Elora Ladd

In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

I too, like to build my food into small fortifications.

Botanical Humans cannot be born with botanical arcana. Only one arcanafauna with botanical magic is known to bond to a human and that's in Book 2. Botanical magic is exactly what it sounds like. Controlling plants. Notable botanical creatures are dryads and passion flies. Dryads are not arcanafauna because they have humanlike qualities and can talk to humans. They're called arcananthro.

Catalyst Humans cannot be born with catalyst arcana. Catalyst arcanafauna will bond to humans, but it's incredibly rare. It's amplification magic. It makes surrounding arcana stronger. Frendo, the calygreyhound, is a very exotic catalyst arcanafauna, but his favorite human is a mundane woman who can't use magic. That's okay, he loves Thalia like a sibling.

#DetailedSFFIntros: 7/7

Humans can't be born with these. The first instance of a botanical familiar bonding to a human is in Sigils of Blight. It's a weird situation, but arson is shockingly useful.

That's all for now. I've been working on this since Friday and I'm fried.

#REReyes-Sigils-DSFFI

Conjuration Creation magic. Through words written by old gods, gone but unforgettable, conjurors are the second most common human sorcerer born. These sorcerers can create sigils that can curse (heretical), move objects and people, create temporary objects, hide things with illusions, enchant magic into items if stored in a crystal, create battery crystals, and enchant objects with other's magic to add pizazz. They have to be strategic. There's nothing outright combative in their arcana.

Elementalism The most common arcana for humans to be born with, it's also the most dangerous. It's plasma and weather control. Society is built to handle rouge sorcerers, sanctioning curses and necromancy that would otherwise be heretical to control them. But that's the thing about the Omeran Empire. It's all about control. Elementalists can control fire, wind, lightning, and a few other fun things if they practice their skills enough.

Holy Only twelve humans can have holy magic at a time. That includes the emperor, the only human known to be subject to reincarnation. It's pretty obvious who they are when they are born too. The first known case of it being hereditary is between Paladin Commander Jorum Gladium, and his son, Alderius Gladium, of the Pegasus Order. Holy can burn people, but it's better for torture than combat. the two Pegasus men use guns for that. Otherwise, it's healing and listening to the songs of the gods. Just ignore the pagan spirits if they try singing too.

Necromancy Rare in Omera, necromancy requires Navikulan heritage leading back to another necromancer and it still isn't a guarantee. Necromancy is not controlling the dead. It's speaking with and controlling spirits weaker than the sorcerer. They can summon seekers to hunt people in the Abyss (the afterlife starter zone0, see spirits wandering the Overworld (where most of the living are), summon the dead, attach a puppeteer to a corpse and create a thrall/zombie, levitate, melt people with necrosis, and curse. Those last two are heretical. It's the most regulated arcana in the Omera Empire.

#DetailedSFFIntros: 6/7

What are the Arcanas?

Backing for this and the next post were made by @nuclearnarwhal.bsky.social

#REReyes-Sigils-DSFFI

An unfinished painting of a green cat set against a gold background, with a rough sketch of the rest of the art. Circling the cat's head are symbols of stars, planets, and other celestial phenomena. Just above the cat's head is a UFO, armed and dangerous. Below, two heros stand amid a group of stasis pods occupied by strange fuzzy animals. Are they friend... or foe? A blue-ish green cat's chill face floats on a cosmic body surrounded by sketches of the humans, the planets, dogs in stasis pods, and the cosmos on a yellow background. The aliens are armed in their UFO in the background.

Grandpa wanted to stay up and watch the presidential address. His blood pressure went up, I went looking for a savior. Help me, alien cats! I await the mothership.

#wip #art #krita #digitalart #itsnotdoneyet #idontknowwhatiwasthinking #pspsps

THE MAGIC ROOM Subscribe now I'm reposting this piece I wrote a little while ago about my mum and dad's art, which some you might have seen, but many of you won't, since I also wanted to let you know about a few bi...

I am choosing to keep this essay permanently unpaywalled. It's about the general idea of people reaching their artistic peak later in life, and the amazing art my parents have been producing in their 60s and 70s (much of which has made its way into my books):

www.tom-cox.com/the-magic-ro...

Thank you!

Understanding Aerosol-Mediated Disease Transmission This Outlook aims to update the longstanding treatment of airborne disease transmission through an interdisciplinary lens combining biology, surface chemistry, and aerosol physics, drawing parallels b...

Ever wonder how a scientist studying the surface of the ocean ends up studying airborne disease transmission? Because the surface of the ocean and surface of your lungs are so similar!! Read about here in our new paper.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Here are some pictures of the back-cover details for the curious. I am way too proud of that hand!

#art #digitalart #clipstudiopaint #affinity #coverdesign #bookcover

Bidding has now reached £320

Red or blue?

#art #illustration #drawing

A cropped screenshot of artwork in Clip Studio Paint. The art is being created for a book cover. The title, golden spine, and bits of Clip Studio's interface ring around an ornate window. The window styled after gothic rose windows with a 6 sided symmetrical design is framed with a brass or gold-like material, with curved bars of the same metal curving to hold the flower styled glass panels in place. On the broadest panes of glass are frosted filigree of plants and feathers, with ringed droplets crowning the inner ring. In the center is a hexagon shaped pane showing what is behind the barrier. A glowing red orb.

The full book cover work-in-progress. To the right is the red rose window with the sphere at its center, but now the full titles and credits can be seen. It reads 'The Sarcophagus of Lamia' subtitled, 'Book 2: Soul Survivor' credits to, Rebecca E. Reyes, and, Art by Elora Ladd. There is the faint hint of something organic in the shadows, crawling on the walls like webby vines. The left side of the book cover, it's back, is a blurb about the story and the golden depictions of a woman. she is surrounded by filigree, her eyes are blue. A golden left hand in floating just below the text. Floating above it's palm is a small orb.

Filigree is love, filigree is life. All praise the symmetry tool!

WIP for @rebeccareyeswriting.com new book. The Sarcophagus of Lamia, Book 2: Soul Survivor.

You can preorder it at: www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7VFKMV9

Hey just a heads-up, I changed my handle to @nuclearnarwhal.bsky.social from @icestarcometh.bsky.social because I didn't like my nickname being "Ice".

Did it a day ago, but silly me forgot to let anyone know!

The old handle is still out there. I just don't have plans to put anything on it.

Dana Octopus-Squid (Taningia danae) Dana Octopus-Squid from Golfo de México (Golfo de América) on August 24, 2025 at 06:43 PM by Daniel Godínez

shoutout to this iNaturalist user who appears to be an ROV pilot in the gulf of mexico and posts occasional biological observations, including A GODDAMN TANINGIA ATTACKING THE ROBOT ARM OF THE ROV

www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Hi! This lovely font is called Anthique. This is a link to the typography company that owns it.

maulanacreative.net/anthique-vin...

Your periodic reminder that "fancy fonts" on places like Bluesky are unicode & are a nightmare for screen reader users. DON'T use for your name

Not only that, good lucky having anyone search for you in the search bar by name.

More examples in the original post on Masto: toot.cafe/@aardrian/11...

first you draw a circle

Filigree is fun! No, really, I mean it. It's one of those detail things you can just sorta zone out to with music. Plus, the details can be anything you want.

Now back I go to the art mines! I left some good men in there.

Just got a copy of a book I did the cover for! Thank you @sgwolfeauthor.bsky.social

Anyways, I'm going to be squeeing in my corner if you need to find me.

4 panel comic: P1: Closeup of a middle-aged guy, from the chest up. He is dramatically lit from above by a spotlight. In his left hand, a cigarette from which curls a tendril of smoke. He speaks to an unseen interviewer: "back in the '90s, we created the game BUBSY 3D" P2: a high shot, looking down on the guy, He is sat in a non-descript chair, his right arm draped casually over the back, while he has his right leg draped over his left. He continues. "It was not good. not good..." P3: Extreme closeup of the guy's face, focused on his left eye, wide and intense. "But we did not listen to the critics. Foolishly, we went ahead with a sequel-- BUBSY 4D" P4: an apocalyptic scene, as a multi-faceted Bubsy head Evangelions out of the wreckage of a city in a beam of intense light, rubble rising around it. The clouds part. It is the end.

what could possibly go wrong

A demonstration of how Bleed and Margin work in print design. The image is of a pair of manatees with a title that reads, "The Magic of Sea cows". Red and yellow bands wrap around the image, with a black dotted line separating the two. The left side of the image has descriptions for these lines. BLEED, When the printer cuts too far. MARGIN, When the printer cuts too close. Dotted Line, The intended size of the image. On the right side of the image reads: The bleed and Margin are here to make sure that our manatees (and their title) are protected.

The final version of the image with its bleed and margin accounted for. A pair of manatees are swimming together. The title reads, "The Magic of Sea cows"

I made this image to show someone how bleed and margins work. Worked great! Now I want to write about the magic of sea cows.

BTW, if you're someone who works with print design, how do you explain margins and bleeds?

Picture of two slices of bread, one stacked on top of the other crust side, with ham and cheese in between

This is, technically, a sandwich.

resolved: people who insist that all social media sites must be places where users are constantly encountering and arguing with people over fundamental disagreement do so because their actual, real lives are echo chambers where they do not encounter any meaningful difference from day-to-day.

Sigils of Malice

While I'm stuck at the bank, I'll advertise not only my book, but my artist! You can find Elora below:

@icestarcometh.bsky.social
emladd.artstation.com

The 1st Sigils book: amazon.com/dp/B0CL9QBY46

#BookCover #artist #selfpromo #books #booksky

Reid Southen & @Rahll•1d Rarely have I seen Al described so succinctly. insert art [ here insert art here Church of Jeff @jeffowski Jul 13 * The underlying purpose of Al is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth. #ai #generativeAl 333 t 28K 124K 1h1 2.6M 1

Perfect, no notes.

A rubber duck with the head of Nigel Thornberry boldly yells "Splashing" while floating in the water. Ernie from Sesame Street is a ghostly figure, his eyes unfocused.

A hand holds a strawberry that looks like it has a butt. The strawberry knows. With a mischievous gaze, it asks, "Like what you see?"

A concept for an artificers cannon in Dungeons and Dragons, 5th edition. It's a cannon with gorgeous feminine legs, accented by red heels.

I've been told by interested parties to post my art. This might also be an attempt to guide said party away from a certain site.

For my first offering, terrible jokes. The good art will arrive exactly when it means to.