#Xaitherin

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quick sketch of Xaitherin's mom. Just kinda wanted to.

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Xaitherin deserves a happy childhood, right? It's the least I could do for her.

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Taking a bit of a break from the Ravenloft tarot deck (and everything Ravenoft in general really while @dr-darkwood finishes converting everything to Pathfinder from 3.5), we got to talking a bit recently about what our character's from Skull & Shackles' futures looked like. Roland has decided that Dispatia is going to become a vampire, and that has some pretty dramatic implications for their relationship. Not that Xaitherin is against the whole undead thing, but it means that Dispatia is probably going to try to turn her to, and she isn't with that. Paired with Dispatia's need to return to Cheliax and not be a pirate anymore...

So we came to the conclusion they might not work out.

Anyway, old pirate Xaitherin.

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Been hard at work redrawing folks, and these two needed it, like, desperately. Not just for like, the whole "I'm improving in my craft" sort of thing, but just because they're... really different than they were the last time I drew them?

Life comes at you fast, man.

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"Somewhere, in another life, another time.."

Felt like doing a bunch of redraws. prepare yourselves.

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also drew Xaitherin and Razir as children in Port Peril. Razir used to do perform stage magic on street corners for coin while Xaitherin led the other children in robbing the audience. They were a regular band of lovable scamps.

The rips & tears & dirt & patches are mostly self-inflicted, to garner sympathy. Most of them had loving homes. They were just bastards.

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Updated sketch of pre chapter 1 Xaitherin.

God, what the hell happened?

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.....

....so.

Xaitherin got Baleful Polymorph'd into a bunny. Weird things happen when you're drunk in the middle of the night in Quent while your girlfriend is on a deeply personal religious mission by herself.

anyway. She's probably gonna be okay. I think. Provided the rest of the (mostly drunk) party can find her.

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Xaitherin always did like playing pirates with her uncle, even if no one else in the village appreciated it, least of all her mother. When they were together, she was the captain, and what she said went. And if Johaku managed to teach her skills that would one day come to save her life in the process, all the better.

...

So, we finally got to the end of our little side quest and uh... yeah. Xaitherin has learned... probably more than she ever should. Without going into exactly what happened and what her father's (and, by extension, her uncle's) play is in her childhood trauma, it's all... pretty fucked up. Decided to draw this to lighten things, in response to a conversation me & Roland had shortly after he was reintroduced into her life.

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Redesigned Xaitherin for the umpteenth time.

She might be my favorite character ever.

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...

Okay, so.

This one is kinda personal. Not sure I'm comfortable getting into it though. It just kind of is.

Xaitherin's father did not know anything about taking care of children. This was the first and the last time he was expected to do so on his own.

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Follow up to older Xaitherin, and a little project for Mer-May. Been throwing around as scenario where Xaitherin, in her pirate-y adventures, gets abducted by malicious mermaids and trapped underwater, leaving Kalypso and Eno to call on a more established and powerful (read: more bitchy) Dispatia to come down from Cheliax to aid in rescuing her one time girlfriend.

I had a hell of a time with the details on this one, and really wanted to go all out, playing around with transparency, blurring, and positioning things in the background, as well as punching up colours in small areas and, of course,

Gradients

we're fancy in this house.

I also had fun with the colour palate & design of specifically the mermaids (or caeciliae, for the one in the back, i think that's what they're called. I Googled it). Each one is actually based off of a real deep-sea fish, and they're all kinda unconventional.

Anyhow, happy Mer-May everyone!

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Wanted to juxtapose Xaitherin's childhood with her father to that of her uncle (the one in the same she's currently on a death-defying quest through the shadow plane to bring back to life). By nearly stark contrast, he seemed to truly care for her; the closest thing to a father figure she had.

Within her trauma, she might not actually know the difference.

I can only hope that, when she asks an immortal wizard to bring him back by name, and a man with the face of what she assumes to be her father looks upon her in wonderment at new life, that she learns a few things about herself.

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Drew Xaitherin's uncle, since we're getting close to him coming back, I hope.

Not sure when I'll be able to draw again. Going through some things right now.

I'll be okay.

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So, we've been doing some interesting things In Skull & Shackles recently. Somewhere along the lines of trying to get Xaitherin's uncle back, we ran into an entire fortress (if one could call it that. More of a complex, really. It's the size of a small city.) full of Kytons (kinda like Cenobites) led by a minour deity known as Morrobahn, and they've...uh...messed everyone up a bit. In short, Kalypso has webbed digits and gills (not that she needed them), Eno's part machine, Dispatia is bleeding black from her eyes and is acting really weird after being exposed to the eldritch secrets of the universe or something similar, and Xaitherin's... well, dry socket where her eye should be aside, she's just kind of really fed up with everyone. There's something going on with her head to where she's now wildly distrusting and lashing out at nearly everyone. The Kytons keep telling her she's "special".

The good news is....

actually, I don't think there is any. It's honestly pretty horrible.

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Since Xaitherin *might* let her out of her magical prison soon, and when she does, she *might* become the Captain's new cohort (and also girlfriend), I decided it was time to redraw her. I was never a big fan of the way I drew her previously: it was good to practice other perspectives, but it did come out looking kinda wonky. Added a bunch of little detail work: with her intricate tattoos and jewelry, she kinda demanded it. I'm especially proud of how her hair turned out ^•^

Funny story, the tattoo on her leg is actual traditional Chinese. As close to "actual" as Google Translate can get, anyways. Bonus points for anyone who can tell what they mean.

Updated height chart coming soon.