Philippines OC Sketchdump

because why the frick not?

Anywho, some headcanon spam:
When Philippines was younger, she wore her hair loose and wore many flowers in it. When she was colonised by Spain, she was made to adopt his fashions and whatnot, with a popular hairstyle being the bun. But when she began to fight more for her independence, Philippines began to wear her hair in the ponytail. For every fight she'd been in from there onwards, she had her hair in that ponytail. She has this belief that when her hair's like this, she is neither fighting as a man or a woman, but as a nation. Even when there were only male soldiers, she would fight alongside them as one of them. She never felt a need to blend in with them in order to fight. She is a nation and she has the right to fight for her people, regardless of her appearance. Her ponytail was not only practical, but it made her stand out as the motherland to her people on the battlefield. And she still wears her hair in a ponytail as a symbol of the hardships she had fought through to gain her independence.
Her name was not always Maricela Clara de los Santos. Prior to Spanish colonisation, she had many names, which includes 'Udaya' (meaning 'rising sun'). But when the Spaniards came, she was made to change her name to Maria Celia de los Santos. This was a name she kept for a long time, but then she eventually combined Maria and Celia together to make Maricela when it became more common to put two names together to form one. Eventually 'Clara' was added onto her name as a tribute to Jose Rizal and his novel 'Noli me Tangere'.
By the way, about her human age... Leading up to her colonisation, Philippines was about 8-9 years old in appearance. After the end of Spanish colonisation, she was about 15 and by her independence, she was about 16-17. Nowadays she's about 18 in age appearance. She's definitely no longer a child, but there's still much for her to learn!

Those are just some things I wanted to spam about Maricela. The rest of her profile can be found here!: [link]
I keep meaning to update that thing a little, oops.

One day I will draw her in these other outfits properly 8I - I went scribbly with the pre-colonial stuff cuz idk i was too lazy to be detailed

Anyway ummm...
Philippines/Maricela Clara de los Santos belongs to