Art: 062/100 Themes - Magic

"Magikan." Magic. - 062/100 Themes.

Because power is frequently associated with magic, nobles and clergy obsessively maintain their lineages to only include strong mages. Types of magic are passed from parent to child similarly to blood type. There are two alleles - one for light magic and one for dark magic.

Possessing one allele of a certain type will give a person passive magic, such as enhanced intelligence or a particular talent. Possessing two of a certain type will give active magic, which allows for actual control of one’s surroundings. Possessing neither will result in a non-magic person, but so will possessing both. Each allele will cancel the effect of the other. However, they can still be passed on to children, resulting in magical children being born to non-magical parents, and magic children being born an opposite type from magic parents.

Magic, when not outright used, is undetectable without special means. Because of this, some families of mages have cultivated a heightened-awareness ability that lets them detect other mages.

Most magic children will display certain affinities or exhibit unusual behavior associated with their power. However, these displays tend to be uncontrollable as powers do not solidify and reach maximum potential until puberty. After physical maturity, most passive mages are able to keep their powers in check. However, active mages may lose control when in heightened emotional states. Due to the significant population of double-allele dark-mages in the Alisian islands, citizens adopt meditative practices to help maintain order.

Light mages are more susceptible to diseases caused by blockages of the cardiac system such as heart attacks and strokes. Similarly, dark-mages are more prone to ruptures of the cardiac system such as aneurysms and internal bleeding. Mages of both types have, on average, a shorter lifespan than non-magical peoples.

Perrin's father has a single-allele light-mage, and her estranged mother was a single-allele dark-mage. As a result, she inherited dark-magic powers seemingly out of nowhere. However, her ability is 'passive'. While she cannot manipulate the world around her, she can see and feel both types of magic - giving her the ability to pinpoint other, more hidden, users.

 

Rivek leaned against the wall of the lab. “Perrin should come with me.”

Eamon sat at his desk, ostensibly ignoring the dark-mage who was rapping his knuckles against the door. “No, Rivek. It’s too dangerous.”

Rivek ripped the paper he was staring at out from under his nose. “We’re all going to be in danger if we don’t stop Sorian, and she can do just that.”

Eamon turned around to break eye contact. “My daughter - my only daughter - is fifteen.”

“And she is a lot more capable than I was at that age - and I was capable of a lot.”

“Capable of getting into a lot of trouble!” He stood and thrust the chair under his desk.

Rivek crossed his arms and planted himself between Eamon and the doorway. “I know it’s hard for you to accept, but Perrin has dark-magic. She can find others like her, like me. Like us. And as much as you hate it, you said it yourself - we need black arts to win this war.“

“You know that if we lose, we burn. She and I both.” He set a map on the table, a chart had been marked for his estranged homeland, the Alisian Islands. “If you care for her at all, Eamon, let her join my mission. Let her have what she wants.”

Art: 052/100 Themes - Deep in Thought

"Sundum kognia." Deep in Thought. - 52/100 Themes.

A "new" character, Eamon. You can see his original (heavily D. Grayman-inspired) incarnation here: http://fav.me/d1czxwo

Now, he is the lab technician in the research lab that Rivek and Willow worked in during high school. He crashes in his work clothes, naps under his desk, and drinks caffeine to relax. He has some light-magic in him that gives him super-human intelligence. Having been a screw-up before, he is as religious as scientific.

He messed up as a teenager and became father. Unable to deal with having a child, the mother ran. Now, his whole life revolves around his daughter, Perrin. And despite her age, she ends up picking up after his eccentricities a lot. When his daughter begins to exhibit signs of dark-magic, he first denies the signs, but eventually outright questions his faith. Fenne begins to genocide dark-mages, and he chooses to do what's best for his daughter - seeks refugee status with Willow. Once on her side, he uses his technical knowledge to backwards engineer Sorian's technomagic designs and comes to terms with his faith - that you can be devout and progressive at the same time.  

More in this Series: http://fongmingyun.deviantart.com/gallery/281196

   

Eamon brushed the thick, auburn hair from his eyes. Magic was fickle as human emotion, but he was sure it could be quantified and harnessed. You could treat it like a volume of water, calculating and controlling the speed of its flow to get one's desired result. After all, Sorian had managed it somehow.

He stared at the bull's carcass on the table. It contained as much metal as it did rotting flesh. Magic had allowed Sorian to turn a living animal into a technological war machine. Now it was Eamon's job to figure out how to stop them.

He had been writing for hours. His chalkboard was riddled with equations. He always arrived at the same answer, but it was not possible. Those resources could not be obtained. They simply did not exist anymore.

He looked over at Rivek. The dark-mage had come to the lab to watch Eamon dismantle the beast that had gored him. He leaned back in his chair, conversing with his bird. To Eamon, it seemed like a very one-sided conversation, but it seemed to be making sense to them. A soldier by nature, Rivek was not well-versed in the sciences by any means, but Eamon knew he had a head for arithmetic. He had learned this the hard way. Rivek frequently used his mathematical intellect to sweep card games.

"Do you mind looking this over?" Eamon asked, handing Rivek his notebook. The bird walked up to Rivek's shoulder as he took the pad in his hand.

He looked over the chalk board and picked up a quill. Step by step, he re-did the calculations on his paper. He circled his answer - it was the exact same. "You might want to graph is more precisely to be sure but... The only way to zero out this equation would be to use its inverse. You have the answer, Eamon. It's staring you in the face. You just don't want to believe it. To make this work, you're going to need dark-magic."

Art: Character Relations and Outfit Guide for Mondigan

Every time I start a new sketchbook (roughly every six months or so), I draw Rivek in whatever is outfit design is at that point. it's a way of seeing how far I have come and how far I need to go. These are usually done in airports and on planes since I like having new sketchbooks for trips - and because the whole character centers around flight.

I did this waiting to take BUR -> OAK to see some college friends in San Fransisco. It has some stronger linework due to influence from Eric Canete. His costume uses more metal and doesn't have as dramatic sleeves anymore since I wanted to trim the silhouette into one that accents vertical lines (I know, because he's not a skinny whelp enough as it is). And his pose is not relaxed and he's got more of a smirk because I wanted something more excited about life this time around.

 

When I flew back home for a week in August, I lost my pencil case (including my signature stamp). So after flipping out, I bought some cheap pencils to draw with (HB, I am accustomed to 4B). But I still didn't want to do anything fancy, so I decided to try and draw portraits of my characters (a few I have never shown the public before, even!). The goal was to get them to look different but keep nationalities and family relationships similar. I need to draw smaller eyes.
 
Rivek is our socially-stigmatized main character who serves as the personal agent and doer of dirty work to the doctor-princess, Willow. She is as stubborn and bull-headed as she is hopeful. In order to gain an ally and stop a war, Willow is set to marry another prince, Fenne, but he re-negs on the engagement when she proves her feelings really lie with Rivek - costing him his ability to walk.

To take our his frustration, he banishes Rivek and hires Rivek's best friend, Bohren into his guard. Knowing they are now on opposite sides tears Bohren to pieces because he still needs to separate his feelings between friendship and homosexual romance. In exchange for a new pair of legs, Fenne allies with Sorian, the leader of the country invading Willow's territory. Together, they build war machines and commit genocide.
 
Eamon is Fenne's scientific advisor - who helped Willow with her doctor training back in school - is afraid that the princes will murder his daughter, Perrin. So the pair seek refugee status with Willow. She accepts, and Perrin develops a rapport with Rivek due to their interest in dark magic. Rivek looks over Eamon's notes and helps re-work them to use dark magic, thus giving their side an edge advantage.

But to using dark magic requires dark mages, so he seeks the help of his estranged sister, Mirab. She agrees if once the war is over, Willow and her congress stops the genocide against their people. Kai is her adopted son. His merchant father abandoned him when he began to show traces of dark magic.

There are more details, but I think that's enough for now. Those things in the corner are some dress silhouettes from the Alexander McQueen Exhibit. Everyone's name ends in an "n" sound.

 

This is an outfit design guide for the seven countries that make up the continent of Mondigan. It details stuff like climate, color scheme. All designs are based around a central tenet of the countries' value system - represented as a simple geometric shape that gets repeated in the outfit. Countries that are more similar in mindset use more similar shapes. Each also has a signature style item unique to that culture. Unity for the entire continent, though, should be derived from similar materials.

 

Expanding on that further, I went ahead and drew some male and female Alisian outfits. Alisians live in a strict, role-based meritocracy where rank is determined by what you have done and what your forefathers have done. Although there is a certain genetic phenotype common in Alisians (tall, thin, pale, non-red hair, angular skull, hooked nose), appearance, gender, and sexual orientation are not measures of a person's value. Especially if that person can wield a sword. An Alisian is self-defined by their devotion to their religion and having been raised in an Alisian culture.

Despite being a military culture, the central tenet of Alisian religion is "balance" of light and dark. All things in moderation. Therefore, their visual design symbol is a diamond - symmetrical on all sides but still highly dynamic. Given that Rivek and Mirab are half-Alisian and best represent the phenotype, I have drawn them in generic male and female Alisian clothing. The cuts are slightly different to exaggerate how the diamond form falls along each gender, but given that gender is not a defining trait of the individual, the overall design remains mostly the same.

The sleeves are tied to the main shirt body and often not used in summer. They can come in multiple lengths, mix and match for variety. However, it is important to note that - even in the dead of winter - sleeves and arm gear are not worn during religious ceremonies out of respect.

Alisians begin combat training as soon as they can walk, and young adults tend to venture to other countries to seek temporary work. So although much of the Alisian economy is self-sustaining on fish, sheep, and tough grains, they also receive a strong vein of outside income from steel and mercenary work. Unscrupulous, non-religious, private businessmen will usually hire an Alisian bodyguard (this is how Rivek's father and mother met). So, completely illogically, I drew Bohren in a tentative Alisian armor design... which I am not promptly scrapping. It is far too impractical. I also meant to draw Willow in Alisian priestess robes, but I got lazy.

 

Sometimes, I draw my characters in their skivvies. For the record, this is what they would wear to sleep.  Done in the lobby of =ProdigyBombay's ultra-cool workplace while I was waiting for her to hang out with me.