#merlumina

[paperpeachy]

waiting to flip into 3D

[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

[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!

[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

[interdimensionalvoid]

Fun fact:

In one of Garson’s stories, he says that Merlumina’s love life threatened to destroy the world on a few occasions

Which got me thinking about Timpani (as one does)

All worlds DID get destroyed for a couple of minutes by Bleck

So naturally I made this

You’re welcome

[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

[shi-gut]

[HUEVEMBER 2017: But it's only the fanart pieces]

*re-uploading some old stuff rn*. ik i uploaded things in reverse order, oops. but this was the first attempt at huevember back in 2017 when i first heard of it. i actually did get close to doing all 30 days but only made it to day 29. im not uploading all of the pieces i did cuz they're kinda cringe and edgy. the fanart ones are the only ones that don't look hideous to me.

[gracebethartacc]

that epic moment when ancients

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

[paperpeachy]

sages ✨🔮

[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)

[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!

[starferret]

Never got the motivation to properly draw the next part so y’all get the sketches + infodump!!!

Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

And then there’d be a cool fight between them, and then Mario would be like “we can’t beat him on our own” and then they’d fuse and then an even cooler fight scene. And then Fluorite would be like “well 3 against 2 is hardly fair” and then BAM he pulls out the Chaos Heart and fuses with it. Whaaaaaat the Chaos Heart was actually a gem?! No way!

Wow bro learned to stand- uh I guess they’d be called Super Fluorite or something. And in the midst of the battle, they’d drop this big lore bomb

Woaahhh that’s crazy!! This is Magenta Spinel, aka Shadoo/The Pixl Queen. I’m going off the theory that Dimentio is the Magician’s son, and that the Pixl Queen becomes Shadoo (I don’t remember if that’s confirmed or not)

Oh no she’s emo!! Also here’s the sages’ designs

I didn’t draw them with eyes since in the comic it was going to be in same style as the episode “Your Mother and Mine”. Plus I didn’t know whether to give them a single Sapphire eye, or two eyes- mainly because whenever I tried to draw the single eye it looked weird. Merloo = Green Sapphire, Merlight = Teal Sapphire, Merlumina = Star Sapphire, and Merlimbus = Magenta Sapphire

Now for fun extras!!

Here’s some experimenting for the Mario + Bowser + Peach fusion (I was thinking maybe Sunstone), as well as a Mimi + Mr L fusion cuz I love those lil green guys

Some screenshot redraws, cuz it’s oddly relaxing to just draw over screenshots and not having to worry about anatomy and fitting the art style. Just a lil something for fun :]

Ooooo some little guys. When I was working on the plot stuff I was playing through M&L Dream Team, so I wanted to include them somehow, and the Dreamy Luigi’s fit perfectly with the fact that gems of the same type look very similar. Also Dreambert is a Peach Moonstone.

The Malachite and Super Dimentio comparisons don’t stop here, cuz y’know that scene where Steven is in her mind and sees Lapis and Jasper? Yeah there’s a scene of that with Fluorite. And our lil pillow boys are apart of that process

Oh yeah and here’s an attempt at a height chart