本套图中四色小鸟角色原本是为自由开源桌游引擎 SirenRPG 设计的吉祥物。因为项目名称是”Siren”RPG (希腊传说中的鸟妖塞壬)，所以就采用了鸟作为吉祥物的方案。桌游需要几个人一起玩才能尽兴，而传说中的塞壬是四姐妹，足够热闹——所以就设计了四只小鸟，让她们扮演龙与地下城风格的桌游角色。

SirenRPG 项目已经被开发者放弃了，而且至今也没有把这套设计放上官网。或许我以后会让她们加入到个人项目“千变灵兽”的世界中去。

四姐妹的名字来自希腊传说中的塞壬名字的简写，或者更亲切的英语近似人名 (按年龄排序)：

• 红鸟：爱鸾 (Agla/Aglaopheme/爱格拉欧非米)，扮演的角色是“头脑简单的骑士”。
• 绿鸟：茉莉 (Molly/Molpe/莫尔佩)，扮演的角色是“卑鄙无耻的弓箭手”。
• 蓝鸟：冰凝 (Penny/Parthenope/帕尔德诺佩)，扮演的角色是“好吃懒做的魔法师”。
• 黄鸟：翠丝 (Trixie/Thelxiepe/德尔及耶佩)，扮演的角色是“两面三刀的桌游主持”。

因为我之前完全没有接触过西式奇幻类的人物设计，所以在绘制这套设计的时候重点参考了推特上两个比较擅长这个风格的画师：@ovopack 和 @onemegawatt。不过我当时还没有发展出有效观察的能力，于是这种参考变成了自我感动，“参考了个寂寞”——从结果来看，那两个画师的神韵我显然是没学过来的。不过整体来说画得还行，是 2012 – 2022 年创作低潮期中比较好看的一张画，已经开始有创作能力恢复的迹象了。当时总是倾向于把角色画得矮壮的问题也被小鸟的造型掩护了，所以并不显得很突兀。

The Siren Sisters were the mascots I designed for SirenRPG, a free and open source TRPG engine. I chose birds as the mascots because the project was named after “Siren”, a bird-related creature in Greek mythology. And because more participants are fun, I designed 4 birds. They are sisters who role-play a Dungeons and Dragons style TRPG game.

SirenRPG has been abandoned. The project never bothered to put the mascots on the website. I might give the birds some roles in Spirit Animals in Disguise.

The names of the birds were inspired by Siren names in Greek Mythology. I chose more conventional names that look similar to the original Greek versions. In age order, they are:

• Agla the Red Siren (Greek: Aglaopheme). She role- plays a dumb knight.
• Molly the Green Siren (Greek: Molpe). She role-plays a dastard ranger.
• Penny the Blue Siren (Greek: Parthenope). She role-plays a lazy mage.
• Trixie the Yellow Siren (Thelxiepe). She role-plays a crafty dungeon master.

Before drawing these birds, I never really attempted western high fantasy designs, and I was unfamiliar with birds. I took notes from @ovopack and @onemegawatt on X/twitter who are particularly good at doing the style. But judging from the result, I don’t think I really learned much — not because of the lacking of attempt, but because of the lacking of observation skills.

The picture still looks okay, although not in the way I expected to be. It was one of the better pictures I created during my low period between 2012 – 2022. I often drew characters too short and too strong at the time. But the bird characteristics covered the issue, which was perhaps why it looked better. Regardless, my creative ability was indeed recovering.