A THOROUGH LOOK AT MAYLGEIZ

Now that it's May, we'll be focusing this month's illustration on the eye-catching Maylgeiz!

You can see more of her debut here, in the Sword Slime comic.

She is the boss of the dungeon alongside her husband, Naruholder! But, she wasn't always an eye-catching gazer monstergirl!

In the past, she was the magical bikini-clad heroine, Brave Buster Maylgeiz!

Join us as we take a thorough look at her adventurous and dangerous past as the human heroine Brave Buster Maylgeiz, and her current dungeon life carreer as the gazer girlboss and co-leader of Naruholder's dungeon!

[Apologies for the delay, while I was digging through the archives to prepare files for this deep dive, I ran into a lot of art and notes, and tried to organize it as best as I could. This took quite a while! I'm also alternating between keeping the summaries brief and transcribing the notes. (I'm glad I wrote this down back then!)

I'm of two minds that I don't want to explain too much in such an informal summary, but I also want to provide context that might help influence the voting decisions. A lot of details have been omitted, despite this massive wall of text lol.]

Here are the topics that will be up for voting for the illustration (I attempted to list these in chronological order, though that's not entirely the case for all of these topics)

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01 ) --BRAVE BUSTER MAYLGEIZ--

Powered by "Bravalore" the Guardian Spirit of Bravery, Maylgeiz dons the magical the magical armor of the "Brave Buster." It is quite the sight to behold, in that there isn't much of it to see! The armor is truly one for the brave indeed, and the powers Maylgeiz gains from it are dependent on how brave and confident she is. The armor and spirit of Bravalore accompany her both as her source of power and companion along her adventures. Luckily, she does have the soul of a heroine and the spirit of justice within!

Maylgeiz will confront and defeat evil- but as her journey continues, her willpower and determination are constantly pushed to the breaking point. In fact, her very perception of who and what are good and evil will be put to the test.

Brave Buster Maylgeiz is a homage to classic 80's and 90's bikini armor anime and games, such as Mugen Senshi Valis and Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, and technically is a backstory for present day Maylgeiz from the Sword Slime story. It was a fun origin to think about and expand upon.

02 ) --MAYLGEIZ THE ADVENTURER--

Maylgeiz is adventerous tomboy from a humble village. That village had the honor of housing the holy relic that held "Bravalore", the Guardian Spirit of Bravery. However, tragedy fell upon her home when a mysterious creature attacked! The creature was powered by some sort of Guardian Spirit as well, akin to Bravalore. Through a series of chaotic events, Maylgeiz finds herself infused with the Bravalore spirit, becoming Brave Buster Maylgeiz!

Now with this new blessing, she journies across the land, calling upon Bravalore in times of need, to battle against the forces of evil with a brave face (and body), in the name of love and justice.

Even outside the armor, she is a kind soul with a heroic spirit and a love of books, animals, fun clothing, helping others, and (while she won't openly admit it) is a little bit of a nymphomaniac.

As she gains confidence in weilding the power of Bravalore and using the Brave Buster, she may find moments of cockiness that betray her.

-The Dungeon-

As Maylgeiz gains noteriety due to her successful adventures, she finds herself using the capitol as a sort of base of operations.

Between quests, Maylgeiz frequently visits the dungeon just outside of town. Having cleared the relatievly easier first part of the dungeon, she challenges the hidden dungeon boss in the deeper levels. That boss is the lord of the dungeon, the mysterious and powerful gazer, Naruholder. She is frequently losing, but finds herself wanting to try again. There is something unusual about this dungeon, where the consequences and stakes feel different than her other adventures. It almost feels like sparring, maybe even dancing.

Maylgeiz continues to visit the dungeon between quests regularly, and oddly enough, starts to form a sort of bond with Naruholder.

04, 05, 06 ) --FORCES OF GOOD AND EVIL--

Brave Buster Maylgeiz fights a wide variety of enemies across her long journey. Frought with many dangers and perils, some monsters are unquestionably evil, or are mindless beasts with only destruction as their goal. Others are sentient beings, with dark intentions of their own choosing. At first, Maylgeiz presumes that humans are good and monsters are evil, and runs into situations that enforce this belief.

However, she also starts finding situations where humans are far more nefarious than any monster, or monsters who are kind and good-hearted.

Maylgeiz finds herself at the mercy of a brutal gang of orcs. These orcs in particular are commanded by a particularly ruthless leader, the Demon Queen Gravura.

07 ) --VS. DEMON QUEEN GRAVURA--

A beautiful but evil warrior, Gravura was once a photo model from earth, but found herself in this fantasy world. How long ago has since been lost to history. She has kept her youthful appearance by siphoning the energy from beautiful heroines, and finds Maylgeiz to be particularly enticing prey due to the power she weilds by way of Bravalore. Gravura uses her Guardian Spirit "Javulva" in the form of demonic armor and a sinister tail to extract the energy from Maylgeiz.

-The Cult-

Maylgeiz finds herself discovering that evil has many forms, regardless of human or monster, and her moral compass becomes more refined across her many adventures.

The creature that destroyed Maylgeiz's village was sent to steal Bravalore, and is a servant to a greater evil. Maylgeiz crosses paths with this evil frequently, a dark cult led by the sinister Xxxarddon. As a dark wizard and member of an ancient race of powerful psychics known as the mindgamers, Xxxarddon's influence has been spreading across the land, especially as he acquires more Guardian Spirits for his ill intentions.

Her destiny will inevitably lead her to clash with this vile entity.

09 ) --VS. URR-BAAL THE FLORAMANCER--

One of the villains under Xxxarddon's employ is the skeezy floramancer Urr-Baal. He has been experimenting with plants and plant-controlling magic to conjure powerful drugs for the cult's dark rituals. He has captured a floral dragon known as a Snapdragon to use it's pollen as part of the creation of the drug "dragon dust". Maylgeiz tries to rescue the dragon, but things do not bode well for her.

He has been looking into using plant growth to make an army of regenerating super soldiers and the development of hommunculi. He takes a liking to Maylgeiz and wants to use her body as part of his experiments in cross-breeding with his plant monsters, to further his research.

03 ) --FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY! The Forest Fortress...--

During Maylgeiz's journey, she runs into many allies, teaming up for some of her quests.

The myconoid mage Keenoh, female orc warrior Belwarr, and cursed pirate Sabine join forces with Brave Buster Maylgeiz against the nefarious floramancer Urr-Baal.

-The Forest Fortress-

Urr-Baal, in researching a replacement for dragon dust, comes across myconoid spore powder. It could have an even stronger effect. As a supplier for Xxxarddon's cult, it's something Xxxardon's forces keep tabs on. Urr-baal discovers something even bigger, though. The myconoid clan has the ability to communicate with a massive life tree, the heart of the forest. With the right manipulation of the myconoid village, he can control an entire forest, making it his forest fortress, living palace with the myconoids serving as the brain, and he its soul. Urr-Baal can have the myconoids also producing the spore powder and become like a farm factory for the drug, a stronger empire than the dragon dust greenhouse lab from before.

Keenoh was away from her village at the time, researching magic, and as such was not there when it was taken. She now must save her people, but can't do it alone.

Belwarr's orc clan has fallen under the mind control spell of the powder! Belwarr had encountered Maylgeiz in a previous adventure, and they are familiar with each other. Meeting Belwarr had helped widen Maylgeiz's perspective and she gained a trustworthy ally.

Sabine knows that this drug ring must be loaded with money and riches! But.. is it possible that with all of this manipulation of life and death that he might have something that can cure her affliction?

And of course, Maylgeiz will help Keenoh because it is the right thing to do, and she knows of the depravity of Urr-Baal and must stop him from gaining more power.

During the attack on the Forest Fotress, Maylgeiz saves and befriends a baby snapdragon that becomes her helpful steed!

10 ) --VS. THE DROW SIBLINGS, THRYLL and XEXOX. Zyre and the Evolon Armor!--

Among the powerful Guardian Spirit users in Xxxarddon's employ are the drow siblings Thryll and Xexox. They are the two elder siblings of a trio, and are particularly troublesome for Maylgeiz. Thryll uses a liquid metallic "sword" like entity known as Sheith and Xexox can make glass-like barriers and structures with Payneglass. They are sadistic and enjoy toying with Maylgeiz in their battle.

Furthermore, joining them is Maylgeiz's childhood friend (and crush), Zyre. He's been given a magic armor known as Evolon, and seems to be set up as some sort of rival for Maylgeiz. Is he under Xxxarddon's mind control, or has he decided for some reason to cross blades with Maylgeiz of his own will? She is conflicted in her emotions as the tension grows between them.

11 ) --VS. XXXARDDON THE MINDGAMER--

Inevitably, Maylgeiz has to confront the greatest source of evil in her journey, the mindgamer Xxxarddon. However, since the Bravalore Guardian Spirit is connected to her willpower and counts as a psychic type of magic, Maylgeiz stands no chance against the powerful psychic mindgamer. Merely confronting him is to admit defeat. Maylgeiz is thoroughly tortured, conquered, and humiliated repeatedly, as Xxxarddon finds ways to break her mind, soul, and body in order to extract Bravalore from her.

Mindgamers are a rare but powerful species, believed to be decendants of the original progenitors of the world. As such, he believes that it his birthright to be the absolute master of the world and all realities, seeking knowledge of the truth beyond current knowledge, and dominion over all of it. His ambition has given him a godlike appearance to his worshippers. He has been collecting Guardian Spirits, and looking for access to a realm known as the "Inner World" to futher his control of reality. He is cold, ruthless, greedy, and arrogant.

-Defend the Dungeon!-

It turns out that the gateway to the Inner World is within the depths of Naruholder's dungeon. Maylgeiz join forces with Naruholder and the denizens of the dungeon to defend it in an epic battle against Xxxarddon, Urr-Baal, and the rest of the cult.

12 ) --MAYLGEIZ THE BOSS--

Maylgeiz falls in love with Naruholder. While human civilizations might say she became "corrupted," she sees it differently. From her perspective, she had gained a wider vision of who and what are good and evil. She becomes Naruholder's wife and they both run the dungeon. They have a child together, a daughter named Beauty.

The current era of the Sword Slime story is relatively more peaceful (at least for now) compared to the warring conflicts occuring during her Brave Buster adventures.

She has a friendly and cheerful personality, and hasn't used her Brave Buster form in a while. Now that she is a gazer monstergirl, one might think she lost the power of Bravalore. But... don't let looks decieve you!

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Hopefully this helps bring further context to this month's illustration choices!

I figured it might be interesting to frame the upcoming sketches in the general story.

However, if this was a bit much to absorb, it's really more just a bonus- obviously in the end, it's whatever illustration might be most interesting to see completed!

The poll will be in the next update. Keep an eye out for that!