#tsaythis

Absolute hardarse Captain Tu <3 God I loved writing her. This is just how I imagine her, hard as nails and supremely confident in her own power and superiority.

NAME Captain Tu WHO IS THIS PERSON Main character from The Storyteller, childhood friend of Sen. Captain of, like, three ships throughout the story? GENDER Female AGE Deceased, mid-60s from memory?

BRIGHT blue eyes, tall, broad shoulders and thicc arms from a life at sea. I said more about her in SH than I did in The Storyteller XD Anyway. I was planning on drawing them how they'll look in SH, which will be mid-40s, but came across this ref who looked too perfect to pass up, so here they are as they were in their own story, approaching 30.

NAME Captain Sen WHO IS THIS PERSON Captain of the Red Cacao, a Tsaythi bounty hunter ship. POV character from The Storyteller GENDER Female AGE 46

Man I loved writing this pirate story. Sen was the POV character but Tu, who I'll get to, was the main character, which was something I'd always wanted to do. Every chapter Sen gets a year older, starting with her birth and finishing at her 30th birthday. She's rescued as a baby by Tu and brought up by a family in a little fishing village on the coast, because apparently a village on-shore populated by bastards is a better life than on Tu's ship. The story is then her learning about who Tu is, from Tu herself, from her crew, from rumours and history and everything she can find.

Sen herself is hardened by her experiences with Tu and, by the time she gets her cameo in SH, she and her ship, the Red Cacao have earned a reputation as formidible pirate hunters. Sen, while 100% legitimate birth herself, makes a point of crewing her ship with bastards who don't get a chance anywhere else.

Comparatively tiny next to Sen's imposing figure, but you still don't want to mess with her. Particularly love how her face came out. Very pleased I've made the change to Aboriginal Australian look for the Tsaythis =3

NAME First Mate Kaiji WHO IS THIS PERSON First mate of the Red Cacao, a Tsaythi bounty hunter ship. Sen's wife GENDER Female AGE 46

Kaiji was the baby in the family who adopted Sen, and effectively the reason her parents took Sen in, because her mother was already breastfeeding. They grew up together, but in Tsaythi culture they're not sisters. When Kaiji, as a burgening teenager introduced to the concept of two women loving each other, recognises Sen as being frigging hot, it's therefore not at all weird that she gets romantically interested. Except that same sex relations are weird to Tsaythis anyway. Not forbidden or taboo, just weird and impractical.

Drawn from a footballer who very obviously had a mouthguard in so I tried to make that not happen when I was drawing him and now I think his top lip is too pulled in. Oh well. I otherwise like his gritty look.

NAME Jed WHO IS THIS PERSON Thiras' estranged husband GENDER Male AGE 40

Jed and Thiras married when Thiras was 19, after she and her mother joined his crew in the search for a wind witch to teach Thiras. Jed's ship had such a wind witch, meaning it's a pretty snazzy ship, because wind witches can pick and choose where they crew and of course they're going to pick the best. She fell in love with Jed as a teenager, because he's hot, then they got married and had a daughter, Kesi, who you'll meet in a sec.

After nine years of marriage, Thiras told Jed and Kesi she was a bastard, but stopped short of telling them who her father was because she could tell things were going poorly. Jed of course told his captain, and the ship dropped Thiras and her mother at Ni-Badra never to see them again.

Jed regrets this every day, cos Thiras is frigging awesome and to abandon her just cos she was a bastard… yeah, he regrets it, but he's not man enough to look for her and try and repair things. It wouldn't take much to track her down--she was in Ni-Badra for a couple of years, and has been in Ryas for the last five years, and she doesn't make a point of hiding, but nope. Can't do it.He'll still keep wearing his short bandana and show hair in her memory, tho.

Head tilted back and a toothy grin? Why would I do this to myself? She came out all right, though, I think. Jaw a bit wonky but I'm happy with her eyes and mouth. I was debating whether to draw Kesi as the teenager she is, or the 7-year-old Thiras left behind. Just in case I do anything with either of these two, tho, I decided to draw her currently.

NAME Kesi WHO IS THIS PERSON Thiras' estranged daughter GENDER Female AGE 17

Kesi thought her mum was the absolute coolest when she was a kid, emulating her with her sense of style (as much as Tsaythis have style) by growing her hair into dreadlocks. Thiras did a good job of teaching her being a bastard doesn't change people at all, so Kesi was always kind to those on-shore but cultural bias is hard to shake and she still felt like they were inferior. When Thiras spilled the beans and admitted to Jed and Kesi that she was a bastard herself, Kesi didn't understand why her mum--and her Nanna--had to leave the ship.