the nefarious ghilan'nain @kenwaysfolly - Tumblr Blog

back to the shadows 🌑

inspired by the storm by pierre auguste cot, shri’iia and astarion running away from the sun bc he’s a vampire and she has sunlight sensitivity.

please zoom in to see the details! 🥹🫶

#oh this is so fucking cool #bg3

swordmaid

☀️🪻 gale/tav commisssion for @culurienvasa

based on La Belle Dam Sans Merci by Frank Bernard Dicksee

voynichs

also like apparently this is florianne's concept art lmfao? i guess the design was originally for florianne and for some reason they decided to recycle it for calpernia instead.

obviously i have no complaints but i would argue florianne has a larger impact on more players so i'm surprised they chose to give her the more generic design. but i guess under the mask it didn't quite matter as much? and samson got a unique design so they probably wanted to balance it out.

also im obsessed with that disgusting gom jabbar nail.

yrliet

i had the pleasure of commissioning @kalidels again, this time to paint my dark urge, fialine ! ♥️

kalidels

so honored to have been her court painter for a day <3 so proud of how this painting of her royal highness murder princess with a disorder turned out ♥️♥️ thank you again!!

stonesense

the way they just said foundling mercar was adopted by a military family and provided NO further context at all. what does it mean what does it all mean

stonesense

“military family” implies patriotism. loyalty to tevinter. what does that mean in the context of adopting a possibly non human, possibly non mage child? what does that mean in the context of that child growing up to be an anti-slavery rebel vigilante? what’s mercar’s relationship with their adopted family? why were they taken in and how old were they? were they trained for a military role? did they serve in a military role? what kind of rank does the family aim for, are they raising centurions or footsoldiers, are they laetan or soporati? what were they raised to believe about tevinter vs everything outside it? do their family approve of their involvement with the shadow dragons? do they even know? did mercar dramatically rebel and break ties to become what they are now? or did the whole family become disillusioned or fall out of favour with tevinter loyalists? what does it mean what does it all mean!!!

#da4 #the dream of mercar passing me by. shoehorning tooo many ideas into one concept and none of them the sexiest

chanafehs

skyhold maid to a dreadwolf hunter? never underestimate a lesbian

reynisxxsimart

Ghilan'nain fanart 💀

perplexingly

My favourite Merrill banter

perplexingly

Sorry for posting so much, I just— really wanted to do this banter as well, it’s longer than this but I thought the way Merrill delivers lines in this bit was hilarious

mythalism

my #1 complaint with veilguard is probably the lack of moral complexity and maturity and how much of northern thedas is sanitized and almost all issues (outside of solas and mythal, which they knocked out of the park imo, but the moral complexity of them as characters and of their relationship makes the lack of nuance in every other faction and relationship stand out even worse) are presented as black and white, good vs. evil. i think the absence of the presence of slavery in northern thedas is the most egregious example of this. the crows are found-family heroes with absolutely no mention of the fact that they canonically populate their ranks with abused elven child slaves and kill them if they try to escape. we know minrathous to be the capital of a massive empire that was built and founded on slave labor and blood magic. the slave trade is baked into every single stone of that city, and it should be everywhere in a disenfranchised area like docktown. and yet.... its nowhere? its like they went, "okay well the factions all need to be GOOD and slavery is BAD so lets just pretend it doesnt exist so we dont have to talk about the way these factions have historically participated in it!" a few codex entries? a few mentions of freeing slaves by the shadow dragons and by solas but its never actually depicted? i think its something a lot of people have picked up on in accusations of the game feeling like something made by marvel or disney, and a lot of people are attributing that mostly to the art style and cheugy dialogue, but i honestly think it is the very simplistic and juvenile presentation of what should be complex issues diluted down to the sort of hero vs. villain, good vs. evil no-nuance conflicts that is creating that juvenile feeling, rather than the art style. past games have always had cheesy-ass dialogue and the graphics have never been the highlight of the game, but neither had the same feeling of playing something incredibly glossy but also incredibly shallow, especially in a franchise that is famed for its complex and nuanced (though, often poorly done and racist - looking at you qunari and dalish) depictions of sociopolitical issues through a fantasy lens.

but whats especially interesting is that the artbook (just the first 50 pages that are free) reveals that... this was present in the early stages of the game. the concept art of tevinter is full of disturbing depictions of slavery, as is the concept art of arlathan. now, to be clear, slavery is not a morally complex or ambiguous issue. slavery in fantasy is often depicted in ways that is damaging and problematic, especially when written by people who have no real understanding of it and its lasting effects on a group of people. bioware has been guilty of this in the past.

however, i think it is the best example of the shallowness of veilguard when compared to both the past games and the concept art. other examples, however, include literally the Qun as a whole suddenly being UNAMBIGUOUSLY EVIL combined with, imo, a super racist depiction of the antaam as mindless and animalistic, absolutely no exploration of racism against elves other than like, one mention from davrin in a game that is basically all about elves, blood magic being unambiguously evil rather than exploring how it is being used and for what purposes, the complete absence of the mage-templar mass incarceration and mass-lobotimization conflict, isseya being afforded none of the empathy that solas is given and instead presented as unambiguously evil and deserves to die, the grey wardens being heroes who definitely do not manipulate disenfranchised people into escaping their lives to join an order that will steal their bodies and eventually their minds and futures from them, and much more. going from a world that was so willing to at least ATTEMPT to depict the horrors of empires that utilized slave labor to build, the way dehumanization facilitates and interacts with these issues, violent class disparities and how poverty forces people into crime, the effects of institutionalized racism even after slavery has been legally abolished, with stories like that of varania and fenris, of zevran and taliesin, to.... finally going to the site of the horrors they faced and to find it to be completely sanitized? and yes, they did not always land, and i have a lot of issues with their execution of some of these representations (the option to give fenris back to danarius and having anders approve??????? HELLO?), but at least they TRIED to tell a story about a man recovering from the trauma of something so horrible and learning to trust again. so what happened in the middle? were they afraid of their own ability to handle the topic due to past criticism instead of attempting to learn from it? instead we are just going to pretend like it doesnt exist? we're not going to talk about it? its literally the most insane elephant in the room. of course fenris and zevran couldn't make cameos in this game, because then they'd have to make a statement on a painful, real, and difficult to discuss topic that actually means something, instead of using a warehouse full of elves being guarded by armed police at the docks as a hollywood-style backlot and depict an empire built on the blood sacrifices of the poor and enslaved as just another fun little area to explore. how does neve fight for the people of docktown but slavery literally never comes up in her story????? we know that blood magic exists but we never see who is being disproportionately used for those blood sacrifices?

i think its especially interesting considering how explicitly supportive of trans people this game is, which is fantastic and i admire bioware deeply for making such a strong and unapologetic statement of their values of acceptance. but that strong statement makes the lack of any other strong statements or exploration of issues even mildly contentious (again, slavery is not even a contentious issue, and i think that's why their fear to depict it at all, much less as unambiguously horrifying, is so insane) leaves the world of northern thedas feeling so shallow and sterile. it is as if bioware doesnt trust me to engage with topics like an adult capable of using critical thinking skills, and did not trust themselves to depict these issues like adults capable of critical thinking skills either. maybe, considering the presence of these things in the artbook, this was on EA for pushing for more mass-market appeal, or maybe it was really the bioware devs backing away from difficult topics due to a lack of confidence to do them justice. idk. but its really disappointing to me

#yeah that game was such a sad sad song #da4

mooreaux

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Commission Information

I will draw: OCs, canon characters, monsters, couples, multi-figure pieces, NSFW (I will post only SFW versions on my blog, though).

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I will start the commission after the invoice is paid.

If you’d like to commission me, or have any questions, email me at: [email protected]

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References I’ll need:

Your Username or however you’d like me to credit if I post the commission publicly.

***bust/waist up/full body choice***

**Simple color(free of charge)/ Background choice**

Character References: images and links, please include specific expression/pose references if you have those as well. (if not, I can come up with something for you)

Character Details, disposition and/or notable features such as piercings/scars/makeup.

I am an incredibly visual person, and very easily overwhelmed by paragraphs of information/more likely to miss details. Visual references such as photos, Pinterest boards, imgur folders, and the like with short descriptions on each facet of the design are HUGELY appreciated.

the email where I should send the paypal invoice

Outfit Lineup Commission Information

Same process of references and info listed above.

Base Figure: $75.00

Standard Outfit: $35.00

Complex Outfit: $50.00

Extra Pieces: $20.00 (to add to any existing outfit aka, alt. jackets, weapons, things like that)

-As many extra looks as you like, the price is the same (varying only on complexity.)

-Lightly rendered style, less complex than my regular commissions. If you want fully rendered looks, there will be an upcharge.

-Base look can be either nude or in underwear. Hair, jewelry, makeup can be changed, base pose and features cannot. (to make it easier on me)

#commissions

mooreaux

The Devil’s Bride

reallybadblackoutpoems

imagination (1963) - harold ordway rugg

"chekhovs cat / schrödingers razor / occams gun"

venort

Chekov's Cat: if you see a cat in the first act, it will probably be relevant later. (example: Alien)

Shrodinger's razor: an unopened box may or may not contain the solution to the story; there's no way to know without opening it. (example: Monk)

Occam's gun: the simplest way to kill off a character is to shoot them. (example: Bambi)

aegimeda

i have been cracking up at this for the past 3 minutes

jesticutioner

Chekov's Box: If there is a container introduced in the opening act, it will be opened later.

Schrodinger's Gun: Treat every gun as if it's loaded unless you've checked it yourself.

Occam's Cat: If you hear strange noises at night, it's probably a cat.

anoras

there are so many moments in veilguard where they Almost hit on something really good but then it's never touched again. like. harding has an entire religious crisis that is never touched on outside of that one scene. bellara asks how the dalish culture can continue; what do they keep, and what do they leave behind? the question isn't discussed again. neve thinks it's nbd that mythal chose to side with elgar'nan and remain in power after the war? can we interrogate that? discuss whether or not you can change something from within - and if you should even try?