DRC25 - INK13

The inspiration for this piece is the San Vitale Basilica's wall mosaic (shown below) depicting Justinian I (6th century Eastern Roman Emperor) and his retinue.

https://tempupload.ngfiles.com/1144000/iu_1144375_13070330.webp

I shall try my best to explain the Byzantine complexities that are present here:

Toyosatomimi no Miko (Shoutoku Taishi) as Justinian I: The most obvious reason here is that they were both kings who reigned in the 6th (7th) century AD. Even though Justinian passed away before Shoutoku came to power, I took creative liberties with bypassing this fact - Shoutoku's true contemporary, Heraclius, only has his face depicted on a coin - which is anything but sufficient.

Mononobe no Futo (Mononobe no Moriya?) as Flavius Belisarius and Soga no Tojiko (Soga no Umako?) as Narses the Armenian: The relations between these two and Miko are not unlike Justinian and his generals. Even Belisarius and Narses quarreled with each other, much like the friction between the Mononobe and Soga clans in Shoutoku's reign.

Matara Okina (Hata no Kawakatsu / Matara-jin) as the bishop Maximianus of Ravenna: Both of them served the king, and both of them had religion-related professions - those are the only connections I could find.

Other than the aforementioned characters, the remaining people depicted on the mosaic could not be identified with anyone in particular; rather, they were simply generic elements of the king's retinue. Thus, I also took creative liberties in depicting them:

Eternity Larva (Tokoyo-no-kami): This kami (god) is Matara Okina's enemy, as indicated by Okina's dialogue in Hidden Star in Four Seasons' extra stage (Cirno's scenario).

Kaku Seiga, Miyako Yoshika (Miyako no Yoshika): Their dynamic needs few explanations. Seiga is the master, Yoshika is her undead servant. Moreover, Yoshika is depicted in her living form - inspired by the fan-work "Suikakasen" by Joyfull.

As for why I did not choose Theodora's mosaic as a reference, I simply forgot about its existence until much later. Even so, I found Justinian and his retinue to have much in common with Shoutoku and his contemporaries.