The Seven

I started these sketches a while ago, before summer started, and I only just finished coloring them. You've seen Zea and Wyndoge before, but there are five other characters vital to that particular story.

Zea is the hero of the story, the girl who will go on to become the Beast Handler of the Southern Kingdom. She works with her monstrous supernatural partner, the Wyndoge, a massive winged creature who moves the weather with his breath. (Wyndoge can shrink and grow at will, just like air can expand or be compressed, so his scale is only about half his maximum size in this picture.

All of the human characters are apprentices in the Southern Kingdom's royal city. Zea is the timid one of the group, a tilecutter's apprentice, learning the art of mosaic making from a master tilecutter.

Going clockwise, Roheena, the girl with the circle tattoo around her eye, is bold and commanding, training as an archer's apprentice. Archers in training have one tattoo. Master archers have one on each eye. (You've actually seen her before. She the archer in the foreground, here: fav.me/d95ge1g)

Bayan is a baker's apprentice. He's the heart of the group, skilled at mediating conflict.

Lamoni is a blacksmith's apprentice. She's the oldest and the tallest, and also the grumpiest with a very abrasive personality. It might have something to do with what caused the scars on her face.

Azu is an apothecary's apprentice, which is kind of like alchemy-sans-magic. He's the emo member of the group and almost never speaks.

Rykeri, a spearsman's apprentice, rounds out the group with a generally light-hearted and good natured personality. 

Basically, their world is sort of a India meets Eastern Africa vibe, which I tried to reflect in their clothing and appearances. I know they have pointy ears, but they aren't elves. They're Southerners. Human-like people that live in the Southern Kingdom. There's four kingdoms total based on four elements: earth, air, water, and ice. (Yes, I cheated. I needed five elements because fire is supposed to be the nomadic, chaotic element wielded by evil, so I split water into two elements, water and ice, to get all four kingdoms, North, South, East, & West.) Each kingdom is inhabited by a slightly different race of people who have magical control over their respective element. Southerners are known for their large ears and long tails and their ability to control the element of air, because the Southern Kingdom is the elemental land of air.

(And yes, I am aware the elements thing is similar to Avatar: the Last Airbender, as someone pointed out last time I posted, but the classical elements have been around for thousands of years. This is MY take on them. If there are similarities to Avatar, they're coincidental, because I've never actually watched the show.)

Edit: The colors were so dark on the old copy, I just had to lighten them up. I also changed the shape of Zea's jawline just a bit because the old one was bothering me.