Farm bookmark

[Tiana]

isometricfarm-color.jpg

I drew a lil farm for funsies, and because I wanted to try setting up something more isometric, and because I realized I never draw any banner sized art. I dunno, maybe I'll use it as a signature graphic.

You are welcome to use it non-commercially.

[thomden]

Oh, I love it! The house came out great and the goat is a nice detail.

[Tiana]

Oh, I love it! The house came out great and the goat is a nice detail.

Thank you. There is also a cat, a bird, two chickens, and an ostrich. Technically, that means there are four birds. I love the goat the most though.

[JGroeling]

"Feed the Multiverse" makes me wonder what posibilities are soon to befall this quaint little farm. Nicely drawn and laid out. Well done.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Ayama]

Did your farm has a little backstory or is it just drawn for fun? Im a bit curiouse what other artists think while drawing.

[Tiana]

"Feed the Multiverse" makes me wonder what posibilities are soon to befall this quaint little farm. Nicely drawn and laid out. Well done.

Thank you! It was my first venture into this sort of isometric art, but I really wanted it to have a teeny bit of hilliness, and I fell in love with the outcome and had to make it my signature graphic throughout the internet.

Feed the Multiverse is my brand, which I use for my website address, and it links to my website, but it's quite appropriate for this particular farm. I will explain the farm in my reply to Ayama if you read on. Right here, I will explain why Feed the Multiverse is my brand. First, my name is Tiffany Munro, so the first part of it is "feed TM", as you may note my initials are highlighted in my logo on the site. The second part of it is the multiverse, which is twofold. I co-write with someone very dear to me since 2004, and the world we have co-created is what we refer to as "our/the multiverse". Secondly, my business is creating mapped worlds for other people's worlds, so my business itself is feeding into a co-creative multiversial network between creative minds. There is one final bit, which is "feed", and that is woven into a fundamental value I have, which is 1) to never say no to an opportunity to dine with a stranger, no matter how strange, 2) if I have abundance to share and someone needs help, I do what is within my means to help feed them. Of course this has expanded outside of feeding people, but it's often feeding people. I'd say 90% of the time it's food, but I take what opportunities arise when I have enough to share.

However, the story doesn't end there, because this farm does have a backstory.

Did your farm has a little backstory or is it just drawn for fun? Im a bit curiouse what other artists think while drawing.

The shape of this map is because I just noticed the bookmark section (as I suppose many people might) and was interested in trying it. Bonus side effect of being signature graphic sized. So since I knew it had to be a small region, and I wanted it to be for me, I asked, "what small region would I have in my lore that I know well enough to be able to map?"

Since a lot of what I do creatively is what my co-writer, I went into our lore, and selected Saerin and Xan's farm, since I've drawn a top-down view of it, and a layout of the house and forge and had a fairly concrete idea of what the 3D layout might look like solidified in my mind. Saerin is one of my longer running characters, I remember first inventing her on a sheet of paper in writing when I was 15 waiting for my turn at piano lessons. My co-writer and I make characters to bounce off of each other's, so J made a swordmaster for her, since I wanted her to be a warrior. He was supposed to be gay (turns out he's bi). She was supposed to be in a relationship with someone else and have a child with that guy. Much to our chagrin, they had other ideas, and fell in some kind of violent hate-love with each other and have three children, two of whom died horribly, and one of whom was raised by Xan, who is not an excellent parent, because Saerin died when she was three. This child went on to become a punk rocker, hook up with an assassin who was twice her age, and then marry a well-behaved man who is twice her height and probably an enormous relief to Xan because he keeps her at least somewhat straight.

Since Saerin and Xan's relationship is founded upon them enjoying dueling each other far too much, they settled outside of society where they have space to fight in their downtime. For their jobs, he is a blacksmith well renowned for his sword making as well as his skill as a sword master, and she farms, sews, makes food to sell in the market, smiths small useful objects rather than buying them (though I doubt she does it for mass production).

Saerin settled this land when she was a teenager or young adult hiding away from society, because Saerin has a bit of a curse–whatever she dreams at night manifests itself. Fortunately for everyone, Xan is the embodiment of the elemental power of Dream, and he later comes into her life to create an umbrella so she can safely sleep again. This definitely is part of their messed up relationship. Anyway, long story short, their souls are intrinsically linked into the elemental magic hierarchy of the multiverse, and by the time this world comes to an end, they are powerful enough to create a literal dream bubble multiverse to save the souls of all of their friends, family, loved and hated civilians, and transfer some semblance of life into a new section of the multiverse. This is continuing on an enormous tradition which creates the members of the godhood/pantheon, and happened not just once before to create the universe they were born into (by the gods of Mystery, Lady Fate (who's really the goddess of Death but rebranded herself to be less terrifying), and Mind), but has happened before that, and before that again, creating a few genuinely ancient strange beings (one of whom is just a cat) and lore that stretches back to the time of the ascension of the god of Lore. But that's TRULY ancient history in the multiverse. Saerin and Xan are just one link in it, and end up becoming the gods of Dream for the next part of the chain, the newest part of the pantheon as the cycle ticks forward.

And so the multiverse is fed, and there's a summary of like, over a decade of writing in very brief.

So yeah, there's a lot present in this farm. Physically, from left to right, at the opening there's a gate that's ridiculously fancy, and has a raven on it, because Xan likes those. We have a garden behind the chicken coop, a fruit orchard Saerin planted and is now fully treed cause they very old, a barn which houses the horses and riding ostrich, a storage shed, an open enclosure for shoeing horses, the forge (has wood storage area, an open area in the back for doing hot work, and an inner area for sheltered work, and is a bit stupidly fancy because Xan made it), a goat pen, a well (inhabited by a shapeshifter living as water, we don't open that), the house, which is a pretty nice farmhouse with two levels, an upper room that has storage connections into the dream plane because Xan's a bloody hoarder and Saerin won't have it in the house, and a cellar (it's not the original house built by Saerin; that actually might be the storage shed). Behind that, there's a different type of tree, also probably a practical fruit or nut tree, a fire pit and outdoor table eating area, nearby which there is a cat. Out back there is another house built for the farmhands they hire to work the surrounding lands, it's quite important to them to support anyone who wants a real solid job, another garden and the suggestion of the fields being that way. You will also spot the riding ostrich. That's Xan's. Xan once got Saerin a riding dog but she just doesn't have his style and currently just has a very regular horse. She kinda basic farmgirl compared to him and his flashy God of Dream act, but she can kick his ass.

Xan, being the incarnation of Dream itself, is functionally immortal, unless his body is sufficiently damaged. Saerin does not have that perk, and has been cloned multiple times because her family does that. She has died many times, and been brought back similarly many times by her extended family and their cloning facilities. Suffice to say, this land has been her land for approximately 2000 years, and they have an enormous impact on the surrounding farmlands and urban city centre, where she's considered the defacto mayor, and there's an entire chunk of the city she built out of dream magic. She tends to use her magic for such practical things as contributing to urban housing growth.

They are worldbuilders, in short, so it seemed appropriate to use their home as a representation of my brand and what I do.

One final tidbit. We have symbols for the elemental magic system. On the house, worked into the window on the side, you will spot the Dream sigil (it's basically a galaxy spiral), and I sign this symbol into almost every map I do, hidden somewhere. Sometimes I forget, but it's usually in there somewhere, often on a tree trunk. I also have this as a tattoo, which has its own several layers of symbolism besides just being that symbol, but we won't go there.

So yeah, it's more than just a lil farm, but you had to ask to trigger the cutscene.

[Ayama]

haha sometimes i should be more carefull with what i say and trigger
but i´m really amazed that there is so much thought and story behind it, I´m doing actually the same with a friend. Hes the storyteller and i draw everything for it while the story goes on, maybe you saw already the started project where i try too pin down a few sketches for the story and work it out as soon as it is settled on thuesday.

[Badger]

Amazing story Tiana! My wife and I are writers (co-writers) and we both play D&D. When we met, I already had a huge world developed with its own pantheon and history. She loved it, and started writing stories set in it. Then we co-wrote another, the first book in a what is to be a Trilogy. Co-authoring is fun when its with the right person. I love that you have that!

Del

[arsheesh]

That's a charming little bookmark Tiana, well done. The goat and Emu were nice additions to the map. The colors are quite pleasant as well.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Tiana]

Amazing story Tiana! My wife and I are writers (co-writers) and we both play D&D. When we met, I already had a huge world developed with its own pantheon and history. She loved it, and started writing stories set in it. Then we co-wrote another, the first book in a what is to be a Trilogy. Co-authoring is fun when its with the right person. I love that you have that!

Del

I love that you have that. I also love that you commented today because I was feeling a little angsty that I wasted my creativity on the collaborative universe (I read something I wrote on my own and was impressed, surprisingly). Obviously that's not true, though, because much of what I write alone is inspired or partly set in our setting and I wouldn't have that to draw from without her. I have trouble imagining co-authoring with anyone else but we have hundreds of thousands of words added on to our setting. We have yet to play DnD but I'm working on trying to convince her to play a 5E game on Roll20 for funsies.

Cheers.

That's a charming little bookmark Tiana, well done. The goat and Emu were nice additions to the map. The colors are quite pleasant as well.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Thanks. I like the tiny critters, and the peaceful pastel color scheme. It's suitable to the dreaminess, though not reflective of 'reality'. Cheers.