Izroulia Archive

My name is Adonis, or Astro (they/them) and this is where I archive the progress of writing my story Izroulia. The current first official draft is up on Quotev, please give it a read!

The art, story updates and other Izroulia progress goes on this blog so I don’t clog up my other blogs with endless Izroulia stuff. I began work on it as a primary school kid in 2012, and the end goal is to either have a published book or filmed web series! Literally any support is greatly appreciated, I just want people to see my blorbos. This is a big ass cinematic universe, with heaps of mythical species and realms based on mythology from around the world! Although clearly, I have a particular focus on merfolk and finfolk.

Will this be published? That’s the goal! At this point in time I have zero clue if this will be a self publish or via an actual publisher, the series is not yet publish ready. I do share drafts for feedback, but once the books are in a near-fully locked down state, the final few drafts will be kept offline to prevent spoilers for the final product. Target audience? 16+ queer and disabled people, I focus mostly on mlm and trans masc relationships, neurodivergency, and Australian and Mediterranean European cultural experiences. But of course, anyone can read it. I would not suggest those under 16 to though.

Some posts are reblogged from my other mermaid related acc @mertubenostalgia

The Izroulia cinematic universe

Book 1: Izroulia: hunt for the lost pod - main story, taking place in the human realm and the Greco Roman mythology realm of Izroulia. Stars a group of merfolk planning to overthrow the evil queen of the realm.

Book 2: Izrouila: the realms - With a new ruler and a realm to restore, we explore the progress in life post rebellion and the other realms allied with Izroulia.

Book 3: Izroulia: inner peace - wrapping up all the characters arcs, all the plot points and finally letting these characters live a normal, happy life.

Prequel: The tale of Bes and Naddaha - takes place thousands of years before the main series in the Egyptian mythology realm of Kemetic. Tells the story of the first Nile river siren and the Pharaoh to be preventing a devastating drought and falling head over heels for each other.

Tags:

#izroulia - Izroulia content

#the tale of Bes and Naddaha - TOBN content

#underworld merfolk - the merfolk of the underworld content (no accompanying book currently)

Characters names are tagged on posts involving that character, ship names are tagged on ship content.

(Ships: Haru x Micha -Micharu, Zagreus x Styxx - Zyxx, Willow x Pandora - Willdora, Sage x Icarus - Sagearus, October x Arvi - Arvitober, Odette x Abbadon -Abbadette, Aries x Wren - Wrenries, Bes x Naddaha, Besaha, Aima x Iremia- Aimia)

Wanna know something about a character or their life? If you start an ask with “dear (character)” and ask your question, they’ll answer it! All answers will be tagged with #ask Izroulia. Keep it appropriate! A little spice is fine toward the 18+ characters and it will be tagged. Ask away!

READ THE OFFICIAL SECOND DRAFT HERE!

And read the universe lore here!

The whole vampire family has their full body designs now!

My series is absolutely not for kids, I think we can all acknowledge that not all fantasy is for kids. However I understand my art style is kinda anime-esque and may attract younger people. I’m not entirely sure how to deter that, other than putting a massive NOT FOR KIDS warning on the front pages. This series is very gay, over half the characters are queer in some way. But I also don’t want to write about a queer experience that isn’t mine. I’m an intersex trans guy who mostly likes guys. So I have no experiences as a say, a cis girl ace lesbian. So while I have a variety of identities in my characters, I will only really go a bit deeper into the ones whose experiences I can actually reliably speak about. The genderqueer characters mostly. So I can see that some queer people probably won’t connect much with the book, purely because it’s a queer experience they can’t relate to as they have a diffent identity. Which is fine, we all deserve our own stories. I just hope people can understand that sometimes the story simply isn’t about them, but their peers instead.

The writing process itself is painstakingly long, I started it all at 9 years old and I’m 23 now. Obviously 9 year old me wasn’t exactly very good or educated on writing a novel series, but a lot of the base of the universe and story stands on what I made as a child. I started the serious overhaul, world building and first drafts in 2019, so 7 years ago, and I’m still not done. I knew it was going to take a long time, but damn. I genuinely h w no idea when the final copies will be done. I’m currently on my third draft and major overhaul fixing plot holes, expanding on particular points etc of the two main books. Fucking hell it’s taking me forever.

Ramblings aside, my findings from lurking the fantasy/writing spaces are as follows.

Wow my target audience is NIECHE.

I don’t like a lot of the popular tropes at the moment, so who knows if people will even read my stuff because I’m not using them. I hate enemies to lovers, fight me. Jedtavius night at the museum is the only valid enemies to lovers ship.

Not for kids at all and I hope they don’t read it just because there’s mermaids. I hope parents are responsible enough to check what their kids are reading. I’d say like… 16 at the youngest.

While all queers are obviously welcome, I do focus more on mlm, trans masc and androgynous experiences.

I really hate the current book cover art styles that are popular at the moment. Those dark background with fancy dramatic font and swirly edgy patterns ones. And the ones that use the really flat faceless art style that looks like someone just traced a photo and used the fill tool to colour. Won’t catch me dead with a cover like that.

I am someone who has been in fandom spaces for like,,, over a decade. So I do definitely have the framework in my universe for the type of fandom that likes ships, ocs and cosplay. I just hope if by some miracle this takes off and a fandom does spawn, it won’t turn batshit insane and start like,,, shipping siblings of some fuck shit.

Definitely not relatable to Americans at all lol. Australian and Italian/Greek experiences are the ones that get the most spotlight.

I don’t know why authors read their reviews, it seems like that’s the catalyst of 99% of author scandals. Stick to the critique from your beta readers and editors and don’t look at goodreads.com seems to be the play.

Not done with everyone’s pngs yet, but here’s a height comparison for those I have finished.

Time to drag up Micha’s trauma again, unfortunately. Without spoiling too much.

Tara:

The ringleader, daughter of a doctor father and lawyer mother. Rich kid asshole, never taught manners, gets everything she wants. Has always been a mean girl, has several targets but Micha is by far the biggest. Never gets in trouble because her parents donate a lot to the school and they will pay her out of anything. Crossed the line from bully to outright abuser when she started physically attacking Micha, primarily using her claws to scratch him, also shoved him down the stairs once. Got a final devastating blow on him the day he dropped out, it was something so bad and he knew no one would believe him or care so he never told anyone. Continued to occasionally harass him outside school until he moved away with Haru. Has actually briefly encountered Haru once, he threatened her to fuck off and she knew she’d not win in a fight against a way bigger dragon, so she reluctantly backed off.

Layla:

Also a rich kid asshole, but in a more snide and sneaky way. Rumour spreader, gossiper, liar. Father is an engineer, mother owns a big business. Was actually the first to take notice of Micha, but Tara really sunk her teeth into him. She’s the kind to find your secrets and spread them around, take a truth and twist it into something horrible, play victim when called out and pull the kind of “you wouldn’t hit a girl” card. Number one person in the school you do NOT want to say the wrong thing around. Because she will take it and run with it.

Paris:

Bystander of the group. Also fairly well off, but has a single mother and older sister. Was definitely a bit of a bully when she was younger as a kind of defence mechanism, but felt more guilty about it as she got older. Friendship with the other two is toxic as hell. Her position in the story arc is about how even if you do grow up and change for the better, your actions still have consequences and you have to atone for them. As well as how people can be turned into bullies via toxic friendships and peer pressure.

-Each sin type has unique markings, in three possible colours for each. But all types have the same ‘dip dye’ pigment on the arms and legs.

-horns are a genetic thing. The shape and colour is not determined by sin type but by genetics.

-the more a demon uses their power, the darker/brighter the markings will be.

-nails are tough and grow sharp like claws.

-all demons have fangs

-eye colours of demons are: red, purple, gold, black (common) and green, blue and white (uncommon). The scleras are white, but turn black when in the full form.

-full forms can involve tendrils (wrath, sloth), tails (wrath, lust, pride), wings (lust, greed, pride), spines (gluttony, greed) and ability to bend in unnatural ways (all)

-demons can consume blood for extra nutrition, but do not need it to survive like vampires do

-all demonic bodily fluids are black in colour, aside from saliva

Main powers of each sin:

Wrath: intense strength, volume and speed

Lust: heightening senses and dulling tension, gaining energy via sexual acts

Sloth: inducing drowsiness, weakness and fatigue

Greed: ability to read others true emotions by feeling their aura

Envy: incredibly perceptive to others energies

Pride: a hypnosis like ability to tap into others movements

All the Izroulian merfolk operate on h2o rules, dry = legs and wet = tail. The kemetic merfolk do to, exept they must return to water at night because they will transform to tails under moonlight regardless. The Pelelian merfolk can transform at will, but need to stay very very hydrated when on land. The Tsukian merfolk cannot gain legs at all, they are permenantly tailed and if they want to move on land, will need wheelchairs.

Draft 3 overhaul of Micha’s full form

He does NOT like being in this form. It’s overstimulating, he feels exposed and really struggles controlling it. So he avoids this form at all costs. Has only ever shifted into it twice in his life, both weren’t fun to experience and during high stress situations. He’s terrified he’ll hurt someone and the overstimulation risks triggering a meltdown.

The tendrils and tail sprout from the base of the spine, is a ridged, tough texture. They’re very strong. Nails grow and become claw like, hair grows and sclera turns black. Clothes worn when transforming vanish in a similar way to merfolks clothes vanishing when they transform (minus the tops). They’ll return when the transformation reverses, but are a bit disheveled.