I made this comic for the literature festival ‘Québec en toutes lettres'. If you are in la ville de Québec, I believe you can find this comic displayed on a large panel or as a free postcard in these cute vending machines they’ve set up around the downtown. I don’t actually have proof of either, so if you are in Québec and you see my comic in the wild, please send me a photo!
The theme of this year’s festival is ‘climbing the light’ based on a line of poetry from Jean-Paul Daoust. My comic is a pretty abstract take on that. I was thinking about how great art can inspire people all over the world to create art, and how that art can then inspire future artists and so on, making this unending giving-and-receiving of light through our history. I was also thinking about birds (as I do sometimes), and how they do a similar thing with their songs.
The bird I’ve painted here is an Eastern Whip-poor-will, a night singer.
My personal favorite example: Opal-crowned Manakin :D (photo by Luis Morais on eBird)
The feathers on its head are among the most reflective substances found in nature. Their reflective index is higher than artificial mirrors. It looks white on most photos because cameras can't even capture how brilliantly iridescent they look in person.
birds have truly mastered feathers like what do you Mean they can be shiny. how fucking cool is that
I have been playing a ton of Hades after the Hades II trailer got me hooked. Currently about 80 hours in, and I noticed something that made me speculate on the Chronos storyline.
Basically I think the Satyr Cultists that Zagreus encounters in the Temple of Styx are actually worshippers of Chronos, and their activity is directly linked to the titan's escape from imprisonment in the sequel.
This is the Codex entry for Satyr Cultists taken from the wiki:
When I first read it, I found it strange that Hades, the immensely powerful God of the Dead, would be worried about some goat-people freeloading in a temple so far above his residing domain in Tartarus. Also why is the satyrs' hatred for Hades so pronounced? This feels like one of the unresolved plot points in the first game that is more than likely to be expanded in the sequel.
Achilles's Codex entry calls satyrs "vermin-worshippers". I first assumed this to mean the satyrs worship the rats they share the temple with, but that just felt odd. Then during my runs passing through the Temple of Styx, I noticed that there are statues of vipers/snakes everywhere.
There is also the hostile Snakestone mob that sometimes can be found in the same room as Satyr Cultists. According to Achilles's Codex:
"..the boorish satyrs despoiling the surface seem to take up residence in the same spaces, and may well be to blame for these nuisances, as they are for many others."
So it is implied that the satyrs built the Snakestones, and by extension I suspect that the snake, and not the rats, is the actual subject of worship for this "cult".
And in Greek mythology, the snake is, interestingly, a symbol of Cronus, the King of the Titans.
Here is an article I found that mentions the relationship between Cronus/Chronos (Hades II is conflating these two figures it looks like) the snake, particularly in Orphic poetry. Apparently in some versions, Cronus has the lower half body of a snake.
The game tells us that the satyrs are openly antagonistic towards the House of Hades. Maybe their hatred comes from Chronos being defeated and eventually held hostage in Hades's domain?
Also worth mentioning that while the origin of the word "satyr" is unclear, it has been speculated that the name is related to the root "sat-", which means "to sow". Remarkably, it is also the root of Saturn, a.k.a. the Roman equivalent of Cronus.
TLDR: The satyrs cult Zagreus fights in the Temple of Styx may in fact be worshippers of Chronos, as evidenced by the abundance of snake motifs and artifacts in their lair. The satyrs may have a role in Chronos escaping imprisonment in Tartarus, leading to the events of Hades II.
Leona and Diana from League of Legends, based on a frame from this animated short (check out the original for a bittersweet sun and moon romance).
Anyways I was nervous as hell while working on this because oh my god physical affection embarrassing, but I am so proud of myself for finishing it. This is a big landmark for me, both in terms of technique and being comfortable with drawing what makes me happy.
Tail'zel traumatizes Shadowheart with Gith biology more at nine
Comic collab with the amazing @dustybones! Dusty did the beautiful lines and I did the layout and colors. Hope you enjoy this product of us putting our tadpoles together :)
Everyone go show Dusty's post some love as well <33
Feel free to add your favorite race below if I did not have space to add it! Ooo and if you have a favorite homebrew race you can add that too!
Annual reminder that if you love the Caitlyn/Vi angst in Arcane you should also check out Leona and Diana's story on the League of Legends website they will absolutely not also break your heart I promise <3
A good place to start is this animated short in a similar style as Arcane.
I knew I had to redraw this scene when I first saw it
have you ever heard of hunter the vigil?
I haven’t before but it looks like a really cool system! Honestly my experience with TRPGs is quite limited to DnD 5e and a single session of Call of Cthulhu I played years ago. It is always fun to see the how different settings do things though :)
I am so unwell about this... the way their bodies are arranged in a circle made me think they were cornered and making a last stand back-to-back when Chronos got them.
Also the fact that Nyx was frozen away from the rest implies either: 1) Chronos attacked her first to get her out of the picture; 2) She was the last one left and faced Chronos in the hallway leading to Hades' room to buy Melinoë and Hekate time to escape
In case the pic is too low quality those are the Chronos victims clockwise from the top: Achilles, Zagreus, Megaera, Dusa, Persephone, Thanatos :((