Four Swords: Three questions from Four Swords.

Three questions from Four Swords.

You should recognize these keys as the three that were hung on the keyring from last week. If one of those rings really piqued your interest, I made sure to give you the chance to pick your favorite and leave the rest behind. It also gives me a break from having to think up new and interesting ways to describe how you get a set of keys earned by capturing an increasingly large bounty of rupees.

Where there is a key, there is usually a lock. Where there is a lock, there is usually the question, “why did someone want this locked away?” Sometimes, the only way to answer such a question is by using the key in the lock and freeing whatever was locked away. Can you be sure that what you seek isn’t best left locked up?

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WIth these staple items, I like to break apart the component pieces in my drawings and set them up as individual cards. Not only does it make me feel like I’ve drawn a whole bunch of different things when I’ve really only drawn a small bunch of things; it also lets me give collections to players piecemeal. Maybe they need all three of these keys but start with just finding one, and then have to fight hard to earn the second, and delve deep into the unknown to find the last. Once they have found all three, rewarding them with a new item card to show the set completed can be a fun way to commemorate their achievements.

Only one or two more key posts before we move on to other sets of pallette swapped objects. Look forward to showing off my attempts at being creative and efficient.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Holiday: A horn of plenty with much to be thankful for.

 A horn of plenty with much to be thankful for.

Cornucopia: Literally meaning horn of plenty, cornucopia symbolize prosperity and wealth. Two stories explaining the origins of the first cornucopia both involve a male god hero, either Zues or Heracles, breaking a horn from the head of a mythical creature associated with food and prosperity, a goat or a river god respectively. Once broken off, the horns overflowed with an endless supply of food which would truly be a magnificent gift in a world where one bad season meant years of starvation.

According to local legend, this wicker basket was made by the poorest woman in the villages to carry the alms given to her as charity. No matter how much she was given, the woman always asked for more, causing many in high town to think her greedy and false. Only after her death did the haughty citizens of high town find out the woman gave every home in poor-side enough to put at least a little in every mouth, taking only the smallest share if any was leftover. Now, this ceremonial horn of plenty overflows all year with enough food so that everyone in the village has forgotten the fear and pain of going hungry.

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American Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday. I grew up understanding that it was THE thanksgiving, Canadian thanksgiving didn’t exist nor did any other thanksgivings, and that it was the tale of caring and cooperation that opened up relations between Indigenous Peoples and hardworking pilgrims. I learned of it as an indulgent feast day with thankfulness tacked on the side and any discussion of the plight of indigenous people was tokenized at best.

American thanksgiving doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Not everyone is happy that pilgrims were able to survive their first few years here because it was the beginning of the colonial take over that was brutal and continues to be extremely harmful to this day.

More and more it also marks the hardest time where families have to scrape together what they have and make not enough stretch too far.

If you have enough of anything, I implore you to be thankful for what you have enough of as there are many who don’t have enough of anything. If you have more than enough, please consider giving to a local charity organization to ensure that everyone has a real chance to have something to be thankful for.

This year I am thankful for the fact that I have enough of a lot. I have a home, a wife, an education, an important job, free time to draw, and so much more.

Give what you can to those that have needs.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords: A ring of keys from Four Swords.

A ring of keys from Four Swords.

Golden Keys: Any Link that has already earned a set of silver keys and defeated the sorcerer Vaati in their palace can attempt to earn a set of golden keys. To earn the three golden keys, a Link must gather at least 3,000 rupees in each stage prior to Vaati’s palace. This more valuable set overrides the set of silver keys previously won, but is still only the second of the three sets of keys to Vaati’s palace. It’s no wonder Vaati’s palace gets invaded if there are this many duplicate sets of keys to the front door.

Known as the keys to the kingdom, these keys open the three most important doors in the land. The golden key opens the coffers and vaults where the nation’s wealth is securely held. The silver key opens the deepest door in the dungeon where the most dangerous person is held. And the copper key opens the secret passage beneath the great hall where the greatest secret is held.

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It is going to be mostly just keys here at The Speaking Squid for the next few installments. There are a ton of keys in the Zelda franchise and Four Swords doesn’t shy away from that. It can be difficult to come up with new and interesting ways to represent keys in Zelda games, so I often use keys as a way to check back in with how much I’ve grown. It is a good thing to return to a subject you’ve already explored with new skills and ideas. Everytime I come back to drawing keys I find I have a new twist or technical skill I want to try out.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: The longest, most Morrowind, fetch quest in Elder Scrolls.

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: The longest, most Morrowind, fetch quest in Elder Scrolls.

Stone of Barenziah: Barenziah, the former queen of Morrowind, was coronated with a lavishly jeweled golden crown. During her reign, the crown was stolen and each of its 24 main jewels were removed. These 24 crown jewels were scattered across Skyrim in places both wild and civilized, guarded and unattended, obvious and hidden. The body of the crown has been smuggled out of Morrowind, and now it will only take someone tracking down each of the 24 missing jewels to recreate a priceless piece of history.

On the eighth day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

frustrating fetch-quest,

sons killing fathers, 

limitless knowledge,

one dragon priest mask,

a Talos icon,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

One of the most iconic experiences of non-modded Skyrim is missing one or two of these damned stones and needing to hunt through all 24 locations to see which one you missed as they, rightfully, do not have waypoints. Waypoints would ruin the experience on this sort of quest, which really reminded me of the days of exploring through Morrowind with no guide but a journal that only organized information as well as you could remember what page the information was written on.

I hoped you enjoyed my tour of iconic Skyrim items. I post item drawings every Sunday. I am currently working through drawing a card for every item in every game in the Zelda franchise. If you liked what you saw during Skyrim week, come back on Sunday to see what else I’ve drawn up.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: A powerful amulet worth killing for.

 A powerful amulet worth killing for.

Gauldur Amulet: This amulet once belonged to the Arch-Mage Gauldur, whose wisdom, power, and benevolence was relied on by great kings of the first era. So great was Gauldur’s fame that it overshadowed his three sons who grew resentful and envious of their father. Driven by jealousy, the three sons murdered their father and took from him his amulet of power so that each might have a piece. Each carrying a fragment, the three hateful sons terrorized the lands until each was slain and entombed across Skyrim where the three fragments of the amulet remain to this day.

On the seventh day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

sons killing fathers, 

limitless knowledge,

one dragon priest mask,

a Talos icon,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

The Gauldur amulet’s +30 to each stat is just too good to pass up in the early and mid-game. At least I found it to be.

Also, Gauldur looks a whole lot like Galdr. Which just happens to be the Norse word for a spell or magical incantation. This reminds me, and hopefully all the other world builders, that I put way too much effort into coming up with original names and not nearly enough energy into stealing names.

The party winds down tomorrow with our eighth and final day of the Skyrim tenth anniversary celebration.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: An impossibly complete volume of lore from twisting pathways of Apocrypha.

An impossibly complete volume of lore from twisting pathways of Apocrypha.

Oghma Infinium: This magical tome of knowledge was penned by the wizard Xarxes and records the unimaginably vast information revealed to Xarxes by Hermaeus Mora, daedric prince of knowledge. Reading from this skin-bound tome instantly gives the reader a greater understanding of a selection topics, but the entire book is too vast to be fully absorbed by a sane mind and therefore the reader can only glean a small number of the secrets contained in the many pages of the tome.

As far as magical books go, the opened pages of the Oghma Infinium as it appears in Skyrim work pretty well as any generic magical book or tome of forbidden knowledge. Drawing interesting but meaningless magical runes is far more difficult for me than many other types of details. I always wonder how other fantasy artists approach drafting visually convincing magical texts.

On the sixth day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

limitless knowledge,

one dragon priest mask,

a Talos icon,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

Two more days in the eight days of Skyrim’s tenth anniversary. Tomorrow brings us back toward the neck with an item I assume almost every Skyrim player uses for a long time.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: The wrathful visage of Rahgot, priest of the Dragon Cult.

The wrathful visage of Rahgot, priest of the Dragon Cult.

Dragon priest mask: Each of the nine high priests of the dragon cult bore a mask that now bears their name. Based on the coloration, archivists have identified this mask as having belonged to Rahgot, one of the last surviving priests of the dragon cult. Other similar masks are mentioned in the histories of the dragon cults and the frigid north. Each was made from different materials and carried a unique enchantment.

On the fifth day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

one dragon priest mask,

a Talos icon,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

Check back in tomorrow to take a peek in a daedric book of lore.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: An Amulet of Talos banned by the Aldmeri Dominion.

An Amulet of Talos banned by the Aldmeri Dominion.

Amulet of Talos: As part of the peace treaty between the weakening Cyrodillic Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion, any worship or veneration of Talos is forbidden. Talos was once a mortal human but rose to become a god. The Elven supremacists of the Aldmeri Dominion despise the idea of a mere human reaching the position of divinity and therefore work to stamp out the worship of Talos by any means necessary. Devout worshipers of the now banned god carry these amulets to ensure the worship of Talos survives.

On the fourth day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

a Talos icon,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

I went with the Skyrim concept art for the Amulet of Talos instead of the game art because I thought the spear head looked more compelling than the axe head shaped amulet in the game. I will say this is probably a dangerous amulet to wear around your neck, but it could come in handy as a punching dagger in an emergency.

With day four of our Skyrim celebration done we look forward to tomorrow. Another symbol of a devout follower, but to an altogether different being of worship.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: An arrow taken from the knee of a Skyrim guard.

 An arrow taken from the knee of a Skyrim guard.

Knee-seeking Arrow: Prior to becoming a member of the hold’s guard, this proud Nord used to be an adventurer just like you. That was before the cursed day when an errant shot from a bandit struck the adventurer in the knee. The lingering pain and stiffness from that arrow shot to the knee ended their adventuring career and forced them to take up a life of public service.

Day three of the Skyrim 10th anniversary celebration brings us a famous meme from the game. As a DM I rarely track mundane ammunition for my ranged players, but I am a big fan of single-use consumable ammunition that has bonus qualities. I’d imagine a knee-seeking arrow does reduced damage but applies a difficult-to-cure slow debuff on a successful hit.

I hope you are enjoying the selection of items. I was going to be able to say that I chose all non-weapon items, but of course, I had to do an arrow which threw the pacifism item set out the window.

On the third day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

See you tomorrow for some holy or heretical jewelry, depending on who you ask.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: The golden dragon claw from Bleak Falls Barrow.

The golden dragon claw from Bleak Falls Barrow.

Golden Dragon Claw: Hidden in the depths of ancient Nordic ruins are puzzle locks that the dovahkiin can only pass by learning their secret code. Each puzzle-locked door is paired with a different precious dragon claw that bears the passcode as well as acting as the knob for the door. The golden dragon claw opens the way to the treasures held in the deepest sections of Bleak Falls Barrow.

Before anyone types out their comment about the skeleton key and puzzle doors, I will say I was very specific in my language regarding who is limited to using the dragon claws.

That was day two of my week-ish-long celebration of some great items from Skyrim. I chose items that would work well in any fantasy game and not just an elder scrolls game so that anyone can use them to represent their loot.

On the second day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

See you tomorrow for more Skyrim goodies.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: The iron helmet from Skyrim.

 

The iron helmet from Skyrim.

Iron Helmet: The iconic helm of the dovahkiin, scarred by the fangs and claws of dragons terrorizing Skyrim.

Happy 10th anniversary Skyrim!

I am a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series and just had to sit down and draw some of the iconic items from the fifth installment of the main series.

Check-in every day for the next week to see a collection of items from Skyrim, and to enjoy my wonderful and wholly original song.

On the first day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

a helmet of iron and horn.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords: Covert instruments from Four Swords.

 Covert instruments from Four Swords.

Silver Keys: In Four Swords each of the three Silver Keys is awarded to any Link that gathered at least 1,000 rupees. To enter Vaati’s Palace, the fourth and final stage, Links must gather the three keys from the three Great Faeries. If the Links didn’t gather up enough rupees to earn all three keys, they cannot enter the lair of Vaati and rescue Princess Zelda and must try again. The silver keys are the first of three sets of keys that can be earned through repeated attempts at playing through Four Swords. 

Few societies of law and order allow just anyone to walk around carrying a well-stocked supply of lock picking tools without some sort of permit. There isn’t a sensible society that would allow a person to carry not one but four picks that make the bold but honest claim to be able to pick any lock, even apparently unpickable ones. All of that is to say, you shouldn’t show these picks off to anyone unless you want everyone blaming you for every misplaced valuable or locked door murder.

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I’m a huge elder scrolls fan. I could have individually drawn all the lock picks and skeleton keys from the various elder scrolls games and released them in drips and drabs until you collected the complete set, but that wouldn’t have given me an excellent set of thieves tools and legendary thieves tools.

If you are like me and enjoy technical YouTube videos, you probably have already enjoyed lockpicking YouTube channels. I’m a big fan of watching the Lockpicking lawyer to get inspiration on writing interesting lock-picking challenges for my games.

Welcome to November. It is getting cold where I live which reminds me that this is usually an extra tough time for many people who struggle financially. If you have more, consider giving back to people with less. If you have power, consider using it to make a more level playing field by raising up the lowest among us.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph