I wanna talk about this behind the scene picture from Era III because I love it so damn much.
It's so overly mundane for Ghost's stage presence, it's lovely. We get a great look at Terzo's under dress and I love seing the length difference in the Ghouls' jackets. You can see a pair of shoe covers just chilling on the floor next to the rack on the left. Pebble's drumsticks just chilling on the floor or half out of his bag. The bags, clothes and caps kinda just thrown everywhere. It reminds me of when I used to do theater, it's so simple for such a big show and I LOVE IT.
quintessence ghouls are, quite literally, spiritual beings. down in the Pit, they have no bodies to reside in. they simply exist throughout the space, rogue Magick running loose. they still have personalities, using their Magick however they please. some like to mess with those who are especially assholes down there. some are assholes themselves, attaching themselves to am unsuspecting victim for their chaos.
Summoning a quint is different. because they're not summoning an already defined body, they have to make one from scratch. all the Emeritus brothers like the look of Greek and Roman Gods, so they always use them as a basis. Omega and Aether were wholey based on the deities, large and muscular, strong noses and fierce eyes.
Copia, though? he wanted his first creation to be special. he didn't want his first creation to be of something else, he wanted them to be a brand new thing. so he made Phantom, a long and lanky ghoul with soft features and kind eyes, dimples when he smiles. when he was summoned finally, the room was left speechless.
there must've been an error in Copia's calucations tho, or maybe a summoning ingredient had gone bad, or maybe it simply was Phantom, but he came with a scar throughout his face, some of his hair left bone white. Copia could only feel love and pride, though. he, in his eyes, was near perfection in all of his imperfections.
And because quint ghouls have vessels for the first time ever, they are literally learning to be people from scratch. a few things come by second nature; breathing, blinking, moving and walking. staying alive. they have to learn everything else, though. to speak, to eat, to sleep. they will always have their pack to help, though.
Impera military jackets, let's talk about them! Yes, I've already made a post about the ghouls' jackets and Copia's Kaisarion black and gold jacket. But! This time we're comparing the ghouls' jackets to Copia's Watcher in the Sky one, because they look so similar.
(This entire post steams from someone on Tiktok saying that the top left picture is Copia's costume and me having to be right about everything, all of the time btw)
OKAY SO!! First difference and most obvious!
The ghouls' jackets have epaulettes while Copia's doesnt. To be noted that the epaulettes are removable and are held in place with either magnets or velcro. I'm more inclined to believe velcro since it's already used on the shoulder patches of the vest.
Second difference!
The arm zippers are bronze or gold for the ghouls but black for Copia. I'm not 100% sure if Copia's are metal or if they're heavy dury plastic, but the ghouls' are absolutely metal zippers.
Next detail, one of my favourite and the reason why I know the very first picture is not Copia's!
The ghouls all have an Impera patch on their left arm, which is absent on Copia's costume! This picture is a great reminder of just how small Dewdrop is. Lolk at him, he looks as wide as a paper sheet.
Moving on to the last one, which I just noticed while looking for pictures to make this post!
Copia's jacket is a lot less distressed than the ghouls'! The hem of the lapel is still left raw for a bit of distressing but there's none of that white stitching that you see on Dew's costume or paint that you see on Phantom's. Which is another difference I've noticed, by the way.
All the older ghouls have white stitching on their jackets to make it look like they've been through a lot and were just stitched back together. Phantom's has a bit of visible patching up, but it was weathered instead of stitched. I'm confident the reason for this is simply because it was not made at the same time as the others, but I still thought it was worth mentioning.