Mer-May: Lucia Ostagull

I lied. One more.

I'm an artist, I have to do SOME kind of event, right? Pokecember, Inktober, etc. I never do it. The least I can do is one.

I'm also totally using that as an excuse to draw another character. One I'm super passionate about. I also wanted to try bubbles, a more intense painting, and thinner lineart.

In an effort to try out Matt Mercer's Blood Hunter class, I thought of an unconventional Lycan I may end up liking playing. Enter this lovely lady.

-Tritons are Merpeople charged with protecting the birthplace of life from the various abominations that would use its mirrored waters as portals to the material realm. Such a charge is ubiquitous across the 144 tribes across the seas of the world. While not all Triton become soldiers, fighting is an aspect of their life as normal as education, with all of them recieving some form of basic training and adaptations for trade with the land-dwellers.
-Lucia was a ballerina by trade, preferring originally to express her training through dance and physical storytelling. While always aggressive, she pacified herself with this trade, letting her excess energy flow out through jarring movements, and sway back with dextrous ones.
However, an attack on their south sea kingdom of Sephantis by servents of Dagon forced everyone's hand to defend their prosperity, including hers.
The battles went poorly, and many a Triton were slain by the hungry jaws of the abhorrent forces.
An ancient ritual was invoked for participants willing to take desperate measures, and Lucia was one of them - hoping to do anything she could to protect her less apt family.
The bloody ritual of Lycanthropy was born on land, and had once made its way to Triton reefs. But such a curse was squashed like the disease it was long ago, rightly hated and feared for the inhumane powers it unleashes. But some of the ancient druids had learned to control these transformations - adapting the curse to sea life if such a time came when it was neccessary.
And neccessary it was.
The curse was transferred by ancient blood, collected in small, dark amulets that could be imbibed at any time. Tthe men and women who took this curse were marked as neccessary criminals, and had to be systematically made infertile, never allowed to breed while the war waged on, or if they manage to escape justice when finished.
Some were lucky, transforming into the fish-like heritage that is a proud aspect of their beauty standards. They gained features of anglerfish, sharks, and lampreys, crafting their new forms with ferocity and majesty.
Lucia, however, took a further taboo. Fearing the bloodthirsty beast she would become after the war was done, she opted for a more mammalian form, one noted for its senses and intelligence as well as ferocity, perhaps easier to control in the moment's heat.
And thus, a wereorca was born.
With these super soldiers, the battle was won for a time. But the aftermath was a sacrifice all had to be willing to take. The lycans that survived were systematically executed, their medallions destroyed, so that the curse would never spread again.
But Lucia was not one of them.

Her new form, cursed with mammalian features like breasts and a mutated tail, was perverse to the Triton league. The need to wear clothes, her diminished scales, and shrinking frills marked her for first in executions. Their proud linked lineage would not be witness to a cetacean form. And yet, her family  - Mother, Father, and twin sisters - grateful for her massive sacrifice on their behalf, helped her escape. They masked her swim towards the land and warned her of her banishment, lest she face the blade.
With a sorrowful but determined goodbye, she left without tears, promising that they would see her once more, in time.

While fierce, crass, expressive, loud, and violent, her burgeoning predatory instincts mask a desire common to all Tritons - to defend, to inspire, to love, and to do good. These wishes must contend with the bloodlust that threatens to consume her, still beating beneath her chest despite her chosen form.
Curiously, however, she does not seek a cure - merely a means to control her new powers better. For her body and choice gave her more honor, glory, and prowess than thousands of Triton soldiers, and that is not something to be ashamed of.