acolyte-of-jhunal

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Aela Uvliril the Huntress

Time for another adaptation of a canon character!

Let's first address what's immediately visible: the changes I made to Aela's design, particularly her outfit. Even though her outfit in the base game is iconic, I always felt it was a little strange that she just straight up wears Ancient Nord armour, and so I changed the design to take influences from the Nordic Carved armour and the (studded) leather armour while still keeping the overall vibe of her in-game look. I think it turned out pretty alright!

As I explained in my post about Navasen, Aela enters into a relationship with him and Skjor (hence why she adopts Navasen's surname, Uvliril). She felt an attraction to these two gentlemen because they are fierce and strong hunters, but at the same time tempered by life experience and wisdom. Losing Skjor was difficult for both Aela and Navasen, but at least they'll get to see him again when they make their one-way journey to the Hunting Grounds too.

Aela doesn't care much for being a leader and the politics that comes with that, but she's glad Navasen is one of the new Harbingers; he provides a good counterbalance to Vilkas in her eyes.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Uvliril Navasen the Harbinger

This character has existed for a while now but I've never properly talked about him here. Let's fix that!

Navasen grew up near Blacklight and moved out of the family home in his early 20s. He wandered for a while, living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. During this phase of his life, he came to view the Daedric Prince Hircine as part of the natural order after observing animals partake in the hunt and realising he was doing the exact same thing. This realisation went on to become the cornerstone of Navasen’s religious practises as he declared his devotion to Hircine. He was then blessed by the gift of lycanthropy, which helped him greatly in hunting for food. It is also around this time that he committed to his transition – he had always known he was truly a man to some degree but after receiving Hircine’s gift he was absolutely sure of it.

Navasen’s confidence in his capabilities grew and took to doing mercenary jobs, initially by himself and later as a part of The Companions. He joined the guild at the start of the Stormcloak rebellion as he knew that Skyrim’s Civil War would open up quite a few opportunities for hired muscle. He rose through the guild’s ranks and gained membership of The Circle. After letting Kodlak’s soul pass into Sovngarde, Vilkas and Navasen agreed to share the role of Harbinger as they both trusted one another’s senses and capacity for respectful discussion should disagreement arise.

During his time with The Companions, Navasen got into a polyamorous relationship with Skjor and Aela the Huntress. They initially started as friends over their devotion to Hircine, but after a while this devotion spread from only Hircine to one another.

The death of Skjor hit Aela and Navasen hard, but they took solace in the fact that they will one day meet again in the Hunting Grounds. Aela and Navasen decided to continue their relationship with just the two of them, but should you ask them they will always tell you that Skjor is always with them in spirit.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Today is @oblivions-dawn's birthday, so I drew their character Wynnarwe as a gift. Happy birthday Senu!

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

My one and only reason for disliking Delphine is that she has a tendency to treat the Last Dragonborn like a weapon / attack dog rather than a person. She throws them at situations without even giving them proper training.

If we go by the main quest alone, Delphine has the Dragonborn fight Sahloknir almost completely by themselves after only just having learned Unrelenting Force and Whirlwind Sprint. Even for someone who is technically a demigod, that is a highly dangerous situation to be put in. Yes, they have defeated Mirmulnir before this, but then they had a dozen Whiterun guardsmen to help them.

Delphine then goes on to pull similar tricks by having the Dragonborn go into the belly of beast itself by infiltrating the Thalmor Embassy regardless of whether the Dragonborn has any experience in the art of stealth or not.

Then, as the Dragonborn is fully focused on preparing for their fight with Alduin, Delphine approaches them and demands they kill Paarthurnax. I understand why Delphine would want him dead and I understand that this quest is about asking oneself whether retribution is still something that should be enacted upon someone who is seemingly doing his best to atone for his past crimes, but you can see how this just puts more pressure on the Dragonborn during the most stressful time in their life, no?

I don't care about Delphine being harsh and mean - she can be as mean as she wants, she's a literal war veteran - and I don't care about her not borderline woshiping the Dragonborn either. Hell, I don't even care that she goes against the popular idea of letting Paarthurnax live. If anything, it feels refreshing to have a character who isn't afraid to let her true opinions be known. She's an interesting character like that!

The simple fact of the matter is simply that, in being a complex character, Delphine is both right and wrong at once. She generally has good intentions but she operates under the philosophy of the ends justifying the means to get there, which is reflected in how she throws the Dragonborn at every major issue she has throughout the game. I'm also not a fan at all of her hardline pro-retribution stance in the Paarthurnax dilemma. It just rubs me the wrong way, especially when I consider that I've written my own Dragonborn as a character who struggles with seeing himself as a good person; he does his utmost best to do the most good for the most amount of people, only for there to be this one person who implicitly communicates to him that he'll never be "good enough" because he disagrees with her once and is frustrated by how she treats him.

I hope I made any sort of sense here. There's a lot of interesting discussion surrounding Delphine, but I don't fall neatly into one of the two major camps of "I hate Delphine and anyone who likes her is stupid" and "I like Delphine and anyone who dislikes her is stupid" so I wanted to add my own opinion to the pile here.

In summary: I like Delphine from a meta perspective because she provides an interesting counterweight to Paarthurnax and the Greybeards, but I don't like her from the perspective of looking at how she treats the Dragonborn.

"We need more complex female characters" you guys cant even handle her

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Two Dragonborn walk into a clearing.

It is not a bar, for in a bar they could ignore one another should they wish, even though they would know each other on sight. They have never met, but they know they are kin. They do not look like kin.

One is short and stocky, fair of skin with more than just dragon blood in their veins. The other is tall and broad, dark as the earth itself and so much more human. One with too much life and one with the perfect amount. One who had to fight for internal peace and one to whom it came on its own, bright as spring.

They are both sunlight incarnate, nourishing and burning in turn. One is sunlight and earthquakes and lightning. The other is sunlight and windstorms and rain.

Both wear brooches of their dearest goddess; one a wolf, the other a hawk with wings spread wide. Both began as outsiders to the land that they now stand upon. Both will bring correction and doom to he who would destroy the Nirn they love so much.

One is woven into the bones of Mundus by no choice of their own. The other reaches toward Aetherius and finds it by honest will, then makes the decision to stay. Both love, love, love so deeply it brings them glorious radiance.

Two Dragonborn walk into a clearing. They sit and speak of philosophy, religion, history, and magic. They share some opinions and not others. They are kin, but they are far from the same, for different worlds hold different needs.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Sailing on the Tides of War

I wrote a short fic! It's about Emma and Jolene getting paid by Thor of Dawnstar to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy and steal the documents on Esbern. It's my setting's equivalent of the Diplomatic Immunity quest.

You can read it here.

(This fic is also a follow up to an older fic I wrote in 2024, which you can find here.)

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

I recreated the Serana I drew on Wplace in my actual art program since Wplace only has a handful of colours to select from and I wanted to have her without the map in the background.

All colours except for the eyes and skin are directly picked from the Serana drawings I've done in the past.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

My contribution to Wplace! It's been so long since I've done pixelart but I think this turned out half-decent.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Let's go home together

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

PINUP CHALLENGE: BLOOD OF THE DAEDRA

It's Faenil in Dark Seducer armor, covered in blood. What else is there to say? Full version below the cut...

I had to pause many times while drawing to wonder if I was doing too much and if I should just scrap it all, but then I simply doubled down, because idgaf anymore. Faenil is insane so their pinup should be too. I mean literally, they're in the Shivering Isles in this one. I also think Mazken should wear more straps and leather, so that's what I added. The blood was the hardest part to get down, because it's a vital part of the idea I had, but I kept adding too much which made the details look too crowded. I think I got it eventually, but I also made a clean version for funsies, which shall be posted separately.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

morrowind doodle dump!

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Galatea Decania

Behold: Galatea! She is a Blade, but before that she was a Stormcloak for a short while and an Imperial soldier before that.

Galatea became allied to Ulfric's rebellion after witnessing the massacre at Anga's Mill. Seeing the brutality of her fellow Imperial Legionnaires snapped her out of years of pro-Empire propaganda and she defected to the other side of the Civil War. During her time with the Stormcloaks, she met her eventual wife Amaryllis of Falinesti (another OC of mine, I'll post about her later), who was one of the few survivors of what happened at Anga's Mill.

After a little while, it became clear to both Galatea and Amaryllis that the Stormcloaks aren't great either and that Ulfric is a racist bastard, and so they both left Windhelm and travelled to Odhundaal, where they became Blades.

As a Blade, Galatea's role during peace time is to be a guardswoman in Thor of Dawnstar's city. In times of war, Galatea uses a sword and shield on the battlefield and her knowledge about food and nutrition in camp; military rations are often quite basic, but Galatea knows how to make everything (that is salvageable) taste good. Her biggest idol is the Gourmet and she hopes to meet him one day.

As a person, Galatea is often described as optimistic and radiating with hope. She may come off as snobbish when it comes to food, but that has more to do with her not finding the right words. In her mind she's not looking down on people for cooking a certain way; she sees the potential in said people and simply wants to see that side of them come out properly.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Hey, I just discovered your blog and saw that you also have an orsimer lady named Sarantuya! It's a really funny coincidence and so I was compelled to write this little ask. I'd love to hear more about her and see more art of her /gen Also for reference: outside of being orcs named Sarantuya, our characters are actually quite different. My Sarantuya is from Narzulbur for example. Here's her design too:

But yeah I just found this coincidence really neat and I love your Sarantuya already! /gen

ANOTHER SARANTUYA!!!

I would love to hear about your Sarantuya also!! I love her design and this is a very fun coincidence :D

I was inspired to draw them meeting briefly :))

Also thanks so much for sending an ask!!

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Two days later and Im finished with Sarantuya's dress redesign. Muuuuuuuuch happier with this one and the way it turned out especially with the gradient in black to grey.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

Lines done for the next piece. Sarantuya waiting for Serana to come home after the end of the Dawnguard questline.

[acolyte-of-jhunal]

If the goal was not to shitpost ignore prev ask i would love to see an ayem (maybe holding a scrib?) from you <3

I gave this one some color to make up for the fact that I’m not good at drawing memes lol, hope you enjoy! I love Ayem, this suggestion was so cute 🥰

[acolyte-of-jhunal]