#I *think* i've changed it everywhere it shows up on the carrds

[void-kissed]

Okay! It's twenty to midnight and I have an early lecture tomorrow, so I should probably get to sleep now, but: I have updated the tag for Camille, my Skyrim self-insert! (Or, technically, one of my Skyrim self-inserts, because I have three.)

Her tag used to be "dreams and the dusk", but it's now "illusory dreamweaver". This is actually a title she's had since her very first iteration - she was actually originally made for a completely separate story an old friend of mine and I were working on. In fact, her original association with dream magic that she had there is the reason she became an acolyte of Vaermina when I decided to use her as my Skyrim self-insert! And anyway, the way I play as her is to use a lot of illusion magic (as well as conjuration, specifically lots of summoning), so it still fits her current iteration as well.

That's all I wanted to say! I like making posts when I change things just to update people, so.. this is what this is.

Have a quick bonus screenshot I took of Camille right after she became a vampire:

[ladyohdeath]

so much care and love went into the designs of the costumes. and as many posts as i make about this i want to make a new one now about her crown, which as i said in my carrd in a recent update, she'll now have in every thread going forward unless she's hiding herself as a human on purpose.

and god, i just love this crown so much. i'm not as big of a history nerd as i want to be, so some of this dialogue is inspired by a tumblr post linked here to sort of talk about it. but seriously, one of the coolest costume designs marvel has done in a while.

if you think about it, really, the crown (as well as her whole character design) is as old as the universe itself. older than time as we know it. i used to compare it to tree roots, but i see now that that it's far more complex than that.

for starters, obviously we see that the crown is a series of shades that shows as black in some lights, green in others, but for the most part reflective of both. it's meant to reflect her two primary colours, and the cycle of life and death. i also very much headcanon that in certain lights it's almost invisible, in certain realms and places of existence it's dark as night. it very much matches her standard lady death outfit which has a similar vibe, with a design meant to feel old, connected to the earth, and in some aspects resembling tree roots, the circle of life, all of it intertwining in a specific pattern.

obviously in my last post i just talked about death being omnipresent, and i think that the crown is just as omnipresent, in being that it looks different from any angle, the same in every dimension. never changing, as death is always the same everywhere. i also really like the way that they designed the look to reflect early religious symbols, just another factor about it that makes it feel ancient.

the post says this, which i thought was super interesting:

It's a chitinous construct of thorns and spines flaring up like vertebrae when viewed from the side, rising out of her head (the spine is a symbol of Osiris, which feels relevant here, but also the crown of thorns on Christ's head) in a way that feels organic, yet eerie. The deep green shimmer on it, like the carapace of a scarab, and coming forward over her face like a pair of pincers or antennae, grasping over her skull as a set of hungry claws; but when you see it from above, it's like the jawbone of something with many, many teeth.

i really think this is meant to show the many sides of death, the good and the bad. when you look death head on, it resembles jaws, as though it's coming down at you from above. when you look to the side, it's shaped on a slope, with jagged sharp edges. it almost looks like a shark. but from the side angle it almost looks like waves, jagged and hard but flowing into a pattern. and all of it comes together at the top, every piece of it is very specifically designed, and i think that's the purpose of it.

there's more nuance here that i've yet to figure out myself, but i think that's part of the intent, as well as the obvious intent which is that it's meant to reflect early religious symbols like the crown on jesus's head. which is a super cool fucking detail i might add. when you look at it from the side or from the lower angle of the kiss you can see that it's not even really touching her head. like it's just always there.

you all also know i'm obsessed with vegetation, and the circle of life that rio really reflects in the leaves and flowers she trails behind her sometimes, especially when taking a body. i like to think that the crown operates in a similar fashion, and is ever-shifting, just the slightest bit. and if you look at it head on, and stare for long enough, you might see it shifting, growing very slowly then shortening again, not unlike, again, the roots of a tree. that's just my personal headcanon, though, and not something i observe when watching or looking at pics.

for the more technical side of it, while death can make the crown disappear at will, it is always there. it's very much a part of her, and doesn't move from her head. it's as unavoidable as death itself. it's also got a strange texture to it, the jagged edges sharp but smooth at the same time. i also headcanon that it's similar to obsidian, sort of a mythical version of it, not unlike the material of the black heart of her suit.

so yeah, that's it for now. i'll update this if the costume designer drops a pic of the back. long story short, i love the crown.