#Sunday Gnomedays

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 12-11-22 - Happy Holidays!!

✨💚 Early happy chosen-festival-of-light-return, everyone!!! 💚✨

This year’s piece being one finished up from last year, at the request of one of my patrons! (HI KATE!!) And that said – anyone who signs up at ANY pledge level this month on my Patreon will get this as a print/card in the mail, as a holiday gift 💕 Details here.

This season can be….. a lot, so whatever you are going through, I hope it comes with kindness, self-compassion, and the easiness and steadiness of stone’s survival under snow. May we all continue to create light, together.

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

#happy holidays #faerie #mistletoe #queer #gnome #orc #orc woman #tock the gnome #indie comics #patreon reward #sunday gnomedays #ooh shiny #yuletide

[badgerthegnome]

Sunday Gnomedays 8-28-22

Something self indulgent, as my birthday is in two days, so I get all the Tock and Onna schmoop I want thankyouverymuch 💕

(You can read their story here, free of charge, with bonuses on my Patreon.)

~

❤ Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions  ❤

#sunday gnomedays #faerie #gnome #orc #comics #tock the gnome #ooh shiny

[willofwinnie]

Calendar of Auldrant

Though I do not know if other games in the Tales series go by a similar date and day naming system, this will primarily be Tales of the Abyss. This is a long post!

Here is all the information the game gives regarding the calendar.

The Days:

This is a funny nod towards the origins behind the names of the days of the week. Rem is light and the “Sun” in Sunday is directly referencing the Sun. It's pretty neat that both reference a form of light. 

Similar situation with Lunaday and Monday (Luna- Moon, Mon- also Moon). 

Ifrit(also spelled Efreet) is Fire. Potentially in Korean the Tuesday equivalent translates to “fire day” according to Wiki about Tuesday. I don’t speak or read Korean so I also checked WordReference and found similar characters in some of the words like rage, wrath, ire, (further down that provided list) great fire. So it potentially could be a fun nod to that, can’t completely confirm. 

Undineday is water day. In Japanese and Korean Wednesday also translates to Water Day. Yes, in WordReference the Japanese character used in Wednesday is used for water so this seems fairly straightforward. In Korean I also found a bit more difficulty as the characters are widely used in many words, there are some water-related words in the sea of words the character appears in so I wouldn’t completely dismiss the possibility. 

Sylphday is wind. Thursday is a reference to Thor, the god of thunder. The wind would relate to stormy weather that thunder and lightning often appear with. 

Loreleiday- Lorelei. Friday- the greatest day of the week. In Auldrant Lorelei is considered pretty great! Just kidding, well partially. Friday comes from Freya, the goddess of marriage and love. Lorelei is a godly figure in the world of Abyss. Though Lorelei may be caring, it’s more related to sound and memory. Daath in general is fairly religious, following Lorelei, with the Order of Lorelei. In Christianity, Good Friday is a widely celebrated day. In Catholicism, all Fridays during Lent, you can’t eat meat (but it is supposed to be all Fridays to abstain from meat not just Lent). This being Friday's equivalent does make sense with the more religious aspect of the day (since Sunday was used for the more straightforward “light” connection).

The Gnomeday-Saturday connection is fairly nonexistent. Gnome is the element earth in Auldrant. Saturday is a reference to Saturn (God of Time), sabbath day (for romantic languages), and bath day (Old Norse). I will be honest, none of these fit. Sadly, it may be a case of “just put it in somewhere.”

The Months:

There are 13 months in Auldrant. As far as I can tell, there is no official count of how many days are in each month.

If we ignore Lorelei Decan for a moment, the rest of the months go forward and reverse except for Rem Decan and Luna Redecan (which is in place of the counterpart of a potential Rem Redecan). The order of Rem, Sylph Undine, Gnome, Ifrit, and Shadow are not in the order of fonon numbers. The number order of this month list is 6, 3, 4, 2, 5, 1, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6, 7. I am assuming Luna and Rem are two sides of the same coin and are referencing the same fonon so they are both the 6th fonon. There was close to being a pattern of taking a number, halving it, adding one, and halving it again but they ran out of whole numbers to continue that.

The first half of the year has the postfix Decan and the latter half Redecan except for the Lorelei month. This could be because Lorelei signifies that a new year will arrive, so it has the postfix Decan. Lorelei is an important figure in Auldrant, especially Daath, so a month that stands out in the name of Lorelei would be fitting.

To think of a wild interpretation of the months, it could represent a person’s life or the year’s lifespan. The beginning starts with the sun, a new beginning. The person/year goes through the experiences of their life, experiencing all it has to bring (with fonons making up the world). The center point of the person/year’s life is the Shadow months. At this point, they are no longer young and will have to figure out what to do for the rest of their life (a very shadowy midlife crisis). They reminisce about their life and go back to relive the experiences of their youth until the sun sets and the moon rises. The end of the line. Then as all 7th Fonists do, they return to the Fonbelt, to Lorelei. Then the cycle of fonons can begin again. 

Or a more logical explanation of the months could represent the cycle the memory particles go through when traveling through the Fon Belt (The Planet Storm). Then to encompass all the Fonons Lorelei represents the final one of the 7th Fonon.

Anyway, all the months can comfortably fit 58 days in them but there is a remainder of 11 days to account for in the year. If we add a day for every other month starting with the first month, that would leave 4 days remaining. I do not know a logical placement for these days, so I will add them to Lorelei Decan. The month count would be Rem Decan- 59, Sylph Decan- 58, Undine Decan- 59, Gnome Decan- 58, Ifrit Decan- 59, Shadow Decan- 58, Shadow Redecan- 59, Ifrit Redecan- 58, Gnome Redecan- 59, Undine Redecan- 58, Sylph Redecan- 59, Luna Redecan- 58, Lorelei Decan- 63. (This will be helpful for some calculations later.)

The Year:

A year in Auldrant is 765 days. That is 2.1 times longer than our calendar year. If we compare that to our world, Jade would be 70, Guy 42, Natalia 36, Tear 32, and Anise 28. Dang does Jade look great at 70 haha! I do know the 765 days is a pun because that number sounds somewhat like Namco in Japanese. In this world, I assume people age at half the rate (My condolences to all the Auldrant parents with tantrum-throwing toddlers). Since the year is twice as long, Luke being locked in his Manor for seven years and the time skip in the story would be way longer than originally believed. Nothing like Auldrant continuing to be worse and worse, right?

Birthdays:

Can't have a ramble about a fictional calendar without talking about birthdays! From around the internet, the birthdays of the characters are listed as follows: Jade- Sylph-Redecan 22, Guy- Efreet-Decan 41, Natalia- Rem-decan 37, Luke- Lorelei-Decan 48, Tear- Lorelei-Decan 1, Anise- Shadow-Decan 46. Going along with my guess on how many days per month, the day each character is born in this: Jade- 607, Guy- 275, Natalia- 37, Luke- 750, Tear- 703, Anise- 339. (Basically, add up all the days of the months prior and add then the day of the month they were born). The birthdays I got from fan sites that supposedly got them from a QNA. I do not know the accuracy of these but for the purposes of the rest of this, these are the dates used.

I have noticed that there are assigned birthdays for the characters per our calendar year. Jade is Nov 22, and Luke is Dec 25th. I found these from fan sites and repeated them across the internet. Again with these, I do not know the accuracy, so I did my own take on the potential calculations.

There are a few ways to calculate the birthdays of these characters with our own: Divide the year by two (2.1 to be more accurate) and get an approximate answer, place our calendar year onto Abyss’, and count the days (for example there will be two Decembers).

The first option is easy. Divide the day they were born by 2.1 to get the day they would be born on Earth. It would land the characters birthdays like this: Jade- 289 (Oct 16), Guy- 130 (May 10), Natalia- 17 (Jan 17), Luke- 357 (Dec 23), Tear-  334 (Nov 30th), Anise- 161 (Jun 10). These are pretty close to the associated birthdays with Luke nearly being a Christmas Eve baby and Jade being born in fall.

The second option is also easy, for any character whose birthday is over 365, subtract 365 until it is a number below 365 and find the date associated (For example, if a character is born on the 366th day, they would be born on Jan 1st in our calendar). It would land the characters birthdays like this: Jade- 242 (Aug 30th), Guy- 275 (Oct 2nd), Natalia- 37 (Feb 6th), Luke- 20 (Jan 20), Tear- 338 (December 4th), and Anise- 339 (December 5th).

Despite the numbers not exactly lining up (there will be human error on my part with calculations and rounding), if people celebrate Jade's birthday on Nov 22 that's completely fine by me! It's a fictional birthday anyway! If it means more Tales of the Abyss art and content, Jade's birthday could be Feb 14 for all I care!

This was just something fun I've been thinking about when I learned about the calendar of Auldrant! And might as well try to put all my thoughts together for a big ramble. Hope you all enjoyed!

#tales of the abyss #rambles #birthdays #Why is the year 765 that's just so long #jade curtiss #luke fon fabre #tear grants #guy cecil #anise tatlin

[anorclovesagnome]

(Finally getting to post some character building stuff on this blog, a promised!)

This counts for Sunday Gnomedays on my main site @rachelillustrates too, BUT I'm featuring it here because it was drawn with specific playlist-context in mind.

Full "Tock the Gnome" inspiration playlist notes here. Listen here 🖤

The songs in thought right now, though, are "Ready For It" and "Sparks Fly," both by Taylor Swift.

**These notes are for inspiration purposes only. No direct affiliation with Taylor Swift or her music is intended.**

So, starting with "Ready For It" -

I originally put it on the playlist with Onna in mind, since it seemed about someone being really sure about an attraction and being willing to wait.

BUT.

Upon more than a few more re-listens, I've realized it's about Tock herself. About that part of her that feels pulled to Onna immediately, and that willingness to wait. That surety.

The "killer" lyrics it starts with call to her being attracted to the "danger" Onna represents, immediately (though I feel like the song didn't mean that literally, that's how it resonates, sooooo...). Nodding to the "dangerous" nature assumed of Orcs in all most fantasy media, there, too.

"Younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so" - Onna is younger than anyone she's ever tried to love, since Orcs are much less long-lived than Gnomes. Taking that tongue-in-cheek.

The "island breeze" lyric speaks to the island of the Quest's driving legend, of course! AND following that thought, for the idea that Onna is, spiritually, the 'princess' she's seeking, especially if the Lowlands are already "like" that specific island.

"Me, I was a robber first time that he saw me / Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry / But if I'm a thief, then he can join the heist / And we'll move to an island-and / And he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor / Every lover known in comparison is a failure / I forget their names now, I'm so very tame now / Never be the same now, now" - Exactly how she was with other courtships before, until her ex Lorna (since Lorna did that TO her, then she stopped, and has considered herself guilty still in this respect ever since then). This is not to say that she meant to play people - far from it, she just falls in love super, super easily. And in writing these notes, part of me feels an echo of Jane/Rochester of "Jane Eyre" there - not that there's a "wild person" who needs to be tamed by a "chaste" one, but that there's something scattered and panicked and untethered within Tock (like Rochester) that longs, of her own volition, to be met on a more even level (like Jane does with Rochester, though that's cloaked in the tropes I've already mentioned. I could write a whole other post on Jane Eyre inspiration, so I'll stop there!). Plus, these words invite "him" to come on the "heist," and Tock has no intentions of totally settling down after this. She may think she'll find the Princess and go home to normal life, but adventure is in her nature and her future, and Onna will always follow her in that. So there's something there, I'm just not quite sure what it is yet.... absolutely more on that in the future.

AND the "games" lyrics speak to her playful nature about it. Like this sleeping part of her will test Onna, to see if it's true.

Now, on the other hand, "Sparks Fly" and Onna's perspective -

I originally put this on the playlist for the idea of falling in love, as much as they didn't mean to, in general. But if "Ready For It" is about Tock, this is clearly about Onna, almost in return.

Not that Tock has the "green eyes" mentioned in the chorus, but everything else just feels like the moment she meets her (and the rest of that afternoon).

And particularly, in regards to her romantic future:

"You touch me once and it's really something / You find I'm even better than you imagined I would be" - Of course, about her awareness of Tock's intentions with the theoretical Princess of the Quest.

"I'm on my guard for the rest of the world / But with you I know it's no good" - As I mentioned in her character-building information last week, Onna is usually awkward and very guarded around everyone, both new people and most people she already knows. But Tock has opened her up from the very first moment. And there are reasons for that - we'll be getting to them, soon.

"And I could wait patiently but / I really wish you would / Drop everything now..." - We're gonna get into this soon, but even in the face of Tock's hesitance (because of the idea of the Princess), Onna is sure already. She's not going to hesitate, except to figure out the best way to start following her heart, what is the right thing to do in pursuing someone of such a different culture. Orcish courtship and marriage is a LOT more direct than Gnomes,' which she knows vaguely about due to certain life experiences I can't reveal yet.

So she will have to take some time, coming up in the most current scene, to future that out before she moves forward. But it will be just a moment. Her course is already set ❤

Hope you enjoyed this breakdown of some of the inspiration for this queer Faerie love story! If you haven't checked it out yet, you can read it anytime here.

#love #faerie #lgbtq #tock and onna #inspiration #gnome #orc #gnomes #orcs #queer #lesbian

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 1-1-23

💐✨🎉 Happy new year, all!! 🎉✨💐

With Tock and Onna (of course), and a very large hawthorn blossom, for Faerie – as in Oak, Ash and Thorn – and for its meaning. Hope, particularly hope in love. Which seemed appropriate, for them, and for us, as we all move on to the next.

(Stay tuned for a Gnomish announcement this Friday, too, dear followers!)

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

#sunday gnomedays #happy new year #faerie #flower language #gnome #gnome woman #orc #orc woman #indie comics #queer romance #queer #tock the gnome #ooh shiny #hope #personal

[rachelillustrates]

Gnomevember 2022, thirteen (with Sunday Gnomedays!!)

(….well technically the whole month is one big Sunday Gnomedays post. But still.)

Thinking about Story (Tales, the theme, that is) in terms of what we tell ourselves about a thing, or a space, etc. Which brought to mind this quote from “Mori Girls, Children of the Forest” (an article in “The Faerie Handbook”):

“The Mori Girl may in truth actually live in the middle of a busy city, and never have a chance to visit the countryside….. If however, in her deepest heart of hearts, the above descriptions [the idea of the forest lifestyle] sound like what she truly wants to be, then she is indeed a Mori Girl. And perhaps so are you.”

(Information on Mori Kei style here. Mori Kei being the more gender-neutral term, adopted in 2012!)

All of that to say, that got me thinking of imagery as a kind of spellcasting, again. What do we tell ourselves about what a thing means, or represents? What hope does that give us? What Story do we keep telling over and over and over, in the use of – or approach to – something, with that in mind?

That is energy. That is magic. For good, or for ill.

So, a Gnome of the city folk of “Tock the Gnome,” who would very likely never have set foot on the surface, forest or otherwise. And an acorn, and the idea of what that might mean, and hold.

…..Which leads me to “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, but this has already gotten quite diatribey (affectionate) so I am gonna stop there.

More on the Gnomes of “Tock the Gnome” here 🍄💕

~

💗 Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions 💗

#gnomevember #gnomecore #gnome #gnome woman #faerie #sunday gnomedays #drawing challenge #tock the gnome #bonus art #ooh shiny #mori kei

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 12-18-22

Something something something about hope.

Drawn in the middle of this weekend’s snowstorm, in the face of a lot of exhaustion of many kinds, including frustration over the AI art situation and all the violation therein.

(Protest image by Zakuga Mignon, used with permission.)

Everything seems desperate and hopeless in the face of such blatant disregard for creative rights. Such complete lack of care about consent and proper credit, such disregard for what we’ve all gone through as artists – regardless of level of formal training or not – to get where we are. We’ve all worked SO hard to build what we have, however small or large our following, so to see it stolen and to see people flock to this idea that we somehow deserve to have had this happen to us because of “elitism” (which is such poppycock, especially in this day and age and with so many artists offering tutorials and classes online for very affordable prices, if not for FREE) is heartbreaking.

I want to not care if I see someone using it for fun. I understand it can just be a casual tool for self expression. The problem (on top of the fact that it’s already literally art theft – the AI pulling from mass internet searches of existing artwork without the consent of those artists) is that many people are using it to produce images as if it’s their own created artwork, and beginning to charge for it as if they created it. Undermining years, decades, of actual labor by actual artists. All the practice and learning and blood and sweat and tears.

We have WORKED for this. We put our hearts and souls into this.

We have not consented to devices like AI using our literal work to build AI images from. And we do not consent to people using our work to charge people as if THEY created it.

Most artists, at least those I’ve seen vocal about this issue, work freelance. It’s not like we have a big union to back us. All we have are our voices. So, I urge you – please – avoid using AI art. Do not support it in ANY fashion, if you care about artists’ rights at all.

And to circle back to the piece for today’s SG – something, something, something about hope. I hope that people hear us. And I hope that those of us who have felt like giving up over this – honestly, myself included – do not stop creating.

No matter what happens, we deserve to be here. Still.

~

💗 Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more! 💗

#sunday gnomedays #faerie #gnome #anti ai art #support human artists #ooh shiny #personal

[rachelillustrates]

Orctober 2022, thirty (with Sunday Gnomedays!!)

The stress of show prep is getting to me, SO, very self-indulgent Tock and Onna art time!

Based of my favourite Bagginshield meme, by @lindirs-gaze (which is from a text post by @planarbindings on Twitter).

(I love the internet.)

(And I have no regrets.)

More on both of them in the comic and bonus stories/material 🍄⚔

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions  💚

#orctober #orctober2022 #meme art #faerie #indie comics #orc #orc woman #gnome #gnome woman #humor #queer #queer comics #queer art #tock the gnome #bonus art #sunday gnomedays #ooh shiny

[rachelillustrates]

Gnomevember 2022, twenty-seven (with Sunday Gnomedays!!)

So my Wife and I are big fans of Oatly (everyone should be fans of Oatly they are the bessssssst) and while all their packaging is awesome, I feel like every time I get a carton with the Sasquatch on it, it adds five years to my life.

Thusly, I’ve wanted to draw him for some time. And now I have. Times three.

Oats stand for “the witching soul of music,” by the by. They are blessing her harvest with song. Tra la la 🌱🎶🌱

~

💗 Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions 💗

#gnomevember #gnome #faerie #bigfoot #flower language #oatly #oats #music #magic #sunday gnomedays #drawing challenge #gnome woman #gnomevember2022 #ooh shiny #fanart

[rachelillustrates]

Thank Gnome it's Friday!! 1-6-23 (Edda Night 2023)

“May this year be full of proud deeds and silly games, beautiful songs and hearty feasts, clever jokes, loving friends, and enough surprises to keep us on our toes.” – Bruce Goldstone, “A Gnome’s Christmas”

As declared last year on this day, according to the book mentioned above – based on the Poortvliet and Hyugen style Gnomes (think “David the Gnome,” dearhearts) – today is Edda Night. The very last day of the holiday season, and the start of the new year for the Gnomes of that realm. I still intend to draw something about Gnomish togetherness for this day in years moving forward, BUT today being a Friday, it comes with an opportunity AND a special announcement.

“Sunday Gnomedays” is now “Thank Gnome it’s Friday!”

(That’s a bit of a thing here on Tumblr, and I like it too much not to take it up, myself! Posts will still be weekly, just on Fridays instead.)

So, establishing intention and tone with a more finished version of the Tock and Onna piece from the last official Sunday Gnomedays. And again, a very large hawthorn blossom, for Faerie – as in Oak, Ash and Thorn – and for its meaning. Hope, particularly hope in love.

Which seemed appropriate, for them, and for us, as we all move on to the next.

Again, happy new year, dear readers and dear followers. However that manifests, for all of us. May it be kind.

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

#thank gnome it's friday #gnome #faerie #spiritual #devotional #tock the gnome #indie comics #bonus art #orc #orc woman #gnome woman #ooh shiny #sunday gnomedays #queer #sapphic #demisexual #TGnIF

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 12-4-22

Gosh golly gee, it's a good thing I never get tired of drawing Gnomes 💚

This one in more-than-slight-melancholy after a re-listen to “The Hobbit,” to get my thoughts in order about the differences between the book and the films. So of course, she fits into “Gnomes of Middle-earth,” though I started attempting to draw someone more generally Gnomish.

(To be fair, though, I am never ever gonna complain about unintentionally ending up in Arda.)

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions

#gnomes of middle earth #gnome #gnomecore #faerie #Sunday Gnomedays #spiritual #devotional #ooh shiny

[rachelillustrates]

Orctober 2022, twenty-three (with Sunday Gnomedays!)

Something vague and protective as I finally start to get ready for my Gnomevember gallery show next month (SO much framing going on, and very very grateful to finally get to do a Gnome-focused show for November!). That said, it does feel like I’m passing the torch a bit early. So that energy absolutely seeped into this.

BUT – grateful too that even with my personal energy shift, the month of the Orcs is not yet over!! Ae kara, largrai! 💚

~

💚 Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions 💚

#orctober #orctober2022 #orcs #orc woman #faerie #gnome #gnome woman #sunday gnomedays #tock the gnome #indie comics #bonus art #drawing challenge #ooh shiny #gnomevember

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 8-14-22

Been struggling a bit lately with the worst of my thoughts, so this happened. Those are ox-eye daisies – according to Victorian floriography, ox-eye stands for patience. Trying to Trust the Universe….

Pictured with citrine, for cleansing negativity, and rose quartz, for love and compassion (and being effing kind to myself and others through this, please and thank you).

Hope you are all taking the best of care 🌱

~

❤ Bonus art and stories ~ Shop and Commissions ❤

#sunday gnomedays #gnome #gnomecore #faerie #body posi art #ooh shiny

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 6-26-22

Could not manage whimsy today, dear followers.

Too furious.

Too terrified.

For myself, for my loved ones, for anyone with a uterus. For the rights they’re going to try to take away next.

Like my marriage.

Like contraception.

Like access to hormone replacement therapy.

Like any and all bodily autonomy and privacy.

Here’s some places that could use support, if you’re able:

abortionfunds.org

keepourclinics.org

And here’s how to contact your senator:

indivisible.org

~~~

Patreon ~ Etsy ~ Ko-fi

#sunday gnomedays #roe versus wade #roe vs. wade #abortion rights #human rights

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 6-12-22

(Hope you lot are happy to see LOTS more of Tock herself this JuneFae, since apparently she’s my drawing comfort space, and I seem to be needing a lot of that lately!)

As for today’s – I started a new sketchbook recently 🦋 And as I’ve mentioned before, I always start a new sketchbook with a drawing just for me, and a quote that both inspires and resonates with where I’m at, at the time.

Full drawing with the quote, and my notes on why I chose it, available here 💖

~~~

Patreon ~ Etsy ~ Ko-fi

#sunday gnomedays #junefae #gnome #gnomecore #faerie #tock the gnome #indie comics #bonus art #ooh shiny #body posi art #aggressive positive self regard

[rachelillustrates]

Sunday Gnomedays 5-22-22

Continuing the theme that’s popped up a couple times on-and-off this past month-and-a-half of “When in doubt, draw Tock looking peaceful with exterior objects of Significance and/or people she loves.”

So today, daisies. Which – as noted before in the dream sequence for her tale – signify innocence, purity, new beginnings, true love, and the keeping of secrets. All things Tock herself heralds, in one way or another! And things I hope will start resonating – constructively (or destructively, if something needs tearing down!) – for all of us, soon.

As always, you can read more about Tock here 🌼

~~~

Patreon ~ Etsy ~ Ko-fi

#sunday gnomedays #gnome #gnomecore #faerie #tock the gnome #flower language #ooh shiny #indie comics #bonus art