#Iphenia

[marshmallowloves]

Zelda OC #3 - Iphenia + Naida (sometimes)

>> (list of posts for other OCs)

(Heads up, this one is a bit long too, so just be prepared!)

I replayed Twilight Princess many times since that first time. I consider it to be my first real Zelda game because, as I said in the previous post, I was old enough to actually appreciate it as a game, rather than just have vague memories of holding a Zelda game in my hand. During some of these many replays, I thought about Ixchel, and I thought about Seracia, and then I thought... "Huh. These guys... kind of suck."

Between the fairy present with no explanation, said fairy literally just being a recolor of the first terrible fairy, the pet freakin' wolf, and the simping for Link... Ixchel did kind of suck. But some parts didn't! I was fond of her weapons, and I did love having characters that were bold and ready for action - probably because I was an awkward, sheltered nerd and lived vicariously through my OCs and their adventures. So I figured I'd refine Ixchel and Seracia once more, still keeping them for the Twilight Princess universe (because I will never not love that game), and before long I had my first iterations of Iphenia and Naida.

At first, Iphenia looked very similar to Ixchel, just with different colors and not so many belts and straps - and it made sense, since she was supposed to be a "refined" Ixchel. Like I said, I enjoyed the bold, adventurous personalities on my OCs, so she had about the same personality as Ixchel as well. I also still liked the idea of her name starting with an "I", because you don't really see too many of those. I don't exactly remember how I found it, but I eventually discovered the name "Iphigenia" - a princess in Greek mythology and a saint in Christian tradition. I didn't want to take the name directly, so I just deleted the "ig" and was left with Iphenia, which I felt sounded a little more "Zelda."

Iphenia also has a white fairy named Naida - the difference here is that Naida has an origin! It's a bullshit origin, but one nonetheless. At the time, a friend of mine had created an OC who was a goddess in the Zelda universe, and she blessed Iphenia with a protector in the form of a fairy. Like I said, kind of bullshit, but it's way better than Seracia just... being there. 😂

I used this version of Iphenia in a few drawings and stories, but eventually I decided that she was a little too similar to Ixchel. She needed to be more different, more independent! So, I gave her a bit of an overhaul, and to this day I still use this design - and Iphenia as a character (which I'll get to!)

She gained new clothes and lost the fairy! Not only that, but this is where I really started to flesh her out. Go figure that I develop her more as a character, now that she doesn't have to rely on someone else to constantly bounce off of. Naida was cool and all, but it was time for Iphenia to venture into a different realm... or rather, two different realms.

It was around this time that I finally got around to playing Skyward Sword, one of my top 3 favorite titles to this day. And with a new game, a new favorite character - and inevitably, a new ship - was bound to manifest at some point. Out of all the lovely characters in SS, nobody in particular caught my eye right away (shoo, Ghirahim, not now - you'll be in the next post). However, after finishing the story and completing a particular sidequest, a certain blue-haired boy of stout stature paved the way to a thinly-veiled self-ship with Iphenia as the vessel.

YUP, WE'RE TALKIN' ABOUT CAWLIN'S CHUNKY ASS

I'm not gonna lie - to this day, I love the dynamic between Iphenia and Cawlin. Since Iphenia (who gained the nickname Feeny for the rest of forever) still retained that bold and active personality, she doesn't take any of Cawlin's shit - instead, she sees right through it and finds an awkward Jerk With a Heart of Gold™ who's honestly just trying his best. On the other end, we have Cawlin, who finds that he can't intimidate this one into doing his bidding - but dang it, he still tries, and vehemently denies that he finds her natural intolerance for his BS... kind of refreshing actually. For a long while, he's completely oblivious to the fact that she likes him, but after his sidequest (where I feel the "proper" ending is the one where he's rejected by Karane), he stops looking through Karane-colored glasses and starts to come around to Feeny's advances.

I really do like these two together! Don't ask how in the world Feeny has blended seamlessly into the tiny, tight-knit community of Skyloft, but only just now acknowledged Cawlin's existence. I still don't have an explanation for that one kdjfhg.

But we're not quite done yet - fast forward a little bit, where I get my hands on Majora 3D (it's worth mentioning that I get these games relatively late after their release - way too expensive to buy them at launch). I'm just coming off the trail of OOT 3D, and am eager to finally see what the darkest game in the series has to offer, given that nobody in my family ever owned an N64. I play through, see the weird stuff that Ben Drowned has desensitized me to...

And then I step into Mayor Dotour's office. And for some reason that to this day I cannot figure out for the life of me, my eyes are glued to the Clock Town Corps Recruiter shouting at the oblivious carpenter. Was it the delivery of the one singular voice clip he has? Was it the fact that he's one of the only people in the town who is capable of common sense and wants to evacuate? Whatever it was, I'd finally done it. I'd fallen for a ridiculously obscure NPC. ...Or rather, Iphenia had fallen for the ridiculously obscure NPC.

In order to hide my shame for lowering the bar into hell, I came up with a legitimate, thought-out origin story - at least, as good an origin story as you can make in a game where the world is heavily implied to just be a giant fever dream. In this iteration, Iphenia is a young woman caring for her ill mother, and in order to make money for medicine, she enlists herself in the Clock Town guard. Though she remains headstrong in her motivations, she can't help but take interest in her superior, Captain Viscen, who proves to be incredibly serious about his job. He can't deny that she's physically strong, but her blatant disregard for her own safety for the sake of thrill-seeking and her weird need to bug him all the time forces him to keep a close eye on her, on top of all the people in Clock Town.

This time around, the dynamic is Feeny's "sweet but will absolutely get herself killed someday" to Viscen's "guy who keeps her from getting herself killed." And it, uh, happens a lot. Like the time Feeny found a Pictobox on the ground...

And Viscen's subsequent scolding of her wanting to do it again...

Okay at this point I might just be making excuses to show off old art of these two that I've never gotten to share before jdhfgjf. But, Feeny has gone through quite a bit of change, and I'm proud of where she is now! I even recently drew her with a bit of armor to show her place in the guard (one day I'll give her a proper suit! djfhg)

One more thing to note - during all of this, her weapons are largely the same as Ixchel's - the difference here being that there is only one blade on the rings now, with both the edge and the point being used to attack. She also carried a cloth around to clean them, as well as a pouch of literal rocks to sharpen them.

However, I eventually decided that these would be impractical - especially for her Majora iteration. So I settled on something else with both an edge and a point that would fit much better as a guard - a halberd! ...that I have not drawn yet. But I know it'll look similar to Viscen's spear, having the tassels and all. I'll add it to my drawing list!

[maester-of-spreadsheets]

House of the Dragon//Devdas (2002)//Devdas (1955)//Dev D (2009)//Iphenia in Tauris - Euripides (translated by Anne Carson)

[marshmallowloves]

A history of marshmalleaux’s Zelda OCs

I wasn’t really sure which blog to put this on, but I figured since these were all self-indulgent to a degree, I’d start with putting it here~

So anyway! I was looking through some old drawings, reminiscing about my old art and thinking of how much has changed... and I thought it might be fun to talk about the evolution of my small handful of Zelda OCs!

Because of how many images I plan to post about this, I’ll separate it into multiple posts by OC. You’re by no means obligated to follow these posts, but I just thought it’d be neat to see how far I’ve come with my OCs~

List of OCs/Self inserts:

Kamia + Serachiiya

Ixchel + Seracia

Iphenia + Naida

Tesni

Koci + Rina

Sepria

[marshmallowloves]

Zelda OC #4 - Tesni

>> (list of posts for other OCs)

(this has become kind of a trend - this post is very long under the cut, due to how much development went into this character. You have been warned, and I am very sorry if you accidentally click "read more" on desktop and have to scroll through it all kdjfhg)

I had Iphenia as my main Zelda OC for a long while, and replayed Skyward several times for the sake of dialogue so I could have more shipping fuel with Cawlin and meme material for Ghirahim's weird ass. Not long after, my friend lovingly introduced me to Hyrule Warriors on her WiiU. I'd never touched a Warriors game before, so this was an absolute blast to play, especially co-op. I remembered playing mostly as Midna, probably because I also had a massive crush on her at the time. Since I was coming fresh off the trails of Skyward, I also messed around with Fi and Ghirahim, who were both very fun to play as (despite people's protests that Fi was one of the weakest characters, but I had no trouble with her git gud deku scrublords). Slowly, Ghirahim became my preference for several reasons - not only was Midna was a bit tough to get the hang of, but Ghirahim's attacks were quick and powerful, Anri Katsu did a fantastic job with his voice this time around, and... oh. Oh no.

It's worth mentioning that around this time, I started realizing that I kind of had a thing for voices. Despite hearing a lot of Ghirahim's voice while playing his source game, I was too preoccupied with the fact that he was a total creep the whole time to really care for it. However, I'm sure Mr. Katsu was told to crank up the Large Ham factor to 11 for his Warriors reprise - which included the anger, the boastful laughs, and the, um... bizarrely suggestive sounds of self-preening. And that's when Marshy broke. This was the first time I had gained some form of attraction to a character I had previously mocked and tossed aside in favor of others. And I went into such hard denial about it that I created an entirely separate OC, with the intention of tossing her aside too, all for the sake of venting this weird sexual frustration (because let's face it - that's what it was). Enter Tesni.

Tesni's first iteration was very different from where she is now. In fact, I think she went through the most change of all my OCs, in terms of background, personality, and appearance.

The very first paper about her was simply a written concept, where I labeled her a "secret Zelda OC" due to my utter shame in my attraction for the Demon Lord, as well as labeled her simply as "Ghirahim's slave." Bear with me here, even though I know you're probably looking into the camera like you're on The Office.

Tesni's original purpose, first and foremost, was supposed to be a vessel, entirely separate from myself, for the purpose of exploring this weird attraction. My brain, for whatever the hell reason, figured that if Ghirahim would be into anything sexually, then his sadistic ass would favor a vessel of his own - someone to use to vent his frustrations, to play with however he liked, to relieve any stress of thhe'd want to be the master of a sex slave okay

Despite the mindless, baseless, loveless and purely indulgent nature of her creation, a small part of me wanted to add a bit of substance. I gave her a fancy name and made her a Twili - the latter of which I specifically remember doing because of a post I came across about making a good Zelda OC, which stated in one part something along the lines of "make your OC of a race that isn't very commonly used, like a Rito or a Twili!" and I was like "oh hell yeah, I love Twili!"

But at the end of the day, she was still just Ghirahim's property, as evidenced in the clothing she wears in the image above. Skimpy, yet reminiscent of the fabulous Sword Spirit. And even though this was the case, I didn't write or draw anything about it. Everything pretty much consisted of saucy daydreams and images in my brain that came and went and didn't pay rent. Nevermind the question of how in the world a character from the timeline of Skyward Sword came to possess a Twili from (presumably) thousands of years in the future.

...Except, somewhere down the line, I must have felt the need to justify this bizarre crossover. Or I started becoming more serious and less wanton about my attraction to Ghirahim. Or both. I honestly can't remember, but whatever the case, I decided to pull a small origin story (and a slight redesign) from the place where all my greatest ideas come from - my ass.

(The first drawing here is from 2015, when I first started developing this origin story. The second is from 2018, after I'd fully established the story I have now - and I also gave her outfit the sleeve from her original design~)

Now Tesni was a young girl who had become very close with Princess Midna after the latter helped Link defeat Ganon - to the point where the two Twili have an unspoken but mutual romantic affection for one another. My way of shoehorning in my less shameful crush on Midna, I suppose. Tesni turned from a blank slate into a sweet, demure, and rather airheaded ball of curiosity who loved to roam and explore the realm she called home. One day during a walk, she comes across a strange red light that pulls her in and drags her to another world, where the Demon Lord greets her and bullshits an explanation as to why he brought here there.

This explanation became more and more thought out as I continued to descend further into "ah shit I actually like this pile of trash" hell over time, but I can't exactly create an extensive or detailed timeline of development from this point on. Adding more substance to Tesni as a character and her backstory was a very gradual process, and thus it's hard for me to divide it into a step-by-step like my other posts. All I can really say is that over the course of a couple years, Tesni went through a vague process of:

blank vessel to vent sexual frustration

vessel With Some Substance™

a whole entire OC

okay I'm putting way too much time into this

self insert (for various reasons)

...as well as share the (relatively) condensed version of the story I've settled on. Just be warned that it really makes zero canonical sense, because to this day it's purely for self-indulgent purposes - that much has not changed - and I'm really not too worried about keeping true to canon. 😂 Also it's lengthy, so be warned!

The current story starts out much like before - Tesni, a close confidant and mutual crush to Princess Midna, wanders the paths of her home in the Twilight Realm, eventually being lured and captured by a strange red light into an unfamiliar world. She is greeted by a man who calls himself Ghirahim. He had performed a magic ritual, intending to summon a being with enough power to revive his master, the rightful ruler of this realm. At first glance, Tesni doesn't look like she'd fit the bill - Her timidity is palpable, and she's hesitant to speak to him. But Ghirahim is certain he performed the summoning perfectly as he always does, and doesn't wish to lose out on an opportunity to further his goals. So he does his best not to scare her away and spins a sugar-coated lie...

According to Ghirahim, his master was a glorious king who ruled the entire realm and was respected by his subjects, but was wrongfully imprisoned by jealous and self-righteous creatures who yearned for his position of power. The means that these villains used to seal him away could only be broken by a power so strong it rivals even the gods' - and Ghirahim is confident that with enough training, Tesni can help him achieve this power, so that his master can regain his rightful place as king of this world and punish those who stole his throne.

Though Tesni is hesitant, it tugs at her heartstrings to hear that this world is without its rightful ruler - especially since what Midna had to go through was so similar. She eventually agrees, and Ghirahim begins to train her while they both eagerly search for the only power that can break the seal - the Triforce. During this long stretch of time, the two grow closer, all while Midna frantically searches the Twilight Realm for her lost friend.

Somewhere down the line, Ghirahim and Tesni must separate and regroup, and the former later returns bruised and battered. He reveals that he was able to see his master for a short time, but got into a scrape during his visit - and he accidentally lets slip that it was his master that left him like this. Tesni of course questions why such a "glorious and respected" king would treat his own second-in-command in such a way. Up to this point, Tesni's cooperation has been crucial to their success in finding the Triforce. But Ghirahim not only fears this will cost him his best chance at doing so, a small part of him also fears of losing Tesni as a companion.

He takes a huge risk and comes clean about his master's true identity and nature - Demise, a ruthless and cruel demon who desires power for the sake of power, and who will do worse than just renounce Ghirahim as his right-hand man (or rather, tool) if the latter fails in his task to revive him. Thus, Ghirahim had no choice but to string Tesni along, though he feels guilty for it after having come to know her as a person.

She's understandably hurt at the prospect of being used by him, and it makes her question what else he's lied about - namely, Ghirahim's own care for Tesni that he's supposedly grown to have. But, true to her nature, her care for him is still very much real, and it pains her more to see that he's being treated in this way. So she suggests that they keep searching for the Triforce, but for a different purpose - to create a new, separate realm in which Demise can reside and have an endless bounty of power and slaughter at his disposal, without actually affecting anyone.

Since Ghirahim was literally created to serve Demise, he has an inherent and incessant need to please him, but he also has a degree of autonomy (shown in game by the fact that he's not stuck in the seal with Demise, he makes his own decisions and crafts his own plans to revive him, etc) - and in this instance, Ghirahim makes the decision to protect both himself and Tesni while still fulfilling his master's wish.

At some point (which is to say that I... haven't actually thought this part all the way through kjdfg), Midna finds the portal that Tesni had gone through, and searches for her in this realm as well...

And that's the end of the story I had written. Yeah, no, really. I completely blanked at this point. I always vaguely imagined that when Midna found the two of them, she and Ghirahim would fight but be stopped by Tesni somehow and things would be fine. I wanted to ship the three of them together - or rather, I wanted to ship Tesni with both Ghirahim and Midna, and have the latter two just kind of tolerate each other for the sake of their shared love interest. But I never knew how to go about writing that, so that's where it just kind of... drops off. XD

Perhaps Midna finally finds Tesni and Ghirahim just when they have the Triforce within their reach, and after learning of what happened, they both agree to let Tesni make her wish, which lets Demise get his own realm and lets Tesni be with the two people she's come to love most. It'd be a total BS explanation, but hey! That's kind of what this whole AU is about.

In the end, Tesni (as well as her ship with Ghirahim and Midna) was never about making a decent Zelda OC to one-up the old ones. She started with self-indulgence, and ended with self-indulgence. At this point, I've devoted so much time into this character and ship, not to mention that it got me through some less-than-good times during my school days, that it's become too precious to me to change much, and honestly that's perfectly fine with me.

Tesni, I think, is a reminder that not every character you make has to be "good" or "believable." Sometimes you just want to have a little gal be in love with her tall girlfriend and taller evil boyfriend, and it costs zero dollars and zero cents and is not illegal to do. ❤️