Comment 92937
Parent Comment
You caught me. While I don't have the highest of opinions of the LOTR movies (though I don't have the lowest opinion of them either, for me they were just...okay?), I was looking at images of sword props they used in the films when I designed these. I worry they're too derivitave, in fact; I want to make the designs unique, and I added unique elements, sure, but I'm not a swordsmith, so I've no idea how to go about creating blade designs from scratch while keeping them practical and usable.
Oooh, tell me about these mono-sex fairy folk! Assuming you remember. I love a good all-femme race (not that I'm biased in the least, being a lesbian and all. Hehe...heh. <.< >.> )
Oooh, tell me about these mono-sex fairy folk! Assuming you remember. I love a good all-femme race (not that I'm biased in the least, being a lesbian and all. Hehe...heh. <.< >.> )
Comment ID 92937
![[Art] Green Elf Sketches 2](https://storage.googleapis.com/paperdemon-prod-la/submissions/thumbs/art_img_thumb_36897_463c436d2e090b5ea08b2e03ac88adad5ebcbfa85fd5c.jpg)
LOTR for me... I'd been a Tolkien fangirl since I was a bitty thing, and it was just intensely important to me to see somebody trying to adapt that world - somebody who wasn't working for Rankin-Bass! I had peeves with it, but I had Strong Feelings about the whole thing even when some of the Feelings were negative. :p
If you're looking to design swords, maybe googling around for some images of real sword and knife types and finding one that looks appealing before you start adding decorations could be useful?
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Um - there was one group who were the tiny kind, born from trees adults had merged bits of their souls with although not (I think?) from pods - lived in a kinda edge-of-Renaissance tech country, and had a telepathic bond thing they could do both within and outside of species which had connotations of "I'm picking you as family, we are now eachother's guardians."
It's believed that historically the bonding was partly a way to recruit allies for fairies to protect themselves in a world with several other magically-endowed races.
The other group I'm thinking of, reproductive method's unknown - they come in human size, normally have elemental magic (exceptions for a few individuals I'm not sure whether they were engineered somehow, or born as an ordinary element and then magically upgraded to fit whatever the kingdom needed them for, or if once every so many faeries you just get one unique...) Many of them seem to see themselves in some kind of guardianship role over their world, either assigning themselves as caretakers of particular locations (a forest, a mountain, an ancient city -) or bestowing blessings and magical powers on the mortals nearby in exchange for minor favors.
Neither group's creators, sadly, seemed to think very far through gender and sexuality implications of their cultures.
If you're looking to design swords, maybe googling around for some images of real sword and knife types and finding one that looks appealing before you start adding decorations could be useful?
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Um - there was one group who were the tiny kind, born from trees adults had merged bits of their souls with although not (I think?) from pods - lived in a kinda edge-of-Renaissance tech country, and had a telepathic bond thing they could do both within and outside of species which had connotations of "I'm picking you as family, we are now eachother's guardians."
It's believed that historically the bonding was partly a way to recruit allies for fairies to protect themselves in a world with several other magically-endowed races.
The other group I'm thinking of, reproductive method's unknown - they come in human size, normally have elemental magic (exceptions for a few individuals I'm not sure whether they were engineered somehow, or born as an ordinary element and then magically upgraded to fit whatever the kingdom needed them for, or if once every so many faeries you just get one unique...) Many of them seem to see themselves in some kind of guardianship role over their world, either assigning themselves as caretakers of particular locations (a forest, a mountain, an ancient city -) or bestowing blessings and magical powers on the mortals nearby in exchange for minor favors.
Neither group's creators, sadly, seemed to think very far through gender and sexuality implications of their cultures.
I'm glad they're so meaningful to you though, and I certainly don't mean to diminish or criticize that. I also enjoyed both the books and the films, in spite of the above. ^^
And yeah, tbh I'm probably gonna keep the basic inspiration from the elven swords in the LOTR movies simply because I like the aesthetic, but I'll work to distinguish them further and making them into my own original thing as I've no interest in being a copycat. For one thing I need to add evidence of modern technology in their design, like a power source and a slot for elemental "cores" (a fun modern melee weapon bit of magitech in my world) on the blades.
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Ooooh both of those do sound interesting, lack of thought RE: gender/sex implications aside.
What does an elemental core look like? And how big does it need to be?
The essence is a thick, viscous fluid, like syrup. Inert, it is just a thick liquid with a ditinct color and odor based on the element (fire core might smell like ashes, earth core might smell like soil, etc, etc). Activated, it glows, and uncontained, activated essence could cause serious damage to anything it touched until the electrical charge wore off (thus why it's kept in cores and other carefully sealed containers at all times).
Essence-based ammunition for firearms also exists. What makes melee weapons not-obsolete is the prevalence of personal shielding units which allow one to get in close enough to deal damage without being mowed down where you stand.
*yes that is a tvtropes reference
Anyway the point is that series had shields that would stand up to a number of hits from firearms, but could be punched through with consistent fire, and melee weapons would break shields almost immediately, so it was a balancing act between rushing someone with a sword and getting your shields depleted and shot down before you got there vs playing it safer from a distance with guns. I tended to favor the slice 'n' dice approach whenever I could get my mitts on an energy sword or gravity hammer. Esp when I would drop down from a high alcove right behind some hapless dudebro.
It makes a lot of sense to use it as a game mechanic as well though - add a little extra challenge!