Starlight Sisters

I really like creative interpretations of ancient mythology, like Percy Jackson. But I didn’t want to be beholden to an existing ancient mythology, so I made my own.

Sister Sketches

A bumbling assassin who tends to fall apart on the job.

Misket, the stoic and tireless ghoul-slayer who Death forgot.

A sweet little goof who thinks she paints the sky black each night. LOL! Obviously it gets dark because the sun goes to the river to fish.

Lady Mish, the living mansion on the moon. She manifests in avatars made of household items.

Clether, the shrewd keeper of all truth, for whom all spiders are messengers.

Jessakin, extraordinary street-fighter and rule-breaker. Every tattoo is a victory.

Purfin, the ever-captured princess who loves getting the chance to call for help through her mirror.

Xinxin, an unknown being from the core of a star who shapeshifts and edits memories to blend in.

The smith who produces weapons for the worthy. His armor is to him as soft as cloth.

The ancient painter who makes the seasons of Earth, constantly dissatisfied and redoing her work.

The disgraced patron of doctors who fell to a rotting thirst for blood.

The cool and fun DJ who speaks your dreams to you every night in her hundred voices.

Chrysamin, extraordinary prize-fighter and law-upholder. Every ribbon is a victory.

I came up with 52 brief concepts for members of the Starlight Sisters, enough for a full deck of cards, which in retrospect is a crazy number. In order to make them each distinct, I made a list of 52 of my favorite characters that each felt like a distinct archetype, and used each one for inspiration.

I was inspired by the sheer weirdness of ancient myths and tried to come up with all kinds of fresh, counterintuitive ideas. I think a lot of them are really funny.

The name ‘Starlight Sisters’ is also funny because they are not all girls nor all related, but it does reflect that they live in space. Imagine if an ancient culture accurately predicted that our world is surrounded by a void where other vast, solid bodies spin! I guess the shamans were really cooking that day.

The above are some initial sketches of Sisters I did to practice designing distinct characters. But during the fit of creative energy that occurred around Art Fight time, I blessed two of the Sisters with worshipful murals and self-introductory dialogue, shown below. You might also encounter these strange creatures elsewhere on my site.

Lomagai, the Rain Spirit

A playful puddle-stomping young girl, always depicted in a raincoat and followed by a personal raincloud. She speaks the language of water, and can ask it questions or get it to do tricks.

She loves to play marbles using comets and stars, and when you see a shooting star it means she knocked one out of the ring. Her ultimate prize is the sun, so her victory would end the world. Luckily, she’s really bad at it.

Her origin is I wanted to play with the ‘personal raincloud’ idea, but it seemed like the obvious choice was for the raincloud to symbolize misery and gloom, so I did the opposite.

Ocha, the Octopus Heir

An eternal preteen awaiting a throne that will never be vacant, Ocha is adventurous, mischievous, and somewhat careless with the wellbeing of others. She lacks critical thinking skills and is easily led on by friend and foe.

Ocha has tentacles for hair and a body made of sand – solid when wet, but easy to break apart and reshape to her convenience, particularly to switch between legs and mermaid tail.

In the Starlight Sisters mythology, the sea wraps around and connects to space. Also, in the sea, time is a total mess, and they’re all just used to time-traveler’s-wife-ing each other constantly. Hence Ocha’s thoughts don’t go in chronological order.

These sketchbook drawings of Loma and Ocha are nice, but I do worry they misrepresent Loma as a sweet and good-hearted child when in fact she’s a much more fun whiny wretch.

Of course, as with any ancient figure, there is no true canon as to their appearance or nature. Just an artist’s interpretation.