#Aether and anatomy

[lilbittymonster]

@azure-dragonsinger mentioned how these two pictures looked like they were happening at the same time and I was ✨inspired✨

(Rowan belongs to @tallbluelady)

[tallbluelady]

I understood you OP!

[tallbluelady]

Rowan didn't want to leave Urianger on the moon all by himself to watch for Zeromus, so they got married up there by the Watcher. They had been engaged since they returned from the First, so it wasn't entirely spur of the moment.

Is your WoL married, or is that something they want in life?

[ismyteadoneyet]

He chuckles low at my confusion. "You think I don't recognize my own casting or sense its absence?" He leans close to whisper in my ear. "I can feel them, Briana. The Oaths I've cast." His eyes drift across my face and throat. "And I don't feel any of me... on you."

- 'Legendborn' by Tracy Deonn, page 268

Graveyard Scene, my beloved

[muchinternalscreaming]

FanArt for: Who you gonna call? by @jaewritesfic

[tallbluelady]

They do! Urianger gave Rowan one of the stars off of his epaultlet after he promised to stay with the Loporrits. It's usually something they trade back and forth when they are apart and get back together again.

They also have wedding rings but I am currently too indecisive on how I want them to look to commit yet.

WoL QotD:

If you have a ship for your WoL/OC do they have any sort of mementos or favors or something that one or more of them wear to signify a relationship? Is there a story behind it?

[tallbluelady]

It's 3AM, so it's time that Rowan held Urianger's face in her hands

[ezevic-official]

they should invent a machine that turns skin wips i make into finished skins with optimized shlines

[7-andahalf-rats]

sjsm doodles that I did because I suddenly remembered it

[tallbluelady]

What drew me to ship Urianger with Rowan? The short answer: Shadowbringers.

The long answer after the break.

The first time I played XIV it was explicitly as a break from WoW. I was bashing my head against the Mage Tower and was like "Yannow, what? Break time. Let's try out this free trial and enjoy that for a bit."

I think the game was in Stormblood at the time? (I remember TP being a thing then being surprised that it was gone when I decided for a longer play through during Shadowbringers.) But at any rate, I was really just visiting. The free trial was to 35 and I ended up shelling out to get ARR and playing basically until the Scions moved to Revenant's Toll. After all that, I was refreshed and ready to go back to WoW for the grinding and impersonal storytelling.

Urianger had left an impression on me as the guy who speaks in Shakespeare. "Oh he's my favorite," I said, thinking of him as a character akin to like, Khadgar or Tyrande. Neither of these characters really inspired romantic feelings for me, and WoW never treats your character as anything past a "Champion". No one really has a personal relationship with the Champion past "Thank the Light you're here, Champion!". While XIV has plenty of NPC ships, I don't think I've seen any OCxNPC ships in the WoW fandom (tbf I didn't get as deep in WoW fandom as I've gotten here).

Suffice to say, the idea of a WoL ship was not on my mind as I played through Post-ARR into Heavensward. I remember seeing Aymeric and being "Oh that is a beautiful man" and calling that good. Then in 3.4, the man asks you to dinner. I'm in danger! THEN LITERALLY THE DUNGEON RIGHT AFTER DINNER THIS GUY SHOWS UP IN A VEIL AND I AM LITERALLY THIS MEME:

Then my dumbass figures out that that GNC ass is Urianger and I'm like:

The fight with the Warriors of Darkness is amazing, sensational, mind blowing. Not only does Urianger speak in Shakespeare, he's also hot!

I still do not have a single inkling to ship him with Rowan (who is still not Rowan yet).

I play through Stormblood, and the story is still pretty much better than 90% of WoW. The gameplay is GREATLY improved, and I'm enjoying myself. We're a little light on our archaic elf, but hey, I actually enjoy playing Bard now.

I admit to being surprised that Urianger is being Called by the mysterious migraine inducing voice. At that point in the story, I remember forming a much tighter bond with Krile at that point. But as I was ignorant of what the hell was actually happening (I think I was referring to G'raha as Zodiark for a while), I kinda just shrugged it off. We go from a stalemate with Garlemald to a completely different world and it's what ever. I have no expectations and didn't bother to watch the trailers when I loaded into the game.

Then this happens.

Brain chemistry changes again. I'm aghast. I didn't realize I liked men with beards in dresses this much. He's a good uncle/father figure to Minfilia. He's very serious about his mission, but incredibly silly as well. And he also speaks in Shakespeare.

Then this fucker kneels down in front of the WoL asking for forgiveness. Kneels. And then also offers to go off with you to go kill Emet-Selch at the bottom of the ocean when he can't even swim. Like, ser. What? How am I supposed to react to that? You literally had a romance novel grovel point.

So after basking in the glow of Shadowbringers MSQ, I realize I have to do something. I go through the Urianger tag on Ao3 to try and find something to read. I do enjoy the various ships on there, but I realize that there wasn't really a slow-burn ship. So like most things, I figure that's something I just gotta do myself and start to outline and rename my WoL and etc.

Then I find out about CMTools (the posing tool before Anamnesis) and the rest is history.

Another random WoLQotD/OC question

I thought I'd ask this while I worked on my other questions. :)

If you're a WoL x NPC shipper, what drew you to that ship and why? What makes that ship the pinnacle for you and your oc? Is it that you love the canon character you write them with, you find their dynamic interesting or something in between?

If you're not a WoL x NPC shipper, but you have a ship with another person, how did that come about? What makes that ship fulfilling for you? Has the ship impacted your relationship with that other person? Feel free to gush, I wanna hear it!

Oh, and pictures are a must (if you have them).

[rjalker]

Cenotaph the rabbit's anatomy after it gets its final, permanent "swimmers".

Notice the lack of butt. Instead, Flatland rabbits (and other closely related species) filter and digest their food twice, and once they can't get any more nutrients out of it, they throw it back up, and scavengers and plants have a field day with it.

This was decided on because I realized that in 2D, there'd be no way for the mobility aids to not get in the way without rearranging all of the internal organs and having to start over from the beginning, which I didn't feel like doing.

[ID: A digital drawing of a Flatland rabbit as seen from above, against a white background. It is a rounded shape with three lobes, two for the ears, and a larger one for the body. The rabbit has a grey exoskeleton, a single eye, purple blood, andinternal organs in different shades of pink, purple, and darkred. Attached to its back sides are mobility aids in the form of artificial cillia, one grey, the other gold. Hand-written, color-coded labels march each part. In clockwise order starting at the eye, the labels are: Eyes - what looks like a single black and white eye in the center of an opening at the rabbit's 'head'. Exoskeleton - the dark grey exterior surface of the rabbit. Brain - a pink blob in the left "ear". Blood - the purple substance filling in the rabbit's insides around its organs. 1st Stomach - A grey-pink sack that fills the upper half of the rabbit Filter 1 & 2 - two dark red-purple chambers at the end of stomach 1, connecting to stomach 2. 2nd stomach - another sack that sits next to the first stomach, slightly daker in color, separated by an inner wall, with a section at the top where they connect. Heart (Unrealistic) - A purple heart-shape below the stomach. Reproductive organs - Three blobs at the bottom point of the rabbit. Birth canal - A zig-zagging line drawn under the reproductive organs in the rabbit's exoskeleton. Anchors - dark gold rods inserted into the rabbit's exoskeleton, surrounded by black scar tissue holding them in place. Sensors - lighter gold 'cushions' between the anchors of the mobility aid and the Artificial cillia - dark gold curved lines like cillia, used for swimming. Proboscis / esophagus - The very top section of the stomach that sits under the eye, folded like an accordian. Lung - A light pink sack in the second "ear". Eyestalk - two pink short stalks connecting the eyes to a curved alcove in the exoskeleton on either side. Blue text in the upper corner reads, "Not shown - Nervous system". End ID.]

[eyesmyle]

If I ever get the motivation, I wanna write an entire essay on my headcannon about the travelers being alien vampires

[tallbluelady]

Ohhh… it's more of a little detail to place where I want to put one, but I do have Urianger formulate an amethyst carbuncle for Rowan. To be clear, this is an idle project he works on and off for the better part of eight years (five on the Source, three on the First) when he gets stuck on a different project. It spawns from an offhanded comment from Rowan when they're fixing up the Waking Sands in ARR about one and only becomes a summonable thing post Endwalker. But it's fun and I like it!

yknow what. imma throw my hat into the oc questions ring.

we all love a main character and their big stories. but what about the little b-plots? recurring gags? details you love but never really come up?

i wanna hear about those. tell me about those.

[shining-latios]

PHEW this was a labor of love that took many days but it's finally done. I've noticed that Aether dragons are a breed a lot of people have said they have a hard time drawing, so because I am autistically obsessed with everything about them, I've whipped up a comprehensive "peel-apart" guide for how I draw and make sense of aethers, aka:

AETHERS: HOW THEY WORK!

I did something similar to this a couple of years ago but since I feel I've got a better handle on how their anatomy works now I've made an updated version that I took a LOT of time to sit down and study up to make. I feel some of this DOES still apply just not the way I thought it would

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A SITE ARTIST OR AFFILIATED WITH FLIGHT RISING STAFF IN ANY WAY, I'm just in it for the love of the game. I also do not claim to be an expert on these guys since a lot of this information is just what I was able to visually glean from the official art. If you were struggling with drawing them, I do hope that these will help!!

also, some bonus redlines and notes on possible dimorphism between the poses I took over the official renders under the cut~

I'm sure some of this can be chalked up to the anatomy not being perfect on the official renders as opposed to what looks best when crammed into the little box the dragons have to fit in, but I did try my best.

Not sure of the puff of fur over the chest is on both males AND females but I don't see any indication of it on the M pose. Also thanks to the staff for giving them wasp/bee so I was able to finally get a (mostly) full picture of their body silhouette!

[kllypsooo]

Anatomy practice featuring Lulu, Omega & Aether. I know i might've made a few obvious mistakes; my apologies, but this is why I'm practicing!

I wanted to draw more ghouls, experiment with different body types, though I'm on a bit of a time crunch. Once I am free, I will be sure to work on the others! :]

[tallbluelady]

Both Rowan and I had a multiple phases of the ship happening.

For me, I really like characters who speak with Elizabeathan grammar. I just find it fun to listen to and stuff. So I pop in with my generic MMO character and Urianger goes off with his "thees" and "thous" and I'm just, "Oh I like him!" and leave it at that.

Then he shows up in a veil Post-Dragonsong War and I'm like, "Well, I guess I like GNC men more than I thought."

Then he Careless Whispers down the stairs in the Bookman's Shelves and I'm like, "UHH I guess I am going to read some fanfic now. Wowzers." Then after reading the fanfic I wanted to write my own and here we are today.

For Rowan... she always liked Urianger's voice and found him handsome when he showed his face. She may have had some vague romantic inclinations Post-ARR that get really jumbled when Moenbryda shows up and put on hold after she dies. I think the moment that she reconsiders a romantic connection with him is after the Warriors of Darkness fight. She doesn't really know how to initiate that sort of thing with him and leaves for Doma and it's just a slowburn situation until he starts it on the first.

Bonus: Urianger found Rowan pretty and a wonderful person since they first met but didn't seriously consider that Rowan would want a relationship with him until she hugs him on the dock in Limsa. Then he has that to think about for the months without her there. He wanted to actually initiate their courtship around Prelude in Violet but got called to the First before he could!

Bonus Bonus: For Wuk Lamat and Khaliun it was when I took a walk before the first dungeon in Dawntrail. I realized that I would have a better time in the story if I had someone to be invested in her and I'd been wanting to give Khaliun more of a spotlight, so carrot on a stick for me!  Wuk Lamat is the one who initiates in Sharlyan, but Khaliun figures out she wants more later in Dawntrail.

Bonus Bonus Bonus: After thinking about how Wuk Lamat and Khaliun would get along, I also thought that Khaliun and Lyse would get along as well. They pretty much hit it off right away in ARR with a casual relationship. They kind of get rocky throughout Stormblood, alas. 

fellow wol x npc shippers- If applicable, what was the "oh" moment for you and your oc falling for their love interest? Was yours seperate from your WoL's?