Erial 'Blue' S'riah

This is character art for a project I'm doing with
Take a look over at her gallery to see what awesome ideas she's got up!

You can find my other characters at the following links:
Elijah "Eli" Hannigan: [link]
Miri Peron: [link]
Hawkeye: Coming Soon

Finally finished my asari and I'm pretty damn proud of how she turned out, this being my first time making an "alien" and painting an unnatural skintone without any references/tutorials and all that crap. She took me a pretty long time, took several tries to get her skintone right and then I went through about four different outfits for her before sticking with this simple design. Lol, before she had this really cool outfit, but it made her look like a princess and I did want a somewhat regal look to her but I didn't want her to look...well like a princess.

I am hereby obsessed with black & white color schemes with a random color thrown in.

Borrowed some of the design from Matriarch Benezia's original conceptual art in the ME Art Book. Liked the cape/cloak idea but didn't want to give her a full one because, kinda seems a little impractical (el oh el).

I LOVED painting her face. Gosh, the one thing I do love about asari is their facial markings. Those are fuuuun! <3

You'll notice that there aren't any special glowy stuff about her (sad I know!) but I have a reason for that. Will explain in her backstory! <3

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Erial remembers little of her past, only small snippets that give her a general idea of what she had been through her entire 450 years of life in the galaxy. She knows that she was born on the asari homeworld. She remembers taking training to become an asari Commando. She remembers that her biotics were once very powerful and very feared...she remembers she had a daughter once. But full details are few and far between.

The asari does not remember her parents, her mother and "father". She knows that she is not a pureblood, but to who her "father" attributes are from, she is uncertain. Erial does not know when she entered her matron stage of life, but she knows that she is already weary of living. Her body is covered in scars, every bit of skin she shows is the only parts she is not ashamed of. She remembers that she got them from many things, battles, wars, abuse and torture. The faces of those that gave them to her are blurry.

The biggest scar for her, however, is knowing she had a daughter and not even knowing her name.

The things she can remember are recent. She had been taken by the batarians, sold to pirates for entertainment and pleasure. All asari are gifted naturally with powerful biotics, it's not common for one to end up a slave because of the dangers. But to keep Erial, it was easy, somewhere through all the torture and abuse she had suffered but barely remembered, she lost that part of herself. She had been cut from her biotics, her very being. She was barely able to meld her mind with others any more, only capable of catching faint whispers. To take away that, was to take away what it was to be an asari. It was like clipping the wing of a bird, taking away it's ability to fly, taking away what made it a bird.

Erial became a shell. Most of her ached to die.

When Eli and Hawkeye came, things changed. They gave her hope and returned her freedom, giving her a purpose. For the longest time she had felt utterly useless to the two men that had saved her, she had no biotics, she had no skills, they had been taken away. But they grew on her, giving her a sense of purpose. She eventually began to pick up on things upon the ship, studying everyone and everything, learning everything she possibly could. She would assist Eli with maintaining the weapons, keeping the armory in tip-top shape. When things were slow, she'd keep Hawkeye company on the bridge, eventually figuring out the weapons systems to the point where she became his 'go-to gal' in the heat of battle.

Despite her lack of biotic powers, she was a hell of a shot. She knew the insides and outs of every single weapon and when someone needed an upgrade, they go to "Blue" as Hawkeye cleverly calls her.

She feels at home aboard 'Judy' despite being the only alien, she's treated with respect and feels she finally has a purpose once more. Both Eli and Hawkeye care about her greatly, Miri on the otherhand tends to get jealous of Erial due to the two men always paying more attention to her than they do Miri. Erial is well aware of everyone's feelings towards her, especially those of the flyboy and the vigilante, in an attempt to keep peace, she acts completely oblivious.

Eli promises to help find a way to restore her biotics, a worthy goal she doubts will ever come to fruition.

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I have a thing for making emotionally damaged characters with shitty pasts. Mainly because they're such complex characters and are challenging to use. Also, giving them happy endings on occasion is very rewarding if done right. Though, don't take that as me saying this one gets a happy ending. I won't tell, you'll have to wait and find out.

Will probably continue to rework her history, but I like what I have with her so far. <3

NOW I GET TO WORK ON HAWKEYE!


Erial "Blue" S'riah © Candice Hernandez
Mass Effect/asari © Bioware