See the steps of how the BG was done here:


Yet another one of the series!
This one took me quite a while to do, apart from the fact that not only had I trouble shading the Character to my satisfaction, but also did the background take me ages, holy crap. I actually did a very funny and for my type very unusual thing: Started out with 2 layers at first, one for the BGs sketch, the other with the color, and in the end I merged both and did the refinement on the same layer. It helped getting an edgy feeling to the stones, but apart from that it wasn't very helpfull, but a nice experience nevertheless.

Now to the Content:
The main character in this Piece is Keehva, probably my most fave and deepest character. The critter on his shoulder is Andany in her therian form. This piece would actually be a paradoxum though, as Keehva absolutely disliked Andany at the time he still lived in the Cave shown in the background, and wouldnt even let her get anywhere close, but i thought to do the first piece of this series justice, i reversed the Anthro-Therian forms on both.
Anyway, as Keehva was accused for massmurdering about 14-15 years before the beginning of the actual Story arc, he was sent into Exile by the Lord, his brother Xander. Not being allowed to enter any City nor live in one or be openly recognized within one, he resigned to live in a cave, between the citys of Hyashu and Wynbern, in which the first part of the story arc takes place. As there used to be no one that wanted to meet up with him, most of the time he roamed his little territory around his cave naked or only dressed with pants and/or the vest when he actually gets himself to wear cloth, but keeps the upper part hanging behind him, only tied to him through the rope he wears as belt. As Andany starts to visit him more regularly, his brother Xander (who also drops by to his cave once in a while) made him wear clothes more frequently, as Andany gets easily disgusted by naked people ...
Keehva is one of the seven Shenta ta's, meaning roughly as much as "Guardian of a Guardian". He carys the former Guardian of shadows, Denno, within him and was actually the first of the Shenta ta's to recieve his Guardian. Denno, during his lifetime, was in love with the Shenta Lyura, and the two were the only couple among the Shenta's.
As the story moves on, Keehva starts to accept Andany and Xander asks him to take her on a Journey, in quest of his destinated beloved Lyura Evaedeni, to aid him get through the citys unrecognized, and so she shall learn about how the society of Zäa works.

Not much detail on the Background here actually. The cave he lives in probably used to be a bears cave or something close, but I doubt even Keehva knows what used to live within it. It's actually a pretty nice place, if you could get yourself to live in the middle of the forest, forcefully cut of from community. He has a small stream of water running down the hill above the cave, a clearing right in front of it and many flourishing plants all around. There's also a Hill with a nice view over the plains quite near to his. Only thing he doesnt have is a herd of deer-like creatures grassing infront of his cave (on which he feeds most of the time . raw.).

Yea I know, different details from the other pieces, more spoilers (but not too dramatically ones) and alot more uninteressting text . Nevertheless, thanks for giving a damn

On an absolutely unrelated note, Sascha (my bf) asked me, why the critter had an expression like Lingling, the bunny he bought me last christmas. I didnt realize he was right until I turned to actually look at Lingling (the bunny cage is right behind me) and she looked at me with just the same look Andany has in this piece. Sascha and I bursted out in laughter and Lingling just looked even more puzzled at us silly bunny.

Like always, Characters, Story and Art are © by Cassie R '10

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