Woway look at this dude, being behind on his artbook again, because school hit him like a brick in the face.

Either way, I've got some chapters for you, that are indeed dedicated to larger pieces (oh yeah, baby, I rendered two drawings for once again), and whilst one of them is for the "Stille Kunst Post" organised by Redsy (aka: you get a drawing, redraw it, and give it to the next person to redraw, and then you compare the pieces, to see who changed what, and how the last piece resembles the first one >w<), which means I can't show it to you just yet, I also have some smaller drawings and sketches to hopefully make up for that ^-^"

But let's get to the drawing then, hm?
We're gonna be talking about Caulan and Síladîr today, who are OCs, adopted from fuyukko ^-^

DISCLAIMER: another very long chapter, so beware of the lore >w<

First of all: Caulan Daenaer Renion Wavecall VII.

Oh yeah, you know what the long names mean. Cauladan is a somewhat royalty. Specifically he's the oldest brother of Bothanar, who's this guy (meant in a gener-neutral way, obv) if you remember correctly:

So whilst Bothanar is the most rebellious of their siblings, Caulan is the exact opposite. Born the first to the family, he was raised to take over the political importance of the family, and keep the power within the bloodline.
Since he's been a little boy, he dreamt to be just like his parents and did his very best to match the shoes he was given. Whilst he's very enthusiastic about his goals and excited to work more on the improvement of the city, as well as bringing honour to his family, he... well, he ain't the most practical guy around, and his arrogance and egocentrism caused quite some issues.

You see, he isn't stupid (even though his little sister, Aphedril, got most of the brains among the siblings but, pfft...), but he has problems to see beyond the pure on-paper facts. When he takes decisions, he doesn't really consider how they may affect the people around him, and how that would affect him later on, which does indeed cause major issues later on during his rulership of the city.

In said rulership, he mostly focuses on his area of the clan and his family, leading both to prosperity, but also forming some conflicts with the other members of the ruling council and their clan-areas, nearly starting a new civil war, and also causing their main northern and western Importers, to break the wavecall eclipsian seafoam-traveller trade agreements (WESTTA) that have made the clan the main platfom for oversea-trade and economics. This also lead to strong tensions between the clans that were located more towards the centre of the continent, mainly fireforge, windsmith, sunhunt and runewhisper, since they strongly relied on the Wavecall harbours for their imports and exports... in other words: Caulan made the "Regal-Trio" (nickname for the inofficial Fireforge-Sunhunt-Windsmith-Alliance) and the Clan with the most technological, scientific and economical advancement mad. Luckily the other members of the parliament and the king, could deescalate the situation, before a war could happen, but DANG was that close. The main reason the war didn't break loose, was because of the southern-coastline treaty organisation (SC-TO; Alliance between the Shadowdancers, Wavecalls, Nightmares, Gravebuilds and Bloodhounds, that secures the coastline. The alliance is mostly formed in case of an outward attack from the other continents, to defend the rest south.) This was btw the first time they contemplated an inwards attack on the continent, but the entire thing failed, because the Gravebuilds didn't want to loose their trade agreements with the Frosthills, Fireforges and Deathbolts and the Shadowdances refused to fight against the Sunhunters in a worst case scenario (religious principles! yayy!).

Also, here's that WIP of the map, so you roughly know what's where:

... their family wasn't elected anymore, after his son wasn't all that mutch better and started an actual, full-on war with the east...

Oof, I don't think I ever rambled so much about mesorian politics and economics in my Artbook before... tell me in case you find it boring or you wanna know more >w<"

So much to his rulership. Caulans personality often comes across as rather childish and oblivious, which is why many of his colleagues doubted him at first, before he takes the time to further explain his points, demonstrating how he actually knows what he's talking about.
He also likes to make a lot of jokes (if he weren't noble, he probably would've become a comedian) and has this comforting aura around him, if he likes you. When he's around in a buisiness context or around people he's not too fond of, he does indeed become rather cold and reserved. Still making you feel comfortable, but as though he were above you and untouchable.

This is also very interesting, when analyzing the relation between him and his family. To most family members he has a good relation, but to his siblings it's often rather tensed. Honestly, the entire family could be turned into a book of corruption, deception, lies and jealousy. I don't know why I made most of them so bitchy honestly, but I love it. Makes for quite some fun family dynamics >w<

The next eldest, Barthon, is jealous of him and doesn't try to hide it. It isn't a secred that he would go as far as killing Caulan, to get his position. He ended up marrying the heir to the Frosthill throne and theoretically should've become king, before he was assasinated by a rebel group, that didn't want that "foreign water-scum" to lead their country alongside the pureblooded princess.

Similar to Barthon, Limdes is also not too fond of her brother being the next one to rule the city. Since she's the third eldest, just killing him, wouldn't be enough, because then she'd also need to get rid of Barton somehow. So, she took the opposite direction, in an attempt to either get the parents to transfer the birthright to her, get Caulan to make her his main assistant, or to marry herself into a different influencial family in another clan.
From the three cases, none actually became reality, since she fell in love with a fortune teller from the Clockworks, who was part of a circus, and ended up joining the merry troop as a dancer, later on marrying said fortune teller and living a happy ever after with two children.

Caulan more or less despises those two, on the one hand because they want his position as firstborn, and then went on to betray the clan and family in his eyes.

Then we have the twins Osgaril and Brêchon. None of them are interested in politics, power or Caulan, so they have a very neutral relation, never doing a lot with one another and not having any contact at all, as soon as they moved out to start studying.

Another very interesting point is Bothanar though. The two get along perfectly well on Caulans side of things. To Caulan, Both is just his little, rebel brother, who ran off to become a Paladin. Since Bothanar is the second youngest, they also don't pose any sort of threat to Caulan. They talk a lot about the military side of things and Caulan always had the feeling, that his little brother was someone he could also talk about deeper and more personal issues with. Because... well, by all due respect, Caulan was very very insecure and scared, that he might dissapoint everyone. He was so sure of himself, that he was afraid of missing important points in his surroundings and Bothanar was the only one he trusted with these doubts, since they weren't directly related to the works of the family anymore.
Bothanar on the other, is nearly scared of Caulan. Not only because of the respect they have to show him, but also because Caulan doesn't acknowledge their identity as agender as serious and the use of the "he/him" pronouns stresses them a lot. Bothanar brought it up several times, but their brother laughed it off, thinking that they're just joking around. Whilst Caulan often tells Bothanar about his deepest secrets, worries and mistakes, Bothanar only mentions the smallest of their issues, being too afraid, that their brother wouldn't understand the struggle of their gender and sexual identity and all the mental issues that come along with it, which all play a huge role in their life.

The last of the batch is little Aphedril. Remember how Limdes wanted to become Caulans main assistant? Well that's Aphedrils role now, since she's by far the smartest of them all, especially when it comes to bending rules to get what she wants... growing up to be the youngest of 7 siblings, whilst also being stuck in a wheelchair (she has been born with malformed legs, but because of her fair amount of magical genetics, her body won't except prosthetics), afforded quite the amount of outsmarting, tricking and convincing.
Caulan admires her intelligence and together they are a dream-team of chaos. Similar to Caulan though, she also has the tendency to not think all that far ahead (she doesn't think it's all that important and presumes that Caulan already does that) and has issues to evaluate the reactions of people around her. Like... she knows that a decision would have negative effects, but she can't really tell what kind of negative effect, and simply presumes, that the bonds and treaties would withstand the issues they might cause.

...

a lot of talking about his family and rulership, here's finally the drawing you're all here for! Yayy!

(fun fact: he is indeed a Wavecall, but his mother is from the Bloodhounds, which is why he likes to wear the typical red eyeliner, that the Bloodhound-royals usually apply >w<)

So much to Caulan, next up we have Síladîr Moonstone!

Okay, some of you must be thinking "Wait, moonstone isn't a clan in the south." and you are damn right with that. Ila is one of my kids from the west. Some might remember Oraearon, another western immigrant, at this point, who was this dude:

So Ila is part of the Moonstone tribe, which is part of Reeburg.

Now, you guys very probably know not all that much about the West, since the only time I explained one sort of facette of it, was in Oreos chapter in "Leaves" where I wrote the following (yes, I am indeed pasting it just in here, because I'm too lazy to sum it up again and don't wanna send you guys over to the old chapter):

>> went to old artbook and realised that that chapter was in german <<
fuck... welp, I'll just translate what I wrote there:

"Contrary to the monarchies of the south, the theocracies in the east and the federations in the north, the west consists of several nomadic tribes, that wander through the mess of floating islands the continent has become, and live in very familal and close relation with each other.
The tribes usually are named after some natural aspect, depending on what kind of life they adapted to best."

Another western OC that might come to mind might be Dûrbenn... this dude:

And oh boy, I just read through the chapter dedicated to him in my last Artbook and I literally explained nothing about his ways of living. AH, must've been very confusing for you guys back then, but this is perfect for what I'm about to tell you guys now.

So, until now you have the southern and northern view upon the west. For them, the west is a primitive, shattered continent, full of love, adventure and creativity, since the people there were forced to make their way around the masses of floating islands, and hold together like family when times got rough.

Now the thing is... yes, quite a lot of the west is indeed like that. But sometimes, smaller tribes joined larger tribes and "moving cities" evolved. One of those is the Seafoam-Traveller tribe Oreo's from, which is a union between five smaller tribes. These moving cities are nothing more than just nomadic tribes, that move less frequently and quite often build cities within the islands, where they live for about 5.ooo - 1o.ooo years, before moving on.

The south and north think, that that's about as "cultured" as the west can get, but OH BOI have they been fooled.
You see, amongst those moving cities, hidden megacities evolved, some of which being able to hold up with the large cities of the south and east. And because the "tribes" grew so large over time, they were forced to develop better means of settlement and transportation.

AAHHH I love the west so much after I added that detail. To quote Ruindîr, as soon as the East-Western Lotus-Alliance attacked the south: "We're fucked. This is like nothing we have eve seen before. Honestly, I doubt even the gods could save us from this one."

So, the west now has these HUGE underground cities. Cities, that are more or less shaped like... uh... an ice-cream cone (yes, I am good at describing stuff indeed) inside of some island, with usually some sort of mountain on top of it.
We have thick walls on the outside, every single element of those being equiped with weapons and several mechanisms that I'll get to in a sec. Alongside the walls, we have houses. A lot of them. They are more or less like vertical skyscrapers, extending out of the walls.
In the centre we have just this huge gaping hole, where buildings are connected via lifts (similar the ones you have on mountains), stairs, bridges, etc.
Now... the megacities are still nomadic tribes, even if they have millions of inhabitants, so to move around, the mechanisms outside of the walls, first of all dig the city out of the ground, also replacing the stone of that "mountain" on top, back into it's original position in the island below. As soon as it reached a specific level out of the earth, a secondary mechanism get's activated, which helps the huge construct to hover in the air, until the city is completely above the ground. In that time, the entire constructions within the central hole of the city are retracted and all the inhabitants are inside, whilst the city more or less rebuilds itself into a more compact version of itself. The third mechanism is triggered, with several extensions now forming outside of the city walls, causing the city to now fly.
The thing now flies to a new destination, reforms itself to the original structure, whilst using the cone-shape, to slowly dig itself back into the earth, piling the rock, earth, etc that they grind through on top of the city for camouflage.

Since the western harath don't have as much knowledge in regards of magic, as the south does, their mechanics are a lot more refined and precise, using the magic as a cool "bonus" on top, to make their creations a bit very much overpowered.
Just.... imagine this really grindy cyber-/steampunk-vibe within the megacities and you have a good idea of what that's like.

So the best thing about those is, the only other continent that knows about them is the east, because of the Lotus-Alliance, and the leading members of the Knights of the Night (which obviously don't live there), since their main forces are ideed situated within the west.

Now what does this have to do with Ila? Welp, the Moonstones are part of Reeburg, and Reeburg is one of those megacities. Precisely, it is the largest megacity that refuses to work together with the Knights of the Night and also has nothing to do with the Lotus-Alliance. But to uphold their neutral position, they need to withstand a lot of pressure from outside, also including wars, terrorist attacks, blackmailing, corruption and the like. They have a status as the western symbol of rebellion, with the probably most efficient army.

He is an orphan (his biological parents having died in an accident), who got adopted by two mothers. One of which was general in the military, and the other one working in a bakery. He always was a very broad, direct person, who always spoke his mind and always defended his friends and family.
(like... the entire "Your mum is gay!" - "What one?" vibe is very present here)

Ila here initially refused to go to the obligatory military service, that every inhabitant has to absolve after finishing school, but was forced to do so anyways. Once there, he was trained to be a sniper and catapult-mechanic. Since they were preparing to fight the foreign dragons from the south, and catapulting the flying reptiles to the ground prooved to be the most effective method at the time (that was, before magic projectiles made their way into general use, where smaller explosives could be programmed to follow a target until it hit).
After training, he was supposed to be sent to the upper defences, which are housings directly below the surface of the city. If it came to an attack, the upper defences are the first to know, the first to fight, and the first to be hit.

Ila wasn't up for this shit, and whilst his mother encouraged him wholeheartedly to follow in her military footsteps (she used to be a sniper on the upper defences too), his mum wasn't all to fond of her baby boy putting himself in danger. His parents argued because of that a lot, but he kinda calmed them down with the entire "Well, I am forced to be there now, and then at the end of it I'll see what I wanna do." message being repeated a gazillion times to the both of them.

He chilled at the upper defence, nothing really happening, and pretty much in the middle of his deployment, the city was attacked. I haven't figured out any of those details yet (so sorry) but it ends with Ila being kidnapped and dragged to the south.
He was a prisoner of the Knights for quite some time, being tortured for information, until the Paladins came along and destroyed the Quarter of the Knights. Sadly, the Paladins had no way of communicating with Ila (yayy, language!), so they imprisoned him again, not being sure how to figure out who he was, what he was doing, why he was imprisoned by the Knights and where he comes from.
It doesn't take all too long, until the Paladins are attacked, and Ila, alongside with some other Prisoners of the Paladins, gets rescued and brought to the Headquarters of the Azure Rebellion.

At the rebellion there are people there that actually speak his mothertongue, so he sorta manages to explain his situation.
The rebellion agrees to help him get back home, planning on expanding their contacts also to the western megacities, since they just found out that those existed, and were very fond of that rebellious spirit, that they most certainly could use to ther advantage.

They go to the west, find the place where Reeburg was situated at, only to find out, that the city has migrated int the time of Siladir's absence. They search around for about a year, finding two other megacities in that time, but not Reeburg.

Siladir returns with the southeners back to the South, not knowing what else to do, and joins the Rebellion as one a Sniper, whilst also teaching them some of the hidden, technological knowledge of the West. This was one of the main points, that gave the Rebellion an advantage in the Rebellion-wars against the Paladins, and was a huge inspiration to our wonderful boy Tirith and his prosthetical engineering, which did indirectly also lead to his success within his field in the longterm run.

So yeah... after the Rebellion falls and the few surviving fragments join up with the Knights, Siladir finds out where Reeburg is at, runs away from the organisation that brought him into this terrible situation in the first place, and returns home, taking over his mums bakery, since he's had enough of war (much to the relief of both of his mothers, since they both were horrified to find that their son had been kidnapped) ^-^

Welp... a lot of rambling, a bit of a very short ending to his story, but here's the portrait:

Oof.. here's the two of them in one image, alongside Alice's original drawings
(I hope you don't mind that I put them there... the image was originally only for personal use, but then I accidentally overwrote the file without your drawings on the side and just decided to upload this version then >w<"")

I hope you liked my little ramble on these side-characters.... ah I love my children too much to not just talk and talk and talk about them... hope you don't mind >w<
And if you do mind... well you aren't stupid, so you probably just scroll through the text until you find the images xD

That's all for now then, so have a nice day/night and maybe stick around for former or future chapters ^-^

>>cuddles you and gives you biscuits, tea and a blanket<<