#I have a whole page of arthur sketches I might post later :]

[arthur-lesters-nipples]

He’s my little blorbo 💛

[parkersharthook]

Love For All

Peter Stark-Rogers & Stark-Rogers!reader (twins)

warnings: mentions of drinking/being drunk, pretty fluffy

1.8k+ words

series masterlist

a/n: happy pride month (lol I queued this in february just so I didn’t forget to post it) anyways im bi and pls know my page is a safe space for everyone 💗💜💙

Fluffy piece where Tony and Steve are chosen as the grand marshalls for the pride parade and it becomes a family affair.

“this just in, you all officially have the coolest dads in history!” Tony bellowed as he dramatically entered the common space, Steve right behind him with a plethora of eye rolls.

Right as you were about to protest, Bucky chimed in, “neither of you are my father.”

“with the way I’ve saved your sorry ass? Might as well be.”

“saved my sorry ass? Oh Stevie, have you forgotten who pulled your ass out of every back alley fight you got into? Or have the years 1932 to 1941.”

“I did not start a fight in 1932!” Steve argued back, hands placed firmly on his hips.

“bullshit! 5 years old, playground 2 blocks over, Arthur Williams.”

Steve frowned slightly, “damn I forgot about that.”

Beside you Peter snorted, “you got into a fight when you were 5?”

“Wow darling, you came out of the womb with righteous indignation didn’t you?” Tony added with a small smirk as he moved to rest against the back of the couch.

Steve threw his hands up in defeat, “oh haha laugh it up. Yes I’m old, yes I’m stubborn. Can we please just go back to how we’re cool?”

“Wait before that, back to the ‘not my fathers thing’ does this mean you see yourselves as the team fathers? Because if you’re adopting more people, I want in!” Clint said cheerfully.

“Sorry we capped out at four.”

You stuck your tongue out at Clint with a little ‘ha ha’ because you were mature like that. “anyways… why do you think you are the coolest dads? I wanna get my rebuttal in soon.”

Tony bopped the back of your head playfully as he dropped a very rainbow piece of paper into your lap. Peter instantly leaned into your space to read it. You pushed him back with a shove to the forehead. “relax nerd I’m gonna read it out loud.”

“hurry up I’m getting antsy.” You threw an unimpressed look at Clint who had practically crawled into Bucky’s lap to get closer, not that Bucky minded.

“Chill.” You smoothed out the paper and held it up, “All hail the next Grand Marshals of NYC Pride, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. We are happy to formally announce the two superheroes and super husbands as our fearless leaders of the float parade this year.”

“That’s the public announcement they put out, turn it over to read the letter they sent us.”

“Dear Mr. Anthony and Steven Stark-Rogers, we are so excited to welcome you into our NYC Pride Parade family. As this year’s appointed Grand Marshals it is both our duty and pleasure to pass the Pride Baton over to you. Included in this letter you will find the rules and expectations of our Grand Marshals, as well as what is permitted for first floats. We would love if you extended this invitation to your entire circle of family and friends to join you in the parade and on your float.”

You put the paper down and tilted your head back to stare at your dad, “you? Grand Marshal? Really?”

“What’s so shocking about that?”

“umm…. You’re old and not cool.”

Bucky sputtered a laugh beside you as Tony bopped you on the head again.

“Was this your way of telling us to come to pride with you?” Peter asked.

Steve shook his head as he flopped into a nearby loveseat, “actually this was our way of telling you that we need your help coming up with ideas for the float and how to decorate it. But of course we want you to join us on the float, we’ll be inviting the rest of the team as well.”

“I’ll help decorate but Bi-derman is making another appearance this year.”

Tony slapped his forehead, “can you take your old suit at least? The paint was a bitch to get off last time.”

Peter rolled his eyes, “the old suit chafes.”

You grimaced, “I hate this conversation.”

“I think you should do a dog themed float, Lucky can be our mascot.”

Bucky sighed, “of course that’s your suggestion.”

“what about the history of pride? Recognizing the Stonewall Riots and the two black transgender females that started it all. Plus then we can also advocate for Black Lives Matter. Make it clear that to support one, you have to support the other. Educate and entertain.”

Tony smiled, “that’s not a bad idea y/n.”

Steve looked at you with hopeful eyes, “are you willing to help organize and coordinate?”

“can I invite friends to help?”

“yes.”

You smiled, “then yes.”

------

“when I said organize and coordinate, I didn’t mean take over the conference room we use regularly for avengers meetings.” Steve said with a deep sigh

“it’s the only one with a vending machine.” MJ helpfully pointed out, taking another large bite of her pizza slice.

“yeah it was the only way to get Clint to sit through meetings without leaving to get food.” Steve explained as he stepped into the room and took in the large array of papers everywhere. The four teenage girls that occupied the room were all busy with one thing or another, looking intense and determined.

MJ snorted, “figures.” Her hand ghosted over the page again, dragging the pencil with it and creating another addition to her sketch.

Steve’s brow furrowed for a moment and he took a step closer to get a better look, “is that me?”

MJ nodded coolly but offered no other explanation. Betty huffed a laugh, “we’re trying to design both you and Mr. Stark crown-like head pieces.”

“crowns?”

You rolled your eyes, “Pops, you really do only hear what you wanna hear. Crown-like head pieces. I know dad would go for a full ass crown but I knew you wouldn’t and we want you two to match.”

Steve studied the photos of celebrities that were projected on the wall. “and that?”

“The 2018 Met Gala. Theme: heavenly bodies. There were a bunch of great head pieces that night, we’re using it for inspiration.” Gwen supplied, “let us know if there’s any you like.”

“I wanna go in a Cardi B direction.” You stated without taking your eyes off your computer screen, you’ve obviously already committed every possible headpiece to memory.

“don’t taint his selection with bias!” Betty cried

MJ waved her off easily, “there’s no way he knows who Cardi B is.”

“thanks for the confidence MJ.” She just smiled cheekily at him.

“I think he should choose something like what Frances McDormand was wearing.” Gwen stated with a small smile

MJ laughed, “as much as I think that would look amazing, there’s no way he’s picking that.”

“who’s this?”

You barely had to glance at the photo to recognize the red and gold dress and of course the iconic headpiece, “Black Lively.”

“Okay well I like that, it’s simple.”

“what about…” Gwen drawled as she typed something and new photo, a larger one, took over the whole wall, “Something like SZA’s?”

Steve took a step back and grimaced slightly, “it’s kinda… big.”

“But if it were smaller?” Gwen pressed politely

“I suppose.” Steve glanced around at the four girls. “You guys have a lot of stuff planned.”

“Oh yeah.” You looked up with a big grin, meeting your dad’s eye. “It’s gonna be great.”

“You’re not designing us costumes too are you?”

“Well Tony specifically said not too and that he already had something planned.” MJ said before eyeing Steve up and down with the critical eye of an artist, “But we could design something if you wanted us too.”

“No, I kinda of already have a plan too.”

You rose a questioning brow, “oh yeah? Please tell me you’re not going to be wearing something boring.”

Steve rolled his eyes at you and obnoxiously bumped his hip into your side as he walked out, “I’m not clueless on how to dress for Pride. Plus, I like dressing up for it, it’s fun. And it’s not something we got to do back then. I’m planning on taking full advantage.” And with that he walked out dramatically and closed the door.

Betty laughed slightly, “ten bucks that he paints the shield.”

Gwen shook his head, “No way. I think he’s gonna wear one of the flags as a cape.”

MJ clicked her tongue, “I know for a fact he’ll be wearing his ‘trans rights are human rights’ shirt.” Pause. “and probably his rainbow pants.”

You looked at MJ with a perplexed expression, “why do you know about my dad’s rainbow pants?”

MJ smirked slightly, “he wore them to pride a few years ago. Plus, me and peter talk about things. You’re not the only Stark-Rogers twin I hang out with.”

Gwen obnoxiously nudged Betty with her elbow and a large wink, “Oh yeah… she talks to Peter.” MJ scowled at the two as you snickered behind your hand.

MJ grumbled slightly, “let’s just get back to work.” It was silent in the room until the three other girls heard MJ mumble, “I never have to deal with this at college.”

You burst into a fit of laughter.

------

Pride was without a doubt a 100% success.

The float looked great. The area had already been swept for trouble. One Grand Marshal was moderately drunk. And Everyone was dancing and partying. Perfect.

Even the float attendees looked great. Clint was the brightest of the all. With no shirt on, glitter all over his chest, a rainbow tutu around his hips, tight purple booty shorts underneath, knee high socks with the pan pride flag on them, plus his signature purple converse… he looked good.

You’ve been snickering every time you catch Bucky not so subtlety looking Clint up and down. But that being said, Clint was doing the same to Bucky because he had someone managed to get the stoic and whiney super soldier into a rainbow button down. Nothing else, as that wasn’t Bucky’s jam. He paired the shirt with simple jeans but you were sure that he would be covered with glitter later.

Peter had been swinging around the parade, his first Stark suit now painted a vibrant pink, purple, and blue. Plus there was a large, messily painted on heart over where the spider sat in the middle of his chest.

You and all your friends had taken up the dance floor on the float, and if you said so yourself, you all were killing the dance moves.

Tony was more than tipsy because Bruce was on babysitting duty tonight for Morgan, so he let himself go and lean heavily against his husband, who just grinned at him all lovingly.

In the end, it was a good day. You threw beads and candy to the crowd, joining them at times for drinks and dance parties. You laughed endlessly with your friends and your family. And yeah… it was a good day.

Plus, all your friends had been correct.

Steve wore his trans shirt in solidarity with the ongoing movements and the float.

He wore his rainbow pants because they were “super fashionable y/n” and to support everyone.

He painted his shield purple, blue, and pink to show off his own sexuality and support Peter.

And he had a pansexual flag tied around his neck to match with Tony’s pink, yellow, and blue shirt.

He looked great.

[iamkatehardy]

The Portrait (Alfie Solomons x Reader) - Pt 1

Request: “ Want Alfie requests???” – Oh yes, I freakin’ do! *.* - “How about a bad ass reader (maybe shelby sibling) who's trying to debate with Alfie over something gang related but can’t help noticing how tired and sort of sad he is, and hes intrigued by her and then soft fluffinessssss with two tired souls :')” by @picassho-18

Warnings: Cursing?

A/N: It’s just an introduction about how Alfie and (Y/N) Shelby met, but I haven’t posted in a long time and I was dying to upload something! Altough it might seem a little bit incomplete, Pt 2 will be here tomorrow 😍 Let me know what you think!

Tags: @sparklyreaderx @titty-teetee @but--dear-this-is-not-wonderland  @ellar21 @iv-nyc @eap1935 (Wanna be tagged in my next stories? Let me know!)

 The Portrait

Shelby, a long-established name when it came to the life of crime; the epitome of power and business, combined with a hint of relentlessness. When you’re one of them, there’s no escaping the gangster life, no matter how hard you try to, and you knew it better than anybody.

You didn’t really take a liking to the idea of being a gangster though, no matter how much your older siblings tried to sugarcoat it, acting as if it was a business like any other. Arts always attracted you more than machineguns and bills, and just like your sister, Ada, you tried to stay away from the family business and live a normal life; only one thing could make you turn into a wild animal, like Tommy and Arthur were by nature, and it was your family. That was the beautiful thing about the Shelbys, and it became even more evident at times of crisis: if you mess with one, you’re in big trouble, because you messed with the whole family.

Tommy called a family meeting; he made it clear that he wanted everyone there, including you. Although you didn’t have a very strong connection to the family business, you were the most cunning and temperamental member of the family, only comparable to Pol, making you one of Tommy’s most reliable advisors, in the few times he actually listened to advisement. During times of war you fight with all your weapons, and you would be a great weapon. You were aware Tommy would probably ask for more than your wise words; he needed help, and you couldn’t deny your own family a helping hand, no matter how much you despised their way of living.

No one wanted this war in the first place, and you had been the first to tell your brothers to back off while there was time. Tommy’s brilliant ideas had put you in a delicate situation again, and alone you wouldn’t get yourselves out.

“We’ll need to resort to Alfie’s help.” – Tommy’s voice was calm as usual, and his hands pressed tightly together.

You looked at Arthur, who gritted his teeth in silent fury, at the mention of Alfie’s name.

“I… I don’t think that’s a good idea. He has proven that he isn’t trustworthy.” – Fidgeting with your hands, you looked down, pensive.

“I’m not goin’ to Camden Town, ever again. If I see that motherfucker, I’ll put a rope around his fuckin’ neck, tie it to the car, and take him for a ride…Until his body is crushed enough to feed it to the fuckin’ dogs.” – Arthur spoke slowly, clenching his fists, as he slowly turned to face Tommy.

“I figured that, that’s why (Y/N) is going…” – Tommy shifted his attention to you.

“I’m sorry?!” - You got up, hands pressed to the table, almost gluing your face to your brother’s. – “He broke you, and fucked you in the ass right after… And look what he did to Arthur! Now you want me to go there?! For him to get a bingo, fucking all the family? After all he did to you?! Fuck off!” – You shook your head, as a negative answer to his request.

“I’m finding it hard to do that too (Y/N)…”

“No you’re not, because you’re trying to send me to do your dirty job!”

“It’s not a request! He’s our only way out!” – Tommy shouted in your face, slamming the table with the flat of his hand, so hard it made you shiver inside.

You wanted to answer, and tell him what you really thought, but you knew there would be no use in trying to dissuade him or go against him;  you just bit your tongue in silence and sat down.

“Good, I’ll set up the meeting later this week.”

“Whatever, Thomas…” – You gave him a nasty look.

You had never met Alfie before, but you heard a lot about him, his business, and how he fucked your family in multiple occasions. Although you hadn’t laid your eyes on him yet, you already hated the man.

When you got to the bakery, Ollie made your presence known, but Alfie was expecting one of the Shelby brothers, not an elegant lady that was there to talk to him, according to Ollie’s words, so he made you wait, wait, and wait, while he waited for Tommy to show up. You took your old sketchbook everywhere with you, this time was no exception; as you waited outside the bakery, you took the opportunity to draw your surroundings, but patience has limits, and after a long wait you stormed inside the bakery.

“Miss, wait…” – Ollie desperately tried to stop you before you reached Alfie’s office, grabbing your arm. If there was something he didn’t need, was Alfie’s wrath for letting someone in with no permission.

“Get your fuckin’ hand off me, if you want to have two hands by tomorrow… I set a meeting with a gangster or with the fuckin’ Pope? ”

“Mr. Solomons has an appointment with Mr. Shelby, I’m afraid he can’t receive visitors right now.”

“Do you know who the fuck I am?! I am Miss Shelby, and I’ve been waiting for almost an hour now.”

All the noise outside made Alfie lose the focus on what he was doing, and he peeked through the office door.

“Ollie, what the Hell is going on’ere?” – Huffing loudly, Alfie took his glasses off.

The crook you were seeing was nothing like your brothers described him; he wasn’t that old, and didn’t seem that unpleasant. Alfie Solomons was a bastard, but he was a really good looking bastard, even when he was as pissed as he was in that moment.

“Are you Alfred Solomons?” – Holding your head up high, you acted all mighty.

“Yes…” – He gave Ollie a questioning look.

“Great… I’m (Y/N) Shelby, the one you have a meeting with. And the one you kept waiting for almost an hour.”

“Fuck… I mean, I’m sorry. Come in.” – Alfie gave Ollie a killer look, making him know he’d be in trouble for this, then gestured for you to come in, shutting the door after you both came in. – “I was expecting Tommy, I didn’t even know there were so many Shelbys out there.”

“When it rains, it pours, Mr. Solomons… There are plenty of us, ready to spread the chaos in the world.” – After Alfie pulled the chair out for you, you have him a courtly nod and sat down.

“Please, call me Alfie, a’ight? I’m an old friend of the Shelby family after all, innit?”

An intriguing expression settled upon his heavenly features, and you couldn’t help yourself; you knew you had to try to capture it in your sketchbook. You opened it on a blank page, putting it on your lap and started conceiving the draw, without him noticing.

“Spare me the sweet-talk, Mr. Solomons. I’m here for one thing, and that’s signing a contract, speaking of which…” – You lifted your eyes from the sketch, facing him, and taking advantage of that occasion to study his face once again.

Alfie furrowed his eyebrows as you extended your hand, waiting for him to give you the contract.

“You are not expecting me to sign it without reading it, are you?” – You raised your eyebrows and smirked. – “Sly as a fox… Exactly as you were described to me. But unfortunately for you, I’m the most unfuckwithable in the family. Now, the contract…” – You gave him a cocky smile.

Reluctantly, he delivered you the contract. You stopped drawing for a moment, focusing on the contract.

“Jesus, Alfie, are you nuts or something? Tommy is the one who makes deals with the Devil, not me. I’m pretty sure we were crystal clear about the conditions.  These are not the conditions we agreed. This is not offering help, it’s exploiting our misery.” – Fucking greedy man, you thought.

“Well, I figured we could renegotiate the terms of my help, aye Miss Shelby? ” – He sat back, relaxing on the chair and tilting his head, studying you intently. Alfie had the upper hand, and he knew it, he wanted to use that as much as he could.

“I’m a gypsy, we do not negotiate.” – You kept drawing him, so stoic and irresistible. – “Save your sweet-talk and blackmail for Tommy, your threats for Arthur… Those don’t work with me.”

Alfie straightened himself up in the chair, slightly annoyed he couldn’t turn the tables on you, like he did with your brothers; he couldn’t help but notice you were drawing, although he couldn’t figure out what, without the glasses.

“That’s me innit, sweetie?”- He smirked.

“No.” – Your cheeks reddened so much they almost give you away. – “My next assignment is to draw the elderly, but not today.” – You closed the sketchbook, giving him another cocky smile. Hearing you call him old, his smirk vanished. - “Now, Alfie, I suggest you make the appropriate changes to the contract. When you’re done with that, I’ll come back. Until then, we have nothing else to discuss. ” – You got up.

“Wait, how can I even get in touch with you?!” – He got up after you.

“You can’t. As long as we’re talking strictly about business, you can reach me through Tommy, and that’ll do. Have a nice day.” – You shook his hand and turned on your heel, heading to Ada’s.

[starandserpent-blog]

Rituals of the old

Rituals of the old has been in development for 256 days today. I wanted to celebrate this by writing a bit more than usual and going through what's been going on with the project during this time.

How did it all start

I had been modding a popular block building sandbox game for years. My efforts had pretty much reached their limit during the 4 years and some ~10 000 development hours I put into modding the game. The bugs and limitations of the platform were beginning to restrict my creativity. It got me thinking one day that it was crazy to put so much development time into a game made by someone else since with the same amount of effort - and then some - it would be possible to build your own game which was designed from the ground up to work like I wanted to and hopefully with less bugs and other restrictions!

We put together a core team that same day and started planning the style, technical solutions and game play content and so the Star and serpent team and Rituals of the old was born.

The name

"Rituals of the old" was not my first choice for a name, but it turns out that other people have lived before me and done some pretty interesting stuff. Most of the names I wanted to use were already taken or recognized brands in other fields of industries - or the web addresses were simply reserved or contained words which were too common to be even consider in any sensible project which doesn't want to be on the last page in all search results.

I made a long list of names and meticulously compared and ranked them according to how cool I thought they were, how well they reflected the game we wanted to make and how the names would fare in search results, etc.

"Once you eliminate the impossible, what ever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

-- Arthur Conan Doyle

In our case what ever remained was to be our game's name. Like our game house's name (Star and serpent) the phrase "Rituals of the old" comes from the second chapter of a certain holy book. While the name does not completely reflect the whole variety of the game it reflect some aspects of it and I thought it would be fitting enough. Also it sounds intriguing and will stop you for a while.

The origin

First and foremost we wanted to continue what I had already been doing for the past 4 years. We wanted to expand upon the worlds and lore that I had created in a surrounding where we could realize all the ideas and interesting details which were not possible before due to the constraints of the old platform.

Originally the world of the Rituals of the old was a saga in three parts, each of which told a story of a different era in an alternate history of human kind.

In the distant past there was the Galactic Imperium which took place on several planets and in the vast regions of space, space stations and asteroid belts. It was a time of highly advanced technology and space travel. The human kind had spread all over the galaxy and was living in decadence and corruption.

In between there was the End of the World in a post apocalyptic setting after the fall of the Galactic Imperium. Radioactive wastelands, acid rains and all nature ruined, great cities in ruins and space junk raining down from the orbit devastating everything.

The last part of the saga, Kingdom of the Sun, took place in the distant future after the two other eras had ended and it was a time of enlightenment and time of peace. Mankind had returned to it's roots and took joy not in the technologies and war but in the simple ways of life and manual labor. All the kingdoms were united under the rule of one Sun emperor in a feudal setting with remains of the ancient technologies - force fields, sub space communicators, black powder guns, wind mills, etc. still existing here and there but people paid no attention to such things.

The concept

Without understanding the above the world of Rituals of the old can be confusing - is this the Earth? Is this the medieval times? Why are there old technologies like the black powder guns in this era? Why are there highly advanced things like force fields and cloning vats? What is this?!

Rituals of the old depicts the alternate and True history of mankind. It is not the history that we, the inhabitants of the Earth, know and in this alternate history the origin of the mankind is certainly not the planet Earth (as we ignorantly like to think).

Above you can see a crude sketch of the timelines. The timeline above is missing some thing like, for example, the histories of the other numerous colonies and the fall of the first ancestors of Koto in an atomic war. After the fall the descendants of the original survivors lead primitive lives as tribals and begun rebuilding their culture slowly. The same thing happened on Earth around 65 million BCE and leading up to our modern times.

The setting of Rituals of the old takes place on the planet Koto some generations after the happenings of the year 100 093 BCE. Some of the ancient pre-fall technologies of the original ancestors lie hidden beneath Koto - or so it is rumored. And some of technologies were left behind by the Great Galactic Imperium after their exodus from the planet to fight in the galactic wars.

And so we end up with the present times of the game in a setting on an alternate timeline where the people are living mostly happy and content simple lives in a surrounding which is a melting pot of rare surviving lore of the ancient times, broken down technologies from relatively recent invaders from the Great Galactic Imperium (which are already beginning to turn into a stuff of legends and myth in some minds). And the remains of the tribal lives are meeting the lives of farmers and villagers and the bit more modern city people.

Then we put forbidden magic, old forbidden gods and shadowy creatures of myth into the mix, add a sprinkle of social change, unrest and upheaval under the surface and hide in some secret wars.

...And what you end up with is the world of Rituals of the old.

Rituals of the old is a Sandbox RPG

Rituals of the old is a sandbox RPG. But what is a sandbox RPG?

A RPG or a Role Playing Game is generally considered a game type where you run around doing quests following a pre-written story line.

A sandbox on the other hand is a game type where you are thrown into a world without explanations and you are free to do what ever you want without a predefined set of goals.

Finally, we have the sandbox RPG which is a game type where you are thrown into a world with rich lore, stories and interesting surroundings - but no clear goal or defining quest lines.

In Rituals of the old you are free to make your own stories with other players, but you are given a surrounding of rich lore, histories and backgrounds. And the inhabitants of the world react to your presence and actions by their own sense of morality.

Our goal is to build a living vivid world where NPCs (non player characters) go about their business and lives in a simulated mini society working, meetings friends and spending leisure time by following simple pre-scripted behavior patterns determined by the AI (artificial intelligence).

Art

Our goal is to achieve a low poly art style which aims for a level of "minimum immersion" required to make the players stop thinking about the graphics and instead start thinking about what's happening in the game world. Relatively simple and pretty in it's own right for those who like the low poly style.

The benefits for the game development include that the models are easy to make, fast to texture and low poly means that we will have more memory to spend on other more interesting things. Instead of doing one model for weeks on end we can spend more of the development time on things like having more animations.

It is extremely difficult to make a game which looks realistic. There are many games that try and fail and end up looking disappointingly crappy where as a more simple style would have benefited the development by saving time and effort and benefited the players by being clearly a work of fiction.

It is my opinion that the content always trumps graphics.

Where are we now and what have we been doing

We've been hard at work for the past 256 days (and the 4 years before that!) and have had some ups and downs along the way.

In just 256 days we have achieved:

- Working game client. - Working game server. - Simple world generation. - Launcher. - Basic UI - Networking. - Multiplayer. - Verification server. - And other smaller things.

It perhaps doesn't sound like much, but first of all you have to take into consideration the amount of planning required for such a project to succeed and that takes time too, several months in fact - and we have only one person working on the project full time, me. Others are doing everything on their free time after their regular jobs or studies.

And nobody is getting paid.

We don't have any kind of financing backing for the project. Our expenses are currently somewhere between 100-200 $ per month and they come right off the pockets of yours truly (and no, they are not very deep pockets).

So in many ways we are in a similar situation as many other indie projects who are just starting up.

Group funding might become an option later on but it's spooky scary stuff and a difficult wagon to jump on. It would mean effectively turning a currently hobby project straight into a commercial venture. That would mean a lot more pressure to achieve things on time, ie. we would have to achieve our goals before the money runs out. And there would be a lot more expenses to consider.

It is not the best option at this time. And we definitely need a more of a product to exhibit before getting serious about things. But it's in the back of my mind.

We are also very lucky to have a small group of dedicated fans (thank you all!) who have been a tremendous help and support along the way.

Recent troubles

We lost some 2-3 months worth of character modeling and animations due to irredeemable errors in the models which prevented them from being imported to JmonkeyEngine. On the other hand this gave us a chance to take a step back and rethink our character design. In retrospect we should have tested that all the pipelines work before getting too far with the models. A lesson learned.

We might be going from this:

To this:

We've also had the great misfortune of encountering some serious issues due to incompatible licensing between Autodesk products and open source projects which make importing and exporting models between different software really difficult and in some situations impossible. They are being worked around as we speak. But it is development time wasted which could have been used for actual progress.

Interesting fact: We've had fourteen (!) 3D modelers and artist so far. Artists... Oh the fickleness of thy temper!

“You are no surer, no, than is the coal of fire upon the ice or hailstone in the sun. He that depends upon your favors swims with fins of lead.”

-- William Shakespeare

But we keep on swimming nonetheless. The core team has been very solid and dedicated.

Languages

Every once in a while when I have time from other more pressing things I've been developing a language called Root for Rituals of the old - and sometimes streaming the process (https://www.twitch.tv/pilvinen2). It's very interesting, action filled and exciting to watch! /sarcasm :-)

Above you can see a work in progress translation I've been doing. I usually write some kind of story down and then begin translating it. When I encounter words that the language does not have yet I research how those words are formed and write them down in the dictionary.

Root language has a very simple grammar and should be relatively easy to learn. I won't publish the whole dictionary, instead I will leave it up to the players who are interested in languages to work out what everything means. Learning the language will be completely optional. It is designed to add to the atmosphere of the game rather than being an essential part of the game.

Above you can see the whole runic alphabet. All the runes have a name and a meaning and also numeric value. The runes of creation "äin, ain, enna, inni, oru, öry, unni and ynni" have a special significance in the Root language. Consonants are considered just breaks and form and the vowels are the strength and durability

Exchanging the back vowels of the word to front vowels (and vice versa) reverses the meaning of the word. For example "Zain" thaumaturgy becomes "Zäin" mundane. The word "Tef" gate turns into "Tif" obstacle (in Root 'i' is considered a front vowel of 'e').

If the word contains other vocals besides "i,e" all the "i"'s and "e"'s will remain unaffected by the reversal like for example in the word "Unni" air which turns into "Ynni" earth.

The back vowels "a,e,u,o" in words generally have a positive connotation and are considered feminine.

The front vowels "ä,i,ö,y" in words generally have a negative connotation and are considered masculine.

"Z" ending in a word usually denotes supernatural and out of the ordinary things, for example: "ako+z" turns the meaning of "food" (ako) into especially good food (akoz). "Jum+z" turns meaning of "large" (jum) into abnormally large (jumz).

Most of the words in Root language are constructed through combining runes and words. For example: "Wel, greater, feminine" becomes through the reversal of the vowels "Wil, lesser, masculine" and since "Mem" is "a human" therefore "Memwel" is a human female and "Memwil" is a human male or the lesser human who cannot give birth to life.

Sometimes when the meaning of the words is not obvious the connection can come from their numeric value and their nature can be deduced by simple mathematics. For example "Eb" or "love" from the runes "Enna+Bir" - Enna has the meaning "unity" and the rune Bir has the numeric value 2, ie. love is "two uniting". And when you calculate their numeric value Enna (5) + Bir (2) you get 7 or the rune Fu which has the meaning "dream". And while we're on the subject when we combine "Eb" or "love" and "wel" or "greater" what do we get? Great love? No, instead we get the meaning "fool" because great love invites foolishness "a fool in love".

This is very interesting to me and I could go on and on about it. Unfortunately I don't have as much time to develop the Root language from my other duties as I'd like to.

Polls

We've been running a poll for some months on our web page and while I was hoping for a larger focus group here are the results:

What surprises me here is the amount of voter who have wanted role playing features and the low amount of votes for building and PvE combat. I have a hunch that these statistics would greatly change if more people would have voted.

But nonetheless we will try to put more focus on RPG features, magic and survival against the elements in the future.

As you can see here most of the votes come from Europe, especially Finland, which is understandable because Star and serpent is based in Finland and people here know us previously from the modding scene. As we progress further along with Rituals of the old this geographic distribution will most likely shift.

We are looking for a 3D artist

Do you have 3D modeling skills and you are looking for an interesting project to participate in? Check out our jobs section at the Indiedb:

http://www.indiedb.com/jobs/3d-artist89

Participate

We always love to hear your ideas and feedback. If you wish to participate please join our forums and let us know what you think - or catch us at our international Discord channel.

Web site: https://www.ritualsoftheold.com/

Forums: https://www.ritualsoftheold.com/community/

Discord chat: https://discord.gg/jCQW4uC