#dannyocs

I eluded in an earlier post that this had something to do with my oc’s but that’s a half truth- see, I don’t have oc’s so much as I have a huge world building project that I’ve been working with on and off for the last … seven years? It’s hard to say where it started because when it did start it was very mundane- but it’s become a … a whole DEAL

To loosely explain this art: in the world my project is centered around there are four goddesses who have almost every concept known to man split between them, there’s a convoluted explanation as to why this is but the important information to gleam from that is the goddess of death is also the goddess of winds and air, and it occurred to me some time ago that a culture worshiping this goddess would probably not want to bury their dead, because then you’re taking that dead person away from the death gods domain, which probably isn’t good for their soul right? So I came up with this concept of … hammock funerals?

I don’t know what to call them other then hammock funerals, the idea is that after a person dies the family constructs a canvas wrap and hangs it between two trees, preferably very high in the air but the highest two trees you have access to will be acceptable, then this is simply left alone for anywhere between 2-12 days both to give the persons soul time to pass on and as a mourning period for the family

How long this is left tends to be a class thing, if you live in a less open area then having one of these hammocks around will create a nuance and it’s considered taboo to work while you have a family members mourning period going on, so lower class people tend to have much shorter funeral periods whilst the rich who have bigger lands which won’t have to have a corpse right next to their neighbors and can afford to not work for an extended time or perhaps don’t work at all will take much longer periods, some grieving family members have even been known to keep the structure in place for up to a month, although this is considered excessive and … more importantly pretty gross

After this funeral period is over the body is taken down and either entombed or burned depending on the family’s preferences (some families will boat out onto the ocean and sink the body but this is not only illegal but VERY looked down upon by the average person)

A character! I’m not sure why I picked her as opposed to anyone else, maybe she was just on my mind

Her name is Claire Silverstone but I have to admit that’s a misleading statement, Silverstone is not her maiden name nor her married name, it’s more like a title- she’s a keeper of sorts for a very very old castle which in her lifetime she’s transformed into a school as to make use of the space

Silverstone is the name of every keeper who has ever lived there, she took it from the man who kept the place before and one day she will pass it to someone else, this is not well known information to outsiders by any means though- most people are under the impression that the property has been regularly passed through a family line, very few are aware of the places true nature

Claire is something of an enigma to people who know of her and to her students, nobody’s sure why she wears a veil as her answers are very inconsistent whenever asked and her children say she doesn’t seem to mind taking it off in private, some think it’s religious while many have thought she must be marred in some way under that cover although again, her children deny this

There’s a certain story about the castle she keeps, which for the last 14 odd years has been a school, that the castle itself is alive somehow, students have seen how sometimes the halls change shape or new design’s or murals or statues in the gardens appear from nowhere, no one ever seen putting them up, no one ever seen doing construction

A less prevalent rumor is of disappearing elevators, some students claim they’ve seen the Silverstone siblings entering into doors or elevators that turn back into walls when you blink, but most people say it’s silly, that kind of magic just isn’t real- no such thing as portals!

God shes so cute. I’m so proud of this one guys, look at her. I finally have an actual design….. I had to study a couple different dresses to get this right, I did try to keep it relatively simple since I intent to do a lot more art of her and if id given her a proper lolita look I think it would’ve gotten to be too much… so I went with a simplified style, common for more casual Lolita or Cutecore girls- honestly finding references for her hair was the hardest part, I couldn’t find a name for it so I had to try and describe it into Pinterest, found references eventually!

Mary lore-wise is a character that’s evolved a lot throughout the years I’ve spent on my original works, but most recently she functions as a loveable reference character, simultaneously a sort of optimistic, humorous relief in reference to the crushing nihilism of a lot of the cast, as well as being the viewers look into a NORMAL person from this world, which is desperately needed when you’re writing royals, prophets and the general upper echelon as most of your cast, which is a direct tip by the way. If you’re writing a story about exceptional characters you should try to fit in someone relatively normal as a way for your viewer to understand what basic life actually looks like

Of course by tribute of being a main character Mary does have some exceptional abilities in that she’s a shape-shifter, she shares a plight with Jasonas that she never asked or agreed to be a Vessel for a god, but rather then falling into despair about it like he does, Mary makes use of her ability by getting involved with revolutionary groups, using her powers to slip into conversations of the high classes as an informant, the story we find her in is her ultimate mission, to infiltrate the private school that for the first time in history, will host a royal child amongst its alumni

It’s like her third time getting redesigned this year because who she is keeps shifting and so does my artstyle- also I wasn’t willing to cover up the nice arms I drew with sleeves so I left the under-sketch in and OH MY GOD I FORGOT EYEBROWS, let me go…fix that

Anyway, in case anyone DOES care, Carmen comes from my one allotted fantasy world ☝️ I’ve failed to come up with a decent overarching name but it’s the one my oc tag attaches to-

Carmen’s role has changed a lot as I’ve editing things with this one, the one thing that never changes is that she’s a character that clings to the very edge of power, she’s just barely related enough to the monarchy to stay within the inner circle, this version of her plays on that more then previous iterations, she’s cynical and rightly terrified that she’s expendable, a try-hard military brat fighting for what her family members are simply handed, all because SHE was born unlucky enough to sit on the outer rim, of course this is ironic. Carmen fails to see how privileged she is in comparison to the rest of society, all she focuses on is what the people above her and not what the people below her lack, which is why she clashes most with my “Normy” character, Mary, who in reference to the rest of the cast is a complete average person of their reality

Just to refresh you he normally looks like this: