#vesperine

Early design sketches

Vesperine was just a normal person in a normal governmentally corrupt village until a famine struck the poorer parts of their home town. Ves starved, withering away like the rest of the lower-class citizens while the rich drank thekr wine and had their parties. They were on death's door when a deity of some sort offered them a deal: it would save Vesperine from death, but Ves had to save the village in turn, and, from this point on, their will would be the god's (although for the most part the deity stays out of Ves's life).

This spider-themed deity was the patron god of Vesperine's village, and thus had a stake in the town's well-being. Ves was never the type to worship or pray, although when the famine struck they did occasionally find themself muttering in desperation to whatever might hear.

Vesperine, guided by their new patron, does manage to nearly end the famine, and gets the poorer citizens back on their feet. They probably wouldn't, if they had a choice. Ves is a coward, not a hero.

The upper class isn't pleased with this new folk hero, fearing a rebellion, and Ves is forced to flee or face death. They run.

And in their travels, they stumble upon a dhop selling all manner of strange things. They find an armband with a snake carved onto it, and simply cannot leave without it. When they put it on, however, they get zapped to another world, it seems, and that's how they end up in the current storyline with the rest of the party. :)

Sketches of Vesperine's most frequent forms, unfinished comic page sketch of when they find the armband, and muted color version of the earlier drawing.

Some other random visual details

While casting a spell, Vesperine's left eye goes an unnatural shade of purple and markings of the same color appear on their forearms, glowing slightly. Around the wrist is a ring of some sort of runes, and climbing up from that is a spiderweb pattern.

You can find Paul hiding in the large pounch of Ves's belt.

they were abandoned at the hospital they were born at because their mutation was obvious from birth, lived in an orphanage until their teenage years, then fucked off to work for the government in exchange for free housing and food. the autopsy scars aren't actually from an autopsy, whoever did that didn't actually manage to get a looksie at their organs. more on that another day