#libris mortis

[y-rhywbeth2]

Passing thought: Technically, as a vampire spawn, Astarion should have the spider climb ability. One could explain that as the tadpole repressing it, he notes that it's shut down his regenerative abilities in a banter with Shadowheart.

But if you let him ascend he talks about it in his hubristic rants like it's something new and special. So he doesn't know that he should already be able to do this as a spawn.

One answer is that Larian just decided that spawn don't have that ability in their game, but another answer - fitting DnD canon - is that Cazador didn't tell him about it. Many vampires teach their spawn lies and don't teach them full extent of their abilities to keep them weak and afraid of retaliating to reduce the chances of them overthrowing them.

(I also have a mental image of him discovering this over the events of the game and he has an enraged freak out as he realises he's always had more power than he realised and that Cazador tricked him out of. (Somebody should maybe get this guy a copy of the Libris Mortis. Like, "here's a manual on your condition and similar ones, because we can't trust whatever your shitbag abuser told you."))

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #astarion #astarion ancunin #the libris mortis was a sourcebook on the undead fyi #3.5e but still worthwhile #it has vampire sunscreen #Van Richten's Guide to Vampires would be more vampire specific but it's too out of date on lore

[taki-yaki]

Life with 7000 + 7 Vampire Spawn Headcanons

Pairing: Astarion x GN!Reader/Tav/Durge

So you released over 7000 vampire spawn into the Underdark and now you have to lead them with Astarion by your side. A snippet into day-to-day life in the Underdark

Since the poll tied, I'm just doing this in order of placement. The Batstarion headcanons will be coming soon. Also this is more life in the underdark focused on the spawn perspective but it does go in hand with Domestic In The Underdark.

Shortly after the defeat of the nether brain, you and Astarion return to the Underdark in an attempt to get the 7000 spawn under control.

You soon discover that most of the spawn are taking camp in the myconid circle, with the other 6 siblings and after an awkward long debate with the other spawn, Astarion becomes the unofficial/official leader of the group, whilst his siblings act as co-leaders and you as his right hand/partner/equal.

You start creating the haven, by taking up residency in an old abandoned fortress in the Underdark. Touches of comfort were added to the place through roomy living spaces and resources such as baths and beds.

In addition to a small community garden in the colony, which is filled with different safe mushrooms and fungi for some spawn to tend to, as a form of relaxation. Other similar activities are also made to do within the area.

Of course, to prevent the other spawn from seeing you as just a walking source of food, you have to apply garlic spray on yourself every so often to deter them from biting you.

Some spawns chose to disappear into the dark or return to their families, in hopes that they’ll still accept them for who they are, and others chose to embrace their more monstrous side preying on innocents which the Gur would usually deal with quickly before it got out of hand.

However, those who chose to create a new life for themselves, would come and stay in the haven.

With hosting so many blood-thirsty vampire spawn, it is required that the location of the haven must remain a secret to many. Despite this rule, Minsc always finds a way to visit you two in peace.

Astarion’s other siblings also assist with work on the colony, whether it be managing minor conflicts with the other spawn to Dalyria healing any spawn who may have come into contact with hazardous spores, cause regenerative healing isn’t going to fix that.

Working together with Dalyria and Lady Incognito’s notes, you work on creating potential cures for the spawn, from Liquid Night ointment made from moon flowers which gives spawn protection from the sun for a few hours acting as a form of sunblock to enchanted clothing that work for up to 8 hours before needing to be magically recharged again. These acted as temporary solutions but never full-term ones.

However, some spawns would enjoy their Underdark lifestyle and prefer to stay in the shadows. Some of these spawn would also lean into their vampiric nature by learning how to spider climb across the ceiling or transform into a bat through a lot of training.

Although many spawn would prefer to stick more to their mortal roots.

For main sources of food, are through raising Rothe to feed the vampire spawn, as well as boars to be bred to survive in the Underdark. Occasionally any hostile drow raiders would also try to attack, and they would be greeted by a ravenous pack of spawn ready to fight back swiftly.

Despite the number of enemies that are to be made in the Underdark, there are a few familiar faces who become allies to your cause. The myconids create a trade offer for you, in exchange for bringing hosts for their “children”, mainly through the fallen drow raiders, in return they offer to produce plants in their grove with rare medicinal properties. 

Additionally, Blurg and Omeluum also help out, by mainly researching vampirism. By creating a research group through the Society of Brilliance, trying to study a long-term cure as well as their notes about the Underdark assisting as well into helping the haven thrive.

The Ulma Gur family also visits occasionally to gift herbs which assist in easing hunger pains and building restraints. They would also offer protection to the colony and are glad that some still wish to change their ways.

Occasionally some newbie Oath of the Ancient Paladins would try to be a wannabe hero and charge head-first into the colony, intending to bring balance to the natural order. They would usually be stopped by you or the Gur at first, explaining to them that they are just victims of torment, looking for a second chance at life.

To slay them in the name of an oath is to just crush all hope left in them. Some would be understanding. especially if you were an ex-oath of the ancient paladin, then they might be more likely to listen to reason. and would leave, whilst others would be too stubborn and the gur would have to deal with them.

Over time, some spawn would choose to leave after feeling that they could live self-sufficiently or that they have found someone who they would love to spend their (undead) life with.

The spawn grow to enjoy your company and are thankful for how much you’ve done, especially the main 6 siblings for all giving them a second chance at life.

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

Btw for those who don't know what night liquid is, it's an item from 3.5's Undead Libris Mortis, which gave undead-sensitive creatures, temporary protection from the sun for an hour. (but let's just say that they made a stronger batch for this). Also, I know this is less Astarion-focused, but the Batstarion headcanons will be more centred on our favourite vamp.

#astarion x tav #astarion x durge #astarion x dark urge #astarion x reader #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #headcanons #I would 100% recommend reading Libris Mortis though #lots of good info for rp as a vampire spawn as well

[gregor-samsung]

“ Il presupposto, quasi esplicito, su cui sorse l’UE fu che i paesi ‘peccatori’ (Italia e Grecia in particolare) avevano vissuto fino ad allora al di sopra delle loro possibilità, eccedendo in spesa pubblica ovviamente non immediatamente redditizia. Ricordiamo le prediche in proposito. Certo, ogni tanto ci viene detto che basterebbe l’importo dell’italica evasione fiscale per risanare il debito che ci strangola e ci rende sorvegliati speciali all’interno della UE. Ogni volta però si conclude, con un sospiro, che si tratta di un male incurabile. E allora, ancora una volta, non resta che «pestare» quelli che «stanno sotto». E anche, forse soprattutto, a tal fine, si provvede ad instaurare, di volta in volta, un esecutivo «europeista». Il teorema non fa una grinza. Salvo che in un punto fondamentale, che vorremmo qui brevemente tratteggiare: alle vere e ataviche carenze italiane potrebbe porre rimedio un gigantesco investimento che incrementi proprio la pubblica amministrazione, ma questo è l’esatto contrario di ciò che «chiede l’Europa». È lamento quotidiano, e ben fondato e largamente condiviso, che da noi manchi adeguato e sufficiente personale in tanti settori vitali: magistratura (giudici e cancellieri: il commissario UE alla giustizia ce lo rimproverava cifre alla mano esattamente il 9 luglio scorso), ispettori del lavoro (le morti bianche sono il nostro flagello quotidiano), scuola (abbiamo ancora le vergognose classi-pollaio di gelminiana memoria particolarmente pericolose sotto ogni rispetto), guardie carcerarie (le vicende e i pestaggi recenti sono una macchia), sistema sanitario nazionale (il lamento in proposito fu molto forte quando l’epidemia sembrò soverchiante). E si potrebbe seguitare. Ci ordinano contemporaneamente di ridurre la spesa pubblica, di far funzionare il nostro paese (e di saldare prima o poi il debito). Arduo: «né pentère e volere insieme puossi / per la contradizion che nol consente» (Inferno, XXVII, 119-120). “

Luciano Canfora, La democrazia dei signori, Laterza (Collana: i Robinson / Letture), gennaio 2022. [Libro elettronico]

#Luciano Canfora #letture #leggere #libri #saggistica #saggi #La democrazia dei signori #democrazia #citazioni #eversione #Repubblica italiana #evasione fiscale #Italia #Grecia #UE #Italia contemporanea #debito pubblico #magistratura #scuola #pubblica amministrazione #Unione Europea #morti sul lavoro #intellettuali italiani contemporanei #carceri #Divina Commedia #opinione pubblica #costituzionalismo #Dante Alighieri #Europa #progressismo

[umi-no-onnanoko]

Libri che vorrei leggere

#life #vita #umi-no-onnanoko #photo #photography #foto #fotografia #photografia #books #libri #cosa mi piace #things that i like #anna karenina #william shakespeare #romeo e giulietta #romeo and juliet #le sette morti di Evelyn Hardcastle #pride and predujice #orgoglio e pregiudizio #lev tolstoj #war and peace #guerra e pace #a midsummer night's dream #sogno di una notte di mezza estate

[princessofmistake]

Fuori, nella macchia di luce che scendeva da  lampadario dell’ingresso, la neve sopra al porticato si stava trasformando in un lento, torpido gocciolio. [...] Uscimmo di casa e ci investì subito la ben nota aria fredda e umida che a ogni inverno ci ricorda che il mondo non è stato creato per l’Uomo, e per almeno sei mesi l’anno ci fa vedere quanto è ostile nei nostri confronti.

#Olga Tokarczuk #Olga Tokarczuk citazioni #Olga Tokarczuk citazione #Guida il tuo carro sulle ossa dei morti #citazioni #citazione #descrizione #narrativa #letteratura #citazioni letteratura #frasi letteratura #gelo #inverno #freddo #descrizioni invernali #citazioni libri #citazione libro

[acerobianco1984]

Nell'immensa magione degli Hardcastle, qualcuno verrà ucciso. Dallo svelamento dell'identità dell'assassino dipendono le sorti del narratore dell'intera vicenda, incastrato in un loop dal quale sembra impossibile uscire. Egli è chiamato a rivivere la stessa giornata in corpi diversi dal proprio fino a che non sarà venuto a capo dei misteri custoditi dall'infernale Blackheath.

Dirvi di più vorrebbe dire rovinare un'esperienza di lettura ricca di prelibatezze e di piacere inatteso ed inaspettato.

Un prisma dalle molteplici facce. Un teatro della decadenza umana, scandagliata ed esposta fin nelle sue più profonde viscere e da più punti di vista diversi; un rompicapo a cui lettori e lettrici sono chiamati a partecipare, invogliati naturalmente dall'opera a prendere matita e blocco degli appunti per annotarsi personaggi, aneddoti e indizi; un'avventura capace di prendere spunti da una moltitudine di elementi diversi (l'ambientazione di un classico giallo; i loop temporali; la distopia) per rielaborarli in una maniera convincente in un intreccio funzionante.

Ogni domanda avrà una risposta soprattutto se il libro riuscirà a catturare la vostra attenzione. Verrebbe voglia di paragonarlo, da giocatrice, ad un escape room in grado di stimolare la memoria e lo spirito di osservazione di chi legge. Uno dei pregi più grandi del libro è la ricchezza ed eleganza della scrittura, essenziale per far superare a chi legge confusione e smarrimenti iniziali e in grado di donare personaggi e ambientazioni a tutto tondo.

😮 Sono fuggita da Blackheath e dalla sua marcia bellezza ieri sera e, tuttavia, non sento di essermi allontanata abbastanza da questa 'residenza del male' e dalla fitta foresta che la circonda. Avverto ancora il suo richiamo sinistro.

#le sette morti di evelyn hardcastle #the seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle #libri

[lesbicastagna]

mi sono svegliata pensando a come da piccola "odiavo" le cose romantiche (perché avevo 12 anni ed ero una lesbica repressa) ma ci sono comunque delle scene in film o libri con cui ero ossessionata e che sono così romantiche in realtà. ossessionata con l'amore da sempre

#la scena nell'adattamento russo anni 50 della regina delle nevi. con la sorella protagonista e l'altra bambina che l'aiuta a scappare #la scena finale di barbie e il lago dei cigni il frame con loro due 'morti' uno nelle braccia dell'altra. annacore proprio imbarazzante #qualsiasi scena abbiano ashitaka e mononoke pazzi. a 8 anni non avevo la capacità emotiva per una cosa del genere #nei libri leggendo tanti fantasy che al tempo erano spesso ya adiacenti in un modo o nell'altro una storia d'amore non potevo evitarla #mi ricordo che non ero così presa da nihal e sennhar? andando a memoria con i nomi. perché fin troppo rilassata come relazione #questo spiega perché invece preferivo dubhe e il tizio di cui non ricordo quasi nulla ma ricordo benissimo le loro prime scene insieme #mia madre comunque ancora pensa che io non sia una romantica. vabbè che in generale è ferma a quando io avevo 15 anni però #a #penso sia così interessante parlare di come puoi vedere alcuni dei tuoi gusti adulti nelle cose che consumavi da bimbo. #è come andare a vedere le inspo di un autore. sarà il classico #ma scoprire l'origine delle cose >>>>

[ilmondodishioren]

Offerta librosa: “Si chiamava Mathilde” ultra-economico!

Offerta natalizia? È un mistero! Un mistero che sicuramente i bravi detective creati dalla magica penna di Yannick Roch saprebbero risolvere ma, nel dubbio, io non mi farei sfuggire quest’occasione: l’ebook di “Si chiamava Mathilde” è ora a € 0,99 sullo store Amazon. Non approfittarne… Sarebbe un delitto! 😉 Per tutte le info vi lascio il post originale dell’autore, e date un occhiata anche al…

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#ebook in promo #gialli in offerta #giallo storico #il maestro dei morti #inchiostronoir #libri su amazon #offerta librosa #romanzo giallo #si chiamava mathilde #Yannick Roch

[falcemartello]

Siamo a fine febbraio.

La stagione influenzale è praticamente finita.

Non si è vaccinato quasi nessuno, neanche i fragili, né contro il covid, né contro l'influenza o altri germi.

Però non siamo tutti morti, le terapie intensive non sono scoppiate e si vive normalmente.

I dati statistici suddivisi per stato vaccinale vengono nascosti o non raccolti.

Ma in questi anni ho sentito di pochi non vaccinati morti di covid e di molti vaccinati morti di malori improvvisi o tumori aggressivi.

Ne deduco che le nostre virostar sono ciarlatani. E i politici che hanno voluto la vaccinazione forzata o idioti o corrotti.

E dei c.d. "organi di garanzia", che avrebbero dovuto tutelare le libertà costituzionali, parleranno i libri di storia.

(Massimo Montanari)

[intotheclash]

Con cosa posso trattenerti? Ti offro strade difficili, tramonti disperati la luna di squallide periferie. ...Ti offro le amarezze di un uomo che ha guardato a lungo la triste luna. Ti offro i miei antenati, i miei morti, i fantasmi a cui i viventi hanno reso onore col marmo: il padre di mio padre ucciso sulla frontiera di Buenos Aires due pallottole attraverso i suoi polmoni, barbuto e morto, avvolto dai soldati nella pelle di una mucca il nonno di mia madre - appena ventiquattrenne - a capo di trecento uomini in Perù, ora fantasmi su cavalli svaniti. Ti offro qualsiasi intuizione sia nei miei libri, qualsiasi virilità o vita umana. Ti offro la lealtà di un uomo che non è mai stato leale. Ti offro quel nocciolo di me stesso che ho conservato, in qualche modo - il centro del cuore che non tratta con le parole, nè coi sogni e non è toccato dal tempo, dalla gioia, dalle avversità. Ti offro il ricordo di una rosa gialla al tramonto, anni prima che tu nascessi. Ti offro spiegazioni di te stessa, teorie su di te, autentiche e sorprendenti notizie di te. Ti posso dare la mia tristezza, la mia oscurità, la fame del mio cuore cerco di corromperti con l'incertezza, il pericolo, la sconfitta. (Jorge Luis Borges)

#poesia #jorge luis borges

[honourablejester]

Okay, that’s just cool.

Youtube is throwing random D&D related videos at me, and it recommended this year old video from Esper the Bard talking about cool 3/3.5e undead monsters that didn’t make the transition to 5e (in a lot of cases because they do damage to stats, I’m guessing). And one of them, the Boneyard, from the sourcebook Libris Mortis, is so cool.

Lorewise, it does have some similarities to 5e’s Gallows Speaker, in that it’s an undead that results from the combined dead of mass graves and charnel sites, but instead of a spectral combination, the Boneyard is a physical one. It’s, as it sounds like, a writhing mass of bones animated by the combined spirits of those who died.

And. I might be biased. Because that’s very similar to a Japanese Gashadokuro, and a gashadokuro was the star creature of an absolutely amazing Mushishi/Mononoke crossover fic I read called Dust & Bones by 7PhoenixAshes which made absolutely stunning creepy use of it. But. It’s such a cinematic monster, and one that comes with the story damn near pre-written for you.

The Boneyard is a creature born of massacres and charnel pits, mass graves and the dead left to rot unburied. It’s the dead of famines, the dead of plagues, the dead of genocides, the dead of battlefields left to moulder untended. A lot of undead have their backstory built into the fact of their existence, they’re great that way. And, as a D&D monster, it has an absolutely terrifying ability where if it manages to grapple you, and you’re still grappled next turn, it can start liquifying and absorbing your bones. Make them part of itself. It’s a writhing formless (but often serpentine) mass of bones animated by the massed souls of a great injustice, and it will pin your down and make you part of it.

That’s so easy to set up as an absolutely terrifying and creepy boss battle. (This thing was CR 14). Like. You can set that scene so easily. Twenty years ago there was a massacre in this village, or a famine, or a plague, and their greatest secret and shame was that the dead were never properly buried, whether deliberately, in the case of the massacre, or because there were too few left to be able to bury them, in the case of the famine or plague, and the bodies were instead thrown down a ravine or buried jumbled together in a pit, anything to get them out and away from the survivors. Now, twenty years on, animals and eventually people have started vanishing out by the ravine. People in the village hear bones rattling in the night. And they would get help, they need to get help, but getting help means admitting what happened back then. Admitting what was never laid to rest. So the villagers, at least the older ones, are being cagey with the party. Trying to skirt around it.

And then they get out there, to this strange, mist-shrouded dip in the ground. There’s bones lying scattered on the surface, even twenty years down the line. So many were thrown here that animals couldn’t scavenge them all. The ground is littered with bones.

And then, up ahead, they hear something alive. Someone alive. They hear a faint, reedy voice crying in agony. And it is. It is alive. It’s a person, a poor bastard of a traveller or merchant who no one warned not to come this way, and they’re gravely injured, but they’re frantically waving the party away. Not closer. They’re waving the party away.

And then there’s a rattling, the sound of bones rolling together in the mist around them. The wounded traveller’s eyes widen in raw terror. They attempt to shout out a warning, but a mass of bones shaped almost like a hand suddenly slams down over them from the mist behind them. A vast hulking shape looms out of the fog. Leans down over its pinned prey. And eats its bones.

Roll initiative.

Because. See. You want them to be wary of the bones. You want them to know something’s out here. You want to have that moment of surprise, the sudden horror looming out of the mist. But I think you also want them to know that the bone-eating thing is on the table. You want them to know that risk going in, you want them to know that they absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, let themselves get grabbed. You want that up front, so the fear of it is right there, so it shapes their tactics, and also so they can see it without having to deploy it on your players first. This thing is an absolutely lethal boss monster, and you want them to know that so they can plan accordingly, and also so they can be appropriately terrified of it, without having it feel unfair that the first time they know it can happen is when one of them dies to it.

(In 3/3.5, this did stat damage to all three of your physical stats, so it took a couple of turns to kill you, but it would kill you, and would be absolutely horrific the entire time. You’d have to jig this so it wasn’t doing stat damage for a 5e conversion, but the visuals should convey most of the horror, even if it winds causing less immediate and comprehensively lethal damage).

But. What a cinematic monster. Its backstory is already pre-baked for you, and you have an absolutely terrifying threat of an ability to alert the party to for them to plan around. And, if they’re a bit too low level for this, or just very melee oriented, the plan should absolutely be run. Just nope the fuck out, right now. And maybe go back and have a conversation with the village about what the fuck happened twenty years ago, and maybe you could have warned us, and maybe seek a less combat-oriented way to ease this horrifying creature past the shackles of undeath.

There were ten monsters in that video, and some of the others are cool, but this one just grabbed me. Some of that may be bias, that Mushishi/Mononoke fic made me very very fond of the gashadokuro and similar creatures as a concept, but as a high level undead who’s terrifying but also not some stripe of spellcaster, I do feel like it’s really, really cool.

Not something you could easily use in 5e, given that stat damage isn’t really a thing, and for good reason, Shadows and Intellect Devourers aside, but … something that emphasises ‘do NOT let this thing grab you, you will die’. Something that forces them to work out how to stay the fuck away from it and still bring it down, or makes them fully back out and try to work another way to lay these massed tormented souls to rest.

Also, what a fantastic plot line to have threaded through. What did happen twenty years ago? Was it an isolated incident, confined to a village in a mountain pass that got snowed in and did horrifying things to survive a murderous winter? Or was it a symptom of some much bigger part of your worldbuilding, an event that sowed mass graves across vast swathes of the land, and left thousands of guilty survivors to skirt carefully around the lingering horrors ever since?

Definitely one of the coolest parts of undead as monsters is that their sheer existence has plot and backstory built in. Especially a lot of D&D undead, because they’re so specific. Very specific things had to happen to produce a gallows speaker, or a boneless, or a deathlock, or a coldlight walker. And it does, it does remind me of Mononoke. What is this creature’s Form, Truth, and Regret? And how does the party interact with that?

(I mean. With a fireball. Repeated fireballs. Preferably from like 150ft feet in the air. Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. But. In the event you don’t have that option. Turn Undead is also riskier than usual, because it has pretty high mental scores, it’s an intelligent undead, it has a decent chance of making saves. I nearly would pull it on a lower level party, so they can’t fight it outright and have to work with its backstory. Lay it to rest like a normal ghost, by resolving the crime that led to its existence in the first place)

Anyway. That was a long diversion. But. Very cool monster? Thank you, Esper the Bard, for letting me know D&D did a gashadokuro back in the day, and did it in very cool (and rather cruel) fashion.

#long post #d&d #d&d 3.5 #d&d 5e #japanese mythology #mononoke #mushishi #fanfic rec #monster rec #undead #gashadokuro #i am not a dm #likely i shouldn't be #what an absolutely evil thing to drop on a party #but it's so cool

[y-rhywbeth2]

Guess who found more vampire lore that would've been helpful earlier! (This is what happens when you skim the mechanics pages too fast...) Turns out there are concrete rules about how much blood vampires need.

Vampires require 12 hit points worth of blood every 24 hours (the amount of blood you'll get from draining 2-3 people or 12 rats dry, mechanically. The designers maybe didn't think this through...) The source is immaterial, and may come from people, corpses or animals. They're all just as good, though fluff wise they won't feel good subsisting on animal and dead blood (there are no mechanical penalties). The blood doesn't have to be fresh or taken directly from the vein, you can keep it stored in a fridge or whatever equivalent.

Vampires lose the power boosts they gain with age if they don't get enough blood, but cannot regress below the level of a newborn vampire. Age categories aren't present in later editions, so basically: vampires and spawn can't get any weaker than the base stat block given for them in the monster manual. They do lose a hit dice per day without sufficient blood (blood is required to maintain the physical body, their bodies will slowly revert into corpses without it.) They will, however, eventually lose control of themselves if they wear down to a single HD and revert to a state of mindless animal hunger and go on a bloodthirsty rampage draining the blood out of any source they can get their hands on. (Failure to get any blood at this stage causes the hibernation state as they become trapped in their own withered corpse unable to move until somebody feeds them blood.)

HD recover rapidly with sufficient nutrition; regaining 1 per every day of full feeding.

#You know i looked for it in the libris mortis - and maybe I'm blind - but I didn't find this. You'd think the book for undead PCs would have #that but no; it's in the sourcebook that says “vampire pcs are badwrongfun and you can never have them” #And then I want to run a game in Ravenloft 2e with vampire pcs out of spite #And then my players will ask “couldn't we just have played Vampire: the Masquerade - the ttrpg that was built for this?” #And I will stake them for asking because yes; but that's not the point #And I'm going to have to update that bloody post on vampire dietary habits aren't I? #(...ugh puns) #lore stuff #astarion #astarion ancunin

[invinciblerodent]

good morning continuing my train of thought on vampiric hunger, Libris Mortis also says that vampires (full and spawn alike) have an "inescapable craving" for consuming "life force" that they have to indulge at least once per day. yes that is on top of the previously discussed dependence on a diet of blood that requires feeding once every three days.

and narratively, I think we can assume this means that Cazador took to consuming "life force" from his victims (both in the sense of food and spawn) through things like... doling out torture and abuse (which is more in-line with the lore, and the mechanics of the action giving the victims negative levels), but.

what if it can just be not that. what if it doesn't need to be pain, and suffering, and torture, but also... just attention. any kind of feedback. what if it's Monsters Inc. rules, and positive attention and nice feelings are actually a much more powerful source of life force than the negative, it's just not typically noticed by creatures who live so far in the dark recesses of the world (and don't particularly trust or like each other so they don't give positive attention to each other).

.... anyway, now I am fully 100% convinced that on top of needing to physically feed on blood at least once every three days (regardless of the source), Astarion does in fact require attention in a way.

sure, being a bit of a cock to others did make him feel marginally better before, as did maybe getting compliments and attention from marks, but he was maybe too consumed by the other, diet-dependent kind of hunger for the soul-hunger slightly lessening to be a noticeable improvement.

NOW though, that he's ostensibly so much better fed than he ever was before, it's my sorta-supported headcanon that on top of it being a joke, THIS is at the core of why he says shit like how not enough people say that he's beautiful, and why he straight-up asks for compliments that one time with the mirror. Because his body may be fed, but his soul is still kinda hungry, even if he's unsure why that is, or what it is that fixes it.

he just. needs just a nice li'l cuddle per day. my man needs his morning kissy+grabass combo breakfast meal, and/or some morning complos (shitty way to say compliments), otherwise he gets just a lil bit more bitchy and fidgety, and he (not knowing much about his condition at all, and just, y'know, never having had his needs met) only discovered even that by accident.

every morning we wake up, cast Longstrider, bind Wyll's pact weapon, drink our elixirs, have one of the druids make a Heroes' Feast, and tag-team compliment the vampire.

i'll hc that Iona is going to gift him a copy of this book at one point istg

"look arael, this book explains all the shit Cazador never bothered to tell you. did you know you can cast gaseous form at will. yeah that would have been real fkin useful for us to know, huh"

#squirrel plays bg3 #astarion #bg3 astarion #astarion ancunin #i'm having so much fun with this vampire stuff #don't worry it'll pass soon #i think #oh iona would also MILK this so hard

[gregor-samsung]

“ Immaginatevi un vasto cortile, di un duecento passi di lunghezza e centocinquanta circa di larghezza, tutto recinto all'intorno, in forma di esagono irregolare, da un'alta palizzata, cioè da uno steccato di alti pali, profondamente piantati ritti nel suolo, saldamente appoggiati l'uno all'altro coi fianchi, rafforzati da sbarre trasverse e aguzzati in cima: ecco la cinta esterna del reclusorio. In uno dei lati della cinta è incastrato un robusto portone, sempre chiuso, sempre sorvegliato giorno e notte dalle sentinelle; lo si apriva a richiesta, per mandarci fuori al lavoro. Di là da questo portone c'era un luminoso, libero mondo e vivevano degli uomini come tutti. Ma da questa parte del recinto ci si immaginava quel mondo come una qualche impossibile fiaba. Qui c'era un particolare mondo a sé, che non rassomigliava a nessun altro; qui c'erano delle leggi particolari, a sé, fogge di vestire a sé, usi e costumi a sé, e una casa morta, pur essendo viva, una vita come in nessun altro luogo, e uomini speciali. Ed ecco, è appunto questo speciale cantuccio che io mi accingo a descrivere.

Appena entrate nel recinto, vedete lì dentro alcune costruzioni. Dai due lati del largo cortile interno si stendono due lunghi baraccamenti di legno a un piano. Sono le camerate. Qui vivono i detenuti, distribuiti per categorie. Poi, in fondo al recinto, un'altra baracca consimile: è la cucina, divisa in due corpi; più oltre ancora una costruzione dove, sotto un sol tetto, sono allogate le cantine, i magazzini, le rimesse. Il mezzo del cortile è vuoto e costituisce uno spiazzo piano, abbastanza vasto. Qui si schierano i reclusi, si fanno la verifica e l'appello al mattino, a mezzogiorno e a sera, e talora anche più volte durante il giorno, secondo la diffidenza delle guardie e la loro capacità di contare rapidamente. All'interno, tra le costruzioni e lo steccato, rimane ancora uno spazio abbastanza grande. Qui, dietro le costruzioni, taluni dei reclusi, più insocievoli e di carattere più tetro, amano camminare nelle ore libere dal lavoro, sottratti a tutti gli sguardi, e pensare a loro agio. Incontrandomi con essi durante queste passeggiate, mi piaceva osservare le loro facce arcigne, marchiate, e indovinare a che cosa pensassero. C'era un deportato la cui occupazione preferita, nelle ore libere, era contare i pali. Ce n'erano millecinquecento e per lui erano tutti contati e numerati. Ogni palo rappresentava per lui un giorno; ogni giorno egli conteggiava un palo di più e in tal modo, dal numero dei pali che gli rimanevano da contare, poteva vedere intuitivamente quanti giorni ancora gli restasse da passare nel reclusorio fino al termine dei lavori forzati. Era sinceramente lieto, quando arrivava alla fine di un lato dell'esagono. Gli toccava attendere ancora molti anni; ma nel reclusorio c'era il tempo di imparare la pazienza. Io vidi una volta come si congedò dai compagni un detenuto che aveva trascorso in galera venti anni e finalmente usciva in libertà. C'erano di quelli che ricordavano come egli fosse entrato nel reclusorio la prima volta, giovane, spensierato, senza pensare né al suo delitto, né alla sua punizione. Usciva vecchio canuto, con un viso arcigno e triste. In silenzio fece il giro di tutte le nostre sei camerate. Entrando in ciascuna di esse, pregava dinanzi all'immagine e poi si inchinava ai compagni profondamente, fino a terra, chiedendo che lo si ricordasse senza malanimo. Rammento pure come un giorno, verso sera, un detenuto, prima agiato contadino siberiano, fu chiamato al portone. Sei mesi avanti aveva ricevuto notizia che la sua ex-moglie aveva ripreso marito, e se ne era fortemente rattristato. Ora lei stessa era venuta in vettura al reclusorio, lo aveva fatto chiamare e gli aveva messo in mano un obolo. Essi parlarono un paio di minuti, piansero un poco tutti e due e si salutarono per sempre. Io vidi il suo volto, mentre tornava nella camerata... Sì, in questo luogo si poteva imparare la pazienza. “

Fëdor Dostoevskij, Memorie dalla casa dei morti [Testo completo]

 NOTA:  Questo romanzo, pubblicato negli anni 1861-62 a puntate sulla rivista Vremja, pur non essendo un resoconto è fedelmente autobiografico. Nel 1849 l'autore era stato condannato a morte per motivi politici e, dopo un'orribile messa in scena che tra l'altro peggiorò la sua epilessia, la sentenza di morte fu commutata in condanna ai lavori forzati a tempo indefinito; ottenne la liberazione per buona condotta nel 1854 ma le sue condizioni di salute erano ormai irrimediabilmente compromesse.

#Fëdor Dostoevskij #Memorie dalla casa dei morti #letture #libri #letteratura russa del XIX secolo #leggere #campo di prigionia #testi autobiografici #confino #carcere #romanzi #lavori forzati #prigionieri politici #esilio #Russia #popolo russo #pazienza #letteratura europea dell'800 #umanità #sofferenza #assassinio #eodoro Dostojevski #inferno #dannazione #Siberia #libertà #narrativa del XIX secolo #coscienza #rimorso #pentimento

[quietarcher]

Do you like nasty little rotting weirdos? Do you play Baldurs Gate 3? Me too, so I have once again in an incredibly deranged move made a race of playable undead creatures for you all to enjoy! Mod has a total of 4 subraces; Lich, Ghoul, Wight, and Mummy. Each has a little unique twist to their appearance, and you have a grand total of 58 heads to pick from, that's 29 for each body type. I put a lot more thought into the progressions of this race, so I hope they are not just cool to look at, but fun to play as too! I tried to really focus on having an open approach to the way people might want to roleplay their undead Tavs so I have made everything as open ended as I can to let peoples imaginations run free. I hope you enjoy!

#baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 mods #modding #undead #lich #ghoul #wight #mummy

[princessofmistake]

Una volta scelto il sentiero periglioso, 

L’uomo giusto compiva umilmente il suo tragitto 

Nella valle della morte.

#Guida il tuo carro sulle ossa dei morti #narrativa #citazioni #citazioni libri #citazione libro #Olga Tokarczuk #Olga Tokarczuk citazioni #Olga Tokarczuk citazione #2019 #Premio Nobel alla Letteratura 2019 #Premio Nobel alla Letteratura #letteratura #dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #dark acadamia quotes #dark academia aesthetic #sentiero #dark #oscurità #morte #uomo