#and he took that Personally and ascended to godhood

[kirain]

Wall of the faithless isn't canon in bg3. They changed alot of things actually. So no Gale isn't "scared" he's just an obsessed asshole who doesn't learn from his mistakes.

Oof...

There's really nothing I can say except: you're wrong. The City of Judgement and the Wall of the Faithless are canon to BG3. If you don't like Gale, that's fine, but you don't have to make things up or completely disregard the lore to do it. Larian Studios literally hired people from Wizards of the Coast—the company responsible for all the canon lore, characters, and campaigns in D&D—to help them with the story. It took them five years, I believe, to fully study and understand the lore. They constantly conferred with the team to double, triple, and quadruple check every slice of content they added to the game, and parts of the game are now considered canon to D&D 5E.

As for Gale "not learning" from his mistakes ... when you first meet him, he literally admits he made a mistake with Mystra. Though personally I don't see it as the "power-hungry" move people seem to think it is. Gale simply wanted to be considered an equal to his partner (really his groomer), which is a perfectly healthy and normal desire for anyone in a relationship. Your partner should treat you like an equal, but Mystra very clearly saw Gale as a pet. A trophy. A worshipper. Subservient. Beneath her. A silly mortal with delusions of grandeur (which she cultivated), which is really rich when you learn she was once mortal herself. Mystra is a hypocrite.

Gale tried to prove himself worthy of equality by trying to bring Mystra what he thought was a piece of her missing Weave. For anyone who doesn't know, the current Mystra was torn to pieces by Cyric and Shar, then put back together by her Chosen. Though back to full power by the events of BG3, she's still technically missing pieces of herself, and Gale mistook the Karsite Weave for one of those pieces. Instead of simply telling Gale it was corrupted Weave, she let him go on believing it was hers. Personally I think that's because she was tired of him (maybe he got too old for her 😒) and was hoping he would do something that, in her mind, would justify abandoning him—but I admit that's full conjecture on my part. What is true is that she knew the orb wasn't hers, but for some reason she let Gale think it was. Even after she abandoned him and left him to die, she never told him. Not until she realised she could use him.

In Act 3, while the argument can certainty be made that he's thirsty for power, Gale ultimately becomes fed up with the gods because, as he knows better than anyone, they treat people like commodities. While I have no intention of ever ascending him myself, it looks like he actually makes good on his word. He doesn't threaten or toy with his followers, he inspires people to walk their own path, he only asks for prayers as payment (as without some form of devotion, gods in D&D cease to be), and if you romance him ... he ascends you into godhood as his equal. Mystra could have done this for him, she just didn't want to. And if you don't want him to ascend, it's genuinely so easy. I don't understand what people are complaining about. It takes one conversation with zero checks to convince him to completely abandon his ambitions. One. If he was truly "power hungry", it wouldn't be that easy.

Again, I would argue that Gale's true goal isn't really power, it's freedom, and divinity gives him that freedom. He has many conversations where he makes it clear he doesn't want to live under the gods' thumbs anymore; which, in a world like Faerûn, is extremely understandable. As I said in my Wall of the Faithless post, he's scared. Eternal torment for a simple mistake, one of which could've been avoided if Mystra told him the truth or treated him like an equal? When your partner is a goddess, how can you not feel inadequate? And if you convince him to give up the crown, he's perfectly content with Mystra's forgiveness. Even in the Early Access, that's all he really wanted.

Gale's far from perfect. He's arrogant and overconfident and insecure and he can be prone to emotional outbursts (most of which he apologises for, however), but he's nowhere near the heartless, power-hungry monster the haters seem to think he is. He is, in fact, one of the most compassionate companions in the entire camp, to the point that he accepts everyone, including Minthara. He votes for Astarion to stay when you find out he's a vampire. He gets mad at you if you surrender him to the Gur. He's one of the only companions who will openly marry/stay with you if you become a mindflayer. He's willing to sacrifice himself to save the world, and willing to damn himself to be with you. He loves every act of kindness, while hating every act of cruelty. I understand that the bugs from launch ruined a lot of people's perception of him ... and unfortunately some of those glitches are still present even now, but he is a good man.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #karlach #karlach cliffgate #wall of the faithless #city of Judgement #wizards of the coast #dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #astarion #minthara

[nyerus]

The Narrative Importantance of Hualian's Sexual Intimacy

This is a repost and minor edit of a thread I made on Twitter yesterday. This is a topic I have always wanted to talk about because of how often it comes up in TGCF fandom, time and time again.

‼️CW: mentions of sexual assault, self-harm, bodily injury‼️

⚠️Major spoilers for the entire novel ahead⚠️

---

Saw a question the other day on what relevance Hualian being sexually intimate by the end of the novel had to either the narrative or Xie Lian's character arc.

In short: it bears significant relevance, especially in context of other themes the novel explores like bodily autonomy.

Throughout the novel, we see time and time again that Xie Lian is often dehumanized by pretty much everyone—including himself—with the sole exception of Hua Cheng. I've talked more in depth about it in an old twt thread, for those interested. @/stalliondany on twt has also made an excellent recent analysis that goes deeper into the specific ways Xie Lian was used as a physical shield, martyr, or scapegoat for others without thought to his humanity or suffering. I highly recommend reading it first!

But to sum it all up: it's important to Xie Lian's character arc to keep in mind that he is used to seeing his own body as a tool to solve problems. And in crucial narrative moments, he is robbed of his bodily autonomy, and either brutalized or violated in service of others.

One of the plot points that ties together all these concepts is actually... Xie Lian's chastity vows. That will be the main focus of this post.

When he was a young teen (or possibly as a child), Xie Lian took an oath of chastity because such was the norm for cultivators seeking ascension in Xian Le. To Xie Lian, even as he grew older, he never had an issue with this because he just never felt sexual attraction to another person, or any desire to be intimate in that way. Even if he yearned for the concept of being loved. And indeed, at first glance, his chastity vows may seem like nothing more than a side note. Or even a funny gag when it comes to Hua Cheng (later).

In reality Xie Lian's chastity vows are not only used against him, but paint a very disturbing picture with regards to his repeated violation.

The Land of the Tender scene is the most obvious example of this. Xie Lian's vows are directly tied to his spiritual powers, and because it affects how his followers see him. They place a high value on his chastity as being vital to his moral character.

For reference, an excerpt from TGCF vol. 3 of the English print translation, page 135:

Xie Lian's method of cultivation required a pure body. Those who worshipped the ascended cultivators who practiced this path were firmly convinced of the transcendence of gods untouched by earthly desires. If they couldn't protect their purity, their following would no doubt collapse and their powers would be devastated. It wouldn't be as serious as plunging from godhood to back to mortality, and there was still the possibility of recovery after many more years of cultivation—but with things as they were now, there was no time for him to sit behind closed doors and cultivate for years!

As a reminder: it is Bai Wuxiang who orchestrated this whole thing. Him trying to compromise Xie Lian in this way is horrific on many levels, yet that's not the main point I want to make here. It's that to preserve his "pure body," the solution Xie Lian realizes is to severely harm himself. To impale himself with his sword through the abdomen.

The juxtaposition of having to maintain bodily purity versus the gruesome violence inflicted on his body is extremely stark.

This grim contrast is no more evident than in the 100 swords scene. Where Xie Lian's body is literally brutalized and defiled to an unthinkable degree. To the point where he, quote: "no longer looked human." Yet he emerges from that temple physically "pure" all the same. His chastity vows were not broken, his body healed without scars. As though he was untouched.... And yet, he was completely destroyed mentally. It left permanent effects on him as a person. It's even worse when the scene is read analogous to sexual assault, as many have talked about before. I think that interpretation actually hits the nail on the head, especially keeping in mind the Land of the Tender scene and all the similarities between them.

Following the 100 swords scene, Xie Lian of course has a complete disconnect between himself and his body. I believe this is part of why he doesn't really feel pain, except when he is with Hua Cheng, who treats him and his body as one. As a person who is cherished, and loved. Hua Cheng is adamant in his adoring treatment of Xie Lian. Small injuries are also something he cannot tolerate because he knows what horrors befell Xie Lian in the past. (He was present at both the terrible moments mentioned above.) He will not let any of that continue, regardless of what Xie Lian says, because he sees it as injustice.

Xie Lian is willing to use himself as a tool to help others no matter the personal cost. He even thinks of it as something he must do, or that he deserves as penance. But Hua Cheng is the one person who asks "what about you?" He's the one that insists "your happiness matters." And it is Hua Cheng that takes issue with Xie Lian's chastity vows as being unfair, unlike everyone else. Regardless of Hua Cheng's reasons for this diegetically, symbolically it means a lot that he is the one opposed to this.

Just thinking about the chastity vows on their own for a moment: Xie Lian can indulge a little bit in stuff like alcohol, which isn't great to begin with for him. But he absolutely cannot engage in "pleasures of the flesh." He can totally have his flesh ripped from his bones, literally, but actually experiencing any kind of sexual gratification? Now that would make him unclean, and lesser.... Why? Because unlike everything else, that's something Xie Lian would do simply for himself to feel good. And what greater crime is there than to ever dare put himself first?

So Hua Cheng—being the one person who puts Xie Lian first above all else—thinking that such a restriction doesn't make sense is important. Hua Cheng being the person who Xie Lian breaks those vows for in the end is important! (Especially because it seems to have been an easy choice for him.)

And of course, the scene with Jun Wu and the Virginity Detector Sword™ has to be mentioned. Again, there's symbolism to be had! The perpetrator of two of the most physically violating moments of Xie Lian's life (both of which were sexual in nature; one literally and one allegorically) being the one to "check" Xie Lian's virginity... oof. Yikes. It's dramatic irony. It's deeply uncomfortable. Especially because Jun Wu probably wanted to know if Xie Lian slept with Hua Cheng, as he already knew Xie Lian wasn't the ghost fetus' father.

So it's once again a stark juxtaposition: of Ghost King Hua Cheng disagreeing with the purity vows, wanting Xie Lian to break them for himself and his own freedom. Versus Heavenly Emperor Jun Wu wanting to weaponize those vows against Xie Lian in whatever way he can, intact or not, to keep control over him.

Naturally, there's something to be said for the real-world problem with such purity vows being used against people, to judge their moral character, societal expectations, etc. Elephant in the room. It's very on the nose, so there isn't even much to say about it that hasn't been said already.

In the end, it comes down to how horrible it is that when Xie Lian tries to help others, it results in immense harm to his body every time. Yet he is expected to continue to bear it, for centuries, by others and also himself. Until he meets Hua Cheng, who helps him rediscover what it means to be happy, and to be loved. So yes, it's absolutely relevant that in the end, Xie Lian decides to break his purity vows to be intimate with Hua Cheng. That he's able to put himself in Hua Cheng's hands, and let himself be treated with affection and desire. It's Xie Lian finally forgiving himself, and beginning to heal.

#tgcf #tian guan ci fu #hob #heaven official's blessing #hualian #meta #nyerus.txt #crosspost

[mywitchcultblr]

Odd question for you:

So, the humor of Batstarion aside, do some people just elect to read their own biases into things involving Ascended Astarion. I recall being early in the fandom and assuming based on general commentary he just locked you in his basement and then molests you.

Then: when I actually ascended him and am looking forward to this whole fantasy I just get a goofy, camp vampire Lord who literally lets you live your life. Where do I get a refund? Where is my vampire daddy? lol

Am I alone in this???

No, you are not alone. I found a lot of people who have a strong negative opinion about endings for bg3 companion... How I should explain it in English? Playing the telephone game? Where they are only receiving bits of information and never really experienced the ending themselves or at least never really thought about it deeply because they already developed a bias from these fragmented information and encouragement from like-minded people who share the same bias. Thus, the truth and nuance became diluted amidst the buzz and discourse. For example, Gale endings

GALE HAS NO EVIL ENDING. YES, THE GOD ENDING IS NOT EVIL

People mistook his ambition and huge ego as evil? I think this rooted from "God Gale doesn't propose Tav/Durge unlike human gale, so God ending must have been bad"

"Gale become power hungry, so it must be the evil ending and a bad ending" and "Larian said power is bad"

Gale is a neutral guy, as a human he is neutral good and as a God he became a neutral aligned God. His ascension to Godhood doesn't turn him into Bane or Bhaal, developing an ego big enough to the point he became a god doesn't make him evil or this ending evil. You might dislike it, but objectively, this ending is not evil or bad...

Gale bad ending is him dying and never resurrected, never recruited or sacrificed to BOAAL because they led to his untimely death before he can destroy the brain, reach the crown, or determine what he wanted, how he will approach Mystra...

"But Mystra will kill God Gale because he challenged her!" That is a possibility in his origin ending, before the epilogue is even released, now we got to see new and improved epilogue Gale can take his lover to his realm where they will enjoy their life as Gods, and he has a lot of plan, and although he kinda insinuates that he wanted to challenge Mystra, maybe Tav or Durge can persuade him to not do it

"What if he has no romantic partner?" Maybe he will challenge her, or maybe he will not. I found the ending where Gale immediately going after Mystra to be frustrating, it feels like Larian insisting on the 'power bad' thing in such an on the nose and irritating manner

Gale might have a big ego but HE IS NOT AN IDIOT, he is not a barbarian with 8 intellect, even when he's drunk on power he is still a highly intellectual person/being, and surely he should know that it will take a lot of time and resource for him to be able to challenge Mystra, is it even a good idea to fight her? What would AO say?

He should just focus on his own domain and followers

Same thing with Wyll, this guy HAS NO EVIL ENDING. WYLL CANNOT BE CORRUPTED. Yet there are people out there who say that him becoming a Duke is an evil ending, HOW?!

Now, Astarion... God help us all with this guy. The moment I saw his picture for the first time, I know his fandom will be a disaster

White, sassy, morally gray, handsome, twink, vampire with a sad backstory... The perfect tumblr sexyman, I love him, but I knew the conversation about him will be a mess and headache inducing

Ascendant Astarion is NOT a bad ending, is it evil? Yes, is it bad? No.

It is bad for the city to have yet another vampire lord, an even MORE powerful vampire lord who has no vampirism weakness, but this is NOT bad for him. He enjoyed the power, he enjoyed the freedom, and he finally reclaimed everything that Cazador took from him and even more. I found the notion that ascended astarion 'is not truly free' to be baffling because Cazador is gone, no one can compel him and enslave him anymore, and he is freed from all vampirism weakness.

So long Cazador is dead, both spawn and ascended astarion will be free and have the choice to lead the life they wanted. An outsider moral interpretation of his choice is not his own opinion

"Ascended Astarion regret his choice." No, he never did. I didn't find a single conversation or scene that say he regrets his ascension

"Ascended Astarion is meaner and more evil, so this fate is bad." Your feeling about him doesn't translate to what he feels and how he sees his life and choice...

Or like you said about people claimed. "Astarion will lock Tav/Durge in his basement and molest them" Now, is ascendant romance more toxic and darker than spawn romance? Yes (although it is pretty tame by vampire/yandere standard) but how he treat his lover also depends on Tav/Durge attitude towards him, their personality, their goal and YOUR OWN ideas/ interpretation...

Baldur's Gate give you 'hard canon' and things that you can interpret on your own because it is dungeon & dragons! Hard canon or fixed canon is something like "Orin will die either way" and "If you don't spare nightsong then Last Light will be destroyed." and then there are things that you can decide and interpret on your own such as how your Tav/Durge fare after the last battle, their background, their family, and how their romance with companions play out

There are dialogues or scenes that hinted the future but at the same time there are several options and each dialogue option will lead to a different universe such as whatever you encourage Wyll to be the blade of avernus or becoming a Duke

What irritated me is that there's people who doesn't like his ascension romance, and they be like "Well I don't like this romance and i don't like him now, so I see your Tav/Durge WILL NEVER BE HAPPY WITH HIM AND IT IS A FACT!" NO, THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS WORK!

You cannot enforce your own narrative perspective into other people's. "What about the 'freedom' dialogue in patch 5?! If you clash with Astarion he will-" like I said each dialogue choice lead to a branching multiverse, just because one person have a conflict with ascended astarion doesn't mean my Tav who is very devoted to him have the same problem or will not be happy

Also, patch 5 confirmed the theory that Astarion turned his lover into a bride/groom instead of regular spawn. If you chose a dialogue option that hinted Tav/Durge feel trapped and doubted if they are truly flourishing, then Astarion will say something like (I'm paraphrasing here) "Well, I give you everything! And I will make sure that you live your best life, even if you don't appreciate it!"

A bride/groom has an emotional and mental link with their creator, if Tav/Durge is not happy then Ascended Astarion will feel unhappy as well. Mind you my Tav (Astaroth) doesn't say he feels trapped, he said that he is happy with Astarion and grateful to share everything with him and then Astarion said that he is blessed to be with Astaroth as well then he also said:

"I may have power, but it would be nothing without you. You complete me."

I don't do Karlach romance, and although I have my own thoughts that if Astaroth romanced her (tbh the guy is gay so he has to be bi/pan in alternate universe) in the end he will feel a bit disappointed with being trapped in hell, doesn't mean I have the rights to ENFORCE that Karlach/Tav romance in general will be unhappy and tragic just because of MY OWN interpretation...

People also shouldn't enforce their own choice for Astarion as

"THE TRUE AND CORRECT CHOICE FOR ASTARION AND IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ME YOU ARE DELUSIONAL AND DUMB"

#bg3 #ask #bg 3 analysis #baldur gate 3 #baldur's gate romance #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #astarion #tav #ascendant astarion #astarion x durge #astarion x tav #dnd #ascended astarion #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #wyll #god gale

[scalproie]

whatever. tekken hadesgame AU

or as I like to call it: "what if Kaz raised Jin: God Edition lmao"

so. to lay the groundwork:

They're all gods/powerful immortal beings of an unspecified pantheon (but still loosely inspired by a pretty famous one I'm sure you'll recognize)

Big Bad Thundergod King Heihachi (whom I am now realizing shares quite a lot of similarities with good ol' Zeus), after getting bored and worried he's raising a weakling unfit to be his heir, still threw his little son down a cliff, except this one was from the highest heavens to the deepest hells, to make sure that if the little godling died, well, the death would actually stick. Which it did.

UNTIL another deity who's the personification of the devil gene (and who kinda look like Kazumi-but-it's-unsure-wether-or-not-it's-actually-Kazumi) took pity on him and revived him by giving him part of itself/hell aka the devil gene. So now Kazuya is "alive" and immortal again, but he's now bound to hell, aka he can't live away from it for very long. And yknow what they say, if you're stuck somewhere, might as well become it's ruler. Especially if you've gained the favors of the entity that embodies the place and that you've found a new life goal in making daddy dearest's life unbearable.

Anyway eons passed and Kaz's brothers (his adopted one Lee whom ascended to godhood on one of Heihachi's whims as a way to counter his annoying firstborn's meddling, and his heroic half-brother Lars) reached out to him one day to propose an alliance to take their tyrannical father down. Kaz only agreed on the condition that he get to expand his domain once Heihachi is out: if he cant leave hell, no worries, he'll just make hell bigger. Anyway Heihachi's children rebelled against him and with their might combined they managed to take him down, with Kaz even having the honor and pleasure to deliver the killing blow.

For the aftermath tho, when it was time for Kaz to begin his conquest, his brothers came back on their word to let him, bc Lars Actually Gives A Damn About Mortals and he knew full well that Kazuya wouldve had exactly the same rule as Heihachi if they let him, so they didnt (and Lee is more neutral on his views toward mortals but he gets along with Lars FAR better than he ever got along with Kaz so the choice on who to back up was easy). And even though Kaz 100% wouldve been as bad as Heihachi is he was allowed to rule over mortals as Lars thought he would be, and Kaz KNOWS it, that doesnt mean hes not gonna be mad that his brothers didnt keep their words to let him be evil in peace.

Well if he cant have what he wants the fair way, might as well try to take it by force. And thus Kaz resumes his battles against his brothers with his attempts at invasion of the mortal realm.

This goes on for awhile with things going great for Kaz as he is the stronger sibling out of all of them, until his aggression puts him on the path of one Jun, who counters him in a most efficient, masterful and complete manner. Basically he was doing too well at bringing evil onto the world and she had come to balance him out.

In a most unforeseen turn of events, as they get acquainted over the course of their different confrontations, they discover that they respect and admire each other's strength and actually get along pretty well, even enjoy each other's company.

Anyway being around Jun makes Kaz chill out MASSIVELY and soon enough you'll notice the amount of invasions from hell have greatly diminished.

Eventually they get in an actual relationship, with Kazuya even wanting her to become the queen of his domain. And Jun is not opposed to this proposal, quite the opposite in fact. But complications start to arise when Jun began moving in hell: she is everything it's not and vice-versa, and the environment itself even seems harmful for her the longer she stays. Even the devil-Kazumi-entity, for all that it's/she's fond of Jun as a person, cannot meet her physically for she would eradicate it/her should they come into contact.

Jun bears it as long as she can bc Kazuya Literally Cannot Leave Hell and she wants to be with him as much as he wants to be with her, and Kaz promises her that he's working on finding a solution (and by "working on it" I mean Kaz is threatening the dead soul of a demi-god known as Gepetto Bosconovitch, reknown for giving life to things that didnt have any, into fixing this).

Eventually Jun reaches her breaking point when their son dies a stillborn because he bears her blood and he is much weaker than she is, bc he's a baby. This is the last rejection of this place that Jun can take before it potentially kills her, esp since that last event took such a toll on her, and even tho she loves Kaz as much as he loves her, she has to leave and WANTS to leave. Kaz, in a rare moment of compassion, let her go and spares telling her the news that, ironically, Bosconovitch JUST finished his work and managed to make a garden, indentical to the ones she would have on the surface, grow in the deepest level of hell where she could thrive.

So Jun is gone and Kaz is miserable, so much so that he doesnt even have the mind nor heart for conquest anymore. The only thing left of her being the corpse of his child that he decides to bury in the unused garden.

But just as the tiny body touches the soil, he begin to scream as he takes his first breath and the initial shock then WAVE OF RELIEF Kazuya feels as his son is alive surprises even himself bc he didnt even want the damn baby in the first place. This is probably the most outwardly loving Kaz will be with his son as he's holding his tiny body while being hit with a fucking storm of emotions but hey we take those.

"This is great! Their son is alive and the garden works! Now Kazuya only need to reach Jun and they can-" Except Kaz Will Not bc he does NOT want to reach Jun. Not bc he doesnt love her anymore but 1) bc he now knows the pain of losing her and bringing her back into his life means getting the risk of getting hurt again and he neither wants to feel that pain ever again nor even knowing he has that "weakness" in the first place so he'd rather cut her off from his life, he'd rather deal with loneliness than heartache, and 2) even he realized that what his domain is, what he is, brought Jun pain, and some part of him does NOT like to see Jun in pain.

"Well if he doesnt want Jun back into his life, why doesnt he send her their son?" This is objectively the best course of action. But Kaz is Not A Good Person. He's selfish. And again. Their son is the last thing he has left of her, and goddammit if he doesnt have her eyes, her nose, her face.

So Kaz is now stuck with this lame baby and only partially vibe with it. Problem is, that baby cannot live in this tiny garden for the entirety of his immortal life. Thankfully the devil-Kazumi-entity offers Kaz a solution: the baby not only carries Jun's blood but also Kazuya's, and that makes him able to be a receptacle for the devil gene, binding him to hell as well, yes, but keeping him alive in there.

So now Kazuya is raising his son whom he named Jin based on one (1) short conversation he once had with Jun but didnt forget. He is also personally training him in the art of combat, bc sadly Kaz does take a bit after his father, and he would not have the prince of hell be a weakling.

OKAY BACKSTORY ESTABLISHED FINALLY now onto the main course:

So Jin grew up and similarly as in the game, he eventually learn that his family is not just him and his dad but he also have a mom somewhere, and he wants to find her. Bc one day he steps into the famous garden that Kaz had closed off after That Day and Jin figured that his asshole dad would NOT have such a pretty garden made without reasons so after a few researchs behind Kaz's back he eventually found out the truth.

Long story short, Jin wants to leave hell, Kaz doesnt want him to, and they antagonize each other constantly.

Jin eventually comes into contact with both his extanded family and multiple allies who wants to help him leave (without anyone knowing yet that just like Kaz, Jin cannot live outside of hell for long. tho Jin can survive longer than Kaz thanks for his mom's blood)

The people from outside helping him are:

Lars: his heroic half-uncle, OF COURSE Lars was going to help him.

Lee: his adopted uncle, he does like Jin but mostly he helps him out so Jin can run a few crash tests for him on Kaz's minions, AND he gets to piss off Kaz in the same move? Excellent.

Alisa: an ascended goddess who relate to Jin due to their origin, she as well was "dead at birth" until her father found a way to bring her back (in a way) tho he was cast to hell for it.

Leroy: the grandfather-figure Jin wishes he always had.

Asuka: she insists to him they're related and that once he makes it outta hell, she'll teach him about their side of the family.

there'll be more down the line but I need to workshop this...

Anyway Jin has two goal: 1) escape dad's hell, and 2) find mom. whom he will discover has straight up disappeared from everyone ever since she left hell herself.

So Jin starts from the bottom of hell and has to climb to the top where the entrance lies, in the mouth of a volcano. Wink wink fucking nudge nudge

When he falls he ends up back in his father's home where he can meet a bunch of friendly dead souls:

Lucky Chloe: usually the first person he sees after falling down, she's kind of the court jester, she was spared damnation bc Kaz thinks her annoying people is really funny as long as its not him, thats where the "Lucky" come from.

Azucena: she provides delicacies from the surface to hell (for a price), Jin can find her as he's running up to the surface and she'll happily sell him things to help.

Jane: she provides Jin with some sort of "bestiary" and she actually does not mind that he keeps beating Kaz's minions (the JACKs among others, tho they are her favorites) bc she get to improve them thanks to the data gathered afterward.

Bruce: Kaz's chief of security. When Jin didnt trained with Kaz, he often sparred with Bruce. Bruce will let Jin try his different styles against him before climbing back up hell again. He's fond of the kid :)

"Kazumi": Jin can never get quite a good read on her/it, but she's/it's always kind to him.

and others that I will also figure out...

But that's not all the people Jin meets, as he's ascending, he also encounters a bunch of people, tho not all are friendly.

Nina and Anna: contracted by Kazuya to stop Jin. Tho they spend more time fighting each other...

A reptilian monstrocity by the name of Alex.

Some strange crystals take him to a bizarre location where he can meet Azazel, who present himself as the progenitor of the devil-Kazumi-entity, making him technically Jin's great-grandpa. Via him, Jin can fight Devil Jin and gain more access to his style (more on that later)

Xiaoyu: a phoenix Jin befriended, the only reason she's in hell is only bc she can cheat death. She is not bound to hell, so she technically can come back to life if she manages to escape, until she dies again on the surface. They often run into each other and have a friendly competition to see who can defeat the most of Kaz's minions, if she loses, Xiaoyu will leave Jin with one of her feathers, that increases his health. Jin can also meet her sometimes back at the house. It's rumored that she spend more time in hell recently to hang out with the hellish prince🧡

Hwoarang: another dead soul of a great warrior contracted to stop Jin, but he couldnt care less about what Kaz wants. He wants to defeat Jin, so he will hunt him down everytime he hears that Jin is trying to escape again. Over time he and Jin have come to enjoy their rivalry. Jin can also meet him sometimes at the house🧡

And more yknow the drill...

And of course, once Jin finally manages to come to hell's entrance, who waits for him there but Kazuya. The two have a nice little father and son fight to the death between immortals where they can work out their problems in an healthy manner: with extreme violence, and the winner get to throw the other down the volcano cliff aaall the way to the bottom (bc sometimes the best way to work out trauma is thru exposure therapy. wink)

Jin starts by only knowing his father's style, but after finally finding his mother, and after the initial story-related reunion (and the tragic realization that just like his dad, Jin cannot stay out of hell for long), they bond with Jun teaching him her style. And Jin can work his way to the top again using her style to learn more about it. When dueling Kaz with it, he's preeetty conflicted like: My traitorous son is using another style than ours👿 -> omg that's Jun's moves... 🥺 -> HE'S NOT EVEN USING THEM RIGHT👿👿👿

And basically, Jin has multiple styles: his dad's, his own, eventually his mom's, and devil style. He gets to pick the one he's going to stick with at the start of every ascend.

Anyway this is the story of a child of divorce trying to reunite his parents who are both extremely stubborn and extremely still in love with each other, bc if Jin has to live another day with just his father he's going to LOSE IT.

#listen Im bored at work #yeah this is a fairly indulgent amount of OOC dont even worry about it #ALSO THANKS TO MY BELOVED WADE CAUSE I BRAINSTORMED SOME OF THIS WITH THEM A WHILE AGO💖 #tagging later

[fanged-cotl]

The idea of not just Leshy, but all of the Bishops being random animals who accidentally gained sentience and ascended to godhood is a pretty neat take.

One question tho, is Narinder supposed to be an anthro cat? If so, that could explain why he chose to dabble in heresy after centuries of stagnation. The Four were simple beasts who suddenly gained intelligence, whereas Narinder was a normal person who’s grown tired of doing the same. damn. thing. FOR CENTURIES.

Also little Leshy is cute

The idea of not just Leshy, but all of the Bishops being random animals who accidentally gained sentience and ascended to godhood is a pretty neat take.

thank you! and that is indeed the case! It affects so much of the worldbuilding, like the lighthouse axolotls wouldn't exist if heket didn't become a god, because amphibians wouldn't have become sentient, ect. ect. This is why you can see frogs walking and talking as well as jumping around catching flies in this CotL universe

One question tho, is Narinder supposed to be an anthro cat?

Yes! Mammals have always been anthropomorphic.

that could explain why he chose to dabble in heresy after centuries of stagnation. The Four were simple beasts who suddenly gained intelligence, whereas Narinder was a normal person who’s grown tired of doing the same. damn. thing. FOR CENTURIES.

When Shamura took Narinder away from the mortals to receive the red crown, they had no idea what they had started. They are smart, and they taught him to be smart too. Shamura is god of more than one domain, and Narinder wanted to do the same.

Also little Leshy is cute

thank you ehehehee

#lambi-au #ask #cotl narinder #cotl shamura #cotl leshy

[dreamingofthewild]

Hi there! I was just reading your post on Mystra grooming and I thought it was very well articulated I just had one question on it. You mentioned that Elminster reached out to Gale when Gale was 8 years old and I haven't seen that mentioned in the game or in other lore for the game. Would you mind letting me know where that was sourced? Mostly because I'm interested on reading on that more, thank you

Hello there kingtycoon13

SPOILER ALERT: EPILOUGE

The reference to Elminster reaching out to Gale comes from a letter that Elminster writes to Gale when he ascends to Godhood. The letter can be found in a basket full of letters the player can read in the epilogue.

More under the cut

In the Forgotten Realms Wiki, it does say that Elminster took on apprentices from time-to-time. Sometimes they were by Mystra's request.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Elminster#Apprentices

We do not know why Elminster appeared on Gale's doorstop when he was eight years old. We do know that Gale was a child prodigy who could summon rabbits when since he was toddler (I cannot find the dialogue for this on the web). If magic was unstable at the time this makes his power an even more impressive feat.

So Elminster had connection with the Blackstaff and was prominent in Waterdeep.

There is every potential that he heard about a boy prodigy who was living with non-magically inclined parents and rocked up to their doorstep to offer help. He might have been thinking about how Mystra will need more chosen when she returns, or he might have just decided that it was time for another apprentice.

On the forgotten realms Wiki it says that Elminster spoke to Mystra who possessed the body of a bear and asked him to find new candidate's to become her chosen. Gale would have been 22 at the time if we go with his cannon age of 35.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mystra_(Midnight)

I think that Elminster may have suggested Gale as a candidate when Gale was 22. Elminster has helped train her chosen before, such as Sammaster.

There is also a very interesting tidbit I found upon looking him up where he says he left the encounter feeling as though he and Mystra were in love;

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Sammaster

I do not know to what extent Mystra's presence could be felt whilst she was gone. But Midnight was said to have felt a 'presence' and her spells which might've failed succeeded and she felt like she was being groomed, before becoming the next Mystra. I cannot find any evidence to support a theory that Mystra was behind Gale's ability to cast magic at such a young age. But it is an interesting theory nonetheless.

Anyway, back to my original point. When I said that Elminster had a part to play, I meant that he is a renowned wizard and former chosen of Mystra. And he inserted himself into Gale's life when he was 8. It is implied that he did help him, and potentially recommended him if she did not already have her eyes on him herself.

Elminster does mention making a mistake in his letter, so could that be the mistake he refers to?

We don't know if Mystra sought Gale out as her chosen because of Elminster or vice versa. She may have set her eyes on him regardless but perhaps at a later stage. Either way, Elminster had a part to play in Gale being selected as her chosen.

My idea also stemmed from a post a read a while back where someone wrote Meta's on each BG3 character;

The final point I wanted to make was that grooming does not always involve one person. It can be an organisation or an entire industry which is set up to suck the souls out of people who have talent. Be it academia, sports, the film and music industries or the fictional industry of Wizardry.

But in general the process of becoming a chosen is exploitative and manipulative. We witness that in game with Shadowheart and Lae'zel. They were all groomed in different ways.

#bg3 #gale dekarios #My attempt at a lore dive #It's not that deep this is headcannon based on lore information I have read and things in the game #Because the game leaves a lot to interpretation #I am going to regret posting this #It's still grooming #gale of waterdeep #gale defense #mystra hate club #bg3 Gale #bg3 discourse

[we-are-a-dragon]

Hiatus ended!

Hey everyone, sorry we haven't posted our dnd stories in months! There's been a lot going on but basically it got too hard to for the same person who takes quotes to also be one of our current DMs and the whole thing got too overwhelming.

We are only going to be posting quotes from our TTC sessions for now, as the problem came from DM Tati trying to take quotes while running GSP sessions. Sorry to those who enjoyed the shenanigans of Diardi, Gregor, Harriet, Hesty, Hunter, WA and Winnifred, but you'll just have to imagine how their story continues.

We have still been playing all this time, so instead of trying to catch up with quotes we'll summarize Travelling Trauma Centre's adventures in the intervening months (under cut) and then pick up at our current point!

What has TTC been up to since we last posted?

We finished the dungeon The Court of the Crimson King, eventually destroying all but one of the automaton bosses including the Crimson King and his mecha red dragon (Ashiok died in that fight by being completely fucking bisected, but we brought her back to life). We made a truce with the Purple Piper, who without his King to give orders had no further desire for conquest, and went on to hire him and his remaining half dozen automata to guard our manor in Suda (important later) while he proves himself trustworthy.

We then made our way to a town where the son of the mayor kept being kidnapped and ransomed, financially ruining the mayor. We discovered it was a long-term scam wherein the mayor's son had been replaced by a changeling (the real son was living happily with the changeling clan!) and kept getting kidnapped on purpose, but in a twist the 'son' had grown fond of the mayor and wanted to stop robbing him. We brokered a deal between the factions that benefitted everyone (except the changeling leader who went to jail) and convinced the changelings to find more honest work.

From there we travelled up the nearby mountain where there was a dragon we'd been meaning to deal with, Nimble Claws. We had previously encountered a green dragon called The Rotten who had been injured when the younger blue took over his territory. By all accounts life in the mountain had been worse for pretty much everyone since. Unfortunately Nimble Claws had also moved in her elder dragon boyfriend since claiming the territory so we had a lot of dragon on our hands. The Rotten met us there and we managed to sneak all the way into the lair and challenge the boyfriend Cosnemra (chaddest dragon to ever chad) to a duel. We eventually killed Cosnemra and took his skull, whereupon The Rotten (taking Cosnemra's name) decided that instead of killing Nimble Claws and reclaiming his territory would rather move in with her and her egg, allowing her to continue her tyranny. We left with intent to level up and come back to wipe them both out.

We knew peace in Suda for a short while before we were woken in the night by the sounds of fighting. Our brand new automaton guards were fending off a hit squad of kuo'toa, and beyond our garden the city was in flames. We spent a frantic night beating back the kuo-toa hordes and eventually made it to the palace in time to prevent the monsters making it to the emperor (though a lot of people died that night). It turned out the one pulling the strings was... Larissa Firespit, the dragonborn lich we'd already killed twice but whose phylactery we'd failed to destroy before she spawned a third time. Unfortunately with the kuo'toa on her side she was on the cusp of ascending to godhood, and she was intent on finishing us off for good this time. We stole a couple hours of sleep and then stormed her temple in the sewers beneath the city, where she was accompanied by four angels suspiciously veiled in spiderwebs. She put up a tough fight but eventually she was destroyed.

We trudged wearily back to the palace to report to Emperor Cherish and his head bodyguard Dorphi. We told him of all that had transpired and confirmed with one of his personal divination wizards that the lich was finally gone permanently. We then went on to warn him that one of the nobles in the city was really Lolth in disguise, and she had aided Larissa in the attack with her angels and her divine influence. At that moment who should walk in to the emperor's chambers but Lolth in her noble disguise. She berated us for throwing away the perfect opportunity she had given us - to have Larissa kill the emperor so that we could go on to defeat the lich and have Billie take the throne as she was destined to do (she also admitted she had produced the quests that removed all our allies from the city just days before). When we asked why, she declared that she was still determined to have our help in defeating Demogorgon, and we were going to need the resources of the throne to succeed. She then tried to force us to kill the emperor, and when it became clear we weren't going to she threw a deadly spear at him herself, barely intercepted by the party tanks. We resorted to our old ways of bag of holding abuse; Seraph stuffed the emperor into her Bag and then teleported away to our bolt hole at the nearby university. The Spider Queen conceded the day to us and left, while old friend and deus ex machina Maria Cleaves teleported back into the city to help. Everyone reconvened back at the palace and Billie made a plan with the emperor to officially declare her legitimate claim (and loyalty) to the throne and name her as heir, to remove the need for Lolth to kill him.

-

This was a pivotal sequence for TTC and levelled us to 21 (the beginning of Epic Tier; 4th edition having 30 player levels) and granting us our Epic Destinies. During the conversation with Lolth Thaddeus called on Pelor for strength and in response was made an Exalted Angel complete with wings and halo. By summoning Maria and teleporting the emperor away from certain death, Seraph connected directly to the source of magic and became Magic Incarnate. Ashiok was once again dominated by Lolth as god of the drow, but that humiliation and pain catalyzed her path as a Harbinger of Doom destined to destroy Lolth. Billie's refusal to betray the emperor and her oath to make things right in her own way made her a Topaz Crusader with a particular enmity for demons. Kjell's fearlessness in the face of divinity unlocked his Archfey bloodline. Godric had already been offered a fusion of souls and power by his patron, and will take up his chosen destiny the next time they meet.

Following these climactic events TTC needed some down time and spent the last few weeks of the summer on a road trip, visiting family around Persia. Seraph finally returned to the village of Moraspire that was destroyed in her childhood to find it rebuilt and thriving, but her parents confirmed dead. Thaddeus checked in on the tiny village of Piravhaz and found all was well, which he had set out as an adventurer to ensure. Billie visited her baker mums for the first time since being driven out of her village and finally caught them up on all her adventures. Kjell took us to meet his family, finally able to show them the fine man he has become since his difficult departure. Godric decided not to visit his family, having finally made peace with his past and no longer needing their approval or validation to love himself. The party then returned to Suda to sort things out re: Billie's adoption to the royal family, and to embark on the next arc of their extraordinary story.

#funny #dnd #exposition #hiatus #Lyra DM #just little d&d things #travelling trauma centre

[crisiscutie]

Dissidia Sephiroth and JENOVA!Dissidia Darling

Excerpt from my analysis of Yandere Dissidia Sephy.

Content Warning: Gaslighting/Emotional Abuse. Body Change. Allusions to pregnancy. Just a long ramble, don't bother reading if you're expecting a writing prompt.

If you've been following the Dissidia AU, you might know that in that universe, Sephiroth's darling is a summoner he took under his wing (no pun intended), masquerading as her jaded and well-meaning mentor. Eventually, he earned her trust and admiration, leading her to summon JENOVA into their universe. Darling was successful in this endeavor, but little did she know JENOVA required a physical vessel, and she chose Darling herself. Darling had no idea she succeeded, while Sephiroth, who knew, used that to his advantage in his plans to become one with her and ascend to godhood.

No matter which version, we know Sephiroth is obsessed with carrying on his mother's legacy and her bidding. He has a severe messiah complex, which made me think about how this would show up in his relationship with Dissidia Darling.

Then, I realized he would definitely view this manifestation within her as if it was like a sacred pregnancy, stroking his inflated ego even further and fueling his delusions. So, for sure, he'd be determined to see her through the entire "pregnancy," supporting her all the way. In some ways, Sephiroth still acts as a mentor to darling, but we know well that our Crisis Cutie loves weaving half-truths into his web of deception and lies. That's why I adore him as a yandere - his ruthless and obsessed personality and his storyline in Opera Omnia, where he's desperately trying to resurrect JENOVA, are the perfect foundations for this AU.

I like how there are even similarities to the Virgin Mary's tale, if you think about it. The goddess JENOVA selects the "virgin" darling to bear her new form in the Dissidia universe... Sephiroth also interpreted this as a sign that darling was the chosen girl for him. Darling and Sephiroth also bear similarities to Eve and the Serpent! If you haven't read my analysis of Sephiroth's Mommy Issues, I suggest doing so to gain insight into my next point.

To be expected, this manifestation would undoubtedly trigger Dissidia Sephiroth's mommy issues like hell, much like Fluffy Sephiroth, but he would handle it differently than him. He would seize every opportunity to "mentor" Darling, shaping her into the perfect doll mother. Not only her body must be immaculate but her psychological state as well. And if he needs to break the doll repeatedly to do that, he will. His idealized vision of motherhood will be recognized. She will be his in every sense.

So, under his "guidance," he nurtures her; encouraging strength, fostering hatred, and instilling confidence within her. And he always takes the time to ask darling about her thoughts on motherhood occasionally, dropping cryptic hints about the manifestation. She feels like he is hinting at something, but is not exactly sure what. The man just loves to watch her squirm, yearning for more information, just like he does with everyone else. But then he downplays it, perhaps making her question herself. At times, he even uses this manipulation as a playful way to charm her, making her turn a deep shade of red when coyly saying that he is might be the one to make her a mother. The cruel amusement he derives from this is almost overwhelming.

In my recent fic, Sephiroth gets a lovely taste in the distant future as a reward for his impressive progress at darling's reunion. But not too long after that, she finds herself separated from him, stumbling upon new friends who might show her the light.

But don't worry. He's desperately searching for ways to reclaim her from them. And when he's ready to confront them, he will double down on the pregnancy allusions. Perhaps he'd say something like, "You are carrying our future within you, darling."

Poor Darling would be so disturbed, feeling violated by this monster growing within her, taking over her very being. Nonetheless, Sephiroth would gaslight her, reminding her that she had willingly agreed to help him summon JENOVA, all the while wearing his signature sadistic smirk. Then, he would gradually shift back to his well-meaning mentor persona to deepen her trauma; Gently cupping her cheeks, wiping away her tears and assuring her he would take care of her. Why? Because HE was the only one who could understand her. Care for her. Love her. The worlds were against her. He was the only one fighting by her side... Makes you wonder how darling will respond to these manipulations...

Anyway, Sephiroth has essentially baby-trapped the poor darling, and I absolutely adore that allusion. It perfectly embodies the core traits of a yandere - delusion, manipulation, protectiveness, objectification, obsession, and possession. Sephiroth embodies all of these TOO well.. I can't wait to talk more about this in the full detailed analysis and in later ones of how I explain how other yandere Sephiroths put these concepts into practice with their darlings.

To end on a playful note, it's worth noting the irony that darling ended up forming connections with other FF characters, all stemming from her bond with Sephiroth. I plan on delving further into Darling's interactions with characters beyond Sephiroth and Kadaj; she's managed to gather quite the harem, xD. Perhaps the most prominent example is how Sephiroth still keeps his other "tools" around, like Seymour and Weiss, because darling is still inexperienced and not quite ready to be his sole partner. However, it's only natural that spending time with others would lead to bonding, so this turned out to be a major oversight on Sephiroth's part. He never expected his tools to form a connection with darling. So it's no surprise that Sephiroth's objectification of darling and his allies will have some eventual negative consequences. How these consequences will be explored? Well, you'll just have to keep tuning into the AU.

#final fantasy 7 #ff7 sephiroth #ff7 #sephiroth x reader #yandere sephiroth #crisis cutie #sephiroth #tw: body change #tw: abuse #tw: emotional abuse #tw: emotional manipulation #tw: noncon #tw: yandere #yandere core #male yandere #yandere stories #yandere male #tw yandere #yandere #female reader #fem reader #jenova #c.c rambles

[francis-writes]

95 cazador szarr !! (the worst man)

A/N: I love your choice lol It was a bit complicated because it's basically a chant for Odin, reciting his many names and titles (Wise One, Wolfspeaker, God of the Hanged, Pale One, Attacking Rider etc) so I decided to make au where Cazador manages to ascend and you are his consort (but in all honesty, you feel more like a humble worshipper)

Living with Cazador, even as his lover, was never easy and normal person could hardly call it a relationship. But when he promised to make you his consort after ascension, for a little moment you hoped that something would change for the better. That you would get more respect, and - what’s more important - feel safer in his palace.

Of course, all hopes fell apart.

Sure, Cazador reached his godhood. Everyday he gained new powers and abilities. As his consort, you lived like royalty. Other spawns respected you, mostly out of fear of Cazador. You didn't need to worry about landing in the dungeons or getting tortured... at least as long as you obeyed your Master. Who seemed to be more emotionally distant from you each day.

Cazador Szarr never was a partner you could have a heart-to-heart conversation with, but before he was at least normal person. Undead but still made of blood and flesh. He was your powerful Master but he still could be hurt, he still seemed to have human emotions. Now he only focused on expanding his power and building his empire. Carnal pleasures now interested him less than constant meetings with gods or Hell lords. Now you were less afraid for your own fate, than worried what his intrigues can bring upon you both.

At this moment, you were laying in your shared bed, and observing Cazador leaning over some letter. You slept with him as his spouse but if you could, you would spend that time anywhere else. You were afraid to move and break this silence as if you were in some temple during adoration.

Eventually you pulled yourself together and asked in a quiet gentle voice:

"Master?"

No matter how close you were, you didn't feel like it was proper to call him by his name, especially, when he became something god-like. Cazador himself never suggested that you could adress him different so you prefered not to risk his reaction.

He looked up from the document.

"Yes, pet?"

"Can I... somehow help you? Do you have any command for me, Master?"

He smiled but it didn't comfort you a little bit.

"I'm grateful for your devotion but there's nothing you could help me with"

He stood up, came closer to bed and took your face in his cold hand, caressing your cheek with his thumb.

"You're my beloved consort but you wouldn't understand things I am now invested in. It's too much for the mortal minds... your only duty now is to stay by my side forever. And never go against my will"

#cazador x reader #cazador szarr x reader #cazador szarr #bg3 cazador

[catboymitosis]

It is pretty wild to see people say they find fear and hunger offputting because they perceive it's message to be "suffering builds character and everyone should do awful things to get an advantage over each other in this hellish rat race" when I personally so strongly got the message as being about "perseverance and the value to always keep struggling regardless of lack of any reward for doing so" I got a god of fear and hunger tattoo about it.

I understand it's probably a bpatrick eat shit & die 233 comic situation, darker stories stories reach people stuck at lower depths but it is pretty crazy to see it interpreted so different.

Le'garde thinks suffering builds character and he dies alone and tortured in a situation of his own making never to achieve his goals or become someone special for it. Suffering is the point of fear and hunger but it is rarely ever rewarded, the girl does not ascend to godhood as a reward and you are not rewarded for braving through the gauntlet to bring her there. Your care and kindness towards her is not powerful enough to stop her transformation but it was not meaningless to her. In Termina when we find out about the effect of GOFAH's story to the people of the world and her embodiment of suffering, they found motivation and inspiration in it because they can relate to her in moments of their own suffering. GOFAH did not make them suffer to motivate them, they found hope and solace in their own suffering through her.

The message of fear and hunger is about finding your own value and motivation to struggle for no other reason than to keep going. That's what I took from it anyways.

#a more expanded upon rambling of a post i made a while back on my thoughts of the message and themes of f&h #would you believe my reluctance to explain my tattoo is a reference to the penis murder sex game by explaining this theme and meaning #has apparently made me come across incredibly suicidal lmao?

[pocketdaan]

Character Analysis: "The Delinquent One"

Imagine you're a scientist helping to create a new lifeform on a petri dish with your coworkers. You're not the leader - one came up with the formula and another followed it. Still, you help since these are the ones on equal standing as you.

Goal was to make them in your coworkers' image and indeed the little things took on a life slightly similar to your group. However, they're still fragile in all definitions, so your group gives them ways to become more powerful should they seek it.

And after a miniscule taste of that power, they start wanting to overthrow you all.

They don't even have a full view of the petri dish.

Your coworkers pull away from the project as a result. Surprisingly, though, they don't punish the lifeforms much. As if letting them go out of pity or curiosity.

Seeing that nobody is putting the lifeforms in their place, you step in.

You go, "We literally created you. You won't get what we have because you're objectively weak and you don't even deserve what we have if you're this ungrateful."

And then the lifeforms call you a delinquent.

I think Ascended Gods could be Rher's victory and here's a long-winded answer for why:

I think humans are to Old Gods as micro-organisms are to humans. Mankind will never be on the level of Old Gods if we're this insignificantly small. Like tiny specks of bacteria.

Ancient Gods are concepts. They may have some physical forms when they appear to the player but it's likely always an approximation. Beings like the Old Gods don't have a solid unchanging form like ours. F&H's humans are bacteria on a petri dish and the Old Gods were peering down a microscope - mankind can't simply look up and see the Old Gods breathing down their necks. They're too small and too far away.

The Old Gods have long since left the laboratory anyhow.

We don't have info on how these reptile beings were created and by which Old God, only that they were there before humans. However, there are hints of these reptiles having ascended into the Greater Blights. These are what they turn into when they become New Gods.

Nothing states of the Old Gods being against the Greater Blights, which means these reptiles seemingly haven't rebelled in the way that humans had. Which means the Old Gods had been open to the idea of mortals becoming New Gods, before humans started abandoning their creators.

I'll rattle off some well-known bits about the Old Gods to point something out, bear with me.

Sylvian has a deep love of humanity. If she had a say in the human New Gods' formation, she may have done it out of pity for her beloved ones.

Gro-goroth has his extensive curiosity. If he had a say in the human New Gods' formation, he may have done it for curiosity's sake.

Rher possibly took part in the New Gods' formation. We have no evidence that he took an anti-human stance before they become New Gods.

Vinushka, Vitruvia, and the unnamed Old Gods / their servants - we don't know enough of to speculate. But given that only Rher is noted to actively gatekeep humanity's godhood, it can imply that nobody other than Rher cared enough to be against it.

It's easier to fall under an anthropocentric lens. If one Old God's love for humanity leads to losing your mind and being enslaved to base desires, it's understandable to be wary of what an Old God's hate for humanity would do.

Regardless of Rher's opinion of humanity, though, it'd be black-&-white to render him a simple villain.

From Rher's perspective, it could be something like humans having too much of an ego to know when they're making bad choices.

Being a New God was a trap, a false solution for incomprehensibly large problems. 'Making a fuss over temporary solutions to the point of throwing away devotion to the ones who created you,' is understandably frustrating to witness.

Rher's supposedly the God of hidden truths. Moonscorching is to forcibly pry what's buried in the subconscious, the person reaching the limits of their sanity and losing themself to inner horrors. Despite that, his moonlight is considered his "gift" to humanity.

He's also been the last known Old God to observe mankind. If he's doing the equivalent of hatewatching, then he's not really doing a good job at it... letting both The Girl and Reila ascend like that.

That's why I don't think he's necessarily rooting for humanity's failure. I think that Rher may want mankind to face the truth of their limitations - if people can't face the dark truths within themselves, they'd never face the dark truths within the rest of the petri dish. They shouldn't even try.

And there's been an obvious history of humans continuously failing. Most knew the perils that seeking godhood entails and how weak New Gods are compared to Old Gods. This truth, to him, is frustratingly in plain sight.

Yet mankind still chooses to seek higher means of power.

But the Ascended Gods? Humanity can become as powerful as Old Gods in convoluted situations like Alll-mer, the God of Fear and Hunger, and Logic.

It's not the same situation as the New Gods. There may have been arrogance and ego in wanting to have human Old Gods, but it's not simply that. Plans have been detailed in order for these mortals to ascend. Being Ascended takes having to throw parts of your individuality away in order to achieve humanity's goals, the opposite of holding onto the ego.

And the Ascended Gods have driven the species to greater heights the way New Gods couldn't.

It's like humans have identified a limitation, have devised a plan to patch that limitation, and it finally worked.

I think that's why Rher tells Pocketcat to stop going after The Girl. That's why Rher lets a Termina contestant power-on Logic. For once, humanity has done what he's wanted them to do: be humbled.

God of Fear and Hunger gave humans a greater sense of limitations pertaining to fears and hunger, and this led to humans focusing on creating manmade technologies to overcome it.

Logic will give humans a greater sense of limitations pertaining to technology. By this, Rher can assume it will also lead to humans focusing on how to overcome this limitation.

F&H1 and F&H2 come off to some as if his schemes have been foiled. 'Another human ascended despite The Delinquent One's best efforts'.

Sure, he may still hate what humanity had done to the Old Gods. He may still hate the idea of New Gods. It's unlikely that he'd ever be compassionate toward humans, he's definitely no misunderstood ally of humanity.

But do I think Rher won alongside the player in the end.

#fear & hunger #fear and hunger #f&h1 #f&h #f&ht #f&h2 #fear & hunger termina #fear and hunger termina #rher #sylvian #gro-goroth #long post #fear and hunger character analysis #does the moon count as a character? #my analyses #my theories #Character Analysis: Rher

[kirain]

your gale takes actually got me to look deeper into forgotten realms lore (esp where it pertains to the afterlife) and long story short i’m at least a little bit fixated on it now and also will go to bat for that wizard basically at any point. also wild magic. i’ve been reading so much about wild magic, it’s so so interesting. esp wild magic sourced from the far realm and the implications that could have for a wild magic mage in esp the bg3 setting

Thank you, I'm so glad to hear that! I'm still learning about the lore myself (there's so much), and we should all be thanking Larian for introducing so many new people to D&D!

Wild magic is insane, and I had a great time using it with my sorcerer. The magic system in general is truly fascinating, as is its history in context of the game. It's just too bad it's linked to a god. I think I've said this before, but an irksome detail about Mystra is that she technically isn't a "bad" god, but she should definitely keep her fingers to herself. Every iteration has done objectively horrible things to mortals, but because she's written by a man who clearly favours her (in my humble opinion) nothing she does is presented as wrong. 😒

These asks actually reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine. He basically said, "Elminster is on Mystra's side and he cares about Gale, so obviously Mystra is right." But here's the thing:

Not only is Eliminster a really annoying self-insert made by Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms (and I mean that literally, he's admitted he's a self-insert), but Eliminster has also had ... "relations" with his surrogate daughter. He's betrayed his friends for Mystra. He's killed arguably innocent people. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't look to him for moral guidance. He also slept with the previous iterations of Mystra and blindly follows her commands, so he might just be a teensy bit biased. In fact, if you look at various forums, you'll see a lot of players complaining about the character's irritating Gary Stu status, and that Dungeon Masters hate putting him in their campaigns.

Elminster will never question Mystra, because in his mind she's a perfect being who deserves everything, including people's lives; ignoring the fact that pretty much every god in D&D is canonically flawed. He's the type of person who would tell a grieving parent that God took their recently deceased child for "reasons we cannot comprehend".

He says he took no pleasure in burdening Gale with her ultimatum, but let's be real—he wasn't that hurt by it. In fact, the Elminster we meet in game isn't even real. It's a snow clone. He couldn't be bothered to visit Gale, who he apparently respects and cares about, in person. The only time he shows any genuine emotion towards Gale is in the ascended epilogue, when he writes him a disappointed letter. And I wouldn't be surprised if that disappointment is more about him challenging Mystra than actually achieving godhood.

Though it should be said that Elminster is also a victim of Mystra. The iteration before Midnight (current Mystra) groomed and abused him for a millenia, yet for some reason we, the audience, are supposed to pretend there's nothing wrong with that. If anything, we're supposed to view it as "sexy". As if Gale and Elminster are "lucky" to have caught her attention.

Reading up on the lore surrounding these two is truly horrifying. Elminster is old enough now that his actions are informed and unforgivable. He helps Mystra groom boys to exploit and never questions her. He's not merely complacent, he's active in her ploys. Despite his numerous heroic feats, I personally can't overlook it, especially when he could have been Gale's biggest defender.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #larian studios #gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #bg3 mystra #elminster #lore

[sincerelyandyourstruly]

#boyyuri

on xiaoven & yearning

—

so as we all know, "yuri is when there’s themes and motifs and yaoi is when there’s two blokes who do fuck all. if you reblog this you love trans people." (tumblr user dyggot, 2023.); that "yaoi is about entanglement and yuri is about yearning." (tags by tumblr user thyminesquared, 2023, screenshot and archived on this post.)

as should be clear from these definitions, this essay is not going to concern itself with whether a pairing counts as "yaoi" or "yuri" on the sole basis of the genders of the characters involved. although i understand the deeply gendered connotations of both of these terms, to ME, yuri is about the distance between one’s self and others around them (maybe people, maybe dreams and ideals), and the deeply-rooted desires that grow in that gap as a result.

as a post made to tumblr, put in the xiaoven tag, everyone reading this knows the basic lore surrounding their characters and world: that venti is the anemo archon, god of wind and freedom; that xiao is the last yaksha, who wields the power of anemo in battle to protect his homeland of liyue; that Visions are considered to be representations of a person's dearest wish, crystallized into physical form. but let's run over the basics again real fast, just to keep this piece from having external dependencies to understand, yeah?

venti is a wind sprite from mondstadt who ascended to godhood at the end of a rebellion against the at-the-time god of storms keeping his people in a cage made of windstorm thousands of years ago, and he chose his ideal of freedom to honor the bard who led said rebellion and died at the end of the final battle, but whether the nameless bard even got to see the clear skies he fought so hard to live under is currently up to interpretation. either way, venti took on the nameless bard's appearance so that his nation's people would never forget the true hero who won their freedom, but because thousands of years have passed the people have kind of forgotten by now anyway, and venti probably has a lot of identity issues about it!

also he's a bard who plays music in exchange for wine because singing to pass on the memories of heroes past and then drinking to numb the grief of people's forgetting is how he Copes™.

AND ALSO he will occasionally sleep for hundreds of years at a time.

Meanwhile, xiao is an immortal/"illuminated beast" from liyue whose true form is technically that of a bird, but he goes around in the form of a hot emo boy, ostensibly because he needs hands to don his mask, hold his spear, and do his dance to conquer the remnants of evil gods, the act of which literally taints his soul with their sins— his karmic debts.

anyway he was enslaved by an evil god in his youth because said evil god (probably) knew his True Name and because we're going by fairy rules this means he was forced to commit atrocities (namely eating people's dreams) against his will until the god of contracts geo archon zhongli killed his previous master, gave him a new name, and contractually tasked him with the job of subduing the demonic remnants of other defeated gods, which he has since proceeded to unflinchingly, unwaveringly, and unquestioningly obey for the last few thousand years. however, despite his unfathomable obedience and devotion to his duty, his Vision (his life's greatest desire) is that of anemo (of freedom).

also a few hundred years ago when he was about to succumb to the weight of his karmic debts, xiao's life was saved by the sound of someone (venti) playing the flute in the marsh where he'd been working, and so now his dream, the deepest wish he holds closest to his heart, is to someday "wear the mask and dance — not to conquer demons, but to the tune of that flute amid a sea of flowers." (xiao's character card, genshin impact, 2021)

…can you guys believe that the dihua flute moment was like all we xv shippers had to hold onto for like two years?! that, and xiao's extremely yearnful voiceline abt venti that's just like, "venti? is that what he goes by these days? his tunes are… nevermind." but the point of this recap i hope has become clear by this point: that the relationship btwn xiao and venti seen through these few snippets alone is just rife with potent yuri energy.

like, to elaborate on the opening of thie essay, yuri is specifically about the uncross­able distance between two people who are already sitting right next to each other, so close that only a single thread of wind could even hope to weave its way between them— although, as evidenced by the fact that such a thread of wind could weave its way between them, they are still shy of truly touching— and the painful yearnings of being unable to close that gap… even though you both exist so close to one another, so similar in both place and time, you are the only thing stopping yourself from reaching across that seemingly infinite distance.

as a result, i think that unlike yaoi, yuri— thematically speaking— tends to have a greater mutuality to it: whereas i understand being in a yaoi to be more about acting on one's impulses towards one another and passing along cycles of power, i believe that an important aspect of being in a yuri is the constant fear and anxiety of violating an unspoken boundary because you're afraid that you aren't actually on the same page about those.

deep down inside, you know that you're not supposed to want all the things you've built for yourself in all those private daydreams and self-indulgent fantasies you've created about yourself with the other person, because you know you're not supposed to have drawn your boundaries the way you have, such that the other person would be let in on the most intimate parts of your identity (if they were willing to see all that is ugly sleeping under­neath your skin.)

as mentioned in the paragraph summarizing his lore, xiao's youth was marked by the fact that his very autonomy was continuously violated in service of forcing him to violate others' boundaries, crushing their hopes and devouring their very dreams. his deep cultural ties to liyue as the land of contracts means that he carries within him a keen sense of obligation as inseverable as the need to breathe; thus, saddled with guilt and believing himself to be incapable of gentility, he has come to view himself as nothing more than a weapon for others to use.

in signing his contract with the geo archon, xiao went from a situation where his agency was continuously denied and his boundaries intimately violated to one where he relinquished his agency and had his boundaries delineated for him by his new lord.

he has no desires of his own; immortals aren't so worldly. (if that were true, he wouldn't have a Vision.) he is not an active subject in his own life; anything he does is the effect of someone else's will. (if that were true, he would have stopped protecting liyue the moment that he learned his lord abdicated his rule.) he does not let anyone near him; it is inevitable that his karmic debts will force his hand against them. (if that were true, he wouldn't have been saved by the sound of venti's flute playing nearby.)

don't you see? he places himself in a subservient role to everyone around him, rigidly obeys every ritual of propriety, because he is afraid that by asserting agency over a situation, he will end up violating other people's boundaries again. except that this time, the responsibility for doing so would fall squarely on his own shoulders.

during the main quest arc for liyue, zhongli literally fakes his own death as an archon so that he can finally retire and be free from his own contractual obligation to the nation. this gives us reason to believe that xiao's contract with the geo archon has thus been rendered void, meaning he no longer has any obligation to continue his endless suffering for the sake of liyue— yet he does so anyway.

i think a lot of fans tend to view this as xiao needlessly chaining himself down to his duty, something that's often framed in fanworks as something rather tragic in venti's eyes. however, as the god of freedom, venti feels very strongly about giving other the freedom to make their own decisions, even if he himself may disagree with them or wish they had chosen differently. others' autonomy is deeply important to venti, perhaps even so far as to call it sacred: to order anything from anyone would be a violation for the boundaries venti has set for himself as an archon.

and because we're all familiar with genshin impact lore, what i have to say next should go without saying, we are all so familiar with it: the element of a person's Vision will be directly related to the kind of ideal they strive to meet and uphold, and as such, can generally tell you a lot about a person's desires.

xiao wields an anemo Vision— the only known anemo wielder in liyue until the arrival of xianyun, presumably because that is how deeply ingrained the binding sense of obligation is in its culture— and wears it visibly on his person at all times. it would be ridiculous not to believe that venti knows, and intimately so, just how xiao desires.

and i think that a lot of fans can fail to consider the idea that to xiao, his duty of protection is a choice he made of his own volition when he was first set free, and is, in all likelihood, one he continues to make in canon. yes, this choice comes with a great many obligations restraining him in various ways— but do our choices truly mean anything if they are not bound by obligation? this is something venti would obviously understand and respect as lines drawn in the sand by xiao himself, and he would never dare even suggest they be crossed.

it's clear from the various scraps of in-game lore that xiao craves proximity to and knowledge about his savior in the marsh. yet, he refuses to go out of his way to attain these things and will even deny ownership of these desires altogether because in a sense, they are blasphemy: venti, although not his archon, is still a god.

might seeking venti out over zhongli not be considered a sign of detracting, or perhaps even failing faith in the unwavering sureity of the geo archon? or even if it turns out that's not so— who is xiao to ask anything of venti? the god of freedom must surely be a flighty little thing, following his every capricious whim. to ask him to stay would be akin to tying him down, no?

clearly, there is no need for xiao to call out for him. if venti wants to be with him, he will simply be there.

(and if he doesn't, then he won't.)

((after all, it is the duty of the servant to wait on the master's call.))

it's easy to imagine that these two immortals might end up in a sort of song and dance of propriety for a while, that at fight might be genuine, but eventually just becomes habit and custom. they both want, in some way, for xiao to lay down his duty, to be free of the strict hierarchy of master & servant or god & disciple. but for venti to say it so plainly would feel like he's trying to convert xiao to his ideals— a discomfort that would more than likely only be compounded by how seriously xiao takes the word of god(s), and how expressly venti hates being treated like anything but an equal— and so he would hesitate on his feelings; whereas for xiao to speak of his desires so plainly, it would feel like a betrayal of his duty— that which he chose to shoulder as his first act of free will.

you see it, right? the gap between these two characters, whose lives will otherwise touch and cross over and over through their long, immortal lives, and the mutual desires they can both plainly and painfully read in one another, yet never individually act upon due to their already-established senses of propriety, tradition, and boundaries?

these are the basic yuriisms of xiaoven genshinimpact.

#xiaoven #long post #only reason i put part of this post under a cut is bc it's 2111 words so in the interest of being polite i put 1356 of them under the cut #anyway happy birthday to xiao my son my melancholy yearnful boy c': #adapting this essay to the context of tumblr was more work than i anticipated #but i think it pairs nicely w/my xv moon/moon essay from a while back c: #i've actually been sitting on this one for a few months now; this entire chunk got cut from my submission to yaoizine vol 3 (yurizine) #and if you haven't had your brain chemistry altered by the yaoizines published by tshirt. what are you doing. go read them

[princess-of-anons]

Oh yeah just in case the brainrot that created the Metamorphosis AU wasn’t enough, I also have a “Swap” AU that I have thought up. Don’t have a name for it yet so I’m up for suggestions

I’m not gonna go into precise details when I already have one AU not yet fully fleshed out, but I’ll at least give the swaps and how they happen

(Trigger Warning for Gordon’s bio including heavily implied/downright stated child death!)

Gordon: Not Human, had a son named Joshua, whom Black Mesa captured and “took apart.” Attempted to seek revenge only to be captured and neutralized into a non-threat; for some reason they let him be the one to be in the Big Test. VERY vocal about not being human, he does not hide it at all, partially to remind himself to not get attached to the Science Team. Very clearly wants to enact his anger on humanity itself for Joshua’s demise.

Benrey: Number one most chill Security Guard of the Year. He wasn’t supposed to be in the test chamber, but apparently there was an update in standard procedures and they needed a second guy in there with Gordon.

Mister G: Works for his nebulous employers who supply the remaining 10% of Black Mesa’s funding. Was NOT expecting to find the son he had to abandon 20+ years ago and is now trying so hard to catch up with him. He sorta gets where Gordon’s anger is coming from, being forced to abandon Tommy certainly filled HIM with rage 20+ years ago, but he still thinks Gordon is in the wrong.

Tommy: Used to be part of Biological Research and jumped to another team right before it got put under “new management.” He’s pleasantly surprised to discover his birth father is both alive and trying to connect with him, even if it is weird.

Darnold: Tommy’s boyfriend from the Mixology Department. He was supposed to be on the other side of the facility, but Tommy invited him to watch the test so now they’re both stuck in this situation. Slightly broken tutorial NPC that wasn’t given weapon animations, so he can only Scream.

Dr. Bubby: Black Mesa’s perfect lifeform. He singlehandedly overthrew the leads of Biological Research and is now the sole occupant of that particular department. After Benrey gets his hand cut off, Bubby does…something to his hand to grow it back. He joins the Science Team because he craves violence. His partner is Dr. Coomer.

Dr. Coomer: An NPC so riddled with glitches that he became truly self-aware and ascended into something akin to godhood; Black Mesa had to contain his power and quickly deduced the only way to do so was to split Coomer’s power into hundreds of copies of himself. He and Mr. G get along well enough that the latter was more than willing to kill the formers clones for him.

Forzon: A former friend of Benrey’s. He took their last argument so personally that he convinced Gordon to lure Benrey and the rest of the Science Team into a trap. He deserts from the rest of the military when his ambush has the unintended effect of getting Benrey’s hand cut off, but it still takes him trying to kidnap Sunkist to finally make up with Benrey.

EDIT: This AU is now going by the name “B-Side”

#hlvrai #hlvrai au #Another Swap AU #<- placeholder name til I can think of something cooler #tw implied child death

[nonuggetshere]

Was PK really the crybaby of his clutch? Why did everyone think PK was dead?

PS: I would love it if you ever decided to info dump on us about all your wyrm ocs and what their personalities are, because everyone sounds super fascinating!!

PSS: Since finding siblings has been common in au's anytime Flower's outside Hallownest, I should let you know that I was beset with the immediate image of one of PK's relations hauling in Ghost to Flower and PK by their scruff and going, "They were found raiding the kitchen. Why do they look like they're yours???" And PK's speechless and Flower's dissolving into tears and Ghost just starts flailing because: Hey!! Their sibling is hurt, and THAT'S THE GLOWY PERSON THAT TOOK THEM SO I BET IT'S THEIR FAULT LET ME AT 'EM!!!"

Bonus points if Ghost yanks a kitchen knife from their void to menace PK's knees with.

WAIT I NEVER POSTED MY PK FAMILY LORE(tm) ON HERE? THIS MUST BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY

Will paste all of it under the cut

And KDHDKDHDJ YEAH Ghost would be a Menace

So wyrm culture places a lot of importance on strength, kingdoms led by wyrms tend to be heavily militarised, war-mongering kingdoms,

Ebur was an outliner in that he did not care for these things, he was born a weak runt and even as his condition improved he still preferred to curl up next to their dame and watch his siblings playfight. Despite this he wasn't at all disliked by his dame or siblings, who indulged in his interests as well and whenever he played with them his siblings tried to pick games that he could play too.

The hatchlings grew and eventually started to learn how to hunt and went out with their dame to learn how to navigate and survive in the wastelands

But an unfortunate rockslide and tunnel collapse (or a flash flood? Probably would work better, there fuckers are made for digging so I dunno how Addamas couldn't just. Dig him up) separated Ebur from his family, when he was still too young to live by himself. After days of searching Adamas couldn't find him and assumed him to be dead, and young Ebur was left to fend for himself

He knew enough to survive on his own even though it was hard

I've been toying around with the idea of a mortal taking pity on him and taking care of him for a while before it pretty much became unsustainable to feed a giant log of meat, but it's just an idea for now, nothing concrete yet

So PK's family assume he's dead and he gave up looking for them a long time ago,

Also he's like the only one who fully ascended into godhood

AS FOR THE REST

Adamas: She's an old wyrm, she had many clutches in her lifetime and the clutch which Ebur belonged to was her last, having had them much later in her life she decided they'd be her last. She's a much more "typical" wyrm and a tough love kind of gal, she shows her hatchlings love through her actions but also thinks the best way for them to learn is to throw them in the deep water straight away. She values strength a lot like other wyrms, although she doesn't think physical strength is all there is to it - she saw potential in her youngest son's cleverness and regrets not being able to help him hone it. While most wyrms value their scars, seeing them as trophies of their battles, Adamas thinks it's foolish; believing instead that scars just prove that you weren't quick, smart or fast enough, they're not a bad thing to have but you shouldn't be proud of them and should learn from them instead - a sentiment a lot of her hatchlings inherited from her, including Ebur.

Another thing about her that goes against most wyrms, she is completely uninterested in leading anything or anyone. Having had her own empire back in her younger years she had now completely abandoned that type of lifestyle, preferring to wander alone.

Long after her last hatchlings left her nest, she lost a fight with a younger wyrm. Driven away from her old territory and gravely injured she travelled into the mountains, burring into the side of it and deep in the peaks where she would eventually succumb to her wounds. Being reborn, she now permanently resides in her old tunnels in the mountains, hunting small critters, travellers and picking from her own rotting corpse for sustenance. She's quite content in her new situation, preferring the peace and quiet the cold mountain peaks give her.

Fossor: The oldest of the clutch as well as the biggest and strongest of them. She can hold her own yet prefers not to fight, taking on their dame's philosophy about scars and turning it up to 11 - choosing to immediately resolve your problems with violence and fighting is a sign of cowardice and weakness. Nonetheless, she's a devastating opponent to face. Although they were originally named for their passion for digging (the damn nest had so many holes after Fossor was born), they certainly earned the second meaning to her name - gravedigger.

They were quite protective over their little siblings when they were young, especially the smallest of the clutch Ebur and partly Melpomene. After it was time for them to leave the nest Fossor was the one who stuck the longest by her siblings before finally splitting off to found her own kingdom. She chose not to be reborn into her second form, finding her wyrm form to be way more convenient, and it helps avoid her any trouble from the majority of possibly hostile neighbouring nations.

They took on a mortal as a mate, and although he is long gone by now the two of them had a child - Nivalis. Although at first her conception was only for political reasons and convenience, Fossor quickly grew to adore their daughter. Nivalis is now a beloved princess, one who helps their parent a lot in running the kingdom (the small stature loser to mortals does have its benefits) yet keeps dreaming about one day leaving the nest and getting to explore beyond the kingdom's borders.

Ossum and Adustus - The middle children, the two of them were tied at the hip from the day of their hatching. Both named for their colouring, Ossum meaning bone and Adustus singed/burned...and Ossum partly thanks to their old habit of playing with the cleaned remains of their prey. Ossum is the more reserved yet hotheaded of the two while Adustus is the levelheaded extrovert of their duo. After their last sibling, Fossor, left their side the two decided they'd stick together permanently. Life as a duo was exceptionally hard for two gigantic apex predators so they chose to be reborn, and as neither is interested in ruling anything they chose their forms to blend closer with the mortals, hoping to not be recognised for who they were. Now, they still travel together, spending a few months in any given kingdom before moving on. Occasionally they like to visit their siblings and dame.

Melpomene: (@bluethepearldiver oc, just relying info here) The second youngest and the second to split off from the group, she found a village of wyrm and casted off her old form to join them. After protesting against invading a neighbouring mortal village she was exiled and presumed dead, only to later return and kill the village leader.

Io: (Again, Blue's oc, relying info) First sibling to split off so he could found his own kingsom, which he now rules alongside his mate Careuleus (gay rights <3). He's more of a typical wyrm with his style of ruling, certainly aggressive yet still somewhat benevolent. He took on a smaller form to be with his partner

#thylacines can talk #asks #faaf au #my ocs

[theslowesthnery]

I’ve never played elden ring but I just like seeing your thoughts. Just wish I had a primer on who your M guys are and their relationships to each other because I can’t keep them straight but I like your art and your words about these strangers!!

okay, so.

MORGOTT is this guy:

he's an obligatory boss in the game, and also goes by the extremely good pseudonym "margit". he's the son of the "god" of the world, queen marika, and her first husband, godfrey. unfortunately he was born an omen - monstrous beings with horns, tails, wings and other animalistic features considered to be caused by a curse - so he was locked away from childhood in an underground sewer labyrinth called the shunning grounds. at some point he became free and took it upon himself to defend the royal capital of leyndell from invaders, becoming its king in practice. despite the golden order (the ruling law of the world, led by his mother) hating and shunning him he still defends it and does its best to uphold it.

he's a grumpy old man with a great voice, a fancy way of talking, and an air of nobility, so he's very well-liked among the fans of the game. he's also the first proper boss most players face in the game and can be extremely challenging, so people end up spending a lot of time trying to beat him and therefore get attached to him lmao

this is MOHG:

he's an optional boss (could even be considered a "secret" boss). he's morgott's twin brother, so he's also a son of marika and godfrey and was locked in the shunning grounds. unlike morgott, though, he does NOT care for the golden order and is in fact actively working against it. he was at some time in the past contacted by an outer god known as the formless mother, and has been doing her bidding while being empowered by her ever since, working to build and establish a dynasty of blood underground. as part of that, he kidnapped miquella and is utilizing cursed blood to try to raise him to godhood, wishing to become his consort. he goes by the moniker "lord of blood", and a lot of his attacks consist of throwing burning blood at you.

a lot of people like his visual design and his fight and his music, but other than that most people fucking HATE him because "ewww gross pedoincest rapist", i don't think there's any other character in the game who is as hated. i personally love him because he's fucking GORGEOUS, he has an amazing and memorable voice, and he's in love! he's my top favourite, my beautiful little meow meow

here's MIQUELLA:

he is the son of marika and her second husband, radagon (who is also marika, don't ask), and the twin brother of malenia, the game's mascot and most infamous secret boss. he and malenia were both born cursed, miquella's curse being that he stopped physically aging and remains eternally young. despite that, he's an extremely intelligent and capable and is called a prodigy by many, and when he realized that the golden order was unable to cure his sister from her curse - a deadly rot that slowly but surely takes over and destroys her body - he set out to create a new, better order. he's beloved by all, but also apparently has the ability to forcefully compel affection, though to which degree he's used said ability is not known. malenia calls miquella "the most fearsome empyrean of all". (an empyrean is a demigod - an offspring or descendant of marika - who has the potential to ascend to godhood and replace marika as the head of the golden order)

miquella's plan to cure malenia included ascending to godhood, something that apparently would've cured him of his own curse as well, and to do that he grew a giant tree which he watered with his own blood, then cocooned himself inside it. while he was slumbering inside, mohg kidnapped him, and is drenching his cocoon with blood to "aid" in his ascension (and no doubt to make him whatever the formless mother wants him to become). so far miquella has not awakened, not even if you defeat mohg.

as for their relationships, well, this is a fromsoft game so we know practically nothing. like mohg is obviously in love with miquella (though some people claim that he's only interested in power and is only using miquella as a stepping stone and doesn't otherwise care for him), but other than that we don't know to which degree the three care about each other or even know each other. morgott does list miquella and his sister among people he considers traitors (but not mohg, so he either doesn't consider him a traitor or just doesn't know what he's been doing), but we don't know if they ever actually even met. as such, there are all sorts of different versions and interpretations of these characters' relationships. miquella's affection-compelling power also creates room for theories that he either intentionally or accidentally bewitched mohg into loving him, and either it ended up backfiring or being kidnapped was part of miquella's plan all along, and that it is he who is using mohg. some people also theorize (or at least like the idea) that miquella and mohg might've been willingly and knowingly working together.

SO IN SHORT: mohg and morgott are twin brothers, and miquella is their half-brother (technically 2/3 brother but y'know). mohg seems to be in love with miquella, has kidnapped him and wants to become his consort, but that's all we know.

#elden ring for blacklist #incest cw