Naked Swords: Celestial Conceptuals

Of all the shining stars in the heavens, the one that shone brightest was the Muse. Her light was so plentiful that it attracted all manner of jealousy and desire from her sister stars. Many stars were greatly concerned, for even the younger, silver-blue stars could not match her brilliance, and even stars that grew so envious and erupted into a supernova could not outshine her. Her light was neither blinding nor dangerous, yet it illuminated every atom and every length of oblivion in all of existence.

She would further infuriate her sisters when the brightest shining star also bore the healthiest world in her orbit. And to add further to her superiority, that world held the most beautiful gemstone as its satellite.

For an eternity, the planet, Enf, and the moon, Loom, danced around each other under the warmth of Muse. Enf beamed under the glistening light of her sun, and swam through space, sometimes cool, and other times cozy. She longed to understand the beautiful diamond looming over her all day and night.

Loom carefully studied the barren world underneath her. So cold and lonely, but still so exposed. As Muse's light trickled off of her glittering body and shone down on the planet to reveal every delicious inch of her, the satellite was the first to speak.

"You're Naked" she whispered, and thus the eyes of the world and her moon met for the first time.

"Naked?" The world pondered, and inspected her reflection in the deep and beautiful light of her moon. "Eep!" she shrieked. She had never seen herself before, and she was not sure she liked what she saw. Loom had inspected every inch of her surface thoroughly, and Enf blushed with embarrassment as she took notice of the countless shining stars that no doubt saw every mile of her exposed celestial body under Muse's brilliant sunlight,

"Yes," Loom replied sweetly. "You have no sky or sea, no greenery nor scenery. I can see every inch of you."

Again the world shrieked and blushed furiously. Her bountiful land masses warmed and glistened in humiliation. She had nothing to cover herself with as she drifted through emptiness, completely exposed to the rest of the cosmos. In frustration and terror, her body erupted. Her cool plains became steamy, and flooded with concealing air. Her deep valleys sank below her warm tides. Her gorgeous mountains exploded, and her bountiful land was covered in ashes and fury.

Loom watched in amusement as her world clothed herself. Enf shivered with heat as she shrouded herself in a thick blanket of water and air. After a time, she cooled once more, and Loom whispered to her again.

"You're beautiful!" the moon spoke delicately. "Such clear skies and lucid oceans. I envy you."

"Do you really think so?" Enf blushed once more; her ocean bubbling and her skies twisting into storms. Something under the warmth of Muse's light changed on her surface. Something moved in her heart and on her body.

"Absolutely," Loom stated proudly, and Enf blushed even more.

"I think you are even more beautiful," Enf replied. "You are a perfect jewel above my skies."

Space grew warm between them. They gazed deeply into  each other, and their brilliance matched even that of their sun. A beam of light and of love connected them. Eons passed, and the two spoke endlessly.

"I think..." Enf blushed, and her body grew so very warm before she could speak further. "I think I love you."

Loom shimmered and cried. The ivory tower between them glistened and grew. They tried to reach out to each other. Heavenly tears pooled around them.

"I love you, too," Loom spoke softly, and wanted nothing more than to touch the surface of her world.

Muse did not open her mouth, but her ears clearly heard their beautiful words. She cried as well, and wished to see her world and moon united. Her holy light reached out across the void and clasped the two together, so that they would never be apart.

Enf and Loom held each other in their fingertips, and Muse held them both in her warm embrace. Their love overpowered Enf, and life emerged from the depths of her deep seas.

Eternities later, they dance together still among the stars. We creatures can only wander through the bounty of their love, exploring the treasures and love that the heavens have to share with us.

So I figured I'd start these conceptual drawings with three of the most important in the pantheon. They represent the sun, the moon, and the planet the setting takes place on, respectively. Muse is both the name of the sun and the conceptual of it, Loom is the name of the conceptual and the moon, and Enf is the name of the world as well as the conceptual of it. They are three of the oldest, most powerful, and most worshipped conceptuals of the Ivory Tower, and are often seen as the triumvirate in charge of the universe, or at least the scope of the setting itself. Because they represent where the story takes place, the other conceptuals tend to bend the knee to them. The above story is well-known to most mortals on Enf, but isn't a cut-and-dry explanation of how the setting physically formed unless all of the Writers agree that it does. Until such a time, other conceptuals might spin their own creation myths for the mortals to believe in.

Muse: The conceptual of the sun, light, inspiration and motivation. Under her warmth and light, the world gave birth to mortal souls, who paradoxically imagined the conceptuals to exist. Muse is the catalyst of life, mortality, and the imagination, as both a star and a goddess. She's very doting and compassionate to her fellow conceptuals when she's around them, but she's a bit of an all-seeing hermit who tends to distance herself from the others. She has quite a vast number of worshippers, given what she represents, but balances this by having a more unorthodox afterlife system. Her private realm is the Looking Glass, which serves as the observatory on the upper level of the Ivory Tower, from which the souls of mortals can peer into the deepest depths of the universe. She allows them to reenter the cycle of reincarnation and enlightenment whenever they choose. Despite her power and concept, she is not in control of the rest of space or any other stars, but she represents starlight and stellar radiation as far as mortals can understand. Muse's angels are the Lightbringers, who take on the classic golden-winged-halo angel appearance, but are also pretty badass.

Enf: The conceptual of the eponymous planet the setting takes place on, as well as the element of earth and primordial nature (not plants and animals and stuff, but simply the existence of nature as something that exists without intelligent manipulation). She is often incorrectly treated as the conceptual of many different facets of the world and nature, despite many of them having their own specific conceptual. Enf is extremely motherly and non-aggressive, and despite her immense power and large number of worshippers, she never fights with her kindred conceptuals. She and Loom have a special relationship, and it is their bond that first formed the Ivory Tower as a spire reaching from the heart of the world to the heavens so that the moon and the earth could feel one another. Enf doesn't have an afterlife realm, and instead pulls the Animism trick by having all of the souls of her worshippers atomized and spread around the natural world, so they can be one with the earth itself. She is one of few conceptuals to not have her own kind of angels, and doesn't take as much action as her fellow gods. Using "Enf" as a location name felt like a bit of a cop-out, but it also felt like a good way for me to not go over anyone's head for the project. It's an idea I might replicate for something else down the line.

Loom: The conceptual of the moon, tides, and the night sky (not the day sky, and not outer space, though). Loom is a tranquil and steady conceptual who likes to go with the flow and sleep the days away. She has a loving relationship with Enf, but she is also close to the conceptual of gravity. The Ivory Tower usually points towards the moon she's named after, and she actually doesn't live on the tower, despite being associated with it. Her private realm is the Looming Spire, which is the moon's personal version of the Ivory Tower, pointing from directly across from it along the surface of Loom. It's a quiet and serene plane where the souls of her dead worshippers slumber and drift in orbit around the world, swimming through the empty tranquility of Enf's gravity. She also allows the souls of her acolytes to reenter the cycle of reincarnation if they desire. Her angels are the Moonmen, who mix angelic imagery with classic real-life scifi aliens like their namesake. They don't do much on Enf, as Loom doesn't like sending her henchmen to do her dirty work on her beloved's soil.

I guess that's it for now. I might work on these three more over time, along with their respective angels, but I'll keep moving on to other conceptual drawings. I enjoyed writing the little folk tale above, and I hope you guys like the novelty of it. The upper-left drawing is a simple design from some mortal civilization or another. The upper-right drawing is just the namesake celestial bodies they represent, and the bottom drawing is more or less how they appear as conceptuals in the eyes of mortals.