Hi! My name is Seth (or Sethesis). She/her pronouns, however you really can use any, it's just that I understand she/her applied to me better.
Quick summary:
Destiny & The Elder Scrolls fandom dweller, as most of this blog will probably be.
I'm a welding engineer, but I do art for fun, so that means I'm a self-taught artist. Whatever I draw is usually black and white (god save greyscale). I also love portraits & character designing!
I reblog using @sethesisthesia, might post thoughts here too sometimes. Feel free to DM me if you want, I'll try to respond. I swear I'm nice.
discord: creepesthesia ◽ telegram: creepesthesia
COMMISSIONS open now HERE!!
Have fun!
PERSONAL STATEMENT BELOW THE CUT
On 8 october 2024, Discord got unreasonably blocked in Russia. Discord, Tumblr and Telegram remain the only services I have free access to that can provide me with ways to contact friends, communicate with foreigners directly and be able to work at least somehow.
In the end, it's not only my art blog, it's my personal space too after all. I will always be against unreasonable censorship and dictatorship.
If I will ever go offline for over than 3 months, I'm either in a deep burnout state (which is. unlikely. trust me. both @sethesisthesia and @creepesthesia count as a tracker of my activity) or my fucked-up country probably started isolating itself completely, as I said earlier. If so happens, my pinned post will be updated ABOVE the cut and I'll also post another one, if they ever will start moving towards complete isolation.
If any of you people care enough - any means of communication will be mentioned in this case / I'll DM you, though I am still tagged 'creepesthesia' on most social media as I'm the only one who ever used this word as a name/tag.
It isn't Seth speaking, it's my real-life me speaking, so hear. To all people who might be in similar situations and might read this:
print (hi guardians!) Due to personal reasons, I am opening INK SKETCH COMMISSIONS!
Picture info in text:
$30 for headshots, half and full, though portraits are a lot more detailed than the rest.
Fandom stuff: your OCs, canon characters, anything. Mostly games.
No NSFW, no real people.
Payment - boosty exclusively. It's a little bit complicated I know, but there is no other option for me.
Slightly more detailed information over on boosty ('about' section) /in DMs.
EVEN ONE ORDER WILL BE MUCH APPRECIATED, as well as reblogs/sharing. i really need at least some monies rn but since i study full-time i can't have a job xx
back from a break (i've been and still dealing with college stuff and artblock; i took some time to sort my mind out a bit)
first time (ever) drawing her and she is actually so pretty and really enjoyable
lyrics from king crimson - book of saturday; the text itself isn't related to her in any way, just the feeling of the song. go listen to it, it's good
My piece for the Ishtar Illustrated fanzine (link included).
I am not satisfied enough with how it turned out , but participating in my first ever art event was exciting, I'm grateful to @h3xxthev3xx and their mods for the opportunity!
A little bit of info about how I made this below the cut
Process GIF.... from what I had saved while making this (could be more stages. I forgot that I wanted to make a gif, smh)
Sketch variants:
God I am so bad with visual storytelling, I'm more of a "pretty meaningless illustration" type of person. I regret not pushing my limits and not testing my skills this time tho
Okay so uh, since this post was the one that actually pointed out to me that this is the Hand Holding Gun i went on a definitely very hinged red-string-board thing about what the EXISTENCE of euphony, never mind it's lore tab might (does) imply.
Details under the cut because most orbular Traveller, it's long.
First: Actually proving that the red hand IS Rhulk's. We do have, after all, other disciples on offer. However, I think with the shape of the gun it's gotta be him. For evidence:
This detail at the handle, matching Rhulk's eye arrangements,
The matching collarfrills, including the fact that the other side of the gun is very smooth (Addendum: it's even the same damn sides)
and last, these rivets, which feature in yellow on Euphony and similarly on Rhulk - Nezarec has similar structures, but they're majority black.
So. I think we can solidly say that the red hand is modeled after Rhulk, despite the non-fitting number and arangement of fingers but I'll have some thoughts on that later one.
now the part where i unhinge: euphony strikes me as a creation from the pale heart, which, we've been told and experienced, is a place that gives solid shape to emotions and feelings by dint of the comingling of Light and Dark taking place there atm.
Implying that the witness has been at least partially thinking about A Specific Disciple while in the pale heart, a thought, imo, given further credence by the subjugators.
We first meet them in there, and they clearly and obviously take after Rhulk both in appearance and in naming. All the named ones with one exception, bear names that fit the lubrean naming schemes we've seen. The one who isn't named such, is instead named in a more psion tradition, and sworn TO a psion, indicating, for me, that the girlies get assigned names from the outside instead of picking their own.
Which leaves us several options:
they're older than the Witness entering the pale heart and we just never met them before, Rhulk named them after a tradition he was familiar with. I find that unlikely because it's been strongly implied that the girlies are new AND. Rhulk has a lot of complicated and not resent-free emotions about lubrae. I am not sold on the idea that he WOULD name any spiritual offspring of his in lubrean tradition
they are a new invention of the witness which leads to to two further possibilities:
2a) The Witness made them deliberately, shaped like Rhulk, named like lubreans. The implication here being that if you open the Witness' internal dictionary at 'efficient' and 'loyal' you get photos of Rhulk, implying again a certain level of attachment even if an utilitarian one of 'most best knife in the drawer', especially with the naming scheme of the girls
2b) they're not, in fact, deliberately made. See above re: the pale heart manifesting feelings and memories. The implication here being that the witness has been spending a lot of time thinking about Rhulk and the girls just kinda Happened from there, a somewhat twisted, manifested memory akin to the abandoned city you find in liminality
Regardless, i feel like option 2, regardless of sub-option is on the money here. the Witness has, if nothing else, been sitting here going 'fuck us why can't we have a DECENT disciple again all of these are. blergh.'
If we assume that the red hand is indeed Rhulk's, that leads a certain twist to the lorepage associated with euphony.
Now the entire text is given as a translation of a text found in the pale heart, 'recessed in stone'. I feel like there is again some conclusions we can draw:
This wasn't intended as a message for us by the Witness, or it wouldn't be in a language we have to translate. It clearly CAN communicate with us fine, if we were the intended recipient, it wouldn't be sitting here with like 'translation with less than 85% confidence indicated in brackets' it would just be plain text. The original, untranslated thing is either in the language of the Dread, or the language of the Witness (which might be the same thing or not)
It being 'recessed into stone', to me, calls in parallels to the way the statues of the dissenters are presented sometimes molded back into stone, manifestations of the Witness in the pale heart, but either not conscious, or a deliberate rejection, again akin to the way the dissenters were trapped in those statues AWAY from the Witness. Due to the content on the loretab, i am slightly more inclined to lean towards this being a subconscious manifestation but i can certainly see both angles.
The lorepage kicks off with
'We speak so often of knives and violence, but perhaps you would come to understand something… [softer].'
Now i think. I THINK. the first 'we' in this text isn't the singular we the Witness uses for itself. I think this plural 'we' and the Witness is addressing someone else. This is the Witness reminiscing on conversations had in the past and addressing said conversation partner as 'you'.
The list of people who'd regularly have discussion with the Witness, especially ones detailing the final shape is short. And in the context of the goddamn hand it's VERY likely Rhulk. Which brings up the fascinating implication of 'you would come to understand something [softer]' (softer given with 72% confidence so even if not accurate, likely very close)
Which i think goes well with the idea that this is the Witness addressing Rhulk. We know Rhulk has a biiiiiig problem with anger and violence and that being his main solution to things, and also being part of his understanding of the final shape. The idea that the witness would address him - in a rather more gentle fashion - about another option is....certainly something and imo would say something about what the Witness envisioned for Rhulk in the final shape, before he died. Which y'know. Does track with the handholding gun. Additionally, i think i can tie this back to the Vow guns, actually
allow me to swerve
the vow guns are named, in no particular order:
submission
cataclysmic
deliverance
insidious
Lubrae's ruin
forebearance
all of these can be tied to Rhulk rather more directly with the SOLE exception of forbearance. like. Submission? Yeah for sure. Cataclysmic? The man break's planets as his day job. Deliverance? Both what he thinks he's doing and what he feels the witness did to him. Insidious? What he tried to do to another culture in the lore (try the subtle approach) and well, Lubrae's Ruin is obvious in itself.
The only one that doesn't fit him at all is Forbearance. The man has all the leniency of an angry chain saw. But. If you take this not as something that Rhulk's currently being but rather as a hint as to what perhaps what the witness intended for him. The thing he's missing that would perfect him. Which if taken with Euphony's line about desiring for Rhulk to have a softer/gentler understanding of the final shape does track again
Anyhow, back to Euphony's loretab.
'the strings of time have been pulled taught. Tightened and [tuned] to a delicate [balance of distress], if wound much further, would lead to [rupture]'
Now 'balance of distress' only has a 4% confidence rating so that seems like a Who Fucking Knows read. However. I feel like the way the witness talks about the final shape here does mirror some of what it's done to Rhulk and what i think it means to call back to, here: The way how in Shattered Suns, it flings his own trauma back at him, leaving him fragile enough to accept what the witness is offering a second time over, can easily be metaphorized as a tightening of strings to get the desired tone. And like. Rhulk isn't dumb, he's a fanatic. I think that's a parallel he'd get. That he'd been shaped to the witness' desired and that stress, and distress has played a part in this.
You will also note that the vast majority of pluckable strings on Euphony's design are on the underside of the gun, directly associated with the Rhulk shaped bits he was getting played like a fiddle it's true.
Keeping that in mind:
'If [plucked] at regular intervals, the waves rise and fall with such charm. This predictability is perfection; it is unmatched.'
See above re: getting played like a fiddle.
But also: we know for a fact that one of the things that Savathun despised about Rhulk, one of the things she derided him for was his predictability. He had one solution to his problems, and anger issues that would literally break planets.
And here the Witness stands and says that predictability is good. Which is ENTIRELY in character for it. That's what the final shape is, after all. Chaos removed, all things predictable. But again if we read this as the witness talking to Rhulk, it's... a compliment. Rhulk knows he's predictable. We've seen him try and change that in the lore, seen him try for a more subtle approach (failed, but he tried). So in the light of that, it's almost like a comfort. 'yes you are predictable as all hell. But we like that actually. That's perfect'
I think the the phrasing of being 'unmatched' calls to that, too, when we clearly see that Rhulk is the standard all other disciples are measured against - and found wanting. Nezarec got his shape altered to Rhulk's form, after all. Not the other way around.
and now the part that, if read in this particular context of 'this is the witness, talking to Rhulk, about the final shape' gets a whole different undertone:
'We will compose such [sweet music]. We will control the ebb and flow.'
'sweet music' as a 37% confidence interval so. Not Great. But still. Let's go with that. Because that's a rather particular phrasing even at low confidence, and ah. I
t's not a very esoteric phrasing if one wants an euphemism for sex, or related things.
I think that first 'we' in that line CAN be read as both the plural and the singular option. It would make sense in plural because the last 'we' in text is plural, the Witness talking to someone. If so: lends some credence, i think, to the read that there's a certain amount on intimacy in the subtext here. The second 'we' is definitely the singular one again. The Witness has control issues from here to the literal end of the world.
But also: if one reads the sentence before that with the implication of intimacy, then this more of 'both of us, together, but also: ME in charge' which... would fit their dynamic to a T. Which again: they both know this there are zero illusions held here about who is worshiper and who is worshiped. Who orders and who obeys.
IN CONCLUSION
i think a case can be made for the loretab on euphony being something of a post-mortem love note from the Witness to Rhulk. Not necessarily romantic because who fucking knows if that maps onto anything the Witness got going emotionwise, but. The entire thing, in the context of what the gun looks like, and what the phrasing is like, if read not as a monologue but as an address to someone? Is surprisingly tender.
I am torn on whether or not this is a memory, a fragment of a conversation that actually happened, or not, but i think in the context of the entire thing i am getting more of a vibe that this is more the Witness reminiscing about things it would have said to Rhulk, and never did. The regrets it has (which y'know. look at all those dissenters) which mount that it approaches the final shape it always wanted, but now has to approach without the person that was without a doubt its longest standing companion/social interaction.
Addendum: I have two thoughts on why the number of fingers don't match:
it's merely to retain the symmetry of the hands forming the barrel, from a design pov
it's not JUST design. it's a hint that the witness did want Rhulk in the final shape, but in a form more closely approaching its own, indicated by having the barrel of the gun taper out into a perfect - if red - mirror of its own.
I just thought of something more on that, actually.
Euphony is a Strand weapon, right?
A power that we're told has to do with connection and a release of control, the opposite to how Stasis is portrayed in game.
Stasis we get from the Witness, which makes sense because holy control freak batman, CONTROLL is it's big thing. Strand we find ourselves, and the first time we see any forces of the Witness use it, it's as a shield. A defensive, protective measure. We don't see offensive use of Strand from it until TFS and the subjugators show up.
Yet from the raid we get a gun that's literally holding hands, tied to a power that's about connection.
And then that gun goes and spawns fucking threadlings as its exotic perk. It makes little guys.
(side note: and we get that from a raid that reuses the 'give' symbol from Vow. A symbol that's just straight up Rhulk's pizza hands framing a black pyramid. I got a whole 'nother essay locked and loaded on the Vow symbols actually)
So like. How hard do we all think it hit the Witness when after literal millions of years, perhaps even billions... it gets the final shape, its big end goal within easy reach
And it's most constant connection, the only person who seems have to have mattered to it to any extend...is dead.
And the Witness can't bring back the dead.
So instead we get subjugators, shaped and named like any one of them is Rhulk's daughter, and a gun that's holding hands and makes more little guys.
I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE right but I have a right not to post cause I don't want to (moving so slow with drawing I can't keep up with my ideas)
workaholic nerd. seth smuggles rare artifacts from all over the solar system, does private bounty hunting and barely leaves his ship (unless it's absolutely necessary). worse: his ship barely leaves NLS travel mode.
nerd cause he was a nerd in his human life, he will stay a nerd after ressurection. likes to overexplain and correct everyone around (being super annoying)
I was having fun in blender and created this. What is the Witness reacting to? Young Wolf dressed in horrendous fashion, probably? Reblog with a funny description!
+ profile picture format with that expression below the cut cause I find it silly and also why not
If you woke up in your destiny characters body, what would you do first? It could be in any time, any place, but what what would you do first?
I know if I woke up in my warlocks body I would probably go see Cayde and try to befriend him. Maybe see if he would be interested in sharing some stories with me and just, be okay with me hanging out with him for a little bit.
I'd be doomed since my guardian has a child he's taking care of. Otherwise: definitely hanging out with Shaxx first. I'd also tell Failsafe that I love her because who doesn't love Failsafe? I can't think of more LOL
this took 5 hours of my free time after an all-nighter and my internship shift (honestly it shows.... yikes). but! at least i can take part in #hugWitness by @bioluminosity !!
does this count as a hug? i'm not that good with drawing characters interacting. ouch. anyway i wanted something cute there it is ig
