I am sure by now many of you know that on the 23rd of January 2021   Arakaraath has passed away by unknown cause.

Even though a bit of time has passed by now, I am stil as devastated as the moment I saw the journals of his passing pop up on FA. I could not believe it, I so hopped it was some stupid misinformation, some horrible prank, but no. It really happened. He just seemed to have passed in his sleep.

I cannot recall how I found it, but I fondly remember reading his webcomic 'In a perfect world' , which you can find here.

http://iapw.southernweyr.net/comic/.....-writers-block

I was fascinated by it. It was funny, it was cute, it was just...what I needed. It must have been around 2008 or 2009 that I found it, and I kind of wanted to contact the artist of it to simply thank you for them sharing this comic with us, and tell them what an amazing work they did. Yet it only was a kind of silly idea back then, nothing that I took seriously.

You have to know that this was really in the early stages of me being in the furry fandom, where I was stil battling with myself really, of what I wanted to do there and which way to go. Heck, I even had this kind of subconscious thought that I was not really allowed to contact this artist. You see, my Autism (yes, I am on the spectrum) kind of forced me to only to paths that others have walked before, or if I get a specific permission to do things. But who could give me permission in this situation? So it never happened then, I am not even sure if I had an email address back then allready. And there was also this kind of issue that in my mind, he was a well known artist, revered and admired by many, while I had a quite bare gallery at this point, so kind of thought 'Why would he even want to talk to me?' . So yeah, that was my thought process at the time.

But I slowly wormed myself into the fandom and found the art of   Whippet , who I am pretty sure found over Ara's art. He was one of my earliest contacts on FA. He and me noted back and forth a few times before we started chatting on MSN Messenger and then later Skype. This we did for several years. Then I think I kinda mentioned to Whippet how much I loved Ara's comic and the art he posted on FA, and he was like 'Yeah, he is not just a friend but my mate, we chat quite often, wanna say yourself to him how much you like his art?' I am paraphrasing here btw, because I cannot recall all the details anymore. But this was kinda how I met Ara online in 2013.

He was and stil is to me a truly wonderful person. Never judged me once for anything I said or did, always there for advice or just words of comfort, and yes, also a RP here and there. And over the years, this grew more and more, until it kinda happened. Where he adopted me into his Furry-Family and I could call him my draconic father. He helped me grow and thrive in this community. Without him, I now would not be this person that is more self-assured compared to myself a decade ago.

I complimented him everytime when he posted a new piece of art, which was more rare these days because of his work and real-life stress. And yes, I hoped to be in one of his artworks one day too, yet I never asked for it, never pressured him, as I never ever wanted to give him the impression I only befriended him because of his art. If he would draw my sona, it would be when he was ready for it.

And he did then one day, first as a gift for my birthday, a portrait of my sona. And then he was so super-sweet to include me in this lovely family Xmas picture, which was truly a breath-taking surprise for me.


I could say so much more here now, yet nothing could could fully express my feelings for him, or my gratitude towards him, or pay enough respect to him as a person.

So I simply want to say

Thank you, Arakaraath. Thank you Ara, my dragon father. Thank you Adrian Maus for being this amazing person.

Until we see each other again in the far future.