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#enir draws
downybirbs · 2 months
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More egghead ideas, this time w peros ft dottie 🍭🍭
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klugpuuo · 2 years
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ok so here's my.plan:
Phase 1:
Start drawing not enirely evil but somehow universally hated characters as fat. This literaly only extends to my source BC people really dislike that guy for some reason
Phase 2 (you are here):
Draw characters with obvious muscle. Not like bodybuilder dehydrated muscle but obvious muscle. This is mostly about Arle
Phase 3:
Expand. Draw random ass good guys from fandoms you've never seen before in your life with chub. Learn how to kill hate anons with your bear hands. Win.
Phase 3.1:
Start making such massive amounts of art where Canonically fat characters are actually fat that people are forced to ingrain this truth into their brains. They cannot escape the reality of the situation for long
Phase 4:
Win
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Live Brief with Playground Games
Concept & Production #1
To speed up the conceptual side of things, I decided to combine concepting and production together so that we could have game-ready assets by the end. I really enjoyed this workflow as it gave me a lot of creative control.
The first props I worked on were the door and a lantern. Because of the extremely tight deadline, the amount of props needing to be conceptualised and modeled and the amount I needed to learn, I used images I generated on MidJourney to inform most of the design. The majority of the tools I had to become familiar with during the modeling process were the quad-draw tool on a live surface (for detailed work), the circularize tool for the cut outs of the door, key-framing and parenting for the animations, the knife tool, and beveling to easily create edge loops for curving shapes on primitive geometry.
I generated this image using MidJourney and began to imagine how it would move in a Techno-Feudal Japan setting.
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After I created this basic model, I tried animating it using parenting. The circular shapes in the center proved rather difficult as I couldn't rely on the "center pivot" function to center the pivot between the two parts. I had to move the pivot by eye using the shortcut "D" and try and align them both for the animation to work. This would later cause a problem for my team when they imported into Unreal, they were able to solve the problem by baking the animations in Maya.
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I was also able to key in a colour change to the shader for the lighting concept. The letters were created using the text to 3D function in Maya. The kanji says "Sweet Bathhouse" as an ode to Hansel and Gretel and the original idea of having a bathhouse as the set.
When I came to UVing the door, I used camera-based UV texturing for most of it, and Automatic mapping for the Kanji. I used the unfold and layout functions in the UV editor to create neat UV maps ready for Substance Painter. I gave each door it's own 4K texture map so I could get them looking as high-res as possible. Unfortunately, the UVing didn't work properly with the animations, so I had to delete the key frames and re-animate it after I had textured it.
This was my fist time in Substance Painter, but after watching a quick tutorial, I found it quite intuitive to use due to it's similarity to Photoshop.
I baked my maps and then played around with different textures, layering them up and turning off layers within pre-designed textures to get the effect I wanted. I also added an emissive channel for the light effect which Unreal would need.
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I wanted to include some more easter eggs on the door as Neal suggested we could add some sweet designs as a nod to the witches house in Hansel and Gretel. I researched traditional Japanese sweets and came upon Monaka which are sweet buns filled with red bean paste. I created an alpha to use in Substance Painter to have the design as a relief on the doors.
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When it came to reanimate the door, I was able to refine the idea better than before, I was also able to keyframe the changing lights by switching out the geometry enirely with a red version, I did this by scaling out the green buttons and scaling in the red buttons to/from zero at the same time. I went into the texture maps I had exported and added a red zone into an unused section of the base color and emissive map for the red version. I then went into the UV editor and moved the UV's duplicated geometry for the colour change into the red zone. This technique was supposed to make the import into Unreal seamless, but unfortunately, they still ran into difficulties with the colour changing of the lights.
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Here is the final model which I uploaded onto my Sketchfab account:
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I had simultaneously been working on a Cyberpunk-Japanese lantern which I completed when I needed a break from figuring out the door animations. It's a fairly simple design which I based on these images I created in MidJourney, I used the bottom right one for the majority of the design.
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Because this was a small prop with repeating sides, I only modelled one panel, UV'd and textured it before bringing it back into Maya and duplicating it around. This meant I could have good texture economy for Unreal and maximise the texture quality of the lantern roof.
I used a similar pipeline to the doors and uploaded it to my Sketchfab account:
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kaidenshenandoahknapp · 2 months
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this was an absurd amount of effort for what was ultimately an offhanded-joke but i needed to procrasinate lmao
if you watched @henrykathman's "Melody of Moominvalley" stream, (hi, hello, i made the thumbnail art, that was a cool surprise to see in my sub-box lol) Kathman made a comment about being glad no one has made him into a Moomintroll (or Snorktroll, i guess) because he thinks he would look like Snork
i had two thoughts in reply to this VOD:
that's probably because i would assume most video-essayist are on the spectrum of Hemulans (oversimplification: academics) to Teety-Woo/Woodies (oversimplification: big fans, arguably obsessive). you're probably more of a Hemulan? based on how you present yourself in videos? idk, i dont know you in your personal life lmao Hemulan just seems likely considering the hobby being so analytical (and also is easier for me to look at the different styles of since Woodies seem to have less general rules towards their appearance. and Teety-Woo is the only one of its kind that i know of, idk what is Teety-Woo's species and what is Teety-Woo's individuality there. but, like, that's not nearly as fun as my bullshit quiz lmao)
fucking bet
*: assets in not-gif form below Read More
(psa: please do forgive me for misspellings. i am dyslexic and will probably edit this repeatedly for quite some time, but im tired atm so Now It Is Posted)
anyway, i whipped all these up in about 2 or 3 days? idk, my chronic health issues have been a monster lately, its hard to keep track of days rn
but i made:
comics Moomintroll/Snorktroll
90s Moomintroll/Snorktroll and Hemulan
Tales From Moominvalley inspired illustration art of Hemulan where it has those lifeless "bug eyes with tiny pupils" style i love (but that i also understand why Jansson went back and gave them bigger pupils after a certain edition, and drew with more expressive eyes after a while)
why did i do three different styles + 3 different species? because i was torn on which to do and ended up pulling a classic Kaiden-Shenandoah and going "ill do more work and let them choose which one they like best". something something anxiety, i dont know what to tell you, im trying to learn self-acceptance lmao besides, it was fun to do a quicker shuft through style changes than the usual heavier studying i make Google Images help me do
speaking of, i dont often share my references because i worry about clutter, but i want to include it today and i also used less ref than usual, so you get clutter lol
(i learned last time that Tove Jansson doesn' often draw mugs; so i did my best guesses based on the references here + the result of my references the last time i drew in Jansson' style, which was more so her later novel-illustrations, if i remember right, as opposed to today. lots of best guesses today.)
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first of all, i guessed on Kathman's eye-color based on zooming in and it was too pixelated to tell for sure even with the eyedropped tool. secondly, very fun tying in the blue hair dye since 90s Snork has a pink edge to his hair and Mr Hemulan has a green edge to his. last of all: i made them with (and without) a light beard/stubble, since i saw Kathman has one now. but also that was enirely guesswork on my part: Tove Jansson drew heavy-duty moustaches/beards or completely facially-hairless characters, no in-between. so i used educated guesses on how to adapt that. and i feel a bit like i did the male version of that one Snorkmaiden lipstick comic for my efforts lmao but hey! i tried!
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my only thing is idk which set to upload to instagram, bc doing all the assets of with/out facial hair feels oddly excessive and maybe goes past instagram's images-per-post limit, idk, ill upload these there someday i guess. really wish instagram would let me post a gif but idk how to do that. c'est la vie
you also may notice one of the Hemulan sets includes a magnifying glass. i just thought it was thematically appropriate for someone analytical, especially since one of my references above did have it available for me to also reference lol
as a fun detail, i did a more Police Inspector color palette for the 90s Hemulan design, and a more Moominpappa palette for the 90s Moomintroll/Snorktroll designs. hence why those colors aren't the same
and the last thing is that i made the comic assets yellow-y to reflect the aging of paper and the quality of the photo references i have. (Henry Kathman, if you want to edit them to be white for the aesthetic of something, feel totally free)
here's all the assets i made in total. the gif version felt the most succint but yeah. also, Henry Kathman, if you are reading this: same rules apply. feel free to use these in anything you want, credit would be nice. (also, very sweet that you saw my name change away from my childhood nickname, i appreciate that 🫶). credit in the future can be to either here or my instagram (which i changed to match this hyphen-less url, since tumblr terminated my last blog for unknown reasons) i hope you are not upset that i went against your wishes of gratitude that nobody had drawn you as a Moomintroll/Snorktroll, but i hope the fact that i think you don't look like Snork even as a Moomintroll/Snorktroll helps. i hope you also dont mind the Hemulan additions lmao. but yeah, i wont blame you if you prefer the more human (or arguably Mymble? idk species) style i did beforehand in the last batch and don't use these. that one has way more references with lots of drafts and this is more of me messing around and finalizing the first draft i made each time around lol but i think they came out fun! very silly distraction, thanks for the idea lmao
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thanks to Henry Kathman for the fun VOD and the much-(un)needed procrastination excuse. it was a good distraction from a pretty bad flare-up in my disability and a full plte of things to do that i needed an escape from. hope youre having a great day!
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It's true but they'd never admit it 🤢🤢🤡🤡
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spinyax · 3 years
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the art bug mustve bit me in the ass today so have this fuckin cryptid lmao
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moonlight-mellohi · 4 years
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Not just being in the fandom, but full on having hyperfixions in the Dream SMP and the Sanders Sides fandoms is probably not good for my school grades this week
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marvelmana · 3 years
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-Mumza goddess of death prompt
TW: suicide attempt
So after Wilbur's revival Dream with his God compex realizes that the power to bring people back to life isn't enough. So while Wilbur prepares to break Dream out of prison, Dream sits down to remember what more was in the revive book. His eyes shoot wide open as he remembers a short but powerful ritual to summon the goddess of death herself.
So after Wilbur breaks him out somehow. Wilbur and Dream are met by the rest of the SBI family. They didn't come together. Tommy came to stop Wilbur and maybe kill Dream. Techno and Phil just came to get Wilbur so Sam doesn't kill him. As always with this family they start arguing and Dream runs away. They follow him to the L'manhole where he manages to preform the full ritual to summon the goddess of death. Now all the others are terrified because they don't know what Dream did. All they know is that the nice and chill night suddenly became the worst storm they've ever experienced and a weird portal looking thing has started to form on the glass. Tommy starts yelling at Dream to stop. Philza aswell because Dream doesn't know what power he's messing with. Dream explains that he knows exactly what power he's messing with and tells them what or...rather who he has summoned. To Dream's surprise everyone but Tommy seems relived that he's summoning the goddess of death. Tommy's worried because he has no idea that he's the son of the goddess. Before any of them manages to say anything a dark figure emerges from the portal with dark wings as she flies up to the night sky. The wind that had made it hard to stay on your feet suddenly stops and the portal disapears. Dream does his evil laughter and then does his evil monologue but gets cut off by the goddess of death striking him down with one hand and pressuring her foot against his neck. Phil watches her and falls in love all over again. But before there can be a wholesome family reunion Tommy draws his sword out and points it at the goddess' neck.
"Who are you!? What do you want!?" He yells demanding answers.
The goddess melts at the sight of her youngest. He's so cute with that diamond sword, thinking he's so cool. When she doesn't answer Tommy gets frustrated and yells at the top of his lungs
"ANSWER ME!!!"
He was meant to intimidate the goddess but his yell only comes out as a broken cry. The goddess' heart breaks as she sees all the pain and frustration in her youngest son's eyes. There's something in his eyes that is not supposed to be there. There's something that's not meant to be seen in the eyes of a 16 year old. Before she can ask, Phil steps forward.
"It's been a long time, love" he says and takes off his hat.
The goddess smiles at her angel.
"About 16 years, but who's counting?" She jokes completely unbothered by the blade at her throat.
Then the twins comes in to have a small talk with their mother. None of them mentions that she's their mother. Tommy slowly takes away his sword and starts backing away. He takes one look at the unconscious green man by the goddess' feet and then at his brothers and father. This is their business. He should get going. He only gets a few steps away when one of his family members ask where he's going. He tells them that he's going home. The issue with Dream seems resolved and they're all busy with and old friend Tommy doesn't know. At first the goddess is confused as to why her youngest doesn't recognise her. But then again. When he left the end he was only a few months old. The twins had been just around 7. The goddess, who's name was Kristin smiles gently at Tommy and slowly walks up to him. She tells him that she's his mother. Tommy looks at his father and brothers who nods confirming. Normally you'd think Tommy would be excited to meet his mum. But when all his family has brought him is pain, he's not excited to see what a new family member who's also a goddess, can do. So he does the most rational thing he can think off. He runs. He runs with fear of his life. Tommy doesn't wanna die again. The mere thought terrifies him. So he runs, hoping to find someone to help him, anyone. Tubbo, Ranboo, Puffy hell he'd even take the help from Sam now. As he runs past his house he looks behind him to see 4 individuals chasing him. He starts screaming for help as he jumps out the edge by the bench with a water bucket in hand. Kristin who doesn't know Tommy's incredible skill with water MLGs panics and dives after him with her wings. She catches Tommy before he reaches the ground. Tommy starts squirming in her grip hoping to get away. Kristin tries to reassure him that she's got him. Tommy begs her not to hurt him. Telling her that he won't get in her way, that if she just lets him go she'll never have to see him again. Kristin feels as someone shot through her heart with an arrow. And she tells Tommy in what she thinks is a comforting voice, that she's never gonna let him go and that he's safe. Tommy's beyond terrified but lucky for him Tubbo and Ranboo is on a walk towards them. Tubbo and Ranboo immediately gets their armour on and orders Kristin to put Tommy down and that if she hurts him, she's gonna regret it. Kristin gets put off guard by the sudden company. Tommy uses that to his advantage and gets out of her grip and runs past Tubbo and Ranboo who's like protecting wall in front of him. Wilbur tells them to fuck off and that it's a family buisness. That just angers Tubbo even more.
"Family buisness!!!?" He yells almost in shock "You gotta be kidding me! Tommy just started healing after everything Dream did to him and after everything YOU did to him!! Why can't you just let him rest!?" Tubbo yells in anger
That's when Kristin's had enough. She demands an explanation and Tubbo just answers "I'm not gonna explain shit. Who do you think you are?" To which Krstin stretches out her wings and says in a lower tone
"I am the goddess of death. Protector of the end. And his mother" she says and looks at Tommy.
Tubbo and Ranboo looks back at Tommy who just shruggs. Because honestly he has no idea if it's true or not. But Tubbo and Ranboo decides to play along. They answer with a bit of attitude what has happened to Tommy since he came to this server. Everything from the disc war, to L'manbrug, to exile, to the egg trying to kill him and then celebrating his death, to what happened in the prison. After everything is explained the goddess of death is furious. She shoots up in the air and Phil has a very troubled face expression. When asked what's wrong he tells them.
"A father's rage is strong enough to conquer the world. But a mother's rage is stronger"
Kristin is mad at the server for driving her family apart and hurting her baby. So with the power within her she pulls up the egg and it's roots, along with the enire prison, Eret with his castle and Dream's unconscious body. The storm comes back, this time with thunder and rain. Tommy sees this and is terrified. But he's also worried about Eret. It's true he wronged him but Eret has changed.
"We gotta stop her!" Tommy yells.
"She's the goddess of death, you can't stop her!" Techno yells.
But it's no use. Tommy grabs Ranboo's trident. He launches himself in the air and jumps from bits of earth and structures in the air. His main focus is to help Eret out. Eret is ready for his doom. He knows he's not been the best person. But before that happens he hears someone call out his name. It's Tommy. Tommy gives Eret the trident and tells him to get out of here. He hears distant screams of the eggpire and the egg. Tommy doesn't care that much for the egg. But as annoying as Badboyhalo is with his no swearing rule, he's a good guy and Tommy do have good memories with the him. So with no trident Tommy jumps between the rising blocks to get to the people. He sees Dream's unconscious body and for a moment he thinks about it but then shakes his head. Dream is not his priority. Tommy doesn't see himself as a hero. But he's not one to simply watch someone die if he can do something about it. Tubbo knows this. He curses when Eret gets down on the ground and tells them what Tommy did for him. Tubbo looks to Ranboo who nods. He brings up a water splash potion and splashes himself. His eyes widen and a foreign language comes out of his mouth. Tubbo grabs ahold of his husband before he can teleport away without him. Ranboo has gone complete silent. If you can even call him Ranboo anymore. Tubbo has only seen Ranboo like this once. It was terrifying since the half enderman hybrid had been walking towards Tubbo's cabin in snowchester where Micheal was. Ranboo had been covered in water scars and yet he wasn't talking. Just calmly walking towards Micheal. Before he could get there though Ranboo collapsed and woke up with no memory of how he got to Tubbo's cabin. So now, on a floating piece of earth, in the eye of the storm Tubbo had to trust whatever this version of Ranboo was. He called for Tommy but got no response. Suddenly the foreign language comes out of Ranboo as he points with his free hand to some egg rootes. Tommy's jumping between the broken peices towards peoplenof the eggpire.
"Let's go and help that idiot out" Tubbo says and Ranboo teleports them behind Tommy.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Tubbo yells which scares Tommy. He turns around and smiles at the sight of maybe the two only people he trusts.
"I could ask you the same!" He yells back to be heard over the load weather.
"We came to help you. Ranboo can you get those guys back on the ground!?" Tubbo yells
Ranboo doesn't say anything but when he teleports closer and grabs badboyhalo and Hannah Tubbo knows he got through to him. Tommy's confused at how strange Ranboo was acting. Ranboo's not much of a fighter but still here he was, standing tall. And how the hell can he teleport without enderpearls? Tommy decides that there's a better time to ask. Instead him and Tubbo keeps the rest of the eggpire safe. During that the egg starts speaking to Tubbo and Tubbo is obviously trying to shut it out but it's hurting him. So once Ranboo gets back Tommy is quick to push his best friend onto his husband and yell at Ranboo to get him to safety. Tubbo doesn't get a chance to object before he's suddenly on the ground again. He struggles against Ranboo and begs his husband to take him back. Tommy knows what's keeping Ranboo from coming back. He can see it. So instead of wasting time, he makes a waterfall with his only waterbucket and puts the rest of the eggpire in it. In his head he repeats the same three words over and over again "Please don't drown". When the people is as safe as they can be in a situation like this Tommy turns to his mother who has definitely grown a couple of feet. Tommy gulps and watches as Dream's body literally explodes in front of his mum's dark eyes.
"Hey!!" He yells and draws his sword again.
Kristin turns to see where the voice comes from and her gace immediately goes soft. But it turns confused when she can't see the rest of the wronguns.
"I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else!" Tommy says with his blade in front of him
"The mortals needs to be taught a lesson. You'll come to understand when you're older. You're just a mere child" she says calmly
Tommy smirks. He may be young, but he's not stupid. Tommy knows the blade would do nothing to his mother. So he takes a deep breath and holds the sword against his own throat. He doesn't want this. But he won't let his mother hurt people because of him.
"I may be young! But I have seen wars, I have witnessed my best friend's execution, I have been exiled, I have been tortured and somewhat manipulated. I'm not a child anymore!!" He yells
"You wouldn't. I can see the fear in your eyes son. I can feel it. You don't want this" Kristin says but her voice is everywhere as she gets closer to her son.
"I am not a child. I'm a soldier without a mission. Which makes me desperate. So if I have to die to protect them that's something I'll have to do" Tommy says and stares at the eyes of the beast
"I would never hurt your fatber or brothers" Kristin reassures
"I wasn't talking about those idiots. Listen this place is a hell hole! And sometimes it's hard to get out of bed. But you know what!? It's my home. You've just killed the guy who were the source of my problems. You've done enough!!" Tommy yells and pushes the sword closer to his throat. He can feel it slowly digging into his skin. The goddess of death panics and does a quick movement with her finger and before Tommy knows it he's flying in the air, unable to move an inch. His sword is still in his hand but he can feel an invisable force trying to take it from him.
"Tommy. Drop it!" Kristin hisses
Tommy won't drop it. He could see the fear in her eyes once the blade was pressed against his throat. If he could just move his arm he could put the sword back at his throat. But he can't the force pulling away his sword is strong. But Tommy's always been a fighter. He actually manages to withstand the force but doesn't notice the goddess shrinking in sice and flying up to him to grab the sword herself. After taking the sword she throws it down and stares at her youngest. One thing's for sure, her family is not safe here.
Good ending: Tommy and the others talks Kristin down and she goes back to the end but visits every now and then
Bad ending: Kristin sees how much this place is hurting her baby and the rest of her family. So she takes them to the end where they can't leave. Phil would've been able to, if it wasn't for one of his wings being broken.
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noeggets · 4 years
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in @ssxdz2 comic she refuses to draw gore blood (or a bleeding knee) so his whole enire leg is red and im laughing at him
kofi
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eeriesistible · 4 years
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/ / @gotabat ━━━━━━━━━ STILES STILINSKI
𝓐 short car ride, the two had made the rash choice to rest at Stilinski's humble home instead of Blackburn's quaint cottage home miles away. Aaron had ulterior motives, 𝙎𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙛 𝙉𝙤𝙖𝙝 𝙎𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙠𝙞. All Aaron needed to do was face her boss, present this rediculous idea she scrounged together possibly get his apporval if not it was back to the drawing board. His caller question went ignored the enire ride home. ❝Do you think your dad is gonna go for this plan?❞ The detective finally broke the silence. ❝Should I sweeten the deal?❞ She nudged him with her elbow. ❝Shake my tits a little.❞ Aaron snorted. ❝𝐈'𝐦 𝐠���𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝, it was a J O K E!❞
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Jeep rolled to a stop a few blocks away Melissa McCall's house lights caught Aaron's attention. ❝Have you even heard from Scott since college? I mean I lost touch with everyone, but the Hales... Malia.❞ Aaron's hues shifted in his direction, the sweet hum of his jeep filled the air. ❝I slept with Malia, actually for a while we were together after everyone left. 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙛𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙨.❞ The necromancer finally admitted, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. ❝And so... I've been seeing Derek Hale, and that's who's been calling me all day.❞ Saphire hues shifted to the illuminated house in front of them. ❝I've been trying to break it off. He won't take no for answer.❞ Aaron trailed off. ❝Your father has been letting me take time off, this is the first case I've worked in over four months. It's just ( lonely ) out here without the pack. 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶.❞
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downybirbs · 1 year
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My thoughts
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for-the-dales · 5 years
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Chapter 4: Cassandra
Chapter 1 (Leliana): https://for-the-dales.tumblr.com/post/185692342364/the-path-forward-chapter-1-leliana
           The ragtag group set out shortly after the morning meeting. Cassandra rode in the front of their little party, the two elves rode next to each other, and Varric brought up the rear. They had been riding for a few hours now and the Herald had evidently given up trying to speak to Solas, for now. She had simply been observing the countryside, though Cassandra didn’t think there was much to see. It had been nothing but fields and forest since they had descended down the mountains. The Crossroads couldn’t be more than another two hour ride away, or that was Cassandra’s prayer anyway.
           “So,” Varric spoke up from the back, “I got a question for our Blessed Lady here.”
           “The Blessed Lady is accepting questions at the moment, so shoot.” The Herald said with complete seriousness.
           Cassandra scowled, “Ugh.”
           Varric ignored her, “What does man’madhmean?”
           Solas and the Herald both snorted, the Herald asked, “Can I ask the context for it? That is important to translation you know.”
           “Yeah I’m sure. A friend of mine back in Kirkwall. She came from a Dalish clan. I bought her a drink her first night. She took a sip of it, made a face, and said it wasman’madh. I asked her what that meant and she said it meant ‘tasty’. She was a terrible liar, and that seems like too long of a word to mean ‘tasty’.”
           “Well our language is very different from common, so you can’t expect the word structures to have any similarities. But you are right however. It doesn’t mean ‘tasty’.”
           Cassandra fell back to join the group, interested in the answer despite herself.
           “So what does it mean?” Varric asked, the road wide enough for all of them to ride four abreast.
           The Herald glanced at Solas and then back at Varric before answering, “Piss water.”
           Varric looked aghast and Solas chuckled. The Herald just smiled. The group rode up to a short canyon that forced them to ride single file. Cassandra eyed the brush and trees all around the tops of the cliffs and felt her stomach turn. She had been a warrior long enough to trust her instincts. She called back, “We should hurry.”
           The Seeker pushed her horse to a quick trot; the narrow passage didn’t allow her to go any faster. She could hear the others pick up the pace behind her. They were almost through when Cassandra’s horse started snorting and prancing nervously. If she hadn’t been such an experienced rider she might have been unseated. An elven man in full armor strode into view at the exit of the canyon. Cassandra couldn’t make out much of his face because of the helmet he wore, but she could see his amber eyes glaring at her. She could see his hand on the pommel of his sword.
           Cassandra drew her sword and called to her companions, “Back up.”
           Varric yelled from the back, “We might have a problem with that.”
           Cassandra risked a glance behind her over the heads of her companions. Another elf stood at the entrance of the canyon. They wore dark brown leather armor with a black shroud wrapped around their head and face. Only their ears and eyes were visible. They held a lowered bow with an arrow nocked and ready. Varric pulled out his crossbow, but Cassandra knew he wouldn’t be able to get a good shot from his current position. The man at the exit called out, “Release your prisoner now. Or I could kill you all and release her myself. Your choice.”
           Cassandra’s mental preparation for battle came to a screeching halt, “Excuse me?”
           “What’s happening up there?” The Herald had ridden closer to Cassandra to try and see what was going on.
           She peered around Cassandra and her eyes crinkled in confusion, this was the first time Cassandra had seen her not be completely in control of her expression. “Sahren? Is that you?” She turned in her saddle and looked past Solas and Varric, “Rasa? What are you two doing here?”
           Cassandra whipped her head back to look at the Herald and ground out, “Herald, do you know these people?”
           The one the Herald had called Sahren spoke up, “Raj’ha’haren, Enir surem shala enas. Telir rajathe em dala esh’ala.”
           Cassandra didn’t understand his words, but she understood him drawing his sword. Before she could ride forward she heard the Herald shout behind her, “Te!”
           The man looked confused, but sheathed his sword again. Cassandra was so focused on him that she nearly struck the Herald when she placed a hand on the Seeker’s leg. She had gotten off her horse and was now moving past her to the elven man. She heard her murmur, “Atishan, falon. Ame te’son.”
           The man glanced uneasily at Cassandra and back to the Herald, “Dir’vhen’an?”
           She nodded and placed her hands on his shoulder.
           “Hey!” The elf in the back yelled, “Are we killing them or not?”
           “You are not!” The Herald yelled back.
           The Herald and the elf moved out of the way and Cassandra rode forward. She was suspicious of these people, but her previous rush to judgment still burned in her mind. She hadn’t trusted the Herald at first either. She forced herself not to glare at the elf. Varric would never let her live it down if she threatened another future ally at their first meeting. The Herald’s horse followed Cassandra, as did Solas and Varric. The other strange elf brought up the rear. Once everyone had dismounted and gathered the Herald spoke again, “Please allow me to introduce my dear friends, Sahren and his sibling Rasa.”
           The elf in the armor took off his helmet and extended out the hand not holding it to Cassandra, his sibling pulled down their face scarf so Cassandra could see their face. The two elves relationship was now apparent; their facial features were almost exactly the same. They had the same prominent brow and nose of many elves, but their faces were softer than the Herald’s. They couldn’t be older than 22. What distinguished them the most were the tattoos. Rasa’s face was completely bare while their brother’s face was… decidedly not. Half of the man’s face was covered with lines that looked like vines with thorns, the other half had been almost entirely shaded in with the exception of a reversed image of the design on the other half of the face. Cassandra took his outstretched hand and answered him, “Hello, I am Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast.”
           The elf shook her hand but glanced nervously back at the Herald who just nodded and smiled. As Cassandra let go of his hand she remembered the report the Herald had described about the clan that had been killed. She focused on making sure her hands were visible and nowhere near her sword. The others introduced themselves and the Herald turned back to the other elves, “While I’m happy to see you, I must ask what you’re doing here?”
           Rasa spoke up, “Word traveled fast about the explosion at the human Conclave. The Elithem Sul’anasha’an were worried about you and sent us to either find you or find out what happened to you. We arrived at the site of the explosion and found you, but you were unconscious and being carried by the big woman. We followed you all back to your camp, but there were too many humans, we couldn’t get to you. We knew you’d find a way to separate yourself eventually, and we were mostly right!”
           “Except about you being a prisoner. “ Sahren added in helpfully.
           “Yes except that. So here we are, big rescue.”
           “I appreciate it.”
           Sahren replaced his helmet on his head and said, “Well, I’m glad you are alright. Shall we go now?”
          The Herald nodded and looked at the road in front of them, “Yes, we should get moving. The Crossroads is still two hours away most likely, and I want to reach it well before sunset.”
           Sahren looked at his sibling, who just shrugged. He looked back at the Herald, “I’m sorry Raj’ha’haren, but why are we going there?”
           “Because that is where we will find Mother Giselle. I will fill you in on the way. Do you have your own mounts?”
           Cassandra didn’t realize she had tensed up until she felt her shoulders relax. She didn’t know what she would have done if the Herald had decided to pick up and leave with these strange elves that she knew. She was instrumental in the plan to close the Breach, but it would not have felt right to hold her hostage. The Seeker would likely also be forced to kill her friends too if that happened. She didn’t want to think about it. But she had been wrong again in her assumption that the Herald would leave. She volunteered once to help, knowing it could kill her. She had held a staff as Cassandra strode in front of her. She had walked freely around camp. She had a multitude of opportunities to turn her head away from the violence and danger and simply run away. She had not. She had faced it head on. She didn’t flinch. One of these days the Seeker would have to learn to trust her. She was an honorable woman.
           She is a heretic.
           The unbidden and shameful thought bubbled up in Cassandra’s mind before she could stop it. She didn’t want to acknowledge it, but that didn’t make it go away. Every time Cassandra looked at the Herald and the twisting, elegant lines on her face the thought crept beneath the surface. How can the Herald of Andraste be a heretic? Cassandra had been scrambling for an explanation since the belief had first asserted itself days ago. Could this be a test from the Maker? If so, who was it testing? The Herald or Cassandra? What was it a test of?
           Sahren and Rasa rejoined the group on a pair of beautiful halla. Cassandra had never seen halla that tall before. Cassandra’s head just rose above their shoulder. They towered over the elves. They gleamed so bright in the afternoon sun they almost seemed to emit light themselves. They were not saddled and there was no bridle on their heads. The two elves carried their own light packs on their backs. The horns were long and when Cassandra looked closely she could see intricate designs carved onto them. The most worn and rudimentary carvings were at the tip and became more detailed and precise as they extended down with room at the base for more carvings. A third Halla followed them out of the brush. It was around the same size of the others but the horns were slightly longer and had gold leaf pressed into the carvings in its horns. The Herald walked up to it and pressed her face to its nose.
           “I missed you Maelle.” She looked up at her friends, “Where did you find her?”
           Rasa answered her; “We met up with her in the woods outside the explosion. You made her antsy with that whole ‘almost dying thing’.”
           The Herald turned back to the halla, “I’m sorry I made you nervous.”
           The halla snorted loudly. It kneeled its front leg down so the Herald could climb on top. She climbed onto the animals back with the ease of someone who had done it many times, and took the lead at the front of the party. The siblings flanked her and the horse the Herald had been riding followed behind them. Solas rode past Cassandra to join them. Cassandra pulled herself back onto her horse, feeling suddenly clumsy. Varric rode up next to her and whispered, “Did we just get replaced?”
           “Now Varric,” The Herald called back without turning back, “You know I would never replace my favorite dwarf.”
           “I’m the only dwarf you know!” Varric hollered.
           Cassandra shifted uncomfortably in her saddle. She was trying very hard not to let her suspicious nature get the better of her. She could see Rasa’s ear had angled back slightly. It seemed the Seeker wasn’t the only one uneasy with the forced alliance. Varric piped up next to Cassandra, “So, how do you all know our Blessed Lady? Are you from the same clan?”
           At the same time Sahren answered, “Yes.” The Herald said, “No.”
           Sahren swung his head to look at the Herald but didn’t say anything else. The Herald continued, “They are both ha’haren. Rasa serves Dirthamen and Sahren serves Elgar’nan.”
           “Raj’ha’haren, I don’t mean to contradict you but are sure about this?” Sahren hissed from the Herald’s right.
           “I am, it does us no good to deceive our allies.” The Herald answered simply.
           Rasa had their arms crossed across their halla’s neck and was leaning forward against it, grinning like a lunatic, “Oh this is gonna be great. Do the Elithem Sul’anasha’an know you’re doing this?”
           The Herald shifted slightly on her halla’s back, “Some.”
           “So just Elithem Sul’anasha Istimaethoriel?”
           “She is a wise woman.”
           Rasa began to cackle and Sahren looked like he wanted to scream. Cassandra noticed for the first time that Solas seemed tense. Varric asked, “Hey quick question from the dwarf? What are all those words you keep using?”      
           Before Sahren could give what Cassandra was sure would be some vague not-answer, the Herald spoke up, “They are titles in our priesthoods. If we were to compare them to the Chantry Sahren and Rasa would be similar to Mothers. The Elithem Sul’anasha’an are like Divines. We have eight gods, each has it’s own Elithem Sul’anasha. A simple translation would be Chief Priest.”
           Cassandra finally asked the question that had been burning in her mind, “So what is your title?”
           “She is a Raj’ha’haren.” Sahren said proudly.
           “It’s like a Grand Cleric.” The Herald finished.
           She was a Grand Cleric.
           A heretical Grand Cleric.
           “Yeah, if there was only one Grand Cleric.” Rasa muttered.
           What?
           “What?” Varric asked.
           “Each Elithem Sul’anasha has a chosen Raj’ha’haren who is like a secretary or personal assistant-”
           “A successor.” Sahren said plainly.
           The Herald shot him a long suffering look, “There is no guarantee, the ha’haren’an could pick any one of our numbers.”
           Rasa nodded, “Yeah sure they could, but when in the last few hundred years have they chosen someone other than the Raj’ha’hare? A handful times? How many times have the priests of Mythal not picked the Raj’ha’haren? You are known for your good judgment, you know. It would just be embarrassing to admit your Elithem Sul’anasha made a mistake in their choice.”
           Solas huffed but the other elves in the party didn’t seem to notice. Instead Sahren said, “Exactly, which is why it is so important that you return with us after we find this ‘Mother Giselle’. Let the humans sort out their own affairs.”
           “That’s how we get Exalted Marches.” The Herald responded, “Besides, I don’t have much of an option.”
           The Herald took off her glove and showed her companions the glowing green anchor on her hand. Sahren gasped and for the first time Rasa looked serious.
           “What is that?” Sahren hissed.
           “I’m not sure yet,” The Herald answered, “but I’m working on it. In the meantime it seems to be the only thing that can close the Breach and the smaller rifts. There isn’t anyone else who can do this. I have to stay. If I don’t the Breach will grow until it swallows the world. Last I checked, that would be bad for the elvhen. Do you agree?”
           Sahren looked down and muttered, “Yes.”
           “Don’t mumble Sahren.”
           Sahren raised his head and said louder, “Yes, Raj’ha’haren, I understand.”
           The Herald nodded, “Good. Now let’s hurry. We don’t know what awaits us at the Crossroads, and I am eager to find out.”
           Sahren and Rasa spoke in unison, “Yes Raj’ha’haren.”
           The group rode on.  
-------
Elvhen used:
Sahren- One who will command respect
Rasa- Snake like
Raj’ha’haren- High priest
Enir surem shala enas- We have come to save you.
Telir rajathe em dala esh’ala – Simply tell me to kill them.
Te- Don’t
Atishan, falon. Ame te’son - Peace, friend. I am alright.
Dir’vhen’an?- Promise?
Elithem Sul’anasha’an- The Chief Priests (plural)
Maelle- light of our mother
ha’haren(‘an)- priest/s
------
Chapter 5: https://for-the-dales.tumblr.com/post/186986096539/chapter-5-varric
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pastelpolitoed · 3 years
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7, 8, and 20 for the ask game thing? also happy birthday!!!!! the pictures from your dinner looked amazing :3
7. What is your favorite form of self expression? art and drawing! I have like 8-9 notebooks filled with doodles over the years, it's pretty like... important to me? There's a lotta me in those pages, and most people don't get to see em
8. What is something from your childhood you wish you still had? When I was like... in 6th grade? my mom threw out my enire toy chest of stuff, which had like. ALL my pokemon stuff up to that moment, a bunch of board games, rare random stuff, like. oof. There was a complete copy of Pokemon Master Trainer 2001 edition which goes up on ebay for like 250+ and that h u r t s
20. What scent reminds you of childhood? either strong vanilla scented things, or that smell of a pack of fresh playing cards from all the Pokemon and Yugioh packs I opened ;~ ; Thank you for the questions and birthday wishes! THE DINNER WAS SO AMAZING YOU HAVE NO IDEA AKJFL;KDJFADF IT WAS SO GOOD
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giuliadrawsstuff · 3 years
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i noticed in the couples drawings they are blushing with their enire body! that's a really cool detail on the shoulders and knuckles and elbows. you're so good at depicting emotions!
Thank you 💜💜💜 I find that blush in those parte gives them more "depth", the character seems more alive
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animenger · 6 years
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Since you've been playing Higurashi. Keiichi for the character ask meme
Ah I was hoping someone would pull through. Let’s see here. Keiichi AKA the newest GOON protagonist I’m reading about eh?
1) Fight them or fight for them?
Oh I’m definitely Team Keiichi all the way. I’d square up to that enire village with him. That dude already has more than enough people picking on him lmao.
2) On a scale of 1-10 how excited do I get when I see them?
I really liked the way he struggled in chapter 1. Even if it had to end like that seeing him do all the things the best he could until the end has definitely upped my sympathy level towards him along with his general likeability. He could still improve though so right now he’s at a solid 8/10.
3) Would I smooch?
Nope I’m not into dudes.
4) Have I drawn/written about them/should i draw/write about them?
As fun/interesting as that sounds I’m not an artist nor a writer so there’s a slim chance either of these would happen.
5) Voice HC if they don’t have a voice already?
Actually since I managed to get a PS3 graphics/voice patch for the Steam version of Higurashi he already comes voiced and sounds GREAT. Would not change the voice at all 10/10.
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lechevaliermalfet · 6 years
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Behind the Gun: A Look at Quake
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It's summer, and in summer I get nostalgic for two things, game-wise: old Playstation games, and Quake.
Back when Quake was still new-ish, we had a Pentium PC (a Compaq Presario Penium 150, to be exact).  This was just good enough to run Quake without breaking a sweat... as long as we ran it at 320x240 resolution).  A popular online argument at the time was whether Quake or Duke Nukem 3D was the superior game.  Considering this article is about Quake, I think we can all safely assume what side of that debate I would have fallen on.
As far as first-person shooters went, I'd played a lot of Wolfenstein 3D on my parents' previous computer (a Packard Bell 386 that originally came with 2 different floppy drives and no sound card, and had the CD-ROM drive and Soundblaster added in a couple years later).  And I'd sort of played the classic Doom, albeit only the shareware version, and that running like a slide-show unless we shrank the screen to postage-stamp resolution.  But Quake was the first first-person shooter that really hooked me, just got under my skin and grabbed me and kept drawing me back to it again and again.  I dreamed about playing it, I think.
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For a while there, it was a habit during the summer to play it for hours on end.  I'd retreat to my parents' basement (yeah, yeah...) to avoid the summer heat, and clock in time on Quake.
It's the first game I install on a new PC these days: Download from Steam, apply source port patches, and go.  There's a lot you can do with it nowadays to make it run at ridiculous resolutions with ludicrously detailed textures on everything, but for my money, I prefer not to do more than apply the anisotropic filter and make the water transparent.  It makes it clear exactly what the game is, which is to say a ferocious and fast-paced shooter from a bygone era.  
As much as gaming publications of the day painted Quake as the wave of the future, that's because at the time, it looked that way.  Hindsight suggests that Quake was less the vanguard of the new school of FPS design and more the beginning of the end of the old school.  But the publications of the day were mostly speaking in the strictly technical sense, anyway. Unlike every other FPS then on the market, Quake was the first to be rendered completely in 3D, from the environments to the enemies to the objects in the game world.  
From a design persepctive, the one thing this really changed about the usual FPS set-up was an increased element of verticality.  Given that most FPSes prior to Quake essentially faked 3D by way of programming sorcery, level design options such as having one room or area atop another, or having platform jumping, were off the table.  Aside from these additions, though?  From the arsenal of seven or eight weapons available at all times, to the firing of weapons straight out of the ammo reserves (with no magazines or reloading), to the very game-y level design, everything in Quake was familiar to fans of older games.
Which, just to be clear, is the furthest thing in the world from a problem. It takes a measure of getting used to after coming off a Halo bender, but it's old-school design at its finest.  
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Speaking of old-school design: There's an interesting difference, which you pick up on pretty quickly, between how Quake handles combat compared to other games.
Most enemies in FPS titles these days tend to have behaviors and tactics particular to their type and situation.  Sometimes, as in the case of a game like F.E.A.R., the enemy intelligence is capable of surprisingly clever tactics.
Quake isn't one of those cases.  Enemies in Quake all basically have the same behavior programmed into them, which is to move toward the player in the straightest line possible, and attack once in range.  Which was par for the course with games of this vintage, really.  What was smart about the enemies was the way they were arrayed against you, with numbers, placement, combinations, and a level of aggression that kept players on their toes.  It means combat frequently occurs against groups of enemies, and occasionally hits a white-knuckled, breathing-heavy level of intensity that gives you a powerful rush when you come out alive on the other side.
There is overall a very game-like feeling to Quake that's hard to shake.  This may require some explanation.
More modern video games tend to occur in environments that feature at least a certain degree of realism (for a given value of "realistic"). Say, for instance, your game takes place in a zombie-infested mansion, a la Resident Evil. Modern game design (and Resident Evil is modern in this much, at least) suggests that the architecture should be at least a reasonable approximation of a mansion.  The number, size, and layout of rooms and floors should fit a realistic floor plan.  Helps with the verisimilitude.  An older game, from a time when this was difficult to impossible due to various technical limitations, would have the idea of "zombie-infested mansion" as less a guide to the layout and architecture of the level and more strictly a matter of its visual theme.
Between its inexplicable death-trap levels – whole castles built enirely with only one observable purpose, that being to kill anyone who enters – and its generously placed stashes of ammo and power-ups floating and spinning in midair all video game-y, it's difficult to say that the game is even remotely realistic in either its presentation or its environments.
And yet...
Those environments, thematically speaking, make the game.
Doom (just to contrast for a moment) sold itself by leaning hard into its over-the-top imagery of capital-H Hell.  You had fire and brimstone and demons of all descriptions with weapons cybernetically grafted to their limbs; you had pentagrams and skulls and inverted crosses and hearts on altars; you had legions of possessed soldiers; you had skeletons with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers; you had giant floating horned skulls who spat fire at you, and were themselves on fire.  And then all of it was amped up to a kind of comic-book excess that ultimately made it kind of hard to take seriously.  Not that this stopped it form freaking out the squares, mind you, but said out-freaking only wound up selling more copies of the game.  That was Doom: the distillation of a heavy metal album cover.  They went for that aesthetic, and they nailed it.
Quake tossed that aside and instead looked toward the sci-fi/horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.  Like Doom, Quake is fast, fierce, and in your face.  But its imagery, its whole aesthetic, is night-and-day from its predecessor.  Quake was cold, dispassionate, quiet, unsettling, turgid with implied menace.  Where Doom had Soundblaster-quality riffs on hard rock and metal songs for its soundtrack to keep you pumped, Quake gave you Nine Inch Nails.  The soundtrack never quite settled into being anything recognizable as music, per se.  It's perhaps better described as an ambient soundscape meant to layer a sense of dread and unease over everything.  It succeeded at this task, because it turns out that Trent Reznor is the guy you turn to for that.
Aesthetically, this is the difference.  Hell makes sense on a certain level, to the extent that any such mythological places and constructs do.  Hell cares, after its fashion.  It is a place of punishment, filled with beings who declare themselves your enemies, and who set themselves against you.  Hell (we are typically informed) is very intimately concerned with your thoughts and deeds; the horror and suffering it inflicts is always personal.
H.P. Lovecraft's mythos suggests a possibility more horrifying: That beings may indeed exist who move the cosmos, but that they do not care.  Not only do Lovecraft's monsters not care, they don't notice us in order to care.  On the off-chance that they do, it is to casually wipe us out because we are in the way.  Lovecraft's thesis, explored in much of his fiction, is that this was the true horror of existence, and that to understand exactly how little we mattered, was to be driven stark, raving mad.  His eldritch monsters were mainly symbols designed to express this idea, incomprehensible in order to express the utter incomprehensibility of the universe.  The main safeguard of sanity, Lovecraft contended, was human ignorance.  
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This is the environment in which Quake takes place.  And, sure, maybe I'm overselling it a bit.  It is, at its core, a game about shooting extradimensional chainsaw-wielding, grenade-throwing ogres with nailguns repeatedly in the face until they die.  But these are the trappings that it uses in the service of that goal, and in that sense, they succeed.
In service to this aesthetic, the game features a dark, moody color palette that serves two purposes, I think.  One, of course, is to set the mood.  The other is to subtly obscure the sharp edges of the game's world.
As the first real fully 3D first-person shooter, Quake's 3D is really rudimentary.  As impressive as it was for its day, it hasn't necessarily aged very well.  But I suspect that the level designers at Id Software knew this going in, and they did what they could to future-proof it.  
The darkness of the game's lighting and its color palette hide some of the sharp edges.  For the rest, the game actually leans into is blockiness.  The hulking piles of stone which comprise the castles and keeps, dungeons and mazes, the rough-cut caverns in which the game occurs loom and oppress with their size and solidity, their rough and heavy blockiness.  The unnatural rigidity of the art design is actually bolstered by the simple polygonal shapes that the engine is capable of producing.  It would probably have difficulty creating more naturalistic environments without visibly falling short, as was to some extent demonstrated in Hexen II, made in the same engine by Raven Software.  But Id's heavy, menacing, oppressive architecture is a natural fit for the engine's capabilities.
The story, meanwhile, is almost nonexistent, partly as a result of Quake's trouble development.
The game was originally supposed to be an RPG of some variety, with the player being an axe-wielding barbarian (hence the presence of the axe as the player's melee weapon).  Somewhere along the way, this changed.  I've never heard an explanation as to why.  Maybe Id just felt more at home making an FPS.  The story I've heard most often about Quake's development is that they didn't really have a story for a long stretch of time, after they'd scrapped the idea of it being an RPG.  They just kept creating assets and building levels, because they had to do something. This is part of why the level progression is so arbitrary with little narrative or thematic flow.
Eventually, it occurred to someone that they were getting close to the finish, and no one had really put together a story yet.  And while Id Software had never been big on stories in their games, they realized that they had to have something to explain what the player was supposed to be doing, and why.  So they wrote a story that was basically Doom all over again.  Humankind is experimenting with teleportation technology (only the tech is referred to as Slipgates this time), which draws the attention of an enemy or enemies (extradimensional horrors this time instead of demons from Hell), and said enemy (code-named Quake, hence the title) sends its minions to attack. From there, the player goes on a rampage, tearing a bloody swath through the enemy's forces on the way to capture four runes which, together, will grant access to the enemy's lair.  Each rune is hidden in a different dimension, and each dimension is its own episode of the game.
This is a plot that you could fit on one side of a napkin, and when you were done, you'd still have most of the napkin left.
It doesn't matter.  Quake is awesome.
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Playing is as easy as breathing.  Winning is considerably more difficult, of course.  But the act of maneuvering through the game's challenges is perhaps the easiest it has ever been in an FPS.  For whatever reason, Id decided to remove every extraneous element.  You no longer have to press buttons or throw levers; they activate automatically when you collide with them. Doors open on their own as you approach.  Your interaction with the game world and everything in it is stripped down to the absolute essentials.
Run. Jump.  Shoot.  Destroy.
Quake is in a relatively unique category of games for me.  I can pursue it as comfort food, but at the same time, it has real substance to it. Thin as its story is, its atmosphere is thick enough to cut.  As simple as its gameplay mechanics are, its levels and enemy encounters are designed to test the player's skill.  As much as it pays mere lip service to the work and ideas of H.P. Lovecraft, it nails the aesthetic of crushing, oppressive insignificance.  
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