And rightly so.  She’s a character that has a lot of layers.  Not too likable in the first chapters of the first book, she grows into a force to be reckoned with by the third book.  In the next few books in the series, you’ll see her become one of the strongest players in all of Tellest.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.  For now, check out the awesome work that Joman did:

As is typical, he also provided us with the awesome background version of the design as well:

Stay tuned for more artwork in the weeks to come.  In the beginning of November, we’ll be back with some more Joman material!

The post Art: Alicia Completed Piece appeared first on Tellest.

As usual, we started with some poses.

These were all very dancy, but it’s in line with what we’ve come to expect from Joman and his work. We chose pose 2, because we felt it best demonstrated both of her magics at the same time.

Sometimes, there’s some confusion between the artist and the commissioner, so Joman thought we chose pose 3. I liked it so much that we stuck with it.

She’s a lot more expressive in this version. This also further enforces how great Joman is with outfits.

Next week you’ll see just how impressive it looks with Alicia’s magic included.  We only chose to use fire for this interpretation, but I think that makes it pop that much more.

The post Art: Alicia Concepts appeared first on Tellest.

Family and Early Life

Alicia Mane was born on Nehr 8^th, 959.  Her father was a heroic adventurer named Eltan Mane, who was best known for his role in the fall of Roark, the tyrannical undead king of Blacklehn.  Later, Eltan was given permission to begin construction on the city of Atalatha, which evolved to be even bigger than Viscosa, Raleigh’s capitol city.  He took on the title of Duke, governing over the city.

Miss Mane was unfortunately unable to know her mother, Kyra, very well.  During her fifth birthday celebration, Alicia’s mother passed away to illness.  It was during that tragedy that she first met the Kreegans.  The Eltans and the Kreegans developed a brief friendship, despite the difference of their class.

Manifestation of Powers

Nearly ten years after the tragedy of her mother’s death, Alicia heard rumors of Michael Kreegan returning to the city.  She attempted to reconcile with him, during an event at the fledgling coliseum, but was unable to find him.  Instead, she intended on meeting him at the inn where she knew he was staying.

When she arrived at the Centurion, Michael had already left for his home.  Instead, she was approached by a band of thugs, who were searching for the winner of the coliseum event.  Finding her instead, they attempted to sexually assault her, and kidnap her for ransom, before they learned of her high stature.  She didn’t let them ruminate on her position for long, however.

Desperately trying to escape, a fire shot forth from her hand.  The Centurion burned to the ground, along with the thugs that attacked her, and the owner of the inn.  She never spoke of her involvement to anyone.

Atalatha’s Youngest Diplomat

Following the tragedy at the Centurion, Alicia spent a long while trying to forget about the cruel images that plagued her memories.  Much time was spent grooming her to be an aid for her father.  She became a diplomat, traveling to other Raleighn towns when he could not.

She also spent some time within the capitol of Viscosa.  There, she pursued a brief education, specifically trying to figure out more about what had caused the fire to leap from her hands all those years before.

The post Alicia Mane appeared first on Tellest.

Alicia was important to get right, because there are so many different interpretations you can make of her.  She’s got so many different layers to her that in can be hard to distinguish what and who she really is.  She’s strong but she can give into her emotions quite easily.  She’s fierce but she’s vulnerable.  She can be arrogant, and sometimes incredibly humble.  I think that what we have to show you today captures a bit of the stronger side of her, but I’ll let you decide.

We started with the possible poses:

For the sake of this project, we chose to work with the version that had Alicia demonstrating her fire magic.  For a lot of the other characters, this would be difficult to do since their weapons are typically bigger than a small flame like this.

After that, we moved into the next phase of the creation.

I personally think that this looks like it could be the cover of a manga.  It is just so gorgeous, and she did an excellent job capturing her.  As is par for the course with RedPear, she also provided us a color tinted version of the final piece:

Here, you can see even more flames in the background, and that reflects a little on her hair.  She’s not actually a redhead, but the tint of the piece makes it look like that.  And this interpretation also highlights one more important component of the work: the ruby heart that Alicia wears.

We’ll be back with more work from RedPear in the next couple of weeks!

The post Art: Alicia appeared first on Tellest.

How it was Acquired

During Michael Kreegan’s first visit to the city of Atalatha, the festivities for Alicia Mane’s birthday party were in place.  A contest had been set in motion in one of the fairgrounds, wherein brave men could attempt to make their way through an obstacle course without being knocked down.

Despite the dangers, Michael snuck into the obstacle course, and managed to win, against all odds.  The man who had organized the obstacle course was offering up a ruby encrusted, silver pendant that was shaped like a heart.  When he attempted to keep the pendant from Michael, his family and a stranger, Stephen Caista, fought for his right to it.

Later that night, upon meeting with Alicia Mane, he gave her the item, which had been dubbed the Heart of Ariyas.

Attributes

The Heart of Ariyas bestows mystical powers upon its wielder.  Both clerical and fire magic seems to be readily available to whoever wears it.

Early Events

Over a decade after Alicia was given the Heart of Ariyas as a gift from Michael Kreegan, she attempted to visit him at an inn, The Centurion, following another contest he had taken part in.  When he did not arrive, she planned on leaving.  Brigands assaulted the inn, however, and she was forced to defend herself.

With the powers of the necklace, she was able to thwart her aggressors.  Unfortunately, the fire magic that she cast resulted in the complete destruction of the inn, along with the inhabitants inside, including its owner, Peyton Garus.

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