Tryvnah is a djinni like Vahaadi. He's the animal tamer in the circus troupe that adopted Vahaadi as a young runaway, and he's widely acknowledged as the favorite and likely successor of the troupe ring-leader, Zahar (the huge bird-like creature on the right). He's also quite the daredevil. Between his dangerous performance duties and his hobby in free-running, his life story is readily available in his appearance in the form of multiple scars and injuries. Most notably, he got a little to cocky with one of his beasts and ended up losing most of his left index finger when he was twenty.
In the little thumb sketches I tried to capture more ideas of his personality and interests. Tryvnah's quite a showboat and can seem self-important, but the truth is that he has a very natural self-confidence and a knack for handling just about anything that breathes. He loves animals and is wonderful with children. He considers all strangers potential friends and all friends potential lovers. His talent for leadership, team work, and charisma means that he's quite good at getting what he wants while leading others to believe it was their idea.
As talented as he is, he doesn't always get people to eat from the palm of his hand. His relationship with Vahaadi particularly puts him in some tight positions. In the roleplay I wrote with Evie, he ended up facing off with the notorious bounty hunter Marrik. Tryvnah might not have survived the encounter if Spark hadn't saved his butt!
(as usual, the anatomy is out to lunch)
Here, have an excerpt of the RP:
Tryvnah wasn't given a chance to decide on an action before Marrik lunged at him. Tryvnah barely dodged, and almost gave a hoot of self-congratulations when Marrik swung his staff around and jabbed him with such strength and precision in the small of his back that Tryvnah was sure one of his vertebrae had fractured with the impact. He gasped as the momentum knocked him clean off his feet, and when he hit the surface of the roof flat on his chest all of his breath was forced from his lungs. He gasped for air, pain shivering down his limbs from his jolted spinal column. He tried to get up, but the best he could do was roll onto his side, hissing through his teeth.
Marrik kicked him over so that he was lying face up, planted his foot on Tryvnah's chest, and leaned all of his weight onto it. With his free hand he unclipped a canteen and upended its contents on Tryvnah's face and arms. Tryvnah gasped in surprise and flinched as he was doused.
"Do you know what this is?" Marrik asked, returning the canteen to its place and pulling a needle with a syringe from a pouch. He held it over Tryvnah's face so that he could see it. At first glance, the syringe looked empty, but it was actually filled with a thin clear fluid. Tryvnah looked up at it blearily, but with the pain in his back and the weight of Marrik on his breastbone, was unable to respond. "It's just water," Marrik answered himself, turning the syringe over in his hand with a bored tone in his voice. "Hardly more than a swallow. And yet, Fawzild tells me that's all it takes to kill a djinni. One dose to your bloodstream..." He held the syringe threateningly close to Tryvnah's temple. "For all the legends about your kind, you djinn are so frail."
3 comments:
Tryvnah! I'm so glad you drew these! What-- Zahar is a bird! I thought he was a Djinni like the others lol-- my mental picture in the roleplay was all wrong XD He reminds me of something I'd have seen in a Don Bluth film. I like the shape of his beak!
Tryvnah is ADORABLE. I love his expressions and I particularly like the way you draw his chin. You draw very cute little monkeys btw. I love the gesture drawings! That's a great way to demonstrate character while saving time. I should start doing that.
"out to lunch" ahahahahah I must start saying that. Marrik seriously has one of the coolest designs. Never in a million years would I have come up with a character like him and he is just so edgy.
Zahar is a djinni! All djinn have two forms, their aamar form (humanoid) and their fiend form. The shape their fiend form assumes is determined by the tribe they come from; essentially, their bloodline. There are six tribes of fiends, each resembling different kinds of animals. Vahaadi's line is cat-like, Tryvnah's line is dog-like, Zahar's line is bird-like, and then there are fiends that are goat-like (weird as it sounds, Lanthriel's mother descended through this line), snake-like (Leimira is descended from this line) and dragon-like (this line presumably was hunted to extinction). Djinn can spend as much time as they want in either form, and their society is somehow built to accommodate them. Zahar just happens to be rocking the giant avian creature look. I need to draw his aamar form too, but I'm still working out what djinn look like when they age. I already decided that they don't age like normal people, but I think that they start looking less and less human the older they get. I imagine that their noses, forehead crystals and ears always keep growing so the oldest djinn have massive forehead bling and really severe, hawkish features. Their forms get more hazy, smoke-like, and glow. The faint gold glow in Vahaadi's eyes, for instance, is an indication that he's getting on in years (he's self-conscious of it like a normal person is of wrinkles XD)...Tryvnah's eyes must glow even brighter because he's a bit older than Vahaadi. Anyway, sorry that got long! Beaks are fun to draw. I have no idea how he talks with that thing but like in cartoons, it just works.
Thanks! :D Yeah, he's really fun to draw. Like, I take all the cute stuff that Vahaadi does and make it cuter and I get Tryvnah XD And then I hang cute animals on him and he gets even better. Gosh dangit Tryvnah. No wonder Vahaadi can't stand you. Thumb sketch gestures is a trick I picked up on dA! I like them. They turn sout so much livelier than the actual drawings DX
Well, thank you. n_n His design was really random to throw together and he's actually weirdly modern for the setting. LC was like "a syringe? They have syringes?" and I realized it doesn't make that much sense. He's also got zippers on his strangely 90s-gangster outfit. XD He totally doesn't fit. I really like the edge, but I need to figure out how to make his design more cohesive with the world I want him to belong to.
Aww Spark is so enthralled by Vahaadi's eyes and he's just like "it means I'm old. >.>"
That's interesting Zahar prefers his fiend form. Thanks for the explanation, it helps!
If it makes you feel any better, the great Ben Caldwell was lamenting that recently on his blog (the sketch lines turning out so much livelier than the finished project) so I think it is inevitable.
yeah but see I feel like that makes him so much scarier, because he's got a hairstyle, clothing style and even technology (if you can call a syringe that) that is futuristic and it just makes him really, really intimidating.
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