My contribution for the JnD Zine.
Jak and Daxter Jetboarding around Spargus collecting Precursor orbs.
My ramblins and the art progress below the cut
My fist thought was that I wanted the two to be happy and showing off the gameplay which I love the most. I had planned for this to be in Havens Industrial district with the battle going on below and signs glowing all over the place.
Cleaning up the sketch I didn't really like the flow and how it was sitting on the page so I turned it all.
This was when I decided to change the location to Spargus and went ingame to find a good orb to catch.
I did catch a few things that needed changing because of the way I changed Jak's angle.
Jak: "Why do I need the jesses if A'den always comes back anyway?"
Damas: "Because, like some offspring I could mention, your vaar'ika picks fights with birds thrice her size."
Jak: "...okay, that's fair."
From a story I wrote to entertain myself during a sick day once (the one where I gave Damas a virus and made him stay home while Jak temporarily took over Spargus)
On the basis of "because I wanted to" I made classic EU Mando'a the secondary language of Spargus. Because reasons.
Dark Jak in his heavily modified desert outfit. Took me till the end of the game to realize some of the members of Spargus did not, in fact, wear pants, and Jak totally could have gone pantless if he wanted. Yes I know I should be working on literally anything else but Jak and Daxter fan art.
Base pose from @posereference ‘s volume 6 book of poses.
EDIT-March 4, 2023: Jak's modified Precursor Legacy outfit is now complete!
Imagine that the aspirants who wish to become Spargus monks are given a leaper lizard egg at the start of their initiation. They must raise it, and are bound to the leaper for the rest of their lives. If the egg dies prematurely, the monk can't have another one.
my personal favorite headcanons is that damas is a shy and awkward flirt. like when courting jak’s mom or when he first arrived to spargus, he’s the kind of guy that would run to give her flowers but somehow trip over a rock, land on a cactus, and then spring up to play it off in front of her. he’s the guy that finds out what her favorite food is and brings it for her whenever they get assigned a task together. it’s her who makes the first move and he’s absolutely smitten over her the entire time.
In Jak 3 we find out that people live in the wastelands. The only ones we know of are Spargus's citiziens, The Golden Order of Precursor Monks and the Marauders that in Jak X we learn they belong to the Icelands, however, as I'm so in love with all the Jak and Daxter lore I have been thinking about other tribes that could have live in the wastelands and some details about their culture and traditions:
(btw, I apologize in advance for my grammar and syntax mistakes since english is not my native language)
Wasteland tribes:
-Spargus citiziens
-Sand Vipers
-The Angharad
-The Golden Order of Precursor Monks
-Marauders
-Spargus's citizens– some were banished from Haven City, others are descendants of these or other wastelands tribes who conquered the three missions in the Arena and earned 3 war amulets to be admitted to the city.
Being a large and walled city, it's the safest place in the entire wasteland. The one who governs them is a king who must meet a series of requirements: he must have conquer the three combats in the Arena, prove to be a great warrior and someone with good leadership skills. How the king is chosen depends on: whether he defeats the previous king in a deathmatch in the Arena (which is what Damas did versus the previous king), or whether he is chosen by the previous ruler as a right-hand man for the abilities and skills that he has shown and for being someone trustworthy whom the people also trust. However, a king can never appoint a member from his family as the next king. If the king or queen of Spargus decides to have a lover or get marry, they will not receive any special treatment either.
People of Spargus know how to fend for themselves, handle weapons and have a certain freedom to enter and/or go outside the city. They are mainly warriors, but most also have also some specific professions to be able to serve the city: merchants, farmers, hunters, fishermen, explorers, treasure hunters...
-Sand Vipers – a nomadic desert tribe only of women. Most of them have brown, black, or tan skin and very dark hair, and they come from four women ancestors who were the tribe’s founders. They are all warriors and in addition to handling weapons, and they are overall experts in all kinds of poisons: from snake poison and metal-head scorpions to the deadliest plants found in the desert such as Black Shade (*a plant mentioned in Jak X).
They have a big distrust of foreigners, especially men, and they will usually kill without question anyone who enters in their territory, although they will rarely settle for more than a few weeks in the same oasis.
Sand Vipers have very strict traditions about sex. They never let any man into their tribe. They don't take husbands, the women of the tribes can only be with men from other places to have sporadic relationships with the only purpose to get pregnant. If the child they have is a healthy girl, it will belong to the mother and to the tribe of the Sand Vipers, if the baby is born sick, weak or is a boy, he will be abandoned in the desert. Some mothers give the male baby to the baby's father if they show interest in the kid, but this only happens in isolatates cases since usually women of this tribe don't keep contact with their partners. If a Sand Viper breaks these rules she is considered a traitor and she's banished from the tribe.
Despite the fact that in the world the Precursors are the common gods everywhere, the Sand Vipers not only worship the precursors but also "the Four Mother Goddesses of Life" who according to them represent the four ancestors who founded the tribe and each one is represented in statues with the eyes of a certain color (green, yellow, red and blue, like the four ecos), they also venerate the light of the sun as if it were another goddess that is above the others (and that symbolizes the light echo)
The tribe always has a shaman who acts as a fortune teller and sage, and a warrior matriarch. The warrior leader of the tribe usually belongs to the same family of the current shaman.
They usually travel and settle in oases or near volcanoes in fertile valleys between mountains that are difficult to access. And normally they either ride on special zoomers to move better through the desert or on the back of adult crocadogs.
They are able to walk barefoot through the desert sand because since they were little girls they do a ritual in which they burn and scrape the soles of their feet several times until they're tough as leather and they get used to walking through the sand without feeling the heat in the feet.
All the women of the tribe name her daughters with names with a "-ra" syllable that is usually in the ending of the name, because "-ra" means "daughter" in precursor alphabet. Most names also hide a powerful meaning. Feirah means "brave daughter", Shira "strong daughter"...
*Bonus: Sig's mother was a Sand Viper who deserted from their tribe and went to live in Spargus to save her son.
-The Angharad – also known as The Ancients. They are a decimated and scattered tribe throughout the world. Some live in settlements near Spargus, but most of them lives in the extreme south of the wastelands and in little islands around that area. They are very mysterious, it's said that the Angharad were the descendants of the first humans created by the Precursors and that these taught them how to use eco at the beginning of time, that is why their descendants have a certain facility to channel it (but not as well as Jak, only one or two types of eco by person and with basic skills). According to other legends, some Angharad were eco sages, and other centuries ago they were chosen to marry some members of the House of Mar lineage, which is why this lineage has a certain connection with eco.
The Angharad have a bicolored hair. An unusual genetic trait that all groups of different families inheriting from this tribe had.
The Angharad are also called The Blessed and it is said that some were able to communicate with the precursors. However, all the families of this tribe were persecuted by people who wanted their gifts and genetics. In addition, their blood is also very diluted and since there is no longer as much eco on the surface as in the past, so most of them cannot even channel the eco anymore. Many Angharad chose to shave their hair and paint their faces to go unnoticed and they were apparently the first monks and priestesses of the Precursor Golden Order; currently there are still some Angharad among them.
Feirah's father was a direct descendant of the Angharad main family and thus she has a bicolored hair. Among the ancestors of Damas, there were some Angharad from other secondary families who intermarried with some descendants of Mar, for both reasons Jak/Mar has a great gift of eco channeling.
Not only Jak, but also Daxter, Keira and Seem are supposed to be Angharad, descendants of different families of this tribe, although most of them aren't aware about it except Seem. That explains why Daxter become in an ottsel instead just die when he touched the dark eco, why Keira can become in sage and why Seem can so easily detect eco powers and people's auras.
The Angharad who live near Spargus, although they are also warriors, are mainly dedicated to livestock, agriculture and the raising of animals. They have farms of leaper lizards and desert yakcows. They also know advanced agricultural techniques adapted to the desert climate with certain specific vegetables and fruits. They trade with Spargus exchanging food and valuables they find in the desert for weapons and protection.
However, the ones who live in the extreme south of the wastelands are very different. They know a lot about Precursor technology and about the eco, they're more adventureous, they have alliances with the Sand Vipers and Lurkers of the outside. And some of the best explorers and artifacts runners belong to this part of the tribe.
The Angharad can speak and write in a very old precursor dialect that only they and a few monks know today. Fei and Seem are able to speak it.
-The Golden Order of Precursor Monks– A religious order which Seem belongs to. They have settlements in different temples throughout the wasteland. Many are descendants of Angharad, although there are also former people of Spargus and Haven City among them. They offer religious comfort to those who need it and are also mainly responsible for performing healing, they're experts in medicine, so they often assist warriors from Spargus and other tribes. They are also in charge of performing funerals and weddings, and investigate some precursor artifacts that others find in the desert. In return the inhabitants of Spargus and other tribes grant them protection and food.
-Marauders – They're groups of savage warriors dedicated to looting and fighting. They come mainly from the southern continent of the Icelands, although among them there are also some former Spargus's citiziens who were expelled to the desert for breaking some laws.
The marauders were originally warriors sent by queen Eithne, a famous Viking warrior from the southern Icelands mainland. Eithne sent her warriors on a mission to find her daughter Ingrid, who was kidnapped by Regnar, the despotic King of Spargus before Damas. Eithne gave orders to her warriors not only to accomplish that mission but to attack, kill and rob any wastelander they saw on the northern continent, as revenge. Regnar had kidnapped Ingrid and other women (Lysara, who is Fei's little sister, and Meera, who was Shira's little sister and a Sand Viper) to be wives in his harem against his will. Months after Damas arrived at Spargus. Damas along with Sig, Kleiver, Feirah, Zitanej, Shira and Lorkan planned a rebellion against King Regnar, and shortly before Damas challenged him to a final fight in the Arena, they took their wives to free them and return them to their respective homes and to achieve alliances and possible peace pacts with those tribes. Ingrid was returned to her home and some marauders withdrew after that, however several marauding groups disobeyed the order to leave, they stayed in the north wastelands and declared themselves independent, that's why so many are still harassing Spargus's citiziens and other wastelands tribes today.
* I will write more about the Maraurders and also about Damas's rebellion and how he got the throne in another post if somedy is interested.
