Epic Rising

[epic-rising]

Epic Rising Masterlist

Seawolves

Odysseus Eurylochus Polities Perimedes Elpenor ______________________________________________________________

Odysseus' Family

Penelope Telemachus Anticlea Laertes Ctimene _____________________________________________________________

Trojans

The Infant / Astynax Hector Andromache _____________________________________________________________

Deities

Aeolus Aphrodite Apollo Ares Athena Helios Hephaestus Hera Hermes Poseidon Zeus _____________________________________________________________

Lesser Gods and Monsters

Lotus-Eaters (distinct from Winions for my purposes) Polyphemus Winions Circe Tiresias Sirens Calypso Charybdis

_____________________________________________________________

The Horse and the Infant Kings / Commanders

Diomedes Agamemnon Menelaus Teucer Lesser Ajax (Little Ajax) Nestor Neoptolemus (Neo) _____________________________________________________________

Suitors

Antinous Eurymachus Amphinomus Melanthius _____________________________________________________________

Bonus

Achilles Patroclus Helen Hades

[laikaspotlight]

Wildwood test animation

The General will be voiced by Angela Basset!

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Those are the most accurate wing animations I have ever seen in practical effects.

[chipper-smol]

fun behaviors to give dragons that aren't feline/canine based

cause as much as i love dragons purring and roaring i wish there was just more variety in how they would act

clacking their teeth together to show contentedness/happiness (budgies)

using tails as a defensive weapon in a whip like fashion (iguana)

twitching to express that they're not a threat to members of their species (hognose snake)

feeling calm when eyes are hooded/covered (birds of prey)

head bobbing as a threat display (anoles/bearded dragons)

flattening neck or sides to appear bigger (snakes/lizards)

mantling over food to protect it from hatchmates (birds of prey)

wiggling neck as a courting maneuver (budgies)

audibly grinding teeth as a warning (macaques)

maintained eye contact as a challenge (gorillas)

pounding wings against sides as a threat (gorillas)

slapping other dragons with their claws when their personal bubble is invaded (seals)

hoards used as a site to impress mates (birds of paradise)

snorting when undergoing heightened stress (horses)

making repeated loud noises with surroundings to establish territory (woodpeckers)

loud constant arguments with other dragons when roosting (bats)

building lairs that cause a domino effect of change in the land around them (beavers)

slapping their tails against the ground/water as a warning (beavers)

wiggling tail tip to attract prey (various animals)

wiggling tail tip as a warning (snakes)

plucking or scraping off scales as a sign of stress (parrots)

raising spines/frills as a response to danger and carrying on with their usual business as they believe they're protected (lionfish)

and im not saying canine and feline behaviors are wrong or bad to give a dragon (people wouldn't write dragons with those behaviors if they weren't fun in the first place!) but i feel for creatures that are mythological giant winged lizards that you can do more and get experimental with it. often the more unfamiliar behavior the more dragony the dragon feels

[mossbear-minese]

I've been trying to decide whether I want to make a Google Form so people can submit their own dragons to be cast as Epic Rising background characters

Especially for the unnamed sailors on Ody's ship, since we see them often, and idk if I want to design that many dragons

The easiest way would be just casting from my own lair, but I think it would be fun to include other people's dragons, and it would add a lot more variety. Plus, I kinda want to sprinkle my own dragons throughout the background characters of the musical, and not dump them all into the one group

I don't think I would cast all 600 of Odysseus' fleet, because that would just be. a lot. to draw

unless

I mean, not everyone would be visible at the same time, so it's not like I'd ever have to draw 600 dragons in any detail whatsoever

But I'd still probably only cast a handful for each ship besides Odysseus' (and I obviously wouldn't get that many submissions anyway lmao)

The real main thing that I need to keep in mind is how much detail I actually want to include in this animatic series, and to make sure I'm not biting off more than I can chew. The thing that keeps bringing me back to this idea though is that because FR dragon shapes are so varied, it'll be more obvious if the background cast is not as consistent as it should be? This is probably something that only I as the artist would really notice, but it's a detail that I would like to more or less get right anyway

Besides Odysseus' fleet, there are several other background groups that I would also need to cast, and I'd so love for it to be more than nondescript dragon shapes. Fighters in the first two songs, the Lotus-Eaters and separately the Winions, maybe other cyclops?, sirens, suitors (although the Wisdom and Ithica sagas are like. at least a year away, probably closer to 2), Circe's nymphs, other groups probably

I would just get so much enjoyment from offering people the opportunity to see their dragons almost-animated

It would also be nice to do that tiny bit of advertisement for what I do hope will be a full series that I do want people to see, although this project is absolutely not monetizable, so it would literally just be for exposure I guess lmao

[mossbear-minese]

Odysseus

Reigning king of Ithica, neither man nor mythical

Guardian | Falcon Tan | Peregrine Splash | Basic Blood | Water Bright

The infamous main man himself.

I initially chose the Peregrine/Falcon combo due to three reasons: - "Peregrine" meaning "wandering" - Peregrine falcons mate for life - I associate peregrines with a strong homing instinct (although in-the-moment googling isn't giving me a strong confirmation on that) I then stuck with Peregrine/Falcon because I love that the stripes line up between the back and the wing.

I was pretty confident from the get-go that I wanted blue wings. I think I probably tried every blue available in the process. I really wanted to choose Storm as a reference, but I ended up preferring the shades of Splash better. It almost looks like light filtering through water, in a way that I didn't quite find in the other options.

For the primary colour, I wanted it to complement the Splash wings in such a way that he kind of looked like a beach. Tan was the winner!

I didn't include a tertiary gene, mostly for animatic/animation purposes, as I didn't want to make it more complex than necessary. However, the tert colour is Blood because I sometimes give him Stained Blood as a tert combo after the Underworld Saga, to represent him waking up and choosing violence. I haven't decided yet whether I'll actually include that in the animatics, though.

And he's a Guardian for another three reasons: - The breed fit the character to my satisfaction - I thought it was funny to make him a Water breed - I like to think his Guardian Charge is his family :))

Link to ER Masterlist

[mossbear-minese]

ER Athena

Goddess of wisdom, master of war

Sandsurge | Arapaima Denim | Amber Saddle | Crest Gold | Light Bright

This is one of the ER scries that I would love to actually have in my lair, I think she's such a cool scry.

I believe she was the second Epic Rising scry I finalized, after the first Circe scry! She was designed mostly in tandem with Odysseus, so that their designs reflected each other.

Denim Arapaima is such a good looking gene, and I love how the Amber Saddle and Gold Crest genes complement each other, even while being imperfect matches!