u/Ebby_Bebby

Stand:「Notos」

Reference: Song and album by the Oh Hellos, inspired by the Greek god of the Southern Wind, also named Notos

Localized: Auster (roman pantheon equivalent of Notos)

Appearance: Notos is a small humanoid stand, about three feet tall. It has no legs, instead its lower torso ends in a thundercloud. Its face is flat like a frog's, and is always grinning. An arc of large beads on a string passes over the head, and each end rests on the shoulders. The shoulders and elbows are spherical joints, and the arms are skinny. The hands look like heavy gloves. There are thunderbolt details on the chest.

Ability:「Lost in the Wind」Once activated, those who are targeted must watch their words carefully, for any words they say from the point of activation are lost in the Wind. (If in the manga, this would be visualized by a gust of wind blowing the words off the speech bubble) If the target attempts to say a lost word, they are struck by a bolt of lightning. Lost words will return if the ability is deactivated or the user is defeated.

This ability is obviously very conditional, so it is often used alongside other stands to disrupt communication among groups of enemies. I imagine a fight against this stand would involve the protagonist group having to become increasingly creative with their communication as their vocabulary becomes Lost in the Winds of Notos

If I win I want the theme to be stands with practical/everyday abilities

Stand name: 「The Pines」

Reference: In The Pines/Where did you Sleep Last Night (appalachain folk song)

Localized: Georgia Pines

Stand Type: Bound

Description/ability: Located in northern Georgia, The Pines looks identical to an acre of dense pine forest. User Editha Kossoy is able to control the position of the trees within that acre. She is also able to control the position of the acre, but she is bound to it and cannot leave the boundaries of the forest. She can use this ability to disorient travelers by changing the path, and offensively by crushing them between trees. She isn't much for fighting on her own, so if you ever have to face her, remember that if the trees start moving, she can't be more than an acre away.

User Lore: born in a small Appalachain town in the year 1853, twin sisters Editha and Ellen Kossoy were once normal girls, daughters to a tailor and set to take over the family business. Ellen enjoyed collecting and studying animal bones, and one day Editha stumbled on a human spinal bone in the woods and picked it up, thinking to show it to her sister. She didn't know it was a bone of the Holy Corpse, and when she touched it, it jumped to fuse with her own backbone. She found herself unable to locate the town afterwards, trapped in the lonely pines for days. When she met a hunting party, two of their members were crushed between falling trees. The remaining member thought her a witch and quickly spread the news to the town. Somebody mistook her sister Ellen for her and shot Ellen through the heart. News of this reached Editha, and she has since spent her days in the woods wreaking vengeance on all travelers who pass through.

If I win I want the category to be folk songs

For context I live outside of town near people who own multiple acres of land. For further context, I have misophonia and react irrationally to noises that don't always bother other people.

Anyways, in the summertime around where I live you can ALWAYS hear somebody mowing on one of those bigass riding lawnmowers that are louder than the screams of the damned. The droning shakes the walls and sometimes full-volume noise cancelling headphones aren't enough to block it out.

And like I said there is always always somebody mowing their lawn around here from dawn til dusk. I swear they stagger their mowing schedule for maximum noise pollution. And it doesn't help that I have a neighbor who mows for *at least* twice as long as he actually needs to. (I know this by comparing how long it takes my lawn to get mowed) I think it's his happy place or something.

I cannot wait for electric lawnmowers to become mainstream because I don't know how many more summers I can handle. And it doesn't end when summer's over either, cause as soon as the first leaf touches the ground, out come the blower brigade clearing out driveways. At least that doesn't take multiple hours. Winter is the only good season here cause it isn't hot and it's actually quiet.

And don't get me started on how I hate multi-acre lawns in general. That could be a whole other post.

I'm talking about people who only use references of their characters made by other people. I've had a couple instances lately where I see a cool character design and then i look down and notice it was designed by someone other than the artist and i instantly lose interest.

I kind of get it cause you want your character to look really good so you get attacked a lot. But I also personally want to see your own style and your own designs and it almost feels like getting catfished when I see a really cool design I want to attack but it turns the owner has a completely different artstyle. Y'all feel me on this or am I crazy?

edit: I posted this last night when I was really tired and it came across as harsh to some people. I’m not trying to hate on those who feel like they’re unskilled or those who commission/adopt ocs. To me, artfight is about celebrating people’s unique styles and I really just want to see everyone thrive and grow in their personal ability.

Just curious if people are still using pools and if so what are they? I can't seem to find anyone posting about them in the last year so let me know if you still use pools !!

Saw some others doing this and I thought it was cool. My system has simple abilities that require a lot of creativity to use effectively so this will be a good exersize for me.

In the skies of Vallas, magic is cast by music. Music has inherent power because the Four Winds created the world through song. Echoes of that song ring out to this day. Some are able to harmonize with those echoes and wield the powers of the Winds.

There are traditionally four styles of magic, each named for one of the Four Winds, but each follows the same principles:

• magic can't create, it can only move objects forward through space and time (time can never be rewinded)
• Moving large things requires lower notes, and quick motion requires faster playing
• All abilities can be amplified if performed by multiple people
• Words/lyrics may be used to shape the action and make it more specific

With that out of the way, what are the abilities of musical magic?

West Wind/Spring music is used to accelerate growth, or can be focused into specific areas to heal injuries. Combined with the power of physical motion, this style is able to control the direction of growth, shaping it into whatever the player wills. The sound of this music is often pleasant, light, and inspirational.

South Wind/Summer music is a broad category which describes all motion through space. Nearly all spells use it to some extent. The sound of this music is strong, rallying, and percussive.

East Wind/Autumn music is used to accelerate rot and decay. While it is easy to use this ability on dead matter, it is much harder to rot something with a strong will to live. The sound of this music is dissonant, overwhelming, and disturbing.

North Wind/Winter music is able to freeze motion, preserving the exact location of something in space and time. The effect lasts for as long as a note is held. The sound of this music is slow, droning, and contemplative.

Another ability these all share is the power of words. An effect can be imbued into an object by way of a powerful musician telling a story about it that is so convincing that it actually becomes true. It can be as simple as "this arrow is loyal, and always returns to its owner for the sake of honor", or it can be a 12-verse ballad describing the functions of different parts of an automaton designed to haul lumber. Specific activation instructions can also be given, like saying a magic word or doing a specific hand motion.

That is all! Thanks for reading all that, Feel free to ask questions and comment with spells you'd like to see me give an explanation for.