinding his teeth in his sleep… guys… guys you’ll give him cavities…. mb omi is a college student after all lol.

anyways when i saw the actual costumes. appreciative of them, i like the lil circuit-esque detailing on banri’s outfit, and that sakyo and taichi (nine and zero) both share that like collar detail? its very symbolic and probably also literal but its a nice way to sort of signify their relation to each other visually! also sakyo just looks nice. seeing him without glasses is so great. whoever thought up the like two mole detail for him was doing gods work.

something that confused me was ryo mistaking juza for nachi for a split second? like. does juza… look similar to nachi? or was it just that ryo only heard juzas voice and made that mistake. if it’s appearance wise too. kumon nachi confirmed. I’m joking lol bc I feel like I would’ve heard at least something abt it in one of the like small conversation comments, plus that doesnt seem like itd fit summer troupes style and kumon is for sure the wrong age… but still.

i really like how for this event, the roles for taichi and omi were kinda reversed. and taichis just so like. idk. smiley. rly lifts ur spirits. its kind of nice how this event contrasts to that cg where taichi is crying on omi. I also think like. idk. considering the story of the stranger. wolf gives zero a sense of purpose and life and I think that zero helps wolf lose his apathy. it’s about “the stranger” and the ending makes him like… not a stranger, right? because he’s got a companion. in the same way, taichi brings omi out of his emotional isolation. the picture taking! also the stickers coming back… thats such a good setup! the found family of it all!!

when he was trying to work out zeros character as soon as taichi mentioned a sharp speaking style I KNEW it was Yuki… yuki would never be as honest as zero is though lol… to me i imagine she’s got a sort of juza internal monologue feel? anyways. the taichi yuki dynamic intrigues me. havent yet decided how I feel abt it but when I do… yes. sorry that I make literally no sense. I think it’s very obvious that yuki is my fav chara kind of? I’m just. hmmm it makes me think! I’ve been monologuing to myself abt the yuki and juza dynamic lately which, to my a3 knowledge so far, doesn’t exist, but its ok bc I’ll make it exist! uhhh anyways this event was very good i liked the pacing. i think it didnt drag too hard and it really properly honed in on just omi and taichi, which was quite nice. they really did a lot for just an event!

time to listen to the event song,,, ok so. ah. i rly enjoyed just for myself it was very much to my taste so. out of curiousity i was like ok lemme look up the composer / producer AND IT WAS YUYOYUPPE....... that guy is like!!!! one of my FAV producers ever!!!!!! i know him from like. his vocaloid days and god leia is still one of my fav songs to this day...! this knowledge gives me so much joy omg!!! like wow!! wowwww!!! like i knew yuyoyuppe was out there doing other stuff (i know he worked on a lot of babymetal music which is cool) but like idk. to suddenly encounter it like this. heheh.... its so nice! made me soooo happy. going to relisten to leia now haha

WAIT ONE MORE THING. i was like "haha let me look at other songs i remember liking a lot" which. for me was rakuen oasis and don't cry. anyways. rakuen oasis is ALSO by yuyoyuppe???? oh my god!!! oh my god... sigh. feel like im in heaven.

OH HI FRIEND!! so good to see you with an a3 update!! :D

godd yeah The Stranger started so strongly and the idea to still incorporate portraits in his story was really something to make us cry!

And linking Omi and Tsumugi like this is pretty interesting :O <hat is your reasoning exactly? :O

For the fainting couch for Tsuzuru LMAO and i'm letting you know there's a webcomics that addresses it in Act 2 (hough there's no spoilers aside from the fact Chikage is here)

Im glad you liked the costume and the play!!! yeah i love the designs and it is always a blast to see them this into it, and yeaaah Tsuzuru has thoughts huh. It'll get voiced sooner than later hopefully and there we'll see more in details :3c but also that's what made the seiyuu live so fun bc they perform the songs in play cosplay and replay a bit of the play everytime and it's *chief kiss*

HOMARE AUTUMN TROUPE SOLIDARITY YES. LOVING IT.

And yeah the scene itself was so cute TwT they all want to reassure Omi and be there for him it's so sweet :( but yeah i love how you say it all, Omiimi TwT

and dLKFJDFLKJFDFD Giving Juza cavities is the price to pay for sleep i guess??

yeah agreed on the costume they all look so cool! and nice catch on how those three seem linked like that with their costumes, Yuki (and the designers) does such a good job! and god yeah for Sakyo.. yeah. He has sucha good design dLKJFDF

aND DLKFJD yeah no Juza is supposed to look like Nachi physically, but mostly his face? like i think Nachi was had green hair? we see a sprite of him in a future story, and yeah, everything is in the eyebrows. so Kumon should be safe? Omi mentions he sees a lot of Nachi in Juza, and while it is mostly due to their passions i think, the fact they're also rough looking guy with a heart of gold must play a part as well. but yeah, he does look like Nachi a bit.

and i love your deeper analysis of the event yeah!!

I feel like Taichi is really an emotional core of the troupe in the sense that is, he tends to catch on what others are feelings easily. And he uses it in the early chapters to ease off the tensions and stuff, but he was being held back by knowing he was deceiving them. So now that he's more free, he can be more of himself. but yeah i also love the contrast with how Omi was the one to help Taichi through his breakdown and guilt, and now it's the other way around, it's Taichi helping him through it. and the parallelism between the play and their dynamic is spot on imo! well said!!

and god yeah the sticker things made me cry sO HARD, and the pictures! and everything!! sobs it's such a sweet found family i'm going to cry :(

And! i love what you say about Yuki, Taichi and Juza on this one. I love that Taichi keeps bringing it back to "that childhood friend" and it's always like. so obvious who it is for us rip. But it can make you wonder if Yuki was more honest as a kiddo when Taichi knew him, though now he's clearly not. I love the mention of how Zero is more like Juza's internal speech (which, if anything is another argument about why you should let Juza wear a dress, cOWARD)

but also your mention of the Yuki and Juza thing, while i can't think of them having a dynamic per se yet, but i actually wrote a post during my reread about how i was baffled at the fact they treated Muku the same way?? like both of them tried to push Muku away because they were scared of how people would react if they say pure, sweet Muku was associated to them. And i find it fascinating because i guess those two are pretty aware of how the world see them, and it used to stop them from fully allowing them to be themselves.

I also find it relevant with the fact Yuki says in his personal song that while all of this way people judge him weight on him, he rather be himself, and "I want to love myself". Meanwhile we have Juza who's also aware of the way people judge him and it weight on him, and he wants to change himself from this person he hates, this self loathing - and in a way, he can grow in a way to be "someone" he may not hate, even on stage. I feel like those two have quite a bit in common in this way of being rejected by their peers in some sort of way.

I really want them to share some stuff at some point because there's really a groundwork on it all :(

But i'm really glad you liked that event!! agreed on the pacing and i do love what it brings to the characters! it really fleshes them out and have them move forward a little and it's pretty sweet.

AND OMG THAT'S SO COOL FOR THE SONG!! i'm so glad you liked it, but that's incredible it turned out to be from one of your fav producer!!! ahah sometimes life is like that where you end up finding the stuff you loved back into new stuff! and the fact Rakuen Oasis was from him as well... that's so cool!!! just, so so cool!

im pretty sure he has more songs going forward so i hope you'll enjoy the ride even more!!

thank you once again for sharing your thoughts about a3 :3c it always makes me so happy to see them!!!

Thank youu <3 have a good day :3c

So, Those Hivelost Chara Coc Sheets....

It was written in Japanese so Im gonna only do Judley and Veneci’s one for now cuz im supposed to sleep soon. Theyve got the most distinguished charms comparing to the canon version anyway. (Also It seems like i didnt give them human names but im guessing they are supposed to be humans)

So here goes:

Judley (20/Female) Occupation: Webcomic Artist (Yes this is kinda meta) HP: 11 / MP: 13 / SAN: 65 STR: 13 / CON: 10 / POW: 13 / DEX: 7 APP: 12 / SIZ: 11 / INT: 11 / EDU: 14 Aspiring comic artist. Have some rather passionate fans. Main creative style/genre are slice-of-life fantasy and “Sekaikei” (This is a term thats really difficult to translate. Let’s just say its usually soft sci-fi centering only one or two simple subjects(such as a character or a relationship) but ended up effecting the whole world/story) Not her main creative genre, but she personally has a fondness towards horror/occult stuff, hence got lots of knowledge She suffers under “Those random thoughts that always rudely barge into her mind“ and drawing them into comics serves as a form of catharsis. Because of this trait, most of her works are rather short and random, which often leads to mixed reviews Personality-wise, she is stubborn and usually an overthinker. Sometimes went out of her way trying to figure out abstruse ideas. Therefore she tends to feel stress with socializing. Altho on the other hand its means that she will always try to treat people seriously, so it can also be seen as her convoluted way of caring Skills: Fist/Punch 70% Throw 45% Listen 40% Library Use 55% Spot Hidden 60% Create <Stories> 55% Fast Talk 55% Occult 60% Art <Illustration> 55% Computer Use 31% Psychology 40% Natural History 30%

Veneci (20/Male) Occupation: Backpacker (Owns a Twitter account with lots of followers) HP: 11 / MP: 14 / SAN: 70 STR: 8 / CON: 10 / POW: 14 / DEX: 15 APP: 14 / SIZ: 11 / INT: 18 / EDU: 13 He’s not financially insecure or homeless. Technically he shares a place with his twin sister (Yes is this AU they are still siblings), but he simply likes drifting around all over the country and only occasionally comes back. At least he has his way of income Loves his sister. Doesnt quite get her creative works but acts full supportive regardless. Just kind of a funny and ridiculous person in general and sometimes writes oddly deep philosophical poetry. Has been putting up stuff on the internet for years and gains plenty followers, and sometimes got donation from them. Actually it also sorta kickstarted his sister’s artist career due to his constant promotion (or perhaps simply wont shut up about her) Personality-wise, aside from the usual weirdo facade, he is in fact cunning, opportunistic, and a little bit too good at psychological manipulation  Skills: Dodge 40% First Aid 40% Locksmith 31% Hide 40% Psychoanalysis 41% Library Use 75% Spot Hidden 65% Persuade 55% Bargain 40% Art <Poetry> 45% Psychology 70% Natural History 40% History 40%

kat do u have any more DEETS u can tell us about the three eyed crow story :^)

I’m glad u asked!!! ofc because since I’m not an official author I’m not bound by any sorts of publishing constraints and can literally write the entire story in answer to this anon (but I won’t simply because I literally don’t know how it’s gonna go and also I’m looking over it and I don’t really like everything past chapter one that much but ANYWAY)

im not putting this under a read more bc my blog theme is annoying for those :(( so im just gonna tag as long post 

as a lot of you probably know, since I’ve been talking about this for almost a year, the three eyed crow was originally planned to be a fantasy novel about three people (the term people is used loosely) and their adventure across america. as time went on and I actually sat down to write it, I realized several things: 

the worldbuilding and driving force of the plot were very flimsy. two separate things, but because they were so intertwined and both lacking, they really failed to make an involving book. not only that, but 

the entire story was cliche and part of the reason the plot was turning out so boring, 

there was no real antagonist, and 

this book would be very long if I wrote all of it out, and it would drag on and become a bore because it was full of overused storylines. 

this was part of the reason I decided to make it into a webcomic. I could simplify the plot and actually use my ocs for fun, which was what i had intended prior to trying out a storyline for them. 

so now, I’ll explain what the three eyed crow was before i completely trashed it, and go more in-depth as to why (in my eyes) it was bound to be a failure.

the three eyed crow started in the perspective of emirda (the perfect “absolute badass without prior or ‘on-screen’ training but also serving as the wise and all-knowing mentor to the main protagonist/supporting character” character trope), who was paying a visit of great importance to robin roth (the perfect “hero whose destiny is unrealized by themselves but known by everyone around them, helps if they are from a family of high social standing and have their own familial expectations to deal with apart from Saving The World” character trope) on behalf of the “death” (the only original part of this story) of favonius lim (the perfect “uninvested civilian casualty that gets swept into the plot through their connection with the main protagonist, becoming a vital link in the chain of the storyline and altering the outcome of the narrative dramatically through their presence” character trope). 

there were already two things wrong with this beginning. 

emirda is characterized to be an angel, with the religion in the narrative heavily using christianity as a crutch. the first problem with that was that even though I am technically christian, I know almost nothing about the religion. the only theological research I’d ever done on its behalf concerned not even the new testament but the old testament, which is used in judaism, and it was concerning homosexuality and the bible. anyway, not helpful in this context. I did some theological research concerning emirda’s supposed background, but gave up. because really, why had i favored christianity? it wasn’t as if I knew more about it as compared to other religions. so came the second step, and thus the second problem: creating a completely new religion. while this remains the better option, and most likely end result for this webcomic, creating a new religion meant a lot of worldbuilding, completely reworking emirda’s supernatural standing, and generating a lot of names. I wasn’t very ready for that, especially since my first try involved making the religion based heavily on christianity. again, what for? i don’t really know more about it.

a whole other problem unrelated to theology; the second problem concerned magic. robin’s profession in this world is a healer: robin is affiliated with the house of roth, and is the last living descendant of this powerful line of mages and the only possible inheritor of the House. but building a world with magic at its core gets boring if it isn’t original (admit it, we’re all tired of it after harry potter), and brings with it a lot of questions concerning the magical ability of all those who reside in within it. citing occupants of a magical society meant a lot of world-building in terms of possible careers, as well as questions regarding why society in that world functioned so similarly to our society. this in turn meant a lot more worldbuilding than I had been ready for. so, without the solid bedrock of explanations and tactful exposition, my flimsy assignment of robin as a mage and healer collapsed, making the story stale within the first two pages.

so officially, the story starts with emirda seeking robin out to confront her about something that she did. this in itself is problematic because we get almost no explanation about how emirda comes to find robin, and if it’s because emirda is related to and acting on behalf of a higher power, then why does emirda need robin to solve the following problem? but assuming we excuse that, as such comes the opening: 

robin, working as a healer in her town (magic in worldbuilding problem, mentioned above), has meddled with things beyond her control, completely by accident. favonius, a farmer from a nearby village, committed suicide, and was rushed to robin’s infirmary in a last effort by his friends to save his life. robin, under judgemental watch by her elders, tried her best to save favonius while knowing it to be hopeless, and in doing so, accidentally brought him back to life. briefly. in the seconds she brought him back, she spliced his soul between the worlds of the living and the dead, and left it to wander the earth without giving it the possibility to return to its body or go “onward” (theology problem, mentioned above). this splice has caused a rift in the fabric of reality (worldbuilding problem, again), and emirda comes looking for robin to help track favonius’ soul down and restore it to hell (theology problem, again), thereby righting the wrong and going on an adventure in the process. 

even with this opening act, there are already several more problems (aside from those pointed out in the parentheses). the first is favonius’ background. in early planning, favonius and robin were supposed to be very close friends prior to his death, while in the first draft they had almost no relation to one another. without a relationship, robin would have almost no motive to agree to come with emirda to search for favonius’ soul. in addition, we get almost no explanation as to why favonius committed suicide. or anything about his background at all, really. sure, we do end up finding out later, when he tells us about it himself, but if we’re centering the entire plot about finding one specific character, WE need a reason to be invested in him. we need to know more about him. we need a reason to care, and to find out why the other characters care so much about him, too.

robin does end up having a motive, and it’s part of the second problem. when emirda finds robin, robin is suffering in an abusive relationship with her elders, who have bound her by illegal contract to remain in service to the house of roth for the rest of her life, while legally those types of contracts and binding oaths are void as soon as the subject turns eighteen. robin is nineteen in the opening of the story, and her nerves are frayed after what happened with favonius and in regards to the contract by which she has been illegally bound for almost two years. hence, robin’s motive for leaving becomes not helping favonius and the universe, but helping herself. In my opinion, this is a very interesting motive, and something worth exploring within the webcomic, and maybe even one of the best things to come out of this first attempt, because it strays off of the beaten path of doing something for the good of the universe, but focuses on a main character driven by selfishness that is completely justifiable within the context of the story. it is something that puts each of this character’s actions under scrutiny, making you question why the character does everything that they do once the adventure begins. it also gives the character the option to change within the narrative (or not!) and alter their motive and perspective on the world. this in itself isn’t the problem; the second problem is not the motive but the villain. because robin is acting against the direct wishes of the elders of the house of roth, this writes the elders as the primary antagonists of this story, since throughout most of it robin and emirda spend it being pursued by agents of the house of roth. this puts almost no weight on the predicament in which favonius finds himself, and no importance on the outcome of finding favonius’ lost soul. this is bad because the inciting incident of the plot has no significant outcome; there is no longer a reason to be invested in the story. the only possible solution to this is make the reader now invested in the reason why robin is embarking on this quest, which is her wish to get away from the house of roth. but to do this is to shed more light on the horrors of the roth household, and for this there needs to be either flashbacks, good exposition, or a separate beginning to the story. aka rewriting.

now for the plot, and its problems. once emirda and robin do get out of the house of roth, physically breaking the contract, they now need to travel far and wide to search for favonius’ soul. the original plan for this was to have them first go to hell and ask lucifer (theology problem) about his knowledge and relationship to the soul of favonius (who was destined to go to hell upon death). now, hell needs to be a place, and the story was originally supposed to take place in america. so, where would hell be? of course, miami. 

there are already three problems with this. the first problem is: if this story is happening in an alternate universe of the world, where each earthly resident is at least somewhat of a mage, why are hell, heaven (portland, oregon), and purgatory (somewhere in maine) all in america? there’s the rest of the world! where do dead russians go? portland? or is there a separate heaven for them? the geographic localization of the story made it, while fun, also impractical. kind of like jk rowling basing all of voldemort’s reign of terror around england. but more on jk rowling and worldbuilding to come. the second problem was, of course, history. if alternate universe america was still somewhat america, then it definitely had terrible things to account for, and a necessity for them to be explained. what rowling failed to do was contextualize world history with the ability to practice magic, hence perhaps unwisely ignoring terrible events in world history and generalizing cultures. we won’t go into that, but I was faced with a similar problem: how to contextualize just how badly america has been fucking up ever since it was declared an independent country, and even before then, and how this was affected by the presence of magic. I’m no historian, and I highly doubt that I could have done it well either way, because I am most definitely not the best person to write about that. this brought about the third problem: if the concept of alternate-universe america was being rightfully discarded, then jokes concerning the geography of theological locations had to be dumped as well, and a completely different world now had to be constructed, with its own inhabitant jokes that now needed to be explained to the readers. again, a lot more worldbuilding than i had originally planned for. 

and so, once i realized these numerous flaws, progress on the three eyed crow ground to a halt. the age in which robin and favonius (emirda being timeless) reside is a strange amalgamation of modern and ancient (steampunk for those unwilling to admit it), which presented another hurdle in terms of time period placement. ANOTHER hurdle was the attempted love story between robin and emirda, which i severed even in the original version because of age difference and experience difference. there was a planned melancholy scene in an epilogue, which was set to occur fifty years after robin and emirda parted, when emirda left robin heartbroken to rebuild her life from scratch. i’d like to retell it, because it might be my favorite part out of the entire story, and something i’ll definitely keep in the webcomic.

fifty years have passed since emirda left robin standing on the bluff of a cliff overlooking the sea. robin is old now, nearing seventy, and a wizened old apothecary to which people from the town bring their sick children or themselves to be expertly treated. it’s a day like any other, and robin crosses the bridge over the river into the next town to go to the market to buy some fresh vegetables for home. at the market, she sees someone. someone in a dark cloak with a blob of pink hair and a third eye. 

emirda. 

robin, hobbling on old legs, chases them down. emirda turns at the sound of their name, and they’re shocked. 

it’s been fifty years, and emirda has not changed. they’re timeless and eternal. they recognize robin, because of course they do, but it’s really been fifty years. for the first time in their existence, emirda recognizes the passage of time. 

they walk home to the cottage together after robin has bought everything she needed at the market. across the bridge, through the woods to the bluff overlooking the sea. 

on the bluff stands a solitary cottage, a windmill, and a small barn. robin keeps a cow, some chickens, sheep, and a single goat. emirda smiles at the goat.

robin invites emirda into the cottage. inside the cottage sits another wizened old woman, and robin smiles as emirda shakes her hand and the woman introduces herself as robin’s wife. emirda is treated to homemade soup and herbal tea.

in the evening, emirda and robin go out to stand on the edge of the bluff overlooking the sea. “it’s been fifty years,” says robin, as the wind carries her voice out across the water, “since I stood by your side.”