Bisclavret - Persona fan art

Persona 3, part of the Persona series of spinoffs of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, was released in Japan mid-July, and I picked up an import copy some time ago. Ii'm still seeing how far I can go before illiteracy in Nipponese catches up with me. ^_^;

Anyway, this is going to end up as a well-thought-out P3 fanart, but it stands fine on its own as a picture. So here it is. My Persona persona is Bisclavret, from Marie de France's Lay of Bisclavret.

Yes, he's supposed to be shiny, like the game artwork. XD

This took about 8 hours, not counting the research and trial sketches I did while designing a MegaTen/Persona-flavoured Bisclavret. Pencil sketch, then inked with dye pen, scanned, bulk of the work done on PhotoShop 7.0.1. References used include illustrations of the other personas by Shigenori Soejima, 12th-century European clothing, and texts regarding the Lay of Bisclavret.

The following are just extraneous details, only if you're interested in why I chose Bisclavret as a Persona, and also if you're familiar with typical Shin Megami Tensei series conventions.

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For the data, I'm using SMT:Nocturne-style skills, because I don't know about Persona's system. Assume he's a recruitable demon with levels and stuff, heh.

Battle notes: he's a well-balanced character, but primarily physical-based with the combination of defense lowering (Rakunda) and damage doubling (Focus). High Agility means he'll often attack first, and evade often. He has Fatal Charm, and Charm status is always nice to put on enemies. You'll get some free attacks with Retaliate on him, which is good unless there's a Physical repelling enemy.

LV30 (Night) Persona Bisclavret
St:16 Mg:14 Vt:12 Ag:16 Lu:15
(Prioritise St, Lu, Ag)
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TAROT:
XII. The Hanged Man
AFFINITY:
Immune to Lightning; Weak to Fire; Strong to Ailments
SKILLS:
*Mazio, *Heat Wave, *Retaliate, *Focus, Rakunda, Fatal Charm, Zionga, Endure
PERSONALITY:
Male, adult, gentleman.
DESCRIPTION:
A nobleman who turns into a werewolf every turn of the week, unbeknownst to anyone else. When his secret was discovered by his wife, he was betrayed, where his human clothes were stolen and he stayed in wolf form for many years, before being hunted by a king and accepted into the royal court due to his civil nature. He gained revenge by tearing off his treacherous wife's nose, and then regained his human form.

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Bisclavret was a nobleman of good fortune and significant societal presence who turns into wolf every week (there's no explanation as to why). In a way, this reflects my personal issues of being a working member of society while being gay (the transformation every week thing ties into how I'd want to go up north and visit my sweetheart over weekends.)

Upon pressure by the wife (who here, to me, psychologically represents societal expectations and scrutiny, the Watching Mistress, or the good stuff that could potentially lead to betrayal of the self by revealing the secret, i.e. my homosexuality). The betrayal occurs when the wife, showing great disgust upon finding out her husband's secret (which was not criminal, since as a wolf he hunts wild game, doesn't attack nor approach humans) conspires to make Bisclavret unable to transform back to human form by stealing his human clothes. (Note my design, where the wolfman is emerging from the human body and clothing.) After spending many years in animal form, Bisclavret becomes the subject of a hunt by the King's party, but when he shows apparent gestures of fealty and humility, the King takes him back as a member of the court. (Some interpretations suggest a pederastic relationship between the nobleman and the king at this time.)

Bisclavret is the gentle werewolf; the tale is not about the savagery of the animal. The tale shows an obvious distrust of females (relating a bit to Shuraim, my furry persona's early-life betrayal by a girl), and a nearly absurd sense of brotherhood (or more) amongst men. While most papers on the Lay of Bisclavret touch on either the man/animal aspect or the deep misogyny in the story and storytelling, I'll go out on a limb (a big limb) and take the interpretation in R. P. Conner's book, Blossom of Bone (1993), that it is "a homosexual fairy tale".

Also... doesn't it seem like the furry fandom is so much a boys' club? ^_^

I took as many symbolic elements from the Lai as I could to describe how the Persona itself looks like. In many Kazuma Kaneko designs for mythological beings, the physical features of the creature itself tells parts of the story of the mythology. It took me a few days to condense the final form of my version of Bisclavret.