#cernos

[entreri]

The Pathless (5/??)

[incorrectdmp]

Murder God: what if. what if i was soso warm and comfy. in a bed. snug as a bug. what then?

Cernos: THEN I WOULD PULL YOU OUT BECAUSE YOU SHOULD BE WRITING

[of-acid-and-steel]

Welcome to my Game Dev Blog!

My name's Ender- I'm a game developer as a bit of a hobby (Even though I've been looking for jobs as a developer for a while now;;), and this blog is meant to record and show off the progress of a game I've been working on for a while, now!

I'll be using this blog to post updates on the game's progress, ideas I've been thinking about, and maybe other miscellaneous, game-development-oriented things!

I've made a personal promise to myself, that every element of this game is going to be made by me, personally! I'm using RPG Maker MV for the engine, but besides that- Music, Art, Writing, Design, and everything in-between is my own!

I hope you enjoy the game- The summary of which is extended below the "Keep Reading" line!

"Of Acid and Steel" (The title's still a bit of a work-in-progress) is a Fantasy RPG, where you play as a dracokin by the name of Cernos Talonswallow, who dreams of becoming a great hero, one day.

For an unknown reason, Cernos was left, by his parents, in the care of Erickson Ironbeard, a dwarf blacksmith in the small village of Pimaia. As he grew up, Cernos only heard second-hand stories about his family and the Talonswallow clan, of whom his parents were the leaders.

After learning of how important family and clanship was to his kin, Cernos began to draw his own conclusions about why he was left in the care of Eric, his uncle. He believed that, in his early childhood, he had made a mistake, or was lacking in some manner that warranted his abandonment. From this conclusion, he resolved to prove his own worth to his parents, one way or another, by becoming a hero; Such that his name would reach his parents' ears, and he would be worthy of the family name he inherited.

Years of begging his uncle- Who he loved too much to leave without approval from- Training, and growing up leads to a fateful day, when Cernos finally proves that he's ready to take on the world outside the small village he grew up in.

But, his adventure is bound to reach much further than even he expects...

[opalescent-apples]

This is my ongoing prequel fanfiction for Discord Murder Party! It starts as a road trip with Murder God and Aelethias and Baku, but spirals into something else...there are moments with all the Awakened, and explorations of the relationship between the Black Stars Pantheon. There will be mood whiplash. There will be games. There will be eldritch evil. There will be poetic bullshit.

Please heed all the content warnings in the tags. The mature rating is for the violence and abuse depicted in the story; there is no smut. I'm not sure my depictions of the sensitive topics are accurate or handled well, so please proceed with caution.

[the-upper-shelf]

When inspiration fails me I search animal pictures and draw my ocs in their same(or similiar) scenario.

[nebulaurora-art]

I really love Citrine's design

[wosocomix]

Really enjoyed that Juve documentary, they seem like a nice down to earth bunch

Yeah, the girls are genuinely likeable and their football mentality is in the right way. I really think Joe is helping them on that matter and it showed on more than 1 occasion.

[thomasbrownsposts]

Testosterone Gel

Treat the low testosterone levels of your body with the most convenient gel form of medication with Testosterone Gel.

[incorrectdmp]

Aelethias: Whenever we drove past those inflatable deer around the holidays, our dad used to always tell us to "AIM BEHIND THE ELBOW OF THE FRONT LEG. IT WILL MAKE A WORTHY FEAST FOR OUR MIDWINTER."

[space-ninja-fashion-show]

Hopped on for the Nora daily (after a good hour and a half of begging windows to just update already. This OS continues to be the bane of my existence), got a mutalist cernos blueprint from Teshin on login, and after i returned from the relay i went to just for the daily, Wally was waiting for me

Come on, guys, it's nice to know that you miss me, but it's still another like two weeks before i'll be home and getting to actually play again

[opalescent-apples]

Listen I have no proof that Cernos Dmp speaks IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS TO SHOW HIS AGGRESSION AND DISAPPOINTMENT IN HIS CHILDREN but I believe that it is true.

[the-upper-shelf]

Anatomy session with the big boy!

[nebulaurora-art]

~ Citrine ~

[ganondoodle]

Since you said it's ok to send you random ask, i've always found your "monsters" design to be really really gorgeous, and I wanted to know : in any form of media you've interacted with, what's PEAK monster design for you ?

i have been thinking about this ask alot bc ... i dont ... know? theres a problem with what counts as a monster really too, most are either some sort of anthro/furry or the horror gore type of monster that instills you more with disgust than awe

i guess theres some i really like but idk if thats what id call 'peak' (though its rarely JUST the design but their vibe and stuff too);

(its a lot of zelda.. sorry)

Eldra, Farodra and Naydra (engl Dinraal, Farosh(?)) though Eldra is def my fav one of them, i like how they are a little more less typical dragon- with the fur around the neck the floppy ears and kinda goofy face yet manage to be the most ethereal, awe inspiring creature i have ever seen in a game with how they act and are presented as (in BOTW!!! do not mention anythign sonau/zonai with stupid magic pebbles to me about them i will manifest worms into your tea)

Leunen (Lynels) (botw) -i could not find a better picture wtf, fav are white and silver ones) FINE they had some pretty neat new horn designs in totk- idk i just like them alot, rather simple if you think about it, horse lion plus horns- but its so well put together it just kinda scratches my brain in a good way (also how intelligent they clearly are, like the way they fight and act and also even their death animation is so??? huh?? you are just gonna treat them like any other mindless monste- *remmbers they treat ganondorf even even worse all things considered* .. nevermind you're good)

'Beast' Ganondorf (twilight princess) its my favorite beast ganon design (even if it technically is just kinda a man boar .. again) though if ww gan had a non puppet beast form that one would most definitely be my fav lol (i will not get over the fact that some descriptions call this a hideous beast EXCUSE ME???? WHERE???) (honorable mention here, darkbest ganon from botw, pig on fire but it looks cool as fuck)

Nimbusgarde (ww) .. (engl .. darknuts?) do i need to say anything? (i could throw alot of ww design here) not sure if it counts as monster but they are not human so ????

the pathless bosses- (here in order, Cernos, the Godslayer, and Kumo) all of them are rad as hell (except for the final version of the godslayer ... liek im sorry but it looks to boring compared to any other one lol) again not just the design but man do i love them

since i dont know what would count as a monster or no i could just list my fav characters here bfmjbfmjsbmj like radahn (elden ring) is just kinda a zombie, aurelion sol (league of legends) is a space dragon, the forest god in princess mononoke, Narisha (skyward sword- sky whale)- i could go on but this post is long already (honorable mention to Omus in nausicäa, weird bugs but also something divine, though it is much more how they are treated and the vibe etc)

in all honesty though i cant think of one that i would describe as perfect, what i want of a monster design is to be ... cool but also a little weird, big hulking monsters that have something off about them and something that makes them 'other', but also not, as much as i like bloodborne, just bloody gory messes of rotting flesh, AND not just as a monster to kill, i just crave a game or otherwiese piece of media where the cool monsters arent just there for you to kill- the perfect one i guess would be something kinda big scary weird and off but while non verbal clearly not a mindless beast?

and here is the thing; my own characters do not furfill that, my designs are really rather conservative, much to my dismay, anthro of a mix of animals, maybe an extra arm thrown in- Eadrya, one of my favorites, is really just a blueish furry (yes they have fur) and their demon form is a mix of seals and catfish with some extra arms, too many teeth and a mouth that goas wayy to far (if they want) - Shargon is a feather dude with extra arms and his demon form is really just a chinese type dragon crossed with a bird, throw some darts at the color wheel, done

together with my problem of my monster characters losing their 'otherness' vibe within the story rather fast bc the majority of my characters are non human and speak and you see them in all sorts of emotions and parts of life- they lose that divine, unknown vibe and i HATE that that happens, i want them more akin to the forest god in mononoke but thats not possible unless i start from scratch

and i really dont mean to make myself look bad to sound self depre- ... however you spell that; i really am rather dissatisfied with my own designs but mostly just roll with what i got bc i never seem to be able to actually achieve what i want

even my redesigns often really make things LESS interesting (unless maybe the og was just ... human, but they are blue eyed with golden hair and white so that makes them divine you seE-), the skyward sword dragons as i redesigned them made them much more classical dragon, in part intentional bc i was drawing a connection of them becoming the botw dragons at some point, but by all means the canon design is much more weird and unusual than what i did with them, you could apply the same to even demise, his canon design might seem a little uninspired but really what did i do? inject him with some classic satan spice like that makes it in any way less stereotypical evil demon ??? lol

im sorry this post devolved into whatever this is but i really am trying to answer sincerely, i am confused about it myself, what counts as a monster, what doesnt, there must be more that i really loved but why cant i think of them, why do i design characters like this when i really want something much more different, i dont know, i feel like my brain is in a cage, why do i keep making things less interesting in an effort to make it interesting, am i falling into the corporate trap of cool sells who am i what am i doing

(theres a zelda artist with a style so strikingly genuis in shape, color and just .. DESIGN that i want to chew my nails off bc i cannot design like them, their designs and redesigns are so different yet sensical and so full of crisp shapes i have never seen before it drives me nuts and i would want to give them a shoutout but i think they dont like me so aaaaarhekjbfhgdknbgdfklbg)

[fascinatedhelix]

Decided to make a little introductory post to a very particular crossover AU (for ABZU, The Pathless, Journey (2012), and Sky: Children of the Light, to be specific) that @abhorrenttheorizer and I have made art for over on Discord. As there's a lot of ground to cover, I'm putting it under a read-more for courtesy.

Introduction

Welcome to Earth! Specifically, thousands if not millions of years in the future, after at least one cataclysm has claimed the lives of every human on the planet. But not to worry!

A little before the end of humanity arrived, two bird-like gods arrived on Earth, settling in the eastern and western hemispheres to establish their own followings.

Off to the East, we have the goddess affectionately nicknamed "Megabird," who landed on a mountain and began constructing her own unique ecosystem centering on light and flight, creating the Rythulians as her worshippers. (AT's more in charge of this portion; he's got a lot of interesting ideas about the "slugbirbs" as we like to call them.)

To the West, we have the goddess known to her own people as Mother Eagle. First, she got to work producing five eggs, which would hatch into their own unique gods and goddesses: Cernos, Sauro, Nimue, Basilla, and Kumo.

Basilla, the shark goddess*, was the one who crafted the people who would become their worshippers, taking remnants of humans and mixing them with seals and sharks to create the Basillan species (my specialty, based on my personal headcanons for the TGS games).

*(based on the Great White from ABZU being referenced in The Pathless and the mysterious stele that got edited out in an update)

The original Basillan kinda looked like this (these being the "humanoid" forms of the Tall Ones, Basilla included).

However, they wouldn't stay united for very long. Differences in religious views and lifestyle got heated, and eventually the mortals banished Basilla and her followers from their island home, with the Basillan cult setting up shop in an underwater territory a ways away from the Eagle's Island. Over time, the more land-focused followers of the Mother Eagle and the remaining four Tall Ones became the Vokara subspecies, and the more aquatic followers of Basilla alone became the Nanshen.

Here's a really old drawing of the differences!

(Did I forget to mention this AU has been in the works since 2021? Man my art's changed since then.)

Anyways, average Nanshen guy on the left, average Vokara guy on the right.

The Nanshen are more suited towards an aquatic lifestyle, with wider gill slits, darker skin due to heightened sun exposure, shorter and more compact body type, a flatter nose more suited for passing water to the gills, and longer barbels on the ears to allow for greater olfactory sensation underwater. (They're based off of the murals in the ABZU game, as well as probably unintentional environmental storytelling with how unnavigable the map would be without a lot of diving underwater; it only made sense to me that the lost civilization was probably amphibious.)

The Vokara have lived mostly in the mountains for generations, so they're more suited for terrestrial life, with a broader chest, smaller gills to focus on breathing air, lighter skin due to weather conditions providing less light, a more opened up nasal passage for ease of breathing, and smaller barbels due to less of a need for underwater sensory measures. (They're more based on the Hunter's appearance in The Pathless, given that she is way too gray to be a human. I know it's probably just to make her aracial like what they did in Homestuck, but I'm running with it damn it!)

(Anyways, here's a nicer comparison drawing from a little while later. Behold the specbio lesbian wedding!)

Fun Bits I Forgot to Organize

Tusks

Adult Basillans grow tusks like boars (based on the Godslayer's ascended model having these wicked tusks among his rows of fangs). They only really develop towards the latter portion of adolescence, around one's late teens to early 20s, and are regarded for the males as the sign that one has become a proper adult.

Of course, the downside is that these things are continuously growing and have to be trimmed every now and then in order to avoid poking oneself in the eye or scratching people with it.

The Vokara are especially finicky about covering their mouths for... not quite modesty reasons so much as baring one's scary teeth at another person is considered rude and aggressive. The Nanshen, living far more amphibiously and thus not really comfortable with more cloth than is comfortable underwater, don't care about that as much, though if you grimace at somebody they might kick you in the shins.

Barbels

A general rule I keep when designing out-of-water clothing for these guys is to cover the ears. In universe, it's because their barbels are very sensitive to differences in temperature and UV radiation out of the water, so it's deeply uncomfortable to have them uncovered for these guys. Out of universe, it's because The Hunter did something like this in her game, in addition to the ABZU people also covering most of their heads but not their chests for some reason (so probably not quite a modesty thing), and I decided to make up a silly specbio reason for it.

For some examples, here's a spread of different Nanshen city states and their different fashions:

History

The games are still canon here! But there's a little more to it.

The Nanshen had always been travellers, more keen to explore and establish their own territories far and wide. But after those dwelling in the Crown began messing with the Abzu, the life energy of the ocean itself, the ecosystem around the capitol collapsed and the population fled the area. Their former empire collapsed, and in its place, a number of different city states off the shore of their various old territories were established in its place.

Some time before, or maybe simultaneous to that, the Vokara had their own little collapse in the form of the Godslayer's rebellion. Many had read the writing on the wall and fled the Isle before he successfully slayed the gods and took control of the whole Island, leading to a number of villages and kingdoms being formed on the nearby continent, which would eventually spawn the Last Hunter, who would defeat the Godslayer.

There's more to it, but I think I'm approaching Tumblr's picture limit, and I've got more, sillier pictures from the AU. I'll add those later!