#i didn't know what an oud was until i painted this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jpriest85-blog · 1 year

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Still obsessing over @foxofsunholt so I came up with a family tree for my Fey-fox Zahia and concept portraits of her family, including a younger version of Uncle Yalik.

I tried to give Zahia and her older sister, Nora, a mix of their families features. While they both got the redhead genes, Zahia's hair is a darker shade of red like her Uncle Yalik when he was younger, and while she shares most of her mothers features, she inherited her father's hazel green eyes and taller stature like both her dad and uncle. Meanwhile Nora's hair is a lighter ginger shade like their dad and she inherented his freckles as well, but she's got her mother's golden eyes and more petite build, and a cleftchin like their uncle's.

I've come up with additional headcanons for Zahia and her family, though some of them might change once the full game is released:

The family is a mix of Fey-fox species Zahia and her mother, Imani, both appear as Fennec foxes, while the rest of the family look like Red foxes.

Feliks often painted portraits of his family even if he was commissioned to do other types of work. Someone commissions him to do a landscape painting, oh look a little family of foxes are frolicking in the trees. Why are there a couple of small desert foxes when they're not native to this setting? It's called artistic whimsy! You want accuracy commision a cartographer!

Imani was originally from a desert country, she had a love of music and eventually joined a traveling performers group where she played the Oud, sang, and danced.

Feliks first met Imani when the tavern that hired Imani's music troupe to perform refused to rent rooms for the Fey entainers to stay. Wanting to de-escalate the situation Feliks invited the Fey troupe to join him and his brother at an inn that's more welcoming and safe for Fey-folk. In thanks for his help and hospitality the musicians offered free admissions for Feliks and Yalik to watch their performance later.

Feliks was instantly captivated by Imani when he first saw her perform. After the show when the head of the performance troupe was introducing Feliks and Yalik to the musicians, poor Feliks was so flustered and love struck when meeting Imani instead of just greeting her like a normal person, he asked her to marry him.

Thankfully Yalik made up the excuse that Feliks often "jokingly" proposes marriage whenever he meets a beautiful woman (he doesn't but Yalik loves his brother enough to want to protect him from embarrassing himself). Imani laughed it off assuming it's just some funny cultural misunderstanding.

After performing and getting to know Feliks and his brother for several weeks Imani's Oud gets broken after a drunken jerk tries to pick a fight with her music troupe. Since it's an unfamiliar instrument for the local crafts guild the repairs for her Oud is more expensive than anything Imani can afford. Feliks calls in some favors with other Fey artisans he knows to help him craft a new Oud for her. He even decorates the instrument by hand painting little foxes dancing along the neck, and an elaborate landscape on the back of the Oud depicting landmarks she misses from her home country. When he gives the new instrument to her, Imani proposes to Feliks this time, by asking him and Yalik to join her Troupe as her husband and new brother.

Yalik initially refused traveling with Feliks and Imani, claiming he didn't want to intrude on their life as newlyweds. In reality he had also fallen in love with Imani but never acted on his feelings because he didn't want to hurt his brother, and it would be harder for him to keep his one sided love to himself if they traveled together. So he kept his distance from his brother, outside of the occasional visit, until the birth of his nieces. Yalik never spoke about his feelings for Imani, even years after her death. Although Yoon figured it out shortly after Zahia started working with them. Yalik forces Yoon to keep what he learned to himself, 4-tails or not Yalik refuses to hurt his family because of his shameful feelings, so they're both taking that secret to their graves.

Like most siblings there was some jealousy between Nora and Zahia growing up. Usually typical childhood bickering over toys, or their parents' attention. Nora claims she's gotten over them as an adult, but it's still a sore spot that her "little sister" Zahia grew up to be 6ft. (182.88cms) while she's stuck being 5ft3in. (160.02cms.). At least Nora is still bigger than Zahia in their Fey-fox forms.

The first time Zahia turned into her Fey-fox form as a toddler, Nora mistakenly thought her baby sister was replaced by a rabbit because Fennec cubs have such large ears. When Nora asked her parents if she could keep the new rabbit as a pet, they were so confused until they saw what happened and explained to their eldest daughter that the "rabbit" is still her little sister, Zahia just has a Fennec Fox form like mommy. Little Nora was very disappointed. Like most 5 year old children she'd rather have a pet bunny than a stinky baby sister that cries all night and takes up most of mom's time and attention.

Imani shared her love of music with her daughters when they were both little and even taught them different types of music and dances from the various places she visited and performed over the years. While both girls inherit their mother's captivating singing, Nora tended to be the more graceful dancer, and Zahia was better at improvising music when playing a lute or Oud. They even had a childhood dream of being a sister act duo! Until their mother was killed, and they were separated from their father and uncle.

Since Nora had to take the role of caretaker very young, the stress of trying to support, protect and raise Zahia while Nora was still a kid herself made things difficult for both of them. Nora would often snap at Zahia (both figuratively and literally if she lost her temper in her Fey-fox form), and could be overly critical and strict. Likewise Zahia would often act out when she felt Nora was being too controlling. Things got even more strained between them when Zahia got older and started going through her rebellious teen phase.

Sadly when Uncle Yalik tried to reconnect with his surviving family after finding his nieces again he unintentionally wound up driving a bigger wedge between them. While Nora was relieved he's still alive, she was very suspicious of Yalik being so vague about how managed to survive so far, and mistrustful of some of the shady people she noticed him talking to. Which is why when Nora tried to warn Zahia about never spending time with Uncle Yalik without her, or to not accept gifts or money from him, it escalated into another fight. Uncle Yalik's the only other family they have left, why can't they accept his help or even talk to him in private?! Especially when Nora refuses to give Zahia a clear reason, because how can she tell her sister that their only remaining family is probably involved in something dangerous that could get them all killed even just by association? Even if Yalik has the best of intentions, Nora's the eldest sister, it’s her job to keep Zahia safe!

Unfortunately since Nora won't give her any clear answers, Zahia winds up sneaking out to talk with Uncle Yalik. After a few private heart to heart talks Zahia winds up working for Yalik, she keeps it a secret from Nora claiming she's got a new job, which is true…she just never said whom she is working for. At first Nora is so proud of Zahia, finally taking some initiative, being all responsible and helping with the bills. At least until she learns Zahia was deceiving her because a lie by omission is still a lie.

#fox of sunholt #feyfox:zahia #family tree #more headcanons #including character lore and backstory

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