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mumms-the-word · 1 month

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Gale and Mystra (and Mystra, and Mystra...)

I did a rabbit hole deep dive into this a few days ago and I have Thoughts. Prepare for long/researched explanations (and by researched I mean I read a lot of wikis and scraps of lore books/novels)

So Mystra dies in the Forgotten Realms something like three times (the “official” number is wibbly because there are many writers messing with Forgotten Realms lore and they don’t always agree). She dies in -339 DR, and then again in 1358 DR, and then kind of again a few months later. Allegedly she stayed dead until 1479-1480, which is roughly 12 years prior to the events of Baldur's Gate 3, but didn't get her body back until 1487, which is 5 years before BG3, which takes place in 1492 (if we're going by the Baldur's Mouth Gazette year).

So...what do we do with that and the current popular theory that Gale was groomed as a child?

If it sounds complicated, don't worry, it's more complicated than you think. Welcome to my TEDTalk. More under the cut.

Mystryl, the first goddess of magic (like, ever) dies hundreds of years prior to the events of BG3 during the Karsus/Netheril debacle. Karsus tried to steal her deity/power and succeeded only to realize his mortal body/mind couldn’t contain or control that much power. Mystryl sacrificed herself (her essence, her power) to keep it out of Karsus’s incapable hands. The Weave went wonky for an indeterminate but brief amount of time, during which the floating cities of Netheril crashed to the ground. This happens in -339 DR, over ~1700 years before BG3. Gale tells us a brief version of this story in his standard dialogue. It's also established lore in campaign books.

Mystryl was reborn as Mystra (still in -339 DR), and this Mystra lasted for AGES. This Mystra is the mother of all magic, the Mystra we basically think of as BG3’s Mystra. This is the Mystra that met and claimed Elminster as one of her Chosen (later they became lovers, it's a whole thing).

But this is complicated. Because in 1358 DR…she dies too.

Long story short, for a brief moment, the Overgod Ao forced all gods to walk Faerûn in their mortal avatar forms and denied them entry into heavens (this was called the Times of Troubles, very complicated, the point is, gods were walking the earth as mortals). Mystra decided to fight Helm, the god guarding the stairway into the heavens, and got promptly smote.

Smitten? Smited? Whatever. Helm DESTROYED her. Death #2.

This time, Ao chose a mortal girl named Midnight to replace Mystra. He imbued Midnight, a wizard girl who worshipped Mystra, with Mystra's powers (Mystra conveniently left an amulet behind with some of her power contained within). Incidentally, the Weave didn't die this time like it did the first time. Convenient!

Midnight-Mystra lasts less than a year before Shar and Cyric (god of trickery) kill her and the Spellplague happens. The Spellplague is basically 10 years of magic going haywire and the Weave kind of ceasing to exist. Again. It's complicated.

Ignoring that some Forgotten Realms writers insist the Spellplague didn't happen, BG3 says it DID. One book in BG3 states:

In the infamous, calamitous year of 1385 DR, a conspiracy between the goddess of darkness, Shar, and the god of trickery, Cyric, sought to end Mystra's control over the Weave and influence over the realms by cravenly assassinating her. But instead of merely breaking the goddess of magic's dominance, her death threw the Weave into utter chaos and collapse. Magic spells faltered, or failed entirely. Countless spellcasters were killed or driven insane... Toril would face nearly a hundred years of upheaval before Mystra could return once again, reinstated as goddess of magic in 1480 DR, thanks to the efforts of the legendary wizard, Elminster Aumar and the events of the Second Sundering...

(Curiously Gale’s Countermeasure Abberation at the Netherbrain fight is called Spellplague so...do with that whatever you want. I mean, I know that’s the Countermeasure for ANY wizard in the party but it feels particularly interesting for Gale. Also we're going to ignore the Second Sundering in this post because that's a whole different rant, just know that the Second Sundering means the state of the world and the pantheon of gods basically got soft reset and then locked into place. Which is why it was important for Mystra to return before that happened, or else she would have gotten locked out of returning at all.)

As far as I can tell, between 1385 and 1479, Mystra was silent. Maybe dead, maybe not. There's some suggestion that she existed in the Weave, because other than the Spellplague period, the Weave still existed. The fact that the Weave exists separately from Mystra is important mostly because Shar wants to turn it into the Shadow Weave, which she can't do if Mystra is alive and maintaining control over the Weave. And if Shar can't control the Weave even while Mystra is silent for 100ish years, then...well. Mystra must not be dead-dead.

More importantly than Shar Politics, her being maybe-dead for almost 100 years means she wasn't whispering in the minds of her Chosen the way gods like her normally do. The wikis mention a comic ("Lord of the Darkways") where Mystra spoke directly to Elminster's mind, but that's the only instance before 1479. Mystra was SILENT before 1479...or at least, very, very, very quiet.

So what happens in 1479? Well, long story short, according to the novel Bury Elminster Deep, Elminster travels to a cave where there is a bear carrying some Mystra's remaining essence/power. Why a bear? I have no idea. Point is, she speaks directly to Elminster and confirms that she is, indeed, Mystra. Specifically, she's pre-Midnight Mystra and also...changed into a newish Mystra.

This is some of what Elminster thinks/says when he's speaking with her and notices she's guarding some artifacts:

“Ye collected these things when ye were Midnight?” El blurted, trembling in a sudden chaos of wanting to know so much, yet not knowing what he dared ask. Her love—or at least fondness—was in his head and all around him, but something was subtly different in it, a distance that had not been there once, or rather one that had grown since Midnight had ascended to replace the Mystra his far younger self had first touched and tasted. Gone was the Mystra whose mind would long ago have merged with his to let them converse wordlessly, thoughts flashing.

Bear!Mystra has been guarding things that Midnight!Mystra collected, things that were important to Mystra!Mystra. Confusing, I know. So who is this current Mystra, speaking to Elminster as a bear? This is the Mystra that would then go on to become lovers with Gale.

Now, I'd argue it's basically all the same Mystra. There was Mystryl and then there was Mystra in her many forms. The Mystra that become lovers with Elminster when she selected him as her Chosen 1300 years ago is the same Mystra that took Gale as a lover too—even if she's died and transformed a couple of times.

It’s worth noting that the novels also sort of mingle all the Mystras into one. In the next novel, Elminster Enraged, when another character called the Simbul (another Chosen of Mystra who is also Mystra’s daughter) is speaking with Mystra, they talk about how Mystra has memories both of previous Mystras and of several Chosen. When the Simbul asks if Mystra can sense her current Chosen, Mystra confirms that she can sense her daughters and Elminster.

“Wasn’t that the Mystra before you?” The Simbul dared to ask. Echoes in the Weave, my daughter, echoes in the Weave…we see and feel so much that happened before us, in the Weave; it becomes part of us, the memories of the Mystra who birthed you becoming part of me, so I become that Mystra…

Anyway. Mystra is Mystra. Basically the same Mystra she's been since the fall of Netheril. Why does that matter? Well.

When Elminster is talking to bear-Mystra, she gives him a command: “I charge you to preserve magic wherever and whenever you can” and also; “Recruit new Chosen and gather them here for me to confer with. I need many, and they must be different from my daughters and from each other…and above all, I must have those I can trust.”

Okay, granted, this specific command probably doesn't apply to Gale. Gale never talks about being gathered as Chosen to help usher in Mystra's return. Remember, she's gathering Chosens so she can restore herself to godhood before Ao clicks the "Save" function on his universe post-Second Sundering. That's what this command is referring to.

Elminster does end up choosing several potential Chosen for Mystra (plus he goes on to steal a whole bunch of magic and gives it to Mystra to restore her back to godhood; this happens at the end of Elminster Enraged). Elminster spends part of Bury Elminster Deep, Elminster Enraged, and The Herald (three back-to-back novels) gathering Chosen or...well, killing corrupt Chosen and stealing their power to give back to Mystra. Mystra begins speaking into the minds of those who worship her in Elminster Enraged (around 1480) and the end of that novel has her appearing as a very grand spirit type of lady, but she's only seen restored to her actual corporeal goddess body at the end of The Herald, which is set in 1487.

So what does this have to do with Gale??

Simple. I have two theories.

Theory 1: Larian just ignores timelines and maybe wanted to create a new grooming narrative for Gale

Listen, Larian has a ton of writers and not every writer can be expected to maintain ALL of the lore Ed Greenwood and other writers wrote for the campaign books and novels. The Forgotten Realms is like 40+ years old. It's been through every iteration of D&D rules. Mystra dies every time the Wizards of the Coast revamps their magic rules, to the point where Ed Greenwood literally had Elminster say, in one of his novels, “I think Mystra’s fall was part of a cycle fated to happen again and again, as the Weave—as all magic of this world—needs renewal.” Elminster fourth-wall calls out a "fated cycle" that is just WOTC remixing magic rules.

Hell, maybe Larian knew that and wanted Gale to be part of the next cycle of Mystra-death-and-rebirth. Raphael certainly suggests something similar if Gale ascends to godhood and plans to usurp Mystra. That's a rant for a different post.

Anyway. Point is, it's a lot of lore, and a lot of it contradicted itself before Larian ever got their hands on it. The writers knew enough to know that Mystra picks Chosens all the time and that she's been known to be lovers with her Chosens. They probably took that and ran with it. Gale was chosen by Mystra and become lovers with her and the timelines don't matter, and maybe there are hints that Mystra groomed him as a kid. Maybe Larian just ignored Ed Greenwood's lore that Mystra didn't speak to any of her followers until like 12 years before the game. That's fine!

But if that theory doesn't seem to vibe, consider theory 2 (which for the purposes of this analysis suggests Gale is a cool 35 for convenient math):

Theory 2: Gale didn't actually hear or meet a corporeal Mystra until he was a consenting adult (NOTE: this does not necessarily mean he wasn't groomed)

Brief timeline, again.

1385, Mystra and Midnight both die and anything resembling a goddess of magic goes silent for nearly 100 years. Early 1400s? Elminster hears Mystra's voice but she's otherwise silent for everyone else 1479, Elminster meets Bear!Mystra, begins finding other Chosen of Mystra and gathering power for Mystra 1480ish, Elminster restores power to Bear!Mystra and she Officially Returns (but like, quietly and we still haven't seen her body, she seems to be just spirit and stardust) 1487, Mystra now has a body because she does this Big Reveal at the end of The Herald by entering a room where five of her Chosen are

If Gale is 35 in 1492, then he was 30 when she "officially" had a body again, and 23 when she begins speaking to her Chosen (or those who worship her more broadly) after a century of silence.

Obviously this theory breaks the current ongoing theory that Mystra revealed herself to Gale when he was 8, or at least a young child. However, does the game really support that theory either? Elminster's letter to an ascended God!Gale only says:

Do you recall the day we first met, m’boy? You could have been no more than eight summers’ old, clutching your mother’s apron…

He doesn't say anything about telling Gale that he is a Chosen at the age of 8 or that Mystra personally has an interest in him. Maybe Elminster was just wandering around and met Gale, or perhaps someone wrote to Elminster to tell him there's an exceptionally talented mage boy that he should meet. Elminster doesn't tell us the circumstances of the meeting, so we'll never know. The one thing we do know is that Elminster has known about Gale since Gale's childhood. There's just nothing in his letter proves that Mystra was actively speaking to Gale when he was 8, or even telling Elminster to choose Gale that young.

Keep in mind, if Gale is 35 in 1492, then he was 8 in 1465, well before Elminster had gotten the charge to maintain the Weave and select new Chosens for Mystra.

Then of course we have Minsc's comment that:

While the girl-folk go on to rule as wychlaran, Weave-touched boys were hidden away. Trained to work their craft in silence and secrecy. It is an old custom, not well-observed. In truth I thought it born of caution, after some catastrophe wrought by wizardly men-folk of old. Now I wonder if it was not done to hide them from Mystra, and the snares she sets for young and prideful boys, hm?

I want to point out that this idea that the Rashemi people hide Weave-touched boys from Mystra's sight is completely new lore. Ed Greenwood explained a bit of how he views vremyonni boys/men being secluded in a series of tweets from 2020. Basically, because a wychlaran (female witch) is also a kind of ruling/religious class in the Rashemi culture, male spellcasters create a power imbalance, especially because they have access to more powerful spells than the female spellcasters. To combat this, male spellcasters are hidden away to avoid political imbalance and end up serving as enchanters/weaponsmiths for the wychlarans. Or they leave and become wizards elsewhere.

The idea that the Rashemi hide the boys away to either a) protect them from Mystra's icky amorous tactics or b) protect their communities from Mystra encouraging grand, destructive ambition in their menfolk, is probably unique to BG3 alone...and that's if we can take what Minsc says at face value.

Can we?

Minsc proves time and again he doesn't think much of wizards. The only thing he likes about Gale is that he can explode. I think he mistrusts male spellcasters in general because of his culture. So his comment could just be Minsc taking a jab at Gale while also not accurately representing his culture (possibly by offering an explanation that he just hasn't thought through all that thoroughly).

The fact that he says "young and prideful boys" is curious, regardless. Does he view Gale as a boy, because Gale is technically younger than Minsc by several decades thanks to Minsc being a statue for a while? Is it derogatory? Is it a remark to say that Gale's ambition is a bit juvenile, as wizard ambitions tend to be? Who knows. Minsc's dialogue isn't always as surface-level as it appears.

So...was Gale groomed?

I guess that depends on your definition of grooming. Adult-to-adult grooming is absolutely a thing. It's a cycle of manipulation, isolation, and gaslighting that leaves one person, the victim, in a twisted, unequal relationship with their abuser. So, yeah, Gale absolutely was groomed by his goddess. Point blank. Period. She rewarded his magical talent with sexual/emotional intimacy. He responded with love, intimacy, adoration, etc., that she was incapable of reciprocating as his equal, because of her power of authority over him (over all wizards) yet she used it to her advantage, and then tossed him aside when it became inconvenient for her. Absolutely she groomed him, and she's an abuser.

But if we're merging Forgotten Realms lore and timelines with BG3 timelines, then our understanding of Gale's perspective of all this shifts a little. Instead of a child chasing after a goddess who is stringing him along, it becomes Gale, the child prodigy, desperately trying to understand magic in a world where the goddess of magic is silent, possibly dead, and the Weave is trying to repair itself after a devastating Spellplague a few decades earlier. It becomes Gale in his teens, not understanding why the others think he's so odd for burying himself in his studies to impress a goddess who might not even care, if she's even alive. It becomes a young adult Gale overwhelmed with awe at the first rumors that Mystra might finally, finally be back, and hearing her voice for the very first time. It becomes Gale, in his late twenties, finally staring into the face of his goddess, someone he's had blind faith in before he even knew for certain she was capable of hearing his prayers. It becomes mid-thirties Gale, who has grown up with a patchwork Weave and a missing goddess, plotting to restore even more power to her by finding an elusive bit of errant Weave and making the biggest mistake of his life. It becomes a story of Gale who probably looked forward to the return of Mystra with so much awe and longing, only to be used and cast aside by her within a dozen years of her return to godhood.

No wonder he felt that godhood was not only well within his grasp, but that he could be a more deserving kind of god.

It's not a perfect theory, and a lot of Gale's dialogue suggests he was a young man, probably early 20s, when he began an intimate relationship with Mystra. He also implies that she spoke to him for some time before they ever became intimate. He describes her first as the Mother of Magic, and then his teacher, and then his muse, and then his lover. So what are we to believe?

Well...that's the frustrating beauty of D&D and Forgotten Realms and Baldur's Gate I guess. The lore is wibbly wobby and malleable. You do what you want with it.

#long post #bg3 #bg3 lore #baldur's gate 3 #gale #gale dekarios #fandom discourse #bg3 discourse #in this essay i will #who let me do this to myself tbh

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dalishious · 1 year

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Magical & Non-Magical Healing in Thedas

Magical Healing

Most healing magic falls under the School of Creation, which is about manipulating natural forces of life. It is a school rarely studied by mages, as it requires more finesse than any other school.

While any mage can study the school of creation and learn to heal, it is Spirit Healers who have the strongest healing magic. Spirit Healers can call in spirits to rapidly heal someone’s body, be it from physical damage or through disease. It requires a special gift of working with spirits in this way, which is rare among mages.

Finally, blood magic is also capable of healing. Solas says, “I once saw a blood mage healer who would shed her own blood to close a patient's wounds,” in defence of blood magic. But the details of this form of healing is unknown.

The extent of what healing magic is capable of varies by the skill of the mage practitioner. In the Tevinter Nights story Three Trees to Midnight, Myrion says that while he only knows a little bit of healing magic and can just close Strife’s wounds, his friend Jasecca was a Spirit Healer who “once reattached a man’s hand after it had been chopped off.”

It’s possible that the average mage in Tevinter is taught at least a little bit of healing magic, as in Tevinter Nights’s The Streets of Minrathous, Neve Gallus is also able to use her magic to slow the flow of blood out her wound, despite claiming to not be a proper healer. This is just like Myrion’s limited abilities.

There are also objects imbued with magical properties capable of healing people. For example, in Herold Had the Plan from Tevinter Nights, Bharv’s amulet completely heals the scratches on his hand without so much as a scar, closes up the wound on his stomach, and even keeps him from dying over a fatal blow.

While magical healing is very useful, because of Chantry-propaganda against magic, there are some in Thedas who would rather suffer than accept magical healing. For example, when the Inquisitor arrives at The Crossroads in the Hinterlands, a soldier tells Mother Giselle not to let any mage touch him when she offers to fetch a healer. But this is not the universal opinion. In Kirkwall, the people of Lowtown and Darktown were willing to shelter and protect Anders as thanks for his healing them.

Non-Magical Healing

There are books found in game that have anatomical diagrams, meaning there is some form of studying the body:

The most extensive evidence of what non-magical healing is like is from the Surgeon character found in Skyhold. The surgeon knows how to set broken bones, and also mentions doing amputations as a last resort. When asked how non-magical healing works, she replies, “good health isn't magic. It's diet, exercise and a balance of the humors.” She has many comments about bloodletting in particular:

“Hmm, somewhat off-colour today, Inquisitor? An excess of bile, perhaps. Might I bleed you?”

“Try not to touch the leeches. They are quite delicate.”

“Come for a bloodletting?”

Humorism was the real life historic belief that the body was made of four fluids: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Disease was believed to be caused by an imbalance of the humors, and so treatment was to “balance” the humors, often by bleeding the patient. This goes against the basics of germ theory also evidently believed in Thedas, so perhaps this surgeon is in fact out of date?

A note found in The Fallow Mire says, “The Gardners are too sick to save, everyone says. Grandfather and my brothers barricaded them in their own house so they wouldn't make anyone else sick.” This would suggest that the average person knows the basics of germ theory, at least to a degree that they know how diseases spread and how to prevent them through quarantine.

If you take Dorian to the Fallow Mire, he will comment, “At least in the city, you can find a decent healer. Out here you have, what? Roots and berries?” So, healers are not always available. In lieu of practicing healers, common folk turn to those who know about herbalism.

[RELATED POST: Canonical Herbalism in Thedas]

Additionally, there are a variety of folk remedies found across Thedas. For example, to cure a cold: “Bring a cup of whiskey to nearly a boil in a kettle, until its vapors permeate your surroundings. Add the juice of half a lemon and two peeled and crushed cloves of raw garlic. Consume before the whiskey cools.”

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SOURCES:

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 2

Tevinter Nights: Three Trees to Midnight

Tevinter Nights: The Streets of Minrathous

Tevinter Nights: Herold Had the Plan

Codex entry: The Four Schools of Magic: Creation (DA:O)

Note: Diary of Peter Marsh (DA:I)

Creation Ability Trees (DA:O) (DA:2)

Spirit Healer Ability Trees (DA:O) (DA:2)

Dialogue with Fereldan refugees in Lowtown (DA:2)

Dialogue with Mother Giselle and a soldier in The Hinterlands (DA:I)

Dialogue from Dorian about the plague in the Fallow Mire (DA:I)

Dialogue with Solas about blood magic (DA:I)

Dialogue with Surgeon in Skyhold (DA:I)

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#dragon age #healing #da lore #meta

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beautifulterriblequeen · 5 months

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Multiple Choice - a Callum and Aaravos theory

Not to be all Han Solo or anything, but when it comes to Aaravos and magic in Xadia, I Have A Bad Feeling About This.

If there's one thing I love more than corrupt systems, it's breaking them, so let's get to it: please enjoy yet another way that Callum's pursuit of magic could potentially go very wrong for him - and how he can still fix it.

The system, in this case, isn't a monarchy (on either side of the border), wartime tensions reaching forward from the cycle, or a Xadia-wide racial hierarchy.

It's magic itself.

We don't know where it came from, magic. Was deep magic always here? Did one of the Star Touch elves create it, or perhaps choose to make it his bailiwick while others chose things like Justice and Mercy?

Aaravos, I mean Aaravos. If he's basically the god of magic (feel free to view him through a Loki-esque lens here, I am), then of course he's an archmage, and of course he's the only one among the Star Touch elves. Magic is His Thing.

And according to Zubeia, the Dragon Queen, its mages are his prey. We don't know yet what his full intent has been. We only have her millennia-long view from the surface of the planet. There's definitely more to the story, but which direction that story takes us is anyone's guess at this point. However, it seems clear that Aaravos's history during his time in Xadia does show a pattern of him targeting and influencing mages. He certainly has been during the years the show has covered.

What all he did with these mages, besides the manipulation, is also still unknown. But even if all he ever did was pull their strings, he's still choosing magic-imbued beings as his favorite puppets. The most likely explanation for this is that mages and Aaravos have something in common, making them easier for him to work with. Is it just magic? Does their ambition count too? Is there more to it?

I think there's more. I feel there is some deep dangerous secret Aaravos has managed to hide from everyone so far - including us. But just because it's dangerous doesn't mean it's evil, or even ill-intentioned. Do we consider the threat to anthills when we begin construction on a new apartment complex? Usually no. We're busy doing human-level tasks. The ants' welfare is truly not our concern. And most of them will probably be fine... right?

So. What's Aaravos really up to, and what does it have to do with Callum?

Something Rayla believes about Callum made me wonder: in the short story Chasing Shadows, she believes that he, and all humans, can change their destiny (and it's super annoying!). Why is that a human thing only, though?

Arcanums, perhaps. We've all seen the elven peoples get uptight about their own rules and the options they can choose for themselves. It's not just the Moonshadows. Sunfire elves can absolutely be sticklers for tradition - look at my disaster boy Karim over here, willing to go to war against his own people because his sister wants to marry a human.

Bruh.

So here's part one of the theory:

Having an arcanum in you forces your destiny into a certain path.

If you're born with it, you know the path of your whole life - and I don't just mean "serve your people" or "be a warrior" or "be one with nature." There is a very dark side to being locked into your destiny. It means you cannot escape it even if you desperately want to.

*wordlessly points to Runaan and his overly honorbound decisions*

*wordlessly points to Rayla and her overly sacrificial decisions*

*wordlessly points to Finnegrin and his overly fear-driven decisions*

*wordlessly points to Janai and her overly dutybound decisions*

*wordlessly points to Karim and his overly traditional decisions*

I don't need to say anything here, do I? Thought not.

But it's one thing to be born with an arcanum - maybe they know and accept this part of their destiny already. Maybe it's just a subconscious thing they... know.

It's another thing entirely to opt into an arcanum as a free choice. And here's where we get to part two:

Callum thinks he chose his destiny. He doesn't know he just gave it away.

If he just handed his fate to Aaravos by embracing an arcanum (and then one more), his destiny isn't currently in his hands at all. It's in Aaravos's. And the archmage has proven that he, at least, knows that, since he's been pulling at Callum's strings and toying with him for a while now. He wouldn't flex like that unless he was supremely confident - which he is, he always is - he wouldn't show that hand early on like this unless he knew Callum didn't understand what he'd done or how to reverse it.

This theory is about more than dark magic. It's about all magic. Even if Callum could cleanse himself from dark magic and never let Aaravos puppet him again, is he really free? He still has an arcanum. Where did that come from? He's walking around with a couple of magical bona fides stamped on his brain, and I just want to know...

Who crafted the stamps?

If all Xadian magic is some kind of... creation, or spill, or experiment... and Aaravos needs that power back for himself in order to be who he used to be and/or re-ascend to the stars, he's got more than one way to harness it again:

dark magic consumes primal magic - but matter and energy are never destroyed, so... where does that power go? Aaravos has a very convenient black hole symbol right on his chest. Maybe every spell dark mages have ever cast sends him some of his precious primal magic again. It would be a very convenient way of getting desperate humans to do his cleanup for him. And he has all the time in the world.

primal magic won't save anyone from his will - it just harnesses the elves to Aaravos's magic rules and binds their destiny to a predetermined outcome. They've become, in a word... predictable.

There's no way to beat a Star Touch Archmage at his own game. He literally wrote its rules. So what's a bright young kid like Callum to do?

To quote War Games, "the only way to win is not to play."

Callum's in a unique position, in that he knows who he was before he had an arcanum. Back when he could choose his destiny every day, without binding him to some powerful force he doesn't fully understand yet. This might lead him to a very difficult and dangerous choice, and it could break the game, and the world, wide open.

If Callum can choose to learn an arcanum, maybe he can choose to forget one.

If he can un-know the things that bound him to that magic destiny, he'd be free again, of Aaravos's reach and of his influence.

And that's just for him, but if everyone else is trapped too, how can he help them and hurt Aaravos's power grab at the same time? No idea, beyond "someone hand him a powerful magical artifact and wait," at this point, but I'm sure he'll find a way to break something important eventually! Something vital to the structure and distribution of magic itself, preferably.

If he manages to find a way to destroy magic itself, then everyone would be free. There would be no rules binding anyone to Aaravos. There would be no dark magic feeding off its fumes, either. It's theoretically possible that destroying primal magic would undo the taint of dark magic, all in one go.

And we all know how Callum loves to go around ruining ancient and powerful magical objects. Kid's got quite a track record by now!

Maybe he's not done yet. Maybe Callum's true destiny will be both Savior and Destroyer. But he'll have to play his own game to do it - he can't play Aaravos's game and win. He'll have to fight outside of magic itself. And if he's going to put down his most powerful weapon, forged by someone else - by the mastermind himself - and try without it, then he'll need help, just like always.

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #callum #aaravos #primal magic #dark magic

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aintnothinglikeadikrat · 6 months

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My current theory about why Max Jägerman came back from the dead:

The whole “nothing dies in the old Waylon Place” thing has been bugging me for a while, since we don’t see anyone come back from the dead who died in Lakeside Mall in Black Friday (Hannah specifically says that the apparition she sees is NOT the real Ethan) and it’s unclear wether Richie at the beginning of the show was an actual ghost or more metaphorical (I’m leaning towards the latter since unlike Max he doesn’t have a “ghostly” appearance), so there has to be something about the old Waylon Place specifically, right?

Well… after rewatching Honey Queen I’ve got an idea of what that is.

Solomon specifically refers to the fact that the black magic and human sacrifice done there was done by the Church of the Starry Children, the same cult who sacrificed Linda to Nibbly at the end of Honey Queen, specifically so that Nibbly could take over her body and walk the earth.

The Lords in Black can’t physically interact with anything on our plane of existence without manifesting in it first (see: Pokey as Otho, All of TGWDLM and Blinky’s manifestation in Watcher World versus Wiggly in Black Friday and Tinky in Time Bastard only being able to communicate psychically in the real world), but they have no issue pulling Max into the Black and White.

My theory is this: when Linda was sacrificed to Nibbly, it was in the Old Waylon Place, or another black altar with similar properties that allowed her to come back undead, which meant Nibbly could take over her body. If she was killed there on any other night of the year, she simply would’ve come back as a vengeful spirit the same as Max.

If we go by the theory that each Black Altar has its own patron Lord In Black, and that specific Black Altar is tied to that Lord being able to physically manifest (once again see Wiggly’s attempt to physically manifest in Black Friday being inside the mall and halted once the mall burns down), that would mean the Old Waylon Place is (or used to be) Nibbly’s black altar. (N.B. Human Sacrifice is literally Nibbly’s whole deal, its mentioned in Honey Queen & the Summoning), and the reason people who die in the Waylon house come back to life is because it’s imbued with some sort of power that allows Nibbly to temporarily inhabit their bodies after death.

TLDR: The reason Max came back after death is that the Waylon Place is the Black Altar Linda was sacrificed at in Honey Queen (or similar), and it brings people back from the dead to allow Nibbly to possess them.

#starkid #hatchetfield #hatchetfield trilogy #nightmare time #nmt2 #nightmare time spoilers #nerdy prudes must die #npmd

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acourtofthought · 7 months

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@kateduchessofdolittle was commenting on one of my posts then added this:

Which I thought was absolutely BRILLIANT and my mind went spinning. The following may not be something [Kate] agrees with but she gave me permission to proceed ❤️

I still struggle with Elain being a Seer and only a Seer because that power is something that leaves her inactive until she has a vision and even then, it seems others end up using her visions to their benefit rather than it being something Elain can claim as her own (Elain had a vision but Feyre saved herself and Nesta, Elain had a vision and Lucien went searching for Vassa). I do think Elain will help with future Koschei / Vassa plotlines but she will still have others with her for the action, she herself has no power to retaliate.

Feyre and Nesta's powers don't require "backup" if that makes sense.

Also, everything about Elain is light and love, cruelty bothers her, she was worried about who would die in the war, she vomited when the Cauldron wiped out the Illyrians, she's a grower of things.

The imagery that surrounds Elain does feel more like a healer to me than her being a Seer.

A metal sword was dipped into the Cauldron and became a made object.

Nesta's shields are made with the essence of the Cauldron itself, shields Rhys refers to as a fortress of solid iron and through her powers she was able to turn metal weapons into made objects.

It's not impossible to think that when Elain went into the Cauldron, the iron ring was imbued with power.

Spinning the wheels a bit more, SJM does like LOTR so there's a chance she was inspired by the idea of a magical ring.

The One Ring in LOTR showed itself to Gandalf as being the One Ring when placed into the fire and a few of us Elucien's have commented that Lucien's nearby presence (and own powers) seemed to be the thing that triggered the start of Elain's visions.

There are also no mentions of Elain wearing the ring in ACOMAF or ACOSF and as far as we can tell, she's not had any visions during that time.

Could this actually be the reason why Elain refused to give the ring back to Graysen? Because she knew of its power?

(side note, it would funny if there was truth to the theory and Rhys was ready to see it gone without realizing what he'd be giving away 😂).

I think it would be a fantastic storyline if while wearing the ring, she could have visions of the future while Elain's true Cauldron given powers lay somewhere else, just like Nesta can wield her own made objects while still having her own powers without them:

(Just a bit of background on Blodeuwedd. I do like the detail where a marriage between Lleu (Lucien) and Blodeuwedd (Elain) was required for him to become "King", it ties in to a possible arranged marriage trope and Lucien as possible High King.)

Blodeuwedd was created from the flowers of a tree with an "explicitly healing nature".

She was also turned into an owl, creatures known to have excellent hearing ("I can hear your heart beating through the stone" / I can hear the sea").

We know Nesta's metaphorical "claws" are that of a wolf. Could Elain's be that of an owl but by actually shifting into one, what with shape shifting being a gift granted to the current High Lords / High Lady, especially the one in Spring?

#elucien #elain archeron #pro elucien #pro lucien vanserra #lucien vanserra #lucien and elain #elain x lucien #elain and lucien #pro elain archeron #acotar theory #sarah j mass

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bellepeppergirl · 1 month

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I think I might have a little theory about Radahn. It's probably gonna need more work, but I shall put forth the basics.

Radahn was affected by the Crucible and maybe even fought for it.

So why do I think this? For one, we have Radahn's appearance. He is notably massive, and his face looks monstrous. We can see at the beginning of the game in one of the paintings that he wasn't always this huge. Now, some have taken this size and his face to be the influence of giant heritage and Scarlet Rot, respectively, and they very well could be, but I also put forward his admiration for Godfrey.

Godfrey himself has a huge connection to The Crucible with all of the Crucible Knights being in his employment. The Crucible Knights were affected by their namesake and turned into something similar to the Misbegotten, which they now hide under their armor. Two of Godfrey's children were also Omen, possibly as a result of his connection with The Crucible.

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned I believed the Shadow Lands are heavily tied to The Crucible and in fact the place where it is located and revered. We also know that this is where Marika's story began, which indicates this would be where she attempted to put down The Crucible and its followers. And we all know that, when Marika wanted something, she would send Godfrey out to deal with it until he was no longer of use to her.

Radahn has also been confirmed to be a required kill before we can access the DLC, which means he obviously has to have some kind of connection to it. I believe that, in his reverence for Godfrey, he too interacted with The Crucible and became what he is today, and then was subsequently made worse by the Scarlet Rot.

It's possible that, after his defeat at the hands of an Omen, something the people of The Lands Between deemed as lesser due to their own connection to The Crucible, an ancient and disgraced relic of the past, Radahn's lust to be a strong hero like Godfrey seduced him into messing with The Crucible so that he could mutate just as the Crucible Knights did, in turn allowing him to become stronger.

This could also explain why, when outside of party mode, the boss of Redmane Castle, Radahn's castle, is a duo fight consisting of a Crucible Knight and a Misbegotten. A Misbegotten that wields the Ruin Greatsword specifically, which has gravity magic imbued into it, and of course, Radahn loves some gravity magic.

Now, is this theory without holes? No. It could absolutely use more work and one could argue that, if this was the case, why would he not use Crucible Incantations? It's possible he could be simply doesn't because he's more focused on gravity magic. But only time will tell!

Would love to hear your thoughts!

#elden ring #elden ring dlc #fromsoft #elden ring lore #elden ring theory #general radahn #starscourge radahn #shadow of the erdtree #the crucible #godfrey the first elden lord

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komoonyoungah · 2 years

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ACOTAR theory

I need to get this out of my head but I don’t know where to go with it so I’m going to put it here

I read ACOSF back in February and it’s almost October now and I still can’t shake off the feeling that all the previous books have been leading up to this one. Like this isn’t a spin-off but the main event. Like everything that happened with Feyre was child’s play to prepare for Nesta’s takeover not as the FMC but as the High Queen. Hear me out.

I’m sure Nesta will build the Valkyrie. She already has the mightiest general of Illyria at her side. She has Gwyn and Emerie who, let’s face it, are the strongest baddest females of the series. If Azriel ends up with Gwyn (fingers crossed) she’ll have him and his shadows too. If Mor and Emerie do become a thing, she’ll have her too. The main forces will naturally shift to her. All Rhys will be left with is powerless Amren and Elain and her gardens. Not to mention a baby and a birth-weakened Feyre.

But more importantly than all of that, it was Nesta who executed every life or death moment when it mattered even before the proper character development.

It wasn’t Rhysand who killed Hybern. Nesta did.

It wasn’t Rhysand who killed Briallyn. Nesta did.

It wasn’t Rhysand who defeated the cauldron, Nesta did.

It wasn’t Rhysand who the Dread Trove revealed itself to, Nesta was.

It wasn’t Rhysand who made the Great weapons, Nesta did.

In ACOSF when the blacksmith brings the weapons to Rhys and Amren tries to convince him to use them, he says “I was born with my powers. I didn’t earn them.” I wholeheartedly agree. He never done anything to earn him his position. Whereas Nesta is actively building herself (to become a leader imo). She said she doesn’t want to be a weapon for someone else. That she wants to wield her power herself and lead others—presumably the Valkyrie. She’s constantly learning and discovering and leading from literal scratch. Worse than scratch. She’s starting from dust particles.

On top of all that, while Rhys’s abilities are impressive and all that, his is merely fancy magic. Nesta, on the other hand, is basically god. She TOOK from the cauldron with her teeth and imbued herself with their gods essence. Nesta is the only character in the series who has a personal one on one conversations with the Mother. She *negotiates* with the gods directly. They all pray and hope. She has a direct hotline to them.

All of this can’t be meaningless.

This is just my theory but I’d be so disappointed if SJM reduces Nesta to a mere weapon for Rhys because this fandom is horny. Nesta Archeron has the potential to be the greatest feminist icon ever written only if SJM doesn’t heed the Feysand cheer squad.

#acotar #ACOSF #acomaf #nesta archeron #pro nesta #sjm books #edited: Briallyn’s name typo #i still stand by everything I said

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dandelion-wings · 7 months

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On that note, would you be interesting in sharing some more about the mind control concept? It sounds neat.

Kaeya being Kaeya, is he percieving the aforementioned consequences as his punishment? I doubt Jean will take the revelation well, with Gunnhildr values and history.

I would not mind! It's been very fun to contemplate. :> IDK that he takes the consequences as a punishment long-term, since in my "fewest scenes" version, at least, there's two pretty strong "tipping points" where he has opinion shifts, but the magic itself he takes as... a combination of punishment and self-restraint? One of the important details is that he knows this is happening, and agrees and consents to it at the time!

Because Diluc comes up with it in the first place because Kaeya cannot definitively tell him he won't endanger Mondstadt, just that he doesn't want to, and this is majorly distressing to both of them. (Neither of them are really. in their right minds about this right now, either, given everything going on.) Some key dialogue in my head from the first scene is Diluc explaining what he understands of the spell's basics, saying he can't be the focal point of it because he's going to leave (and, implicitly, he's not letting Kaeya come with him), and then saying that he wants to make sure that the person he ties it to isn't ever going to give Kaeya a bad order. But given the state of corruption he's just discovered in the Knights he's not sure who he can trust to be that moral, except for-

And Kaeya actually interrupts him to say "Jean," because. well. All my headcanons about them as a teenage trio are in full force here, and Jean Gunnhildr wouldn't abuse her power over another knight even if he wasn't a childhood friend.

There are just, uh, two little problems.

Problem One: they decide (and are able to, thanks to Kaeya's, uh, spy prep (Diluc: "...You've collected and kept some of Jean's blood?" Kaeya: "Did you think this is the only Abyssal rite that requires blood? I have some of yours, too.")) to initially do it without informing Jean, because she is likely to interfere and object, and better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, right? Diluc assumes Kaeya is going to tell Jean (and maybe, pettily, thinks it would only be fair for Kaeya to have to take on her ire about this alone, because Diluc is mad at him in general but also didn't want to do this, specifically, and only did because Kaeya as he sees it refused to promise him that he wouldn't be a threat to Mondstadt). Kaeya is torn on telling Jean, hesitates when he finally goes back to the Ordo and she asks what happened in the... month or so since Crepus' death (in which he's been at the Winery the whole time), and finds that the point is moot, because Jean's response to his hesitation is, "Never mind, don't tell me."

Which, while meant as an out if he didn't want to talk about the personal stuff, is, without the "you don't have to" part verbalized, an order. :>

Problem Two: Diluc didn't actually know what the fuck he was doing. Kaeya is a little more familiar with Abyssal magic, but more in theory than in practice, and also, neither of them really know how it interacts with Visions. Just that the magic needed an elemental anchor! And Diluc was going to leave his Vision behind anyway (in this AU, he asks Jean via letter to get it back for him), so that works, right? It's a big bundle of Pyro energy and should be perfect. The parts where a) it's a much bigger bundle of elemental energy than the spell was designed for, and b) it is acting upon someone who is now imbued with Cryo, its opposing element, don't register to him as problems and might not have registered to Kaeya either even if Kaeya hadn't been disassociating from life and still semi-suicidal at that point.

Anyway, the spell was already not as innocuous as Diluc thought and gets turned up several degrees by using his Vision as an anchor, and then slowly gets stronger and stronger as time passes after he leaves. The main thing is that it doesn't just enforce direct, intended orders, or even accidental ones like the "don't tell me," it starts enforcing lines like "let's get dinner" and "we should spar" and, eventually, even very soft not-orders like "do you want to try this?"

For the record, the effect of the magic is to cut off his breathing and lock up his muscles when he makes any move to disobey an order. :> Including, gradually, when he even tries to argue with Jean. And while Kaeya does initially think of all of this as fair at first, and then, even when he realizes it's stronger than he thought, still something he agreed to and got himself into and doesn't deserve to be mad about... there's a point where it's starting to actively impede Jean, too, as she makes him her adjunct and makes clear that she would like. y'know. private feedback and corrections as she navigates her new rank as Master of Knights. Things that he cannot give her because of the spell.

So (and here I peel out three paragraphs of point-by-point plot summary that fit better in my document for this as notes XD;;), a couple things eventually break bad specifically because of the compulsive magic, and after the second one gets Jean outright furious at him. At which point Kaeya decides that, well, he does know some basic principles of Abyssal magic, and he has Diluc's Vision in his possession. Maybe he can fix this. He has to fix this. He's fucking things up for Jean and it can't go on any longer, whether he deserves it or not.

Quoth @theabysscomeshome, after Jean has kicked his door in the next day after he was hours late to work and dragged the nearest and dearest arcane expert she has over to deal with her apparently catatonic adjutant:

Lisa, finding the "fix" that left him in this state: "oh. oh no no no, cutie, you didn't."

And things come out (and eventually get fixed, for a certain value of "fixed" that never entirely repairs the damage done, but at least mitigates it) from there! After a significant amount of time where Kaeya is basically nonfunctional and in Jean's care, while she is grappling with all the revelations that have been dumped on her. :> I'm a little shaky on exactly how it gets fixed, still, except that Diluc gets hauled bodily back from his murderventure to help (Eula tells him that Jean needs him, it's about his brother, and twenty nightmare scenarios manifest in his head at once), and Lisa gets to yell at both boys on her girlfriend's behalf once it is. But the aftermath is a fun amount of emotionally messy!

#fic nattering #asked and answered

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icharchivist · 22 days

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Right, because I remember that Mako influence changes your eyes and it's why Sephiroth's have that striking color

But I guess the change wasn't that severe for Cloud. Still, there's something about being altered physically by the ordeal in a way you can't ever take back, even if it's just something as small as the colors of your eyes changing slightly. Knowing you'll never be the same every time you look in the mirror...

That's not completely like that but i can only explain it with some spoilers so i'm sorry for that--

starting out vague, every SOLDIERs get infused with Mako and have their eyes change color as a result. The exposure to Mako for a regular Soldier shouldn't be too high, but it will show in the eyes.

Zack is the example of a regular case:

And in that level, you're right about the horror itself: on paper, SOLDIER sign in knowing they will be changed beyond repairs. But also the propaganda at the time means SOLDIER's glory was too good to pass by.

(both Zack and Cloud joined the army when they were still teens after all, and the implication of the endoctrinent needed for this to happen is there in the game)

Shinra does a full propaganda in order to get young people to happily sign for the battle lines, and they get changed by the Mako that will degenerate their bodies, making them even more reliant on Shinra. It's a cursed existence and one where you can never go back to yourself. you signed your life away with the devil and he won't take refunds.

but ^this is for typical cases, which applies to Zack, but neither Sephiroth nor Cloud are typical cases

Sephiroth's eyes don't look this way because of Mako, even if it influenced it, but because of Jenova cells

(picture of young Sephiroth also to drive my point)

which is why his pupils are shapped like cats and why when he takes over Cloud's mind Cloud's eyes still change even further

because Cloud isn't just dozed in mako, he's been injected Sephiroth's cells too in the way back, which is why Sephiroth can actually mindcontrol him

Like in theory Cloud's Mako case should be more severe because he spent 4 years of his life in a Mako Tank, even by Soldier's standards he's much worse (Zack also spent 4 years of his life in a Mako Tank but his body rejected the experiments, both Mako and cells, which is why he's more regular)

Advent Children gives us the clearer look at that with close up on Cloud's regular eyes as he's imbued in Mako:

and when Sephiroth takes over:

and even further explanation under the cut depending how much you know:

Sephiroth was made in a lab. He's not a regular dude. His parents were scientists for Shinra and there was a whole project about trying to create the perfect Soldier by imbuing them with Jenova cells.

Jenova is, huh, this:

when Shinra found her, they believed she was a Cetra, and the Cetra are a group of special humans who have a magical connection to the Lifestream. This connection works like a door between the world of the living and the deads, and Shinra believed that like that, by exploiting Mako and unlocking the power of the Cetra, they would actually be able to find the Promised Land, where the riches of this world would be able to leave for after having ruined life on earth for everyone else.

But Shinra was wrong. Jenova was no Cetra. She's an alien, a calamity that fell from the skies, and is the being who exterminated almost every Cetra. (the only living Cetra left is Aerith). It's her thing to cause chaos, to mind control everyone around her, influencing their wishes in order to get what /she/ wants, which is ultimately to destroy this planet.

Unaware of all of that, the Shinra scientific division did work a lot on Jenova cells, and usually people who were injected those cells would reject them. People who has been imbued with Mako could eventually take on the cells, but become consumed by the power of Jenova and turn into puppets to her wishes, mostly dying.

Eventually Shinra came to do scientific experiments on children who were yet to be born, and i'll spare you this whole plotpoint and what it entails, and only will mention that: Sephiroth is the only successful experiment.

and his birth mother realized the folly of their actions after she birthed him and ended up disappearing, while his birth father only ever treated him like a lab experiment.

Sephiroth grew up in the Shinra labs. He was an experiment first and formost, a child soldier, he was always enhanced by the Jenova's cells.

he was told his mother was named Jenova, and it's discovering the lab the Alien was experimented on that had Sephiroth connects dot about his existence and have him snap deciding to "free his mother from this existence".

But there's a strong implication in the Original Game that Sephiroth gets consumed also by the mind control of Jenova. Jenova appears to you in ways that would make it easier to manipulate you, and anyone in the known can tell Jenova looks like Sephiroth's birth mother. How much is Jenova's manipulation weighing on Sephiroth's brain? How much is it his actions and how much is it the alien? is there even such a hard difference, if he's just so willing to give everything to his mother anyway?

Sephiroth believes himself part Cetra because of the bad information he has and it's why he especially targets Aerith too. He believes the planet belongs rightfully to his mother and he will bring it to her on a platter. And well. This world only created him to be a weapon anyway, a monster, so monster he shall be since he can't escape his fate.

The thing is that when Sephiroth initially snapped, both Zack and Cloud tried to stop him and Sephiroth was believed dead after a battle where Zack and Cloud almost lost their lives.

Being displeased with having lost their most perfect experiment, Sephiroth's father, the head scientist of Shinra, Professor Hojo, took Zack and Cloud's bodies and decided to just experiment on them instead. After all, if they could take down his perfect creation, maybe they could survive being made into Sephiroth's replacement.

But Zack has been a Soldier for years at this point. He has had his Mako injections quite a bit, and because the experiments were about giving Sephiroth's cells in Mako, Zack fully rejected the experiments made on him.

Cloud, however, has never made it to Soldier. When he was experimented on, he was just a regular dude, an infantry guy working for Shinra. He took very badly on the experiment and was left in a vegetative state.

both Zack and Cloud were locked into tanks of Mako and Sephiroth's cells for 4 years before Zack managed to break the tanks and have them both escape. Cloud remained in a vegetative state for 6 months, until he woke up just in time to witness Zack's death.

While Cloud rejected the cells, they ended up really taking in on him. He became a successful experiments only afterward, and it's one of the element that ended up making him so mentally unstable, on top of regular trauma.

in the Original Game, Sephiroth takes a while to realize Cloud is tailing him, and recognizing him, but once he does, he also feels that a part of himself is into Cloud. That, technically, Cloud has been forced into becoming a sort of clone of Sephiroth.

Sephiroth used his influence on the Jenova cells to control all the ex-Soldiers who had some of those cells inside of them -- and Cloud as well. He turned them all into puppets. And he broke Cloud's mind to make him his, because Cloud has so much of Sephiroth carved deep inside of him from the experiments, that Sephiroth sees Cloud as an extention of himself, as a tool he can use and abuse.

in the Original Game there are various moments of pure horrors where Sephiroth takes over Cloud's mind and Cloud will just do everything Sephiroth pushes him to do. Which is why Cloud is the one to trigger some of those horrors while he's being mind controlled.

in Advent Children, we get introduced to 3 more "successful" Sephiroth clones, who all see Cloud as their "big brother", as they are all children of Jenova, obviously. But all of them know Sephiroth is the golden child, and the whole plan is to bring Sephiroth's back, which is something that could hatch out of Cloud as well because he still has so much of Sephiroth inside of him.

tl;dr

Cloud never made it to Soldier, so his Mako eyes aren't because he signed his life away. His Mako eyes are also the result of more abuse from Mako than any regular Soldier has ever gone through, from the fact he defied Shinra and Sephiroth.

But Sephiroth's own eyes aren't because of the Mako, but because of Jenova.

And it's important because we see on Cloud the differences when his eyes are only Mako infused, and when Sephiroth, and therefore Jenova, hack inside his brain.

Neither Sephiroth nor Cloud had any choice in this whole "signing their lives away". Sephiroth's life was never his to start with, and Cloud was punished for fighting against a system already in the way back.

Zack is the one who signed his life away and ended up regretting it, seeing how the others Soldiers turned into monsters and realizing he's become a weapon in a game of war he didn't even understand. And he could never return to a life away from Soldier. He wasn't even given a chance to have a life afterward.

Cloud wanted to sign his life away, but never got to this point. The choices were made for him. He's being changed against his will over and over again, his body constantly violated and used without him to be able to do anything about it. And he can't return to normal, he can't return to a life before the trauma. He can't ignore what happened to him. Not again. He can't ignore who it made him become. Else he'd just open himself up for it to keep happening.

Sephiroth never had a choice in all of this. He has no normal to come back to. So if they robbed him of any possible future, he can do the same, can't he?

and they will all get to remember exactly how much was taken from them just by seeing themselves in the mirror. There is no way to return to how things were before. Now they just have to move forward with their scars.

........... so im very passionate about this topic so sorry i had to infodump on all of this but, listen, i, i love ff7 okay,

#ichareply #anonymous #ichafantalks ffvii

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msmkcreates · 3 years

Text

AuraFell InfoDump

Hello! As some of you may already know, I have created my own AU called AuraFell! It doesn't have any Tale/Swap/Swapfell/etc counterparts yet, so this is completely new!

I'm going to dump everything I have to start with this AU below the cut. If you want to wrote or draw this AU please ask, it's still in New AU stages so I want it to be done right! But I'm very easygoing and I would love for more content to me made so don't be afraid (:

More info below the cut, it's a mess of about 7k words so bear with me!

AuraFell:

Let's start with the magic system. Most monsters have the same type of magic as regular AUs, nothing special. If they have an aura, it's weak or hard to use.

Boss Monsters, though, have Auras that are strong and super effective.

Boss monsters in this AU (that ive developed) are:

-Papyrus (Mockingbird)

-Sans (Terror)

-Asgore (Dad)

-Toriel (Auntie)

-Undyne (Shrill)

-Alphys (Professor)

-Mettaton (Signal)

-Grillby (Ozone)

-Frisk (Kiddo)

And the deceased ones with powers thus far:

-Gaster (Doctor...deceased)

-Asriel (Giver...deceased...?)

-Chara (Pal....deceased)

Nicknames! So nicknames are actually given to Boss monsters by the ones their aura effects. They all for some reason call them that name.

Aura powers fall under two categories, with subcategories. If your aura is in the same category, you're resistant to the other's power. If you have the same category AND subcategory, you're immune.

Ambient Auras: These are Auras that are area of effect, sort of. They are focused in one way or another but generally present at all times.

-Visual: This means the Ambient Aura is focused with a visual effect (flashing colors, a friendly smile, the written word)

-Audial: This means the Ambient Aura is focused with sound (humming, singing, spoken word)

Given Aura: This aura type must be administered physically somehow. It is not ever-present but can be "stowed" or "kept". The effect is imbued to an object or physically given somehow.

-Present: This means the Given Effect must be given through an item (a baked good laced with the effect, a gift, etc)

-Physical: This means the given effect must be administered through physical contact (a bite, a kiss, skin to skin contact)

Let's start with the skeleton Brothers' powers

Papyrus, AKA Mockingbird

-His Aura is called Lullaby. He makes people fall asleep. He usually does this by humming or singing. It can effect one person immediately or multiple with a delay.

-His favorite lullaby to hum is "Hush little baby" (you know. The one where Mama is gonna buy you a Mockingbird...) and perhaps that's why everyone calls him Mockingbird

-He used to think he had no powers because he didn't know how to focus it, and his Category/Subcategory is the same as Sans AND Undyne (whom he spent the most time with) so neither were ever affected

- Category/Sub is Ambient (Audial)

Sans (Terror)

-His aura is called Modify Memory, but nobody knows that. He can speak to a sleeping person and influence their dreams, or speak a story to an woken person and they will legitimately remember that it happened that way. Again, it's most effective when focused on one person, and the details fuzz or change if he tries to stretch it to more people

-He pretends to be affected by Mock's lullaby. He's incredibly fast, agile, and strong, and he pretends he's only a good fighter when he's unconscious. This way nobody will risk a surprise knockout and they'll cooperate with him when Mock threatens to put him to sleep. He modifies people's memories so they will spread by word of mouth that the unconscious fighting is his power, not modify memory

-Category/Sub: Ambient (Audial)

Speed run through the others:

-Toriel (Auntie) makes pies or any baked good that are more addictive than any drug. Category/sub: Given (Present)

-Asgore (Dad) has Big Dad Energy and everyone wants to impress him, to an extreme. He's so strong he affects most of the Underground without knowing it, and to his horror most of the Underground seems to think that murdering others and getting stronger is the way to impress him. He focuses with spoken word but it's mostly unnecessary at this point. Ambient (Audial)

-Grillby (Ozone). Hypnosis. Pretty flame colors. Leaves his victims open to suggestion. Ambient (Visual)

-Muffet (? Nickname tbd) makes a paralyzing poison. She has figured out how to put it in her pastries but it's best delivered by bite. Given (Physical)

-Undyne (Shrill) has the command power. People follow a command from her. Longer instructions if focused on one, one simple instruction if aimed at multiples. Ambient (Audial)

-Alphys (Professor). People take whatever she says as fact as long as it's written in her handwriting. Ambient (Visual)

-Mettaton (Signal). His TV programs are brainwashing propaganda. He can convince people to buy or sell anything if they are watching him through a screen. Ambient (Visual)

-Frisk (Kiddo) radiates friendship with a smile. Ambient (visual)

-Gaster (Doctor) used to be able to say anything and people would believe him. Ambient (Audial)

-Chara (Pal) was able to convince anyone to be friendly to them no matter what they'd done. Ambient (Audial)

-Asriel (Giver) could give you a rock and you'd well up with grateful feelings. Given (Present)

yeah that's the basics, that's the big peeps in that world. Basically it isn't really Asgore's fault the place is so fucked up he's just very old and powerful and the violence is mostly people trying to impress him (poorly).

Gaster is Terror and Mock's Dad but he died when they were young, 8 and barely 2. He died trying to save Asriel and Chara when he accidentally dropped a barrier-breaking theory that Asriel then took as fact because of Gaster's aura.

Toriel moved almost immediately after the children's deaths, and Asgore did his best to raise Terror and Mock until Terror was old enough to take Mock to live in their house in Snowdin (about 14 and 8 years old)

Snowdin is a really bad place now though bc Toriel (Auntie) has been giving away her pies at the ruins gates, and people are killing and hurting each other for enough G or whatever they think she wants to get the next fix. She's kinda lost it at this point, she keeps feeding them out of some twisted need to be needed

Terror was old enough and smart enough to know "yeah, let's not eat that". They're immune to Asgore's power bc they are the same types, but they still want to impress him the normal kid-wants-to-impress-dad amount so they never tell him when they need more support out of some sense of pride.

Mock was a bit of a runt well into teenage years. His magic was very slow to grow. He got picked on a lot, kids stole his lunch money and roughed him up and such. He would hum his favorite lullabies to himself to calm his anxiety, and wouldn't you know it, but one day it put everyone to sleep!

So sometimes he doesn't even realize he's humming, he does it to calm his nerves, he a nervous bean, but he also knows from the one time someone injured his socket that earplugs are good enough to slow his effects

He also learns pretty quickly that junkies don't sleep for long and they are way stronger than he anticipated so, he racks up some of his LV for stuff like that.

He also likes tea because his powers depend on him being able to hum/sing

#aurafell #undertale au #my au #my work #mktalks #mkwrites

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butterfly-winx · 3 years

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Hello! I Have a Winx club au question...like always lol. After looking at your base forms you posted and rewatching Winx Season 1 I've realized we've never really gotten an answer to how a magic user gets his or her or their title such as (Fairy of animals) or (Witch of snakes). So in your au how would one discover their title as a magic user? Is it as simple as magic source or is it deeper then that and relates to magic users person background, culture and who they are as a person?

Oh yeah, I remember getting an ask in a similar vein... sorry I must have forgotten over it during my summer absence!

Titels are 100% self-given in butterfly verse and involve a lot of trial and error.

All magic sensitive people are born with an aspect through which their connection to the Flow of the Universe is strongest through and their magic primarily manifests as. If you are just casually magic sensitive and never go to a specialised magic school (no specialised magic training means you are neither witch*er, fairy or sorcerer*ess) you might never develop an exact knowledge about the nature of your source, but what you can do with magic also remains somewhat vague and general. (Many magic sensitive people can predict weather changes or are capable of low levels of telekinesis fo example, regardless of their aspect). It is not important to know your aspect if you never train in magic anyways.

Magic users, aka people who study magic to some degree go through classes that teach them introspection to unlock their core-based transformation. What comes with this is also a lot of pondering on the nature of your aspect. Here is where the trial and error thing comes in. You make up a definition for what you think best describes the breadth of your aspect, spend some time maturing with the label to see if it fits and then further refine and refine again as you reach higher levels of magic might, understanding of magic theory and just, plain (human) maturity.

It is logical though, that at the start of the magic learning hourney where your magic core and potential are at their lowest you won't be able to perform all feats possible within your aspect. Eg S1 Bloom with fledgling fire powers had no idea she could heal and resuscitate recently dead things because she barely could transform and start a campfire from her core-size. ()In her case her aspect was known as an external source: the Dragonflame, but still)

Most magic sensitive people who come from a family of magic people with known aspects will have a vague idea what their powers will be based on. Two elemental aligned aspects usually combine, while generally speaking abstract aspects dominate over elemental one. (This is a question of semantics though. Abstract aspects are based on concepts aka man made ideas and are easier described by man made tools aka language. They can encompass a larger breadth of meaning(s).)

Stella, for example, is pretty straightforward: Radius = Fairy of Bright Skies (Daylight), Luna = Witch of Reflected Light

You combine illuminating celestial objects with celestial objects that reflect light and get Sun and Moons for short, but I think Stella would have powers over other planet associated bright objects as well (asteroids yes, comets and black holes no). I think there is a difference between magic user registration on record and what people use to introduce themselves to yell in battle, bc "Fairy of Light Emitting and Light Reflecting Astrological Objects Associated with Planets" is quite a mouthful. And colloquially when someone says "sun and moon" that's what your mind jumps to. But that is probably because you grew up on a planet with A sun and A moon - so there is this cultural aspect as well. Ultimately a magic user title is a name that the wearer choses and imbues with a certain power, socially speaking.

Power sources can also morph over generations a lot, especially if non-magic sensitive people were in the mix in the meantime. Roxy's Grandmother was the Fairy of Cosmic Balance, Grandpa Fairy of Untamed Wilderness. Morgana is the Fairy of Natural Order or Ecosystems and Roxy ended up with powers over terrestrial animals.

For professional magic users, like the Winx who study magic and work using magic, their fairy name is also part of their registered title. At the stage where someone gets offered guardianship over a planet (Guardians can be any of magic stream, not just fairies) they would have a pretty good idea of what they can, and more importantly what they can't do. The higher level a magic user, the more specific their title gets, officially, until they reach a certain level of public importance, at which their title gets shortened again for convenience. For nymphs in particular with their Nymph Quest transformation it is said that their power gets so transcendent anyways that a broader title is more fitting

#winx club #butterfly fic adjacent

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yazthebookish · 3 years

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I'm sure sjm will make Gwyn descended from some elemental!! Perhaps the priestess who forged the Gwyndion sword would have been an elemental, just as Nestha she could have forged and put power into the sword right after bathing in the cauldron, which is why the sword is so powerful. even Fionn could be an elemental as several theories point to the similarities between him and Gwyn. I also have a theory that maybe Gwyn is the sword Gwydion itself, the same way Bryce is the horn in crescent city, I wanted sjm to make Gwyn aware of the powers she has, if she was to find out about them. in the book she's going to have to develop and sjm shits in developing powers in lashing, she doesn't develop and in the end takes the power out of the character which I hate with all my strength. So I think / I want Gwyn to know that she has powers and has already practiced, read books about them and already have some development in handling (we saw in acosf that she uses magic to be able to get the books off the shelves)

Okay this made me think about it more and here is a theory:

As you said, Gwyn could be a descendant of an elemental Fae either the priestess Oleanna who dipped Gwydion into the Cauldron or High King Fionn.

Remember the whole “like calls to like”? What if Nesta's power wasn't merely just responding to Gwyn's because she has powers whether it's Autumn's flames or something else.

Before we go further let's clarify that Lightsingers have no connection whatsoever to the Cauldron or the Trove or it doesn't make sense for Nesta's powers to react to a Lightsinger. We didn't see her powers react to Azriel's no? Nor did they react to that evil Kelpie from Oorid.

Anyhow, what if Gwyn's powers are more elemental or she has a connection to a made-sword like Gwydion? I know I'm babbling but I'm trying to make sense out of this theory because one of the things known about elemental Fae is that they can imbue objects with their gifts/powers.

If you have any theories and ideas share them under this post I like where this is going 🥰

#asks

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risoris · 4 years

Text

ohhhhhhh god so i rewatched brave today and realized something

you guys remember the Witch right? and how her cottage/workshop is filled with bear carvings?

i always zeroed in on how they’re all bears, but never really gave much thought on why they’re all wood, or why the Witch decided to be a woodcarver specifically...

idk if this is a popular theory or not, but there used to be a common assumption after Brave first came out (especially in fics) that the Witch not conjuring anymore is her trying to play it safe. it’s based on this line,

which either implies her spellwork has done more damage than good in the past (ex.: the First Prince giving in to the temptation of staying as Mor’du) or the people who came to her didn’t take kindly to how her magic works (ex.: again, Mor’du). these “customers” probably marked her as bad business, which led her to scraping by, which led her to fully switching into woodcarving in the present.

but it doesn’t really answer my question why it’s woodcarving she had to choose. at first i just thought she did it because it’s convenient for her. we already saw in the movie how she can turn everything she touches into bear-themed ornaments,

so she probably chose the profession to have an easy life, where she doesn’t need to exert herself much for a living. but then i started thinking about how she can turn everything she touches into bear-themed ornaments. so why did she stop at wood? since she seemed to be in desperate need of money, and her wooden carvings didn’t seem to sell well, why not try other crafts? wouldn’t it bring more fortune to her if she also did various stuff like stone sculpture, weaving, metalwork, etc? so why only wood?

and today i realized this line:

wood cannot be imbued with magical properties. considering how the Witch is trying to stay away from witchcraft, this is probably why she picked the material that won’t respond to her magic. the evidence?

the objects vital to the Bear spell, both in Merida’s and the First Prince’s case, happened to not be made from wood

but in contrast to Merida’s tapestry and the First Prince’s stone engraving, all of the Witch’s wood carving seem to have no connection to any fate-changing magic. we can see this with how the Witch constantly persuaded Merida into buying her goods; she’s confident that this one won’t lead to customer complaints.

this means that even though she obviously crafted them with magic, the final product stay nonmagical. the Witch chose to become a woodcarver because wood doesn’t store her magic. they’re just simple goods she can sell, no spell-related complications.

(the jury’s still out on metal, though.)

#pixar #disney #brave #pixar brave #disney brave #rotbtd #does this count as rotbtd? idk screw it #analysis #my analysis #im so excited about this lmao #ive watched this movie hundreds of times wtffff cant believe i just realized this now

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blueknightdg · 3 years

Text

Magic

Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette, Chloe, Kagame, Adrian

DCU: Damian, Jason, Tim, Bruce, Dick, Alfred

------------

Part 1: Talismans

---------

Marinette has had enough of Chloe and Adrian. She will show them a thing or two!

“For the last time, potions are a ligitement magic!”

“Potions are a substitute! Sure, it has magic but it’s not magic magic.”

“Magic is magic and potions are magic!”

“No no no, it’s used to make magic and magic is used to make it. There is a difference.”

“Chloe.... whatever did I see in you.... “, Marinette glares.

“Stop huffing like I ruined magic theory for you! Don’t forget that I’m the one funding your magic research. You ungrateful-”

“Girls, can you keep it down? Class is starting and if the others find out about our secret....”, Adrian whispers.

Chloe and marinette stare each other down before turning away with crossed arms and large pouts.

“At least you guys can use magic. I have to write runes and talismans.... even Kagami can use summoning circles and enchantments....”

“Adrian, you can use magic. You might not have a lot of it, but you can use it every effectively.”

Adrian smiled gently and Marinette squeezed his shoulder. He walked to his seat and Chloe was already at hers.

----------

Ever since Marinette began reading the tome of the miraculous, she started learning magic and how to unlock it. She need the materials and resources, so with reluctance, she enlisted the help of Chloe. In exchange for the help, she would teach Chloe how to use daily magic and other necessities.

Of Course, she refused to keep it from Adrian and marinette let it slide just this once. However, she felt that Kagami had strong affinity to enchanting.

Marinette didn’t teach them how to unlock their magic and unlocked it for them, her reasoning is that they are not ready to handle basic magic at the time. Eventually, they were all ready not just for magic but some secrets too.

---------------------

“Why is Luka here?”

“He found me sleep floating down the river.”

Chloe laughs at her.

“You just outed yourself!”

“He has more magic potential than you, I just didn’t want to make you feel insecure when I taught him alongside you guys.”

“So he’s been getting private lessons like he’s special?”

“No and yes. No, he isn’t better than you and yes, I taught him separately. I waited until you had a good grasp on magic and are about on equal terms with him to bring him to you guys.”

“I’m surprised there are so many magically gifted people. My self included.”

“That’s another thing.... The only reason any of you are magically gifted is because you were in contact with miraculi.”

“W-What?”

“Kitty, I already found you out. Kagami, Luka..... I picked you all because of how well you did while wielding a type of magic. Magic items. Chloe is the exception, because we needed materials.”

“That’s right I’m the- Hey!”

“Anyways, you will all be given assignments to work on your magic.”

“Mistress Marinette, you are avoiding some questions we haven’t asked yet. How do you know....”

“Sigh....”, Marinette was too tired to fight.

“I’m Ladybug.”

She holds her hand up.

“But. I am not talking about it. I’ve got hints on who is Hawkmoth. So, Adrian....”

“Yes....?”

“You need to realize that not everyone is a good person and not everyone can be helped.”

“....oh. Do....do you really think?”

She looks softly at him.

“Maybe, but I want you to know....”

“I understand.... I have been stubborn....”

-----

Let’s not think about where that was going and focus on the present!

----

Marinette told them to go to specific countries for a short amount of time to cultivate their magic. Chloe is in Switzerland, and Luka is in Spain, and Kagami is in Thailand, and Adrian is in South Africa. Marinette was going to America.

They decided that they would have Adrian make talismans of teleportation for them. He would work on 12 a day as he goes to school in South Africa. He would work his way up from short distances and to long and eventually make a scroll imbued with his strongest magic. He would teleport to Kagami when he is ready and take her to their respective housing to make hidden summoning circles that lead to the Temple.

After mastering the magic the excel at, they would work on magic they are okay with and then magic they struggle with.

---------

Marinette finished unpacking her luggage in her new apartment. It was quite a distance from her school. It wasn’t Gotham Academy, but it was decent. Still, she gets to pass it on her way to school and a cute little fountain garden that was made two years ago. There wasn’t many people around it, but it was nice.

--------------

Bye for now!

#marinette #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #damian #daminette #maribat #au #magic #cute #batman #robin

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jaskiersvalley · 4 years

Note

I read your whole blog in the 12 hours before and after getting my wisdom tooth surgically removed, and I enjoyed reading the ficlet about the hree headed puppy so much, I read it aloud to my mom in the car on the way, which she enjoyed as much as I did. Since then I've also read some others to her, but that one and the illiterate Witchers are my favorites. Thank you so much for writing.

I hope your wisdom tooth surgery went smoothly and it’s all healing up nicely! Also, 12 hours to read the whole blog is quite amazing, I am humbled by your dedication. To know that you’ve shared the three headed puppy story with your mum is awesome, I don’t think I’d dare share any of my writing with mine XD As thank you for the regular reblogs, comments and your asks, have a little ficlet of Jaskier and the witchers! Keep being awesome!

Not a lot could unsettled a witcher, even less so a witcher of the fabled Wolf School. Despite this, there was unease in Kaer Morhen that grew as the days passed. There were murmurs, quietly exchange theories between four witchers. Well, three of the witchers were at odds and trying to make sense of things while Geralt rolled his eyes.

“You’ll get used to him. He’s honestly like this,” Geralt said for the umpteenth time, alarmingly close to rolling his eyes.

“Eskel, you’ve got more magic, can’t you just, I don’t know, feel him out for a curse or glamour or something like that,” Lambert whined.

In acknowledgement of the seriousness of the matter, Eskel didn’t dismiss the idea straightaway. Instead, he actually looked over the other witchers as they were huddled in the pantry for a secret meeting while Jaskier...was probably serenading the forktails or something equally ridiculous.

“You know my ability is very limited and stunted, but I’ll try,” he agreed with great gravity.

That was all the others (minus Geralt) asked. Plan in place, they filed out of the pantry, only to face a rather perturbed Jaskier sat on the table, watching them with curiosity while munching on an apple.

“I get it, important witcher-y pantry business,” he said, smiling around a mouthful of fruit.

There was no time like the present, Eskel thought and he stopped near Jaskier, hand wrapped around his wolf medallion and focused, palm turned subtly towards the bard. There wasn’t even the slightest quiver from his medallion and, after a long moment, he looked over to the others and shook his head. A collective breath was released, it was a relief but also frustrating. Geralt walked past Eskel, shoulders smacking into each other and a low “told you” had Eskel growling.

The next day found them crowding into an old and disused room with a table - probably where one of the witchers of old would sort the accounts of Kaer Morhen.

“There’s nothing magical about him,” Eskel grumbled. “Or he hides it so skilfully, I have no way of detecting it.”

“I’ll try something at dinner then. I have just the dinner set for him.”

The quiet “just an enthusiastic human” from Geralt went ignored. Especially when they opened the door and Jaskier was sat opposite it with his lute. He had the audacity to roll his eyes and shake his head.

“Important witcher accounting business, I know,” he said, not breaking the strumming of his newest song.

That evening, Lambert set the table and Jaskier’s set looked intricate. It got a couple of raised eyebrows.

“You mentioned you were a viscount, wanted you to feel more at home.” Lambert explained it away with a shrug. He blushed a little at the wide smile of thanks and Jaskier picked up the silver goblet. The witchers watched raptly as he took a sip of blessed water from the silver goblet. Nothing. Other than Jaskier smacking his lips and staring at the drink curiously.

“It’s most refreshing, must be the delight of the local mountain spring.”

The iron utensils went unnoticed too though Jaskier did admire the pattern on the handles.

In short, Lambert’s attempts were a bust too.

“You’ve got to try something,” Lambert and Eskel were pleading with Vesemir. “You must know some potion or other. There is no way he so fearlessly befriends witchers and maintains a cheery outlook on life after travelling with Geralt.” The two of them looked at Geralt suspiciously. “Maybe he’s bewitched his witcher.”

“Or he’s just a human,” Geralt said but, as before, he went ignored.

Finally, Vesemir sighed. “I will try out something. But you may pay the price.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll gladly accept it.” Eskel nodded along with Lambert’s declaration. With that settled, they stepped out of the laundry room and nobody looked Jaskier in the eye as he watched them, leaning up against the wall opposite, one leg up and arms crossed over his chest.

“Dirty witcher business,” he said. As Geralt was the last one out, only he saw Jaskeir’s wink and shook his head in despair.

Evening came round and Vesemir brought a bottle of est est that had everyone perking up. It was sweetened and aged into something more refined than they would usually encounter on the Path. They all drank and sighed happily.

“Bard,” Vesemir called out, “what’s your full name?”

“Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove. Though I do prefer going by Jaskier.” He didn’t even blink at the question. “Why do you ask?”

Vesemir gritted his teeth to ignore the question. He was only half successful. “What are your intentions towards Geralt? And I ask because we have all drunk est est imbued with a truth serum. We want to figure out what you are.”

Rather than look appalled or scared, Jaskier lit up with the brightest smile. “My intentions towards are Geralt are pure outside of the bedroom. I love him with all of my little human heart.” However, he turned his eyes to the witchers with a glint. “Why do you all crowd into small spaces? Were you having sexual relations without wanting me involved?”

There was a flurry of ‘no!” from around the room except from Lambert who said, “nah, the only one I bang here is Eskel.”

There was a moment of stunned silence before Jaskier bounced excitedly and clapped. “Do you love him?”

More silence as Lambert looked down at his lap and went bright red, obviously trying to hold his answer in while Eskel looked at him, hope visibly dying with each passing second.

“It’s not okay,” he whispered, squeezing Lambert’s shoulder and cursed when the ‘not’ slipped in thanks to the truth serum.

“Of course I love you, you idiot,” Lambert said and finally looked up. The declaration had Jaskier squealing and snuggling close to Geralt, adoring the openness.

“One more question. Actually, two more.” Geralt looked down at him. “This is something the others wanted an answer to. Why are you so nice, never scared of us? And why are your answers the same now as when you haven’t drunk a truth serum?”

A small laugh burst from Jaskier as he craned his neck to kiss Geralt. “I’d never lie to any of you. I love you all in your own ways, why would I be scared of my gentle wolves when you’ve all been nothing but kind to me?”

“Because nobody else treats us like you do.” Vesemir’s voice was soft and sad. “We didn’t trust the purity of your intentions. And I’m sorry for that.”

Two nods accompanied his words as Lambert and Eskel looked sheepish.

“They’re going through the same thing I did for the first couple of years we knew each other.”

Understanding dawned on Jaskier’s face and he looked at the others. “Well, as long as you don’t punch me in the stomach, I think you’ll do better than Geralt did.”

He pressed into the hold Geralt had around him and smiled. “You’re the only one I’ll love like this though, don’t worry. No matter how many years pass.”

Something about those words made Eskel frown. “Just how old are you?”

“I don’t know, I kind of lost track,” Jaskier smiled.

“Jaskier, you said you’re human. But are you immortal?”

“I don’t know.” The smile stayed in place. “But so far so good, right?”

#geraskier #eskel/lambert #geralt of rivia #jaskier #eskel #lambert #vesemir #witcher wolf pack #tldr: the witchers think jaskier is more than human

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