Fia the Dark Lord's Daughter: Why I Gave My Show's Satan Analogue a Child (Eternity Kingdoms)

If there's any word that best defines Satan, it's "derivative". He's a rebellious creature seeking to be worshipped as if he was his divine Creator, a wannabe tyrant seeking to overthrow a Sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords he will never triumph against, and he wants a kingdom to call his own even if it means condemning others to the same fate he's destined for. If it weren't for him being a selfish, unrepentant piece of garbage responsible for plunging the world into its current sinsick state who wants you dead just so he won't be alone when he goes to Hell, you'd probably feel some pity for him (which you shouldn't).

One of Satan's "greatest" (not meant as a compliment) imitations will be the Antichrist, a being intended to be his dark mirror to Jesus Christ. Born in humble circumstances somewhere in Europe, this charismatic being will rise to power and establish "peace" during a seven-year period of worldwide chaos (not helped by the fact that everyone who identified as a Christian is just GONE thanks to the rapture), empowered by Satan's hollow words and promises. In essence, this is Satan's "son"- not his actual son (angels can't reproduce), but one intended to play the part of "Satan the Son" in the unholy trinity of himself in draconic form, the Antichrist, and a false prophet who will magnify the Antichrist's outreach during the end times.

Fortunately, the Antichrist and the false prophet will be among the first to be dealt with by Christ during His second coming. Heck, they're actually the first to be sent to Hell- Satan has to spend a thousand years chained up by his angelic ex-comrades before he gets sent there. The identity of the Antichrist continues to be an enigma, but I doubt that anyone will know who he is until it's too late and his emissary starts forcing people to wear his three-number brand if they want to feed their families.

Now, what exactly does that have to do with my original series concept Eternity Kingdoms? Did I give the show an antagonist intended to be an Antichrist analogue?

... kind of. You see, I didn't give- no, haven't given- EK a character intended to explicitly be the Antichrist because I still don't have all of the series' story planned out. Unless God directs me to include a figure similar to the "man of lawlessness" described by Paul in 2 Thessalonians, the show won't have a 1:1 version of him. However, that doesn't mean I didn't give the Dark Lord (EK's resident Satan stand-in) something like a child- a child both like and unlike him at the same time.

This is the story of Fia Darkmatter the First, heir to the Dark Lord and his "daughter" of sorts.

DESIGN HISTORY

Fia's origins were in late 2019, being created between tour guide twins Ding and Ring and circus kingdom regent King Horn-Honker (read about the twins and king here). One thing that some of my oldest followers might know is that Fia had a very different design compared to what she had originally. What they don't know is that she might have the most risqué influence out of every character in the show's history.

I am completely serious.

Her original design (pictured here) was inspired primarily by Charlie Morningstar, the daughter of a fictionalized Satan and protagonist of hyper-raunchy adult animated short (soon to be series) Hazbin Hotel. Don't worry, I've never actually watched HH; I doubt I'd be able to stomach all of the short's rampant immorality or wonky theology (although I will give it credit, series creator Vivienne Medrano certainly has a unique art style). I DID see quite a few images of Charlie thanks to YouTube videos gushing about the show featuring her prominently in the thumbnails, though, and I thought she was decently designed, so I took a few pages from her design book when I designed Fia.

I also tried to give Fia similar features to her father, such as making her hair look like the Dark Lord's cape and keeping a very similar color palette between the two of them. Like father, like daughter, y'know? However, I always felt guilty drawing her, something that I now consider to be the Holy Spirit nudging me to move Fia away from her immoral inspiration.

On May 1st of 2021, I redesigned her in an effort to distance her from Hazbin Hotel's lead character. I made her squatter, younger and tried to play up the fallen angel vibes by giving her wispy wings composed of dark magic. She also gained nails based on her dad's gnarly jet-black barbs, a dress patterned like her dad's cape, and hair shaped like her dad's hood. The only thing carried over from her original design was her piercing yellow eyes with red eyeshadow and her heels.

In all honesty, I'm glad God directed me to redesign Fia. Her original design was quite derivative and made her look too old for what I had in mind, and her current one is one much more fitting of her actual personality (which we'll get to in the next section). She's a bratty child, not a full-blown teenager.

I was primarily inspired by Bowser Jr. from the Super Mario series when it came to the concept behind Fia. From what I've noticed, the children of villain characters usually aren't all that willing to follow in their parents' footsteps, but Junior was a rare exception, taking after his papa both physically and personality-wise (ironically, Nintendo briefly used a modified version of Junior's design for an infant version of Bowser in some Yoshi spin-offs). It's a dynamic that I felt could be mined for a lot of narrative potential, and as such I implemented it into EK for the Dark Lord and Fia.

Come to think of it, a lot of my writing decisions for Eternity Kingdoms were based in my desire to see certain things that hadn't been done in a while. My dissatisfaction with how male characters were written in late 2010s cartoons led to me contrasting two extremes of "poor men" through Lucian and Prodigus and then directing them towards the biblical ideal of Christian manhood. My frustrations with bad animated parents led me to go all out and attempt to make Lucian's parents the best cartoon parents possible. The overabundance of hyperactive, overly optimistic child protagonists in 2010s toons led me to make Takoyaki a grounded adult protagonist (with Carouselle acting as a realistic counter to 2010s toons' quirky disaster children).

And in Fia's case, she's meant to be a villain kiddo who not only loves her "daddy", but can be just as bad as he is.

HISTORY/NARRATIVE ROLE/PERSONALITY

Fia, like Carouselle's siblings (see here for their stories), will not debut in Eternity Kingdoms until later seasons (in her case, Season 2). While I don't have Season 2 as planned out as Season 1 (and it'll only happen if God wills it), it's perhaps the second-most planned-out portion of the show as a whole. Her debut would be in an episode ideally titled "Daddy's Little Gremlin", which would involve the Dark Lord's reaction to Carouselle joining our main bunch of Takoyaki, Lucian and Prodigus.

Feeling threatened by the addition to the Chosen Ones' ranks (especially since the prophecy mentioned that there would be "three or four"), he decides to magically craft an ultimate underling utilizing the DNA of himself, Futakuchi, and General Termagant (okay, he just takes a few parts from Termagant under the justification that the new underling would be more "mechanically precise"). Unfortunately for him, his hopes are dashed when the resulting underling emerges as a little girl. A very clingy, affectionate little girl.

While initially disappointed, the Dark Lord realizes he can work with the hand he's been dealt. Children are impressionable things, after all, and maybe he can turn this little girl into the minion he wanted. However, as he trains her in the dark arts, he starts growing... attached to her. Almost as if she was his daughter. Perhaps in the black hole that is his heart, the Dark Lord might have some room for love.

From there, Fia becomes a recurring antagonist in Eternity Kingdoms for the remainder of its run. She's often paired up with Futakuchi and Termagant on missions to their chagrin, given how much of a brat she can be (more on that in a bit). She specializes in dark magic, using shapeshifting and blasts of dark matter in her battles against the Chosen Ones (don't worry, she's durable enough to take some hits and she's annoyingly fast enough to dodge the rest). However, these powers are tied to her emotions, so if she's not feeling the best, she could be stronger than she'd be otherwise.

Personality-wise, Fia is intended to be a send-up of the "quirky disaster child" archetype from 2010s cartoons. She's sickeningly sweet, she's bursting with energy, she's deeply stubborn, she believes she deserves everything that she wants, she thinks she's the center of her own little world, and she has the powers to make sure she gets what she wants. As someone who's tired of "quirky disaster children" being the only type of protagonist we seem to be getting in modern cartoons, I decided to push the archetype to a radical extreme, turning traits that were considered positive into extremely toxic ones.

She's a brat, plain and simple. It doesn't help that Fia has the emotional maturity of a toddler, so if she doesn't get exactly what she wants done, she'll have a full-blown meltdown... and those can be deadly considering how potent her powers can be when she's angry. The only thing that can calm her down is the presence of her father or getting done what she wanted done in the first place... usually by herself.

If there are any redeeming traits to Fia, it's her undying loyalty to and love for her "daddy". Admittedly, some doubt that relationship is genuine considering the spell that created her was said to craft a steadfast servant of sinfulness, but as far as I'm concerned, it is. She really does love the Dark Lord, and that love drives her to be the best underling she can be.

So, yeah. That's Fia in a nutshell.

CONCLUSION

Fia is far from who I thought she'd end up being when I first created her in 2019. From her design change to her character shifting from just a Bowser Jr. wannabe to a critique of the majority of 2010s cartoon protagonists, she's been one of the most dynamic characters in the development of Eternity Kingdoms. And I believe that was the work of God through me.

He redirected me to make Fia less derivative of such an adult inspiration and in some areas, I feel like that's made her character all the better. Ironically (for a character intended to be the daughter of my Satan analogue), God has brought out the best in her. I love what Fia's become thanks to His input, and I think she's one of my strongest designs and concepts because of that.

It all goes back to Him Who gifted me the idea of the series in the first place.

If anything, Fia represents what happens when I let God work through me and improve upon what I originally had in mind for my silly little show concept. As much as I have planned for Eternity Kingdoms, He is the real force behind it. I'm just a humble servant carrying out the marching orders of my king, even if that amounts to designing characters and telling His story through a lens that would draw people the same way His Son's parables drew people to Him.

Thanks for reading, everyone. God bless!