#fantine úfantimaya

[henriediosa]

✨ dancing lights and prestidigitation ✨ fantine meets the faerie dragons!

we found a secret house (just like in The Phantom of the Opera!) with a secret garden (just like in The Secret Garden!) and fantine met some new fae friends and started a dance party! (just like in... pretty much every musical tbh)

fantine has a running bit of comparing everything to musical theatre — even calling all architectural details "set design", all items "props", and all fashion "costumes" — bc that's faer point of reference for everything, having grown up in a commune dedicated specifically to musical theatre (and spying, but that's lore for another post)

image description in alt text and under the cut!

this illustration was first posted on ko-fi! thank you to my ko-fi supporters, the minamahal: all my love to ate emily, ate rachel, and jo. you can leave a tip or become a recurring supporter at ko-fi.com/henriediosa.

id: a digital illustration in a bright, sketchy style, of fantine in a garden casting sparkles into the air while two baby faerie dragons swirl above faer. the picture is drawn from above, looking down. the garden has a stone floor and rows of long wooden planter boxes. fantine is a fairy with brown hair up in pigtails, wearing a red half-cape and a green dress. faer arms are outstretched and fae is smiling wide. the faerie dragons are bright red with little white spikes down their spines and butterfly wings in yellow and orange. their dancing lights are warm, soft circles of bokeh, while fantine's sparkles are shaped like four-pointed stars and are cyan, magenta, and yellow. id ends.

[henriediosa]

“fantine úfantimaya” is meant to be read in the same cadence that gandalf says “legolas greenleaf”. just saying a guy’s name twice for no reason than to be pedantic

úfantimaya (roughly “my dear unveilable one”, from the Quenya elements ú- “not” fanta- “to veil, to cloak”, -ima “possibility” and the suffix of endearment -ya) is fantine’s True Name, the one you need to say to make a proper Fairy Bond with faer. it's pronounced /ˌu:.fanˈti.ma.ya/, with the primary stress on /ti/ and secondary stress on the long /u:/. the notes file where i keep random ideas for faer is named fantine unveilable

i use it in the tag to separate fantine’s stuff from faer namesake, fantine in les misérables. in fantine’s commune, one picks a nickname from the first play whose production one is involved in. this way, one avoids having to give out one’s True Name to outsiders. it’s also a reference to how jellicle cats have multiple names: the familiar, the particular, and the secretive (ineffable)

their leader erik (erinquaher, “lonely lord”), for example, took his name from the phantom of the opera, and fantine’s best friend candide (cantiëndil, “lover of patterns”) took their name from the opera of the same name.

it’s supposed to just be a happy coincidence that everyone’s True Name is phonetically similar to their nickname, and i like to think that if faer first show had been funny girl, úfantimaya would have been fanny instead. (fantine’s been in two plays so far: les mis and cats. if cats had been faer first, fae would have picked rumpleteazer.)

i also picked fantine because it’s from enfantine, “childish, innocent”, and fae is 3’11” and one of the first hooks i wrote for faer appearance is “most people have never (knowingly) met a Fairy, so they assume fae is a child elf”. fantine’s actually 40 years old, which is still pretty young for a fairy. when i’m playing faer, i think of faer as a late teen, almost a young adult, though since fae is a fey, there’s still a lot of childish impulse and apparent irrationality in faer.

random fantine fun facts bc i don’t know how to end this post

fae is asexual aromantic, like me!

faer pronouns are officially fae/it but fae is also fine with she/her, unlike me (fae presents femme and won't correct people who assume she/her)

fae is a bard and faer instrument is a lute (it's a ukulele). fae also plays the autoharp and the recorder

fae doesn't lie because faer commune doesn't believe in secrets and no-one lies there. it's like if candor from divergent was also all theatre kids who are also all spies.

fae is an apprentice lighting technician and stagehand. fae can perform, but fae is more comfortable in the crew. fae is also an apprentice librarian specifically handling scripts. the commune is small so most people wear multiple hats, doing something in musical theatre production and something for the general upkeep of the community

[henriediosa]

📚 fantine and willow arrive at candlekeep 📚 i've been making one illustration for every dnd session i've played so far. this is fantine and faer new best friend, willow, at the moment in the first session when we were introduced. this illustration was first posted on ko-fi, where there are also two other illustrations already posted! thank you to my ko-fi supporters, the minamahal: all my love to ate emily, ate rachel, and jo.

image description in the alt text and under the cut!

id: a digital illustration in a soft, sketchy style of willow and fantine, seen from behind, looking up at the gates of candlekeep. it is a huge grey castle-like structure with a tall front gate and layers of crenellated walls. before the gate is a green lawn with a winding stone path, where the two characters stand. willow is a human-shaped shifter with ginger hair in a ponytail, a pink hooded half-cape, a purple dress, grey leggings, and tall brown boots. a grey tail peeks out from under her skirt. fantine is a fairy two-thirds of willow's height, with brown hair in pigtails, a red half-cape, a green dress, and small pink shoes. a pair of yellow wings peeks out from under its cape. the two of them are holding hands. id ends.

[henriediosa]

fantine's character sheet!

recently i started playing dnd with some discord friends! this is my player character, a fairy bard called fantine. all of faer spells are matched with musical theatre songs, and i am so excited to solve mysteries with it. this illustration is inspired by the character sheet splash screens on dimension 20 🌟

image description under the cut!

id: a full body illustration of fantine accompanied by its stats and info. fantine's pronouns are fae/it. fae is a level 1 bard with the researcher background. faer armour class is 12, passive perception 11, and spell save dc 12. faer stats are as follows: strength 8, dexterity 13, constitution 10, wisdom 13, charisma 15, and intelligence 14. the stats are handwritten inside black hexagons, next to a close-up of fantine's star/compass rose pin. fantine stands confidently with one hand outstretched casting multicoloured sparkles, and another hand holding its ukulele. faer messy brown hair is up in two pigtails with black butterfly clips, and fae has a pair of orange insect wings. fae is wearing blue evil eye earrings, a red cape, a multicoloured six-sided star/compass rose pin, a green dress with a tiered ruffled skirt, a brown waist pouch with a star on it, friendship bracelets, and pink crocs with two charms. id ends.

[henriediosa]

i broke in this year's sketchbook with a picture of myself with (some of) the babies!

from top left: fennel, milly, rina, wiggly sniggle, henrie, káhi, fantine, risa, and lulee. the ones on the left are from my writing and painting; the ones on the right are my ttrpg player characters

with thanks to my ko-fi supporters, the minamahal: ate emily, ate rachel, and jo.

id in the alt text. a little bit of lore about each character under the cut!

fennel lightwing is the grandson of a dragon empress. he's a trans boy with mind control powers that he mostly uses to make sure he doesn't get misgendered. his face is scarred because his grandma disfigured him before he was exiled for questioning her historical revisionism (he was right), but unlike zuko he's very cheerful and sociable.

milly (short for milady) is a form of the chaos goddess kai del'oubliette, one of the recurring characters in the whyverse.

rina walang-apellido is another form of kai who appears in the whyverse side story rosemary, the sage of time. her surname literally means "doesn't have a surname" because she can't read or write in any modern languages. she's a vampire who napped too long and now doesn't fit in with the modern world, but she still loves to party.

wiggly sniggle is a hatchetfield fan character! i love the sniggles (see also: my sniggle poetry) and i made fun elaborate costume designs for them. wiggly sniggle's costume is based on children's variety shows like hi-5 and the wiggles, as well as ocean-themed kids media like luca and bubble guppies.

káhi (short for kahilíngan, tagalog for "wish") is a wild magic sorcerer tamaraw tiefling. they are a dm pc for the magic school dnd campaign that i run for my sisters. they were raised by textile crafts nuns and they love studying arcana.

fantine (short for úfantimaya, quenya for "my dear unveilable one") is a musical-themed lore bard fairy. fae is in the candlekeep mysteries and comes from a musical theatre themed forest commune. fae hates lying and loves trying to steal people's names.

risa (short for Papuri Sa Diyos Sa Kaitaasan, tagalog for "glory to god in the highest") is from the chosen playbook in thirsty sword lesbians. she is an aromantic trans woman binukot in a political marriage, and she's just living her best life.

lucille carolee "lulee" spence/butler/porter née sargent is an old money new broke 1950s housewife toreador for vampire the masquerade. she's had three husbands and all she wants to do is drink blood and organise dinner parties forever. her favourite dishes to make are aspic salads, and she can fold a napkin into anything.