An outdated, upside-down Ulenite airship suspended by vines over a ravine was about as difficult to draw as I thought it was going to be. I’m not entirely satisfied with the result, but I didn’t flip my desk in a rage while trying to draw it, so that’s pretty good.
One thing I’ve tried to work on in this issue is, I guess, “branding.” This is something I should have thought harder about when first starting WPK, but I’m still not a very visual thinker, so remembering to add symbols for different groups–the inn’s silver leaf, the slaving triskelion, the cruciform symbol on Vish’s staff and Anthem’s tabard–requires constant attention. I just finished the latest Zelda game and, despite the weaknesses of Skyward Sword‘s visual design, characters are exceptionally well-branded by repeated symbols, motifs, and designs. It’s something I want to focus on.
Huh! I never thought of that, but you’re right. I was going to say something pithy about branding being a modern invention, but it soooo isn’t. If anything, it seems like cities, families, gangs, and other tight-knit groups were a lot MORE branded before modern Western-style mobility.
Everywhere from special regional costume to signet rings to tartans to tattoos, in areas where there’s just enough isolation for customs to speciate or just enough interaction with others to wish to differentiate yourself, you’re going to find group markers.
But one thing that’s different about the Inn of Silver Leaves from these traditional clans is its diversity. All sorts of different people from different cultures, tech levels, and… what’s the word… paradigms? coming together to fix the world. So it makes sense that they all dress differently. But maybe that’s all the more reason for them to have a single banner to hold in common.