#kigaly

Fit for her sleepless nights conducting experiments... 

And one for her niece, Nix... 

So here’s a concept art from Skyrim that made me create Kigaly...

This game serves as a major inspiration for the whole draconian concept, but it really hasn't live up to the concept arts, as much as I love the game itself I think the best part was left in the arts. 

So, when I saw they planed female priestess I got pumped and initially I mused over a few OCs but felt the need to incorporate this in my own story with some modifications... then Kigaly was born, a few years ago. Kigaly isn't officially a priestess but she does have a connection with a ‘dead’ dragon... well it suits her. She’s ‘wicked’ by nature, with her mismatched horns... she walked a shadowy path from the beginning, but who am I to judge her?

This art filled me with ideas for her nature and appearance. I need to work how exactly necromancy works in my world, but its much like a ‘profession’ (still a shady and morbid one at that) and a part of sorcery, but still its no necessarily looked down upon.. But Kigaly certainly took it to another level with her experiments... let’s just say she’s awaken a few giants and things like that.

She’s very good at that art and its very useful.. so well, I love working with her!

Its not a secret that Skyrim is a major inspiration for my world, but here it is a direct thing I got from there, Kigaly and the dragon priests of old ^^ 

I’ll maintain a low profile here, so that my influence on the naming process is as little as possible, but I daresay that Caladria is my fave of the above-mentioned names.The phoenix as well as star related mythology mentioned here is most fascinating! Sounds very promising what you have here! As for the naming of Sindra - Sin is a lunar deity of Mesopotamia, even though a male one. Still, the common denominator being the moon together with the first syllable of your characters’ name. Lol @...

lol about Sindra’s naming it was the most random name, I just had this idea that a dragon language would have lots of “Sss” like a serpent hiss and the syllables with “dr” as in “dra” because its obvious... lol. 

I had this idea of a character that would be opposed to Aquila in everything and initially she was called Aeshna (which is a genus of dragonflies). I always liked that name but it didn’t suit perfectly the dragon-persona anymore, when I realized fully what the character would look like apart from the vague icy/white haired idea I had.. and it became obvious that she was a dragoness for several reasons, dragons always were an object of adoration for me and I wanted to work with them. So I had this girl who talked with dragons and she needed a name... slowly she turned into a dragon herself. She was fierce and mysterious like no other, the first draconian, truly... from an ancient lineage but the first one I imagined with details.

One day I read about how Christopher Paolini named his hero Eragon: the word Dragon, exchanged the D for an E and I was like “lol I can make cool names too with this method”. I tried a few names, Sindra came out like that and since then I can’t imagine her with any other name.

BTW, Hearing about the lunar deity named Sin makes me happy and less guilty haha. So, I have this way of naming characters that is extremely weird, or its super meaningful or just ‘sounds good’! Kigaly is another one that came to me out of the blue. 

One day I told Jess (I think) that I need to draw a pairing to really start shipping, I mean, in a really subtle way so I can understand my view of the characters before full shipping with kisses and stuff... This happens in all of my creative process. I think I need to ‘draw’ or sketch a character to only then truly name it... when I was drawing Kigaly she came to me easily as if she had been real for a long while, she’s been just an idea and suddenly she felt real as soon as I had her name. Now I can see Rastaban also getting out of this ‘fog’ as I try and sketch him and other characters... its a pity I have so little time these days but I’m just old fashioned about that process.

Aquila was the only one that came so easily to me, like in a dream. I just always knew I had this dream of some eagle girl named Aquila, just had to shape her more as I told you someday... and now in a dream the name Caladria came to me, haha. I heard it when I saw the purple phoenix, my imagination was vivid so now I can’t really let go of that name xD

I know it might be that we just agreed on the best sounding name, but I learned about this myth (caladrius) while searching for her, I just found it perfect for the idea of this character and it went full circle in my will to include more diverse bird myths from around the world in my avian lore, even if in subtle ways... its a perfect reference.

This is the thing I’m super excited to think about now cause I just love the trope ‘villains’ coming back to life after a thousand years... you can expect them to be kind of decrepit at first since when they were defeated back them things got messy... and they're angry! As I said, I think the only part of the empire that was left relatively untouched was Draetera so we have Polaris here but she’s too weakened to even fight back and just decided to protect what was left. Other ancient dragons such as Ishanur the lord of shadows just disappeared... so we have these remnants of the balaur/dragon power.

This is actually the whole thing about Eltanin is that he’s trying to bring back the dragon race to its former glory for a very specific reason and then everything will be mixed in the very contrived plot I have in my head... haha. as you know it will be complicated as the side that seems evil is actually trying to protect something too, well they know of something very important.

But yeah!! I can’t wait to show you the ideas I have about them all, they’re kinda scary people of the past that had lots of power and now are ‘dead’ but they're coming for sweet revenge.

I kinda love resurrection tropes as you realized, and I like to play with the concept that its ‘wrong’ to search and undo death as its a common thing in many cultures, but in my mind I have this twist that things aren’t exactly like this in fact... I would never blame Kigaly or anyone for trying to stay with the ones they love. It just isn’t an easy thing to be done and in the case specifically there are certain preparations that must be done to the body in order to preserve its soul attached to it (as in Egyptian lore) and since Seryndra died tragically and her body wasn’t even recovered we have some problems...

I like to think Kigaly went and collected as much as she could of material (per example, hair from Seryndra’s brushes, etc..) but things are complicated. I base that on my own desire as a kid to keep my dog’s fur (I still keep them) and that I believed I could have them back somehow with the aid of science... clones or whatever.. silly me of course as I know the essence of a being isn't the body or genetics but the memories which are lost forever.

Another of Adrian’s songs for Seryndra/Kigaly...

In Kigaly & Seryndra’s case it is a sisterly bound so strong its unbreakable, no matter how different those two characters are and how they have been separated in the most definitive way: death...

Here’s some Ev. music which slightly remind me of Kigaly (as I know they are about Amy’s love for her sister so its extra fitting).

“Even in death our love goes on...”

“Some say I’m crazy for my love..”

and

“Stay low, soft, dark, and dreamless Far beneath my nightmares and loneliness I hate me for breathing without you”

This song is indeed fitting for her...

The last sentence, is a recurring feeling for Kigaly... her self loathing is immense and unbearable. But unlike in the lyrics, she doesn't feel like joining her sister in death... instead she goes against everything to bring her back. 

“Nothing real love can't undo..”

She doesn’t conform to reality, she is positively haunted and obsessed about it... its unhealthy to an extreme.

“And though I may have lost my way All paths lead straight to you”