Bunch Of Slugcat Sketches

Also a borb I drew unrelatedly from a while back. Definitely based on a specific reference but I forgor.

(Late by almost 2 months lol) Day 15 - Mushrooms

I like making backgrounds :)

Hit burn out while the art month was happening but I really liked the sketch for this one, so I decided to finish it up ... eventually.

Day 8 - The Rot

Small short I made based on in game events in Expeditions.

Day 20 - Beehive(s) Day 21 - Spear(s) Day 23 - Pearls Day 24 - Grand Daddy Longlegs - didn't want to draw it eating a living thing :( so I gave it a sandwich

Messed up two days thinking the thing I had to draw was singular. Oh well.

Another older piece I finished around Nov 2021. Hasn't really aged well, which I find almost frustrating because I remember spending a lot of time on it. Still gonna keep it as a frame for myself. It describes a sorcerer and their familiar trekking trough snowy woods on their way to a village. I have an entire story behind it but I'd rather keep it separate from the art.

Survivor and Monk ending head cannon (Spoilers)

I understand well that, in the original ending, the one in the base game without Downpour and without having completed Gourmand, both Monk and Survivor ascend. However, I've come up with a head cannon to justify Monk's mechanic of spawning a Karma flower on death. Even though they are meant to make a new player's playthrough more manageable, they don't make the game easier outside making death less punishable.

According to the Ancients, those flowers have the power to enable one to let go of themselves for a brief moment and contact the selves in other worlds, dreams, memories or imagined worlds. To the Ancients they also became the symbol of enlightenment. As such it is pretty widespread in their architecture. However, we can see it in places where the Ancients could not interfere i.e. Rubicon and on the heads? of the guardians. Also what about it being the symbol Saint sees before waking up, as well as their part of their halo? There is plenty of proof that the meaning they carry is not just symbolic and has weight beyond just being the flower that saves players from losing Karma on death or that the Ancients used to enhance their imagination.

Having all that said, I believe that Monk ascends, while Survivor doesn't. Not just because it's a bit spicy when you think about it.

The symbolism behind the name Survivor implies someone who lives through adversity and hardship. The hardship could be interpreted as you being on most creatures' food list or the rain acting as a timer forcing you to make risky plays. However, the cycle can also be seen as a type of adversity. One that every living creature has to endure. It was the reason for the construction of the Iterators and the big problem they were designed to solve but ultimately were forced to face directly after their creators left.

Monk was a title given to the more religiously involved Ancients. Some of their work involved making preparations for rituals, conducting said rituals and making the masks, worn by everyone. It also happens to be the name of a passage, which requires the player to spend 5 cycles in a roll being vegetarian. This combined with the slugcat's weaker physique and general friendliness draws parallels to Saint. The Wheel flowers' presence and the way they are spawned on death, imply for me that Monk was predestined to ascend from the start due to their symbolic meaning when combined with theirs.

Day 2 - swim(ming) I love over complicating backgrounds.

Day 3-4 - Chimney canopy and Fire spear(s) - welp this was a bit late. I burned out a bit before that but didn't want to give up on it. Looking at it now I feel like it's a bit lacking in detail but compared to the last piece I didn't want to make it as visually cluttered. I am happy with the color scheme though.

On a side note I almost messed up the region and started drawing sky islands. Which basically became the main inspiration for the shot.