Introducing a brand new Yelena: her origin story, her looks, and the content to come! (Patreon)

Before we start: all concept renders zip archives available down below, no password required! Enjoy!

Update: added two comparison shots to the list of thumbnails above; the version of Yelena as rendered in December for TRE, and then the newest version of Yelena. Thanks to enhanced SSS effects, the skin now behaves more realistically instead of as a flat reflective surface. Also her facial fidelity is much improved.

It's November 2021. I'm working on the renders for The Royal Exhibition, which was going to be December's release on A3D, starring Tatiana, Marcella, and Yelena. I had redesigned Tatiana some months earlier, giving her a shiny new skin shader and sim hair, and then give Marcella the same overhaul. You guys might remember my Tatiana Reborn posts. I never made one for Marcella because quite frankly she hadn't starred in enough sets for my to feel like highlighting her changes merited its own post entirely.

I almost didn't want to include Yelena. I didn't have time to overhaul her too, given the production deadline, but I also didn't want to leave her out of the set. It had been a while since The Museum: Remastered, and I wanted to star her again. The quality gap between the two Tatiana/Marcella and Yelena stood out to me throughout rendering TRE, and all I could do was hope that it wouldn't stand out as much to you guys. But you have a pretty keen eye :P

Then came February this year. Yelena, the Tsarina of a glorious future Russia, suddenly felt like a lot less of a charming story angle. Mentally I couldn't disassociate real life events from my silly little adult universe, which I guess means either that I take this seriously or that I should learn to relax lol. Regardless, it was what it was. I realised that I wanted Yelena and Tatiana both to be something different.

From this came the idea to delve deeper into Yelena's origin story. After all, we know that she's the Tsarina of Russia, which at its face is a ludicrous position for her to be in if you know anything about Russian history. So how would that come about? Yeah, I could be all silly about it and just say she fucked her way to the top, but I do wanna build a narratively interesting IP, and adult content doesn't have to detract from that.

So I built a world that she could exist in about 20 years prior to the events of Lust Unleashed, which itself has always taken place towards the closing of the 21st century. This world will to a certain extent invalidate the Ascension sets. So there is a bit of a retcon element to it. But, without spoiling anything, let's take a look at the Yelena as I recreated her!

So what you see above is a fidelity upgrade similar to the one Tatiana and Marcella got. I also included this image with the thumbnails above so if you wanna read the text, find it there. One noticable thing is that I changed her eye color, which was done to make her expressions a bit more readable. But beyond that, I think I've succeeded really well in creating someone who's obviously a newer version of the same character. When I started tuning in the face shape, I recognised her immediately.

A Tale of Two Worlds

So, who's our new Yelena? What does she do? Well, she exists in a world where there are two realities: one is the comfortable future of a united West, where technology reigns supreme, but so does corporate greed. Life is great there, if you're in with the right crowd. Not so great if you fall outside of it. This is the world where Yelena acquired her beauty.

The other reality is the struggling East, where feudal states and warlords compete for supremacy. There is of course civilisation, but the rules are fast and loose. Part of it has been rebuilt by new dynasties, but other parts remain a lawless expanse. This is where Yelena earns her income as a mercenary, all by herself.

In this function, Yelena follows one simple rule: with extreme prejudice, both seduce your allies and eliminate your enemies. She knows the value of being a beautiful woman in a world run by men, but also the danger inherent in having to rely on herself for her own safety. Of course, in the end we know she'll end up as the empress of this entire region, so kinda like Anakin becoming Darth Vader, the point is learning how this comes about. And who she fucks on the way there ;)

But yes, you read it right. Men! The new story will introduce male characters, but without altering the nature of Lust Unleashed as a setting, or my signature as an artist. The type of content I make will not change. These men will be here as a supporting cast.

So who does Yelena get to play with? Well, at the start of our new storyline, we meet Yelena as she gets sent on a VIP retrieve mission. Just who this VIP might be and how this retrieval ends up going, I will leave up to you guys for speculation. Needless to say, Yelena will run into plenty of beautiful women, both familiar and all new, throughout her adventure.

As you can tell above, Yelena's gotten a lot more slender too. As visual fidelity improves, I have to make a choice as an artist whether to lean more into realism, or stylism. Ultimately, the latter always has my preference. And I think with this new body, Yelena strikes exactly the right balance.

Finding the right aesthetic tone

One of the harder parts of re-inventing a character, and creating a new storyline is figuring out who she is and what she looks like when we first meet her. We've seen the luscious, seductive, glamorous version of Yelena. Now it's time to get to meet her at a younger age, no less attractive, but perhaps more rugged.

Of course, making such decisions is never easy. I've gone through so many different outfit concepts and hairstyles. Ultimately I narrowed it down to the stuff included in this post, but even that has to be narrowed down further. So I figured, why not put it up to a poll?

So over the coming weeks, we'll end up doing polls on hairstyle, outfit specifics, where her hideout will be, her signature weapons, etc. I have so many cool options and it'll be fun to get you guys involved so that the final product feels like something you guys had real input in.

Not gonna lie, I really love this hairstyle for a more rugged, younger Yelena. But her ponytail is also so iconic. See? I can't decide! I've literally been going back and forth and back and forth haha.

For now I think I've shown off about all I can. With everything I've written and shown, keep this in mind: it's a work in progress! Also, it's basically going to be a prologue/prequel setting, which means that Lust Unleashed itself will also get the chance to be expanded upon further, since I'll have a better idea of the kind of events that took place in this story.

I hope you guys like what you've seen so far, and are looking forward to what's to come. I know for a fact that I am :D