LoneShadowStar's Commission Hole

As I said before, my most consistent commissions involve Sothe and Astrid from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

Sothe and Astrid are my personal favorite Tellius characters, but I didn't actually ship them until around my first commission. Beforehand, I didn't really think much of Astrid other than that she was Makalov's simp (I had only played Radiant Dawn at the time and only knew THAT version of her character.) Meanwhile, Sothe was always a personal favorite since he's actually very similar to how I am in real life, but at that time I had shipped him with Micaiah, before I knew all the... questionable implications about their relationship. Even now, I don't think Sothe x Micaiah is an INHERENTLY bad ship, I just don't like all the implications that it comes with.

My first exposure to the idea happened when in around 2022 or so I came across some random fanart (WARNING: NSFW) of Sothe and Astrid on Danbooru that some Japanese artist had made over 20 years ago. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I just figured it was some crackship the artist had made.

Then I played Path of Radiance using Dolphin Emulator and came across their supports. That's when everything changed. If you haven't seen their support conversations, they are probably some of the best in the entire game. It shows a new side to Sothe and reveals a lot about Astrid's character (in ways that I personally can relate to), and is overall a very sweet and wholesome interaction. For the first time I began to genuinely like them as a REAL couple, and that's when they became my absolute favorite ship. I've loved them ever since.

I think you can probably guess from here, but the reason I began commissioning them so much was because there was very little art of them to be found anywhere, which I took upon myself to change. I also floated around and commissioned a few other things on the side in my second year (2024) before almost completely committing myself to Sothstrid in 2025 to the present day. Now, while Sothstrid is still a fairly obscure ship, I think my commissions have done a lot to boost its popularity. It's also allowed me to be more creative in these past few years than I have been in all 25+ years of my life.

ANOTHER ship I'm particularly known for, though not as much as Sothstrid, is Sonya x Atlas from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Atlas and Sonya don’t have any supports in Echoes, so I’d completely understand if you’re confused why they’re together like this. However, I always felt that if they did interact they’d have an interesting dynamic. Both of them have siblings that they care about (Atlas has his brothers, and Sonya has Marla and Hestia), and both are willing to go to great lengths to protect/rescue them (Atlas joins Celica to go after Grieth, while Sonya tries to find a cure for those turned to witches, including her sisters.) I definitely feel like Atlas would be sympathetic of Sonya trying to “save” her sisters because of this.

Another thing is their personalities: They’re pretty much the exact opposite of each other (Atlas is a rough-and-tumble villager, while Sonya’s a more elegant sort of person who hates brute force), which I think could create even more fun interactions. For example, a part of me feels like Sonya would be the first person to develop feelings for Atlas, maybe something minor like thinking he’s cute, and then gradually flirting with and teasing him. On the other hand, Atlas would be too dense to realize Sonya was flirting with him at first, but eventually begin to develop feelings for Sonya as well, which would cause him to act more and more nervous around her.

It's honestly a lot harder to come up with ideas for these two compared to Sothstrid, since they have no supports or any canon interactions to build off of, though I do have several of them that I hope to express some day. One of my favorites includes a headcanon that Sonya personally protected Atlas' brothers because she sympathized with them (they reminded her of her sisters being kidnapped by Jedah). I might even create a fanchild like I did with Estelle.

My first commission of them was in 2024, AKA the second year of my commission run, which ended up being unexpectedly popular despite the two of them never interacting in canon. I guess there's something hot about a muscular woodcutter and a sexy mage getting their mack on.

As my commission reportoire grew, I started thinking about having an archive of some kind so people could see them without needing to scroll through my Bluesky or Reddit account.

My first attempt at this was with Wix, but that service only allows about 500 MB of storage for free users, AND it's based in Israel (urgh) which my anti-Gaza Genocide ass could never allow. Thankfully Yoostink-san was kind enough to lend me this template that he uses for his own commission site, and I am forever grateful for that.

My future plans involve possibly commissioning/writing a Sothstrid doujin, which of course would be way more expensive than the vast majority of my comms. I may also start commissioning M!Edeleth (Edelgard x Male Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses), as that was my PREVIOUS main ship during COVID or so.