#magepunk

[residenthesitant]

It's finally here!!! I'm finally able to post my Blackrock Chronicle: Rising Rythian (and bonus Zoeya!!) cosplay for @mcyt-couture-zine. This project is, quite sincerely, over eleven years in the making - one of my very first cosplays ever was S3 Rythian, which I wore Halloween 2013. I am so happy to finally be able to show this off; I'm incredibly proud of it, and it is truly the culmination of my sewing journey.

The zine released yesterday! Go check it out!! Everyone's work is incredible and deserves your attention. A massive thank you to my photographer for indulging me on this shoot, and to @blocky-tides for putting this event together!! More talking, close-ups, and details under the cut.

Cloak embroidery close-up + the one photo with my eyes/hair in it:

Almost everything in the Rythian cosplay was made from scratch, save the boots, shirt, and belt. The coat is a modified Victorian men's coat made from cotton-linen blend with polyester piping, cotton lining, and wooden buttons; the waistcoat is a 1910's low-fronted vest made from polyester damask with metal buttons salvaged from a marching band jacket; the cloak is a modified Victorian women's opera cloak in a linen-viscose blend, with metal buttons, polyester mesh lining, and hand-embroidery; the pants are Victorian men's pants in red dupioni silk; the hand wraps are made of muslin; and the mask is purple dupioni silk with bubble gauze linen lining and hand-embroidery. The mushroom earring and ender pearl cage pendant are also hand-made! It didn't make it into any of the photos, but I also bleached a streak into my hair in the front LMAO.

As for the origins of this project, I was able to unearth these photos courtesy of my mother. The first is from October 31st, 2013, and the second is June 4th, 2014; note the unhemmed Party City doctor coat with painted-on piping, the H&M jeans, the transition-lens glasses, and the knockoff Uggs. The split in the cape was also unhemmed, and I think the ender eyes on the back were glued-on felt. Truly the "how it started, how it's going" of my sewing journey.

Okay that's it from me. Thank you again Tides for running this zine and letting me participate as both a writer and a cosplayer. I'll be posting the written portion soon!

[zephyrbug]

Potluck time!! This Year I got to draw for @monerelluvia and made a two pieces!! First I’ll start with the one I made of their artificer Yana and her lil buddy Coilspring!! ⚙️🐍🌩️

Big thanks again to @leidensygdom and all the people who help run the event it’s always a blast!!

[benk52]

Sibling rivalry

[greyket]

Father Jeremia

Wuhey, getting around to drawing ocs again. Less go.

Bonus timelapse

[pyrrhus-the-dragon]

Hello! I am back on Tumblr because all other social media sites completely suck, and i am tired of it. Since I've last posted, I've decided to focus more on character modeling. So here is my latest creation, Violet!

When I set of this project, I wanted to make a character that would exist in a mix of the fantasy and cyberpunk genres. This is partially because of a homebrew Starfinder campaign that I will be running that will be a mix of those two genres. I wanted to make a character that would represent one of the factions in my game. She is a member of the elite hacker gang known as [REDACTED] who are a group dedicated to freedom of information, and uncovering the secrets of shadowy government organizations, and large corporate groups.

In creating her design, I took inspiration from punk aesthetics, but I also wanted to add some neon highlights, as the glowing lights of neon is often associated with the cyberpunk genre. However, these two aspects clashed, so I instead chose to limit the colors on her outfit.

[naruhinaluvrx]

I made up a random design for Naruto. His lore is slowly coming together,he's definitely a bit unhinged,but I really do like how the design looks. Might draw him more later

[tallgreenlady]

The “conventionally attractive rat” greentext drives me nuts because the commenter wasn’t WRONG. The rat in question was Ink-Eyes, a Magic the Gathering card:

…Who is drawn in a pin-up pose, has long flowing hair, and is wearing a bikini. That’s about as conventionally attractive as you can make a rat woman short of veering into ears-and-tail anime ‘monstergirl’ territory.

In comparison, this is her new 2024 artwork, now that MtG is not trying to appeal exclusively to teen boys. This is NOT a conventionally attractive rat.

[talenlee]

How To Be: A Bunch Of People From Arcane (Season 1) (In 4th Edition D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

This one gets really big and sprawling pretty quickly, here, hey, we’re going to talk about the characters from Arcane. Oh, and necessarily:

Spoiler Warning: I’m going to talk about Arcane season 1. Doing so I’m going to imply that I didn’t think much of Arcane season 2.

Examining Arcane

I’m looking at season 1 of arcane. Season 2 doesn’t bring anything to the story that’s interesting, to me. It’s a single season of television, it’s nine episodes long, and I really enjoyed those episodes. Where that series took the paper plate puppets of the League of Legends mascot combat franchise, a range of Sanics The Hedgehogs but they’re actually hot, and then used the general outlines of those characterisations to tell a story about class disparity and the coherence of morally acceptable violences.

Show rules.

Arcane is a series with a bunch of vibes, but those vibes have needs. It’s a magepunk story, where there’s a lot of things that are meant to evoke the look of a modern city, the conveniences of them, but with magic rather than an industrial people-population based, economic exploitation model to get you there. It’s a place where big systems are still moving against one another and the movements of individuals can make or break the change between stories but none of what they do gets to transform or erase those systems. Economies and nations and the movement of wars and the economic engines of those wars, they’re still present, but you still can make a difference in your life, for the people around you, and maybe carve out a little well of light in a great big unfeeling void. A point of light, if you will. It’s also a way you get wizards with shotguns and railroads powered by crystals happening, and turns out that that’s a great vibe for a 4th edition game.

But Arcane is also a limited run series, with nine good episodes that I liked and watched, and in that, there’s a bunch of characters, some really good mascot costumes you can jam onto a D&D character, with wonderful, cool, exciting cool art that you can use as an inspiring base for what you’re trying to bring to a table.

The Basics

Look, we’re doing something different today. This isn’t about the builds I’d hand you, with a deliberately vague chain of possibilities that you can snap together the way you want. This is going to be about how I would approach three of these characters that I like, and consider the ways I’d handle them when I’m pitching to a DM. This is as much about telling people ‘here’s what I’m going to do, and here’s what I’m looking for.’

Do you do that? Do you approach a DM and say ‘hey, here’s stuff I want in the setting, can you use this?’ Not every DM is going to want that kind of thing but being able to be specific is really useful. In a game I ran I asked the players to each give me three secrets about their character that could be fair game for me to use as hooks in the narrative, and those wound up being wildly varied in their outcome. Being given ways to connect to the aims of a character is really useful.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Viciously Violent Vindication

Vi is the most obivous high-profile character to make from Arcane. This is reasonable, because she rules, and because she is dripping with main character swagger. There’s an obvious way of engaging with the world (physical violence), a robust set of needs (she’s not a big thinker or technical problem solver), and even an obvious character flaw (she fucks cops).

Vi is obviously strong, and she’s into pulling attention onto her. While she may use magical technology to do more, she’s not going to know rituals or rites. This isn’t to say she’s stupid – she’s actually quite cunning, as highlighted in the first fight we see her in, where she criticises a teammate for giving up information they don’t have to and shouldn’t.

Fighter, Battlerager talent

Heritage, I’d grit my teeth, um and ahh about it and take Goliath. If the DM asks me otherwise, I’d ask how flexible they are about how Dwarves stand. Failing that, I’d take Human, because ultimately, Vi is a baseline member of the culture she’s in. Where every major character is ‘a human,’ Vi being a human is fine.

Main stats are Strength and Constitution, with Wisdom as third. Intelligence and Dexterity are not very important, which means that her Armour Class and Reflex defense are not going to be great, but we’re also hoping to sponge through nasty effects wiiiith…

Take powers with the invigorating keyword. With the Battlerager Talent, that means on each attack, she’ll be getting double her Constitution modifier in Temporary Hit Points.

Weapon choice is another place to talk to the DM. See, Vi classically uses a big pair of smashy fists. They’re not really like hands though, because hands are capable of grabbing things, and Vi is much more just punching things with these huge hands. I’d talk to the DM and ask them, if the weapon occupies both my hands and makes a huge impact, can I treat it as a Mordenkrad. That’s a Superior hammer that deals 2d6 damage, at Brutal 1.

The result is a tank character, who runs around in light armour, and who blocks with her face. Vi doesn’t really defend herself as much as she walks face-first into being punched.

Then the questions I’d throw at the DM:

The place the story’s going to start needs to be importrant to her, like she’s a kind of locally known character. Not necessarily heroic or famous, but like, the toughest girl at the bar she frequents. Is the campaign going to focus on a space or start there and move on from there?

She’s defined by an immense failure in her past. Most people who know her by reputation think well of her, but she has a hard time handling praise or positive attention because she’s too focused on the ways she failed her ambitions. Is there a major incident like an uprising or a rebellion that I can tie her into?

Something put a gulf between her and a family member. I’d rather have this tension be with another player character, but if there isn’t anyone, is there an important NPC she can have a tie to?

Jinx’s Justified Jigsaw

Jinx, the character, in League of Legends, is really obviously some kind of striker. She has bombs and guns and if I bothered to open that wiki I bet that’s the kind of thing she’d be good at doing. I think ranged nonmagical damage is the least interesting thing you can do in a D&D game, so where I start with the image of Jinx, I’m going to then take it in a direction I’d like. They haven’t given me a chaingun tank, but there is a leader supprot-style character that I like a lot that uses ranged weapons, and that’s the Artificer.

Artificers also line up well with Jinx as an Intelligence-based character who uses the Arcane power source. I mean the anime’s named after it. Artificers bring a huge basket of cool stuff; there’s a ritual book, there’s turning daily item abilities into twice-daily items, and the Artificer has probably the single best at-will attack power for people who can take advantage. Magic Weapon is incredible.

Artificer class!

Heritage-wise, I’d talk to the DM about the brand-specific Githzerai. The stats line up with what I want (Intelligence and Wisdom), and has the ability to push through mental attacks that can be really good for representing a character retaliating against mental attacks. On the other hand, Githzerai have a really specific visual aesthetic, and I don’t like it. Devas are also a good option, and their heritage ability looks like ‘getting lucky,’ more or less. I’d probably theme the necrotic resistance as being ‘I have been mucking around with dead bodies a lot, so I’m used to it.

Main stats are Intelligence and Wisdom.

Weapon of choice is a repeating crossbow. This is a weapon focused build. The repeating crossbow is the most ‘chunky mechanical’ feeling weapon for this kind of attack, and it gives that cool, chunky feeling of ‘reloading’ with a big magazine.

The power choices are going to have to fit around Magic Weapon. The default best power to use, at every chance, is Magic Weapon. I don’t need any other single-target attack that buffs an ally, any encounter or daily attack needs to be considered for area damage.

I’ll be looking at the White Lotus feats, since this is a character who’s going to overwhelmingly using an at-will ranged attack standing next to an ally.

And with that stencilled in, I’d look to these questions:

She wants to be close to people and have people who she can rely on but she’s also going to be a real asshole to people because she doubts them. Are there any players who aren’t okay with that dynamic and would like me to have that not affect you?

This character may have committed some terrorism, in a way she feels pretty justified. It’s more important to her that someone accepts that she did what she did for a good reason than to accept that she did the right thing. Is there room for that kind of thing? Can you, the DM, at least leave it ambiguous, and not have anyone come down hard on ‘these acts were definitely bad’ or ‘these acts were actually good?’

This is a character who needs downtime to make things, to buy rituals, and to work on things. She’s meant to feel like a researcher, a geek with a workshop. Is that going to be a thing we can do in this game, and if it’s not, can I facilitate it with a sort of portable tinker’s kit?

Ekko, Ekko, Ekko

Alright, now let’s get the timing down.

Ekko, in Arcane, is not a character who is shown to have explicit time powers. The game, Leage of Legends, is a game with time travel powers and blinks and whatnot, and that’s fine, you know, what the hell ever, but Arcane is not a place with time travel (yet, I know, shut up). Instead the show represents Ekko’s time travel powers, his mastery of time, as being about something in the way he attacks, the way he fights. He plays things out in time, he plots them out, in an instant, and then he acts. We only see it once in Season 1, with Ekko fighting Jinx based on mapping out a memory then crushing into her in six seconds. Because of this, I dont’ want to play with time-zippy powers (oh hi, Battlemind).

This is a great way to represent a melee weapon character who uses a mental stat – either Wisdom or Intelligence.

And

Class: Swordmage

Important stats, Intelligence first, Constitution as a backup, and then Charisma because he’s really cool and to round out the non-armour defenses.

Heritage: Eladrin. This is very specifically to play with the Eladrin Swordmage Advance feat, and the chain that leads to Fey Charge in Paragon. That’s going to need multiclassing to fighter, but there are good feats for that.

Weapon of choice is a longsword, which is how Ekko wields his pipe-like weapon and he’s shown with a sword.

I also want him to have Ritual Caster so he can do the same long-term complicated projects as Jinx.

Then:

In my mind this character is part of an underclass, he has some kind of safeness to his life. Is there a chance that there’s another player in the group who can be from the same safe haven as him, maybe with a place they can have lively conversations about method?

Is there room for this character to have been foraging/earning money through gang activity? What can I do that represents having that kind of support, like maybe access to a good market as a little extra bit of flavour?

Conclusion

That’s a bunch of words, and I’m not making Caitlyn, she’s a cop.

(Also because snipers aren’t that interesting to me in 4th ed D&D).

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[gh0steah]

Artfight Dump P4

Valor (Artight: magepunk)

Centipede (Artfight: Raidens_Sandbox)

Brooks (Artfight: Hyprtonic)

Andhro (Artfight: sunflowerfield)

Vex @eternalghxst (Artfight: ETERNALGHXST)

Claude (Arfight: Alfalfabros)

Plant Goob @questi0n52 (Artfight: Question52)

Antonia @desirablered (Artfight: Desirable_Red)

Bun Bun @daintydoilypon (Artfight: DaintyDoily)

Valentina Castellan (Artfight: Lahmacxc)

[orsinium-scholar]

Hmm. OK though imagine an Orsinium with a good few decades of development under it's belt, in the middle of an industrial revolution. I've already written my headcanon of Orsinium Minor and Major to have a lock and canal system, but imagine a whole magepunk aesthetic going on.

Gas lamps flickering on outside the Orsinium Synod building as night falls, carriages pulled by repurposed dwemer tech clattering over cobbled streets. Orsinium striding into Victorian era tech as the rest of Tamriel still remains in its medieval stasis.

[shining-scion]

This might be a hot take but I do think Wizzy kinda started to lose its narrative identity with arc 4. I don’t wanna assume what was going on in the writer’s room but it felt at times like a strange attempt to “modernize” that really just seemed very out of place.

Karamelle has been talked to death for, uh, obvious and extensive reasons! But I think one of the things that I notice as a writer is the HARD tone crash from the end of arc 3. There’s something to be said about the dishes still needing done even after ascension, but the start of arc 4 definitely doesn’t feel like that.

This might sound deranged but I think ultimately Wizzy came from a time where kids were trusted with a more serious tone and that’s certainly changed.

I’m not saying “wiz’s story is trying to modernize itself!” But I look at arc 4 and it does feel like a soft reboot. Some of that does come with the fact that arcs 1, 2, and 3 basically came together as a trilogy. (I’ve been calling it the Scion Saga in my head— I guess that would make arc 4 and 5 the “Outsider Saga”?)

However, again, the tonal crash hits very hard, and personally, I’m simply not a fan of the Sci-fi coat of paint. The Spiral has *flirted* with sci-fi before— things like the Arcanum, even the Armada— but for the most part it’s fairly well disguised with magitech, magepunk, and brass/clockpunk.

That’s it really. I wrote this post while brushing my teeth. I think I brushed too long. My mouth burns. Ow.

[perpetualnovelboyfriend]

began rotating my qpr agenda magepunk novel again... friends to enemies to political marriage to whatever the fuck they have going on slowburn 400k my beloved...

[greyket]

I passed out looking at my ipad and this appeared, help.

Redesign of kosakabe, an old oc of mine.

[litlunacy]

Ok so I watched the Veilguard gameplay reveal and I have some thoughts. Let's start with the positives:

COMBAT! The combat looks so fluid, I love it. Everything moves nicely and also Rook was doing a lot of sidestepping/back hopping out of range which is great, I love dodge abilities

Rogue back to being able to switch between bow and dual wielding like in Origins?? Thank you!

City of Minrathous looks every bit the magepunk dystopia we've always heard it was (YouTube comments complaining about the magepunk vibe have you been paying attention at fucking all?)

Ability wheel!! It has a cool design beyond just a circle, so kinda hyped for that part of the UI. (Companion directives were turned off for the tutorial, so no comment on that part of it yet)

Dynamic fabric movement my beloved

Sliding ability?? Like BotW shieldsurfing, but without the shield? Cool

And now the negatives:

The Disney princess yassification of Harding is a crime and I hope one of the first mods to come out fixes her face. (Her new haircut is cute tho)

Health potion slot limit my beloathed

Why does the Pride demon have no legs. Wtf. Like I'm assuming the funky glowstick quality of all the demons is some sort of Solas-lyrium related fuckery, but where did his legs go. Those things are supposed to violently stomp around and be intimidating. This just looks goofy.

And one final thought, neither positive nor negative, but just...

BIANCA?!?!😭😭😭😭😭

Solas imma get yo egg headed ass specifically for that one. Redemption is officially off the table.

[jaimebluesq]

Just watched the Dragon Age: the Veilguard gameplay reveal and it looks so much fun!

The combat kind of reminds me of AC:Odyssey (prob cuz I'm doing a replay at the mo) but you have 2 companions to help. I'm enjoying the visual style of Minrathous - I'd call it MagePunk XD. The animation is nice - less cartoony than the trailer but that's to be expected (though honestly I actually didn't mind that style, it looked fun).

We met Rook (our character - customizable), Varric, Harding, and Neve. There were lots of demons from the fade - and yes there was a Pride demon, props to Varric's comment on that one ;)

All in all, I'm excited!

[thethirdgenesisbooks]

What is Magipunk?

Magipunk (also called Magepunk, Spellpunk, Aetherpunk, or Dungeonpunk) is a genre of fantasy taking place in a world where all the technology runs on magic. Combustion engines in such a setting may only work because of fire elementals inside, or instead of telephones people may have circlets that allow them to communicate telepathically with someone far away. In such a setting, magic is not some mysterious force, it is a science that has been honed to make life easier.

The roots of magipunk can be traced back to a blend of genres, primarily fantasy, steampunk, and cyberpunk. Elements of high fantasy, such as wizards and magical artifacts, are paired with the gritty, dystopian settings typical of cyberpunk or steampunk. The resulting genre is a captivating fusion of the supernatural and the mechanical.

Like its parent genres, magipunk often explores themes of power, corruption, and the human condition. Characters navigate a world where magic is both a blessing and a curse, where technology brings progress but also danger. Furthermore, such technology often raises questions such as “just what makes us human?” and “Even if someone is not human, can they still be a person?” These themes are often underscored by rich world-building, intricate plots, and captivating character development.

The appeal of magipunk lies in its ability to blend fantastical elements with familiar settings. A wizard may walk with a staff and wear a pointed hat as he walks into a private detective’s office. Lightning elementals powering a city���s grid might cause a major crisis when they go on strike. A dark lord may rise to threaten the world with his army of steam-powered robots. It offers a fresh take on traditional fantasy tropes while exploring themes that resonate with modern audiences.

Some popular books that fall into this genre include “Mistborn” by Brandon Sanderson, “Mage Against the Machine” by Shaun Barger, or “The Iron Druid Chronicles” by Kevin Hearne.

My own fantasy series, “The Third Genesis,” also falls into this category. It has automatons (robots) powered by magical cores, people send messages instantly through enchanted wooden boxes called “bendboxes,” and there are airships that fly because of enchantments placed on them.