#Darenya is trans

[littlestpersimmon]

Sleep in for the day

[orangeblossombitch]

And in the cold light I live to love and adore you, it's all that I have, it's all that I am. In the cold light I live, I only live for you. 

For my arttrade with @littlestpersimmon his OCs Radinta and Darenya, the main characters  of his wip "The Lord of Gentle Swords”. Check out his blog to learn more about their epic story!

(Pose is based on “Paul and Virginia” by Alessandro Puttinati)

[littlestpersimmon]

Promise

[littlestpersimmon]

A bit down bc I want my art to pop off everytime, but when they do pop off, my trans guys just get mistaken as girls so often I just feel really sad. I don't mind ppl borrowing my oc DESIGNS or whatever, I just get sad when my drawings get divorced from my actual intention. Idk. Anyway!

Here are my trans guys

His name is Chintan. He is "coded" to be Hmong Vietnamese, Mongolian and northern filipino. His name is Sanskrit, and it means "thought"

His name is Yildiz, he is a trans guy and coded sefardi jewish and Turkish, his name means "star" in Turkish

This is my favorite oc of all time, his name is Darenya, his name means "little moon" in a constructed language- he is a trans guy.

This is Salabay, he is a trans guy. His name means "jellyfish" in bisaya and tagalog

This one is Aneirin, he is a trans guy and he is Welsh.

And this one is Rachamim, he's coded to be Sephardi jewish and Chinese. His name means "compassion"

And finally this is Lea. He is half filipino, half chinese.

[littlestpersimmon]

So, what is the lord of gentle blades? I see you’ve got some OCs, is this a book or comic you’re working on? Just a sort of oc sandbox? I’d love to see more of your work and hear about any big projects!!

it's my wip that I've been working on for a couple of years now.

I had a terrible health scare a few years back that ended up leaving me disabled, and the gentle blade is sort of like (entropic scream about being southeast asian and disabled and perpetually invisible.)

it's a story that's set in a fantasy world, called Hidlawonen, that's heavily inspired from mostly maritime southeast asia, and then the rest of asia. It's main character is an undead, indigenous prince (who is trans), and his world is physically broken, so they travel to and fro each "sundering" via flying stone boats that are embedded with the spirits of dragons, greater kinnara and diwata and bidadari (folkloric beings of southeast asia).. Just that the prince's world depends on the suffering of so many to keep.. existing. And the prince, whose name is Darenya Munti (little moon) is endlessly searching for a fabled sword, called the gentle blade, that was said to never be able to physically harm any being in the world, but is capable of healing anything its blade cuts

[littlestpersimmon]

Dambana

[littlestpersimmon]

SAMSARA

[littlestpersimmon]

(Don't rebIog please)

I'm working on this story called The Lord of Gentle Swords, inspired heavily from southeast Asia, and these two are the central characters. The story is about an undead prince, Darenya, who is endlessly searching for an ancient sword that cannot kill, but can heal anything that touches its blade. The use of the sword is ritualistic. Once to undo evil, again to reinforce the body of whatever evil has touched, and three times to wholly heal. The gentle sword's magic is endless, but the sword itself shattered long ago, just like the world they live in, the Hidlawonen, whose continued existence is ensured by undead slaves whom are criminals who were put to death, and whose bodies are reianimated to serve the world that had no kindness for them.

The white haired one's name is Darenya, he is a trans man and the black haired one's name is Radinta Agni.

The story is about the world of Hidlawonen, the trembling archipelago. The world itself, Hidlawonen, is made up of a literal shattered planet, and each part the planet shattered into what is called a "sundering", with each part held closely together by the magic of their dead gods. There are six sunderings, Harilunan; The northernmost sundering, Binsahaya, Janalila, the wealthiest sundering, Sasaban, an occupied land puppeted by Janalila, in most maps, Sasaban is called "Western Janalila", Dayang-Dayang, and Kalantiaw.

Darenya is a Sanjata, an indigenous group of people who are scattered all over Hidlawonen, but were pushed to a very small autonomous region in Harilunan. In the world of Hidlawonen, there are boats and there are ships, but none as great as Dragon Ships, warships as large as floating villages built from precious wood from enchanted forests, forests that are most dense in the sundering of Sasaban. This precious resource is strictly controlled by Janalila. The dragon ships are the only sailing boats capable of leaving the "force" (gravity) within a sundering, and each dragon ship is captained by a Karhanan, a person who can breathe with force and navigate a dragon-ship. Darenya is born with a natural affinity for Karhanan, so he was sought after by the Janalilans to captain one of their dragon ships.

Would anyone read this before I ramble on for too long? Does it sound good?

[littlestpersimmon]

Be fr would you guys actually read my wip (medieval maritime southeast asia inspired silkpunk-ish story about an undead, indigenous (and trans!) prince searching for a broken sword to heal his broken world) (and to some, searching for an end to the ceaseless spinning of the wheel of samsara because he couldn't handle how cruel the world was to his autistic boyfriend LOOOL) (if you guys have read my wip the autistic boyfriend is Radinta and not Namwaren haha sorry for ppl who ship Darenya and Namwaren) fjsjsks.. please.. spare reassurance.. spare reassurance sir??

[littlestpersimmon]

whats the lord of gentle swords> i tried googling but i didnt get any result :0

It's the title of my wip!

It's basically a fantasy world inspired from the cultures of maritime southeast asia. It's a story about an undead prince who lives on a literal broken planet and searching for a broken sword that was said to be able to fix his broken world.

(The prince is a trans guy named Darenya!)

[littlestpersimmon]

OKAY IM FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND I JUST WANNA ASK ON WHAT YOUR WIP IS ABOUT OMG IT LOOKS SO INTERESTING

Omg hello, Kamusta!

My wip is a fantasy story taking place in a broken world (literally broken) that is inspired from the cultures of maritime southeast asia, especially the Philippines and Indonesia. It explores the theme of cycles, feeling trapped in endless cycles, and the difficult decisions we make to escape such cycles. Indigenous struggle, restorative justice....

The main character is an indigenous, undead prince who is endlessly searching for an ancient, and broken sword, that was said to be unable to ever kill anything or anyone, but can heal whatever it's blade touches thrice. Once to expell the evil, another to purify what it touches, and a third time to heal.

The main character's name is Darenaya/Darenya/Renya.. his name means "little fern" or "little moon"..

He is a trans guy, and he is gay.

Basically. The World's Longest Love Letter to Maritime Southeast Asia, and all Gay Trans Guys

[littlestpersimmon]

how long have you been working on Lord of Gentle Swords? it's so wonderfully rich and complex and it's making me miss home a lot <3

I've been thinking about the gentle sword for almost 10 years, just a sword that can never kill but can heal was very cool to me, it's changed and evolved a lot, but it's come full manifestation about 4-ish years ago, the first character that came to me was Darenya, then Narakan, and then Radinta. It really was first just a story about Darenya and Narakan as siblings who desperately loved each other and whose only family they had in the world was each other. Pushed onto the opposite sides of dogma and war and clawing their way back into each other's lives one way or another. Radinta took a larger part in it when I stopped feeling ashamed of being gay and trans, and I stopped feeling anxious about "not feeling filipino enough" and "not feeling indigenous enough". It really also was born out of helplessness during the Du30 administration, and I became really determined to finish it after a cop shot at me last year.. bruh I still feel like that was yesterday, like the world has moved on and I'm still trapped in that memory. Anyway! Tangent. I could talk for hours over how much time and money I spent researching this stupid behemoth and it never feels like I've done enough.

[littlestpersimmon]

The chances of tlgs being published and becoming a Fandom is Very low, but (lying down on my lounge sofa talking to anyone who will listen) I've written so much bullshit about Darenya and his relationships with other men. If it gets Big I hope it incites Violence (folding legs delicately) I love when a bunch of hot guys are upset over one singular chaotic trans guy

[littlestpersimmon]

Me 2 days ago: nagas scare me 🙈🥺 because of childhood stories about them 😳🙈🥺

Me today: if Darenya (apsara) had a naga boyfriend (Radinta) he would kiIl for him and protect his cache of eggs with poison arrows crafted from his venom #trans

[littlestpersimmon]

Thanks to you I am now costantly thinking of beautiful long-haired boys, specifically trans boys.

I hope one day trans guys wear lotus flowers on their long hair in honor of Darenya 💯🙈

[littlestpersimmon]

are all these really sweet/tender pieces of Radinta and Darenya from before whatever causes them to become exes/enemies/nemesis? and why the clash 🥺 Darenya just wants a healing sword right.. Radinta be a sweet bf and helpp him 👉👈

Some of them are from before they had a falling out, and the others are from after ;)

Darenya was a stillbirth. He would be the only child of Abintan who is biological, so his mother, Saranggi took Darenya from his burial cot when he was only a few minutes in the world. She ran across the forest, to the holy tree of which she was named after, the Saranggita, where mothers would go take their stillborn and lift them towards the Saranggita, and beg for them back. The saranggita drips divine sap, where it would anoint the brows of the children, and call them back. Not all come back. That night, only Darenya came back, and it was said that the cries from him resounded across the forest.

Children who came back from the call of the tree are called Amsara children, and they usually only live up to their late twenties to early thirties, so Darenya wants to cling to life as much as possible, fight for what he thinks is right. He is from a small village of indigenous folk, but he grew up well-educated and cherished by his father and siblings, and never wanted for anything. Darenya was also a gifted child, born with this type of magic called Kaharnan- magic where one's breathing has a physical force to it. Imagine mustering enough power in your lungs to whistle/ blow out enough force to navigate an ancient stone ship weighing tons and tons out of a small planet's atmosphere. The most powerful Karharnan can wipe out a city in a single breath.

Radinta, on the other hand, grew up in a sundering called Sasaban, an occupied land where "the sky is ablaze and never blue, and the oceans and rivers are poisoned", as a child his family and older brothers were never kind to him, being the youngest son in a family of six other sons and one sister, no father and one very irate and agitated mother. Radinta was sold into slavery as payment of taxes to the wealthier folk of Sasaban, who in turn passed over Radinta to the occupiers of Sasaban. And Radinta was paid over to the Sanjata as "tithing".. which confused the Sanjata, who had no concept of slavery. Radinta was eight. The Sanjata were kind to Radinta, as they were a communal folk, Radinta was free to become a child of the village, but he grew very close to Narakan, Darenya's older sister, and eventually he befriended Darenya and Humadsan too.

Darenya always had a bit of a crush on Radinta, he's very handsome, with very black hair and a beautiful nose, and well-formed lips, and he was Very Tall. Radinta liked Renya back, but his demeanor is so "serious" (really, just awkward) that Renya could never tell if Dinta liked him back. Dinta is just one of those people who genuinely do not Know that they're very very attractive, so when people are flustered around him or stumble, his reaction is just to be concerned and CONFUSION ?? ? ? ¿¿¿¿ causing Narakan and the Kalimbahin to roll their eyes because Dinta is just HOPELESS.

Radinta and Darenya both believe in similar things, they want Sasaban to be free, and they both want the sanjata left alone, and they both want freedom for their people, but since Darenya is ~dying~ his manner of approaching these desires is more direct, unstable, more passionate, while Radinta clings to the safety and stability in life he found in his adulthood, and he does find his way to a relationship with Renya, which he treasures, because he had always wanted a family, and he vowed he would never be like his parents. There are some plot points that happen I can't say yet, but Darenya goes into very deep trouble with the rajah, and he has only one shot left in life only because Dinta managed to calm down the Rajah. By the time he's 24, he would be pregnant (Darenya is a trans guy) and excited to be a parent, while Dinta is just sick with worry. Darenya, being Darenya cannot get out of trouble, and some enormous secret is revealed to Darenya, and the secret revealed that Dinta had betrayed him in a terrible way, which I can't say because it would spoil too much of the story.. let's just say that betrayal is related to a very certain sword. Anyway, Darenya is pissed, hormonal, so he goes to the docks and destroys a dragon ship. Dragonships are, literally, fossilized dragons. Each dragon ship finds a captain to bond with, and not anyone can just captain a dragon ship. Karharnan is one of the strictest magics in the world, and much self discipline is required to tame a dragon ship :'l it is incredibly taboo for a captain of Karharnan to be violent, and when Darenya blows out a breath hard, it shatters the dragonship and frees the spirit of the dragon trapped inside, causing it to go on a rampage. From the distance of the city port, when the dragon was losing its shit, Renya saw Radinta walking towards him, his expression blank, but his eyes totally heartbroken and disappointed.

The Rajah was pissed, naturally. And no matter how much Dinta and Narakan begged, the Rajah sentenced Renya to death :/

They tied Darenya to the only surviving part of the dragon ship they salvaged, which was its mast. Tied him in such a way so that his body was forced into a kneeling position, and they cut his hair. (In Visayan cultures, cutting one's hair was the highest form of punishment)

Tied to the mast, Darenya, 7 months pregnant, was forced to crawl, on his knees, from the city of Ivory, up beyond its hills, beyond its rivers, to the highest peak, where the mechanical God, Harilunan dwelled, said to protect the God king, who, in this case, would be the Rajah. Darenya would make this pilgrimage to beg for forgiveness.

Darenya crawled for days, and by the time he had made it to Harilunan, he had miscarried. The last of his strength he used to curse the Rajah and all the rulers of Hidlawonen, "and all who are faithful to them" and he died.

But! The story of the lord of gentle swords is "the tale of an undead prince whose story should have ended on the day he was executed" so..! ;)

Check out my tag if anything here is confusing hehe