#Lucantian Libretto

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Hey, here’s a comic we drew about our plural experience back in 2014.

Back when our system was more medianlike and far less rigid with the boundaries of where one headmate ended and the next began. I (Chrome) drew this over ten years ago. I don’t think I’ll ever bring myself to draw a comic like this digitally ever again, but traditionally? Maybe one day.

2014 seems like yesterday for us. All of us. And since then, there’s a lot more to the story than “social anxiety and verbal abuse”. It was far more insidious.

But that story will come eventually. Once I’m ready to go through the painstaking task of drawing and inking multiple pages.

Until then, I rest easy knowing my system is not as young as I thought it was, I breathe a sigh of relief to see that the signs were there all along. Even if the signs were “atypical”.

Anyway, here’s my most recent art piece of Artinah, for those who may have missed it.

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Me when I naturally attune a character in my IP to the element associated with responsibility after knowing he was raised by a single adoptive father who hates him

Hehehe

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On Writing Mary Sues (and Gary Stus, and Terry Lous)

I don’t have much of an issue with Mary Sues. Sure, their presence gets annoying and can be a pain if not remedies over a number of years, but they aren’t exactly the worst thing in the world. Here’s why.

1. Mary Sues are primarily self inserts/ avatars of the author. Many times over a Mary Sue is a character that the author wishes they were because they wish they could hang out or date their favorite cinnamon rolls. This is only a problem in that it allows an author to look past their own faults as a person and live out a fantasy that denies them introspection. Often times these self inserts are the result of insecurity, and as a result these flaws an author may have in real life may be smoothed over so as not to bruise the ego.

Despite this, though, self inserts tend to fade over time. I remember fondly the days of my own fan fiction projects, and most if not all of them had some sort of self insert. I was in a very dark place at the time with a chaotic home and a chaotic school life, and as a result it became important for me to cope with my troubles by tossing away my shackles of imperfection for an hour or two a day.

I grew out of it, to an extent. There are traces of an author’s personality rather experience in their characters, as is evident by the Sondheim plays’ interpretation of feminine parental figures. Even with the outgrowing of blatant self inserts, you’ll always find a way to imbue some part of yourself into a character, as it’s the best way into their mind.

So in short: while Mary Sues are ultimately detrimental coping mechanisms, they usually fade with time as people age into adulthood.

2. Mary Sues are mostly confined to bad fanfics and bad movies. Johnny from “The Room” is a great example of a Mary Sue gone horribly wrong. The character is liked by everybody except for the antagonist, and the antagonist has no really good reason to hate them, and the purpose of that antagonist is to be a funnel for the author’s hate. Lisa in The Room is a person we are supposed to despise just because she doesn’t like Johnny and slights him at every opportunity for no other reason than unreasonable infidelity.

Mary Sues are often the result of bias, often of teens whose views of the world isn’t quite nuanced enough to understand that there is not an “us and them” dichotomy. Many are in a phase of their life where they are the most vulnerable and as a result they feel the brunt of the world’s senseless cruelty while silmuktaneouslt not having as much personal autonomy and control as adults. These things can result in frustration with people who may have unspoken well intentions, such as parents who try to protect their child, which can manifest as vilifying certain people in their works.

It isn’t their fault by any stretch, at least not in that they are going to fix this overnight. Learning about the world is important to creating a cohesive sense of the world. This is why it’s recommended to read just as much as you write, because learning about Dickens and Hemingway and Brontë can make teens understand how to write better by showing them nuance.

Like point one, point two is solved with time, but in addition, it is solved with the continuous craft of writing as well as the practice of voracious reading.

3. Mary Sues allow us to see how far we’ve come in our pursuit for the greater novel. Have you ever had a moment where you look back on something you said or did as a child and realized how ignorant or offensive it was? It’s a moment that makes you realize how little you knew. I recently found an old PowerPoint I make when I was eleven in which I said transvestites (individuals who dress in clothing of the opposite sex, specifically) were all gay. I never knew that some drag queens and kings are straight, that some are gay, that some are performing as their identity and some aren’t, that some are trans, etc., and how could I? I didn’t have a concept of trans identity, let alone hear about it.

We look back on our old work the same way. For every Lucantian Libretto, there’s a Ratchet and Clank fanfiction so bad it was never finished. For every “The Tower” there’s a Naruto doc where the main character is Naruto’s long lost sister. Every one of these things is the result of learning. We learn to write better. We learn how people actually are. We learn to treat characters like people- that is, with depth and nuance.

I dont consider Mary Sues an awful thing in terms of the potential. I’ve entertained a speculative meta work in which the antagonist is a Mary Sue and has all the powers of a Mary Sue, including the godmodded stuff found in RP forums on gaiaonline. Ironically, making a Mary Sue an unlikeable villain is enough to make a damn good character. Maybe I’ll look into it.

Until then, these are my insights.

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Leileth, transparent or nah

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THE FIRST CHAPTER IS HERE!

[lucantianlibretto-official]

VA STATUS UPDATE:

Dymir: Open

Arden: Closed

Talvas: Pending

Kiv'rani: Open, Script Pending

Leileth: Closed

Baldwyn: Closed

Rael: Open

Tawny: Pending

Shevras: Open

Iridescia: Open, Script Pending

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Guys look at my progress I’m so happy!! Look at Krayne, he looks so goood!!! Aaaaa

April 29, 2022 ➡️ October 18, 2023

Guys he looks so happy I can’t wait to write this chaotic fucker.

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Iridescia Von Pyke carrying her halberd, “Diplomacy”.

I can’t stop drawing her, her design is one of my favorites💕💕

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“I held onto hope,” she said. “Hope that I was more than a liar, than a coward. And despite everything, all that I’d ever see in the mirror was… myself. Nothing more than that...”

Seremina, before and after 100 years of hardship. She might be smiling in both, but a sadness runs through her.

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“Thank you for letting me be a part of your history.”

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Cat people! This is Tarrant and Melanie, two Malkin from different eras of Lucantian history!

The Malkin of Ganim needed some icon work done, I’m pleased with the results. Here’s the full images of them for reference.

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Is he… you know?

Tarrant Jeri’Kal displaying his gayness like a goddamn champion. God I love this man.

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Her Highest Radiance, Queen Keryahtah of House Daemoira, having her locks carried by the Butterfly Spell of her high priest. Hair is considered a part of a person’s pride in Syran culture, so letting it drag in public is a symbol of a lack of self respect.

(I’ll hopefully be releasing an infographic soon on the subject.)

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Seremina, founder of the Auspice Alliance and Rhapsodist of the Libretto.

(She’s our system mom. :3)

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Working on his design. Cosmic Knight Kairo is in many respects a standard example of a typical Sheyde who was put into orbit. Much less neurotic than his distant brother Vector, who works containment. His responsibility is to deal with threats outside the hull. Since his biology is plantlike, he has to wear a cooling oxygenated nanosuit, like a second skin to protect him from the vacuum of space. Most aerobic life forms use them.

(This is also the alt form of our Shadow fictive.)

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So I (Bartimil) keep asking Chrome to draw more art of Melanie. This is because I’m extremely EXTREMELY in love with her. She’s just… by the Six how did I get the privilege to be born during her lifespan? (She lives longer than me, that phrasing makes sense.)

Literally each photo of her is just sublime.