Pirtanauhas are ribbons, straps, sashes and belts made with a traditional handicraft technique that was used widely in Europe still a hundred years ago. Nowadays there aren't many practical uses for them, but I'd like to do my part in preserving the traditional working method by making decorational hand bracelets with it. If you'd like to order one custom made just for you, feel free to read ahead on how the process goes! There are a few steps, each with their own things to consider and decide, but I'll do my best to guide you through them all.

Step 1: Colors

These are all the colors I currently have in use:

You can technically pick as many of them as you like, but I personally would recommend using 1-6 colors per bracelet. With the tools I have I can't make extremely wide bracelets, so if you try to mash all 14 colors into one strap, the result will look quite confusing. You can use your favorite colors, colors that go well with your favorite shirt, colors that give you energy or relaxation, pride flag colors - whatever you want!

Step 2. Pattern

This part might seem complicated at first, but in reality it's as simple as any sort of pattern making goes! Basically the type of pirtanauhas I make consist of two individual horizontal rows that repeat continuously one after another. There can't be more rows than that, but the width of the rows can be altered depending on the chosen pattern (though one row can't be much longer than another, and the width must stay the same throughout the whole bracelet). The yarn is always aligned vertically in the rows; shapes like squares can be achieved by adding the same color threads right by each other, but for example circles and slanted shapes are pretty much out of the question. If it helps, you can think the pattern as low poly pixel art or even weirdly elongated Minecraft blocks!

Here are some basic pattern elements:

The topmost picture is a photo of the actual strap and under it is the pattern for it. (Or, to be precise, an approximate pattern. Like you can see from number 4, the lines aren't 100 % straight or exactly on top of each other. These are because of the technique and I absolutely can tell in greater detail how this stuff works if someone wants me to, but for an average customer that shouldn't be necessary.) You can order a bracelet that looks like one of these, but if you want something truly unique, it's time to mix and match!

Here are a few examples of how the basic patterns can be mixed. Once again you can order a bracelet like one of these, or you can get truly creative and draw your own pattern! To draw the pattern you can use anything from Photoshop to MS Paint, from colored pencils to ballpoint pen; anything as long as you make the pattern as clear as possible. Here are a couple of examples from the same pattern:

And if all of this is just making your head spin and you'd just want to get a bracelet with pretty colors without digging any further into things, it is also possible for you to just tell me what colors you want and let me decide the pattern. Just please understand that in that situation all of the creative freedom regarding the pattern is in my hands and complaining about it afterwards would be pretty nasty.

Step 3. Size

There are three different measurements you need to decide before I can start making the bracelet: the width and length of the bracelet and the length of the end tuft.

The exact width will wary between 0,5 cm and 2,5 cm depending on a myriad of factors, including the amount of threads, the pattern, the chosen colors (yarn varies a tiny bit from ball to ball) and the amount of force used when making the bracelet. If you don't care about the width I'll default to average, which is somewhere around 1,5 cm, but if you want you can ask me to make it either thin or wide, too. Just remember that the thinner the bracelet is, the less room there is for pattern, so a really elaborate pattern with a lot of colors can't necessarily be fitted into a really thin bracelet!

The length of the bracelet on the other hand is dictated by the size of your hand. The easiest way for you to decide how long the bracelet should be is to take a piece of yarn, tie it into a circle and try to put your hand through the circle. Move the knot around until you can get the makeshift bracelet on but it doesn't fall out on its own. Then just measure how long the yarn circle is and you'll know how long the bracelet I will make should be, too! If you have stiff hands (or if you are giving the bracelet as a gift to someone and aren't sure of their exact measurements) you can also ask me to leave the knot on the bracelet a little bit loose, so you can loosen it when you put it on and tighten it when the bracelet is around your wrist. The bracelet absolutely shouldn't start to unravel because of something like this, as I'll sew the most important threads into the bracelet itself in order to keep it firmly together.

And the last thing is the length of the end tuft. This one depends mostly on your taste, but if you want to be able to do the loosening/tightening thing described previously, the tuft should be reasonably long. And oh, if you aren't used to the metric system, there are a lot of converters around the internet to help you out with the measurements!

Step 4: Ordering

When you have all the required information (colors, pattern, size) gathered, you can contact me and order the bracelet! You'll find me from various social media sites (there are links on my profile) and can send me a message through them or throw it straight to my e-mail (hitodama89 at gmail dot com).

The price of one bracelet and its shipping is currently 12 €. The price is paid through Ko-fi or Finnish bank transfer.

Commissions

My commissions are open most of the time, so feel free to send inquiries about them either through Toyhou.se's PM system, other social media sites (links to my accounts are on my profile) or e-mail (hitodama89 at gmail dot com). I draw mainly cartoony real-life animals (especially canines, small felines and rodents) and fantasy animals (dragons, Pokémon, feral closed species) but can also draw humans, humanoids and anthros if necessary. On the other hand I'm not your artist if you are looking for realism, extremely detailed pieces or art that's focusing on technology or architecture.

• You send me a message telling me what sort of commission you are interested in. What character you'd like me to draw, what sort of piece you are interested in, what price range you have in mind; things like that. Please be aware of that I require at least one reference image of the creature you want me to draw! Usually that's some sort of art piece (can be a sketch or a stick figure drawn with MS Paint as long as all the necessary info is there), a screenshot (if it's an "official" character from some series) or a photo (if it's about your real-life pet).
• I either confirm or deny the request and possibly ask for additional info. I only deny it if I have some reason why I can't complete it (you are asking for a realistic oil painting, my computer is busted, you don't have a reference image) or if the request makes me truly uncomfortable (hateful art, some weirder NSFW topics; "average" gore and sexy times are fine [if you are over 18!], although I don't have much experience in either).
• When we have agreed on the details, you either pay the full price of the commission (small and fast art, pieces that need to be completed quickly) or pay only for the sketch phase (more elaborate art, situations where you want to make sure you will be satisfied with the way I draw the character or the scene) . The price will be paid through Ko-fi or if you live in Finland, through bank transfer. (I can also sometimes accept FR gems or dA points, especially for smaller commissions.)
• (If you already paid the full price, you'll skip this step.) I'll sketch the commissioned piece and show it to you. If you are satisfied with it you'll pay the rest of the price and I'll start drawing the rest of the art piece! If you want some minor edits made to it (changing the expression, slightly altering the pose, cropping the image differently, moving objects around) I'll do it for free. Also if I've drawn something in your character wrong either because of a mistake or misinterpretation, I'll fix it for free. Only if you want me to change most of the sketch or draw it again from scratch you'll have to pay for it. Or in case you are completely dissatisfied with my work and want to cancel the process at this point, you are free to do that without paying anything else than what you already paid for the sketch. I only ask that you let me know of the situation instead of just vanishing without a word!
• After I've received the full payment I'll finish the piece, and when it's ready I'll send it to you. If you are satisfied with it, the process is finished! If you notice some clear mistakes or want some other tiny alterations made for the piece (make the character smile instead of being serious, change the color of the eyes, add a small scar) I will do it for free. A small payment will be required for bigger alterations or if you for example want me to "upgrade" the piece from black-and-white line art to fully colored piece.
• Unless otherwise specified, you are free to upload the commissioned art to your online galleries with proper credit, you can crop an avatar from it for yourself or even make a print or a mug from it for personal use. Just DO NOT claim you made the art, try to sell it forward, use it commercially or turn it into an NFT! (If the art depicts a character that you sell/trade to someone else, it's okay to let them have the commissioned art, too; I'm only asking that you won't sell my commission on its own like it was an adoptable.) As the artist I also retain the right to showcase the commissions in my own galleries. If you as a commissioner want to stay anonymous and not have your (user)name mentioned online, please tell me about it as early in the process as possible!

Example focused on the amount of refine.	Examples focused on the amount of character details.		Examples focused on different styles.
15 min = 3 €
Details: average Crop: fullbody Refine: sketch Style: scenery	Details: very simple Crop: headshot Refine: shaded Style: portrait		Details: simple Crop: chibi headshot Refine: colored Style: sticker	Details: average Crop: headshot Refine: colored Style: simplistic digital watercolor
30 min = 6 €
Details: average Crop: fullbody Refine: line art Style: scenery	Details: very simple Crop: headshot Refine: polished Style: portrait	Details: simple Crop: headshot Refine: shaded Style: portrait	Details: average Crop: chibi fullbody Refine: colored (lightly shaded) Style: digital watercolor
45 min = 9 €
Details: average Crop: fullbody Refine: colored Style: scenery	Details: simple Crop: headshot Refine: polished Style: portrait	Details: detailed Crop: headshot Refine: shaded Style: portrait	Details: average Crop: headshot Refine: line art Style: bold line art
60 min = 12 €
Details: average Crop: fullbody Refine: shaded Style: scenery	Details: detailed Crop: headshot Refine: polished Style: portrait	Details: very detailed Crop: headshot Refine: shaded Style: portrait	Details: detailed Crop: fullbody Refine: colored Style: bookmark
Other times/prices
Details: average Crop: fullbody Refine: fully rendered Style: scenery 135 min = 27 €	Details: very detailed Crop: headshot Refine: polished Style: portrait 75 min = 15 €		SPECIAL Pirtanauha hand bracelets 12 € More info here

This is something I should've likely written about three years ago, but better late than never, I guess! ='D It's about the request and art trade statuses mentioned on my profile page (RPs already got their post at some point and for commissions I really should also write one later). So, without further ado:

Art requests

I'm almost always open for requests! However even if I'm eager to hear what you would want me to draw, me actually drawing it is never quaranteed. It depends on my motivation, the subject offered, the politeness of the person making the request, the phase of the moon... The same goes for the style used in the possible art piece. I may draw you a sketch, a doodly but colored art piece or in rare cases even a full illustration. Because I'm not a well-known artist I never get that many requests, so your chances of getting at least something from me are pretty high. All I ask is that you remember these things while sending a request:

• Please provide a clear reference image of the thing you want me to draw! Not just a written description, not just a character's name and especially not just the words "just google it". This goes for both OCs and "official" characters! The reference image doesn't have to be beautiful, but it should portray what you want me to draw as clearly as possible.
• If I draw your request, please leave at least some sort of comment on it - even a "thank you" is enough! Otherwise I'm left wondering if you ever received it or downright hated it, and that's just not fun.

Art trades

Everything I wrote about requests also applies to trades. Other than that I pretty much categorize trades into two different category:

• Casual trades between friends/mutuals. These are very flexible and don't necessarily require any sort of rules to work out. We can just go with the flow!
• Trades with people I don't know in advance. For these I'd prefer to have some rules in order to not get into the situation where one party (so far it has usually been me) draws their part and never hears from the trade partner ever again. Because being in that situation over and over again is pretty discouraging, I'd like to see your part of the art trade before I publish mine. I can certainly draw my part in advance and even show you a teeny tiny preview image of it if you want to be sure the art truly exists, but the full piece you'll get after I've gotten mine. Other than that usually I'd like us to talk about these things beforehand:
  • What will be the style of the art pieces? I think it's fair to trade a sketch for a sketch and a headshot for a headshot and so on. I generally prefer more simple trades instead of hugely labor-intensive ones (for example headshots over full body illustrations with scenic background) so if you really, really want me to accept your trade offer, it's usually better to suggest something pretty fast 'n' easy.
  • What should the deadline of the trade be? I'm fine with anything between a couple of weeks and a few months. It's also completely fine to ask for an extension! What I don't like is complete radio silence even if the deadline has come and gone, but then again I bet no one does.
    

Hey, long time no see ramble! That's mainly just because I feel like I've already talked about most of the subjects there are haha, but as June in very much considered Pride month nowadays, I got an urge to write something about that subject regarding my characters. So it's time to list what colors of the rainbow flag my characters represent!

Just a couple of quick notes first, though. A lot of my characters are old and when I created them I didn't likely consider aspects like this all that much, so if there are a lot of cishets (who will be left out of this list) that's basically the reason for it. I am also not super duper knowledgeable about everything, so I am really sorry if I word something poorly - my intention is not to offend anyone! (Though feel free to correct me anyway if something I say irks you.) I also use bi and pan pretty much interchangeably in this mainly for the sake of simplicity, as my goal isn't to delve too deep to each and every character.

• Aamunkajo - lesbian
• Aelian - lesbian
• Anapha - bi or gay
• Anise - likely aromantic and either bisexual or asexual; doesn't give a shit about gender
• Arrede - aromantic
• Auer - polyamorous
• Balreketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Caramel - possibly bi
• Curse - agender, romantic orientation complete mystery for now; Esk have no sexual orientation
• Chrii - gay
• Dama - agender aroace
• Diego - *vague handsigns* bisexual heteroromantic maybe?
• Dream - likely agender bi
• Eidiel - demigirl or agender
  
• Faaketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Galarith - demiboy
• Gawaien - questioning
• Hitoko - maybe demigirl
• Ikaros - aromantic bisexual
• Innas - bi
• Jerico - aroace
  
• Jiieketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Leonardo - gay
• Lujoriketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Madara - bi
• Miranda - bi
• Musareketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• N'sereketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Nadeera - possibly aroace (also has polyamorous parents)
• Naemi - aromantic
• Näkki - questioning
• Norah - bisexual heteroromantic
• Othello - aroace
• Pohjantähti - questioning
• Qadaketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
  
• Rain - likely bi
• Sevens - agender aroace
• Rumble - aromantic, possibly bisexual
• Saga - questioning
• Samir - questioning
• Saramu - I never realized this before, but I really get some lesbian vibes from her; maybe ace lesbian?
  
• Sareketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Serafi - bi
• Shumiketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Sinisuomu - asexual
• Elsie - demigirl, questioning about romantic orientation; Esk have no sexual orientation
• Song - agender, likely aromantic; Esk have no sexual orientation
• Susi - aroace
• Weary - agender, romantic orientation not known; Esk have no sexual orientation
• Theala - aromantic bisexual, likely demigirl or agender
• Tombo - what
• Zésira - possibly bi demigirl
• Tuuli - aroace
• Tverdiketsuuli - god with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Valva - demon with no consept of sexuality or gender
• Sumu - asexual heteroromantic
  
• Zedass - questioning
• Zel - asexual

Haha now I just really hope I didn't forget either a character or possible orientation completely..!

Oh phew, I think I got all the old rp stories uploaded now! It took ages, but at the same time it was nice to return to some of those very nostalgic moments. It was also cool to compare the total word counts of each character: Reliam was the winner of that contest, Mirada being the rather close second.

It also reminded me that I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but even these days I am technically open for roleplaying. I think the five year break I've had has finally gotten me out of the serious writing burn out that I managed to dig myself into. =D So, if anyone ever gets interested in writing some rps with me, here are some notes on what I can do!

• I can write in Finnish or in English. As I'm a native Finnish speaker that of course comes out much more fluently than anything else, but I think I can get my point across rather well in English, too.
• I prefer to rp in 3rd person & past tense. Some exceptions can be made, for example writing text messages between characters can be fun, but in normal situations I'd like to stay in that format.
• Right now I'd prefer to write pretty short messages, ranging from a few sentences to couple of paragraphs. I used to be able to write really long messages back in the day, buuuut as that only lead to the burn out I'd rather not go back to that habit too soon.
• I have no preference about writing speed. I can do online sessions if our schedules match as well as slower paced games.
• About platforms, hmmh... I honestly am not sure where I'd like to write these days. I don't use Skype or Discord though, so they are out of question. I could use forums, PMs or idk Google Doc maybe? Anything where the whole game can be saved neatly in one place should be good!
• I'm generally very much fine with writing violence and smut. Though there are some characters with limitations, such as Esk: they are eternal spirits without sex characteristics, so they aren't going to fit into bloody battles nor steamy nights.
• I appreciate good rp manners: keeping characters in-character, not doing auto hits on other player's characters, obeying the rules of the universe and so on. I'm okay with playing with newbies, as long as they are not trying to play rude!

And then about what characters I could rp with:

• Right now I'd be most willing to rp with any characters from Those Who Went Missing, Flight Rising, Hitoverse or Tytoninx folders (+ maybe Samir). The most ideal situation would of course be if I could get other characters from those same universes to play with, but as that might be impossible I can consider also playing random encounters with other sort of characters.
• I'm not sure how that would go, but I could also use characters from Andriaana, Pokemon Unknown and Saga's Pokémon Saga folders. The problem with that is that I've used to rp with most of those characters long time ago, so I have no idea how well I could get back into the mind of these characters after all these years.
• Characters from other folders are more or less off limits. You can ask, sure, but I will likely decline.

(EDIT) Here's the most recent thing I've written in case someone is interested in my writing style. It's not in rp format, but a single rp message edited out from it could be for example something like this:

Getting something concrete to do finally pulled Carran out of her stupor. Quietly she let Marus crawl to his back and started to limp away from the bloody field. Maybe when they had rested a bit she’d come back to collect some sort of trophy from the carcass, a few feathers and possibly some bones, but now she just needed to get the Fae to safety. It was all she really cared for, all she felt like she would ever want.

Suddenly the Guardian stopped to her tracks.

“I have… Found my charge”, she mumbled.

Seems like Toyhou.se has gotten a bunch of new features lately! First of all you can now give sort of warning tags for those of your characters that have some nasty content in their profile, which I think is pretty useful. (Not that I'd be disturbed by nearly anything myself haha, but others might be and that should be respected.) The warnings I put for my cast of characters for now are:

• Sumu's life story contains a lot of mentions of depression and suicidal tendencies, and it ends with him succeeding in taking his own life.
• Mirada's life story contain a lot of violence, illegal dog fights and very troubled family relationships.
• Zésira's life story contains violence, alcohol addiction and pregnancy that ends in miscarriage.
• Diego's life story contains rape, violence, gang life and overall a lot of abusive behavior.
• Ikaros's life story contains particularly brutal violence, torture and rape.

Okey dokey, time to wrap up the name rambling series! This will contain all the rest of the characters I have here on Toyhou.se - which actually reminded me of how I still have a whole bunch of old characters not listed anywhere, heh. We'll just have to see if I'll someday do something about it. But now: more name explanations! The previous parts can be found here and here.

Hitoverse

Aoi Hitodama - My mascot's name isn't really a proper name at all, but more like a... Description of the creature. That likely comes from a fact that I had started to use the name as my internet nickname completely separate from the creation of this critter, so when I decided to mash them together and use the creature as my alter ego of sorts, sharing the same name felt somewhat logical. The only difference is that when I talk about this character I'll start the name with an upper-case letter H, but my own username I always spell with lower-case h. There's a multitude of reasons for that, but they all basically boil down to the fact that I just want to. Once upon a time I was pretty strict about how others spell these names, too, but I've learned to be much more laid-back about it.

Näkki - Näkki is definitely one of those characters that were just like "yep, that's their name alright, no two questions about it". I did try to do some research about other mythological Finnish water creatures, but none of their names felt quite right the same way Näkki does. It also amuses me greatly how when you spell the name with a instead of ä (like in image files meant to be uploaded to internet and such) it turns into nakki, which means wiener. XP

Robbit #77 - Yet another not-really-a-real-name, as the word robbit was made by the creator of the species and seven is just my favorite number. But I still felt like it would fit a robot character nicely, so when I couldn't come up with anything more traditional, I just rolled with it.

Valva - A name literally created by my subconscious, just as the creature itself, as it was something I once had a dream of. Though in the dream the name did actually go back and forth between Valva and Malva, but as malva is a plant and/or color that in reality has nothing to do with the character, I decided to drop that one out. I think Valva has a nice ring to it, as it reminds me of valve, which in Finnish means being awake.

Falatsur Ke Qadare

In this category I have listed some of the guardian deities of Falatsure Ke Qadare universe, and the explanation behind these names is same for all of them: they are supposed to mean something in the main language used in the universe, so I just went with something that I myself found fitting. In some cases the names resemble their English counterparts, but mostly they are something I've completely made up by myself. The names and their meanings are:

Balreketsuuli - Wind guardian

Faaketsuuli - Fire guardian

Jiieketsuuli - Soul guardian

Lujoriketsuuli - Light guardian

Musareketsuuli - Frozen water (=ice) guardian

N'sereketsuuli - Energy guardian

Qadaketsuuli - Earth guardian

Sareketsuuli - Water guardian

Shumiketsuuli - Shadow guardian

Tverdiketsuuli - Matter guardian

Saga's Pokémon Saga

Saga Miraka - I have used this name for the drawn versions of myself as long as I can remember! But nowadays it has been stuck to mean only this Pokémon trainer version of myself. Saga is something derived directly from my real name and Miraka is a misspelling of the name Miranda that amused me greatly when I saw it. (Miranda as a name doesn't have anything specific to do with me, though.) I absolutely love how the name Miraka came to a full circle in Pokémon Unknown rpg: first I gave the name to Reliam, who was supposed to be cousin of Saga, and then it was also given to Reliam's daughter, whose name was none other than Miranda. That's just stupidly perfect!

Hitoko - Yeah, this setting has two trainers based on myself pfffft. ='D Hitoko, derived from hitodama, is the name I used to give to myself in Pokémon games when you could only use six letters in the name. As a character she exists just so I can have all my main Pokémon teams to exist in this universe, too. Unlike my other alter egos, she is also a lot more like what I wish I was instead of who I really am.

Caramel - Caramel is one of those very few characters of mine who has actually gone through a name change. Before she and Saga were Pokémon trainers she was called Karamia, though I don't really remember where that name came from. I switched it out as it didn't make too much sense for the character she was molded to be in SPS universe, but it also bothered me how Karamia was a bit too close to the Finnish word karmea, awful.

Cuuti - Cuuti is one of Saga's Pokémon, a gentle Dewgong. His name is a combination of words cute and kuutti, which in Finnish means seal cub.

Lance - Another Pokémon of Saga, who is both in-game and irl named after the Pokémon League Champion of the same name. I have also always liked the sound of word lance in general.

Andele, Ratarea, Sinierevel - The rest of Saga's team have gotten their names from Pokémon I've had in my games, as in some of them I gave name for literally every Pokémon I caught. These three are all just random letter combinations I came up with when thinking the names of their species.

Random fandom characters

Anise - When I first created Anise she was one of the many characters who I called just Saga. But now that she's been reassembled nearly from a scratch I knew without a doubt she'd also need a new name, as she no longer represented myself in any way. I chose to use Anise as I like the sound of it as well as the herb itself a lot. All Saiyans are supposed to have names derived from vegetables, but I couldn't come up with anything I would've liked enough, so I decided to stretch the rule a little bit.

Tale Tail - If you haven't noticed I love puns in names by now I don't really know what to tell you. ='D And Tale Tail might include the greatest amounts of puns of them all. On its own it amuses me how the name both makes sense as a MLP name but sounds absolutely stupid when said out loud, but it's also a nod towards my real name the same way Saga is.

Sinisuomu - Sinisuomu is from the ancient pet site Neopets, where it was thought to be a good idea that every creature ever created must have a unique name. I don't have any idea how many names I had tried out before finally getting through with Sinisuomu. It's a cute name that means blue scale in Finnish, but it also proved to be quite a troublesome name in the game, as there are ways to change the coloration of your pet. But it would not make any sense to have pet named Sinisuomu if it wasn't blue! That's why he has stayed plain blue through all these years.

Tombo - Tombo came from a really, really long line of Tamagotchis I once bread. I think the character limit for their names were five at the time, and I had already gone through like 20 or so names before him, so it was just something I came up in 0,06 seconds. Just as deep and complicated as the character itself!

Ciza'ar - This one is derived from Cizar, which was something me and my brother once twisted from the word sisar, meaning sister in Finnish. At one point I did use it as a sort of secondary internet name for myself, but that was a rather short period and nowadays the name only exists in the form of this character.

Other random characters

hitodama - Yeah I'm not a character (Or am I??? =0) but I just want to say a couple of words from the internet nickname I've had since... I think 2004 maybe? I'm pretty sure that's the year I created my personal web site and it had hitodama in its name, so the name must be at least that old. The first time I set my foot on the internet I named myself Umbreon, used that only a couple of times and then switched it to Silver Dragon, which also stayed just for a little while as it was such a common name I had hard time really using it anywhere as it was always already taken. Then I read a random Donald Duck comic (because let's face it, 90 % of information Finnish people learn comes from Donald Duck) which had a random assortment of mythical creatures in it, including hitodama. The next time I tried to create an account to somewhere and couldn't get Silver Dragon to work I remembered that comic and though what the heck, let's try that one! Aaaand that's how hitodama just stuck.

Jera - Jera as a character is nearly as old as my nickname. Who knows how different my life would be if I had gotten to use her as an rpg character like I planned - but in this timeline I didn't, so here we are! Unfortunately I don't really recall if I had any meaningful thought put into her name, though. Likely not, as she was created long before Rain, who became my first actual character I used in internet activities a couple years later.

Samir - Ah, last but not least, my long suffering fursona - and yet another version of the same name I've already had to explain about 298776 times. Yes, Samir is also derived from Saga. More precisely it's the first few letters from Saga Miraka mashed together. Remember kids, recycling is good for nature! ='D

I'll continue my name ramble this time with Flight Rising characters! If you missed the first part, it can be found here. I've also talked about general in-game naming conventions of FR a long time ago here, so it would be maybe good idea to read that one before getting into this one. The characters will once again be roughly in order from oldest to newest.

Flight Rising

Carran - Carran was my "custom progen", a dragon whose general color scheme and breed you can choose yourself when you start playing. I didn't yet know how seriously I would end up getting involved with the game, so I didn't put too much effort into naming her. In fact I used a Fantasy name generator and just picked one of the first suggestions it offered! But now in hindsight I think the sound of the name fits for the stern female rather nicely.

Marus - The "random progen", a randomly generated dragon the game also gives for you at the start of your journey. With him I used the same naming method as with Carran, and just like with her, his name ended up fitting him pretty well. He is after all much more approachable and "softer" of the two of them.

Tuuli & Tuiske - Two sisters I got from a friend of mine pretty soon after joining the site. They were both also named by her instead of me. Haha amusingly I've many times thought how the names should've been given exactly the other way around, as Tuuli ended up being the chilly and serious one and Tuiske is the warm and caring one. But that's just how it is in real life, too: a mother can't really know what sort of persons their newborn children end up growing into! =D

Auer - The third dragon I also got along Tuuli and Tuiske from my friend, but this fellow wasn't named yet. As the sister duo had clearly Finnish names but I intended to give dragons of my clan mainly fantasy names, I went for something in between: "auer" is a rarely used Finnish word for certain sort of misty weather, and it has a rather poetical and fancy feel in it. It also did fit in with Tuuli and Tuiske because they were all references to weather - and the clan they originated from was in Wind Flight, which I have always associated with different sorts of weather phenomenas.

Eidiel - Eidiel was one of the dragons I got from newbie raffles/giveaways. She was named with the same name generator as my progens. For some reason this dragon has always been a sort of mystery to me: I don't have all that clear idea of her nature and I don't have really any sort of strong opinion about her looks or name. But still, at this point she's been part of the clan for so long I'm not even considering letting go of her.

Faelten - The second raffle prize dragon, but she's full of sassy personality twice as much as Eidiel. Named with the generator, but I really do like the soft, almost LotR elf -like name she has and I think it fits her perfectly. At this point I also had already two dragons whose name ended with N, but it didn't really bother me - yet.

Okothar - Okothar was the last one of the newbie giveaway dragons I got. I think I did use the name generator also when coming up with a name for her, but I likely modified the suggestion it gave me a bit. That's because the end of the name has a pretty strong Finnish feel in it, as -tar is commonly used as a feminine indicator in certain sort of words (ompelija -> ompelijatar). Okothar doesn't mean anything specific though, but I think it emanates a certain sort of danger.

Lienn - Oh Lienn, the prettiest dragon I had for years! I think the short, soft name fits for her character, but sadly I'm not sure if I actually came up with it myself or if it was subconsciously drawn from my memory, as there's a dragon named Lien in a book series called Temeraire. I didn't naturally remember that at the time of naming her, but like I said it might've affected my choice on subconcious level.

Nightblade - Ahhaha, this dragon's name sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the group! But it actually was given to him by his previous owner, so I'm not the one to blame for that. The info box of him also said that he was an agent of Stormcatcher, which was really amusing to me. He's likely the only dragon who has had any sort of background info attached when I've bought them.

Rumble - The first son of my progens whose name is also a bit peculiar. That's because I accidentally put him up for auction and as a newbie didn't know how to remove the auction, so I just hoped no one would buy him. But of course they did, and I had to swallow my shame and ask if I could buy the dragon back. The new owner agreed, but they had already named the dragon Rumble, so I just let it be like that and thought that in-game the dragon took the name for himself.

Arrede - Arrede was a dragon I didn't even plan on keeping, as she was a not all that noteworthy offspring of Auer & Eidiel. But I'm glad that I did, because she turned eventually into one of my most beloved dragons! And the one whose looks the color wheel expansion is STILL messing up, like, two years or so after the update (her mane color is completely wrong and it just hasn't been fixed for reasons unknown). Buuut then again it does give her a unique look not many other dragons have. For her name... I really don't remember. ='D Probably I just pulled something from the name generator once again, as I had no any sort of sentimentality towards her at that point.

Lachancet - Simple things are simple, and Lachancet is derived from Lancelot. I wanted him to have sort of noble or knight-y vibe, and to achieve that I decided to mess around with an already existing name that fit for my purposes.

Davraseen - Just like Lachancet is a scrambled form of Lancelot, Davraseen is a scrambled form of Darjeth - though this time I at least used a name of my own character as a base, hahah. I also wanted to add a bit of fanciness to the original name, so I made it longer and turned it into something more extravagant. This is also the point when I noticed that I have way too many dragons whose name ends with N, so I started to come up for an in-game reasoning behind that.

Uppo - Uppo comes from a friend who loaned a nest from me to get blue eyes for their hatchlings. As a thank you they let me keep one of the dragons I've hatched, though they did come up for a name for him. And it's a really nice name, considering the water-y aesthetics of my lair!

Theala - Theala comes from yet another friend of mine, but I honestly am not sure which one of us named her. I'd like to say I maybe did it, but yeah, I'm not sure anymore. I like the contradiction between her name and character, as she looks more like a cool biker lady than anything as mellow as the name might suggest! Sometimes things like that can be just distracting, but for this dragon I think it fits.

Innas - Even moar dragons from friends! This one is actually from the same clan as Tuuli, Tuiske and Auer. And now that I'm in doubting mood after Theala, I'm actually not 100 % certain who named him either... Once again I think I did, but it could've been my friend, too. It's also possible that I went with name that deliberately felt like it could've been made up by his previous owner. Who knows anymore! =')

Chrii - Chrii's name is pretty unique in my clan, as it has this sort of animalistic vibe in it; like it was more of a single sound instead of name put together from letters. I didn't have any particular thought process behind it, though. I just felt like mixing the soup with something new like that!

Quillan - Quillan's name I picked because I was amused by how I thought it would be pronounced, particularly how it's nearly impossible to differentiate Quillan, Qwillan and even Qillan from each other (at least with my Finnish brain). I thought Quillan looked best out of the three when written, so I decided to go with that one.

Prina - Prina is so far the last dragon I've gotten from my friends. She was definitely named by me though, as I remember basing the name on word priima which means good quality. I don't know why, but the name Prina also sounds somewhat Russian to me!

Emini - Once again, Emini is a name I twisted from already existing name, a rare Finnish name Emine. I could've certainly used the name as it is, but as I actually know a person with that name and it indeed is a rarely used one, I felt more comfortable modifying it a bit first.

Aelian - This is the first name where I deliberately used the N at the end because of the in-game reason I had previously given for the custom of doing so. I also wanted to make this name sound airy and maybe even somewhat fragile.

Mirach - Mirach is a weird one, both the name and the dragon itself. The dragon was originally just a placeholder of sorts, but I grew attached to him and decided to keep him after all. I had already named him with the name generator, but only when I decided to let him stay it started to bother me how the name sounded really familiar. I was sure I had again unintentionally copied it from somewhere! But to this day I haven't figured out where.

Jade - Jade was an exalt fodder dragon I had received for training and exalting. But she was too cute for that and I ended up keeping her myself! She was already named when I got her, but Jade is one of my favorite names ever anyway, so it was all good. Amusingly none of her colors is jade, even though there is a color named like that in the game.

Galarith - Galarith is a son of Lachancet, and I wanted his name to sound as fancy and noble as his father's. If I remember correctly, I pretty much glued it together from a couple of different names the name generator suggested.

Horan - Horan is again a simple rearrangement of letters, this time from the ancient Egyptian god Horus. I wanted it to have the same sort of simple yet striking and respectable vibe in it as the original name.

Zedass - Zedass on the other hand is a combination of the letter Z that I think has a sort of mysterious feeling around it and the word abyss. Though I did scramble the letters around more than usually, even to the extent to the origin not being quite visible anymore, but I still think the feeling stayed the way I intended.

Naemi - Naemi is very simply derived from the name Naomi, one of Naemi's ancestors. Naomi is a very special dragon who once in a time was involved in some amusing glitches of the site, so I wanted to make it very clear what sort of impressive roots Naemi has in her family tree.

Dream - Dream is a weird name to come from me, but he is one of those characters that just named themselves without asking my opinion. ='D He is also a dreamily beautiful dragon, so I guess it's not a bad name for him to be stuck with.

As long as I've used this site now I've wanted to write something about the names of my characters, as for me name is often one of the most important aspects of a character. I sort of opened the discussion already in here, so I'm not going to write a long introduction text this time, but instead of just go for it. This will be split in several parts, and in this first part I'm going to talk about the names of my rp and impro comic characters. The characters will be roughly in order from oldest to newest.

Improvisation comics

Rain - Rain was my first ever character I used in any sort of online activity, and it shows. His coloration makes little to no sense, his species made no sense in the context of the comic, and his name makes no sense either. I really don't believe I had any sort of real reasoning behind this name, not an in-world one nor one I would've had myself. Though nowadays I do like the sound of the word as well as of course the meaning of it, but I'm not going to pretend I though anything that complex while choosing it for the character.

Vidia - Vidia is another oldie, but in her case I actually did use some brain power! I wanted the name to sound like it was shortened from a longer name to be used as a nickname or, as in the character's case, as a name for pet. I also wanted it to be feminine, pronounceable in Finnish and have a dash of fanciness in its vibe.

Andriaana

Yön Sumu - Sumu was the first rp character I ever used. As the field was still very unknown to me, he was on purpose created to be somewhat generic fellow who had the potential to be molded a lot during the games. His name was also rather generic, though I don't think I've ever seen another character with exactly the same name. I just chose the name based on some words I myself found rather pleasing, as I didn't yet have a lot of ideas what the character was going to end up like. Fortunately I was clever enough to tie the name to the in-game world though (as it's a reference to his coloration) so it didn't end up being as random as Rain.

Sanguinaria Mirada - Mirada was created soon after Sumu, but with a completely different mindset. During that time I had already familiarized myself with the world of Andriaana as well as rps in general, and I knew exactly what I wanted this character to be like, which reflected straight into her name. To put it shortly I wanted something that said "I am fully capable of murdering you and looking extremely dashing while doing it". ='D And at least to me the name does sound pretty fitting. In-game it wasn't far-fetched at all either, as the character was an ex fighting dog from Argentina. "Mirada" as a name is also one of those few names I've used that have become so ingrained to my mind that it's difficult for me to remember it's not a real name at all, haha.

Othello - Othello was a deliberate pack of randomness, name included, as I literally decided the name in a few minutes while already writing the bio texts for him. If Mirada was going to be my murder mystery, I wanted Othello to be my comedy! How well that both did and didn't work out is a whole another story, but I don't have a lot more to say about the name itself. I did manage to come up with an in-game reason for it, as well as giving this pure-bred Chihuahua an official name "Flera's Cloudmaker", too. The official name was a bit wonky in that sense that I never imagined it was an English speaking country where Othello was from, but as the official name was pretty much never used anywhere I think I'm the only one it ever bothered.

Zephyr - Zephyr is one of those names that have actually quite an interesting story behind it! I had a vague idea of a character I wanted to create next, and I started to think just some random words I've always liked in order to maybe use one of them as a name. I remembered zephyr, but I actually had no idea what it meant, so I had to google it up (in school krhm). After learning it meant west wind in old English things started to click in lightning fast chain reaction: this character was going to be male wolf, and Rain, another wolf character, had a brother in his backstory. Both Rain and Zephyr were things related to weather, so they would make sense as names when given to characters from the same family. And that's how Zephyr got his name, looks and backstory in a matter of seconds! Haha and as a bonus Rain's brain fart of a name finally got at least some sort of connection to something.

Sirka Aamunkajo, Kuutuulen tytär, Tasangon heimosta ja Befalasin laumasta - Hoo boy, that's one heck of a name! =D But I still think it fits the character dang well, because EVERYTHING in her was just as extra: her outward appearance was full of jewelry and the length of her backstory made the admins cry blood. The way I executed this character certainly was pretty horrible, but even so I am fond of the worldbuilding stuff behind her, which is also the reason her name is what it is. But imaginary cultures aside, the main part of the name was Sirka Aamunkajo, and I think it does reflect the sunny, girly nature of the character quite nicely. Amusingly enough I'm pretty sure the fact that Sirka is one letter off from being an anagram of "kirkas", "bright", was an accident or a thing I did subconsciously.

Trezésira Diora - Huh, seems like I have already explained this name pretty thoroughly. So I quote myself: "Zésira's name means wildfire in an imaginary language of Lahko. It is supposed to give off a sharp, foreign vibe. ... I have never really liked Zésira's full name Trezésira Diora. I would've likely dropped it completely and made Zésira the official name, but at the time in Andriaana there was also a character named Zesiro and the names resembled each other a bit too much." I'll just clarify that Zésira and Zesiro were created pretty much at the same time completely separate from each other, but Zesiro was the first one to get officially accepted. That's why I felt like it would've sounded like I was being a copycat if I used Zésira as an official name.

Ardante - Ardante on the other hand is a name I've always liked a lot. I wanted it to have a sturdy and sort of valiant vibe, and I think I had some Three Musketeers -styled names as an inspiration. I also wanted it to be a subtle reference to some of the character's older relatives, because I though one of his litter mates was doing the same - though later I learned it was just a coincidence, hah. (Ardante-Artemisia, Quanta-Qwentey) As an extra I also liked the fact that the name could be shortened to Ari, a Finnish name I associated with the character for a reason I couldn't quite pinpoint at first. After some years I found an old plushie of mine that looked very much like Ardante and I had apparently named that Ari! =D

Diego/Kurupi - While creating this character I was researching different South American religions for name inspiration, while I came across a rather... INTERESTING figure, named either Kurupi or Kurupira. The way I joked about using it as a name with some other players was very insensitive now that I think about it, but it is still a mythological figure with ridiculously long, prehensile penis that it usually has tied around its waist, so I think our amusement caaaan maybe be excused. But the incident also lead into me actually using the name in serious manner, as it is still a spirit of fertility, so I don't think it would be that weird for maned wolf parents to use it as a name for their offspring who they hoped to bless with many cubs of their own. In-game the name ended up being rather troublesome for the character though, which is why he chose himself another as-generic-as-possible name, Diego. I myself on the other hand took the name Diego from an Ace Attorney character of the same name. I didn't have any sort of particular passion toward the said character, but his name fitted my purposes so I just rolled with it.

Serafi - Ugh, please, never remind me of the creation process of this character, as it was the most painful experience I've ever had in that field. I went through several very different designs for the character's appearance until I actually managed to push out something I was decently satisfied with and what also worked at least somewhat well within some guidelines I was not aware of at the beginning of the process. Now that I think of it I should've maybe switched the name, too, as it really fits best for the character as what she was like at the beginning. But I was way too drained to even consider a new name and there were too many variables the name affected (see Ikaros), so Serafi she was. In a way it's not completely insane name, as she was supposed to be literally her daddy's little angel, but some other in-game shenanigans made it still a rather bad choice.

Ikaros - One of the reasons why Serafi stayed as Serafi was also Ikaros, a character who was very tightly tied into her - Serafi was going to be the wings of Ikaros, so to speak. Changing Serafi's name would've crumbled the base from Ikaros' name, and that was just a mess I didn't want to get into. At the very beginning of Ikaros' creation process I also considered name St. Dawn for him, but I really have forgotten my reasoning behind it. It could've been maybe a reference to some song, but I really don't know anymore. Ikaros on the other hand is very self-explanatory name, as the character was someone who lived his life to the fullest and wasn't afraid to "burn his wings". That's why he needed Serafi on his side, as she was good at covering their tracks and making sure no one in their rather important family found out all the really messed up stuff they did behind the curtains. Sadly, just like with Serafi, there isn't really any good in-game explanation for Ikaros' name, though.

Darjeth Musta - Darjeth was something completely different than the previous duo! With him I returned to constructing the name letter by letter myself, and I do like it maybe even more than Ardante. Once again I quote myself: "Darjeth's first name means mistle thrush -bird in an imaginary language of Lahko and Musta means black in Finnish. The name Darjeth was supposed to give off a bit mysterious but still somewhat masculine vibe." (The name Musta was not something I came up with, as it was a family name of sorts and the parents were characters from other players.) "... I did have some trouble coming up with a good name for him. In the end I really liked the outcome, though I was a bit worried it would resemble  Darth (as in Darth Vader =D) too much." Also haha Darjeth's nickname among players ended up being Darra, meaning hangover.

Pohjantähti/Polaris - As simple name as Pohjantähti (Northern Star) is, it has a rather messy in-game background. The reason is that she came from New Zealand, so her name really couldn't be a Finnish word for the star, but instead the English version, which it just is not. So the story goes like this: she was actually called Northern Star by humans, and then her mother explained her what it meant in whatever language the canines of the world used (like in many fantasy settings it was just called "common"). And because it was easier for her to remember, the character herself started to use the canine language version of the name when talking about herself, and because the game was written in Finnish, the name defaulted into Finnish, too. Makes sooooo much sense, right? ='D And all that maaaybe because, after already having several years of rp experience behind me, I don't think I still thought that quite through, hahah. When you add her nickname Polaris to the soup (it was given to her by her favorite human, so she did remember it as it was said) I tend to get confused even myself.

Roch Sudensielu, Sulkatassun poika, Metsäin heimosta ja Kalliovuorten laumasta - Sudensielu was another character with the same background as Aamunkajo, hence the ridiculous name. Tbh the only reason behind his "main name" Sudensielu was my amusement for calling a character Susi (wolf) even if you can clearly see he isn't a wolf at all. =') Susi wasn't an official character in Andriaana, but sort of a background character I used in a couple of games.

Vercere Random - Another unofficial character who got his name literally just for being a random passerby. In-game he got his name from his showdog father who also had Random in his fancy official name.

Pokemon Unknown

I have already written ramblings about every PU character except for a couple of Pokémon, and their names are just cute Finnish names that I could've imagined their trainer using. The rambling is in Finnish though, so in case I have some international followers who are interested in the subject I can of course translate the text. The Finnish version can be found here.

Fauttorine

Nadeera Faraj - I did SO MUCH research for Nadeera's name, for her species, for her clothes and I don't even remember what else! I literally went through every rodent page in Wikipedia there was - and there are dang many rodents in this world. =') But even so I seem to have missed writing down what language/country exactly her name was from, ahhahah. After some googling it seems to be Arabic, meaning something like "rare improvement". It was meant to be a secret reference to the way she was going to break out of her shell and become a politician in order to improve the issues of herbivore shapeshifters. Plus I liked the way it sounded like, as it both nodded towards the side of the world I had drawn inspiration from in her design as well as sounding rather cute in my ears.

Those Who Went Missing

The Weary Eyed One - When joining TWWM and creating Weary I had to come up with a totally new naming convention, as for me naming eternal spirits with names like Jack would've been just plain weird. Thinking about the subject made me feel like these creatures wouldn't maybe even need a name in traditional sense at all, and that's what I decided to make Weary think, too. So instead of giving it any sort of stationary, official name I just came up with things it could be called among any other things: The Weary Eyed One, Weary, Tired, The Sleeping Esk... Of course out of convenience I just use Weary most of the time, though. For myself coming up with Weary's name was a job I completed in a matter of minutes, which was a nice change of pace compared to the last one, heh. I also decided to name possibly all of my Esk with something that resonate with me personally with their meaning. And, well, anyone who knows anything about me knows that I'm always tired!

Someone Else - This name took a lot more thinking than Weary's. At first I was maybe a bit too adamant on calling this character also "The Somethingsomething One", but the character itself clearly seemed to want something else... So I just named her that! It never ceases to amuse me how characters just sometimes take the matter in their own hands and take their name into a direction I wasn't thinking at all. I also made the nickname Elsie reflect her will: she doesn't want to have only an abstract name like Weary does, she wants an actual, real name.

For some reason I'm ridiculously bad at finding good theme songs for my characters. I'm not sure if it's because I generally don't listen a whole lot of music or because I tend to take the lyrics pretty literally or what, but I have just a tiny handful of characters who I can associate with any music. I would like to listen more new stuff, but how does one even find new music? ='D

But anyway, here are the characters that currently have some sort of theme song(s) assigned to them:

• Yön Sumu - Mad World by Gary Jules & In The End by Linkin Park.
• Aamunkajo - Lintu by Iina Kangasharju
• Trezésira Diora - Silver by Kent.
• Diego - The Ketchup Song by Las Ketchup
• Ikaros - Kiiraslapsi by Ruoska & Ready to Die by Andrew W.K.
• Reliam Miraka - Faint by Linkin Park
• Someone Else - Fireflies by Technicolour & Running by Kállay-Saunders.
• Anise - Kusuburu heart ni Hi o Tsukero!! by Hironobu Kageyama.