Compendium: Mychelle Blackwood

Mychelle Blackwood Bio Info

Bigographical Info and the Origins of the Character Follow

Name: Mychelle Kira Blackwood
Sex: Female
Orientation: Heterosexual
Race: Felinian
Height: 5′ 7″
Weight: 148lbs

Birthplace/D.o.B.:
Blackwood, Oslaania4th Day, 4th Month (called “Aargus”), 1784A,O.M. (Age of Messiah)

Age: 64 Yarr – Which is 64 earth years old. But she is the physical, emotional, and mental age equivalent to a 24 year old human female.

Occupation: Inkeeper’s Helper

Religion: Messianich Protestant
Social Disposition: Free spirit, but with some traditional values

Tribe: Blackwood Felinians
Clan: Wood Felinians of Oslaania

Like the Elves, the Felinians share similar Tribe and Clan divisions.
However, the Wood Felinians are not in danger of extinction as the Wood Elves are.

During the Archanian purges of Oslaania, the Forest Elves joined forces with the Wood Felinians to help save their mutual Wood Elf friends from total extinction from the onslaught of the Archanians who had every intention of kiling every single Wood Elf alive; man, woman, and child.

Mychelle Blackwood is the best friend of a surviving Wood Elf.

Mychelle’s origins, basic “background sketch” –

Mychelle Blackwood is of the race of Felinians. A race of humanoid beings sporting cat-like ears and tails. Aside from the ears and tails, their bodies are very human-like otherwise- except that they enjoy a lifespan that is 3-4 times that of a human, but 1/3 less than that of an Elf. Mychelle is the personal best friend of Nyrva Dragonwood in my fiction and a key supporting character in my fictional works. Though half the age of Nyrva physcally, she is the mental and age equivalent of Nyrva. She is a peer, and is very close with Nyrva in spite of the fact that Nyrva would outlive her by at least a century and they both know it. Mychelle is of the tribe and clan of Blackwood Felinians – like the Elves, Felinians also have tribes and clans. And like the Wood Elves of Oslaania, there are also the Wood Felinians – and in spite of the racial differences physically, the two clans have always been very close and the very best of allies.

It is not uncommon for Wood Elves and Wood Felinians to embrace one another as friends, even as kin folk. They share the same part of the Oslaanian country and share many of the same customs. Mychelle is no exception. She too embraces the culture of her people and shares like customs with her Woof Elf friends – Nyrva being the best of them. Mychelle is a free spirit of a sort. She is a passive, non-aggressive person. But don’t try to hurt her friends or you may bring out the “feral cat” in her! (so to speak)

She is also a woman of faith. She believes in God and that God has a purpose for all His people. Though she is not outspoken about it, as she feels it is a very personal issue for her. She is a very loving and compassionate person. She may not offer much advice but she has no problem lending a hurting friend an ear. She is a watcher and listener more than a talker. But she’s not afraid to have fun with her friends. She always has a smile on her face. Like Nyrva- her immediate family is known to be dead. Mychelle has no known living family and has “adopted” Nyrva as her surrogate “family”. Together, Mychelle, another friend Raechelle Greentree of the Forest Felinians, and Nyrva support each other, protect each other and seek to survive in a dangerous time in their land.

Mychelle is a key supporting character through much of Nyrva Dragonwood’s story, at least her first book. It is not clear yet what extent her role will be in Nyrva’s second book, however she definitely has a planned role.

There was also the thought at some point of doing a book about Mychelle at some point later on. I am undecided on this point.

ORIGINS OF THE CHARACTER AND ARTWORK

Mychelle Blackwood was born out of my interest in Japanese catgirl characters- not “furry” or “anthro” characters, but simple humanoid, human-like girls that sported the ears and sometimes other features of a cat. I never fully knew the reason the Japanese were into drawing catgirls – one thought I had was that it was a form of sexual innuendo. (cat, “pussy” – or “sex kitten” perhaps?) In any case I found the concept strange but fascinating and fun. So I wanted some catgirl characters of my own. My original was a character named “Kitty” which didn’t last long. She was changed into a blue-haired catgirl I called “Niko” (“Neko”, just spelled differently). But I never was happy with how “Niko” turned out and so I changed her again, gave her bright Irish, Kelly Green hair (I am a wee bit Irish meself, Laddy!). I always loved the name “Michelle” but since my catgirl was to be a fantasy-fangled character I spelled it “Mychelle” instead. It just stuck with me and I worked with that ever since. For a time I still drew “Niko” but by then changed the spelling to “Neko” but by 2005 I had retired “Neko” completely and Mychelle took her place completely. My other chief catgirl character “Raechelle” was in her early development at that time as well. Until 2009, 99.9% of my drawings of Mychelle were of her bare naked – she never wore clothes. It became a running inside joke for me personally for 2-3 years. For awhile I retired drawing her nude but now it’s probably 50/50- and some of the old nudes of Mychelle I did are in the process of being redone from the pencil up to conform with my latest drawing techniques.

Artwork

About the same time the development of my fiction was underway, I had also rediscovered my love of drawing and cartooning. And while my skills at the time were rather shoddy at best I have spent well over a decade working on development. But because I work full time I could not spend more than a few hours a week on this new hobby- and to this day this has not changed.

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