I sea no puns @rubinjuwel - Tumblr Blog

first time ive actually made a ref for these guys LOL... i gave myself a little break from the comic to make this cuz the Need struck.

the bäckahästs relative, the sea-rams. these guys are a good bit more aquatic than their cousins, as they specialise on a pescetarian/shellfish diet. they were more common on the coast of the scandinavian peninsula but like many other vättar retreated to shrouded zones/manufactured them as human populations grew. most cultures are pretty decentralised and very local so cultural customs vary wildly, and there's often crossover with bäckahäst cultures, although ofc the particulars of these crossovers vary depending history/location etc.

there's a sea-ram settlement near vätterunda, Cahrimneh, located on an islet hidden away in the lake near the town!

#Ooooh creatures #Beautiful art #I love the thick tails #Good for swimming

juunipupu

Knights in Love

juunipupu

more lore and context under cut

inspiration songs: John Denver – Annie’s Song , Melodious Melancholye – Bryd one breere in nutshell: Wreg’s (and Otto’s) frolic in the forest is interrupted by an ill omen – black woodpeckers, that signify death. Black woodpeckers: I’m not sure if this particular folk belief persist anywhere else, but in Finland they are seen as an ill omen, specifically either ill fortune or death. I’ve grown up to know them for the graver signifier, in which case depending on if the bird(s) fly in front of you (someone you love dies soon) or behind you (you die soon). Here the birds are spooked and fly towards Otto, and Wreg’s head is turned towards him in same manner as the woodpeckers’ (does he know? Or is he just reaching to kiss him back? Idk I enjoy both ideas) Hound: he’s not super visible against bright backgrounds, but there’s a talbot hound under the steed. He’s dangling one of the birds’ wings in his maw. While talbots are extinct now, there’s debate on whether they were even a breed to begin with (more likely a name for any white and large hunting dog). Growing up Wreg always had a talbot, and they are overall important to his early story. Even here, the hound is doing he’s part to protect his beloved companion from ill omens. Horse: Wreg likes horses that are spunky and silly. I just wanted to bring out her character here, with her chewing on her reins and stomping with her hoof. I’ve always imagined Wreg would’ve always found a way to own a destrier, which were a medieval category of large and stocky war horses. Armour: Otto is wearing more Milanese style armour while Wreg clearly has gothic. I just enjoyed the idea to insinuate here they might’ve gifted the armours to each other.. (in canon timeline Otto is extremely dead and has been for a long while)

#beautiful art #Arfsgdhjkl #The way you paint #The metal shimmer #The conifer needles #The doggo #The FUR #And the feathers too #I love the symbolism #Poor Otto though #I‘m just mesmerized at everything you paint

dykekarkat

"imagine showing insert blank to a medieval peasant they'd die lol" personally i think if i saw the medieval peasant's night sky i'd start crying and never stop

brokenmusicboxwolfe

#moth

filurig

a little doodle in conjunction to a response to these tags on my last post (hope you dont mind making a seperate post to answer ahehe, just dont want the last post to get too long lol)

in case ur not the only one who came away with the idea (which i dont blame u ahah) folke is NOT a basilisk he is indeed just a normal human! so no bird shape for him (sadly). but also, if he had been a basilisk, he would have different physical characteristics (more feather covering, nonhuman skin tone, no human eye).

so calling his scar a "troll scar" wouldn't even be an "excuse"(hint hint), but after getting this scar he doesn't explain it that way anyway, and instead opts to cover it up as much as possible (eyepatch, doubling down on scarves). in vätterunda (human town he lives near) he already had a strange reputation as Guy Who Is Potentially a Ghost or Something despite literally being just a human guy, so there is a reasonable fear of being like... chased away (or maybe worse) if the scar is seen. vätterunda is a town where people take folk tales and legends pretty seriously (in general) so most people would still subscribe to the folk explanation of troll scars (being that the person with one is either a troll, or... slept with one)

NOW more relevant to the doodle is that eventually (post story most likely) folke does get corrective glasses for his eyes because they are a bit different in vision. his afflicted eye has obtained some traits similar to basilisk vision, namely sharper long-distance vision than humans do, while his other remains the same as it had always been (no need for correction).

This results in some pretty bad nausea/dizzyness. the glasses do help with this, but since his brain is still a Human one and more wired for the sight in his left eye, it is more comfortable for him to wear the lens that corrects the far distance vision in his afflicted eye to be similar to his normal eye, than the other way around.

rubinjuwel

Thank you for your answers!! The glasses are really cool, love the detachable lense idea

I fricking knew it with the eyes! I guessed that it could cause headaches or migraines but I wasn’t sure if I should theorize that far since I didn‘t even know for certain that the vision was different.

It makes a lot of sense to correct the more basilisk eye to the human sight.

And I‘ll admit, it‘s been a WHILE since I read the troll scar post so I completely forgot about the negative social connections those have.

Really like the worldbuilding around that though!

Also

Turns out I was so tired this morning that I completely missed you literally calling this guy Folke

I confused him with Arvo-

AGAIN

I was literally sitting there, half asleep and squinting, going „Why would they draw Arvo like that, I thought his human disguise needed magic illusion to look that human?“

And now that I‘m actually awake I realize this is the person from the last art, with the snake wood carvings, the one I confused for Arvo‘s human shape before

Either I struggle with faces too much or they look very similar

filurig

xD

rubinjuwel

ok they don‘t look similar, I just saw the long hair and did not think any further at all XD

filurig

a little doodle in conjunction to a response to these tags on my last post (hope you dont mind making a seperate post to answer ahehe, just dont want the last post to get too long lol)

in case ur not the only one who came away with the idea (which i dont blame u ahah) folke is NOT a basilisk he is indeed just a normal human! so no bird shape for him (sadly). but also, if he had been a basilisk, he would have different physical characteristics (more feather covering, nonhuman skin tone, no human eye).

so calling his scar a "troll scar" wouldn't even be an "excuse"(hint hint), but after getting this scar he doesn't explain it that way anyway, and instead opts to cover it up as much as possible (eyepatch, doubling down on scarves). in vätterunda (human town he lives near) he already had a strange reputation as Guy Who Is Potentially a Ghost or Something despite literally being just a human guy, so there is a reasonable fear of being like... chased away (or maybe worse) if the scar is seen. vätterunda is a town where people take folk tales and legends pretty seriously (in general) so most people would still subscribe to the folk explanation of troll scars (being that the person with one is either a troll, or... slept with one)

NOW more relevant to the doodle is that eventually (post story most likely) folke does get corrective glasses for his eyes because they are a bit different in vision. his afflicted eye has obtained some traits similar to basilisk vision, namely sharper long-distance vision than humans do, while his other remains the same as it had always been (no need for correction).

This results in some pretty bad nausea/dizzyness. the glasses do help with this, but since his brain is still a Human one and more wired for the sight in his left eye, it is more comfortable for him to wear the lens that corrects the far distance vision in his afflicted eye to be similar to his normal eye, than the other way around.

rubinjuwel

Thank you for your answers!! The glasses are really cool, love the detachable lense idea

I fricking knew it with the eyes! I guessed that it could cause headaches or migraines but I wasn’t sure if I should theorize that far since I didn‘t even know for certain that the vision was different.

It makes a lot of sense to correct the more basilisk eye to the human sight.

And I‘ll admit, it‘s been a WHILE since I read the troll scar post so I completely forgot about the negative social connections those have.

Really like the worldbuilding around that though!

Also

Turns out I was so tired this morning that I completely missed you literally calling this guy Folke

I confused him with Arvo-

AGAIN

I was literally sitting there, half asleep and squinting, going „Why would they draw Arvo like that, I thought his human disguise needed magic illusion to look that human?“

And now that I‘m actually awake I realize this is the person from the last art, with the snake wood carvings, the one I confused for Arvo‘s human shape before

Either I struggle with faces too much or they look very similar

#Beautiful art