Commissions During Break 4: Arrow's Kaerwyn Commissions

Here are some commissions I did for scenes from Arrow's Kaerwyn RP sessions (well one is a portrait of two characters that married). He wanted to write a snippet for them so here's his words:

Hi, I'm Arrow. I've been playing on Kaerwyn for...uh, about 17 years total now, and Jakkal has been kind enough to not only GM for me during that time, but also bring life to some of the scenes and things I've done in her RP with art. I'm going to tell you a little about the RP here, and maybe if this is received well we can have more little side-features like this as time goes on!

Today we're going to talk about what I feel is a major theme of Kaerwyn, both in the comic and the RP: "Found family". The idea that your family isn't related to who you're born to, but rather who you choose to define as family.

Almost all people arrive on Kaerwyn inadvertently by rifts. Stripped of everything and everyone they've ever known, they're left completely to fend for themselves in a strange new reality. But over time, they adapt. They find people they get along with. Those they can rely on, that they can help in turn, that they love, or care about deeply. And this is one of the more rewarding aspects of the RP, in my personal experience.

Endymion and Niixa are, of course, the main focus of the comic, and certainly a great example of this. But they are not my characters, so instead I'll focus on my own.

One of my characters, listed above twice, is Nathan Renfrew, from an alternative version of modern Earth. While he had somewhat of a rough start on Kaerwyn, he's over time found his own footing and managed to persevere. His wife from his original world was gone, and when he found out, he fell into a rut. Rudderless, he drifted around, being involved and present but not really flourishing.

But eventually he realized that his wife wouldn't want him simply wallowing in pity alone, and that he had to move on with his life, and find new meaning.

Duel McCoullough was a coworker of his on the Night Watch (which is similar to the Town Guard shown in the comics). Duel was herself from Earth, but she loved dragons; she in fact commissions a biomod to give herself golden dragon scales. She and Nathan were of similar age, and often found themselves working together in the Watch. Eventually, Nathan realized that she made him smile, and reminded him of happier times. Duel had had some bad life experiences as well, but as they grew closer, eventually Nathan resolved that they should both help each other and proposed to her on her birthday.

Nathan also has taken on the role of, well, surrogate father to two younger characters. Ernestein was royalty before he arrived on Kaerwyn, but far enough down the line of succession that he'd never see the throne. He had bonded with Caius, an anthro-deer who came from a war-torn world where he was an orphan (similar to English children sent to the countryside during WWII).

Ernest ended up saving Nathan's life in a roundabout way, and Nathan, in exchange, decided to help him and Caius to try honor what had happened. Over time, what had started as perhaps a guardianship, turned into an actual relationship between the three. Ernest and Caius feel a kinship with each other as brothers, and Nathan helps them as he can, somewhat filling the role of parent.

The third picture is of my character Richard Gallian, with his own girlfriend, Empress Kaga III. Richard is essentially a werehawk from an Earth with no major present magic, and as such lived on the fringes a bit. After arriving on Kaerwyn, he eventually, through his own trials, ended up finishing his medical training and becoming the paramedic and ambulance driver for Fegov.

Kaga was an actual Empress from her own world, but due to her disappearing to Kaerwyn, she was declared dead, preventing her from returning. Instead she and Richard ended up bonding during a plot where they had to work together, and then started dating. Later, when Richard was having some issues, she moved in to help him endure them, even at risk to herself. They've been together since, and Richard is starting to think about how to formalize things...but don't tell Kaga, she doesn't know yet!

It's important to stress that none of these scenarios mentioned above were the result of what we call "Green diamonding." The play that happened that led to these results was organic over time, and there were many, many off-ramps and mistakes that were made. But they all endured, and that makes the experience all the more rewarding.

Kaerywn as an RP has been my drug for a long time, and I hope this insight into it makes you more intrigued, and possibly even consider joining it yourself! And it's got the best price of all: Free!

-Arrow

I feel I should mention that Duel belongs to Jeri. Caius belongs to Colt. Ernestein belongs to Digital Potato. Kaga belongs to Mutt.

Green Diamonding: A Kaerwyn specific term for when you control what your character does, forcing them into situations that the character would not choose to go into. It's based on the green plumbob of SIMS fame, where you can make your sims do really stupid things for your own amusement.