what was her prayer?

her wish, her confession?

[blasphemousclaw]

hornsent warriors but make them ASSYRIAN

Assyrian art reference photos:

[sarakipin]

Lunar Princess 🌙

[luciasatalina]

Ok last one :'p

[mittsushi]

i like him

[cheseely]

Mother Marika

[aprettyjewishyear]

Etrog container. made of copper alloy, inlaid with copper and silver. dated to early 20th century, from Syria. now belongs to the Jewish Museum.

[memories-of-ancients]

The Emesa helmet, a 1st century Roman cavalry helmet uncovered in Syria, currently housed at the National Museum of Syria in Damascus.

[mosery]

miami > missed connections

frozen barbie looking for ken

[o-chitose]

rewatching dexter after ten years gives me so many thoughts

[blasphemousclaw]

spent a looooong time looking at the Assyrian artifacts at the British Museum and it got me really thinking about potential inspirations for the hornsent from Assyrian culture! I’ve mentioned before that Enir-Ilim is pretty clearly inspired by the city of Babylon, and Belurat’s entryway resembles a ziggurat’s central stairway — elden ring’s fictional cultures aren’t meant to be 1:1 recreations of historical societies, so it makes sense to me that the devs would take bits of inspiration from all over ancient Mesopotamia.

Balawat Gates

the names “Balawat” and “Belurat” are so similar, I’m convinced there’s no way it’s a coincidence! but in addition to the similar names, the gates are adorned with bronze bands detailing scenes of military campaigns that are pretty visually similar to the metal gates of hornsent settlements:

Bird and Lion-headed warriors

These figures were taken from King Ashurnasirpal II’s palace at Nimrud and King Ashurbanipal’s palace at Nineveh. They’re regarded as supernatural spirits who would protect and purify the palace, preventing evil forces from entering.

This is essentially the same role that the Divine Beast and Bird warriors had — they’re sacred animal-headed warriors who ritually channel divine power in order to defend Enir-Ilim from outsiders.

Sacred Tree

The guardian spirits of Assyrian palaces are often depicted alongside a “tree of life” motif. The idea of a sacred spiraled tree is pretty important to hornsent culture as well, and features on stone tablets around Belurat.

Lion Hunt

These reliefs are from King Ashurbanipal’s palace at Nineveh and depict the royal lion hunt, understood as a ritual act that represented the king’s role as a protector, vanquishing forces of danger.

Divine beast heads appear to be actual lion heads that have been turned into theatrical costume heads for the ritual lion dance… I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a similar hornsent tradition of ritually hunting lions to use for the lion dance and to commune with the divine beasts of the heavens. In any case, the importance of the lion in Assyrian culture seems like a pretty likely influence on the hornsent’s culture!

I can’t be 100% sure if all these pieces of art were actually referenced by the devs when creating the hornsent culture, but I think the similarities speak for themselves!

[fiiski]

Please, I ask of you, just get my child out of here. Take her to the heart of the darkness.

[ra3kiv]

[awetfrog]

girls night out

[owainigo]

mastermind

[trubadui]

[thatuglymeme]

Desecrated cistern

[mismedleym]

Sorrowful be the heart, Penitent One, full of clemency