#lovos4017

[uncomfortable-bodies]

EL for @barbatusart !

Happily back on the drawing horse and got a little carried away drawing the top girlboss of Venus 😤

(If this ends up being a double post plz ignore- internet being weird)

[barbatusart]

old roughs on the next LOVOS4017 book featuring sumerian coming back to life as a widely used language + the epic of gilgamesh, i gotta get back on this comic

[meanbossart]

old bday gift for @barbatusart!

[plushapostle]

•what cannot be said will be wept.•

she’s beautiful and perfect and i love her 😫 @bbbarbatus

[barbatusart]

so i constantly forget to advertise this thing, but i do actually have a patreon! admittedly i used to be significantly more active on here but COVID frontline burnout hit me hard, so for the moment it’s acting as a hub where you can access the nearly 3000 total preliminary comic pages ive done to date since 2018. the A tier is just a tip jar, & the$5 B tier gets you access to all my pages and behind the scenes stuff - that means the prelims for SAD SACK, hundreds of unpublished comics, & for those curious about SORTIE, that means the entirety of its prelim work is in B!

if you’re curious please feel free to hop on & peruse! my update schedule on here is still COVID Fucked Me inconsistent, so you’re all also more than welcome to subscribe for one month so you can see and download pages & then just dip lmao

i hope you enjoy! even at my slow break pace now, im always still very happy to entertain 🤓

patreon.com/barbatusart

[barbatusart]

so back when we were wrapping up SAD SACK i hid a cypher in the final page that when decoded would lead to a carrd site with a bunch of strange writings for a fictional religion + conlang stuff, unfortunately i hid it too good & nobody ever found it LOL & now that it's been over 5 years im honestly fine to just post it! below is a creation myth for the mots from uhhhhhhhh 2019, it was fun to try writing in real Ye Olde style. if you follow along with my other comic prelims ive posted, some of these names might look familiar!

disclaimer also, the fake religion in question is meant to be a misinterpretation of old extinct canaanite creeds where the folks who made it only had limited access to the already limited source materials + other writings from around the time period from different regions, so there is a Lot of cultural mishmash in here that i thought would reflect how people would actually mix and match the elements, similar to some modern day religions. just heads up!

1 The Earth began as Sea, Moon, and Stars. 2 The Sun emerged from the Moon, as through a window, and the Sun was in truth the LORD, come from a distant place in Heaven.

3 The LORD was weary and stopped to quench His thirst in the Sea, but the brine was sour and caused Him to be sick in the waters. 4 From His gorge and out of the Sea rose His organs, and They took shape and walked forth as his Brothers.

5 From the Sea rose the first Brother, clothed in robes of peridot, and at His left hip a crimson khopesh. 6 He looked upon the infinite Sea, and He breathed forth life unto the waters - fishes of every color, sprawling flora, and the people of the deep. 7 The LORD saw the wisdom of Heaven in his eyes, and the LORD called His name: BAAL KHASIS.

8 Then rose the second Brother, clothed in robes of emeralds, and in His left hand a crimson skinning blade. 9 He looked upon the people of the deep, and he breathed forth land, to split the Earth into above and below, as is Heaven and Earth. The Sea birthed clouds that crowned the lands, clouds that raged and spit cacophonous lightning and fresh sweet water, and the people of the deep migrated landwards. 10 The LORD saw the Earth's newborn storms in His eyes, and the LORD called His name: BAAL HADAD.

11 Then rose the third Brother, clothed in robes of golden topaz, and at His left eye a crimson maul. 12 He looked upon the land, and He breathed forth time - the sunrise and sunset, the seasons, the years, and old age. 13 The LORD saw the encroaching night in His eyes, and the LORD called His name: BAAL SHALIM.

14 Then rose the fourth brother, clothed in robes of pearls, and in His left mouth a crimson saw blade. 15 He looked upon the night, and He breathed forth coherence to the stars, the mighty constellations, the waxing and waning of the holy Moon, how it pulled the Sea's tides and bathed the shores. 16 The LORD saw the light of the Moon in His eyes, and the LORD called His name: BAAL YARIKH.

17 The LORD's Brothers produced for Him clothing of citrine to hide His nakedness. 18 And from His mouth the LORD poured the Sun's fire which He would fashion into any weapon of His choosing. 19 The LORD's brothers saw the infinite of all in His eyes, and They called His name: BAAL MUTH.

20 Then the five LORDS stepped into the Stars aside the Moon, above the lands and Sea, and They anointed themselves the LORDS of the Earth.

21 The Moon reflected BAAL MUTH's light and bathed the Earth's newborn land, and the LORDS' Shadows were formed on the land - weak, foul, and frail, each with one eye and half blind. 22 It angered the LORDS to see weakness in Their shapes, and They made war with their Shadows.

23 The first Shadow was Cacrinolas, a wicked man-faced wolfdog with the wings of an eagle. He opened his mouth and projected forth curses at the LORDS. 24 BAAL KHASIS's Brothers fell upon him in fury to tear the wings from his back. 25 With His burning khopesh, BAAL KHASIS beheaded Cacrinolas, and He cast the head into the Sea, 26 and He placed his wings into the Stars, so that they would become the celestial Nabu. But his grasp was not complete, and feathers of Cacrinolas fell loose and landed on the Moon.

27 The second Shadow was Forai, a vile beast with the head of a bull and innumerable hands. He opened his mouth and projected forth pleas for mercy so as to make the LORDS have pity. 28 But BAAL HADAD's Brothers fell upon him in turn to cut out his pleading tongue and take his hands from him. 29 With his burning skinning blade, BAAL HADAD removed Forai's genitals, and with his own hands Forai's heart, and He cast the genitals, the tongue, and the hands into the Sea, 30 and He placed his heart into the Stars, so that they would become the celestial Inanna. But unsteady were his hands, and the heart's blood fell and landed on the Moon.

31 The third Shadow Botis, a man-faced wayward serpent with a mouth of viper's fangs and a tail of rattling swords. He opened his mouth and projected forth poison from his fangs so as to make the LORDS sleep. 32 But BAAL SHALIM's Brothers fell upon him a moment before, to feed him his own poison and to take his fangs from his mouth. 33 With his burning maul, BAAL SHALIM broke Botis' skull in twain so that his brains ran free, and He cast the brains into the Sea, 34 and He placed his fangs into the Stars, so that they would become the celestial Ugarit. But His aim was not true, and one fang fell and landed on the Moon.

35 The fourth Shadow was Tuvres, a chimera with the body of both man and warhorse. So profane and so powerful was Tuvries that BAAL YARIKH's four Brothers could only restrain the beast and take from him his voice before he could speak, 36 so that BAAL YARIKH Himself could wield his burning saw blade and open his equine body to remove his entrails. 37 BAAL YARIKH beheaded Tuvres, and He cast the voice and the entrails into the Sea, 38 and He placed his head into the Stars, so that they would become the celestial Suen. But His grasp failed Him, and the head of Tuvres landed on the Moon.

39 So engulfed with wrath was BAAL MUTH, to see the holy Moon's light dimmed by such heavy handedness, such clumsiness, such carelessness. 40 So enraged was the LORD that his fire burned so hot as to burn even his Brothers. 41 So loud His roar, as though meant to crack the walls of Heaven itself. 42 The LORD BAAL MUTH opened His endless mouth, from where all things come and where all things return, where sound and light extinguish, where time folds inward, and He consumed His Brothers one by one.

[barbatusart]

Hello! Would love to know more about how/ if ancient Sumerian culture is incorporated into the world of Lovos4017. Why it made a revival/ its significance on Venus. If that isn’t just a “wait to read it in the comic” kind of thing (also you may have said something about it before but I forgot)

it is, along with lots of other places of the ancient world! i still need to get to it, but i have a lot of cultural points in the different zoneC settlements that exist as misinterpreted historical artifacts - misinterpreted in that very little made it over, and the little that was available was completely out of context for the people who then learned about it all without any of its cultural or historical connective tissue

i try to think of culture & creed out there in the scope of modern day interpretation of religions where the original context is missing. for instance im suspicious that a lot of original food restrictions in abrahamic religions were mankind's early medical attempts at preventing food poisoning - im more familiar with kosher practices from my own jewish history than i am halal practices + various christian dietary rules. but it makes a lot of sense to me that foods that had higher rates of causing food poisoning (pork, shellfish, etc) would come to be viewed as things you shouldnt eat at all, especially in the hot climate the abrahamic religions originally hail from. whereas now, abrahamic religions observe & practice these because texts explicitly state they should practice these, and i assume too to feel close to one's culture. it's all layman's-thinking on my part of course lol but im curious about where stuff comes from!

anyway in the same way, the various cultures in settlements out in zoneC are meant to rhyme with that idea, and the one particular region im focusing on has their stuff come from the VERY little we have of surviving caananite cultures; people choosing to practice these rules & learn what they can of the languages (either preserved or mishmashed into new languages, like the language the mots speak) comes from their own curiosity & wanting to experience a connection to where their ancestors might have come from. lots like modern day!

salme dorsa specifically has a higher concentration of people celebrating what they can glean of ancient sumerian culture, as well as later periods of mesopotamia & the eventual iraq, as that settlement specifically has a higher concentration of people for whom if you DNA tested them have a lot of ties to iraq on planet earth. it makes sense to me that along with arabic farsi kurdish etc. surviving, there may have been a revival of sumerian as well as a regularly used language, in the same way that latin still survives

[barbatusart]

dug up some ancient stuff from 2020 thru 2022!