Beauty seal entries 2017

edited February 2017 in World Library
Congratulations to the winners!

Show off your submissions for 2017!


Here is my honourable mention : 

Appearance:
a soft, fondant green tea Ouroboros cake served with mercury mint leaves
Dropped:
A soft, fondant Ouroboros cake is here, looking absolutely tempting.
Examined:
A teal coating of fondant with emerald shadowy details forms a loop,
defining the curvaceous shape of a coiling Ouroboros biting its own
tail. The fondant is beautifully texturised with thousands of floral
scales slightly dusted with emerald and beige hued sugar fragments.
Sculpted emerald eyes of sugary dust are set on both sides of the head.
The generous coating of fondant envelops deliciously soft and moist
green tea flavoured cake of a jade green. Carefully placed upon one side
of the cake are mint leaves faintly glistening with mercury while the
few others are dispersed on the sides of the dark clay platter engraved
with serpentine scales underneath the cake.
Consume:
Flaunting utensils, you neatly slice through the generous teal coating
of fondant, revealing the soft, moist jade cake underneath. As you carry
a first bite to your lips, you are overcome by the delightfully light,
soft and creamy texture of the cake which almost instantly melts on your
tongue. Closing your eyes, you languidly enjoy the luscious, fragrant
whirlwind of green tea laced with faint minty details and an
undecipherable mineral bouquet. Each bite enables new nuances to be
tasted and a flourishing desire for more. You delicately place branches
of mint leaves glistening with mercury within your open lips and savour
the cool liquid woven with the refreshing mint.
Smell:
You approach the cake and deeply inhale while closing your eyes. Sweet, delicate mint and green tea 
perfumes laced with a honeyed, faint metallic note overwhelm your senses, leaving you with a brisk 
desire to sate your hunger.
Taste:
Glancing right, then left, you break a small piece of the cake while no one is looking. You bite 
into it and languidly savour the sugary fondant mixed with bits of spongy, moist green tea cake, 
discovering its faint flavours of mint. The taste slowly fades until you are left with an insatiable 
hunger for more.

Comments

  • My honourable mention:
    Appearance:
    a glorious golden cup cake of the dawn
    Dropped:
    A glorious golden cup cake of the dawn has been left here.
    Examined:
    The vivid colours of the dawn sky swirl throughout the smooth icing that
    entirely covers the outside of this large cup cake. Atop the cake sits a
    magnificent golden globe of blown sugar, surrounded by many thin shards
    of shining, caramelised sugar. Varying in size, the shards protrude at
    all angles to resemble the sun's rays and golden honey oozes from where
    the shards have pierced the surface, dripping down the edges of the cup
    cake.
    Consume:
    You pluck the delicate blown sugar globe that resembles the sun and pop
    it into your mouth, barely letting the sugar melt upon your tongue
    before you take a bite of the cake itself. The caramelised sugar shards
    crunch between your teeth, while honey drips down your chin as a flood
    of the sweet, nectarous fluid flows from the centre of the cake. You
    take another bite of the spongy cake, the subtle taste of almonds and
    the sweetness of the dawn-coloured icing mingle upon your palate. Soon,
    the cup cake is gone and you are left with sticky, honey-covered
    fingers.
    Smell:
    The scent of honey and almond invades your sense of smell.
    Taste:
    You nibble at the cup cake, the taste of honey and almond mingle upon your tongue.

    The other two designs:

    Appearance:
    a delicate, white ethereal peacock cup cake
    Dropped:
    A delicate, white ethereal peacock cup cake has been left here.
    Examined:
    Large in size, this cup cake has been entirely covered in crumbling
    frosting to resemble the snowy grounds of the Ethereal Serenwilde.
    Perched high atop a mound of frozen whipped cream, is a delicate
    ethereal peacock, made from shimmering fondant. Long, elegant snow white
    tail feathers crafted from spun sugar extend up behind the peacock,
    curving over to frame its head. The only colour on this cup cake are the
    peacock's eyes, two tiny icy blueberries pressed into the fondant.
    Consume:
    You start by pulling a couple of the peacock's tail feathers from the
    cup cake, popping them into your mouth and crunching the delicate
    features between your teeth. You then take a bite of the cake itself,
    frosting melting upon your tongue, while the subtle hint of vanilla
    tickles your sense of taste. You pluck the peacock from its perch of
    frozen whipped cream, and finish off the cake, before gleefully eating
    the peacock whole. All that is left are crumbs of cake and crumbly
    frosting, clinging to your fingertips.
    Smell:
    The scent of vanilla invades your sense of smell as you sniff at this delicate cup cake.
    Taste:
    You take a small bite of the cup cake, the sweet taste of sugar frosting and vanilla mingling on
    your tongue.

    Appearance:
    a silver framed crystal gift box of half-painted koi
    Dropped:
    A silver framed crystal gift box of half-painted koi has been left here.
    Examined:
    This little, rectangular gift box has been crafted from clear crystal
    panels, held together by a delicate silver frame. Caught between the
    crystal panels of both lid and box are half-painted koi that have been
    exquisitely carved from wood and then painted in a variety of shades.
    Gold, green, silver, violet, blue, yellow, white and red, they lie among
    swirls of blue sapphire and bright turquoise that depict the waters
    these creatures come from. The inside of the box has been lined with
    soft velvet of deep midnight blue, creating the illusion of deeper
    waters from the outside, while obscuring the view of what may be inside.

  • Per the standard for me, no mention.

    Item: Teaset Type: Teasets Org: Artifice Designer: Tamsin
    Commodities: gems 250 diamond 250 moonstone 50 bluetint 30 faeleaf 10 redtint 5 silveressence 5
    Mortal Reviews: Allowed Container: No Can Have Lock: No
    IMPORTANT: The main noun MUST use one of these: TEASET, TRAY, SET
    Appearance:
    an exquisite glass teaset of Moon and stars
    Dropped:
    Resting upon a fragile glass tray of a fathomless blue speckled with diamond, an exquisite teaset of Moon and stars is here.
    Examined:
    The purest of translucent gems have been smelted together with flawless diamonds for a subtly iridescent sheen on the resulting glass that forms the base of this exquisite teaset. A delicate hand in the tempering has managed to swirl the glass with a deep, almost fathomless blue that resembles the deepest reaches of midnight skies. In the circular tray upon which all else rests, the colouring is focused in the centre and fades out as it creeps to the slightly upturned edges. Seemingly at random, specks of immaculate white moonstone have been scattered across the surface, and only close scrutiny reveals that several signs of the zodiac are represented. Dainty teacups fashioned from the very same tinted glass sit in a neat circle around the tray's circumference, each resting tidily upon its own matching saucer. Each saucer is similar to the tray, bearing its swirls of night hue directly below the small lip to hold the teacup centred and stable, and radiating out at varying rates until complete transparency is achieved at the raised rim. Rather than bearing their heavens in a central location, the teacups instead show patches of mismatched sizes at random, some bearing one large constellation across them and others two or even three. Every one is unique, their starry, opalescent patterns emerging in diverse combinations. Amidst this cluster of celestial teacups, a diminutive yet broad teapot takes centre stage, in spite of its fairly typical profile. Completing the breathtakingly fragile set with its construction from the same blue-tinted glass, the teapot has the expected swanlike spout and thin handle, though wispy curlicues add a touch of whimsy to the joints where the handle has been fused on to the body. Instead of the normal rounded knob atop the lid, a perfect glass moonflower provides leverage to open the pot, and the entire lid remains clear to view its contents with ease. Around one side of the teapot, the theme of the midnight heavens continues, with a smattering of moonstone-chip stars in no particular order. On the reverse is the captivating image of Mother Moon, her strong and beautiful likeness almost glowing against both the dark and the clear backgrounds. Piercing silver eyes draw immediate attention, followed by the lush smile of bright red. Her pale face is almost colourless in comparison, and the long, pale hair shown flowing freely about her face and shoulders is crowned by a silver circlet of moon and stars. One slim hand is raised and appears ready to cup the base of the teapot's handle as her eyes gaze off into an indiscernible distance.
  • edited January 2019
    -
  • edited February 2017
    Fyler said:
    Okay so maybe I'm the bitch who says it (and I can cause IDGAF I don't play, can't shrub this!), and I don't mean to take away from the talent of the designers who won, but let it be known I have no horse in this race. I looked at the winners, I read the designs, I formed my own opinions. The winners this year, and across the many many years I've seen, tend to be the same note, in that they lean really heavily towards a specific archetype of "beauty" and aesthetic. I will say I am fairly certain the reviews are anonymous. However, tea tables, gems, jewel tones, tea sets, clouds, stars, crystals, etc seem to make an appearance repeatedly. A certain theme always tends to win. This year, for example, are all heavily weighted towards a certain more archetypical "good" theme, as have most previous years. 3 this year mention gem stones or colors by name, which is not new. The idea of dark and subversive beauty appears to be pretty unpopular amongst the judges year over year. I know "beauty" is subjective, but I really do not believe Hallifax players, however talented they are (and they really are!) have such a monopoly on this type of competition despite how the results play out over and over. It just seems to me that in Lusternia, which is supposed to have a drastic variation in perception of beauty, only a certain type of it ever seems to place and win on a consistent basis. 

    My 5 cents. 


    Also congrats to the winner. Far superior designers than myself. My commentary is directed only towards more inclusiveness of styles of design this game represents. 

    I remember when I last played there was some Beauty controversy and one of the admin posted explaining that some of the admin who judge take the Beauty part literally and don't judge on writing so much as what creates the most evocative, beautiful image to them, and I think both approaches are valid. This was many years ago, so I don't know if it's still true, but perhaps that is part of it? There is no metric listing what the judges are looking for, so it's hard to say. Maybe that could be something worth implementing next year, to help designers know what things (sentence structure, lore relation, visual aesthetic, etc) are being looked for.

    Edit: Example of what I mean by a metric:

    Designs will be judged on the following:
    • Aesthetic appeal
    • Ties to lore and the world of Lusternia
    • Creativity
    • Cadence, flow and diction
    • Estarran flattery ;)
    And then judges rate each design from 1-5 or whatever in each category. Then you just tally the points for each design, at least to get the top ones to pick from. I imagine it would make things clearer for crafters and perhaps easy for the judges. Maybe they already do this behind the scenes!
  • Fyler said:
    Okay so maybe I'm the bitch who says it (and I can cause IDGAF I don't play, can't shrub this!), and I don't mean to take away from the talent of the designers who won, but let it be known I have no horse in this race. I looked at the winners, I read the designs, I formed my own opinions. The winners this year, and across the many many years I've seen, tend to be the same note, in that they lean really heavily towards a specific archetype of "beauty" and aesthetic. I will say I am fairly certain the reviews are anonymous. However, tea tables, gems, jewel tones, tea sets, clouds, stars, crystals, etc seem to make an appearance repeatedly. A certain theme always tends to win. This year, for example, are all heavily weighted towards a certain more archetypical "good" theme, as have most previous years. 3 this year mention gem stones or colors by name, which is not new. The idea of dark and subversive beauty appears to be pretty unpopular amongst the judges year over year. I know "beauty" is subjective, but I really do not believe Hallifax players, however talented they are (and they really are!) have such a monopoly on this type of competition despite how the results play out over and over. It just seems to me that in Lusternia, which is supposed to have a drastic variation in perception of beauty, only a certain type of it ever seems to place and win on a consistent basis. 

    My 5 cents. 


    Also congrats to the winner. Far superior designers than myself. My commentary is directed only towards more inclusiveness of styles of design this game represents. 

    I have to agree with this.
    I also designed different, more bloody things, when I started playing with this character. My choice of words or my way of designing did not really change but I shifted my imagery to more mainstream standards of beauty and this is when I noticed my items gained a bit more success. Maybe it has nothing to do with anything and I was more lucky lately... but it makes me wonder.



    Just as an example of how I shifted things around, here are two things young Alaksanteri designed :

    Appearance:
    a sanguinolent manuscript of the disfigured God Hajamin
    Dropped:
    As a rotting corpse, a morbid book lies on the ground emanating foul wafts of death.
    Examined:
    Flesh darkened with rot and disease has been sewn together with rusted
    iron threads to form this manuscript. At various places it is stained
    with sick green and dark burgundy hues, sweating and shimmering with a
    high concentration of infection. Clots of dried blood supplement the
    gruesome depiction of the fallen Golden One carved skilfully into the
    dead flesh composing the cover. His visage is twisted in absolutely
    intolerable pain and fear, mouth and eyes disproportionately large, as
    He is just about to be completely consumed. The greater and malevolent
    Lord Morgfyre stands tall behind the crying False God, features
    maliciously refined with raw voracity. Bound together by long rusted
    iron spikes that jut menacingly from the binding, the pages are solely
    composed of thinly polished reptilian scales, adapted to conserve
    ancient secrets within the manuscript. Affixed on the lower external
    corner of each page is a small dark crystal shaped into an opened
    serpent maw with long fangs. On the back of the codex, a deep emerald
    Ouroboros ingesting its own tail has been carved deep within the flesh
    with meticulous detail. Wide ruby red eyes gleam faintly with a dark hue
    and sharp fangs of dark crystal are voraciously driven into its lower
    body. The work in its entirety irradiates the air around it with an
    oppressive malevolence that seems to faintly absorb ambient light. 

    Appearance:
    a lugubrious dead pig mask
    Dropped:
    A lugubrious dead pig mask lies rotting the ground.
    Examined:
    This realistic pig mask made from dead flesh is of a greyish, dusty
    pink. Dark shades delineate the facial details, imparting to this mask a
    slightly malevolent appearance. Hollow black rings widen beneath the eye
    holes. A strong stench of death emanates from this mask and it can be
    noticed that the somewhat treated neckline still bears the traces of a
    violent slaughter. 
    Aww, these are so fun. 

    Avurekhos says, "Dylara's a PvP menace in my eyes, totes rekting face."

    The eye of Dylara materialises in your hands and flings itself around your neck, tightening incomprehensibly until it is irremovable.
    Perfectly clean, this eyeball has been wrenched from the socket of Dylara. It has been animated by some unusual force, constantly looking around itself as if in shock or fear. It is bathed in a light covering of white flames that roll endlessly over its surface. A single chain of empyreal metal pierces either side of the eye, allowing it to be worn around the neck.


  • Breandryn said:
    Fyler said:
    Okay so maybe I'm the bitch who says it (and I can cause IDGAF I don't play, can't shrub this!), and I don't mean to take away from the talent of the designers who won, but let it be known I have no horse in this race. I looked at the winners, I read the designs, I formed my own opinions. The winners this year, and across the many many years I've seen, tend to be the same note, in that they lean really heavily towards a specific archetype of "beauty" and aesthetic. I will say I am fairly certain the reviews are anonymous. However, tea tables, gems, jewel tones, tea sets, clouds, stars, crystals, etc seem to make an appearance repeatedly. A certain theme always tends to win. This year, for example, are all heavily weighted towards a certain more archetypical "good" theme, as have most previous years. 3 this year mention gem stones or colors by name, which is not new. The idea of dark and subversive beauty appears to be pretty unpopular amongst the judges year over year. I know "beauty" is subjective, but I really do not believe Hallifax players, however talented they are (and they really are!) have such a monopoly on this type of competition despite how the results play out over and over. It just seems to me that in Lusternia, which is supposed to have a drastic variation in perception of beauty, only a certain type of it ever seems to place and win on a consistent basis. 

    My 5 cents. 


    Also congrats to the winner. Far superior designers than myself. My commentary is directed only towards more inclusiveness of styles of design this game represents. 

    I remember when I last played there was some Beauty controversy and one of the admin posted explaining that some of the admin who judge take the Beauty part literally and don't judge on writing so much as what creates the most evocative, beautiful image to them, and I think both approaches are valid. This was many years ago, so I don't know if it's still true, but perhaps that is part of it? There is no metric listing what the judges are looking for, so it's hard to say. Maybe that could be something worth implementing next year, to help designers know what things (sentence structure, lore relation, visual aesthetic, etc) are being looked for.

    See that's what I was thinking, it seems the the beauty part is literal. So like in theory someone could have designed the most well written and crafted sickeningly ugly thing and that'll not win even if it could win a design contest for best designed. Maybe for future years you could make the contest one about a design theme?

    Like this year the judging criteria is who every can create the most grotesque item. Or an item that portrays the concept of "Violence" etc etc
  • PortiusPortius Likes big books, cannot lie
    @Breandryn, those socks make me think you should open a shop dedicated to pun clothing.

    On the whole judging thing: I assume it's like the library. Some gods have rubrics that they use, some don't, but there's no standardization. But you can look at older entries and find trends (hopefully from years with more or less the same pool of admin.) Look for trends, write accordingly. After all, there's no objective standard for aesthetics, but you can construct a useful standard if you do it relative to a given group's preferences. Know your audience, write accordingly.

    That having been said, I'm always in favor of standardized, public rubrics for competitions. I also like themes, more because I think that constraints can lead to a more interesting pool of submissions than for any concerns about judging fairness.
    Any sufficiently advanced pun is indistinguishable from comedy.
  • We have made a response to some of the concerns raised about the Beauty Seal here - please feel free to discuss things there, so that we can return this thread to being a home for the fantastic submissions from this year's challenge!
  • TremulaTremula Banished Quasiroyal
    edited February 2017
    Submission 1:

    a temarious toga of gelid white bindings

    Gems twinkle at passersby within a toga left to rot.

    Wrapped over the shoulder and around the opposite side of the body, exposing one breast but remaining securely in place as it tightly conforms to the sculpt of the wearer's ribs, this toga is a display of aesthetic beauty. Straying from the traditional, sheet-like appearance of togas, the silk hugs the wearer's body tightly to easily accentuate feminine or masculine appeal. Regardless of the sex of the one who has donned it, there is a large slit to expose much of the stomach, beginning vertically beneath the sternum and draping to snake behind the body, turning the exposure vertical. Underneath the navel, the strips of silk return to wrap around the groin and fully cover the wearer's private areas while still drawing attention to their upper, outer thighs and displaying long swathes of skin on their leg. Made to wrap around the limbs multiple times the five tails of this toga, when left unwound, would pool at the ground and trail with movement, while adequate spiralling around the legs and arms would draw the pristine, white fabric to hang just off of the ground. At the end of each tail, shards of diamond gleam coldly, attached by small chains of silver to dangle like icicles. Apart from these, the only discolouration or jewellery present on the toga resides directly over the breastbone, golden nightingale talons grasping at a midnight pearl the size of a grape. The dark, dusky blue of the gem seems to have tainted the purity of the silk surrounding it, tendrils of the beautiful shade snaking out like Tainted smoke, forever frozen in its attempt to transform the toga.

    Submission 2:

    a multicoloured sconce depicting the return of the Pyresmith

    Seven different coloured flames throw the Divine figure emerging from a sconce on the nearby wall into stark detail. 

    Delicate flutes of glass have been fashioned into ornate fire blossoms, making up the main body of this sconce. Each glass is coloured one of the different colours of the Sacred Pyres: violet, green, orange, light blue, yellow, pink, and red. A large cap rests on each, fashioned to look like the pistil and stamen while holding candles and allowing them to burn. Motes of fire essence have been carefully worked around each stamen, affording the delightful illusion of miniatures of the Seven Pyres emerging from each blossom. The stem of each flower is attached to a door of blackened iron, the base of which is attached to the wall. Emerging from its open doors, the Divine figure of Yomoigu, the Pyresmith, rises from among the faux-Pyres. The marble, iron, and gold, the Pyresmith is made of is lit from the perfect angle at all times, thrown into picturesque light by the seven candles to give the appearance of glowing with power and strength.
                          * * * WRACK AND ROLL AND DEATH AND PAIN * * *
                                         * * * LET'S FEEL THE FEAR OF DEATH AGAIN * * *
              * * * WE'LL KILL AND SLAUGHTER, EAT THE SLAIN * * *
      * * * IN RAVAGING WE'LL ENTERTAIN * * *

    Ixion tells you, "// I don't think anyone else had a clue, amazing form."
Sign In or Register to comment.