Matarin 001

finallyfinallyFINALLYFINALLYFINALLYFINALLY I am drawing things from this world out. And explaining it. And sharing it. I randomly get self-conscious about the characters/worlds that I think up... for some reason I think that people will think they are lame. But at the same time I know that I shouldn't worry because I'm allowed to create what I want. Especially because my characters/stories are things I created out of my free time.

This universe and the characters from it are very personal and important to me, which is probably why I haven't drawn anything from it until now.



I first created the Matarin (+ other kingdoms) universe back in 2008. I just started Uni, and one of the things that I liked to do in my architectural history classes was to look at these buildings that we were forced to study, and daydream about them. Haha, I'm such a good archi student, right? Now that I think about it, I realize how inspired I get just by looking at buildings/cities/enviros/etc. I don't know how to phrase this though, but I genuinely enjoy world building, and usually if I create the world first, the characters just come to life.

O vO But now I am rambling so I will move on to share:


CAPITAL CITY OF MATARIN (MATARIN KINGDOM)

An environmental concept attempt... still many things I could work on and things to study (since this is mostly self-taught, haha) but I do think I learn something every time I attempt something like this. And I genuinely enjoy attempting to draw backgrounds.

Last night a friend asked me if I wanted to become a concept artist, because I think that I like to work in a conceptual way. I have an interest in concept art, but I think that goes hand in hand with my major in architecture and design in general. Though ultimately I think drawing is somewhat a personal thing/hobby for me so I don't think I would ever have an interest in freelance works.

Anyways, I actually didn't do a lot of research on how kingdoms/cities/etc. work, so a lot of the details are vague (like how big the kingdom is, towns that the kingdom also governs over, etc.) Like I mentioned earlier, I created the Matarin kingdom back in 2008. The design of the city itself has always been based off of the one lecture where we looked at slides of Tuscan Hill Towns. Matarin was always going to be on a hill of some sort, with a tiered level:

I'm actually not sure if my logic behind the organization of this city makes sense, but I am ignoring that detail. I also used the city generator to try to figure out more details. But because I already had an idea of the way the city is organized, I only tried to find a prompt that fit my idea for the city.

"This is a huge, extremely crowded city built predominantly of stone and defended by a formidable army. It is well known for its beautiful central square. Most of its revenue comes from spices. It is defended by elaborate triple walls and its most noteworthy feature is the unique architecture."

The ideas that I take from this prompt: the elaborate triple walls, unique architecture, defended by formidable army, huge/crowded city. The walls of the city serve as a form of defense, but they also separate the different areas of the city. The other details like the stone, spices, and central square are secondary thoughts, and ideas that I am still toying with.

The city I drew out isn't as huge as the prompt dictated. Actually, as I was drawing this city, I didn't know if I wanted to have a huge city sitting on a hill and was having trouble figuring out how I wanted everything scaled. To figure these details out, I'll probably want to work via maps and diagramming.

For the unique architecture, I tried to look to the castle design, the wall designs, and the common feature in the town buildings (like the same roof tile design, etc). Do I want a castle with gothic detailing? Or something more traditional? Do I want the architecture to have a mix of fantasy and modern elements? These details aren't decided yet, and I would have to sketch these details out on a piece of paper to fully understand what I want. For now the buildings are sort of just placeholders for what might actually be there. But obviously, the phrase "unique architecture" makes me want to really figure out the design for this. I also don't know if I want the buildings to be crowded, with streets that twine around randomly, making everything impossible to navigate. Or did I want a city that was organized in some sort of grid fashion? So many things to think about regarding architecture and planning of a city, LOL. And I think these details are something that is glaringly obvious for me to figure out.

The bit about the army is more something that has to do with the story that I had for this kingdom. The kingdom has tensile relations with a neighboring kingdom, Corbeos (to be further developed). Corbeos is known for their interest in warfare... Matarin and Corbeos are often in periods of truce and warring because of it. Both kingdoms are large.

Innermost area: Contains the Matarin Castle and the Royal Academy. 

The Royal Academy is called such because it is sponsored by the royal family, but anyone, regardless of birth, learns there. Citizens are highly encouraged to learn at the academy. Matarin citizens do not practice magic (other kingdoms do). Some students move to the capital city from other towns to study at the academy. At the academy, students are treat each other as equals; ie, nobles do not benefit any more than commoners. 

Middle area: Main city area, where most of the daily activities take place

Where shops/etc are located at. Also where the majority of the citizens live. Though nobles living in the city typically live closer to the castle, it is not uncommon for them to spend time in the main city area. 

Lower area: military area and marketplace 

The lower area has the most defense in terms of numbers, and is also where market trade happens. This is because the area is actually fairly accessible to outsiders (as opposed to the other two areas). 

Haha I look at what I type and wonder how logical this organization really is? Somehow there are things I still need to work out from a functionality point of view.


IMPORTANT MATARIN CHARACTERS

These characters have been with me since I made up this universe. A general thing that is noted about the Matarin kingdom (just a small fact), the people generally have lighter/brighter colored hair and their eyes are always a dark brown/black color.

Also... (troll) I might be describing these characters in a non-fujo way but all of their stories are BL and sappy and cliche HAHAHA. I sometimes want to cry at my shamelessness... it is truly an "everyone is gay" world... OH WELL. I don't even know how I will solve the problems of succession hahahaha... sooo unrealistic. I thought about maybe adding some important girls for realism factor but maybe for a different kingdom hurhurhur... sorry again for my lame cheesiness!



CAELAN

My protagonistttttttt.

He doesn't have a surname because it's still undecided. He attended the academy and excelled in his subjects... and then was offered a mentorship with one of the high ranked knights (**I say the word knight but it's not in a traditional context with squires, etc.) and eventually worked his way up to his present day rank... as part of the Prince's royal guards.

As for his design, I wanted to create a character who wasn't particularly noteworthy? For some reason I like to make fairly uninteresting designs and then give that character a little accent here and there.  Caelan has dark hair, and it is harder for him to stand out than to blend in. He's also very uptight and prudish about some thing, particularly regarding his experience with culture clash in his story... due to circumstances he goes on a [diplomatic??] journey with Prince Adrian to the allied kingdom that is a "playground for the wealthy" famous for their red light district (troll). I guess if I had to stereotype him in words, his cute factor is that he is a little tsun??

Well eventually he gets tangled up in a passion filled romance with his dark skinned long haired prince HURHUR.


PRINCE ADRIAN

The 2nd prince of the kingdom. He is the same age as Caelan (though they are only acquaintances). There are only 2 heirs (well... 2 legitimate heirs... troll) in the kingdom. At first I drew a cold expression on his face, but Adrian is not really cold at all. Anyways, Adrian is a shameless pretty-boy character... and is well loved by the citizens, etc. He has a gift for being a diplomat and often goes to visit other kingdoms.

As for design, from the very beginning I wanted the royal family to have very very light skin and hair. I guess this is to portray their seeming coldness? Though it is mostly the king and crown prince who can be cold/ruthless. At some point Adrian has go disguise himself and he cuts all his beautiful hair off, hahahaha.

He ends up being romanced by a certain red haired scruffy knight (troll)(troll)(troll)


REINHART

He is Caelan's best friend. He is actually a few years older than Caelan, but they end up becoming friends because of the time during their mentorship. Reinhart is somewhat boisterous and nosy and likes to poke fun at his reserved quiet friend. He's also the buff and scruffy type of knight!! I wonder what kind of scars he has on his body hurhur.

Actually Reinhart doesn't appear much in the story (because the story takes place mostly in that other kingdom...). But he has a sidestory to himself! hurhur I think we can guess why ;D.


PRINCE ANTON - HEIR APPARENT

He is probably another character that I got attached to. Originally he was going to be an EXTREME ANTAGONIST!! But I couldn't bring myself to make him so antagonistic so I just made him "misunderstood" and gave him a story to redeem himself. It's possible that I like his story even better than the original one...

In any case, he is the crown prince to the throne. As a character, Anton has a sharp mind and is the calculating type? He knows how to appease his father while at the same time trying to fix things in his own way... but he gets misunderstood a lot, and he doesn't mind being seen as an antagonist. Does that make him M? Or he just doesn't want to be seen in a good light...








And there you have it!

Actually, I have even more characters from THE OTHER kingdom, since the main story takes place there. The only characters that appear a lot in the main story are Caelan and Adrian... Reinhart and Anton are the minor characters.

Haha this is such a long post...