HOME | DD

Isabella Character Design — Description
Meh, I decided to post Isabella, a sketch I'd done awhile back. Seeing as i'm struck with the sudden need to work on my comic I might as well post another character involved in my werewolf story.

This is Isabella...Seth's mommy. She's second in command of the Moondancers clan, a clan that consists of werewolves; descendants of the Great Mother, Helene. A pretty rigid woman, she only shows Seth affection if he's able to demonstrate strength and power. She's the same towards her husband, Vincentius. But beneath her cold facade lies a woman concerned for her family's safety. She senses danger around the corner and wants to prepare her family and clan for it.

Some background in the Moondancers clan:
The Moondancers clan is a pretty secluded bunch, residing in the Appenine mountains of Rome from the 12-18th century after moving country to country for a long time. They're known as condottieri, Italian for mercenaries. back in the days when Italy was still at war over land, the Moondancers found plenty of clients. Humans feared them, obviously, but many of them, such as corrupt religious leaders and wealthy landowners, were eager to hire them to wipe out the competiton.

Overall, the clan became extremely wealthy and had built a shrine underneath their village, which was dedicated to their Great Mother, Helene. There, they had celebrations, burials and, um...never mind.

The leader of the Moondancers clan is Vincentius, Seth's pop. The youngest leader to gain rank, he aquired leadership after killing his father. Within this clan, it is customary for the son to kill the father and considered a great honor, especially for the father. it is a sign of powers being passed to the next generation. As sign of leadership, the son obtains the fur of his father.

Speaking of fur, only powerful werewolves can transform. I mentioned awhile back that I wanted my werewolves to be more humanoid. While i'm still working out the design concept of that, i decided, for the sake of keeping the tradition of werewolves alive, that the elite and powerful Moondancers would be able to transform. Therefore, when Vincentius kills his father, he strips the fur off his father's body and wears it like a coat over his shoulders (sorta like warriors wearing the fur of tigers and lions)

Moving on, the werewolves have the abilitiy to switch genders thanks to Helene. Helene was given this abilitiy by Lucifer in an effort to blend in the human world to track down her target. That power had been passed to her children. Many werewolves, though, tend to stick to the gender they were born with while others switch and go back and forth XD.

Within the clan, women are viewed as strong and powerful. While each werewolf possessed the power to switch genders, only a few were willing to become women and serve as mothers, giving birth to the new generations of werewolves. Giving birth to werewolves was extremely painful, you see. Werewolves require lots of food to survive. In the womb, the Moondancer baby is extremely hungry. As a reult, the baby starts eating the mother from the inside. O_O While each werewolf has excellant healing abilities, that doesn't make the experience less painful. And less scary. Obviously, human women can't mate with male werewolves, lest they get pregnant and eaten alive. Worse, the baby immediately dies afterward due to starvation. This is why only werewolves can mate with werewolves. They have healing abilities but can also digest enough food to support the baby in the womb. It is extremely a rare case if the mother gives birth to twins, as twins wind up eating each other in the womb, resulting in immediate death or severe disfiguration.

Knowing this, you can understand that Seth prefers being male. While he loves sex and is very lustful as a man, as a woman, he's scared out of his mind about the possibility of getting pregnant. Thus, Seth is very rigid and cold when he's a woman, acting much like his mother.