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On Blessings and Curses

However, being a Magus is not the only way to prevent Chaos backlash when dealing with the Arcane. Another method is to use the Blessing of a God.

There is much debate as to the difference between a God and a Great Spirit. Both are typically immaterial, and embody some greater force beyond the mortal coil. Some are fashioned from the venerated spirits of once living beings, some manifest from concepts, yet others are said to be older than the world itself.

Generally, it is agreed that while a Great Spirit may be capable of performing miracles, a God is a being that grants others the ability to perform miracles. Thus, the fabled Royal Alchemist of Ellezhia would be a Great Spirit, able to craft life from the unliving, but only the Heartwood, who gives others the power of phytomancy, would be a God.

However, such powers do not come for free. Some Gods only require a small act of devotion to bestow their Blessing, but these Blessings tend to be small as well, typically dealing with things that are luck-based, such as increased chance of rain, a chance of a good harvest, or a reduced chance of illness.

More powerful Blessings often require more powerful shows of devotion. Akros, the Golden Shield, allows the Blessed to summon a shield that can withstand anything up to the breath of a Lindwyrm, so long as the Blessed’s strength holds. However, he requires the Blessed to pledge their life to protecting a single thing, and the Blessed must also hone their focus by crafting small shrines to Akros. Should the Blessed stop crafting shrines, their Blessing will weaken, and if they abandon their charge or fail in their protection, it will break altogether.

Akros is merciful, and if the Blessed regrets their loss and pledges themselves to a new cause, the Blessing may be restored, but other Gods may not be so lenient. Some may even turn their Blessings into Curses.

A Curse is, essentially, a Blessing which causes harm. It, like a Blessing, is one-sidedly granted by a God, though whether it is given in the first place may be influenced by prayer and other acts. Though, to gain a Curse, rather than acts of devotion, one typically commits acts of blasphemy or violence against a God’s believers.

Though the source of power for a Curse or Blessing is the God, and thus, they are not bound by limitations of environmental or personal mana reserves, they still have their limits. For one, the mortal body can only handle so much divine energy before harm is done. Secondly, some Blessings and Curses require a medium, such as a particular item or symbol, and if that medium is broken, the Blessing or Curse may also fade.

Perhaps the most feared of these is known as the Condemnation. It is the only known spell that can permanently stop a person from using magic. It does not completely cut a person off from the Flow (that would kill them), but it does make it so that if the one branded with the Eye of the Sun tries to deliberately channel mana in any volume, it will cause them such searing pain that they will lose consciousness before casting anything significant.

Though it is technically a Curse, given that it is associated with the mighty Sun God of the south, few dare call it as such. The Adventurer’s Guild gets around this by including it on the list of “banes and boons” alongside those small luck buffs, rather than “Curses and Blessings.” Granted, no one has ever registered as bearing the Condemnation, since the only reason the Church of the Sun would ever brand someone with it is for the crime of committing the “ultimate taboo,” an utter affront to the natural order, the outright heresy that is necromancy.

(Technically, the creation of life from nothing, breaking the chain of mother and child, plant and seed, coral and polyp, would also be an unforgivable heresy, but such “homunculi” are the thing of legend, whereas you get a rogue necromancer every few decades.)

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Couldn't think of what to change for 2nd draft Inissi so I literally just traced it...only the lore vocab changed...tbh I think the only thing I'd change for the 3rd draft is giving them some sort of bag to hold their magic seeds.

What can I say? They appeared in my head almost fully formed and haven't changed a lot since. A brash, abrasive plant mage with abandonment issues who is the party's heavy-hitter. They have at least a bit of versatility so you can't quite call them a glass canon, but it's close.

They have one move and it's plants. But phytomancy relies on the Blessing of the Heartwood, aka the God-Tree. See, because plants are living beings, manipulating their tissues is arcane magic, beyond the grasp of most ordinary folk. Magic that manipulates the living tends to be extra tricky because living things have their own will, even plants. But if you have the Blessing of the God-Tree, you gain the ability to commune with plants, and can convince them to essentially "play along" and allow you use them. ...most of the time. Sometimes, the plants will refuse, or they will be too weak to respond, and that can kneecap a phytomancer's power, especially since taking on a Blessing of any kind dulls your other magics.

Still, that doesn't stop Inissi from sticking to their principles and picking fights with anyone who happens to do something that violates those principles.

Generally, Inissi is a good kid who wants to do good things. Specifically, they want to be a hero! Like one of the stories of old! Saving people, slaying monsters, helping those in need, and someday, engraving their name in the history books as the one to take down the Lich King! But that's going to take some cooperation...lucky for them, Ballan doesn't mind their overly-blunt words, Jef can fire back at most forms of provocation rather than just getting angry and walking away, and Gell is a deft hand at quelling anger (or at least, she becomes one, thanks to hanging out with Inissi)

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Evolution of the boy!!

Alséjef (aka just Jef) is our secondary protagonist! As you can see he had a very late growth spurt thanks to actually eating and sleeping. Amazing what that can do for ya!

Part 1 will mainly focus on figuring out what this guy's problem is hehe

My precious, anxiety-ridden, irritable perfectionist who has literally done nothing wrong ever <3

At first I imagined him a bit older and crustier and less of a perfectionist (I still think that's what he grows into post-canon lol) but as I fleshed out his story into a sort of coming of age thing it made more sense to have him be younger. Not that you can't have your "coming of age" moment as an adult, but it just made things generally flow better to have him be a teen at the start, especially considering the timeline with his backstory. And as funny as it would be to have a 30-something man beefing with a child (Inissi) I really liked the sorta foster-mom dynamic with Gurengell, and if he were older it would be more a peers dynamic, but she already had that with Ballan.

In the end, the role of older semi-actually-successful-but-still-has-failgirl-vibes falls on Gell's shoulders...

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On the creation of the Kindred

In the creation myths of the world, the world was originally a chaotic place and the first Spirits manifested mostly by chance. These primordial spirits created bodies for themselves, which went on to become the basis of land, sea, and sky. Their veins went on to become the ley lines, their blood is the world’s magic, their breath is life. Their hair is the clouds and their bones are the mountains. Their biles are the rivers and their dreams are the ocean. Their flesh is the soft loam and their eyes are the sun and moon. The primordial ones are not alive yet not dead, they are something else. They exist without need of such arbitrary distinction. Most Kindred generally adhere to some version of this, with minor variations.

In the creation myths of the Kindred, it is said that the Kindred were born during the Age of Gods, when Great Spirits walked the earth just as mortals do today. It is said that Kasalikapasekilarinanaqisalok (otherwise known as “Rina Naqi’la,” “Writer of Light”) was endlessly curious and fascinated by the world around them. As they gazed upon the creatures of the Black Ridge, they wondered how these creatures saw their world. Were they as curious as themself? How could they become moreso?

And so, Rina Naqi’la gave the creatures many gifts, gifts of language and sociality and curiosity, and eventually, the creatures began to ask Rina Naqi’la for other things, for dexterous hands with which to manipulate the world around them, keen ears with which to hear more stories of the world around them, and keen eyes with which to see through all secrects of the world around them. Rina Naqi’la gave all freely, and thus were born the Imps. Quickly, Rina Naqi’la’s clever creations went about forming societies and honoring their god through their studies. They even grasped the use of magic, and incorporated it into their lives. The other Great Spirits looked upon Rina Naqi’la living happily with their creations and felt burning envy. The animals that roamed their lands did not speak and give praise as the Imps could. Some, in their jealosly, even plotted to steal Rina Naqi’la’s Imps off to their own lands. Fearing discord would soon sow itself among their comapnions, the clever Ishin-bol-gan (a trickster god who sometimes selflessly aids travelers and gamblers) proposed a game: each Great Spirit must choose one creature of their domain and raise it properly into a new Kindred, for each that you raised properly, reaching the level of Rina Naqi’la’s Imps, you would recieve all of their praise and offerings. However, if you were to abandon your project halfway, or right after they were raised, this Ishin-bol-gan would come and steal all of your praise and ensure you could never make miracles again! This made many Great Spirits quite upset with Ishin-bol-gan, but not only Rina Naqi’la, but Yelassera and Gerrush’n quietly supported them. Thus, the various Great Spirits were spurred to buckle down and create their own Kindred. Tolos-Gokken raised the boarkin* in the northwest Yelassera raised the deerkin in the north Palo-ashao raised the canikin in the center-east Wennaba-houl raised the taurkin in the center-west … At last, there was only Elahimeri of the south. Elahimeri wished to participate as well, and share in the joy of creation and fostering growth, but she could not. Her domain was the water’s surface, the tidepools, the in-between places of land, sea, and sky. She had not the swift deer and strong boars of the land-bound Spirits, nor the mighty sailfish and clever octopi of her ocean-bound kin. She tried to craft something like the boarkin and imps from her seastars and urchins, but she could not seem to succeed. Just as she was about to despair at her work, Rina Naqi’la alighted upon her domain. He saw her dedication, her pure desire to love and nurture something of her own, and offered his aid. Together, they choose a humble diving bird (in some versions, a mudskip) and crafted it into a new Kind, the “fisherkin” of the coast.

*note that there exist other, native names for the various Kindred. However, for the sake of consistency within this translation, these names have been localized to some form of "–kin." The one exception is the imps. Being the eldest of the Kindred, what animal they were originally raised from has been lost to time.

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Some screenshots from the big conlang spreadsheet! Irázri is the name, and I'm trying to put together something coherent so I can present it properly...it7s just every time I sit down to try and compile the info in a presentable fashion I get sidetracked by making more modifications/refinements and then when I try and actually think about what I need to explain I get overwhelmed asdfghjkl

Anyway! If I can overcome these hurdles, I might even try to do a full conlang showcase video! We shall see!

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Evolution of the girl!! She's a competent healer but she has 0 charisma and 0 confidence. All her friends graduated from their various schoolings and apprenticeships way before her so now she's 30 something just starting her first job in a new country and having all her worst fears confirmed about not being able to convince people to actually try her services. Just when she thought she might get a break, she got tricked by a child (read: teen) into signing what she thought was a 5 month Adventurer's party contract that was actually a 5 year contract.

Now she's stuck trying to keep a secretive teen and an angry teen alive while they complete commissions and hunt down a lich. Go get 'em, Gurengell!

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Practice sketches, trying to feel out a style for the Dungeon monsters. I want this to be one of the first we see, a Chaos Blighted zombie. Skeleton's not quite right. There's a bit of chameleon in there? Rocks jutting out of the skin, flesh rotting away, slingshot jaws, just an absolute mess.

Looked up necrotic wounds for the color palette and I'm pretty happy with it, all things considered!

Of course, one of the most important things to note is that monsters fueled by magic/the undead have those eyes like moons, a point of white in the dark...

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Aisha doodle / trying out a new pen brush (Yam Gpen I think? it's been a minute lol)

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On Chaos

Chaos is the name given to a certain state of mana, where it fails to align properly with the physical world, causing numerous and unpredictable effects. Some can be relatively benign, but most range from bizarre to catastrophic.

Switching the properties of materials is fairly common, which can be devastating when it occurs to flesh, a phenomenon known as Chaos Blight. It is not uncommon for one caught in a Chaotic Flow to have their limbs turn to stone, or have their organs turn to air or water. There is a reason why Chaos Blight is known to be so deadly.

When Chaotic Flow occurs in the environment, it can cause the normal logic that governs the world to become confused. Stones may float in the air like bubbles on water, plants may grow backwards, returning to seed, a room may seem suspended in time, an eternal sunset always seen from the window.

When this disruption becomes severe enough, the space can appear to disappear to outside observers, often accompanied by the appearance of a ring of glowing blue mushrooms around the area. This marks the entrance to “Dungeon space.”

Chaos tends to attract Chaos, and so when a space becomes too Chaotic and it fades from the world around it, it will instead “stick” onto other Chaotic spaces. This is the basis of Dungeon space.

Chaos will also invariably warp what stands within it. It does not have to be sudden and dramatic, like many tales of Chaos Blight are, it can be slow and gradual, happening over a course of years to decades. This is how many Dungeon monsters are speculated to arise. Plants, animals, and objects become trapped in Dungeon space, and the ambient Chaos slowly warps them until they become unrecognizable, mindless beasts, lashing out at anything that draws close.

It is important to note that there is no such thing as “Chaos magic” or “chaosmancy.” “Chaos” is a state of Flow, it is not in and of itself a thing which can be channeled and aligned with. Indeed, any attempt to harness Chaos will inevitably end in one being Blighted.

Best practice when encountering an area of Chaos is to alert your local watchmen, and, if they are not equipped to respond to Dungeon monsters, pass the information along to your closest Adventurer’s Guild outpost.

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On the Arcane

There are generally recognized 5 branches of the Arcane. Four are time, space, gravity, and light. The last is somewhat disputed.

Some refer to it as “the flesh,” and others as “life and death” as a single concept. Still others make a further distinction between “the flesh” and “the mind.” And others still regard “life” and “death” as distinct in their own right.

At any rate, they all have one thing in common: if you try to use magic to manipulate them, without the assistance of a god or great spirit, you will almost certainly lose control, suffer backlash, and create Chaos. That is, unless you have gained some enlightenment as to their inner workings, becoming a magus (also known as a wizard).

Magoi are a unique group made of those who have grasped the Arcane. Many of them dedicate their lives to studying the Arcane, and many seemingly lose their minds in the process. Still, their studies have proved invaluable to the world at large.

Magoi specialized in space have created sigils that allow even ordinary people to carry many things in a small bag or ring, while others specialized in life and death have created spell-binding contracts that allow you to tell at a glance if someone still lives.

While a magus’ study may be dangerous, because of the potential for good, many places will offer to support a magus. Of course, this goes for governing bodies like the Warden’s Council, but one of the most extensive systems that support magoi is the Adventurer’s Guild. Many larger Guild outposts have a lab in the attic for a resident magus, and other magoi travel between Guild outposts, taking advantage of their wide distribution to expand their own horizons.

Of course, pure study is not the only way to gain insight into the Arcane. Some are simply born with an instinct for some aspect of the Arcane. While many of these children are celebrated as prodigies and raised with care, some are not so fortunate. They may be seen as cursed or otherwise strange, or, stars forbid, they may be used by those around them. Occasionally, one is even born with a talent for something that is considered forbidden, such as how the power over life and death is viewed on the southern coast. Many of these children lead tragically short lives, being pushed or themselves pushing past their limits, succumbing to backlash and Chaos Blight.

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On magic

All life in this world originates from the Flow. Of course, it goes by many other names as well, but all from the sea to the mountains recognize the Flow as the name for the current of mana that runs through our world.

It is in constant motion, though it may move faster or slower in any one place. As it moves, it “aligns” to whatever it touches. For example, as mana flows through a body of water, so long as it is touching that water, it is aligned with it. If one can reach out and manipulate that water-aligned mana, one can control the very water itself. That is what we call “mancy,” or “magic.”

Of course, this is only possible because we ourselves have mana within us. However, it is more than simply the mana which naturally passes from the environment, through our bodies, and back out again. We, and many other living creatures, have “veins” that allow mana to pool and even circulate within our bodies, giving us a reservoir that we can draw on at a moment’s notice. These are also known by many names, but a common one is “ley veins.”

By drawing mana out of one’s ley veins, one can even cause it to align with one’s surroundings, making possible many feats of magic that would be impossible with only the ambient mana.

For many, small feats of magic are intuitive. Much like how even a child is able to intuit that, if you have one and add another, you have two, there are few who struggle to light a match, conjure a puff of wind, or splash some water. However, with larger feats comes greater need for effort, and for understanding of the forces and processes involved. While some prodigies can accomplish stunning feats with a wave of their hand, this is where most rely on sigils.

Sigils are symbols that can guide the flow of mana. Some can run passively just on the ambient Flow, but most require one to channel mana into them to activate. Sigils can become quite complex, but many are simple things used for everyday business, like pumping water and collecting the smoke from a fireplace.

More complex sigils can take years of study to hone, though one can make a profit from them by selling scrolls with the sigil inscribed. That said, if one wishes to distribute a new sigil, one must first get it registered with the United Academy of Magical Affairs, lest one wants to end up on the wrong side of a “reckless endangerment” investigation.

Still, there are some magics that, no matter how many years of study and no matter how complex the sigils, seem out of reach for the ordinary person. These are known as “Arcane” magics.

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Whoops, sorry, the queue ran out and I immediately got sick for like 2 weeks. Will re-fill it soon!

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The Condemnation of the Sun

Blessings and Curses are two sides of the same coin, they both go beyond simple manipulation of the physical world that mortals can achieve, and must be channeled via a god or great spirit. Thus, they also require special casting methods.

Chanting is one of the more common forms of invoking a divine intervention. Particular symbols is another. In the case of the Condemnation, you must use both.

The Invoker stands to one side, chanting an ancient prayer, one that is only passed down in absolute secret among the priests of the Sun God, while the Engraver repeatedly brands the Condemned with one of three symbols. This is the one used for the arms. The other two (not pictured here) are used for the back and back of the hands.

It is the only known spell that can stop a person from using magic, though the method is fairly forceful. It doesn't remove your ability to channel mana entirely (after all, that ability is fundamental to life itself—everyone channels minimal amounts of mana passively to simply live), rather, it makes the process of channeling more than a wisp of mana painful enough to ensure that the caster passes out before doing anything significant. It also ensures that the Condemned cannot receive a Blessing from another god (which would circumvent normal casting).

While divine interventions that cause detrimental effects are typically called Curses, there are few who dare to call a spell gifted by the Sun God itself by that name. The Adventurer's Guild gets around this by tactfully employing the term "bane" instead, leading some to call it "sunbane," but most know it by the name "Condemnation."

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Some interiors practice...I still have a long way to go, but I think I've been picking up some tricks

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Misc. sketches for character and style planning.

From right to left, we have some Ballan roughs, trying to get a sense for his head and overall shape, along with the symbol of his god, Akros, the Golden Shield. He's faster on his feet than many assume.

Then, some clothing planning and a portrait + profile sketch for Gurengell. You can't see it well in the portrait here, but she looks somewhat aged by human standards but is in fact still in her 30s, her kin just get wrinkles fairly early.

Then there's a some practice with Jef, Inissi, and Ballan. I've been trying to think of how to differentiate their pre- and post-time-skip designs, especially since Inissi and Ballan don't change all that much physically. Jef at least gets significantly taller.

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First, second, and third drafts of the line-up!

You can really see how much Jef and Ballan changed from the first draft to the second...and how Inissi and Katya are practically unchanged lmao

So far, Gell is the only one to get a proper 3rd draft, since she's the one who appears first in ch. 1, so I've already had some extra time to chew on her, but the others will get theirs, too

I've posted some of the individual character pages over on my other art blog, @art-of-fict but I'll probably repost them here at some point, just to have everything in one place

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Sketch concept for the city of Ellezhia. I really like the idea of a city surrounding a castle atop a cliff, but I've been having a time of it trying to bring it to life