It is a little bit annoying to be in the initial planning stages of a story and posting art, because ideas are still happening, even after you finish a piece and you have to go back and change nearly everything about what you had drawn, lol.
In any case, a couple of weeks ago, I had this flash of inspiration that Su-jin wasn’t the only saintess in the world, and the idea sort of evolved from there as I was thinking about it. I like the idea of there being others like her in the world, and that one of them happens to be a villainess in the story.
Of course, I had a bit of an issue with the idea for a moment. Su-jin’s summoning is supposed to be special, because it’s been ten years since the world lost both their saintess and the Master of the Magic Tower, because they had to wait until Asheron had enough training and magic in order to summon the saintess. But I was like…well, if there were other kingdoms summoning saintesses, wouldn’t it stand to reason that they would borrow a different Master to summon one for them?
That gave rise to the idea that the others summoned weren’t saintesses, but rather failed attempts at summoning saintesses. They started off being from different kingdoms because that’s what the saintesses idea started off as, like the other kingdoms were taking advantage of the lack of one to attempt to summon one themselves. But then I had another flash of inspiration of…well, what if they were summoned to Elysia? I mean, they’re failed saintesses, they don’t have to be from elsewhere. Like, what if the Magic Tower were taking their strongest mages and attempting to summon someone, but couldn’t because none of them were strong enough, and it was only when Asheron finally attempting it that it worked?
And to make matters worse, they weren’t able to be sent back to their world because of the lack of power. Like, failed saintesses had been summoned before, but usually the Master would send them back after a couple of weeks as he recovered from the summoning, and then they’d attempt again. So these girls were stuck there, and all that nonsense.
I liked this idea, because it gave Simone a purpose in the story, lol.
From left to right, we have Park Su-jin (Su-jin Eden), Simone Hughes, Siobhan Luna, and Hoshino Suzuno.
So Su-jin is The Saintess, the one summoned right before the story starts and is one of the main characters of the story. She’s from Korea, about 21, and an orphan who, sadly, had a hard time making friends because she tended to be a bit brash at times. She’s excited at this new chance at life, although she’s a bit worried about messing things up and not doing things ‘properly’ and losing her new family. She’s not really comfortable in fancy noble clothes (you know, except on occasion for like a ball or something where everyone else is dressed fancy, too), so she gravitates towards commoner fashion.
Simone was brought to Elysia about five years prior to the story starting when she was twenty years old, and she’s American. She was taken on the very night that she discovered her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, and she never really got to fully process that, and has been searching for a way to go back to Earth ever since, thinking for some misguided reason that she could make amends with her boyfriend or something. She does get married in Elysia, mostly as a way to protect herself because unmarried women are sort of frowned upon. Her husband is a merchant, and she’s been more or less enjoying that life up until now.
When she hears that a Saintess has actually been summoned, she seeks out Asheron to beg him to send her back home, because summoning a proper saintess means that he has the talent to send her back. He does agree, albeit reluctantly, since he just spent a month in a coma after summoning Su-jin and he’s not thrilled with the idea of doing it again, but he also feels somewhat responsible for her being trapped there because she had been falsely summoned (of course, not by him).Â
(Spoilier, but of course she figures out at the last minute that its been freaking five years and that everyone in her life most likely had moved on and what not, and that she’s made a family for herself here, and that she genuinely loves her husband.)
Siobhan was the first one summoned to Elysia about nine years prior to the story, when she was eighteen.  She’s from Ireland and a little bit irked that she was summoned with no way back home. She, however, was quick to make due with her situation, since there wasn’t much she could so about it. She’s the only other girl from our world that happens to have magical powers, in the form of potion making. She is a part of the Magic Tower because of this, but barely, and Asheron makes a special request of her to teach Su-jin (and Zelline by proxy) how to make potions to make the lessons a bit easier. Siobhan is married to a blacksmith and has two kids with him, and has absolutely no intention of returning to Earth, because her life is here now.
Suzuno is the last one who had been summoned, about three years prior to the story starting. She’s from Japan, and she was about seventeen when she was summoned (meaning she’s actually the youngest of the four). She was a bit pissed about her summoning, because she was starting to get her life in order, or at least she thought she was. She’s a bit of an arrogant girl who tends to blame others for her faults. She’s taken in by a lessor noble family, and their son manages to convince her that she should be the one who’s the saintess because of all the hardship in her life thus far. She’s basically out to steal Su-jin’s power from her, so their encounters with her aren’t exactly…friendly.
I think it’s funny, because I really, really like Suzuno’s design now, and usually with this story, I end up making the ones whose designs I fall in love with not villains, but for some reason, she’s still giving off spoiled rich girl vibes, and I love it, lol. Simone’s is nice as well, although it looks a little more modern than I really want. But, like, it still works, because she also looks like an upper class commoner, which is what she is. Whatever, she’s cute, that’s all that matters, lol.
It’s a simple picture, but I love how it turned out. :D
Look, I’m still working through shit for this story, so things change and I want to document them.
So I had an idea a while back that Suzuno was adopted into one of the more predominant noble families and then, since I lost my character from the third ducal family, that it would be cool it if were actually the Dalton family she ended up with. Which means that she’s the true villainess of high society. Like, Aurelia makes hateful comments, but typically they’re not harmful/they’re helpful because the lessor noble doesn’t understand her place or something. Suzuno is just mean. It also means that Su-jin, Zelline, and the others would actually have more interactions with her, which I liked.Â
I also had the idea that each of the girls sort of reacted to being stuck in Elyisa differently (although Suzuno and Su-jin really had no choice in their matter). So Siobhan is mostly left to her own devices, because no one was too sure what to do with her.  The empire, as a way of apology for getting her trapped in the world with no way home, promised to make sure she was taken care of, which pretty much meant that she would never have to work a day in her life. Which Siobhan exploited for a little while, but she’s the sort of person who wanted to do things. So she ended up getting a job in town, working with the local dressmaker, until she met her soon-to-be husband. Once she married him, she became a stay-at-home wife/mother, as well as a blacksmith’s wife. She is the only other one summon with magical abilities in the form of potion making, and she helps out at the Magic Tower on occasion (her skills are average). She’s the one who teaches Su-jin about magic and potion making, since she’s the best suited to explaining it to her.
Simone got the same sort of treatment that Siobhan did. They empire apologized and promised to take care of her, but Simone grew curious about the world. She befriended a band of traveling merchants and when they asked her if she wanted to join them when they were leaving the capital, she agreed. She’s been traveling around the continent, learning about the different kingdoms, for the past five years now, returning and reuniting with Siobhan fairly often. The merchants happen to come to the capital shortly after Su-jin in summoned, which is how they meet Simone. I’m not sure if she ends up staying past that, but I think I might have her do so.
Suzuno, for her part, get adopted into the Dalton family, mostly because the emperor was afraid she was going to leave as well. And also because the Dalton family was struck by her exotic look. She embraces the noble life, since now she has a bit of power, and she’s become extremely entitled. She ends up meeting the son of a lessor noble who manipulates her into thinking that she should be the saintess and that she needs to get the power from Su-jin.Â
Su-jin, for her part, gets forced into marriage with the Eden family as a way to make sure she stays in the empire and to make sure her power doesn’t go to the Aristocratic faction. Su-jin would have never have dreamed of leaving Elysia, and she lucked out that the Eden family is so kind and that she and Levi happened to fall for each other. She does spend a good chunk of the first part of the story worried that she offended Zelline for taking her fiancé, which Zelline has to spend time reassuring her that she never minded.Â
This idea definitely feels better than what I had before, and gives me a chance to feature these girls a bit more. Sure, it means adding more characters, but eh. They’re important. ^^;
