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