#silverwood

The theme for August is Silverwood because Ithea's creation date is in July and Anthem's is in September, so what better month could there be for them?

In order for it not to be completely overwhelming (because it's Silverwood lol), I am limiting this to generation 1 only!

The winning three options will get art and also information about the characters and their relationship, whatever form that relationship takes~

The options cover a range of romantic, platonic, familial, and antagonistic.

Not every possible combo or character from gen1 is being explored, just the most important ones

Chibi cheat sheet for those who haven't been listening to me talk about this since 2004:

Art poll tag list: @bloodlessheirbyjacques @tryan-a-bex @hakbot @Kaket123

Birth mother is the lord of the house – they only have a lord parent

Birth mother is not the lord of the house – the biological mother is their "parent" and the lord is their "lord parent". The sex of the lord and whether or not they had anything to do with conceiving the child is completely irrelevant. There is no place for a "biological father" in the family tree as far as drezhein are concerned, so they don't really have a distinct concept of mother and father.

Which is not to say that drezhein never know who their biological father is (although it's admittedly not a given) they just generally don't have a specific relationship with their biological father on the grounds of that person being their "father". A father who is not lord of the house may also be referred to as "parent", that's sort of a case by case basis.

Drezhein are so fun…I really like exploring all of the logistics of this culture where biological sex is quite literally a nearly meaningless fact, and gender does not exist ^^

For @unclear-contributions and anyone else who may be interested, I've created a chart of the important events in Silverwood!

Ithea in 3! (With or without Anthem, dealer's choice!)

Tummy out Ithea!!!!

This is a great outfit choice for her. She generally wears skintight clothes so I always draw her belly but then also draw her in a belt or other waist jewelry or some kind of wrap and it always gets hidden! Anyway, I don't think I've drawn her in pants since like...2016? 2017? And I can't remember if I've ever drawn her with a bare midriff.

I had a lot of fun~

Info for Putting Bitches in Situations.

I also was curious how you assembled your clothing list -- this sort of project seems fun as hell and I kinda wanna do something like it now. I like drawing clothes and need more practice...

I wanna see those SILVERWOODS in situations. Specifically, Junior in 6 and Ro in 9? Nice. I don't know as much as I'd like about them so I'd also like to see some Kimyair if you don't mind.

...bonus points put Kimyair in 8 somehow.

That's my contribution hope it's fun have fun go well!

Hello!

I did send you a message regarding the first part but do let me know if you want me to go more into detail about any of it!

For the main crux, putting Silverwoods in situations, it's their natural state! I think it's quite fun because you picked the 2 youngest kids, with Ro being the baby of the family and Junior not much older.

Junior:

(I think this is my favorite piece I've produced so far)

Unlike the other Silverwood kids, Junior was raised by his birth mother. He was born at a point in time when Anthem and Ithea had actually split up, and she never knew that he existed. Other than Charlie, Junior didn't know any of his Silverwood half-siblings until late 20s/early 30s, I don't know the exact timeline off the top of my head.

He's much more involved with his half-sister from his mother, Empress Tristira of Daemirra (and he is the heir to the throne due to Reasons). Professionally he is in charge of the military & spy network, but he really plays up being a sexed up bimbo so people underestimate him. So actually, this one isn't out of character at all! You really picked the absolute perfect outfit for him~

As not infrequently happens with Silverwood, he was actually created by @hakbot so he's not totally my OC.

Ro:

Ro was born after Anthem and Ithea got back together and she's definitely the baby. She had a much more affectionate relationship with both of her parents than any of the other kids.

She was the only one who was young enough to not be in school when Ithea and Anthem died, and she was quite badly affected even though she didn't really understand what was happening. She ended up dropping out of school at 14 and running away. None of her siblings hear a word from her until the same events that lead to all the rest of them meeting Junior happened.

Kimyair is the 8th Lord of Cylli. He was extremely attached to his former prime mate and after she died he left Cylli, never to return. He helped Ro out of a somewhat disadvantageous situation when she was 15 and they began traveling together. It really does not take very long for them to fall for each other and they settle down in Northern Inua and live quite happily for the rest of Kimyair's life.

Due to the way that various types of marriages and inheritances work in Drezhein society, Ro is technically his heir! So after he dies, she'll be the new 8th Lord. But she's never been to Cylli, and doesn't speak Denki, and probably doesn't even know about that lmao... I think it could lead to some interesting things for her future but I haven't really explored it yet.

For the uninitiated to Silverwood, it's perhaps worth pointing out that Ro and Kimyair are the same species! There are generational and cultural differences that go into which form they prefer. As each Drezhein has a unique second form, she doesn't look like him. There's actually enough of an age difference between them that Kimyair was born when Drezhein were still born with each form, and Ro wasn't born until Drezhein have to use magic to get their other form. For him, this is his real form, and he doesn't like shapeshifting if he doesn't have to. For her, she considers her non-humanoid form to be secondary and she only takes it occasionally.

Was that enough info for you? hahahahaha I love talking about Silverwood, I could go all day!

Art tag list: @tryingtimi @bloodlessheirbyjacques

I often see the silverwood curse discussed in how it affects the characters and their relationships inside of Witch Hat Atelier, but I don’t see a lot of discussion about what the silverwood curse reflects in real life. There is a lot to be said about the metaphors (and straight-up representation) of physical disability, but there’s also a huge aspect of real-life mental health struggles reflected in this. The silverwood curse makes its host unable to feel “at home” without the tree growing, leading them to live in constant stress. This is very reflective of how a lot of people who struggle with mental illness, including myself, end up feeling scared of getting better or feeling happy. This fear leads people to suffer more with mental health.

There are many reasons someone may be scared of getting better mentally, but I think there are two prominent ones. Those being: fearing you’ll have your happiness taken away or being unable to feel it again, and fearing you’ll lose a part of yourself. I think both of these are also reflected in the silverwood curse. Without the silverwood living inside its host, they will literally lose a part of themselves, physically speaking, because of how the silverwood heals physical injuries. This might also lead them to lose an important bodily function, depending on where and how severely they had been injured. The silverwood curse also limits true happiness to one occurrence, since the host will grow into a tree once they feel happy enough to be at home.

And finally, the second image for Anthem!

So, that's that for art fight! (although I'm really tempted to add Mahesha and Izare too but.......I feel like 7 characters is already plenty) Next I need to work on some stuff for Patreon and then I'll be back on my bullshit.