The Tournament, Page 1

The Tournament, Page 1

Seaberry Tamamo

The berries produced by the Seaberry Tamamo are sometimes used for paint and dye in Aqua Buddy society, as the pigment doesn't wash away so easily.

As the berries absorb a lot of salt in their native habitat, they aren't much for taste. They have a slightly sour note underneath the salty layer, but are not very sweet.

The seas of JI hold many secrets, and its residents are not always so quick to report their findings to the land dwellers. Though an uncommon type of seaweed, the Seaberry Tamamo was not completely unknown to Aqua Buddys. Though it was likely discovered by them long before it caught any land dweller's eye, an official study and documentation of the Seaberry Tamamo is still ongoing.

Gonna space this one out a bit so Logolas has a chance to shine.

This is actually from back in September... 😬 I was going through a bit of a dark night of the soul back then with my job, so I guess it makes sense I wasn't up to posting much back then. 😅

Aaanyways. This suave business lizard you are beholding is Nell. He's a major player in the main Aliens story with Naru, Shiido, Korosa, Sz'nami, Ril'siiya and Tsuname. There's not a whole lot I can say about him without spoiling stuff, though I have mentioned or talked about him a handful of times on the side blogs, so there is that.

He's something of a philanthropist who's helped out Tsuname and some other Gaediens get back home. Tsuname has mixed feelings about him. On the one hand, Nell helped him out, but on the other, Nell is kinda... weird, from his perspective. But then, Tsuname's from some technologically-primitive island and hasn't been around many business folk before, so what does he know, right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Finally finished my second attack. I've had this waiting in the wings ever since @glidersdoodles drew my char Prometheus, and I've finally finished it! It's been hot minute since I started it, but it's finally done! XD

Anyways, this is Gaffen! I've been eyeing him ever since discovering him last year. I really like some of the ideas you got going on for your story, Glider, and I've enjoyed some of your takes I've seen on your blog! You've definitely given me a lot to think about for LoZ as a series and I still think about many of the things you've either blogged or reblogged. Hard to remember which now. XD But yeah! Happy ArtFight!

Thought I'd show off the thumbnail I did for it too. I really like making pixel borders. This one features fried eggs, kebabs, glass bottles, faeries, herbs, pieces of cake, mushrooms and various bubbles and sparkles and droplets and bits of salt. :) Think there's even gemstones in it.

Spadia Quatera

A possible relative of the Crespetalia, the Spadia Quatera was found on an island in the southwest corner of the Lolan Shii Ocean between Cresent Minoria and Warminia Songlianne, but outside the influence of the Warminia Girina Ocean surrounding the latter. While the island is thought to be the location of a gate to the Starcloud Realm, unlike the Saturna Petalina, Spadia Quateras do not seem to point to any one particular spot as the gate, instead growing profusely on the island. Whether this means that the gate is the entire island or that Spadia Quateras simply indicate a general location rather than marking an exact one is not yet known, but the fact remains that Spadia Quateras have a strong connection to the Starcloud Realm and are influenced by it, along with the entire island they are found on.

Made a thing and decided maybe it's decent enough to post. Links to refs, the blank, and rambles under the cut.

Flora: Flos adonis. "Painful recollections" in flower language according to Catharine Harbeson Waterman's Flora's Lexicon (1840).

Fauna: Flying fish. I use these as symbols for Wotrens in general, but Tsuname in particular has a scene where he glides over the ocean and enjoys a moment of freedom, so I think he best exemplifies the whimsy that is the flying fish.

Object: Marble. In hindsight though I should have picked suncatcher, that would have been a lot more symbolic, especially considering I have an old picture of him trying to catch the last rays of the sun. Well, marble will do in a pinch I guess. My thinking was a silly pun involving losing his marbles, also it being a lone marble to imply "where did the others go?" Also chose a clear one as part of the symbolism too. I went through a number of objects for him before settling on marble. Originally I was going to do "window" but couldn't find a ref I liked for it. Then I thought of "tide pool" but that's more a place than an object. Then I thought maybe one of those epoxy resin arts, but there's something really artistic and delicate about those that felt a little bit off to represent Tsuname. But yeah. He's transparent but also shallow some ways. So that's why it has to be a marble or something not that deep. Shallow in the sense that you don't have to reach very far to see what's going on inside. That's why I was thinking glass at first. Window because you can easily peer inside and see what's going on. Tide pool for a similar reason. It's not that deep, you can scoop up some crustacean crawling around in there and look at it. Also sea-theming is very important for him.

You know what I just remembered... 'bracelet' is an object that has more significance in-story. I guess it less represents him though and more his devotion to Sh'zkai...

Song: The Name of Anger by Rurutia. I also could have picked Meltdown by Lollia, but decided they both exemplify Tsuname in different ways, so I didn't need to swap it out. For the one I chose though, it's chock full of symbolism that I think really fits Tsuname well. I think of it typically in the broader context of the invasion he experienced, so in some ways, Meltdown feels a bit more personal than The Name of Anger does for Tsuname. Meltdown I associate more with his ongoing mental battle, whereas The Name of Anger deals far more with the past and how it contextualizes the present. The opening line translates to something like "The ladder of light collapses." This 'ladder of light' I think of representative of hope, but also with like a tractor beam. The light is 'collapsing' which means the beam is disappearing, and with it, any hope of getting back those that were taken by it. "Innocent live sink to the mud." . . . "Overflowing from the ark are the tears of lost children." That last one I associate with the Gaediens who were taken. "My hands transform into swords; my ventless anger continues to spiral" Feels like a fast-forward to present day Tsuname, who has become a weapon against his will and his hands are now swords, and his pent up anger from the horrors he endured spills out everywhere. Lastly I love the picture painted by this line: "The jet-black sea winds whirlpools." There's not many good translations of the song online but you can find the original lyrics here: (x) I am for sure taking some creative liberties in my associations but XD that's the rub.

Feeling: Kuebiko. I abridged the definition quite a bit on the picture to get the text to play nice.

And yes, I did ref the Ocarina of Time scarecrow because it was simpler to draw than trying to figure out how to abstract a proper photo of a scarecrow. XD;

There's a lot of interesting gems in the etymology of kuebiko as well that fit Tsuname:

Kuebiko comes from kueru (崩える), an archaic verb meaning "to break down; to become shabby and disordered", plus hiko (彦), an old epithet for "boy, young man", in turn from hi ko (日子), literally "sun child".[1][2][3] The meaning could be translated as something like "shabby young man".

Yamada no sohodo is formed like an old-fashioned formal name, from surname or literal noun Yamada (山田, lit. 'mountain + paddy'), genitive or possessive particle no (の), and sohodo (案山子),[4] in turn from soho ("sopping wet") + -do, a contraction from -bito, the compounding form of hito (人).[5] The meaning of this name could be construed as "soaked person of the mountain paddies", a euphemism for "scarecrow".

As for the kami aspect of the etymology, at first I thought he had nothing to do with folk wisdom, knowledge and agriculture, but if you think on it, maybe a little. For one thing, when he returns to the island he has a lot of knowledge of how things work out in space that no one else has, so in one sense he is sort of this oddity. Folk wisdom could be turned on its head because his devotion to what he grew up believing is a big part of his character, but he lacked the proper nuance about the belief, so this "folk wisdom" doesn't exactly pan out when he doesn't understand how it applies to the real world (or doesn't). Agriculture was the one that I thought... no, not at all, but thinking on like... the connotations of agriculture, like "living on the land" -> "devotion to the land" -> "devotion to one's home and native land" could be something.

But anyways, the TDoOS definition definitely pulls more from the latter half of that opening sentence from the wiki:

"Kuebiko (久延毘古) is ... represented in Japanese mythology as a scarecrow who cannot walk but has comprehensive awareness."

Going back to the literal meaning, "shabby boy/sun child" really fits Tsuname well. Broken down, made shabby and disordered by his past. I often associate Tsuname with the sun in a lot of ways too. His original sunny disposition, overshadowed now by the horizon, making "sunset" another potent symbol for Tsuname's present psyche.

The second name for Kuebiko in Yamada no sohodo I also thought was kind of interesting, since being a fish boy he often does drag himself out of the ocean sopping wet, but also the connotation of sopping wet with "pathetic" feels of portent. XD

Hmm. Knowing what I know now it feels kinda weird to associate him with this word, but, I guess TDoOS is useful for describing feelings!

Anyways here's the link to the blank: (x)

Thank you if you've read this far. XD