Margaret Neafsey - Concept Design Work 2023

The Papilio Princess

At the continent’s center, a prestigious college stands. funded by the nobility and wide-spread companies throughout the land, the school was to prepare the heirs of family or company fortune, to go on to being a leader and/or in control of what their predecessor had done prior, and to enrich their legacy with their own endeavors.

In the final year of her schooling, 21 year old Myria takes the opportunity to transfer in. Scraping by with some luck and scholarships, she wants to take this opportunity to experience what its like to walk along those who are noble. since she was a little girl, she had held tightly to the dream of becoming a princess. She wishes to seize all sorts of opportunities to be the grandest princess the world has ever seen! And there’s no one better for her to meet than the Papilio Princess.

To her knowledge, the Papilio Princess must be the most noble figure in the school. Daily, duels are always held between students and the princess’s current knight. Whoever wins the duel gets to remain at the princess’s side, and whoever is there by the time she graduates at the end of the year, they are to be wed. Myria wants to meet her at all costs, to learn what it truly means to be a princess and how to be recognized as one!

On her first day of transferring in, Myria, after defending a boy she saw being harassed, ends up being challenged by the man who had held the princess’s hand as her knight and soon-to-be husband. And in a turn of events, she ends up winning the duel. Although shocked she’s become a knight, she’s excited to finally meet the princess!

…only for the princess to be the doll-like man she defended!

Myria

A young woman who enrolls in the College. Age 21, proudly heils from her family’s small home out in a smaller city, far from the jurisdiction of royals. She grew up always wanting to pursue the wish of becoming a princess– a dream spurred on by meeting a noble boy in her childhood, who told her that she can train herself and she would surely become a princess in no time. Attends the college at the request of her mother, but wishes to make the most of it due to how close she can be with actual princes and princesses. Tends to run with her impulses first before thinking out of solutions to situations, which leads her to becoming the knight to the Papilio Princess. Has a strong sense of justice and a kind heart, wishing to make Lobelia smile. Fights with a cute heart axe!

Myria, as a character, has gone through many design drafts in the time I was creating her. When it came down to her final design (last part), I wanted to make her design exude femininity. Even with her knight uniform, there is still fabric around her waist to make her silhouette appear as if there is an actual skirt there. I was torn on what sort of color palette would fit her best, but I decided that I would lean in on the pinks and purples to showcase her clinging to a feminine identity, while having shades of red in her knight uniform to make it pop.

Ultimately, Myria's personality contrasts heavily with the idea of "how a princess should act". She refuses to ever sit back, she moves to always take a stand in the things that she believes in. She's more of a leader rather than a follower, and she struggles to accept that part of herself. It's because of the way she tends to act impulsive and passionate that people attempt to stomp all over her dreams of being a princess.

Lobelia Rumanzovia

From the get-go, Lobelia was designed and created as a transgender man in mind.  With this also in mind, it heavily reflects on the treatment he has from his peers and family. Lobelia personally doesn't mind dressing in feminine clothing, should it be on his own terms. His role as the Papilio Princess is heavily rooted in his family refusing to view him as a man, as well as them refusing to give him autonomy of his own existence. Before Myria came along, he had already given up and did not want to fight anymore on his treatment of being like a doll for someone to parade around. However, with Myria, he grows to find his own path and way, even while still taking the term of princess. Being the Papilio Princess, while it is something negative at first, is something Lobelia wishes to reclaim as something that he can call his.

Idony Nymphalis

Kagutsu Hypaurotis