Sometimes, spur of the moment ideas can lead to something good, and it's really nice to get a glimpse into Diana's life before all the madness. The city looks so lovely, and I really like the serenity of the early morning and the peace than comes from every day routine. I don't envy her for having to get up so early, though. I've never been a morning person, and I'll sleep as late as I can! Which isn't very these days, but at least the sun is up first. Then again, I'm not a badass warrior like she is, either.

I kind of wanted to take a break from the mermaid pics and story for a little while and I thought since Luthien is my go to for fantasy/mermaid, I thought maybe it would be nice to give Diana and company a little love for a bit. So then I thought it would be nice to see Diana's room or at least some representation of it, designing cities is like clothes for me, I can't do it well and rely on the artists to do the heavy lifting.

However, I imagine Aldris to be rather technologically advanced but still rooted in the architecture that existed a millennia ago when the city was part of the world. However, you'd find crystals providing light and things like elevators and other such advances in Aldris, along with a number of modern/futuristic things you generally wouldn't see in a traditional fantasy setting.

I've never been a morning person either, personally I'm a night owl. While I can and do get up early when the situation calls for it, if all things were equal I'd sleep later much more often.

Diana is probably used to it, given her mother's position in the government, and the general nature of her character, she is definitely much more of a morning person. After all, the early dog shoots the prey, so to speak. :)

Luthien does incredible work, and I've always adored her fantasy based work. Some of my favorite art from her has always been her art of the character Luthien and the Tolkien-inspired world in which she lives. So she seems like the perfect choice to go to for Diana and her world, as well as the mermaid work. I"d definitely love to see more, when/if you get any more done.

I love the idea of a city that has both modern or futuristic elements blended together with a more archaic aesthetic like this. To be honest, it's kind of how I envision modern day Viridis, whenever I actually get around to fleshing out my modern day setting. It probably won't have anything too far into the sci-fi realm, but definitely modern things like electricity, computers and elevators along side ancient structures like castles. But I'm like you, architecture and city designs are not my strong suit, so I'd likely rely on talented artists to help me with that as well.

All that aside, I really like what Luthien has done with this. It has the kind of mystic, otherworldly flair that I've always imagined for Aldris, so Diana looks right at home.

I suppose that someone in Diana's position has probably spend most of her life needing to get up early, and if she can do it with such relative ease, good for her. It's probably a big part of what makes her so successful. But I certainly don't envy her, and I hope that she still gets time, now and then, to lie in bed for at least a little while. I'd say she deserves it.

I just love how she can come up with such graceful and elegant looking jewelry and clothing, and the way she does hair.... It's just got a unique immeasurable quality to it. Luthien is gorgeous, and have you seen her April image she posted a while ago? Fantastic, I just can't say enough about it. For the time being anyway, there's no other artist I'd consider for mermaid/fantasy work. Both because of the style and Luthien and I seem to be developing a really good working relationship lately.

Diana's home is a bit of an oddity in that a thousand years ago it was super advanced. While that part of the world is still very basic in terms of technology (until book 2) it has not really evolved much in the millennia it spent isolated from the rest of the world. As a result the architecture is reflective of that and the advanced technology provides an odd juxtaposition creating an overall unique location from which to tell stories.

I'm definitely pleased with it, it always helps me to have a visual reference to point to, though I admit to not knowing exactly what I pictured in my brain.

I suppose it's more the fact that her mother insists upon early morning lessons and teaching Diana not to be lazy. Diana's mother runs the government so it wouldn't do for her daughter to slouch in any areas at all. As such, she trains hard and often, and is good at what she does. While there is an artificial day cycle in the pocket dimension Aldris inhabits there are no prey to hunt or places to be other than the city itself, so her getting up early is pretty much conditioning/parental influence. However, it serves her well when she is trapped in our world as a life on the road often means an early start.

Though I'm sure when they stop at a town Diana probably gets time to sleep in, given Ethan and Rhodes do most of the early work then, selling their wares while the girls resupply the cart. :)

Truly amazing piece

I couldn't agree more. :) It came out lovely. :)

Thanks for this glimpse of Diana's pre-adventuring life, IS. You've really put a lot of thought into the world of Aldris and her background.

When I was looking for ideas of what to commission I thought it might be interesting to depict a little of Diana's background, which we get a glimpse of in the first major story but I wanted to show it in a visual form, as well as kind of give me a base on which to talk about such things. Life on the road usually means you have to get up early and live without certain creature comforts, but even when she had those things she was an early riser. ;)