#lord raijin

[haganekotetsu]

I’m so full of love but you guys don’t need to know that!!!

[jaydraw209]

Have sketches for an AU wip.

It's basically a what if the Earthrealm Gods could have Yokai-like appearance.

I was inspired by this post.

[bloody-arty-myths]

After Raijin‘s visit to Earthrealm

*Raiden is comforting Fujin*

Raiden: Stop crying because it’s over. Start smiling because Raijin is someone else‘s problem now. :)

[whysosincere]

New meme format.

absolutely losing it at the characterizations of Raiden and Fujin in @whysosincere's new fic Much Ado

Fujin would absolutely love them being considered "brothers"

[tiptapricot]

Just received this absolutely breathtaking commission from @4leaf of Lord Raijin from my Mortal Kombat NightKlub AU! Want to give him so many thanks and kudos for being open to taking on this piece and for doing such beautiful work with my barebones ideas and designs. Everyone please check out his account and keep an eye out for if he decides to open commissions again, it’s well worth it :-)

If you’d like to know more about Raijin in my AU, you can check out his character bio below the cut, as well as all the currently written character bios on the doc linked above. I will also be posting bios and info on @nightklub-au

(IDs in ALT)

Lord Raijin (Lord Raiden):

Actual god of lightning and thunder (or a facet of him), taking a mortal form

Owner and head of the White Lotus Club, and secretly runs it as a kind of unorthodox temple to reach people and protect humans at street level

People can come with their troubles or for protection and he will help (midnight mission esque iykyk)

People think he’s a benevolent mob boss which is. Not true but not untrue

Walks with a cane modeled after his staff, wears suits and thick rings and has dark tattoos on his arms that can glow when he shows his power

Hair is loose but always well styled

His inner circle and dedicated followers are known as the White Lotus Society

They are dedicated to the defense and preservation of the Jinsei, a combined force of souls that formed when several realms merged with Earthrealm millennia ago

They also stand against the Eden Empire, a crime ring within the city run by Shao Jun, Raijin’s mortal enemy for generations

Raijin believes Shao makes the city and it’s people unsafe, and he and the White Lotus regularly try to thwart his efforts for control and keep him away from the Jinsei’s chamber

Their businesses are run in different parts of the city, rooted within different cultural and class communities, but that doesn’t stop their people from butting heads, and when needed, crossing blades

Raijin has grown fond of many humans, of his pupils, of his staff, and of retired soldier Jackson Briggs, but he also knows human lives are short in comparison to his own. He will not let sentimentality drag him into grief, as much as he sometimes wishes to feel the joy such connection would bring with it

(Inbox is always open to AU and AU character Qs!)

[whysosincere]

Much Ado - A Mortal Kombat Fanfiction

For the lady Mortal Kombat fans who would like to read about dangerous, competent men in conflict, and a woman caught in the tempest.

Chapter 1 - Ensnared

Next Chapter

It is said that the crack and roll of thunder is caused by the beating of drums in the heavens, signaling ominous portents said some, a simple display of the thunder god’s pleasure or ire claimed others. Mortals had called him by many names: Indra, Zeus, and Taranis were just a few. The Japanese had bestowed the titles of Kaminari, Raijin, and during this degenerate age where he had been enticed to make himself known, the name that had invoked his appearance was “Raiden.”

Lord Raiden was considered by the few mortals that knew him as a magnanimous, if slightly distant, being of great power, with an affinity for displays of martial skill. Though he called himself the god of thunder, his existence had spanned eons, from times before spoken language, longer even than the roil of atmospheric energies upon our sphere circling the sun.

He was originally hewn from the very fabric of reality, electricity given agency by the Elder Gods themselves in order to serve as the protector of one of the facets of existence, known as Earthrealm.

Since days uncounted and ages unnamed, Raiden presided over his charge. Sometimes capable of thwarting existential threats to the Earth, other times observing the catastrophic changes that came with the turning of the age. The former, he preferred, for it proved more amusing.

As empires would rise through the glories of kombat, and fall under their own weight, he enjoyed the passing of each age as one might regard the turning of the seasons. Mortal lives passed before him like autumn leaves upon the river of time, beautiful in their transience.

Raiden had never ventured too close to the beings that facilitated these transient moments in the grander flow of time, in truth, the thought to do so had not occurred to him. During times of roiling storm and crashing lightning, the ever changing spirit of the rushing winds would rend and soar through the tempests, wreaking havoc and earning reputation among the mortals as the “brother” of thunder and lightning.

His “brother”, thought Raiden, was of a different stock, as he observed from afar the shameful lack of tact displayed by the winds. They seemed utterly obsequious in comparison to Raiden, who preferred to keep his distance, and his indifference, and thought himself the better for it… until one fateful afternoon.

Rarely was Raiden’s presence called upon by name, save for ceremonies and rituals of worship, or beseeching of mercy. What many mortals did not understand was that the entity called Raiden did not control the natural atmospheric phenomena of the Earth. He did not wield lightning; he was lightning. This fact was tangential to the existence of weather itself. Raiden was less an event, and more a concept. A primordial expression of the living entities that populated the realm, and a representation of that which enabled all life through structure and substance.

Thus, when hearing the name which so many mortals had bestowed upon him, so forcefully and confidently invoked by a person of great power, his attentions were focused to a single point. It was this fateful moment that his ire was piqued by an obnoxious challenge. “Raiden! God of Thunder, hear these words! I have traveled through your lands, spoken your language, and your religions to deliver this message. I ask of you… Accept this invitation and compete in my great and noble tournament! Or do you fear the dangers of Mortal Kombat?”

The decrepit soul-stealer, Shang Tsung, was not a stranger to Raiden, for his inferior command of life’s energies had long been observed by the protector of the realm.

Shang Tsung, like other mortals of great renown, could tap into, and manipulate the same humors that enabled the existence of physical form. But the thunder god was petty, and considered his magics unimpressive. In truth Raiden disliked Shang Tsung not only for his sorcerous nature, but for the fact that his ambitions often stretched beyond his means, and had recently brushed infuriatingly close to a neighboring realm’s affairs; those of Outworld.

For Shang Tsung to so brazenly insult lightning and thunder, it stirred something in Raiden that he had not the experience to overcome. And without hesitation, felt himself pulled together in thought and intention to strike upon the mountainside near the sorcerer. Electricity coalesced into beating heart and straining muscle, the perfect image of The One’s divine design reflected in all things, wearing imitations of the simple white and black effects he had observed from the mortals that engaged in his most favored of ceremonies: kombat.

Air filled his lungs, sinew pulled his diaphragm, and the electricity that coursed through every fiber of his flesh amplified the voice of thunder and lightning’s first uttered words:

“I fear no mortal!”

~~~

That fateful meeting had been so long ago, there were few beings in existence that could recall it, but the enmity between the two, sparked from that day, had only grown in breadth and intensity with the passing of time. Much had happened since, and most interestingly, Lord Raiden had chosen to retain his physicality.

Originally created for the purpose of participating in Mortal Kombat, Raiden had not intended this human body of his to remain for as long as it had. He had convinced himself that a body of flesh and bone was simply a tool; One that he would discard as soon as its usefulness had expired.

However, there were always reasons anew to retain this physical burden, an endless supply of excuses at his disposal. He enjoyed the thrill of victory, and although having learned a terrible lesson having heedlessly chased such addiction in the past, now stirred a completely new sensation.

It began as a minor irritation, easily dismissed, but eventually grew into something that could not be ignored.

The thunder god found himself consistently drawn out of his meditative states by a feeling he could not begin to adequately describe. It were as if every time he had finally settled into the right frame of mind for communing with the Elder Gods, that precise moment invited a swell of warmth in his chest that cut short his breath.

He would soon be drawn from his place of contemplation, and find himself gazing over the horizon from atop the Sky Temple terrace, or observing the rolling mountain parallax from his isolation within fen or forest, with no adequate explanation for having sought out the natural beauty of the physical world he now suffered.

Time and again after enjoying the feel of the sun on his flesh, the pleasing sound of a mountain stream in his ears, or observing the gentle sweep of reeds dancing in the breeze, his attentions would be jostled upon the realization that he had once again been thoroughly lost. Pulled from his original meditations for seemingly trivial matters. He began to suspect foul play, some trickery weaved by an ill mind which seemed to continually elude his vigil.

This vexation then struck him midst an intense bout of kombat; a great honor among the Wu Shi Academy faithful. Liu Kang and Kung Lao had been blessed with the favor of the thunder god, and had received training directly from Lord Raiden throughout their lives. The other monks of the Academy were grateful for even a single sparring session. Lord Raiden, having charged and parried with increasing flow to the point of that harmonious elevated sensory state that all warriors strive to attain, grimaced in concentration as Liu Kang’s impressive martial prowess demanded his full attentions.

At his fighting peak, when naught but the compression of bone and sinew and the flex of muscle should have occupied his thoughts, Raiden suddenly felt as if he were no longer standing within the Wu Shi Academy tournament ring.

Without warning, the storm warrior followed the completely illogical impulse to its conclusion, and disappeared from the kombat ring, striking through cloud and sky until he coalesced in thunderous crash near a lonely temple on a rain-soaked mountain north of Japan’s ancient capital.

The rain was rushing in torrents all about him, and the gray mist washed the surrounding pine forest in layers of blue shadow. As Raiden’s senses filled with the smell of the wet earth and crisp pine, the sound of the water cascading from the eaves of the isolated wooden temple drew his eyes to a single figure standing within its protective veil.

It was a woman. A mortal woman, lost in her own meditations.

Unaware of Raiden’s presence, she drew a steady and long breath and seemed to inhale the very sound of wind, stone, and water harmonizing together within the storm.

Raiden’s gaze narrowed and focused with the slow rise of her shoulders and subtle tilt of her head, until sound, light, and sensation were tunnel… only released by her soft exhale.

Finally freed from the unexpected snare, he fled.

A second bright flash and cracking roll of thunder bid the woman’s eyes to open. Her surroundings were unchanged, with only the smell of ozone divulging the surprising proximity of two bolts of lightning, which left the fine hairs on her skin standing.

The forest continued its performance with the wind and rain, and unbeknownst to the woman, she now held a silent, and captive audience. Next Chapter

[greendest1ny]

hello ninjago fandom, i know i said that i'd post about how to play hide and seek with an oni, but i'm afraid i got brainrot for the subject of today's post.

so, for today's traditional oni lore, i'll be telling you all about the two oni gods, Raijin and Fūjin!!

Raijin and Fūjin are potentially the first two oni ever created, as they were born from the corpse of Izanami, the goddess of death, who created oni. (you can learn more about her here) They escaped Yomi when Izanagi (Izanami's husband) escaped after finding Izanami's corpse.

Fūjin was the God of Wind. He is traditionally described as having green skin and red hair, and wearing a leopard or tiger loincloth. On his shoulder he carries a large bag full of winds, called '風袋' or 'Kazebuko'. He has also been referred to as Fūten. He is often depicted beside his twin brother, Raijin.

Raijin was the God of Thunder, Lightning, and Storms. Unlike Fūjin, he doesn't seem to have a particular physical appearance. He is occasionally depicted with paper white skin or red skin, depending on the artist, though even these depictions seem to agree that he has black hair. He is often depicted surrounded by taiko drums or den den daiko drums, which have tomoe symbols on them. It is said that when he beats them, it creates thunder. Raijin is also often said to have three fingers, each representing the past, present, and future. He is also referred to as 'Raiden-Sama', 'Kaminari-Sama', 'Narukami', 'Raikou', and 'Kamowakeikazuchi-no-kami'.

Raijin had a son, too, called Raitaro. Raitaro, unlike his father and uncle, he seemed to look fully human, but he does have a legend surrounding him. He too is a god of thunder, and he lived in a grand palace in the clouds with his father, Raijin. Raijin loved Raitaro deeply. The two would often pass the time by looking down at humanity, and Raitaro especially enjoyed watching the children and their parents. One day, Raijin asked Raitaro to look well upon the land. Raitaro saw noble lords and their armies fighting over land, and then a beautiful princess, priests in their temples, and finally a poor farming couple who were childless.

Raijin then asked Raitaro to choose where he would like to inhabit the earth. Raitaro chose the farmers, much to his father's pride. That day at noon, a grand thunderstorm rolled in to the farmers, Bimbo's, land. Bimbo sang Raijin's praises, delighted at the rain that would save his crops after the long drought they had just suffered. The sky was alive with booms of thunder and the spark of lightning. It struck the ground, frighteningly near the peasant. At this, the poor farmer cowered and prayed: "Kwannon have mercy on a sinful soul, for now the Thunder Dragon has me indeed" (Kwannon was the goddess of mercy)

The lightning didn't harm him, it seemed, instead a small baby laid where the lightning had struck; this was Raitaro. Bimbo took Raitaro home to his wife, and the skies cleared and the sun shone brightly upon the drenched land. Bimbo and his wife took Raitaro in as their own son, and he was said to be the happiest and tallest boy in the land. He worked the rice fields at a mere ten years old, with all the ability of a grown man, and he was amazing at predicting the weather, which made Bimbo's crops flourish.

Eventually, Raitaro's eighteenth birthday came, and all were celebrating, except for Raitaro. When Bimbo's wife asked why he was so forlorn, Raitaro explained that he had to go home, back to the heavens and his father. Bimbo and his wife were distraught, but Raitaro explained to them that they had taught him how to suffer, to labour, and to love, and that he was now more learned that the other gods. Raitaro returned to Raiden, who received his beloved son with great joy. Bimbo and his wife were comforted by the fact that soon they would be with Raitaro again, in the heavens above.

Raijin did not only have a mother, brother, and a son, but he had pets, too. Raiju, meaning thunder beast/animal, were most commonly depicted as white blue dogs or wolves, wrapped in lightning. They could also come in other forms, such as leopards, foxes, weasels, panthers, cats, tigers, ferrets, and tanukis, but again, the wolf and dog forms are the most popular. Usually, Raiju were calm beasts, but they'd become aggressive and agitated during thunderstorms. They tend to leap around in trees, fields, and even buildings, leaving lightning strikes as they go. Some Raiju tend to sleep in human navels, which causes Raijin to strike the Raiju with lightning in order to wake it up, unfortunately killing the human it was sleeping in. As a result, it's a common superstition to hide your navel when it's thundering in Japan.

—

I think that Raijin and Fujin are so cool 😭��� even if Fujin has basically no content compared to his twin :(

Raitaro and Raijin remind me of Lloyd and Garmadon in their particular myth,, they're so cute

i also LOVE raiju. storm wolves??? hell yeah. garmadon you can have a pet wolf raiju after the merge. as a treat.

i can also see the ninja being more than mildly terrified when wu very cryptically tells them 'if you hear thunder, hide your navels.'

—

other oni lore

what repels oni, how oni were created, oni and cannibalism, kijin/source oni, traditional oni weapons, traditional oni stories, oni gods of thunder and wind

feel free to leave any questions in my ask box!!

taglist (asked to be added or removed): @mx-mizaqx @nyaskitten

[1-up-chump]

HE IS AND HE'S THE BEST SECOND ONLY TO DEFENDERS OF THE REALM RAIDEN

CONQUEST RAIDEN CAN NOT BE REAL

[nightklub-au]

Art Pieces

D’vorah and Syzoth, @spicyboelives

Scorpion and Tundra, @F0rshiii

Lord Raijin, @4leaf

Bi-Han and Tomas, @palebluebirdcomputer

Bi-Han and Sektor, @clickbaitcowboy

[supermeiko]

I'm pissed that this farmer Raiden's clothes have lining! The hurdles for cosplaying are too high, and most importantly, my farmer Raiden costume doesn't have lining yet. By the way, aren't you curious about the pattern of this lining? It has a complicated pattern and looks like a Japanese pattern. I extracted the images by data mining as usual.

It's unclear, but it's a Japanese painting. And it is strange that it is used even though it is not repeated. Although I am Japanese, I only understand a small part of Japanese history. However, just last year, Japan's national broadcaster broadcast ``The 13 Lords of the Shogun,'' so I understood what scene this painting was depicting. After reading some of the kanji, I managed to discover this!

Kuniyoshi's work: Minamoto no Yoritomo's memorial service to the Great Buddha

Despite Raiden's Japanese name, he probably has mostly Chinese elements. However, the fact that he used Japan as a lining gives the impression that he wanted to have Japanese roots.

As for why I chose this ukiyo-e rather than the ukiyo-e of Raijin or Katsushika Hokusai, I think it was probably a poor choice by NRS. It's because I can't really feel any elements of Yoritomo in Raiden.

[crepes-suzette-373]

Garuda, Judge, Germa 66, The Divine

@sangerie Perfect timing that you bring up Garuda in your reply, because I remembered a while ago that I didn't check what Judge's current belt looks like when I made that other post and I was just about to make a new post about my findings.

---

I messed up and completely forgot to check when I made that other post. That was just more of an idle thought, though, not something I really wanted to analyse or make theories out of. This one is the (conspiracy) theory/analysis post.

Artistically this is big enough difference that I cannot chalk it off as "simplification/wonky artwork because of image size":

Plus, the "simpler" shape from the MADS flashbacks would be drawn long after the WCI arc. So this has to be a purposeful change on sensei's part.

What was it beforehand and why the change? What is the newer shape supposed to be?

So anyway, that realisation prompted me to look into Karura (the Japanese interpretation of Garuda) because I thought the current belt shape looks like the helmet Judge is wearing, which in turn vaguely reminds me of headdresses in Buddhist gods' statuary.

I think there could be connection between the two in terms of design:

Like, his hair could look reminiscent of the Karura's "fire halo".

The Karura in Japan is a being who is heavily associated with flames (which happens to also look like number 6 spirals in the statue, very interestingly). Some Buddhist teaching even say the Karura either manifests itself as flames, or lends its flames in support to other deities.

Karura's "fire halo" behind Fudou Myou'ou:

This I find to be even more curious, because in the first place Garuda is divine being, and Garuda's "holy flame" is something that purifies evil. Judge seems to be awful in every way, so why give him a nickname that's based on a holy being? Is this just irony, or is this a hint that there's something weird going on that has yet to be revealed? (something in their ancient history?)

Also, about the "69" in the skull's eyes. Even Sanji's Stealth Black/Osoba Mask belt has that "69" element, even if it's in the little wings on the sides and not the skull's eyes. Is that symbol so important that it needs to be everywhere? (to sangerie, if you see this: Niji's belt still has that 69, even much later in the cover story, it just sometimes look wonky in the art because it's too small)

That symbol is known in Japan as "two tomoe" (considered different from yin yang by the Japanese). A tomoe is that comma like shape, and the Germa one is specifically the "right curling" one, because there are versions of it that goes the opposite direction.

A tomoe is also a divine symbol, so it's very frequently seen as the "crest" of shrines. Funnily enough the origin of the tomoe symbol is actually water, but I'm not sure if sensei would go out of his way to research that. If he was using this as a purposeful symbol I feel like he's using it more in the generic divine/shrine related usage.

It's a symbol you see in the drums used by the the Raijin (god of thunder), which also was the design inspiration for Enel.

Interesting thunder/lightning connection there. It's 3, though, and not 2, so I'm not sure if this means anything.

You see that exact symbol with just two in Wano, though it's turned 90 degrees anticlockwise:

I have wondered multiple times if the Vinsmokes have connection to Wano in their past. Even literally just a few hours ago I made a post mentioning the same thing. I always worry that I'm making too deep of a reach, but every now and then I still wonder.

It also has historical connection in Japan, since a two tomoe design is a common samurai crest. I highly doubt it's related to this, but that exact "69" shaped crest is the crest strongly associated with the 47 Ronin.

The interesting thing about the 47 Ronin is that even though they're typically celebrated as heroes who defeated an evil lord even to this day, by historical accounts the 47 ronin were actually the ones in the wrong and the guy they had revenge on wasn't a tyrant or corrupt official. Still, I don't think this has any relevance.

I mean, there's nothing about Germa that suggests that "they seem evil, but actually they're secretly good".

I will admit there is a part of me that is developing a suspicion that there could be a random twist where Germa's whole point was "their motivation/end goal is not bad, but their methods is what's really absolutely disgusting" for various reasons. As in, what if their desire to conquer the North Blue is not just for greed or power, but for a bigger goal beyond it, and this "bigger goal" might not be entirely bad.

I doubt it, because so far everything that we've been shown is just nasty. I'm just automatically suspicious because the World Government labelled them evil, and I don't trust WG.

It could just be something like "they're so evil, that even demons are disgusted", though.

[the-storm-chaser]

//On the Persona train (Blaming @akrahan for this one)

If Sky had personas, this would change dependant on verse:

-This might be overpowered, but I can see Vanilla Sky being able to summon two different persona's, but one specifically from the sword. Fuijin from herself, Raijin from the Blade (Kami of Wind and Thunder). I can't split these two up if I tried. They are a pair.

-DnD verse would initially be Gond, Lord of Smiths ( A diety she and her father would pray to before the working day began.)

-Becoming Fran, I would imagine Terrorforger would have some of influence on her, if her mental fortitude slips, she would summon something of his choosing. Considering how Terrorforger has manifested to the group (well, Benno) so far as a firey eyeball, that leads me to one god she would accidentally invoke. Garyx (image is of terrorforger's manifestation, but it's how I can see the summon looking)

-FF14 Verse would be Quetzlcoatyl from ff8. I fucking screamed when it showed up in shadowbringers. Lightning bird ftw!!

[gaijin-fujin-resonance]

Eiam from Twitter has done a Colour Lyrics Video (they explained to me yesterday what this was - it comes from the K-pop vocal band tradition, where different colours indicate which member of a large group is singing lead.)

Seeing the lyrics visually helps me to understand them more clearly. (I have all kinds of auditory processing disorders and struggle to hear words even in my native language.)

It's interesting to me that so much of the discussion that I've seen has focused on the Raijin / Fujin aspect of the title. Maybe because the gods are so familiar in Japanese culture. And yet not on the RESONANCE part of the title. And I'm going to dig into the concept of RESONANCE with some hermeneutics here:

Seeing the lyrics drove the resonance theme home:

共振共鳴 kyoushin kyoumei

Repeating the word for emphasis. Resonate, oscillate - the video even has an oscilloscope in int (wow, I love oscilloscopes!) And @an-insignificant-flower pointed out the specific denotations of those words - they both mean "resonance" but "the former refers to physical vibrations, while the latter refers to sonority (sound)."

And at that point, it clicked. In Physics, there is no difference. Sound is vibration. That's why there is no sound in a vacuum. (In space, no one can hear you scream.)

Apart from the experimental radio station in London, Resonance speaks mostly to me of String Theory. The great atomic discoveries of the early 20th Century - Oppenheimer, atomic power, The Bomb - gave way to increasing weirdness as the scale of reality probed smaller. The fizzing probabilities of the quantum world - really, the only way to understand them was to conceive of them, mathematically and visually, as small pieces of string, vibrating very quickly.

At the subatomic level, there is no physical Matter as we know it. There is only Vibration. Resonance. Shimmering oscillating wibbling energy fields in ten-dimensional hyperspace.

In the cosmic hippie space age period of my extreme youth, this concept made its way into popular culture as "vibes". I think this way of speaking has recently made its way back into youth culture - "we vibe" or "we don't vibe" is a very good way of describing the mysterious chemistry of why one gets on with someone - or not.

Imai Hisashi is really into his physics. To me, one of the most interesting revelations of Imai being forced to do lots of interviews, is that 夢遊猫 SLEEP WALK (Sleepwalking Cat) is actually about Schrödinger's Cat.

One of the fundamental principles of contemporary physics is that due to these subatomic vibrations, the Universe itself resonates. The Universe has a sound. The Universe hums.

The Universe also hums, quite literally. If you tune an old-fashioned radio set to a dead space between stations, you can hear the background microwave radiation that is the residual afterglow of the Big Bang. Existence came into being with a BANG! A wave. A sound. And this idea echoes across many different religions:

The Christianity in which I was raised has a word spoken aloud creating the world: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Hinduism has Shiva, the Lord of the Dance, the beat of his drum and the rhythm of his footsteps forging the first sounds of creation - and destruction, because there is no creation without destruction. Life and Death, creation and destruction are so intimately intertwined you can never have one without the other.

Buck-Tick have played with Hindu Creation concepts before - most notably on Yume Miru Uchuu (Dreaming Universe). Taking the starting point of the great cosmic god Vishnu who dreams the Universe into being and flipping it so that it is the Cosmos itself that is dreaming...

But here, I think we see the starting point of where Imai's philosophy starts to diverge from Sakurai Atsushi's. To Sakurai, life is Dream. To Imai, life is Dance. Life, love, death, dance, all are tangled up and inseparable in Imai's cosmos.

Boys and girls, baby don’t cry, you know it's all okay Life is love and death, and so are we

DANCE　DANCE　HA! HA!　REMEMBER TO DIE

Isn't this what's going on with Boys don't cry / Girls fall in love?

In Sakurai's worldview, life was a dream. His metaphor for his own life, again and again, was a stage, wherein he played the clown. I don't know if this philosophy came to him via Osamu Dazai (No Longer Human) or Shakespeare (All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players) but in Sakurai's worldview, to survive is to escape into a performance, a dream in the dark.

Imai seems to be setting out his own worldview, which is slightly different from Sakurai's - life is a dance. The world is a dancefloor on which you beat out your own rhythm. Being a Brit of the Rave Generation, whose life was worked out on dirty dancefloors from the backrooms of Camden pubs to warehouses in NYC, from converted churches to space-age hamburger joints. this is a message that resonates with me intensely. Life is a dance.

You dream by yourself. And you can dance by yourself - but usually, you dance with your lover, you dance with your friends, you dance in the midst of a crowd, that special unique feeling that only a dancefloor can bring of being simultaneously alone and doing your own thing, while also moving in a great oscillating wave of humanity with all the other people on the same floor losing their minds to the same amazing music in a pulsing back-and-forth of bodies and beats. Dancing is social. Music is an organism created as a dance between performer and listener. Living is a dance.

This, to me, is Imai's message: to survive in this world, to survive being beaten by the rain (and I write this sitting in the teeth of Storm Bert battering the UK) - resonate! vibrate! oscillate! spin! Join in the great cosmic hum of the Universe and dance!

[bloody-arty-myths]

Finally something after quite a time

Please ignore the mistakes I tried to draw the outfits from memory and a friend’s help

[gasha40k]

Recently I’ve been trying to focus on getting through my incomprehensibly massive amount of unpainted models, so here’s another quick little painting update.

Missile launcher bro thinks he’s part of the team meanwhile it’s a completely illegal model

Our first little squad of Berzerkers is coming into shape! I’ve got a bit more painting to do before this squad is done, but everyone’s got their trim, at the very least. Most of them also have red, which, when combined with the brass trim and the black primer, technically counts as battle-ready, since it is 3 different colors. Does this mean I can put them on the tabletop and play with them? Not without feeling ashamed of myself for never painting, no!

Brother Kardon the Eternal, veteran of the Long War, possibly over 10,000 years old. So old and presumably powerful that he could easily be a Chaos Lord if he wanted to, but is so dedicated to killing at all times that he can’t be fucked to actually lead anything

Wally is one of my better minis, I think. He’s a tame but distinct kitbash and a fun way to pay homage to the ugly ass past of the World Eaters. He’s also one of the better painted models that I own. This, I think, is for two reasons: I changed how I use washes, and I started thinning my paints more.

Firstly, I finally ditched the fucking Nuln Oil. The new formula is garbage and doesn’t look good on anything except for metal. Deeply disappointing! But being left with no go-to wash left me wanting, so I’ve made the switch to Agrax Earthshade. Agrax Earthshade is magic. With almost every one of my models, I’ve been finishing their base colors and then promptly slathering them in mildly thinned Agrax Earthshade. Once it dries and stains the mini, I take a small amount of the base color and fill in the broader surfaces, brightening them and cleaning up messier spots where the wash had dried. This makes the recesses a lot darker while maintaining the cleaner look on the armor panels, and that contrast generates a very serviceable illusion of depth without having to bother with highlights.

You can also experience a glow up like this, all you need is a cape, trust me

Color-wise, I tried to paint Kardon as close as close possible to the original Wally model. For example, his Mark of Khorne belt buckle (that’s cute) is brass and his belt is red, just like the old model. His backpack is mostly red, with the… wing-connector thingies being brass. And while it’s hard to see in the reference image, Wally’s right kneepad has a silver Mark of Khorne on it. Kardon noticeably lacks kneepads, having a MK6 torso and legs. To maintain that cool little splash of silver, I moved it onto the Khornate emblem that Kardon uses to pin his cloak to his shoulders. Most of that shit is meaningless, I just felt like talking about my decisions because I thought they were cool if I’m real.

The Raijin’s targets rarely foresee the Interceptor’s attacks as it stalks its prey from low orbit before diving from the highest heavens to strike. Once its locked in, it moves so swiftly that quarry aware enough to catch a glimpse of the plane see nothing more than a few red falling stars before they’re annihilated.

Anyways, enough about Kardon and his friends. Here’s an update on my Interceptor. This thing has taken so much goddamn paint and, frankly, doesn’t look super great, but once I’m done brightening and highlighting the panels, I think it’ll look great. I think the golden guns are really good and funny, because that’s so unnecessary, they’re fucking aircraft guns. It feels very 40k, like, of course they’d make their plane guns golden. I’m really satisfied with the Raijin, as well, and I wish aircraft were better so I could actually use it.

As a closing thought, I’d love to, one day, do a big ass 4000pts game with a full aircraft layer transpiring. Multiple gunships and Interceptors dogfighting, occasionally dipping from the chaos in the sky to raze the surface with earthshaking strafing runs. Would be cool.

[muses-and-odd-fashion]

The pantheon of Wool and Cottons world tend to be exceptionally curvy for some reason

Raijin, god of thunder and storms, she has a stupid big rack and not too shabby down south with a wee bit of chub

Nimue, goddess of swordplay and water, has so much goddamn ass, her throne could fit well over 50 average sized people

Sylvain, god of nature and lord of the seasons, is gigantic, musclebound and like 7 feet tall

(Blame Neom for my newfound interest in hyper ass)