Kefira
An Imperial Legend
Once upon a time, there was another world.
In its early ages, it was a very dark world in the depths of hellish despair. Its inhabitants were constantly at war with each other, unleashing heartbreaking loss, disease, and famines across its continents. The innocent and weak were given no mercy from the strong and greedy. In fact, it is said that in the chronicles of all the worlds, this world had a bloodier history than any other.
But there was hope.
A fearsome black immortal beast built up an army of honorable men and women, and with them he begin taking down barbaric warlords, dark princes, and evil strongholds. His armies grew, and his power crept across the world. Wherever he acquired a firm holding, anarchy would crumble, and order, security, and peace would soon follow.
The beast believed that peace was a blessing from a higher power, given and taken for reasons unknown to beings constrained by flesh; and that as such, beings should not honor peace itself, but rather fight for what is right, even if the struggle will be bloody; and then, after the right course of action is taken, the doors will be left wide open for peace to come and stay.
Thus the early days of his rising empire were sometimes the darkest times ever, like the hours before the dawning of a day. Many stories could be told about those times, when the balances of powers were shifting and hope glistened on the horizons for the first time. Without doubt, it was a time for heroes and legends.
One particular character stood out among the history of that time, a beautiful woman with glittering green eyes.
She came from a southern village nested in a lush delta of a big river, near a gulf. It was a pitiful village; warlords came through it frequently, taking with them anything worth anything, including any villager who could do anything useful. Eventually, all that was left of the village, were very old, young, and weak inhabitants.
As a girl of only twelve years old, who had managed to hide in the trees to keep from being taken, she became the leader of her village, simply because she was the strongest.
More warlords visited the village, and one of them threatened to kill them if they did not leave the lush delta, which he wanted for himself. So she led her people away from there, into the rocky desolate places to the west, and continued to move them around, just a step ahead of trouble. But even a child like her knew that they could not keep running forever; not only were they dying of starvation, but she knew they had been lucky to escape danger so far. They had to find someone with power, who could protect them. But who? Who could they trust, and who would even want a useless village like hers?
The old people told her about a mighty warrior leading a vast army. They told her that the warrior had a kind heart, and cared for the weak and the helpless, but that he was so terrifying to behold, few strangers dared even approach him... that he was not a man.
Bravely, she left her village to seek this warrior, or anyone else who could help them. Her trek was long and dangerous, full of many adventures, including "temporary" slavery. Three moon cycles passed, and surprisingly, she found the great warrior the old people had spoken of, as though fate itself drew her to him.
Upon seeing him, she took a deep breath. No story could have prepared her for the sight of "the great warrior".
He was a one-horned beast, standing taller than an elephant. Wisps of smoke streamed through his flared nostrils as he strode through his encampment with mesmerizing grace, walking on long elegant legs. His massive claws sank into the turf wherever they set ground. Long jet black fur covered most of his body, and glistened brightly under the hot afternoon sun, moving in the slightest breeze, as though it had a life of its own. And even from afar, his eyes glowed a bright amber, as if fire was trapped inside of them.
Still determined to help her village, the girl went before him, trembling, and asked for his help.
"You are the leader of your tribe?" he asked her.
"Yes."
"Will you swear your loyalty to me? Will you be true to me, and all that I represent?"
"Yes," she replied, without hesitation.
"Good. Your village will join us, and from now on, you will have a new name. Kefira. It means "little lioness", for that is what you are, brave child."
Thus, the pitiful village, happy to have their young leader back, was welcomed into the beast's army. Since none were able to fight, they cooked and sewed for the soldiers instead. Kefira herself was taken under the beast's wing, and he taught her how to become a great leader.
Years went passed, and she grew into a beauty, very loyal to the beast's cause. In fact, it was said she became a real lady. Her village grew too. In fact, it grew so much that she was called a queen, instead of a chief.
Men good and bad sought her as their wife. But she only cared for one: a good man, who was a humble soldier. She married him and stayed true to him for the rest of her life, even though she had many choices.
Often times, she rode out to send messages to enemy armies, for she was so beautiful and eloquent that she was more effective than anyone else; even the enemies were drawn to her.
She did several other great and heroic deeds for the rising Empire, which was written in the history books. Also, she had much to do with its political foundations.
But as is always the case, everyone's time comes to an end. The enemies of the Empire recognized her as a great threat to them. So they finally detained her when she rode out to them. They tortured her, and then burned her at the stake. She died at the tender age of twenty-three, as a mother of two little boys.
The beast, her family, and her people were greatly saddened by her death, and mourned hard and long for her. Since they had no body to bury, they built a stone memorial to honor her memory. Engraved on the memorial were the tattoos she had on her arms.
One tattoo had a lioness head on it, for the beast had called her a little lioness...
And the other had the symbol of the beast's rising empire on it, which was appropriate for her memorial, since that was what she lived and died for...
Her boys laid white flowers upon the memorial. They would grow up to be very proud of their mother, and would someday become mighty warriors, continuing her legacy of greatness.
In time, Kefira would become a great legend, and as legends often do, hers would grow.
Children in the Empire would learn about the poor girl who became a chief, who became a slave, who became a queen, who became a courageous heroine and died for their empire.
~*~*~
Enya from her album The Celts, and can be purchased at Amazon.com.
The Doll
Kefira was formerly an AA Goddess mold head transplanted onto a bellybutton body, and stood 11.5 inches tall.
All of her original factory paint was removed, and she was repainted using quality artist-grade acrylics. After her paint cured for a few days, it was finished with the appropriate varnishes. The paint was applied in very thin washes, and as you can see, her paint job is extremely detailed. Because of the quality and detail level of her repaint, she was fun to take pictures of, and looked great under just about every kind of lighting, even intense sunlight. It took several days to complete her repaint.
Click HERE to view an exciting high-resolution picture of Kefira's face in direct sunlight.
Her beautiful green irises had no shine marks painted onto them; they were capped with gloss to create a life-like lens, and all the reflection marks you see in the pictures came from the gloss.
Overall, her lightly freckled face was fairly proportionate and "human".
Her arms were lightly sanded before the tattoos were painted on, to give them "tooth" (so the paint would stick), and then were varnished with indoor-outdoor matte varnish. As you might notice, her hands had been slightly repositioned, to make them more interesting.
The Costume
Kefira's costume had a lot of ancient Roman influence in it. Her gown had rolled seams, and was heat treated to give it permanent crinkle and shape. It was a very elegant, dignified look for the doll.
A "sense of movement" had been captured in the gown's design... doesn't she look like she's going to start moving?
Her glossy dark hair was put into a bun, and then secured with two stone-and-bead "scrunchies". The stones were a glassy, translucent brown and amber, called tiger's eye, and were very pretty.
Her lovely earrings (see the high-res photo above) took a few hours to make. They were what they call "shoulder sweepers", and yet were whispery light. They had been jointed to move realistically. Bright green beads were used in them, mainly to bring out her eyes. The ends of them were embellished with coiled wire. You'd be amazed at how tiny these earrings looked in person!
Around her waist, she wore a simple leopard-print belt, with coiled wire embellishments sewn on. The belt, along with the rest of the costume, was removable.
And then, the best part... the shoes!
They had tiny golden soles, and gold straps with light green "peridot" gems on top. These were the shoes of a real special lady. It took a long while and lots of "boo hoo shoes" to make them. They had an excellent fit on the doll.
As is the Brutal Sun Studio tradition, Kefira's costume was fully removable, except for her bangle bracelets (which could carefully be removed with wire nippers, if so desired).
Auction
Kefira was sold on eBay in May of 2006.