#the astrals

Hell, I’ll post him why not.

The astrals continue to float around my mind, even if we may not get to see a whole lot of them anymore. But I finally got to colouring my old astral oc, Sagittarius! My own sign, if you couldn’t guess.

He’s a very cheerful astral! Though sometimes likes to intimidate people for his amusement. He’s just a smidge shorter than Taurus, Gemini comes up just below his shoulder.

His colour palette was definitely inspired by @/ayyy-imma-ninja’s design for Aries, being a fire sign I wanted him to be on the warmer side.

What I'm saying is that maybe Bahamut can no longer see as clearly as he used to, especially over large distances (Niflheim) or into places that are somehow in conflict with his domain (underwater, underground, lately even dense forests)

What I'm saying is Eos blinded the son born of her own blindness, the son born of the blood of her sacrifice.

Once upon a time long forgotten Bahamut's domain was blood and sacrifice. Blood willingly spilled for others and sacrifices made out of love and compassion. The embodiment of the most powerful act their own mother had ever done.

Once upon a time long forgotten mothers used to worship Bahamut. The blood and sacrifices given by mothers to their children was what Bamahut was once known for. Before he sharpened his wings into blades and encased his body in armour. Before the cruelty and the betrayal.

Once upon a time long forgotten a man went to battle. Men before him had gone to battle - to a long eries of battles that had yet to receive the name of 'war'. But this man was different. His blood was spilled and he sacrificed the wholeness of his body in the name of protection and justice. Blood and sacrifice was given - and Bahamut answered.

Believes shift, religions transform. And once upon a time long forgotten Bahamut picked up a sword and the world changed.

Once, a mother loved her child. The embodiment of her most selfless act. She loved her child so much she did not see the beginnings of the downward spiral that would change the world forever.

Once Eos loved Bahamut, her favoured child. Once, Eos could not conceive of a world where blood and sacrifice would turn to war and betrayal. But it did.

Once Bahamut knew what a mother would do for her children. Blood and sacrifice. Once they knew, but started to forget when they first picked up a sword. It was a scrifice to their own altar in the name of power.

There was once a time Eos loved all her children. It was a knowledge Bahamut could not bear. Out of a man going to battle War was born. Out of a love poisoned by jealousy Betrayal was born.

War and Betrayal nearly caused the world to be swallowed by Sickness and Chaos, and demanded Blood and Sacrifice to right their own wrongs.

Taurus: Since me and Sun used our star power and magic to create Asterix, it sort of caused a huge surge of star power to... implode? I believe is the word. Which obviously was noticed by the others who immediately were concerned...

As this surge was much stronger then Lunar's outburst. The other astrals came to check...

So you can imagine their reactions to feeling a dangerous amount of star power implode and going to Earth to see what happened only to see me holding Sun in one arm and a baby in the other.

So yes they were most definitely shocked and surprised to see Asterix.

@secret-engima Iiiiiiii... got sick 'n' tired of drawing Bahamut like 0.5 seconds in.. So he's a bit rough.

Also, yes that is a censor bar on Titan.

And then I accidentally started a fic. (This may also interest @charlottedabookworm, @luxroyalty, @hamelin-born, @theperidotshade, @theotherguysride

A girl named for the sea drowns in it and then wakes up with scales for skin and saltwater in her veins with Etro standing over her naming her Tidemother. The sea is her and she is the sea, wild and ferocious and free. There are five others and this is familiar to her, this is a story she knows, but this is long before any of the characters are born, before the conflict has even arisen. Humanity is in its infancy - young and new and naive. Her fellow Astrals are the same as her, newly created seeing the world with new eyes. They are given domains and choose others as their own.

Bahamut is light and order. But he is also war and destruction and pride. Shiva is ice and snow and all things cold. But she is also death and duty. Titan is the earth and the stone. But he is also sacrifice and strength and suffering. Ifrit is fire and heat and flame. But he is also passion and hate and love. Ramuh is lightning and storms on the horizon. But he is also justice and truth.

She is Leviathan. She is the sea, the water, both the waves on the surface and the depths far below. She is fickle and free, kind and cruel, fierce and calm. She is change and tragedy and hope all rolled into one.

Time passes and humanity grows and learns and evolves and Leviathan remembers, does not let herself forget the story from before, keeps a wary eye on her siblings and the world at large. The Astrals, for all their distance, are revered as Gods, though that is not, nor was it ever, their purpose. They were not made to be worshiped by humans, but to be guardians of Eos. Ifrit has always felt things deeply and strongly and he loves the humans so. He speaks to them, answers their prayers.

She is not so forward, though she does not keep her distance like the others. Humans are a resilient race - she knows, she remembers - but they are also as fickle as her tides. She will not solve their problems, will not step in and fix things for them. If they are hungry, she will teach them to fish. Many call her cold for it, think her distant like the others, because her kindness is not like Ifrit’s.

(There is a story of a man who falls into a river. The water is deep and swift and the man is a strong swimmer, but not that strong - he cannot escape the current. He prays to the Tidemother to save him. A rock appears, disrupting the flow of water, but he pays it no mind. The Tidemother will save him. A log floats by, but he ignores it. If he prays hard enough, the Tidemother will protect him. A long branch overhangs the river. He doesn’t reach for it. He prays and prays and prays. He drowns.

“You didn’t save me!” he shouts at Leviathan in the Beyond, “I prayed to you and you didn’t answer!”

She is unmoved. “I answered you three times,” she says coolly, “I sent you a rock, a log, a branch. You ignored all of them. You must save yourself, boy, or you remain unsaved.”)

Eventually, Ifrit learns the lesson that she already knew. Humanity will always push for more. Ifrit gives and gives and gives and when he can give nothing else, humanity turns away from him. They take his teachings and his knowledge and make it there own. They learn from it, grow with it, change it figure out how to make it the more that Ifrit himself failed to give.

Ifrit has always felt strongly and this act that he sees as a betrayal turns all his love to hate. In his anger, he awakens a darkness they were meant to guard the world against. Humanity crumbles under the weight their war and the growing darkness. Bahamut grows desperate to restore order presents a Prophecy and a Crystal to a bloodline long blessed by Eos’s light and Etro’s grace. It is only after the fact that Leviathan realizes the Crystal is Eos’s heart, that it was something Bahamut was never meant to take. Ramuh is horrified when she confronts him for he remembers where the others have forgotten. But there are laws in place, laws older than they are, that they cannot break. Bahamut has declared a Prophecy and the Crystal cannot be returned until its completion.

Leviathan rages in her seas when she realizes that Bahamut’s Chosen King is the boy who played on her shores. Who offered her flowers and fruits and stones from deep within landlocked fields and caves that her waters did not reach. Who played in her waves and explored her tide pools and spoke to the creatures who called her waters home. She rages because she remembers. She knows what happens to this boy who is now a man, who is strong enough to save himself and others, who she claimed as her own long ago.

She rages when he falls from Bahamut’s grace, when the Draconian orders the Astrals to sleep. She uncoils, towering over him.

“I am the sea!” she screams at him, Ramuh’s ire fueling the tempest in her heart and her waves, “You do not command me!”

She sinks into her waves, into her domain, where Bahamut has no power, and pulls at the bond with her Chosen (he was hers first, always hers) and feels his grief and anger and horror. She rages because there is nothing she can do but grant him the safety of her waters.