This Portal is Stable.

Greetings PaperDemons! As the year winds to a close, another portal opens. The clouds murmur and break, letting sun through to the vast acres of greenery below.

New to our Art RPG? Check out our beginner’s guide to get started!

A six-legged beast canters by in a flurry of red and gold feathers. A shout of laughter and a wave of water crests over the roof of a building ahead, the water quickly lost amongst the mossy vines making up the building’s walls. The facade of it is painted green and blue, with broad, vibrant purple leaves clustering near the top. Chairs are scattered out front of homes, citizens socializing in the streets. Vehicles and crafts keep to the larger main roads, allowing markets and spontaneous games to spring up on the smaller ones. The edges of the city trail off into a lush rainforest teeming with wildlife and massive, colorful flowers. Half shrouded by the clouds, a Tura temple floats a hundred feet in the air, humming with magic contributed by beings from across the Paperverse. Stone sculpted figures standing upright but with the head and paws of a parkat are stationed at either side of the opened doors, watching over citizens and adventurers alike.

Now it’s your turn!

Rewards

For participating in this challenge

• You earn 80 XP

• You earn a random item drop

• You earn a Parkat feather

• You earn Adventuring Gold

• Your character earns the Aridin Portal achievement

• Your character earns 7 Ability Points (AP)

Challenge Requirements

For this Art RPG Portal Challenge, you will be taking your very own original character on an adventure to a new world. You will be using the character you registered in our Character Creation Challenge. If you haven’t registered a character yet, follow that link to do so!

Pick one of the prompts below and draw or write your registered character in this new world!

• If you are submitting art, it should be a full color piece that shows at least half of your character’s body and a background that matches the prompt you have chosen. Shading is optional.

• If you are submitting writing, your registered character should be the focus of the piece. The piece should be at least 1000 words and it must match the content of the prompt you have chosen.

• Click the Upload New Submission button at the bottom of this page. Copy paste the prompt you selected into the submission description. Once done, you'll be redirected back to this page.

• To receive your rewards, submit your work to the form at the bottom of this page. An admin from our team will process your request in a few days. You’ll receive a private message when the process is complete.

Prompts

Prompt #1 - Woven Cities

Meticulously grown trees, cultivated both manually and by elemental magic, make up the structure of Aridin’s legendary cities. The woven cities are one of the greatest feats of harmony between people and nature in the known worlds. The trees that make up the cities come in many colors, some influenced by magic and others painted all the shades of the rainbow. Many of the structures are loosely pyramidal and have flat roofs that are used as community spaces and often pools thanks to the frequent rains. Show your character exploring one of the woven cities. Your piece must include your character and buildings made of living trees.

Prompt #2 - Tura Doraci

The Tura temples are both a representation of Aridin’s main religion as well as a vital part of the cities’ ecosystems. These temples rest on floating islands, some anchored to the ground with tangles of roots and vines and others floating freely through the city’s territory. Nearly all larger cities on Aridin have one, and many of them celebrate the Tura Doraci near the end of the year to prepare for the next year. This celebration calls citizens and visitors from all over the Paperverse to contribute magic to the orbs in the Tura temples to use to cultivate and repair the cities themselves and the surrounding rainforests. Small figurines of elemental gods are distributed and charged to glowing with magic, then brought to the temples to be channeled into the orbs. The gods are often depicted as figures that combine native wildlife and people to illustrate their purpose in bringing people and nature together. Show your character during the Tura Doraci. Your piece must include your character and a celebration or magic ritual in a rainforest, woven city, or floating temple.

Prompt #3 - Parkats

While wild parkats are more muted with smaller spots of color, centuries of domestication have drawn out the full rainbow in their feathered coats. Parkats are rarely privately owned, and it’s highly illegal to remove them from Aridin. Every city has a domestic pride of parkats that serve as mail carriers, hunters, and companions to the citizens. Their six limbs are webbed to allow them limited gliding ability, and they are unmatched at tree climbing. Parkats live in a community maintained nest known as the Guiler. They are generally considered physical representations of the will of the gods, and are highly respected and well cared for. Show your character encountering a parkat. Your piece must include your character and a parkat.

Prompt #4 - Baas

Baas is a tall, bipedal creature with digitigrade legs and the head and paws of a parkat. He stands guard before an ancient temple that holds emergency reserves for the local Tura temples. His efforts have been long since forgotten, and when you find him, his legs have turned to stone. He begs your help to return to the local cities and tell the citizens of his plight. Only by remembering him and his guardianship will he return to life. If he is forgotten entirely, the stone will not stop spreading until he is no different from the sculptures he protects. Show your character going on Baas’s mission. Your piece must include your character interacting with Baas or telling his story through words or art.

Have questions? Ask in our Discord server in the #arpg-discuss or #ask-a-mod channels.

Acknowledgements: Portal written by Shyftlock, art by BogusRed

Updates

• 2023/01/18 - Added guaranteed drop and 4th prompt.