Flight Rising Discussion

I just wanted to set up a topic to talk about how much I LOVE the new Plague festival stuff. I was too busy going "WOOHOO FUNGUS" on the first day to actually take a look at the Discussion and then... wow, was I a bit blindsided by that. Regardless of your opinion, it's important to take a moment and celebrate the skin/accent artists' hard work, as well as the site artists. [item=Scene: Plaguebringer's Domain] I LOVE this scene. It opens up a lot of fun lore questions, notably Bone Towers?? Those big, ominous structures in the background are so neat! It's interesting to think what larger Plague settlements would look like... do they tower above towns like skyscrapers? Or are they more like watchtowers? [item=Boneyard Bard] Nothing to be said for the color-- I personally enjoy it, though I do understand why people are upset. But let's look at it from a different perspective; a BONE HARP?? That's so cool!! Plague lore sets up a big warrior archetype among Plague dragons, so it's really interesting to see something that breaks the mold so hard on that! Do you think they can cast magic with their music like D&D bards? [item=Skin: Mycelium Maestro] [item=Accent: Fae Decay] [item=Accent: Lycogala Filigree] [item=Accent: Helicoprinus] [item=Accent: Spore Ribs] Have a fungus! I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the fungus-themed skins this year!! All of them look really different too-- Spore Ribs has that devilish feel, Helicoprinus has some good good goop, and Lycogala Filigree draws on uniquely-shaped fungus! [item=Skin: Boneyard Gnawer] [item=Accent: WyrmwundBorn] [item=Accent: Graveyard Spoils] [item=Accent: Queenly Carapace] [item=Skin: Zombie Veins] Here's some classic body modifications! Graveyard Spoils isn't strictly a body modification, per se, but it still looks really cool! The textures on Boneyard Gnawer are super fun-- kind of reminds me of Battlefield Menace a couple years back, which was also really good. Love the buggy feel of Queenly Carapace-- I actually like that it matches Vermin from a couple years ago! Gives me the urge to get a matching pair... [item=Accent: All Ears] [item=Accent: Wormtongue] [item=Accent: Curse of the Slain] [item=Accent: Vanitas] And now we move onto the truly unique entries! All Ears creeps me out, but definitely in a fun way. I know some people have been talking about Curse of the Slain being similar to a Wind motif, but as a Windie I really don't see it-- we might have green mists and such, but they sure don't make shapes that spooky. Wormtongue might have to be one of my favorite festival skins maybe ever, look at all those bright colors! Vanitas is also super pretty, and the concept makes me think about the sorts of shrines Plaguelings might build to their dead. Would it be considered blasphemous to mourn your dead like that, since they didn't match up to the standards of survival? All in all, I think it's important to recognize the hard work that goes into making these festivals possible in the first place. It's hard to predict what the community wants, both as a site staff member and as a skin maker, and the real-life plague happening right now adds a new layer to the analysis required. Would it be considered disrespectful to have skins themed after diseases, like past years' Toxoplasmosis or Airborne Contagion? I can't pretend to have the answers. Choosing the entries this year must have taken quite a bit of deliberation. Plague easily has the hardest and most complex aesthetic to handle out of all of us-- and they're the third most popular flight, at that! I'll cap this stupidly long post off with a big thank you to all the artists who created material for the festival! Happy RoR-- now let's get to grinding!

wow! lovely analysis, i agree completely!

A really good post. It's easy to forget how [I]drop dead awesome[/I] the scene we got was, and it's even more important to celebrate the skins. This is user-made content, guys! FR can take punches thrown (within reason), but these are just users who gave their spin on Riot of Rot and got picked by staff. It's [I]horrible[/I] to be thrust into the spotlight and have tomatoes hurled at you. I'm personally in [I]love[/I] with Queenly Carapace and splitting hairs over how many rounds of festival currency I won't brew to fit a bunch of these in. It does remind me of Vermin, but in a good way; whether it's dragons with insectoid mutations or dragons harvesting the cast-off chitin of mutant wasteland beasts, it's always been a part of the Plague aesthetic I welcome and I have complained about the number of mushroom skins this year, but all of the pick themselves are [I]fantastic[/I]; either they're in that breathtakingly intricate category of skin/accent where you have to stop and go 'wow' at the sheer detail sketched into them, or they're the wonderfully versatile kind that can be plastered over so many different types of dragon. Or both. Boneyard Gnawer [I]totally[/I] reminds me of Battlefield Menace last year and I [I]love it[/I] for that; I think it's my favorite entry this year, just because yes, this grubby spiky little mirrorbeast is exactly the sort of thing I want scurrying around in my Scarred Wasteland backyard. I don't know how to use All Ears, but I love the idea behind it, dragons that either grew or outcompeted their competition with bizarre and unpretty mutations that aid their survival. And I'm surprised more people don't love Curse of the Slain, because it goes so well with so many plague aesthetics. I personally don't think it's disrespectful to have skins themed after diseases unless you're going for [I]the[/I] disease; it's not really much different to me than having Flameforgers go on during wildfire season (where, again, a skin specifically showing structures burning down would be way too on-the-nose but fire is just fire.) Making a hubbub about it, imo, creates more discomfort and causes more people to draw connections to stressful real-world events than just treating it like any other year. But that's just my speculation on your speculation, and not really the point of this thread. [quote]Would it be considered blasphemous to mourn your dead like that, since they didn't match up to the standards of survival?[/quote] This is just one Plagueling's headcanon, but the way I've seen it, death in the Scarred Wasteland is seen as an inevitability. There are honorable ways and dishonorable ways of dying - like, if you take a dip in the Wyrmwound or you walk off into the Abiding Boneyard without a map and only a week's worth of supplies, then that's your own fault. But even the hardiest of dragons succumb to the elements or the souvenirs of war, and that doesn't make their lives any less worth celebrating. So in my clan, mourning the fallen is very much a thing, and one of the greatest honors a deceased dragon can have is to have one's belongings and bones recycled in ways that help the survival of the clan - their bones for barricades, their armor refitted. Protecting their living comrades from beyond the grave.

@Dragonpals and @Laluzi thank you both for your analyses on the skins, it is really inspiring to hear about others' takes on the works you make. I'm the maker of Vanitas, so it delights me to see the mourning take you both have discussed. Plague shrines are a wicked idea, one that i haven't evne considered yet! Might need to write that one down.

The other plague skins are absolutely incredible, not one bad one in the lot. The skill of all the artists is evident, and I'm proud to have been chosen among them. The FR mods chose well.

@Katalist Vanitas is one of my favorite entries this fest! The incense, leaves, and feathers all coalesce into this almost mystical expression of death - and as said, since it's such a heavy theme in the flight, there's so many ways you can run with the concept. There's so much you can do with the accent, too - it's macabre, it's ritualistic, it's autumnal. Definitely one I'm saving extra copies of.

@dragonpals
This a really nice thread! I can tell that you're a Fun-guy!

Get it? Fungus? Fun guy?

I'm sorry for the dad joke, I had to.

[quote name="buggy101" date="2020-10-26 18:40:31" ] @/dragonpals This a really nice thread! I can tell that you're a Fun-guy! Get it? Fungus? Fun guy? I'm sorry for the dad joke, I had to. [/quote] Don't be, that was amazing

[quote name="polliwog" date="2020-10-26 19:10:03" ] this is my favorite thread and I want to hug it [/quote] as someone who has thought mushrooms were cool for literal years, the skins are like, my new favourite thing. Just need to find dergs to match them! Honestly? I've loved RoR so far. I've bagged a good number of the scenes, I love the familiar, the apparel looks so good on my plague rep, and the skins are just so so cool. I understand why people are upset, but I think everything we've gotten for RoR is super cool!

The scene is the best one so far. Really loving it. And so are the skins and accents. I just dont really like all ears lol, others might like it. Glad we dont have all the same opinion!

The apparel is...something else. I thought that was the only thing people didnt like? Im missing something I dont even want to know xD
If there was a way to remove the silly cap or the harp in general I would have actually liked it, even the color. Its just too much.
Besides the disappointing robin hood outfit I love everything else.
Nice thread though!