Ulu'Lania's Trial

Excerpt from “Sara’Nayde – To Be Free and Wild”, and origin story of her ascension to goddess written by Jsk244.

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As the ships all sailed out of port and took up stations a few fair distance away, Sara’Nayde walked back into the hall and grabbed herself one last mug of grog to down and warm up her body for the battle ahead. Rolling out a barrel of the stuff, she offered it to the Goddess, who laughed a deep belly-rumbling roar of mirth at the offering before teasingly bending over at the waist to pinch up the person-sized barrel. Carefully tipping the little shotglass of drink down her throat, she tossed it away before swinging her hammers together in front of her to emit a powerful metallic ring. The echoing noise travelling across the seas as electricity began to spark around her hands and travel up the metallic shafts, and then down over her arms to jump to the six floating mega-cannonballs still under control of her power. Sara’Nayde, without her usual weapons due to the earlier flex of the Goddess, simply held out her hands and let the water in the fountains nearby surge up and wrap around her waist. Lifting her a bit higher into the air, she grounded it with copious amounts of salt she had carefully lined up by the doorway of the feast hall when getting her final drink and began forming tentacles. The image of a kraken forming above and behind her, until she changed strategies and instead made it like a jellyfish in design, with her in the central sphere of water. The construct only grew up to around 100ft in height, the water at the top of the island limited for now, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before she could draw upon the ocean for more.

There was no signal to the start of the fight, merely a moment when both were done preparing and charging their first strike. Sara’Nayde shoving two tentacles together into a drill, while Ulu’lania fired the first of her stolen shots with a tremendous blast of electricity. Thunder and lightning began to rain down on the island, the seas growing rough and rising up to aid its summoner. The earth and rock of the landmass buckling under the strain of two titanic combatants, which in turn gave the underdog of the match even further ammunition to battle her divine opponent as her construct became coated in floating boulders. Yet for all that she pulled out the Raichu was prepared, and their battle only grew in intensity and fervor until a thunderstorm raged overhead and blades of water poured over the area like a tropical hurricane.

The official accounts of the battle declared it to last a day and a night, though many more claimed it lasted for days with pauses to eat and drink. Nobody returned to the island, so thoroughly smashed by the struggle that it soon sank beneath the waves forever. The Age of Piracy would continue, a new port of call eventually rising in the seas nearby, yet if it was manned by a mortal or Goddess nobody could say. Nobody knew who won the battle, Sara’Nayde becoming a living myth that few would see after that moment. But her story would inspire many to strive for a full life, one not bound by the whims of the divine nor the ruling of others. To do what was right, no matter the cost, and to stand firm in their beliefs as a new age arose across the globe beyond what had already been changed in but a single sea, by a single woman.

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Originally requested by Jsk244, we have this scene that I made inspired by a piece he wrote telling the story of how Sara’Nayde the Samurott was recruited by the divine system to be a warrior goddess via the titan Ulu’Lania the Alolan Raichu.

Ulu’Lania appeared before Sara’Nayde to offer her the position of godhood after she single handedly toppled a corrupt military power on an island using her divine like power that coursed through her body. Sara’Nayde refused the offer, not wanting to be put under the command of another. Not pleased with the defiance, Ulu’Lania challenged the tiny mortal to a battle to decide the outcome.

No one knows how the battle actually unfolded but we can see today that Sara’Nayde did indeed join the ranks of the divine.

As for the picture itself, I took inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End at the Maelstrom Battle. It really pushed what I knew as an artist further than I thought I could do up to this point.

After finishing this, I sincerely felt to myself that I am finally becoming the artist I always dreamed of being. THIS is the sort of quality I want to make in art. I very proudly present this to you all!

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Done as a sketch on paper, scanned in, and painted in Photoshop CS5.