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Isklen Expanded: Accessories & Dance!
🕑 Added 2023-08-21 08:56:50 +0000 UTCBit by bit, I'm whittling down parts of the big species sheet! Latest additions are these two!
Accessories:
Isklen love accessorizing! Bracelets, necklaces, rings, chains! If it can be worn to glam up their looks, or add a little pointed flare, they're into it. They have a particular fondness for jewelry crafted from the sea— all manner of shells, coral, teeth, bone, and pearls are a prized commodity that many an Isklen hoard like magpies. They like dressing colorfully, and even the most drab of fisherman will usually have some type of vivid scarf or braid on their being.
Tattoos and piercings are extremely commonplace in Isklen fashion, so much so they consider it rather odd when a fellow Isklen has none to speak of. It's often read as the elf being too frightened of pain if they don't manage so much as a pair of earrings in their lifetime. Tattoos, more importantly, hold great cultural significance to their kind. Monster hunters that have slayed powerful worthy beasts we'll usually get them inked to their form, both in remembrance of the noble foe and as a symbol of their "absorbed strength." Isklen who serve their country's military are granted unique enchanted tattoos that they house their weapon in. The soul-bound tools can be summoned by essentially willing their tattoos from their frame and reforming into whatever weapon of choice they've been trained under.
Festivities:
Isklen love any excuse to celebrate! Feasts, festivals, big thriving parties where the infectious rhythm of the drums rumbles well into the night. Having such well catered social events is not merely a fun practice, but well intertwined with their cultural rituals. Dancers will showcase artfully choreographed routines meant to honor various aspects of life, be it for the benefit of a bountiful harvest, to pay respects to the sea, or the variety of strange whimsical spirits they commune with. Their dancing tends to consist of fierce stomps and swings, rolling hip motions, and limbs mimicking the ferocity of the tides with their swoops and waves. Most of their music is fast and lively, as they don't quite know how to move to slow songs.
Artist Notes:
I managed to get the lady dancer down in one quick go, which gave me the false expectation that I could just ALWAYS just pop these out, no problem, real quick! I then proceeded to take three different attempts at the male where for reasons I could not fathom nothing seemed to look right. Parts looked broken, but no one I previewed it too could suss out exactly what was off. In the end I said fuck it, and started over. It used to have a completely different vibe/head/right arm, but they just didn't hit right. Better to know when to trash something and go in fresh, instead of spending even more time trying to fix something that just ain't worth it.
The downside? It was only after it was said and done that I came back to it like "....this looks too fucking much like Ceran. I just did Ceran again." So I'll likely either alter this further in the final version to mix it up? Or just say it's Ceran's slightly distant relative. He's doesn't have any siblings, or much immediate family who is alive or ones he still associates with save for an uncle on his dad's side. Alas, I don't think this guy is old enough to pass for his uncle, so continued workshopping it is!
Comments
Sketchychespin
Hey, you can't blame the ones still have that extra weight on them after winter. They might need the extra padding for... other things~
MailOrderSuperhero
Part of me is also like...canonically a lot of Isklen do share a distinct / similar facial structure or features, which is also why no one has been able to uncover the rumored "real identity" of Layne Raine despite his "passing" oh so many decades ago! Probably the only thing truly covering Ceran's ass, because he can just play the race card, lmao.
MailOrderSuperhero
THANK YOU, and I shit you not (and this just might be because my perversion runs that deep even when I don't intend it to) but Isklen tend to naturally thicken up around winter to deal with the harsh unfamiliar temps, but naturally shed it come Spring. Some people go a little harder than others and it takes some extra effort *cough*/Ceran/*cough*
Allan Meyer
Hot like FIRE Ceran’s cousin / evil twin / secret brother from another mother / mirror universe twin / time traveling self / pure coïncidence bla bla
Sketchychespin
I'm loving the creative lore that goes into this! You've really been putting a lot of fun thought into this! Side note: I want to soften up that handsome elf man~
