#Boötes

[quiltofstars]

Arcturus, α Boötis // Ivan Kuznetcov

The name Arcturus comes from the Greek word Arktouros, meaning "guardian of the bear," an origin its constellation, Boötes, also shares.

[ramenlicious]

ok but what if boötes was a 2russ fankid? haha jk...... unless.... 👀

[sweet-star-cookie]

also, is bootes an actual skeleton or is he just a guy with a skeleton mask and clothes?

You know what? I asked myself this question literally last week, what a funny coincidence! When I first designed Boötes, it was a situation where I didn't necessarily have to answer that question, the ambiguous nature of his body structure wasn't super relevant to his role in the story at the time, so I didn't really feel the need to clarify it more.

That is until very recently, where I came up with a way to strengthen his ties to the main characters and expand on why he's so hellbent on justice and revenge, particularly against Scorpio, which required me to assess what he is a bit more. Or what exactly his physical body is composed of, at least. Yes he wants Scorpio to be punished for his involvement in the destruction of the Astral Plane in general, but I felt I could push it even further than that.

When creating new lore like this, either I do a complete redesign to match it like I did with Aranea, or I use what I have already to inform said new lore. In this case I ended up doing the latter, though I'll still tweak a few things later to tie him to the new ideas more clearly. So I guess now it's New Lore Time™! :D

Just to recap a bit, Boötes is the guardian of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, who are related to controlling and maintaining a lot of the Astral Plane's water flow, especially rivers and other smaller bodies of water that are connected to the astral sea. Initially, the previous incarnation of Boötes was always at their side to guard them at their home, wanting little to nothing to do with anyone else unless they threatened the bears' safety.

Though Ophiuchus was able to stop much of the Void magic when Scorpio first arrived, he couldn't save everyone in time given how quickly it spread, and the Ursas' connection to water unfortunately made them easy targets, similar to Pisces. That incarnation of Boötes died trying to save them, and at the time it was assumed that Ursa Minor was killed too (but really just succumbed to the corruption and landed on Earth, as Cassie discovers later).

Through his constellation's sheer conviction and desire to protect them, however, the current incarnation of Boötes appeared shortly after the death of the previous one and saved Ursa Major from being killed too. But, similar to Scorpio, this event permanently linked him with Void magic, as he quite literally emerged out of it when his constellation reformed itself.

After some investigation, it seems that a lot of Boötes's body is actually made out of Void magic, not just overtaken by it. Only the Light magic from his powerful spirit gives him a somewhat corporeal form to begin with. Like I said before, I'll probably tweak his current design a bit to better match the colours of Void/poisoned water magic that I've made, and give him a slightly more wispy look underneath his clothes and such to better convey this idea.

Trying to heal any of the shadowy parts of his body, for example, could cause it to disappear entirely rather than restoring it. So attempting to fully heal him could, ironically, kill him. Instead, Libra uses her magic to keep his balance of Light and Void magic in check, and gives him smaller amounts of periodic healing in between his rounds of patrolling to stem his fatigue. Though he resents his reliance on her in general, he is grateful for her help nonetheless. Given his current state, it is unclear if he'd survive full corruption or not, even if he became an Unsigned spirit on Earth rather than dying.

Because of this instability, Boötes fears that he will corrupt the Ursas again if he is too close to them, significantly hindering his ability to guard them effectively. So while he still upholds this duty, he now desires revenge on Scorpio for doing this to him, and on Ophiuchus for protecting him from punishment in the first place. This is part of the reason why Boötes initially hunts Cassie so aggressively, sensing the shared aura of the Starglass and thinking Ophiuchus merely changed his form to hide himself.

In many ways, Boötes and Scorpio are cut from the same Void magic cloth, so to speak, but this only led to hatred between them rather than camaraderie. Boötes serves as a particularly loud reminder of what Scorpio's Void magic has done to their world as a whole, and of the damage that Scorpio can't fix even if he tries. Some things just cannot be reversed, and he is forced to live with that. Even with Scorpio's current "agreement" with the zodiac that prevents him from being imprisoned, Boötes still looks for any opportunity to put him behind bars for good.

He began patrolling further out from the Ursas's home during this revenge quest, and this is how he met Ophiuchus and the zodiac in the first place. It was quite an explosive encounter, to say the least! It took much convincing from Virgo and Libra, and they were able to get him to agree to more of a sheriff/deputy role to help them protect the other constellations, but he still largely acts for his own reasons.

From a design standpoint, even if skeletons don't technically exist on the Astral Plane (as in, none of the residents have mortal bodies with skeletons inside them), I think keeping his skeleton motif helps add to him being somewhat of a symbol of death, or perhaps the undead, given this new lore. Plus I think he looks pretty cool that way too :D

I haven't decided yet if his dogs share the same predicament as him, or if they simply share a similar appearance, but they'll probably need some design tweaks as well anyway.

[atlastheexplorer]

"If you assume that I'm a man, then I could assume that you are a woman." - Boötes Bauer to Jordanus Fluvius Jacobson

[micescrisis]

Time to finally put art on my tumblr after... 11 years......... so here are my characters Zircon and Boötes the deer! Drawing on small paper samples.

I made Zircon when I was 11, so I guess he's 16yrs old now! Wow! Time is insane and scares me!

[jbfly46]

Traveling through a wormhole and traveling through time are the same thing. Space and time are the same material, the same fluid. The Boötes Void is a wormhole through which information is sent from one side of space-time, to the Black Knight satellite on our side of space-time.

[capricioussun]

Had to remove loveswap and mafialovefell from the ic questions list bc I realized, despite having a pretty solid idea of their personalities, none of them have designs yet lmao

[soberfructosecornsyrup]

Thinking about the Boötes Void makes me uneasy. Like that much space where there's just nothing is fucking bananas.

[quiltofstars]

NGC 5248 // Greg Nelson

[ramenlicious]

[sweet-star-cookie]

really random question: does Boötes have three arms or four arms? I looked at the reference art and he definitely has at least three arms but I can't tell if he's got a fourth arm that's hidden behind him or if it's straight up not there 😅

Oh yeah, I guess it doesn't show all of them huh? It's been a while since I drew that art so I can't remember if I just didn't feel like drawing that arm that day or if it was positioned behind his body anyway lol, oops! I need to give him an updated ref sheet soon, actually.

He has four arms, primarily to give him even more dexterity with his herdsman duties. In addition to his bladed staff, he also has a crossbow (that I haven't drawn here yet), so when he's on patrol he'll carry a weapon or his rope with his upper pair of arms depending on the range of his target, and his bottom pair will control the reins on his dogs, so he can attack and chase someone at the same time. With his ability to multitask like this, he can be hard to escape from!

[atlastheexplorer]

"Cello is love, Cello is life." - Boötes Bauer to Draco Denali

[far-constellation]

Immortality is the digitization of the soul. Everything I am is encoded in zeros and ones, my existence is mythologized and diluted until I don't really exist, I only seem to.

[onlyhurtforaminute]

Boötes Void-YULE