http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomantic_figures

And all those Celest Rituals users are secretly practicing Geomancy.


I need to get into Bardic and Artisanal contests, but there never seems enough time to do everything I want. I have to cut out timewasting habits. Like sleep.

Eh, I don't think I would of cared where I placed xept this month (has had lots of merits before, likely will get more, and didn't mind for them.) It's just my best drawing ever entered to get a merit...that's why I'm sour grapes >.> And the last piece I can enter for a long time.

I think you're being undeservedly elitist here. I've submitted things before that did not even receive a merit, even though I spent hours on it - a painted portrait of a cherub in the Corridor of Light; in the end I suppose it wasn't closely enough related to Lusternia itself to warrant a placement. There's something to be said for the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you," though. Lusternia is not obliged to run monthly artisanal/bardic contests, and I know that I spent the greater part of four years playing an IRE mud that ran one, maybe two contests.. TOTAL.

For photomanips, I thought the Merian piece was fairly well done. Maybe a bit too modern and human-like than I picture merians in Celest being, but that is the artist's view, and to me the piece was nicely polished and aesthetically pleasing. Who exactly are you to judge art? Who exactly are you to say that something painted on a tablet is any less deserving of recognition than a work of composition? Or sculpture, or even a Megalith-shaped cake?

I've done compositional work before (on professional compositing software) and I can tell you that BOOKS can be written on the subject (and they have). That school of art - blending real life into created works - is utilized on every major motion picture you will see this year.

There are very, very few artists in the world who can say they excel at everything. I have seen a lot of art, and I mean no offense when I say this, but you are hardly there yet, Kharaen. Neither am I. I can freely say that while I'm fairly confident in my knowledge of anatomy and realism, I am fairly weak when it comes to color and polishing my linework.

So please, please, please - learn to bite your tongue when all you have to say is poison. It's EXTREMELY offensive to those who have spent time and love on their art for you to act so dismissively of something you are undeservedly 'above'.

Yes, I agree that a pic being decidedly Lusternian will give it a better chance, but any given picture still does not need to be. Take that plagiarized "druid" of a few months ago as a blatantly obvious example.



Thanks.



Hear hear.

Bardics never get any love.

Linaeve's play was very well done. I enjoyed the concept quite a bit and can understand why it would win first place!

Moriana's was also well done. Rhyming poems kind of make my head spin and I can't focus too well on them, but I enjoyed hers very much. Lots of flare!

Tegumai's was, unfortunately, a bit unreadable. Next time, please please please, if you write something in Microsoft Word Doc, turn off smart quotes or copy/paste into a notepad file and replace the quotes (",",', and '). I mugged through it anyway -- It was very well written and imaginative. It felt like folklore.

Noola's was very scholarly. I am not a huge fan of first-person points of view, but that's only because I'm envious of those who can pull it off with grace. Still, a well done piece on observation! It was very fun to read.

Zia's play was -- as always, very fun to read. Lovely imagery, but not as compelling a plot as her last play was! Still, it was fun to read with all the foresty-type characters. Nice and easy to picture.

Numidian's piece was very compelling. The first line was definitely an attention-grabber. The entire thing was written with a lot of poise and very VERY well done imagery. Very little dialogue. Hard to pull off, but Numidian did it well!

Aramel's was fun to read, especially since I/my character could relate to being there.

Twilxo's 'The Paladin' was good to read. Not the most imaginative, but a good poem nonetheless.

Lendren's was good to read, mostly because it showed a lot into how I imagine Serenwilders think in ergards to the forest. An interesting perception.

Like Moriana's, Aia's was a bit difficult for me to read because of the rhyming. I liked it though, it was insightful!

Saaga's was entertaining altogether. Good imagery, the ending was nice, and the middle was packed with stuff that must've been roleplayed. Overall, I am disappointed it only received a merit.

Alban's was good, but as I said before, not a huge fan of first person. It just makes it hard for me to imagine (not a fault of the writer; just my preference). Overall, though, it was a nice read with a neat, well-written ending.

---

I am pretty sure that's it for everyone this month. I try to read them all in the month. And I hope no one takes offense to anything I said. I know it's vague, but it's time consuming to read all of it and then write down exactly what I think. Lots of good ones this month, though. Three plays! Wow!

Oh, and Lysandus, you get better and better every month!

Err...if the picture isn't Lusternian, why would it be in the Lusternia Artisinal contest? If the subject the Artisinal is based on is not even remotely Lusternian, why would it win? To win something, it HAS to have some sort of correlation to the game.

Thanks!!

I'm not really a fan of first person either, but for some reason I tend to write in it.

I appreciate the comments, though! I have some great ideas for the next chapter of the story, hopefully it will be a lot better.

I also found it ironic that your story is also in first person, and you did a very graceful job with it.

Thanks! Though to tell you the truth, I kinda like my previous works better when I was Turgeis, like this and this but that's just me.

@Kharaen - Yours was nice, but got kinda blurry for me and couldn't picture Ialie at all, perhaps next time try to put more detail in it? Keep working, you'll get there

Edit:

You have no idea how hard trying to shade and put every bit of detail to the links I've posted.

Yes, I am a bit hypocritical like that. I tried to write it in third person but it didn't flow right, so I had to change it to first.

Thank you, though.

The drawing of the aquamancer is -awesome-.

Aww, thanks Aison - you really inspired me to write more to it!

Damn it! Recent entries have all been ridiculously good, I need to get better... fast.




e-penis +1.

You're already good enough, just make your things decidedly Lusternian (as opposed to "Hey look, that's a Lusternian race playing ping-pong") and you'll be getting first place in no time.

That's exactly the point - The "distinctly Lusternian" rule seems to be often ignored.

Might I ask why you think twilxo's was unimaginative?

I said not the most imaginative. It's about a Paladin beating a Tainted soul. It's good, it's just not the most original piece that was written this month. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Beowulf.

That's just my opinion. Varies for each person.

Aison, thank you. I appreciate it very much!

I agree, as well... Bardics didn't get much love! I know artisanals are easy to browse, and it takes a lot of time and effort to read all the bardics.

But I would like to return the favor and say I really enjoyed your piece. I agree that you pulled off the first person pretty well, and I enjoyed many of your images.

I was especially tickled at THIS observation - "That unique scent of the undead." - because I have never heard it from anyone else, and it's something I've particularly entertained, and even recently designed one of those Victorian-esque perfume pendants in Linaeve style for her to wear to mask that undead scent. Hee!

Oh man, I you.

Thank you very much. It wasn't really supposed to be compelling. It just made me giggle to write it. Nymphs throwing acorns! I love it!

I've got another play in mind, but so far I'm in a rut with it. It's about one of the unnamed Vernal Gods. But you know how it is, you think of something too hard and what comes out in writing is stilted and unnatural. So I wrote something utterly ridiculous instead!

I don't sweat it! I just make a scene!