How can I even try?
First some commissions:
The first two of a large commission by Emperial. She has some awesome characters so I am really enjoying these.
An icon for Foxy :3
I tried to get all the important aspects of your personality in there, I'm not the best iconist in the world but I hope it is ok X3
I finally settled on a Territories flag for Luca's country:
I know it looks ridiculously simple but thats the way I wanted it :3 The large square represents the Luca/ the Pasori Gulo, and the smaller ones represent the remaining Pasori tribes (Kan, Mepat, Llivor, Val). Its supposed to be a stylized paw (since all the tribes are based on mammal totems) with the other tribes forming the toes/ claws. The circle just made it look better, it could represent any goal I suppose...
Last some Suda cuz I was thinking (fondly) about him yesterday.
Still messing with his face, obviously. He's kinda goofy. I feel bad for him :\
OK now for some really large Meek posting, you can stop reading here if you are one of those people who can't abide a text wall. None of this is really necessary to understand the plot in the same way that you don't need to know history in order to live, but it makes for a richer experience? I wrote this last night and am cutting/ pasting it in so sorry if some of the tenses or whatever are off.
So I've been working on a historical timeline/ bg for a while, I figure I might as well share what I have. I'm sure this'll all be obsolete in a few months knowing how I tend to write, but whatever. None of this is spoilery btw so no f-lock necessary!
Brief recap: the Pasorioccupy the nothern areas which are basically in perpetual winter. Mostly tagia/ forest/ glacial etc. Their reasoning for not wanting to be anywhere else is that they are bound to these lands by their own special covenant with their god/ patron spirit, and also because of the widespread belief that when history inevitably repeats itself they will be well-prepared to live and thrive in a completely frozen world. Yeah kinda crazy. The Santri live in the temperate area streching up and down the coast and to the mountain range to the east. A lot of nice farming and such, and more recently, industrialization. The Caris live way down in the arid south, which is a lot of desert punctuated by giant irrigation projects and bordered to the way south by impassable jungle. RIGHTO
So way back when (late 500's and earlier), the Pasori had a lot of skirmishes with Santris. The two 'nations' if you will were pretty pissy with each other with each side carrying out raids against the other. The Santri keep expanding north into Pasori territory, the Pasori make a sport of killing families and abducting girls to keep as 'war wives.' Not that they don't also trade with each other a lot (trading what you ask? antiques and artifacts mostly), but theres a lot of bad blood between different tribes and different areas. At the start of the 600's Medsa (the old Santri country name) starts becoming industrialized, technologies are discovered and utilized and quality of life improves for the Santri. Their weaponry also becomes a lot better all of a sudden and it gets a lot easier to fend against the Pasori. At the same time the Pasori are suffering from a lot of internal fighting between the major tribes, one or two are destroyed completely and some merge etc, same as ever. In 652 the aptly named Treaty of 652 is signed between a representative of all the tribes (from Pasori Ar, which no longer exists but thats another issue) and the government of Medsa outlining that basically there will be peace between the two sides, no more northward expansion for the Santri and that Medsa will remain open to Pasori wishing to join it. There is a lot of drama following this with tribes doing their best not to adhere to the rules at all, and a lot tribe members leaving for the cities but thats not so relevant right now, eventually things smooth out a lot and the two nations end up getting along somewhat amicably.
Meanwhile back at the ranch Caris is considered by Medsa to be a friendly but somewhat wacky neighbor. With the exception of the northernmost border a lot of the land is pretty unsustainable (without loads of work) and the jungles are off-limits for a lot of reasons, so the population is sort of stuck in one place. There is an interface where they blend with Medsa and those people are nearly a whole other demographic unto themselves. In Caris proper they're all about religion; adhering not just to the bible as we know it but to a third volume, the Invidgeon. They have their own pope king and many eagerly try to follow his rules and the holy text well enough so they can bring about the end of 1000 years of hell, which is what they consider life to be (cheerful) and be worthy for salvation. They're actually not as crazy as that sounds, but a majority in their heart of hearts believes that there is an reward so wonderful that it will make living seem like suffering in comparison. King Amakessar (insert number here) comes up with the great idea of building giant monuments to show their love and devotion, which is great and all but a lot of them are unfinished before he dies. His sucessor, the young King Amakessar (insert number here +1) takes the idea and runs with it, as his father was a very popular leader, and plans to build the greatest monuments ever. The reason a lot of the buildings from his fathers' reign were left unfinished was because of the lack of moneys/ labor required to build it, and the Santri have their own shit to deal with. Where to get a cheap stupid workforce hmmm
From 688-697 Caris starts sailing way up the coast, grabbing stupid unarmed Pasori from the extreme north, and bringing them back to make some damned holy monuments. The entire present capitol of Citeran is built during this period, including its most recognizable feature (a humongous dome). The aforementioned irrigation projects lead to new cities, also built with this workforce. Assloads of Pasori kick the bucket and even though they are being swiped from way up north eventually Mesda hears about it and tells Caris to cut it out... not out of great love for the Pasori, although they get along relatively well at this point, but because they are afraid that Caris is trying to box them in/ steal from them somehow. They cite the treaty as their bond and go as far as to say that Caris is directly attacking them by attacking an ally. Caris says that Mesda is meddling and trying to undermine their religious beliefs. 697 marks the beginning of the 30 years war!
Obviously this war extends until 727, when the King dies. To give a more immediate sense of scale, Luca is born in 705 and is released from prison camp in 727 at the age of 22. During Luca's lifetime the Pasori are very unpopular with the other two groups: the Santri feel that the Pasori are to blame for all the fighting and mess, and obviously the Caris feel similarly. When Caris surrenders, Mesda basically strips them down to nothing, grants them a small area to call their own country, and doesn't want anything else to do with them. This is the last thing the old Mesda does, the country is internally torn apart by different groups vying for power in the aftermath of the war, and a small, previously revolutionary faction seceeds to the North. Luca rises to power here in the Territories, and from there goes on to overwhelm the rest of what was Mesda with his ideas of integration and his anti-Caris sentiments. And uh his gigantic Pasori army <3 . While he never directly invades Caris, he spends a lot of time fucking with their borders. Caris has up until recently refused to recognize the Territorial government, but they're getting sick of the skirmishes and by the beginning of the comic are trying to work it out under the new management of the Queen. Who, btw, is very much unliked by a lot of people because she 1)surrendered 2)is a woman, and not fit to be a representative of God on earth. Amen is one of these holdouts from the last reign.
Holy crap, thats a lot of text. In for a penny in for a pound so... D: One last note: the thing I like about Luca is that he is seen by his own people to be terribly (emphasis on terrible) liberal. He is expected to treat the Santri as second class, which he does in subtle ways, but of course its not good enough. Keeping in mind that he did not grow up in the tribes but in a border town. He is most popular with the younger types who like the idea of peace between the Pasori and Santri against that big mysterious Enemy down South. A disturbing amount of Luca's power rests on the fact that he is the blooded heir to the... throne? I guess? of the Pasori Gulo, the current largest and leading tribe, meaning that everyone is obligated to follow him as long as he is able to hold power. Of course he has 'help' managing that sort of thing but still. The Santri think he's endearing (a cultivated image to be sure), and up until recently celebrated his successful interracial marriage and family as a metaphor of where the country is headed. While his formal (self)title is Emperor, many refer to him as the Father (not to be confused with the Caris title of the same name, which is reserved for God). At the time of the start of the comic the year is 754.
Sorry, one last note about the years. Year 0 marks the beginning of the reign of the first pope-king, not the overall timeline. The Invidgeon was written and implemented during the ~250 years prior to that. I haven't gotten around to it yet but a large chunk of the plot involves the fact that it has basically been 1000 years since the reason for this whole mess...
Questions/ comments/ crits greatly appreciated, as ever. I am not so happy with the peace between Pasori and Mesda, it seems to abrupt... I might need another motivator in there somewhere or just elucidate it better. ARGH not that it matters at. all.