#zelline

With the Baron of Arias being a war hero, he, of course, would be training Zachariah in the way of the sword, and I had the idea of hey, what if Zelline, when she was younger, demanded to be taught as well?  Their mother is horrified at the idea, of course, but her father is delighted, and thus, Zelline is now a secret swordswoman (because it wouldn’t exactly be the best thing if it’s discovered that a noblewoman knew how to use a sword.)

(Basically, it’s this whole thing where her husband’s all worried about protecting her and keeping her safe and all that nonsense, since he’s the Master of the Magic Tower, but then it turns out that, hey, she’s perfectly capable of protecting herself!)

Zachariah, for his part, is a member of the royal guard alongside their best friend and Zelline’s brother-in-law, Levi, and he doesn’t have to hide shit. 

I really like how they turned out.  One idea that I had was that their mother was sought after in her youth because she was almost unnaturally pretty, and then their father is all rugged and handsome, which was the perfect storm for the twins to come out looking incredible.  Zachariah has a lot of female admirers, and Zelline is lucky her parents arranged for her to be married at a young age.  I love the idea of a woman in a frilly skirt using a sword, and Zachariah’s outfit is simple (a result of being the son of a poor noble – Zelline’s is nicer because she marries into a wealthier family), but it works for him.

(Also, sort of giving families color?  Like, the Arias family’s color is obviously green, and the Eden’s family is blue.  I have one other family whose color is red, but that’s pretty much as far as I got, lol). 

It’s a bit of a common story – the kingdom is of need of a saintess and thus calls one from another world.  The perspective, though, is not of the saintess, but of one of the people who was born and raised in that world.  There’s not real solid plot to the story yet, other than the main character helping the saintess understand and adapt to the world while also attempting to win over her fiancée/husband.

Zelline Arias/Eden – the main character, a girl in her early twenties who is the daughter of a poor count.  Because of this, and because her mother needed to keep up appearances in the court, she spent a great deal of her childhood in the capital.  As such, she also spent a great deal of time with the Eden brothers, and considers the younger one, Levi, to be her best friend.  There’s no romantic feelings between the two of them (since Zelline is in love with the older Eden brother), but at some point, the Eden family took pity on the Arias family’s situation and arranged for Zelline and Levi to marry.  Zelline didn’t mind because of the aforementioned best friend thing, and it was helping her family.

The problem came with the saintess was summoned and the king declared that she should marry Levi instead.  The Arias family was thrown for a loop, since they had already used her dowry to help their territory, and had no way of paying it back.  (The Eden family didn’t really care.)  However, to help save face, the older brother Asheron offered to marry her instead, despite the fact that he had declared that he wasn’t going to get married.  Which, of course, is what Zelline actually wanted this whole time, but couldn’t say anything.  She’s still a bit unsure about the whole situation, and wants to prove to Asheron that he didn’t make a mistake in marrying her.  She doesn’t really have that much magical abilities, but it’s discovered that she has incredible potion making skills.

Asheron Eden – the love interest, and the older of the Eden brothers (by about two years).  He is also the master of the Magic Tower, and because of this, he gave up his claim of becoming the next Duke of Eden.  He’s extremely powerful in magic, and he’s also the one who summoned the saintess to the world.  He’s actually been in love with Zelline for quite a while, but he’s worried that his position as Master of the Tower would present too much danger for her.  Which is the main reason he declared he wasn’t going to marry anyone, because of the danger (or so he claims).  He was glad for his brother’s engagement to her, since while he couldn’t have her, he could at least spent time with her.

When the engagement fell through, he sort of panicked and offering to take her instead, mostly because he knew of the weird position it put her family.  He tries his best to be aloof around her, so his enemies think he’s just doing her a favor and not that he has genuine feelings for her, not realizing that Zelline is perfectly prepared to face those dangers if it means that she can be with him.

Su-jin Park – the saintess who comes from South Korea and who is trying her damnest to fit in and failing pretty hard.  She fell in love with Levi the moment she saw him, not realizing that he had a fiancée already, which is one of the reasons why the king ordered their engagement.  She stays at the Eden estate because Asheron’s hand in summoning her, which did help develop her relationship with Levi.  She’s a bit appalled upon learning about his previous engagement, and is extremely worried about Zelline hating her for ‘stealing’ her man, although Zelline doesn’t really care.  The court bashes her quite a bit for stealing Zelline’s position (despite the fact that they were bashing Zelline for her lowly status previously) and for her lack of etiquette knowledge.  Levi gets Zelline to teach her, and once Zelline gets Su-jin to understand there’s no hard feelings, the two became quick friends.

Levi Eden – pretty much the guy who causes all the drama, albeit unintentionally (although it’s pretty the king who causes the drama).  He fell in love at first sight with Su-jin as well, although he wasn’t willing to give up the engagement to Zelline until he was ordered to do so.    He’s immensely grateful to his brother for stepping up to take his place, allowing him to not feel guilty about the situation.  Zelline would have freely given up on the engagement if it wasn’t absolved for her because of his feelings for Su-jin, but he doesn’t realize that.  Both he and Zelline have to work hard to make it very clear that they only view each other as friends and there was nothing romantic between the two of them.  He is Captain of the Royal Guard despite his young age, mostly due to his powerful Sword Aura.

Emily – Emily is Zelline’s personal maid and confident, having assisted her from a young age.  Zelline brings her over from her family’s estate.  (I don’t have much on her, honestly).

Zachariah Arias – Zelline’s older twin brother.  He’s protective of Zelline but also the other best friend to Levi (probably more so since they’re both guys).  He’s staying in the capital at the moment mostly to keep an eye on his sister and also to attempt to find a marriage partner.  His Sword Aura is just as strong as Levi’s, and he’s works under Levi in the Royal Guard.  He’s also a bit annoyed at Zelline marrying, although he knew it had to happen eventually.  He is in love with Rosaline, although his low position makes him think he has no chance with her.

Rosaline Charlet – the daughter of a marquis and basically the queen of high society.  Despite this, she is a ridiculously kind person and one of Zelline’s close friends.  This is actually because Rosaline is in love with Zachariah and thus Rosaline wants Zelline to be her sister someday.  She helps Su-jin to navigate high society at Zelline’s request, and becomes good friends with the saintess as well.

Siegfried Elysia – the third prince of the Elysia Kingdom and Asheron’s self proclaimed best friend.  He’s always just around to annoy Asheron and Zelline sort of gets caught up in his schemes as well, despite Asheron’s best efforts to keep the two apart.  He is one of the few people who knew Asheron’s true feelings for Zelline from the start, and while he’s annoyed at his father’s meddling, he’s also grateful since it gave Asheron a chance to be happy.  He has no real ambition for the throne, although Zelline feels like he’d actually make a better king than his siblings.

This another attempt at making a story where the characters have colored hair, lol.  I couldn’t give Zelline pink hair since that’s ‘main character’ hair, and while she is the main character, she’s also not main character material, which is why I went with the blue instead.  I like blue hair.  It’s pretty.  And Asheron has purple hair because that doesn’t seem to be a common hair color (and also long hair because that’s not really a Thing I do with my love interests and it weirdly works here).  And I have Zelline and Asheron matching because I love when the artists give the couples matching outfits.  There’s one that I read that, at some point, all the main couple wore was matching outfits and I thought it was both sweet and hilarious.

This started off with Zelline there, giving her a delicate pose because why not?  I see her making a point to be a prefect lady thanks to her background, despite the fact that she was a real tomboy when she was younger.  The pose fit really well.  Then I found a similar one and thought it would be funny to draw Su-jin in it, with the idea that she’s sort of copying Zelline.  She looks up to Zelline, after all, and tries her best to emulate her.

So this sparked me thinking I should do a cast picture finally. Except those two were the only two I could really think of.  The others’ poses were meh in comparison.  So I mulled on it for a moment, figuring I could at least salvage these two.  But I didn’t really want to do a picture of just Zelline and Su-jin.  But then I remember the one thing the two of them really had in common – they were sister-in-laws!  So it seems logical to add in the other Eden wife in a similar pose, and voilà, I had my picture.

Zelline is a random change, and honestly, I feel like this makes way more sense from a design point. Like, the fancy dress I had designed for her is great for, like, fancy events, but for everyday wear? This works great. And I can see her wearing something like this just around the manor. I kept the bit her matching Acheron, though, lol. It helped that the blue and green look good with her hair, anyway.

Acheron all I did was fix his green to actually match Zelline's. And somehow, it pulled the outfit together a little better?

Su-jin, I figured, would be more comfortable in something more resembling commoner clothes, although this isn't quite that. I guess, like, Zelline, this is more casual wear, but I really like it. It definitely looks comfortable. I'm sure she's uncomfortable with all the fashion at first - although wearing a flowy dress is always a perk. But then again, I had decided to make her personality closer to Mira from K=pop Demon Hunters, in that she's a little brash at times, except she's trying her best to reign it in because she knows it's not acceptable in polite society, and it's gotten her in trouble in her world before.

Levi I took away a few things, as I decided that he's no the second son of a duke, but rather the third. I liked the idea of the trope of there being three brothers that could be in love with Su-jin - the oldest is obviously the heir, the middle is a genius mage, and the youngest is the captain of the guard (despite being in his twenties). I mean, only one of them is actually in love with her, of course, because this isn't that sort of story. But I just like the idea of Levi not having as much on his shoulders, and he does look better with the half cape.

Zachariah I decided to sort of make his outfit a little more 'casual' and less fancy merely because he is the son and heir to a poor baron, so his clothes would be more practical and a bit poorer as well. He looks good, though, so it works out. Poor can't hide hotness, after all, lol.

Roseline, like with the other girls, I decided to give her a causal, everyday outfit as well, with the idea that her dress is just her fancy wear. She looks great, and I like how I made all the skirts different lengths.

Siegfried I didn't really do anything to, because he was fine as he was.

The next two are new characters I ended up coming up with since the last designs.

Aurelia Hensley - the daughter of a duke and the bully (at first) or high society. She's a bit of a villianess at first, bulling Su-jin, disparaging Zelline, and overall being a nuisance. But her position in society is high, and she has her underlings, so there's not much anyone could really do to stop the bullying (until Su-jin gets fed up and straight up punches her at one point, lol).

Killian Eden - Killian is the oldest of the Eden brothers, and the heir. He spends most of his time preparing to take over the duchy and tries to be the level-headed brother. I couldn't figure out why the younger brother would have two engagements with his oldest brother not being married (since Acheron had resolved not to marry previously), but I decided that he was engaged, but his fiancee died in a monster attack a few years before the story starts. He's slightly effected by this, but since it was an arranged marriage and he didn't really have any feelings towards the girl, its not like it's eating him up about it.

The story is about Zelline (the blue haired girl) who is the daughter of a poor baron.  She happens to be best friends with the youngest son of a duke, so in order to help her family and their territory, the duke suggested an arranged marriage between Zelline and their son.  Which they hadn’t minded, because, like I said, they were friends, but there was never any romantic feelings involved.  And arranged marriages are fairly common within the nobility, so marring their best friend was a bit of a perk.

But then the saintess, Su-jin, is summoned, and Zelline’s fiancé falls in love with her at first sight.  Zelline doesn’t really give two shits, since, like I said, they’re relationship is completely platonic.  However, the king sort of complicated matters when he decided that Levi was going to marry Su-jin instead (mostly just to be a dick, since he’s unaware of the two’s feelings for each other).  Zelline is sort of left in a weird position, because her family had already used the money the duke had given them for the dowry, and they had no way of paying them back.

(The duke honestly wasn’t expecting it back.  The marriage was an excuse to help).

So, to uncomplicate things, Levi’s older brother steps in and offers to marry Zelline in his brother’s place, and the thing is, Zelline is in love with Acheron (and Acheron is in love with her, which is why he offers, despite saying he was never going to marry).  Still, the relationship between Zelline and Su-jin is a but weird at first, because Su-jin thinks Zelline hates her for ‘stealing’ her fiancé.  It takes time, but Zelline does finally convince her that there’s literally no hard feelings.

Zelline is tasked with incorporating Su-jin in high society, which is sort of difficult, since Zelline herself isn’t all that involved.  She enlists the help of the queen bee of high society, Roseline (pink haired girl) to help her.  Zelline and Roseline are somewhat close – Roseline also helps Zelline navigate high society due to the fact that she’s in love with Zelline’s twin brother. 

The fourth girl (the red head) is actually an early villainess, being the sort of mean girl on high society who bullies Su-jin and Zelline and Roseline to a lessor degree.  However, due to Su-jin not really being the sort of take guff from anyone (and probably through some random little misadventure), Aurelia eventually becomes a weird part of their little group.

Here I wanted to draw Su-jin in the commoner outfit I designed for her, figuring a modern day girl would probably feel a bit weird wearing the fancy dresses every day.  Like, they’re fun every now and then, but a bit much all the time.  And I liked the idea of designing a dress for Zelline for, like, when they sneak out to visit the market in disguise or something.  (Su-jin can’t really hide, since she’s the only one who looks like her in the entire world.)  And I figured Roseline ends up spending a lot of time with the duo as well, so I should shove her in as well.

And for some reason, I see Aurelia being a part of the group at some point, and so I figured since I had the other three, I might as well do something for her as well, and honestly, the entire time comes together nicely.  Zelline and Su-jin holding hands is possibly suggesting something that’s not there – I mostly did it because Asian countries are a bit more touchy than we are, plus the two of them are sister-in-laws.

(I like to think the manhua title of this would be something like I Became the Sister-in-Law to the Saintess or something to that nature, lol).

I really do like how everyone turned out!  It matches their personalities really well, honestly.

When I finally decided to post up the designs for the story, I immediate was struck with this picture idea for some reason, enough so that I had to attempt it and see what happened.  What happened is that I managed to pop out a ridiculously pretty picture!  Just…wow.

So the girl is Zelline Arias, who is the daughter of a poor count who had gotten engaged to her best friend as a way to help out her family’s territory.  Neither of them had any romantic prospects at the time (Zelline had a crush, but knew it wasn’t anything that was going to work out), so they were completely on board with the idea.  I mean, if you can’t marry the love of your life, being with your best friend is a good option as well.  The problem comes when the saintess is summoned, and her fiancée falls head over heels in love with her, and the king up and decides to cancel their engagement so that he could marry the saintess instead.  Which Zelline doesn’t really care about – she’s happy for her friend for finding love, but her family had already spend her dowry on improvements to the territory and had no way to paying the duke back.

The guy is Asheron Eden, who is the older brother of Zelline’s former fiancée and the man she happens to have a crush on.  He had declared that he wasn’t going to marry because he was slated to become the next Master of the Magic Tower, which he is at the start of the story, and traditionally, the Master doesn’t get married.  For some reason, once her engagement was absolved and she was discussing with her parents how it put her family in a weird spot, he offered to marry her in his brother’s place to help everyone out.  While he is in love with Zelline as well, he’s a bit worried about putting her in danger, and this is a little distant with her at the beginning of their marriage, with Zelline trying her hardest to prove to him that she is a good wife for him and that she doesn’t care about the danger – she just wants to spend the rest of her life at his side.

They do end up working things out, obviously. 

The idea here is that Asheron is offering to dance with Zelline, probably after a conversation about how she enjoyed the few times she got to dance with him at balls or something.  I don’t know, it’s just them being cute together.  I really like the idea of them wearing matching outfits, which I think is the reason why they look so good together.  I really love Zelline’s blue hair here, and I’ve glad I gave it to her.  Asheron looks good with his purple hair as well.