The origins of the Forgotten Ark
Lore post! Using the murals on the Ark to interpret how the Forgotten Ark (and it’s magic) came to be. I will be using screenshots taken in order of going around the boat so you can all see too if you don’t want to go through the effort of actually going there in-game to look at it.
So first off, screenshots!
I’m going to presume this is the first one and say that this is a krill and some clouds! Totally not an obvious observation, but if this is the first mural, the implication that krill may have existed for much longer than the Kingdom’s corruption is definitely an interesting one.
Next up, a storm. There are also a few murals after this that depict light creatures and stars appearing from that storm, but I didn’t take pictures of them.
Some people hanging around, and what looks to be an aurora borealis.
A bit hard to tell in this pic, but it basically depicts stars falling down and the people collecting them and turning them into spells.
People learning to use said spells and magic to do things, including create fire apparently!
Bunch of people going off on a big boat (presumably the Ark) and carrying their spells with them.
Said boat being flipped upside down by a storm and the people all falling out.
So, those are the screenshots I’ve taken, and now I will share my interpretation of them!
I already talked a bit about the Ark in my super-long lore post, but I wanted to go into more detail here.
I know I said this already, but I do find it interesting that krill seemingly existed before anything else did, presuming that this is the origin story of the spellcasting community.
I also find the storm that appears to produce the light creatures and the stars very poetic, because it is also the thing that ends the lives of the people on the boat.
Now, the people. It seems that they are at first hiding under umbrellas, probably to protect themselves from falling stars. And did the original spell stars come from an aurora borealis? It’s also a bit odd that falling stars seem to produce both sentient children and things such as spells. Makes you wonder how much these two things are related.
The next image, they are taking those stars from the ground and transforming them into spells. I argue that this can be compared to humanity’s discovery of fire and how useful of a tool it could be. I also find it interesting that in the first image with the Skyfolk, none of them have those little crests on their heads. By the image where they are discovering spellcasting, a few of them actually do have the little head-crests.
And to add to the “Skyfolk’s discovery of spellcasting versus humanity’s discovery of fire” thing, the next image prominently features a campfire that has presumably been produced by a spell. It also seems to contain people practicing using the spells.
The next image is probably a long timeskip later, but it shows a group of people (and now ALL of them have headcrests) on a boat, carrying spells to some distant place. I could not guess for the life of me why they were moving, but they seemed to act as a close-knit community.
And finally, a storm comes and knocks the ship over, scattering the people inside and presumably killing many if not all of them.
So, two things. First, the headcrests. The more adept the spellcasting community seems to be at magic, the more of them are depicted with those little crests. Many of the people in Vault have those crests, including the Levitating Adept, whose whole thing is making objects float; and the Meditating Monastic, who can levitate in the air. My conclusion? Those little headcrests are symbols of magical prowess, and people who have them have a fair bit of skill and experience in some form of magic.
The second thing is those smaller boats that are depicted in the mural alongside the bigger one. When I initially saw the bigger boat flipped over with none of the smaller boats in sight, my reaction was “oh hey! Maybe they made it away to spread their influence elsewhere!” But then I went back to check and NOPE. There are definitely smaller boat ruins around the Forgotten Ark, and also this really big anchor.
Look at this cool anchor I found.
Anyways, using this anchor as proof that the whole area was a body of water (maybe a body of clouds?) when all the boats sank. But clearly someone must have survived them, they seem to have been spruced up post-crash to make it viable for use as a storefront.
Anyway, that was my ramble about the Forgotten Ark, I spent too much time putting this together 😅
5 notes
·
View notes
my art summary for 2023! this year was very all over the place for me, but i'm glad to say that i've created despite personal hardships (that were mostly unrelated to art) 🥺 thank you everyone for taking a look at my work this year! 💙 i hope 2024 will be just as fun! 🎉
some documentation of my feelings about art this year under the cut:
i think i was way too hard on myself this year with my art. and i am sitting here like. "goddamn dude. why would you do that to yourself for. stop that LOL"
honestly i would go in a time machine to give myself a pat on the back for drawing SPLATOON for the first time in like 6 years or something. trying to learn the proportions and figuring out how i wanted to draw splatoon was very hard. and i still don't know what i want my splatoons to look like!
i remember back in late 2019 i would bitch to my friend that i didn't understand how face anatomy worked and i would tell her how it was the end of the world. but as i drew more i eventually understood faces better (and i'm still learning!). funny how that works! so i like to think my sploons will be like this too :D
the other thing i would have told 2023 me: overthink less about the learning process. maybe it's because i have way too much free time on my hands but. when i'm not actively drawing i have a lot of analysis paralysis and perfectionism. so i end up not starting anything out of my comfort zone even if it's just for practice because my brain is so hung up on trying to "learn new things optimally" and making things "good enough." and. i. guys.
pleasepleasepleaseplease don't do that to yourself its NOT GOOD!! give urself permission to fuck up and make pieces that dont work out!! u can always revisit the concept later u dont have to do it perfectly the first time!! please!!! i am giving myself and anyone else reading permission to fuck up in creative endeavors. woo!!! i love making mistakes and fixing them later!!
THAT SAID for the things i did sit down and do, i like them (like the pieces here!)! and i'm glad i did them because its like! woaw! more data to work with! so im hoping to do more of that next year! sit down and let art come out! not everything needs to be bangers! things will click eventually! trust!!
so my goal for 2024 is to draw things out of my comfort zone (mostly backgrounds, maybe comics) even if it looks shite!!! no more fucking grid and gradient we are putting characters in LOCATIONS!!! and as a fun bonus it would be funny if each of my pieces in my art summary next year looks like it was made by a different person. because i think its funny to do that. and u should make urself laugh while doing anything :D (i love silly!!! yay!! yipee!! wahoo!!)
11 notes
·
View notes