I am happy with so little, I am a fucking idiot... But look at her, thank you Nomura for a new Rinoa's design and art! Even if I am not that excited for this Dissidia, seeing her makes me so happy! 💙💙
This year was the first year that I was in a position to have commissions done. With all my various interests, particularly niche ones, it's no wonder that I have many ideas planned.
However, I ended up accidentally all of them about my, as the kids these days call their favorite characters, "blorbo" Ingus from Final Fantasy III.
So, I'll show off all of the commissions I had done this year, all of the lovely people who made them and who you, in-turn, should look into if you're interested and maybe some ideas for the future, although considering how far and between my tastes are, I feel the overlap in my interests shared with my audience is tiny.
Either way:
This first piece, and my first commission overall, is by N0nsenseMob on The App Formally Known As Twitter:
I like to portray Onion Knight and Ingus as foils or parallels and this piece is one of those times, having a light and dark theme.
Onion Knight in this piece is wielding the Will of Light from Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia. The sword is designed to be evocative of the Warrior of Light's Braveheart for reasons I refuse to go into but will implicate by mentioning that it is Onion Knight's FR weapon. And the Warrior of Light is based heavily on the Warrior/Knight job(s) so...
Ingus wields the Masamune from the Final Fantasy III remake. It was between that and the Murakumo (the black and red blade), but the former one out because A. the Murakumo is the Ninja's mastery item while the Masamune is a Eureka weapon and can be wielded by both Ninjas and Dark Knights and B. The purple compliments the darkness aspect nicely.
The next piece, or rather set of pieces, is from JenCommissions, via the aforementioned app, though she's more active these days on the Butterfly app. She does Dissidia Opera Omnia art by using characters on the roster as a base. Considering the sheer amount of characters OO had, there's good mileage to be gained.
The characters this time are Ingus as well as Nacht from Final Fantasy Dimensions.
(In hindsight, I should've swapped their character bases, that's on me.)
If you've been reading my posts on here, you can probably guess why these two specifically, but if you haven't: Unused text in the FF3 remake heavily implies that Ingus was once born in the Dark Knight village of Falgabard (In case it isn't becoming clear yet, Ingus and Darkness are going to be a recurring theme in these images). Final Fantasy Dimensions includes numerous references to past games, particularly the Nintendo-era stuff. Nacht is a Warrior of Darkness (more FFV dual worlds than FF3, if you catch my drift) and he's a serious-minded youth who turns out to be the son of a Dark Knight from a particular castle. Guess what that castle's named!
Ingus wields the Tyfring: In Famicom FF3, it was one of two swords that Red Mages could wield and because a certain someone already had the Wightslayer, I went with that. Nacht is wielding Graham's Sword. I won't go into details, partially because I have yet to sit down and actually play Dimensions and partially because the reason for Nacht having that sword is particularly spoilery, but needless to say, there is a reason why I picked that sword.
In my hypothetical Dissidia chapter, The Emperor finds Nacht and decides that he would make a decent minion. He attacks and steals Graham's Sword and lures Nacht into a cave. Said cave turns out to be a recreation of the Cave of Shadows, where Ingus just so happens to be. The two meet with a third party (a certain Dark Knight whose name has the initials G.G.) who claims he has been hired to protect them while they make their way out of the cave. Meanwhile, the main group enters the cave for plot related reasons and they soon figure out that something is amiss. Complicating matters even further is that Princess Sara is in the Cave, but it's the Sara from Onion Knight's timeline. She travels with the trio for a time, but when a splinter of the group led by Onion Knight finds them and Sara recognizes him, Ingus awkwardly lets her go and refocuses on Nacht's mission. (In this hypothetical, Luneth, Arc and Refia are already in the group and promptly freak out when they realize that Ingus is nearby) Meanwhile Ramza learns of his former mentor's presence and is suspicious of who he could be working for. Things come to a head and then part two of the chapter sees the group storming a replica of Castle Falgabard.
My Dissidia fanfic aside, I feel there's enough similarities or thematic elements (of course an FF3 character, from a game that introduced the concept of the Warriors of Darkness, would get an FR with a Warrior of Darkness) for it to function beyond just a cheeky nod to an unused scene that may or may not be canon.
This next one should be familiar. @CaramelHero did this one, which I'd call Scarlet Delirium (The joke is it's a Dark Knight skill in FFXI)
Turns out, pumping yourself full of the world's negative energy greatly empowers your shadow. Who knew?
In all seriousness, the inspiration for this one was Granblue Fantasy's "Alter Ego Conjurer" skin. The short of it is that the Captain is taunted by Man With Overwhelming Horny Energy into empowering several weapons. He/She does and promptly loses his/her mind in the process, but just narrowly pulls him/herself back from the brink.
Oh, and their body is being puppeted by this thing.
Or maybe they turned into that thing to puppet their body, I dunno.
Beyond just "Alter Ego neat", my other inspiration was a fanfic crossover idea I had. Let's just say that Ingus' descent into... (madness? Sure let's go with that.) isn't entirely natural.
The sword Ingus is wielding is the Ragnarok. Technically speaking, it is a Dark sword and with a name like that and being locked up in Eureka... yeah. The design itself takes influence from FFXI's iteration of the sword, which is on-brand for the FFIII remake.
The Dark energy on the sword is influenced by the Jamba Hearts from Kirby Star Allies. Considering what those hearts do and are implied to be, it's fitting.
And last but most certainly not least is HELD on VGen. One of the types of commission he specializes in is gatcha-esque splash art. Which is why the end result came out like this:
The quality speaks for itself.
As much as I've been channeling that parallel reality where the Falgabard-related scenes made the cut, Ingus is still a soldier of Sasune. And one of the things I had wanted to see was Ingus in a variation of the Sasune outfit worn by the soldiers in the 2D versions and the manga.
Hence, this.
Of course, it isn't a 1:1 recreation. We hashed out some details and tweaks, which should be clear by comparing the images. Even the background holds a nod to III's royalty.
Ingus in this one is wielding the Wightslayer: He's wearing a Sasune outfit, so it's only natural that he wield the Sasune blade. The sword itself is a combination of it's artwork and the equipment sprite for it in Brave Exvius (itself taking cues from the in-game versions of it). HELD did invent a scabbard for it though, which is a nice touch.
The last in this gallery is a bit different. It's not a picture, but a music track.
Threads of Oblivion by Desolo "The Grand Sunset/Contra Void" Zantas. Desolo occasionally does "30 for 30" commissions: $30 dollars for one of 30 slots for a music commission. I bit the bullet and went for it.
I decided to ask for a "The 13th Reflection" style for this (as mentioned prior, the AU that Freyr/Ingus' alter ego was inspired by isn't strictly FF3-related) and it came out very nicely. Desolo even made it so that it naturally loops.
And that about sums up my commissions for the year. Hopeful next year Hopefully, I'll be in a position to do some more next year. While obviously, Ingus and FF3 in general will be things I'm considering (yes, I have somehow not exhausted all of my ideas with this Red Mage/Dark Knight bastard), but I'll try to branch out into my other interests (If FF3 art is hard to come across, then Evolution is once in a blue moon).
Once again, big thanks to the artists I've commissioned. They've all done exceptional work and were wonderful to work with.
well for starters; i'm not dead! that's cool, right?
this au kinda is though. i'm not really hyperfixated on rottmnt anymore, which is one of the main reasons it hasn't been updated at all, but not only did i powerwash my chromebook by accident, i broke the screen earlier this year.
i still hold a lot of love for this au, as it took up a pretty big chunk of my life, even if it was only for a little while, and i put a lot of effort into what i created for it.
unfortunately, for the above reasons, i think it's finally time to directly say that the Falling From Dawn RotTMNT AU has been discontinued indefinitely.
i owe a lot to those of you who kept following this blog. maybe you were hoping to see updates on how i was doing, maybe you were holding on for au updates that never came... either way, you have my greatest thanks.
maybe someday the hyperfixation will return. i might try to post something for that "open the floodgates" community thing that's going on, but i can't promise anything.
thank you again to everyone who has supported this little project of mine, especially those of you who have been here from the start to the end.
if you wish to send any final asks about questions left unanswered for this au or things you wish to say to me, please feel free to do so. my inbox will remain open for the foreseeable future; i don't plan to ever close it.
#cute animals
#lana del rey
#photography
