Under the Skin

He was originally created to be an ancestor for a roleplay character I had (wow, that’s old art!). This perfect polished figure of which the people always told stories about and compared my rp character to him (you know, like ‘you look/act just like you great-great-great uncle Nelo blah blah’).

I needed an ancestor that would’ve gotten along with the dwarves (the rp was like very standard high fantasy setting with reclusive dwarves and all) since my rp character had rather good relationship with them and I wanted some old fashioned way for people around him to explain his fascination.

Somehow I ended up developing the ancestor character way more than I intended. Oops?

This original version of Nelo lived with dwarves, he was one of their most trusted assassins/spies. Among the elves he was considered odd.

Sadly I never drew that more dwarf-influenced version of Nelo (at least I didn’t draw him on anything I kept?). but the idea of elf dressed in dwarven fashion was too good and I doodled something for this post.

I kind of like it a lot! Maybe I should have played as him rather than his descendant. Oh, that RP character eventually had kids, too. I think his son looks awful lot like Nelo. It’s not really an accident, though.

 Anyway, after that Nelo’s kinda always been around. I use him a lot as a background character in many roleplays, but I’ve never fleshed him out more than necessary.

 However when I started to have a idea of wanting to start a comic I thought I’d use him as a main character. That was scrapped quickly since my interest in making a comic is… fleeting at best. Also I did change the pov characters and the whole plot. BUT this was the first time I drew (That’s surprisingly not that old art- 2016. I don’t know why it’s so bad?) and named him.

 In general, he hadn’t changed that much. Appearance is almost the same, the freckles are new. Clothes has changed from fantasy look to more modern, but personality is still the same. As well as his tendency to be a roguish character.

That’s where we are at. He doesn’t really have the set place and maybe that’s why it’s so easy to shove him in different AUs. Useless as useful character, but so fun just to have around.

Altan is manipulative, selfish and backstabbing guy who seldom regrets his decisions. He can and will use anything he can to get what he wants. It’s not always for the Greater Good, and he wouldn’t even bother if there wasn’t something in for him too. But has he taken a life? Yes, in a honest swordfight but he has also made sure certain people will die in the hands of the law. Were they guilty? Irrelevant.

Cyril has power and authority to collapse the government – something he already did but it was seen as a heroic move since it was supposedly the Big Bad Corrupted Government. Everything he does is for the people but he has no problem to use any means necessary to do so.  Has he taken life? Yes, both directly and indirectly. Does he regret it? Some.

Sirah is a sniper. A ex-military specialist who doesn’t ask too many questions as long as she gets paid. She doesn’t care who her targets are or why they even are targets. It’s all just a job for her.

Amaia has very little ethical limits. She could do almost anything in the name of science. For her the end goal is more important than how messily you get there. Would she be the one creating a zombie virus? Could be. Would she regret it? She would call it a work in progress or maybe even success depending on what she was trying to do. She would definitely study it though.

I think they are the worst or the most dangerous. The most of the characters are somehow morally ambiguous and potentially bad guys but not that obviously dangerous (I mean, there’s far worse characters than mine but on this scale).

Nelo has shady profession being a hacker and information broker, occasionally known as spy and thief, too but those are more for drama than what he actually does. He has much strict rules for himself what he’ll do and what he won’t so maybe he shouldn’t be on this list. Life is precious to him so he’ll never kill anyone if he can avoid it. He also avoids using “the civilians” – the people who have nothing to do with his job.

Emery is a captain and it’s his job to make the tough decisions. He’s well loved and respected by his crew but it’s not always so. He can’t please everyone and he’d learnt not to try. He is only a human though and he makes hasty or bad or wrong decisions that he might later regret.

Melody is a bit of a hot-head and she thinks she knows best. She has some trouble listening and can sometimes step on people’s toes on purpose. She has a bit naïve idea that everything will magically turn out fine to everyone.

Hermit fixes weapons and even ships and sells them to anyone really. He doesn’t ask, he doesn’t really care. His part of the resistance is actually very questionable. He feels oppressed but by everyone, not just the people in charge.

Eveline can be very disrespectful of other people’s property, their feelings, their lives. She considers laws way too flexible when it’s about her but immovable when they are for “the criminals”. She genuinely believes she does good though and she tries her best to be a better person. She tries to learn to tune down the truth when it would hurt the lives of the innocent people the way or another.

The rest though… are pretty much cinnamon rolls, not gonna lie. I’ve always been a bigger fan of redemption arcs than corruption arcs but maybe I should corrupt characters more.