#196 arrows

[faithfletcher]

Irimar, the forge rebellious.

I made the picrew based off the image and tbh I think I did pretty good.

Though the first image definitely feels like a younger version of her, which is perfectly fine.

heck you know I should just post the whole story of the Ending that I wrote to submit to Artifexian, that feels rather like useful context for this whole thing… okay I’ll post that later. For now, have a small piece I made between The Forge and Cansoo, the main character (kinda, it’s more a shared cast) of this story!

Anyway Irimar is the one who really kicked off this whole thing. It’s her fault that the world still exists, so that’s pretty fun. After the whole debacle of the Ending, this forge often will jokingly grumble about the name they gave her.

A short angsty scene dealing with mortality:

“And if you believe it, the others are still called by their proper titles!” She rolled her eyes as her hands bent the dark metal smoothly back into place. An almost imperceptible sigh escaped from her before she moved toward the next piece. “I’m the only one who got an entirely new name from that whole debacle? Fuck, I mean - You prevent the prophesied end of the world one time…”

“Isn’t that something to be proud of though?” Cansoo put aside the small circuit they had been fiddling with before looking at Merese’s calloused hands making movements that were foreign to that body.

The Forge creased her brow for a second, examining one of the particularly damaged plates on the side of AEH.

“Is something wrong with H? I checked the diagnostics ports on that side and did a physical… do you see anything?

“No, no it’s not that.” The Forge grabbed the plate from AEH’s side, detaching it and setting about molding the metal.

“You’re right, that’s all. I should be proud. That would be… a normal reaction. It’s weird to see them again, the other Forges, but… I should be proud. Irimar was ecstatic, after all. She always said that they could use a bit of a shake-up.”

Cansoo gave a small smile at the mention of Irimar, but kept pressing. “Flake on me for saying so, but you don’t seem very proud.”

The Forge continued the rhythmic process of molding the plate with her hand, eyes focused on the piece. “Well I’m not saying I did a bad thing, I just didn’t -”

Cansoo scoffed.

“didn’t What? You saved. the world. You’r-”

The plate of armor hit the table and was suddenly wrenched completely out of shape again as The Forge’s hands pressed into and deformed its surface.

“I didn’t save shit. I sacrificed the world so that something could keep going. Do you know how many people died that day? The world before the Ending was actually something worth saving and I messed it all up!” Her hand hit the armor again with a clang, and it was no longer dark, but red-hot. The Forge turned to stare at Cansoo out of deep brown eyes that were not hers. “And you know what’s worse? They kept dying. It wasn’t just the first day. The sands came… The world I had, the world of Irimar, and Tzeela, and Cheni… all of their families… all of my families. I have… no idea if any of their, children? Grandchildren? Still remember me? D-do they keep the photos? Did they even live? That’s the thing, Cansoo. I’m going to see you die, and there’s nothing I can do about it, except I guess make you proud of me? Which for some fucking reason Merese decided I needed to care about because she cared about you but then I killed her. too.” 

The Forge blinked and looked around, seemingly realizing that she had stood up, and collapsed back into the chair, pulling back a lock of Merese’s hair that had tumbled in front of her face. 

Cansoo realized that they were crying.

“I really hope you get to see her, when you do… end. That’s what she always said would happen, right?”

The Forge looked up at Cansoo for a moment with a small hopeful smile. “Yeah. Merese said she’d wait for me. I just wish I could do more.”

Cansoo got up off the table, grabbing the circuits from where they were sitting and stepping toward AEH. “We can win. That has to be enough.”

[faithfletcher]

Finally posting this: The story of the Ending, as told by the congregation of Irimar AKA a story that gives a whole bunch of context for things in this world while also being wrong about a lot of it!

The story of the Ending is the foundation of our temple, and has decorated the brick entrance of every new sangrut we build. It is a telling we practice every time we walk the world, so listen closely; You may yet learn something, even if you’ve heard it before.

Four hundred plus one years before words were first scribed in stone, the creator gods made the world. Seven of them, standing together, whispered the words of creation, the words of life — and thus it was...

But the cost of their creation was high, for even as new gods awoke to a world of plenty, the gated ancient, Xiloec, uncovered what the seven creators had wrought. Humans and gods alike trembled in fear at the wrath of Xiloec, and humanity prayed and pleaded for mercy. Xiloec heard the prayers, like the screaming of a newborn child, and was not impressed.

In punishment for their deed, Xiloec sealed the creators and wrote this prophecy:

When the god of Ending awakens, they will forge 196 arrows of vengeance, and four will be sent in each direction. By their hand and by their order, the seven words of life will be burned from all living things, and the cycles will end.

Terrified of the anger of Xiloec, the new gods worked diligently to teach humans the importance of balance: Life and decay, birth and death, day and night, natural and unnatural, all were used as lessons for humanity. For an uncountable age, Xiloec was silent, and the reincarnation of the gods brought order to the world.

The peace was not to last. It was only six lifetimes ago that the god of ending and dust, the one foretold by prophecy — awoke to our world. A titan among the gods, as had not been seen in an age, he commanded a bow larger and longer than the eye could perceive.

Though they were terrified of him, the gods gathered, as they knew that the wrath of Xiloec would be more severe. The god of dust and ending requested of the four forges that they create 196 arrows of death, as the prophecy foretold. And so the Ending began.

One of the forges, Irimar, had dedicated herself to living among the people, living a simple life of service and hard work. She had seen our kindness as well as our suffering — and had developed a compassion for humanity. And so, upon hearing of her duty, the fires of righteous anger were stoked within her.

The Forge Compassionate went to where Xiloec was hidden and stole the seven words of life from the chained creator gods. With this secret knowledge, Irimar created 49 arrows of life - arrows imbued with the seven words of creation.

The creator gods, awakened by the hammering and enraged by the thievery, spoke into creation machines without life: the Farfliers — with the singular purpose of taking back the stolen words, by guiding all living things toward death.

With the craft finished, and Xiloec none the wiser, the gods gathered at the holiest site of their faiths to witness the Ending. The god of ending and dust called for the first of the four Forges to present their craft. As her sibling walked forward to present their arrows first, the Forge Compassionate, the Forge Rebellious, spoke up.

"Balance in all things. Creation and destruction, beginnings and endings, first and last. If we are to bring about the end, then let us do it together. Fire our arrows four at a time, one from each of us, that we may equally participate in the Ending."

Standing beside his bow, the god of dust and ending nodded. He sat down at the bow and made to fire, loading arrows four at a time. Every time the bow fired, death fell in three places, and life bloomed in one. And though some of the gods began to see that there was a blooming of life in the sacred directions, the god of ending and dust remained focused solely on his task of vengeance. It was not until the last four arrows were fired directly up from his bow that he looked up from where he sat, expecting destruction.

Instead, life bloomed anew where every fourth arrow had pierced the earth.

The god of dust and ending looked at those assembled, ready to set his wrath upon the four forges for their betrayal. But at that moment, the final arrow of life came falling from the sky and pierced his titan form through the eye, pinning him to the ground.

The gods perished during the Ending, with only one surviving to this day: the god of ending and dust. He is still here, still alive, his titan body a living testament to his works, and his dust producing storms that batter the holy city.

His living corpse is the ridge upon which the holy city is made: life blooming from ending, even amidst constant storms.

This is why we give praise to Irimar: she saw that the world was not yet ready for the Ending, that humans have learned and can learn to live in balance. Though the gods have awoken among us since then, we live still in fear of a new prophecy from Xiloec. We must hope we can prove worthy of protection again.

[faithfletcher]

Wait what people read... my stuff???

Weird. cool definitely posting the story of the Ending today.

Hope y'all enjoy it!

[faithfletcher]

Okay I think my new goal for the week (or the month, who knows- I do have adhd after all) is to make picrews for the entire cast.

Anyway, here we go here's the next character!

Name: Merese (she/her)

About: Merese was born with the gift of metal. She works as a mechanic in the warrens, where she has been learning from master smiths since she was four.

Later in the story, she will take on Cansoo (another main character) as her apprentice. She will be invited to join the church of the blackened arrow as one of their workers. During the initial process of vetting by the church, she touches a God Stone and becomes the reborn Forge Rebellious, making contact with Irimar.

[faithfletcher]

Picrew I made of the god of Dust and Ending, the god of Ending and Dust -

First picture is from when he was only one of the four Forge gods - the Forge of Gold.

Trans - he/they, gayyyyy

Somehow both my precious child and also the main antagonist of this story.

Made using the rpg picrew by @G0966 (currently offline because of commercial abuse)

[resonant-sapphics]

Hey if you like queer comics, plz check out my side blog, @faithfletcher, where I am posting some cool concepts and pitches for a comic I am slowly working on. It's a post post apocalyptic story about gods and robots and reincarnation and queer found family.

Heck, if you want to give feedback on any of it, that would also be appreciated!