#arid flora

[herbalnature]

Just spotted a living rock cactus showing off its pretty pink bloom—a true desert gem nestled among stones. It's amazing how these plants blend right in with their surroundings, yet still shine boldly when they flower.

#living rock cactus #pink bloom #desert gem #stone camouflage #nature beauty #cactus flower #desert plants #succulents #plant adaptation #botanical wonders #arid flora #hidden beauty #blooming cactus #succulent bloom #desert garden

[internationaldayofargania]

The multifaceted argan tree.

The argan tree (Argania spinosa) is a native species of the sub-Saharan region of Morocco, in the southwest of the country, which grows in arid and semiarid areas. It’s the defining species of a woodland ecosystem, also known as Arganeraie, which is rich in endemic flora. It is resilient to a harsh environment under water scarcity, risk of erosion and poor soils.

This ecosystem of extraordinary beauty is not only important in terms of conservation, but also for research and socio-economic development, due to its forestry, agricultural and livestock use.

The argan tree woodlands provide forest products, fruits and fodder. The leaves and the fruits are edible and highly appreciated, as is the undergrowth, and constitute a vital fodder reserve for all herds, even in periods of drought. The trees are also used as fuelwood for cooking and heating.

The world-renowned argan oil is extracted from the seeds and has multiple applications, especially in traditional and complementary medicine and in the culinary and cosmetic industries.

#argania spinosa #arganeraie #endemic flora #woodlands #forest products #edible fruit #edible leaves #fodder reserve #fuelwood #argan oil #araganeraie seeds #traditional and complementary medicine #culinary and cosmetic industries #argan ecosystem #sub-Saharan region of Morocco #arid and semiarid areas

[jayrockin]

The avian homeplanet's plants, and worms pretending to be plants.

Plantworms tend to out-compete the true plants in wet climates with nutrient poor soil or unstable substrate (such as wetlands and rainforests) because of their opportunistic carnivory and mobility. The true plants out-compete them in arid climates (such as tundra and deserts) because they have more robust water gathering and anti-freezing mechanisms. While both can form mycorrhizal associations to aid in water and nutrient deliver through the soil, true plants have extensive root systems and are not completely reliant on rainwater and condensation in the absence of mycorrhizal partners.

Both plantworms and true plants have clades that partner with pollinator animals to reproduce, but some plantworm "flowers" are honey traps. They use their colorful genitals as a lure to snare and eat potential pollinators, and reproduce "the old fashioned way," as in, reaching over to their same species neighbors to exchange gametes.

I've posted a little about avian flora before, though this is more up-to-date.

PATREON | Runaway to the Stars

#runaway to the stars #speculative biology #whos here for some!!! FAKE PLANT CELLULAR PHYSIOLOGY!!! WHEEEEE #for the unfamiliar the cellular physio shown here is very weird and not similar to earth plants. things are kind of inverted #spec bio #spec evo #botany #avians #sort of

[elbiotipo]

your post about potatoes in fantasy worlds made me base my primary fantasy continent off sudamérica so i could use fantasy versions of andean and amazonian fauna/flora. I'm still trying to figure out how to change the geography enough to have the big desert i want in the right area(andes get an offshoot that encircles a rain shadow desert in the central north is the best idea i have) but actually being forced to consider how native wildlife works and needing to create trade routes if i wanted imported crops was fun. i was also trying to figure out why the southern hemisphere has more hot climates than the north and something said it's because the south on earth has less landmass so i think having the northern hemisphere above it be mostly tropical works if I have mostly archipelagos? also every time i see a european based fantasy have potatoes or tomatoes i shake my head and scowl.

The reason why the Southern Hemisphere seems to have more hot climates is indeed simply because the continental parts don't spread that far South to actually cold southern latitudes. The only place that really sticks that far south to have a truly cold climate is the Patagonia. And of course, Antarctica, which by coinicidence, basically surrounds the South Pole.

Here is a map of "temperate" latitudes, or rather, latitudes between the tropics and the polar circles (as someone who lives here, or indeed an Australian can tell you, many places there are not "temperate" at all but more on that below). What is important here is that the southern hemisphere has less places closer to the pole, except, again, Antarctica, while the northern hemisphere has lots of land near the poles. This is why we don't have our equivalents of say, Siberia, for example. The closest thing is again, Patagonia. Honestly an underused place for worldbuilding, with the steppe, the glaciers, the temperate rainforests, and the recently extinct megafauna, but I digress.

You could in fact have a tropical "north" if you keep most of the northern hemisphere's landmasses near the equator (here I'm picturing some kind of big Indonesia or Caribbean, an area where tectonic plates collide and there's lots of volcanic islands and lands), and you could place a big continent in the South to make it a cold South. Interesting reversal on the cold North/warm South of most settings.

This would bring some interesting effects, though. Placing a big landmass on any pole (not a small one like Antarctica) would lead to glaciation, as land is "colder" or rather less moderated by ocean (more on that later) and glaciers grow, and glaciers and arid land have greater albedo, reflectivity, that is, and so they reflect more sunlight, thus those place become colder, and the glaciers keep growing, and so on, until there is an ice-age. I don't have the link where I read it with me, but I recall that continents shifting to polar latitudes might have triggered ice-ages in Earth's past.

Deserts are very tricky to place. The standard worldbuilding recommendation is that the interior of the continents are drier as you get away from the sea, and that mountain chains and high terrain serves as rainshadows that stop rain from the sea. However, there is a lot more to it. A LOT more.

You can find deserts even next to oceans, in the so-called "horse latitudes", the meeting points of the Hadley Cells that circulate air from the Equator to the subtropics and beyond. The details are a bit technical, but what this means basically is that they create jet streams of circulating air at 30° South and North, keeping the climate sunny, warm and dry. This is indeed where many of the world's coastal deserts are: Atacama, Kalahari, and of course, Australia.

Meanwhile, in the equatorial zone, the "trade winds" (because they have regular wind patterns that have historical formed major sea trade routes, worldbuilding hint!) converge in the Equator, forming rainy areas... but not quite that simple.

The Intertropical Convergence Zone, where these winds meet, ocsilates during the year, creating monsoons, but as always, there are lots of factors involved. In particular, given our real life scenario of rapid climate change and global warming, a warmer temperature means more intense ocsilations. This makes monsoon events sharper (more droughts and floods in those regions) and more strong La Niña/El Niño events, which are their own thing, influenced by the Pacific which is a huge factor in global climate.

And this brings me to ocean currents. Usually, being close to the ocean moderates the climate, making it more rainy and warm, or at least stable. However, if the surrounding sea is cool, it means less evaporation and less rainfall, especially if it's influenced by cool polar currents (this is the case of eastern Patagonia, for example, with the cold Malvinas Current). The opposite is the case in, for example, Europe, where the warm gulf stream moderates climate, making it warmer and rainer compared to the same latitudes in the US and Canada. I'll admit I'm not very well informed on how ocean currents work, but the depth and salinity of the ocean have much to do with it. What basically happens is that dense salty water sinks and and this works as a "conveyor belt" for warm less dense surface water to flow over it and over great distances. These currents are slow, but since the ocean is so massive, they move extensive amounts of heat across the world. I will admit defeat here and just say I don't wholly understand how it works, but I can tell you this; if your world has a less salty ocean, your currents will be less strong, which means that the differences of temperature between the poles and the tropics will be sharper as there are no strong currents to overall moderate temperature. If this is all too complex for you as it is to me, the quick cheat is just looking at this map: warm water flows from the equator, and cold water flows from the poles, and they create "gyres" around the oceans and the Equator, and cold currents contribute to colder and drier climates (note the Canary, Benguela and Peru currents, the Malvinas current is not shown for some reason...)

Did I forget something? Oh, yes. A colder climate of course, means less rainfall, because there is less evaporation and there is much water "trapped" in glaciers and snow. Which seems to be the case during the last ice ages. Rainforests and forests in general retreated as deserts expanded. In fact, the few forests that remained served as refugiums for species that only expanded again once the ice age was over. Some especulate that this might meant a 'weakening' of megafauna, as they were trapped in those refuges with lots of interbreeding and weakened populations when humans arrived on the scene. Here is a very interesting map:

Now, there are some contradictions here and there, some researchers have said that the climate wasn't that dry and while I'm not an expert I tend to agree, many parts that are "extreme desert" there might be scrubland instead. But overall, it seems that colder times bring drier times too.

I'm still not done, but I'm almost done! According to the Biotic Pump theory, forests might also influence the climate and rainfall in a big way, basically, evapotranspiration (plants sweat, a lot, 90% of water through a plant evaporates to the atmosphere) in forests might actually create by itself the rainy environment where forests thrive, so for example, the Amazon is a rainforest BECAUSE of the forest there. I think with the increasing droughts here in South America we're seeing that theory proven in practice, as deforestation of the Mata Atlantica, the Chaco and the Amazon is causing less rainfall in the centre of the continent. Forests and plants also have a cooling effect, since they fix carbon dioxide, and also a bit of a warming effect, since they have darker albedo and so absorb more sunlight. I'm going to be very lazy and instead of reading a thousand papers say that they overall have a "moderating" effect.

Well, I could go on and on but I think I've already written way too much, so I'll leave you this to munch on a bit. It might seem like a lot, but when in doubt, you can always "eyeball" it by comparing real regions of Earth, and it will help you to create more interesting world than the omnipresent "spring-summer-fall-winter" temperate standard in so many settings.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Oh, and also, if you found this helpful or interesting, I would appreciate a tip to my ko-fi!

#worldbuilding #climate #ecology

[sixteenseveredhands]

Namib Sand Geckos: these nocturnal geckos have biofluorescent markings that emit a bright, neon-green glow when exposed to the moonlight

This species (Pachydactylus rangei) is found only in the Namib Desert, which stretches across Namibia, Angola, and South Africa; the geckos typically inhabit the arid, coastal region known as the Skeleton Coast.

In order to escape from the blistering heat of the desert, they use their webbed feet to burrow down into the sand during the day, and then emerge only at night, when the temperature has finally dropped. The webbing on their feet also enables them to run more easily across the dunes.

Namib sand geckos are covered in translucent scales, but they also have a strangely colorful appearance, as the colors/shades of their circulatory system, spinal column, internal organs, and optical membranes remain partially visible through the skin, producing various shades of pink, dark blue, purple, magenta, orange, and yellow.

They also have several distinctive markings running along their lower flank and encircling their eyes; these markings are known to fluoresce when exposed to UV light (including moonlight), emitting a bright, neon-green glow.

Some researchers have theorized that the biofluorescent markings may act as a signal to other geckos, allowing them to locate one another in the vast, desolate expanse of the desert, as this paper explains:

The fluorescent areas of P. rangei are concentrated around the eyes and along the lower flanks. This positioning is practically invisible to predators with a higher perspective (e.g. birds and jackals), but highly conspicuous from a gecko’s perspective. As P. rangei is sociable but generally solitary, and occurs at low population densities, such a signal might serve to locate conspecifics over greater distances ...

Encounters in P. rangei might serve purposes beyond mating opportunities: as the Namib desert has extremely low precipitation, fog is a key water source for its flora and fauna. Fog condenses on the bodies of the geckos, and they lick it from their faces. In husbandry, we have observed individuals licking water from conspecifics, taking advantage of a much greater available surface area.

Additionally, after short periods of isolation, the geckos run to meet each other. The combination of vital hydration with socialisation might reinforce signals that enable such meetings, and the cost of visibility to predators with higher vantage points, might constrain the signals to regions best visible from eye-level and below.

The Namib sand gecko is the only terrestrial vertebrate that is known to use an iridophore-based form of biofluorescence (you can find a more detailed explanation of that mechanism in the article mentioned above). The fluorescent dermal markings are also unique to this species.

Sources & More Info:

Scientific Reports: Neon-green fluorescence in the desert gecko Pachydactylus rangei caused by iridophores

Animal Diversity Web: Pachydactylus rangei

Dr. Mark D. Scherz's Blog: A Neon-Green Glowing Gecko!

Australian Geographic: Skeleton Coast - Namibia's strange desert dwellers

#herpetology #reptiles #gecko #Pachydactylus rangei #namib sand gecko #palmatogecko #namib desert #namibia #biofluorescence #animals that glow #lizards #cute animals #biology #nature #africa #squamata #web-footed gecko #cool animals #geckos #South Africa #Angola #Skeleton Coast #wildlife #not an arthropod #but still pretty cool

[harpagornis]

The Fern Prarie: fact or myth?

Moschorhinus and Lystrosaurus by DiBgd. Notably, the small plants in this picture are not true ferns but the extinct seed fern Dicrodium. To help illustrate my point.

In paleoart, “fern praries” are a type of biome frequently depicted. After all, if there was no grass in the Mesozoic (until the very end, at least), what else carpetted the ground?

A lot, actually. Seed-ferns, horsetails, moss…

The idea that ferns specifically formed the Jurassic savannas is not without merit. Modern ferns are the most common carpetting plants after grass, dominating forest undergrowth and even forming small plains in clearings. Some species can live in desert environments, so even places with little moisture could hypothetically boast seasonal fern steppes.

But the thing is, why ferns when there were so many other plant groups that could fill the grass niche? Notably, seed-ferns and small gymnosperms would be equally if not more fitting in more arid conditions. Perhaps some areas were carpetted by herb-like early angiosperms, not quite grass but almost there.

Remember that most fossil assemblages are biased towards riparian environments, where ferns surely excell. But there is little evidence for small flora in drier pre-Cenozoic environments, and as such the fern prairie must be questioned as an environment. It most likely existed, but I doubt it dominated the Mesozoic open spaces.

#paleontology #palaeontology #paleoblr #palaeoblr #fern prairie #fern savanna #seed fern #plants #habitat #biome

[molabuddy]

i'm having Thoughts so. collection of headcanons about the different home planets in pikmin:

Hocotate - Everybody's favourite :] a small planet that's hot and arid all around, and a little bit boring in the flora and fauna department. Notable for brutal summers and so-so winters, an environment really only suited to growing its famous and unfathomably delicious vegetables.

Vegetable cultivation and shipping is its main industry, but it's also a notable manufactuer of sub-par, barely up to code BUT dirt cheap spacegear :]

(extra hc: while pikpik carrots (as well as hocotate onions, garlic and other veggies) can be cultivated on other planets, no matter how closely those other planets can simulate a hocotate climate, the resulting carrots are noticably different and less tasty. Botanists can't figure out why!)

Koppai - kind of an outsider planet in terms of its culture as well as its literal distance from its neighbours. On the outside, it looks very advanced, with sprawling modern cities, but as we know Koppai has been struggling with a food shortage for a while :(

Notable for leading advancements in space technology, as well as inventing the kopad - a model of tablet which quickly became the base for space travel squad tablets built and used all across the galaxy.

(under the cut = some pikmin 4 planets - minor spoilers abound?)

Giya - Home Planet of Shepherd, Russ and Colin, as well as the Rescue Corps HQ. a Big planet, definitely in terms of population and industry, possibly even in terms of literal size.

Its a major hub of space travel facilities and technology, as well as a big hub for planetary immigration! Lots of people from other planets move there, so its got a very diverse population. It also has a large variety of climates as well as flora and fauna (Giya is generally a very "earth-like" planet I think)

Ohri - Home Planet of Dingo and Yonny (though both probably live on Giya most of the time.) A planet famous for its extreme climates both hot and cold, and the abundent and occasionally deadly wildlife in every nook of the planet barring the most developed cities

Ohrians(?) are very passionate about the natural habitats on the planet, and many places have remained protected and undisturbed, but it means that off-planet tourists and Ohri locals alike are just one wrong turn away from danger.

(extra hc: the reigon Yonny grew up in is notable for its poisonous creatures. he discovered his love of medicine while being taught how to make remedies and antidotes by his mother)

#pikmin #pikmin 4

[ellemant]

I'm trying to create a modern desert house and I think I did a great job with the landscaping! Desert landscape is so pretty, and I think I'd love to garden in a desert zone because you can't just throw things in the ground, you really have to be creative with the arid flora that's available. I live in the Piedmont area of the US East Coast and gardening here is a dream because of how rich our clay soil is and how many insects and birds we have but desert gardening requires thinking a lot more creatively. I had a lot of fun placing succulents, cactus and desert flowers in rocks beds, which is what I would do if I had to garden in this climate. The exterior landscaping has a modern border enclosing the plants, while the inside garden border uses rocks to give it a cozier feel. I placed container plants because even if you can't grow as much in the ground in a desert zone, you can still use containers to create a beautiful outdoor space with the illusion of more greenery.

I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate and build, that's not my forte at all lol

#ts4 #ts4 wip

[sw33tsnow]

Enchanted by the aching wounds

- (I) / (III)

Mercenary!Simon "Ghost" Riley x Harpy!F!Reader

Summary: In a world filled with chaos, mankind and mythical creatures refuse to maintain a harmonious interaction. But it seemed not all would comply the exact same.

Warning: NOT FOR MINORS, size gap, mentions of violence, mentions of death, blood, vocabs, timeline ("once upon a time") Wordcount: 2k7

NOTE(s):

I've been working on The UK history for my field and came up with this blog's idea. I'll try my best to bring the vibe (might appear some grammar errs)

Inspired by: Maleficent (Angelina Jolie's role) and the incredible mini-serie Songs that sound like sea-foam - @halcyone-of-the-sea

THE SECOND PART || THE THIRD PART

Mother Nature - Nak created everything. She shaped mountains with scarce ores for the Dragons to guard, blew the wind and guided the Elves and Centaurus to bring seeds to the arid steppes. Whenever a precious life passed away, Nak would shed Her tears of sorrow and they would flow into vast oceans, becoming a great home for Sirens and Mermaids. Oases and islands, the same as floating land on the water surface, surrounded by sand and deep inside where the trees were so dense, there are jungles guarded by the Harpies. That's your kind, being called by an intimate name - the Aborigines, given by Nak and friends from other species. The reason was because jungles were the combination of nearly all the quintessence that Mother Nature has ever formed. Harpies' deep knowledge of flora and fauna impressed the meadow fairies to come back to learn, your kind's mastery in predicting the taste and temperature of liquid attracted the water fairies, and the respectful manners toward the mountains always pleased the Dragons.

Then the Sky came. He called Mother Nature his muse, allured Her and succeeded in making Her give birth to a short-lived, disgusting species called human. They're stupid, always curious and impatient. Nak wanted you - her beautiful children to treat them like family, just like the Sky treated Her. Yet unexpectedly, the Sky abandoned Her along with these brainless mortals for his new interest - the Moon. When He was still by Nak’s side, their passionate love resulted in endless harvest and warm sunlight illuminated the entire land but when He left, Mother Nature was drowned in inconsolable grief and forgot Her duty, causing what we called The ice age today. Those weak mankind rebelled because they couldn't stand the harshness which nature has given them. They sharpened their own weapons and started to hunt food, they exploited the mountains to take away the essence, and then started dividing territories and killing their own kind to assert their power.

Mother Nature's fury has risen, Her tantrum was beyond imagination. The mountains roared and spewed boiling melted rocks that burned fields dared to cross their path, the calm coastline was replaced by angrily tsunamis, the vast pastures turned to lifeless soil, and the forests became somber and dreadful. Mother Nature was unable to dissuade. She was your mother, their mother, but the mortals didn't know better. Instead of reconciled and coordinated, foolish humans with vague knowledge began to imitate your kind. They formed classes as you have your clans, their patriarch preferred to be called king, and your warriors were called guards in their language. They robbed your ores and molded the gold into cramped shapes entitled crowns, wearing them on their heads as if to represent their power. With endless greed, the mortals yearned for exotic garments and accessories so they did not hesitate to slaughter your brothers and sisters only for feathers and claws as the materials.

Faith vanished when the whines from families who lost their members and the desperate prayers couldn't reach Nak, She has banished you all, Her own blood. The survivors from all remaining species have gathered in the far-off island, separated and protected from the ugly world which mankind has conquered.

Afraid of being hanged for failing to track the left traces of you fairies, the vassals forged stories to delude their majesty. Spreading rumors about your kinds’ extinction and turning you fairies into mythical creatures that they chose to tell their later generations as bedtime tales. 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Reckless and brutal

The stories that you heard from the elders as a child told you all. Mankind is truly bloodthirsty. Time flies like an arrow, the war raged non-stop, the deafening explosions of the weapons they called 'guns' and the mournful screams of all things did not subside for decades. The mortals did not give up easily as they silently seeked for you creatures with the excuse that you fairies would take revenge. They massacred villages, shed no mercy on newborn infants to harmless old ones, women were captured to satisfy their animalistic desires and men who defied orders were killed unhesitatingly. However, not only you fairies had to shed blood, humanity also refused to spare their own people. 

Foolish

Well, you aren’t on the same page. Humans are indeed ugly and cruel, but they have superior intelligence, which was clearly unfair. They learned from their previous mistakes in order to correct and improve themselves. Without special-given abilities, mortals built their own boats to help them travel on the sea, put up their own huts called houses to live in and start a family, they also learned how to herd animals and grow crops. 

That's also why you're here, chained below the sodden hold of an enormous royal cruise.

Your naked body was covered in wounds and coagulated blood stains from the whip, your hair disheveled and your legs were shaking from the loss of strength from being knelt for too long. The surrounding dark space limited your vision, there were some collision sounds that came from some valuable objects, the whimpers of animals and the jingling sound of the chains on your neck and your wrists as they bump into each other. On the main deck, the nobles were eating, drinking and dancing to the melodious music of the violin, guests all wearing masks as requested in the invitation. This ship's indeed well-known as a venue for clandestine auctions. Alcohol, jewelry, paintings, drugs or any other illegal items would be converged here for the wealthy to throw their money around. Attendees were way more crowded than usual thanks to the rumors about a special creature on display waiting to be owned here - you, to be more specific.

During the final purge on the island where you fairies were hiding, your parents sacrificed themselves to protect you from impending death. All by yourself, you had to hunt for your starvation, had to learn how to fly and use the gift you were given - mankind called it magic, without receiving any guidance. You came to realize that you were the last Harpy, the last child of Mother Nature - Nak while eavesdropping on a conversation between pirates. Couldn’t hide forever, you disguise yourself as a human-being and blend in the human society. Years of working like a dog, you have earned enough money, which the mortals used to trade for goods, and opened a pub of your own. You have learned their language to communicate and lived in peace for such a long period until a group of strangers ambushed and brought you to this cruise. Even though the time serving for pirates and monarchs' forces has whetted your battling skills, you’re outnumbered and were forced to surrender. 

They brutally tortured you, stimulating your wild's instinct to rise and revealing your true self before their eyes. They treated you like an animal, feeding you filthy stuff that even the most foolish creature wouldn't put in their mouth just to keep you from dying. If you dared to resist or went on hunger-strike, they would avoid damaging the valuables of your body and force you to submit by slicing your flesh. Devastated, you no longer have the strength to find a way to escape but accept your fate, being locked up and sold like an actual commodity.

In the hidden corners of the ballroom, four men with sturdy built frames were quietly observing every movement with hawk eyes. All four of them were dressed in late Victorian formal attire, after all it’s considered a formal event with plenty of royalties appearing. Standard plain white shirts with detachable white collars tucked inside the waistcoats, ascot or ties by choice. Their trousers and frock coats were not the same shade, perhaps to avoid unwanted attention. From head to toe, the costumes were meticulously tailored based on each individuals’ measurements because the job they undertook required quite a lot of manual work.

Beneath the giant painting hanging between the two paths leading to the balcony, a brunet with a black mask was staring at the end of the hall. That’s where the door leading down to the lower deck was, where his team had to reach as claimed by the instruction. The term of the contract was short and simple - his team’s party wanted the most valuable 'thing' in this auction.

Normally bland businesses like these would never be accepted, but they’d be fools if refused such huge sum. What’s more?  Free of charge handmade pieces of clothing and the chance to sneak those expensive liquor wouldn’t be unpleasant after all. 

The gentleman had begun to move. He lightly tapped on the bench where two charming men were sipping wine as if commanding, they immediately finished the booze before standing up and followed him. The brunet gave an oblivious glance as if observing the surroundings, a tall figure appeared out of nowhere and joined them as all four men quietly disappeared behind the door, not being seen by anyone.

Carefully removing the masks and cumbersome collars, the men gently pulled out the small arms attached to shoulder holsters hidden beneath their long coats. Checking the magazine again, a masculine face and neatly trimmed beard, seemed to be the Captain, motioned the other three to stick with him as they entered the hallway.

"What exactly are we looking for, sir?" The pretty boy with dark skin whispered in curiosity.

"We shall find out soon, son" The Captain replied 

Their eyes never left the dark path ahead. Gently approaching the hold, there were two guards positioned by the stairs armed with rifles absentmindedly chatting with each other. With his index and middle fingers pointing forward, in the back, the tallest man moved like a ghost behind the guards as he pulled out a knife grabbed around his thigh to stab one’s neck before raising the gun to shoot right between the other’s eyebrows. The cheers along with music and the guests' lack of alertness successfully masked the loud gunshots just well. They gathered up and began to hide dead bodies into the nearest wine barrels. Bounty hunters and petty thieves would leave evidence and traces behind but these men were professionals, could possibly tell by their swift movements.

All sorts of illegal services are offered in the black market in order to complete dirty jobs which customers didn't want to get involved with. And The One-Four-One, one of the most well-known mercenary teams, utilized by both the government and merchants, they're qualified plus always ensured to complete deals in their agreement. As long as they’re paid properly. 

_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Your dizziness was gone by the loud noise coming from outside, gunfire, you confirmed. Pulling yourself together, you dragged your sore body deeper into the darkness of the hold as your pointed ears perked up due to the sound of expensive leather heels on the wooden steps. Adjusted your breath and narrowed your eyes, you peaked up to the direction where the noise came from while purposely clacking the chain to entice those humans. As soon as two bulky men carefully approached and stood in front of you, using one leg to knock one of them down, you snatched the gun from his hand and aimed straight at his forehead. Your right knee firmly pressed on his chest and your left foot pinned his wrist down, not allowing him to sit up.

"Steamin' bloody...."

"Shut yer trap or ‘ll crush ye barnacles" You gritted your teeth and forced the gun harder against his head. Your gift could not be used if your mind were unclear, so there’s no other way but to improvise under this circumstance.

Opposite of the silky feathers image, the primaries of your wing were like sharp blades pointing at the adam's apple of the man behind you as goosebumps exploded on your entire body. The man was quiet, so quiet that you almost couldn’t realize his present when you attacked the human below you. He calmly pierced down at you, only his beautiful chocolate brown eyes and messy blonde hair were visible because the man wore a tubular cloth around his neck. His high nose bridge and lips were hardly seen beneath the stretchy material as it pulled up to cover more than half of his face. 

"Savvy?" You asked with an unemotional face and voice.

"Easy, ma lady.....easy" The dark-skinned boy knelt on the floor, one hand raised in the air to show that he had no intention of harming you, the other hand gently placing the gun on the wooden steps.

You didn't let down your guard, only turned your eyes to the boy, his wine-red cutaway spread out on the wet floor so delicately.

The blond didn't step back, he put his gun back in the holster and slowly took off his coat. You followed his every move as you retracted your wing, bringing it to block the front of your body while crawling down from the man lying on the floor. The faint scent of gunpowder and burnt orange peel tickled your nose as the blond man draped his large coat over your smaller shoulders, his calloused hands grazing your shoulders, leaving an indescribable itchiness on your skin. After helping the shorter man on the ground to his feet, they all backed away so as not to tower over you.

"Ye're one of them, eh, ma lady?" Your pupils shone brightly in the darkness as you focused on analyzing the older man in front of you.

"....Are ye mercenaries?" Sounded more like a statement.

"Aye ma'am" The man you have just pinned down to the floor was now brushing his suits while answering you with a grin on his face.

"Apologize for my previous acts" You glanced, "Am I yer negotiation?"

Your voice hoarse and your lips chapped due to dehydration, but still managed to deliver your words clearly. You retracted your wings and horns back inside. Couldn't stop peeking at mountain of a man leaning against the pillar, your claws which have been replaced by mankind’s fingers dug into the thick garment he handed you. 

"No" the blond grunted, "The requirement was the thing, they'll get the thing."

Word for word. You silently thanked him when he finally opened his mouth and spoke, his voice low and seductive, better than you expected. The gentleman was always silent but his expressionless eyes never left you. His decisive words and gentle gestures made you drunk, years of going through your heat by yourself, controlling desires has never been this difficult to you. 

"Simon" Simon, you mumbled, your lips thinned to a line as if just his name was enough for you to smile like an idiot.

"Blimey, Cap, ye saw how she held me down"

You understand why the Captain hesitated. Mercenaries’ jobs were neither easy nor safe, would’ve to pay with your life if you’re negligent. But the ridiculous hair man got his point, not only your other self could never be a burden, you alone were completely qualified for their team.

"Miss, ye ever been on battlefields?" The Captain sighed before asked you

"If the Tudors And Stuarts count" You answered bluntly, "Also an old salt on Sir Francis Drake and Anne Bonny's ships". Tilting your head, you slightly smiled as their eyes widened.

An impressed whistle was blown, the boy with the red cutaway walked over and patted the Captain's shoulder, whose face looked down and shook his head in defeat. The blond gentleman walked over to where you sat to unchain you as the oldest man cocked his head like a command, careful not to hurt you.

"Thank you" You said with sincerity, rubbing the scratched and bruised skin on your throat and wrists.

"Can ye stand, ma lady?" You nodded in response, "I still can walk, they spared my legs out", but seemed to receive disagreement from the rest.

" ‘ll carry ye" The blond spoke softly, "Allow me" 

Lifting you up effortlessly, he placed you on his bulky arm and the other held the gun. Nodding to the other three, you all quietly disappeared from the dark hold. 

#call of duty #simon ghost riley #cod #simon riley x reader #simon riley x f!reader #cod simon riley #ghost simon riley #simon ghost riley x female reader #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley x you #simon ghost x you #simon riley #simon riley ghost #simon riley x female reader #simon riley x you #simon riley cod #simon x reader #simon ghost x reader #x female reader #x fem!reader #x female y/n

[angela-maps]

Verdant Desert Canyon

Spring is upon us, nature is healing, and even the arid places of the world bloom with renewed life. Even in the crags of this rocky canyon, the budding flora presents hope for the changing of the seasons, and perhaps the promise of a rare yet essential commodity - fresh water. Available in more arid or snowy aspects, or blessed with the life-waters of a river, this fully animated map may provide the haven and shelter your players need. So long as they deal with whatever other creatures are drawn to its protective cliffs!

#dnd #battlemap #dungeonsanddragons #rpg #ttrpg #dungeonmaster #fantasymap #tabletoprpg #dndmaps #roll20 #worldbuilding #pathfinder #cartography #fantasymaps #fantasy #rpgmap #tabletop #mapmaking #dndart #map #battlemaps #tabletopgames #inkarnate #dungeonsanddragonsart #dndmap #fantasyrpg #rpgmaps #foundryvtt #angelamaps

[owlespresso]

deep sea dreaming. hythlodaeus. Tags: Ascian!Hythlodaeus, I posted the first half of this in October. Here it is, completed.

A gulp of wet, salty air fills your lungs. Above you, there is the crash of the howling tides, covering the realm in deep, dark bluish light. The sea itself is somehow suspended, as though a lone pocket of air has formed on the floor. In the distance, formations of stone and spider web coral entangle a rough landscape. The precipice you stand upon is made of dark, wet stone. Tendrils of coral branch from the walls and cover the ground. 

“Incredible view, is it not?” a voice chimes, suddenly at your side. You blink. The realization comes slow as the morning fog sets in.

“Yeah, it is,” you agree quietly, sneaking a furtive glance at the figure which now stands beside you. You hadn’t heard his approach, and that alone is enough to make you wary. Long, lavender hair is held up in a ponytail, braids interspersed through the long silken strands. One is tied around his ponytail’s base, and one frames the left side of his face. Handsome. Well-dressed in showy armor you know bards have a preference for, swishing fabric paired with gilded gold and black leather. Bangles and bracelets aplenty.

“And there is so much more still to see,” the man promises, “Would you like a tour? I know well all the worthwhile sights around here.” Before you even answer, he’s already taking a small step away. He flows like he’s floating, clothes billowing in a way gravity should not allow. This is a dream, you reason. 

Light catches off the gleaming gold of his bracelets as they roll over his arm, shifting with the movement of his arm as he offers a hand. Half-gloves, the kind archers of the Twin Adders adorn. 

You cast a weary glance upwards and find a sea instead of a sky, air damp and salted. It makes sense, to long for the comforting dimness of the wide seas when you’re currently mired in the arid deserts of Ala Mhigo. Why not indulge in this fleeting fantasy your exhausted mind has created?

He looks tender. His smile reaches his eyes.

“I would,” you take his offered hand. “Thank you.”

You wake up.

—

The deep ocean caverns are populated by all matter of fascinating flora and fauna. The coral becomes neon in certain places, rays and pugils which roam undisturbed sport noticeable differences from their Source counterparts. A series of spread out claw marks etched in stone indicate a marked path and more interesting intelligent life. A thin, uneven stone pathway winds up a cliff face, winding behind a thin waterfall.

For once, you have no destination, only the vaguest and most easily ignored notion that something is amiss. You climb up, sticking tight to the wall as the jagged stone leads you in a spiral motion to the very top. You emerge at the current’s side, overlooking the ledge. At the edge, you spot a familiar head of hair. He’s sitting with his calves dangling over the ledge, next to where the water rolls and crashes.

You don’t muffle your footsteps as you approach, let your steel toes scuff the wet stone underfoot.

“Back so soon?” he asks coyly, tilting his head to the side. He looks up at you slyly, from underneath thick, pale lashes. They flutter against his cheek whenever he blinks.

“I was promised a tour.” you respond in kind. He smiles wider and stands, stretching his arms over his head. His shirt rides up to reveal a slip of pale skin, right above his skinny hips.

“That you were.” he agrees, indulgent. “Though, I don’t recall the word ‘promise’ ever being said.”

“Should I go it alone, then? I would hate to bother you.” you say, and he looks down at you with wide eyes. for a moment taken aback, before his expression mellows back to that same, tranquil countenance, plump lips curved in that perfect smile.

“It was merely a jest. I would love nothing more than to serve as your guide,” he assures you warmly, beckoning with a shrug of his shoulder. “Come. There are sights most fantastical for us to see.”

And you do. 

He takes you to clusters of glowing crystal formations which span up the walls of the caverns. The light glistens across the dark waters of the undersea currents as they rush and churn. He brings you to an opening in the cave where swarms of ray-like creatures chase schools of red and silvery fish, gliding through the waters with flutter

The most unique sight is a structure so immaculate that it cannot be anything but manmade. Rectangular in shape, carved of pale stone, embossed with straight lines and complex geometric patterns. Steep panes of glass are mounted in extended half round windows towards the top. In its heyday, it must have been large enough to house at least five stories. A grand tower which would have easily challenged Ishgard’s steepest spires. That must be why it feels so familiar.

“Incredible,” you breathe, wet sand crunching beneath your boots. “To think that such an advanced civilization once called these depths home.”

“A touching notion. However, when these husks were still grand towers, the waters had yet to set in. They couldn’t even be seen over the horizon,” your guide informs you, brushing a gloved hand over the stonework, streaked now with seaweed and clumps of pale coral. 

“How do you know that?” you can’t help but prod, blinking.

“This is but a taste of what is to come,” he continues with a smile, blatantly ignoring your query. “Come, come now, before I lose you again.”

The twinge of irritation fades instantly. You deflate as he flounces on ahead, leaving you to stare at the opening in the back of his jacket, skin exposed by purposefully folded fabrics. 

Of course, he hadn’t been able to give you an answer. This is a dream, after all. Your mind simply hadn’t been able to bridge the plot holes in the story in time. Your adventure away from adventuring in the waking world—if that’s what libering two entire nations could be called.

A brief touch to the small of your back jolts you from your stupor. You’re left to look up into concerned, amethyst eyes. He’s returned to your side without you even noticing. Certainly a dream, you decide, admiring his long lashes and soft lips.

“Are you alright? Feeling faint? I suppose the air down here can be difficult to acclimate to…” he says, tutting fretfully.

“I’m fine,” you insist, hastily starting in the direction he initially rushed towards. “Just lost in thought, is all! Everything you've shown me has been so breathtaking. It’s truly so much to take in.”

“Never been to the bottom of the sea before?” he teased, catching up with long, quick strides.

“No. This is my first time,” you reply with a smile. Slope of craggy rock lay ahead, resembling the aftermath of a rockslide. “Be careful.” you chide as he immediately begins to scale down the stone. His long, gangly legs roam over the rounded rocks and small boulders, knees every now and then scraping over rough surfaces and skittering pebbles. You take a more measured approach, following his chosen path at a slower pace. He awaits you at the bottom, looking none worse for wear. His thigh high boots are a little scuffed at the knees—better the leather than his skin. 

He reaches out a hand, and you take it.

You wake up.

—

Your eyes snap open wide. A hulking monument of steel spires and star-strewn steeples looms in the distance. It is a gleaming metropolis underneath the rolling tides. The architecture is reminiscent of the crumpled tower you observed within the cave, but a newfound, brutal sense of familiarity which washes over you like a cold wave. 

You’ve been here before. You don’t know how or when, but your heart aches with it. The cavity of your chest feels the emptiest it ever has, a craving for something unnamable hollowing out the space between your ribs, your stomach.

“I thought you would enjoy this part the most,” a voice chimes from behind you. Your conjured guide comes to stand beside you, staring at the splendid vista. There is a tenderness to his expression, all the world’s love crammed into that fond gaze. 

“It’s incredible,” you breathe, eyes blown wide. “I can’t quite explain it, but I—”

“Feel like you’ve been here before?” he finishes for you. His grin is knowing. “Come. how about we take a closer look?”

“I would.” You reach for his outstretched hand, but you hesitate, palm hovering over his own. Will you wake up, should you decide to take it? You don’t want this to end just yet. You’re not ready to face the Ala Mhigan sun, hot enough to scorch the skin and bleach the bones. He raises his brows, expectant. You take his hand.

Your eyes snap open wide. You gasp for the salty air. The buildings now tower around you, the streets far wider than you anticipated. No city you have ever visited has been so monumental in scale. 

“Ah. It’s been quite some time since I’ve visited,” your guide sighs fondly, resting his hands on his hips. “In an age long past, I would have bemoaned the long trip from my humble abode to the Bureau. But now… I think I would be glad to have as much time here as possible, to savor sights I might have overlooked. It might be cliche, but you never truly know what you have until it’s gone.” 

You’re not sure how to take that, so you begin with the easiest question. “You worked here, then?” You know what  Bureau is, at the very least. You can’t envision him working in an office.

A pause, then, “Lived here. And loved here.” he murmurs, eyelids lowering as he regards you.

“Truly? The other folks look a little too large for you to fit in with,” you point out. You regret it a moment later. Why poke holes in the plot you’ve made to amuse yourself whilst asleep? Must you question every obscure corner? What purpose does your questioning even serve?

“The magicks our people possess enables us to occupy a wide variety of forms. We can even shape forms which we occupy to our very will, lest you doubt. I would have alarmed you had I shown up to you as a veritable giant, would I have not?”

“Well, yes. But these magicks you speak of, they sound remarkable,” you’ve only ever heard of glamorous, purely visual illusions. What a marvel it would be if such transformative techniques actively existed in the waking world. You wonder, briefly, what this means in regards to your inner psyche and self-image, but disregard the matter hastily. The kindly traveler smiles.

“Are they not? Come. I would show you more.”

And show you more, he does. He guides you down the long avenues, dutifully explaining each building’s function with striking depth and clarity. The giants who hover about this unearthly metropolis are peaceful, if not amicable. Most wave at and greet you, speaking in droning chimes which you somehow understand. They’re kind souls; you can feel it, but they are also remarkably troubled by something called The Final Days.

“Uhm,” you clear your throat. He’s guided you inside an academy of some sort. Live aquatic specimens swim in tanks from wall-to-wall, some more familiar to you than others. A large glass window provides a few into a much larger enclosure filled with water, only populated by a circular platform in the center. And some sort of shark, judging by the massive red fin which juts just about the surface.

“Yes? If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I know a great deal about most of the specimens here, having personally reviewed them myself.” he informs you, so earnestly you nearly oblige him. You’ll ask him questions until you turn blue in the face if he indulges you. Everything about this dreamscape is utterly fascinating. To think, your mind could conjure up such elaborate visions with such defined rules. You’ve never dreamt in such depth before. 

“When we were touring the streets earlier, I couldn’t help but overhear some of the citizens talking about some sort of… disaster? The Final Days, I believe they called it.” 

His expression doesn’t budge, while you struggle through your query. The gentle lines of his face are still fixed in a placid smile. Over the years you’ve learned how to read people beyond their base expressions. The lines of his face do not draw tight with displeasure or downcast with sorrow, but his aether does. Or at least, that’s what it feels like. You have no other explanation for the odd feeling which suddenly hangs in the air, a stillness like rancid pond water. 

“The Final Days? I can’t say I have ever heard of such a thing. Sounds dreadful, though,” your guide answers after a long, quiet moment. The dim, green light casts his skin with a sickly parlor, but his eyes gleam all the brighter as he smiles. “Are you perhaps pulling my leg?”

“No, certainly not,” you assure him, all too conscious of the sudden quiet. You become all too conscious of the quiet. The soft whirring of the equipment fastened to the tanks has died down. The churning water wheels have gone dead. And the tanks—were there truly this many before? They’ve doubled in number, you could swear it. The once gentle blue becomes an abrasive cyan, a practical assault on the eyes. They grow larger, loom closer, the space of the room distorting. The floor pulls out from underneath your feet, dragging you towards that blinding glow. 

You shout, casting a desperate look over your shoulder, but your guide is nowhere to be found. It’s only blue, so bright it burns at the corners of your eyes, sets your corneas alight, sears at your skin at the surface of your flesh, burning, burning—

You wake up.

The sheets are cool and buttery soft. You roll just to feel them glide against the bare skin of your legs. You toss and you turn, mind numb in the dark of the room, as relaxed as you have ever been in current memory. In the back of the mind, you are certain that this is not your makeshift camp in the Steppe, or any of the cots in Rhalgar’s Reach. This is a mattress, and a massive one at that. You would have already tumbled off the side if that were not the case.

Another dream, you assume, and leave it at that. Your limbs move sluggishly, thoughts lagged down an gooey. You release that thread of conscious, logical thought and slide deeper and deeper into the velvety dark, the blissful empty.

A muffled voice shouts in the distance, somewhere outside. Your eyes remain shut, but your ears are perked. A door slams.

“You have gone too far,” a man shouts, voice reedy with stress and exasperation. “I could turn a blind eye—” His rambling flickers in and out, some of his sentences too quiet to pick up on. You don’t really mind, you simply listen, catching what fragments you can. Which, you think, is an apt summary of all the dreams you’ve experienced thus far. Just trying to latch onto what little you can grasp.

“Tours—”

“But bringing them here—”

“Calm down, Hades, please—” your mysterious guide responds, pacifying. How curious, that your addled subconscious would choose to conjure up another character linked specifically to your guide. How curious that it would deign to give him a name, when your guide has not yet been given the honor. Hades. It too instills you with a lingering, aching sense of… something missing. You would see this “Hades” you decide.

You shimmy to the edge of the massive mattress, fighting through an ocean of blankets and pillows. You fight to part the fabric around you, emerging into an unfamiliar room. A pair of tapestry curtains is closed ight over the chamber’s single window. A chill passes over you, You anticipate the floors to be startlingly cold under your bare feet. You swing a leg over the edge, touch the floor—

You wake up.

—

Zenos is a great oak of a man, draped in ivy which slithers down his trunk and spreads across the forest floor. Grasping and venomous. You don’t know whether it emerges from him, or what he enables, but you know that it doesn’t die with him. You’ll be chasing his ghosts, machines and legions onto and over the long horizon. Maybe until the day you die.

You refuse to chase him in your dreams. One thing he will not take between his teeth or trap between his thighs.

—

Dappled sunlight says “hello” though the swaying leaves—green maples in full bloom. The pollen tickles your nose, springtime’s warning kiss. Fingers caress your cheek and rub your upper back, rousing you awake.

At the edges of your vision, the immense structures you observed prior stretch hopeful to the heavens. Grand structures of gold and bronze and impossible lengths of cut stone. How many hands must it have taken to build this in-bloom utopia?

A slender finger taps your cheek.

“Have I begun to bore you now that you’ve so much to look at?” your guide teases fondly, smile in his voice. He is grinning, when you look at him a moment later. “There you are, my dear.”

“I could never be bored of you,” you scrunch up your nose, disgruntled at the very idea. It’s likely unwise to be so attached to a vision manufactured by your idle mind, but the logic seems so distant when he’s right here, when you are laying between his legs with your head on high thigh. The modesty you would normally cower beneath has no place here, in this garden of dreams.

“T’was a jest, but I wholeheartedly appreciate the sentiment. I’m so very fortunate to have a friend who cares so much,” he muses fondly, quieter this time. He takes one of your wrist in hand. You watch numbly as he bends forward to kiss the hollow of it. “Truly, there is no greater joy.”

“Now you’re just laying it on thick,” you grumble, tugging your arm back.

“No, surely not,” he replies smoothly over the fabric of your shirt. “It’s important to let others know how you truly feel about them. There’s no telling when those dearest to you may part ways for good, and there is no sorer sting than words left unsaid.” He’s still smiling, but his eyes have gone dull with recollection. He is far away from you, all of the sudden, sent somewhere far by memories of times long lost.

He speaks back to life, tapping your nose with his finger. 

“Now, I believe I promised you a proper tour of the gardens, and I am a man of my word.”

A tour of this veritable paradise sounds simply marvelous, but you can’t quite find the will to move. The very idea of budging when you are already so warm (so safe, something within you coos) almost hurts to think about. It’s a sudden feeling—a welling of panic unfamiliar, but unwarranted. The Warrior of Light, balking at the prospect of exploring new and exciting locales? Perish the thought?

Perhaps your weary mind has had enough exploring for quite some time. Perhaps you crave a respite from the chaos, from tending the meets of those across the seas. It’s only natural to crave rest, you reason, and even more natural for desires to manifest in a dream.

You’re jolted from your train of thought when your guide prods your cheek, concern nettling his fine features. You don’t like seeing him so fretful. A face like his is fit for bliss and contentedness and naught else, worn as gently as the pale lavender of his hair.

“What’s your name?” you ask. He smiles like you’ve just given him the world, eyes crinkling.

“You already know it,” he tells you, relentlessly fond. His hands return to their prior past on your upper back. You squint up at his face, try to place a name to that familiar visage. Are you supposed to name him? You can’t fathom your subconscious would turn the onus on you after holding the reins this entire time. It’s crafted an entire city without any conscious input from you.

“I…” you focus hard, shutting your eyes as the breeze kicks up. Warm spring air washes across your face, accompanied by the sweet scent of burgeoning blooms—the steam which rises from a piping hot cup of tea as he cuts through the rows of tables, carrying a saucer by its edge.

The library is closed, but you often remain after hours. He joins you in the otherwise empty space, with a smile and a cup of your favorite blend grown right outside in the gardens. You while the hours away late into the night, until Hades comes to get you. He huffs and he puffs at how easily you both lose track of time—but he always comes.

“Hades will wonder where we are,” he says, setting the cup down next to your mounting pile of tomes.

“He’ll find us eventually,” you reply. “Thank you, Hyth—”

“—lodaeus,” your eyes open as your lips form around the tail end of his name. It feels as though something’s been slotted back into place, a piece of the puzzle you didn’t even know was missing. 

Hythlodaeus tilts his head back completely, so you can’t see his face. A  long few moments are spent in that rare, hovering silence. Is your subconscious reevaluating? Have you finally hit a snag that will unravel this series of strange dreams?

When he looks back down at you, he’s smiling again. Or perhaps, he hasn’t stopped.

“That’s right,” he murmurs, bending over you. His breath brushes the crown of your head. The scent of him, rosehips and jasmine, washes over you. “I’ve waited so long to hear you say that name again. I could spend an eternity listening to you repeat it.”

You blink, feeling slow and hazy and stupid all of the sudden. “What?”

“Or, perhaps a mere century would suffice—if only to enjoy everything else you can do with that mouth of yours,” he says, nearly giddy. “Rest assured, we will have ample enough time. So come to my room, next time, alright? I’ll be waiting.” 

He kisses you on the forehead.

You fall asleep, plunged into inky dark waters.

—

“A man can only wait several hundred centuries before he assumes you’ve lost interest.”

#fathoming ffxiv #hythlodaeus/reader #hythlodaeus x reader #imagine ffxiv #hythlodaeus

[lilas]

dawntrail and the theme of duality and unity through visual motif

Hi, thank you for coming to my MEGtalk presentation, aka I’ve already yelled about this to my friends but they’re not as into theorizing as I am so I’m throwing this out to fellow theorists on tumblr dot come.

I want to discuss the motifs we’ve seen of Dawntrail so far, specifically evidence pointing to the theme of duality, unity, and two becoming one.

Discussion of live letters, marketing materials, teasers, trailers, and theories ahead.

reflection, parallels, and the motif of two and connection in official materials

Starting with Dawntrail’s poster, we immediately see reflection, pairs of two, and the idea of symmetry:

There is a sense of symmetry in the composition, where you can clearly mark a vertical line down the center of the poster

One side faces left, the other side faces right, visually separating Team WoL and everyone else/our rivals at least in the beginning

Gulool Ja Ja, the Dawnservant, is divided by the imaginary center line, with one head falling on either side of the composition

NOTE: Mystery woman at the top facing left towards Team WoL, foreshadowing her involvement with our success?

Twos throughout the poster design: Gulool Ja Ja’s two heads, his two swords, everyone placed in a pair throughout the composition (Erenville and Koana, WoL and Urianger, Krile and Thancred, Wuk Lamat and Mysterious Mamool Ja)

I’m not sure if this implies a parallel of character arcs in the story, but it is worth noting and revisiting after Dawntrail releases

The teaser for the main menu screen was released last week, and builds upon the visual motif from the poster:

Tuliyollal is reflected in the water

Clouds are reflected in the water as well as reflect across the imaginary center line

Looking at what I assume is the palace and home of the Dawnservant, its design is perfectly symmetrical; I believe this is the first straight on view we’ve seen of its architecture

As we see in the full trailer for Dawntrail and in the new world map, there is an extremely long bridge that connects the two halves of the continent:

On the map, we can clearly see a giant chasm physically separating the two halves of the continent

In the trailer, we see extreme visual differences between the two halves of the continent; one full of color and flora and the other an arid desert

They are two distinct halves of a whole

Even the new DPS job, Viper, Meteor’s assigned job for this expac and the newest job completely unique to FFXIV uses dual swords that can be apart or combined.

what we know about the story so far, from fanfest, live letters, and msq (sources to be added)

Multiple comments have been made about basic elements of the story:

Gulool Ja Ja is blessed with two heads, an auspicious sign

Gulool Ja Ja united the disparate peoples of Tural under the one unifying nation of Tuliyollal

To further signify the union of the people of Tural, Gulool Ja Ja adopted four children; several races under one household

Bakool Ja Ja is a contender for the throne; he is not royalty but has two heads like the Dawnservant

Yoshi P has made comments about the two halves of the story feeling very distinct

concluding thoughts

It’a clear to me the idea of duality and two becoming one is an underlying theme of this expansion:

Dawntrail’s poster child DPS job being built around two swords becoming one

Gulool Ja Ja’s two heads, one body

The bridge connecting two halves of the continent

There is also symmetry and parallels seen throughout available marketing materials. From this motif I suspect a few things to happen in this expac:

There will not be one ruler, but two governing heads of state, ruling as one

Tuliyollal and Solution Nine, both confirmed to be hub cities and potentially previously unknown to each other, will form a relationship or partnership; perhaps a story beat will be navigating the unease and awkwardness of this new political alliance

A major plot point during the 6.x patches was bridging the Source with the shards for traveling between worlds; I suspect some development on that front especially with Y’shtola’s involvement

Regardless of where the story takes us, I’m so excited and interested in what they do with the theme of duality and connection that they’ve primed us for, as it keeps popping up again and again in everything they show us and tell us.

please let me know your thoughts!

Did you notice these same things? Was there something I missed? Do you have new thoughts or theories based on this theme of duality?

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #dawntrail #dawntrail spoilers #ffxiv meta #as always thank you for coming to my MEGtalk

[tribbetherium]

'Every few years, populations of sand cricklings (Acridiscarabinus gregarius) reach perodic and explosive booms as their numbers swell dramatically. Normally solitary and inconspicuous, the sudden increase of these desert-dwelling, plant-eating beetles inevitably leads to a shortage of food supply in a few weeks' time, and it is at this period of their life cycle that they begin to migrate in enormous groups: traveling many miles at a time, they feed and mate nonstop, depositing their eggs in suitable locations along the way as they form enormous swarms that at times may appear to be dark clouds from a distance, descending onto whatever vegetation they can locate and stripping them bare in a matter of days. During this period, their eggs and larvae develop much more quickly than usual, and they, too, become swarmers in a month's time, born already in their gregarious phase when they emerge during this particular season.

The sudden appearance of so many herbivorous insects in an arid semidesert environment may lead to local epidemics of famine to resident herbivores, which at these times are too forced to migrate or starve. Yet, for the drysanders, residents of one of South Ecatoria's most inhospitable regions, this plague is, conversely, a time of plenty. Seldom are they given such an abundant bounty of plentiful, easy prey whose only defenses are their sheer numbers, and with food and water quite scarce in their homeland, the swarming of the cricklings is considered a blessing. Indeed, in spite of whatever devastation they may cause to the local flora, the drysanders consider these seasons a cause for celebration, with their folktales and songs being ones of joy and thankfulness, citing a specific instance in their history many generations ago, known as the Summer of the Cloud-Bug Feast, when the timely appearance of the swarming bugs was the only thing that saved their people from certain doom in a grim time of conflict and hunger.'

-----

#speculative evolution #speculative biology #spec evo #speculative zoology #hamster's paradise #art one shot #the calliducyon saga

[egelantier]

rimworld, the addiction

i promised a post about rimworld somewhere an entirety away, and even if i did, by now i was playing it exclusively, a bit every day, for something like half a year, so i think it deserves some kind of an entry in my journal either way.

preface: usually when i describe games here, i put in some kind of a note how this or that game is very casual user friendly (because i am a casual user), and you can play it if you never played stuff, and so on. rimworld is not quite that game. it’s very much a gamer’s game, in a sense that its UI looks like an unholy cross of “hello, world!” programming and an excel spreadsheet, it’s incredibly counterintuitive, it takes from ten to twenty minutes to load on the average (and the loading screen looks like it crashed meantime), and it wants you to suffer. if you play any amount of time, you’re going to inevitably end up with hundred to two hundred mods, and to make the game move with all those mods you’ll have to follow the easily-accessible tutorials with advice like “install this handy Python program” and “Select "BC7 Texconv compressor" on the middle bottom.” and the complexity of the game’s inner system makes its own tutorial - well - it will tell you that you colony needs a freezer for food to outlive the winter, but you will have to intuit by yourself that to make this freezer you’ll have to build a double-walled room of just the right side, put in two air conditioner users set one degree celsius apart from each other to minimize the power load, don’t forget to build double-door airlocks to account for the temperature spikes when the door opens and adjust it by the variety in your biome’s climate. and don’t even get me started on killboxes! this is to say, you’re going to be watching youtube and reading guides. a lot.

(OKAY it’s not THAT bad and you mostly need to be able to know where the mod folder is and how to follow detailed instructions. but by the standards by today’s, increasingly mobile and under-the-hood gaming, it’s practically NASA. even minecraft is more user-friendly in comparison.)

and yet like i said: hordes of rabid fans, literally months of addictive playing, thousands of mods, active scene. why? and what the hell is it? let’s see.

rimworld as a setting is a procedurally generated world in a galaxy far, far away (that takes its setting inspiration from firefly, star wars, a bit of dune, and a general space opera vibe), with diverse climate biomes (from ice sheets to arid deserts, from temperate forests to tropical swamps), inhabited by a variety of friendly and unfriendly flora and fauna and a multitude of friendly and very unfriendly tribes, factions, empire remnants and such. they send each other (and you) raids and trade caravans, and overall just try to survive.

“you" is an unspecified entity (some speculate that you might be an orbital AI, but it doesn’t quite matter) in charge of a group of your “pawns,“ aka colonists - little blobby humanoid representations of either baseline or gene-modified humans that, in a variety of scenarios, find themselves on the unhospitable surface of rimworld either literally butt-naked or with a scant handful of resources, and have to survive and build their way up from a hovel and a campfire to the ultratech spacefaring colony. pawns have their own backstories, traits, needs and health condition; they form relationships, meet their relatives, get together, make up, break up, marry, divorce, make children, mourn their lost people, keep pets, suffer from mental breaks and so on. you can give them direct orders in some occasions, like the battle, but for most of the time you’re going to give them priorities based on their skillset, and watch them do their things on their own, which is alternately fun, touching and infuriating.

your colony’s experience in rimworld is governed by one of the (canonically) three “storytellers,” aka AIs, who’re in charge of sending you various events - enemy raids, wanderers joining in, solar eclipses, manhunting packs of rabid enemies, crop blights, weather anomalies and so on. each storyteller has several levels of intensity, from ‘peaceful’ (it’ll keep weather events and random angry animal attacks, but cut out everything related to hostile pawns, like raiders) to ‘death is inevitable,’ and also has their own style: phoebe just wants you to have a good time, cassandra provides a linear progression of difficulty and alternates ‘bad’ and ‘good’ challenges, and randy just doesn’t give a fuck and WILL get your colony attacked by mechanoids, manhunting yorkshire terriers and pig-human raiders on the same day your favorite melee fighter died and all the electricity cut out, just for the hell of it.

the intended (loosely) gameplay is to randomise your colonists, pick up a storyteller on a medium difficulty, set the game to ‘only save on exit, permadeath’ setting and let your colony tell its own history by surviving as much as it can, mourning its losses and celebrating its wins, and eventually succumbing to the entrophy (or, less likely, achieving one of the win conditions - building a spaceship and getting off the planet, decoding an ancienty mystery to join up with a techmegabrain, hitching a ride with the imperial ship after gladhanding the emperor and his escort in style for a set amount of days, etc.). but the beauty of rimworld is that between the granular difficulty settings and mods you’re able - and welcome - to finetune your experience to the exact specific level of challenge and/or chill you want. don’t care for the fighting at all and just want to build your colony and select the right shade of the carpets? put it on peaceful. don’t mind raiders but fuck those guys who airpod in the middle of your base or breach your walls? the turtle mod is your friend. raiders are fine, but you want to dig your way into the mountain without being afraid of giant insect infestations? turn those assholes off. want to min-max your experience and fight literal horders of enemies every ten minutes? either max out the difficulty or install one of the thousand of mods like combat extended or whatever, that add difficulties and mechanics.

and meanwhile the game - that looks deceptively simple on the outside, build this, harvest this - is stuffed with overcomplicated intersection of various systems creating weird outcomes. it’s a bit minecraft and a bit dwarf fortress and a bit sims and emergent gateways all the way. your little pawns follow the tenets of their ideoligions, get upset over seeing corpses or eating mushrooms, go into berserk rages after eating without a table one too many times, make friends, celebrate the defeat of their rivals and get attached to random squirrels. they can interact with other inhabitants of rimworlds by trading and diplomacy, or indulge in raiding, piracy, enslavement, ritualized murder, forced conversions, cannibalism or non-consensual organ and gene harvesting. a starved pawn on a frozen ice will eat somebody’s body and feel bad about it… unless they come from a society of cannibals, in which case it would be fine and dandy, but they might be upset about eating their human meat in an untidy room, you know? some precepts require the colonists to worship blindness; some of them make people hate the sight of the sun, and some require worshipping every tree and never kill an animal. it’s all, to put it simply, complicated.

and then, of course, mods. the game is created to be as mod-friendly as possible, and so there are literal thousands of them, and they reflect the multifaceted insanity of the world in the most hilarious ways. the most-downloaded mod overall is called wall lights and allows you, well, to put lamps on the wall. the other popular one is called “war crimes,” and you can probably infer its purpose from the title. there are mods that prettify, fully change or customise the chunky UI; mods that clean up or straight up rewrite the graphics; mods that make your little blobby guys look anime and sexy (it’s hilarious); mods that turn rimworld into warhammer 40k, or star wars, or mass effect, or lord of the rim, or a lovecraftian nightmare, or some combination thereof. my favorite of the moment is the collection centered around medieval overhaul, a clever and beautiful bundle that turns the gritty space opera into the fully realized medieval town builder - with smithies and bakeries and castle walls and knight plumages. it takes some time to cobble together a collection that works (and then make sure it all hangs together, and learn to use rimsql, and figure out what the hell defs are and why your log is giving you errors, and change the order of mods a thousand times, and make sure you did not accidentally turn your squirrels into unstoppable death machines while trying to add some prettier capes to your tailor bill), but on practice it means that pretty much every person playing will have their own unique copy of the game, vastly different from what somebody next to them is playing.

like i said above, the intended gameplay is the triumph and misery of playing through as is; but i’m having one of the shittiest years of my entire life, and so almost every day i would load it up and watch the progress of my little medieval towns from one lost person in the wood trying to figure out how to spin flax into thread into little blooming towns, with nothing to distract me. there’s something of bird-watching or flower-pressing to this experience: you set up the conditions and you set up your priorities (or install ‘free will’ and then tear your hair out over your pawns avoiding research and cleaning their floor while winter is looming ahead and they need to figure out how to make parkas) and then you watch how it all unfolds, and you can sprinkle in a bit of a challenge, or you can just watch them grow and mix up and change and misbehave and be silly and transform, and transform, and transform. it more or less saved my sanity. it’s a very specific kind of experience - i built a monastery with a winery and an apothecary’s dark corner in one map, and a small mountain hideaway for a runaway princess in another, and a rough-and-tumble tundra city in third, and so on - and i saw people building unstoppable war machines instead, or trying to survive specific unfair scenarios, or roleplaying, or multiplayering, or minmaxing with spreadsheets and calculators, or all of the above - and god, is it good. is it so goddamn good.

so! whether you want to play it or have ran away screaming by this time, i hope you enjoyed this silly writeup. and if you do want to start playing, don’t hesitate to ask me stuff! or like share my list of mods and so on.

#rimworld #rimworld rec #game rec #games to spend months in #everything is a story

[veamers]

Iterator Dusty Winds Shifting Sands!

A rather isolated iterator, they spend most of their time studying the wildlife around their can, and how the rains generated by their existence affects the landscape around them. They frequently leave their can to study up close, usually relying on a purposed vulture made for travel. Their clothing varies from inside to outside, the indoor clothing being far more extravagant and flashy with matching facial paint, the outdoor clothing is much more subtle and sturdy, to keep them protected and hidden. They carry a modified electric spear with them for defense.

the Arid Vulture is fast in the sky but rather slow and clumsy on the ground, six impressive wings make walking a hassle so it usually sticks to resting. this particular individual is alone in its kind as it was purposed by Sands to work as a means of traveling, they're rather close as Sands tends to spoil it. The Arid Vulture has descendants however they are of a smaller size and more adaptable to the surroundings.

The oasis that makes up the landscape around Sands can was created through the rains Sands cause. the original water source coming from deep below the desert, the wildlife evolved and adjusted accordingly. Being set in the desert does mean that Sands has not heard from, or seen any other iterator in some time now. They activated some time right after the Mass Ascension so they have no desire to work on The Great Problem, rather busying themselves with studies of fauna and flora.

#Iterator oc #rw iterator #desert iterator les gooo #Dusty Winds Shifting Sands #DWSS #rw oc #veams artsies #rw Vulture #Arid Vulture

[aikoiya]

LoZ: TotK - The History of Kàra Kàra Bàzétto

(All non-canon flora will have * in front of them.)

There was once a little Vai named Dālïa who managed to grow Wildberry Bushes on a plot of land in Gerudo Town with help from a nice Hylian lady.

She'd always had a green thumb, but she'd also discovered an interest in archeology &, through that, agricultural studies. This came about when she discovered that the special Voe who would become the next Hylian King used her orb to discover things about the Heroines with Rotana, who revealed that the 8th Heroine was not only real, but a Voe as well.

It'd been so interesting to hear about & to realize that she'd helped!

Now, at the time, she hadn't understood the significance of such things, but she would later on.

Upon coming of age, she left her home to find a husband & came upon him in the refounded Goponga. During her stay there, she had learned to farm from the man who would become her husband, Tisto, as she was utterly fascinated by how crops grew so easily outside of her old desert home, especially the ones that grew in the muddy waters of the Lanayru Wetlands. Such crops included Water Cabbages (Hydrating), Bayou Bellpeppers, Swampland Celery, & Freshwater Cucumbers (Rapid & Hydrating).

As she was taught how, she began to wonder if the crops there could grow well in any freshwater despite the aridness of the soil. After all, from what her new husband had said, all it needed to grow was to be submerged in water, which Kàra Kàra had a decent amount of.

So, once it was time for her to bring her daughter, Ane, back to Gerudo Town with her, she also brought seeds as well as her husband, who she insisted was key to her experiment.

In reality, she simply hated the idea of leaving him behind; though, he remained in Kàra Kàra as they'd agreed. She visited often & smuggled letters from him into Gerudo Town for Ane to read.

Together, they worked until they invented the straw grid planting method, which shielded the crops from sand & wind.

As Tisto nurtured these new crops, Dālïa herself got to work trying to see if she could actually cultivate other things in the oasis. The first she tried had involved a memory of the kindly Hylian lady helping her to grow berries in her yard. The seeds that she used were the children of those same bushes that she'd grown back then.

Her fellow Gerudo believed her to have gone mad, but she knew otherwise. Dālïa knew that the desert had so much more life in it than her people sometimes believed.

As she knew it would be, the Wildberries were a success, so she moved on to the next step; growing other plants native to the desert. Things like Spicy Peppers, Voltfruit Cacti, *Sàbaar Cacti (Recovery), *Prickly Peach Cacti (Chilly & Hydrating), *Desert Aloe (Chilly), Sundelions, Stambulbs, Càrïtàn Beans (Toxic; not for consumption), Warm & Electric Safflinas, Zapshrooms, & Hydromelons.

Her neighbors were stunned, but her husband simply congratulated her as he'd known she was much too stubborn to fail.

That was around when the King & Queen of Hyrule with the little prince & princesses came to visit. Missy Zelda wanted to fund Dālïa & Tisto's efforts to bring economic & agricultural stability to the desert-dwelling people. She was also quite excited about the prospect, having had a strong bond with Vàltàna Makeela Urbōsa.

Soon, other Vaien asked to be taught & this became the first attempt by the Gerudo to begin to create an agricultural community within Kàra Kàra.

Though the hydrophilic crops grew, the low-nutrient soil on the oasisbed caused the resulting produce to not be quite as nutritious as they would be in its native environment. However, they were still nutritious enough that the experiment was declared successful.

Thus began the eventual turn in the Gerudo's prosperity as the couple began to further experiment with different seeds to see what all would take.

Turned out, quite a lot more than the Gerudo had ever hoped to dream.

Hylian Tomatoes, *Zonai Corn (Mighty), Hearty Radishes, Tabantha Wheat, *Gleam Ginger (Sunny), *Hoy Mustard Greens (Spicy), & *Rainfall Pansies (Hydrating).

Eventually, their daughter, Ane, made agricultural discoveries of her own in the form of learning to cultivate *Amorous Figs (Amorous), Dazzlefruit, Shock Fruit, *Desert Queens (Chilly; mangosteens), & *Bloodberry Grapes (Chilly & Hydrating) all becoming part of the desert's now flourishing farming district.

This change eventually led to a great deal of growth & stabilization in the Gerudo's economy. And in the process, so too did Kàra Kàra Bàzaar grow into what today is known as Kàra Kàra Bàzétto or Kàra Kàra Martown. This is partly due to Vaien beginning to bring their husbands to Kàra as there had never been a law against men living in the Bàzaar, just in Gerudo Town itself. This resulted in many men taking up jobs as guards, salesmen, & farmers.

Who often brought a variety of seeds from their hometowns. Sheikahs brought many, but the ones that grew were *Shadow Yams (Dark/Warding), Fortified Pumpkins, & Swift Carrots. Lurelinite successes were *Boltsheild Houseleeks (Lightningproof), *Zonai Cofégranos (Energizing), *Zonai Cocoagranos (Spicy & Amorous), *Faron Pineapples (Spicy & Hydrating), & *Pyre Beans (Scorching).

Of course, this caused quite the uproar among the elders, but the promise of the ability to grow their own food had been far too tempting.

This, eventually, began the process of de-desertification, to the Gerudo's own astonishment. As well as the slow process of de-stigmatizing males in the Gerudo Region. Vàltàna Makeela Rïju decided that they might as well lose the pretense & began openly allowing you Vai to correspond with their male family members, which seemed to decrease the number of Voe attempting to come into Gerudo Town by a decent margin.

This decision came about partially due to the revelation of the 8th Heroine, or rather, the Forsaken Hero, being a Voe who'd been turned away despite having aided the Gerudo in their time of great need.

This caused a ripple effect in the Gerudo consciousness that resulted in Vaien beginning to wonder if they hadn't alienated Voen too much.

Regardless, Dālïa & Tisto have become honored as Vàshô & Vōshô (saints) of Vah Kàvtrïna due to their efforts.

For more on the non-canon flora, go here.

LoZ Cultural Masterlist 2

#legend of zelda #loz #tears of the kingdom #totk #botw #breath of the wild #gerudo #gerudo culture #agriculture #desert agriculture