#quest_to_mazam

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Fíli, giving Góa a braid clip to honor her service in the fight against Sauron’s forces. She’s a lil emotional about it and so am I🥹

The beautiful lovely Góa belongs to my bestie @pilkypills, and this beautiful art is @lonicera-edulis’ hard work!!

(Further lore and rambling below the cut)

Góa is a banished dwarf, so entrenched in guilt and self loathing that she’s cast aside any marks of identity. She shuns personal braids, beads, and anything outside of road clothes. She thinks she's not allowed the pleasures of life, and denies herself companionship, isolates herself.

And then Thâri comes along and fucks all that up by being her friend (and later her lover 🥰) Thank you Thâri we love you Thâri

Thâri becomes a royal guard through her friendship with Alda. Góa is ofc invited to do the same by Fíli, much to her surprise. His trust in her, alongside the support of Thâri and the Company, significantly helps Góa realize just how loved she is. Her past doesn't define her, she is worthy of honor, of identity and growth. After the Battle for Erebor, Góa finally allows for personal marks again, and Fíli's braid clasp is her first acknowledgement of her new life.

The king and his guardsman, my favorite platonic duo, they love each other so much and AUGH their relationship means so much to me 😭😭😭

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Happy Valentine’s day to these two beauties Henní and Gaur💖💖💖 dual custody w/ @pilkypills for Gaur, and I love her so very dearly

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Sifa (Stonefoot, Smith, Piercings)

Sifa spends all of her life in the East, settled in one of the larger cities of the Red Mountains. Her youth was filled with tension, as she was born when Sauron began amassing power in the East. While Sifa’s family planned on escaping to the West, their routes were blocked by both Sauron’s people and their own, and they were forced to remain in Orocarni. Their loyalties were to their kin, and Sifa’s family made life difficult in thousands of small ways for Sauron’s loyalists. Postponing weapon shipments, delaying messages, minor sabotages left and right.

Despite the danger, Sifa managed to carve out a prosperous life for herself and her family. While her older siblings dealt with politics and soldiers, she threw herself into jewelry, sculpture, and architecture, avoiding making weapons for the enemy as much as she could. She views it as connecting the dwarrow under Sauron’s rule back to their culture, and takes great pride in her work. The Red Mountains are her home, and Sifa has put her neck out to protect her home, craft, and people. When Sauron’s defeated, Sifa is one of the first dwarves to send gifts of thanks to the dwarven strongholds in the West, reopening trade despite never traveling there herself.

I FORGOT TO POST HER ON THE 14TH BUT IT’S FINE IT’S OKAY I’M ONLY A DAY LATE 😭😭😭 I’m really proud of her jewelry, and I’m especially happy with the way the oxidized copper turned out!!

Height chart and piercing layout below for funzies

(I was gonna do the 9, 7, 5, 3, 1 pattern but it looked strange so bleh, boring symmetry)

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Henní (Pebble, Ribbons, Noble)

Little brat characters my beloved!!! Khel was based off of Nellie Oleson in appearance, while Henní was based off of Nellie Oleson in personality, so it only makes sense that the two characters would absolutely hate each other for no good reason. Henní’s rivalry with Khel comes from simple childhood jealousy, thinking that Khel cheated her way into the royal family. Y'know, both mothers killed brutally by orcs, recently orphaned Khel. Very cruel, very incorrect, very stupid, but she was like five when Khel became a princess so I’m cutting Little Henní some slack, children aren’t exactly known for logical thought. It’s even sillier because Henní’s family holds no resentment towards the royal family, everyone else gets along splendidly, so Henní’s just hating for the love of the game. Their relationship becomes more complex as the girls age and interact with more intelligence, and in late adulthood they reach a stage that one could almost call “friendship.” The insults remain of course, but it’s more playful bickering than anything.

Her ribbons aren’t very organized (I could’ve done more to clean them up), but I did base them off of crazy-lace agate, which I thought was pretty lmao. I also gave Henní a more formal outfit in the main drawing, but despite her nobility, she doesn’t like dressing up at all, so any of her future drawings will be more casual.

Height chart below, although it doesn't really matter because she grows up to be about 4'6" (137cm)

[helplessavacado]

💖 Introduction To The Nonsense 💖

My name is Alex, and I moved here from Instagram (also helpless-avacado, nothing if not consistent). I’ve got a love for fantasy, sci-fi, birds, beasts, bugs, and biblical lore. I am a LoTR and Hobbit fan, a lover of Blue Eyed Samurai, Arcane, Spiderverse, and my bestie’s stories. I’ve got a few tales of my own in the works, and more than a few fanworks just for funzies.

BEFORE YOU DM ME PLS LOOK AT THIS POST (asks are fine, dms I'm more picky about)

Establishing navigation tags early to simplify things:

Semi-Religious Stories

• #shoulders(avacado) — The first legitimate prophet since John of Patmos, Jenny Woods, starts seeing her death alongside apocalyptic visions, and does everything in her power to prevent it. Religious trauma and existential horror galore.

• #threerealms(avacado) — Jean has to deal with two over-invested supernatural entities bickering over their future in the afterlife. Found-family, queer-self-love, and a coming-of-age in spite of all the difficulties.

• #Heresy(avacado) — Biblical stories penned from the perspective of Fallen angels, so convoluted, so many characters, SO much blasphemy

• Angeltober2024 & Angeltober2025 masterposts

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Babes (with religion sprinkled in cause I'm predictable)

• #divineinheritance — Manifest Destiny, colonialism, imperialism, and all the horrors that come along with it but in Space. So many alien species and so many concept sketches.

Dwarrowdams, AUs, Etc.

• #tagalongau — a self-insert that took on a mind of her own and became an entirely different character. Alda joins the company of Thorin Oakenshield, shenanigans ensue.

• #pilkado aus — general tag for characters and stories that both @pilkypills and myself have a hand in

• #erid_luin_roundup — a beautiful tale detailing the discord that Óin and his family go through after Erebor/Dale is destroyed. So much chaos, so many romances, and such a beautiful homage to community and connection!!! (Pilkado aus)

• #quest_to_Mazam — Thâri and Góa go on a quest to both discover and recover family lines… with the unhelpful addition/third wheel known as Henní lmao (Pilkado aus)

• #design.a.dwarrowdam — a December drawing challenge centered around the beautiful dwarrowdams that Tolkien didn't take advantage of so I did. Prompt list and my Masterpost (for 2025 ).

Self Indulgent Stuff

• #talesintertwined — Pirate/Mermaid AU/Crossover (my OC, Kylen, and @holidamned's OC, Mary). They’re in love, and they deal with the trauma of abandonment in a world that's hunting you down for no reason other than your existence. No further explanation needed.

• #marymonday and #wormwoodwednesday — a lil drawing challenge that holidamned and I do every so often for our OCs