A featureless white canid figurine. It sits and stares at you with a blank expression and unwavering eye.

*places a small effigy into your hand* you have received an E1DOL!

E1DOLs are digital protector-effigies. They’re fashioned after the thing they protect. Guard your website, guard your forum signature, guard your favorite character, guard your heart.

If you’re lucky, you might find E1DOLs hidden around my site. You can adopt them by clicking on them :) but be quick, or someone else might adopt them first!

1CONOGRAPHY

Different traits change the meaning of an E1DOL.

Two E1DOLs, one grey and one blue. The grey one gently bites the muzzle of the blue one, a perfect fit in its mouth.

Pairs

Enemies. Lovers. Enemies-to-lovers. They are usually connected in some way and are meant to guard together, like pairs of 狛犬.

Standing

En guarde! This E1DOL is on alert. Or saying “hi?”

A placid but colorful E1DOL, laying down.

Lying

Obsequious.

An E1DOL mimicking a black cat. It beckons with its right paw.

Beckoning

Friendly guardian. Showing 招き猫-isms.

An E1DOL mimicking a cow. It stares at the viewer with an unflappable expression, its mouth an upside-down V.

Visible Mouth

Trying to endear itself to the viewer.

A wolf-like E1DOL. Its eye is carved up into a mirror image of itself, with several circular designs coming down from it. It raises its paw and bares its teeth.

Open Mouth

Watch out!

A reserved E1DOL. It turns away from the viewer and closes its eye.

Eyes Closed

Overwhelmed by true vision. Unwilling. Feigning sleep. “Just resting my eyes.”

An E1DOL made of clay. It has no features at all, not even an eye. Three fluting holes are carved into its back.

Eyeless

Watching through other means.

A porcelain E1DOL turns its head away from the viewer. It is decorated with blue floral motifs, but its chest is cracked. Despite this, it looks pleased.

Head Reversed

Willing to look the other way. This one has a merciful sense of justice… or just took a bribe.

A disfigured E1DOL. Its body is normal, but its head has been severed, causing its likeness to glitch and degrade. Its abstract eye is replaced by an unblinking human eye.

Headless

“junk” E1DOL, unable to guard. Purpose defaced and unfulfilled.

View more ▶︎

1NFO

can i make one

Absolutely. Ground rules:

Don’t sell the unedited base.
Don’t use it to hurt others.
Do gift and regift with reckless abandon.
Do get paid for your time (adoptable sales + commissions OK!)
Do go crazy go stupid.

Download Base (PSD) ▶︎ Download Lines (PNG) ▶︎

i got an E1DOL from you

Excellent. Here’s some of the things you can and can’t do with it:

Don’t sell an E1DOL given freely.
Do gift and regift with reckless abandon.
Do resell at the original sale price (if purchased.)
Do edit, trace, remix, repost, repeat as desired.
Do link back to M0R1BUND.com if you want to give credit (but you don’t have to!)
Do enjoy your weird little digital facsimile :)

Questions? Contact me.

1ore, do they always come with… 1ore?

Yea, if you want. You don’t have to listen to me though ✌

Okay but why

E1DOLs are inspired by figurative effigies that guard something or perform a service, like the terra cotta warriors, haniwa, shishi, maneki neko. keep out the bad and welcome the good. they embody some of my feelings about orientalism and cultural estrangement as a japanese american woman, so I think of them as “plastic shishi” (lovingly) because they’re like knockoffs of knockoffs, cheap replicas of the real thing. there is no deeper meaning to their iconography, it’s all cryptic nonsense. they don’t have any power… but aren’t they cute?

A meme in three panels. The first panel shows several old-school shrinkwrapped dinosaurs becoming oil. Maybe not 100% accurate of the process, but you get the idea. The text reads: "And yet a trace of the true self..."

The middle panel shows the oil becoming refined into colorful plastic bricks, like legos.

The last panel shows those plastic bricks becoming cheap plastic dinosaur figurines. The text continues: "... Exists in the false self."

I also made them to scratch an itch that petsites and gameified original species do. you have a digital companion animal that accompanies you and protects you, does activities with you, watches over your forum posts, stuff like that. My favorite thing about these communities is that it’s easy to make someone’s day by surprising them with a little guy. I like to make little guys to give to other people, but I also have a brain that gives up on superfluous tasks if there’s too many steps involved. Sometimes I want to make little guys, but the process of submitting them, getting the right currency for them, grinding for them—even tiny steps can prevent me from acting on my whims. E1DOLs are my way of lowering the barrier to entry by placing the bar… on the ground, hahahaha.