asturlavi - Tumblr blog

[asturlavi]

"i ought to be thy adam, but i am rather the fallen angel"

[asturlavi]

The Kickstarter campaign is LIVE HERE!

If you're interested in a sapphic, grimdark fantasy comic series featuring romance and horror, and older lady love interests, please consider checking our page out and pledging! If you are unable to, you can still help by spreading the word and reblogging!

We finally finished the sketch for our tarot card design!! What do you guys think? Spicy enough? It'll look even better when it's fully rendered!

[asturlavi]

introducing my newest hyperfixation

[asturlavi]

mystra's plaything

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ok honestly wasn't expecting this many bloodweave enjoyers but hello!

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[asturlavi]

nights at the waystone inn

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world's most devastating break up

[asturlavi]

Can you walk us through some of the symbolism in your most recent piece?

i was about to be snotty and say that it's free for anyone to interpret as they'd like. then, i gave it some thought and realized i enjoy sharing my thought process and inspirations behind each piece so i can encourage people to explore some incredible hidden gems... (i was also saving this ask until i had enough time and braincells to properly collect my thoughts as well as i could and not go into it sounding like it's a whole bunch of drunken drivel... only for it to still sound like that regardless)

i'll only brush on some of the details and not all of them, otherwise we'll be here a long, long time.

lets start with the easiest one: the pomegranate. we all know that it represents several things, life, death, fertility, etc. some of you know how attached i am to my greek myths, and of course, i naturally went with the symbolic attachment it has to persephone. i won't be getting into too much detail, especially when its a story that has been told to death as of late... but, i will say this: oftentimes, persephone and hades' relationship is romanticized as something with its fair bit of troubles that any marriage has, a prime example of this being hades (the game, of which i absolutely love the interpretation for. it's written with such gentleness and care. hades (the god) absolutely, rightfully adores persephone). it can also, however, be depicted as someone tricked and entrapped against their own will, that the pomegranates were a medium used to force persephone to live beside hades for a set amount of time, no matter what her opinion or feelings be on that circumstance. in that way, it can easily turn into a dark, malicious tale. and in astarion's case, a dark tale it was. vampirism was the forbidden fruit, where the eternal life he received had unknowingly led him to forfeit all his freedom.

then comes the vines, inspired by an obscure little quote that i ran into while reading the scarlet letter, specifically these lines that reminded me so much of a certain someone... (the final sentence is my favorite for... reasons). simply read the passage, and the answer is there for you to see.

i should also add that in my illustration, the vines are bare of any flowers, any hope, any world of beauty under cazador's control. it withered away under the centuries, all wishes dead beneath an oppressive life of darkness.

and finally, the bats. they had no (conscious) inspirations, literary or not. it was something i've added because i thought of the fun little, depressing idea of the bats as messengers of cazador. they keep surveillance on cazador's spawn and report if there is any occurrences that may be anything less than satisfactory to someone like cazador, who would absolutely loath if any single one of his spawn treads a path that he deems unacceptable.

that's all comes to mind for now and it's always fun finding an excuse to start talking about obscure academia adjacent tidbits. thank you for asking, and i hope reading this wasn't simply a dreadful waste of your time

(also here's a variation of the illustration before i ultimately scrapped it. i don't know how else to post it, so here you go!)

[asturlavi]

the price for daring to live

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okay i heard the people speak and will make a (small) batch of prints to sell, so stay tuned in the coming months... if you want me to set one aside for you specifically i can be sure to do that!

the dungeons of fear and hunger

[asturlavi]

the dungeons of fear and hunger

[asturlavi]

OPENING COMMISSIONS ONCE AGAIN FOR THOSE INTERESTED

you can find all the information in the carrd link in my blog description, but dm/email me if you have any questions! if you want to support me in other ways, i also have a patreon that i'll probably explain at length in a future post (the tiers are a fluke, the first tier will quite literally get you everything i have to offer).

(i am also absolutely not begging you on my hands and knees to give me an excuse to draw astarion, or ffxiv, or anything i enjoy, really...)

[asturlavi]

OPENING COMMISSIONS ONCE AGAIN FOR THOSE INTERESTED

you can find all the information in the carrd link in my blog description, but dm/email me if you have any questions! if you want to support me in other ways, i also have a patreon that i'll probably explain at length in a future post (the tiers are a fluke, the first tier will quite literally get you everything i have to offer).

(i am also absolutely not begging you on my hands and knees to give me an excuse to draw astarion, or ffxiv, or anything i enjoy, really...)

[asturlavi]

so guess what other fantasy game i've been playing

[asturlavi]

ffxiv fans how we feeling

[asturlavi]

and the tale marches onward