#i originally had 30 skintones picked out

[rarestereocats]

i’ve been slowly pecking away at my first picrew. built purely out of spite and disappointment towards the dollmaker scene. too many unfinished projects and games that are unfriendly to anything that isn’t a skinny fashionista. oh, can’t forget all of the “dress up me or my oc” games. i use dollmakers to get a visual for characters, so the increase in those specific games is frustrating. so yeah, the one i’m making is purely a character creator.

it’s not a hard process so far, just really time consuming. it gets mind numbingly boring at some points, just drawing an item and having to recolor it eighteen goddamn times. so it’s a slow process for me because i have to step away from it for a few days to prevent burn out. whenever i get finished with my current project, i really wanna do a build-a-bear type thing with hamsters cuz i love their round, lil dumpling bodies.

[marisol993]

For some time now I've seen, over and over again, that the Qunari in the Dragon Age Universe are apparently some kind of racist caricature of black people, muslims and other types of poc's, bipoc's, minorities, ....

From a personal perspective I never saw them as such, but since a personal view of things isn't very objective and can be skewed by ones life-experiances I was completely willing to admit, that I might have been wrong about that and had an opportunity to learn something new here.

The more I thought about it and critically examined this statement though, the less I agreed with any of it. Especially since a lot of arguments in favor of this view seemed to boil down to "this person of [insert relevant minority here] said so". I.e. another "personal viewpoint".

So let's get into a critical analysis of the Qunari and why I think that they are so very far removed from any kind of "minorty" (from a western point of view) coding that you couldn't even see it with the power of the Hubble and James Webb space-telescopes combined:

First of all, who are the Qunari? The Qunari are tall, medium to heavily built, horned (or unhorned, if you only played Origins) humanoids, that come in varying shades of grey skin, with whiteish hair. They are more intensly sexually dimorphic than the Dwarves, Elves and Humans of Thedas, with the males being sometimes nearly twice as wide (especially in the shoulders) and much more muscled than the females. They call themselves the Qunari as they are followers of the Qun (their guide to life and society), though the word is more of an umbrella-term, since anybody of any race is called a Qunari if they "convert" to the teachings of the Qun.

Here's a picture:

At this point some people might already remark, that the Qunari are very obviously "black-coded" since apparently nowadays any deviation from natural, real-life human skintones automatically has to mean, that the fantasy-race in question is meant to reflect black or brown people (even if they are green or bright purple), unless you literally give them a complete and utterly snow-white skintone. If that is the argument you want to go with, I would like to redirect your eyes to the picture above, as it already disproves this. As it is shown there (and in the DA:I Character-Creator), the Qunari can come in a complete spectrum of skintones (from very light grey to nearly ebony), just like all the different races of Thedas (even the dwarves for some reason, which doesn't make much sense for a race that lived underground for most of their history, but what can you do..). This basically means, that yes there are dark-skinned (or "black") Qunari, but there are also those that could be better described as "light-skinned", so the coding-qualifier goes away.

Then there are the people, who might want to say, that because they are tall and "burly", together with the unnatural skintone makes them "black-coded" which is something I never really understood, since the tallest people in the world by ethnicity are the Dutch and if you look at heights in correlation with body-weight the Russians take first place. Both countries not really know for their large populations of darkskinned-humanoids. Another coding-qualifier that goes away.

And then there are the people (who I would seriously suggest should maybe review their own "racial" views, if "black and brown people" is the first thing they think about when it comes to this), who say, that they are a stereotype of the "savages and natives", which is something that is actively contradicted in canon. One of the most prominent traits of the Qunari is that they are efficiant to a T, use every resorce at the disposal to it's maximum (including their people) and that they are more technically and scientifically advanced than many other race in Thedas (except maybe the dwarves) . This is shown through their mastery of gunpowder (which they call gaatlok) and the fact that they can use chemicals and drugs to literally warp the mind of people without needing magic. They are in no way presented as "savage" and if they are named such, it's usually by people who they are actively at war with, who want to insult them. They are also not "natives" of Thedas. Even their so called "homeland" in Thedas, which is called Par Vollen, was colonised by them, when they landed at it's shores in 6:30 Steel-Age and started converting the original population of Tevinter humans and elves, with whom they have been at war with ever since. Let me say that again: The Qunari are active colonisers and at war with the Tevinter-Imperium, who's people are the original population of the land. Not exactly a typical "native or black" stereotype in western media.

So who do I think the Qunari are actually modeled after?

Well let's summarise:

The Qunari came from across the ocean in their ships filled with cannons and guns, to colonise the land and convert the native population towards their beliefs. They are currently fighting a war against the Tevinter-Imperium, an old and powerful empire, that engages in widespread slavery and practices blood-magic by sacrificing said slaves, sometimes also to one of their many gods.

(If you can't guess who I think they are supposed to be modeled after by now, I would recommend to maybe picking up a 7th-grade history textbook again)

Yes, you can make a very strong case for the Qunari actually being these guys:

The Conquistadors (heck, if you cross out a few letters you can even anagram the word "Qunari" out of the word Conquistador). Who also came from across the sea with ships, cannons and guns to colonise the land (south- and middle-america) and convert the native population (to christianity) and fought an ancient and powerful empire with slaves and blood-sacrifices (the Aztec-Kingdoms).

So after pissing of one half of tumblr with that, let's start with the other half by talking about the apparent "muslim-coding" and how I disagree with that too.

Let's start with a rough definition of what a muslim is and how I think that that alone shows how the Qunari are in no way coded to be them:

I would define a muslim as somebody who is an active member of the religion of Islam. Islam is defined by it's holybook (the Qur'An), which was revealed to the prophet Muhammad by an all-knowing and omnipresent abrahamic god.

This in and of itself basically already disqualifies the Qunari from being "muslim-coded" since first and foremost the Qunari are not a religion. They do not have a god and they don't pray to any, the Qun is not a "holy-book" and Ashkaari Koslun (the guy who wrote it) was not a prophet, who wrote down the word of god, but a philosopher who basically crafted a "guide to life and society" with his works.

If you really wanted to find something that is slightly "muslim-coded" in the world of Thedas, you might actually have more luck with the chantry-stuff, since they do have a prophet (Andraste) who could talk to god (the Maker), they have a holy book based of her teachings (the Chant of Light) and they believe that the whole world should follow those teachings, so god will return to them (singing the Chant from all four corners of the world). They even have their own flavour of jihadist religious warfare with the Exhalted Marches (though all in all I do think that the Chantry can be better viewed as a take on christian religions since the split between the Imperial Chantry and the original one is similar to the split of the (western) christian church into catholics and protestants).

So what do I think is a better representation for the Qun in the real world?

Well lets look at it in the simplest way possible that the canon gives us:

The Qun is a guide for the life of the Qunari (the people of the Qun) that ecompasses everything from laws, legislative guides, too how society should be struktured and how everyone has to fit into and function in that society, from the most mundane and simplest tasks and jobs to it's highest administrative bodies. Everyone in this society is evaluated, so that they can be put into a position that is best suited to them and their skill-sets. There they will then each work according to their abilities and each be provided for according to their needs (see what I did there). Yes, the Qun can in my opinion be best described as a take on an authoritarian-socialist guide to life, written by somebody with a similar philosophie as Karl Marx.

So all in all, I don't think that the Qunari are in any way black-, brown-, bipoc- or muslim-coded, but a fantasy take on the Conquistadors, if instead of a bible they had all carried around "A Guide to Life, Luck and Community, written by Karl Marx (during one of his more productive weekends)", visually represented by giant Minotaur-People of many colours.

Also I find this obsession with finding every and any kind of reflexion of our real world in some random fantasy setting, by people who are most of the time actively looking to get offended by at least something and mostly every- and anything, quite contrived most of the time and that the day people on tumblr learned the word "codeing" a significant part of the internets critical-thinking skills and will just shrivelled up and died.

Thank you for coming to my TED-talk.

[the-arcana-randomness]

They are so many of them i don't know what to pick !! And they're like super interesting :o but here i go : first one : 1, 2, 3 / second one : 2, 4, 42, 45 / third one : 35 (because why not ^^) / fourth one : 100 / and last one : 6, 18, 23 and 30 ! I hope this is not too much ^^"

Hi darling ♡I love, love, love seeing you in my ask! Always makes me smile. Thank you so much! It's not too much because I love answering questions. Bring them all on! The more the better. Here we go~

First ask post:

1. Age?

Reina is 25 years old (during the original timeline of the game -while solving the murder mystery)

2. Gender?

She is a cis female. 🙋🏼‍♀️

3. Romantic/sexual orientation?

She is straight. 👫🏼

Second one:

2. What is the color of your OC's eyes/hair/skin?

I wrote about this in detail in my "Get to know my Arcana OC" post.

In the original game timeline: Her eyes are green and her skintone is a light to medium complexion. She has light-brown hair.

In my fanfic timeline: (Before Lucio's death and after the original timeline)

Her eyes and skintone are the same, but her hair is bleach-blond/white-ish.

4. What is a noticable physical attribute of your OC?

In my imaginary timeline (as explained above) her tattoos on her hands are noticeable (also wrote about this in my OC post)

Other attributes are her curves and her emerald green eyes.

42. What makes your OC happy?

Hanging out with people she loves, dancing, singing (performing in general), being around Lucio and seeing him happy, and roaming around the magical realms. (Also sometimes getting into a fight to let out the frustration does her good)

45. What are some things that annoy your OC?

Rude people, seeing people getting bullied or used or mistreated or degraded, when someone eats the food she was thinking about all day, getting wet from the rain, sweating too much from the heat, when people give her lectures about things she already knows and is aware of... I could come up with more, but this is off the top of my head.

Third one:

35. A frog appears out of nowhere and starts to criticize their life choices, what does your OC do?

Fourth one:

100. Why did you make this OC and maybe even the world they live in? Just cause? Or for some other reason?

I made Reina a long time ago (also mention this in my get to know my OC post). She was an escape for me. Embodied a lot of things I always wanted to be but never had the courage to be. She was a best friend and someone who gave me advice and helped me cope when my real life friends abandoned me. After I fell in llve with the Arcana universe I knew she belonged there, so I incorporated her into the universe and made small adjustments to her appearance and character to fit the stories.

Last one:

6. What's their most prominent personality trait?

Loyalty (stubbornness is a close second)

18. Do they have any insecurities about themselves?

She is insecure about her things a little bit and concerning her personality, she hates the fact that she can be quite tough/rude/mean, but it's all about though love and it all comes from a place of caring, she knows that.

23. Five things to describe your OC?

× Summer

× What doesn't kill you makes your stronger

× If they can make you richer, they can make you cum (Cardi B reference)

× Music

× Love

30. What's their favorite color?

Purple 💜

Loved answering these, keep them coming ♡ Sending you all my love~

[buildingshitwithcrab]

A little end-of-the-month thrifting to square away, largely focused on peculiar resemblances...

Most of the Goodwill outlet finds this time were housewares, and I accept that I’m probably the only one excited about finding a full set of 70s Tupperware stacking shakers and a red pitcher that somehow had its complete lid and zero Kool-Aid staining inside. And that’s okay.

I did find a whole plastic grocery bag in a bin, full of 80s Skippers and a couple of off-brand Kellys--plus one real Kelly with jointed knees(!!!)--which included the only brown-eyed Skipper I’ve ever seen, so naturally she’s a keeper. Along with another ‘84 Tropical Skipper whose hair somehow turned out as perfect as my trans Rapunzel’s. It also had a Skipper-sized body that’s pale enough for my Periwinkle faerie head to stay on, which is nice, and a Barbie head on a Skipper body. The skintones match so well that I kept her that way, after cleaning, and she is now Shortest Barbie. And in a minor miracle, I found a pair of really nice, tall, brown Barbie boots, just lying loose in a bin. I thought sure when I found the first one, that the mate would be long gone. But no! So, they’re working quite well on Anya until I can find her originals. That was about all on the doll and toy front at the outlet this time, though. I did find a Ken, but his picture is below in a group shot.

At the Valley Thrift Store, though, a bit of doll fortune smiled upon me. I found a pair of male dolls bagged together for $5. That’s usually way more than I’m willing to pay for two, when all the others work out to $1 each there, but the price was ‘justified’ in that both were completely clothed. Shoes and all. One was a singing Bieber, which I don’t care about (Bieber bodies, while having the uniquely strangest joints ever to befall a ‘fashion’ doll, are great for giving extra articulation to early Disney guys; my 1990-92 Eric’s head fit nicely onto a silent Bieber I’d found last year,) But his vest and teeshirt work great on Ravus:

And the Ken I mentioned? He makes a passable Ignis. Hair gel is still required, and he really needs smaller glasses, but yeah. Major props to the shirt @evil-robot-cat sent me last Christmas, that just happens to be black with a subtle close-enough-to-leopard print.

The bare-bones Noctis behind him is the real bit of good fortune, and the biggest reason I wanted the bag, despite my initial balk at the price. That’s a 2012 Fashionistas Ryan. In box, that asshole is $50 right now on ebay, and probably still $30 nude. Because rooted hair, non-Ken-like face paint, and articulated wrists. I swapped that body out to Ravus, who will be posed more, and Noctis got his former 5-joint 2016 Fashionistas Ken body. Noctis came with the black teeshirt, I think, and his original pants have a shiny tiger print on them, so he got Bieber’s black pants. Which are too short, and therefore perfect for Noctis. (Singing Bieber is currently naked and headless in the body donor box. I thought I could use him to give my thrifted BatB Adam a body that doesn’t have noodle arms, but the fit makes his neck non-existent.)

On the whole, I really like doll!Noctis and Ignis, considering all I’ve done to them so far is change their clothes. There’s an amusing silliness to the imperfection. But speaking of character dolls, today at the 50%-off day at the thrift store down the street, pickings were slim for dolls overall, but I did get one just because I liked her not-pink dress. A valid reason, when the sale made her cost 45 cents. Then I got her home and washed her, and oh-ho-ho, was she ever a lucky pick:

I finally found my Sylva. Her face sculpt is really close to the Kingsglaive model. Her eyes, hair, and brows are already the right colors. Even her hairline is right! Her hair only goes down to her shoulder blades, which should be just about right for putting up in a low bun. All I have to do is remove her eyeshadow and lipstick, and redo them with more natural colors, as, er, Sylva doesn’t seem to be wearing any makeup at all. An Oracle’s got more important things to do, you know. Along with Sylva, we found...

...a baby Ravus. Or, rather, a baby that Ravus seems to be responsible for. An ebay search says this is an Alice in Wonderland Tommy (Ken’s little[st] brother, I think,) but haha, come on. This is a Nox Fleuret. Look at him. I think this brings doll!Seph’s child count to five, because also in another bag...

... was this clear hybrid of Seph and Lazard. She’s not Mattel and doesn’t have a name yet, but she’s chubby and grouchy and her daddies love her to bits. I’ll have to make her some custom ball elastics with black and white materia. The clips are just to keep her bangs sort of in shape until they dry.

Oh shit, and the ever-growing sproglet count reminds me that I did have to break down and buy a new Chelsea-sized doll, BECAUSE:

PROMPTO HAS A SON. HE CAME WITH THAT SHIRT. HIS HAIR SWOOPS. HE EVEN HAS FRECKLES. IS HE IGNIS’? GLADIO’S? IT IS A MYSTERY.

A good round for building up the character roster, I feel.