Painting Oya

A sped up video of me painting my Oya token!

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Painting Osanyin

A sped up video of me painting my Osanyin token.

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A moment of underrated monster design appreciation: Rothbart as the Great Animal, The Swan Princess (1994)

The mask is supposed to be a way to dehumanize him. He wears it almost constantly when he's away from the safe spaces of the temple, the special places just for him.

In time, he is driven to hiding his emotions, and so what is to keep the world from seeing his face, becomes his shield against it. His enemies can't see fear, or pain, or stress or regret when he's wearing it. All they see is a pair of reflective golden eyes glaring out from the darkness, like so:

Due to Soren's being a werewolf, creatively enough, his mask is full face in the shape of a wolf. It has sharps fangs decorating it which more than once has lead to his cheek being sliced wide open. Part of his character ark is learning to let go of the mask, to escape from his mental prison and move beyond what they tried to make him. In this way I use the mask as a symbol of his captivity, and of his past in general.

As far as his relationships with the priest/esses, Soren is openly bi which is why I'm considering making one of them male, but I'm also trying to decide how that would work in the context of his situation and the religion itself.

Yes, he does. With Kai he is sweet and tender (once their relationship develops past some major hurdles). She's his lover.

With Irrolyn he is quiet, stiff and reserved, taking orders and making reports. Irrolyn is his king, his commander.

With the high priest, who is in charge of his 'purifications', he is quiet and in silent loathing and self-doubt. Don't think I need to explain why here.

With his battalions, he is, again, fairly quiet except in the delivery of commands. His appearance inspires them because they know what power he is capable of, and what he's done on the battlefield.

This depends on where we are in the timeline, but, at first, Soren's affections are very reserved. He wears a mask everywhere but in his private rooms in the temple (more on the mask and the psychology with it of you're curious. Feel free to ask!), and so the only people who really get to know him as he is are his four personal handlers, his high priestesses. (I may swap one for a male priest, not sure on that yet)

They are his only real friends, and the only four individuals he has physical relations with. His affections with them are more along the lines of friends with benefits, until he falls in love with one of them.

This is a tricky one. But I would say, yes, at least in Kai's case. Building off of my previous answer, aboit Soren battling with the perception of reality and it damaging his ability to trust things on their surface value, yes. His challenged perception of the world gains a face in the form of Kai. A retired assassin who fell in love with her target, she knows that he often descends into these spirals of doubt about her and what the actual nature of their relationship is, a cover? A contract? Or is it real?

This hurts her on a deep level, because she loves him dearly and wants him to be able to believe thay she really is in love with him, but she also understands why he has doubts, considering she concealed her identity from him for years while she was waiting for the correct time to strike.