#myth of fantasy

[faithschaffer]

-Medusa-

I've had this sitting around as a sketch for awhile, finally had time to finish it! Hoping to do more mythology illustration this year.

[fox-graves]

The Bull of Minos wishes for a kinder myth where he can be free

_

Needle felt Minotaur, handmade by me. Available for purchase in source link.

[sennamaticart]

Running Running Running

[vetyr]

Colors vs Final Illustration <3

I wanted to give folks here a heads up that I've deleted my Redbubble account (they added a crappy fee structure + they've never been good at paying artists fairly), so if you want prints you should use my Inprnt. Thanks!

Commissions are currently open; email at silverthegold@gmail.com for inquiries.

[madcat-world]

Medusa Portrait (1 of 2) - Zara Alfonso

[mythical-art]

A section from the second version of 'The Morning', 1809 by Philipp Otto Runge (1809, Öl auf Leinwand)

[gebo4482]

God of War: Ragnarök - Myths of Midgard by Miklós Ligeti #1

[writingwithcolor]

Dark features/people as blessed, white and light people as sick

ladyoftheseastuff asked:

I'm writing a fantasy story where the world is permanently covered in snow & ice. The people share a common culture & are loyal to their city states, but they are not homogeneous in appearance; there will be many, many characters coded as PoC. The main religion centers on the sun, & those with dark features are 'favoured' by the sun god, while pale people or anyone who has white/blonde hair are thought vulnerable to "snow sickness", a disease caused by environmental factors (1/2) & have other rules and customs to gain religious approval. It's dangerous & infectious but not well understood. It affects social standing and opportunities, but it's meant to be tied with ideas of youth, vitality, & fear of aging & sickness: it's not limited to those coded as white. This is a cultural detail and not part of the main conflict, but I want to avoid unintentional allegories/parallels & fetishization. Is this a concept that's too close to crossing any of those lines? (2/2)

This feels less like a means to show dark skinned people in an empowering light and more like a weak attempt at subversion. My primary concern (which you have not specified) is how do the "blessed" class treat the "sickly" so to speak. We have fantasy stories like The Grisha Trilogy and Girls of Paper and Fire, which deal with magical ability/feature-based segregation and conflict.

In both cases there is a sense of entitlement which comes with hailing from the "favoured" class, quite obvious, since there will always be an inherent othering metaphor whenever you create such a division, whether it was meant to be a source of conflict or not.

However, the two mentioned series use the "magical people are blessed, non magical people are to be pitied" arc which is somewhat more subtle than divisions created just on the basis of skin colour.

Disclaimer as I do not have albinism or vitiligo: The latter can be extremely harmful, and not just in a racial context, but in cases of albinism, vitiligo etc.

~Mod Mimi

The pitfalls of subversions

While it is always lovely to see dark features considered in a favorable way, there are some issues you may come across. Such a story could easily end up dressing those you wished to uphold as bad guys in the readers' eyes, even if the story's society and the sun god etc. thinks they're amazing, and white and light people as the victims of dark people, deserving reader sympathy. This may especially be the case based on how these groups get treated in the story.

These sort of subversions lean dangerously into "reverse discrimination" plots which are not overall accurate or favorable allegories for your real, human audience. There being diversity on both sides doesn't necessary fix this issue or remove racial or ethnic implications. On that note, and as Mimi mentioned, being demonized and ostracized particularly for skin and genetic disorders like albinism is already a thing. What does your concept say of them?

I think Dark/Black as good and Light/white as bad is a doable concept. Your concept differs a bit from simply subverting black/white tropes. This is not just Black good guys and night skies being peaceful or neutral. It's not just white/light villains (as opposed to victims) or snow symbolling death or sickness.

White and light people are quite blatantly being declared as sick and unfavored and they may very well be victims in the reader's eye with the dark people being the villainous, unsympathetic bunch. Is this your intention?

More to consider

Such a concept requires thoughtful, careful planning and intentional writing. You should have an understanding of what your story implies to the readers and the real-life takeaways.

I think it's possible to make dark skin the favored skin of the sun god without it meaning white/light people stand in a negative light and are sick or unworthy.

Consider what it is that you like about the concept of your story. Can you keep the essence of whatever it is that excites you about your ideas, without denying a whole group of people favor? If not, how will you go about telling such a tale that is not meant to symbolize a sort of reversal of roles discrimination?

Why does the sun god get to determine what is good?

Are there other gods that might have different strong opinions? Perhaps who is favored varies by time of day, season, region, culture, god?

Can dark skin get its favor without white and light features being deemed unfavorable as a whole?

How big of a deal does this favor have to be? I advise reconsidering it being the point of discrimination to white/light people for all the reasons already described.

No matter the directions you go, please research and get the appropriate beta-readers for feedback on the in-depth concepts and story.

~Mod Colette

[capriccio-ffxiv]

Screenshots of Deryk's descriptions of the Ancients that the Twelve were based on. I have included alt text on all images for ease of use.

At present, we have definitive evidence of two of the Twelve's names as Ancients: Althyk (Alkaios) and Nymeia (Maira). They appear in the quest chain that starts with "An Expected Guest." If you finish this quest chain, Althyk and Nymeia will comment on recognizing your Warrior of Light.

[zeroshadows]

Nymeia

[silketara]

At journey's end

The whole alliance raid gotta be my favorite raid out of everything.

Anyway, it seems that most people didn't connect that the 12 Gods (including the watcher) are Venat's trusted friends from back then. The one you see in Anamnesis Anyder cutscene :/

Seeing comments saying they are useless is sad tbh. They are not Gods to begin with. They're there to support Venat T^T

[niiv]

The Legend of Saint George: The Rescue

1903

Liebenwein, Maximilian; 1869–1926.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The Good Omens theme by our brilliant David G. Arnold played 28.8.2023 at the BBC Prom 57: Fantasy, Myths and Legends concert! :)❤

The BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Anna-Maria Helsing recreated a host of classic fantasy soundtracks from film, TV and gaming marking the 50th anniversary of J. R. R. Tolkien’s death.

PROGRAMME

Howard Shore, orch. J. C. Whitney The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring Symphonic Suite 10’ Ramin Djawadi, arr & orch. John Langley Game of Thrones Suite 8’ De Falla El Amor Bruja (excerpts) David Arnold, arr. & orch. N. Dodd Good Omens – Main Theme 3’ John Williams Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – Hedwig’s Theme 5’ Stravinsky The Firebird – suite (revised version, 1919) – ‘Berceuse’ and ‘Finale’ 8’

Mussorgsky, orch. Rimsky-Korsakov A Night on the Bare Mountain 12’ Lorne Balfe, orch. Bernard Duc His Dark Materials – Medley 10’ BBC Commission: world premiere of medley Joe Hisaishi My Neighbour TOTORO for Orchestra 4’ Eimear Noone Malach, the Angel Messenger, from ‘World of Warcraft’ 7’ Grieg Peer Gynt, Op 23 (In the Hall of the Mountain King) 3’ John Williams Duel of the Fates 5’

The whole concert here on youtube :)

[vetyr]

Spilled in ash, in dust, I did not leave you

Personal piece in between commissions :) Prints here.

[authorisedgardian]

This made me think how it really is weird what we end up researching sometimes as writers. I definitely wouldn't want some random person looking through my search history without any given context. Just to gives a few examples of my own. I have necromancy in my world so I've ended up searching various things about bodies and skeletons that I'm sure would look rather suspicious to many people. Then on a completely different note I've also researched so many musical instruments during my time writing. I have a race in my world that partially uses music to communicate and I have learnt so much about organs (the instrument not the body organs) amongst many other instruments, including some more obscure ones.

Though I must say I think it is actually one of the many benefits of being a writer, if it wern't for me writing a book then I doubt I ever would even thought to research these things. Not only that, It has also reinforced some of my other interests that I've had previously such as mythology, it basically gives me an excuse to learn more.

[madcat-world]

The Wild Hunt - AnatoFinnstark