Lord Black 'Nytetrayn' Draco

Alright, guess it's finally time to add this one: My namesake, my avatar, my alter-ego in Mega Man X and beyond, and perhaps my first "real" fancharacter. Or at least the first to last any sort of length of time and had a modicum of originality put into it.

This is my most recent, and perhaps best picture to date of the character, though admittedly the proportions are a little off, particularly the lower-legs. A lot of detail went into this one, and if I may say, it's fairly well thought out; little of it is "just because."

Much as Zero has changed his appearance over time, even from X1 to X2, this is actually the second version of the character, in that he has a different look prior to this one from his Eden days, as revealed in his origins in my wife's in-progress fiction, "Trip Through Your Wires," which you can find on Mechadrake Assemblies.

If I had to describe the character simply, I'd say he's somewhere around a cross between Batman and Optimus Prime. A bit self-serving, I know, but I'm not even sure I was out of high school when I thought him up for an RPG. At the point he's in as depicted above, he's probably more Batman-ish: Lots of gadgets, plans, a darker character of sorts, but remains compassionate.

As time goes on, and as I wrote a departure for my characters (and anyone else's, who didn't want the fate of their characters determined by Capcom yet wanted to adhere to canon) in what I named "Beyond 21XX;" (I may share it sometime if people wish), LBD had to grow and evolve; he couldn't continue acting as a loner with a few others that hung around; he had to be able to step up and be able to lead, and to inspire; to remind those who follow him what they are fighting for and not to allow themselves to become as bad as those they would fight. That would be where the Optimus influence would most likely be seen.

He's also a rather powerful character; over time, I decided to remove him from the frontlines except on special occassions in RPGs; the other Dragon Knights tend to see more action, while LBD has other plans leading on into "Beyond." In some regards, I liken his role here as being akin to Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Professor Xavier from the X-Men.

For weapons and specs, that'll come in another post; I actually have a piece put together for that explicit purpose.

As one can see, LBD's colors are chiefly black and gold. Went with black because it was cool; I've gradually added more color over time. Instead of gold, I was using purple originally, but I experimented with this and people liked it, so. Added some red for some detail.

I just noticed as I'm typing this; he originally had long hair in a ponytail (not Zero length) as I once did; I've been uncertain about keeping that now, or whether it should be refashioned somehow; you can see a line of uncertainty behind his neck that I apparently forgot to remove. He originally had brown hair with gold streaks, styled like Andros from Power Rangers in Space, but I've since undone that.

This has gone on pretty long, but I should probably explain the name quickly: He was originally named simply "Black Draco" in homage to another character, "Red Draco." As the IRL Red and I got closer, "Lord" wound up in the mix as well, and I wound up taking the name to use online. Worried that there would be some confusion between the two names, she suggested coming up with a nickname. And she was right; to this day, I still get people who think I'm Red, despite my name clearly stating "Black."

Anyway, a bit of work and I managed to repurpose the name of a song from one of our favorite bands, Guns n' Roses, and gave it a new spelling.

And yes, it's true: Long before X5, I came up with the first GNR-named Reploid. To the best of my knowledge, anyway; I've yet to see anyone else step up to challenge the claim.

So, storywise, "Nytetrayn" is basically his Eden name, and "Black Draco" is his self-given name.

And that's all I can think of to say right now; this is also why it took me so long to decide to post this; I hadn't been up to writing all this until now, when I forced myself to. XD

Any questions, feel free to leave them.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"