#and then that inspired Fen to draw this

[eikotheblue]

Fen this "shitpost" art is an epic poem. To me. 💙 (And the fact that you did this in a medium and style you have no experience with is just. mindblowing to me. like. what.)

(Pokemon team and more story below the cut)

So the story of how this all happened is that - I was doing my local cryptid routine (I spin poi out around town wearing my usual all-blue, and am at this point decently well known for it) and we ran into some Local Youths, one of whom wanted a photo with me and another who said he didn't need one because he'd gotten one already. This caused his friend to say "oh, she's like a pokemon, huh" which I found delightful, and reported back to my discord server. This started a discussion in which Rob Nomaly asked "how hard would it be to come up with a well-rounded pokemon team that was all-blue?" and my wonderful roommate @toasthaste started brainstorming an all-blue pokemon team for gym leader Eiko. She did an incredible job and came up with:

Which is perfect. I love all these pokemon so much, and as a team it's just - exactly the kind of shitpost I'd be doing as a gym leader! Because it looks like a traditional Water-type team, for the first 3 mons! And then Glaceon shows up, and you think "well, hmm, that's unusual, but I guess Ice and Water are pretty close typewise" and then the last two are pure Dragon and Psychic-Steel, because the actual theme is just "blue pokemon". (Bonus: the Dragonair has an evolite, which combined with its typing just makes it annoyingly tanky against the moves you'd traditionally use against Water-type pokemon).

Then Fen posted their first draft of the drawing!

and the rest of my discord concluded that I'd be skating around the gym and the player would have to catch up by defeating trainers and manipulating various smarthome devices to block off my route and catch me. Which is an amazing gym concept. (One detail I didn't call out the original post is that the background shapes in the final drawing are a stylized depiction of Andrew, my smart washing machine. :D).

Behold! This absolutely incredible drawing of me as a Pokemon gym leader, drawn by my wonderful and incredibly talented friend Fen @salt-and-bramble 💙💙💙

I love it so much as a work of art and as a drawing of me and I'm using it as my profile picture everywhere now.

Fen did a wonderful job of - capturing lots of details that match up with things I actually wear (the heart gems I put on my forehead, my favorite top with the boob window, the galaxy print on my favorite dresses, the color of the glowy wheels on my skates), while also adding so many delightful little things that spark so much delight in my soul (the heart-shaped pupils, a much fancier design on my gloves than I currently have, the poi-pokeballs, a lil bit of embellishment on the cleavage) and. the hair.

Gods, the hair. Y'all have to understand - I've legit never seen a picture or depiction of my hair I've loved anywhere close to how much I love this. I've gotten a lot of compliments on my hair over my life, and despite historically really hating it, lately I've been figuring out ways to get it in a state where I can appreciate it myself, which has been a slow and strange process. But when I first saw this drawing, I felt like I understood for the first time what people are seeing, when they look at my hair and tell me it's beautiful. (When I told Fen this, they said I have the curls of the ocean... ;-; this has stuck in my head, and I think of it when I look at my avatar or my hair.) And the action lines in the rest of the piece really enhance the wave vibes...

it's just so perfect ;-;

[phantomfen]

Annnd the third in the set. A 'What if Sam was an adult?' to accompany my Danny and Tucker. Including a halfa variant. The flowers in her hair are pomegranate flowers. With the colours of her parents hair I imagine Sam had dyed her hair as a teen so I gave her a hair colour closer to her parents'.

[cryptidcalling]

First time drawing a pony! I'm really happy with how it turned out honestly.

[steel-and-fire]

//I love how the more hype I build for one of my characters, the more active the others get. It's like they refuse to let each other get one up on them.

Fucking competitive lil shits.

[cicadadust]

Mithrun's brother is now MY character/hj, someone has to do something with em, too cute of a design to just sit there. When I'm done with finals, I wanna draw him.

So in the meantime, I colored him, hehe. I knew his hair is blond at least, but no clue what his eye color is. Inspired by this post (dungeon meshi spoiler warning) here. So I went with a soft purple, almost periwinkle for his eyes, although unsure if it's too close to silver.

Also wanted to refer to him as something other than Mithrun's brother, and give him some sort of name. Going off his vibes, I started with the letters Fen- but did not get any further than that- so now he's Fenn in my head. Yay.

[writingwithcolor]

Conlanging Issues: A Compendium

NOTE: This question was submitted before the Nov 1, 2023 reopening and may not adhere to all rules and guidelines. The ask has been abridged for clarity. 

Most of my questions are about linguistics. […] One of the major locations in my story is a massive empire with cultural inspirations ranging from North Africa in the far south to Mongolia/Russia in the far north […] The middle region is where the capital is and is the main root of culture, from which Ive been taking inspiration from Southwest Asia […], but most notably southern regions of India. I've tried to stick to the way cities are named in Sanskrit-based languages but added the names of stars to the front (because the prevalent religion of this region worships the stars [...]). So Ive ended up with names like Pavoprayag, Alyanaga, Alkaiduru, Alcorpura, Cygnapete, etc. Is this a consistent naming system or should I alter it in some way? The empire itself is named the Arcana Empire since [...] each act of my story is named after a tarot card [...]. Another region in my story is based more on parts of South China and North Vietnam, so I've tried to stick to names with a Chinese origin for that. I understand the significance of family names in southwest [sic] Asia, so I wanted to double check [...]. They have only two short given names. Based on the birth order of the child, the first half of the name comes from the fathers family and the second half from the mothers family. It is seen as disrespectful not to use both names because using only one is seen as denouncing that side of your family. Thus I have names like Su Yin, Dai Jun, and Yi Wen for some of the characters from this region, and the city itself that they are from is named Bei Fen. On the other hand, Im having further trouble naming characters. […] Ive been trying to give my human characters names from real human cultures to distinguish them from the website-generated names of say, orcs, elves, dwarves, etc, but I think I should change many of the names Ive used to be more original and avoid fracturing real world cultures for the sake of my worldbuilding. […] Im still very weak in the linguistics area (even after four years of French, sigh) and am having trouble finding where to read about naming patterns so I can make new ones up. I read your naming guides but am still having trouble on where to start for specific languages. […] Im trying to look into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian specifically.

You're Going Too Broad

In my opinion, you’re casting too wide a net. You mentioned looking into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian to develop fantasy names. These languages are very different from one another, so unless you’re using them separately for very different parts of your world, it will be hard to draw inspiration from them in a way that makes sense. You’re taking on a huge amount of research in order to worldbuild cultures that span a massive geographical area (basically all of North Africa and Asia?) and have very little in common. Are you sure you want to take on that task?

I could see it being more manageable if most of your story is set in a small region of this world, which you will then research in depth to make sure you’re being as specific as possible.

Taking Persian as an example, you’ll have to decide whether you want to use Old Persian, Middle Persian, or Modern Persian. Each of these comes with a different alphabet and historical influences. They’re also associated with different periods of time and corresponding cultural and social markers. Once you’ve decided exactly when and where you want to start from, you can then expand the borders of your area of focus. For example, if you’ve decided to draw inspiration from Achaemenid Persia, you can then look at the languages that were spoken in the Achaemenid Empire. A quick Google search tells me that while Old Persian was the empire’s official language, they also used Aramaic, Akkadian, Median, Greek, and Elamite (among, I’m sure, many many others and many more regional variations). Further research into each of these will give you ethnic groups and bordering nations that you can draw more inspiration from to expand out your worldbuilding.

Don’t forget to make sure you’re staying within the same time period in order to keep things consistent. It’s a lot of work, and this is only for a small portion of the continent-spanning worldbuilding you’re trying to do.

You can get away with painting the rest of the continent in broad strokes without too much depth if the story doesn’t go there and you don’t have any main characters from those parts of the world. Otherwise, you’ll need to put this same level of detail into your worldbuilding for the area with Turkish-inspired names, and again for the area with Sanskrit-inspired names, and so on.

I know this isn’t what you were asking, but I honestly have a hard time helping you figure out where to start because your ask is so broad I don’t quite know where I would start myself. So, this is my advice: focus down on one region and time period and go from there. Feel free to write back once you’ve picked a narrower focus that we could help you with.

- Niki

So there’s logistical issues in regards to your naming system for southern China-coded regions. One issue is history: mainly on how there is not simply one language in China but multiple due to having a lot of ethnic groups and the size of China. South China in particular has different dialects and languages than the North as seen in this map of Chinese languages and dialects. There’s also how historically Mandarin was not the official language until 1913 in China and historical China saw vast changes in territory dependent on the dynasty. Before then, Mandarin was primarily a northern Chinese language based in Beijing while southern China had its own languages, dialects, and dynamics. Not to mention, historical China saw an evolution of language just like English has Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. For instance, Vietnam was once part of China during the Tang Dynasty and at another point, it was not part of China.

-Mod Sci

If You’re Borrowing Whole Words or Elements, Research More

The other issue is inconsistency with the cultures you’re deriving this conlang from. In regards to “two given names,” the Chinese name I was given was one syllable and then I would have a last name that was also one syllable. There’s also how not every family is perfect. Not every marriage is sanctioned and some children may come from single parents. Some families may not cooperate with marriage and sometimes children may be abandoned with unknown parents. There does not seem to be contingencies for these names under this conlang system.

The main problem with conlangs is that one needs to truly understand the languages one is drawing from. Tolkein managed to create conlangs due to training in linguistics. Mandarin is already a difficult language with multiple tones, and trying to use it for conlangs without knowledge of how Mandarin works or a good foundation in linguistics is just a Sisyphean endeavor.

-Mod Sci

Four years of French wouldn’t have taught you about linguistics as a science or anything about the language families you’ve listed - Indo-Iranian, Sino-Tibetan, and Turkic, nor any Asian naming conventions. I agree with Niki that you need to narrow down your research.

Pur/pura means city in Sanskrit (ex: Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur). Prayag is a place where pilgrimages are done. Naga isn’t a place name in Sanskrit (google says it means snake), nagar is and it means town. X Nagar is a very common name for places (Ex: Rajinder Nagar). Many cities in Karnataka have names ending in uru (Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, etc) but the language of Karnataka is Kannada - a Dravidian language and completely different family from Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan). I’m not sure where “pete” came from. “Bad” and “vaal” are common suffixes for places too (Ex: Faisalabad, Allahabad). A disclaimer that I do not speak Sanskrit, I speak Punjabi, which is a descendant of Sanskrit and in the same linguistic family (Indo-Aryan languages).

- SK

Also, This Is Not…Really Conlanging.

Hi OP. Linguistics refers to the science of studying how languages work, not the discipline of learning languages. And nothing shows that gap more than how you have thus far approached constructing fictional languages and toponyms. 

The reason why Sci and SK have a lot to say about your place names is because they don't resonate—you have borrowed whole words into your toponyms (place names) from a variety of languages—without an accurate understanding of what these words mean, how they’re pronounced, where they’re derived from—and expected them to work together. I suggest you read the links below on why conlanging is not as simple as choosing some languages and mashing their IRL words together: 

Why Using Random Languages Wholesale in your Fantasy is a Bad Idea 

Pitfalls of Mashing Countries and Languages in Coding

In your city names, for example, you’re using star names from multiple languages that use different sets of sounds represented by different sets of historical spelling rules. “Cygn-” and “Arcana” stick out like a sore thumb—the fact that one “c” is /s/ and one is /k/ is an obvious flag that they are Latin-derived English borrowings. This is because spelling rules were created in Middle English to make sense of the mix of “c” pronunciations across words of Indo-European origin due to a historical split called the Centum-Satem division. This is a phenomenon that is very specific to our world history, and to the history of English at that. Ironically, in your attempt to avoid stock fantasy names (which also often fall into the Latin-derived English pit), you are taking the exact same approach to naming.

Like Niki said, your selections are far too broad to code under a single umbrella. Do you expect that whatever language that city name came from runs the full gamut of sound inventory & spelling variety that spans multiple continents and hundreds of languages? Because that’s not how languages work. (And yes, I mean hundreds. Indigenous languages and linguistic diversity are a thing. See Niki’s note about just the languages in Persia. And nation-states bulldozing over those languages and pretending it’s just one language is a thing. See Sci’s note about China.) I haven't even talked about the variation in morphology (how words are formed) or syntax (sentence structure).

Please just read or re-read my guide on “naming conlangs” in this post and start from there.

~ Rina

PSA ON CONLANGING AND FANTASY NAMES:

For fantasy language asks submitted after Nov 1, 2023, the asker must indicate that they have read Mod Rina’s conlanging posts linked in FAQ 2 (Guides and Posts by Topic) of the Masterpost under the question “How do I make a fictional language for my story?” While this is an older ask, we are posting it as an example to our followers.

Per our new rules, any questions that can be directly answered in or extrapolated from the FAQs, or questions that indicate that the relevant resources haven’t been read, will be deleted with a note in the Deletion Log explaining why.

As always, if this post was helpful or educational to you, please consider tipping the relevant mods: SK, Niki, Sci, and Rina.

Edited for terminology errors

[remy2fang]

Concept art of SF6 World Tour characters from the “Street Fighter 6 World Guide” book. I got myself the kindle version because I heard from atgrbread that there’s one concept art pic of F.A.N.G. I wanted to see it so bad that I end up buying this…just for one little picture lol.

But look what I got here!

Characters include Bosch, Li-Fen, Alice, Carlos Miyamoto, Thrasher Damnd, Rudra, Kalima, Yua, Uou & Saouo, Punch, Rewancha, Retsu, Bao Bao Bro, R.O.B.B.I.E., Blanka-Chan, Mel Masters, Singing Wolf, Azam, Eternity,

And my favorite, F.A.N.G 💜💜

I post these here because hardly anyone goes to Tumblr lol.

Anyway, the book essentially contains information and images about the characters that are already present in the game. There’s a lot of behind the scenes content that was written. It’s all in Japanese, so I used Google translate to read it lol. The information was quite intriguing on how the characters were conceptualized, how the game was designed, and why some of the returning characters were chosen to be part of SF6.

Some interesting things:

- A.K.I. was going to be a charge character, but the nature of her moves proved to be too difficult, so they changed her to motion.

- One of the inspirations of creating JP was of villain Magnussen from the Sherlock series.

- Ed was a huge drive for creating Street Fighter 6. It is said that his character in SFV had a handsome aesthetic and is easy to use. He was popular amongst new players. And that was how World Tour was created—it was meant to draw in new audiences and players and to ease them into fighting games. Also SFV Ed was the predecessor for Modern controls, despite him becoming a totally different character playstyle-wise in SF6. And his SFV theme song was a big inspiration for the music in SF6 as the theme of this game is hip hop.

I can’t believe I bought this just for a F.A.N.G pic, but I end up enjoying what i read 💜💜

[orange-demons-deactivated2024]

Chun Li x gn!reader

it was hard to get inspiration for chun li when all the other fics were spicy in content, especially the art for her omg. but here are some relationship hcs. enjoy! art is by kina nishimura. this was an ask, i forgot to link it rip.

You want to ask Chun Li out on a date? How cute. 

Seeing the extent you've proven yourself as a fighter and as her student makes her feel honored. 

But don't think she'll give you special treatment just because you're in a relationship now. It's actually quite the opposite. 

She would expect more out of you if she's giving you private lessons, so don't let her down!

Chun Li also styles her hair in various ways and would let you help her with it, but only if you have delicate hands. She wouldn't want you to be yanking on any knots in her hair. 

It's not rare that she lets her hair down, but a lot of people don't see it. And if you comment on it, she'll give you a little laugh asking if you like it.

She understands when people stare at her hips and thighs because she knows that's what they tend to see when they look at her. But don't go out of your way just to comment on it, cause she doesn't like it when people have things to say about her body.

Chun Li would want you to be at least acquainted with Li Fen before you ever start a relationship with her. 

She's put the past behind her and wants to live a slow life, that's why she settled to teach self-defense to the people in Hong Hu Lu. 

And if you've reached full mastery, she would ask you to help teach Kung Fu alongside her.

Of course, with a little envy from her loyal students. 

Chun Li is getting older, so she wants to at least experience what it's like to have a sense of community.

She's had her fair share of people professing their love to her, but she would always try to turn them down gently.

Being with her opens a Pandora's box that'll make them run off with their tails between their legs. 

And depending on how you ask her out, she'll do the same. 

It wasn't until you caught her one night, on a rare occurrence that she was roaming through Chinatown as she was picking out a gift for Li Fen for her birthday. 

Doing the same, you decided to join her for the night. 

You've been hanging around them for quite some time and she's happy to see that Li Fen has made another friend. So she's glad that you care for her as much as she does. 

Chun Li admits she's been thinking about you often since you've been taking part-time jobs in Hong Hu Lu.

And she's flattered that you go out of your way to visit her even though you're busy with your own stuff.

So she'll give you a chance once you pop the question to her.

She can come off as motherly and protective once she gets into a relationship. 

She also treats people with the respect they deserve and wants to help others as much as she can. 

But as kind as she is, she won't allow it if people ever judge you. Poking fun, she understands but full-on criticism is where she draws the line. 

No one's perfect and everyone has their fair share of scars, so she hates to see others being super judgmental. Especially if they didn't know you. 

You're her precious student and life partner, so of course she'll get a little protective. 

She's also a traditional woman, so she appreciates the domestic lifestyle. Like waking up in the morning next to you and enjoying a cup of tea in the evening sun. 

Working as an Interpol officer gave her more wrinkles and grey hairs than she could count. So it's nice to take things one day at a time. 

Chun Li can help you pick out some clothes if you like. She likes to go to the mall with Li Fen and look for new outfits to add to her collection. 

She would feel the soft fabrics between her fingertips and find the best deals before she tells you to put it on. 

When you do, she says how cute you look, and to give her a little spin. 

Chun Li is the type to share food and will hold out a sample for you to try. And chuckles when you bite down on it because of the way your cheeks puff up. 

On the topic of food, she has a major sweet tooth. So expect to go on dates that consist of trying new dessert spots.

She's also sentimental, so she would like something for you two to wear all the time. Mostly to show that even when you both are apart, you'll still always be together: matching necklaces or promise rings. 

It's cheesy but she loves it.

Chun Li would love to help you with your makeup and paint your nails.

She never has the opportunity to do it with other people besides Li Fen, so she would get excited if you asked her to do so.

Her ideal date is to find a place free from so much background noise, like grabbing a bite to eat at a restaurant or visiting a Peking opera. 

She didn't have many chances to go on dates growing up, so she missed out on certain aspects when experiencing social relationships. 

Even though she doesn't look it, she gets slightly embarrassed when she's put on the spot. For example, when playing the Erhu, she'll only play it for you when there aren't a lot of people around because she's not as confident.

And she gets bashful when you compliment her skills.

Chun Li would give you pecks along your face, starting from your cheek and landing on your lips. 

And behind closed doors, she would wrap her arms around your neck and pull you close to her body when she gave a long passionate kiss. 

Don't get too shy on her now, because this is only the beginning. 

All in all, she's glad to have a companion and a partner to stick by her side through the chaos because it's not something that most people can say they've done.

But you can. And she's happy you do.

You and Li Fen are special to her, and she'll do anything to put your happiness above everything else.

She'll make sure of it.

[kradeelav]

Hello Krad. You are a massive inspiration to me, and I have adored your art ever since stumbling across it a couple of months ago. I have a love for early 2000's media, and was wondering if you could talk a bit about how making art around FE9's time was like! I would love to be able to recreate the aesthetic of games from around the early 2000's, they just have a unique atmosphere to me that I really love. Thank you in advance.

oh wow, you are so very kind to say so, and so eloquently! ;_;

early 2000's... now that was a special time. i think the biggest difference is how utterly small the world felt back then, online. limited.

i read a good article recently how portal (and the infamous 'the cake is a lie' meme) percolated in a very specific time of the internet where people across the globe were just getting online in larger waves than the true diehard nerds and outcasts before, but it was still absurdly cozy. that meme went viral across the entire internet in a way that i truly don't think could ever happen again, since everyone was figuratively rubbing shoulders with each other - shoot, even 2010-era tumblr? i knew everyone in the main #fireemblem tag.

media limitations were remarkably similar - most teens had maybe seen all but two classic anime series before getting online, especially if you were out in the rural areas / on the east coast versus the west where the hot anime was being bootlegg'd before youtube was a thing. seeing a new series or getting your hands on the truly quality titles was more precious than diamonds. you were obsessed with the same show for genuine decades.

deviantART (where i was right before then) was a unique incubator similar to that - where young teens were getting influenced for the first time by art styles, resources and inspiration that their parents, teachers, and grandparents steeped in local visual traditions could not dream of. people arrived with very strikingly specific art styles you could tell who was raised in korea, russia, france, etc very easily - just as easily as you could tell who spent decades in ff7 fen versus naruto.

occasionally clumsy were those first attempts. but the drawings were genuine, and it was the next chapter in a very interesting visual dialogue between the old guard of illustrators (who only drew physically and were trained in local painting and inking traditions) and the new crop of teens hungry for the taste of dynamism and emotion they had seen in animanga. hungry to mix and match.

it was also truly a bridge from the tactile-first world to the digital-first world. nowadays like microplastics - you really can't go anywhere without running into a toy or trend or game or a drawing that hasn't been influenced to some degree by a dozen different other digital ideas before it reached you-the viewer.

in a way, since you're talking about recreating aesthetics, let's go back to the "limited" word.

limited is a good concept.

some of the best art i've seen consistently uses limitations. limitations of only using one medium, only using three default tools in your painting software (like dodge and burn since digital brushes were either crude or nonexistent). pull up programs like the Gimp (it's what I used back then for forum signatures and hasn't changed all that much) - limit yourself with specific tools of that era. look at isutoshi's hentai from about then (if that's within your bandwidth) and notice all the comic sans fonts everywhere-since nobody had gotten around to making specific manga fonts. limit yourself to being inspired by one or two artists from the 80's.

those limitations and patiently asking why (like you're doing now) will get you so very far ~

[longlistshort]

“After Storm in the Fen”, 2024, Oil on canvas

"Squall Lines", 2024, Oil on canvas

For Rachel MacFarlane’s exhibition, Coming Events Cast Their Light Before Them, at Hollis Taggart, she has painted several dreamlike landscapes based on her travels to places impacted by climate events. She first creates maquettes from her observations (three are on view) and then uses them as the basis for the paintings.

From the press release-

At its core, MacFarlane’s work is about lamenting the loss of specific landscapes through creating and depicting new worlds where humans are no longer the protagonists. MacFarlane spends much of her time immersed in unique geographical environments – often ones that have been heavily impacted by climate change-related weather events. While working on her newest body of work, MacFarlane spent extensive time in places ranging from the Adirondacks to Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park in Maine, and from Prince Edward Island right after it had been hit by Hurricane Fiona to Clearwater, Manitoba during unprecedented flooding. As has always been her practice, MacFarlane does not document while she travels, instead preferring to absorb the atmosphere of a place and spend time really immersed in its sights and sounds. Upon returning to her studio, MacFarlane transforms her observations into three-dimensional maquettes created out of paper, paint, and plastic.

As MacFarlane describes it, a lot of play takes place at her collage table, as she manufactures new spaces based loosely on the spirit of specific ones, drawing on a myriad of influences from theatre and architecture to the world-building of science fiction literature and movies. The paintings in this show were specifically influenced by MacFarlane’s research into the Augsburg Book of Miracles, a manuscript depicting celestial and weather phenomena made in Augsburg, Germany in the sixteenth century. MacFarlane was moved and inspired by how these anonymous illustrators centuries before her were also dedicated to tracking warning signs in the landscape and to recording them in creative ways.

While she describes the model-building as a distancing method, it is also one that creates intimacy, as the scale shift to a shallow box model leads to the creation of a miniature world we can literally hold in our hands versus the enormity of the environment. After MacFarlane distills the memory of a place into an object, she further transforms it into its final form on the canvas, using bold colors and thick brushwork that highlights the painterliness and artifice of her landscapes. As art critic Barry Schwabsky notes in the catalogue essay, these multiple translations and transformations allow MacFarlane to “operate with and against flatness and depth, illusion and physicality, naturalness and theatricality… Her work gives pleasure but also warns that with all these unavoidable antitheses, the choice of one pole or the other would be hopeless, and we have to learn to live with the tensions between them.”

This exhibition closes 5/25/24.

[wishingstarinajar]

I have no energy to draw because of two goobers we took into our home last Friday.

Yep, we got two kittens, Pip and Paya aka Pipaya. They are brother and sister who, unfortunately, didn't get much (if any) human interaction during the past three weeks. So, I'm very occupied with getting them accustomed to humans, getting petted and brushed, etc. There's improvement every day so I'm hopeful about their future with us.

Pip (boy) is the short-haired pale ginger and Paya (girl) is the floofy tortoise.

Paya's name was inspired by the Easter event theme from Final Fantasy 14, Papaya, which my boyfriend sometimes likes to sing at random. It was his suggestion. Pip's name was originally inspired by LotR's Pippin but someone reminded me of Pipin from Final Fantasy 14 so to stick with the FF14 theme in naming, it's Pipin now x'D (Thanks Fen!)

[skyscratch-wc]

The Forest Territories

The Skyfall AU takes place (roughly) in Western Scotland, drawing inspiration from the counties of Argyll, Bute, Ayrshire, Dumfries, and Galloway. Loch Lomand and the Trossachs (in Argyll and Bute) in particular serves as an inspiration for the environment of these clans.

As such, some of the clan's environments are going to be shifted (especially Shadowclan) in order to better match the environment of these areas.

[A map will be added to this post and posted separately once I get the chance to draw one]

Thunderclan

upland oakwoods (oak dominant, rowan, alder; some ash, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, and bird cherry)

upland mixed ashwoods (ash, alder, hazel, downy birch, oak)

Thunderclan territory is predominantly old growth oak, stretching from the Fourtrees through to the road that separates the main woodlands from the Sprucewood (the new name for the Tallpines). The area around the Thunderclan Camp and Sandy Hollow are mixed ashwoods with a wider variety of tree species. Trees such as willows and birch are more common close to the river, but are still few and far between. The Sprucewood/Tallpines is human-planted Sitka Spruce, frequently cut for lumber. As such, the really is almost exclusively young spruce growth with very little biodiversity.

Shadowclan

fen (sedges, rushes, scrub, etc)

native pinewood forest (pines, birch, rowan, juniper)

wet woodlands (alder, willow, birch)

Shadowclan territory is very wet and trees much more sparse than in the neighboring Thunderclan forest. Most of the territory is fen and wet woodland, dominated by alder and birch trees, with the occasional willow. Upland stretches of the territory, especially by the road and the Carrionplace, are largely pinewood forest. However, the lower elevation center of the territory is entirely wetland with a stream carving through the territory. Think of Shadowclan territory as a bowl with pine on the rim and wetland in the middle.

Riverclan

river shoreline

wet woodland (alder, willow, birch)

lowland mixed deciduous woodland (oak, ash, birch, hazel, elm, etc.)

Riverclan is a lowland stretch of sparse woodland squished between the road, river, and twolegplace. The smallest territory by land area, Riverclan territory is dominated by willow and birch trees, thicker in the middle of the territory and much sparser by the edges. Meadow covers the northern part of the territory bordering Windclan and some spruce trees dot the border by the Sprucewood.

Windclan

moorland/heathland

montane scrub/treeline woodlands

blanket bogs (peatland, sphagnum mosses, cranberry, sundew, etc)

upland birchwood (birch dominant, rowan, hazel, oak, alder, cherry, aspen, juniper)

Windclan territory is a mix of heath and bog and is in general the highest elevation territory of the Forest Four. If Shadowclan is a bowl, Windclan is that bowl flipped upside down. The edges of the territory by Riverclan are wet meadow and the border with Shadowclan is more boggy and covered in peatland bog. The rest of the territory is largely heathland, grassier by the Fourtrees and rockier as the territory gets closer to Highstones and Barley's Farm. Small pockets of upland birchwood exist on the southwestern patch of the territory around the river, just before the falls.

Skyclan (Ancient)

upland mixed ashwoods

upland birchwoods

Ancient Skyclan territory occupied the region now covered by the Sprucewood and part of the Twolegplace. When this territory existed, it was mostly mixed ash and birchwoods, dominated by ash, alder, juniper, and birch trees. Patches of meadow also dotted the territory, especially in the area that is now the Twolegplace. The forest was much denser by the Riverclan border (now the Sprucewood).

Skyclan (Gorge)

upland mixed ashwoods

The Gorge Cats/Skyclan occupy a territory is actually fairly similar to the original territory in the forest, just rockier and more barren. Dominted by ashwood with a occasional patch of oak, Skyclan gorge territory is rocky and sparsely planted with new growth forest, presumably planted after humans were done quarrying in the area. The forest is thicker down by the river and the land above the gorge by the twolegplace is mostly farmland with the occasional patch of ash and oak trees.

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If you are knowledgeable about this region and have corrections please message me! I am not a local and might have made mistakes picking where to put what biomes.

[weirdestcornelius]

The fact that you people feel the need to spread so much hate and negativity over a project that has saved lives does NOT reflect well on any of you as people. Eve has put so much time and energy into this comic and yet all you can do is tear it down and make a mockery of it. Do you have no shame? Is betraying the very people you claim to be supporting the only way you can sleep at night? You make me feel ill. Just thinking about these "critic" blogs makes me want to throw up. Delete your blog and the hatred it brings and perhaps it will forge a path to redemption for your broken, rotten, dying soul.

Finally answering your original ask yay!!! Mostly out of boredom and the fact that I really need to clear out my inbox before my tumblr explodes into a million pieces.

Anyways, this comic helped get me out of a bad time, too. I'm pretty much the average sparklefan minus the insane whiteknighting. It gave me something to hyperfixate on during a major depressive episode. It gave me inspiration to draw again. To write again. Because I could see myself in these characters.

WHICH is exactly why I have a critblog. Because the current state of the comic and Kc's behavior make me upset. You cannot deny that there are issues with this comic. From the erasure, the blatant favoritism, the drama behind closed doors that the zcp sweeps under the rug to ignore. There's a lot wrong. The issue is that Kc refuses to fix any of these things. Why? Because kit has decided that all criticism is evil and there is never any fault in anything fen does. Which is an extremely unhealthy mindset, by the way.

I could ramble on and on about the issues, but I'm a bit too tired for that. I made this critblog because I wanted to, not to make anyone else upset. It's meant to be a safe space for me and others. Frankly I could NOT give less of a fuck if you want to throw up over me. The end part is kinda funny, I'll admit. You really get heated over people daring to criticize your sparklefurry comic, huh?

While I don't agree with how sparklecrit is seeming to become a "trend" with a small portion of the fandom, I sure as hell don't like you whiteknights. So just know that I really couldn't care less if you dislike me.

Anyways I mentioned relating to these characters. I meant Uni and *dramatic gasp* Cuddles. Because of body dysphoria reasons. You guys will do anything but let people like characters that you don't like. It's kinda funny

[steel-and-fire]

Used my surge inspiration to draw refs for Fen 👀 Hadn't drawn him without armor in a long time too.

And then took the chance to develop his full design. I have been trying his og horns again too lately and I love them more than ever.

[lunehowls]

I love the way you draw Fenris its so peek. Your Fen is more cannon to me than cannon, I have referenced your art when I draw him because its my favourite <3 <3 <3

AAA thank you so much!! this means a lot to me :D im so glad you enjoy my work enough to draw inspiration from it

[ghostydrawsstuff]

Some more Fen and Lia dabbles from school

So yeah not as many as last timecuz jesus fuck what kind of inspiration potion did I drink?? But I just really, really like them and I'm currently drawing something else more polished for the two idiots too! Wow, creativity or something I guess ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯