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Description
... or more specifically "Red Princess" because at this point the queen was still a princess, wasn't expected to take the throne, and truthfully did not want it. Her older brother, Crown Prince Alexander, was still alive. The idea behind this picture is: I wanted to do a render of one of my oldest characters, Semiramis, Queen of Hell, older sister to the exiled princess, Zenobia .

History Part I
Semiramis was a very rare devil, born looking completely human, and it became quickly apparent as she grew that the princess would likely be an extraordinary beauty by human standards. Her body chemistry, however, was very clearly that of a devil (or djinn as they like to call themselves, hearkening back to ancient times when they ruled what is now the "Middle East") so she was more agile and a bit stronger than humans with heightened senses, resistance to disease, and somewhat faster healing. Because of this and because she was second-born Semiramis was trained almost from day one to live on the surface world among humans, the idea being that one day she could be a diplomat advancing Hell's interests, brokering trade deals with human nations and surface-dwelling demons alike.

Side Story
Let me explain here about my version of demons, devils, or whatever, and "Hell." Hell is an underground city or network of cities beneath Eastern Europe and Russia ruled by the djinn, the oldest tribe of demonkind in the world. They are not supernatural extra-planar beings related to any human religion. "Demon" is simply an easy collective term for many different tribes of inhuman creatures that have inspired human myths and legends all over the world. The djinn, who strongly influenced Christian ideas about "red devils," decided to embrace the bullshit being said about them and loosely modeled their society on the concept of Hell, in particular Dante Alighieri's Inferno, using it as guideline. Think of my Hell as more like The Underdark from Dungeons & Dragons, but with Gothic architecture, mock-Satanic themes, and a lot of sensual decadence.

History Part II
So, anyway, back to Semiramis... The princess embraced her education, the idea of traveling all over the world, of her future role for her people. She had a real talent for art and looked forward to seeing all the famous works she was learning about, of studying at human colleges and universities. She'd even secretly fallen in love with a human boy who had no idea yet who or what she really was. But everything changed when Semiramis was 16. She changed. She fell violently ill, running a terrible fever that lasted for days. As the fever ran its course, her fair hair fell out and her skin turned red. Her bright eyes became dark and lustrous. When her hair grew back it was coal-black. Her canine teeth, top and bottom, turned into fangs. Semiramis became just another red devil, common among so many of her kind, and her intended life on the surface was over before it truly began. She became angry and depressed and lost herself in pleasures generally forbidden to a princess.

Semiramis took to sneaking out of the palace, to hiding in the most decadent quarters of the capitol city under an assumed identity, living a secret life. No one recognized her. No one really cared. But she made some of the best friends she would ever have during this time. She wasn't exactly happy with her double life, but she was content, accepted it. And then that, too, was taken from her. Semiramis started having severe headaches and lower back pain during her 19th year. The doctors said she wasn't done changing, but over the past three years since it started the only other readily apparent transformation had been to her eyes and what Semiramis could do with them. She could alter their appearance and see in different ways from other djinn. Or, at least, with greater clarity than others. But now horns started growing from her forehead, a tail from the base of her spine. People were talking about the princess' ongoing transformation and she couldn't go back to the districts, to her friends, with such clear signs that she and Princess Semiramis were one and the same. First the surface was taken from her and the boy she loved, then the districts and her dearest friends. Only her beloved older brother and her strange little sister seemed to understand what she was going through, or at least tried to understand.

Then, during an ill-fated trip to New York, the Crown Prince was murdered. However unintentional they were, young Zenobia's actions led to Alexander's death, so she was exiled to the surface world, never to return. Zenobia was not allowed to even set foot in surface countries that might lie atop Hell's domain. Semiramis' brother was gone, her little sister sent to the surface world that was supposed to be have been hers... Suddenly Semiramis was the only child left to the Royal Family and in line for the throne with unexpected, unasked-for responsibilities dumped on her shoulders. And with her now fully demonic-looking appearance there was little chance of venturing beyond the underground cities, or even going outside the palace without bodyguards.

There's so much more to Semiramis' story than this like her mother's death, her longing for and resentment of Zenobia, her father remarrying and having another child by his new wife, how the stepmother schemed to eliminate Semiramis and put her own daughter in line for the throne, how that daughter, Alexandra, found out and allied with her older sister against the queen, then Alexandra exiled herself to Japan to prevent her mother's plans from ever succeeding, how the king had to imprison his wife and, deeply depressed over it, he abdicated the throne, making Semiramis queen. But one of the really fun pieces is how Queen Semiramis is kidnapped, how she and Ysabel Arroyo became best friends (which irks Zenobia) finally tearing down Ysabel's intense dislike of demihumans. Also, thanks to Ysabel and a complicated set of circumstances, Semiramis goes through one more transformation: she grows dragon-like wings such as her most ancient ancestors allegedly possessed, returning to Hell greatly enhanced. And there are other neat little links with my major characters. Semiramis becomes an ally of Layla Aschenbrand during a troubled time, her half-sister in Japan, Alexandra, is one of Deshret al-Fazil 's lovers... Stuff like that.

Behind-the-Scenes
In order to truly do Semiramis justice I think I'll need Tara 2 HD by Kayleyss , but until I can afford her, the original Tara & Sachra will work. So that's what I did here. I used the Sachra texture on my recent Lita shape (as seen in Surprisingly Comfortable ) and this is supposed to be during that age 16-19 period before Semiramis started growing horns and a tail. The facepaint mask came in particularly handy as I'd described a certain type of devil girl in the districts wearing a mask of bloodred facepaint across their eyes and that's the kind Semiramis identified with in her secret life and and where her two best friends came from.

Description
... or more specifically "Red Princess" because at this point the queen was still a princess, wasn't expected to take the throne, and truthfully did not want it. Her older brother, Crown Prince Alexander, was still alive. The idea behind this picture is: I wanted to do a render of one of my oldest characters, Semiramis, Queen of Hell, older sister to the exiled princess, Zenobia .

History Part I
Semiramis was a very rare devil, born looking completely human, and it became quickly apparent as she grew that the princess would likely be an extraordinary beauty by human standards. Her body chemistry, however, was very clearly that of a devil (or djinn as they like to call themselves, hearkening back to ancient times when they ruled what is now the "Middle East") so she was more agile and a bit stronger than humans with heightened senses, resistance to disease, and somewhat faster healing. Because of this and because she was second-born Semiramis was trained almost from day one to live on the surface world among humans, the idea being that one day she could be a diplomat advancing Hell's interests, brokering trade deals with human nations and surface-dwelling demons alike.

Side Story
Let me explain here about my version of demons, devils, or whatever, and "Hell." Hell is an underground city or network of cities beneath Eastern Europe and Russia ruled by the djinn, the oldest tribe of demonkind in the world. They are not supernatural extra-planar beings related to any human religion. "Demon" is simply an easy collective term for many different tribes of inhuman creatures that have inspired human myths and legends all over the world. The djinn, who strongly influenced Christian ideas about "red devils," decided to embrace the bullshit being said about them and loosely modeled their society on the concept of Hell, in particular Dante Alighieri's Inferno, using it as guideline. Think of my Hell as more like The Underdark from Dungeons & Dragons, but with Gothic architecture, mock-Satanic themes, and a lot of sensual decadence.

History Part II
So, anyway, back to Semiramis... The princess embraced her education, the idea of traveling all over the world, of her future role for her people. She had a real talent for art and looked forward to seeing all the famous works she was learning about, of studying at human colleges and universities. She'd even secretly fallen in love with a human boy who had no idea yet who or what she really was. But everything changed when Semiramis was 16. She changed. She fell violently ill, running a terrible fever that lasted for days. As the fever ran its course, her fair hair fell out and her skin turned red. Her bright eyes became dark and lustrous. When her hair grew back it was coal-black. Her canine teeth, top and bottom, turned into fangs. Semiramis became just another red devil, common among so many of her kind, and her intended life on the surface was over before it truly began. She became angry and depressed and lost herself in pleasures generally forbidden to a princess.

Semiramis took to sneaking out of the palace, to hiding in the most decadent quarters of the capitol city under an assumed identity, living a secret life. No one recognized her. No one really cared. But she made some of the best friends she would ever have during this time. She wasn't exactly happy with her double life, but she was content, accepted it. And then that, too, was taken from her. Semiramis started having severe headaches and lower back pain during her 19th year. The doctors said she wasn't done changing, but over the past three years since it started the only other readily apparent transformation had been to her eyes and what Semiramis could do with them. She could alter their appearance and see in different ways from other djinn. Or, at least, with greater clarity than others. But now horns started growing from her forehead, a tail from the base of her spine. People were talking about the princess' ongoing transformation and she couldn't go back to the districts, to her friends, with such clear signs that she and Princess Semiramis were one and the same. First the surface was taken from her and the boy she loved, then the districts and her dearest friends. Only her beloved older brother and her strange little sister seemed to understand what she was going through, or at least tried to understand.

Then, during an ill-fated trip to New York, the Crown Prince was murdered. However unintentional they were, young Zenobia's actions led to Alexander's death, so she was exiled to the surface world, never to return. Zenobia was not allowed to even set foot in surface countries that might lie atop Hell's domain. Semiramis' brother was gone, her little sister sent to the surface world that was supposed to be have been hers... Suddenly Semiramis was the only child left to the Royal Family and in line for the throne with unexpected, unasked-for responsibilities dumped on her shoulders. And with her now fully demonic-looking appearance there was little chance of venturing beyond the underground cities, or even going outside the palace without bodyguards.

There's so much more to Semiramis' story than this like her mother's death, her longing for and resentment of Zenobia, her father remarrying and having another child by his new wife, how the stepmother schemed to eliminate Semiramis and put her own daughter in line for the throne, how that daughter, Alexandra, found out and allied with her older sister against the queen, then Alexandra exiled herself to Japan to prevent her mother's plans from ever succeeding, how the king had to imprison his wife and, deeply depressed over it, he abdicated the throne, making Semiramis queen. But one of the really fun pieces is how Queen Semiramis is kidnapped, how she and Ysabel Arroyo became best friends (which irks Zenobia) finally tearing down Ysabel's intense dislike of demihumans. Also, thanks to Ysabel and a complicated set of circumstances, Semiramis goes through one more transformation: she grows dragon-like wings such as her most ancient ancestors allegedly possessed, returning to Hell greatly enhanced. And there are other neat little links with my major characters. Semiramis becomes an ally of Layla Aschenbrand during a troubled time, her half-sister in Japan, Alexandra, is one of Deshret al-Fazil 's lovers... Stuff like that.

Behind-the-Scenes
In order to truly do Semiramis justice I think I'll need Tara 2 HD by Kayleyss , but until I can afford her, the original Tara & Sachra will work. So that's what I did here. I used the Sachra texture on my recent Lita shape (as seen in Surprisingly Comfortable ) and this is supposed to be during that age 16-19 period before Semiramis started growing horns and a tail. The facepaint mask came in particularly handy as I'd described a certain type of devil girl in the districts wearing a mask of bloodred facepaint across their eyes and that's the kind Semiramis identified with in her secret life and and where her two best friends came from.