✨ twitter | instagram | store✨ Hi, my name is Cathy, I'm a comic artist and illustrator and I like posting about my OCs :3
she/her
#my art
#crew of cuties
inquiries: ccathyle(at)gmail.com
honestly i know nothing abt dnd or curse of strahd but you explained it so well i was able to understand the mess of it; so glad sarsenbi managed to escape!!! i wonder how he feels after that love confession bc he said it thinking he was going to die but he lived and now has to face mallow who now knows how he feels 👀
Thank you for reading even though I just word vomitted 🤣
Honestly I don’t know how I’m going to play it out yet. On the one hand 100 years of loneliness weighs very heavy on him, he spent a lifetime without Mallow and doesn’t know how much longer he can do without him. And on the other he still has his duty to his Goddess which involves giving up everything for her, and ignoring his personal desires. Guilt hangs heavy on him that he couldn’t differentiate between an illusion of her and her real voice. That’s also a whole long thing 🥲 I’ll post his whole backstory at some point.
omg would love to know how the new campaign is going 👀 i've only been following you for a few years now but i'm absolutely smitten by your ocs and have been eating up everything you post abt them! your art style is so whimsical and soft and just !!! i love it! thank you so much for sharing your work with us all these years <3
Hello! Thank you so much for your kind message, it really means a lot to me! You don't know how happy this makes me to hear that!
As for my Curse of Strahd campaign currently is on its 32 session this coming Sunday! I'm having so much fun and really juicy things have happened the last two sessions that really put Sarsenbi THROUGH IT!
A few recent happenings have been: (in case people don't want spoilers for Curse of Strahd!)
This is our party, but as of last session 2 have been benched and their players have brought in new characters for various reasons!! I just haven't drawn them yet!
There's so much that happened especially in the last two sessions that I think are kinda interesting if you wanted to read about it!!! It’s pretty long, so forgive me for yapping.
A wager is set by Strahd that if we beat Ludmilla (one of his brides) and stop her ritual, he'd give us a reward. He doesn't expect much from us, sees us as playthings and he's bored.
Ludmilla and some druids at Yesterhill have been planning a ritual. She and the druids wanted to summon something called the Winter Splinter. We're up against the powerful mage Ludmilla, about a dozen druids, and the summon Winter Splinter. The battle goes totally sideways very fast. Atrox, our fighter, rolled a Nat 1 and his cursed Axe made him go berserk, making it tougher than it needed to be. The battle resulted in Atrox's death and many characters downed and out of resources. Cinnabar (Atrox and Cinnabar have been developing feelings for each other) upon seeing the party downed and Atrox dead, runs away seeing as it was looking hopeless and as of right now is missing. Sarsenbi was downed, but for some reason Strahd chose to stabilize him. When he woke, he sees Atrox dead, but with no spell slots left, he's unable to do anything to help. Strahd approaches him and Sarsenbi asks him for help. Strahd offers his blood for Sarsenbi to drink. Sarsenbi, who usually asks his goddess for guidance before anything he does, drinks without hesitation to revive his friend. His spell slots are refilled, he isn't turned, but the consequences are yet to be seen. Atrox is revived. The ritual goes off, Ludmilla flees. We fail our wager with Strahd.
Last Session:
Strahd promised the party a reward, he still asks to meet where he would have given us our reward, at the Whispering Wall. Only two of us go, Cinnabar is missing and had run away, Atrox is shaken from being brought back from the dead, Resilience doesn't want to talk to Strahd. Only Sarsenbi and Gungkk go to meet him. Sarsenbi wants to know why he helped him. After giving vague answers, he tells the two of them about the Whispering Wall and how it would show those who walk through it their deepest desires. It imposes a test upon them if they should like to see, warning them a way back only appears once. Strahd says many who go in never come back out.
Gungkk refuses, but Sarsenbi walks through knowing that he had never really thought about his deepest desires or ever had been asked about them. He only knows devotion to his Goddess, and has never been asked about anything else. And on surface level, he would say his deepest desire is to carry out his duties to Istus.
Upon entering (?) Strahd (?) says to him that he has the ability to take him back home. The mists surround him and he's home, back in his monastery right where he left it. It looks like a lot of time has passed even though he’s only been gone a month. His city and home are empty, he follows the hallways of his monastery to find a sleeping Mallow by a shrine to Istus. Delighted, he calls to him and finds out the city has been moved elsewhere since the disappearance of Istus’ chosen (aka Sarsenbi being taken to Barovia). Mallow suggests they find Sarsenbi’s mother together and they’ll figure out what next from there, but Sarsenbi suggests they go back to Barovia instead because he doesn’t want to leave his friends in trouble. Mallow would do whatever Sarsenbi likes. Mallow is able to travel through the mists in and out of Barovia as he is a Vistani.
Hesitant, he asks Istus with an Augury spell weal or woe if he should follow Mallow forward. She answers weal. With the ok from Istus and Mallow by his side, he agrees to venture with Mallow. He has no reason to doubt his goddess. A misty doorway appears behind him that only he can see and a ghostly voice whispers, “The way back only appears once.” Mallow asks if he’s okay, he doesn’t see the doorway. Sarsenbi shakes hesitation he has and follows Mallow.
1 month passes. This has been the happiest month of his life spending his time traveling with Mallow, sleeping under stars, drinking and eating in taverns and inns. However no matter how close they get, Barovia seems out of reach. Sarsenbi asks Mallow how he could help. Mallow apologizes for his inability despite being a skilled tracker and traveler. Using a sending spell, Sarsenbi contacts Mallow’s aunt, who is still in Barovia, and asks how they can find a way back and he is worried about how they are doing there.
“Don’t worry about u-“ she replies but there is some static and then clearly: “You and Mallow are trying to find a way back? What do you mean? Mallow is still in the Svalich woods with Arabel. I heard from him this morning.”
And with this revelation, Sarsenbi realizes he had made a terrible mistake. He fell for the illusions of the whispering wall. The answer he heard from Istus wasn’t real. He backs away from Mallow, devastated that everything he had experienced hasn’t been real. Mallow calls to him, but he runs back to the monastery and isolating himself.
10 years pass. He’s been alone and poring through his library to find any answers at all. On the other side of the door Mallow tries to get him out, gently and kindly. It sounds like him and acts like him, and it tempts him, but Sarsenbi resists. He tries another sending spell to Atrox. “It’s been 10 years, I can’t find a way back.”
Atrox replies, panicked, “what do you mean? 10 years, where are you? It’s only been 2 hours since you went to see Strahd”
His goddess communicates with him again, she is angry with him, furious that he fell for the visions. His divination threads, controlled by here snakes up his neck and tightens, choking him. “You are mine, not theirs.” He hears in her voice. (I believe this is the real Istus reaching out to him through the whispering wall, which is another divine being’s domain)
100 years pass. Sarsenbi is an old man now, he’s thin, his hair white. He has spent the past 100 years completely alone and isolated, his hands shake and tremble from old age. And he sits in the middle of an arcane circle he’s built in his room to help him get out of the Whispering Wall. This will be his last chance. If he fails, he will use the last of his energy and die here, trapped forever by the wall. He decides to use one last sending spell to real Mallow.
“I’m afraid I don’t have much time left. I love you.” 3 words he’s never said to Mallow before. He’s always kept Mallow at a distance despite having feelings for him because of his devotion to his goddess.Mallow replies panicked and confused, ready to be by his side to help him.
A portal opens, the spell succeeds. Sarsenbi runs through and collides into his party and into Atrox’s arms. He just embraces Atrox, a century of loneliness has taken a toll on him. He’s young again, but the effects of the time he spent growing old and alone linger for the foreseeable future.
And that’s where we left off 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 my poor old man babi!!!!!! But also 😌😌I like seeing him suffer bc of his poor choices tehee
Anyways sorry again for the long reply 😖I got excited to share.
Just a reflection on how my art/oc's have changed over 6 years.
2020->2026
2020 Sarsenbi was a bard who was very religious and sung of his goddess' words but 2023(?) and beyond Sarsenbi is a now a zealot cleric instead. 2020 Mallow was meant to be an older commander type character who one night standed the devout Sarsenbi, but I very quickly scrapped that into him being a quiet and shy young firbolg who falls in love hard and fast instead.
In their early days, I wanted them to have a one sided pining, and Sarsenbi was the one to pine, but I didnt really resonate with that too much. Currently, Mallow is Barovia's top yearner who's in love with Sarsenbi who is conflicted between his feelings for Mallow and his duties as Istus' chosen. More of a starcrossed lovers vibe!!
Early Mallow also had some earrings and jewelry which I quickly nixed because he's more of a practical utilitarian man, so it doesn't make sense for him to have earrings at all. Also crazy, I can draw armor now? LOL back that I didn't know how so his design was very limited. He changed from the giant non furry firbolg design to a furry one because where Sarsenbi is all sharp and angles, I wanted Mallow too be soft and fluffy. and also cute earse and tail!! even though traditionally firbolgs don't have tails.
Sarsenbi's design has become more focused in what kind of style I wanted to go for and his silhouette and colors read better to me.
Kinda crazy that my first concepts of them were from six years ago. I can hardly believe it. So much has happened since then too. I graduated school, became a real and true comics professional, cried lots and came out the other side. A lot of times I don't feel good enough, so looking back (even though it brings me so much embarrassment at my bad old art) puts things into perspective for me.
I made Sarsenbi and Mallow for a Strahd campaign back then that I never got to finish and now they're in another Strahd campaign and it's going steady. Ugh, some crazy things happened last session that I'm eager to share, if people are interested.
It kind of sounds cheesy, but I think through drawing them for so long, I found my identity as an artist and some confidence. And my personal life too, I've found a lot of comfort with them when I didn't see a way forward and things looked bleak.
Anyways thank you for making it this far of me yapping. I wanted to get back to my roots of blogging on this platform. Sometimes it's nice to not have a tweet limit haha
I updated his design (and lore) a few months ago! He has partial armor now.
Mallow is from a now secluded community in the woods called the Silver Grove, where the last few unicorns can be found. They have always been sacred to Mallow's people, and some believe that they are distant descendants of them. There used to be an abundance of them a hundreds of years ago, where they roamed freely in the woods. Outsiders used to be welcome in the Silver Grove, but due to greed and legends of the unicorn's healing power, poachers began to hunt them. The firbolgs of the Grove used to harvest unicorn horns that were shed naturally (much like deer antlers, and doesn't hurt the horses at all) to mix with metals to strengthen them and make various items like armor, weapons, jewelry, and household objects. They give metals a distinct iridescent sheen.
Because of scarcity nowadays, full sets of armor are rare, even Mallow's pieces have been passed down from his mother, and her mother before her.
When Mallow was young, he and his family found an abandoned calf, who he helped raise. She now is his trusted steed.
I had more written somewhere, but if I remember anything I'll write more hehe. Thanks for reading!!
I made some art for this!! It's kind of surreal that some of my favorite fanart I posted back in the day was for ATLA and LOK and now I have some art in official ATLA stuff!! I did that aardvark-sloth and croco-cat and more in the book!
Hi everyone!! Hope everyone is doing well! Long time no post, it’s been a busy past couple of months working on Harley Quinn, but I’m finding a little bit of time now to work on some fun things 💜 I hope you enjoy 🥹
vaporwave
dededos
gummygunk
germansingergirl
izzy806
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
titsay
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
