Marín: You see, the cards do not quite use words, it's something you feel more than see.

Kit: I think I kind of understand...

Ooh this is a good question. I like to try and work with what’s already there, like if there are questions unanswered or things I could slip in with what’s happening with our characters because the challenge is fun. Just a few additions, and you deserve to have me throw in illustrations and new art if you plan on reading all this. Thank you for the ask and encouragement @theroyalmage, you inspired me to make some new art! Will color them eventually 

Julian's Pirate Adventures: In one of Julian's stories, he was accosted by pirates and agreed to stay with them as a doctor so they’ll spare his life. I added that during that time, these pirates sailed to Quetzalli's homeland and attacked a trading vessel that was friendly to her people. Quetzalli lead a group of warriors to attack the pirate ship but in the attack, had gotten trapped below decks and remained there when the pirates managed to flee. Her injuries eventually forced her to find medical supplies and that's when Julian found her and cared for her until they were able to escape the pirates landing in Vesuvia where she would then meet Asra. Despite the language barrier, she and Julian learned to communicate and understand each other well. But she still couldn’t say the things she really wanted to say to him before he departed again. Believing he never intended to return, she accepted this as goodbye. 

Nopal: Asra took Quetzalli to Nopal and she stayed there, learning its medicines (inspired by Julian’s teaching on the ship) which she would use later to help treat victims of the Red Plague. At some point, Lucio shows up to demand cacti from Nopal so I weaved Quetzalli's story into that as well, where she attacks him in response. Which brings us to Muriel...

Muriel Leaving the Coliseum: Quetzalli faces Muriel in the Coliseum, but soon realizes he doesn't want to be there nor fight her. She then tries to make a good show of the fight, hoping it will satisfy Lucio so no one need die. With her plan working a little too well, Lucio calls off the Scourge and allows him to spare Quetzalli. Upon meeting Lucio the second time since their fight in Nopal, she proposes to take the Scourge's place as his prized fighter. She had an air of confidence on the battlefield and put on a great show that appealed to him and the audience well, a refreshing change from that of the powerful but reluctant Scourge of the South. So he took a gamble to keep her instead. Besides, she was a little bit... persuasive. 

And this is how Muriel is able to leave the Coliseum. Lucio allowed it which would mean Asra wouldn’t be in danger, and this new fighter seemed to want to be there.  Quetzalli never wanted to remain there, but she took a liking to the Scourge and pitied him, expecting to escape on her own someday. She has the tendency to act impulsively and make things up as she goes along. Luckily for her, Countess Nadia doesn’t...

Nadia and the Fall of the Coliseum: Nadia is very limited in what she could do against Lucio's clumsy rule and damage to Vesuvia. But she's not helpless, and despite the lack of support in the court she would do everything she can, like the city projects she worked with Julian on. She highly disapproves of the Coliseum, and so I added that she has a clever hand in bringing it down. She hears of this new fighter Lucio traded the Scourge for and goes to meet her to free her. If Quetzalli is freed, Count Lucio will have no time to replace her before the Coliseum loses its appeal to the audiences. She made this offer to Muriel, but he refused, believing he would endanger Asra by leaving without Lucio’s consent. Quetzalli accepts Nadia’s help and the Countess cares for her until Asra can come and take her home. Lucio has no leverage over her as he did with Muriel, and challenging Nadia's decision to take his fighter had failed as she had stayed firm on it. As expected, the appeal of Coliseum slowly faded away without any fighters to match the Scourge of the South or the Annihilator of the North. 

The Arcana Appearances to Quetzalli:  Upon Quetzalli's death from the Red Plague, she is met by the Chariot Arcana who greets her like a friend, recalling the events of her life and their interactions.  Quetzalli means no disrespect, but insists she has never met any of the Major Arcana. The Chariot then transforms into a decorated eagle and Quetzalli immediately recognizes this as a form of Tonatiuh, the sun god, the ascending eagle, and the patron of the Eagle and Jaguar Warriors. The Major Arcana have been with her but have taken on forms she would have been familiar with, those of her gods they would most closely represent. The Wheel of Fortune would take on the form of Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, both helpful and destructive, destiny, chance, good or bad fortune. The Hierophant and High Priestess take the form of Quetzalcoatl, associated with learning and knowledge. Not saying the Arcana are her gods or that her people worshiped the Arcana, only that they have simply taken on those familiar appearances to interact with her throughout her life.

Reincarnation Quetzalli's familiar is a hummingbird named Huitzilin. In our myths, hummingbirds are the reincarnations of warriors, as they are powerful, fierce creatures. Upon her death by the Red Plague, Quetzalli’s spirit was taken up by Huitzilin where she was kept safe and linked to both spirit and physical realms, making it possible for Asra to reach out to her upon manipulating Lucio’s ritual.

I.) How did your MC and their LI first meet?

- Ok this ain’t pretty but Kara was making a move on Lucio during the games so while Lucio went off on a tangent about one particular executioner Kara was like “omg so interesting, tell me more.” which resulted in him introducing Kara to Muriel, thinking he’s a fan so Kara played along. Needless to say at that time Muriel wasn’t particularly enthralled by him.

III.) Where in the Arcana world map does your MC come from? What was their life like there?

- Arcana world map depicts only one hemisphere, Karayan comes from the other. He was (and still technically is) a slave, though he wouldn’t consider his life there completely miserable, he’d think he fared better than most others in his circumstances. He’s been through a harsh training that rendered him borderline emotionless and detached from the worse things life threw at him. So, yeah, his life there was abysmal but he didn’t experience it as such... (for better or worse, i guess)

V.) What would your MC do for their LI after they come home from a long/bad/hard day? What would their LI do for them?

- Give him some much needed space. 

- And Muriel would just listen to him rant.

XXV.) Freebie. What’s one piece of lore about your MC that you’d like to tell the world about?

- He bit someone’s ear off once, when he was like 6-7. %100 would do it again, consequences be damned

How fun! 

Sorry for the slow reply I was actually thinking about this for a couple of days haha! In all honesty I had just finished Breath of the Wild and was really heavily inspired by Link in that game. His quiet confidence and sense of duty really spoke to me. I tried my best to kind of emulate that through Eryn, her shyness was just a natural thing that came along as I interacted more and more with Asra in his story. (I threw my phone onto the carpet when I got to the cave scene aha)

I’m not sure if that all made sense, hopefully it did!!! <3

@theroyalmage

Hey so first off: I adore this question. Second off, I had a couple of different sources of inspo when creating Elvira.

So, I have a running joke that every single character I touch turns goth. I don’t mean for it to happen. But, because I tend to dress in darker colors and gravitate toward more goth styling, I think I project that onto my characters. Legit almost every character color scheme I make turns black. What can you do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When it came to her name, her overall appearance, and even her familiar I was very inspired by my Mexican heritage. I try to specifically make OCs that are Latinx because I don’t see a lot of them around. I’m Mexican and Puerto Rican, so I like to inject that into my OCs whenever I can. Elvira’s dog is a xoloitzcuintli (Meixcan hairless), her favorite flower is the marigold (which has cultural significance in the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos), and her favorite food is pozole (a Mexican soup that is super delicious). Honestly, it really felt like I was overcompensating at first lol. But, I love the parts of my heritage that I was able to incorporate into an OC that has come to mean so much to me. 

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I definitely created an original backstory for Elvira outside of the in-game lore. Her home is just outside of Venterre, in the more temperate region known for their smaller farming communities. She was the only child born to Camila and Ignacio Casimiro. They were farmers and sustained themselves on growing produce and managing farm animals. They lived a simple, happy life. That is, until Ignacio died very suddenly in an accident when he was selling his crops in another town. When her husband died, Camila was entirely on her own. Ignacio was their sole breadwinner since Camila had fragile health, and neither one of them was close to their families. It was difficult for her to manage the upkeep of the farm by herself with Elvira being so young. She tried her very best for years. But, being unable to take care of the entire farm by herself and not being able to hire help made her have to sustain herself and her young child on what they could produce on the farm alone. Over time, her health started to deteriorate. A doctor told her that her disease was in the last stages, which would cause her eventual death. Still, she pushed on to take care of herself and her daughter. 

Camila became fully bedridden by the time Elvira turned thirteen. Being unable to take care of the farm herself, she had resort to other means to feed herself and her mother. She began to forage and steal what she could. She tended to her mother at all times, singing her songs and performing little magic tricks that she knew to keep her happy. In the end, her mother died two years later. Before she died, Camila sent a message to her estranged sister Marina asking her to take Elvira in after she was gone. Marina was Camila’s older sister. She was the one to get the stronger magic ability in the family, and fully embraced her life as the family witch. She hadn’t had much contact with her family in the years that passed. When she came to collect Elvira, both aunt and niece were unsure of one another. They had never even met before and the sudden change was initially hard on the two of them. However, they became very close in the time that they lived together in Marina’s shop. As a matter of fact, Elvira attributes a lot of herself to what she learned from her aunt. She taught her magic and how to play the guitar. She taught her to read and write, fostering her love for poetry and fairy tales. She gave her the very first exotic plant in her collection: a small heart-shaped cactus that had a bright orange flower on top. She’s even the reason why Elvira wears black all of the time, since Marina’s entire wardrobe consisted of long black dresses. It was about a year after coming to live with Marina that Elvira met Asra. 

Th-thank you!!! I really needed to hear this today my brain has me tripping lately but I appreciate your love and support so much!!! 💖💖💖

FLEX ON THE DEVIL I LOVE IT 😂 Alec would try to bodyslam the Devil. Would she be successful? Debatable, but it’s the thought that counts.