Eilistraee.com

Well met, Sword Dancers! I promised Irennan a copy of this image from a project I'm working on. I hope you enjoy it! I couldn't get the Drow Art Gallery topic to work (it kept crashing on page 3) so I made a new topic. I hope that is okay!
[img:1jqshgr5]https://pre03.deviantart.net/7415/th/pr ... bm14pi.png[/img:1jqshgr5]

I really dig her sassy smile. Is this a drawing of Faeryl?

It was intended to be. My artist is a trained ballet dancer and captured the fluid grace perfectly, but she gave this character a quiver and no sword. Sword Dancers have a thing about not using bows and love their swords. But I loved the facial expression so I kept it. We'll have a lot more art like this in the Eryndlyn supplement. For example, I am commissioning [url=https://www.rueink.com:3o89cnj2]Deven Rue[/url:3o89cnj2] to create an ink drawing of the crescent moon and sword symbol of Eilistraee. Deven is INCREDIBLE, and the symbol will be available for download to all of her [url=https://www.patreon.com/DevenRue/posts:3o89cnj2]Patreon[/url:3o89cnj2] supporters.

Until I read this, because this character was carrying arrows, I'd actually thought that she was a portrayal of one of the drow scouts mentioned like Alystin Naerth, because their description is just opposite on the same page.

That is what I wanted you to think by placing it there. That way, she could represent whomever you wanted it to represent. This is one of the many concept sketches we had for Eilistraeean drow to figure out how they would be armored and how they would move.

[quote="galadhion":27iz4iby]It was intended to be. My artist is a trained ballet dancer and captured the fluid grace perfectly, but she gave this character a quiver and no sword. Sword Dancers have a thing about not using bows and love their swords. But I loved the facial expression so I kept it. We'll have a lot more art like this in the Eryndlyn supplement. For example, I am commissioning [url=https://www.rueink.com:27iz4iby]Deven Rue[/url:27iz4iby] to create an ink drawing of the crescent moon and sword symbol of Eilistraee. Deven is INCREDIBLE, and the symbol will be available for download to all of her [url=https://www.patreon.com/DevenRue/posts:27iz4iby]Patreon[/url:27iz4iby] supporters.[/quote:27iz4iby]

That's one of Eilistraee's quirks, her vow to never use ranged weapons. AFAIK, Eilistraee doesn't impose this on her followers. They can use w/e weapon they like (save for whips), even tho sword dancers, ofc, use swords. However, longbow and silver-tipped arrows are among weapons favored by Eilistraee's people, so I think that the quiver is totally ok. Also, hunting with swords seems to be generally ineffective way of getting food

I like the pose too, it well conveys--as you put it--the fluid grace of Eilistraee's style.

Looking forward to everything that you'll put out! Really, knowing that people--especially skilled people--are creating art and lore about Eilistraee makes me smile inside

Sounds about right to me! Archery is very useful for hunting and Eilistraee does have the divine command to feed and help those in need. Hunting is a great way to do that. So Faeryl it is!

I love the art. It's absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[quote="galadhion":ix0n2c32]I couldn't get the Drow Art Gallery topic to work (it kept crashing on page 3)[/quote:ix0n2c32]
Not sure when you last tried, but we used to have an issue with a broken tag on page 3 that should be fixed. Either way, the new topic is fine. More topics, more art.

[quote="Irennan":ix0n2c32]That's one of Eilistraee's quirks, her vow to never use ranged weapons. AFAIK, Eilistraee doesn't impose this on her followers.[/quote:ix0n2c32]
I agree, don't recall her imposing it on her followers either (though that doesn't mean that some followers don't self-impose the restriction).

And for those not familiar with the lore, the reason Eilistraee stopped using ranged weapons is because she nearly killed her father (Corellon Larethian) with some cursed arrows she got from her Mother (Araushnee, who later became Lolth).


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Another piece came in! This one is of a swordsmith, making one of the special swords of the Sword Dancers. Ooooooh, it's gorgeous. Iillustration by Jose Ortiz!

[img:3u73h8i0]https://orig00.deviantart.net/6e30/f/20 ... bmq5j0.jpg[/img:3u73h8i0]

That's beautiful, yes. Thank you.


Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

[quote="galadhion":2tb9n1cy]Another piece came in! This one is of a swordsmith, making one of the special swords of the Sword Dancers. Ooooooh, it's gorgeous. Iillustration by Jose Ortiz!

[img:2tb9n1cy]https://orig00.deviantart.net/6e30/f/20 ... bmq5j0.jpg[/img:2tb9n1cy][/quote:2tb9n1cy]

It's lovely, ty for sharing. Do your Sword Dancers of Eryndlyn/Misty Forest favor scimitars, or is it just the artist's interpretation?

It's not a scimitar, but a new weapon that I'm designing for the Eryndlyn book. The sword dancers used bastard swords in 2e which don't exist in 5e. Also, elves get Dex bonuses rather that Str bonuses and the Sword Dancers are always described as lithe and graceful. So I'm making a Miyeritar Blade, which is a two-handed martial weapon with the finesse property that does 1d10 damage.

I'd call it a moon blade, but there are so many of those that it would just be confusion. So the idea is that the knowledge of how to make the swords was discovered in Miyeritar and was lost for the most part during the Dark Disaster. Only the smiths of Eilistraee know how to make the swords, and they don't share the knowledge outside of the faith. That's why the blades don't appear in the PHB and are exceedingly rare.

Faeryl has one. As does Phaedra Zauvirr. You'll meet her in the Eryndlyn book where she's a major protagonist at the Haven.

[quote="galadhion":1yvyskio]It's not a scimitar, but a new weapon that I'm designing for the Eryndlyn book. The sword dancers used bastard swords in 2e which don't exist in 5e. Also, elves get Dex bonuses rather that Str bonuses and the Sword Dancers are always described as lithe and graceful. So I'm making a Miyeritar Blade, which is a two-handed martial weapon with the finesse property that does 1d10 damage.

I'd call it a moon blade, but there are so many of those that it would just be confusion. So the idea is that the knowledge of how to make the swords was discovered in Miyeritar and was lost for the most part during the Dark Disaster. Only the smiths of Eilistraee know how to make the swords, and they don't share the knowledge outside of the faith. That's why the blades don't appear in the PHB and are exceedingly rare.

Faeryl has one. As does Phaedra Zauvirr. You'll meet her in the Eryndlyn book where she's a major protagonist at the Haven.[/quote:1yvyskio]

I like this idea of a finesse 2H weapon known only to Miyeritari (and now Eilistraeean) smiths. It's kinda like a Japanese nodachi (a large katana), even tho--given Eilistraee's preference for straight blades--you'd expect it to be straight too. Still, she lets her followers use w/e weapon they prefer, so it also makes sense that certain groups among her people would develop weapons suiting their preference.

That said, the 5e longsword is actually perfect for a bastard sword. In reality, longswords are 2H weapons. They are almost never wielded 1H. Bastard sword are actually slightly smaller longswords, with a slightly shorter hilt. They are basically in-between the arming sword (1H sword, which is essentially the longsword of the older editions) and the actual longsword (which--as I said-- is nearly always wielded 2H, but is not to be confused with the larger greatsword/montante--which uses a drastically different style than a longsword. Actually, some greatsword styles remind me of some kind of dance, and they would fit Eilistraee quite well).

Bastard swords are quite versatile weapons for that reason. Their ability to be wielded both 2H and 1H fits very well Eilistraee's "sword&magic(&dance/song)" style, granting the ability to attack and use spells with the free hand, or to focus on the melee, depending on what you need.

In 5e, long swords do not have the finesse property. I wanted a finesse weapon for the sword dancers. So I made one up.

Any curve to the Miyeritar blade is artistic interpretation. The curve is not inherent in the blade's description. I think Jose just likes curved blades because he is also influenced by the nodachi. The holy symbol I'm asking Deven Rue to design is straight bladed.

[quote="galadhion":32kaqrln]In 5e, long swords do not have the finesse property. I wanted a finesse weapon for the sword dancers. So I made one up.

Any curve to the Miyeritar blade is artistic interpretation. The curve is not inherent in the blade's description. I think Jose just likes curved blades because he is also influenced by the nodachi. The holy symbol I'm asking Deven Rue to design is straight bladed.[/quote:32kaqrln]

Oh, I'm not arguing your choice. In fact, I enjoy the idea of a finesse 2H sword created by the Miyeritari, and now known only to Eilistraeean smiths. Even more so, because a greatsword-like finesse weapon lends itself *very* well to a dance-like fighting style, the visuals can be quite hypnotic. For example, imagine something like this:

[bbvideo=560,315:32kaqrln]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZFEUM5fdgU[/bbvideo:32kaqrln]

or this:

[bbvideo=560,315:32kaqrln]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtT3sjO0ocU[/bbvideo:32kaqrln]

combined with the dance of the priestesses of Eilistraee. It would be as lethal as beautiful and mesmerizing to watch.

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What I meant is simply that the 5e rules for the longsword are actually a good representation of a bastard sword (so 5e does have that weapon, even if called in a different way. It lumps longswords and bastard swords together, which makes sense for a game that doesn't focus on minutiae too much). In the rules that I wrote, I gave the Sword Dancers the ability to wield them as finesse weapons precisely for this reason.