I Heart Ballpoint Pens

After a long art slump, I'm gettin' back in the groove. :3

It was a half-day today, so we had it pretty easy and I spent most of periods 2 and 3 putting this together. Done entirely in my (admittedly crappy, but still in working order) ballpoint pen 'cos I lost my (Linda's X3) pencil. >.< Sorry, Linda! I honestly don't know what happened to it!

BUT ANYWAY. BECAUSE I AM AT HOME FOR THE REST OF THE DAY AND HAVE LOTS OF TIME ON MY HANDS, I WILL MAKE A LONG DESCRIPTION YAY!


Fenrir: The wolf with the sword. Fenrir is in charge of the northern Fort Falanx. Both he and his best friend Jetriis served there in their youth, but after Jetriis died in the Human-Cistirian war eight years prior to Cistir, he severed most of his ties with friends (save for remaining in contact with the now-widowed Keetayra, Jetriis' former wife, and her family). Now a disheartened, lonely soul, he nontheless makes a good military leader while also providing a psuedo-father figure for Keetayra's children when they end up at Fort Falanx as well.
Fenrir's been around for about a year (meaning he is one of my older characters, not counting ones based on or influences by childhood). His design is semi-based on a plushie I bought while in England (I took one look at the plushie, gawked, and said "That's Fenrir." ), though I have of course added my own details.

Phantastus: The dragon. Though he has no part in Cistir itself, he is a CSSverse character, the embodiment of creativity inspiration, and the creation of worlds, characters, and stories. He is essentially the 'boss' of all muses, including Kit's Ladybug and Kiroan. Not much will ever be known about Phantastus, simply because the main characters of the comic really don't have any business knowing the secrets and mysteries of the universe and creation (and also because I don't want to cause any controversy! )
Phantastus is a 'young' character, having been created only about two months ago. His design was spontaneously made up on the spot for my dragon commission in December. I liked him so much that he became an important character and now I can't stop drawing him. He was named for Phantastus, the Roman god of dreams and inanimate objects (odd combination. o.o; ). In his original design, he only had three points on each antler, but I later changed it to six points. Six, for one thing, has been my lucky number since childhood, and twelve points altogether just seems so much more majestic, dammit. The twelve points also (in a little twist has no real point beyong being 'cool') represent the twelve gods of Cistir. I really didn't draw the antlers big enough in this pic. >.>; They're supposed to be a lot bigger.

The White One: the wolf head with the Cistirian symbol on its face. The White One is, essentially, the 13th Cistirian god. It is the creator, so to speak, so it doesn't quite fit in with the even '12 Gods'. According to Cistirian legend, the White One created the world, and then created the 12 Gods to manage it. The White One is often depicted in Cistirian art only as the symbol with an eye on either side of it, and the most prominent natural symbol of the White One are the northern lights.
The White One has been around since nearly the beginning of Cistir. But for the most part, it was nothing more than an idea, vaguely based on the White Wolf from Balto (one of my favorite movies). Now my idea of White One and the mythology surrounding it are more clear, but the Balto influence remains (mostly in the northern lights symbolic-ness, if that's a word X3). This is the VERY FIRST PICTURE I have ever done of White One which I feel actually gets the image in my head across. o__o; I could never do it before.

Kit: is meeeee. ^_^ Posting info on me is pretty pointless, but heck, I wanna do it anyway. CSSverse Kit (which is the one I draw most and really represents ME, as Lionverse Kit is . . .. well, still me in a way, but a different character for the most part) is just a freshman struggling to survive highschool. Her parents are never around (going on month-long trips around the world performing), but she manages to get by as well as she can while living in a house populated by some nutty critters from her own subconscious (Takk, Ladybug, and Kiroan), a ghost, a sarcastic, somtimes-violent cat, and the occasional gun-toting homicidal dust bunny (and another unusual guest soon as well ). Generally arrogant, sarcastic, and rude, she only acts friendly towards people she likes for the most part. This, unfortunately, gets her stuffed into a lot of trash cans at school. She often whines and complains about how much she has on her plate, but she doesn't quite realize how complicated her life is going to become . . . Aaaaand I won't say more or I'll just end up giving awau stuff about the plot.
The character of 'Kit' has been around since about fourth grade. She did not even vaguely resemble what she is now. She was a young Pokemon trainer/Chosen Child from Digimon, and she was also a complete Sue. This was way back when Caileo, Squirrel, Ace and I were making up a Pokemon/Digimon story. Kit later progressed into a Flamedramon (when I got sick of being human), a dragon animagus (when we decided to make the swtich from Pokemon/Digimon to Harry Potter stories), a full dragon, and then her design changed from there until it became what you see now today. Also, I'd like to make a note: half the nasty stuff that happens to Kit in the comic (ie. trouble with bullies, neglectful parents, blah de blah blah...) DOES NOT happen to me in real life. While I'm certainly not popular and get bullied and harrassed on a fairly steady basis, I DO NOT get physically pushed around (when I get deeper into the comic and start showing Kit's school life, I'll be portraying that aspect in a humourous manner, a la Calvin and Hobbes. It's supposed to be FUNNY. *nod*). Also, while my parents and I are not getting along very well as of this point in my life, they ARE good people, and we love each other. They would never act the way they do in the strip (the entire reason I portrayed them this way in the strip was to give myself more freedom with the characters, not to seem like a whiny little MYPARENTSHATEMEWAAAAH!kindergawth. Let's face it, if Kit's parents were around all the time, they'd start noticing the fact that they've got a bunch of weird critters wreaking havoc on the house on a daily basis XD)
BUT ANYWAY. I don't know why I'm typing all this. o__o I haven't even gotten that far in the comic. SO SHOO! FORGET WHAT YOU'VE READ! GO AWAY!

Ransha: the lynx with his BEER. :3 Ransha is a rather bitter, nasty individual, but he's a good person deep down. Having come from a rather rough, uneducated background, he despises people who look down on him or act like they're smarter than he is. He claims to have joined service at Fort Falanx "for the girls", but his intentions aren't that clear and he's not the type to go spilling his heart out to other people. Both he and Talisan share a snarky attitude and a taste for beer, but Ransha despises him. This animosity has lead to several barfights after Tali opens his big mouth when he shouldn't. XD
Ransha is another 'young' character being created sometime around the end of August, but he's actually more deveoloped than some of the characters that have been around for much longer. He was thought up on the spur of the moment during an ongoing Email RP in Cistir with my friend Calley. I never intended him to gain as much personality as he did, but I've become very fond of him and Tin (the other character I created during that scene). Though neither of them will probably have much of a role in the novel itself, they're certainly there.

Pumpkin Juice: the ickle winged snake. ^^ Pumpkin Juice is what is know as a 'familiar'. Familiars are magically engineered animals created by humans to take the place of ordinary animals (which there is a visible lack of on the human continent, due to that little prejudice problem). Familiars are created for just about anything, though their biggest purpose is to be assigned to a particular person, family, or community in order to protect said people. Familiars cannot breed, but generally act like normal animals, aside from being unspeakably loyal to whoever they are bonded to (they can only bond to humans). Pumpkin Juice was separated from whoever created him, and somehow wound up in Cistir. He was found by one Leo Griffin, and has not left the boy's side since (despite the fact that he was technically Cistirian, his human qualities were enough for the familiar). Pumpkin Juice is naiive, earnest, and loyal to a fault, but he isn't incredibly useful. Except to Never the raven, who is always happy to have such a gullible accomplice to aid him in his mischief. :3
Pumpkin Juice has been around since even before Cistir was ever created. He was originally a character in the Potterfic Caileo and I were writing, and he still is (showing up first in the second part of the Cor Leonis trilogy, Sands in an Hourglass). His name is the result of an inside joke between myself and Caileo. You know those sticky lizards and snakes you can get? And when you throw them to the ceiling and stuff, they stick? Well, Caileo and I had those. X3 Caileo had several snakes, and he named them all something 'juice'. So there was Orange Juice and Grape Juice and Apple Juice etc. When it came time to think of a name for the little winged snake in the Potterfic, I go "HEY! Let's name him PUMPKIN Juice! Get it?! XDXDXD". Umm . . yeah. SO NOW YOU KNOW!

Leo: is the feller with the sword. He's far too complicated to type all about here. o.o I'm not even gonna try.
. . . I just noticed you can't see his eyes in this drawing. >.< Dumb pen.

Kelda: is the little griffin. Aww. The youngest member of the Griffin family, Kelda is practially the definition of innocence. Despite the fact that every member of the family is affected by war in some way or other, she is seemingly untouched by it (she was still an egg when her father died in the Human-Cistirian war, and even at Fort Falanx she was sheltered from most of the brutality by remaining in the stronghold with her mother when the battles were taking place). Later on (in the third book, which doesn't have a name yet), she gains a more rebellious personality and actually runs away, back to Fort Falanx to join service, even though there is no war going on.
Kelda is one of the oldest characters. She and the other mebers of the griffin family were probably the very first characters created when the first flickers of Cistir started to show. Originally, her name was Elda, inspired by the griffin Elda in Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin by Dianna Wynne Jones. *nods* Yup.

Shuko: Shuko is my most recent character, created during English class a few days ago. XD He is a young, slightly neurotic hippogriff. His original owner had let his young daughter name the hippogriff, with disappointing results ('shuko', I've decided, means 'strawberry' in Cistirian). The owner died in one of the early battles of what would later be known as the "Falanxian War" (the war that is the primary plot focus of Cistir), so Shuko is now ownerless and resides in the Falanx stables with the other war mounts.
I like Shuko. He probably won't have a part in Cistir itself, but I like him. *nods*

Valdras: the wuff on the bottom. Valdras is also a familiar, bonded to the Talwen family. He is the newest family familiar (the others being Daskender and Rhonaen, who isn't actually a familiar but protects the family for reasons unknown), and is not exactly the perfect model of one. He acts like a typical pup, chewing things up and slobbering all over everyone.
Valdras is another fairly old character, being one of the ones around back with Cistir was a Potterfic. He doesn't have much of a part, but he's there anyway.

Scooter: is da kitty. She's surly, sarcastic, and often violent. She tries to maim Ladybug frequently (who is too naiive to realize she isn't 'playing') and calls anyone smaller than her (or small enough to eat, anyway) 'kid', regardless of their age. As she puts it, when her snacks protest, "Well, your age isn't going to matter in a minute, will it?"
Scooter is, of course, based on my real kitty. I didn't exxagerate much. o___o;

Brightblack: is the horsie. Brightblack, or 'Zirchiel', his Cistirian title, doesn't have much of a purpose aside from being Fenrir's warhorse and fathering a foal (Sunsoul) with Stardust.
I hate how he came out in this pic. >.< Blargh. The anatomy's all wonky. Just . . . just do me a favor and don't look at that part of the paper, 'kay?

. . .

HOLY COW I AM NEVER TYPING A DESCRIPTION THAT LONG AGAIN PLEASE KILL ME AAAAAAAAAAAARGH. *dies*

. . .

They're all (c) me THE END BYEEEE.