sometimes, the simplest things make Saria feel like she’s done everything right.

“I wish you could see her, Ninat. She’s just like you.”

-

Zolka was never properly told of her parentage, but Saria was always aware. Ninat did not live to see the hatchling they brought into the world, but Saria kept track of her at all times. if she was going to have to live without Ninat, then she would damn sure take care of the only piece of her she had left.

thought I’d put this up since I was introducing Echid. these are coracora birds, the tatepi mount of choice! they’re agile, very intelligent, and are so small only the tatepi can ride them.

coracora basically means “run, run.” clever as they are now, the tatepi weren’t very creative in their early days of naming things.

of my three tatepi groups, the only one I hadn’t shown so far were the Argo, so here’s Echid to remedy that! she’s a treasure hunter like Jhiro, and the two are close friends and partners, scouring the globe for treasures, ancient ruins, and a bit of danger.

besides treasure hunting, Echid enjoys writing and calligraphy, and is an enthusiast of human music. she grew up on a farm, and spent a lot of time getting to know the plants grown and animals raised there. she has a way with critters that Jhiro does not, which comes in handy when they’re out there in the world, all by themselves.

“Though darkness will surround you, you will not be lost. Keep the light of our suns close, and you will again feel the warmth of day.”

-

I wanted to make a new simple background for myself, and thought Jhiro would be great for it. so here she is in a very dark room, trying to find her way with her lantern. this is one of the few times I’ve drawn Jhiro (mostly) head-on, because her face shape is difficult to work with. however, I’m pleased with the results.

dreizu dance styles are very sharp and fast, and often performed with traditional weapons made for show. it might not be considered particularly beautiful by most, but it has a certain quality to it that no other culture on Io can really match. there’s an undeniable sense of power and strength that comes from a proper dreizu dancer and her command of the weapon while she tells her story of old. traditional dreizu dancing resembles mock fighting more times than it resembles any dancing we might be familiar with, though more modern mixes of cultural dances can be compared to ours.

their music incorporates instruments that give the audio feeling of “tribal” styles— lots of percussion and flutes, and vocal portions that aren’t necessarily singing, but chanting and shouting words or phrases.

not often I show other dreizu! Saria’s usually the spotlight hogger.

this is Zolka! she’s a triple threat entertainer in the dreizu capital, and is also considerably well-known for her extremely rare blueblood condition. while it’s fairly unremarkable to see in humans, the blueblood gene is a one in a million chance for dreizu. the color combination is striking, and is partly why she was recognized in her early days for the stage. she often performs at Sybil’s yearly gala.

her outfits will come later. I just wanted to show her markings here first.

stuff from my short stream! main characters, interaction, height charts, bust shots— fun stuff. I really like how the doodle of Jhiro and Archie turned out, and the bust of Athony.

forgive the repost, but a design change like this is fairly major, so I want to have it out there! after a weird moment of “why didn’t I think of this before?” I decided to change the tatepi’s skin tones to light periwinkle-ish blues. their blood is blue, so I have no idea what I was doing by giving them peachy colored skin. WHOOPS!

so here’s Athony in his updated color scheme, and here is what the other dominant color (orange, like Mabel) would look like with this new change. now for the old desc:

holy crap an actual dude on Io?? WOW!!

this is Athony, another tatepi. he’s from a different clan than Mabel (the Jarod instead of the Shay, indicated by their shoulder tattoos), but does share some common ethnic background with her. though he looks rather stoic here, Athony is infectiously cheerful and usually armed with a good joke. he has a better sense of humor than Mabel and can take more jabs than she can, which goes over well with Saria. he’s a bit idealistic and incredibly determined, and almost as stubborn as Saria, so if he sets out to do something, by golly he’ll do it.

all tatepi take it upon themselves to have some degree of mechanical knowledge, and Athony does have a decent skill set (such as flying floatplanes), but he’s found that he enjoys the more artsy and craft-based hobbies, particularly those of the other races. not to say that he’s forsaken the tatepi culture, he just has an appreciation for his fellow Ionians and theirs.

decided to put together a shiny new ref picture for Jhiro! seeing as she’s the star of the Io-centric stories, it’s about time.

Jhiro works in a museum archive with her mother in a small town a short distance from the bombyx capital. she loves to travel the wide open deserts and plains atop her faithful graskull steed, hoping to find artifacts and lost treasures of the ancient bombyx peoples. she’s pleasant, mellow, and optimistic, and at times seems a touch naive. she’s not stupid, however, and holds an impressive knowledge of the world’s history and its conflicts throughout. she’s resourceful and dependable, and is always willing to lend a hand.

while drawing this, I realized that bombyx look incredibly naked without their stripes and markings. I kept feeling the urge to say, “put a shirt on, geez.”