#merlumina

[paperpeachy]

waiting to flip into 3D

[mochilorddrakeinferno]

Super Paper Mario Timeline:

This has actually been done for quite some time, I just forgot to post it, but here is a decently comprehensive timeline of the important events of the 1500 years preceding Super Paper Mario. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w_sWU5LxkszlbWLoqTJRhTvuYY9AAU8pUnMbHtCNxCc/edit?pli=1

I may eventually get around to the rest, but the periods of 3000 and 2000 years ago are more unclear and contentious than the era of the Sages, as well as having less concrete information to draw from, so those probably won't be done for a while. Feel free to leave any feedback and ask any questions, I'm always happy to respond!

[oddity-art-blog]

This post is sponsored by: The Tribe of Ancients

((Version without text:))

[toastyexistedsomewhere]

(I forgot to post this yesterday oopsies)

I drew Merlumina, and I'm not sure what art style I should do or whatever wahh

It's pretty messy but whatever

[rattlebear25]

Little Update of my Headcanon Version of Dimentio:

I changed a bit his story:

• I like the theory of him being the Shadoo's brother so he was the prince of a evoluted Phanto's family (the masks from Super Mario Bros. 2). His sister was Shadoo/Pixel Queen and she was originally called Dimania.

• He married one of the Ancients (Merlumina) to enter in the Ancient's Sanctuary, gain their faith and then destroy the Pure Hearts. Nothing more. So they can't interfere with his plan of awakening the Chaos Heart.

• He started to have a crush for one of Merlimbis' creations, Mimi. He just faked of love Merlumina so he can keep her distracted by jis charm and realize his plans easily without getting troubles and make.

All of this Past SPM events. Maybe i will make some comic panels about this things idk bye

[dappledpaintbrush]

LOOK WHAT I FOUND OH MY GOOOOOD😭😭

Anyways If you’re a super paper mario artist just delete your account because clearly I already reached the epitome of spm fanart at 8 years old

[paperizzy]

The Sound

Carly Rae Jepsen

[merlumina]

hi there, tumblr

So after quitting all other social media (twitter, instagram, facebook), I found myself 1) pretty lonely tbh and 2) at a loss for how to keep myself creatively motivated and inspired with nowhere to share my work. I'd heard from several people that tumblr is way more chill these days, and while I hesitated at first, I finally decided to give it a try. After a few weeks of waiting from tech support to regain access to my account (pro tip: don't sign up for anything important with your college email address), I regained access yesterday and spent some time doing some tidying up (i. e. deleting most of my old posts and likes).

So...hi! Feels weird to be back. Life has changed so much in the past seven years. It was interesting going back through old posts to relive those times. Since I was last here, this is what I've been up to:

hollowforest and I got married in 2020. While he was unfortunately not able to propose to me at MAGFest after a particularly victorious round of Gundam Xtreme VS, which would have been rad, we settled for eloping at county jail, which is also a cool story.

Ringo, my cat, is still with us! But now we also have a dog, Haru (named after Persona 5 Haru). Yeah I like dogs now. I like pitt bulls now. 2012 me would never.

After years of self-doubt and self-loathing about my life choices, I actually became what I wanted to be when I grew up - a software developer! In late 2020 I took the plunge to do a coding bootcamp and got really lucky being hired into an apprenticeship program before I'd even graduated. Now I'm making those big coding $$$ working from home, literally living the dream and still kind of in awe.

I joined the Diagnosed with ADHD in My 30s club! (Also, I'm in my 30s now)

We bought a house in October, 2022! I did not think it would be possible for the longest time, but due to the big job upgrade we were finally able to afford it.

I've played a lot of video games, but not beaten that many.

I picked up game dev as a hobby and have made a few small games during game jams.

My mental health is overall a lot better now! Part of that is from therapy, part of that is from self reflection, part of that is maybe just growing up. See also: quitting aforementioned social medias.

Improved mental health aside, my hangups about my artistic abilities and creative capacity still haven't improved any in the past 10 years. It's one of my biggest personal insecurities, but also one of the reasons I'm trying Tumblr again! I wanted somewhere to post my practice routine to keep myself accountable, as well as a place to get inspiration from other artists.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep this blog focused on art and personal things that make me happy. After I left Tumblr in 2016 I started working on myself and trying to focus on bringing more empathy into my interactions with others. Whether or not I've been successful at that is another matter, but in general it has helped me be a happier person. I am not interested in participating in Discourse. I don't think you can judge the "goodness" of a human based on a handful of things they've said/done online, and I won't be made to cast judgment on anyone. I think we should spend less time tearing down people in our own communities and more time asking why it's so easy for the people in power to trick us into fighting each other. In general, the overall vibe that everyone's social media account is a personal soapbox where they can make declarations about what is Right and what people Should be doing makes me uncomfortable. So I'm going to try not to do any more of that here. I do like still having those discussions sometimes, but I prefer a more personal venue, where I feel like I'm talking with people rather than at them.

Let's be cool to each other! -Liz / merlumina

[interdimensionalvoid]

“PEOPLE IN THIS MILLENNIUM HAVE NO SENSE OF COMPASSION!”

-merlumina, 2007

[mochilorddrakeinferno]

It really is great!

can i also plz point out this really cool detail i love about the sages (because the SPM game devs really didn’t need to go this hard but man they did)

here’s an unblocked picture of the wall in the chamber you find Merlumina’s ghost in, right? (photo courtesy of smallmariofindings in this post)

…and this is the stained glass lineup in between Flip/Flopside

ok so the tree structure from Merloo, the plants from Merlight, and the shooting stars from Merlimbus’ frames are all present along with Merlumina’s top symbol and i just

have i mentioned i love this game 

[paperpeachy]

sages ✨🔮

[mochilorddrakeinferno]

Greetings, I hope that you are well: I'm very interested in your Dimentio/Merloo theory. It is a great theory, and I think it works quite well as I believe it ties in quite a few loose ends and serves a wonderful further contrast between Dimentio and Bleck's characters, though there are a few points I would like to enquire about towards the theory:

Does the theory pose that Merloo IS the son of the Master Magician if Dimentio is Merloo, if that's the case, wasn't the son not heard from again after the accident? The usage of "some say" presents the survival of the son is ambigiuous so...Wouldn't the people know that Merloo is the magician's son if he is presented as important enough to get a stain-glass window?

Is the prognositicus directly stated to be difficult to decipher? I understand that the Light prognosticus would be difficult to transcribe as it was activley written. But who actually wrote the dark prognosticus? And when was it actually made? "But no person after obtaining this amazing book ever found happiness". The fact that obtain is used here possibly suggests to me that anyone who had the book in their possession never found happiness and to me that implies that there isn't an "old language" barrier needed to be crossed for the Dark Prognosticus to be read. The Light prognosticus was written by the ancients to counter the prexistimng Dark Prognosticus, so to me it makes sense that the Light Prognosticus would need to be deciphered to understand, but not the Dark. I may be missing something though. 

This would imply to me that Dimentio still could have stolen the Prognosticus when the count wasn't looking, even if he wasn't Merloo, and still would have been able to read it. 

(I wouldn't be surprised though if the writer (Co writer Merloo) who wrote the light prognosticus by using the Dark Prognosticus this measure likely DID go insane having to read the Dark Prognosticus and transcribe it in his language thoughm, the hypnotic - And that does make me ask why Merlumina didn't go insane if she ALSO contributed to the writing of the dark prognosticus but this is a bit off topic-)

If none of the ancients in the bridge between Flipside/Flopside are alive anymore, only their descendants, is there direct evidence of the lifespans that could dictate that could Merloo still be alive? You make the point of "the public had have had no way to know of the Pixl Queen until the uprising of 1,000 years later". Please can you explain the evidence of this towards the ancients being able to live at least 1,000 years? I probably missed something when going over Carson's dialogue- You also mentioned that the apprentice had lived for at least 1,000 years. Is there direct proof of this within the game?

Is there much direct symbolism between Merloo and Dimentio? As you touched on in the Lore wiki, the visual ties and pallete are very weak, and symbolism across the type characters in that respect doesn't seem to viable. Even though the painting has Dimentio's colours, the painting also has other colours in the background that aren't affiliated with him. Had Merloo any symbol of a diamond, or any design connection of the sort, I think the connection maybe be a little bit stronger?-

"Oh, and some say the son of the magician miraculously recovered from the accident. If so, the bloodline of the magician could endure... Did they find happiness? Or otherwise..." Was this line different in the Japanese verssion to refer specifically to the son finding happiness? Doesn't this alter the meaning of the line quite a bit? 

I think that the theory is a unique and interesting approach to Dimentio's characater and makes him seem far more interesting, and honestly I'd love to see it being official lore for the character, though, when comparing how the rest of the game presents its lore, the theory seems a bit...farfetched, even with the abundance of evidence provided. 

When looking at how lore is generally presented in the game, the lore seems a bit...Scattered..outside of Count Bleck and Timpani's as well as some of the direct lore you can find in locations like King Crocaus's castle detailing the stories of his family tree and the glass window section of Flipside's main Co-founders/contributors. The rest of the lore practically comes exclusivley from Carson and is relativey... Easy to put together, so to speak. 

I have no doubt that the writers wanted to tie in Dimentio with the Magician son part of the theory, as the term "magician" has been used to describe his character and I certainly agree that Merloo is connected to his character a least in some way as he also uses dimensional magic and has the key word "magician" to determine him and as there are no descendants of Merloo present, but that lack of really any noteworthy visual connection and the way the other lore is generally presented  is one of the few reasons why I think him actually being Merloo might not have been the intention despite how good the theory is?

Apologies for the ask and I hope that you have a nice day!

Glad you asked, and happy to answer! This will be a very long one. So long in fact that it broke the character limit again, so it's Google Doc link time again. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLguKB4Guepv55BkRF0i3U98_2ObJ3SVWAHETEDjptQ/edit Enjoy!

[gracebethartacc]

that epic moment when ancients

Might color these later but for now WOA CONCEPT DESIGNS BE UPON YE

[mochilorddrakeinferno]

Good questions, all! I'll try to do my best to answer what I can of each of these! Won't fit in one post though, so I'll be reblogging my own post with an addition to this to cover the rest soon. 1. The Tribe of Darkness's belief that marrying outside of their group of families would dilute magic could come from a number of places. One, from observations of trends in magical ability among parts of the Ancients that did mix more widely. Two, as you said, from the xenophobia and paranoia we know they had. Three, they were the magical elites of the tribe. Blumiere is among very few Ancient descendants to have a noble title, Lady Merlumina and by extension Madam Merlar (same Shaman name in the original Japanese, but different people of course) being the others. I also think it's no coincidence that their place of hiding was a castle. In other words, their inbreeding may mirror the common practices of real life noble families to keep a more political kind of power in their bloodlines. And finally (though more conjecturally)... The Tribe of Darkness was a tribe with some secrets. They're linked to the history of the Dark Prognosticus, to Merlight who very likely passed the (at the time illegal) information on Pixl creation down generations to Merlon, to the shadow magic experiments in Flopside... I feel like they'd want to keep a tight lid on those secrets, and keeping all their marriages inside of the tribe would be a good way to do that and maintain the secrets that gave them power. 2. We also know that the daughter of the Great Magician, who was an Ancient, was human, as were all the souls that went into the Pixls. Japanese text in Of Bats and Men indirectly refers to Blumiere as a human, and Pixl Uprising text refers to the Ancients collectively with a word that usually refers to humans. The Ancients are almost certainly either a different race of humans from Mario or a different species that's just also called humans, though. 3. The Tribe of Darkness probably helped to create Flopside before they split from the rest of the tribe in my opinion, as powerful and shadowy magic was involved both in the creation of Flopside and in the Flopside Pit, though there is some contention on the subject. that said, yeah, seems like things oddly cooled down over the next 1500 years. Guess there wasn't really that much to do. 4. Every character asked on the subject except debatably Nastasia seems to believe the two are alive, the Pure Hearts it was said might cease to exist alongside them remain standing in their pillars unharmed, they don't resemble Shaydes in the ending, and the place they're in doesn't look like any corner of the afterlife we see, so I think it's a safe bet that they're alive. 5. Castle Bleck is very large, has streetlamps, and is prowled by mysterious shadowy Magiblots with the same name ending as every confirmed Ancient descendant, and seems to have been consigned to the Void before it was even properly opened. It seems very likely that it was the former ToD castle, and at least possible that the Magiblots could be what remains of the tribe, though on that I'm way less certain. Dimentio also has interesting design links to Magiblots, for what it's worth. 6. We know Timpani was cursed to wander dimensions when she was a human, and that aside from her power to travel dimensions that let her find Mario, she has a seemingly distinct "emergency warp" she uses to save everybody in Chapters 4 and 6. My guess is that this may all connect, and that her curse may also have let her see through dimensions and witness what Blumiere did, which we know is at least somewhat possible, since Dimentio can seemingly warp to another dimension and yet still snoop on Count Bleck. 7. Yeah, we've got nothing there, unfortunately. We know that his ancestors "couldn't handle" the power of the Dark Prognosticus, but that's all we have concretely.

Plot holes

Now, I'll put all the plot holes that we can find in the game and the game/the history didn't answer. So, get ready! Because are a lot of them.

1⁘ How the Tribe of Darkness knowed that the marriage out of the magic group will diluted their powers?

Well, this is the one that has the most possibilities of get solved, because, in the game we notice that this tribe didn't mix with other people a cause of pride. And also they had xenophobia, an encyclopedy give the answer: Xenophobia is a term that refers to the phobia, aversion or fear towards foreign people or people from different cultures. Yehah. We alreay know why they din't mix with other people, but,Why they've do that? Because of fear of what happened in the Pixl War, that's why they seppareted from the the tribe of ancients. But, ¿How the Tribe of Darkness knowed that the marriage out of the magic group will diluted their powers? My theory seen in Dimentio's part explains this. 

But, besides that, we still have no anwer a this question, make it a plot hole.

2⁘ The humans in Spm.

I already explain this in my last part,in my theory about this issue. But, What we know about these people in the game? The only human 100% confirmed is Tmpani. She's a member of a tribe near at Blumiere's tribe, and that's all the data we know.

How they know about the ancients' and tribe of darkness' problems? What plane of existence are they on? Or, It's a different dimension? Well, probably we'll never know..

3⁘ What happened to the members of the tribe of ancients and the members of the tribe of darkness between the moment they separated and the begginig in the events of the game?

The lapse is 1,500 years, and we know nothing. It looks like during that time, anyone did nothing. Just we know is that, in the same time they've founded Flipside, the tribe of drakness for a strange reason help them to build Flopside, and that's it.  

4⁘ What happened to Blumiere and Timapni after the events of spm?

They died? Were to overthere? Did they returned to their places of origin? ? We'll meet them again? Who knows?

5⁘ What happened to the members of the tribe of darkness?

According to the official guide, Blumiere when he becomes Count Bleck, killed, assesinated all the members of his tribe, no one survived, and took the castle where he used to live and transformed in Castle Bleck. But, this are only a assumption. Well, maybe not. Because Timpani felt the exactly moment when it happened, and that brings me to my next point:

6⁘ Why Timpani felt what happened in the memories 6 and 7?

The memories are... memories that throughout history is shown to observe the background of these two emblematic characters, from Timpani point of view. But, How did she felt the the fall of his beloved when he become Count Bleck? Because she was not present. Mysterious mysteries.

Although someone shared me that they thought the memories was told from the point of view of Blumiere. If you want to see them from that point of view, it could be BOTH.

7⁘ Blumiere's family

In the hole history, we only know two members of the tribe of darkness: Blumiere and Blumiere's father. We also tought that the reason why his father was very strict with him, it is because he had a high rank within the tribe, or that he was even the chief. But, Mom? Siblings? Family? We don't know. Or perhaps, he is it just like 90% of the protagonists, without a real family or relationships with anyone.

8⁘ Why are different kind of people on Flipside/Flopside?

You'll see, in Flopside are many different kinds of people, descendants of the tribe of anciens/tribe of darkness, what manner of creatures they are is never made explicit, although as they are descendants of the Ancients who are confirmed to have been human, it seems likely they can be considered human as well. Almost every Flipside inhabitant has a counterpart in Flopside, with the counterpart having a vaguely opposite personality or interest. Their bodies come in yellow, purple, and blue colors, are geometric in shape, and some seem to lack visible arms. While the Flipside residents have square noses, the Flopside residents have pointed noses, and the residents of Yold Town and Gloam Valley do not have noses at all. Why? IDK. But i tried to give an explination seems in the first theory I made.

9⁘ Shadoo and Dimentio's background.

I think we all have the idea that somehow these two individuals are connected. Everyone has made out-of-this-world theories to explain this headcanon. I made myself a theory in the part of the Pixl Queen. But, today is a completely mystery.

I've noticed that I have many theories and parts... 

10⁘ Dark Prognosticus' creator.

Even in the game,we are explicitly shown that no one knows who was the creator of this mystical book. It was an ancient? It was a member with dark magic? It was a human? Nobody knows...

10⁘ What happened more than 3,000 years ago?

The timeline of the game begin 3,000 years ago, when the ancients created the pixls, but, Who were the tribe of ancients? What dimension did they from to? How did they discover magic? Where did they get the DP? 

And the most interesting thing about this is that, within the fandom, few ask this question. Interesting....

11⁘ The villains' background

Our entire source of information is Carson and his stories, and most of them are incomplete and do not tell details. And I think that, so far, the villain we know most of her story is Natasia, since it is emphasized throughout the entire game.

For others, their backstory is not extremely necessary to the story.

12⁘ What dimensions are Flipside and Flopside between?

Another intersting question, because, Merlon say us in the start of the game that Flipside is not a dimension because are BETWEEN dimension. But what dimensions are Flipside and Flopside between? Are they in two differents dimensions? One of these dimensions are the real world? Or, are they between ALL dimentions? We'd better know.

13⁘ There's more pixls? Why the original pixls doesn't talk anymore?

For the first question, maybe a few pixls managed to escape the conflicts and live scattered in other dimensions. Because, Heronicus, the person who behind Saffron's house say us, at the end of the game that he tried to find a legendary pixl, something that reinforces our theory.

And the second, The animators didn't want to work or give more prominence to Mario's partners to focus on the incredible story? Improbably. There is probably another more elaborate explanation.

14⁘ When the ancients mix with humans?

Let's remember that some humans are descendantsof those and viceversa.

(Merely filler point)

15⁘ Mimi's a robot?

And finally, the last point (I wish it were so), Mimi's a Robot? Terminator 3000?The only thing Carson explains to us are MORE theories that it could be Mimi. A witch's mistake? A failed pixl? And to top it all off, he also tells us that Mimi doesn't remember much. Dang it!

The only clue we have is that, in the sprits in the game, and when we flip to 3D and fight her ORIGINAL creepy spider form, there are traces of gears like those of a machine. If you want to theorize, go ahead.

And that's all the plot holes I've found. Surely (and sadly) there are more, so I invite you to include all the ones you remember, I'm out.

[camprell-art]

I can’t arrange the images like in the original :’)

But anyway, the 4 Sages are done!

[artgletic]

Dimentio in an ancient-style fit (Mermentio? Mertio?) + 12th pixl

in my lore post, i talk about how i think dimentio was merloo’s mentor. I like to imagine he was very lowkey and his presence was lost to time, deliberately overshadowed by his student. He mentored merloo so as to get him to write the light prognosticus as a means of countering the dark one and creating a vulnerability in the prophecy for him to exploit later in the events of SPM. I additionally talk about dimentio's mask originating with the dead pixl who died during the events of the pixl war. these are just designs going off ideas from that post

Design notes under cut

-ancients have this really obvious gendered way of dressing, and i wanted dimentio to blur those lines, hence giving him the robes and headpiece of a man but the face veil and headpiece adornments of a woman. hes slaying

-speaking of facial decorations, dimentio isnt wearing his mask yet here. I hc he only starts wearing it around when he starts interacting with bleck (along with the jester fit as a whole)

-i decided to turf the stripes on his fit since it made him look too much like the dimentio we know as opposed to an ancient, as well as there was no ancients with similar patterning.

-to be real dimentio’s canon design is already very reminiscent of an ancient, particularly in the context of the rest of SPM’s designs and how crazy they can get. The basic shape of his hat already looks like a plausible ancient headpiece (like a combination of merlimbis and merlight), and merlumina has similar decal placements on her headpiece. theres also centre brooch that male ancients wear; dimentio’s diamond is similar. They both even have yellow eyes.

-the only real differences are dimentio’s leg and hands, both of which are monochrome and lined with white instead of black, almost emphasizing that they do not ‘fit’ the rest of the look or were added on unnaturally.

-his mask is also monochrome but not lined with white. My reason for this is since I think his mask is what remains of his old pixl, it’s not alien with respect to the ancients (hence not being lined with white), but not an authentic part of him (hence being monochrome)