The Fawngod; Herz's new story

Herz has always been a boy wishing he lived in a High Fantasy novel instead of some nowhere town in Western Kansas. Then I was like, sure Herz, okay, lets see how you do in a fairytale of your own. Let's make you a prince, lets put you next to a god's wood and see what you do when that god is threatened by the war raging between your kingdom and the kingdom to the North. Surprising no one, Herz would want to play hero. Pretty soon the story became about a prince who gave his life to save a dying god, and the implications that sacrifice, most importantly the effect left on his family--specifically his older brother

I really wanted to take this chance to make Herz anything but white and quickly found myself attracted to the idea of a more Indian heritage for him and his family. The first sketch--the one above--he came out too mature looking, so I tried to pull back, get him a little closer to late teens, early twenties;

then came designing Herz's brother, Ravihard, and his wife, Nettie. 

Their second child is the very definition of princess, even if her mother is a less than traditional queen;

the goof to the left of Herz, here, is Bennett, Ravi's friend. He gets involved with the God a few years after Herz does, resulting in this;

By this point Ravi is pretty sick of the 'forest' laying claim to his favorite people