Neon’s A Doll A Migraine-less Day, More Or Less - 2019 edition!

[Elfy]

Great celebration!

[Alliecat]

What a great setup! Terrific job. Congrats on Day 200!!

[neon_jellyfish]

Thanks guys!


Day 202

One more with the tree.

[davidd]

The spooky dark forest makes a satisfactory setting for the Dark Queen!

[werepuppy]

Raven looks a little like she's plotting something there, alone in the dark with a tree that is filled with mystic powers.

[Cornflower Blue]

The spooky tree makes an excellent background for Raven!

[neon_jellyfish]

Thanks everyone!

Day 203

In the next few days, I'm going to introduce the characters I made up for my Pullips, and share a few tidbits about the world they inhabit. Most of my dolls (like MH, EAH, OUAZ) come with their own backstory, and I really like that idea, so I wanted a backstory that would tie together my Pullip & friends dolls. However, I can’t come up with a decent story to save my life, so I took bits and bobs from my favorite stories from books, movies, folk tales and even games, threw them into my cauldron, put on a pointy hat and brewed a peculiar kingdom called Oddwickshire.

Welcome to Oddwickshire

Oddwickshire is a small kingdom nestled in mountains. Most of it is covered with very old and very dark forests and also fog. Lots and lots of fog. It has two rivers (one of them is underground and very weird), two lakes (one of them is underground and very weird), two towns (both very weird) and a lot of ...odd things going on. It is (and has always been) a place where humans and various other creatures coexist not only in peace, but in genuine friendship. Magic has the same weight as science here (if not more), a lot of things are powered by steam, death is seldom the end and the local eye soup is delicious!

To be continued...

[davidd]

I already want to know more about the "very weird" underground river and lake! Partly because your "shadowy" style photos are so amazing.

This is a wonderful start to your introductions with the fog-shrouded silhouette photo!

Has your Pullip World been in the works for a long time, or is it something you are creating as a result of the daily photo challenge?

[dargosmydaddy]

Oooh, story time! (*sits down cross-legged, waits eagerly for more*)

[werepuppy]

Ooh. I'll get the popcorn! I cannot wait to hear all these stories!

[Cornflower Blue]

This should inspire some interesting photos!

[Alliecat]

Yay! Something completely different!
A fun introduction (and cool photo!).
Also looking forward to storytime

[Elfy]

I’m looking forward to getting to know Oddwickshire and it’s inhabitants.

[Lejays17]

Story time! I’m going to be really interested in the land and how all the characters fit together & what ideas you come up with.

So very cool we will get to learn a bit more about your world.

[neon_jellyfish]

Thanks guys! Don't get your hopes too high, thouh, I don't have any real stories, mostly just names with a few character traits attached to them and rough sketches of their background...

Has your Pullip World been in the works for a long time, or is it something you are creating as a result of the daily photo challenge?

I started putting it together when I got Her Insane Majesty, which was autumn 2017. I found out that coming up with a backstory for the dolls on my wishlist is really fun, and also really dangerous. Characters start popping up left and right and then they demand shells...



Day 204

Oddwick

Oddwick is capital of Oddwickshire. It lies on banks of upper Odde, the kingdom's surface (and pretty normal) river, at the foot of the mountains. It is the oldest settlement in Oddwickshire. Well, oldest settlement of people, as in humans. There are older settlements in the forests…

The landmark of the town is the Oddwick Castle, the residence of the reigning monarch. It’s one of those nice, cozy gothic castles built of dark stone, with theatrical amount of uselessly thin and tall towers with menacing pointy roofs (no darn pigeons! Or flying rats!) and battlements everywhere… It also has a lighthouse. We’ll get back to lighthouses later. And it is haunted, naturally.

The castle is surrounded by the town’s oldest district, ingeniously named ‘Old Town’. It’s pretty much what you’d ex²pect of this kind of district. Old stone houses with at least one ghost on full-time contract, dark damp cellars and dark dusty attics, spacious closets full of skeletons and doors that go 'crrrrrreeeeeeaaaaaak' every time you open them are Old Town's most common type of building, but there are also antique shops (full of lovely porcelain sets, fine silverware, creepy vintage toys, cursed items, you know the drift...), many bookshops, coffeeshops and tearooms... And a library, which we'll visit later.

There are two other districts, Graveyard and Cabbage Gardens. Graveyard started as a normal graveyard and gradually grew into fashionable district while still serving as a graveyard. Most of the town’s supernaturals live here (namely vampires). At first it might seem strange, with graves filling almost every empty space between houses and shops, but once you get used to it, it’s actually quite charming and romantic. Nightlife here can get wild sometimes.

Cabbage Gardens used to be the fringe of the town, with small houses surrounded by small gardens where those not so well-off grew their food, but after some time, it grew quite wealthy and it developed its own unique architectural style centered around ornate greenhouses, roof gardens and whatnot on practically every parcel.

The underground or the town is also quite lively, with natural caves and manmade catacombs intertwined with each other. It is not recommended to enter without a guide. Also not recommended is licking the green crystals. The purple ones are OK. 


The Heiress To The Throne



Rosamunda Wilhelmina von Lebkuchenburg is Queen’s older sister and kingdom’s most powerful witch. She was supposed to become the queen, but she didn’t really want to, she was more interested in magical arts. She always thought that her little sis has more talent for commanding, er, governing the kingdom. When her royal parents died in an unfortunate accident involving stair railing, wax polish and a little bit of nostalgy, she conceded the Throne to her younger sister, who in turn gave Rosamunda her own castle and the title of Countess of Lebkuchenburg* and The Oddwicked Witch.

She's one of the few chosen ones who can actually use those green crystals, which come from a complex of caves spreading under the whole kingdom. This complex cumulates magic, which then causes everything in the underground to have serious magic properties, often very dangerous ones, so using UIs (underground items) is mostly prohibited, unless you're a magician especially trained to work with them. The most powerful and most dangerous UI is water from the underground river Unseen (it's a small kingdom with almost no contact with anything beyond its borders, so distinctive names were never a necessity) and the underground lake Quaint (it's a really small kingdom...). However, scaly otters and crystalfish native to the lake can thrive in normal water, too, and are very popular pets.

Oh, and don’t worry about the deceased king and queen, their ghosts, now possessing titles of His and Her Royal Hauntness, are fine, enjoying some quality time abroad on their ghostly honeymoon and planning to travel around the world (and they’re traveling very light).

*Lebkuchenburg means Gingerbread Castle, and it is, of course, a reference to the gingerbread house of the witch from Hansel & Gretel.