#arien being genderfluid makes orientation complicated but i think sapphic still suits them best even as auron

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

Sky Shinies, V2

For @aspecardaweek Day 3: Across the A-spectrum, I decided to redraw the second piece of Tolkien fanart I ever posted, two years ago for this very event! Check back in 2025 to see if I keep up the pattern.

Since Ainur are basically angels I've decided they're all pretty much ace (with varying degrees of interest- Melian) and arospec if only because they don't conceptualize relationships in the same way we do, and the majority of elves are demi/grayspec.

Arien: Sapphic oriented aroace, recipromantic

Earendil: Bi demi-rose

Tilion: Achillean oriented aroace, lithoromantic, aroflux

[id. A full-body pencil drawing of Arien, Earendil, and Tilion. Arien is inspired by a lion, with digitigrade legs, paw pads, and claws. She has a crown of horns and fire burning on her head, limbs, and the tip of her tail. Tilion has bat ears and feet with a leaf-shaped nose, horns curling around his ears and another set twisting upwards, and dark blotches on his skin. Their arms are linked as they shoot finger guns. Earendil stands in front of them, head barely reaching their elbows as he waves with one hand and holds a telescope in the other. He's black, with braids pulled back in a ponytail and a small beard. The silmaril shines from a circlet on his forehead, and he wears Ancalagon's skin as an armored vest and skirting. end id.]

Rambles, comparison, and closeups under the cut!

[id. Three closeups on Arien, Earendil, and Tilion's faces respectively to show details. Arien has freckles and her eyes appear to be glowing behind her sunglasses, Earendil has eyebags, faint laugh lines, and scars, as well as individually lined scales on his vest, and Tilion has fangs, earrings. and diamond-shaped pupils with black sclerae. end id.]

[id: a comparison of the full drawing above to the original, which ends around Earendil's knees but otherwise has near-identical composition. Arien looks significantly more human, Tilion is missing his horns, and Earendil is white with a less structured outfit. end id.]

I was mostly going off of memory redrawing this, which is why their poses are slightly different but honestly I prefer this even if it isn't strictly accurate. Winner for biggest design overhaul is a tie between Arien and Earendil, because excluding Tilion's horns (which I would have originally included if I had remembered Tilion literally means "horned one") he's hardly changed, though tragically I took away some of his jewelry for practicality.

Past!Earendil's unintentional Michael Jackson nose haunts me, though I do kinda miss his stupid wave hair. I'm much happier with his dragonscale vest thingy now (though I realized too late that Ancalagon's scales would be much larger, oh well), I've had time to think through the various elven cultural aesthetics and I'm very pleased with his multi-combo of cultures that still gives him the vibes I wanted. Stupid pointy-toed noldorin boots are so hard to draw right but I love them so much

Arien has also been overhauled but given that they change how humanoid their fana looks depending on if they're hanging around incarnates or not the original is still technically close to that form? Horn crown and significantly more fire has been added in homage to her balrog siblings alongside everything else, but like Tilion her outfit change is minimal and the vibes stay the same.

Unrelated but a funny side note: as I have become increasingly aware of Pokemon Knowledge, I have realized that Solgaleo and Lunala unintentionally map really really well onto my Arien and Tilion. Yes this is because lion/day/sun | bat/night/moon symbolism is obvious, but I'm leaning into it. Earendil works shockingly well as Ultra Necrozma, too.