#texting xivu arath

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

This keeps showing up on my dash and every time I see it, I see my initial misread of the last line (which is not helped by the font) and my mind sees/hears: "though it's worm?"

And every single time this inevitably conjures up the image of Eris Morn growling angrily as she responds to this text message, tapping away as her paracausal tears drip down from her glowing three eyes:

"No. I am not your sister, Xivu! I do not love you! You are nothing! Your worm will devour you! You will starve! And I shall take joy in it. Aiat!"

If you accept the rose with all its thorns, would you still take my heart, though it's worn?

[flowers-of-io]

Destiny + text posts part 19/?

[telestoapologist]

DESTINY 2 AS TUMBLR TEXT POSTS 💠💬✨

(27/?)

[thefirstknife]

the fact that Xivu can so easily possess Sloane even if only temporarily is interesting and im curious will ever be brought up and used either in lore or direct plot

also was it just me or was that whole speech she gave to Sloane kinda sound like a weirs love letter.in a Hivey sorta way? 👀

It was so good. It's actually been showed directly before, with what happened to Osiris in Immolant so Sloane's experience was them bringing it up again, in a way! He got compelled by Xivu as well, with a very similar vibe of her speaking to him and driving him to violence. With Sloane it was more direct at the end, so maybe we have yet to see more of that power being used, though it may have something to do with Sloane being half-Taken. Osiris just heard Xivu's voice and got pushed into a sort of a trance of violence.

Osiris peers into the Hive protrusion. Metallic flecks shimmer, and he sees a long and empty road. Meandering. He wishes to plant a great banner over it, so that all may see. A beacon, alight with Phoenix flame. Looming in the nascent flamelight hangs the terrace of blades. The terrace dominates the road; its precipice at his throat. He raises the Dawnblade to meet them. Rupturing cacophony ravages his senses.

I AM THE WAR YOU CRAVE. PURPOSE ETERNAL. A LEGACY IN BLOOD.

"It's full of soulfire veins." Sagira's voice is wind to Osiris. She nudges him.

WHEN YOU DRAW BLADES, YOU DRAW ME.

"Do you hear the whispers?" Osiris's words slur.

YOU CANNOT RESIST WITHOUT INVOKING MY BANNER.

"You're hearing something?" Sagira floats near him.

EMBRACE ME, LIGHTBEARER, AND BE A GOD OF DEATH.

"Whispers." His mind clouds.

Note how he had visions, including a vision of a terrace of blades, the earliest reference to the Black Terrace of Xivu Arath. He was completely taken over by her and her beaming voice in his head. After, he slaughters every legionary that was entranced by the cryptolith.

The Cabal trundles forward. Osiris billows incineration. The blaze cooks the interior of the pod. Kneeling Cabal break free of their trance and stand in the scalding air. Of the remaining seven, two fall immediately to a hail of celestial firebolts. Osiris grounds himself and unleashes a cascade of Arc across the mass of lumbering Legionaries. Lightning bends inward against the pod's magnetic shielding. He holds the storm on them until pressure gel hisses and spits from their suits.

Osiris exhales. Their smoldering bodies invade his nostrils. The scene clarifies. Horror, scorch, and char.

This is a lot more clear now that we've also seen what Sloane had to deal with. It's chilling. Osiris was the first to get caught by this, before he knew it was Xivu. His investigation into this incident is what led him to the Moon. It was an intense experience that he couldn't even properly remember:

"You ready to tell me what that was all about?" Sagira asks. She hovers just above the jumpship's control deck, piloting.

"I wish I could. I remember tracking Caiatl's emissary. Finding the Cabal. The night sky. Then… flame and rage. It took everything in me to push those thoughts from my mind." Osiris slumps in his seat. "There is one clear memory. I felt the Dark whisper that we've been chasing. Like a needle in my spine. It must be at the root of all this."

In-game it's definitely more of a horrifying experience and meant to be that way, by Xivu who seeks to warp minds and push them into war, to tithe her and bind them to her and not so much a weird love letter, even by Hive standards.

I really love how Sloane had 6 weeks worth of people surrounding her and grounding her and helping her cope with trauma and being the shield between her and Xivu. Osiris ran into this out of nowhere, just him and Sagira, before anyone knew of the danger. He never stood a chance. With Sloane, we could prepare and help her. I imagine that Saint's insisting on helping her was motivated by what happened to Osiris. He couldn't save him, but he will do everything to save someone else.

Though personally, outside of the context of the game, I wouldn't object. Xivu, you can beam your thoughts to me, for free.

[tiredarts-sketchbook]

having a normal one abt a bitch who hasn’t shown up in a year

[cormorant-red]

I played 999 recently at @xivu-arath's recommendation, and I had so much fun that (inspired by that one polygon video) I illustrated my liveblog about it!

If you haven't played 999 and you are even a little bit intrigued by a puzzle/mystery visual novel with multiple timelines that all guide you towards wild plot twists...probably don't read the text! 999 is the kind of story that is best experienced with no knowledge besides the basic premise.

Transcript below the cut:

Cormorant: characters in this game really just say shit like "have you heard the story about the crystallization of glycerin?"

as a matter of fact i haven't, june, please enlighten me

Storm: "I know we're stuck in a freezer but. let's talk about weird mythical science!"

Cormorant: it's also killing me that junpei is dressed like marty mcfly and isn't sharing any of his jackets

-----

Cormorant: this game is leading me to arrive at mathematical concepts on my own. what the heck

Storm: kshgushhsg

I take it you're having a good time then

Cormorant: trying to check lotus's work and it turns out that no matter what group i arrange to take through a door, the people left behind will always have the same digital root

so to get through door 7 with snake missing, i could either send a group with sum 16 (junpei, ace, clover, and june) or with sum 25 (clover, june, seven, and lotus), but it doesn't matter because the remainder always have root 9 and can't get through doors 3 or 8! wild!

Storm: yeah the numbers and which doors end up barred to you is so cleverly deliberate

-----

Cormorant: i'm glad i finally checked what novel mode meant, because this is way more fun

Santa cocked his head to one side, like an inquisitive bird, and looked at them.

After several long moments, during which it became apparent that Santa had no idea what the cards meant, June took pity on him.

i'll have to go back and redo the beginning after i get to the first ending

Storm: oh yeah! as I recall that was done differently when it was originally a dual screen game... but it's much better when in novel style. gimme all the descriptions

-----

Cormorant: I had a long day of sitting though presentations and so I entertained myself by calculating digital roots

I discovered that adding 9 or any multiple of 9 to a number has no effect on the digital root, which is awfully interesting bc I got to the part where snake gets killed. Assuming door 3 was opened with 12 and not 21, the options are 7+3 (motive?), 6+4 (they’d both have to be REALLY good actors), or 9+1. And if bracelets work without a body attached, and if ace picked it up in door 5…

That would be a really useful tool to get around the 3-person minimum without altering the digital root

I’m also very intrigued by the theory that zero is also in the game but I don’t know what to do with that yet

Storm: forlornly having to keep myself from saying literally anything

Cormorant: Understandable, please don’t give me any hints! I’m just calling shots for the joy of being wrong

-----

Cormorant: and how do you know that, my traitorous friend?

Santa: “The RED doesn’t need a person, you know.”

Santa: “All I need is the bracelet.”

-----

Cormorant: y’know what i think he’s bluffing. he does need June specifically and that’s why he refused to consider leaving her when they first found door 9. if all he needed was a hostage, he could have grabbed junpei and forced ace to come along, and then he would be dealing with two people under duress instead of three

i peeked at a guide and apparently i found the ending adjacent to the true ending(?) first, oh well. time to see the others!

santa: i said i don't want to leave seven alone

me: bud you can't do a heroic sacrifice too, it'll mess up all the math

reader, he was not doing a heroic sacrifice

-----

Storm: got any character opinions or theories to share so far?

Cormorant: hmm I’ve got soft spots for santa and lotus maybe just because they were in the first group I went with. I like that the game makes a point of showing that lotus is quick with the math/technical knowledge. I warmed up to clover and seven more than I expected to! I have no evidence to mistrust ace….but I don’t trust him

Snake died before I before I could say two words to him

Or…didn’t. Forgot clover said he didn’t

I got info about the previous experiments from clover and I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?

Again no evidence i just wonder where the pseudoscience is going

Storm: santa was so my type as soon as I started playing that I just picked all rooms with him on my first run skugrhsghu

Cormorant: AHAHA that makes me feel better about going “yeahhh door 4 I like the cut of this guy’s jib”

-----

Cormorant: “the bracelet comes off when your heart rate reaches zero” interesting then that we’ve brought up cryostasis

-----

Cormorant: i simply don't trust him not to have a spare bracelet in his pocket!!!

They climbed into the elevator and Junpei listened to it creak and rattle its way to the bottom deck. Only Junpei, Ace, and Lotus were left.

As the elevator rumbled out of sight, Ace spoke.

Ace: “Lotus, would you be so kind as to go with me?”

Cormorant: “bad end” YEAH I’LL SAY

Storm: lkksghr yeah there's a few of those!

Cormorant: santa was really quick to declare that he, june, and seven needed to go with clover. waht's his game

june and ace could have done it just as easily

Storm: they could have! good catch

maybe he just thinks seven is cooler than ace,

Cormorant: i'm imagining clover taking all her grisly trophies to the door only to find it already engaged, because lotus needed no persuading,

and regarding the true ending requirements, it's also funny that santa's like "i hate this bookmark! get it out of my sight!" and this is a huge help in junpei befriending the girl who's otherwise about to snap

Storm: load bearing bookmark

Cormorant: good thing you threw that tantrum bud or you would have been killed with an axe

-----

Cormorant: in my suspicions i forgot a critical detail, which is that he didn't actually go into the door with the body this time

of course seven has been propping doors open, so it really could have been anybody

-----

Cormorant: "where have these 16 boys and girls disappeared to?" eight for each game and then an experimenter? again with the idea that zero might be in the game...

-----

Cormorant: bad endings complete! on to the normal ending, which hopefully has less of junpei getting stabbed to death

puzzling over who could have done all those murders, especially in the sub ending...or did everyone get killed? clover thinks that snake's death was faked. or did snake do all the murders, since he was the only one unaccounted for?...and then i remember what kind of game i'm playing. can't discount the ice mummy as a suspect.

Storm: you truly cannot ignore the possibility of the ice mummy

-----

Cormorant: ah no, so santa's sister was the kid that died...

i can't figure out the connection between events! why did the last games have the veneer of a science experiment, while this one has no context given? why was it all kids last time, and a random mix of ages this time, with some repeat subjects?

-----

Cormorant: called it!!!!

Junpei: “Ace, Guy X, and the 9th Man’s bracelet.”

Junpei: “That was all you needed to open door [3].”

Cormorant: called it before i even got to an ending ehehe

what i’ve been saying!!

Ace: “(9) is a potent ally in the Nonary Game.”

Ace: “Adding (9) to any set of numbers won’t alter the digital root.”

Ace: “As you can see, (9) is a very useful number here.”

Ace: “With it, one can go anywhere, with anyone.”

Ace: “It is, I suppose you could say, a game changer.”

-----

Cormorant: okay, normal ending finished! junpei did not get stabbed but we also didn’t resolve much…I’m now thinking that ace with his pocket drugs could have easily played dead in the sub ending

glad to see that snake is okay and hopefully can stay okay in the true ending. where did clover get that riddle, and will she still have it?

0=6. how much do I read into this

still don’t understand how we get from here to santa hostage situation. he’s been so consistent about not even considering betraying or abandoning people, so either he’s a better actor than ace…or it’s staged. are he and june in cahoots

Storm: augh so close now!! soon I can actually say things

-----

Cormorant: O FUCK

Seven: “Santa’s always in the room with her. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

Snake: “Yes, that’s right.”

Clover: “What about it…?”

Snake: “That’s quite simple, really.”

Snake: “You told me that the first time you came to this room…”

Snake: “…Santa was the first to refuse to leave June behind.”

Snake: “Now, doesn’t that beg the question “why?” Why would Santa do such a thing?”

Snake: “The answer is easy.”

Storm: B)

Cormorant: i've been thinking of them as a pair because it makes the math easier! if you've got 3 + 6 + 8, just cross out the ones that make 9 and don't even bother with the addition, your root is 8

Storm: B) B) B)

Cormorant: but god!! they are a pair, do not separate (or the jig is up)

Storm: they hid it soooo well

-----

Cormorant: was wondering when we would see the last cradle guy and oh duh, he was guy X

i did think it was odd that santa phrased it as "i need to leave two of you behind" rather than "i need three of you to come with me," but if he was responsible for everything (most things?), he knew that snake was there, and he was setting up a group that could follow him. excited to see where this is going!

[dreamy sigh] this game is so elegant. what a little puzzle box

Storm: yeah it is, it's just so wonderfully crafted. so little is wasted!

-----

Cormorant: oh boy [akane vision label]

"through the morphic fieldset we were resonant, and we were as one" i don't think i've mentioned it before but i'm constantly pleasantly surprised by the narration in this game. it's not flashy but it's evocative in a way that's really working for me

Storm: this is where the port falls short a bit of the original version... the ds really worked well with this aspect

-----

Cormorant: the number of times i thought "this will be totally wrong but i'll say it to storm anyway"

hello??? [arrow pointing back to the message “I wonder if we’re like…reenacting the past somehow? Experiencing morphogenetic resonance with the last voyage?”]

Storm: Y E A H

Cormorant: laser-guided spitballing

-----

Cormorant: man i said that 4+6 would have to be really good actors if they were the ones that opened door 3...and while they didn't kill snake, i sure underestimated our queen of the stage akane kurashiki

the baseline was NOT where i thought it was

Storm: no one does it like her

[volta-4-faraday]

sorry gang,

here's what typing quirk I think d2 characters would have

Eris Morn would type normally in professional settings, with proper capitalisation etc, but write all lowercase with no apostrophes when having casual text conversation

Savathûn would type like Kanaya Maryam. You Know What I Mean

Xivu Arath would type in ALL CAPS. ALWAYS. JUST LIKE HER IN GAME CAPTIONS.

Suraya Hawthorne would type all lowercase, including proper nouns, except for Louis's name. she'd also sometimes type "as" Louis and preface those messages with either [ :^ ] or [ :v ]

Crow would have autocaps off, but capitalise proper nouns and For Emphasis

Cayde-6 would use a 6 in place of a B. He'd type completely normal 6esides that

idk this is all I got maybe I'll add more at a later date. my formal apologies to those of you who know my source for some of these

[morgansafe]

so the episode echoes story is over and done and it's great and beautiful and i don't think there's a better resolution to this maya's story than that gut punch but like

i think i'm really worried for what this means for the vex?

we see maya driven off back into the vex network with the echo of command. she's been defeated for now, her plans for conducting a second golden age thwarted for now, but there's literally nothing stopping her from hopping on her shit at any point later down the line

and that's not inherently a bad thing! i LIKE that we don't solve this immediate threat by shooting her in the head until she drops seasonal loot and an ascendant shard! but what they're setting up with her slinking back into the network, clearly growing more capable with the echo and being able to compel more and more people, has me kinda scared that she'll end up getting positioned as the "vex faction leader." in the same way as eramis and her house salvation filling that role as the representational figurehead of "enemy" eliksni, or xivu arath inheriting that mantle as "main hive bad guy"

(i get that these are really reductive labels to give these characters and there's a lot more nuance to be found in both them and the lore surrounding these factions and peoples and the world at large, BUT. as basic narrative elements in these stories, these are their roles)

episode echoes seems to be looking to make maya THAT. and that ruins a lot of the intrigue around the vex for me!

the eliksni are an interesting proposition because they're a spurned people desperately ekeing out survival following their own utter cataclysm. the hive are fascinating as this horrific and tragic omnicidal holy war in service of entropy itself. the cabal are an engaging force because theyre such a strong militaristic imperial faction that's so instinctively hostile to other peoples but is learning now to work in coalition

and what makes the vex work is that they're so fundamentally different. they're fourth-dimensional hiveminds that have existed since the dawn of the universe (i don't even know if the word "since" works there considering their entirely alien approach to time). they don't have "human" interests or drives or goals, they're always at least somewhat inscrutable. we can know what they're doing and what they stand to achieve by doing it, but their motives are about as digestable to our minds as radiolaria itself

(and i get that there are different collectives that have different focuses and that they aren't a monolithic unit but even still, when they're engaging in different stratagems it's still in service of these entirely incomprehensible designs)

so it scares me that bungie might be trying to establish a faction leader for them (already going against what makes them stand out AS a faction) but specifically one whose motives are, if warped, still undeniably human and comprehensible. i get the instinct! it's easier to tell compelling and resonant stories with an antagonistic force that can be understood! and to be fair if any one lore character SHOULD become THE figurehead for the vex, it's maya sundaresh. i just don't want that to be the case for the vex at all! the whole appeal is that they DON'T really have that!

i don't know, this long text wall might be for nothing! these are just the ramblings of someone who finished echoes last night and really liked it but is also worried about this particular avenue of narrative development

[brightmoontrigon]

I posted 4,623 times in 2022

That's 297 more posts than 2021!

85 posts created (2%)

4,538 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ taupewolfy

@ daxdraggon

@ smokeys-house

@ xivu-arath

@ vulture-bone

I tagged 4,617 of my posts in 2022

#q'd - 2,875 posts

#art - 1,844 posts

#text - 308 posts

#birds - 273 posts

#destiny - 215 posts

#final fantasy - 144 posts

#tabletop - 131 posts

#invertebrates - 103 posts

#misc - 100 posts

#elden ring - 100 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#also swimming at some point even tho i was terrified of being underwater and couldn't see for shit w/o my glasses so i flunked swimming

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

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326 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

#4

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462 notes - Posted March 8, 2022

#3

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462 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

#2

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474 notes - Posted February 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

little brush bronzewing (Phaps elegans) loafin' around

516 notes - Posted September 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[maddyaddy]

Suan Kahn, the Hammer of Dawn

"The leaden pilgrim badge, The drawn blade's subtle camber, To the City, the innocent make the hadj And they all follow Sol's hammer." -Proverb-quatrain of the Sunbreakers, attributed to Kahn Suan Kahn is regarded as a tragic figure in modern City lore. One of the Iron Lords, the Awoken woman had heeded the call of Radegast to rise above her previous wandering to become such. Her downtime passion laid in crypto-archaeology, particularly of religious texts. As such, she was considered invaluable to the Ecumenical Unitarian Church's efforts to recover the Holy Bible and the City Masjid's reconstruction of the Koran. However, her chief duty was that of training up New Lights - though the two did bleed into one another. Suan was a key liaison to the Sunbreaker independent order of Titans. Through the Iron Lord, an informal contract had been made for mutual support and observation. In turn, the Sunbreakers had taught her, out of respect, the rites of the Hammer of Sol. Suan was amongst a chosen few in this respect. At the time of her death, Kahn had taken on the Exo Glamdring as an apprentice after his performance at Twilight Gap. There was no small amount of admiration for Kahn on his part, in turn. In search of the lost Deuteronomistic histories, they had delved into the lunar data-vaults near the South Pole-Aitken Basin. However, they were soon ambushed by a son of Xivu Arath himself - Mekur the Black. Though details of what exactly transpired in the Basin vaults are unclear, only Glamdring returned alive, blood on his feet, a wound in his chest, with Suan's body in his arms.

[ars0nism]

trying to convert my best friend into a destiny nerd

only knows shaxx because hes addicted to pvp & i am. no hetero but i love shaxx

he vaguely recognizes saladin as salad man, the man that was yote by a hunter woman

he tried to pronounce xivu arath, savathun & oryx, failed miserably, and got visibly upset (as upset as you can get over text) when i told him that all three of them didnt always have these names

since hes russian i showed him saint and he was disappointed there was no vodka

he knows cayde because i kept crying every time he showed up in a cutscene

he laughed when i told him about the shaxx & felwinter story

he has seen eris (well my drawing of her)

he probably vaguely knows most destiny women because im a simple lesbian who will have a breakdown over every single woman wearing armor

i told him warlocks are based on jedi and asked why the hell he wasnt a warlock until he remembered he likes punching shit

he doesnt know the drifter by any other name than garbage/trash man

he knows both banshee & spider as "those fuckers that only coordinate when im not able to play" because sometimes you can spend glimmer on materials you can use for upgrade modules or legendary shards and since ive had max glimmer for the past. forever i just really want more legendary shards

on that note, hes listened to me crying over the fact that banshee had upgrade modules for those tangled shore materials (of which i usually have around 300 because 1. i love the aesthetic of the shore and 2. theres no npc to increase reputation with)

i let him try the shattered throne dungeon on my 993 titan before season 10 ended and he rage quit after dying 7 times in the opening maze and told me hes never going to play that dungeon with me even tho i got to vorgeth solo and all hes gotta worry about is making sure we dont fucking wipe as soon as one of us dies

i showed him the season 11 big fucking sword and thats the most motivated ive seen him to do bounties in this game

[written-in-light-blog1]

“LET US SPEAK OF THE TERRIBLE BEAUTY OF BECOMING OURSELVES”

Illustrating Destiny’s Books of Sorrow with community artist Francine Bridge

One of the most impressive Destiny fan-projects we’ve seen to date has been Francine Bridge’s incredible illustrated rendering of Destiny’s Books of Sorrow. Francine, otherwise known as Witnesstheabsurd, agreed to take some time to answer a few of our questions about her work, its impetus, and what the project means to her.

Written by Seth Dickinson, the Books of Sorrow tell the story of the Hive - and by extension Oryx and his siblings - and give deep, rich background to one of the game’s largest and most important conflicts. Lyric and evocative, the books offer insight into both the Hive themselves and the universe they inhabit, and remain Destiny’s most impressive and most in-depth piece of lore-building. For those who may have joined the community in Destiny 2, or never had the chance to read the original books, they can be read in their entirety here. Francine’s project shows the same impressive attention to detail, and most importantly, the same level of empathy as the works that inspired it. We’re ecstatic to be able to share this conversation with the Destiny community, and we hope you’ll take the time to admire the full project.

You can find Francine on Artstation, as well as on Twitter and Tumblr.

Written in Light: To get things started, tell us a bit about yourself. What you're studying, what field you work in, what you like to do for fun - give us a brief summary of who you are and what's important to you!

Francine Bridge: HI! I'm Francine, although I'm better known online as Witnesstheabsurd. I work as a freelance illustrator and concept artist in the UK - you might have seen some of my work in the game Hiveswap or at labels like Killstar. I do album covers, shirt designs, character/monster etc design work for games, comics, private clients. I'm currently in my 4th and final (I took an extra sandwich year to do a supplemental diploma in professional studies) year of my Illustration and Visual Media BA degree in London, after which I'm probably going to look for more permanent studio/contract work rather than the one-off freelance stuff I've been pursuing while I've been in school.

A couple of years ago, prior to starting the degree, I came out as a trans woman, which is probably an important detail, and it's informed a lot of my  work. However, my driving impulse has always been monsters - my preoccupation with Destiny started entirely because a friend of mine showed me screencaps of Oryx after the The Taken King release and I was smitten. Pretty much all of the media I consume, the games I play, the art I create is in pursuit of ever greater or more unique creature and monster design, and they're very dear to my heart.

As far as what I do for fun  - my day is 90% working at the tablet, but I find time to play some games and build "gunpla" model kits as well as paw through my artbook collection. Almost everything I do is informed by my profession, so I use my hobbies as a means to access and process more referential or inspirational visual material or  techniques. I only recently started sincerely learning how to actually "paint," rather than just do some basic rendering under lineart, so that's been a major part of my work lately.

WiL: Was there anything in particular about Oryx that really drew you to him? Did Oryx come across as particularly great and/or unique to you, or is there something else that struck you with his character or design?

FB: Well, as I said, I'm transgender. In the ‘pitch’ my friend made to me about Oryx as a character,  the most interesting aspect to me was that he's a transgender man (although I'm a trans woman, the experience has some shared parallels obviously).

In media, it's incredibly difficult to find trans characters not wholly defined by that aspect of their identity, or who aren't constantly wallowing in the Misery and Tragedy of being trans. I want trans characters who occupy all roles - villain, hero, supporting and main - and it's rare to find anyone who's more than a token or like, tragedy porn. Oryx super resonated with me because he was this figure who acquired power and immediately transitioned, asserting his identity in a way that couldn't be defied - Oryx's story is very much one about self-definition and the value of existence under your own terms, which are very important concepts to me.

When I decided to start work on illustrating the Books I actually reached out to Seth Dickinson, the author Bungie contracted to write them (and the Cabal Booklet/odd flavour text, by the way) to get some specific questions answered and he was kind enough to respond and was very cooperative and supportive. Among the things I asked about I wanted to know  if Oryx was consciously written as transgender character or if it was just a coincidental "weird alien race" flourish. I was very happy to learn Seth had purposefully written Oryx that way, and that he was happy people took strength from it.

It's very novel to have, like, a "trans power fantasy"... a character who acquires absolute power over the self and instantly rewrites the contract between themselves and their body that so many of us spend our entire lives making adjustments to and renegotiating for some measure of peace. It was satisfying, refreshing.

Oryx is super cool to me on multiple visual levels obviously as well, being a mineral-encrusted deep space insect mummy warlord, but that element specifically sets him apart for me, and always will. It's cool to know that a trans character in Destiny can also be a hideous monster from beyond the stars.

WiL: Nice! I've wondered if Oryx was intentionally written to reflect a transgender person. I'm glad to hear a positive answer to that question, and I'm glad you found strength in it!

My next question is, why did you decide to take on this project? I mean, it's very clear that you love Oryx, so that factor is a given, but you mentioned in your original post that this was something you did for your degree. Care to elaborate on that?

FB: So, the structure of my illustration degree is such that while we’re given specific "briefs," such as topics or techniques, the final year gives us significantly more free rein. We're obligated to  complete three "projects" and author a thesis over the course of the final year, but the subject matter, material, everything about those projects is our call. The outcomes are judged based solely on technical and professional development rather than adherence to a specific brief.

This left the field wide open for me to kill two birds with one stone and bring in a project I had intended to do anyhow, but hadn't had the time or space for; something that I was sincerely passionate about rather than an edict handed down by a tutor. Illustrating the Books of Sorrow was something i'd wanted to do ever since I first read them back in The Taken King, and I jumped at  the chance. In addition, while i've produced and formatted artbooks before (My first published work, The Occult Supergiant Primer, can be found here ), I've been able to recoup the time invested away from client work in sales and funding. The Books are obviously material belonging to Bungie and I can't justify selling copies, digital or otherwise, of my illustrated version, so I had to find some other reason to make this investment of time and unpaid work worthwhile as well as enjoyable.

Being able to use the work produced to further my degree was the perfect "excuse.” That said, I've received so much attention from the Destiny community at large, including commissioned work from several new clients, that it would have easily been worth it regardless.

WiL: Your work definitely deserves the attention, you clearly have a strong sense of design! Would you be willing to tell us a little bit about the process you went through to make the Books of Sorrow? Do you have any early versions or storyboards that you'd like to share? Or did any of the illustrations go through any major changes from start to finish, and would you be willing/able to show us that process and talk a bit about why you made the changes you made?

FB: The greater part of the Books came together incredibly smoothly and naturally, with very little iteration required on specific pieces. The images had been stewing in my mind ever since I read the original verses a few years ago and they were more than ready to be rendered. What did require a lot of research, development and false starts were the designs for the sisters, Savathûn and Xivu Arath. Both of them have yet to appear ingame in any major capacity (although it's looking likely Savathûn is going to be a Year 2 DLC), so it was up to me to create designs for them that:

Satisfied the descriptions appended to them in the verses, as light as they were, and also matched the info Seth gave me

Satisfied my own personal expectations and interpretation

Conformed to the lore and the existing known morphology of the Hive in a way that would make them recognizable to a player with no prior familiarity with the Books

Balancing these principles lead to a lot of internal back and forth - Savathûn was easier because we had already seen her brood in D2 on Titan, so I knew to emphasize ornate crests, bonelike texture and a slightly less mineral, more biological look by comparison to Oryx's brood, the hive we exclusively encountered in D1. She was tough at first but ultimately fell into line with something satisfying for me, which actually drew a lot from the Xenomorph Queen in Aliens.

Xivu Arath was a little trickier because she had to be distinct from Oryx, who kind of already occupies the "big mineral/bone-encrusted bruiser" archetype visually, so I had to take her even further. I spent a lot of time wondering whether she would have any ornamentation like some of  the bigger Knights (Alak-Hul comes to mind), given that she represents the "ultimate" Knight morph, but I eventually eschewed all decoration in favour of something reflecting her nature in the narrative: blunt, implacable, spartan. She dispenses with the ritual and hierarchical trappings the other siblings indulge in - notably she decides that all battlefields are her Court, rather than entertaining a court herself, and she tends to default to just brutally bludgeoning whatever stands in her way rather than making an appeal to the Deep or engaging in trickery. I was very satisfied with how she turned out, and the piece featuring her is easily one of my favourites.

WiL: I was going to ask which piece is your favorite! Do you have a Top 3 that you're most proud of?

Is there anything about the Books that you wish were different, or is there something you wish you had the opportunity to draw for this project but couldn't justify including it?

FB: I have a strong tendency to favour whichever the last piece I completed was, because by default I'm always proudest of my most recent work and very rapidly lose favour with pieces even like, a week old. That said, I think overall the strongest piece for me personally would be Oryx slaying Akka, alongside the final Wormfood painting and the Savathun piece, although honorable mentions go to Xivu Arath and Quria, Blade Transform.

I can't say there's anything about the Books specifically I wish was different. The part of me that's purely consuming it as a narrative wishes that they had found Taox, that there had been some confrontation there. I feel like there's a very strong "childhood vengeance" element to the Taox subplot, like when you're put down by an adult for drawing in class and you fantasize about coming back to the school years later as a wildly successful artist and making them admit they were wrong to have stopped you. A key part of that fantasy is recognizing it as a remnant of childhood, this impulse born out of a narrower perspective and inflated self-worth, and realizing you can move past that shit (Although if/when I do become a wildly successful artist there might be a few teachers I'll look up).

Ultimately, I think the arc of the books and what the story is trying to say about distortion of intent and self makes Taox disappearing a much more emotionally resonant and interesting turn. It would be neat if Taox turned up somewhere in-game, and became the focal point of a new Hive offensive.  An entire species/culture with such a specific individual grudge is a fascinating concept.

With about a month and a half of time allotted for the project and 50 verses, there was a lot of stuff I had to cut despite how much it hurt - in a complete version I would have wanted a painting for every verse, but specifically I would have liked to draw Akka in full, the Dakaua War Angels, the Harmony/Gift Mast,  the Qugu; basically I would have given form to the many species and cultures Seth conjures up with a few phrases and a loose description but still manages to make incredibly evocative.

WiL: Do you think you'll ever return to the project and draw those images, either as standalone pieces or as an update to the PDF you've already made?

FB: An update to the .pdf itself is unlikely. I tend to consider projects released to be complete, and usually by the time I revisit a subject I'm not obligated to work on it will have been a few years at the very least. I tend to have developed my technique and approach enough that new pieces inserted retroactively would look somewhat disjointed in terms of quality and style. The chance of releasing standalone paintings - especially of points of specific interest for me like say, Akka in his entirety, the Dakaua war angels, the Qugu, etc. -  is significantly higher. Whether that happens sooner or later depends entirely on what my current workload looks like, and aside from the incredibly generous and supportive response to the project from the larger community the Books are very much a passion project and have to be weighed against, say, contract or school work going forwards.

WiL: That makes sense. What other projects do you have going on right now, if any?

FB: Just this morning I decided on the subject of my final degree project, which I'm also planning to run as my second artbook with an accompanying Kickstarter and print run - something I can actually sell as well as being material that excites me! It's entirely too early to disclose any specific details about it though.

Other than that, I continue to produce odd pieces of fanart in between a regular flow of client work both from private individuals and studios. I guess I can safely say I'll be doing more work on the second Homestuck game after contributing to the first, as well as doing some designs for a music video I was contracted for, and also finishing my thesis for the aforementioned degree.

The key thing, I think, is to keep moving - I get very anxious when I'm spinning my wheels between projects, and the temptation to linger on the threshold a while longer is incredibly strong, especially when there's always the fear your new work will fail to surpass what's come before. Reaching a personal peak like some of the paintings I did for the Books of Sorrow is a double-edged sword, and it can signify both a great accomplishment and a raising of the bar that can be daunting to follow. I'm confident that whatever you see from me next will manage it, though!

WiL: Believe me, after talking with you for a while, I'm confident your next project will meet your expectations. You are a very talented and very ambitious artist, and we can’t wait to see where your career takes you! It’s been a pleasure to talk to you, and we’re looking forward to your next Destiny passion project.

//

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

All images courtesy Francine Bridge

[flowers-of-io]

The statue held a fragmented weapon in its alien arms. When the Scheme-Mother asked why these broken things were on her ship, her most trusted witch told her:

You broke them, my queen, because they belong to a traitor.

[thefirstknife]

When Eris Morn banished Xivu Arath from the Black Terrace, her throne world, I immediately started to wonder if such a thing was mentioned before.

This whole season was sublime with the amount of care and references to past Hive and Eris lore—heck, Imbaru was finally mentioned again in game by name!

So when the banishment happened, I thought this was completely new thing, but reading back on the lore I was amazed to find out it wasn't!

This happened before to Oryx. In the fourth Book of Sorrow it mentions how Savathûn and Xivu Arath conspired together to lock Oryx out of his throne-world, forcing him to cut his way back in and claim it.

"I think that Savathûn and Xivu Arath are trying to steal the tablets from me. They must have cut off my tribute while I was away communing with the Deep." -XXXIV: More beautiful to know

"We have marooned Oryx within the Deep." "Savathûn and I conspired to strand Oryx on his expedition." -XXXV: This Love Is War

"I fought my traitor siblings and I fought the swarming corpse of Akka and I cut my way back into my own court, the High War, which had been usurped." -XXXVI: Eater of Hope

I was so giddy when I read this, and so I thought you and your audience would like it too :)

YES!

This season was honestly a love letter to the Books of Sorrow. There were so many throwbacks, little details and mentions of stuff from there, it felt like a really nice way to bring this, ngl, fundamental text of Destiny into the game proper. Like, this text was never in the game and this was such a cool way to bring some of that content into voice lines that you can hear and interact with.

Hearing Xivu talking about the conquests from the Books of Sorrow was such a treat. It's one thing to read it and I absolutely adore that this was a written text because it added something special to it in written format, but it's another thing and more, new context to hear it being narrated in voice lines.

Super cool detail with the throne world as well. Eris knows the text well and she was so sneaky about her plan, outsmarting everyone involved. Absolutely incredible solution, one I'm genuinely glad was not telegraphed otherwise because it worked so well as a surprise.

[tiredarts-sketchbook]

[destiny-game-flavortexts]

Dreadfang Kingly brother, I thank you for the gift of your failure. The sword logic demands a pinnacle. Rarity: Legendary Perk: Extra damage againt Taken enemies Obtainment: Quest; Awarded by Variks the Loyal Other notes: The flavor text is perchance a message from one of Oryx's sisters. They are all built around the philosophy of The Sword Logic and the law of The Deep. The only gifts are earned either from failure ot success. No giving. Oryx's defeat "sharpens" our (guardians) Sword Logic. A more proper fight for Savathun/Xivu-Arath. (Clues from D2 suggest Savathun to be the most likely case.)