Moodboard

Moodboard by onemessyperson

About

Often mistaken as a cold commander, Zi Wai is a fierce warrior that protects and respects her own troops. She tries to work with the best intentions, even if she has trouble expressing her emotions. Sometimes she'll work as a lone wolf in the front of the battle-lines, a fierce force to be recon with in both long-range and hand-to-hand combat.

History

Zi Wai was born on the height of the blood moon to a poor farming family in the outskirts of Guangzhou. Her parents had planned a name for her before she was born, and their house adorned with fruits and vegetables from neighbouring families in anticipation for their new baby girl. But when her grandma brought Zi Wai into the world after a particularly painful childbirth, they were horrified at her animal characteristics. White hair, blue iris surrounded by a black sclera, she was already unnatural in the black-hair, brown eyed village community. But what was even more unsettling was her ears; those fox ears that she had in place where her human ears should've been. 

Despite this, her family did the best to raise her like a human daughter, teaching her how to walk, and speak in cantonese. But at her 6th birthday, a great drought befallen her village, and in desperation the other villagers blamed Zi Wai for bringing a curse into the village with her unnatural birth. They pushed the Lau family to sacrifice their only daughter to the gods as redemption for bringing this abomination to the mortal realm. Her family knew she was unnatural, but they loved her as their own, and never treated her like the monster the villagers believed she was. So when an angry mob of farmers rushed to their little cottage to demand the Lau family to had over their monster daughter, her parents lured the villagers into the house before setting their own house on fire. Holding the burning villagers back, they brought time for the tearful Zi Wai to escape into the wilderness.

At first, it was a struggle to survive. She was truly alone, a 6-year old kid in the middle of the great wilderness, with no one to depend on. She had only her keen eye-sight and hearing to guide her when night fell, and when she slept she dreamed of burning corpses and the screams of her parents charred by the blaze. She had only her old loincloth and some linen clothing her mother shoved to her in a hurry. Along with her was a small bag with potatoes and carrots that her mother had rationed for her before she was pushed towards the back door, never to see her parents again. She had just finished the last of her ration, and she desperately needed food. 

In the cover of darkness, she awoke above the forest floor from the sound of her stomach protesting for nourishment. As she combed the forest as silently as she could, she spotted a young rabbit foraging in the shadows of a young tree. A moment of hunger took over her as she rushed towards the rabbit. Alerted by the sounds of thumping, the rabbit desperately zigzagged away from her reach. Try as she might, she knew she was fighting a losing battle, the rabbit getting further and further away from her outstretched palm. She felt frustration pouring in like the summer waves, her vision starting to blur with tears welling in her eyes. She felt useless, pathetic; she thought of her parents, the sacrifice they made for her. She couldn't do anything, she wanted to avenge them, against the injustice of the villagers.

Zi Wai felt her body tingle and change. She felt a small fire in her body as arms begin to morph. She couldn't see what was happening, but she felt stronger, faster. She heard ripping as her feet gripped the forest floor with increased friction, the smell of rabbit lingering a path in the air. She never knew that rabbits had a smell before then; her family could only afford small pieces of rabbit meat during the Winter Festival (Winter solstice); a time she cherished with delight. This time the rabbit wasn't getting away. This time, she could see the rabbit coming closer and closer, and the rabbit knew as well. Their fear enveloped around them, she could taste it in the air. She did one final leap towards the animal, and soon it was in her hands and into her mouth as she tore their spine away from its body. As the moon shone brighter over the canopy and branches blow sideways by the wind, she could see the bloody body of the rabbit under her hands.

No, they weren't hands. They're paws. Paws with razor sharp claws protruding from the neck of the rabbit as she crouched. Under the clear moon light they were glimmering; their sharp reflection held her gaze as she stared at them in fascination. In the corner of her eye she could see another set of bright light, and looked down at her foot. Well, paws with claws. Her hunger momentarily forgotten, she stood up and tested their strength. She felt the soil break against the pressure of her feet. She quickly took off her half-torn shoes with holes ripped in the front, and placed her bare paws on the earth. She could feel the vibrations in the ground as easily as she could hear the noises in the forest. The woods never felt so alive. She could hear the rivers flowing in the distance towards the east, a family of boars resting my the hillside to the north near the river, and the flutter of birds up in the tree-tops above her. She could always hear better than the other village kids, given her unnatural characteristics. But right then she felt as if her hearing was still heightened, more refined than before. When she focused her eyes she could see the detailed of the leaves as if it was daylight, how it swayed with droplets of last night's rainfall. She closed her eyes and smelled the metallic rust of the rabbit's blood on her paws, and it's family safely huddled in their burrow far behind her. She drank up all the sensations like water in a desert, only to be broken by the rumble of her stomach. Opening her eyes again, she was surprised to find no remorse for the dead animal as she ate it raw. The blood in her mouth was relishing, the her body humming in happiness for the nourishment it brought. For a moment she sat there, satisfied to finally have some food in her stomach.

That was, until she started coughing up the fur on the rabbit that was stuck on her throat. Her paws to her chest, she only had a moment to recognise a tinge of pain as her claws broke through her skin. Desperate for water, she quickly ran as fast as she could to the river she heard with her refined hearing. Closing in on the clearing, she dropped down to her knees and brought her mouth directly into the water as she drunk and drunk and drunk. With a few more coughs, her throat was finally clear, and a sigh of relief escaped. Leaning in the grab one more gulp of water for good measure, she suddenly paused. Staring back at her was a fierce pair of eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness, morphing between blues and purples. Elongated incisors protruded from their mouth. Small platters of blood where on their face and hair, as if they had just murdered and drunk a human in cold blood. Yet in that reflection she could see parts of herself, her white hair and long, fluffy ears, her signature eyes surrounded by black sclera. The same childish profile that she had was she was playing with her mum in the canal near their farm, but now there was something even more animalistic mixed in-between. Even more so than what she had before.

Awaiting Artwork

Crayfish (FR) Full basic x2 (est. ?) - 14th April [Paid-pending]

Anba (FR) Fullbody shaded (est. ?) - 11th April [Paid-pending]

Painite (FR) Animated sketch (est. ?) - 10th April [Unpaid]

Kommy (FR) On Waitlist for Fullbody w/ base colours [Unpaid]

Burnmoon (FR) Fullbody shaded+coloured+lined (est. ?) - 7th April [Paid]

Shirenu (FR) 2 outfits (est. ?) - 6th April [Paid-pending]

hoskokas (FR) Ref with outfit (est. ?) - 6 April [Paid]

Malreau (FR) Coloured bust (est. ?) - 6th April [Paid]

Blueberrypodoboo (FR) Bust coloured (est. ?) - 4th April [Paid]

Bunnyhero (FR) Fullbody digital render Gijinka (est. 2 weeks+) - 4th April [Paid]

Rib (FR) Animated Coloured headshot (est. 5 months or less) - 4th April [Paid]

ONITAIFREDOZA #7241 (DV) Fullbody coloured (est. ?) - 27th March [Paid]