#because that is distinct from a

[ryukisgod]

Every leftist (person who wants the means of production to be owned by the workers) wants him to be found not guilty because we believe healthcare should not be for profit.

You may be confusing ‘leftists’ (anti-capitalists who can be either socially progressive or socially conservative) with (small l) ‘liberals’ (Americans who are pro capitalism and socially progressive)

They're trying so hard to make this a culture war thing instead of a class consciousness moment.

[sunburstsandmoonshadows]

modern-day changeling tales

[dreamsy990]

drew some of my fav ody designs! wasnt originally meant to be also replicating the styles but thats sort of just how my brain works. except i didnt copy the lineart styles of anyone here so its DEFINITELY a bit uncanny for a couple of these (LOOKING AT YOU QINNY IM SO SORRY) but whatever

the designs featured here (from left to right) belong to: me, @gigizetz, @neal-illustrator, @irunaki, @bigidiotenergytm, @qinnyanimation, and @foopsie-daisy

[canisalbus]

idk if anyone has said this yet but I was thinking about that unicorn machete you drew a while back at the same time as I was thinking of the new wind ancient in FR (as opposed to…doing class work. Anywho) and realized that machete would make for such a great cirrus. imo at least

Oh, yeah I can see that! Something along these lines maybe?

[stars-obsession-pit]

Not Quite his Twin

Danny Fenton is not Danyal al Ghul. They’d wanted him to be, but he wasn’t.

He still remembers when he first woke up, his whole body feeling raw and ill-fitted. Even his mind felt wrong, his memories not quite his own.

Which, he supposes, they weren’t.

Because Danyal is still dead. Executed on the orders of the Demon’s Head for failing to live up to his twin.

But the spurned heir would make a perfect figurehead to build legitimacy for a coup, so a splinter sect of the League stole away some of his remains before they could be disposed of. They may not have had permission to access the Lazarus Pits, but they could still turn to some more unorthodox methods of attempting resurrection. A combination of cloning, a few stolen and processed samples of Lazarus Water, and pieces of necromantic rituals.

And it almost worked.

Almost.

The body they constructed did indeed come to life, and clearly possessed at least some of Danyal’s memories, but it wasn’t him. The memories were locked behind a barrier, present in abstract but not felt. This thing they created could never pass for the deceased heir, and thus could never be the figurehead they wanted. So they decided to dispose of him.

But the clone’s memories had shown him this sort of betrayal before, and he did still have some of the original’s skills. He struck first, killing several of their agents and managing to escape the lab.

He had no idea what to do next, but at least he was free. Free to form his own life, to become someone unique rather than just not-quite-Danyal.

[remxedmoon]

sorry it physically pained me to draw depit with its eyes open i had to make two versions

[pastelaeqy]

WIP of a fake render for a very specific iteration of grown Kirby I made like 5 years ago. yes I’m Galacta knight pilled what of it.

[ducktracy]

going completely nutso over Rosemary Wells' art. appeal in its rawest form. these are so cute and again just APPEALING that it physically hurts

[aalghul]

Remember when Duke referred to himself as Robin while talking to Batman and then everyone spent the next 8 years saying it's illegal to expect him to be included as a Robin in anything, ever.

[sakasakiii]

started off as me redrawing some of my initial mairon designs and ended up going on an rpg tangent 😭 i really wish i could have done the portraits in a pixel art style to better fit the aesthetic but my canvas wasnt the right size!!! i ended up changing annatar completely (im still contemplating how much i prefer this one compared to his old one however...!) and adjusting post-numenor sauron a bit when compared to their old 2022 sketches! im probably gonna do more redraws in the months to come cause of all the stuff i wanna change when i look back to some of my old designs haha 😳

bonus: void delusions (nebula background designed by Freepik)

i like to think each 'form' sauron takes eventually has different mannerisms and likes/dislikes the longer he stays in them without shapeshifting into something else, but one thing they all have in common is being predisposed to nagging melkor 😎

[son-of-avraham]

I usually say that my judaism looks like conservative judaism since that's what is closest to what I do (and want to do), and also about my general beliefs... but if I'm honest, my judaism is just a tapestry filled with every little thing I adore about judaism. My rabbi described it as a smorgasbord, and that's true, as well, but in reality, I see my judaism as nothing but love

[serpentface]

Taighr A Teng, current high priest of Finnerich and beloved populist monarch, posing in his eclectic mix of royal regalia, a simple commoner's cloak, and dancer's garb.

---

His career as king has, so far, been notably impressive.

He had his starts as a lesser nobleman from the plains on the northwestern edge of the region. This northern region was never directly occupied by the Imperial Wardi invaders and only loosely controlled by the tributary puppet government, and the rebellion against this loyalist government and the resulting Finnerich civil war originated here. He rose to prominence in this war, eventually functioning as the general of these rebelling forces.

These forces utilized guerilla tactics and light archer cavalry (the latter being central to the warrior culture of northern Finns) to great effectiveness, and Taighr received a bulk of the credit for this. He claimed to have been visited by the solar chief god Neghri and cloaked in his armor. He never declared himself a possible king, but his confidants (conveniently) publicly urged him to undergo a rite of kingship to prove his god-given invulnerability, and he was successfully seen to perform the naked dance through fire unscathed. This granted him acknowledgment as truly chosen by Neghri, and planted the notion of Taighr being potentially a legitimate king (a status that is usually hereditary, and only granted to high lords when not) in the minds of many of his people.

Afterwords, he prominently fought on khaitback half-naked, clad only in the garb of a dancer (Neghri is a god of the dance among many other things). His claims of divine armor seemed to hold true- he never suffered any more than flesh wounds in over three years of sustained warfare.

He led battle in which the Wardi general Odomache was captured and killed, and is heavily suspected to be/popularly championed as the one who executed her with her own handcannon. He will neither confirm or deny this, but has the gun in his possession and sometimes appears with it in public. Either way, his role in this pivotal battle, subsequent expelling of Wardi troops, recapture of the capital and eradication of the Wardi-loyalist government cemented his status in the minds of a significant majority of his people. He performed the fire dance yet again in the capital and was formally declared king in the aftermath of the war.

He entered into kingship under the near-worst of circumstances. His kingdom has been decimated and politically fragmented in the aftermath of two decades of Imperial Wardi occupation as a grain tributary/colony, and the onset of a multi-year drought began that very year.

Part of his success against this adversity rested in seizing unprecedented and wholly centralized power. The former system of kingship rested upon a council of lords that each governed their own territories, with a king's power Publicly resting in his authority as high priest but practically resting in his lords' alliance and loyalty. He declared this system to be responsible for Old Finnerich's downfall (already a very widely held belief in the general public) and executed almost all the remaining lords (who were also political rivals, having a claim to the crown more legitimate than his own by the traditional standard) and their kin under accusations of being Wardi loyalists.

These executions extended further to many lesser nobles and other identified traitors, in the end wiping out a sizeable portion of previous authority figures. He replaced executed lords and nobility with trusted loyal compatriots and popular public figures, and made efforts to legitimize his reign by taking the daughter of a former lord (who had died a martyr resisting the original Wardi invasion and was widely beloved) as his queen.

This capitalized on general public sentiment of distrust of surviving former leadership (who, if not loyalists, at least Submitted to Wardi occupation) and was a move favored by the majority of commoners (who received none of the fringe benefits that benefited loyalist nobility under Wardi rule, and this invasion occurred in the context of Preexisting tension and peasant revolts). This was not, of course, a universally accepted move, but Taighr's merciless treatment towards accused traitors along with general public favor for his action has gone a long ways towards dissuading dissent in these first years of his reign.

He has so far used his heavily centralized power to great effectiveness in rebuilding efforts and famine response. He reduced taxes on commoners, supplementing this lost income with the very substantial liquidated assets of the former lordship. Much of these assets were grain, which has been stored en-masse and rationed and periodically redistributed to alleviate the famine. The hardier, more drought resistant grain (particularly a strain of barley) has been heavily invested in planting projects. He divided the lands of his executed nobility and civilians killed in war and granted it to members of the peasantry to farm with increased status as landowners, which has caused a sizable migration to the fertile southeast of the region.

Some of his most recent maneuvers have involved resumption of raiding Wardin and Bur's trade ships and coastlines. The piracy has been beneficial to securing needed resources and wealth, while the raids (which have largely hit villages and small towns that don't have a Lot to offer mid-drought) have more of a function of terrorizing weakened enemies and building public morale in trying times. He's also in the process of courting a neighboring kingdom of Hrolje (with historical trade ties to Finnerich) into full allyship against their shared enemies (Imperial Wardin, the Burri republic, and several Royal Dain kingdoms).

A drought (which has lasted six years so far) occurring the very year he took the crown is a spiritual issue as well as a practical one. As the people's high priest, he should have the power to commune with the gods (particularly Neghri, chief of the gods with whom he has a singular connection as king) and prevent such a thing from happening. The public reaction to this drought has been varied, but most see its occurrence immediately following the expulsion of Imperial Wardin and defeat of its high priestess as significant. Many consider this to be the foreign god Odomache's vengeance, and question why their own gods (who are much more powerful and hold total sovereignty over this land) have not intervened to help them.

Taighr's public stance is that this is not quite the case. Their own gods have sent this drought to both punish their enemies and to test the Finn people. They have not forgiven Finnerich's surrender to their enemies, and require proof of the people's loyalty and strength before they will call the drought away. This message is harsh but hopeful in tone, and has been embraced (or at least accepted) by a sizeable majority. A sense of purpose to their suffering (HEAVILY bolstered by effective practical measures of famine alleviation) has gone a long way to keep Finnerich's general populace unified and confident in their new king in the face of adversity.

He has had tremendous success so far, but his rule has clear potential for future instability. While he is very popular among the peasantry, not everyone loved the whole 'mass execution of political rivals and their families' thing. Some members of these families are known or suspected to have escaped (and potentially have more legitimate claims by tradition than Taighr does). His reduced taxation on the commoner class cannot last forever, and his functional creation of a new landed peasantry class is untested and likely will not remain stable in the long term. A small but not insignificant minority interprets the drought not as a test but punishment from the gods for the acceptance of a false king.

---

Taighr has shunned most regalia for his public image. His outfit here has only the bare minimum regalia of the torc and headdress (along with his tattoos), and the rest is dancer's garb and a simple cloak. His image is partly as a maneuver to appeal to his people, who simultaneously desire a traditional king (as their protector and benefactor who can commune with the gods) but are utterly disillusioned with their former dynasty for having so deeply failed them (and being somewhat unfavored even before their surrender to Imperial Wardin).

His choice to partly neglect a traditional 'royal' image emphasizes his outsider status from this now heavily scorned ex-dynasty, while still appearing in such a way that legitimatizes him as a king to public perception.

The arm tattoos and banded motifs on the headgear contain symbols widely used in Finn art, but are forbidden to be worn as tattoos for anyone other than kings (unless the right has been granted by a king in recognition and blessing). A kings rule is marked with arm and leg bands added for each year of sovereignty, with symbols chosen to represent the character of each year and a king's accomplishments and actions therein. These tattoos tend to be flattering in their meaning and serve to cement a chosen narrative into the king's very skin- his successes are lauded, his difficulties are acknowledged but framed as a struggle in which he remained strong/will ultimately be triumphant.

The first year shows an abstract symbol of unification and brotherhood, representing his role early in the war when he had already emerged as a military leader was first acknowledged as a potential king. The second denotes clouded skies and an obscured sun, representing the struggle and uncertainty in the height of war. The third shows victory by the arrowhead, celebrating the end to the war, Finnerich's restored sovereignty, and the expulsion of invasive elements. The fourth shows the motif of maize, denoting the sense of hope and regrowth in the first year free of tributary occupation (somewhat in contrast to the reality of the drought). The fifth shows clouded skies yet again, as this was when public elation over their victory was thoroughly quashed by the drought not only Not Stopping but having its worst year of all, one of the more difficult years of his sovereignty. The sixth shows foundations, a sense of rebuilding in regards to great public works and triumphant management of the famine, a year in which more rain came and his land/grain distribution system entered full swing. The seventh shows an abstract symbol of clasped hands in unity and arrowheads, celebrating allegiance with Hrolje and great success in raids against enemies. He is in the eighth year of being recognized as a king, and the latest one has been outlined but not completed.

The tattoos on the back of his hands mark his status as legitimate king chosen by Neghri, capable of communing with the gods and performing acts of magic. This symbol is completely forbidden to be worn by anyone besides a king (including on clothing/jewelry/etc) and is the ultimate symbol of lordship, sovereignty, and connection to the chief of the gods.

His head (not directly visible here) is artificially lengthened, having been bound in infancy. Artificial cranial deformation is a widespread practice among many of the North Viper peoples, where it tends to be associated with beauty, nobility, and/or a semi-divine status. This practice is reserved exclusively for the hereditary nobility (kings, lords, and lesser nobles) of Finn culture. The trend for most Finn headgear to be very tall and pointed is at least related, giving a person a noble and dignified bearing (regardless of their skull's actual length).

[fratercrucis]

I get a boner every time jared padalecki transitions from sam to gadreel to sam

[dasketcherz]

people who thought varian having fellow scientists for friends was a bad idea because "it takes away his uniqueness of being one" is a pretty shallow and flat criticism

because if we're being for real, surely he is not the only scientist/alchemist that ever exists in the tangled universe, that would just be plain goofy. a group of people can indulge under the same umbrella of interest and still be distinct from each other at the same time. a great example i can think of is having a group of artist friends: fundamentally youre all good at drawing sure—but one maybe is better at rendering, one is a master at perspective, one is a pro at composition, one is a beast in color theory etc not to mention every one in the group having their own art style different from one another

the same can be said for team radical—yong is skilled in pyrotechnics and kinematics, you can count on him to estimate complicated physics. nuru is a pro in astronomy and mathematics, straight up the fastest calculator alive and the team can rely on her to make sure their equations are as accurate as possible before performing it in application. varian and hugo may both be capable of alchemy and engineering but they divide specialty on that front—varian is the better expert at alchemy and chemistry while hugo thrives at being the better mechanical engineer and thaumaturgy.

one of the endearing storyline in vat7k thats so relatable is finding your people, finding your tribe, your peers, individuals that you can connect with because of common interests. so varian having a group of people who are just like him tagging along on the road trip is a great idea. it doesnt take away his identity as a scientist, if anything, it offers so much more room for him to grow, to learn, to expand his knowledge, and to finally have people to share knowledge with.

but this is just my opinion and the former is theirs.

[nitewrighter]

I miss when Batman was treated as human enough that you would have several people going, "Okay, no, he's in no condition to go into the field right now," and they would more or less be able to successfully coordinate to keep his sulky, injured ass in bed. I mean the stakes have gone absolutely astronomical since the comics of the 80's, but I love the grounded-ness of Batman being held back by people who love him and care about him and that actually being treated as a good thing.

I also love the prospect of Superman being enough of a mother hen that he's willing to take on other Justice Leaguer's rogues when they're injured or not currently available. Can you imagine being a B or C-lister villain for like, Hawkman and you're robbing a museum and you're like "Huh, weird, usually Hawkman would show up right now" then fucking Superman shows up like "Oh yeah sorry he got teleported to Ancient Egypt. I'm filling in for him right now. Anyway," *cracks knuckles*

Also I love the slutty open shirt + feet on desk thing Clark's got going on here.

[ariadne-mouse]

for the doodle prompt: moonward’s fiona & jacob on a taxidermy pufferfish drink date OR evoroa demolishing a giant fruit basket as she deserves

Okay so this ended up being a lot more than a silly doodle, but let's be real it's what Evoroa and Gona deserve. I've decided Keyleth and some other level 20s - druids or worshippers of the Wildmother - decided to magically encourage the gardens into some cross-seasonal stuff so that their moon guests can see and try a bunch of things.