[sunday doodle] Rani ref 🩵

Here‘s another something I‘ve been working on during the weekend that sat in my WIPs for a very long time given how she‘s been around since 2021? And somewhat officially since 2022 :‘D but got kicked in my butt spiritually by a few peopld to finally finish this so here‘s an actual proper fullbody reference for Rani c:

I‘ll be adding a few more thought here later since I unfortunately gotta take care of some things for a few more hours BUT will be yapping later 😌

Alright I have come to yap 👁️👄👁️

I guess I‘m formally officially introducing her with this? Despite her having been around since ~late 2021 and something publically though very limited since 2022 🙈 this is probably about to get a little long so if you‘re not really interested in extensive ✨lore ✨(which is fine of course! I don‘t really expect people to be super invested in my own headcanon lore, after all I mostly make these for my own enjoyment since I love worldbuilding and intricated lore) , you can skip this!

so very important first thing, she‘s from this specific non-canon timeline possibility that’s very unlikely but not impossible for what would happen if Kiran and Grima would decide to have children! I‘ve created this specific timeline that I don‘t consider „canon“ because it‘s what makes most sense to make the entirety of Engage‘s lore work with my own lore & headcanons while also tying in the fallen Morgans but I‘ll get more into that later 🙈

So! This is Ranea, nickname ‚Rani‘ , the oldest daughter of Kiran & Grima in this specific setting with her younger siblings being the Morgan twins and Sombron (yes his nickname is that on purpose because I’m evil - ) and most of the events of this specific timeline center around them and the problems, discrimination and prejudice that come with having the Fell dragon as their father, you know someone who‘s pretty much universally feared and hated and responsible for many deaths, something many people won‘t just easily overlook even after many years of him staying somewhat peacefully in Askr at Kiran‘s side and having played a large part in finally settling the war.

Ranea is an outwardly gentle and patient soul, aiming for peace but don‘t underestimate her, out of her siblings she‘s the most bloodthirsty and violent one if her patience runs out and she won‘t hesitate to kill if needed and while I haven‘t finished the design for her dragon form yet, it‘s the polar opposite to what her human form looks like and she will rip you apart without hesitation if she has to (which makes Grima very proud lol, after all she has been evil baby 😂)

She‘s ~16 years old with the Morgans both being 14 and Sombron being ~8 years old in this.

All of them looking different is also very important to the plot and comes from Grima‘s genetics being super fucked up with his origins as being an Alchemically created homunculus and not an actual regular manakete (always remember Grima was created from Human blood and uhhh cum and also Divine dragon blood!) , so Rani looks more like a stereotypical Manakete while Sombron looks like a stereotypical evil dragon ,His appearance being quite unsettling to alot of humans. Meanwhile the Morgans mostly pass as humans except for their red draconic eyes but they‘re met with alot less struggles than Ranea & Sombron are.

Given the prejudice she faces (and her siblings, especially Sombron once he’s born simply for the way he looks) Ranea has dedicated her life to advocate for fell dragons, now that there’s more than one of them and most likely even more of them in the future, to be accepted as their own dragon tribe/species without the discrimination and fear coming with Grima‘s origins and well, past deeds and wants to function as a bridge between divine dragons and mankind, working towards a more peaceful future and coexistance, all while using her cute and mostly normal looks to her advantage for that. She wants to fill out a similar role for Fell dragons as Tiki does for the divine dragons (since Grima & Naga will never see eye-to-eye, but their children? Maybe) and she ends up approaching Tiki with her concern and becomes her student, working towards a hopefully better future together. Small tidbit! The little transparent shawl she wears was actually a gift from Tiki !c:

Despite her best efforts though, you guys know how some people and especially some humans are when it comes to prejudice and fear of the unknown, they don‘t change their minds and unfortunately especially Sombron has to suffer under that, often getting called a monster or spawn of the devil by people and getting avoided simply because they find him unsettling and assume he‘s up to no good and that he‘ll become a threat in the future just like his father … just because of the way he looks despite little Sombron being a sweet little child who does his best the find friends and he simply doesn‘t understand why people avoid him so much. Things escalate over time when people start letting out their frustration over Grima‘s past deeds on Sombron, since Grima himself is pretty much untouchable but Sombron? Just a little guy desperate for friends with the only people who truly love him being his siblings and parents and one day, he finds himself in a situation where some awful humans use his naivety to lure him into a trap with the goal to kill him, simply out of the fear of what he could become with who his father is and the way he looks, wanting to eradicate a potential future threat for the „good of the world“.

Obviously this doesn‘t fly with his Siblings and Parents at all, them already being more than fed up with all the terrible treatment Sombron had to endure from shallow people and so Ranea and Grima end up killing Sombron‘s tormentors since their patience has run out and this in return sets the events that lead to Engage in motion. As justified as it may seem to any sane person, many don‘t take this in a positive way and instead see it as confirmation for their bias, Fell dragons slaughtering helpless humans in cold blood and how all of them are the same. murderers. Monsters. Turning the tide on public opinion towards Fell dragons as a whole and through another chain of events, leading to the entire family getting slaughtered for their crimes (yes, including Kiran despite being human since there‘s no way she‘d forsake her husband and children and she‘s unfortunately also the only reliable way to kill Grima aside from him killing himself) , with only Sombron getting spared since he‘s still a young and innocent child who hasn‘t killed anyone, so as a „mercy“ he gets exiled to Elyos with nothing but an Emblem ring that contains the ghost of his mother, setting the Events of Engage in motion.

I’ve mentioned this in discord before and if you are familiar with the lore of Engage and also what I mentioned underneath the little doodle that involved baby Sombron last month, you know what happens next. This is not a „happy family“ kind of timeline and what I personally consider the worst timeline given its tragedy and how everyone dies in it.

Tragedy aside, I also have a few notes on her design since unlike the Morgans and Sombron, she‘s entirely an OC design I made so there‘s some design influences and references that I want to speak about along with the flatcolor version of her reference!

So! For her design my main goal when I designed her back in the day before Engage was even announced and the Fallen Morgans were mostly just past of shitposts, what a potential entirely original child between Kiran & Grima would look like. My biggest goal was coming up with a design that easily shows her parentage visually but without her being a direct clone of either of her parents or looking like a weird mish-mash of their features, but instead would work as its own character too, the choice to make her more Manakete-looking was made the same day when I thought about the kind of story and role I want to give her and the kind of problems she‘d have to face as Grima‘s child, all of the lore I made for her even back then thankfully working perfectly with the things Engage established so she‘s remained pretty much unchanged since day 1!

For her clothing, I‘ve included visual references to both of her parents, with Grima‘s wings and the gold accents being adjacent to the plegian aesthetic and then complementing this with a similar-ish blue than Kiran‘s summoning garb that also complement‘s Ranea‘s lightblue hair and then going for a more practical outfit design overall! I was initially considering giving her red eyes but then decided to instead go with something that suits her palette better and is also a direct reference to her parents, a blue-purple gradient, which aren‘t just Kiran & Grima‘s symbol colors but also when you mix blue and red (their eyecolors) you literally get purple 😉

Her hairstyle and my choice to not depict her with shoes here are direct references to Smol!AU Kiran, I wanted to go with something similarish in a symbolic way that Rani gets to have the happy childhood Kiran never had and her breaking the cycle. Trust me she wears shoes!! 😭… sometimes.

And lastly, her name! Ki-RAN -> RAN-ea as another little connection and wordplay along with symbolism since Ranea means „rebirth, growth and adaptability“, which is in line with what her existance represents and the role she chooses as mediator towards a better future :)