hello, I am absolutely, definitely, 100% am going to upload the first chapter of a exalted-y comic tomorrow (2026/04/07 australia time).
to help me resist over-explaining myself on every post, this is going to my info post and then all the other comic posts will be nothing but images.
some context:
this comic follows the plot of a small segment of my exalted group's play in Nexus. I don't think knowing about exalted will be necessary to understand the plot. it has been extremely edited from our story notes, since actual play would be unintelligible and boring.
this whole thing has been drafted, so it shouldn't be crazy long and should be eventually complete. OTL
content warnings (if I miss anything, please remind me):
violence (with blood), swearing, mild gore (kinda? very mild), creepy crawly bugs/animals, drugs.
update schedule:
tentatively every 2 months, each post will be at least 5 pages.
hopefully, over time I'll get better and faster at this.
When presented with opportunity to draw man with excessively long hair I could not resist. I read the description of anima and straight away thought of sun dancing over water, so while it is not an anima itself it is my polite nod to its brilliance.
Please enjoy drunken crane master vagabond Shame. I hope those guys deserved it. I had a lot of fun reading about her.
Big thanks @shiftingpath for another year of fun! MWAUH!~
I did really want to draw her face, but after I did all the panels it ended up not working out, but I'm fucking feral about Nini so maybe that's for the best, I might just've fucking died looking up reference for it. If I find time this summer break I might draw Shame again, but I don't want to make any promises because I'm bad at keeping them!
3 options below the cut, images should all enlarge fairly big (if not, they are all on this blog somewhere). Apologies in advance for the grammar, commas are used on vibes alone.
1. Undreamed Inkling - No Moon Lunar (Day Octopus)
Concept - Soggy lunar
A tall pale thing, his strange diet has left him with thin skin and defined bones. He never cuts his hair and he's probably somewhere around 30, so it is -extremely- long. He keeps a collection of wooden crescent pins to hold the length of it from dragging across the floor. His tell is eyes without irises, just dotted pupils that contract with the light. In terms of colours: his hair is cool-tone white, his skin is translucent and he likes to wear black, silver and blue.
His style errs on the witchy wuxia side, but he thoroughly enjoys ocean swimming and midnight strolls through the undergrowth, so he tends to wear less; least it hinder his movements. He adheres to a lot of rituals around bathing and lives on the coastline of an island, so he is often wet.
Anima: A disorienting symphony of rings and polka dots that glow phosphorous and signal danger. (This anima was designed by Yayoi Kusama.)
General personality and vibes - Live, love, (s)laughter. He is a little prankster who likes nothing more than to lead unknowing strangers to their certain doom. Whether as a wretch in the woods or a siren on the rocks, he is a lunar full of joy in his work and most enjoys leading pilgrims and pirates astray.
(Sidenote: the red in the second image is face paint, even the bit coming from his mouth, not to say he doesn't eat people, but he would never leave food on himself. Just to clarify.)
2. Hotaru Cathak - Night Solar
Concept - Tiny angry murderer
Hotaru is a child, approximately twelve when she exalted. Her hair is navy blue like her father's before his went grey and she usually keeps it tied up at all times, either in twin-tails or plaits depending on who did her hair that morning. While on the run from her mother she and her father fled through a Wyld-pocket, which mutated her a lovely pair of spider-leg wings. They do not allow flight so she mostly drags them across the ground or bundles them under cloaks.
She doesn't like to wear socks and shoes and, in the absence of any parents, will usually forego them entirely. Her tops need to be backless, so she tends to wear high-collared clothes and over-sized jackets. She wields a pure black soulsteel scythe.
Anima: A single big-ass spider with spindly legs that stretch across the heavens and weave a web of darkness. (When I first made her I was imagining the spider legs from Limbo.)
General personality and vibes - Kill first, experience consequences of actions later. Her mother had her taught martial arts from a very young age so she is more comfortable with weapons than words. However, her surrogate parents are three Solar sorcerers and a warlord, so you could say her primary quality of character is confidence. She is the Dear-Stupid-Fuck-Shark girl.
This sketch was a bit rushed, but here's her family tree.
If you need more references, I think you can search "Hotaru" on my blog and there's some comics and things.
3. Something a bit random: These guys don't have names
So, I'm currently playing a Sidereal, but I haven't even drawn them yet, and my other characters have done the rounds on for Secret Santa-ing, so, if you're in the mood to draw a couple pose, I would love to see more of these two:
They don't have names, and they kind of don't exist. They were going to be Essence characters but I didn't end up playing them and we went back to 3E so I never really revisited the concepts. Now that Infernals are coming out, I might bring them back.
They are a Solar and Infernal couple who travel Creation looking to find and kill what they think is one particular Sidereal.
The guy is the Solar from this post and comes from a nomadic cult who traveled the southern deserts and worshiped the stars until they were wiped out. He has constellation tattoos and scars across his chest and neck (you can kind of see the tattoos in the link above, thin line-work style). He mostly wears white. He was going to be a Zenith, iirc.
The lady is an Infernal, she used to be a high-priestess of an extremely corrupt god in a tiny (like <100 people) village in the far north. Her Devil-Body was going to look like a cross between a Xenomorph from Alien and the 2022 Hellraiser's Cenobites, so she's kind of white and red themed.
Feel free to dress them in anything and make them do anything. They currently have no personalities other than loving each other (yes, the Solar is a monster-fucker). <3
Day 15...which will followed by day 14 (when i finish it) of @theuncrucified 's exalted art challenge
I guess the sidereal is also an npc so let's say its day 16 as well.
I believe this was Fugue Empowered Other into limit breaking so I could Body Sculpting Essence (or something similar) back from near death, I don't think Toffee used Soul Reprisal here...I think that came later.
I have been skippin' days, but w/e, some try better than no try
This is exigent day, this is Mirbelia, the Garden Tender and wielder of Raetam, which forced her to inherit her exaltation. She makes flower zombies and beats baddies into mulch.
If there's enough non-lethal poison then no one will be able to taste the lethal poison. That's it, that's how Jin decides he likes food. He probably doesn't even care much for chicken. Jin picks food based on three criteria: popular, suits the role he is playing, and masks whatever he is actually trying to feed you.
