#tahlia mateus

[stinkyoldsocks]

Colouring practice~

[riessene]

seeing all the amazing art made me realise I never shared the designs I did for @mage-parivir of Flyss, Falco and Tahlia last year;D

[mage-parivir]

Introducing: Tahlia Mateus

Guess who?

Thanks to the incredible work of @riessene​ and Khutilust / Harart, Tahlia’s portrait has now been completed, marking the end of this official art series! Thank you to everyone who’s shown love for these portraits along the way, and I hope they enhance your experience of the game :D

(I just know I’m going to get asks about making her an RO, now that this portrait’s out...not that I blame you, but I promise there’s a good reason why she’s not. ;D)

Other portraits: M!Eli | Leon | Ilya | Saine | F!Eli | Yusuha | Yurui | Falco |  Flyss

[stinkyoldsocks]

A small compilation of AMR-related drawings that i've managed to complete OTL

Close-ups!:

[stinkyoldsocks]

Memories

Some close ups:

[mage-parivir]

Introducing: Flyss Mateus

It took some time getting here, but Flyss's portrait is finally completed!

There's actually another version of this portrait in the works, featuring the split cape that Falco has on his design - I'll append that version onto this post as well, pending its completion. :)

As with Falco, Flyss's character design was done by @riessene​, and the final artwork was done by Khutilust! Both of whom did phenomenal jobs, as always. :D

Tahlia is next!

Other portraits: M!Eli | Leon | Ilya | Saine | F!Eli | Yusuha | Yurui | Falco 

[mage-parivir]

firstly I love this story!! it’s so compelling and I love the options for characterization. also the way that you really flesh out the MC’s relationship with the White Fangs and Sister leading up to their death makes it hit harder. I was hoping to clarify how Arcadian clans work. I know F, Y and MC are from Clan Mateus, but I assume they aren’t related bc they are ROs. Is it more of a way to classify mages of a certain power level/from certain families? ty for this amazing story!!

Thank you for the kind words! The whole pre-resurrection segment is technically a prologue, and so it was a constant balancing act between keeping the pace brisk and still leaving enough room for character development - glad you like how that came out!

As for Arcadia...lore post ahead, peppered with mild-ish spoilers!

Arcadia as a society was organized around the prevalence of magical abilities, specifically as they pertain to arcana. So much so that access to the art determined the schism between nobility and commoners! This means that noble bloodlines who had not manifested an arcanist in generations could fall out of favor with high society, while commoners who suddenly manifested the ability were typically awarded unlanded titles and a position within the peerage. (Though in the latter's case, that arcanist is typically a one-off owing to their weak lineage, and so their offspring generally inherited neither their arcana nor their nobility).

Within the nobility itself, there was also a hierarchy determined by the strength of their arcana and the frequency of its manifestation. At the very bottom was the Circle of Peers (singular title Peer, i.e. Peer Sevan Rynenhal), whose arcana were generally considered weak and rarely manifested besides. In Parami terms, their position and influence would roughly be similar to those of a Viscount or Baron, and they usually served as vassals of a stronger noble family.

Next on the docket was the Circle of Lords (singular title Lord, i.e. Lord Ein Selencal), who wielded influence similar to that of an Earl or Count. They typically had arcana that were on the weaker side, but consistently manifested nearly every generation. In very select cases, the opposite could be true: that their bloodline could've gone generations without an arcanist, but when they did appear they were much too strong to be considered on par with the Circle of Peers. One such family was the Roumen, which is the bloodline that Sister belonged to.

Above that is the High Circle (singular title High Lord, i.e. High Lord Rune Edenhaut), roughly equal in power to that of a marquess. Their arcana were both strong and consistently manifested, making their bloodline among the most distinguished in Arcadia. There were only six houses in the High Circle at the time of the Arcadian purge, and most of them have since died out. The two surviving bloodlines are the Stierol, of which Eli is a heritor, and the Aventar, which is inherited by a yet-to-be-met character.

The highest tier of the Arcadian nobility was the Circle of Dynasts (singular title Dynast, i.e. Dynast Innes Saungalle), with each house wielding the power of a duke or archduke. The single defining feature of a dynast bloodline was the ability to contract a huge variety of phantasma (and thus manifest a huge variety of arcana), where other noble houses could only be bound to one patron phantasma over the course of their entire bloodline (i.e. Stierols, including Eli, could only ever be bound to Qualia, the False Prophet). It was also because of this quirk that dynast bloodlines could manifest multiple arcanists in a single generation, distinguishing them as the noblest and most powerful of Arcadian houses.

Dynast bloodlines were the target of a holistic, merciless purge during the fall of Arcadia, which resulted in the immediate extinction of Houses Lucerre and Wiarosa. Scions of both bloodlines sacrificed themselves to ensure the survival of the Mateus, which were deemed to be the strongest among the three houses. As revealed in-game, survivors of the Mateus bloodline now include Tahlia, Yu, F, and the mage! And while Yu and F are ROs, their bloodlines have splintered by several generations since the fall of Arcadia, making them very distant cousins to the mage at best.