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“I am not a stranger to the dark
Hide away, they say
'Cause we don't want your broken parts
I've learned to be ashamed of all my scars
Run away, they say
No one'll love you as you are

But I won't let them break me down to dust
I know that there's a place for us
For we are glorious

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown 'em out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I'm meant to be, this is me

Look out 'cause here I come
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum
I'm not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me

Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh, oh

Another round of bullets hits my skin
Well, fire away 'cause today, I won't let the shame sink in
We are bursting through the barricades and
Reaching for the sun (we are warriors)
Yeah, that's what we've become (yeah, that's what we've become)

I won't let them break me down to dust
I know that there's a place for us
For we are glorious

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown 'em out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I'm meant to be, this is me

Look out 'cause here I come
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum
I'm not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me

Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh, oh

This is me
and I know that I deserve your love
(Oh-oh-oh-oh) there's nothing I'm not worthy of
(Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh, oh)

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown 'em out
This is brave, this is bruised
This is who I'm meant to be, this is me

Look out 'cause here I come (look out 'cause here I come)
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum (marching on, marching, marching on)
I'm not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown 'em out
I'm gonna send a flood
Gonna drown 'em out
Oh
This is me.”
-This Is Me from The Greatest Showman OST

Thank you for all of the patience you guys showed me. My health scare ended up being A LOT MORE than we originally thought it would be, and we’ve had to learn a lot about it in a small amount of time. It’s not as bad as it could be by any stretch, but it’s meant recovery and new meds and stuff, so it’s been a change. Anyway, I hate that this is SO DAMN LATE, so I upped the size of it for my Patreons and I upped the quality from looking like video game concept work/speedpaint to looking finished instead of sticking with the strictly kind of really rough look you typically see in concept and color key work. In fact, pretty much did it lineless, which is RARE for me. Without further adieu, I’ll get into why I went this route for a CONCEPT drawing of a character you guys already see.

Well, when figuring out how I wanted to do this, I really looked through all the stuff I’d done from the beginning of wanting a Khajiit who found herself in a world she didn’t really belong in, which, honestly is all Khajiit in Skyrim. This one of course would have her life made even harder by being the Dragonborne of legend, and what Nord worth his salt is going to believe a Rug is the hero of mankind? So already, the deck is stacked against them. At first, my Khajiit was going to be like most of my leading ladies, very based on me, practically a self-insert if not a fullon cat version of Wielder(when Wielder was my sona obviously) named Diya. She was a Suthay-Raht meaning that she was much bigger than Iona but still had digitigrade legs and was heavier figured and more of a tank/brawler, and while Iona can be brassy, Diya‘s tongue was forever wagging. As things progressed though, I didn’t WANT someone so similar. I wanted someone completely different from who I normally wrote and I wanted a Dragonborne who was reluctant but who ended up picking up the role and bearing it well for people she grew to love more than herself, and that became Iona.

When looking through all the art I’ve done at her that I could either find uploaded or that I’ve took snapshots of and not shared or doodled in books and never even taken pictures of, I wondered what had changed and what I wanted to keep, and what I wanted gone. I never wanted a character who was a member of every guild. Throughout her time in Skyrim, she only ever joins the Stormcloaks and the Companions, hence the wolf’s pelt over her in this piece and Ulfric’s amulet of Talos around her neck. The blue of her tunic is also a nod to her allegiance in the war for Skyrim, and it’s a part of her basic armor design that’s staying.

The snowberries wrapping around her right arm are also using the typical color and “look” of a restoration spell in Skyrim. Iona enters the lands of Skyrim for selfish purposes and as a selfish person, and I‘m not saying that either statement doesn’t have its own legitimate reasons for being understandable. Still, it’s the truth. The comic page you see here https://www.furaffinity.net/view/25834648/ is from the first ACTUAL bit of story I ever did with Iona and Ulfric when I decided they’d be an actual item and not just flirt around with the idea. Also, I drew that with a golf pencil on typing paper, using a rubber band as an eraser in a mental ward…soooo that’s a fun story, and if you guys ever wanna hear it, just ask Auntie Pidge on Stream if you’re there, I’m down for a good time. Anyway, while the comic this is from is LARGELY non-canon now, the part Ulfric says about the snowberries is still canon and snowberries are still a thing important between the two of them. Also look at how much I sucked at drawing. Anyway, the Restoration Spell is combined with the snowberries because the events of Skyrim and Iona growing the balls to actually take her place in those events allows her to heal from her past and make something of herself and move forward.

Once hammering her design down, she when through three main phases: oh look, it’s fucking Wielder as a cat, it’s a smol lynx with serval ears, and okay now we’re a maine coon, and I’m honestly glad we stuck with her being maine coon inspired. My goal for her is to have her as common a girl as you can be. I wanted someone who was as far from nobility as you could get and somehow having her LOOK like a wild cat made her a little too exotic or even strong looking at a glance. Her reference sheet you see here https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46805782/ is still mostly accurate though obviously my style has changed and I’ve streamlined and simplified some of her markings and changed up her costume a bit. Her body type is still very small and petite, a dancer’s build, but here we see the Iona who has been fighting alongside the Stormcloaks, proudly carrying Queen Freydis’s sword her beloved Jarl gave her when he could give her nothing else. She’s stronger than she once was, and she’s come a long way. Thanks for being on that journey with me, guys!

Done entirely in ClipStudioPaint