SKETCHNESS

Smolwinter with a shotgun save me… Save me Smolwinter with a shotgun

===

Reference (provided by @makoredeyes):

Oh yes, I've seen it! It's interesting how they decided to attach bits of lore with a completely different AU to character skins. I wish it was a properly designed unique Dredgen Cain skin tho, come ooon, this could've looked so cool!

I'm curious where it puts Shin. Was he adopted by Rezyl in this scenario or was he still with Jaren? If Rezyl and Jaren just switched places and the whole story in general stayed the same it's not that interesting imo; but if it's "properly" alternated, like Rezyl found little Shin and brought him in the Last City; Rezyl never got corrupted in the Moon and maybe even became the Titan Vanguard eventually; when his father was killed, Shin didn't slip fully into revenge, grief and rage, since he still had people and places from his childhood to cling into... The whole Destiny story as we know it would've went VERY differently.

Like, Shin raised by Rezzyl would be intriguing. What led to Rezzyl's corruption was his fear and need to feel special, with having a son help with those issues? I wonder what Rezzyl would be like as a father. Would he be easygoing or stern. Plus, with Shin raised in the tower, he would see a lot more gaurdian antics and may not look down on them as much as he does in canon. Also, would Shin still be a hunter if raised by Rezzyl because Titan Shin is a cursed idea. Another thing what would Shin personality be in this. I figure he would be less secretive and less of a loner. If Shin is a lot more involved with tower affairs, I could see him becoming Huter vanguard (if he still is a hunter).

But Dredgen Cain raising Shin is also intriguing. I can still see Cain caring for Shin, but instead of telling him to control his anger and other negative impulses, to instead give in to them. Given that Cain's fall is about revenge instead of Hope like Yor, I think Cain would be grooming Shin to get revenge on Cain or for Cain if he dies. If Shin goes along with Cain or tries to stop him, it depends on a few things, mainly if Palamon is still around or if Shin sees Cain kill innocents. If that happens, I can see Shin try to leave Cain and go out on his own. If Cain decides to kill him for that, I don't know.

Or you could have it both ways. Jaren finds Shin raises him for a few years, and when the corruption gets bad, Rezzyl takes him in, thinking that Cain had kidnapped this poor child, and it is his duty to protect him.

===

The amount of preparation work I did for this art was unusual and honestly not that necessary, but since it spontaneously turned into a collab with Mako (💙💙💙), I wanted to make sure everything works just right. Extra responsibility! The most important thing though is that I took my time and really enjoyed working on it.