#Princess Dahut
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[Shuuen no Virche] Birthday Short Story - Dahut
The birthday celebration of a certain research institute's deputy director
<Original post here>
･ﾟ･:,｡★ translation under the cut ★,｡･:･ﾟ
In the break room of the National Research Institute—.
Dahut: Hm, hmm, hmm ♪
Alright, all done!
Thank goodness I made it in time~!
(door opens)
Mathis: Happy birthday, Dahut—
…Err, wahh…!!
Lucas: What a sight…
Are all the desserts spread out on this table made by you, Dahut?
Dahut: Well, of course ★ I put my all into preparing for this day!
It’s not everyday I get the chance to invite guests over and treat them to sweets~.
Yves: It’s nice of you to prepare such a warm welcome.
Is it alright though? You’re the star today, so I can’t believe you prepared all of this…
Dahut: Don't worry about it. I’m the one who suggested having a tea party to celebrate.
I’d be delighted if all of you let me know what you think.
Ankou: I see.
Then as soon as Princess and the others are all here, let us say happy birthday togeth—Hm?
Scien: … (*Munch, munch, munch*)
Adolphe: Hey, this guy just started eating!?
Mathis: M-Monsieur Brofiise!?
We came here to celebrate Dahut, remember…!?
Scien: Never heard of it. I only came here to replenish my sugar levels.
Ankou: You truly only think of yourself…
Dahut: Ah, no need to worry~.
I knew Scien would come snack, so I baked plenty to go around ★
Mathis: H-He’s well-prepared, isn’t he…?
Lucas: You can get a glimpse of the trouble he goes through on a daily basis.
In any case, all the sweets really do look spectacular.
Yves: I agree. I think they look good enough to sell at a shop.
Dahut, if you don’t mind, won’t you teach me how to make them sometime?
Dahut: I’d love to ★ I’d be happy to make more baking friends, after all!
Please leave the taste testing to me.
Adolphe: Taste testing…!?
Ankou: Although he has not yet experienced the threat of Yves’ cooking firsthand, what a terrifying proposal…!?
Scien: Would this be considered being killed in the line of duty?
Should I put together a list of candidates for the next deputy director…
Dahut: HOLD ON A SECOND!?!?!?
I was just talking about sweets, wasn’t I!?
*CLICK*
Nadia: —Dahut, happy birthday!
Dahut: Huh? Ah… Nadia!?
T-That surprised me…!
How come you came with her…?
Nadia: Hehe. I also wanted to celebrate with you no matter what, so my brother got me permission to go outside!
Lucas: As of this morning, I still hadn’t received permission. I’m relieved I made it in time.
Nadia: Also, um.
I made you a present as well.
I’m not sure if you’ll like it…
But here you go!
Dahut: …What's this?
Nadia: A ribbon. I used some pretty cloth and I made it with her help.
Nadia: Dahut, you have a lot of cute ribbons and decorative pieces attached to your clothes, so…
I thought you might like things like this.
Dahut: …
Nadia: A-Am I wrong? I’m so sorry. Now that I think about it, I don’t know anything about you, so all I can do is imagine…
Dahut: —That’s not it!
Thanks, Nadia. I love it ★
…Please sit tight for a second.
*Rustle, rustle…*
Dahut: …What do you think?
I tried wearing it around my neck. Does it look good on me?
Nadia: —Yes, very much!
You look very cute, Dahut.
Dahut: Mhm, mhm.
Thanks to Nadia, my cuteness shines even more now ★
Dahut: …Thank you as well, Miss.
I truly am fortunate… to be blessed with so many wonderful friends.
Dahut: I hope that from now on, this country and this world will continue to be filled with “ordinary” kind people like all of you.
Dahut: I’m a scientist—a devil who manipulates life—so I can’t pretend to be a virtuous person anymore—.
But my birthday only comes once a year, right?
I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for praying for that much, won’t I?
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[DO NOT USE OR REPOST MY WORK W/O PERMISSION, THANK YOU]
#shuuen no virche#virche evermore#virche evermore dahut#i started this during my break at work... and then just finished it when i got home 😂#enjoy the cute dahunadi content 🥺
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What happens to a princess if the fairy tale stops focusing on her?
She left her duchy with a golden dowry. She met her handsome, virile fiancee when he rescued her from the dwarf who had waylaid the bridal party and held her prisoner in an underground dungeon. They married in a ceremony that, while not the envy of the age, was still suitably splendid. Her first child was a boy, followed by a darling girl, followed by yet another boy. Despite the Dahuts, wicked mermaids of sunken cities, kidnapping her children and saddling her with accusations of murder and cannibalism, her husband stood by her until the mystery was solved. Finally, she rejoined the royal court, secure in her knowledge she would be queen once her husband is crowned king.
Her life, with its ups and downs, seemed to be a fairy tale. But real life has no happily ever afters. Her husband could fight off monsters, but not the treachery of his own brothers. He died in her arms, stabbed in the back. His murderers were justly slain in the ensuing succession crisis, but so are many others of the royal family. When the dust settled over the widows and orphans, she thanked heaven that her own children were all alive, if removed from the succession in favor of their only remaining uncle.
The new king is nothing more than a puppet for his courtiers, but at least he is kind to her children and shows every sign of having an uneventful reign. And then he marries.
The new bride comes with a small dowry and the bad reputation of having stabbed a knight that displeased her. They marry in a relatively simple ceremony, the best her poor, weak-willed, unimpressive brother-in-law could hope for. The foreign princess sits on the throne that by right should have been hers.
In the weeks to come, it becomes readily apparent that royal proclamations no longer come from the mouth of her meek, studious brother-in-law, but the aggressive new queen. She watches with some apprehension as old faces disappear from court, to be replaced with new faces only loyal to the queen. But what truly horrifies her is a letter requesting, or rather demanding, her children be fostered in the royal household.
Despite all her brother-in-law's love-besotted assurances, she cannot bring herself to trust the queen. She's seen the fierce spark in her eyes, the haughty tilt to her chin, the charming but cruel curve to her perfect little mouth, and the confident energy in her movements. The new queen is ambitious and will tolerate no rivals.
This is the story she tells to the Chorchelle in the ancient ruins. This is the reason she cuts off three three dark locks to offer the green-toothed sorceress a payment in night-gold. As the Chorchelle's cold touch around her shoulders seal their pact, she speaks her wishes: stop the wicked queen, save her children, and maybe, just maybe, let her husband be alive at her side.
Her life is a fairy tale, and she deserves her happy ending...
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…So I finished La Salut…there were things I really wanted to enjoy but couldn’t, and things I didn’t enjoy at all (sometimes things don’t need explaining!). And then suddenly the emotions worked again and I actually cried, repeatedly! I now have even more thoughts about “divine mantles” and how various characters in Virche learn to embody or discard them…but 0 coherence. ^^;
That said, I couldn’t get into Adolphe that much. I felt for him, but it’s the same feeling as from a distant acquaintance that you see sometimes on his way to Job at Location. There's a lot of implications to him that are interesting: how he's structured his whole life around Ceres and what that means for his sanity, his horror at Relivers, etc., but the writers are so committed to him being Normal (tm) that those aren't touched on as much. This is what happens when you put Ankou and everyone else right next to him. Poor guy…his more snide faces are extremely good though. Hopefully later playthroughs will make him more endearing!
...Actually I do have more thoughts, oops. First the "aw man :(" and then the "YAAAAAY" under the cut:
The "Aw, Man :(" which isn't "bad" so much as disappointing:
Please imagine with me a version of this story where Ankou is the God/Watchman of Death he proclaims himself to be. Imagine everyone else, terrified of dying, suddenly being able to ask about the Afterlife, even if the answers are vague. (Can't have everyone get too hyped to die!) Wouldn't that have been unique and gothic-ly fun? I still like the actual answer on some level, but I wanted this too.
On that note, an actual dislike: I viscerally hate Ankou being embarrassed about acting the part of Watchman of Death. It felt born from a place of love for the Drifter, Yves and Ceres, so for him to feel so negatively toward it? Awful.
Less awful and more confusing: Ankou says he uses "smoke bombs", but none of his previous exits imply smoke. All the more reason to pretend it's only canon here!
The "Queen's genes" (ha, rhyme) thing really did amount to nothing, huh? I don't understand why it's here and that rankles.
Every time some variant of the line "Ceres is a plant/lycoris" comes up I feel like the Six-Fingered Man from The Princess Bride while Inigo Montoya does his revenge speech ad nauseam. "STOP SAYING THAT!"
Seriously though, I can handle Ceres being like a lycoris, akin to, etc. But something about "is a plant" is so inherently funny/brain-breaking that I'm no longer thinking of all this as a metaphor, but an actual, physical part of her, and it just doesn't gel. ;_;
It feels like there were two plots going on in this route: The Royal Family and Adolphe VS Ankou, and frankly I wound up more invested in the former. This isn't the first time it's happened, it won't be the last, but I still was drumming my fingers a little waiting for things to switch back.
I was really hoping the bouquet confession would lead to an option to choose Adolphe or Ankou (or both), because it felt like Adolphe was passing the baton over to Ceres in that moment. But nope! :(
Yves and Lucas' mini-endings in this route's Salvation ending were so wonderful I now have 0 desire to play their actual Salvation routes. Oops!
The "YAAAAAY", which I hope is self-explanatory:
Dahut's reveal? Literally iconic, as was the final scene between him and Salome. Loved his revenge, loved his friendship toward Nadia, loved how he unwittingly gave Lucas the hope he needed to make his first steps toward freedom, etc.
All the love interests working together to save Ceres! Also self-explanatory.
Adolphe and Ankou's banter and arguments, down to their voices being similar, was so funny and also sad post-reveal. It reminds me a lot of Archer and Shirou in F/SN's Unlimited Blade Works route, but better crafted I think. YMMV.
Capuchine KABOOM! (I find him rather morbidly cute, so his frustrated scream pre-explosion gave me both catharsis and a weird sort of cuteness aggression. Again, Scien, again!)
On a more serious note, Scien and Lucas having to interact and him being able to help Lucas on the road to recovery was really sweet. They were both great in this route.
Hugo/Yves are my OTP now, actually. That love realization from Hugo was just too good, ditto them traveling together. Please let there be scenes of their road trip in the fandisc!
The aforementioned inconsistency and embarrassment aside, Ankou being revealed as Adolphe was masterfully done. Loved the Drifter planting those stories of him in the past and then those stories helping to keep Ceres alive in the future. The images of him collapsing among the ever-growing lycorises along with the voice acting made me cry!
THE BOUQUET. All that subtle build-up over the routes (this one included) culminating in that one gorgeous CG. Ankou choosing of his own accord to take up the mantle of Watchman of Death, fulfilling that now-old fairytale and closing the cycle for good. ;v;
Hearing Lucas' voice post-ending also made me cry, but happily this time. He's alive and well! He's free! Nadia has a cane now! AAAAAA
Scien ripping up the time travel research letter. Yes. YES. I don't know how to explain it, but something about the way he's written, whether antagonistic or anti-heroic, just gives me such joy.
Ceres flustering Adolphe at the end, and their kiss. Again, I still don't quite buy their romance, but like Ankou I'm glad she's able to smile from the bottom of her heart.
...And that's it! Now to choose whose Salvation route to do first, Matthis or Scien's.
#virche evermore#shuuen no virche#virche evermore spoilers#I'm so tempted to go straight to Scien’s route…but Mathis' struggles were fascinating too...#this got long oops
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Mermay 2023 - 15 - Dominique the Ranger - 2
The Armorican Peninsula is a strange and wondrous place, a mist-shrouded land full of magic and mystery, where the mortal realm of Bedouar and the timeless vastness of Faerie coexist side by side, the great veil ripped apart by uncontrollable magic, causing time and space to collapse into disarray. Unearthly fog rolls in, cutting off travelers from where they came and pure magical chaos rolls across the region in great storms. Fortune can be found in the borders of Faerie to the brave and the lucky, death for the foolish.
The treacherous coast of the region, the Ar Mor Bras, is no stranger to these twists of fate, home to the lost city of Ys-Beneath-the-Waves and its accursed princess, Ahes Dahut. Throughout the ages, some individuals find themselves caught in the whirlpool of magic surrounding this mystical site, and are drawn in by the phantom bells of the sunken city and the enchanting, enticing song of those trapped by its curse....
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Back in 2019, I launched a special series for Mermay, an art project to develop a small, but important part of the lore of Alvez, the world of Kroashent. The Marie-Morgane of Ys-Beneath-the-Waves are one of several merfolk races of the world. For this project, I decided to "adapt" each of the Dungeons and Dragons Character Classes into a character as they may appear in Alvez, then transform these characters into mermaids with art and short stories! Since then, I've been working hard on developing the world and the characters who live, there, even writing an ongoing novella, Kroashent: Bal des Loups, which you can read the first 3 chapters right now, for free! A lot has changed as I worked and some of the art and stories seemed like they could use an update!
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Dominique the Ranger has remained a very fun character for me conceptually, but his original outfit was showing its age. I think it benefited from a revisit, but I stuck close to the original concept for the pose.
See an alternate version on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Kroashent
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See Dominic's original form here: https://www.tumblr.com/kroashent/717774476097486848/mermay-2023-14-dominic-the-ranger-1-the?source=share
See Dominique's original mermaid form here: https://www.deviantart.com/kathalia/art/Mermay-2019-The-Ranger-Dominique-2-797131572
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You definitely have a point. Maybe ‘magical beings’ here would be the better term until I can look through mythology and find something more specific. As for the courts, I guess the better question would be, what do you think would be the non-European equivalent of a court in East Asia and Africa? And, a particular favorite court and ruler is Dahut, the Morgen Queen. What made you want to create this character and even her court?
If it's in Africa there's werehyenas, my Shezmu, Adze and Sasabonsam vampiric creatures, yumboes which in HP are African House Elves, and in North Africa and areas with a high Muslim population specifically, you'll get a good chunk of jinn folklore. In East Asia you're looking at Yokai in Japan, Yaoguai in China and I'm afraid I wouldn't really know a good term for Korea or Taiwan.
Dahut is based on the story of the City of Ys and the princess who caused it's flooding/sinking.
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Cold winter: The dahut
DAHUT
Category: French folklore
There are two “Dahuts” in French folklore. One is a cursed princess that became a deadly mermaid. And then there’s this Dahut. People apparently more popularly write it “Dahu”, but I knew it first as “Dahut” and so it is the spelling I will use.
The dahut is a wild animal living in mountains of France. Due to only living on the slopes of mountains for centuries and centuries, the dahut evolved in a very peculiar way… It has two legs shorter than the others. More specifically: either the dahut will have its left legs shorter than the rights, either the rights longer than the left, both in front and in the back. Like that, the dahut can stand perfectly on diagonal slopes. The problem with this specific evolution is that as a result the dahut can only move in one direction – clockwise or counter-clockwise around the mountain. Some tales even claim that there are two subtypes of dahuts, defined by which direction they go towards, and that when they met they have specific and unique ways to cross each other’s paths (and there are just as many tales about how these two sub-types… reproduce in very inventive ways).
Where exactly does the dahut live? Everywhere! But usually under different names. As long as there is a mountain, there is a dahut. In the Vosges it is the darou, in the Jura the dairi, in Bourgogne darhut, in Picardie bitarde, in Maine biroufle, in Anjou darut, in Ile-de-France daru, in Provence chastre, etc… But beyond the characteristic of the beast having two different sizes of legs, nobody can truly agree on what the animal looks like or is – while most people describe it as a mountain goat, other regions will use another type of furry mammal or mountain creature, sometimes it is even a bird!
Quite a nice little legend, isn’t it? Except… it isn’t truly a legend. If you ask people about it, they will tell you it is a real beast and that they regularly see it with their own eyes. And if they tell you that, then you better be wary, because they think you’re an idiot. You see the dahut is… basically one big joke. It is an artificial legend, a made-up cryptid, but a creature nobody really believed in, except the butts of the joke. I’ll explain…
The dahut and its regional variations is an archetypal creature invented by mountain-dwellers, and the rural populations of mountainous areas. Invented as an elaborate prank: the whole idea is to make city-dwellers visiting the area, or really naïve people, believe in the existence of the beast, using their lack of knowledge of the mountains fauna to convince them the dahut is a real beast. After all, behind its bizarre legs, it will always be described as a logical, rational, non-fantastical creature part of the mountain’s ecosystem. And people believed the lie and fell for the prank – so much it spread not just to mountains, but also to heavily forested areas. It even got out of France! In some regions of Spain you can find the creature – in Catalonia and Andorra it is the “tamarro”, the dahu’s Spanish cousin. But you see, the prank isn’t about making the fool believe in the existence of the dahut. Oh no… the prank actually lies in a specific ritual. The dahut hunt.
“La chasse au dahut”. The hunt for the dahut. Now a synonym for “sending someone doing something useless” or “pursuing something that does not exist”. There are as many dahut hunts as there are variations of the dahut, and all have one purpose: convincing the fool to go on the hunt for the beast, and then ridicule him (of course, usually the hunt for the dahut is inflicted on men, because that’s olden days countryside). This fake dahut-hunt was never conceived in a spirit of wickedness or evilness, the idea wasn’t to torture the fool – but it was a form of entertainment for small villages and remote rural areas, and usually a good dahut hunt became the hot topic in pubs, public harvest feasts and evening gatherings, becoming a cherished memory for months afterward. The preparation of the dahut hunt was a true ritual: first, the community had to select the “fool”, usually an outsider that was freshly arrived to the community (a new domestic, an apprentice, a new farm employee, or maybe some visitor who has business in town) – as I said before, the person either has to be quite notably naïve/stupid/credulous, or has to be an urban person not used to the ways of rural folks and the fauna of the countryside, or even both at the same time! After testing the credulity of the fool subtly over a long period of time, if the fool is deemed “ripe” (so to speak), starts the conditioning. The community will feed the fool with grandiose and fascinating tales of the dahut and previous hunts for it, they will teach the fool the ways to capture a dahut, have him train regularly and encourage him with his “progresses”, but also while making sure to not too openly mock him or force him to do things too extravagant – to balance the joke and the realism. And when the “fool” is impatient and hyped for the hunt… starts the hunt.
The hunt always takes place in “groups”, in remote areas far from the village, of course forested and mountainous, and always in the evening or at night. One method to hunt the dahut is to use sticks and a bag: the “pranksters” will go into the forest, hitting their sticks on the trees to panic or anger the dahut, which will result in the beast losing its balance and rolling down the slope ; the fool is down the slop, with a bag, open and his mission is to receive the rolling animal. Of course nothing falls, and after a certain time the fool realizes that the other hunters went home and left him to wait in the dark. A second popular method of “hunting” is to convince the fool that to hunt a dahut you must call it while standing behind it – the dahut is a very social animal that gets extremely happy whenever someone shows him some interest, so upon being called from the back the beast will lose its balance and fall on the ground unable to get up. The fool is trained to “call” the dahut – he will learn a specific cry, or whistling, or mating call, and then be sent in the mountain. The fool will call the beast by shouting or whistling for quite some times, before finally realizing he was fooled all along (usually the shout or cry tends to be quite funny or ridiculous). A third hunting method is to place pepper on big rocks across the area where the dahut “lives” and then wait: the dahut, upon sniffing the pepper, will sneeze so hard it will bang its head on the rock and knock itself unconscious. A fourth and final method of hunting is only done from November to February (aka during the winter season): the “hunters” will identify a body of water where the dahut regularly drinks, and then have the fool wait for the beast to arrive with a bag to put it in. But the thing is that the dahut has a very strong sense of smell, so to better hide the fool has to take off his shoes and plunge his bare feet into the cold water – and the hands too.
It all might seem very cruel, but as I said, the “dahut hunt” ritual was never actually thought as cruel or wicked in any way (except maybe by those suffering from it – urban-dwellers usually seeing it as a form of bullying by rurals). Not only was the dahut hunt supposed to be a community entertainment fondly remembered by everyone, but it also doubled as an initiation ritual: the fool, after coming back empty-handed and mocked from the dahut hunt, was immediately considered to be “part of the community”. To be fooled by the dahut somehow meant that the barrier between you and the community you had arrived in was lifted – the community will always accept more gleefully and readily a dahut fool than an “outsider” who never went through the ritual.
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Of course, time passing by and things changing, the dahut hunt as described above stopped existing, or rather evolved. Instead of being a prank placed on adults, the dahut hunt became a children game. Parents, summer camp staff, teachers organized “dahut hunts” to keep their kids busy or entertain them, and while with times kids came to understand that the dahuts did not exist, they still kept the activity as a fun group game, which doubled as a way to explore wild or rural areas, and could even become a sort of “treasure hunt”. In fact, summer camps and “green classes” as we call them (class journeys to rural or wild areas) started using the dahut hunt as a way for kids to study and explore the fauna and flora of areas. And the dahut soon became a folkloric symbol, resulting in it being use in commerce – for example there is a candy called the “dahu”, which is raising covered in milk chocolate ; and during the winter Olympic games of 1968 the French ski team had for a mascot a dahu – Pataski the Dahu, which later got some stories written for him in the shape of comic books.
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The Daughters of Ys by M.T. Anderson. Illustrated by Jo Rioux
Age Recommendation: Tween and up
Art Style: Pencil style (digital)
Topic/ Theme: Family, Loyalty and Repercussions
Setting: The city of Ys on the coast of Brittany
Rating: 4/5
The first thing that you probably need to know about this is the thing that is written last in the book, though it was written in the blurb as well. "Daughters of Ys is based on an ancient Breton folktale.". Brenton is something of what became French, the land itself was in Brittany (aka Wales and part of England). All the existing version of the folktale provided by Anderson are in what appears to be French. This is relevant only because this all means it is not something that Anderson just made up. Also, it makes Rioux's art decisions fantastic, the style and colouring are well suited to indicate that it is an aged piece. It's not something new. This is a good way to story and I could see it being used in a number of ways in educational institutions (sorry that is my high school librarian side talking).
The Daughter s of the Ys tells the story of the two titular daughters of Lady Malgven after her death, Princesses Rozenn and Dahut. It starts with their father, King Gradion recalling their unusual meeting and coming together to Malgven's death and her gifts traits inherited by her daughters. "Rozenn, my eldest, to you she gave her love of wild things and lonely places...
And to you Dahut her love of wonders and miracles". It is here the problems start. in a single person those are well-balanced traits, but practical sense they cause the sisters to have opposite world views. We meet the sisters as children but for the most part, they are young women of indeterminate age living vastly different lives. Princess Rozenn in the moors with the people and the wild things coming to court only when absolutely necessary as the future Queen, Princess Dahut the popular and necessary to impress court lady. The story is Dahut and their mother's secret unravelling in the most violent way possible and what happened next. It is a well-paced and written piece that makes good use of the art to tell the story where words would be too much.
Because the art is integral to the storytelling here it had to be done well. And it was that. It pulls you in. As already said the style suits the setting, the people look right, the art does not look modern if that makes sense. All the main character are distinct, which I find can be an issue in some graphic novels. Not only are the characters distinct the different worlds that Rozenn and Dahut inhabit their different lives. And it shows the changes in their worlds as they get darker. All in all, it's just a beautiful book, that is definitely work a read if you like historical works or graphic fiction.
#m.t. anderson#jo rioux#the daughters of ys#read 2021#book review#ktreviews#folk tales#graphic novels#booklr
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Légende Bretonne
Ys, la ville engloutie
Le roi Gradlon, un guerrier assez vénère, a eu une fille nommée Dahut avec une sorte de divinité reine du Nord. C’est à la demande de sa fille qu’il fait construire une ville située en dessous du niveau de la mer et protégée par des grandes digues. Dans Ys, tout le monde est super heureux et très bien protégé face à tous les dangers extérieurs. Sauf que Dahut, qui était un peu chaude du cul, a foutu la merde. Tous les soirs elle invitait un homme à faire zig-zig et elle lui mettait un masque sur le visage. Masque qui, au matin, explosait le crâne des mecs avec des lames en métal. Pas cool. Mais un jour, un prince étranger arrive et Dahut tombe amoureuse. Elle décide de ne pas lui faire enfiler le masque et va même jusqu’à lui donner les clefs de la ville. Idée à la con puisque le prince n’était autre que le diable venu punir la princesse de ses pêchés. Donc ni une ni deux, le mec ouvre en grand la porte de la ville qui se retrouve engloutie. Aucun respect pour les autres habitants qui n’avaient rien demandé, on peut le noter.
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Princess Dahut
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@falsevere from x
“you do not disappoint,” dahut’s smiles are FOOL’S GOLD - she shines despite how false and hollow such things are. this one edges towards something more sincere as eyes glitter and lithe fingers reach to press a fleeting touch against the other’s wrist, “you only need to be more ACTIVE.”
when did she last ask for something? NO - dahut learned long ago that it is better to TAKE. seize what she needs with two desperate, hungry hands rather than plead. she does not ask the world to bend about her fingertips when she lets them flicker with blue-green energy. she does not ask for much - she takes and gives in turn. “i didn’t say you need only to EXPRESS - it is easier on all fronts to shoot first and take your quarry as quickly as possible.”
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Kate Alice Marshall’s Rules for Vanishing draws on some Breton folklore in its world building. This is a painting of Dahut, princess of Cornouaille, and her father King Gradlon escaping from Ys, its drowned capitol.
I got really wrapped up reading Rules for Vanishing, what, two years ago? Three? There’s many details and thought and care in the way it’s laid out. I was so offended that there isn’t a wiki for the world when I was reading Our Last Echoes that I’m trying to seed one.
Come look! Add your own stuff! Make it big!
ashford-files.fandom.com
#kate alice marshall#dahut#dahud ahes#ys#city of ys#gradlon#king gradlon#rules for vanishing#rfv#lucy callow#lucy gallows#sara donoghue#becca donoghue#briar glen#massachusetts ghost road#our last echoes#world building#ya horror
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Its Dahut!
As an actual servant written by me
Caster: Princess Dahut
Alt names: Princess Ahes
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Parameters:
Strength: E
Agility: C
Luck: A-
Endurance: C
Mana: A+
NP: EX
Traits: Magic Resistance A, Riding B
Territory Creation C~EX: For Dahut, her territory can become any range in which she has persuaded the minds of others to follow her ideals.
Fixed Desire A: More of a condition for Dahut, she is unable to want anything for too long and is compelled to be rid of it, this is strong enough for her body to shrug off any outside influence, such as illnesses or curses, or even enchantments to her body. This is all out of Dahut’s control.
Skills:
Charisma A+: While already being sharp tongued, Dahut also uses Magic to enhance her abilities of persuasion, it becomes more like hypnosis to a regular human if anything.
Golden Rule (Wealth and Body) A: This skill is attained both through the exceedingly high amount of wealth she had brought to the kingdom of Ys but also because of her mother’s dying wish to preserve Dahut’s body in the reflection of herself
Imperial Privilege B: This skill is mainly used to bolster Dahut’s combative abilities, able to conceal herself as other classes before her caster class can be known. Usually she’ll pose as an Assassin.
Self Modification A: Her desires include everything, including others, using magic she is able to switch out body parts with those she has coerced into her own ideals, making causing them to give up their own body parts without much fuss. She mainly uses this to heal herself or even the morbid master and for other magics in her disposal.
Noble Phantasm(s)
The Endless Emptiness(within one’s heart):
Type: Anti Humanity
Rank: B
Description: Humans that come into contact with Dahut too long contract a Virus of sorts. This virus slowly but surely alters a human’s mindset, causing them to take more and more short term excitement and pleasure in gaining things and quickly retracted that interest in favor of other things. Humans affected by Dahut’s virus become selfish, self destructive, greedy, and extremely envious. These shells are completely will quickly hate anything that’s been with them long term, other than Dahut, who they worship and follow to their deaths. The only requirement for a human to be affected by the virus is low mana and that said person has had something stolen from them by the afflicted.
Perfect Impermanence:
Type: Anti Noble Phantasm, Anti Servant
Rank: EX
Description: A curse set by Dahut on a servant. She is able to cause any servant’s Noble Phantasm to become single use only, in which case the Noble Phantasm will transfer to her and can be used as if she were its true original owner, gaining all associated benefits. After that use, the Noble Phantasm will disappear completely.
Envious Hand:
Type: Anti Servant
Rank: ~
Description: Another curse by Dahut, she is able to steal a servant’s Parameter and Skill for herself, this curse can only be cast through contact. The Servant for the time being loses those skills or Parameters. As for Dahut, she can choose when to deploy the stolen Skill or Parameter whenever she likes, and stack up 5 total for each. Dahut, when using a skill, can only use it once, then it will return to it’s owner. For Parameters, Dahut must choose a situation to boost herself, and when that situation is over, she will lose it and it will return to the servant it was stolen from.
Description of Servant: Whatever Dahut’s hands touch, she never expects to hold onto. No matter who or what it is, she is forced to want to throw it away just as fast as shes obtained it. Being in that mindset and doing it so often has made Dahut quite cynical of any form of meaningful attachment. Though on the inside she is completely jealous of that. The one thing she’ll never be able to obtain is a meaningful attachment to anything because so long as she exists, even as shes forced her very being into loving something, one day she knows her mind will fix itself again, and she’ll feel nothing toward it anymore.
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1) It seems I'm unable to stop sending you weird obscure AUs. Anyway. I've just learned that in Brittany, there's a town called Lanester. So my first thought was, "Modern!AU where the Lannisters are a very old (British or American) family originally coming from Brittany, and Tyrion is super interested in Breton folklore (instead of dragons) as a kid but Jaime is the only one who supports him instead of mocking him for 'wasting time' on legends and fairytales." But then, I remembered something...
2) That is, one of my fave legends. Which takes place in a whole other department of Brittany, okay, but bear with me. Anyway, king Gradlon ruled over the magnificent city of Ys, built below sea level and protected by a dike. The dike had a gate, only opened to let in ships, and Gradlon had the only key. He also had a daughter, Dahut (or Ahez). Dahut was the kind of princess who really liked debauchery. Though her father wasn't probably much better, or didn't care enough to correct her behavior. 3) One night, Gradlon went to bed early but Dahut stayed late at a banquet with her new lover (possibly the devil). She was very drunk, and with a bit of flattery, the man persuaded her to steal the sleeping king's key and open the gate. Just then, a storm broke out and the sea started to rush in. St. Corentin (or Gwénnolé), who was in Ys to warn Gradlon that the sins of its people would destroy the city, witnessed the disaster and ran to wake the king, who ran to fetch two horses and Dahut. 4) Corentin, Gradlon, and Dahut, riding on Gradlon's horse, tried to flee from the city, but the water was about to overtake them. Corentin, or a voice from Heaven itself, warned Gradlon that he wouldn't save himself unless he threw the "demon" who rode with him into the sea. Heartbroken as he was, he pushed Dahut off the horse, and reached safety. Dahut sunk down with Ys, but instead of drowning, she became a morgen (mermaid, sort of). One day, Ys will resurface, and Paris will sink instead. 5) The first person to hear the bells of Ys or see its church will then become the new king of the city. But until then, Dahut sits among the ruins under the sea, singing sad songs and combing her golden hair. Now... what does any of that have to do with JB? Here comes the crazy AU idea. Which is embarrassingly close to some paranormal romances, but you'll see *that* in the next few asks. So, lets recap: Lanester town in Brittany, and a drunken female ruler with golden hair also in Brittany. 6) Here it is... Tywin is Gradlon and builds Ys, C is Dahut and sinks it. Only, J is *also* Gradlon, and Tyrion is Corentin. J ad Tyrion are C/Dahut's brothers and two of the very few reasonable ppl in Ys. J has his canon rs with C and is the only one who doesn't know she has tons of other lovers. Tyrion is pretty sure Ys itself is a Bad Idea and that something will go wrong with the dike, but Tywin won't listen to him. C opens the gate after a banquet with Euron (?). Tyrion gets J, who gets C. 7) ... they can't get Tywin in time for some reason, so he drowns and that's that, I guess. While they're escaping from Ys, they find out that they won't get far unless they leave the person who sunk Ys to go down with the city. Even after finding out how the whole thing went down, J feels guilty and sad about letting C go, but he's not s8 Larry Jannister so he does instead of drowning with her. C is doomed to turn into a morgen. J and T get tf away and found Lanester. But here comes a twist! 8) Somehow, J and T, as part of the ruling family of Ys, are also doomed to immortality, and to the search for a worthy new king who will make the city resurface and rule it justly and without putting themself before their subjects. The new king is, ofc, B. No matter what morgen!C thinks about J's new gf. Who, by the way, is several centuries younger, has a far more beautiful soul, and will cast her down and take the city she always saw as her dear little toy...
9) ... this probably doesn't make any sense geographically, chronologically, or mythologically, but my mind is made for randomly whipping out AUs, so. There it is.
LDJGLKSJDGSJKLJGLKD OMG THIS IS ACTUALLY A++++++ LIKE MAN I LOVE THIS RECAST I’M TOTALLY LOOKING UP THAT LEGEND NOW XDDD sdlkjglgjlskdj I love it! ;___; and pls THE FIC I’M WRITING RN MAKES ZERO SENSE FOR ANY ASOIAF TIMELINE YOU THINK I CARE
#dsklgjlks#jaime x brienne for ts#anti-cersei lannister#anti-lannincest#THIS IS SO GOOD#haljathefangirlcat#ask post
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Mermay 2023 - Yannic Corentin, The Barbarian - 2
The Armorican Peninsula is a strange and wondrous place, a mist-shrouded land full of magic and mystery, where the mortal realm of Bedouar and the timeless vastness of Faerie coexist side by side, the great veil ripped apart by uncontrollable magic, causing time and space to collapse into disarray. Unearthly fog rolls in, cutting off travelers from where they came and pure magical chaos rolls across the region in great storms. Fortune can be found in the borders of Faerie to the brave and the lucky, death for the foolish.
The treacherous coast of the region, the Ar Mor Bras, is no stranger to these twists of fate, home to the lost city of Ys-Beneath-the-Waves and its accursed princess, Ahes Dahut. Throughout the ages, some individuals find themselves caught in the whirlpool of magic surrounding this mystical site, and are drawn in by the phantom bells of the sunken city and the enchanting, enticing song of those trapped by its curse....
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Back in 2019, I launched a special series for Mermay, an art project to develop a small, but important part of the lore of Alvez, the world of Kroashent. The Marie-Morgane of Ys-Beneath-the-Waves are one of several merfolk races of the world. For this project, I decided to "adapt" each of the Dungeons and Dragons Character Classes into a character as they may appear in Alvez, then transform these characters into mermaids with art and short stories! Since then, I've been working hard on developing the world and the characters who live, there, even writing an ongoing novella, Kroashent: Bal des Loups, which you can read right now, for free! A lot has changed as I worked and some of the art and stories seemed like they could use an update!
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Yannic Corentin was a "barbarian" chieftain living in the Southwest of what would become the Duchy of Letha. When a series of bold raids along the river by the Daughters of Ys began to target Yannic's village, the chieftain undertook a quest to get to the bottom of it and reclaim those taken by the mermaids. Yannic's journey brought her to the doorstep of Ahes sunken city where he, or rather, she, learned the truth about the fate of her village. Transformed into a mermaid herself, Yannic was reunited with her people, which had been her goal in the first place. She quickly adapted to her new life, becoming one of the most celebrated warriors of the Beacon City, defending her new home from the many threats against it. Yannic's one complaint is that when she was a human, she was considered quite large and imposing, which her new form is considered less so, as she is one of the smaller Marie-Morgane. She makes up for it with energy and passion, earning the nickname "the Little Hurricane of Ys".
See Yannic's original form here: https://www.tumblr.com/kroashent/716148425933127680/mermay-2023-yannic-corentin-the-barbarian?source=share
See Yannic's first (mermaid) appearance here: https://www.deviantart.com/kathalia/art/Mermay-2019-The-Barbarian-Yannic-Corentin-2-796354353
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PSEUDO-SINGULARITY: THE UNDERGROUND WORLD OF AGARTHA.
or, charri’s attempt to rewrite the singularity! / @savepnt requested to be @’ed
Something I liked about this Singularity is the interplay between order and chaos, a perfect example of what happens when the good intentions of humans-- to protect their own, to live a happy life, to eradicate injustice-- are taken to their extremes, and become fetters which imprison humans in their own ideals. In contrast to the “Human Evils” of Shinjuku, Agartha displays the “Good Intentions” of humanity, and challenges the protagonist to consider their own ideals at the same time. The “Utopia” is an extremely important aspect, given the wish fulfilled by the Demon Pillar in this Singularity is “safety”.
Where good, evil, and neutrality all lead to destruction and stagnation, what is the correct choice?
So, with that all in mind, I thought I’d outline what my own Ritsuka was experiencing this Singularity, as far as canon goes. Though I’m mainly just taking the parts I like, and deleting the rest. A lot of it, I’m writing down my own perspective for. (...So I thought, and then I got to chapter 10...)
Other Master muses are free to take what they want from this, or even adopt it as their version of Agartha. I just had fun doing it ‘w’
AGARTHA: CONTINENT UNDER THE EARTH.
Mission: Find the missing Servants, destroy the Demon God Pillar, and retrieve the Holy Grail.
Factions:
Ys, City of Hedonism: A watertop city of pirates who plunder, drink, and kill as they like without thought to anyone else, under the leadership of the Pirate Princess who uses and casts out, taking joy only in the pursuit.
El Dorado, the Golden City: A territory along a riverbed, housing Amazons who perfect their bodies in combat, and reject the presence of men, led by a merciless General who will chase out threats with the vigor of a wild beast.
Bu Ye Cheng, the Nightless City: A golden city in the underground, gleaming with bright lights even at night; though perfectly orderly at first glance, corruption runs deeply through its roots. Its leader stays out of its people’s view, but their lackeys patrol the streets, crushing any sign of resistance.
Shangri-La, the Utopian Valley: A land of eternal springtime, serving as the headquarters of the Resistance. Led by a Servant who’s lost his memory, Rider, they slowly build their forces and take in fallen refugees, biding their time before the ultimate battle...
What I’d do here is, of course, take out the gendered violence and have each city focused less on “abuse men because that’s our author’s kink >:(” and more on pressuring surrounding territories to accept their ideals / raiding them for treasure and profit / protecting their own people from harm. They each believe that their way of life will make their people happy. That is the ultimate goal of a leader, and thus the ultimate ideal behind each faction, even the Resistance (who bear a similarity to El Dorado).
Columbus gets turned into mana prisms and a different sailing Servant takes his place; I personally nominate Topa Inca Yupanqui, legendary Incan ruler who scouted the Pacific on a ten-month voyage. It’s important that the Servant be a sailor, but I personally don’t care for Chris Combustion to be a Servant at all. Sure, it should be someone vaguely connected to the concepts of Agartha, but I think "emperor of a disappeared (read: obliterated and colonized) empire” fits the general setting, especially given the inclusion of El Dorado.
Support: Astolfo (Caster, wielding the Book of Logistilla), Arturia Pendragon (Assassin, wielding Carnwennan)
I chose Support Servants out of their usual class, because this story is supposed to be fantastical and unusual, so even Servants summoned from Chaldea have a strange role to play. I also chose Servants with “Lawful Good” and “Chaotic Good” alignments to go with the theme of this Singularity.
I’d also change the Servant bonus to be those with “Lawful” or “Chaotic” attributes.
Opposing Servants:
Assassin of the Nightless City, Wu Zetian; Caster of the Nightless City, Scheherazade; Berserker of El Dorado, Penthesilea; Pirate Princess, Dahut; Giant Berserker Herakles Megalos; and Chosen of the Mahatmas, Ascendant Blavatsky.
“There were those who only loved to plunder, those who sought safety in law, and those who sought safety in isolation and eradication. Then, of course, there was the woman who thought she was the next Messiah...”
...
Agartha, a Pseudo-Singularity existing under the earth, where nothing should live, yet magical energy disrupts the normal flow of time and space, as usual.
“Also, it appears some Servants have disappeared from Chaldea, and the Singularity is likely to blame, so keep an eye out for them, would you? ☆”
As if they had a choice!
Thrust suddenly into this mysterious, alien world, under attack by three factions, the Chaldea party escapes south to an idyllic garden, and meet the Rider in charge of those holding their ground in this dangerous place.
...
All that said, the twist would have to be completely rewritten, huh...
This much is obvious already, but spoilers ahoy!
Where in this Singularity, Columbus seeks to create a nation of women to serve his every need, I think it’s much more interesting for the ultimate goal to be the creation of a “civilization of eternal happiness”. That is, a place where all people are gathered, and sacrificed to the Root for the sake of the ideal utopia.
That said, a person whose ideals don’t reflect either modern civilization or ancient cultures, but instead a person who, from the start, believes in a careful balance of both; and yet who has a strong, stirring belief in a utopic vision. The Servant who disappeared from Chaldea-- Madame Blavatsky, who hears and obeys the voices of Mahatma, clearer than ever with her closeness to the core of this world (the “untruth” bestowed by Scheherazade). She manipulates Rider using the “grail-like boxes” discovered in the Dragon Temple, while biding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to reveal herself. Meanwhile, the party recovers a weapon from Shangri-La, said to have been owned by King Solomon: the Singing Sword, a sword which would always grant victory if wielded for a good cause.
As expected, the battle against Helena, Rider, and Heracles is almost impossible, but somehow the Chaldea party manages to not only survive, but defeat the trio. Then there’s only Caster, Scheherazade, and her City in the Sky; I think this part is rather realistic, given the twisting of her personality with the “teaching” of the Demon Pillar, Phenex-- the one said to converse in rhymes, and who hopes to return to Heaven, but is deceived in this wish.
One who cannot die, and one who wishes not to die. Those who reject order and chaos, searching for perfect equilibrium-- stasis-- unchanging.
Scheherazade’s fear isn’t towards men, specifically, in this rewrite. It’s more towards brutality-- so she materializes those she sees as brutal: the torturers, the warriors, the scholar-kings, and the plunderers. Phenex, likewise, seeks to eliminate “ignorance” and “knowledge” to achieve equilibrium and stagnation, ultimately creating an unchanging utopia.
(”Ignorance”, the unknown and unthought (chaos); and “Knowledge”, the root of progress (order). Mystery is a ‘thought, but not confirmed’ spectrum between the two, and the realm of magic and magecraft.)
Bearing the Singing Sword, the party is able to counteract Phenex’s ability, and destroy him for good. Scheherazade, after talking with Ritsuka, makes the decision to choose her own ending: one where she, neither king nor servant, neither dead nor alive, can finally smile and laugh.
As Laputa disappears-- it’s time for this “story” to end.
#fgo spoilers obv#hc.#meta.#this took uh#three hours#i had fun#anyway this is my ritsuka's experience of this singularity#mostly just trying to make it less gross#i didn't rewrite like dialogue or anything but boy did it feel like i did
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Gonna write my scatterbrained Spicy Hot Takes on Agartha before the news is stale and I delete this annoying and boring chapter from my mental landscape, so bear with me:
I think Agartha’s main issue was just straight up poor writing. The Japanese direct translations being as downright offensive as they were is one thing - but overall, the chapter is just one plot contrivance after another. It tries so, so hard to go for a certain tone but can’t seem to stick to any one thing or idea. Disregarding themes about sexuality probably would have been the very best way to go about this chapter, since I think the most interesting part was the theme about storytelling and in-authenticity - we all know that That Line was annoying af in a game like FGO, but it CAN work in a series like Fate as a whole. I had a helluva long day at work so allow me to explain in the least scatter-brained way I can manage right now:
Here’s what I’m thinking: Scheherazade, whose name I guarantee I will spell wrong/differently every time I write it even though I’ve been able to pronounce it properly since I was thirteen (I was in a speaking competition and told some of the Thousand and One Nights using her framework as the opening monologue, long story short ANYWAY -) is traumatized by her ordeal with the king. This is a really good and interesting thing to explore! Fitting it in with the theme of storytelling - Scheherazade is deeply afraid of dying and will do whatever it takes to live, so she makes a fantasy world and fills it with legends, and feeds their energy to a Holy Grail. With this, and the power of a Demon God at her side, she plans to reveal magic to the human world in the most destructive fashion possible, allowing the fantastic to become ordinary, and destroying the Throne of Heroes itself in the process. Fate is a series were stories have power - but Scheherazade survived basically by telling the most fantastical, interesting tales she could and never finishing them. She always would pause in the middle, and say, “That’s all for tonight.” I think this is the kind of thing we can run with in terms of setting.
Dahut is the weirdest example because it’s the one story in the chapter that I know next to nothing about. At one point it’s mentioned that Dahut is impossible to summon as a Servant, and so Drake was “forced” into the role of the Pirate Princess. Ys is probably the weakest part of the chapter for that, but I did like the idea of her being “Drake Alter,” where Drake vibrantly pursues her goals and desires but takes nothing for granted; Dahut gives into her every whim and takes absolutely everything for granted. The conflict between “Drake” and “Dahut” should have been emphasized more instead of having the player/Da Vinci dismiss her as “Oh, it’s not Drake, except when she conveniently comes back to delivery us the MacGuffins Ex Machina in the eleventh hour.” Dahut has little connection to Drake - it’s not her story, but a role she was forced into because Scheherazade was building a very specific kind of world. Therefore it is inauthentic. Perhaps that’s all it needs to be in this context.
This can also work with the Amazons. Scheherazade never told stories of the Amazons, but she has access to basically all stories in the world through her Noble Phantasm - she learns that they are a society of warrior women who live without men, and so decides that they will be a society which oppresses men due to her fear/bitterness towards men after the ordeal she suffered through. The “oppressing men” plotline was honestly dumb all around but using the Amazons as a mechanism to explore Scheherazade's trauma would’ve been more interesting than just having them be the Big Bad before the Big Bad Columbus Reveal: Scheherazade doesn’t like fighting, but wishes that she had been strong enough to protect herself. Because she views herself as a coward and her ordeal with the king has complicated her view of sexuality - “I’m better suited to a bedchamber than a battlefield” - she uses the Amazons of Agartha as a mechanism to cope.
This brings us to Wu, whose design I’m still not happy about even though I think the in-story justification is somewhat fair. (Let Helena and Wu be gray-haired grannies together or so help me!) Wu was absolutely an authoritarian ruler who did, in fact, invade and conquer several nations and institute a terrifying network of secret police. In her later life, she was given to decadence - but her tenure on the throne showed her to be a highly competent administrator. Notably, she ruled over an era of religious tension and balanced matters quite well, and though she was accused of undoing meritocracy to put her supporters into power, many of the men she appointed held positions in government long after she’d died because they were actually good at their jobs. Wu has been heavily mythologized over the years - later Tang emperors and Neo-Confucian scholars wrote her off (Wu founded her own dynasty under her own name, so they kind of had to legitimize it somehow), she became associated the nine-tailed fox spirit thanks to a few popular novels and poems, etc., etc., etc. The crazy thing is that Wu actually left very few records of herself behind, apart from some poems. Even the inscription on her tomb is blank! People can say whatever they want about her - it’s extremely difficult to know the full truth of the matter without any objective observers in the field (and without Wu’s own words to give context/another story), especially if you don’t read any Chinese.
BTW - the first thing I learned history class is that when you’re dealing with primary sources, you must always remember that translators have agendas. Every word is a deliberate choice, and it changes the meaning from the original text. When dealing with historical documents, this is not always a good thing.
Scheherazade reads some, but not all of these stories, and integrates Wu into her world as the sadist empress with an iron grip on her decadent mythical city.
Do you see what I’m getting at here? It’s a lot, but I’m not done. Now we have to deal with Columbus - there’s “In Defense of Columbus” video is floating around in the Agartha tag, but I haven’t watched it in full and haven’t done like, any intensive research on Columbus in particular, so I’m going to apologize right now for any historical inaccuracies/misconceptions that I’m about to write. The point I want to make here mainly is that Columbus, like Wu, has been heavily, heavily mythologized for both good and evil at various points. The thing about Columbus that is also interesting is that the authenticity of his journals is or was apparently a subject of debate. The man who published most of them actually happened to be Bartolomew de las Casas - one of the founders/first vocal supporters of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The reason de la Casas supported this is because he believed that using African labor would be an improvement over enslaving the native populations of the New World. Soon after, he had a change of heart and devoted the rest of his life to fighting against slavery in all forms. De la Casas went on to be named a saint, and was possibly the first person in history to propose the idea of universal human rights - which is how I had heard of him until literally just this afternoon; I had no idea he’d ever supported the slave trade until I was looking up basic info about Columbus’s writings so I could write this long-ass post. History is full of complicated people.
But as I mentioned in Wu’s bit, it’s very important to note that in many ways, Columbus is literally just whatever people decide he is. Like, he never even set foot in any land that would become the United States, and yet he’s a huge symbol here! Along these lines, his amnesia would fit the theme of inauthentic storytelling, choosing what to read and what to believe in. Columbus regaining his memories was an understated moment, which is actually fucking fantastic because it could be used to really emphasize the choice that is being made here. He’s a Heroic Spirit who can choose to be whatever he wants. He can choose to be the simple hero-explorer that schoolchildren sing about, or he can choose to be the Big Bad, the first and perhaps most infamous conquistador. And he chooses to be the bad guy. That is so fuckin’ fantastic, y’all! I honest to God love that not only did FGO portray Columbus as a villain of history but that the bad reputation is something he chooses to maintain! I can write a list of Servants who were less than stellar people and got a makeover for Fate. Nero is probably one of the worst examples but like - Ozymandias absolutely owned slaves in his life as a pharaoh. Hercules and Medea murdered their own children. Asterios literally ate humans as the Minotaur. Gilles de Rais exists as a playable character. Jack the Ripper is your daughter. Hell, Nobunaga burned temples with the monks still inside - but she feels bad about it now! Enough digressing but I a hundred percent get why Japanese fans found Columbus “refreshing” at his introduction. He owns his cruelty, his desire to exploit others - he challenges the narrative that everyone is redeemable because he doesn’t even want to be redeemed, he just wants to get rich and famous, and he doesn’t give a shit who he steps over in the process! Like, Columbus said, “I’m just doing what comes naturally,” at one point when he still had amnesia, so when he got his memory back and turned on the player, I really would’ve liked for him to say is something like, “You’ve already decided that I’m the bad guy, right? You know my story, and I’m nothing if not a man of my word.”
These kinds of questions/debates could have been used to emphasize the themes of Agartha. Legends are what people decide they are. People make choices and history decides whether they were good or evil or important retroactively. Can you know what someone is like by reading a translation of their poetry? Can you judge a king’s reign by the words of their successors or their rivals? Does the context of a story matter? This all could have been super interesting to explore!
Like I said, the main theme of Agartha being “inauthentic storytelling” could have been hella, hella good considering that this is a world created by Scheherazade’s fears and trauma feeding into her escapist desires. But Minase’s incompetence as a writer made everything so hamfisted and awkward that everything just suffered under his desire to insert his fetishes at every moment. It was so obvious that he didn’t read any material for old Fate characters - like Astolfo you poor sweet thing, you deserved so much better! - and even the new characters that he clearly did research on, like Columbus, fell flat because he couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say beyond mildly-to-extra offensive sex jokes.
#i'm tired so i may not reply to any responses but i had to get this out of my system because it's been nagging at me#like... it could've been good#it could've been at least decent if minase just... knew how to deal with a theme and read up on some fate character materials#but he didn't do that and so now we have This Mess#fate grand order#agartha nonsense#also disclaimer i did the baaaare minimum of research for parts and didn't even dig up my Empress Wu Research Paper docs#but like now that i've got this off my chest i'm gonna be done wasting time thinking about agartha since it was just so....#not even like that it was especially bad it was just... lifeless and insipid#thank goodness holmes told us it wasn't even canon lmao
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