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malrie · 2 months

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tldr: ummm we never will see how strong the demigods get bc according to lore they’ll be even stronger in adulthood

aka a very long piper charmspeak ramble …… it’s come to this.

one thing my suspension of belief has worked hard day and night fighting for years is the fact that demigods in pjo attract monsters especially when young because they’re weak enough to be prey to them. fine. that’s ok. but something also that is true is that piper & leo both grew up to age 15 which even hedge mentioned was extraordinarily old already for demigods not to have been disturbed (hera’s hold on leo aside) kind of means monsters scented them to be extremely strong even w/o training or awareness, something that never even happened to any other demigod. that is ok too, they’re part of the seven whatever.

secondary to this is the fact that when demigods grow up, specially greek, they leave camp to try to live their own lives in the mortal world and can do so freely bc it’s implied they are strong enough monsters leave them alone/can fend for themselves. notably all done solo - ignoring the random crack celebs mentioned in demigod diaries. that is also fine. who cares. there are allegedly grown up/possibly elderly demigods (not legacies) in new rome. we don’t know them. ok.

EXCEPT this just opens up the door to the other implication that a demigod’s growth over time never really plateaus until much later in their years - meaning the kids in hoo now in teen years are nothing compared to their powers when they’re actual adults. and we won’t ever really see how the powers will develop.

since the seven are already above and beyond the cream of the crop in terms of abilities, what comes next has to be refinement (been a sec since reading hoo so ignore if these have been explored already lol): leo being able to control fire outside of his own body - which goes for other elemental-control types like percy with his water (do not mention bloodbending to me ummm copyright..) or jason (rip) with his lightning.

there are loads of reasons why nico & hazel within lore and also past canon can’t just cheat death but still so much within their death-related power can be pretty flexible. hazel earthbender metalbender truther btw. reyna’s power strengthening probably gets even crazier too. annabeth… love u baby girl go be megamind and be free.. frank can turn into a dragon. um that itself was crazy ig but i just can’t think of the furthering of shapeshifting so im gonna be quiet on him.

and let me SAY SOMETHINGGGGG. this is a piper mclean “joining the war on piper on the side of piper” blog. okay. but consider the fact that she CAN charm monsters and minor gods/sorceresses (medea specifically) and obviously the biggest contender being a whole titan. all before the age of 17.

i read the burning maze only ofc lol and one thing that struck me was that at that point in the narrative shes been charmspeaking for maybe 1 year?? max? and there was the one scene where she used charmspeak on 3 grown men before they went on caligula’s boats and she sort of half-fainted because she wasn’t used to doing that many people. and additionally this is a sometime after gaea. so where is the meter of growth here?

her power is not an elemental one (percy, leo, nico) or self-affected (frank, annabeth). funnily enough it might be closer to reyna, whose powers affect other people (can she power up herself??) and maybe a magical one that’s pretty freestyle like hypnos/hecate. but those seem to have guidelines and levels of known power too.

this is all coming from me just having reread the very first scene in mark of athena where piper was practicing her words to the roman’s and annabeth, just overhearing a little, felt compelled already. piper can control her power/enhance it, but isn’t shown in canon to even think if it affects others in her vicinity. also maybe doesn’t even know the depth of the effect.

past the age of 18, when a greek demigod is implied to move out bc they’re strong enough already not to need protection, piper would have evolved her charmspeak past all her past feats already. with the others, their limits seem pretty clear. hers isn’t?

here are the rules i feel like she has in canon: she can’t command inanimate objects or things/beings that can’t hear her period. huge crowds like the scene in new rome (brick jason scene) were difficult to control. but again, she can compel more than three mortals as of the maze book. so if with age she could charmspeak to a larger masses that would be pretty believable, even if difficult. say that she can’t make someone do something out of their own power, like asking a mortal to do a demigod feat. it still leaves a lot of open room there.

so even theoretically, she can touch a lot of realms of power here, not even in the vaguer way a hecate kid might. can she compel river gods/naiads into moving water for her? other elements with spiritual reps? can she ask the dead to come back to life? is that even in her scope? she wouldn’t do any of these things obviously, since it flies into a moral panic a little. can she ask someone to go mad and crazy and they will? i just said she couldn’t do inanimate objects, but what if that only excluded inorganic matter? can she ask a seed to sprout?

i say ask but she never has to ask. she just needs to speak. now imagine that at her peak ability.

if she can barely control charmspeak slipping out when she was a teen in the hoo books, I genuinely don’t know how she can walk around as an adult without anyone hanging onto every single word she says. or maybe bc she’s older she can control it much better, but it still implies refinement on a scale she never grasped canonically.

ignoring the greco-roman tragedy that is the tlh trio, writing her out of the narrative (and concurrently out of the world of demigods) like riordan did is kinda crazy because you’re just gonna let a charmspeaker run around like that?? haven’t you watched gen v….. oh wait.

i don’t want a time skip in riordan’s 84th random ass spin-off series that’s not what im saying at all.. I just want to speculate on my own.

piper is lucky enough to be surrounded with masses of people who love her, so she isn’t ever in danger of ever becoming an antagonist. remember how even hazel gets mad at jason’s coffin when he dies and “leaves piper”? or annabeth’s first thought when jason dies is how sad she is for piper. mellie & hedge also choose to move with her. the list goes on. she is a top priority.

what really strikes me in how we last see piper is that she has a support system enough to be satiated to never need to come back again to the demigod world. jason got cremated in new rome and she wasn’t at the funeral. leo is off god knows where. she’s close with annabeth, but they don’t have to be at either camps to be close.

what im getting at here is how much of piper’s relationships with people and their protectiveness over her is her power spilling out versus real connection. that is so nasty of me to bring up ofc bc piper is theeee girl and all but imagining the fallout of her realizing something to the effect of her influencing people very close to her without her knowing.. she could retreat further. that’s fully speculation though. no need to panic..

conclusion: piper’s powers hadn’t reached its peak in canon and may never have a real cap to her abilities unless there’s extensive trial and error well into her adulthood. no matter the outcome, she may not even want anything to do with the demigod world anyway.

disclaimer: mentioned some canonical rules here but also haven’t reread the entire hoo series in many many years I might be offbeat and wrong. ooopssss..

sorry if u read all this I can’t give you your time back. i am writing something abt this though. or sorry again if that turns out to be a lie cuz I don’t post it. well.

#hoo #piper mclean #IM NOT FREE FROM THE HOO CHOKEHOLD it’s been over a month… but I need to get it off my chesttttt #I feel like a buzzing bee in hyper speed…..#long post 9283

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felassan · 3 years

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Thoughts on Dark Fortress #3

(This post is under a cut due to spoilers.)

There’s a lot I thought/wanna say about this final issue, to the point that it’s hard to know where to start!

The cover art is.. beautiful. The symbolic allusion between Shirallas and the dragon (his draconic-y claws, the semblance of a broken collar falling off in the same way, the fire) 👌 On the whole, lined up side-by-side the three covers of Dark Fortress feel really thematically cohesive. Shirallas’ and the dragon’s claws echo Tractus’ sharp metal gauntlet, and as well as the similarities between the dragon and Shirallas, both Tractus and the dragon have a circle of weapons, and the patterning encircles Tractus’ neck and wrists like the collars and shackles. Y’know, like you can just really tell the cover artist planned ahead and put a lot of thought into how the 3 cover arts would ‘flow’ from one to the other, blending elements between them.

I posted some of my fav panels here.

I knew he was my boy but Shirallas’ backstory broke my heart ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` ) the first panel is so bleak and heart-wrenching. the burning aravel parts.. another Dalish clan met a terrible fate.

I wonder if his clan wandered Tevinter like Clan Oranavra? it makes me wonder if Shirallas and Fenris met in Tevinter. It’s nice to see that another clan took him in. And if Shirallas is a name he took, not his original name, I assume it has a special meaning, maybe to do with his quest for justice/vengeance. Shiral means journey, “allas” is found in vallas, which means set, as in the sun. The “vallas” in vallasdahlen (life-trees, planted in remembrance of those who dedicated their lives to the Dales) means life. in many ways the sun and life are the same thing, and there’s the obvious connection to Elgar’nan, eldest of the sun. So journey/quest - sun/life? Like since the loss of his clan he’s on a journey/quest for the rest of his life to get justice/vengeance, which are attributes of the sun god Elgar’nan? that became his life’s purpose and his direction of ‘travel’ ever since his loss, what he dedicated his life to since then. :’(

Elgara vallas, da'len. ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )

This is our first look at the vallaslin application process, no? what Shirallas is saying in this panel is the Song to Elgar’nan. it’s interesting, in that that prayer kind of resembles what happened, or almost happened, in this issue. a fortress shaken, fire, winged death (a dragon), pretenders to power, “strike the usurpers” (“Red Wraith, dispose of my enemies, kill the traitorous mage”). pretty cool right?

⬇️ me two months ago, look at the tags in red brackets.

oh my son.. Dalish father roams, and the Dalish son won’t survive the fight ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )

the panel where Fenris and Shirallas shake hands ;; to which experience is Fenris speaking of, I wonder? once upon a time he saw Anders almost lose himself in his own quest for Justice/Vengeance for the mages.

Parallels between Shirallas succeeding in proving himself to Nenealeus and when Fenris succeeded in proving himself to Danarius all those years ago - compare. ;__; an elf surrounded by bodies of people he’d killed to prove himself, and a horrible Magister telling him “well done”.

I love the design of the sword and its use as a ‘divider’ on the first page splitting up the panels is both smart and beautiful. even here there’s pink light around it, the dragon’s fire

overall I wasn’t expecting this issue to begin with flashbacks to Shirallas’ past and backstory, so this whole page caught me off-guard

omg look at the red lyrium ‘veins’ under Shirallas’ skin. when he emerges from the sarcophagus that is a very cool picture of his face

Nenealeus has been taking beard-styling advice/trends from the dwarves

check out the sword crackling and reforming as Shirallas makes contact with it. is the red lyrium under his skin moving in this scene?

in the panel of Vaea running away from the dragon, it’s nice that as she runs Fenris is still behind facing the dragon, to protect her

gorgeous background in the panel with Marquette, and his expression is one of Regret for what he just did and for his part in all this. the dawning realization that I’ve Fucked Up Big Time

as Nenealeus’ weapon is a sword, does he have some Knight Enchanter-adjacent skills (I don’t expect the actual KE artform is exclusive to southern Circles only)? it’s a physical item ofc, not a summoned one. staffs are infused with lyrium to provide a conduit for a mage’s power. so then, mages can channel power through other [presumably similarly-infused] weapons too, not just mage staves/staff-like magic implements or their bare hands

given the color of Nenealeus’ magic and the fact that the dragon was under the control of his magic, it now makes sense to me why the dragon’s fire is that color! o:

Marius is badass (nice touch that his shoulder is smoking pink with the effects of one of Nenealeus’ magic attacks here) and the four panels where everyone’s grim and determined, facing off against each other and Venatori goons made me feel quite emotional. Aaron is Team Dad.. it’s nice to see him having a friendship / paternal moment with Francesca both acknowledging her pain and power while also giving her a pep talk. You can tell when he says too “We all need to do whatever we can in this moment” that he’s talking about himself too and may already be thinking one or some of them aren’t going to make it out of there

Francesca GO OFF!! she’s so powerful, and it’s really cool every time seeing her plant magic in action. it puts in perspective how powerful Velanna would have been with her similar skills (skills like Thornblades), and I enjoy the contrast of the fire in the background and the blue/green of Fran’s magic in action

Fenris is so cool-headed in high-octane combat situations, quickly taking stock, assessing and realizing the odds then coming up with a plan. the look on Vaea’s face when she’s like >:( wtf u can’t just leave is cute

cool pulled-back bird’s eye shot of the Fortress

Karasten continuing with the sass about Tevinter even during a siege

Fenris speaking Qunlat! I love that they brought this lore fact into play and had him make use of this skill, it’s a neat reminder of Fenris’ exchange with the Arishok if you take him into the compound in DA2. in the opening-up the gates scene, Vaea’s worried about letting the Qunari in and going to the Qunari (from her expression), but she trusts Fenris and his judgement enough to open the gate and see what happens

I like that Tessa’s bolts are fletched the blue of her accent color

chills at the panel where Shirallas is walking out of the flames advancing on Aaron. Ser Aaron, who never retreats, not at Ostagar, not now ;__;

the battle-scenes are beautiful, fast-paced and gory, chaotic and colorful, like it would feel to be there

Fenris then puts himself between Aaron and Shirallas. I could hear “I will deal with this Red Wraith” in my head

Autumn can look so scary. a true mabari warrior! when she leapt towards Shirallas I was Stressed for her safety despite knowing rationally that they wouldn’t kill their dog!

the horizontal combat splash page is awesome

CLEVER GIRL Autumn. she and Fenris are in sync in this sequence.

Shirallas serving super saiyan vibes with the bulk, strength, hair

Fenris bargaining for Fran’s life and then trusting her to use her magic as part of the attack on the Red Wraith

lmao Ser Aaron

smart thinking Fran

Aaron praising her ;__;

Marius was straight-up prepared to die to stop Nenealeus ;__; poor Tessa in this exchange

the face-melting scene 👌

“Ah, Marius... I knew it would come down to the two of us”: this panel is just really cool? Nenealeus looks almost congenial here, which makes him seem all the more colder and more dangerous. and the burning bodies strongly remind me of the bodies at the start of Inquisition which are at the ‘blast point’ of the Breach at the Conclave

when Marius and Vaea’s eyes meet and they formulate the backup plan 👌

nice to see ‘staff’-less magic in action. Nenealeus is clearly a very powerful mage. when he’s frying Marius he has Star Wars Palpatine and force lightning vibes

OH VAEA... you did it, but my heart hurts that she had to kill someone for the first time, even though it was foreshadowed by her discussion with Marius in a earlier issue. & Nenealeus’ look of surprise as he dies says it all

it’s a serious moment but Marius now looks like a cat that stuck its paw in a socket hh

when Nenealeus is doubled over dead, it’s a great panel- the white background taking us out of the chaos that’s going on all-around for just a moment, showing the seriousness of what’s just transpired for Vaea and the realization of it setting in. a pause, the shock. & it’s nice to see Marius being soft with someone other than Calpernia or Tessa

but despite what’s just happened Vaea is still Vaea, she’s concerned about life and immediately wants to save the dragon. I like the part where panels of Vaea and Fran ‘face’ each other as they have this discussion, a lot.

in the moment that it takes off, does the dragon realize Vaea is responsible for saving its life? the ‘eye’ panel feels like an acknowledgement from it, or between the two

Fran’s magic destroying and sinking the sarcophagus into the ground reminds me of what in-world lore says happened to Arlathan, in a way

omg they have to stop Shirallas before he gets over 9000

do you think when Aaron says “We cannot retreat” he’s thinking of Loghain’s retreat at Ostagar?

at this point btw I’m pleasantly surprised that Marius survives, I had sort of expected him to die in this issue

oh Marquette, curiosity killed the cat dontcha know

new lore just dropped: the Red Wraith is able to heal from any wound, which is notable, and he and the sword have a.. symbiotic relationship? with each other. “He feeds energy to the sword from the red lyrium in his veins. And in turn, the sword heals his wounds.” What are the lore implications of this? Just what is red lyrium capable of?

Paragon Branka reference! and later on a Black Marsh reference

:’( As soon as Aaron launched into his story at this point my stress levels went through the roof and I knew it was Time. and then - well. you know :’((( Aaron had death flags in previous issues, so I was logically prepared and not surprised by the occurrence (this isn’t a bad thing btw), but I still wasn’t EMOTIONALLY PREPARED

mfw

nooooooooo.... It was at this point everyone that I burst into tears.. i have never Ugly Cried at a comic before so that was a new experience.. It’s hard to put my feelings about this into words bc rly it just straight-up destroyed me, u know.. Vaea’s “Don’t leave me”, Aaron’s tears when he knows the deed is done, his pendant.. surely the resemblance between the way he looks on this cover and the way he looks in the panel when he’s falling and Vaea is shouting “Aaron!” is intentional. i’m just destroyed okay

On the next page, holes in Shirallas’ shirt where his wounds were before they healed is a nice touch. Autumn’s bite here must surely be shattering the bone in his lower leg. then as if i wasn’t in enough pain already - being separated from the weapon, did that bring Shirallas back to himself for a while? His “Friend?” and the look in his eyes when he looks up at Fenris is so pitiful :’( for a moment just before the end he’s the boy in the wood surrounded by his burning clan again. RIP Shirallas son, we barely knew ye but I loved u :’(((

Having Marquette escape is a smart choice, it means there’s someone still kicking around Thedas who knows what happened here and what went down. maybe we seek him out in the next game when trying to follow up on the plot-thread of the idol/red lyrium/its capabilities/Venatori/Qunari? anyway, can’t help but admire, in a fashion anyway, someone who dips out to save their own skin, and his attempted grift when he’s talking to Tractus x)

we hadn’t seen the last of Tractus indeed. there he is! “This is me, crying over our loss” - he’s such an edgy boi

THE IDOL

“Oh, you mean this idol?” feels like they’re breaking the fourth wall and deliberately teasing us x)

when Fenris says “[stay clear of it] Red lyrium can do things with your mind” I wonder if he’s thinking of his experiences with things like Bartrand and Meredith

started to cry again at the final Aaron scenes ok.. when it pans back to Vaea and Autumn on the shore with the dying Aaron, they look so small and lonely set against the backdrop of the gray rock, windy shore, jagged outcrops. it’s a beautifully poignant and incredibly forlorn backdrop for this scene. Autumn in these panels, and again the parallel between Aaron lying here and him on that cover page.. ;; the whole scene is raw and gutwrenching. even in death Aaron was thinking about Vaea, apologizing that she had to take a life, outlining his hopes that she continues to have a positive future and doesn’t descend into any kind of darkness. the fact that all this time he’s carried around a letter addressed to King Alistair in his pocket, to recommend that Vaea be knighted, the fact that he’s crying too, the pendant, the tenderness between them, how proud Aaron is of Vaea, the fact that he goes out telling a story and smiling because he’s so proud of her, here at the end Aaron is filled with pride and looks at peace.. i can’t ( ok i cried again on this re-read when writing this post, Dad Stuff is the ultimate way to get me ok.. don’t look at me _(°:з」∠)_ )

Vaea IS more than worthy. I’m so glad someone recognizes that and sees it in her. King Alistair WOULD knight her, and there’s a beautiful poetry in that fact as the son of an elf. there’s also something poetic in that, if Vaea becomes the first elven knight of Ferelden, well it echoes the Emerald Knights of old in a way. that’s beautiful. I’m very proud of Vaea.

Here we see another parallel - when Francesca is comforting a crying Vaea as her father figure passes away, it directly echoes when Vaea comforted Francesca when she was crying after her own father died.

Aaron’s hometown of Portsmouth is a real place in England

I’m happy to see Fran and Autumn continuing to travel with Vaea, and Fenris continuing to keep his promise to Aaron to keep Vaea safe, and that Cassé is now Fran’s horse (that’s a lovely touch considering she healed him in Blue Wraith, a full-circle moment)

Fenris is right, they were family. soft supportive Fenris, with emotional intelligence ;; (and he of all people knows about Found Family)

the last panel of Vaea crying is beautiful too, the sun is rising in the east after the terrible night they’ve had, and the ‘faded’ rectangles is a great style/composition choice

even Cassé the horse looks sad

the scene of Fran and Vaea riding double with Fenris smiling in the background is super cute, and I love that the last we see of the party is them honoring Ser Aaron by telling stories like he did, of his exploits. I hope they always tell stories of Ser Aaron ;;

I’m glad Tessa made it out okay, she’ll be able to return to Charter. 💜 I was a bit worried this wouldn’t be the case

the last page DBKGRRGRKRKGREKF

Pour one out for Ser Aaron Hawthorne of Portsmouth, Knight of Ferelden.

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A recap on wider plot-points

The Qunari Antaam have taken control of Castellum Tenebris, and Neromenian has fallen to their advance.

The sarcophagus is broken and has been buried deep in the ground. Francesca asserts that it won’t be found.

The Inquisition agents retrieved the broken shards of the weapon, and are going to take its remains to the shadow Inquisition.

Tractus Danarius is alive and in possession of the idol, or was at the timepoint of this comic. He wants to use it to impress the Venatori remnants so that he can rejoin them. Marquette thinks, or said that he thinks (could easily be a bluff or his lack of knowledge about it compared to someone like Solas), that it doesn’t work anymore. (I’m leaning towards it does still work, otherwise why would Solas be interested in it?)

Solas, in what looks kinda like his most recent DA4 trailer gear, was watching the events of this series/arc the whole time and knows what happened. He knows Tractus has the idol. None of the people in this comic plot are “People Solas doesn’t know”. And it seems that he is able to use eluvians to watch people.

There’s a chance that Tractus Danarius is the mage in Tevinter Nights, from Dread Wolf Take You - the mage from House Danarius who went with some slaves to Nevarra to use the idol to perform a ritual with the Mortalitasi. That mage wanted to change the world to help fight the Antaam’s invasion. In the tale at least, he used the idol, a rift opened, the Dread Wolf popped out and killed him. At the time of that ritual the idol was still working.

+ some new lore -

the Red Wraith was able to heal from any wound, which is notable, and he and the sword the idol created had a.. symbiotic relationship? with each other. “He feeds energy to the sword from the red lyrium in his veins. And in turn, the sword heals his wounds.” What are the lore implications of this? Just what is red lyrium capable of?

eluvians can be used to watch people. not just to communicate over long distances or as portals between places

Lastly I don’t know what to do with myself anymore as this is the end of a long-running DA arc and was the final piece of [currently-known about] new canon Dragon Age content that we’ll get.

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dark fortress spoilers #dark fortress spoiler #dragon age #bioware #fenris #spoilers #spoiler #dragon age: dark fortress spoilers #dragon age: dark fortress spoiler #the Fenaissance #feels #gpoy

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murfeelee · 4 years

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TS4 Werewolves - Rant Alert

I got this one comment that sent me off on a whole tangent, so I decided to reply to it separately.

slade-the-neko replied to your photoset “The Wolves:This world is slowing down How can I fight it? How can I?...”

Dang Murf, that's very impressive! Really makes me wish Sims 4 had werewolves. I'll definitely try porting the Skyrim model to TS4 if they ever add them.

Y’all know TS4 is my trigger -- wtF is EA even doing over there? That Tiny Living Stuff Pack was a JOKE, like....seriously? o_O For as much money as they’re swindling y’all for TS4, EA’s Sims team is creatively BANKRUPT. ZERO innovation, intuition or inspiration.

EA just takes popular concepts/crazes like the Tiny House Movement, Baby Yoda, and Harry Potter, and waters it down to the barest of minimums: tiny homes with huge AF Murphy beds instead of bunk beds or convertible futons/sofa-beds; a decorative Baby Yoda you can’t even interact with; no school of magic sims can go to (and no magic for kids YET). I’m so tired of them!

People keep comparing RoM to TS1′s Makin Magic, and I keep going WHERE? I said in my initial trailer reaction for RoM that it made zero frikkin sense for the RoM magic land to have that perma-nighttime full moon, without even bothering to have werewolves in the so-called realm of magic.

RoM would’ve been the PERFECT chance to add werewolves. What better way to have a magical pack than to also introduce werewolves as the local denizens of Glimmerbrook’s forests. Missed opportunity, EA. (－‸ლ)

They could’ve added a werewolf household living in the woods, that your sim either befriends or gets bitten by, so your sim goes to the Magical Realm to either find a cure for lycanthropy (for the werewolves or for THEMSELVES if they’re bitten and are gonna turn in a couple days), or wolfsbane poisoning if one of the wolves is made sick by the brand new harvestable Wolfsbane *cough cough!* (Wolfsbane comes in the Vampires GP, but they could‘ve totally made more types of Wild Wolfsbane, Yellow Aconite, Purple Monkshood, etc.).

Either one would give your sim a REAL impetus and incentive to go learn magic and talk to the RoM residents and mess with potions & alchermy. Which is another reason I said (I’ve BEEN saying) I wanted HEDGE WITCHES, who could do HERBOLOGY. U_U

The RoM Game Pack NEEDED to be its own Expansion -- it wasn’t a realm at all; it was a Diagon Alley ripoff and everybody knew it. HELLO, EA! Part of worldbuilding is creating a EFFING STORY that gives your game a FRIKKIN PURPOSE. EA didn’t go the distance at all; they did the mere basics of adding magic to TS4, with a lot of style but not much substance. But ironically they did the same with the mermaids, which did get their own EP, and everyone agrees that TS4′s Island Living was worse than TS3′s Island Paradise, so wtf. (－‸ლ)

But I doubt werewolves would get their own Game Pack like the Vampires & Spellcasters -- EA would do Faeries/Elves before wolves, I suspect, cuz faeries are in a sense easier. Wings, mushrooms & flowers, glittery magic, LOTR-esque art nouveau inspired furniture, etc -- everyone knows the standard faery.

But if TS4 werewolves got a pack all to themselves it would force EA to effing give a crap about lycan culture & lore, and the complexities of things like pack dynamics (alphas, betas, omegas, etc), moon cycles, transformations, lupine physiology & locomotion; diet & hunting (adding new flora & fauna), etc.

While heavy in gameplay expansion, with werewolf-specific abilities, interactions & animations, what other stuff could you stuff into a werewolf stuff pack? Y'all saw how in TS3 the Supernatural EP didn’t give wolves a single bloody thing other than their CAS stuff -- for build/buy mode wolves got ZILCH. We didn’t get busted furniture or shattered windows or blood splatters or more fur patterns -- NOTHING. Everything in build/buy mode was for witches & faeries--all wolves could do was tear the crap up with their claws.

And even their CAS stuff was lackluster - no hairy skins, makeup or tails, but we got body hair & face sliders, claws, fangs, etc.

I like TS1's werewolf design from Makin Magic the most, since their heads/skins looked like wolves.

TS2′s was the biggest downgrade in terms of the LOOK of werewolves, in that it was just a skin.

If EA does do wolves for TS4, I’d hope they make it so the werewolves look like effing WOLVES. At least let them turn into animals, like the ones in TS2 PETS. (WHY TF was TS2 the only time Sims had ACTUAL magical pets!? >_< TS3 has dogs! TS4 has dogs! DO IT ALREADY.)

youtube

Considering the cartoony PG13 angle EA insists on keeping TS4, I don’t imagine they’d EVER make wolves look like @camkitty2’s amazing werewolf mod at MTS:

And certainly not the scary Skyrim werewolves that I converted.

Or even the ones from EA’s other property, Dragon Age (which are effing ugly, IMO).

(The ugly anthropomorphic bipedal version, btw, not the more wolf-like version.)

TBH, If TS4 did werewolves at all I BET YOU MONOPOLY MONEY the template EA’d use would be a lot like Bigby Wolf’s design from the Wolf Among Us video game:

Bigby goes through 4 phases, from man to gradually being an actual wolf in his 4th phase/Final Form. His 3rd phase has a face that not really wolf-like so much as Jekyll/Hyde; beastly enough that you pretty much know Oh that’s a werewolf they’re doing, without it actually looking like any animal.

It’s big and scary with muscles & claws & hair, but cartoony enough that it’s not drastically different from a regular sim. EA’s wack enough to pull something like that, rather than going the extra mile to give us the kind of Skyrim-esque werewolves many simmers want.

Or the full-shift magical WOLF that I personally want.

Don’t get me wrong; Bigby has a great design for Wolf Among Us, made by AA developers Telltale (who do The Walking Dead video games). But Electronic fArts is a AAA developer, with billion dollar budgets, massive teams & bookoo resources. But by god EA’s the laziest AAA company around; just the kind of twats to do AA level work with AAA finances, as we’ve seen in TS4 and TS3.

Bigby’s 2nd phase is basically what TS3 did for werewolves, with the scrunched up brow/nose, pointed ears, hairier face, etc.

This kind of werewolf design is fine, but it leaves A LOT to be desired, especially if it’s the only form you see in certain werewolf franchises. It reminds me too much of how Teen Wolf makes werewolves -- basically as hairier vampires from Buffy (which makes sense). But come on EA, go the distance; go FULL WOLF SHIFT or go home.

In Eastern Europe werewolves ARE vampires/witches -- they’re connected to nature magic, druids & wicca, neopaganism, etc: magic runes & symbols, stones & metals, scyring, bonfire festivals (having Celtic holidays would be so cool!), enchanted woods & nemetons & ley lines, the effect of moonlight on water #TuckEverlasting style, shamanistic sacred animal totemic power and such. Tap into that tribalistic Slavic, Norse & Celtic lore on werewolves, EA, you effing COWards!

In TS1′s Makin Magic and TS3′s Supernatural, witches and werewolves came in the same pack, and had gameplay elements tied to each other -- in TS1 it’s the Beauty & the Beast charm that magical sims can use, and in TS3 werewolves can be used as witches’ assistants to Gather harvestables/collectables used in alchemy potions. So for TS4, having werewolves in RoM would’ve made SO MUCH sense. Hell, they could’ve fit into the Vampire GP, too -- why was wolfsbane even IN that pack? o_O

So if TS4 adds werewolves, I hope they add something NEW to the lifestate, and do more research into other portrayals & iterations of werewolves.

Everyone knows about Norse Berserkers (were-bears), but less attention is given to the Wolves of Odin, the Ulfhednar/Ulfhedinn (werewolves). A lot of Nordic neopagans are into them nowadays.

A werewolf GP would make it so EA would have to flesh out werewolves -- if they live in the woods, give them woodland build/buy mode CC. Let them live OFF THE GRID as technophobic naturists, cuz electronics like tvs, PCs & radios hurt their sensitive eyes & ears. They could be more modern, sure, but it would be so much cooler to have sims who only use well water and hot springs and compost toilets and woodfire ovens.

Bring back hobbies/skills like bone/woodcarving, gem cutting, basket weaving & looms, soap/candle-making, pottery, horticulture, tree-cutting/tree-hugging, animal husbandry (could you imagine werewolf shepherds? XD), sparring, (arm) wrestling, boxing, hunting, bird watching and more. Basically: fullblown medieval-rustic hunting lodge aesthetics: animal pelts, antlers, mounted taxidermy, COME ON, EA, stop being boring!

#replies #Realm Of Magic #the sims 4 #TS4 #Electronic Arts #more like electronic farts #EA you suck #like wtf #RANT ALERT #sims 3 horror #sims 3 werewolves

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crystalbluesoul · 5 years

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Alright, I wrote a whole damn frigging lot of the Naglfar Lore to one bud on Discord and will share this here. Look at this, @CApexHunter on Twitter and be amazed! Major spoilers for a thing you’d never hear about otherwise unless I’d actually get my ass up and start making it a novel, game, VN or whatever goes.

A few select people I know might be crazy enough to actually read all this nonsense, so this is for you too:

@aftertheend-gamedev @johnny-writes @soulwitch

Also you @yukianesawarachia get your lore straight.

It’s a pretty rough summary about the most important parts up to the start of the main story, so don’t get your hopes up if you want to read about elf hierarchy (can be sorta found here), a summary of internal politics between more influental royal families, happenings that were deemed too insignificant to be relevant or the history between state and church, principles of magic and catalysts and basically everything not named until now you’ll be severely disappointed.

Alright, we're talking the world called Naglfar. It's a planet, however follows the hollow earth principle which is important, but also a massive spoiler. A planet with its own immune system, regulated through both atmospheres, outer and inner one so to say.

[Idiot’s note: Not a reliable map but correct for visualisation.]

Scattered throughout the Overworld are the World Trees, which share information and help keep the planet's condition stable, being interconnected but also regulating said atmospheres to keep a balance. Their roots make up quite a bit of the inner landmass too.

[Terranigma, which used a similar principle with the hollow earth.]

Millions of years ago a meteorite struck and penetrated the outer husk, latching itself onto the world’s core and gradually darkened it, the underworld's sun. With it came a being carrying a virus, taking the antibodies of the planet and corrupting them which lead to the creation of even more of antibodies. Feel free to call me out for Chrono Trigger btw. Congratulations tho, we now have what I lovingly call "AIDS-earth". Lots of World Trees naturally fought for balance, but soon their roots were taken by the corrupting nature of the invader. Only a few managed to cut off their roots themselves to stop their own corruption, but most started to die from within, sapping the land surrounding them of Mana and nutrients, that's how they collapsed and crumbled further towards the core and with time the darkened atmosphere of the underworld came through.

[Ash Lake from Dark Souls, which ignited my World Tree ideas.]

That's what the situation today is like, there's only a handful continents with World Trees at their centre today, surrounded by a massive cliff with a black fog at its visible bottom. There's various human factions deciding over the future, given the chance the crumbling will continue unlike the past few 100 years. Should they just stay like this? Should they look for mechanical flight machines? Should they look for a magical engine? Or... should they research the fog and prepare for a life within that bottom?

[Fanart of the Zeal Island from Chrono Trigger. There’s a chance kingdoms like this already exist but keep to themselves. Damn, this image goes from pinterest to photobucket to shutterstock, so I’ll insert a source if someone can tell me.]

There's various local groups of descendants from other lands which were affine to some options, skilled technicians or mages, but that's that for the current group. Here the rules are different too, aside from natural things we are used to, there's also a portion of mana in soil, air, water, heat, you get the gist. Elements. These elements have largely influenced the life of people, if you live in caves for generations you become smaller and sturdier, magma caves bring fire in, which reverses that for bigger and stronger. Places filled with water, perpetually recycled from the tree, and fresh air from forests attune the people and animals to make them more receptive (and basically elves). Animals in time could become monsters, sometimes humans had relationships with whatever they could find and so various subbreeds and variations came into existence. Humans fuck. Animals fuck. Things do weird things. Some genes are more compatible than others, so sometimes results are rather random even after generations. Yuki has an OC biologist who's researching this, makes it quite fun. Aside from the biological view, there's also the theological view. Angels and Heaven, as well as demons. Though there's.... not yet really a hell. Heaven is purely ethereal and lower angels are sent for their mission on earth sometimes.

[Humans fuck.]

Heaven came to exist from faith and prayers of humans, praying for certain things with certain images in mind became lower deities, sub-'specialities' so-to-speak created a hierarchy with an "all-powerful" god at its top, but no one really knows about that. Likewise demons came into existence from the fear of mankind. Stories of men and women sucking blood or directly your soul and whatever else the human mind can produce. At least that's the true demons who became concepts similar to the deities. There's offspring here too (because everything fucks), but they're not true demons anymore so w/e. Our main-story follows a trio of knights in what I call different things, but most commonly... let's say the "reset"-timeline. But before that, let's go through royal hierarchy! ...or at least the most basic thing.

Aside from sending angels, the heavens chose certain bloodlines to hold their power and bring peace. If you've played the new Fire Emblem: Three Houses you've heard of crests, it's basically that funnily enough. I had the idea first, pah!! Well, it's not much of an idea, but let's continue. There are four major crests, or as they're called here "gifts", with their given nicknames: The Beast - Inconceivable power The Dragon - Unwavering heart The False Prophet - Unending magic The Wish - The power of the royal bloodline For the wish, this story is a bit more intricate too, as some people are granted their wishes for their piety or pure prayer. It plays a major role in the story too, so you better remember that.

[Indeed inspired by biblical tales! But don’t question me on them please. It has ties to what happened between religion and state, hence the names.]

In the original timeline, the three knights. Daryll, the one carrying the Gift of the False Prophet Siegmund... turning out to carry the Gift of the Dragon Nyr, turning out to carry the Gift of the Beast Are currently completing a final test for knight school and are soon to be deployed to a remote village they've been to alot for missions. Protecting citizens, routing monsters and undead in the area, pretty basic stuff. But in a larger skirmish Daryll goes missing, Nyr and Sieg turn back to report. In the meantime Daryll has joined up with the undead boss, a scientist who wants to prepare humans for life below the dark fog. They carry out a number of stuffs, promising Daryll the fulfilment of his innermost wish... This also included killing some people but Daryll is determined. His desire burns bright and won't stop at anything, even when Nyr and Siegmund ended up opposing him. Siegmund died preventing their battle and Daryll ended up slaying Nyr in battle... but went mad, realising that this will only distance himself from the fulfilment of his wish. Upon confronting the undead Boss, Albert, he was discarded and roamed the lands alone with his thoughts.

[Best boy.]

It took Daryll a few years to come clear with his conscience, which is when he picked up Kai, a girl from the orphanage in the village he was first stationed in. Along with other people, a resistance of people not fine with basically everything, they fought Albert and the army of turned people which was established in the past few years. However soon they'd find out that Albert had taken energy from the World Tree to reach his goals, which weakened its influence and allowed beasts from within the Abyss to reach their lands, as well as continue the rate at which the continent broke off. In a last effort Kai and a few people went to steal what could still be salvaged while Daryll and the rest of their resistance keep Albert from further destroying the continent and becoming the, maybe, first man in the Abyss.

...however the Resistance is pushed back and Kai returns alone, deadly wounded and with... the Seed of the World Tree in her hands. Dying in Daryll's arms, he takes the Seed from her and confronts Albert, activating one of the ultimate spells by accident, the Divine Nova, which... is where the original timeline ends. I wanted to leave the ending open, but best case they manage to grow a new tree, but even then there's hardly anything to build up from... but mankind will push on.

[Yes, Divine Nova is basically a small Supernova. It’s also called “Heaven’s Gate”, since it’s light alone can probably burn something. Also looky here.]

In truth this Divine Nova brought the last bit of energy the heavens needed to perform a 'reset'. You could say a time-altering spell which brought us back to the point of before the test/trial the three knights underwent. Only this time, a few people were made to angels and sent back, to alter the outcome for the better. Niamh and Caireall, who are both reincarnated from Kai, who internally wished for a protector, a big brother to care for her, similar to how she came to love Daryll in her lifetime. And Shou... a girl with false memories, implanted by the heavens to keep her psyche from collapsing. Daryll, who in his final moments wished for all to start over, overcoming his original wish which lead him down his path of madness... which was funnily enough granted on a whim. Instead of going report, Shou, at this point calling herself Susan meets up with Nyr and Siegmund and convinces them to go after Daryll instead, this is where the story begins I could go into detail for some family trees here, but I'm beat up... If you'll excuse me, I'll post this here to my tumblr for now in hope of receiving internet points.

[Me walking into freedom.]

#Naglfar Drabbles #outofempathy

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dungeonecologist · 5 years

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WILD ARMS 2 - Golgotha Prison

The name is not subtle, but the reference itself is actually oddly superficial. At the end of the dungeon, Ashley is separated briefly from the party and Lilka and Brad are captured and tied to crosses, evoking the characters Dismus and Gestas, the thieves crucified during the same execution as the biblical christ. There is little reference to that actual narrative however, instead seeming to draw from the fact that the name Golgotha is taken to be an epithet to mean literally “A Place of Skulls,” which seems rather appropriate and obvious for an execution field.

Bookending the start and end of this dungeon, we fight the boss monster, Trask. First in a scripted “loss” and then in a solo match with Ashley’s new dark henshin hero form, the “Grotesque Black Knight,” Knightblazer.

“Trask” is yet another transliteration* issue that comes from the juggling between languages. It actually comes from the Tarrasque, another monster most readily identified from its appearance in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, itself originally taken from semi-obscure French myth of Saint Martha of Bethany and the Tarasque of Tarascon.

*(I realize I use this word a lot and it might not be as common use to others. A “translation” lifts meaning between languages; a “transliteration” is to lift written characters between them. Example: “Left” in English translates to 左[the direction] or 残[what remains] but transliterates to レフト. Inversely 左 and 残 both translate back to English as “Left” but transliterate as “hidari” and “zan” respectively; and レフト transliterates back into English as “refuto.”)

Surprisingly, the Wild Arms 2 design (which would also go on to persist as the core design throughout the rest of the Wild Arms series) is based more on the original myth than the D&D representations tend to be: While the end product looks nothing like the depictions of the Tarasque of myth, it retains the spiked turtle shell, the prominent dual horns, poisonous quality, and fins on its head here account for being “half fish.”

Also of note is that the title card identifies it as a “Dragonoid” and it has various metallic and machine-like features. These details are neat because it positions it as being not-quite a dragon, to work around a fact that will pop up much later: That dragons in Filgaia are extinct. And also to play into the fact that Dragons in Wild Arms are semi-mechanical lifeforms.

In any case, our scripted loss to Trask the first time around ends with the team knocked out and imprisoned in what appears to be a disused execution ground and associated holding cells. In our escape we run into monsters fitting the theme, who appear to be natural inhabitants, rather than guards put in place by the Odessa terrorist soldiers who are actually holding us here.

First up is the Wight, a classic undead warrior monster generally taken from D&D, but with a little more behind it than you might expect. The term Wight in English lore actually traces back quite far as an archaic term with little to no real association with monsters. The real intersection with name and subject comes from an early English translation of the Nordic Grettis Saga; In it the zombie-like creatures now better known as Draugr were referred to as apturgangr (lit.”againwalker”) but were translated as Barrow-wight. (lit.”[burial-]mound person”)

This may seem an odd choice, but the translation came at the hands of the eminent bookman William Morris. I say “bookman” because he was not just a prolific author of prose and poetry, but a pioneer of the revival of the British textile and printing industry. He and his wife, Jane Burden, did extensive arts, craft and design work in book and print design, book binding, and wall paper all stemming from the intricate design of modular and tiled printing blocks and stamps. Oh and he translated various works of epic poetry and myth into English, including old Roman epics, French knightly romances, and of course Norse sagas. (all of which he wrote and published what was basically fanfiction of, btw)

His seemingly erroneous “translation” of the Barrow-wight came as an attempt to reflect a comparable agedness to the name: Rather than translating from old Norse into modern English, he chose what he thought a suitable old English equivalent; “Barrow” referring to pre-christian Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, and “Wight” meaning “thing” or “creature” but often used disparagingly to refer to a person. The nuance there is actually quite clever, as the old Wight referred pretty exclusively to those living, even if it didn’t specify by definition, and that uncertainty or contradictory kind of implication uniquely fits a description of the undead.

This term would be picked up by J.R.R. Tolkein for use in Middle-Earth, retaining their lore and function from Norse legend to describe undead warriors. And from there you can follow the usual chain of influence to D&D, where the shortened term Wight really solidified itself as synonymous with the undead, and eventually down to Game of Thrones, where George R.R. Martin cleverly brings the whole thing back around to old risen bodies of northern warriors, not unlike the Draugr of Norse myth.

Anyway in Wild Arms 2 we get some sorta death yeti ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next up is the Ghoul, which I think we all know is a pretty generic term in modern parlance, but it’s specific origins date back to pre-Islamic Arabia. It entered into English via translations of the original French translation of 1001 Arabian Nights, where it appears in one story as a monster lurking about the cemetery devouring corpses.

The Ghoul identity as a corpse eater quickly broadened into flesh eaters, and the association with lurking about graves in turn marked them as undead themselves until eventually the term became loosely applied to any variety of undead, including the thrall of vampires, supplanting the flesh of the dead with blood of the living and achieving a truly far removed meaning. Even in modern Arabic the term now broadly applies to any number of fantasy monsters.

And so long as we’re dabbling in pop culture transplants; the Arabaian word Ghul is in fact the same used in the name of the Batman villain, R’as al-Ghul, whose name/title has always been erroneously translated as “Head of The Demon.“

I have no idea why it’s a chicken with a mohawk but i love it

And finally the Bone Drake. I don’t know that this one actually has any real specific lineage...

“Drake” is generally a synonym for dragon, although there is some case of fantasy semantics where different settings will try to define distinct body types of dragons each with their own name, in which case Drakes are often either dragons which simply don’t exceed a certain size (generally no bigger than a non-magical animal such as a dog or a horse) or a wingless variation of whatever the setting’s prototypical dragon might be. I don’t know for certain, but I think this distinction in modern fantasy started with Tolkien’s wingless fire breathing dragon, Glaurung, and its offspring who were referred to as fire-drakes.

In any case, the specific term “Bone Drake” Doesn’t seem to appear with any visibility prior to Wild Arms 2, which leads me to believe it was just their name for a generic bone dragon-like creature. It does make for an interesting companion, aesthetically, to Trask being here, although there don’t seem to be any implications that Trask lives in this dungeon at all. Other than just being an obvious combination of cool fantasy things, it may also be pulled from Dungeon & Dragons’ Dracolich/Night Dragon; an undead (often skeletal) dragon raised from the dead, often by their own necromantic spells, hence the term “Lich.” For whatever reason they are oddly reminiscent of shield crested dinosaurs like the Triceratops or Styracosaurus.

The attack Rhodon Breath doesn’t tell me anything either. I think it’s just meant as “Rose Breath,” translating the “Rhodon” bit pretty literally, and references the smell of roses being present as a funeral, or else the palor of the faded pink color also called “Rose Breath.” There is some apocryphal reference to a Rhodon but of no significance that I can tell.

Clearly the theme here is death and the undead, and with some small stretch on part of the Wight, we could even say skulls all befitting Golgotha’s “Place of Skulls” epithet. It’s a really neat way to build this dungeon, albeit a little on the nose. But I really like the idea that the dungeon appears to be abandoned and now haunted by all these reanimated corpses and bones before the villains arrive to use it for their plans. Oddly there isn’t much of a martyrdom theme here, although we’ll get plenty of that a little later once we recruit our second magic user, summoner, christ figure, and perfect beautiful boy, Tim Rhymless to the team...

Anyway we get out, we fight Trask for real. Ashley turns into a saturday morning superhero. Trask gets solo’d. And we all just kinda move along without asking too many questions... Although the game dialogue describes this new form as a “grotesque black knight” the sprite work, 3D model, and even original character art don’t really convey much in the way of “grotesque” but in the context of the tokusatsu, henshin hero elements it’s not too hard to imagine that the design was meant to evoke a similar aesthetic to gruesome suit heroes like Guyver, Kamen Rider Shin, and Devilman. I do love the gill/tendon-like organic vent structure in the pauldrons that stay. And although it’s not visible in any of these images, but the D-Arts model has an exposed segment of vertebrae between the shoulders; that along with the teeth(?)/ribs on the open chest panels really helps bring out more of the “grotesque” quality of the design.

#Wild arms 2 #jrpg #psx #ghoul #wight #dungeons and dragons

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jeanjauthor · 5 years

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Writers? This is the artistic version of a short story.

Artists...?

...WHY??

So...many...questions.

A lot of this breaks what writers call “the willing suspension of disbelief.” It’s where the audience is willing to overlook implausible things in order to keep following the story. At some point their credibility has a limit, a breaking point where their ability to suspend and ignore their disbelief will snap, like hanging a thread from the ceiling, and then putting too much weight on it.

Some of these weighty questions include:

Why is she "standing" like that? She looks like she's sitting on an invisible stool!

Why is her cloak/sheet still bound up like that if she's been fighting long enough to get her sword bloodied?

Why is she so pristine when the wyrm corpse is clearly freshly arterially injured??

Why does she have no shoes and pristine feet when she’s clearly touching a bloody corpse?

Why is the tag end of her cloak/sheet...thing...whipped up under one leg and over the other when she’s been chopping up a monster and now has to fight another one?

Again, why is she so clean??

There are so many WTF questions...

What is she sitting on?

If she’s not sitting on anything, how is she supporting her weight in that position?

She’s not being supported by her feet, that’s for sure--is she seriously en pointe with her left foot (the one on our right, visually)?

And the one on the left (her right foot), if it’s resting at a 45-ish degree angle on a corpse so freshly butchered it’s still spurting, how is it she’s able to keep it in place when it should be slipping out from under her by all the laws of squshy meaty blood-filled things?

Where is the missing V shaped wedge of that tail? Look at the angles on those two cut ends; there is clearly a whole big fat wedge of flesh that is missing! If there wasn’t, that tail would literally have been an L shaped structure with the cut angling on the diagonal down into the corner, and that is just disturbing to contemplate...

...Where are the arm bones in those dragon-wings?? Seriously, that is disturbing, seeing the thin metacarpals and phalanges (the “finger bones” of wings if you look at wings as nothing more than elongated & weirdly angled hands) ...but not the arm bones...so where are they??

...Now this isn’t to say the picture is all bad! The concept is actually a neat idea, looking like a cross of Lord of the Rings meets all those hedonistic Renaissance paintings of the Ancient Greek mythos. And it would be 100% correct to mix mythos like this, as the Renaissance painters were doing that all over the place, mixing Greek mythos symbology into Biblical art, and vice versa (all of which was fan art, btw).

The streaky effect of the Nazgûl is wonderful, though I’d like to see a bit more tattering (along the same diagonal upper left to lower right lines) on that right side of the Ringwraith fellow, there.

The Ringrwraith even seems to be bending the airwaves around and above him, with the effects of the clouds sort of streaking in toward that bright spot in the sky above and behind. It makes it look like the halo is sucking in all the Light before fleeing into the West, or trying to suck the Nazgûl off the face of the planet to hopefully disinterate its evilness out of existence...

The bright part of the sky also kind of looks like dragonbreath fire, even though the Fell Beasts that the Nazgûl rode upon aren’t evern mentioned (as far as I can recall) as being able to breathe fire like dragons. So that’s another point of coolness.

I have no idea what’s going on anatomy-wise of the presumed fallen and chopped up Fell Beast, but at least some effort has been made to provide it with a (weird) internal structure. If it really is a Fell Beast and not meant to be a dragon or a wyrm, then I can accept the odd anatomy and darkness of the...I’m not sure if those are bones, but I’m presuming that it has some bones in its tail, and if it’s a foul abomination style creation, I can accept the creator had no clue.

I do like the crispness of the woman in focus versus the Nazgûl who is equally clearly not in focus.

Certainly the woman definitely looks like a Renaissance painting of a Greek Mythos Action Sequence! She’s in a classic serene, poised action pose that no doubt has some sort of supporting stool & armature behind and under the original model for her to rest her arms upon.

The symbology of Shield Maiden of Rohan certainly gets the first two components of that descriptor down visually: for the first part, she has a shield (lovely round thing, very Classic Greek Hero With Spiffy Expensive Metal Shield), and she definitely is using it to shield herself from something. (Plus the sword.) The other part of the symbology is the “modesty sheet drape” under one thigh (gotta show off them nekkid thighs, Renaissance foiks!!) and up over the other, between the legs, blocking off any view of or access to the mons pubis...aka, shielding her maidenly modesty.

However, there is zero sign she’s from Rohan, because there’s zero symbolism representing Rohirrim culture...and the key element to Renaissance pictures of various cultures’ mythos were that they were rich with symbolism. The Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, were emphasized over and over as horse people.

Tolkienn also cribbed the Scandinavian culture for his descriptions of them (I suspect the Golden Hordes of the Russian Steppes, heavily influenced by the Rus folks who were Scandinavians who had moved east and mingled with the Mongolian Empire remnants who a little earlier had moved west. The Greeks knew of the Scandinavian peoples (no, really, they knew of them! Electricity is actually just the Latin word elektron (which comes from a similar-sounding Greek word I’m not going to bother to spell correctly), which meant amber, as in the petrified pine pitch being shipped down through Europe from the Baltic Sea in the far north, which is surrounded by Scandinavian countries.

Yet there’s no signs or symbols of Scandinavia about her, no knotwork animals, no amber, just pale blonde hair (which frankly could be representative of the British Isles or partial albinoism)... So while there’s a lovely Greek Mythos in Renaissance Paintings feel to her...it falls short of being a true copy/homage, which is unfortunate. It could’ve been so easily fixed, too, with a bit of knotwork braiding painted onto the cloak/sheet thing.

I will say that the folds of that sheet are spectacularly well painted, lovely depth and dimensionality to them!

Same goes for the condours of her body, and the tail of the wyrm. I fully believe these are three dimensional objects!

The lighting is beautifully done. Admittedly if the light is coming from that glowy bit of the sky behind the Nazgûl, she should be in shadow...except he’s a Ringwraith, and it’s 100% acceptable for light to go through him, since according to cannon, they’re not fully corporeal. This is a “plot” point where fans who know the lore are more than willing to suspend disbelief.

I’m not a rabid Tolkienn fan by any means, but I do know enough to accept that Ringwraiths are wraiths, and not fully of the physical realm. Plus, Greek Mythos Heroes in Renaissance paintings are supposed to be Bathed In The Light Of Holy Goodness, sort of an inner aura spiritual goodness radiance-effect, I guess...? Either way, it’s symbolism, it indicates visually that the Light (Good) will shine through upon Heroes (& Heroines) when they are being their Most Heroic...and it’s very well done.

(...Another question if that’s her helm on the ground, where is the rest of her armor? Where are her clothes?? Or is this meant to parody the “sword and magic helmet!!” trope and the helmet was providing all her armor and clothes up until the point she removes it to reveal she’s a nekkid Not A Man? And really, are Nazgûl so far removed from their mortal lives that they need nakedness to be able to tell males from females of their own species...?)

If this were a story, it would be a crossover fanfic with awesome potential...but it falls a little short of what’s needed to successfully suspend the reader/viewer’s disbelief.

Why is it important to do a better job next time, to get these details a little more accurate? Because most Tolkienn fans I know are rabid about it, & willing to nitpick any mistakes or inaccuracies. Cast your minds back to the huge raging fandom debates around the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies about whether or not Peter Jackson & co were “butchering the mythos” of Middle Earth.

Also...I’m trying to figure out how the Nazgûl is standing, and on what if he is indeed standing, though perhaps he’s actually astride the fallen Fell Beast, and simply swung himself around while she was chopping off & somehow disintegrating that V-shaped wedge of wrymtail? I can suspend some of my disbelief for that, though it does add to the overall strain of that willing suspension, and obviously there were too many other issues that ended up snapping it.)

As an editor, if this were a story, I’d be telling the artist to fix the wing bones, to give the woman some shining chain armor with a Rohirrim tabard, or boiled leather armor and tabard--at the very least a tabard with the Rohirrim symbols on it!!. I’d also at the very least slap some Scandinavian knotwork on it, if not the actual Horse of Rohan. (I’d also suggest using the accepted colors for the Rohirrim banner, green and gold, though I might keep the majority of the tabard white and just have a gold-and-green knotwork horse centered on the chest, or something.)

I’d also request there be more chunks of hacked-off tail all over. (Bonus points if one of them looks like The Lonely Mountain! lol...)

Plus, I’d give her at least a tiny bit of blood spatters around her boots and on her thighs & a little on the lower tabard, to show she’s been fighting in battle all along. However, I’d actually hesitate to put the spatters any higher than belt-line at most (and definitely do something different than that cloak/sheet thing).

Why would I hesitate to get the chest area bloody? Because of the symbolism.

Renaissance paintings had blood & gore, but only up to a point. She’s the heroic figure who slays the 3rd Biggest Nasty of the entire trilogy (#1: Sauron, #2 Saruman, #3 chief king of the Ringwraiths, the one she stabs in the face-hole), so she needs the symbolism of still being Clean And Pure Of Heart, aka no muss, mud, tatters, or blood in the torso (chest / heart) area.

In fact, if you just replaced the cloak/sheet thingy with just a tabard (a white one with a little knotwork on it, and put Grecian sandals on her feet...that would seriously fix a lot in this image. You’d still get to paint the glorious three dimensional folds arrowing down between her thighs, “shielding her modesty.” and you could put some of the symbols of Rohan on the tabard (horse, knotwork, etc) to make her more clearly the Shield Maiden of Rohan, and not just a shield maiden, while still retaining that Greek Mythos feel.

(Plus, you could have a bit of Side Boob showing on the side closest to the viewer to make it clear She Is No Man, and still avoid the blasted censorship issues rampant in modern society, particularly on this site these days.)

...Definitely fix the dragon wing armbones with a bit of shadowing to remove the fact they look like they’re translucent with nothing along the upper/leading edge... ‘cause once unseen, I cannot un-see-it, and it’s creepy as-is... >.>*

I love the color palette. It’s very dusky, as in nearing-sunset-dusk, with lots of earth tones. It looks a bit dirty in its hues (as tragically poised battlefields should), and yet it has kind of a “Romanticism golden afternoon light” quality to it. These are all colors that I 100% believe Renaissance painters had access to and would’ve used. Excellent choices!

At a quick glance, it’s a good painting. When you look at it a little closer, however... the contrast between all the high quality stuff (lighting, three-dimensionality, focus versus unfocus, at least half the necessary symbolism is there, etc, etc) and the lower quality stuff (oy that lack of proper dragonwing armbones, etc) means it’s really not quite the artist’s best work, and it could be so, so very much better. Why?

Composition is as important as technical performance.

Seriously, the way she’s painted is gloriously done...except for her positioning. The dragon wings (I haven’t even touched on the odd angles of the metacarpal bones on the left-side one, just the right one, which is well done for the “finger bones” but there’s no way it should be pointing up lke that), those wings are too anatomically implausible, though I’ll admit they’re more about visual framing than being actual key features.

And lastly, if you’re going for a glorious Greek Mythos Renaissance Painting look to the art...go the whole hog. Paint it like it’s Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Dinner, Tiffin, Tea, Supper & Midnight Snack all rolled into one.

Hell, paint a Loyal Dog (a staple of Renaissance symbolism), put it down at her feet (to represent the hobbit Merry, who was with her on her quests), and give it a little Rohirrim helmet and/or tabard! Go the whole distance with this. I truly believe this artist has that kind of quality in them!

If they did, I do believe all the old Renaissance Masters would totally thumbs-up this painting, if those flaws were fixed and the symbolism ramped up to at least a 9, if not necessarily a 10, rather than just doodling around down near a 5 or 6.

If this were a story and I was the editor for it (and presuming this was done on a tablet / computer, since if it’s an actual painting, that’s harder to fix), I’d definitely strongly suggest the revisions and rewrites listed above. And then I’d pimp the hell outta this painting.

(Oh, and to fix the weird positioning of her body, I’d give her a Radiant Aura Of Goodness with some golden streaks of light or something angling out at all directions, so it looks like she’s kinda floating, rather than wondering if she’s “suspended” by secretly sitting on a stick or a tail spike or something. That would help strengthen my suspension...as in the suspension of my disbelief.)

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cornerverse-mlp · 7 years

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So I noticed that the rest of the season of MLP has leaked. I haven’t watched them but I’ve seen bits and pieces and I...... I just.......

I’m tired my dudes. I’m done. I have an entire world of headcanons set up in an ongoing continuity of stories and a lot of characters OCs and half OCs(my interpretation of a minor/background character) I’m attached to, but this just kind of tosses it all down the crapper. Like, the only thing I can say it helped was my conspiracy theory about Hearth’s Warming, since Starswirl was supposedly dead/out of this dimension by the time the Hearth’s Warming story happened yet we see him here with a group of friends that aren’t Unicorns. Side note: If they kept to Hearth’s Warming existing, Starswirl probably would’ve been very racist. Like, very very racist. Everything else just killed it.

So, no, I’m not even going to try and merge my headcanons here. They literally cannot be merged. So, while I’ve always said that @cornerverse-mlp is ‘Canon Divergent’, this is the biggest split. It’s more than just adjusting small things like actually utilizing the Elements of Harmony, or adjusting half-given and subject to change lore to say that Flurry isn’t the first naturally born Alicorn because Cadence wasn’t Ascended, or even taking the emptiness of Sombra’s backstory and creating the tragedy of Obsidian, Emerald and Autumn. It’s ‘I have already established a lot of this stuff in stories and/or headcanon posts and it’s vastly different than what the show is now putting out’.

And I like my versions better, for many reasons including attachment to characters and stories. So I’m going to keep them and toss the rest. Because you know what? There’s multiple Universes where things are different, so this is just another one. Even the show has multiple universes. I mean, not only in the whole EQG thing and Starlight’s fuckery with the Timelines, but the fact that the Comics have different events. So I’m just going to make my own Universe officially its own Universe. And like, things that don’t conflict will be the same, but this is just...... ugh. I never thought I’d have to deal with anything solid on Starswirl the Bearded, so I was cool with making headcanons about him.

Okay, to recap: I have my own continuity of stories and headcanons that now exist in their ownUniverse that is Canon Divergent from the show, but as it’s part of it’s own Continuity established before some episodes and not a complete AU that could be summed up in one sentence, it does not need the ‘AU Tag’. That said, I will try to enjoy the show on it’s own terms, but not in terms of trying to merge it with my headcanons, because that’s the only way to do this without feeling like I’ve wasted a fuckton of time and driving me insane trying to fit one of those jumbo kids’ toy puzzle pieces into my 1,000 piece jigsaw.

So, on to the ‘me being salty af’ part of the post, have some ‘headcanons’ about how Starswirl appears/exists in the Cornerverse-MLP Universe.

Starswirl is actually very short. Like, not ridiculously so, but typically Unicorns are shorter than Pegasai or Earth Ponies, so he’s shorter than most of the Mane 6, especially Twilight as she’s giant for a Unicorn

Twilight never actually thought about how tall Starswirl would be, so while she never meets him, the height difference would shock her if she did.

Other than the height thing, his physical appearance is similar to his various looks in the show and comics. Unicorn, gray, curly mane with a fantastic beard. However, his mane had been brown when he was younger, it just turned white as he got old. Also, his eyes have Heterochromia, being two different colors. One is brown, and the other is blue.

There actually exists paintings of him without the beard. He didn’t start growing it until he was in his 20s, so there were a hoofful of years where he either had no beard, or it wasn’t yet in the ‘magnificent’ stage.

While several ponies tried to say he was a dignified Dumbledore-like pony, he wasn’t. He was an absolute dork, had several off-the-wall ideas, and honestly liked fucking with people. The dude’s signature outfit was a hat and cloak festooned with bells that would honestly have a cacophony of noise every time he shifted. You don’t wear an outfit like that without liking to fuck with people.

Okay, I already made the Harry Potter reference, but tbh he’s not Dumbledore. He’s Fred and George. Brilliant as hell but loves fun and mischief. Still, he did some very brilliant things.

Starswirl was part of the first Ponies. They literally popped into existence at the beginning of the world, 2000 some odd years ago. That’s one reason he was so influential. Not that he wasn’t brilliant and would have done amazing things had he been born a few centuries later, but it’s easy to create spells that are still used years later when you’re one of the first Unicorns and someone has to invent anything more complicated than levitation.

He totally had friends. Plenty of them. In fact, he and his closest friends were the brilliant group to craft the Elements of Harmony. Well, the Elements are a naturally occurring thing, but the jewels were crafted to help ponies wield them easier as a conduit, and it was quite a task considering that the raw magic power of the Elements shattered most Gems.

This team also created a Prototype Crystal Heart, but the full version wouldn’t be complete for a few more centuries.

Okay, I have to address the ‘Starswirl is Discord’ theory(even though the show disproved it, but this is Canon Divergent so it could still happen).

Starswirl and Discord have no relation. Well, at least as far as ‘being the same person’. They absolutely knew each other. Very well I might add. No, you know what? Fuck it, I’m not going to be subtle. They were together romantically for a time, a few hundred years before Discord going nuts and being a statue. I guess you could call them ‘exes’, but there wasn’t a concept of marriage or monogamy at the time so the only reason they stopped seeing each other is because Discord is Immortal while Starswirl isn’t. That said, Discord still has a thing for dorky Unicorns and mischievous, off-the-wall weirdos.

As for other Romantic endeavors, again the concept of ‘marriage’ didn’t quite exist yet, but the closest thing to a wife he had was an Earth Pony mare named Frosted Cake that he had two daughters with.

Said daughters are Clover and Smart Cookie, who would eventually be known in the Hearth’s Warming story, but they have pretty much no relation to the story because I have conspiracy theories that are explained elsewhere.

Clover and Smart Cookie were the first ponies to be born normally. Remember what I said about everyone else ‘popping into existence’? Yeah, no parents were involved there. Clover and Smart Cookie were the first to be made by two ponies doing the do. (Clover is technically first, but they were twins).

Starswirl’s encounter with Sirens is not with the same Sirens as the ones in RR. Both trios had similar stories though.

I go into this more in a different headcanon post, but Sirens are usually normal and nice like anything else, but they have a Berserk Mode similar to Dragons. Except Berserk Sirens are 1. more coherent and 2. activated by Desire instead of Greed(Technicalities on what is what)

The Dazzlings had no connection to Starswirl, and all of them are still in their teens, having only been in the Human World for a few years. Celestia sent them there as a last desperate way to possibly break them out of Berserk Mode(since cutting off Magic can stop it), but.... okay this is getting long and is covered elsewhere so I’m stopping here.

The Sirens Starswirl dealt with.... didn’t go to another Dimension. They were Berserk and Dangerous, but I’m debating over whether he managed to calm them back to normal, or if he ended up having to kill them to keep them from harming everyone else(which would absolutely fuck him up btw, but still). Either way, history adjusted the story to “oh, he, uh, ‘sent them away’! Yeah, that’s it! They’re in another dimension!”

Starswirl died about 1,900 years before the events of Season 1. It wasn’t some grand adventure or anything magical. He was just old and had to die eventually. He died happy, probably peacefully in his sleep or something. Idk, I’m not going further into it because if I do I’ll make myself cry.

Editing to add some more:

If diners and jukeboxes existed back in the day, Starswirl and Discord would absolutely have pulled the Salt and Pepper Diner thing.

Starswirl is actually younger than both Celestia and Chrysalis, but older than Discord and Luna.

Starswirl had nothing to do with building the Mirror Portal. It was actually a Time Traveling Flurry Heart creating a way to Anchor herself to her Home Dimension.

Speaking of the mirror portal, squishing the timeline to happen in a Mortal lifespan is a pain in the ass. But Human!Starswirl is also dead, but he died much younger because, again, condensed timeline.He did go to CHS with Celestia, Luna, and Discord, but that was nearly a decade before. They all went to Prom together, where Starswirl wore the Human version of his signature claok and hat.

Human Starswirl and Discord 100% did the Salt and Pepper Diner bit.

#headcanon #Starswirl #Canon Vs Headcanon

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dicecast · 7 years

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Blast from the Past: Dragon Age II, Why the Mage Templar Conflict Fails

So Dragon Age II is the best game in the series (I will fight you) and has the best writing in the entire narrative thus far...but dear god the Mage Templar Conflict is handled terrible. This is also true of inquisition, but it is the main focus of II and I think that is a major reason why people have so many problems with DA:II, because for all of its greatness, so much of the narrative is based on this aspect which just...doesn’t work.

So why is that? I mean the Mage/Templar dynamic was one of the few things in DA;O which is better than DA:II, and there are some really powerful moments involving the conflict in DA:II so why does the overall effort just fall flat? Wait, I know the answer because I am awesome

Basically there were 5 different ways you could have handled this conflict and any one of those could have been a workable story in their own right. But Bioware in their infinite wisdom tried to do all of them and...it was a mess. So I am going to break down the various narratives that could have been and how that should have been told, and why DA:II just doesn’t work

1) A conflict between two equal forces

So the obvious narrative (and the most typical) is present this as a conflict between two roughly equal powers each with valid points, each side has bad elements and each side has some good elements, a very Grey vs. Grey type deal. The player is encouraged to choose which group they/their character personally feels is more valid, but the game is making it clear that the other side is understandable. There is no true good or evil option in terms of which faction you choose. The themes would likely be something like “oh no, look how extremism tears people apart, isn’t it terrible when people won’t listen to the other side” or the same golden mean pablum RPGs do with these sort of narrative

Why this doesn’t work

Well right away, there is the problem where both sides aren’t in fact equal in terms of power. Like at all. The Templar are organized, have the support of the entire society including the church, most of the populace hates mages, and the mages literally are trapped inside a prison tower. The mages are not organized, they don’t have any resources outside their own magic, and of course the Templars can basically mistreat them with impunity (which literally contradicts lore from the first game I might add). You really can’t view this as “Both sides have a point” when the Templars under Maredith are regularly raping, tranquilizing, and just generally abusing the mages.

And what really just kills this “both sides have a point” style conflict is the final choice because...the mages didn’t blow up the CHantry. Anders did it, who is a renegade who explicitly says he is independent. We literally see the head mage both trying to appeal to the Grand Cleric right before and go “WTF man” right after, hawk knows full well that the mages did not do this. So Meredith’s choice to massacre all of the mages (including children) is just loony, like we know full well that she is killing innocent people for a crime they didn’t commit. Even when I play a pro templar hawk I can never really bring myself to side with Meredith because not only is she an obviously crazy evil lunatic with no redeeming qualities, but I can’t imagine any way my character would murder thousands of innocent people for no reason without seeming out of character. I couldn’t even imagine Fenris doing that.

This conflict just can’t be “Both sides have a point” because Meredith is just too fucking psychotic for anybody to really side with her. Unlike Ser Gregor from the first game, Meredith constantly breaks the rules of the chantry itself because she is a paranoid sadist. She uses the rite of tranquility for things that we know in universe the templars shouldn’t use it for, like people speaking out. There is rampant sexual abuse, torture, and...look my point is that the Templars are way too evil and cruel for this to be an equal conflict.

Like if this was Tevinter vs. the Templars, that would be one thing, but this isn’t an equal conflict, when one side is literally locked in their prison,

If Dragon Age wanted this to be a moral situation where neither side was necessarily right or wrong, than they needed to make the conflict more nuanced, the templars should be more like they were in one, and the mages should have actually been doing evil shit, rather than a rogue terrorist. And the final conflict shouldn’t have been “massacre everybody for crime they didn’t commit.”

2) Mages are Right, but lets Understand the Templars

DA:II is obviously trying to tell a story about bigotry and oppression, and at parts sets out to do so in a mature and serious way, and try to explain why the Templars behave as they do. After all, just because a work disagrees with a character doesn’t mean it can’t depict them in a human and understandable way. Dragon Age II could have been trying to explain exactly wy pepole believe things that the game views as wrong, to say “ok yeah, the Templars are wrong, but lets understand their perspective, after all they aren’t cartoonish monsters but people”. And parts of the game seem to do that, for example Fenris is like an anti mage bigot (Magist ?) in a really unacceptable way but he is very understandable. He came from a really bad background and is lashing out his own feelings against the vague group that hurt him, and he is utterly terrified of Tevinter coming to southern Thedas. He is wrong, but the game doesn’t wish to demonize him and wants us to understand how these prejudices grow. We see a similar treatment with Cullen, whose experience in the Origins Circle tower has made him see everything in an extremely black and white perspective, and we pity him even as he commits evil.

Where it went wrong

Well...Meredith is just too fucking awful....again. Unlike many of her minions, she is just kind of an asshole all the way through, from her first appearance she is haughty, callous, paranoid, indifferent and ambitious. We never really see her reasoning or psychology, yeah I know we are told about tragedy in her back story but it never really comes up in scene. She just kinda does awful things because she is an awful person, nothing more complicated than that. For example, punishing people speaking out against her with Tranquility (which again is suppose to be illegal) just makes her out to be a despot, we don’t really see any reason to support her or sympathize with her. And anybody who stays loyal to her comes off as an idiot.

This also makes Grand Cleric Elthina just come off as a complete tool btw, if the Templars are acting out of bounds then the Chanty needs to pull the lease. Again and again Meredith is violating Chantry rules, and Elthina just doesn’t do anything about it, the chantry is strangely passive in all this.

3) Templars bad, Mages response isn’t appropriate

Another approach the game could have done what the Witcher I did, the system perpetuated by the templars is evil and wrong, and really not acceptable, but the mages response to said system isn’t good. The game kinda does this with Anders, who has a very valid point but his extremism makes the whole situation worse and also makes him really unacceptable as a person. Basically ‘Man the Templars are awful and we need to fix this.....why did you blow up the Chantry Anders?”

This version doesn’t actually contradict version 2 btw. Personally I think 2 and 3 combined would be the best way to handle this game

Where it Went Wrong

Well....Anders is the only real anti Templar mage who gets a lot of narrative focus...and he is renegade. I know we run into evil mages who do evil mage things over the course of the game but they are just kinda cartoonishly awful rather than you know...interesting. This narrative would require a lot more focus on the mage resistance and mage responses to the templars in a more human light.

And no, the massive amount of evil Blood Mages don’t count, they are just kind randomly evil douchbags who don’t relate to anything else in the story.

4) Both sides need to come together and unite

In this narrative the conflict is the result of am misunderstanding, and if the two sides just saw thigns from the other’s perspective, a compromise could be reached, and the true evil could be destroyed. Honestly this is the narrative where Meredith makes the most sense, a force of evil that the mages and the templars could unify to fight against because she is so utterly awful. THe ending kinda implies this ending with the templars all going “screw you” to Meredith and her going all Red Lyrium,

Where it went wrong

but then we have a stupid binary moral choice. Enough Said

5) The Templars are totally wrong, VIVA LA REVOLUTION

Finally the game could have just been very black and white, the templars are bad, the Circles are an evil, the mages should rise to fight against their oppressors.

Where it went wrong

This is the only other narrative where Meredith makes sense, and this story would be very clear cut. But again...the presence of Fenris, Cullen and Aveline really implies that this is suppose to be a more complicated conflict than that.

#Blast from the Past #Dragon Age II #Mage Templar Conflict #Meredith #Anders #Fenris #Mages

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frankierising-blog · 7 years

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Crappy Lair Review for Passenger

-Okay, a few things I forgot about as I haven’t done Lair Reviews in a long time.

1. I’m terrible at them. 2. I ended up swearing a fair bit. 3. They take me.... AGES. I’m sorry!!

Before I go into it, overal:

LOVE your lore... but there’s not enough! You tease us with the intro and with Crow and then there’s only little teasers. I AM ADDICTED TO YOUR LORE, FEED ME!!

Also, love the subtlties of a lot of your customisations, there seems to always be flecks of blue, green, yellow that perfectly contrast or compliment the outfit!

Okay, onward!

@fr-ari

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

I love how discrete the Customisations are! At first glance your lair looks quite plain, there’s lots of neautral colours and when you’re just looking at the thumbnails it all looks very simple... but the longer you look, the more details and differences and personalities that you start to see! I thought that was neat!

Okay Individuals:

Luc:

Um.. ex freaking SCUSE ME!? Wine/Cin/Wine is SO freaking amazing! I had no idea! And the Facet/Glimmer looks GORGEOUS with Skink! LOVE THIS SO WELL GENES HOLY CRAP!

But... are you going to add apparel? ARE YOU GOING TO DRESS THIS BEAUTIFUL MOFO!? IS THERE LORE? IS THIS A WIP!?

Crow:

Crow’s story is awesome! I love the simplicity of his apparel! I imagine having to wear a respirator that ends up giving you your nickname would kind of make you want to avoid drawing any more attention to yourself – so you’re probably try to stay as neutral as possible!

I feel like I want to see him in a trench coat or something, but I guarantee that’s only because of the goggles.

Question, are they part of the respirator or for another purpose?

The artwork though! There’s two broken image links on my end but I can see the top one and it is STUNNING! LOOOOVE CROW!!!

Lovett:

Okay, so I assume Lovett is geared up for flying, but boy you’re not fooling anywhere. Patchwork, leaves and smoke everywhere? Oh, you’re flying alright... Tert: Smoke ;)

But hecking heck, how GOOD does shadow and goldenrod look!? And the little green (*wink*) flecks throughout, hot dayum!

Flint:

Hnnnng.

HNNNNNNG

HNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!!

Flint, you sexy m*** f*****!!! Look at this flying steampunk robot dragon!!! I love this so much, holy crap! The cheeky little accent underneath Silver Steampunk Wings is cheeky AF and gives the whole thing a kind of a creepy undertone. Like, Ridgebacks always look like they’re smiling, so I immediately thing this is a jolly pilot, deliveryman or otherwise helpful fellow who loves life…. But that sneaky little hint of red under there…. Suspicious….. BUT ALSO MATCHING FAMILIAR IS YES GOOD… but fuck that Hooded Dodo, they’re always puffed up arrogantly, smug bastards.

Slaid

Holy crap, I can’t tell if Slaid is rich or poor! HE’S GOT WRAPS AND MISSMATCHING STUFF BUT THEN THERE’S ALL THIS GOLD AND STEAMPUNK! The mismatch kind of gives me the impression that he’s comfortable, but perhaps doesn’t always acquire his goods from the most honest of sources? Does that make sense? Like he’s been collecting his gear as he goes along in his travels.

CROW’S LORE WAS SO GOOD, I WANT MORE LORE ABOUT THESE GUYS!!

I really like this outfit though, it’s cluttered and miss-matched but everything sort of fits together nicely, nothing is clashing. You’re really good at subtly matching colours! (TEACH ME!)

Cardani

THE HAT SORT OF LOOKS LIKE A FEDORA ON GUARDIANS, I AM LAUGH! But bloody hell, are the Greens intentional? Oh wait, Wind Flight… so probably. WELL EVEN SO CARDANI IS KIND OF BAD ARSE! I’M REALLY GLAD HE DOESN’T HAVE MUCH APPAREL ON HIS MIDSECTION BECAUSE THE IRI/SHIM/CRACKLE LOOKS BLOODY AMAZING!!! <3

Bonemother

It took me a second to actually see the dragon under all that, dayum. I LOVE the Guise and the Skin together, that looks so dark and kind of ghoulish, but I feel like there’s just a little bit too much going on here. I feel like I’d like to see it with either the Crown of Bones OR the Bone Antlers on their own and maybe with a few less accessories? Mind you, that’s just my opinion and my lair looks like a dumpster so wtf do I know?

BTW WHO DID THE TOP ART FOR BONEMOTHER AND CROW!?

Fausten:

Subtle greens, Subtle Greens, SUBTLE GREENS! Yaaay! Also loving how much the shoes match it’s Secondary! <3

Vedere

ExfuckingCUSE me right now!? This is perfection. PERFECTION! THE SIMPLICITY, THE INTRICACY! It’s beautiful, delicate, fierce and horrifying, I love it! You have NAILED IT!!! GOD I WANT LORE! MORE LORE MORE LORE MORE LORE!

Kell:

LOVE IT! CREEEEPY AS FUUUUUCK!!! Hopefully that was the intention! The art is effing AMAZING TOO!! Who did it!?

This one is busy too but I feel like it’s the perfect amount of busy - I get the whole Voodoo vibe, but is that too shallow an interpretation of Kell?

Hallow:

OMG I love him and I hate him! I mean, he’s gorgeous and he seems charming.. but on the other hand, look at all that discrete gold. It’s subtle but flashy and he’s waving his Light Sprite around, acting all chill, but you just know he’s mocking you… or is he? Still don’t know if I hate him or I’m jealous of him (in the scenario where I am somehow a dragon responding to his existence, haha).

The colours though, the accent, the subtle yellows… dayum. He better have a super gorgeous mate when I click next or I’m so freaking stealing him. I’ll find a way!

But I have to ask, Why Hallow and Trick or Treat? IS THIS JUST A COSTUME!? IS HE ACTUALLY UGLY UNDER THERE? OR is that flirtatious?

Shiver:

Bleaurgh, look at this queen! Fire and Ice, BLAAAARGH!!!! BLLLAAAAAAARGH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! I’VE GOT ANOTHER ELEMENT FOR YOU: VOMIT.

But seriously, you’ve put this together really well, everything compliments eachother perfectly so it looks fantastic!!! I just hate Twilight for using that STUPID ROBERT FROST POEM! BLAAAAARGH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

Liden

OH MY GOD, YES, GOOD! YES! THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! PERFECTION! I don’t have enough to say about Liden because he’s freaking perfect! Per. Fect. I am starting to dislike you as a person over how nice some of your dragons are, purely jealous!!!

TRULY IS A FINE MINT CANDY BUT WHERE IS THE MINT CANDY LORE MY FRIEND!?

[Okay, I see I have more notes now and I feel like I need to try to get a few more done before I finish work, so I’ll try and get a few more in but maybe with shorter responses]

Ari

Okay, Ari and Liden together are a pretty freaking nice Fire & Ice style thing - especially as you could also see this as Autumny more than Fire, but next to the ice.. yeah. Anyway.

SEE, EVEN ARI HATES THE FIRE AND ICE THING AS MUCH AS I DO! But seriously, I really like the simplicity of the apparel, it makes the accent pop so hard, and Ari looks like he has resting dick face so he’d probably be a little prick if you tried to jazz his outfit up too much!

Lear

NO, STOP, THIS IS SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!!! THE LITTLE WINGS WITH THE CROWN - ALL THE CUTE LITTLE PINKS AND PURPLES FUUUUUUUU-

Lear seems almost out of place in you lair, I like that! She’s so freaking beautiful, holy crap!

Griffin

THIS REMINDS ME OF LINK FROM ZELDA! HOLY HECKY HECK, THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING! PERFECT AMOUNT OF GREEN AND BUSY AND LOUD AND SUBTLE ALL AT ONCE!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAH1!!! Griffin is my favourite! I like how the goggles and the accent sort of tie him to the rest of the clan but he still seems like such an outsider! LOOOOVE!!!

Okay, I’m gonna end this here. I’m sorry if this wasn’t what you were hoping for! Feel free to not pay if it’s offensive or not up to standard!

Regardless, hope you liked it and thanks for your patience!

#fr-ari #Flight Rising lair reviews #Flightrising lair reviews #FR Lair Reviews

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rpsidebloghell · 7 years

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My last post got me thinking, have I ever introduced you all to my Novel’s characters? Bc I can’t even begin to explain to you how much I love them all so let me break down who they are. (Art isn’t 100% how I picture them but still awesome, commissioned the art like a year ago to help someone raising money for their dog bc of doggo health issues they couldn’t afford)

Elisabeth is the main pov character for the story and the one with the blue as red steaks in her hair. (not always there, done with hair chalk.) And she is a slightly over enthusiastic extrovert(when awake) who loves her dumbass dorky guardians like they were actually family. She also likes to goad Desmond into piggy back rides and usually fails and just jumps on Phoenix’s back and will give people the dirtiest look ever if people as if her and Desmond are dating because “no??? We grew up together??? He’s practically my brother and I’d sooner eat a live chicken????” Elisabeth is NOT the hero of this story, idk she’s just the one who stood out to me for pov bc she would be there for basically all of it bc of Aqua and Phoenis but like, plot is driven by the Elemental Advisors which btw is the name for the novel.

Desmond is Mr. I’m Gonna Wear A Ring Around My Neck Instead Of On My Finger BC I Can. He is literally the definition of an optimist, he prefers to believe that things will turn out fine until proven wrong and even then he’s someone who thinks every thing happens for a reason. He is just as disgusted as Elisabeth if anyone mistakes them as a couple but is better at hiding that then he and will usually just correct them and be like “no we’re just best friends!”. He legit has to drag his guardian out of caves sometimes when he gets into a depressed and brooding mood and once found him napping as a dragon and got Phoenix to do it instead bc “??? Dude I don’t wanna get stepped on and your more durable than me???” Draco has been a guardian to people in his family for generations upon generations, having met a young boy wanting the desert an spending 9 years helping him find his family before deciding he didn’t feel right leavin him behind. So he formed a guardian bond with him and has had one with 1 member of the family at any given time since, though there are sometimes gaps well e waits for a member to e born that he wants to form a connection with or as he tries to find someone in the family that he wants to make a guardian bond with and they with him.

Elisabeth as Desmond are both human beings from the planet earth(or mostly in Elizabetha case but???? That’s more plot centered than character which I’m nothing getting into RN)

Aquarius is the one with the blue hair and elf like ears, and honestly if it wasn’t for her neither one of her dork Elemental advisor partners would get anything done when together because Phoenix just finds it to fun to annoy Draco out of his quietness. She along with Drago and Phoenix are 3 of the 5 Elemental advisors to their king, and also spirits of the constellations of the same names. There is a whole big “Star Spirit Race” lore thing I could get into but YOLO not gonna RN. She is the physical embodiment of the star spirit of Aquarius(best way to explain without getting in depth is its roughly how gems physical form works in Steven Universe but also somewhat different??) and has powers over water and healing. She’s with Phoenix an exclusive though their commitment isn’t a permanent thing yet(which is rare with start spirits bc cause of how long they are around) and at one point when younger she and Draco had a brief relationship. She’s pretty close with the ‘elder’ advisors Perseus and Antila as well, she very much enjoys training with all of her fellow advisors in power combination and always enjoys getting their opinions on an idea that she had involving this. Free time tends to be spent letting herself drift and sink and float on any large body of water she can find.

Phoenix is the dude with the flamey hair and for the most part a giant dork who loves to annoy his best friend and future leader of the advisors Draco, who usually proceeds to try and lift himself away from the annoyance on a column of earth. He however can be a bit F a hot head at times, though it’s only ever once gotten out of control. When Draco’s wife and Polaris’(“King” of the star spirits) half human love child who they’d all come to see as a trusted friend turned evil and went crazy(legit not her fault, her human brain couldn’t cope with immortality) he lost control an Mt. Vesuvius erupted and he destroyed Pompeii and stayed their in isolation not talking to anyone or like 10 years till his mentor (Constellation Leo) got him to leave to help his depressed AF bff. He still feels terrible about what happened and will get broody whenever the city is mentioned. He Phoenix has always had a thing for Aquarius, however he never really said anything until somewhat recently by star standards-about 300 years ago. That’s a minor part in their history together though an they didn’t get together right away anyway so u won’t get in depth any more than I did in with Aqua’s blurb. His powers are pretty obviously fire related but??? He can morph into a Phoenix form as well.

DRACO, my god I had to save this broody little bitch last bc I’ll prob just keep babbling about him. Draco is my self created problematic fav. He is the next leader of the advisors as decided by Perseus, Antila and Polaris. (though TBH Aqua was a close second till se made it known she had no desire to actually lead when the debates about who would be the next leader were going on) He is also such a fucking broody little both these day, okay. Sorry back on track. Part of the reason for him being chosen as an advisor in the first place was his raw power, he has powers over both dirt and dirt like substances and plant life, can shift Ito a dragon and has naturally enhanced strength due to the dragon part of him. All this and he sill can’t stop his wife from going mad from immortality. OKAY OKAY SORRY BACK ON TRACK AGAIN.

Draco was trained in his ability a of Earth by Taurus and Plant life by Libra, later on by Perseus in leadership. He ended up close to ad old friend with Phoenix and Aqua before all the shit happened that made him a broody little bitch. When Phoenix volunteered for and left on an extended mission with Antila he and Aqua grew closer without Phoenix there, they had a brief relationship that had dwindled out naturally after a couple centuries-something not uncommon with their people. After Polaris’ daughter Vega was born the advisors were made her teachers an protectors, it wasn’t until she was nearly 30 the feelings shifted from that for Draco but there with the issue of lifespan and Vega not wanting to start somethings for the sole reason of not wanting to die on him. Eventually with the help of Aquarius and Pisces they found the solution of taking a small part of some stars energy force and replacing it with her own, though not enough for them to really notice. It worked and she was now basically immortal and they could live on happily every after for a thousand year before she went mad and he and she became committed to one and other after a couple centuries and they had matching sets of silver and gold bracelets to signify that except it didn’t last and she went crazy bc her brain wasn’t meant to handle that long of a life.

Because of her threat but neither Draco or Polaris wanting her to die she was sealed away(with help from the constellations Cepheus and Cassiopeia and guarded by Cetus lolololol couldn’t resist the Greek Myth reference bc I’m a dork) until they could find out how to fix the problem of her going mad and then Draco brooded in a cave for a few centuries before meeting Desmond’s ancestor and he wears Vega’s bracelets that he left behind when he refused o help her crazy self along with his own and basically just wonders why existence is so cruel and how to get Vega back to herself even if she still chooses not to be with him bc he’d rather a universe where she was truly herself and not driven mad but not with him than a universe where she is locked away for eternity as sill not with him. He just wants a universe where Vega is truly Vega and not some deranged version of herself driven mad by immortality.

EDIT: Legit 100% only because of her healing abilities that Aqua doesn't have scars like the boys even though she repeatedly tells them to come to her for healing when they are hurt and gives them a death glare when se realized thy have once again not done this each ad every time.

#Kayla's Ramblings #Elemental Advisors #KILL ME NOW I GOT SO OFF TEACK WITH DRACO'S BLURB IS NOT EEN A BLURB ANYMORE I MIGHT AS WELL HAVE WRITEN OUT TE WHOLE BACKSTORY I HAVE ON #HISCHARACTER SHEET IN MY CHARACTER PROFILE JOURNAL

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