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did snake only make out with that woman in the manner that he did because she was a bird or is that just how he kisses in general

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Well after a literal month of shipping across seas, my dark god has finally made it to his new home.

Hold the kitty gently and with love:

Hold the kitty firmly and remind him he lives by your mercy alone:

Either way happy birthday to me!!!🥳

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REPOST : Roman stylus 70AD, in comon vanacular translates into “i went into the city and all i bought you was this lousy pen” , link and full translation in the comments [640 x 320]

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Here’s an interview I did at MagicCon Las Vegas last week.

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I have literally so many super-long depressing bishop comics so I decided to just do a two-panel one to get back in the swing of finishing these.

In my AU comic I think I mentioned once before, shamura kinda compulsively writes down absolutely everything they do, interviews other deities and amasses this like huge collection of stories and people and events. In a literal sense, they're the god of war but they kinda asserted themself as the god of knowledge through providing accounts of everything they witnessed over the ~100,000 years they were alive. Plus when their journals got rewritten into storybooks by their scribes, it made for good material to teach the kids to read/write. So when they get their dome smashed they forget most of it, and the three remaining siblings go through their writings to retell them stories and distract them from chronic pain? Sometimes Shamura remembers they were the main character of the stories, sometimes they don't, but they always enjoy the company when they're stuck in bed. And also, the plot twist of "it was you the whole time!" doesn't get old when you forget it happens every time

(I'm resisting the urge to spam a bunch of comic panel sketches of the lightning god Ala cause she's pretty important in my au...I will do that another time)

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Hi Everybody! Me and a group of amazing artists have put together a 2025 calendar of fanart based on all the campaigns of Naddpod and it's now available to buy! All proceeds from sales will be going to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, so it's a great holiday purchase and also supporting a great cause!

If you want to purchase it it's available here: www.etsy.com/shop/NaddCalendar

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That feeling when you and your childhood best friend turn out to be trans

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The Color of Hope: Ambition, Necromancy, and Black Mana

Black is one of the most misunderstood colors in Magic: the Gathering, not least because it appears on the surface to be so straightforward. Look at the most iconic black cards of Magic and you'll see deals with demons, necromancy, mass destruction and cruelty and suffering–the trappings of classic fantasy evil. Even the color's symbol itself is a skull, a universal signifier of death and danger.

And in early Magic that seemed to be all it was. White was the color of Fantasy Good, black was the color of Fantasy Evil, and the rest of the colors were... fire magic? Elves? Whatever odd but intriguing skeleton affairs are implied by Time Walk?

Gradually, though, Magic deepened as both a game and a storytelling medium. The color pie grew into itself as a system of complementary philosophies, archetypes whose associated aesthetics were only part of the full picture. Their arrangement around the wheel, below, is highly deliberate; neighboring colors are said to be allies with a high degree of philosophical and mechanical overlap, while colors on opposite sides of the pie are known as enemies, more likely to disagree on fundamental levels.

Black stopped merely representing capital E Evil and became the color of striving for power; unlike its peers, black felt that nothing, least of all morality, could prevent it from seizing what it wanted. Mark Rosewater's 2015 article about black emphasized the color's focus on the self:

"Black's philosophy is very simple: There's no one better suited to look after your own interests than you... Many costs require the sacrifice of others for your own advancement. Because it puts itself first, black is always willing to make this trade. The weak must fall for the strong to thrive." -Mark Rosewater

At its worst, black is an exploitative, amoral color that prioritizes itself at the expense of all others, allowing the "weak" to fall and scorning the very idea of compassion. Rosewater writes that black is "always willing" to trade others for itself. And these can certainly be parts of black's philosophy, when taken to its worst possible extremes, but they're far from the entire story.

Over time, Magic's outlook on black gained nuance. Magic story introduced protagonists like the necromancer Liliana Vess, whose craving for immortality, seemingly exploitative nature, and demonic deals called back to the oldest portrayals of black–and yet she was not one-dimensionally evil. She underwent character development over the years, learning the value of reclaiming herself and standing beside others, and at no point did she become any less mono-black for it. Remember her; we will come back to Liliana and her story later.

In addition to the usual death and decay, black cards began to feature a theme of relentless devotion. On the plane of Eldraine where each color represents a virtue, black's is persistence, explicitly as important as any other color. On the plane of Ikoria, the love between bonder and beast pulls Winota back from the brink of death. Wherever this Oathsworn Vampire printing is set, its flavor text is quintessentially black. It's the same self-driven attitude as before, but cast in a different light: black is nothing if not persistent when it's got its heart set on something (or someone) it cares about. Nothing, least of all the grave, will keep it down. After all, black will always come back for its own.

These newer cards uncovered the true face of black as a color capable of both great love and harm (sometimes even the latter for the sake of the former), and suggested a tantalizing new thread: perhaps putting yourself and yours first isn't all that bad, necessarily. Black is a deeply protective color; it says you don't just have to accept what you're handed, it's okay even to be furious about it (hello, ally color red), but let that galvanize you to do something about it. 

Vraska, a gorgon who faces extreme discrimination on her home plane of Ravnica, triumphs by reclaiming herself, gorgon powers and all–and even more radically, loving herself. She displays traits often considered the purview of white and green, such as a love of home and a drive to elevate the oppressed, but they are all filtered through the lens of her black alignment. Vraska staunchly refuses to deny herself or her people, the Golgari Swarm, of their value. Nor does she allow law or propriety to prevent her from championing them by any means necessary–even if that means cold-blooded murder, or aligning herself with a villain like the Planeswalker Nicol Bolas.

"[Vraska] thought of Mazirek, of the kraul, of the rest of the Ochran assassins and the malignant Jarad who reigned with casual ruin over the most downtrodden of the downtrodden. She remembered her years of isolation, and the heinous cruelty of the Azorius, and how no group deserved to suffer as much as those who would subjugate her own. Eliminating that hell was all she ever wanted." -The Talented Captain Vraska, Alison Luhrs

Like Vraska, black loves fierce and hard, willing to break any taboo for the sake of those it cares about. And it whispers, the entire way through, you are enough. You deserve better. No matter what others may say or do, you are enough.

"If I am to be met with disrespect, then I must first love myself with a fierceness no fool can take away." -Vraska in Pride of the Kraul, Alison Luhrs

Even black's "ruthlessness" isn't as fundamentally cruel as it appears, centering a passion for problem-solving (shared by its other ally blue) instead of a blunt disregard for others.

"People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means 'mean.' It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it." -K. A. Applegate

All of this comes together to make a black a color not of evil but of strength, integrity, and persistence. And that's all well and good, but I'm going to take it even further and put forward a new proposition: that black is the color of hope.

Of the nine mono-black Magic cards with "hope" in their names, all but Liliana portray black as an instrument of hope's destruction. This is, once again, black's flaw taken to its extreme–crushing others to achieve its own ends–but neglects black's own relationship with hope.

Black, more than any other color, requires hope to stay alive.

For black to persist, it must believe in a light at the end of the tunnel, a future in which its goals are realized. As long as it does, it will endure any hardship, walk through fire, and turn reality itself upside down on its way there. Primal, desperate ambition is the engine of hope that burns at the heart of black, keeping it always one step ahead of stagnation. Bitter and stubborn, black believes tomorrow will come because there is no other choice. After all, for black to relinquish hope is to let itself wither, regress, and die–an unacceptable outcome. 

Thus, it is monumentally difficult to strip black of hope. That only makes it all the more crushing when it happens, when black contends with the idea that there is nothing it can do.

Black's deepest, darkest fear is helplessness.

Like any mono-black character, Liliana Vess is driven at her core by a seething, desperate hope. When Liliana first unlocks her necromantic power, it is out of a sheer refusal to allow her ill brother Josu to die, even when the esis root that would cure him is destroyed by enemy witches in an undead-raising ritual. She defies her previous training as a healer, which taught her only to take the safe path, in favor of a higher-risk and higher-reward approach: stealing life from the witches themselves to restore power to the esis root she needs. It is her knowledge that her brother needs her, and her sheer stubborn will to succeed, which allows her to defeat the witches against steep odds.

"Six foes, and Liliana stood alone. But Josu's life depended on her, and the power blossoming within her was more than enough." -Liliana's Origin: The Fourth Pact, James Wyatt

Tragically, however, Liliana's attempted cure goes horrifically wrong, transforming Josu into an undead being plagued by eternal suffering. In his pain, Josu attacks Liliana. For a while Liliana holds out hope, finding the power to fight back while she determinedly searches for a spell to reverse the harm she's done. It is when she realizes this isn't possible that her strength falters.

"All this time, she had believed… that she could turn the power of death to the service of life and health. That a healer should use every tool at her disposal. But Josu was the result, a horrible fusion of life and death, and all her spells meant to manipulate the life force of the living could do nothing to harm the dead." -The Fourth Pact

Liliana learns that even her own dark magic, fueled by determination, cannot solve the problem she's created. She discovers the hard limit of her willpower, and the despair of this discovery is what causes her Planeswalker spark to ignite.

At this time Planeswalkers are as gods, immortal and near-omnipotent. Liliana spends decades enjoying this affirmation of her capability before the Mending strips her and all her peers of their power, reducing them once again to mortal mages.

"Then the Multiverse reshaped itself, robbing her—and every other Planeswalker—of the godlike power they once had wielded. Some called it the Mending, as if something broken had been repaired, but to Liliana, it seemed the opposite. It broke her beyond any hope of repair." -The Fourth Pact

Once again, it is Liliana's fear of helplessness and her refusal to accept it that drives her to push beyond the bounds of propriety–this time, to make a pact with Nicol Bolas and four demons to maintain her immortality. It is not enough for her merely to delay death; she requires the security of knowing she is fully beyond its reach, that she will never be helpless before it again as she was with Josu.

"Holding death at arm's length for whatever years are left to me? No, that's not enough. I want to be free of its shadow." -Liliana in The Fourth Pact

Black isn't like its enemy colors white and green, which are superficially associated far more often with hope. Unlike white, it doesn't believe that conviction, justice, and community will bring about rightness. Unlike green, it doesn't trust in the wisdom of the world or the natural order. Black believes that nothing will change unless you make it change; ultimately, black's self is the only one it can trust to bring about the world it needs. In addition, black lacks its enemies' idealism. Instead, it strives to be a pragmatic realist, making a final assessment of defeat all the more definite and crushing.

While white and green are more amenable to finding hope and holding it aloft as a banner, black claws hope desperately to its chest with shredded, bloody fingernails. Every ounce of hope black has, it tore by itself from the clutches of an uncaring world.

Ironically for such a self-driven color, black's fierce hope is the greatest asset it can provide to others–on its own terms, of course. It was Liliana who turned the tide of battle against the Eldrazi titan Emrakul, defiant in the face of cosmic despair. And when Nicol Bolas made his bid to return to godhood, using Liliana's necromancy to command his undead hordes, Liliana finally turned against him. In reclaiming her power, so too did she use it to free her fellow Planeswalkers from Bolas' assault. Her fear of helplessness no longer shackled her to him; agency and autonomy were hers at last.

The triumph of black, its moment of ultimate victory, is the hard-won fulfillment of its hope.

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas

An aetherborn, railing against the shortness of their natural lifespan, constructs a new body for themself with their own bare hands. An artificer's grief over her lost companion causes her to push invention to its limits. A young girl who loves her brother calls on the darkest of powers to save him. As it turns out, necromancy–that original thematic keystone of black–is only one of black's many, many refusals to let go of love and hope once it has them, even in the face of the ultimate end.

Time and time again, black–in love with life, ablaze with hope–looks the Grim Reaper in the eye and tells it: "Not today."

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Idk y'all like at this point it just feels like there's nowhere to go for long time mtg fans who are more interested in the game's original settings and stories.

Half of all sets in a release block going forward are UB, and now UB is legal across all formats? Grand, sprawling stories like the Phyrexian invasion are given a set (and a shitty half If they're lucky) to resolve, when they would've been given a whole release block to themselves in the past.

Nothing against those who enjoy UB, I'm not gonna stand here and pretend I didn't buy the fallout edh decks. If you like an IP and it comes to magic it's exciting! If it brings in new players that's great! But at a certain point what's the true priority here?

Old players generally aren't interested in most or every UB set. Players drawn in by their fave IP being in magic are a lot less likely to invest in the next sets. More casual players often can't afford the premium usually placed on UB sets. Wizards has to pay out God knows how much in licensing fees to monster companies with more money than them like marvel. Clearly this isn't sustainable.

But at this point it truly and genuinely feels like magic is not interested in telling it's own stories in its own unique settings. It doesn't care about giving it's writers the time to actually Write. It's more concerned with original settings staying "on theme" then actually feeling like fleshed out worlds with deep and complex lore.

I'll be shocked if magic Doesn't become nothing more then an IP blender game within the next 5 years. And if it does become that then it'll be an even quicker limp into the coffin.

Draft is dead. The future of EDH is uncertain at best. Standard is basically just for competitive players and tourney grinders hoping to make money. UB is going to dilute any remnants of originality and writing magic could be bothered with.

But hey the hasbro stock holders are happy right? Number go up? Number go up good? Damn it all for short term profits. Who cares what happens in the long run.

(I want to clarify that I do not bash the writing and lore of magic to bash the People writing it. Rather the Company that does not properly support them and give them the room to nurture their stories. I don't even necessarily want to heap all the blame on wizards. I have no idea how much hasbro forces their hand. What a slap in the face to see magic have some of its most successful sales ever with lotr and bloomburrow and Still face massive layoffs. This. Isn't. Sustainable.)

These are my opinions I'm venting

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Enjoy my lil rant about some mix of being void punk and also otherkin :D

I am something to be feared. I don't understand human roles and economy and morals and I never will. I don't fit in this society and I do not wish to rely on someone, or have a friendly relationship with anyone. I wish to have sharp fangs and boney, ragged limbs and disappear into the forest, making anyone too scared to come look for me out of sheer believe I will hurt them. I want to be referred to as 'it's, not because I am something less than human but because I am something to be respected, feared. A creature Akin to a wendigo, but that just doesn't feel right. I can morph and change all I want, just choose to be stuck in this world. This body is far too small and weak and frail to contain me, and yet I am being shoved into society's rules and regulations and "okay you have to go to school and respect your elders, they are your superiority after all!!" No. I am equal to them, maybe their superior, and yet I am mistreated. Why.

Anyway take this silli rant as an apology for not posting :3

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Narinder tasted the power of scaring Kallamar.

Prev :'3

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No Choice

Based off of this post!

Continuation?

When asked to kneel, The Red Crown made the choice for them. The One Who Waits sees this as a betrayal leading to their battle and his inevitable downfall.

I haven’t drawn comics in ages. More beneath the cut!

My lamb’s name is Faust!

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Since The Lamb has no specific gender, I like to think Baal and Aym call them “Baba,” instead of mama or papa.

Yep and these kits are not helping poor Narinder's massive crush crisis by doing that.

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It's hard being a single mom of four to eight kids (she's bad at math)

Also self imposed design challenge to design an infant rodent that doesn't look like eraserhead baby

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ART REQUESTS!!!! i said i was gonna do some simple doodles but i got super carried away hehe <33

rqs from @esperparty @junoberrii and @joffyworld <333 ty guyssss these were very fun

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