Mother Maple, Collector of the Waffles

Hello hello! My name's Maple, and I'm so very happy to have you here! Please read my DNI list before proceeding. My Commissions are closed.

I am an adult and as such, I may occasionally post about mature topics. They will be tagged properly, given a warning, and be under a cut. I do my part, if you do not wish to see such topics you can scroll away 🙏

Other accounts:

My AO3

Characterhub - learn about my main OCs

Roleplay account - to ask my OCs whatever you'd like to hear them answer!

Reblog account

Other Masterposts:

Art Masterpost

Critter Masterpost

Estrella Masterpost

Panthera Masterpost

Mei Masterpost

Macaw is by no means a spectacular child. He lags behind a little developmentally and does not talk very much. He is not particularly large nor brightly colored, as one would expect from a descendant of the king. He is also not a royal - he was conceived before Queen Baobab's death and as such is a bastard child, meaning he did not inherit the Blessing of Angels that makes the royals stand out among their own kind. As such, he does not have to worry about princely duties and can grow up relatively normally.

Macaw is a quiet kid. He's a picky eater but loves putting random sticks and things in his mouth. His colors have not yet fully grown in, so he may grow to become lighter or darker and may or may not gain more patterns later in life. He's prone to violent outbursts (that he is, thankfully, too small to do any real damage with). He will grow out of these outbursts before he reaches age 10 but will still be known to have a bit of a temper. Macaw is terrified of Prince Michael, who he sees as a strange, large harpy who hates him and his mother for reasons he doesn't know or understand.

Oh man that's such a great question that's absolutely relevant considering how long I've had the idea of the royal family being at a super fragile state currently

If there was no heir to the throne, the current king would rein for as long as he is able to, and if he is able to bear a son (even an illegitimate son) the Blessing would be passed onto the son.

If, for instance, Michael and Azrael BOTH died from the challenge, or Michael dies before producing an heir, then i think one or both of two things could happen.

The Blessing transfers to the closest, viable male relative that is currently alive. This could be cousins, second cousins, uncles, what have you. In this case it would be Swallowtail, who is Michael's second cousin, and though he would be a really bad king he could, potentially and theoretically, revitalize the lineage in order to get the Blessing back on track. There is also the potential that it goes to Macaw, as a more direct descendant, even though he was denied the Blessing at conception because he was born out of wedlock. If Macaw were anointed with the Blessing, the royal advisors would rule until he is remotely old enough to rule (they may skim the law about being 25 just because the kingdom would be desperate for a king, so he could be coronated at age 18 or so instead).

2. The royal lineage goes dormant. Extinct. At least until Quetzalcoatl picks a new ruler for them, which could end up taking years for the right harpy to both become of age, prove himself, and become anointed. In this case, the kingdom would have to adjust. This means the huge societal change of going from a kingdom to an oligarchy, composed of the king's advisors, and if necessary having a system that determines who stays/becomes part of the oligarchy. This would put the harpies in a very fragile state of existence economically and politically. There's a potential they end up switching to a voting system, having large amounts of riots, and the potential of the kirin attacking them while they are weak in order to secure the vast amount of resources in the rainforest that they could use to keep their own species afloat. This could potentially lead to one if not both species going extinct, and harpies would at a minimum return to their pre-king way of living where they don't have one united ruler, but each village rules itself and harpies turn against harpies.

Swallowtail lost both his parents by the time he hatched. His father died to an anaconda attack and his mother was a rare victim of a childbirth-instilled death. He was raised by his grandmother, Splinter, whom he now takes care of due to her getting too old to take care of herself. He works in construction but spends more of his time down by the river, looking for cool rocks and interesting trinkets. He's flown down to the coast and up the kirin border a few times and likes making chit-chat with the guards. They taught him kirinese, though he's not very fluent and has a very small and different vocabulary than someone who was taught it formally, like the first two classes of harpy are.

Swallowtail is an outcast. That makes him among the lowest ranked harpies in society, and he truly is near the lowest. The hut he shares with his grandma is crowded, even though they are both very small harpies. They have very little spare food and rainstorms often result in them getting drenched. Swallowtail never did anything to personally upset the king and be outcasted, other than be a weird little runt who acted more like a kirin than a harpy, but his other grandmother, (whose name I am forgetting, I have is saved somewhere but I can't find it right now) was a concubine for King Gabriel, who was king before King Azrael came to power. She bore a child while Gabriel was still mated with his queen and because of that, she was outcasted, and an outcast's decedents can't return to society until the great-grandchild comes of age, with the exception of a harpy gaining the king's favor somehow.

Awww thank you!! That's a huuuge compliment and the first time I've been told something like that. Most of what I use is just textured brushes build up with values/colors. You're thinking of Loneliness Hurts Less in the Morning, and the entire background is just a few hand-drawn branches and a textured brush. I highly recommend looking up tutorials for tree bark if you want to have a realistic tree near the focal point. That's what I did for the throne in The Prophet Prince and that turned out pretty good!

I'm under the impression that nature is a huge weak point for me, but I'm very pleased to hear that you're impressed by me! And that you want to study my art haha, I think you might be one of the first to tell me that, too. Please tag me if you ever do that study! I would love to see it

(and hey, if you want to get into drawing more nature scenes, making a harpy character of your own is a GREAT incentive ;) and I'm always here if you want to ask questions about how I do things or what's going on with my harpy species!)