Peace Of Mind

Peace of Mind

The Sorrow-Song Swordsman fought as he wept, wept as he sang, sang as he fought.

The tears would leak from sleepless eyes and fall into shadow and fire, dissolving in the chords of throats-cut-screaming by a blade that is a nail strumming strings.

Burning blood makes iron, and it takes more than iron to forge cutting-steel.

But a spoken word cuts deeper still.

When your words are blades, and your blade can sing, and your songs stain all your words with blood- can you find solace in your mind?

Where does a slayer find peace?

-- Slowly reposting art from my Twitter account and taking full advantage of the more relaxed text limits. This one was for a Kadungganan whose singing words could cut, from an old Gubat Banwa TTRPG campaign- esteemed warrior-braves battling across the isles inspired by classical/early colonial Southeast Asia, perpetuating a river of blood and violence, asking themselves why they fight.

-- Blade design is based on a particularly long Lumad kris, which I've been told are made from the deconstructed blades of their defeated enemies, repurposed for their own use.

A dragon who decides to hoard mint and various types of mint plants (and not knowing that mint has the mushroom’s blessing of inevitability were ever its planted) can go one of two ways.

1: The dragon is absolutely horrified as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. Its gold? Mint. Its gems and goblets? Mint. Its stores of wine? Mint. No matter what they do they can’t get rid of it.

2: The dragon is delightfully ecstatic as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. It’s a self growing hoard. No matter what any adventurers or knights do, they can’t get rid of it.

okay here's how you design a fantasy weapon pls like and subscribe follow me for more tips-

Kidding- but this was sent to me by Dyl just a while ago and I just had to.

I do actually love seeing these wild designs, there's more imagination in them than you can beat out of a roomful of AI "artists".

Art by Peter Andrew Jones if I'm not mistaken.

I do wish there were more of them around, just over-the-top bullshit that doesn't take itself too seriously.

This one's from The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982). It's a sword with THREE blades. Two of them shoot out of the hilt as projectiles- I love it. I would never use it.

I set out posting my art online initially to design "practical fantasy weapons", and while I haven't abandoned the "practical" part myself, going nuts on weapon designs is still just really fun to do.

Saradomin Godsword from OldSchool Runescape and the newfangled RS3 version.

Doesn't have to be "practical". Depending on the context, the looks can be more important than the functionality.

Sanderson depicts shardblades in The Stormlight Archive as being ultralight to justify their size. Fun middleground, but not always necessary.

Art by Alex Allen.

There are weapons that will forever be iconic BECAUSE they went nuts with 'em.

Of course they also went nuts with the people using them, so there's internal consistency, but the point stands.

Guts' Dragonslayer, Berserk (1989-2021) by Kentaro Miura.

Cloud Strife's Buster Sword, Final Fantasy 7 (1997) by Square Enix, image from the 2020 Remake

Moonlight Greatsword, in one of its many iterations, this time as Ludwig's Holy Blade from Bloodborne (2015) in The Old Hunters DLC by From Software

Kratos' Blades of Chaos, God of War (2005), image from their iteration in God of War (2018) by Sony's Santa Monica Studio.

Just- don't pretend you could ever use them in the real world, yourself.

Actual martial artists can already hurt themselves using tried-and-tested weapons from history (i.e. there is someone to learn how they use them from), let alone the average untrained gamer with something out of fantasy.

Doesn't stop people from trying. Baltimore Knife and Sword are among the many blacksmiths who routinely produce real world versions of fictional weaponry (look up Man at Arms: Reforged on YouTube) and recently Digitally Twisted Outlaws (also on YouTube) started training with one such giant replica Dragonslayer, and dubbed their weapon-style the "Colossus Sword Form".

Bottom line, just have fun with it. Don't get too bogged down by what's consistent with real world usage, especially when the context is fictional.

Weapon design commissions are open again!

Fill the form: HERE!

The price begins at $30 for a very simple design, but the exact price will depend on the complexity of the design and will be discussed individually.

Waiting time is around 1 week per order, from contact to delivery. This does not account for delays in correspondence.

I will reach out to you when I reach your submission on the queue.

Payment is upfront after confirmation of your interest and agreement on the quote.

Each design comes in two versions: grey background, and transparent background.

8 slots available at this time.

Thank you for looking! ♫

Simplicity

Presence is not strength. Complexity is not intelligence, audacity is not courage, grandeur is not beauty, gentility is not virtue. A piece of steel need not be forged into anything fancy- it only has to be sharp- and thereafter the blade would hold power over life and death. Could you imagine what you might forge of your own mettle?

A spearwoman and a knife-dugong

Rare Tumblr post! Been working on this for a little while, and had already committed to completing it when I heard about the #MermayWarriors XP Pen challenge. Since they fit the theme of the challenge, I decided to send them as an entry.

The spearhead is a sharktooth, and the gunong that the dugong is holding is copper alloy. I wanted to pick materials that won't corrode too easily in seawater, but I didn't wanna think too hard about it (which is rare for me). I mostly wanted to redraw them because I was enamoured with the concept of Baby Dugong and wanted to draw him again.

Here's the original version. Looking at them side-by-side is kind of interesting.

I truly wasn't sure where this was gonna go when I started. This kind of stuff has always seemed a bit too far out of reach for my self-taught, weapon-designing self. I kind of pushed my anime boundaries by a lot when I drew the original (I'm still proud of it), and I wasn't sure how much further beyond I could push it at my skill level. It's not as precise as I wanted, it's not as detailed as I wanted, but I can safely say I'm proud of this one too. More importantly, I actually finished it! That's significant considering how many foolish ambitions I've put to rest in WIP limbo and never touched again. Anyway- in my head they protect giant clams. At present, giant clams in the West Philippine Sea are constantly at risk of poaching, and their habitats vulnerable to deep-sea trawling from foreign encroachment. Dugong are somewhat vulnerable as well. Their main diet is seagrass, and seagrass beds are frequently under threat of destruction from ill-advised land reclamation work, as well as well-meaning but improperly handled mangrove planting projects. Also the baby dugong is at least ten times more likely to stab someone than the spearwoman.

Seek no mercy from these eyes, they will grant you only pity.

That's all for now. Going on a short hiatus after this- not that I was very active on here to begin with. But I'll try! But I'll do that after. Have a good day folks.