#I want Kirkbride to be proud of me

[cryptfly]

All I ever want to do is play dress up with my dollies. Here’s Rinsea, my ESO main, in some various ceremonial garbs she’s picked up during her adventures. More info under the cut.

Champion of Vivec

She would rather you think of her being the City’s champion than the God-King’s, but here we are. I obviously based it on the Buoyant Armiger’s glass armor. She’s not officially a Buoyant Armiger or anything, but she does get some fancy glass armor pieces for official occasions which she does not attend. This is also partially based on Bajoran liturgical wear because I like it very much.

Champion of Sotha Sil

Technically she’s the champion of the Clockwork City but that was very long to put on her picture lmao. I don’t think Seht would have gotten her any ceremonial wear honestly, but since it’s basically a standard Clockwork Apostle outfit, I like to think that one of that order got her this, something fine and suited to the environment as a thanks for saving their sadboi God. Drawing the armor pieces was really fun and satisfying and they turned out way better than I was expecting.

Champion of Almalexia

Once again I changed the actual title given to fit the picture. Almalexia actually named her a Hand! However as we all know, a Hand of Almalexia is a specific kind of Ordinator and Rin is not actually inducted into that order. She’s a Hand because Ayem says so but that doesn’t actually give her any rank or anything. Instead of giving her Ordinator armor, I gave her a fancy gown. I think Ayem did this with a touch of vanity-isn’t my Hero so beautiful, a true Daughter of Morrowind I am such a proud Mother. Also, I really wanted to draw a pretty dress and no one can stop me. I based some of the details off Kirkbride drawings of Almalexia herself.

Urshilaku Clanfriend

In my personal canon of the story, the Vvardenfell quest happened first for Rin and took around little over a year and in that time she became a Clanfriend among Ashlanders. Her father, Gares, had been an Ashlander until he was forced to flee with his infant daughter and when she returned on what seemed to be Temple business, they were wary of her. But she made herself useful and was unfailingly polite and she was folded into much of their life. I like that while the other outfits look designed and tailored to suit her, her Ashlander gear almost looks like hand me downs and mended pieces. She wasn’t given new and special clothes, she was trusted with clothes worn by the tribe, inviting her into the family itself. These clothes look nice but also like something she work in side by side with the Ashlanders.

[elderscrollsconceptart]

I love elder scrolls but I'm sad about how orientalist it can be

I didn't specialize in it, but The College and department I went to specialized in South East Asian studies. So for a long time I've been acutely aware of the obvious artistic and creative influences on various TES societies, art styles, motifs, etc.

Orientalism has a bizarre mix of pandering assumptive stereotypes, romanticism, and at its worst, pure racism. Orientalism originated via dangerous and racist western attitudes of past centuries which were used to simplify and insultingly coddle and ostracize non-western cultures while also allowing westerners to access said cultures via a smug sense of superiority and curiosity.

There are a lot of East Asian, South Asian, North African, Middle Eastern influences in the various societies and cultures of TES.

I cannot speak for how people of those backgrounds may feel about how the various artistic styles and inspirations have influenced the art and lore of TES.

All I can say is there is a lot of IRL cultural influence in TES. Creating a vast fantasy world and *not* taking IRL cultural inspiration is hard. IMO it's practically unavoidable unless you want to get REAL WEIRD with the lore and art in the way Michael Kirkbride does (he can create genuinely alien cultures).

I am of the personal opinion that cultural artistic inspiration is fine as long as it is done with *deep* respect, care, and dignity towards the civilization it is taking inspiration from.

I personally feel TES does more than enough to go beyond simple cultural artistic inspirations and creates something that is both very familiar and also entirely new.

For example, let's look at how Argonian art and culture is depicted in TES.

Besides the Kukri knives which are of South Asian origin, were largely looking at a fictitious culture that has extreme aesthetic similarities to indigenous cultures of Central and South America.

I myself am descended from such people IRL.

I have direct family connections to specific tribes in Northern and central Mexico. Am I bothered seeing a fictional series taking direct artistic inspiration from the ancient cultures of my ancestors? And that our culture is applied to a bunch of weird lizard people no less?

Yes, it does bother me a little. However, when I think about it I also realize there is nothing ignoble about the Argonian people or how they are represented in game or art. I mean look at them. What is there to be ashamed of when you look at them, talk to them, *see* the Argonians and how they live?

The Argonians are quite frankly, super fucking cool badasses. They have a complicated, dark, heroic, and fascinating history. Just like my ancestors. Why would I shy away from seeing the culture of my ancestors inspiring a proud fictional civilization?

There's nothing to be ashamed of when I see my culture represented or taken inspiration from as long as it is not being used in a demeaning or insulting manner.

I don't feel Bethesda is acting with racist or ill intentions when they take artistic inspirations from real cultures. I want to give them credit. A lot of very intelligent and learned people work for Bethesda. Many of their creatives come from all over the world and from many different cultural backgrounds.

For example! Many of the artists who worked on the western inspired civilizations of Cyrodiil and Skyrim were of East Asian, South Asian, and African descent. They took it upon themselves to learn the artistic cultural stylings they wanted to take inspiration from and to represent them in an authentic but still creative and unique way. This is what any good fantasy series should be able to do.

They know the world is huge and every culture is endlessly diverse. There should be no shame in depicting or taking inspiration from a culture or their artistic style as long as such inspiration and depiction is done diligently, honestly, and with respect.

I feel that the art and artists of TES have faced up to this challenge and expectation and have (largely) met it. There are some examples that do make me roll my eyes, but even these are largely just cases of lazy artistic expression or generic inspiration.

All in all, artists and creatives absolutely can and should do more to ensure their inspirations from non-western cultures are done with tact and respect. I personally feel the creative behind TES have been meeting expectations in this regard and have done a fair job of taking inspiration without being insulting.

[kmudle]

Kent... HOW DARE YOU,MA HEART!! I loved that episode, and Gideon singing OMG, I went into that episode legit hoping either Clem or vi would sing and omg!! I want to ask a question tho, if you can tell us or hint, how many people have a chance to die altogether? Sorry if you can answer if not then what was your favorite backstory? Vi or Louis? I loved vi’s!! WHO CAME UP WITH WILLYS’ BACKSTORY, is it true tho!!

Picking between the backstories is really hard, but I think Violet’s sticks with me the most. It’s just so fucked up and haunting. But it’s really close. 

Lead Designer Micheal Kirkbride came up with the backstories (with help from Lauren Mee) and I am almost sure Willy’s was his idea :P 

(it’s def true, look how damn proud that little goblin is) 

[yiernngoworkexperience-blog]

Peer Review

An exercise in judgement, jealousy, and juxtaposition.

Matthew Cook

http://dmvm.coventry.ac.uk/~cookm9/Placement/?fbclid=IwAR3I8cRQ52rPavNz6NSa90gOxjsdenLxxj508m7-d4vfGToi0BacDSDWEFI

I am definitely not the only one to review Matthew's experience.

I love the way he wrote an easy to follow story about his time at Walt Disney Company! It really felt like I got to experience what he was going through, especially with the pictures. It’s nice to see someone else living it up, and letting us live vicariously through his experience. 

I feel as if what Matthew had experienced and what I have experienced are on vastly different scales, but similar at a baseline level. What he said about things picking up and then lulling down was very relatable, as I found myself having days in the office doing absolutely nothing and then finding myself completely bogged down with work the next day. In the end, it’s a privilege to be able to read about Matthew’s experience at Disney, and I can only hope to get such an opportunity myself in the future.  

Lily Dukes

https://www.livydukesphotography.com

I found it very easy to relate what Livy was going through in her freelance year, as I suppose freelance was a lot of travelling and learning on the fly. And it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one that had stayed back in Coventry. Reading her describe what she was going through, with the unpaid work and paid work, really spoke to me. I found her struggles with equipment akin to my struggles with equipment, and I felt it on a deeply personal level when she spoke about not limiting herself. She’s proud of the progress she’s made in her work experience year, and I also felt that I could be proud about how my year has gone as well, looking back on it.

I felt like her work experience to her had been bittersweet. Like sure she had made personal growth, but she also felt as if she could have done more but didn’t want to undersell the success she’d already achieved and the incredible progress she’d made in her professional work. And after the year I’ve had, honestly, Livy Dukes, I feel the same.

Ellie Kirkbride

https://elliekirkbride.wixsite.com/caliblog/blog?fbclid=IwAR0agYiGCfKO3NNARlBqfZRpA3uOupHcFLA-9-lJGJJF16Yotu_frucH8t4

Reading Ellie’s blog, I can sort of tell she’s the kind of girl that knows what she wants, and goes and gets it. And that’s pretty inspiring. Unlike me, she seemed to know what she wanted to do for her year out, and achieved her goal with relative ease and immediacy.

I was curious as to how it was to be an Erasmus student, far from home, so I took a look at her blog. And I felt like I could really relate to some parts of her experience. Sometimes you just miss home. As an international student, you just get sudden pangs of homesickness out of nowhere.

But then you do your best to learn about the environment you’re living in too, and very quickly find yourself “going native”. You start picking up the lingo and assimilating into the culture. There are things I do in England that I never had to do back in Malaysia, so I really understood where Ellie was coming from.