After a while, I took to heart the notion that Terra was a symbol, to me. An expression of my self, rather than my "true self" or what have you--kind of like how people put various specific faces on the divine to make it more accessible, and so on. Terra was always wolf-like (or at least some kind of ambiguous canid) because I'm a dog person, and there are many things about canids I like--their devotion, loyalty, and ability to get along, their tireless enthusiasm, their general friendliness but ability to protect, and so on. But there was always something missing, in those early days, like I was looking at the relative of someone I knew, but not the intended person.

Some soul-searching revealed that the thing that was missing was a symbol of intellect, of wit and sagacity. People who know me well often call me an "old soul" or other such things, and even people who only know me a bit will often agree I've a lot in my noggin. To integrate a symbol of the importance of this more philosophical side of myself would require adding another species, as dogs are considered trainable, but rarely brilliant per se.
Since owl and raven didn't sound like my bag, I went with dragon, choosing to ignore the stereotype that dragon-fursonae people are snobby, particular loners. So when I commissioned this piece from the lovely, talented Finnish young lady known as Sthenno on deviantART, I worked with her (and bless her for her patience in doing so) to get some dragon action in on Terra's increasingly-peculiar visage. To date, this is a design choice I have maintained, and not once regretted.

Also shown is Pluralisma, an electric blue luminescent ether that turns golden with a reflective sheen at high compaction. It's derived from an imaginary philosophy-themed power set I devised for Terra at the time--but it's probably true that I invented it primarily to give him a consistent excuse for have glowing blue accents at my whimsy. I liked the look Sthenno gave them, after all.

Sthenno was a delight to chat with, back then, but it seems that the Real Life behemoth has subsumed most of her time online (some design firm is probably exceedingly fortunate--and hopefully exceedingly aware of that--to have her on-board), and so I haven't run into her for a while. Her gallery, too, is wiped periodically, which is a shame (in my opinion), as so many could enjoy her work. Nonetheless, I have always respected the quality of her work and the impressiveness of her prodigiousness, and would commission her again in a heartbeat, given the chance.

Art © Sthenno
Terra © Me
Do not copy, redistribute, or alter without express written permission.