Since Y’all Enjoyed The Warlock Post I Thought I’d Give The Same Treatment To My Second Favorite

“Don’t force yourself into sexual situation just to satisfy your partner” should never be a radical statement

Meet Bags!

She’s my OC for The Chain of Acheron, and she’s pretty much me…

Some info: Bags was born in Khoursir, grew up there and was part of the local guard for a while. Then things happened as they do and… hey, look, The Chain of Acheron! Upon hearing that she wanted to join, her new fellows welcomed her into their ranks and quickly learned that she’s a bit of a worrier. Due to this, she carries a wide range of equipment in her backpack, satchels, belt pouches, etc… and she doesn’t sleep particularly well. One bleary morning, dark circles around her eyes and bags beneath, the Helltroopers gave her a new name: Bags! As a welcoming gift, they also gave her an instrument: an old set of bagpipes that a former member had left behind a while ago. It was probably a joke at first, but she took it up quickly and puts her skills to use as often as she needs to.

So Bags is a human bard! 

Thanks to @wojtekbc for making a very helpful little moodboard that got the first aesthetic ideas going.

An rpg that starts off in new game+ but the party has no memories of their original adventure but everyone else does.

I don’t think anime vs western animation are as different as people claim due to the fact they have inspired and fed off each other for decades (they’re friends!!), however I do think our environmental messages to kids are… significantly and interestingly different

whereas, say Ghibli films express a deep Shinto-based respect and reverence for nature:

fighting for it as a means of both self-preservation and expression of heroism revolving around justice

and a matter of other groups of humans (the government often) going up against the stalwart youth

This is contrasted to western animation which tends to be like…. hey! look at this funny bat! And pollution is an evil spirit you can fight like physically 

that isn’t to say the west doesn’t depict environmentalism as heroic and even involving collective action, Captain Planet is a good example of this

but individualism is still very present, the struggle is stalwart youths versus an individual or individual corporation, hell, sometimes you even get a sympathetic backstory for the corporation and weirdly cool rock song

to be clear, antagonists like Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke are sympathetic too, but it is… different, Lady Eboshi is trying to survive due to circumstances but it is all of Irontown that represents a system of corruption

In comparison, there is this western idea of corruption coming from individuals rather than systems as well as the fact they aren’t trying to save nature because we are part of it, but because nature itself is a person and thus worthy of respect

In Fern Gully the fairy’s represent nature, the Lorax represents nature, Captain Planet is literally just nature, all things we can talk to and relate to, where in Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa the ultimate nature spirits are something you can’t talk to and are frankly terrifying, awe-inspiring, and mighty

Western epistemology is heavily rooted in Christianity which says that man has dominion over fish of the sea, fowl of the air, and creatures of the land, ect, which leads to a utilitarian and separate view of nature– what can it do for us as separate (higher) beings, and the only way to combat this view is to say “actually nature is a person and thus worthy of protection”

Whereas Japanese Shintoism has much more emphasis on the idea that we are all part of a whole with nature, nature is the ultimate divine with nothing more important than the other, and something worthy of protection not because we can understand it, but because we can’t

“It’s a mistake to think about nature from the idea of efficiency, that forests should be preserved because they are essential to human beings”– Hayao Miyazaki

this is not to completely bash western animation, it does have other strengths such as emphasizing children’s relationship to empathy, empathy toward others in “Toy Story” and empathy toward themselves in “Inside Out” 

However, our methods of conveying environmentalism could use some updating and steering away from “goofy” and “relatable” and maybe a little more terror and awe involved with fighting the good fight

“When i die, bury me with a headstone etched with cryptic text that heavily implies my grave is cursed or that i’m a vampire. just to give future generations something to have fun with, you know?”

-mollymauk

Avatar OC concept: a pedantic earthbender with a degree in geology who can bend ice on a technicality

sometimes people try to tell me that scientists are paragons of rationality and I have to break it to them that I have yet to work in a lab that didn’t have at least one weird secret shrine in it

I drew a bunch of OCs from our little Chain group! 

Bags is mine Mint is @hubbleablubble / @mint-mcmonk Paisley is @wojtekbc Haft is @pantographicclone Cherry is @thesandman115 Footpad is @xynnos Hops is @zarozinia Hawthorn is @fisyx Beebee is @krunk-mcdunk / @the-zoa

Everyone’s talking about House Martins and their fuzzy pants, so I painted over them to make them into griffons. The Common House Griffon (original photo credit is to Steve Robinson)

quick (very) messy sketches of the clay family before i go to bed bc these firbolgs own my heart now :’)