Lizagna

But JOINING C!TECHNO??? AFTER EVERYTHING? Like her turn against New L'Manberg in the end wasn't SURPRISING ig? But deciding to join the anarchists that have made your life a living hell every step of the way just? Doesn't narratively make any fucking sense?

Like I'm happy shes learning to bake again, and finding herself, BUT WHY DID YOU NEED TO JOIN THE OPRESSIVE SECRET POLICE TO FIND YOURSELF AGAIN?????

I'm also lividly pissed off about her helping with c!Dream's escape with 0 hesitation but like, that's not the problem. She literally had such an interesting character and could have even done a parallel of herself against the Syndicate if she genuinely wanted to be anti-government (like showing ways that anarchy doesn't have to be explosions and violence, paralleling that with her own healing and moving on from wanting c!Tommy dead). But instead she joined the fucking SYNDICATE and her character writing just went out the fucking window.

Any way, the Syndicate is where people send their characters to die writing wise. Dream should whitelist me so I can dismantle the group once and for all, as a treat 💖

while the "i started baking again" line is a banger line, i feel its the same as c!technos speeches where like.... it sounds cool but once you look into it, it doesnt rlly hold up??

i mean shes supposedly "healing" but like. we dont rlly see it. she still hasnt apologised for trying to kill ctommy, she hasnt really healed from the pain caused to her by c!wilbur all shes done is hate him and also misplace anger onto others, nothing in her life has rlly changed other than joining the syndicate, who are supposedly like family but have about as much depth in character dynamics as a cheese cracker, and the final nail in the coffin was the prison break stream like you said in which she helped free c!dream who is literally the guy theyve been fighting back against since the start. like what happened

Genuinely, GENUINELY, I could see a really cool fucking arc if she hadn't joined the syndicate but still kept her "anti-government" stance and worked towards bettering herself through removing herself from the things that are actively causing her pain. Like, she'd still build her underground base, maybe start baking again and work towards genuine reconcillation and confronting her issues and APOLOGIZING. It would be more interesting than literally anything they've done with her character since she joined the Syndicate. Like everything about the Syndicate and the writing that revolves around it makes the writer in me PISSED because like? Maybe it could be salvageable if it wasn't run by the two CCs who can't not see their characters as nothing but righteous, and like they actively did things other than harass c!Tubbo once and then proceed to fucking ruin all of their characters in the months leading up to the prison stream.

no matter what, the anti-government rhetoric is a bullshit excuse, especially when paired with the fact that those preaching it force their beliefs on others. lmanberg was always optional, it was a little community (dare i say family), you couldnt really even call it a government, they just said that to seem official and wilbur wanted to designate himself as president/leader because of his growing paranoia ever since the war and erets betrayal (also caused by c!dream). noone was forced, sure some people were kept out of it, but they were never forced in it either, you should be allowed to keep people out of your safe space. several people have homes that they dont want people coming in, why was lmanberg so bad? especially considering they took up such a small piece of land. not to mention a lot of the citizens from it were the actual victims here, especially when you look at c!tommy and c!dream back then.

but the syndicate? c!techno decided government bad so now EVERYONE has to follow that. if youre a group or "nation" of any kind, better watch your back because the self-appointed hero will be coming for your neck for daring to oppress.... nobody. and if you dont agree with his views? youll get killed or have your home blown up. isnt it ironic??

I'm just saying that with how her character is being played, if she GENUINELY wanted to try that route of "I was screwed over by the governing forces for too long" (which is just... untrue. Yeah, Manberg and Schlatt were shit, especially to her, but the main issue in New L'Manberg was... she just wasn't relevant to the plot? And she fell to the wayside which happens. So she made up excuses about it being horrible which like... okay ig? Misinformation group ftw ig?), there were better ways of playing into the anti-government stance that wasn't joining the group that "doesn't actually hate governments, just when said government sees them as a threat. But the actual tyrant trying to control everyone? Hes just some dude, no worries" (/s).

distant memories and mutual understanding. may the future treat us well.

Passacaille in Barcelona

But JOINING C!TECHNO??? AFTER EVERYTHING? Like her turn against New L'Manberg in the end wasn't SURPRISING ig? But deciding to join the anarchists that have made your life a living hell every step of the way just? Doesn't narratively make any fucking sense?

Like I'm happy shes learning to bake again, and finding herself, BUT WHY DID YOU NEED TO JOIN THE OPRESSIVE SECRET POLICE TO FIND YOURSELF AGAIN?????

I'm also lividly pissed off about her helping with c!Dream's escape with 0 hesitation but like, that's not the problem. She literally had such an interesting character and could have even done a parallel of herself against the Syndicate if she genuinely wanted to be anti-government (like showing ways that anarchy doesn't have to be explosions and violence, paralleling that with her own healing and moving on from wanting c!Tommy dead). But instead she joined the fucking SYNDICATE and her character writing just went out the fucking window.

Any way, the Syndicate is where people send their characters to die writing wise. Dream should whitelist me so I can dismantle the group once and for all, as a treat 💖

while the "i started baking again" line is a banger line, i feel its the same as c!technos speeches where like.... it sounds cool but once you look into it, it doesnt rlly hold up??

i mean shes supposedly "healing" but like. we dont rlly see it. she still hasnt apologised for trying to kill ctommy, she hasnt really healed from the pain caused to her by c!wilbur all shes done is hate him and also misplace anger onto others, nothing in her life has rlly changed other than joining the syndicate, who are supposedly like family but have about as much depth in character dynamics as a cheese cracker, and the final nail in the coffin was the prison break stream like you said in which she helped free c!dream who is literally the guy theyve been fighting back against since the start. like what happened

Genuinely, GENUINELY, I could see a really cool fucking arc if she hadn't joined the syndicate but still kept her "anti-government" stance and worked towards bettering herself through removing herself from the things that are actively causing her pain. Like, she'd still build her underground base, maybe start baking again and work towards genuine reconcillation and confronting her issues and APOLOGIZING. It would be more interesting than literally anything they've done with her character since she joined the Syndicate. Like everything about the Syndicate and the writing that revolves around it makes the writer in me PISSED because like? Maybe it could be salvageable if it wasn't run by the two CCs who can't not see their characters as nothing but righteous, and like they actively did things other than harass c!Tubbo once and then proceed to fucking ruin all of their characters in the months leading up to the prison stream.

So as some of you know, I was commissioned by Scott Smajor a few months ago to create this insanely fun painting of the Rivendell Festival!!!

He was absolutely fantastic to work with and we worked together to create this Vanity Fair-photoshoot style Royal Portrait featuring my designs for all 12 rulers. It was painted back in November and it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had working on a job 😁😄💖

My main goal doing this piece was to make sure everyone looks hot as hell confident and fierce! I researched a number of photographers for fashion publications and went through their portfolios to figure out the general poses I thought different characters should have. Adapting everyone’s MC skins in my style was such a fantastic challenge and I loved every second of it!

And now under the cut we have my favourite part: the details!! I spent hours on each person adding jewelry and embroidery and different materials to complete each look. I cannot overstate how much fun this was! Plus the banners are all based off my own banner designs I did a while ago, and peep the faces—they’re all the same designs as my portrait series in a new context :D Feel free to zoom in, I put a lot of work into these 😁⬇️✨

scott, somewhere between a hostage and beloved brother, mostly kept in the palace. you know, so he can’t do anything, but so the necessity of both halves still existing somewhere is maintained. he begins to get a longer leash, and immediately falls into the orbit of…

jimmy, who is, in this au, no codfather; there’s no cod empire to begin with, the swamp being one of the largely conquered locations under rivendell. he is, however, finfolk, and xonorth’s reach doesn’t extend underwater. also, if jimmy’s anything, it’s “surprisingly stubborn in the face of bad ideas”. he’s operating a somewhat illegal radio station. by somewhat we mean “deeply seditious”. luckily, he has backup for the, uh, many times he and his co-conspirators have almost been executed, in the form of -

lizzie, ocean empress. she unlocked her heritage again under somewhat duress, and realizing she could use this to help people, she made sure the ocean empire was one of the remaining established kingdoms people could flee too. the ocean empire is largely populated by the more supernatural populace of empires, though - even in the landariums, it’s sort of hard on most humans to live under water. luckily, her husband,

joel smallishbeans, ruler of mezalea, never believed in demons. and, given that mezaleans are… mezaleans… mezalea simply could not be conquered. none of xonorth’s supernatural powers worked there. he’s… stubbornly neutral, but looks the other way a lot when his wife and brother-in-law do things that will definitely get him in trouble with the elven conquerers who keep on threatening to try to run over mezalea again. because obviously they cannot. what do they take mezaleans for?

and like, that’s the basic setup so far for what i actually have fic ideas for, but some additional character locations include:

so joey doesn’t actually know xonorth as well in this au because i think it would be fun to have the lost empire come in late and have to decide where they stand and for joey to have some very different paths to power here.

pixandria i think doesn’t become enough of a power to be called an “empire”, but is still a religious site. pixlriffs is still a prophet, if not necessarily a king of his people here. he’s been having… visions, lately. he’s not sure what to make of them.

wither rose alliance is probably the most mess given that i tend to treat all three of them as human so xonorth’s been in power their entire lifespans? gem is still a rising star/leader-in-training for the magic academy, for example, but is beginning to chafe against some of the beliefs. fwip is still discovering forbidden magic… albeit forbidden for reasons that are not at ALL the same as in the original au. they both would have grown up under xonorth though so i think they don’t realize how absolutely horrible the state of the world is until they both get their noses into forbidden research.

as for sausage… if scott’s a hostage because he’s xonorth’s brother and knows full well why, sausage doesn’t quite realize he’s a hostage. it’s normal for people from noble bloodlines to have guards on them, right? even if said guards don’t, uh, listen to sausage, and are concerningly… it’s fine! gotta be careful with that true heir to mythland, amirite?

pearl, i think, isn’t royalty at all in this au, similarly to how fwip isn’t. she was, however, one of sausage’s original guards, and got attached to him and the rest of the wra. she’s just kind of a peasant farmer who got tapped for being bonkers good at fighting.

…i am not sure what to do with shrub here. her backstory is tied to when xonorth arrived. it’s probably not great for her, though. i think maybe she vanished into the woods and went full mononoke for a bit there. i think maybe also she’s the one to find joey’s lost empire?

Since Xornoth/Exor's powers are firebased, Rivendell is no longer frozen kingdom but rather a warm mountain/stony peaks (like you see in 1.18!) Certain areas are now scorched landmarks, bending to the will of Xornoth's predecessor, Conal. Areas like the Grimlands (or Eastvale as it had been known before) are nothing but scorched lands and craters from the war that happened.

The Crystal Cliffs are still a magic based society, but the magic is very much so filtered through what is acceptable under Rivendell's reign. Any information on ice magic has been practically destroyed, and fire magic is left only to the Rivendell royal family. When Gem showed an affinity for fire magic when she was young, she was highly reprimanded. Now she's the perfect student, but fWhip tries to teach her fire magic all the time.

When Xornoth/Conal invaded, The Overgrown protected itself in about a miles worth of thick, overgrown vines that are impervious to fire, awaiting the return of it's new Guardian. The elves have been trying to burrow a hole into its protection, but the magic of the spring keeps the vines regenerating. But in recent years, its been easier to make a bit more headway, leading to concerns about how many more centuries that the Overgrown can survive.

Sausage, meanwhile, guarded. He's the Mythland heir, he represents hope to his people. It makes them compliant to Xornoth and his rules. But he doesn't realize he's a hostage because Xornoth actually treats him well, almost like an apprentice? Sausage doesn't really REALIZE that his "kindness" isn't mentorship but moreso to keep him in place, but maybe he'll realize it.

I think Shrub gets involved because someone (probably someone from the Ocean Empire) accidentally created a portal, leading to a portal to her homeland that just so happens to be on her farm. Her people make the decision to, ya know, not get involved. But this little farmer girl with the spirit of a wolf, sneaks into the portal to help the fight because, as she puts it, "no one deserves to lose their home and families."

When ice magic knowledge was being destroyed, the Ocean Empire scrambled to try and preserve as many scrolls and books as possible. So when Scott ends up with Jimmy, loudmouthed brother of the one safe haven from Xornoth's control, he ends up learning about his powers and how to at least make a stand for himself and maybe, just maybe, lead the resistance against his brother.

Here’s my take on the banners of the twelve empires! Been working on this one for a while, it’s so cool to see them finally all together. They’re all based (at least loosely) on the canon banner designs, along with each empires’ resources and my interpretation of their different aesthetics.

In order we’ve got:

Rivendell, the Cod Empire, Pixandria

Pearl’s Farmlands, the Ocean Empire, Mezalea

The Crystal Cliffs, Mythland, the Grimlands

House Blossom, the Undergrove, the Lost Empire

I recommend zooming in to check out the details - I had a lot of fun deciding on the different materials and shapes that would work best for each kingdom!

Bonus Pearl, because honestly nothing can top this: