Chapter VII Coming Soon!

Good news! I just submitted Chapter VII to my beta, which means the finished product will be up and running soon! It's been a little less than a month since my last update, which sadly will be the pace I work at for most of the fall semester.

Between interning, the radio station, football season, and class there's just not enough of me to go around. I promise though to try my absolute hardest to never go over a month without updating... especially now that I've reached the meat of the story.

Oh... and just to tease Chapter VII, one of the comments I've received is that readers would like to see more appearances by OOT supporting characters. Well, your wish is my command (not really as it is my story, but I do take all suggestions to heart and try to work them all in).

Scarlett

The Government of Hyrule

This post pertains strictly to the governing body of Hyrule which is, obviously, a monarchy. The Court is not the governing body, though all who occupy a position on the governing counsel also sit on the King's Court. Many people, however, sit on the court (such as the royal cup-bearer) and do not posses governing power.

The High Counsel plays the central royal in the government. It's comprised of the Royal Family, the Dukes, and the House of Polis. The individuals who make up this select counsel are the supreme decision making body of the land, with the King being the person with the final say in all law.

Ranking below the members of the High Counsel are the Barons and Marquees. They have governing authority over smaller regions (towns and villages) but are not members of the High Counsel, therefore do not have say in drafting legislature. They do, however, posses voting power when the King calls for it.

I. The Royal Family: pretty self explanatory, the King rules by divine right. They do not take a family name as they are considered the first family of the entire kingdom; therefore, they take the name Hyrule. Preside over the High Counsel.

• King Auberon Hyrule 
• Princess Zelda Hyrule 

II. The Dukes and Duchesses: Governors of the four provinces, highest governing authority for each of the regions, the titles are passed down through families, (however in the case of a family having no heir the King appoints a new Duke or Duchess), and they comprise the 2nd third of the High Counsel

• Faron Provence: Lord Gustaf Kinsey de Vaux and Lady Evelyn Bramley de Vaux
• Eldin Provence: Lord Darunia, Big Boss of the Goron
• Lanayru Provence: Lord Orrin, King of the Zora
• Gerudo Provence: Lady Nabooru of the Gerudo

III. Hose of Polis: Critical decision making body, appointed by the King, titles are not inherited, comprise the last third of the High Council

• Minister of Domestic Affairs: Chancellor Casimir Dominique Uther
• Minister of Foreign Affairs: Chancellor Abner Marsden Tarquin
• High Priest: His High Holiness Faisal Asketil Aloysius
• Grand Master of the Hylian Royal Army: Sir Carnell Sigourney Bourdekin

IV. Barons (Baronesses) and Marquees (Marchionesses): Govern a town or village and report to the respective Duke or Duchess of his or her region. They can be appointed by either the King or a Duke and the titles are hereditary. Control of a Barony is typically granted for outstanding military merit while Marquees are appointed for political reasons. They only pertain to Hylian settlements (No Zora, Gerudo, or Goron) because the other races have their own method of government (Each race is represented on the High Counsel though)

• Faron Provence
•  Baron of Ordon: Lord Kelton Langston Ackerley and his wife Lady Robyn Merewald Ackerley
• Marchioness of Ashleigh: Lady Shelby Hammond d'Auvrecher
• Eldin Provence
• Marchinoness of Kakriko: Lady Impa (yes that Impa)
• Lanayru Proncence
• Baron of Kenton: Lord Badrick Zenith Beckett and his wife Lady Gytha Bourdekin Beckett
• Baron of Remington: Lord Rhett Duvall Spencer and his wife Lady Vivian Payton Spencer
• Marquee of Euell: Lord Blythe Atherton Bauquemar and his with Lady Nerida Lorica Bauquemar
• Gerudo Provence: none, no Hylian settlements

Czar-Aran Chacter Sketch

I'm vastly more pleased with how this sketch turned out than the one I did of Zel-Taren, however this was my second crack at digital drawing. I'll probably go back and edit the old one now. Maybe next I'll have to try an full scene illustration... eek.

Czar-Aran ascended to the throne of Ten'al-taria shortly before the begining of the events of Principatus. He was raised by his father, the former Czar, to believe that all Hylians were greedy, power mongers who horde the power of the gods for themselves. For this reason, he blames Hyrule for his own kingdom's misfortunes.

Check out this sketch on deviantArt.com here
Read the story on fanfiction.net here

Hyrule World Map Explained

Since I'm writing a story that takes place in the Ocarina of Time world, I'm trying to stay as true to the "map" of the game as I can. The world I'm trying to describe, however, is much larger than that of the game so I drew this map to help sort things out. I like to think of Principatus' Hyrule as being a more expansive version of Ocarina of Time with a dash of Twilight Princess.

I figure Hyrule has a pretty sophisticated governing system for the quasi-medieval-ness of it all, so I took the concept of having four provinces from Twilight Princess (I even kept the names) and applied it the the terrain of Ocarina of Time. The only big changes I made to the OoT map (besides adding more settlements) was to move Lon Lon Ranch of being smack dab in the middle of Hyrule Field off to the side near the farming village of Ashleigh and add Gerudo Mesa- the boarder between Hyrule and Ten'al-Taria. In case you can't read my handwriting, here's a breakdown of what each province contains...

1. Faron Province: like Twilight Princess it's the southern most province. It encompasses the villages of Ordon and Ashleigh with Ordon being the larger of the two (And where the Duke and Duchess live), as well as the Lost Woods (Kokiri Village, Sacred Forest Meadow)

2. Eldin Province: also like Twilight Princess houses Death Mountain and Kakariko Village, but because I wanted to keep everything in it's general OoT location, Hyrule Castle and Castle Town are in Eldin instead of Lanayru (Lanayru has enough as it is)

3. Lanayru Province: Zora's River (Domain, Fountain), Village of Euell, Kenton (military town), Remington, and Lake Hylia, the largest of the four provinces, encompasses the river which is controlled by the Zora

4. Gerudo Province: pretty striaght forward- Gerudo Valley, Gerudo Fortress, Haunted Wasteland, Desert Collossus, Gerudo Mesa 

I think next I'll do a post about how I set up the court/ government system of Hyrule...

Taren Character Sketch

Character sketch for Zel-Taren, an OC from my fan fiction story Principatus. This was my first experience with digital painting and airbrushing which took a while to get the hang of. I'm going to do a sketch of Aran next (another OC character) but hopefully it won't be as difficult :/

New Toys!!!

I finally caved and bought my first digital drawing pad... yeah!!! My new toy is the main reason it's taken me two weeks to finish Chapter IV of Principatus, well that and the fact I actually need to complete my online classes before the fall semester starts.

Anyway, to practice with my new digital drawing pad I did some character sketches for Principatus. The cloaked dude at the top is definitely not a good guy, but I'm not going to say exactly who it is... that's my shameless ploy to get people to actually read the story first :)

I'm currently working with Sketchbook Pro on my computer because I could get it free from the Apple Store Online but many people I know use Painter so I'm probably going to look into it, but for free software I've had very few complaints so far with Sketchbook. Only now I just need more practice, and by more practice I mean A LOT more practice with painting and airbrushing... if anyone with digital art skills has tips definitely let me know them!

My own place

This summer I'm subletting an apartment, and I just realized it's the first time I'm living completely on my own. I lived at home, then a dorm, in a few apartments with roommates, but now just a single little studio all to myself.

Today was a long day at work (9am-6:30pm) but it was a heavy newsday in the sports world, so what can I do? I love my job, but that's also why I love having a place of my own I can come back to that's completely quiet, completely mine.

I popped in Gladiator, made some rice, and bam! That's my reward for a good day of work. At least I know I'm doing something productive with my time so that I can actually savor the moments of freedom and relaxation when they come :)

On that note... "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

deviantART

So, I was working on getting Principatus up on deviantART, and sense I've only been a causal account-less browser there in the past, I had to register first... too bad that was easy part.

At one point I thought I had the story posted, but the text wasn't appearing. While they say PDF's are fine, that's a lie. Even TXT files were wreaking havoc on all my apostraphes and commas. I finally settled on doing it the old fashioned way by manually entering in the text. As I occasionally use italics, however, I had to manually to go trough and inset HTML... and I can't even tell you what HTML stands for.

Oh in the span of five minutes my story-less story was visible to the public, five people commented on it to tell me the text wasn't there... no shit.

Nevertheless, its up there now. So if you're stopping by and want to check out me barren, art-less deviantART page here's the link. Besides posting my story there, I'm working on some sketches that will find there homes on deviantART.

I does look like a pretty good resource and I have some friends that swear by deviantART... well, as an art major it was only a matter of time. Now I actually need to put well... art... up there.  

Chapter III Updates

Whew! Chapter III of Principatus put up a pretty brutal fight with me in terms of "getting it right." I tried messing with the POV, rearranging actions, sprinkling some magic voo-doo dust over my key board but nothing seemed to give the chapter the right "feel."

Needless to say, I finally broke through the glass ceiling (With a lot of help from my Beta reader Nendil) and Chapter III finally came together. It should be up on fanfiction.net, Zelda Universe, and Live Journal soon!

Also, I am working on some sketches and a banner, including ones of Aran and Taren, which I will post here upon completion. Stay tuned!

After getting hit by a car today...

So after I got backed into by a car on my biscyle today and immediatly sent home from work... I registered at zeldauniverse.net as another means of distributing Principatus. Looks like a cool place so I'll probably be hanging out there "theoretically" from time to time.

Here's the link if you feel like checking Principatus out at Zelda Universe.

Since I'm new to fan fiction writing I was wondering if anyone has tips for me in terms of increasing circulation and garnering reviews. I'm not really keen when it comes to marketing so for those who have been there done that, a little enlightenment would be nice :)

Black Wedding Dress Inspiration

The black wedding dress from Chapter I was inspired by this dress at medievalcollectibles.com. I think its the absolute antithesis something Zelda would wear if she had the choice, which is kind of what I was going for...

The train is longer in the dress in Principatus. There's also lace in the story where the giant flower-thing is on the dress in the picture.

Just like to provide visuals where I can

Blogging at 2am and Principatus Updates

Finally got around to creating a blog (at two o'clock in the morning). I'm not sure how many people will actually read this but if you do happen to stumble here... cool, leave a comment. Or better yet, read Principatus and comment on that. It's the real reason I created this blog anyway.

Here I will occasionally publish some notes and research I've conducted in drafting Principatus as well as the occasional sketch or two. Basically anything I have, or you have to offer, that I believe will aid the reading process will be posted on the blog.  

As far as progress on the story goes, chapters one and two are now up on fanfiction.net. Also, I'm over half way through with chapter three (The one where Link and Zelda finally reunite), so be on the lookout for that by the end of next week-ish.

Scarlett