Many, many years ago, I made an NPC that I named Heleane Mi Salain. She came to be first the princess, and then the young queen, of the kingdom of Rinavor in my Furiae world.


Heleane is, and everyone who was part of my roleplaying game group when I was younger would agree on this, graceful, eloquent and, above all, a manipulative bitch. She's gifted with the kind of angel's face and angel's grace that make many trust her intuitively, but she is not to be trusted. To those who know her better, she is vain, arrogant and disgusted with poor people, dirty people and loud-mouthed people to such an extent that she has, at times, had such executed for her own amusement. She plays games with people as if they were toys she has little care for.


She sent a servant to scar the face of a girl that claimed to be more beautiful than her.


She asked a man that loved her boundlessly if he would do anything for her – when he responded yes, she said,


"Then kill yourself."


Such is her charm, that he did.


So I've tried to paint her many times, and I have... and I have two pictures in mind for her now, as she will be part of a game a friend is designing. This one, and another one where she is holding a mirror, and showing a bit more of her true self. In this one, I wanted to show her the way she wants others to see her. Flawless and dazzling, without any shadows behind her eyes. Of exquisite taste and perfected grace – and, of course, the kind of genetics that can't be faked.


I'd like to say that she is at once one of the most beautiful, and one of the ugliest characters of the Furiae world.


The original image is 8000x5609 pixels, and the level of details is pretty nutty. I've never spent quite so much time painting strands of grass, flowers that are actually more hinted at than drawn clearly, and lace patterns of a gown I now want to have made.