#editaurus

Or she’s caught two employees arguing because one of them was a reactionary twat and that pissed off his sister enough to fuck his coworker out of spite and now both coworkers are beefing about it instead of saving lives by taking over the world. Whichever!

And with that, the whole set is complete:

Finally created an Art Fight account and these are the current OCs up for attack! You have the Council of Warlocks…

And on the side: Tamara, Shogaken, and Fipik! I plan to add some more but Tumblr only allows ten images per post.

Love how Ed’s web wings were done… The best part is the angle makes it look as if Meg is taking an impromptu selfie and Ed is a bit surprised but immediately rolls with it and poses because that’s just what they do. It even conveys a certain unspoken vibe I always imagined with them:

            When it comes to Majikus, I’m playing with different ideas. I’m having some fun with the idea of her as more of a tragic, cursed antagonist. But I’m also playing with the idea of something a bit more banal and lame, because fundamentally she is a bit of a juvenile loser. Like maybe she was just her community’s equivalent to a middle-class citizen and so happened to suffer from some sort of oppression.

            When a lower-class rose up, she was sympathetic and resonated deeply with their cause, and so leapt out of her chair to help. Majikus proved powerful and bloodthirsty and helped decimate, but it seems destruction was her only contribution in the end. She definitely got some cheers for killing a dictator in front of a crowd.

            Her sister Spelaris was a lot more concerned; She agreed that some bastards needed punishing, but she didn’t quite trust Majikus and her unstable history, and was concerned she would get all of the wrong takeaways from this afterwards. With the themes I’m workshopping regarding allyship and whether you speak on behalf of a community, I think it would be interesting if, as a narrative foil to the Monster Realmers, Majikus started off as someone a little delusional;

            Like yes she did have something in common with these people, and yes she did help. But in the end there was a bit of a presumptuous attitude to her in placing herself as these people’s savior. And that presumptive attitude extends to Majikus dismissing the Monster Realmers as having no right to criticize the warlocks because they’re outsiders who don’t understand how this world works, positing herself as a representative of the Monster Realm.

            But if the MR is not a monolith, then in its context Majikus is still an outsider to the people she’s conquering, even if she’s a native to the Monster Realmers. From the perspective of a warlock victim, Majikus is marginally less of an outsider than the Monster Realmers, but at least these humans aren’t actively attacking people out of nowhere!

            Ultimately you can see how Majikus got the wrong idea, was taught the wrong less; Or it was the right lesson, but she didn’t learn anything that would balance this out. And after succeeding once, of course she decides that she just needs to do it again with all of these other people! She’s got some White Savior vibes, but in the sense of like… a White-Passing Savior. Like again technically a part of the community but there’s a distance that she’s ignoring and either way her actions isolate her from the group. In the end, maybe she really was just some bored loser looking for excitement.

            Editaurus is someone who started off from nothing, handling garbage alongside her father; Maybe her mother left, died, I don’t really know. She was the lowest of the low, but the trash means a lot of meat and bones and produce that could be salvaged into chimeras. Editaurus picked up a book and became a self-taught prodigy, making the most out of little, using her chimeras to make life easier for her and her dad.

It’d be superficial in the end; Ed might resonate with Thanasia dealing with the Haters but her advice to not listen would ring hollow since it’s the same rhetoric she uses to justify the atrocities that Than is calling out Viracious over. Likewise, Meg would attempt to be a useless liberal centrist who wants to make Thanasia feel included and valid, let’s hear out both sides and that just pisses her off more as like Viracious he wonders what he did wrong.

I have considered the idea that Ed and Meg are the ones Viracious briefly rants to about Than standing up for her values for once; Again, Meg telling Vir to be nice and accommodate both sides’ feelings while ultimately agreeing with the warlock cause anyway. Ed having a defensive moment of empathy for Than and the literal/symbolic misogyny she’s facing, but ultimately her lecturing of Viracious, like Megarus’ HR attitude, belies the fact that they both agree the council itself has done nothing wrong.

            Viracious relies a lot on minions, controlling them from a distance as any tactician does; He has his bone puppets that enable him to attack while sealed away completely. His undead and serpents act as guards, as does the natural environment, particularly the earth they spawn from. If uncovered, Viracious casts ranged spells and his Basilisk eyes see far, as do their abilities; Viracious is otherwise a pretty squishy wizard, and his skeletal spindliness gives it away. But he has a trick up his sleeve, using the Pink Magestone to reanimate wounded limbs and even organs.

            Kisonus tends to get up-close and personal with her natural claws, ability to transmute targets, and turning into creatures usually sicc’ed on others. She often has a smarter mind than said creatures to make full use of their abilities, and her transmutation can set up the environments they work best in, such as water. In her base form she’s naturally strong and vicious, and being up close is preferable too; She wants a taste of whatever she’s dealing with, not just to assimilate a sample to shapeshift into them, but for her own ravenous hunger as well. She wants people in her, can’t do that from a distance; That’s what victims are looking for!

            Editaurus creates chimeras, directs them from any distance, needs time before and even during a battle to set them up; She casts classic lightning bolts and webs, and can conjure life in the surrounding environment. She’d prefer to be more creative, just making a rock monster feels so bare minimum and droll… But whichever. It can be many chimeras, or one huge one whose reach is far despite relying on melee. The wings on her ankles flutter rapidly, allowing Editaurus to hover quickly. Mind you, she’s still a capable physical fighter, herself; Her own body is a perfectly-designed chimera!

            But compared to Megarus, Ed sticks to her relative niche; Megarus is a whole powerhouse, a super-fast beast even without the Orange Magestone. And that giant hammer he wields wreaks massive destruction. He’s always quick to close the gap and do things up-close and personal, which is where people fall before him thanks to Meg being proficient in melee combat and martial arts; His speed and precision can target weak points in bodies, and most witches are used to attacking from afar and relying on magic over their own flesh. Meg can use his Magestone to empower Editaurus’ chimeras, who fight for her. He’s a real whirlwind, conjuring literal ones to bring people closer, or to a chimera.

            Narellus relies a lot on her Blue Magestone, being selectively intangible, and making other things selectively intangible, makes it easy to play it safe. She specializes in illusions that can dazzle and disorient, and mind trickery. Ironically, she can actually get close and personal herself, because her selective intangibility renders her unharmed as she reaches a target, turns part of their body intangible, and then tears through the vulnerable pieces left tangible. But a lot of the time, her grace gives way to being more of a manipulator from afar, and whatever parts of herself Narellus exposes are fragile to make up for how hard she is to hit.

            Hydrownus gets his hands dirty, and bloody. His limbs can stretch due to being made of water, and being made of water makes him mostly immune to physical damage, with the Typhonus Motus protecting the internal tube and flask system Hyd relies on for stability, and to aid in funneling chemicals. He’s a master of different weapons, forming ice constructs around his staff; A giant club, a battle axe, a trident, etc. Hydrownus tears into his enemies, brutally tossing them around, burning and freezing or corroding; The worst is making the blood in your body concentrate in your head until it bursts. The pipes on his back can spew flames to propel Hyd forward as he forms ice skis to minimize friction; Sometimes a quick boost while jumping is all he needs.