I Cannot Believe We Are About To Be A Whole QUARTER Into This Century

Artwork 1 - Holding hands

Ah, yes, another one

I'm so normal about those dorks, chat

Sooooooooooo, hi-hello, currently making series of works for sampard otp challenge, yay, and that's a first one - was thinking about one of their first(?) meetings

I finally have some more time in my life and feeling a bit better, so I'm writing a second chapter of the fic, hehe, gotta also illustrate it a bit

(also from now on I'm gonna glaze everything on my pics since I have no trust in the internet these days :\, sorry for that)

Varesa Redesign! (Extra Notes Below!)

Rahh, as soon as I saw her in-game design, I started sketching out some ideas. I adore pastel strong girls (I have an genshin oc in that category myself - she has braids like Varesa actually! Which was why I was excited when I saw her silhouette in the to-be-released genshin character silhouette announcement), but I was definitely quite iffy with her design ngl - it did feel a bit like a vtuber design to me at least (I used her splashart as a reference for her pose btw hehe :D)

Her beaded belt, earring, necklace and bangle is based off Zulu jewellery (as seen in the inspo sheet) as her name 'Varesa', is most likely Zulu fertility goddess Mbaba Mwana Waresa. Her pleated skirt is also based off the skirt used in Zulu traditional attire (I forgot to add the image in the inspiration sheet, but feel free to look it up!). Her overall design is a lot more flamboyant, as she is based off luche libre wrestlers and outfits generally used in luche libre are often quite bright and bold. I replaced the knitted sleeves with arm sleeves that are used more in luche libre outfits! I also added some body sparkles to her thigh and put on face makeup over her eye, which is reminiscent of the luchador mask (this was inspired by a makeup look I found online - as seen in the image collection). I kept some aspects of her original design, such as the gold mask on her belt, her luchador mask and her hair accessories! I aimed to mix both aspects of Zulu and luche libre attire for Varesa! I moved her cardigan aspect to her pyjamas, as it seems more fitting to have something soft and cozy in a time of rest rather than fights. Honestly, I was first confused why a knitted/crocheted aspect was incorporated into Varesa's design, until I read this thread by @/astrunaria, which had pointed out her arm warmers were likely inspired by Randa (Mexican crocheting). I used the patterns from Diego Armando Juarez Viveros' crocheted Tlapetlantli piece as an inspiriation and reference for the patterns on Varesa's cardigan/jacket (please do look into his works, they look rather fantastic - he is a tapestry crochet artist!). I designed a rough sketch of Varesa being in a different outfit for farming...cause well why not honestly haha (also her farming aspect and fighting aspect are so different that I honestly wished hyv would design different outfits)

Overall, I hope y'all do enjoy these redesigns! If there is any improvements I can make to these designs, please do tell me! However, if you cannot provide constructive criticism and only have a negative view on these redesigns, please do not interact with this post and move on!!

srry they can’t answer the phone they’re too busy making out 😔😔😔

where is the tsaritsa finding these harbingers goddamn bc so far we have:

a royal mage from khaenriah

capitano (no spoilers but those who played 5.1 you know what i mean)

evil very intelligent doctor who experiments with god remains and dabbles in educational crimes, (DO NOT let him near children)

columbina.

a cursed child from a thought-extinct khaenriahn bloodline with shadow fire blood ish magic who runs an orphanage

a politician

the inazuman puppet made by a traumatised god who got discarded by said god, who went on to join the fatui out of spite and grief, almost brought inazuma to its knees, stole a gnosis, made himself a god, then erased himself from history and went to uni

lady and her svarog who we know nothing about except that she created katherine which could be either very wholesome or very sinister

mondstadtian crimson witch of flames 'im the only one around here who gets shit done' la signora (R.I.P)

a banker

local guy in his mid twenties who fell in a hole as a child, went briefly to hell, came back feral and probably traumatised, has a heart of gold but also an 'i want to fight god at every opportunity' complex. was ready to sink a nation bc the hot god said so, and bro can also turn into an 8ft strangely hot abyssal creature and fought an intergalactic all powerful world devouring whale for like 40 days straight.

its so sweet to me whenever a reconstruction of a neanderthal's face shows up on social media and people are like "oh they would have loved minecraft" "they would have loved weed brownies" it's so sweet. i hope that continues on to the next stage of human evolution. i want whoever comes next to dig me up, reconstruct my face, and for the girlbloggers of this far-flung civilization to go "duuuude she would have loved churfing back a freefing zarbee"

i love this image so much

the workday/weekend ratio is so off. like ethically.

Yeeeey, this is Sampo ,'3

@blood-orange-juice You did ask, so I will answer to the best of my abilities and somewhat coherently. I've included links if you want to look at the stuff yourself!

So, Natlan is given to be based off of the Aztec civilizations and I reason this because of the Talking Stick lore and the person who wielded it, Tenoch. 'Tenoch' is based off of 'Tenochtitlan', the capital of the Aztec Empire.

Another reason that I'm leaning harder into the Aztec aspect of this theory is because of Neuvillette's official introduction quote, which was spoken by an 'Xbalanque' (a figure in Aztec mythology). Xbalanque was one of the 'Maya Hero Twins' in their mythology and since Aztec civilization and culture were inspired so much by the Classic Mayans that came before them, I will also be taking this into account.

I bring up the Maya Hero Twins specifically because Xbalanque has an older brother who goes by the name Hunahpu and they are the sons of Hun-Hunahpu. In their mythology, they go to seek out their father's decapitated head and their uncle's remains that are in the underworld, walking the same path they did. There is an incident where in Xibalba (the equivalent of the underworld), Hunahpu's head gets decapitated.

In the myth itself, Xbalanque uses trickery to get his brother's head back and it seems that Hunahpu was able to be brought back to life. Eventually, they retrieve the remains and not only go back to the surface but eventually ascend to godhood. Hunahpu becomes the sun and Xbalanque becomes the moon.

The way that I can tie this into Genshin lore-esque terms is rather simple in the sense that there are three major points to this possibly coming into play:

Genshin really, really likes twins or pairs of characters (Makoto and Ei, Nahida and Rukkhadevata, Furina and Focalors)

There have been examples of allogenes ascending to godhood before (Vennessa, Guhua)

The blatant Sun and Moon imagery and comparisons scattered throughout the lore (Spiral Abyss, Primordial One)

As to what this has to do with Capitano, I raise you this question:

Where's his head? Do we ever see it? No, we don't.

Also, note that Capitano is on his way to Natlan to get the gnosis from the Pyro Archon and that he's the First Harbinger. The strongest Harbinger. The Harbinger that can kill gods.

This one is a bit far-fetched, I will admit, but the fact that Xbalanque was namedropped so early into Natlan's eventual release, the fact that Capitano was mentioned as going to Natlan as far as 3.5 (Mika's lore), and that he has no face of which to speak of points to two theories of mine:

Capitano can either be Hunahpu or Hun-Hunahpu and if you take into the fact that Xibalba = underworld = (possibly) The Abyss, this can make for very, very interesting things concerning the plot down the line.

Me, plunking Stinky Bastard Man’s carrier on the counter: hi he’s here for shots and a nail trim and he’ll need to be sedated

Nurse: Are you sure? We can try-

Me: he needs to be sedated

Nurse: Well, it’ll take longer-

Me: he needs to be sedated, he will try to rip your face off

Nurse: Well we’ll try without first and we’ll let you know if we need to sedate

Me, watching her carry him away: you will need to sedate him

Nurse, coming back 10 minutes later clutching her hand: so, we will need to sedate him

Me: