#mythical giants

[peterkothe]

Inktober 2023 Day 21-THE GIANT ARGUS PANOPTES.

-One of the primordial giants, possessing a hundred eyes and the ability to survive without sleep, Argus served the Olympian goddess Hera as her guardian, slaying the Echidna, the Mother of Monsters and to safe guard the priestess Io.

-My take was inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld deity character, the (ironically named) Blind Io, with the many eyes floating about!

[whereserpentswalk]

Reblog to receive the transformation. Like to upgrade your power.

[vixivulpixel]

Very tall AND very long

[rocketbirdie]

just put in my two weeks, so to speak.

[dynamitekansai]

WWERomanReigns: Wherever I go, I will make sure my Bloodline is with me.

[jula483]

I'm just gonna leave this here 🙂

[bestiarium]

The Abasylar [Yakut mythology]!

In the indigenous religion of the Siberian Yakut people, there is an important distinction between the different spiritual worlds that are inhabited by supernatural beings. Among these beings, the Abasylar (singular: Abasy or also Abaasy) are a bit of an exception, because they inhabit both the lower and the upper world.

The Abasylar are evil, wicked spirits and are known to steal people’s souls. They are also horrifying to look at: an Abasy is a giant humanoid monster with a singular eye and seven huge teeth made of iron. This latter characteristic is because all creatures from the underworld have at least some iron body parts in Yakut belief. I noticed they are always depicted with one arm and one leg, but I don’t know the significance behind this.

Not entirely unlike humans, Abasylar form households and can own animals as cattle. People made animal sacrifices for them, in which horses were sacrificed to the Abasylar in the upper world, whereas those living in the lower world received horned cattle as offerings.

These creatures serve Arson Duolai (also called Ulu Tojon), the deity who presides over the dead. Interestingly, blacksmiths hold a special position in Yakut religion because their work directly links them to the spirits. They can hold a séance and make an offering to the god Kytai-Bakhsy, who is associated with smithing, for professional smithing skills and also divine protection.

This ritual involves the smith pulling the heart out of a dead calf and smashing it on an anvil with a forging hammer. From then on, their soul belongs to Kytai-Bakhsy, but both Abasylar and human shamans are then powerless against the smith. If an Abasy attempts to sneak up on the smith, Kytai-Bakhsy will intervene and grab the evil spirit with his tongs and hold it over the fire in the forge.

It is possible for a human shaman to ally themselves with an Abasy. Should they attempt to harm a smith under Kytai-Bakhsy’s protection, though, both of them will be punished. For some reason, this option doesn’t seem to exist for white smiths (who work with silver and copper, as opposed to a blacksmith’s iron).

Sources:

Znamenski, A. A., 2013, Shamanism in Siberia: Russian Records of Indigenous Spirituality, Springer Science and Business Media, 371 pp.

Jochelson, W., 2018, The Yakut, Kulturstiftung Sibirien, Verslag der SEC Publications, Bibliotheca Sibiro-pacifica, 256 pp., p. 106.

Coulter, C. R. and Turner, P., 2013, Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities, Routledge, 610 pp., p. 6.

(image source 1: Matt Gretton)

(image source 2: Deviantart user Skyggelys)

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 52

So I’ve seen several catboy Danny prompts, but hear me out: All of Amity becoming so ecto-contaminated that everyone becomes something akin to a mythological creature. And Danny? He becomes a Nekomata- a two-tailed cat that was said to be able to shapeshift into humans for mischief, including straight up haunting people and stealing corpses. Vlad ends up a kitsune- which is already associated with taking on human forms to seduce people and with things such as foxfire and possession. Tucker ends up a sphinx sort of creature- “It’s not fair you guys can just float around while I have to figure out how to use these stupid wings when I could be coding!”- and Sam ends up a dryad of some sort, they aren’t entirely sure what but that’s what they joke it is so…

The people sent to investigate this city are more than slightly freaking out.

[jeeyunspetrat]

oh okay I was like. wtf kind of power does apple have 😭😭 why not just leave the cliffhanger though. let poppyian live in fanfiction ...

watching the final cut it really does like. defang the finale in my opinion lol. like the show ends with them getting back together (platonically) but then it's just back to business like usual. nothing has REALLY changed so it ends up just feeling like the whole season was kind of for nothing

[illustratus]

Virgil and Dante Sitting on the Back of Geryon by Bartolomeo Pinelli

[tribdinosaur]

Amar may not naturally be gigantic, but after they ascend to godhood, they decided to be quite large while caring for their domain.

I freakin' love Mythic Ocean.

[missagonyy]

Mythological Rabbit Hole

I have been wanting to do giant/tiny art for a while on giant mythical spirits, but I am kind of embarrassed 😭

🥲

Here’s a collection of my favorite creepy g/t art-

Credit : https://www.deviantart.com/tobiee

[whereserpentswalk]

Imagin witnessing a giant dying. This massive creature of the land that's been here for generations. He looks like a massive human, as tall a skyscraper, his shoulders sprouting plants and his back covered in vines, his body its own ecosystem as birds make their nests in their beard.

He is old. He was here when the first humans came to this land from across the bering strait. He's seen great cities grow, great cities burn, seen empires fall, seen empires rise. His kind's lifespans are far longer than humanity's, but they are limited, as all creatures of flesh and blood are thus limited.

When you first talk to him you ask him what he thinks of your era. He ponders for a moment. You wish for him to condemn all of humanity or all of your generation for a moment. Yet he does not. He speaks of things you wouldn't think to, songs barely heard, festivals of lost woods, and creatures beyond humanity. And when he tells you about humanity's destruction, of the loss of life, he does not blame the commoners but the rulers. And he tells you not to grieve for an extinction that has not yet come to pass.

When you ask him if he fears death he tells you he does not. He wonders why humans do, perhaps for how ephemeral you are. He has lived a long life. And he will die as his ancestors did, and as his decedents someday will. He tells you he does not know where beings are to go upon their death, but that it does not matter, for it will not prevent that final moment.

He tells you that you must wish he was the last of his kind, but he is not. You must wish his death was humanity's story, that it could be a tragedy or a triumph for humanity, but it is not. He is merely sinking into one of nature's many cycles, one that humans tend to fear too much in your era.

[vixivulpixel]

Yeah!! Property damage!! Wooo!!

[sfde8871]

[dwollsadventures]

Behind the scenes I’ve been designing a table-top system based around collecting and battling with fantasy creatures. The actual creation of the system was fast, but the testing (still ongoing) and token design (above) have been progressing steadily. I took the opportunity to try out an isometric perspective for the base roster (a selection of monsters for the beta testing). After 67 drawings in this perspective I’m confident to say I’m not confident drawing in it. I’ll probably end up re-drawing most of these guys in a more conventional perspective for the actual game. 

Despite that, I wanted to share the fruits of my labor. I didn’t draw 67 things just to not show them to people, even if I’m not very happy with them. Rather than showing all of them at the same time I divided them up into categories close to modern fantasy classifications for the sake of simplicity. Read beneath the cut for yapping (design notes):

Minotaur - The first proper Minotaur I've drawn and posted, as a matter of fact. It's based on the Minoan bull leaping fresco. His little skirt is also Minoan in design. 

Cyclops - Just an isometric rendering of my design. He's a bit more conical in shape. Let's say this is intentional and so he's meant to look volcano-like. 

Mountain Giant - This guy is your garden variety jotunn. A big fella. I wanted to demonstrate the dichotomy of jotnar in Norse mythology by showing them with both rough “barbarian” clothes and excessive amounts of gold. Norse giants are presented as both invaders at the door but also rich and wise, sometimes more so than the gods. 

Ice Giant - In comparison to the mountain giant, the ice giant is all about business. And that business is fighting. His accessories are even more barbaric, replacing the gold with steel chains and a helmet. Plus a nifty skull necklace. He conforms to my frost giant designs being polar bear white with dark skin beneath. 

Mermaid - Lately I’ve been looking back at my old art and seeing just how much I tried to subvert normal depictions of mythical creatures, but ended up making my own sort of dogma which I didn’t break from. My mermaids especially suffered from this, so I wanted to make a very earnest depiction. The crown of snail shells unintentionally makes her look like the Starbucks logo…

Harpy - Based in part on red-tailed hawks (for the color) and Skin Deep’s Anthony Gillis for the anatomy. Her hair is permanently like that due to flying at high speeds. 

Gorgon - Just an isometric version of my older gorgon design. This was an early one and you can tell with the face. It’s much smaller and too scrunched up to make out what should be her defining attribute. 

Centaur - A male based on an older drawing and a female based on ancient Scythians. These were made because a gender split does matter for some abilities in the game, but drawing different versions of every creature would be too much. So I just did it for the centaur for testing, which also demonstrates the different attacks they can use.