Welcome to the world of Beurkratti, roughly translated in an old tongue as the place/land of stones! This world, somewhat bigger than Earth, is at the start of its Industrial Revolution, but technology isn't the only thing that is rising.
Beurkratti is a world long home to entirely different systems of magic: the deep, force of nature that is the magic from the planet, capable of being analysed and broken down into pieces that follow rules, and the all-encompassing force of faith, which quite literally allowed the people to create their own pantheons and bring them to life. As well as a whoooole lot of other stuff that happens both for just these systems and when they collide.
One of the things I’m challenging with this series is the idea that “fantasy races” are just “humans plus something”. None of these people are capable of cross-breeding, and actually we talk about that later on because it brings with it a whole host of fascinating cultural norms and beliefs.
It’s a long timeline. So far it covers seven years. In story time, mind you, not backstory time. We cover seven years at least from a whole lot of POVs in a whole lot of places.
But the gist of it is this: the world is powerful. Faith is powerful. Magic is a fundamental force of nature that we struggle to quantify and understand with our current scientific abilities, but we use what we know to try and help ourselves. And as we try to understand magic, and faith, and ourselves, and each other, we come to understand more about the world and the ones who came before us. The ones who didn’t make it. The ones who wiped themselves out and sent the old gods into exile, permanently.
How do we avoid the mistakes of the past? Is there such a thing as a singular victory against evil? And how do we make choices that help not just us, but those we are charged with protecting? How do you fight something that isn’t always tangible?
And how do we fix problems when we can barely figure out how to find them?
Some of the conceptual characters are:
an Inquisitor, who is tasked with hunting down rogue faith manifestations and handling faith landscapes.
an eldest sibling and family anchor who, upon getting attention from the government, finds out that the government is paying people to go to magic school and they have the power to use Greater Magic, as opposed to Lesser Magic, like most people. So a magic school story.
A Warden, someone who is trained on and tasked with surveying the ancient ruins and obelisks of the Architects, the only name anyone has for the first people of this world. Named for their incredible structures that have survived tens of thousands of years. She deals with magical security systems, saving people who are building railroads and keep hitting underground ruins, and mostly, she tries to find out what the hell the Obelisks are, and what they are for.
A cartographer with limited mobility who is recruited to hunt down an ancient artifact, possibly a superweapon, and the adventures from their various forms of transport.
And a young adult in the Free Cities who goes on the run after their mother is murdered and ends up saved by the Patron Saint of Death, the Raven King, who is also the ruler of this specific free city. It’s a Persephone/Hades retelling with a strong emphasis on the slow ways the Persephone character rises to power as a King in their own right.
And that’s what I am willing to share atm. You like?
This picture is supposed to be a lady standing in a very confident pose. I just need some pointers about how to get it across better that her head is tilted up slightly (it looks very weird to me), as well as how to better get her left arm looking like it’s supposed to be tucked in closer to her side. It mostly just looks like her forearm is much shorter than the other one.
Thanks for all the work you guys do!
submitted by @ hunter-kole
Redlined by Mod Future
Posing
I’ll do a preliminary pass before focusing on the head. The idea of the pose is very well established, but the way she is standing feels a little awkward. This is because the line of the shoulders and hips are tilting the same direction. There is little balance, and we want to avoid that when making static, standing poses. (Think: S-curve!)
Here is a quick guide to the concept of contrapposto by “Griz and Norm”:
Now, onto the actual redline:
I did the quick sketch on the right first, exaggerating the pose, then I brought it back to something realistic in the left. Sometimes this can be helpful to establish a STRONG line of action or gesture within a pose.
1. The easiest thing to fix in the head would be shifting the ears down. The eyeline across the face curves with the spherical shape of the head. I link some helpful resources at the end of this post.
2. For musculature in the arms, I think you run into this problem where you are thinking about the contour of the muscle without thinking about the way the muscle sits on an interior form. Muscles at rest will also appear very subtle (when you flex, your muscles become more apparent and look bigger and “”bulging””). I would suggest keeping a roughly cylindrical form to the arms and adding the slight muscle on top.
For the breasts: Don’t think of them as round spheres. Think of them like heavy water balloons or sacks. There will be a slight squash in the lower half of the shape. I like to find the contour of it by imagining a loop of string around the neck and pointing down towards the armpit.
Now onto the head:
Sorry that this doesn’t really look like your character, but I hope you can get my meaning.
I had this issue as well, before. I used to catch myself thinking of the face in frontal view when I was trying to draw a tilted perspective, and that’s what made it look awkward. You can catch this in the way the ears line up with the eyes (as they do in frontal view) and how you rendered the top bridge of the nose (we would not see the top of the nose because this is looking up at her).
I also think there is too much of the lower jaw shown here. I have linked some neck + jaw tutorials below, but the thing to focus on now is the protrusion of the chin and making sure the jaw aligns with the neck (remember, there are no harsh edges because the skin is stretched over everything, so it should all flow smoothly from one form to another.)
I hope this was helpful. Perspective views can be real tricky. Be sure to look at lots of resources and references!
So I know that the official translation for bnha 290 isn't out yet, but it seems like Dabi has been seeking out people who possibly have a grudge against Endeavor or who want to confront him considering that he sent Ending in Endeavor's direction. If that's the case, do you think that could be a possible reason why he would know Hawks' name (assuming that he has a relation to the Thief Takami).
If Dabi was looking for people to go against Endeavor, he might have contacted Thief Takami in some manner and dug up Hawks' past through those means rather than the childhood friends route. I know this thinking requires a lot of ifs but it's a theory that's been bouncing around in my hand since the leaks.
Oh! That’s actually a really theory!
It would be a really interesting one to explore too and actually seems a lot more realistic then the childhood friend theory if I’m being honest (as much as I love that theory too).
Oof, just think about him actually succeeding in finding the Thief Takami and them having a talk and it was Hawks own parent (or relative if they’re not one of his parents) giving Dabi the information of his weakness too. Also, there are the potential parallels of Hawks and Endeavor teaming up to Dabi and the Thief Takami teaming up (even if only briefly).
I've been thinking a lot about MHA's themes and what it's trying to get across besides the epic hero school adventure and I think it's less Hero Vs. Villain/who's really the hero of the story, and more the Society and the Individual are forever intertwined, and if one neglects the other they both inevitably suffer.
Deku and All Might have ripped themselves apart for the sake of saving others. Hawks gave up his wings and soul for the hope of less civilians dying. As an "Individual", they and many other characters are going through immense suffering for the sake of protecting the "Society" to the point where they might not be able to keep doing it.
And then you have the LOV who, because they as Individuals were neglected through Society, are now lashing out against it and unfortunately harming a lot of people along the way to do it (which no matter their pasts is inexcusable).
Then you have Individuals who caused harm for the sake of putting themselves above everything. The PLF who wants to actively commit genocide and practice eugenics all for the sake of being able to do whatever they want when they want it, Endeavor's past actions and abuse of his family in order to obtain the No. 1 spot before he started his atonement, and AFO's desire to rule over the Underworld.
I might be getting off track but the point I'm trying to get across is that if the Individual causes harm against Society, everyone under that Society suffers. But if the Society neglects and oppresses the Individual, or stresses that they must be put above the Individual no matter the cost, the Individual will either break down or lash out. And I really appreciate that Horikoshi, whether it's intentional or not, is trying to stress that the best way of taking care of both the Society and the Individual is by uplifting yourself and the people around you. Especially through Deku, who's constantly being told that if he wants to save people he also has to take care of himself, emotionally and physically.
So yeah, I don't think the story of MHA has ever been about "who's REALLY the hero?" Sorry this got really long, I just wanted to put this out there.
Thoughts on this sort of theme?
-- oh yeah, one of the main themes of MHA has always been about society and how, in turn, the society has affected many of the characters we know - either subtly, like what we see with many heroes, or drastically like what we see with the villains, or even characters like Midoriya, Shinsou and Bakugou.
the society they have right now has very likely always been the same since quirks became a thing - a system which would be around 150-200 years old, that hasn’t moved as quirks have become more common and useful, but also more dangerous and uncontrollable as quirk singularity comes into play. its hurt a lot of people, several of which lash out because of the unfair hand it dealt them.
society is never going to reach a point where it is perfect and peaceful...there are always going to be outcasts, or people with warped, evil morals and views. there is always going to be some inequality - but the journey of the story and the heroes - especially Deku - is to show and get the gears going to improve that, because right now its so regressed and far in the past. when you have a steadily growing and evolving society, rules have to change just as fast. people also have to stop putting individuals on pedestals...we saw what that did to All Might. they cant have the same continuous cycle with no improvements.
Hello! I just recently got HK and I wanted to pick your brain about something. The point of the Knight coming to seal the Radiance is that they're truly hollow enough to do it. That they had no will, no desires, etc. But they clearly display a will and a desire to explore and help the citizens of Hallownest. Even before they see their past and gain the voidheart. Is it just player-game dissonance or does the Knight posses a mind that's not understandable by PK, Radiance, and White Lady?
There’s, a lot of bits to this (and I am about to go to bed for the night so I don’t have time to dig them up) but my longstanding contention, put simply, has always been that PK is an unreliable narrator on the “emptiness” of vessels.
Because the character of the Abyss is not truly empty. If anything, it is abundant, overflowing.
You can, through the game, direct Ghost to behave as something who genuinely has nothing in their mind but PK’s objective. You can ignore everyone who doesn’t physically stop you, disregard anything that you can’t proceed without. There are programmed reactions to this- Elderbug trying vainly to get your attention, Hornet not opening up to you by Herrah’s bedside- and it locks you into the worst ending. You also, taking that run, are given the least information about what’s going on. You basically won’t even know the significance of what you’re doing, but you will be warned of its futility.
To get the better endings- to actually affect any sort of meaningful long-term change in the world, and specifically to better harness and wield the Abyss’s power, you have to direct Ghost to not act like a robot with no feelings. You have to poke around, you have to investigate things, you have to pry deeply into the world and the things that live there. You have to not only express curiosity about the game world, but be stubborn and aggressive about it.
This is not only conflated with more content, more lore- but this is what unlocks the Abyss and renders it onto Ghost’s use. Allegedly, the Abyss is “perfect emptiness”.
But what does that mean to be truly hollow? PK thought it meant a total absence of emotion- and I think in that sense, PK’s the last narrator we should trust. Why? Because, well, PK ruined basically everything- including himself- over his basic inability to understand emotions. PK and feelings are not on speaking terms. PK basically died because he can’t manage his emotions worth jack nor shit.
And it’s Hollow- the, arguably, “failed” vessel- who has strong themes of emotional suppression, of trying to truly Feel Nothing. Hollow, whose void-affinity is relatively weak, but, who, compared to Ghost, has a way better affinity for gleaming, silvery light as exemplified with the Pure Vessel boss fight- silvery light much like the Pale King, mister Terrible At Feelings himself. The exchange at the end of the Path of Pain, to me, is damning evidence that not only did PK know full well Hollow wasn’t emotionless, but he wasn’t emotionless himself; he thought both of them would be fine as long as they personally committed to denying their feelings. It didn’t work for either of them.
Ghost- who, the further you go into the game, is increasingly drummed as Abyss Incarnate, the Lord of Shades? Ghost has feelings. They have regrets. It’s not just player projection- the fact that Ghost produces a shade on death, that they have to grapple and contend with, is in-universe called attention to as that Ghost has regrets- intense, dark, violent regrets- that they are grappling with.
The Void Heart- mastery of the Abyss- does not destroy the Shade. It instead stabilizes the Shade. Arguably, the more “void regalia” Ghost gathers to themselves- the Shade cloak, the void-tinted spells- the more that they actually leak their shade through the controlling, fettering, “have no feelings” mask.
Getting the better endings requires awakening the Dream Nail to its full potential- which the Seer states happens because you are literally gathering others’ dreams to yourself.
I think the true nature of the Abyss’s “hollowness” is not actually lacking feelings, but accepting feelings. Because in a completionist run of the game, rather than a minimalist speed run that the game canonizes to better condemn- Ghost effectively acts as a medium to Hallownest’s restless spirits.
Throughout the game, even as you hone your strength and skills and gain power to affect more and more of the world, you are called upon to listen. To accept. To behold that which people want to show you, want to say, want to confess to someone. Even your enemies; the Failed Champion and Soul Tyrant don’t yield their crop of essence just to being defeated. Rather, you have to hear out what reads very much like their last regrets. They want to clarify themselves, they want to cry out- even into the darkness- that they were alive, that they cared, that they wanted something, that they tried.
This is not a dispassionate act. Being a confessor (and Jiji literally holds that title, being a very void-aligned individual who’s able to call your Shade to you and is very impressed by the Void Heart) is an act of active empathy.
But effective empathy does require not being preoccupied with yourself. You can’t be filled with your own thoughts and feelings if you are letting others’ flow through you cleanly.
Ghost clearly is themselves. They have a part of themselves that they don’t give to anyone, and don’t let anyone else define. Throughout the game, lots of people question Ghost- interrogate or simply remark on their silence, wonder what it’s like to be them, what they feel, what they think.
The message we get heavily throughout the dialogue is that Ghost has opinions and personality- they make decisions we as the player don’t. For example, listening to Hornet in Beast’s Den, she clearly reacts to Ghost giving her a look.
You can talk to everyone holding a delicate flower in your inventory, but Ghost will only show it to some people, and that’s clearly not a decision based only in who asks for it, since you can offer it to people who don’t want it. It’s not player-directed either, outside of the ultimate yes/no prompt and getting the flower there in the first place.
So I think true or “perfect emptiness” in Hollow Knight isn’t the absence of emotion, but accepting it; and basically the idea of being a ‘perfect vessel’ or a true heir to the Abyss’s power is basically a question of how effective of a medium or empath you are. Because that’s not a stripe you earn by Avoiding Attachment or refusing to act in a sentimental manner to people, and actually doing that locks you out of abyssal apotheosis. Instead, the “True path” that empowers Ghost requires an amount of dawdling, poking around, investigating, and above all else engaging emotionally with people that cannot be explained in a being that doesn’t have any thought or desire of their own.
Especially since the Void Heart itself is only accessible if Ghost actually seeks out answers for their own past. White Lady doesn’t tell you that you should or that you must go seek out the place you were born- she just says it’s an option, if Ghost wills it, now that they have the Kingsoul. And while she remarks afterwards that she’s not sure if you feel anything anymore, to me, that suggests that Ghost has transcended, the way White Lady is aware of you using the Dream Nail on her and basically makes sure you don’t get at anything she doesn’t want you to. (and, it’s further confirmation that before the Void Heart, she was picking up feelings from Ghost)
TL;DR I think the Pale King is an unreliable narrator about the true nature of the Abyss because of his own issues with emotional suppression; the true nature of the Abyss is not Without Emotion as much as it is accepting and reaching a state of peace with one’s own emotions and the emotions of others.
Honestly, even though it was for like one or two panels from the leaks, and he was covered in bandages, I got an ear-to-ear grin at seeing Hawks again. It's actually been a while since I've been genuinely happy about any characters from a series, so I'm glad to see you and other people be happy about it as well!
I think I'm even a little extra glad because it cemented that he is definitely going to come out the other end of this fight alive. He won't be in a good place - none of the survivors will be - but from a writing standpoint Horikoshi isn't going to kill him anytime soon so we get to keep him at least a while longer, and that's some good news if I ever heard it.
Maxi and Luis are a older brother and little sister who were separated for a while in a foster care system, and since then they both tend to have anxiety when they are away from each other for a while, though they express it in different ways, Luis tending towards overprotectiveness and Maxi tending towards shutdowns.
Poor kids! (I love close sibling relationships <3)
I have a close sibling pair from a wip (which will go unnamed because this is a little bit of a spoiler). In it, the younger sibling was practically raised by their much older sibling, who was a bit of an ass before their baby sibling was born, but the process of raising her and having someone they loved so much they were willing to sacrifice everything for forced them to reflect on who they were and grow as a person. They end up being separated later in life and it hurts them both immensely.
Cory (Radiance) is a tall, moderately muscular Black man with short cut hair. It’s almost shaved on the sides and it’s longer and very curly on the top, kinda like Duke Thomas’ hair style. He has a fade. His hair is dark brown.
Miles (Cpt. Galaxy) is the same height and a little more muscular. He’s identical to Cory bar three things:
1) He wears glasses. Big square rimmed ones. He doesn’t have to, but he likes them.
2) He has sleeve tattoos on his left arm. All flowers.
3) He has long dreadlocks, passed his shoulders, that he wears partially up.
BASICALLY Miles looks like Mat from Dream Daddy but older. And Coy looks like Mat but with a mostly shaved head, no glasses, and no tattoos. Also: while Radiance’s colours are yellow/gold and red, Cpt. Galaxy’s colours are black, white, and like, maroon or a mostly red with a hint of purple. His looks more like a full flight suit, while Radiance has a more standard superhero costume.
