Sketch of the Day

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aitaituo
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3601 Post by aitaituo »

MuonNeutrino wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 4:09 am
As a side note I love how Basitins all love their order and value the chain of command and all their military fantasy apparatus and whatnot. But as soon a ruler/general/whatever dies there is no clear succession line they just all kill each other for the title.
I'll note that it doesn't necessarily say that it was some sort of no-holds-barred free-for-all or something - all it says is that there was a 'grueling week-long contest'. That could just as easily mean a week-long organized trial/competition type deal - it strikes me as somewhat unlikely that such an organized people as the basitin wouldn't have a set of rules to govern the process of selecting a new king. I'm sure said process involves combat trials, of course, but it doesn't have to mean everyone just dropped what they were doing and started killing each other for the spot. I'll also note that the other time we've seen basitin succession in action - described during the trial scene on the island - while it may have been a bit disorganized (imo not surprising given the chaotic situation) even there it seems apparent that all the basitin involved are playing by a mutually agreed-on set of rules.
Kind of surprisingly, a lot of cultures and places did not have clear lines of succession, usually because some form of voting or contest among the top leaders would take place on the death of the ruler. The Holy Roman Empire and most Central Asian states come to mind. The list gets a lot longer if you include places that had no succession line if both the ruler and the designated heir were dead, like the Roman Empire.

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Ddraig
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3602 Post by Ddraig »

Technic[Bot] wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 2:43 am
aitaituo wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 7:00 pm Today, we learn how important ref sheets are for understanding just how humongous King Adelaide really is.
Interesting. Some thoughts:
First of all I always picture most basitins were a shorter than a regular human, but at 1.75 m eh average Bsitin is slightly shorter than me. But even at a normal human height King A. is a giant. Also isn't she too heavy? I mean at those numbers her BMI is 30 or obese. In any case at those numbers I am sure BMI means basically nothing but still...
As other have alluded to, BMI means little for anyone outside "average" body style (and wouldn't be the same across species, though I imagine most bipedal mammals would be similar). It sees no difference between (comparatively dense) muscle mass and (comparatively light) fat, so particularly muscular people, even at average heights, will have high BMIs. A more accurate measure is body fat percentage, which afaik requires a tank to find body volume.
That said, I suppose BMI would be useful for determining joint strain, particularly on the knees, though that's unbacked conjecture.
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3603 Post by AmigaDragon »

Technic[Bot] wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 2:43 am
aitaituo wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 7:00 pm Today, we learn how important ref sheets are for understanding just how humongous King Adelaide really is.
Interesting. Some thoughts:
...
On the other hand: Topple a towe.? I want to see those numbers and a blueprint of said tower. That makes no sense, not only she would have to lift all the weight of the building she would have to rip the foundations off the ground.
Outside of our modern building practices, there may be no ripping of foundations. When did we start bolting or nailing buildings' walls onto concrete (mortared stone, or whatever) foundations? A stone tower would just sit in place by gravity unless the stones were mortared (look at many gothic cathedrals, very tall with no mortar between the stones). A wooden tower may have its legs set into the ground but by how much?
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Ddraig
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3604 Post by Ddraig »

AmigaDragon wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 8:04 pm
Technic[Bot] wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 2:43 am
aitaituo wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 7:00 pm Today, we learn how important ref sheets are for understanding just how humongous King Adelaide really is.
Interesting. Some thoughts:
...
On the other hand: Topple a tower? I want to see those numbers and a blueprint of said tower. That makes no sense, not only she would have to lift all the weight of the building she would have to rip the foundations off the ground.
Outside of our modern building practices, there may be no ripping of foundations. When did we start bolting or nailing buildings' walls onto concrete (mortared stone, or whatever) foundations? A stone tower would just sit in place by gravity unless the stones were mortared (look at many gothic cathedrals, very tall with no mortar between the stones). A wooden tower may have its legs set into the ground but by how much?
It may even have been a portable/temporary announcing tower for a/the contest - as in constructed of wood, not sunk into the ground, and built thinly. Given medieval construction, it'd still be heavy, but I don't think it'd be super absurd if we assume an extreme case of an already-stronger-than-humans race.
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3605 Post by Tyger42 »

MuonNeutrino wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 4:17 pm Today we have ALL THE FEELS, in:

Weeping Rose
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I like the stark composition of this one, the lack of any extraneous details. It really sets the mood of utter desolation - the environment as mirror of Rose's shock and grief.

She needs a hug. Unfortunately, the person she wants to get a hug from ... isn't there anymore. (;_;)
The use of negative space, positioning her in a corner...it all does an amazing job of emphasizing the isolation one feels in a moment of intense grief. So simple looking a piece, but so deep.

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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3606 Post by Warrl »

Also isn't she too heavy? I mean at those numbers her BMI is 30 or obese.
BMI, "Body Mass Index", originated because too many people figured out that reducing a person's physical fitness to just height and weight was oversimplified - the diversity of human physical forms could not be reasonably encapsulated in two numbers.

So they divided one of those two numbers by the other one, resulting in ONE number, and gave it a scientific-sounding name.

Of course, this means it's at least as oversimplified as the old height-weight charts, and quite possibly even more so.

If you're significantly more or less muscular than average, or have certain forms of dwarfism or gigantism, BMI is garbage. Several sorts of professional athlete are routinely carrying so much muscle that their BMI indexes are often in the "obese" range.

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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3607 Post by TheMouse »

aitaituo wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 7:00 pm Today, we learn how important ref sheets are for understanding just how humongous King Adelaide really is.
Given these numbers, and the gym picture giving us a good idea of her actual strength in practical terms, King Adelaide is leagues beyond humans in terms of power to weight ratio. Casually holding 110 pounds on her fingertips at full extension away from her body, parallel to the ground, is an impressive feat of strength. That's a third of her body weight just lightly balanced on her fingertips.

We all already know how much I adore the King, but every new fact just impresses me more.
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3608 Post by Technic[Bot] »

MuonNeutrino wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 4:09 am I'll note that it doesn't necessarily say that it was some sort of no-holds-barred free-for-all or something - all it says is that there was a 'grueling week-long contest'. That could just as easily mean a week-long organized trial/competition type deal - it strikes me as somewhat unlikely that such an organized people as the basitin wouldn't have a set of rules to govern the process of selecting a new king. I'm sure said process involves combat trials, of course, but it doesn't have to mean everyone just dropped what they were doing and started killing each other for the spot. I'll also note that the other time we've seen basitin succession in action - described during the trial scene on the island - while it may have been a bit disorganized (imo not surprising given the chaotic situation) even there it seems apparent that all the basitin involved are playing by a mutually agreed-on set of rules.
The fact that they have to hold a tournament or contest to select a new King strikes me as very odd for a race so obsessed with order and rules. I would imagine that at any given time they know which of their highest ranking generals would get a promotion when the King died. Besides a 'grueling week-long contest' would favor the strongest Basitin and King Adelaide fortitude seems to come from a genetic mishapmore than anything else , so that kind of contest might also bias the whole leadership to people on the heavier/larger end of the population who are not necessarily qualified for reigning. Alas we have really little idea how the "contest" actually works and who is able to participate.
But then there was the time when the 3 generals died on the same day, plus most of the top brass, and the whole chain of command apparently dropped what they were doing so they could get a promotion, most of them by combat, I am surprised they did not have a contingency plan for that kind of event.
What I am trying to said is that even for people that base their life on order, justice, law, honor and military they occasionally show quite brutish and fascistic customs. Just a thought.

Ddraig wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 8:29 pm It may even have been a portable/temporary announcing tower for a/the contest - as in constructed of wood, not sunk into the ground, and built thinly. Given medieval construction, it'd still be heavy, but I don't think it'd be super absurd if we assume an extreme case of an already-stronger-than-humans race.
Honestly even a fixed stone tower could have been destroyed. Just not by toppling. We know she can probably shatter stone with her bare hands so she could simply destroy the tower base and the rest would fall down by itself. That is how actual demolition take place. And I can totally see how the legend got bigger and bigger over time and from destroying a small siege tower by destroying its main columns it morphed into toppling a whole stone tower.
Warrl wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 7:02 am BMI, "Body Mass Index", originated because too many people figured out that reducing a person's physical fitness to just height and weight was oversimplified - the diversity of human physical forms could not be reasonably encapsulated in two numbers.

So they divided one of those two numbers by the other one, resulting in ONE number, and gave it a scientific-sounding name.

Of course, this means it's at least as oversimplified as the old height-weight charts, and quite possibly even more so.

If you're significantly more or less muscular than average, or have certain forms of dwarfism or gigantism, BMI is garbage. Several sorts of professional athlete are routinely carrying so much muscle that their BMI indexes are often in the "obese" range.
I also have problems with BMI, first of it suggest we are flat squares with a constant surface weight distribution. But it has been used over the years and it is very well characterized by health professionals but as you point out for people very far away from the norm as high performance athletes and or people with diseases BMI tends to work poorly.
Also i find it very curious I got so many replies by accidentally calling Adelaide heavy :)
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3609 Post by MuonNeutrino »

Technic[Bot] wrote: Sat May 11, 2019 1:20 amThe fact that they have to hold a tournament or contest to select a new King strikes me as very odd for a race so obsessed with order and rules. I would imagine that at any given time they know which of their highest ranking generals would get a promotion when the King died. Besides a 'grueling week-long contest' would favor the strongest Basitin and King Adelaide fortitude seems to come from a genetic mishap more than anything else , so that kind of contest might also bias the whole leadership to people on the heavier/larger end of the population who are not necessarily qualified for reigning. Alas we have really little idea how the "contest" actually works and who is able to participate.

...What I am trying to said is that even for people that base their life on order, justice, law, honor and military they occasionally show quite brutish and fascistic customs. Just a thought.
I don't think that holding a contest to decide the kingship is incongruous with being obsessed with order and rules. That obsession doesn't have to say anything about *how* they do things, just that whatever they do, it'll be done in a very organized and formalized way. My assumption is that it's a highly structured and organized multifaceted series of trials pitting the various claimants against each other in every way, and the 'grueling week-long' aspect of it simply reflecting how dead serious they are about setting the most comprehensive challenges possible to ensure that the best candidate wins. I also wouldn't assume it's simply just physical contests - if they have an 'intelligence general', they're quite obviously aware that military leadership requires more than just brawn, so I can't see them not including just as many tests of mental strength as physical, and the week-long part would bias it towards endurance more than strength if it biases it at all.

The way I think of it is that this is the basitin's equivalent of an election, but seen through their own particular lens and mindset. They don't want to just hand the top spot in their society to anyone, even someone chosen by succession, they want to ensure that the winning candidate has proven that they're the best, most capable choice by the most unambiguous (and most basitin) way possible - direct, head to head competition in the most difficult challenges they can come up with.

In general, I think you're making a bit of an unwarranted assumption about what being obsessed with order, law, and military rules means. It means they do things by the book, but it doesn't mean that said book is necessarily a 'nice' one by our standards. Bastitin society *is* pretty much a fascist one, from what we've seen - but one that actually works (more or less) due to their differences in mindset from humans. And it *is* a brutal society, in the sense that it's based on military strength and ritualized combat as a means of making decisions and resolving disputes (remember Keith's duel with the bridge guard). Those things are not mutually exclusive with their society also being based on order, honor, and law.
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3610 Post by Warrl »

I seriously doubt that the Basitins' process of selecting a king is just combat.

(Although I would be even more surprised if it doesn't include a combat component.)

Look, we know for a fact that the Intelligence division does not accord rank strictly by combat. Madelyn Adelaide specifically is far more an escape-and-evasion specialist than a warrior. Her small size would put her at a significant disadvantage in combat against any equally-well-trained warrior. And she's a lieutenant.

Meanwhile, my impression is that King Adelaide has an intelligence network of her own that keeps her informed of what even her Intelligence General is up to. And while Lynn was undoubtedly part of it, she wouldn't send him off with Keith if he ran it. I think she's her own spymaster. And that this would be another thing that the kingship trials would test.

And there would be other parts...

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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3611 Post by stlsf4003 »

You know how it said in Nat's reference sheet that she has a beautiful singing voice but never use's it?

It's funny how just a little bit of booze can change all that ;).
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3612 Post by aitaituo »

Natani is surprisingly good looking as a human.

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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3613 Post by Doom114 »

stlsf4003 wrote: Tue May 14, 2019 12:00 am You know how it said in Nat's reference sheet that she has a beautiful singing voice but never use's it?

It's funny how just a little bit of booze can change all that ;).
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3614 Post by stlsf4003 »

And now it's time for the moment y'all've been waiting for!












The Keith Reference Sheet !
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Re: Sketch of the Day

#3615 Post by steelabjur »

Firefox Laura might just get me to switch from Chrome.

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