#stt.houndsdagger

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Hawthorn is probably the most normal of the archmages, and the one who causes the least problems among them, something he takes some pride on although he somewhat resents having been picked for the team of misfits and weirdos in the first place. He's honorable and strong in combat and magics, why isn't he on a more prestigious team? Sure, he's from Blackskarl, a city in the northern part of Houndsdagger's territory which has had troubled relations with the capital city for decades, yeah. And his family hates the king, and his mother insulted the royal family to their face... and yeah, he regards much of the court as idiots and his contempt is often slightly noticeable in the way he addresses them... but still, he's totally chill. The fact that he'll often challenge others on a magic duel over any disagreement means nothing.

You see, if he had been given a chance to work at a better team, he'd do a really good job for them, even if he was working under the people he hates... and also prove his superiority as well. He should have had it better, but he's not one to make a fuss over this, no. He gets to be the best of his team anyway.

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Decided to finish this one because really, it's been sitting at like 95% completed for YEARS... Just because the shading on his face kept looking bad.

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Cornered

That's the path you've chosen, is it not? No... it's the path being forced on me. Is it really a choice when the only alternative is to lose everything?

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I promised myself that I wasn't going to post anything from my current big project until it's all done... but maybe I can share this since it's just a ref art :D

This is the armor for the royal guards of Houndsdagger. The royal family has been of "terrier" type for a few generations, so the helmets were fashioned to resemble their chin and eyebrow fur. Not all guards who wear these armors are even canine at all, but they all end up looking like dogs to honor their king. The ear piece is separate so it can be swapped for different ear shapes if needed, and the snout piece might also have longer and shorter variants.

This ended up with a lot more detail than I intended... which means it'll unfortunately need to be simplified a lot in the illustrations I'll be putting them in because there's no way I'll be drawing those fancy swirls over and over on multiple small images lol

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The Moon's Soothing Gaze

"It feels like it's been forever since I was thrown here. My body grows weaker, the pain grows harder to bear. At times, I realize how pointless it is to keep trying to survive... But the moon's soothing gaze always seems to refill my strength. Under its healing glow, I feel the urge to keep fighting, to survive against all odds, to spite the wardens who bet on my demise. There may be a point where no matter how hard I try to keep going, my body will cease to function. But until I get there, I will fight, and I will endure." ---

My first drawing of 2026.

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I made an updated side headshot for Sellatrix too! The old one bothered me even more than Verloren's old headshot. Like the original, there's also alt versions for no-hood and the other hairstyle she wears sometimes

Little comparison:

Sellatrix exists since 2018 but until 2023 she was very vague and I only had a tiny and very generic sketch of her face that I never actually liked. She was already very important back then, but I knew basically nothing about her personality. I'm very glad this changed because I really like her now.

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Verloren wanted to get back to his work as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but he could hardly focus. Two audiences and he was still banished... but he had done some things, taken out some bad actors. Over and over, he went through his plans and what he intended to say to change their minds at last. He was confident that after tomorrow's audience, he'd finally be able to fully get back to things, without the worry that he was about to lose all of his work. One last audience, and he would have peace...

...But oh well, you know how that went... :)

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I'm working on a bigger thing right now and it would be sooooo cool if I could finish it before the end of the year, but with only like 20 days left that's just soooo not likely to happen c': So this is like a little teaser of it, just so I can feel like I have done something at all heh

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Did anyone else miss him too or is it just me?

(I'll be waking up from the dead very soon I promise.)

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It's been two whole years since Verloren became my main OC today! Here's an older art that I never posted. It's from November 2023, which was like four months after the redesign heh I think he looks a bit younger on this pic (though I didn't even intend it like that when I started it) so this is probably when he had just moved to Houndsdagger.