#nymia

Bunch of sketches of tdp elves while we wait for the new season.

Keith was raised by his dad’s fire department and he never knew his mum

When he goes off to college he gets into a fight and ends up in overflow housing called the vortex

In the vortex he meets the other misfits 

Hunk, who cooks at anytime of the day and tends to hug people too much

Pidge, a tech genius who always has some project making noises

Shiro, the disabled guy with PTSD (not saying that this is bad, I just feel other college students might ostracize him for it)

Matt, the all too flirty nerd

Allura, the foreign exchange student who is baffled by everything American

Shay, the super shy but awesomely strong girl

And Romelle, another exchange student who is far too curious for her own good

I’m working on plotting for Nymia again, and I’ve come up with an idea that makes a lot of sense for the ending slash “third act.” It gives the most important characters a satisfying emotional arc, it lets Talxin get what he wants especially, it just falls into place very clearly. It’s simple. Talxin wants to change his country’s status quo and get rid of the broken social system that’s tortured him his whole life. The natural path is revolution, the setting is ripe for it, I can work this in really nicely with his family angst and stuff....

But it’s also... just, so boring to me. It feels like a generic stock plot. “There’s a revolution, the protagonist is edgy badass revolutionary leader, the bad guys threaten their family, mwahaha priorities, but ultimately everything comes out fine.” It’s boring! It’s almost like it’s too simple for the depth and complexity of the characters involved. There’s so much going on with Talxin, and with the other paladins too, and I’m not writing a standard-issue YA dystopia. (This isn’t even YA. Or a dystopia.) I don’t want to write a revolution as the main plot, Nymia is a character-driven story and it would be more of a side thing secondary to the characters bonding and Talxin specifically searching for his family and creating found family with the other paladins. But like... it still feels very textbook.

I’ve been bouncing this scene around for a month or so, and finally finished it. Big TW for animal death on this one. :( (EDIT: fixed formatting on desktop)

—

They found the dog in the early evening after their history class. It was late winter, and the sun had already dipped low towards the horizon, bathing the island in weary purplish light. A few red clouds clung to the far rim of the sky, tempting a snowfall, and the air was cold and clear and smelled of firewood.

“I heard whimpering in the woods,” Mint was saying, as he led the trio down a narrow garden path. “Something’s out there, it needs help.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a bird?” Tangerine asked.

“Are you saying I don’t know birds?” Mint replied. “I know so many birds! I know all of the birds, and it wasn’t a bird.” They reached the edge of the garden, where the rosebushes grew tall and strong in summer, but in the dead months of winter it was easy for Mint to pull a few spiny vines aside and make an opening. “Come on.”

They climbed through the gap: first Tangerine, whose hair snagged on the thorns, and then Mint, and Red silently trailing behind them. He’d been quiet so far, only out of habit, but Tangerine offered him a nervous smile of reassurance when their eyes briefly met.

“Keep quiet,” whispered Mint as he led them to the woods. “I don’t want to scare it away.”

“We shouldn’t be out here,” Red murmured. “The Anharen said—”

“He won’t catch us,” Tangerine said. “And it’s not like he could do anything if he did. He can’t just replace us. It’ll be fine.” She smiled at him again, and he looked at the ground.

The path here was narrow, dipping over little knolls and around great rocks, beneath heavy-needled pine trees that hid them from sight. Mint led the way, dancing ever-so-gracefully around anthills and beetles and the dormant sprouts of plants. Red padded behind him and Tangerine and took in the forest: the way the waning light cast dappled shadows on the leaf-litter, the little brown birds flitting between barren shrubs, the shapes of a hundred kinds of mushrooms pushing up from under the ground.

They all heard the whimpering, this time.

Some Artea and Nymia stuff, yay!

The above image is Artea’s first day at Druid school ( I don’t know what else to call it) and how they meet Nymia. A few details about this part of their story:

- At this point in time, Triana is one of the teachers for the younger members of their order. She’s tough and comes off as stoic, but genuinely cares for the well-being of her pupils; Artea more so, due to her relationship with their mother. This is why she asked Nymia to great her newest charge.

- Nymia was more or less claimed by Triana years prior to this moment. The elder Earthblood elf had stumbled upon the child while she was attempting to replicate a spell, which she successfully did. Basically it went like this: “You want to learn magic? You will need a teacher. I am a teacher. Welcome to spellcraft 101, kid!”

- Artea was sent to the order after an...incident (yeah, let’s call it that) back in the Moonshadow homeland. Their mother, Ali, was already considering sending them away because of their clear affinity for earth magic, but was reluctant to be away from her baby for so long. After the incident, it was clear that Arty needed to be around elves who could help them understand magic and how to properly use it. Ali contacted her dear friend, Triana, and the arrangements were made.

- Nymia is around 12 in this image; Artea is 9.

- They’re wearing unisex toga uniforms...mostly because I didn’t want to put too much effort into their clothing. 😓

- The stuffed moon griffin was a gift from Artea’s moonshadow grandmother. They dubbed it “Lady Luna” and is a comfort item for them.

Remember kids, karma is real and it can hurt!

- At age 20, Nymia is 5’5” (5’8” with the antlers). Artea, at 17, is 5’10” (6’1” with the horns).

- I headcanon that elven children will grab each other’s horns to mess with each other, kinda like how kids irl grab the back of the neck or play kancho. It’s not malicious; maybe a little rude in certain crowds, but mostly just a minor annoyance.

- Nymia was no exception, and she does regret it!

(Please do not copy, distribute, or use my oc without explicit permission from me.)

Wanted to try creating a half decent, animated gif...so here we are. Nymia is so ready for the season 3 release date announcement, as are the rest of us.

A while ago, I posted an introduction to my Nymia WIP that featured seven main characters, magical girls and boys known as Paladins who are supposedly on a mission to bring peace to the world.

Today, I introduce to you.... number 8.

Vladimir Ryujin is the paladin of Silver, an archetype long thought lost to the sands of time. Silver has not been worshipped in many generations, and the last known silver paladin lived around a hundred and fifty years ago. Remnants of Silver’s cults can be found isolated among city centers, but for the most part, their role in the pantheon has been forgotten. Silver magic has all but disappeared from the world. In modern times, though, Silver’s making a weak reappearance. Vlad may be their last chance to escape the void of memory.

Historically, Silver has two main associations: material wealth and the ‘mask.’ They’re all about the things people value, specifically money and reputations. This does not make them evil, their alignment is neutral at worst, but they have a distinct affiliation with lies and deception. The magic they provide can definitely swing towards the malevolent. Silver is the difference between a person’s true self and the identity they present to the outside world. In Sapir, they were once a patron of diplomats. In Nemmonay, they were favored by con artists. They have cults among beauticians and things like masks and makeup are often involved with their rituals. One never knows the true face of a silvermage. Silver is also associated with gems and precious metals, they would be prayed to for financial success and prosperity.

Vlad himself occupies an odd little niche in the world of Nymia. He’s related to another relevant character, Suki—the original pink paladin. She’s his younger sister. Suki gets demoted and loses all her magic, period, when she attacks Talxin at the academy. Abusive assholes do not get to be magical girls in my stories. She goes home and bullies Vlad out of his rightful inheritance as the eldest child, and torments him until he runs off to join a Green convent in the west, which is where his plot really starts. He’s not chosen by Silver until years after the other paladins, he actually gets his powers as part of the present-day plot’s inciting incident.

Vladimir’s most admirable and infuriating trait is his pacifism. He does not believe in violent solutions, he doesn’t believe in violence, he literally would not hurt a fly. The spear I drew him with? Although he can technically summon it, he’s only ever used it as a walking stick. In a story like Nymia’s, that causes trouble. Vlad is viewed as a traitor in his home country for refusing to support the war effort. Suki sees him as weak and takes every opportunity to abuse him because he won’t fight back. Plus, he likes to talk, and when given an opportunity he will gladly lecture anyone about his moral beliefs for ages. He literally annoys his enemies into submission. His code of ethics does have a caveat—do no harm unless immediate worse harm would be done by standing by—but he has yet to encounter a situation that’s prompted him to act. He’s just a harmless weirdo, and although he’s quite charming, nobody really expects much from him.

Thing is, though, he’s the perfect silver paladin. Why? Because the VAST majority of that harmless weirdo act is absolute bullshit. Vlad is a Slytherin through and through, sneaky and calculating and often capable of getting what he wants through manipulation alone. He’s also far from weak—although he doesn’t believe in using violence, he’s seen quite a lot of it, and he knows how to fight for himself and for others should the need ever arise. (Whether or not he’d recognize the need is another question.)

Vlad’s ideals are genuine and always have been—he lives and breathes his nonviolent lifestyle—but there are other ways to end conflicts, and he is very good at exploiting those. Vlad is charming as hell. He’s kind and polite and he listens. He has perfected his nonthreatening aura and he has near-infinite amounts of patience. Also, uh, growing up with Suki gave him very high pain tolerance. He will stand there and listen to you, and let you hurt him, and take all the hits, and he’ll wait for you to tire out and then he’ll start talking again. And all that listening makes him really good at the talking. It’s difficult not to eventually like him, and he knows it and he uses it to his advantage. (It doesn’t hurt that he’s also quite good-looking.)