Legend of Zelda Four Swords | Seven Shrine Maidens
The Legend of Zelda series has and always will be a cement part of my childhood... and my life!
For the game LoZ Four Swords, Link wields the Four Sword. A sword that splits him into four, a sword that was used against The Wind Sorcerer Vaati. The great sorcerer was defeated many years ago, sealed within the sword as the final blow. It was thanks to the heroes within Hyrule, and with the help of Princess Zelda and the Seven Shrine Maidens. However Link is tricked into unleashing Vaati, and all the ones who helped sealed him away before... are captured.
Through out the game you must save the Shrine Maidens & Princess Zelda as the four-who-are-one.
Now, those characters surprisingly have little detail besides that. They're maidens that stand as guardians of different areas in Hyrule.... but none of them have names! They have a beautiful human form and can shape shift into fairies. But despite all the dialogue none of them are introduced.... Each one you rescue brings you to the next place in the map to save the next one. Yet all of them.. just notta.
It made me wonder who these girls were. Their colored selves became inspiring, and so were their titles. The Blue Maiden, the Yellow, the Green, etc. They made up parts of the main color wheel and it had my head turning to try and recreate them!
And so... I did.
It started with, the Red Maiden. She was my absolute favorite out of all of them! She had the cute pigtails that I had to capture. Although you don't unlock her until later in the game, she was my first within the series. She guarded over the desert - which gave me a flame concept. Yet, I didn't want her title to be "Shrine Guardian of the Desert" I wanted something that captured what she stood for. Thus, instead of a place, I did something she believed in. Something that she stood by and represented.. her.
Akra | The Shrine Maiden of Devotion
I came about her name after a series of flame and fire related ones. The closest one I came to was In was "Akira" which was thai for 'the sun' or 'sunlight'. Instead of using the full name, I took out the "i". Thus came about "Akra" which was short and sweet. It gave me more of a fun playful name to work with. She's a friend with the determination to stick with what's right. Her high moral code with everyone makes her devoted to help how she can. Thus, came "devotion". It was something that caught on to me.
From there, I kinda had to try more. Naming these girls and giving them character through my own mind, it became a worthy challenge. I loved coloring against the tan sheets too- gave a lot of life to them.
Next came my second favorite, the Blue Maiden.
She's the first maiden you encounter/rescue. Her short hair always flowed really beautifully in her animation. (They have floating ones in the main menu) The way her hair cuffs around her was inspiring. Now in the game, you come across a village named after her so most assume she's represented there.
When I thought about the character though, I took in account what kind of leader she was. What kind of person she'd be, sorta.
Mormary | The Shrine Maiden of Strength
For this character, the element of water came to mind. I came about a lot of ways to represent water. I tried to look through elemental words for her name. None of them quite suited her, and I began thinking of other ways to express her. Then I thought of her "originial" name Blue Maiden so I looked up different languages for blue. I came upon "Mora" which was Spanish for "blueberry" Then it got me into thinking of different flowers! I looked up different flowers of all kinds... then I thought.. wasn't there a herbal flower that was blue too? I looked over a list of herbal plants and flowers, and aha! Just like I thought, there was "rosemary". It was a plant that was rich in health benefits. Commonly used in cooking and herbal tea. Thus, I combined the two into "Mormary"
Yet what would be her "of __" right? So I thought about my original question, "What kind of leader would she be?" I began to think of her as a loving funny friend. She's the type of person that's always smiling. The person that shines the greatest with great strength.
Next came the Purple Maiden
Now I always have a soft spot for the color purple, it's my mother's favorite color. But her hair! I never noticed it before playing the game, but it cuffs at the sides. I admired that touch in the pixel artwork so... why not try to implement it? The Purple Maiden is the last maiden you help rescue and it isn't revealed where she's from until the ending scene where you see her fairy form fly to the Frozen Hyrule. A guardian of ice with her elegant purple hair....
Neperia | The Shrine Maiden of Patience
This is my latest and current one of the series- and I'm really proud of it. The Purple Maiden has to be my first with makeup, and I don't often draw that. When it came to her, I not only wanted a feminie side but also... a stronger side. I wanted her jaw not to be sharp but kinda muscular and square. Thus came about her form to begin with. Her hair, I imagine, has longer bangs that cuff and pin at the back. It's shown in the sprite that she has more hair behind her back. I worked in both best I could. When coloring her, I used bits of pinks. The idea of makeup wasn't what I had initially, but I wanted to hint at her ice like home somehow. I wanted bits of blue somewhat. But I knew her jewels couldn't be blue, so eye shadow was my second choice.
NOW HER NAME, my lord, was I too indecisive about that. It came about of asking everyone. I asked other Discord servers, and other friends, and maybe a few family members. It became a weird turn when I learned about Frozen Hyrule so my friend Nova and I came up with ice related names. One of them was "Eira" Welish for snow. I thought about how that may have been too close to Akra. Then our other friend had teased about planet names instead. (You know the one) But randomly the planet "Neptune" came outta nowhere. The planet, actually, was deemed the coldest out of our universe (after Pluto) My head started to worry though, if the name has something to do with Earth aka our world... then it wasn't fantasy.
Thus, I combined the two as "Neperia"
And, crazy enough, all of these are...
On my TikTok!
That's right! All of these are recorded! From Start to Finish
I don't often do series of characters or art series in general. This will be actually my first. When someone usually does one, it's a group of characters alike. Like if you were to draw Bubbles, you'd have to do Buttercup and Blossom. You'd think for my first series I'd do something like that. A smaller group for a smaller series.... but nah!
I wanted to bring these characters to life! And, I will. Only four more to go~
You can follow all of these and more under my Twitter and TikTok, under "PickFairy"
But, hey! I wanted to share something with you before you go!
There's a Legend of Zelda Event THIS weekend!!
The tickets are by donation of you paying what you want it to be, aka $1 and above! Then you'll have access to exclusive events and streams beccaauuusseee... it's online!
I look forward to it for sure. It'll be my first Zelda Convention.
With that, I end this blog. Thanks for reading~