#zephira

The idea I have right now doesn’t actually involve reincarnation, but displacement, I guess?  Basically, rather than the priestesses being reincarnated while searching for the lost Priestess of Light, Addy, Jake, and Melanie are suddenly summoned to another world.  Addy and Jake are sort of collateral, since the aim was to summon Melanie, and they happened to be standing too close when she’s transported, and they’re just sort of stuck there and forced to deal with everything.

The world is undergoing something of a civil war at the moment, with the Realm of Spirits attacking everyone else.  The other priestesses were lead to believe that the Priestess of Souls had turned on them, but had discovered recently that the Priestess had actually be banished from Novis sometime ago, and a demon had taken her place.  The priestess had, in fact, been reborn on Earth and was raised there until the other priestesses preformed a summoning ceremony to get her back so she could help out with the war (and to just, you know bring back one of their own.)  They are a bit surprised when they summon three people rather than one, though, and as a result of the mix up, the vow to make their lives comfortable.

The first set of designs are the main characters – Addy, Jake, Melanie, and the priestesses.

Adrianna Roderick – Addy is about 20, and prior to being transported to Novis, she really had no plans for her life.  She helps out at her mother’s bakery for the lack of a better job.  She’s been having these visions of Novis her entire life, which she believes is just a world that she’s made up.  She desperately wants to write a story and do art to get the world out of her head.  She doodles and she plots, but hasn’t really come up with anything concrete just yet.  She’s excited to be in the world of her imagination, but she’s still not sure her place in it.

Jacob O’Reilly – Jake is also about 20, and he’s Addy’s best friend/next door neighbor/love interest.  He’s a chef, working at his family’s restaurant.  He was fairly popular in school, although he only had an interest in Addy, although he was too stubborn to say anything to her about it.  He’s rather annoyed at being summoned to another world, because he had Plans for his life, but sort of comes to terms with it because at least he’s there with Addy. 

Melanie Roland/Spira – Melanie is about 20 as well, and is Addy’s other best friend as well as the reincarnated Priestess of Souls.  She more or less accepted her fate once she realized what happened when she was a child, and spent her life on Earth just living as a human.  She had less of an idea what she wanted to do with her life than Addy did.  She’s rather surprised that her fellow priestesses figured out what happened and called her back, and even more surprised Addy and Jake are with her.  She is excited to share her world with her friends, though, although she works hard to figure out a way to send them back.

(The main design is how she looks through most of the story once she regains her powers.  The smaller bust is how she looks initially/while on Earth, and Addy is really thrown off by the change of her appearance.) 

Naida – Naida is the Priestess of Water, and the leader of the priestesses.  She is friendly and charismatic and generally loveable, always wanting to put others before herself.  She’s also the one who blotched the summoning ceremony.  She wants nothing more than to put an end to the war and bring peace to her world once more.

Demetra – Demetria is the Priestess of Earth, and Naida’s younger sister.  She’s the tomboy of the priestesses, a bit rough but rather sweet.  She somewhat lives in the shadow of her sister, but she doesn’t mind it too much.  She does all she can to support her sister.  She’s also the one least likely to use magic, preferring to do things physically rather than with help.

Ignia – Ignia is the Priestess of Fire, and the oldest of the priestesses.  She’s also the smartest and the most stoic.  She tried to think things through logically, which is hard when the others are more reactionary than she’s comfortable with.  They all look to her if the need advice for anything, and she’s rather interested in Addy and Jake and what they can tell her about Earth.

Electra – Electra is the Priestess of Lightning, and the youngest of the priestesses.  She’s a bit shy and unsure of herself as a result, thinking she’s not as good as the others because she has zero experience comparatively.  She’s a sweet girl who wants to help but doesn’t quite have the self-esteem to think of how she can herself.  The others make it a point to protect her and her innocent mindset the best they can.

The second set of designs are of the other important characters (although technically one of them should be on the first page, but then that’s too many people.)

Zephira – Zephira is the Priestess of Winds.  She’s sort of absent at first because she’s the one keeping the Realm of Spirits at bay at the moment, since she’s the one with the most magical power.  She’s somewhat annoyed when she learns that Addy and Jake are summoned as well, since she knows she wouldn’t have screwed up the spell.  But she ends up befriending them eventually as well.

Celedonia – Celedonia is Zephira’s younger sister who is with the other priestesses with Addy, Jake, and Melanie are summoned as Zephira’s proxy.  She’s a mage, and turns herself into a bird at times because, well, let’s fast is, it makes travel easier.  She’s mostly used to spy on the Realm of Spirits, which is sort of how they initially found out about Spira’s banishment.  She ends up becoming a sort of Guide for Addy and Jake since she has no real official duties.

Aquarius – Aquarius is Naida’s assistant and another mage who turns himself into a cat sometimes.  He doesn’t do this nearly as often as Celedonia does, though.  He is in love with Celedonia, although he doesn’t really want to admit it.  He hangs out with Addy and Jake a lot because she’s around them, though.  Which makes Jake glad cuz, you know. He’s surrounded by a bunch of girls.

Felina – Felina is one of Lady Spirit’s generals, although she’s not very good at her job.  She doesn’t really want to fight in the war, but does so out of sense of obligation since Lady Spirit saved her.  She tried her best but she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and people wonder why she’s kept around.  She often wonders that herself, and is worried about the day Lady Spirit is done with her.

Mukesh – Mukesh is another one of Lady’s Spirit’s generals, the main one, and pretty much the reason why Felina is still given chances.  He was saved by Lady Spirit alongside Felina, and he doesn’t have the same sort of compassion she does for anyone but Felina.  He carries out his duties flawlessly, as well as taking up Felina’s slack.  Lady Spirit keeps Felina around merely because she knows Mukesh would betray her if she actually did anything to his companion.

Lady Spirit – Lady Spirit is the demon who usurped the Priestess of Souls and banished her to another world before declaring war on the rest of the world.  No one knows her real name or motivation, calling her Lady Spirit once they realized she was not Spira.  She doesn’t go out much, preferring to use her generals, but she takes a real interest in Addy and Jake once she learns of their existence.

As far as the designs are concerned, these were really fun.  I originally had the priestesses in different culture outfits, but I liked the idea of the priestesses, at least, opting to wear something vague Greek/Roman, but then Spira and Zephira are not, lol.  That was intentional.  I like what Addy’s wearing, but it looks less fancy then the other’s.  I also gave her glasses because Ignia wouldn’t need them, and I like give my girls glasses. 

(I was considering giving her the blond hair, since I stopped myself from doing it earlier because I had a blond with tan skin in Tessa/Demetra, and I didn’t have her as blond anymore.  But it somehow didn’t look right, and I liked her with brown hair.)

I hadn’t changed Lady Spirit at all in the decades of her design, and I felt like it was time to do so.  It’s not as menacing somehow, but I like it.