Carp Diem

Changing my techniques!!

coming in here to brainstorm (fork found in kitchen)

so izemrasen is my newest alchemist mc. her full name is izemrasen bint al-aql, but im not sure if im using the prefix 'al-' correctly here, since it's supposed to mean like. she's daughter to no tribe but that of the concept of reason and truth. so for now her name is fs izemrasen. her birth name was baragsen ibn bassam al-irdjan

her father was the leader of the nomadic irdjan tribe, who revere the alchemical arts and astronomy.

in her canon, ts' world has multiple moons. and to the irdjan (or the umbrella religion they're under), each moon represents the divine eye of each individual god— watching over the world, and bestowing their gifts in the form of metals. like capsules of their essence? there is

1. silver; our lady of truth (the irdjan revere her specifically, each tribe can dedicate themself to an individual moon or every moon all together). knowledge, judgement, revelations.

2. gold; beauty, ambition, leadership.

3. copper; chaos, desire, violence.

4. tin; dreams, secrets, harmony.

5. lead; death, peace, inevitability.

6. bronze; wit, community, craftsmanship.

7. brass; language, music, memory.

8. iron; strength, discipline, courage.

9. steel; law, perfection.

10. mercury; change, madness.

11. platinum; birth, fate.

bonus— obsidian, considered a dead god. slowly escaping the orbit. those who turn to it for its domain and its gifts are considered heretics by most tribes.

now. now? her father (bassam) turned to said dead god. he believed being dedicated to the ideal of knowledge while being shackled by what was considered forbidden was holding back humankind's true progress. the other gods wanted to punish him and his bloodline more severely, but our lady of truth (Asirah al-Haqq) deemed it an unfruitful course of action. and since they were her follower's, she had more sovereignty over deciding their fate. whether bassam is dead or alive is uncertain, but he's definitely not in the picture. she then gave izemrasen a midas touch. silver edition. and is sort of using her to see if humankind truly can withstand the weight of divine knowledge

putting this out here for tumblr moots

GOOD GOD THE LORE SO SO TASTYYYYY

each moon- having an attributed metal????? the meanings of the metals??? that is spectacular, makes me wanna wonder their version of astrology/zodiacs

obsidian is such a crisp delicious touch to give to a dead god/planet because it is technically. dead lava/fire. it is so similar to the metals yet is made of the residue of what could destroy all of them. (this has me questioning: how do they perceive fire? do they respect it? do they think it is a blessing given by their goddess for them to use the metals? or do they take it as disrespecting because it might be insulting to the goddess and other gods alike- like some sort of reverse zoroastrianism? They already have alchemy + coldsmithing exists- the setup for worldbuilding lore is too juicy soren I cant help it)

(ok so, dont take my word for a fully professional/linguistic because I am nowhere near fluent in arabic- but I did take it and learned a few things because my quran course made it mandatory -long story-) do you want it to translate as "Izemrasen, daughter (of) The Intellect/Reason" ? (it also translates to Nous and Mind btw, that word is a wide range one) because yeah- the al is correct? also al-Haqq is correct- but what did you try to say with asirah? because it sort of translates to "prisoner/captivator of the right/truth" or "captive of truth" /gen

YEAHHH i realised asirah might not be the translation im looking for 🤔🤔🤔 i wanted their arabic titles to be more gender-neutral, like sovereign/distributor of knowledge? so hmmmmm

also yes that is what i intended for izemrasen... but im still thinking if 'of The Reason' makes sense in the first place lmao

and as for what the irdjan (and the other tribes) think of fire? for the most part, they view it as one of the tongues of the gods (as many other elements, such as air, water, and earth are). the origin of fire itself, as well as secondary purposes, varies from tribe to tribe, depending on who their patron deity is.

the irdjan, and other tribes who follow the silver lady, believe fire was born as a messenger of her will when she passed her very first judgement upon the world. after all, fire burns away all that seeks to obscure, and she lights the way to realisation. those who follow the gold lord believe fire was a gift from him, the most radiant and brilliant of all moons, so they may partake in creation as well. those who follow the copper lady believe it was the mere aftermath of her birth— when the fabric of space could not contain her any longer, and she burst forth in a collision of rock. etc etc.

tribes can seek to communicate with the gods through burning their respective metal in fire, and reading the colour, movement, sound, scent of the fire— and residue left behind. the only outlier to this is our lady of truth, whose messages are interpreted mainly through what happens to the silver material. for example;

- no colour change in metal or fire, tarnishes instead. releases faint vapors.

-> heavy, darkened surface; you are being deceived/you deceive yourself.

-> spotty surface; there are many answers to the question you ask. (you might want to ask another god for their insight; consider another line of thinking)

-> coherent patterns and symbols; the lady speaks to you directly. look closely.

- the truth is clear/you are on the right path/approval; smoke rises straight.

- the truth is obscured (might involve natural roadblocks rather than pure deception)/you must reach deeper (ambiguous, may also apply to straight smoke)/you are losing sight/disapproval; smoke curls and falters.

- you cannot handle the magnitude of the answer you seek; cracked surface.

- tarnish appears rapidly; you must take action immediately.

there are other tribes who view fire as a secondary means of communicating with their patron deity, and instead prefer water. for example, tribes who worship the lead lady typically set up their homes around lakes and springs— stationary bodies of water. on days when the skies are still and the waters, all the more so, that is when they attempt to receive a response from her.

The main characters, Mo & Adanna.

Spoiler: One of them tries to kill the other. Guess who.

They have a noir detective and femme fatale dynamic except Mo (the taller one) is the femme fatale, or rather the stud fatale, and Adanna is the detective.

aquarium advertisments say stuiff like discover the longtooth grouper this friday

I see that, and raise you my local aquarium's advertising.

Vancouver Aquarium has similar ads!

They also have some SERIOUSLY inventive ones:

(High and Low Tide ^)

the only type of advertising that should exist: "ooooohhhh you want to come look at the animal"

Gentle reminder that often creativity decides to hibernate for a bit.

It’s okay.  You’re not broken, you’re resting, and much like spring, creativity comes back.

Bad art is better than no art

She is attentive for once.

save me mydei wife.... mydei wife save me

this brainrot took hold in record time

Btw much as I love to make fun of twitter and reddit's business decisions, I have 0% trust in tumblr's management to not go a similar route so this is your gentle reminder that you should regularly go to your blog settings to export your blog. That's a fancy way of saying you can download a backup of your blog so if everything goes down you'll still have a backup of your posts & convos.

It's gonna come as a surprise to most of you, but if you don't want to do that for whatever reason you're allowed to not reblog this post. I'm not holding a gun to your head here I'm just trying to spread the word for people who do want a backup of their stuff.

Also, made this guide for backup Tumblr blogs (ft. export blog method, and python 3 script method):

for all the yapping I do about my creation process I'm really bad about actually drawing it out haha..... since I actually have this weekend off I wanted to block out a basic outfit idea for my Unnamed as well as structure her hair a bit more since Kuras gets those twists Right when she's plops into his life. I'm really struggling with matching the style of the characters while also breaking art block myself, so she doesn't look as wall-eyed as she should. (she's not sleep-deprived or anything her face is just Like That) got her basic themes and flower figured out but no name... should probably actually keep playing the demo to see if she has always had a given name or gave herself one considering the title. (or maybe the Unnamed is her power?? hmmm)

BOLD ANY FEARS WHICH APPLY TO YOUR MUSE.

ITALICIZE WHAT MAKES THEM UNCOMFORTABLE.

Thank you @carp-from-space for tagging me

Art by @anam-mana <3

the dark. fire. open water. deep water. being alone. crowded spaces. confined spaces. change. failure. war. loss of control. powerlessness. prison. blood. drowning. suffocation. public speaking. natural animals. the supernatural. heights. death. dying. intimacy. rejection. abandonment. loss. the unknown. the future. not being good enough. scary stories. speaking to new people. poverty. loud noises. being touched. sex.

If anyone interested:

@anam-mana @sophriac @captain--miracle @moirascribbles @kimiro-art