#such beautiful design and great lore!!!

[reksink]

Requested Works from a Humble Swan 💚

[amoeba-shaped-rock]

A look at Playwright's design

This was meant to be an analysis but it became so unserious midway. And yes I'm using this whole thing as an excuse to tell everyone that Playwright wears high heels.

Some elaboration (may contain spoilers for IS2) :

1. didn't have any space for it but need to note that he has beauty marks!! two of them.

2. he often draws blood for his blood ink, so he's probably anemic further suggested by his pale complexion and premature gray hair.

3. the gap in his sleeve is probably to make drawing blood easier

4. the low blood volume from frequent blood draws causes low blood pressure. tight clothes help improve blood circulation

5. he covers up most of his body parts, so we can't tell if he has any visible scars or more importantly, oripathy crystal formations. he seems to be infected though, based on the relic descriptions

6. gloves makes it unclear if he has any scars, corns or calluses. someone who writes so often ought to have calluses. it could be that his gloves themselves are to prevent calluses. Personally, I think writing with gloves on is very difficult. props to him for always writing with gloves on

7. Black and white hair. I think this is either indicative of his cat breed, a sign of stress or anemia, a reference to the black cat in Poe's short story Black Cat, or all of the above. You can refer to my previous post to know more about Playwright and the Black Cat.

8. Ribbons. so many ribbons. boy why do you love ribbons so much. the ribbons are mostly blue and black, but there are other colours too. he also ties the longer parts of his hair with them.

Interestingly, having a lot of ribbons is a characteristic shared by Ms Christine, another character related to Phantom. in Ms Christine's case though, it was Phantom who gifted her all the ribbons. Could it be that Phantom also gifted the Playwright all these ribbons? or the other way around?

10. trademark small_ryuzaki's hypnotic eyes. among all small_ryuzaki characters we have, this is the most apparent with Cantabile and Erato. he also has eyebags, implying that he hadn't slept well in a good while.

9. High heels - probably a fancy formal wear, but I like to think otherwise. HC that Playwright wears high heels because he doesn’t want to look short when standing next to Phantom, a towering 185 cm pole. Imagine Rhythm in Literature EP but Playwright is ~15 cm shorter. Wouldn’t it be cute? I love this shortie.

Update: he wears high heels (and so do most other Troupe members other than Blood Diamond) because tragic actors wear buskins

11. Blue quill - The Writer's Tongue, a relic that foreshadowed the Playwright's death. he never lets go of it because he never stops writing. maybe when he finally achieves his vengeance, he'll be able to let go.

12. Blue accent - his design perfectly contrasts Blood Diamond's. I have been thinking, why the Blood Diamond outfit? why not Phantom's default outfit? This may be because the current default Phantom isn't the real Phantom, but rather a shell of who he used to be. To the narrative as a whole, "Phantom"'s character is meaningless without the troupe, so in order to fully grasp his character, you have to look at his identity within the troupe. "Blood Diamond" may be the troupe's puppet, but he's also their star.

There are other significance of the colour blue that I covered in this post.

13. "Tear of the Departed"

this relic that belongs to the dead/retired elite operator shares the same shade of blue, and similar themes to Playwright's: associations with fire and creation, and heroic qualities. I might be jumping the gun, but its an interesting food for thought

14. I actually don’t know anything about cat breed or British shorthair or whatever. He’ll always be a black cat shaped gremlin in my heart.

15. Glasses are really versatile. First, you can have glasses-wearing girls take them off and suddenly become beautiful, or have girls wearing glasses flashing those cute grins, or have girls stealing the protagonist's glasses and putting them on like, "Haha, got your glasses!" That's just way too cute! Also, boys with glasses! I really like when their glasses have that suspicious looking gleam, and it's amazing how it can look really cool or just be a joke. I really like how it can fulfill all those abstract needs. Being able to switch up the styles and colors of glasses based on your mood is a lot of fun too! It's actually so much fun! You have those half rim glasses, or the thick frame glasses, everything! It's like you're enjoying all these kinds of glasses at a buffet. I really want Phantom to try some on or Mouthpiece to try some on to replace his mask. We really need glasses to become a thing in the Crimson Troupe and start giving them away for free. Don't. You. Think. We. Really. Need. To. Officially. Give. Everyone. Glasses?

That's about all, I think. Will add more if I find anything else to add later.

[roukabi]

WELL.

it's for real this time you guys trust me it's really gonna happen

[fuiru]

A 44 year old man goes to a K-Pop Concert

I promised you a report on the K-pop concert that I, a 44-year-old accountant, went to a couple of weeks ago with my wife and daughter in Toronto. So here it is.

The band we saw were Ateez. They're my daughter's favourite band and my wife's second favourite. I know most of my mutuals are similarly aged like me and may not be familiar with them so let me give you a brief primer on Ateez.

Imagine the most attractive eight men you can think of, just unfathomably beautiful specimens of aesthetic perfection, and make them sing songs that somehow combine the subjects of 'dancing like nobody is watching' with 'we live in a dystopian hellscape that we must all work together to overthrow'. Give them an ongoing music video story lore that literally nobody - not even the band themselves - understand, so that online discussion of their visual motifs looks more like the fevered rantings of a conspiracy theorist, complete with speculation about alternate realities and time being a Moebius strip. There is also a giant sand timer, for some reason.

That's Ateez. That's what you need to know.

Now, K-pop concerts are very different to the gigs I've been going to for the last 28 (!) years. There's no support act, for a start. Also the band perform for like, three hours, with breaks for costume changes and interpretive dance. Furthermore, hanging above everything is the constant looming threat of mandatory military service.

So this being my first such concert, I wasn't sure what to expect. What happened was difficult to explain, but I will try as I am already six paragraphs into this write-up and I'm too invested to stop now. Here goes:

In his Wicked + Divine comics series, Kieron Gillen places modern pop icons as deities, feeding upon and gaining strength from the worship of their fans at the altar of musical performance. I thought I understood that metaphor. I thought I understood it AS a metaphor. I was wrong, because that night Ateez WERE Gods with a capital G and we were their worshippers, a crowd emanating adoration (in the religious and non-religious senses), bestowing strength upon them and gaining their strength in return.

If that sounds weird, it probably is. But as pointed out above, I have lived over four decades and never yet experienced anything like the overwhelming passion of that crowd, the utter abandon with which they conveyed their love for the band.

"But Fuiru, what of the actual music?" you ask. Thinking back, there was a moment in one of their songs - I can't remember which - where I watched the stage, and the people around me, taking it in, and I thought, "Man, I just love Music". But that doesn't answer your question, sorry.

Ateez's music is bloody great. As a tiresome indie/rock/metal kid I'm resisting the urge to add the usual tiresome indie/rock/metal caveat of "...for pop music" because honestly that does it a disservice. They have some genuinely amazing songs. Halazia is an absolute fucking masterpiece that descends into furious hardcore breakbeat. Bouncy is a big, brash racket that somehow is also a perfect pop song. Utopia, Wonderland, and Guerrilla are similarly superb. The obligatory boy band slow number is represented by Dancing Like Butterfly Wings which will make you cry because you will forever associate it with your twelve year old daughter being pointed to and waved at by her favourite Ateez member (Seonghwa) because of her Seonghwa-branded lightstick.

That might just be me, though.

So in summary: being a 44 year old dad at his first K-pop concert rules and you should endeavour to partake in the experience if the opportunity arises.

Finally, for any Atiny reading this: my bias would be San or Seonghwa but my wife and daughter said they were taken so it’s Mingi. My concert outfit (designed and created by my offspring) reflects this.

[kat-in-a-trashcan]

Meet our beauty and the beast (tap for better quality)

Edit: btw Edwin’s ghost design is inspired by @hannaloony’s final ghost form dbd AU. Her art is great pls go check her out!

lore below

Edwin/Curse lore:

• shorty before he was cursed both his parents passed, leaving him orphaned at 18

• One day and Evil witch Esther visits the castle and due to Edwin being a cunt (very in character) she cursed him and the castle inhabitants, leaving Edwin as a pale ghostly shell of his past self. The curse can only be broken if he can find true love.

• He is haunted by many horrors, such as the vast doll head spider, but for now it is trapped in the castle dungeon. Will it escape? Who can say….

•Edwin can’t see his reflection as part of the curse. Him blaming himself for the curse combined with his bitchy attitude, he has convinced himself that he is a monster and that no one could ever love him. The whole liking boys thing doesn’t help either.

•Before Edwin was able to lock the doll spider in the dungeon, it wreaked havoc around the castle, including tearing up many painting. This combined with no reflection, Edwin had no memory of what he looks like. In general all the people trapped in the castle have very foggy memory’s of their past.

• Him and the Castle inhabitants have been cursed for 70 years. They are all frozen in time so they haven’t physically aged. Im not adding the whole rose time limit thing.

Charles Lore:

•Charles lived in a small village with his mother and father

• Charles is know as the most beautiful person in town, but his dad is still a horrible person. The whole town knows but they don’t do anything.

•On the night of his 18th birthday, he runs away from home to find freedom. After a few nights of traveling through the forest he finds what looks like a abandoned castle and decided to say there for the night, only to find many strange things… and people…

(Thx @dear-writers for some of the story inspiration)

[bhaalest]

god this is so overdue. im finally making a bg3 side blog

for a first post i wanted to list some of the artists i've been (mostly) refraining from reblogging to main for many months at this point. i meant to only do my favorite few but then i couldn't decide who my favorite few were so... here you go

@meanbossart draws absolutely beautiful art of his absolutely beautiful du drow, and also has an amazingly well-written and well-characterized story about what he, astarion, and shadowheart get up to post-game

@kawareo goes deep how his durge strike suffers from both the urge and orin's attack, and into strike before orin's attack. i love the standalone art and comics, so when i say his writing is my favorite thing he's done that's high praise

@velnna's tav staeve is another very pretty man and i don't know how to describe what i like most about his art other than "very pleasantly textured", it catches the eye in a very pleasing way

@lucklessrat has incredible dramatic and comedic timing in their comics of lethean, and i love what they do with leth being old. you don’t see that often

i have a soft spot for half-orcs and paladins so naturally i think about @everchased's finch constantly. they have several of my favorite bg3 comics ever but the SMITE one is... just gonna say i agree with astarion there

there is so much to say about @jeeaark's tav greygold, from the jokes to the relentless optimism to the visceral (in a very good way) art style, but my new favorite thing is the dark urge (godsdammit) companion series, it's really fun to see DUG and greygold interact and i can't wait for more. also, another half-orc!

@ejoym's durge devlin is wonderfully deranged, i love the dark humor in the comics, the art is really crisp, and the artist makes really great use of colors. i love how pointy everyone is also

@ohpsshaw's durge typhus is going through it at the moment. love his expressive face (and the expressiveness of the whole art style) and puppydog vibe, i can't wait to see how much he... enjoys... the rest of the game as daddy's chosen. also check out the artist's entertaining commentary on her main(?) blog

@taygra5shaon's big scary durge jacq somehow can do adorable and terrifying equally well, sometimes at the same time. this is another artist who has great timing in her comics. i especially like the young jacq ones.

@angiemaniac's tavella and durge companion au presents durge from a different and very interesting perspective. and she does a great job including every companion into the story, while tavella is still a compelling character on her own!

cae is the most beautiful durge you've ever seen and @hellothisisangle's art does such a good job of making him feel dangerous. it's incredibly beautifully rendered, the poses and fashion are always amazing, and on top of it all cae's lore is fascinating too

@wellen-katze's comics are really in a league of their own. their comics vary but my favorites are the ones that hurt to read. my favorite series is this one with ascended astarion and a nameless durge dealing with the tragic aftermath of the story. their comics hurt in an incredible way that i can't get enough of.

ghost, aka niro, by @oathbreakerapologist is wonderfully fucked up. he has a really upsetting presence (/positive) and i can't look away from his relationship with orin. this is probably the least sfw blog i'm linking, which i hope comes off as a complement

with @mistercrowbar's aldiirn it's hard to pinpoint specific things i like because the art and comics are so well-rounded, but if pressed i would point to aldiirn's visual design and the skill with which the artist makes his desire for approval and will to break the rules mesh together. i'm not sure if i want to be his friend or study him like a bug

i love @crocodiller's pining dumbass (affectionate) rowan so much. there's a lot to like about the comics but my favorite is rowan's supportive friendship with karlach. they're also very well-paced and some of the crispest art i've ever seen

i found @ryvenarts and sullen literally yesterday but i'm already very interested and excited to see if there will be more

another recent (to me) discovery, thirkuir by @jayfitzmaurice. i really like his design and the expressiveness of all the characters

@quess-art has an adorable baby durge who still has a compelling backstory i'm excited to see more of. plus the wagging tail is just perfect

@3eefstud's durge Einar is really nice to look at, with amazing colors and gradients. i'm surprised i didn't find them until very recently

i thought @panksage's Ebony Darkness D'urge was just a joke at first but no, the comics are sincere (and also funny) and just beautiful, especially the colors!

i do not know if @arianiziolek's durge has a name. catty little murder lizard (affectionate). has some of the funniest comics but more importantly the best durge facial expressions

@bajablast666 is double dipping with durges kaethan and kelrath. both their art and writing have an intensity that i love (the red outlines they use often are so good) and their writing in particular conveys emotion and visceral feeling so well

karl by @beltart is another on the surprisingly long list of people i initially found from their art, then read their writing and was blown away. i don't think i've seen anyone else depict the weight of the urge as intensely as this and i love it

and finally, a palate cleanser from all the durges, @wirywyrm's tav arthur who's in a sitcom as opposed to a horror story. i really like the texture and detail of their art and also how much of a dork arthur is. least smooth bard(adin) in the realms

incredibly i did leave out a few people, mostly people who draw companions rather than their tav/durge because i sort of locked myself into this format, so i may come back and update this later!

[genericpuff]

LORE | REKINDLED EPISODE 42 - TO THE RESCUE

Previous episode | Next episode

Y'all, this episode. Holy crap. I know it's not a very long one and not much in terms of plot happens compared to previous episodes, but it's one that I've been looking forward to for ages now because it gave me the opportunity to pay tribute to that original sequence in S1, a sequence that captivated so many fans and former fans of the comic such as myself (I had the final panel as my phone background for like 2 years LMAO). Being able to redraw that scene with our own twist on it was such an amazing process, made all the better by @banshriek's amazing contributions in the background art (seriously, the background art is CARRYING this episode, I'm so grateful and proud of their work and how much they've contributed to this little spite project).

What also helped immensely was our recent anon savior who provided us with so many brush names and design notes for how they're used in LO, we had waaay too much fun using these brushes every chance we got LOL and we're gonna continue to use them because goddamn they're beautiful. Buckle up because the new year is gonna be LIT (•̀⌄•́)

In other news, halfway through the production of this episode I finally replaced my PC drawing tablet! I'm still using my Huion Kamvas 22 Plus as a monitor, but in searching for a new screen tablet, I got cold feet and decided to settle for a cheaper desk tablet instead, a Huion Inspiroy Giano. So far it's great, it's a bit on the larger side which I didn't fully realize when I bought it, so it's taken quite a bit of adjusting (plus I haven't used a desk tablet as my main drawing tool in... geez, 8 years??) but it's like riding a bike, you never really forget LOL So yeah, it's gonna make my drawing workflow a lot faster and more efficient now that I don't have to rely purely on my iPad (goodbye touch screen mishaps, hello keyboard shortcuts!) so I'm hoping it'll show in the episodes to come!

Thank you all so much for reading ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

[junosswans]

FMA sketches by Ace Attorney's character designer, Iwamoto Tatsuro

For the past week, Iwamoto-san has been posting sketches of FMA characters on his twitter as a part of his daily sketching challenge and they are absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

I really want to share his art over here and also translate his posts for you all because I think his commentaries are quite insightful for people who are interested in character design!

[Those who know their AA lore would recognize him as who voiced Edgeworth (Mitsurugi) in the games :3]

Anyways, below are his FMA sketches he's shared on twitter so far! (Contains: Ed, Hughes, Kimblee, Mustang, Breda) You can click on the dates to see their original post. I will add to this post if he shares any more sketches, it seems that he has been on an FMA roll xD

###

25/11/2023

If you draw your favourite things out you will know them better! So, this is Edward Elric from #FullmetalAlchemist.

Even if you have decided on the pose you want to draw, it is better to sketch out these three first:

the moment before the pose is struck

the pose itself

the moment after the pose is struck

then decide which image works better for your art. I learned this from a really great senior of mine, and it is very solid advice.

###

29/11/2023 (Translator's note: I decided to move this one to the top because it is my favourite. No I don't accept criticism.)

I have been drawing Ed's automail again.

I like it when the machine part has a distinctly different silhouette compared to the human body, so I added some original ideas to the design.

What design should I draw next? Perhaps I should draw the military uniform?

# (combined two posts because they’re the progression of the same piece.) #

26/11/2023

Again, it is the time of "drawing your favourite things to know them better!"

It feels so good to draw such great characters...

27/11/2023

My Photoshop has been crashing for mysterious reasons the whole morning, and I tried to troubleshoot in the afternoon and it was a PAIN. Computers are really difficuuuuuuuult--

###

28/11/2023

Iwamoto-style drawing Masterclass: Bonus!

It is the "Give the leather and metal items a bit of flare/shine to immediately make the drawing look more complete"-jutsu!

###

30/11/2023

I wanted the clothes to give off an oversized, loose impression.

Canon Hughes didn't seem to be wearing a shirt underneath... hmm.

03/12/2023

I am beginning to understand the structure of the military uniform better...

Realising the butt flap/cape didn’t actually connect to the upper jacket is a shocker to me.

###

03/12/2023

A continuation of yesterday's sketch

...or so I thought, until I realized how King Bradley and Kimblee during the Ishval war had a different overcoat design, in which they actually wore a single long coat instead of a separated upper and bottom set.

###

04/12/2023

When his clothes were unbuttoned, there was something that looked like an additional button on his right chest... I wonder if it could be fastened from the back?

(Translator's note: sorry, I have no idea what button he's referring to here lol)

###

05/12/2023

I like how each character's personality was expressed through the way they dress. Contrary to his appearance, this person was very intelligent, which makes him such a great character.

[captainzigo]

other creatures should get some love. i’m slowly working my way to all of them. my Little Pony dolls have a great gimmick. They’ve had a great gimmick since the 60s. They’ve got brushable hair, and they’ve got their whole personality printed on their ass. these are extremely solid toy features, and as we have seen with friendship is magic and the other shows, it makes for intriguing designs and stuff.

i’m going to give the other creatures this treatment. at least with friendship is magic, the toys that they released for the other creatures were lame spiky plastic molds, just waiting for you to chuck them at your sibling. in the show, they are realistically colored and not as stylized as the ponies are. sometimes their lore and quirks seem a little bit, lacking in comparison to the ponies, even. I want to change this give them some magic of their own.

in real life ponies have beautiful brushable hair, and cutie marks are a fantastical reimagining of branding marks, and even further, they get unique magic powers, and ones based on mythology. this is my design philosophy

[waifumakervt]

Heyo! it's been a while! Saw this template thing going around today and I wanted to draw some of my personal favorite Ranfren OC's and why I like them :3 || Murderer - @/sansatsuma || Found them on TikTok so IDK what their Tumblr is TwT but their lore and animations is really cool! I love the fact that Randel feeds her like a stray raccoon in the sewers || Victoria - @shreddedcheesedotcom || A terrifyingly beautiful being! Her design reminds me almost of Midwife from Hollow Knight || Nuri - @nuri4ever || I seen a lot of art of her and Sebastian together and it makes my heart melt :'3 and I also love the jester puppet concept she has as it's pretty cool seeing those red strings wherever she goes || WAAN - @itwascraig || One of the first dogman OCs that caught my eye, especially his beta mask design. I genuinely wanna see Nyen and Waan have an epic anime battle || Juja - @capta1nnar1k || I won't lie, when I first saw her, she scared the crap outta me but after staring at her long enough, she's actually really cute, like those anime girl snails that Randal watered

|| Shakey Vegas - @sloopjohnpizzanose || I LOVE this guy! He gives off drunk uncle vibes and his design reminds me a lot of King of The Hill, love to see more of this dude <3 || Dakota - @daisansekai || The concept of her being a serial pet killer is really interesting and something I think would make a great side plot in the ranfren comics, I also really wanna eat her hat hair thing || Caterina - @orangelovesyoumore || I freaking love dolls! Her design is so cute and lovable!! Love that she would eat fine china like it's a cookie || Nyun - @phrandallanton || I adore this neko arc gremlin of a cat, she's adorably stupid and silly, I love her so much ToT

[lunarcrown]

Hi! I wanted to say I love this fic so much. I've read it several times over and I love seeing all your art for it as well. Thank you and aquaquadrant for bringing us this beautiful work! Tango is one of my fav Lifers and I adore Bravo and Atlas too. The characterizations are so fun. The angst is right up my alley and the soft moments balance it out beautifully. I loved reading the Hels bits and trying to figure out who each character was connected to on the overworld and the way you decided their differing traits was so interesting. The designs are also very cool. I adore Grian's jacket and glasses, Lizzie and Joel are gorgeous, Pearl is terrifyingly beautiful with all the bug traits, and Ren being a massive wolf is so fun! Tango being a blaze hybrid imprinted on my brain so hard I forgot it wasn't actually canon to his YT character's lore. It's true in my heart now. And Dbubs and Patho? Delicious. Good soup. I can't wait to see all the incredible stuff you guys put out in the future! I'm sure it'll all be great and I'll love every bit of it All that being said, I've had a bit of a day (/silly), so here's me projecting my period cramps onto Bravo <3 Have a lovely day/night!

Thank you SO MUCH FOR ALL THE KIND WORDS!!! I loooove that you’ve read it over and over, Aqua’s writing is SO CHOICE so I’m always happy when people read it more than once~~

And yesss she’s also the mastermind for all the heavy thinking about traits and details, her world building is BONKERS!! It honestly does the same thing to me where I sometimes can’t remember what was our au and what’s like actually happened in the VODs HAHA

And thanks for all the love of the designs!! It takes me a while to design anyone because I have to have the right spark and inspiration or it’ll feel too much like a chore?? So even though it took me a while (and there’s still more designs to do!!), it means a lot that you enjoy them so much!!

THE PERIOD CRAMP BEAM IS SO GOOD I looooove ittt YES GIVE BRAVO SOME AGONY!!!!!

Here’s a doodle back of him doing his favorite thing: placing blame on Tango!!!

[shanxing-wu]

spoilers for hsr 3.2 story below the cut

my thoughts on some screenshots i saved while playing at 3am

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

phainon, i think everyone was expecting you to be the one to study his body........

mister "that immortal body soaks up damage like a sponge. trust me, i've tested it myself".

mister i was the first to sign up for mydei's keeping up w/ star rail.

ok but his angry face is so cute i forgive him 🥰

if phainon is the one who EVERYONE is relying on to recreate/reincarnate the people of the new world according to his "perfect memories"... would there just be a sudden increase of people who look suspiciously like a certain kremnoan crown prince? who might share similar features or demeanors? and the aforementioned crown prince's reincarnation is a perfect, exact, MIRROR IMAGE replica of the previous cycle. i know this guy does not stop thinking about mydei for a SECOND. we're all doomed.

dan heng's mission log.... "they will be just fine. i sincerely pray so."

thinking about dan heng carrying trailblazer in his arms, desperately doing everything he can to save them. and to think that he inherited all of dan feng's gifts for cloudhymn magic, prowess with a spear– everything. except for healing.

i'm so curious about the full story of the previous cycle and who all those chrysos heirs were! and it's so interesting to me that they left the death coreflame for last, whereas it seems like in our present cycle we're leaving kephale coreflame for last? (or aquila, but i honestly think it will be kephale since it's kind of just... marinating idk...)

also curious about the chrysos heirs that became cerces and mnestia. were they lovers before they became titans? was this a love that transcended lifetimes, broke the chains of the cycle? after learning the story of polyxia saving her sister's life, it wouldn't be the first instance of love being that powerful.

(now i want to write fic about that happening with phainon and mydei. the voices...)

so what if i cried

i like to think, with this extreme close-up framing on his eyes and the way he stares longingly into the distance... the phaidei shipper in me thinks he's talking about phainon when he says "til the miracle descends." that here, at the border of life and death, fighting with everything he has not to give into death, he still trusts that phainon will be the one to deliver the miracle to him and release him from this cycle of endless fighting and deaths.

my first thought was that he's asking if aglaea is dtf here. and i thought: in front of all the dead gods? 😭 i honestly believed we were about to get another "competition in the hot baths" scene.

as a child of divorced parents myself.... this felt like two divorced parents talking about their son 😭

miscellaneous thoughts:

do NOT ask me how many times i had to replay the dialogue when cipher was on screen. i could not stop staring respectfully at her thigh strap. (i was actually really not interested in her design at all until i met her in 3.2. and discovered that i'm weak. so incredibly weak. and gay.)

phainon giving epic, emotional, dramatic speech in front of the entire population of okhema: mem mememem memem mem MYDEI memem mememememem

the casual lore drop that hysilens is dead?? are we not going to talk more about that, castorice??

i loved this story so much. it confirmed so many of my theories but left me with so many questions still???

so many great cameos. mydei and trianne. ACHERON.

THE ENDING WAS INSANE??? CONFIRMATION THAT DESTRUCTION IS THE THIRD PATH? LORD RAVAGER??? WHAT?

in my opinion 3.1 is still my favorite story update (i'm incredibly biased for mydei), but 3.2 was still incredibly fun and jaw-dropping and beautiful. i'm already counting down the days til 3.3.

[simspaghetti]

Hello! I love your simblr and your stardew valley project. I have an idea for building up a town but I can't seem to find any empty large worlds. Do you have any reccomendations? Thanks!

Empty Worlds for Builders / Custom Save File Creation!

Hey lovely! Thank you so much 🥰🥰 I actually do have a few suggestions of some worlds that I've tried out & really adored

My best advice for building up your own world is to figure out the vibe of the town you want to build & plan out a few key characters / families and then go with one that best suits it - I tried building my SDV world about 5 times before I settled on my final save lol so don't be afraid to scrap it and start over if it's not feeling right, you can always save the lots / families to your library and plop them somewhere else!

Brightwater Bay by SimsOnTheRope

This one was so nearly the one I used as my basis for Stardew Valley because of the big river running down the middle, but I wound up thinking it was too big to work for my purposes, regardless it's a really beautiful world with a lot of nice set dressing and is worth looking at if you're wanting something similar!

Halley by NovaPark

The colour palette for this world is gorgeous! It's so lush and full of greenery and I also really like the road design - if I was gonna build a town in this world I'd probably use the big spring / waterfall in the middle as a big lore plot point (eg: maybe it has magical or special scientific use & its use employs a lot of the townsfolk?) so many opportunities for storytelling here!

Covington by Jackob

This one is a bit on the smaller side, but you have lots of room to place more lots if you do need more space - the scenery is lovely as well - there's a clear area for the town centre & city hall which is something I always like in empty world because it gives you some guidelines to go off of rather than starting totally from scratch planning-wise

Deery Meadows by MySimRealty

This one is a super nice standard residential world, it would be great for a costal / fishing town vibe because there is a lot of big lakes and abandoned boats scattered around, I also really like the road style in this world (something I'm pretty sure no one cares about other than me LOL they're just very aesthetically pleasing & look super clean)

Igginima by Cink's Sims

This one is one of my favourites for scenery but I haven't found quite the right use for it for my personal saves yet - it reminds me of a remote scottish island, and you get the impression there's a lot of lore here you can play with, there are a few pre-built community lots but they're mostly just for decoration and you can just delete them if you'd rather start from total scratch!

Southbridge by Sims3Time

This one has a really nice desert vibe if you're looking for something less green! (the other ones on this list are all quite similar so I wanted to give another more unique option)

Oakshore by Pleyita

This one is small as well but it has quite a few lots packed into the space which is why I thought I'd give it a mention! Would be great for a small-town suburban kinda vibe if that's what you're going for, it kinda reminds me of Sunset Valley

Storybrook County Lite by MySimRealty

This world is massive if that's what you're looking for! It's got an area for farmland and adjoins to a more industrial city part as well, a really great all-rounder if you're looking for a big project, I also love that it's got so much attention to detail with the different road types in the more rural areas and barns / hay bales scattered around the farming bits

Vintage Champs Les Sims by Franglish et Chocolat

This is the world I used for my SDV project so I'm sure you've checked it out already, but I have to give it a mention because the scenery & set dressing is some of the best I've ever seen, it's stunning, and I'm constantly discovering new details & little things for my sims to explore even after working in it for months

For more suggestions...

Shout out to this repository which is a fantastic resource for cataloguing old worlds, the blog isn't active anymore but there's a lot of worlds reblogged on there and it's well-organised into different categories, also mysimreality has quite a few empty worlds & this creator on MTS has emptied a few of the EA worlds if that takes your fancy!

I'd also thoroughly recommend checking out Mercury101's world scenery pictures, their blog is always a go-to for me when I'm looking for new world options as they have loads documented on there :)

Hope that's helpful! If anyone else has any other recommendations pls pop them in the comments - these are just the ones I've personally tested :D

[lilderitter]

Endings are Hard. But so are Beginnings.

Hi all!

I'm Lil. I'm showing up on tumblr under my own name for once because I was one of the writers for Blades of Light & Shadow 2 and 3 as well as being the designated lorekeeper. (I also worked on Cursed Heart 2 (and was the facial reference for the Fae version of Longclaw, hence the icon), as well as Kiss of Death and Murder at Homecoming, and I was the lead writer on Villainous Valentines and the Blades Tabletop Guide.

I was one of the many people who were laid off by Pixelberry when the Cursed Heart team was dissolved over a year ago now. But my final contribution to PB canon, Blades of Light and Shadow 3, officially finishes its wide release today. The layoff was traumatic for a lot of reasons, but it did offer me the strange silver lining of getting to be on both the brainstorm team for Blades 3 and being the person who wrote the initial drafts of the book. I was not the book lead, to be clear, but I'm honored to have gotten to work for Emi and to have been gifted the absolute privilege to act as an archaeologist in the world of Morella and beyond in Blades 2 & 3. I especially loved writing the lore tablets and found objects like Nifara's letter, Kade and Tyril's poetry and songs (and Kade and Bakshi in general, my beautiful bards), the Old Gods, Mal and Tyril's romance routes, and both Mal and Raine's mental health journeys.

Since I wasn't the lead, not everything I wrote made it in, and there's some stuff that even ended up on my own personal cutting room floor for Blades 3 (mostly due to length). I got nostalgic over the weekend, and found a longer version of one of Tyril's poems that I thought y'all might like to see, so I've included it below as thanks for everything y'all have given the Blades team. You are what made the sequels happen, especially Blades 3.

Because I figure you might be looking for more stuff like Blades now that we've come to what I dearly hope is a bittersweet but satisfying end, I did want to shout out the art I was consuming when we were working on Blades 3:

Not Another D&D Podcast - If you're a fan of Dimension 20 (and who isn't?), you know the brilliant work of Emily Axford and Brian Murphy, but Jake Hurwitz's hilarious and heartfelt himbo fighter Hardwon from Campaign One was my direct inspiration for the voice of Nithrax. (Wanda Maximoff was Midys's, if ya couldn't tell. An autistic queen.) But truly pick any of NADDPOD's campaigns (or Dungeon Court), and you'll have a great, hilarious, and surprisingly poignant time.

Transplanar RPG "The Second Stranger" Show and Podcast - Mercer? Lee Mulligan? Iyengar? You know them, you love them, but I guarantee you've never heard someone like Transplanar's Dungeon Master Connie Chang. His work is poetic, visceral, and wickedly funny in a way that is, might I say, otherworldly, and her cast is magnificent. "The Second Stranger" is an all trans, POC led actual play show about a group of misfits who have to save their world's gods before they can save the world. It is also shippy (and gay) as fuck. Truly, if you wanted the Blades gang to be a polycule, this is the show for you.

Baldur's Gate 3 and The Dungeons & Dragons Movie - the new and worthy additions to the canon. If you haven't tried 'em please do.

Anyway. The poetry is below the cut (please be nice. Tyril is a baby writer.) and I'm feeling some kind of way so if you have lore questions (or questions in general), feel free to drop 'em in my inbox and I can try to answer them. They'll be non canon answers and I can't talk about PB's internal processes in detail, obvi, but I did hang around with the fire with Kade a fair time so I know a thing or two. (And if you like any of my recommendations, I'm always up for chatting about them!) P.S. Don't worry about me. I actually work at Chapters now, and my first book was high fantasy as well (primarily Norse and Celtic mythology). I'm also working on a new indie game with some other Pixelberry layoff casualties including some incredible artists, the head writer of the Cursed Heart, The Crown and the Flame, and It Lives series. (They are the same person can you imagine???), and the writer who gave us that scene at Joaquin's apartment in LoA2. (You know the one.) We hope to be able to tell y'all more about it soon.

Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart. It has truly an honor and a privilege to work for these characters. And for you.

[A behind the scenes note, I always told myself that translated Morellan Elven/Elvish tends to lack the full poetry of the original because they have more words for things than the human tongue does. Part of this is just that we were working with only a few references from Book 1 and added as we went, but i also liked the idea that a culture this old (and a culture partially founded by a storyteller) would be difficult to translate to a younger language like Morellan. So if the poetry's bad, I blame the imaginary translation.]

This was originally going to take place in Tyril's second 30 diamond premium (when they're resting in the Elements.) MC has just asked Tyril for another poem.

--

Tyril: I have one other that is somewhat presentable. But Kade said the scansion was simple.

Raine: Kade... has opinions. And bar tabs. If he wants me to tolerate one, he needs to manage the other.

Raine: He also may have meant it as a compliment. He's a translator, remember? He appreciates ease.

Tyril: But he's correct. It is simple.

Raine: There's nothing wrong with simplicity, Tyril. Simplicity can be elegant.

Raine: The stars, the sun, all of nature is simple. Would you blame them for what they are?

Tyril: You're better at this than me.

Raine: Maybe you're just inspiring me.

Narration: You bring Tyril's hand to yours, kissing each pale blue fingertip.

Raine: Tyril. Read it to me. Please.

Narration: But he doesn't read. He doesn't have to. Every word is a whispered caress along your shining skin.

Like blood and water (s/he) is Eternal and ephemeral. A mystery few can solve, a puzzle box to be opened. How like a statue s/he stands, too proud and too strong to let the cracks show. Let me be your mason, O great Light, great Patron I will honor your wounds, fill them with pearls from the Sea and diamonds from beneath the earth. That hallowed earth Yawning wide to call me to your quiet, cold embrace. Give me but a word and I will follow. I wait And wait And wait And hear Nothing. This time interminable, this torture endless I search for you everywhere but the undiscovered country Hope is a fragile, dangerous thing, a candle in a tempest. I find the flame in each new face, each new question, begging Have you seen (her/him)? They ask me to describe you, your hair, your skin, your frame But the words turn to dust on my tongue. There is nothing. Nothing to define the wonder of you. You are not copper nor marble, clay nor precious gold. You are a river, an island, a forest ever growing beyond my reach. Lungs burning, limbs aching, I pursue. Begging the stars to return their (daughter/son) to me. Forgive me, my Uluin, my world, my love. Forgive me.

Narration: Tyril pauses, his bright eyes sliding to the floor.

Tyril: See? Simple. Unfinished.

Raine: Yes. Exactly. Simple. Perfect. Even when unfinished. Because that means there's more story to tell.

Narration: You gently bring his gaze to yours, soft and clear like first snow.

Raine: There is nothing to forgive, Tyril. Nothing I haven't done myself.

Narration: As promised, he kisses every scar, every fear you've ever had. They do not disappear of course. That was not his aim.

Narration: Instead they are immortalized, perfect and true in the night sky of your love.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

I don’t really pay much attention to the actors’ interviews but I would say I understand where Charlie Vickers is coming from when he says Sauron doesn’t love Galadriel, in the human meaning of the word (because he’s a God). I would also like to point out that, since the showrunners have established that Galadriel and Sauron’s connection will remain at the core of all 5 season of “Rings of Power”, Charlie probably doesn’t want to either spoil things or doesn’t know what the future holds for his character. Just leave him be, please. I know why journalists bombard him with “shipping” questions but it’s kind of tiring, I would be so done if I was him, too. Charlie is doing an amazing job bringing Sauron to life, he deserves all the awards.

With that being said, I don’t agree with the “Sauron isn’t capable of love” argument that gets thrown around a lot. I think this comes from a deep misunderstanding of his character; and Charlie understands Sauron very well, and that’s why I think he just doesn’t want to spoil things. Sauron/Mairon has the ability to love, like all other Maiar do. This is not lore-breaking at all.

Mairon was created by Eru as a Maia of Aulë, the Vala (God) of smithing and handiwork, yes. He was among the most powerful Maiar. Eru created him to be good and trustworthy, but also to love several things: crafting, creation, beauty, order and perfection, and to dislike wastefulness.

Melkor/Morgoth used Mairon’s love of order and perfection to corrupt him, and turned it into an obsession with domination, control and power. Morgoth corrupted his goodness and loyalty into evil and treachery (turning him into “the great deceiver”). His love of beauty corrupted into ugliness, by the breeding of the Orcs. Mairon’s greatest virtues became his downfall. Tolkien wrote about all of this.

And who better embodies the qualities of “beauty” and “perfection” than Galadriel herself? Her beauty is the stuff of legends, and everyone is at awe when they first meet her. Her very gold/silver hair inspired the most legendary jewels in existence: the Silmarils. The light of the Two Trees of Valinor shine on her hair and eyes. How could Sauron/Mairon not love her? That’s the question. She’s the materialization, the physical form, of everything he was designed to love.

Which explains this expression over here, when he first lays eyes on her:

Galadriel represents the redemption Mairon/Sauron seeks and wants (but cannot have), after Morgoth’s defeat. His desire to heal Middle-earth from Morgoth’s work and his love for Galadriel are intertwined, and one of the same. Whenever he gets compared to Morgoth, it triggers him; it’s a reminder that both redemption and Galadriel are out of his reach.

However, since Mairon was corrupted by Morgoth, his love is also corrupted. I’ve said this many times, already. This is the dark side of love. Obsession, possessiveness, jealousy, insatiable lust, suffering, heartbreak, and hatred blend in the midst. And this is why I think he fell in love with her when he was on his “repentant era”, because we saw the contrast between S1 and S2.

And we saw many of this play out in both S1 and S2, already. His reaction to her rejection of him (the need to punish her)? Him obsessing over her, stalking her from afar. Him being possessive to the point of actually forcing them to bind together because he wants her at any cost? And this will probably only get darker from here on, as Sauron goes deeper into evil.

There is no fluff here (that was S1). The doves are, truly, dead, moving forward.

[widowmura]

My speedpaint contribution to #mermay with some Bloodweave. Featuring merman Gale and Deep Sea Leviathan Astarion. Each of these pics took under or just over an hour to do. I'll probably redesign / redraw Deep Sea Leviathan at a later stage. Some lore to go along with them: When Gale boards the small vessel barely enough to fit a crew of six, Mystra reassures him that mermaids are not to be feared. He's read of them of course. Alluring, feminine; specimens of beauty and wonder. But dangerous. Enough that should you see the shimmer of their scales in the water, you should avert your eyes immediately and to not let them fool you into thinking their scales are in fact precious gems, just barely out of reach. That when their siren song calls, you ensure your ears are stuffed with enough cotton and you keep away from the drink to retain your sanity.

So when he finds himself and their glorified canoe out in the stretch of the deep sea, fading into an endless nothingness, his mind can't help but wander. What else is hiding in the depths? Mystra doesn't let him find out. When something unfathomably large and dark stirs a wake large enough to rock their ship, the woman shoves him overboard. It turns out the fairytales were exactly that; tales, but the reality is so much worse.

Cast into the depths as a sacrifice for safe passage, Gale cannot help but flounder. He'd never learned to swim despite living in a place called Waterdeep. The irony isn't lost on him as he sinks, down and down like a stone, straining into an eternity of blue as his lungs fill with water and dread. But he isn't empty-handed. The artefact he'd stolen from that gods forsaken cursed fortress was still with him, and with no other choice except to reach for desperation, he plunges it within his chest, hoping, praying for a lifeline.

Aka mermaids are propaganda tales used by sailors. Mermaids are in fact hideously large monstrous creatures, leviathans in their own right that trade safe voyage for flesh whose existence is kept quiet. Gale ends up using the orb and manages to somehow turn himself into a false merman to escape the pursuit of such a creature, who instead of choosing to consume him, keeps him as an oddity of his own. The fact they both glow amuses the monster. Astarion lures ships and takes sacrifices to his master, The Great Old One of the Depths - Cazador. Meeting Gale, which at first turns out to just be a bigger fish tormenting a smaller fish story turns into something more when Gale helps to undo the pact keeping Astarion bound to the Old God. Astarion's design is based off a deep sea angler fish for the luring / lives in the dark aspect and a Dunkleosteus which is a prehistoric fish with boney plating for making him seem ancient / old in appearance.