#because humanity is more than just war and strife

[littledreamling]

Instead of (or perhaps along with) Hob being proficient in all kinds of weaponry (10/10, amazing trope), give me Hob being proficient in medieval and renaissance instruments and dances.

Give me Hob Gadling who loves the beat of the drums, now that he’s had a few hundred years to remove himself from the battlefield where they used to be played to raise morale and time reloading. Give me Hob Gadling who unironically loves the bagpipes, who knows how to play the bagpipes, who will march across campus belting out a lively traditional melody that only he remembers, much to his students’ delight and his fellow professors’ annoyance. Give me Hob Gadling who can’t help but get up and dance whenever he hears a folk tune because it reminds him of home, of the home he used to have, long before any dark strangers or mentions of immortality. Give me Hob Gadling who teaches renaissance court and country dances as a history class and every time he sees one of his students grinning with the thrill of it, he can almost feel Eleanor standing beside him, reveling in the joy of music and laughter and good company. Give me Hob Gadling who ropes Dream into dancing with him, because they may be the last people on earth who know these steps and Hob isn’t going to let them fade because they’re important, because they’re what make him human.

Give me Hob Gadling who chooses to keep more than just his soldiering expertise alive, whose heart leaps at the first beat, whose feet tap and legs jump and arms weave as he expresses his love for life in every way possible.

#this was a draft that i finished and now i just want it out of my drafts #anyway i still love this idea #because humanity is more than just war and strife #humanity is song and dance and the joy of companionship #and hob would want to keep that alive too #hob gadling #the sandman #sandman netflix #dream of the endless #morpheus #dreamling

[radiocrypt-id]

Gerrard is painful in a way I didn't really understand at first. He's like, 30. He's grown. A handsome prince, married to a wonderful woman that's trying to do her job and prevent the deaths of her people. But all he thinks about is the ball. he offers to look through a sword form book as a way of "helping", or to appear to be helping anyway. He's a coward. He hides with the children and escapes through a secret tunnel and runs away. He's desperate to convince anyone, including himself, that he's a handsome prince who is in love with his wife and their marriage is going great.

And I didn't get it, at first. I thought he was funny and probably more like the average person in a terrible time, not a hero. He's a grumpy adult that feels like the world he was promised got taken away from him when he did nothing to hold onto that world in the first place.

And then they played through his story. He was 9 when he was turned into a frog. 9. A baby, unable to understand what it was he'd done wrong. He was a spoiled little prince with absent parents that was 9 and didn't want to interact with a random strange old woman at his door asking for stuff. An adult could have been gotten. His parents could have been summoned by a servant and brought to the door or a higher servant could have handled the talk but no, no they let a 9 year old boy open that massive door to a random stranger asking to come inside out of the rain. Any child would have said no. Any child. Because an old woman he'd never met was asking to go inside his home. I would have said no, any of the other characters at the table would have said no. She's a scary old lady on his doorstep! And yeah maybe he said it in a dickish way. Maybe he called her a peasant or said 'how dare you' to her face, but he was 9 years old, what 9 year old isn't a weird little dick? Especially when they don't know what's going on? Stranger danger is literally a thing taught to children as soon as they can walk! Any one would have said no. But Gerrard said no, and was turned into a frog for it.

But you know what's worse then being turned into a frog and dropped in a pond a bit away from your home? Never being looked for. Not once. He was out there, he could see hunters and soldiers. A tiny Gerrard must have waited months, just staring out into the woods, straining his ears, listening for his mother or father calling his name. And then just listening for his name at all. And then just listening for any sign of humans at all. No one was looking for him. For all the servants charged with taking care of a young prince, not one saw what happened to him and not one went looking. It's hard to be small and scared and alone, waiting for someone to come get you but no one ever comes to get you. It's hard to learn that the people that are supposed to love you just... don't.

And later on, after becoming a handsome man and marrying Elody, Gerrard spent more years of his life as a frog in a pond than a prince. Day dreaming about balls and gossip and feasts and all the fun things about being a prince because it's all he can remember about his time as a prince. He didn't have the classes he should have had. He missed out on etiquette, and sword play, and politics, and war. He missed those lessons, because he was just a little frog in a pond during the years he would have learned all that. But he's expected to know. Elody loves him, but she expects him to know how to be a prince. She expects him to understand war and strife and taxes and all those important things and doesn't once stop to ask if he actually knows these things. Of course he didn't want to talk about the war effort. Of course he asked about the ball and offered to read a book about sword play. It's not that he could give more and chose not to, he genuinely didn't know how to do more than that. He was taking what initiative he could. He could teach himself how to fight, sure! but he can't teach himself how to be a general. All he wants is to be safe, and for the person he loves to be safe. And he assumes that anyone would run away from a losing battle because he would. He grew up a frog that had to survive by running away and letting someone else die so he could live. But even once he ran, he went looking for Elody. Because although Elody is falling out of love with Gerrard, he loves her fiercely. And as he goes on his adventure and fights and dies and fights more, he gets it. He gets what Elody wanted from him and what she needed him to be and that he failed to do that.

So he's learning better now. He learning to accept personal sacrifice, like with the glass shard. He's learning to be diplomatic, like with the pig. He's learning to be dangerous and capable, like in the fight against muffet. He's learning what it means to rely on people and be honest with them about his failings so they can cover his ass, like with the party. It's hard to learn these things. It's hard to try and sus out who is helpful and who isn't. It's hard to not hand off his problems again for someone else to fix. Because even though he's 30 now, he spent an unknown number of years as a frog, and he's desperately trying to catch up without letting anyone know he's behind because they might not like him anymore if they know how far behind them he is. He's doing his very best and, terrifyingly, the person that's supposed to love him is loving him less because his best isn't good enough for her. Once again, he's missing and no one is looking for him.

But that's okay, because this time, Gerrard can do the looking.

#pinocchio neverafter #d20 neverafter #neverafter #neverafter gerard #ylfa snorgelsson #d20 spoilers #d20 rosamund #dimension 20

[what-even-is-thiss]

I'm kind of fascinated by Ares/Mars as a character. Understandably he's not very well liked. Because he generally represents the undesirable parts of war. Bloodlust, fighting, terror, chaos.

But he's also a god of courage, and a god you want on your side when you go into a war. He also seems to respect women more than other Greek and Roman gods, generally. There's few direct references to him forcing himself on people that I've found. They exist, and many of the references to his lovers are vague so we can't be sure what the women thought of the situation so that should be kept in mind.

His daughters are often prominent in the myths, founding the Amazons and becoming various queens and notable warriors within that tribe. In fact, I'd wager his daughters often take a bigger space in our collective consciousness than his sons, Queen Hippolyta being among one of his most famous children. And he gives courage to his daughters in equal measure to his sons, giving one of his infant daughters the ability to suck milk from her dead mother and survive by force of will.

He's also surprisingly weak. He loses a boxing match against Hermes when they fought over a woman. He gets trapped in a jar for several months by giants. He isn't always on the winning side.

In the Orphic hymn 65 to Ares it says he is "pleased with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar." but also, it asks him for peace. "Stay furious contests, and avenging strife, whose works with woe embitter human life;... for arms exchange the labours of the field; encourage peace, to gentle works inclined, and give abundance, with benignant mind."

Ares Mars is confusing. Like he's still an embodiment of some of the worst parts of war, but he gives power to the worthy regardless of gender, he's the one you go to to beg for peace, he's the one you go to for courage. Also, he's not indestructible. I think I get why the Romans smushed him together with a fertility god. You need land for agriculture. What's the only way to get more land in the ancient world? War. And Rome, above anything else, was into farming and war. Putting the two together isn't as illogical as you think.

I also always think off how Athena Minerva is almost universally loved even in the present day. But why? She's also a war god. She gets to sit in the tent seeing soldiers as chess pieces while Ares is on the field with them. Arguably she is just as responsible for carnage and woe as he is.

When death goes missing and the mortals are left to suffer through their wounds, never dying, it's Ares who notices. Not Athena. Not anyone else. He's also the one who does something about it and goes to save him.

Do I like Ares? No, not really. Like anyone else I don't particularly enjoy war. In fact, I wish it didn't exist. However, I do think that as a character he's way more complicated than he's often given credit for.

Also one of his sons is a literal dragon. Hell yeah.

#roman said a thing #mythology

[inamindfarfaraway]

The Morality of Mabel and Dipper Pines

Warning: Dipper Levels of Overanalysis Ahead

I’d like to make it clear at the start that I love both of these characters equally and they’re both good people, just in different ways. But I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Mabel’s flaws and less of Dipper’s, so I’d like to contribute to the discussion of their respective characters by exploring a divide between them I haven’t seen talked about much.

Mabel really wants to be a moral person. She places a lot of intrinsic worth in the concepts of ethics, like kindness and fairness and the wellbeing of others. Being a bad person could be considered her worst fear. It’s definitely up there with her other greatest fears of losing her relationship with Dipper and the inevitability of change, and those fears developed later largely in response to Ford and the baggage he brought with him.

Dipper just doesn’t care about that as much. That isn’t to say he’s a bad person! He's compassionate, selfless, brave and unquestionably heroic by the end of the show. They both are. But it sticks out to me how differently they think about ethics. For example, Dipper literally kills Wax Sherlock Holmes, while Mabel is so averse to hurting someone’s feelings that she can’t bear to break out of a false, one-sided relationship with Gideon until Dipper's life is at stake. You see what I’m getting at here? But I have more evidence! Buckle up, this is gonna get long.

Compare how they treat their rivals, Pacifica and Robbie. These are ordinary humans with no real authority over them who, age and class gaps aside, they're basically on even footing with in confrontations, so this is a good metric for how aggressive they are when upset and how much they hold grudges in mundane situations.

In “Irrational Treasure”, Mabel is deeply hurt by Pacifica’s mockery to the point of giving up her silly identity, and sets out to prove her wrong that she can be competent. But at the end, when presented with the opportunity to destroy the Northwest family’s fake prestigious legacy that they use to justify putting others down, she declares, “I’ve got nothing to prove” and lets it go. She’s secure in herself. Her motivation is satisfied. Why bother putting more pain and strife into the world? It’s Dipper, who has been only been hurt by proximity to Mabel, who insists on exposing the truth specifically to spite Pacifica and takes away that “Man, revenge is underrated. That felt awesome!” Revenge is arguably a form of justice, especially in this sense of revealing an unfair lie, but still, he takes great pleasure in bringing an enemy down for the sake of it, not to fix the damage they did.

In “Fight Fighters”, Dipper’s vindictive streak returns. He manipulates the ridiculously powerful Rumble McSkirmish into brutally beating up Robbie on the fraudulent charge of murder, threatening Robbie’s life. He didn’t realize Rumble would try to kill Robbie, but he was fine with him severely injuring him. Rumble is a fighting game character, a superpowered master martial artist. Robbie is a normal fifteen-year-old. This is not a sportsmanlike matchup. By the end Dipper learns his lesson and takes responsibility, but so does Mabel about hurting people to try to have a perfect life and people still complain about that!

In “The Golf War”, Mabel is again the twin with a bone to pick with Pacifica, but Dipper takes her rivalry more seriously than her and is more willing to be mean about it. He encourages her to cheat when she doesn’t want to, justifying it because Pacifica is “cheating at life”. Understandable, but still underhanded. While Mabel bonds and buries the hatchet with her rival by the end, outright declaring their rivalry to be stupid, Dipper holds onto it, refusing to forgive Pacifica at all and disapproving of Mabel's offer to give her a ride home afterward despite the pouring rain and her absent parents. He still wholeheartedly considers her “the worst” (and tells her so to her face) at the beginning of “Northwest Mansion Mystery”, even though he saw her and Mabel help and protect each other in their fight against the Lilliputtians and Pacifica thank Mabel and accept her apology.

In “The Love God”, Mabel’s compassion is on full display. She makes it apparent that she wants everyone she knows to be happy, to the point of making a chart to show her friends’ feelings with stickers, and goes out of her way to help Robbie just because she doesn’t think any human being should be so lonely and sad. Dipper initially has no sympathy for Robbie’s misery and sees the twins and his old friends leaving him to rot as a good thing.

Dipper just invests more emotionally into hating people and is more willing to play dirty. Mabel prefers to see the best in people, forgive, deescalate conflict and turn enemies into friends whenever possible, and has more respect for honour and sportsmanship.

Compare the insecurities they highlight in "Society of the Blind Eye". These could have been their last words spoken with their memories of the summer, so they are fully candid and vulnerable.

Mabel confesses, “I only love some of my stuffed animals and the guilt is killing me!” She reprimands herself for not having sincere affection for all the people in her life… who are inanimate objects, hence this being a joke about how immature and overly sentimental she is. But she’s telling the truth! Not being honest about your feelings toward someone who loves you (as toys are assumed to love their kids) is wrong. It’s something a bad, or at least flawed, person would do. We also know that it’s something Mabel can do with real consequences - she loves Dipper unconditionally, but her frequent teasing of him instead of letting this on damages his self-esteem more than she intends and often realizes - and when she does realize as in “Little Dipper”, she’s ashamed of herself. Her guilt is that she’s failing morally, that she hurts the people around her despite her good intentions.

Dipper admits, “Sometimes I use big words and don’t actually know what they mean. I mean, I’m supposed to be the smart guy! If I’m not the smart guy, then who am I?” He primarily thinks of his worth in terms of competence. Dipper is generally not that confident, at this point in time. He has an intense drive to prove his worth. He is acutely aware of his physical and social shortcomings. But the one thing he knows that he does well is analytical, deductive and strategic thinking, and so to always have value he’s built his entire identity around being particularly intelligent. He’s the planner, the mastermind, the guy with the specialized knowledge and important big words who people have no choice but to respect and listen to, because a lifetime of loneliness besides Mabel has taught him that given a choice, they probably won’t. Except just like Mabel’s all-loving attitude, there’s an element of performance. He doesn’t know everything; he’s inherently irrational to a degree like everyone else. So he tries to seem smarter than he is. His guilt is that he’s failing intellectually and practically, that he isn’t contributing enough to be worth something.

This is where Dipper diverges. He wants to be ethically good less than he wants to be good AT things, and respected for it. But they both beat themselves up when they don’t live up to their self-assigned archetypes of All-Loving Hero and The Smart Guy, when they aren’t good enough by their own unreasonably high standards.

"The Last Mabelcorn" deconstructs Mabel’s fixation on her moral perfection. Celestabellabethabelle, who I will henceforth call C-Beth for short, manipulates it to keep her out of the unicorns’ way. She makes manifest Mabel’s fear that she isn’t good enough no matter what she does. We see Mabel push herself further and further to try to prove herself, much like Dipper in episodes like “Dipper vs Manliness”, and emotionally unravel until she’s miserable, self-loathing and openly listing her vices in a way never seen before. But this isn’t productive! Wallowing in shame doesn’t motivate her to be better! She needs to learn that although she isn’t perfect, the virtues she has are good enough to work with to both get out and kick C-Beth out of her head. She decides to stop worrying about meeting an impossible ideal of goodness and just focus on doing good, by using efficient (if violent, and therefore immoral under certain paradigms) methods to protect her family. Her plot in this episode has its detractors and I understand the criticisms that the message wasn’t handled as well as it could have been. But I think it does okay. Mabel definitely reevaluates her need to feel like a good person here. She switches from prioritizing what’s important to her, the validation of being "pure of heart", to what’s important to others and in the bigger picture, simply getting the unicorn hair to keep Bill out of the Mystery Shack.

Finally, compare the twins’ disastrous errors in judgement in “Scary-Oke” and “Dipper and Mabel vs the Future”, when they both accidentally unleash terrible forces of evil upon the town and set in motion a local apocalypse.

Dipper recites an incantation from Journal 3 that causes the dead to rise as bloodthirsty zombies, desperate to prove to the government agents before they leave that the supernatural is real and warrants their help investigating, driven by both his desire for knowledge (his tool to feel secure in himself) and more immediately his fear of being dismissed as unworthy. He is emotionally vulnerable, but still creates the dangerous situation on his own initiative. Since he doesn’t need a blacklight to read the spell and the beginning of the episode established that he’s already familiar with all Journal 3’s visible entries, he knows what the spell would do. He doesn’t realize how many zombies will appear and how dangerous they’ll be. But he is aware that there are risks. Plus, the Shack is hosting a party full of innocent civilians and Mabel has explicitly asked him not to interfere with weirdness. The one thing she told him not to do that night was raise the dead! And what does he do? Raises the dead.

Mabel is actively deceived and manipulated into giving who she believes to be Blendin Blandin, an expert in time-altering technology, what she believes to be an item of such technology, with the intention of warping time to extend the summer for the town. This is a selfish choice. But on top of how emotionally compromised she is, sobbing in despair after “the worst day of [her] life”, consider her internal logic: the end of summer is going to mean the trials and tribulations of growing up for both her and Dipper, and they won’t even have each other if he gets his way; Wendy is already going through that and has told her how awful high school is; she overheard at least some of the Stans’ conversation at the end of “A Tale of Two Stans”, meaning she might know that Stan will have to give up his home and business once the summer is over; and she and Dipper both have true friends here who they will miss and be missed by, as opposed to their memories of Piedmont where we only see them supporting and comforting each other and never hear of any friends. And it isn’t like she’s the only one having fun! Stan is happier than ever, Ford is back home, Dipper’s come into his own more than she could ever have anticipated. He’ll still get to delve into the mysteries of this town that he loves so much. But she’ll be there too. If you want more Gravity Falls, you can see where she’s coming from. She genuinely thinks that “just a little more summer” would be a positive experience for everyone, with plenty of good reason. Yes, she’s recklessly messing with powerful forces that she doesn’t understand. Yes, she isn’t nearly as suspicious of this sudden miracle solution as she should be. But she has no evidence that this would harm anyone.

Their responses after making their mistake are also noteworthy. They’re both horrified and remorseful. But Dipper expresses no concern for the agents for the rest of the episode when it looks like they’ve been killed due to his actions. He even nonchalantly remarks that he thought they were dead when he sees them again. Mabel, however, reaches to stop Bill and begs him to “wait” before he knocks her unconscious. Then she’s imprisoned in Mabelland, which is designed to make her never want to leave and based on how it only occurs to her after she renounces it that the neon colours and repetitive background music are too much even for her, may additionally have a direct, if subtle, influence on her mind. So she’s a little distracted from her guilt. But by risking her life to fix the repercussions of her actions and save the town, she shows much more responsibility for the townspeople’s lives than Dipper showed for the agents he’d tried so hard to impress. He just happily went about his business for weeks believing he had two people’s deaths on his conscience. Never even looked into whether they survived.

These differences in their personal moral philosophies add another layer to the parallels between the two generations of Pines twins. Typically, Dipper parallels Ford and Mabel parallels Stan. But less so here! Like Mabel, Ford very staunchly believes in abstract moral theory, namely that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He holds a grudge for weeks against Stan saving him from being lost in the dimensions through the portal, because it endangered the rest of the world by creating the Rift. It was a good deed with good intentions… but it didn’t only make life better for everyone. To Ford, that means it isn’t good enough. Hmm, which younger twin has a problem with judging anything short of ‘pure good’ to not be worthwhile? Also like Mabel, Ford’s self-righteousness is often hypocritical, considering his pride, selfishness and willingness to disregard the possible negative consequences of his actions, e.g. trusting Bill and building the portal in the first place.

Like Dipper, Stan is willing and ready to use underhanded methods to win against his enemies, to lie, cheat, steal and leverage assets he doesn’t really have the right to. He’s more inclined to be aggressive, spiteful and smug. As for holding grudges, even to an unreasonable extent, he personally despised a nine-year-old child even before he knew that the child was a bad person. He would absolutely summon Rumble McSkirmish to attack a rival for him. He prides himself on his cunning, another form of intelligence, and prioritises being good at what he does best over holding the moral high ground. He is shown to have lifelong insecurities about Ford being better than him in other fields (and thus explicitly valued more by their father); so his pragmatism is his way of trying to always be useful to the people he loves, and indeed a key way he shows them his love.

#gravity falls #mabel pines #dipper pines #pines twins #gravity falls analysis

[imagine-darksiders]

That birthday fic you wrote was so cute!! based off the fic it seems that death is usually gone a long time. Can I ask how often are the horsemen usually away from their human, and what do you think the longest they’d go without seeing them is?

You certainly can! X

To nobody's surprise, Strife is the Horseman who can't go for very long at all between visits. At most, a few weeks, usually when he's too deep in a mission and absolutely cannot leave the realm without jeopardising things. Luckily, he's pretty good at quelling demon rebellions and hunting down angelic assassins in a timely manner. Before he returns to his own home, he'll always find his way to yours first, sometimes staying there to recover for several long, blissful days before he begrudgingly goes to his realm to resupply.

Oddly enough, Fury is around you almost as frequently as Strife. After she leaned into her role as Humanity's protector, she started to realise that she enjoys the company of humans. Her visits are fleeting, a day or two at most before she's off again on another mission, though she's always efficient in checking back in with you if too much time has passed. For Fury, her limit seems to be three months. Apparently, anything longer leaves too much time for you to get yourself into trouble.

Of all the Horsemen who could have surprised you, you never for a moment would have thought it would be good ol' strait-laiced, reliable War. Not for how frequently you open your door to find him blocking the entire entrance, but because of how long he stays in your admittedly cramped abode under the claim that it's a more convenient hub to operate from than his. A bold-faced lie if ever you've heard one. If he's not on a mission, he's making himself a big, inconvenient but well-intentioned fixture around your home. However, War is disciplined, and if his duties keep him away from you for months at a time, then sobeit. He just has to grin and bear it.

You can never predict the next time you'll see Death. The eldest Horseman's duties carry him far into the outer reaches of the Universe, and often, the time in those places is not aligned with Earth's. Sometimes, he'll be retrieving stolen angelic artifacts on one realm for months, but when he returns to you, he finds that only a few days have passed. Other times, he'll be hunting down the source of a rumour on some backwater planet which only takes him a few hours, but upon coming back to you, he's caught by surprise to have you flinging yourself into his arms, demanding to know why he's been gone for half a year. He doesn't like the latter occurrences, they only remind him that his time with you is brief, in the grand scheme of the Universe.

#darksiders #darksiders drabble #darksiders 2 #Horsemen

[moodymisty]

How would the Horsemen react if will they discover that they have feelings for the reader?

[ 𝕸𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖞'𝖘 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙| 𝕬𝖔3 ]

Author's Note: Ohhh this is cute... Particularly for War, I just love big angry characters having soft emotions. Enjoy my unhinged ramblings.

Relationships: Fury/Gn!Reader, Strife/Gn!Reader, War/Gn!Reader, Death/Gn!Reader

Warnings: None

✦ War ✦

Very abruptly. It's one of those moments that hits him like a hammer.

He hadn't even been realizing how much you'd been growing on him over time, let alone that he had been falling in love with you.

But War doesn't exactly know how to go about saying it, so it ends up sitting in the back of his mind forever. War isn't exactly super in touch with his emotions, let alone expressing them.

He's awkward for awhile simply because he desperately wants to do so much, but doesn't know how to just, say it. And much to his annoyance, he feels a bit shy about it. Expect him to get angry at himself at random times when you're alone, sometimes his cheeks even turning a bit red.

He doesn't have that same silver-tongued confidence that Strife or Fury have when it comes to these sorts of things, so he feels very out of his depth.

Once you begin to notice him becoming distracted often, or simply shutting his mouth and even at times walking away from you, you ask him what's wrong. That's the moment he finally admits his inner turmoil, through a bunch of sighs and searching for the right word to use.

He's so internally happy when you reciprocate. I hope you enjoy having a massive Horsemen as your shadow, because he isn't going anywhere.

Gives the most firm and aggressive kiss. It feels just like him.

"It is not wise to love a Horsemen; But if you'll have me, I promise I will never leave your side."

✦ Death ✦

For Death, it's a slow crawl. A slow crawl that he feels agonizingly creeping up on him as time passes, no matter how much he tries to push it down deep enough inside himself where he can forget about it.

Its an emotion with a creeping dread to it to him, as he fears the longer he lets it go on, the worse it'll be for him when he has to inevitably run from it. Or you, is his excuse. He tries to put the burden of being in love an emotion coming from you to him, and not the other way around as well. It makes it easier for him to just de-tatch himself from it, or at least try to.

But when he can't, or more so realizes he doesn't want to, he accepts that you're just a part of his heart now.

It a way it sort of, unnerves him. He doesn't like having someone so close to him. Not because he doesn't enjoy it, anything but he'd die without you being right next to him, but his mind sometimes rolls through every terrible scenario. A bad habit.

He doesn't really say anything about being in love with you however, it's just a silent upgrade in your relationship. He sits closer, touches you more; Is far gentler. His hand goes to your waist instead of your shoulder, he'll call you by your name more, or even something more personal as time passes. If you don't want him, he knows you'll push him away.

"Come here and sit down, before you go running off again."

✦ Fury ✦

Fury realizes a decent while into knowing you.

She shrugs most of the small hints that she might be falling in love on simply enjoying your company more than most, or perhaps just enjoying the company of a person besides her fellow Horsemen; And various demons and angels. None of them exactly make invigorating company, at least the ladder, so she's pleased Humans despite their nature are surprisingly pleasant company.

Far better than that Watcher, at least...

But Fury's heavily defensive of making sure she doesn't show any sort of weakness, so she confesses far less overtly than someone like say Strife. Being unwaverable and confident is a part of her horrible self defense strategy, one that's hard to break.

Though once she does, that confidence definitely translates in the opposite direction. She's not afraid to woo you once she knows there's no chance of her feelings (no one can tell her she has them though or she'll get angry) being dropped off a cliff with your rejection.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not g- Fine. I love you. Now are you done looking at me like that? It's not fair."

✦ Strife ✦ DONE

Strife falls hard. And fast.

So few people have shown him kindness in his long and awful life, he's infatuated when you show him so much of it. He swears the first day he met you he fell in love and just didn't realize it; But he'll never admit this thought.

However his desperate desire to be seen and be loved conflicts with his inner turmoil about his past and current sins, and it eats away at him until he doubts that he's even worthy of being near you, let alone loving you.

He's been of the mind that an ex-cutthroat isn't one that you should be around at all, let alone making your lover. You're his little human, he wants to keep you safe and after awhile, he sees himself as part of the things you should be kept safe from.

At the climax of it, Strife vanishes. You don't see him for days, until one day he comes rushing to you like a bat out of hell, more than likely waking you up in the middle of the night.

He'd had the frightening realization that his heart would just shatter if he didn't see you again, and if he didn't just let all this out.

He tries to spend next hour verbal vomiting every single thought he's had about being in love since meeting you, until you just shut him up and kiss him.

"I ain't going anywhere. You're stuck with me now, you hear?"

#darksiders x reader #darksiders death x reader #darksiders fury x reader #darksiders war x reader #darksiders strife x reader #Darksider/Reader #reader insert #reader #mywriting

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes.

Percy Jackson

Stars on the Water by liketolaugh

"I dunno, I just think it would make a lot of things easier for a lot of people," Percy said to Thalia, when she just stared at him. His cheek rested in his hand, a rare pensive look leaving his eyes distant and unfocused. "Mom has Paul now, so it’ll be easier on her if she doesn’t have to worry about me mucking things up. Dad won’t have to keep threatening war every time Zeus gets his toga twisted. The prophecy’s done, so I won’t be bringing it down on Nico. And no one will have to worry about me blowing up another volcano."

On Heists and Home Economics by chellethewriter

Over the last few days, Annabeth has spent a great deal of time imagining what was stolen, what could cause Percy and the Stolls so much antagonism and strife. She imagined valuables and prized possessions and even—thanks to Malcolm—something as ridiculous as an engagement ring.

But never, not once, had she considered the possibility of a baby doll.

Because who in Hades would?

“That wasn’t just some children’s toy!” 

And Annabeth can feel it. She can feel Percy's rage bursting forth with his words—a pressure that whips through the pavilion like the briny wind of a sea storm. It's something primal, she thinks. Something desperate. So when Percy rises to his feet, climbing and cresting like a tidal wave, Annabeth doesn't blame the Stolls for shrinking toward the floor. If she didn't know Percy so well, she would do the same. 

“That doll,” Percy grits out, “is worth fifty percent of my Home Economics grade!"

Of Storms and Bloodlines by inkncoffee

When people thought of Poseidon they thought of the sea; Poseidon, Lord of the Seas, Commander of the Waves, the Stormbringer. Upon consideration they would add Earthshaker, for catastrophic events such as earthquakes were hard to forget. Few remembered, however, that Poseidon was also Lord of the Horses. Stormbringer and Earthshaker tended to squeeze that one out.

Percy had been able to talk to horses for as long as he could remember. He liked to think he understood them. Although he's not entirely sure why the new stallion thinks he's its foal.

Poseidon is not jealous that Percy thinks a horse makes a better father figure than himself. At all.

Not By Design by inkncoffee

Being a stepfather was hard enough even when your new stepson wasn't the greatest demigod of his time.

Paul's journey from that guy dating Sally to being Percy's father.

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun!

Broody Feelings by writerkat

Quite abruptly, Balam's behavior takes a sudden turn for the aggressive. Though some know why, no one knows how.

It may be wind up up to Iruma to find that out. As well as how to get Balam back to being the gentle giant he's always been.

A Spoonful of Sugar by silvershadowkit.

The stress of living in the Netherworld finally causes Iruma to succumb to the worse of human conditions: the common cold. How do his friends and family react in this moment of crisis?

He's Doing Just Fine by ScatteredNova (Timewormbloom)

Asmodeus and Clara discover the truth behind Iruma's parents and decide that it's their responsibility to make up for the love and affection he missed out on growing up. But they somehow miss the fact that Iruma is doing just fine without his previous family, and he's enjoying his new one very much.

Just a Bit Warmer by Creativitee

Iruma gets himself, quite literally, stuck in a bad situation. He calls on his familiar somewhat accidentally for a little bit of help.

Kalego is more than displeased at the situation to say the least, until he realizes it may be just a bit more dire than first glance shows.

SVSSS

simmering heat by tagteamme

Shen Qingqiu gets hit by a curse that is a little different than the hedonistic traps he and his husband normally fall victim to. In fact, it’s the opposite— in order to make it out of this curse alive, Shen Qingqiu must abstain from touching Luo Binghe.

This should be nothing more than a much-needed holiday for his old hips and waist, right?

#is anyone surprised that this fic is half pyo and half iruma #because i'm not #having 2 fandoms is fun but my mfl on ao3 has gotten so long aaa #my posts #weekly fic round up #fic recs #svsss recs #pjo recs #m!ik recs

[darksiders-junkie]

Good evening friend! I've had a bit to drink while replaying Darksiders 2 and have been wondering if death would be fun to drink with. Thoughts? I figure Strife would be hella fun at first then if he overdoes it he'd get a bit maudlin. Feel free to add on for other characters if you want to!

Appreciate your contribution to this teeny fandom! *Toasts you with drink of choice* ❤️

Sure thing! I'm actually going to do them all :))

War

He is not fun to drink with. Man has one drink and calls it a night. He doesn't like alcohol, and he hates feeling tipsy. It makes him feel like he's not in control of his own body.

If you do manage to get him to drink more, I'd suggest drinking at home. He loosens up and becomes way more talkative and he won't be happy if other people (strangers at that) saw him like that.

And when he becomes more talkative its really all slurred and jumbled together, you have to get him to announciate his words to try and understand him.

At the end of the night, you can bet he's throwing up and passing out on the floor. And since you wouldn't be able to move him, well just put a pillow under his head and drap a blanket over him. He'll be fine.

He wakes up to the biggest migraine ever, and will proceed to be 10x grumpy and scowly until it has passed. So make sure to give him plenty of water, migraine meds, and a big old greasy breakfast in the morning.

Death

He usually tries to avoid alcohol all together. You'll find he'll have a glass of wine for the silly human holidays you enjoy so much, but other than that he doesn't drink.

If you do manage to get him to drink, well you're questioning if he's been dumping out his glass while you weren't looking. He's hardly changed at all!

But no, he most certainly has been drinking it due to your wishes. He's just really good at seeming not drunk.

You can only tell with the slightest of slurred words, and the fact that there is no more bite in his tongue. He may sway slightly while walking, but it'd be hard to tell if you were also drunk.

At the end of the night he'll take a shower and brush his teeth (about time), to get rid of the alcohol smell. He'll pop into your room to make sure you made it to bed alright before finding his way to hiw own room. And if you do share a bedroom, then he'll crawl in behind you and be unusually a bit more cuddling than normal.

He'll be up way before you in the morning, having left some water and meds by your bed and being down stairs cooking up breakfast for the two of you.

Strife

He is hell of fun to drink with, in the beginning that is.

He'll laugh, crack jokes, and even nudge you when you aren't taking a sip. A real partier, so even if it's just the two of you, he fully expects you to yell "Chug Chug Chug" as he downs his glasses. Of course, he'll do the same if you decide to chug.

But eventually he'll flip on a dime and just start crying. It's the worst because there is no warning either. Just

"I'm the bestest friend/partner in the whole world right?"

"Do you love me (Y/n)? Because I love youuuu! Tell me you love meeeee!"

And he's also very clingy. He'll literally hang off you, quickly remind him that you are infact human or otherwise you'll end op on the floor with him.

To avoid this, either head to bed early so he'll do the same, or take him out drinking. If he's around people he won't be like that. Although the car ride home (either by uber or the other siblings. Uber definitely prefered if you dont want to hear a screaming match between siblings) would be a different story, but at least you got to have a longer time to have fun.

Although if you tuck him in, and even as his friend cuddle him through the night, he'll be less of a whiny bitch.

In the morning, he'll most definitely be sluggish and whiny. Keep him away from his siblings because they don't tolerate that shit no more lmfao. Make sure your Strife has plenty of water and meds, and order him food.

Fury

She'll often have a few drinks to get tipsy, but will stop drinking at that point. She doesn't enjoy the hangovers in the morning, and she's often been told she's a raging drunk.

She'll never turn that rage onto you. She thinks you're far too soft and pitiful to do that. No, instead, you'll find her screaming at the wall she accidentally bumped into for 10 minutes straight.

Or trying to pick fights with people, so I suggest keeping her away from her siblings at this time. She won't pick fights with humans though, but I still suggest staying away from bars as she will still find something to scream at. (Like the TV. Everyone is screaming about the silly game, why can't she?)

At the end of the night she will definitely soften some more, and make her way to her own bed. She will not give two fucks if you make it to your bed, unless you share a bed.

In the morning she'll be awfully quiet and just cluching her head at the table. Don't dare to comment on it, just give her some meds and water. You can try feeding her but she'll just push it away.

#darksiders fury #darksiders strife #darksiders death #darksiders war #darksiders #darksiders x reader

[voidwritesstuff]

Nightwatch and Nightmares

Summary: war has to take the first half of the night watch on the maker tree,and finds himself with a human companion that leaves him wondering about just how far away in nature nephilim were from humans.

Cw: nightmares, unnamed human female character. (I dont really write x reader)

A/n: this was a gift for @moodymisty, also I have to clarify that I use dashes for dialogue!(my mother tongue is spanish, we use dashes for dialogue,thats just my writing style!). Misty I hope you like it!

He knew strife was going to get him tangled up in something,its strife we're talking about.

Which is how he finds himself keeping watch over the maker tree where all the humans were. He sits the at the edge of the entrance with his sword driven into the bark of the oversized Flora, the night Sky above twinkles with stars as its clear of any clouds.

He doesnt like this- being still and having to wait.

War has done it time and time again for missions,but this? This was different. He could do it- he would do it but he hated it.

Its the middle of the night, he hopes to at least crush a demon head. Instead,what he gets makes itself know with soft steps.

Walking behind him is a human girl,young, she holds on to her clothes as the air is a little chilly. Her eyes seem lost and she seems shaken.

The human sits close to the rider,perhaps because he meant safety and she needed some of that.

War- he didnt understand humans. He understands why he protects them Yes,but the intricacies of the human condition absolutely baffle Him.

--Tis late-- he says under his breath to not startle the girl-- what are you doing awake,human?

His companion pulls her knees to her chest, resting her hands on her lap.-- nightmare.

Light from the moon filters through the massive leaves of the tree,its a mesmerizing sight to behold. Theres Beauty in this destroyed world, a glimmer of hope for the humans.

After a moment of contemplation,war asks-- perhaps you'd like a listening ear? --She shook her head and a harsh wind blows, she shivers and her body shakes-- come closer, lest you freeze to death.

Reluctantly,the girl shuffles closer,enough that his radiating body heat subsides the effects of tbe chilly air on her skin.

--Theyre very vivid-My nightmares I mean-- she murmurs-- I dont want to talk about what it was about- I just want to go back to sleep but I cant shake off that lingering fear- do you guys even get nightmares?

Usually,he'd avoid being seen as weak or vulnerable. But the human was really shaken up and he didnt know what to say-- sometimes, yes.

--I didnt know that- WOW. We're similar in more ways than I thought-- she says absentmindedly, rubbing her palm with her thumb.

Well,that takes him off guard-- similar? Nephilim and human?

The girl shrugged-- well- you can develop bonds with people, your siblings I mean and the makers, too! Thats something important for us humans--she explains-- you can feel things like a sense of duty, or Curiosity. You can create things! Ive seen strife grab pieces of the maker tree and turn them into rustic toys for the kids! We also make stuff!

--Seems you have a point, little one-- he agrees, hes never seen it from that perspective. Now its glaringly obvious to him- how didnt he see it earlier?.

--You guys have a sense of humor too! I mean strifes the best example but ive seen you and fury laugh a little. You guys have troubles and worries like we do- i mean I could Keep going

Without noticing, the human had leaned on the rider for more warmth. Not that War minded,he didnt even feel her weight.

--As interesting as your ideas are human- I rather you save your strength--he states-- perhaps soon sleep Will find you-- then he makes a pause,trying to think the best words-- youre free to stay until you feel better

Yawning,the girl nodds and rubs her eyes-- cool--she wiggles a bit to find a comfortable space to lay on and she folds her arms over her chest. Her eyes feel heavy with sleep-- awesome- yknow? You guys are really good people- I mean yeah you hide behind snarky sarcastic comments but you care about us- so thank you.

He chuckles-- theres a lot you humans dont know about us.

--Yeah but we can tell when someone is good-- she added,a few words slurred-- and you guys are really good

Before he can say anything else,the girl falls asleep quietly. Body relaxing and leaning her whole dead weight on him,he barely even noticed it. But his gauntlet does lay its hand on the human to Keep tjem warm.

--Rest human,ill Keep you safe-- he murmurs before thinking "including from nightmares"

When strife comes by to switch with his youngest brother, War carries the human to a spare bed, not sure where her room was. He makes sure the covers are well laid on her and he takes a moment to appreciate the sight before him. Humans always looked so heavenly when they rested.

He decides he could get some rest of his own,so the red rider goes to find a quiet,dark corner of the tree to sit on and rest for a few hours. In his mind linger the words of the girl,War wonders just how much humans and nephilim were similar to eachother.

Humans,they really are an interesting thing.

#war #war darksiders #darksiders war #darksiders x reader #darksiders fanfiction

[maya-the-skaven]

Imperium Maledictum: A Module for Aeldari and Abhumans, Part I (factions, "careers", Patrons)

Source: https://twitter.com/MusketAnna or https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vuijroklprtei2lpkuxc44pk

Part II: https://www.tumblr.com/maya-the-skaven/735704419999612928/imperium-maledictum-a-module-for-aeldari-and?source=share Part III: https://www.tumblr.com/maya-the-skaven/735704454119260160/imperium-maledictum-a-module-for-aeldari-and?source=share

Part I sets the premise, factions, "careers" and describes the Patrons; Part II describes new Items, some talents and other rules; Part III includes a small system for Abhumans

This new TTRPG set in the Warhammer 40k setting obviously takes a lot of inspiration, both in terms of adventure vibes it sets for the players and it's mechanics, from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. But unlike Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay you can only play as gold standard humans from Imperium, despite Fantasy Roleplay allowing you to play from a whole bunch of races. On one hand it kind of makes sense, 40k setting is much more strict about xenos-human crossovers - while not at all impossible, those would highly depend on the context and will come with repercussions. Aeldari and human party members can't just meet having ended up on the same side of a tavern brawl, Aeldari can't just walk around most civilized Imperium worlds and expect not to have an attempt on their life from the military, Adeptus Arbites, Inquisition and even just regular citizens being xenophobic. On the other hand, it's not implausible at all that Aeldari would subtly inject themselves into local Imperial matters, while also hiring expendable human mercenaries for dirty work that is beneath most of them. Aeldari don't really have to do a lot to disguise themselves as just somewhat taller and lankier humans, in the universe where human physiology can vary from planet to planet most people wouldn't suspect much, especially since the absolute majority never even saw an Aeldar. Finally, Imperium Maledictum ignored Abhumans, despite there being little reason why they wouldn't fit into the setting. Humans are implied to have a plethora of Abhuman species that are integrated into Imperium on some level above being marked for extermination and some of them, like Ogryns or Ratlings, are even in high demand for the military brass to recruit.

Thus, I thought it would make perfect sense to create rules for playing Aeldari characters, both in contexts separated from Imperium, but also integrating them into the Imperium-focused setting of Imperium Maledictum. Similarly, I decided to create the character stats presets for Ogryns, Ratlings and the Beastmen, together with a simple framework to create your own Abhuman species.

Note that I decided to omit a dedicated Drukhari faction, mostly because it would be much harder to justify a crossover for them and human players, especially in the context of crossing Patrons (while it's much more plausible, albeit still very rare, that Aeldari player could work together with a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor or a Rogue Trader that owes Aeldari some sort of debt). However, perhaps in the future, I will release a mini-addendum to this module that will give players some options for full-on Drukhari, rather than a reformed/Ynnari-aligned Drukhari.

Origins:

Fractured Craftworld - you were raised on a Craftworld barely holding on for it's life, battered by unending war and civil strife, perhaps surviving an Imperial assault or Drukhari raid by a thread. You were raised in a leadership and specialist vacuum, often relying on personal observations rather than tutoring. Life of strife also led many younglings to bomd with each other, learn to endure hardships better as well as made them generally tougher. +5 Per and +5 Fel, Wil or Tgh

Prospering Craftworld - born on a Craftworld far away and insulated from conflict, strife and politics for millenia, you never knew any hardship, surrounded by loving family and friends, nor real hatred or militancy due to its isolationism. This resulted in a certain naivety when interacting with other people, however your disposition is easier than most other Aeldari. Additionally, lack of conflict allowed you to explore yourself at arts, crafts and sciences pretty early on. +5 Fel and +5 Int, Per or Agi

Militant Craftworld - some of the first memories you can recall are of stories about great warriors, noble seers and great sacrifices your kind made. Your Craftworld has a reputation for its militancy, often seeking to correct the injustices made upon the Aeldari by the younger races by merciless combat, always holding steadfast in the face of the enemy and often helping their struggling brethren. From a young age you were expected to join the militia drills, first as an observer, then as a participant, toughening you up and giving you some essential skills in case your Craftworld would require your service. +5 Tgh and +5 BS, WS or Agi

Close to the Eye - when you were born you felt a psychic scream that you can recall with surprising clarity to this day. For one reason or another your Craftworld spent a good amount of time treading close to the Eye of Terror, where your ancient civilization once lived and where now Slaanesh is at their most dangerous when it comes to the Aeldari souls. Your entire childhood was dedicated to strict discipline, psychic warding and setting you up for a Path, while keeping a very ascetic and monastic setting, not to give the daemonic powers any chance. Also, you were required to participate in exercises about daemon detection and combat from early on, preparing you for the worst. +5 Willpower and +5 BS, Tgh or Per

Exodite - you were born in a band, tribe or kingdom on a Maiden World belonging to those who count as country bumpkins among the Aeldari. Living a nomadic hunter-gatherer life that saw little conflict yet producing some of the best warriors among the Aeldari, you spent your childhood helping the adults hunt, farm and fight, most often in ritualistic or sportslike setting, always gathering around the bonfire after the end of a day and listening to the stories of the elders about how their once great ancestors destroyed themselves with vanity and endless pursuit of hedonism. +5 Strength and +5 WS, T or WP

Raised in Commorragh - details of your birth remain a mystery, however the first memories you can remember is of being raised up as a street urchin tied to one of the Kabals in Commorragh. Survival wasn't easy, luckily you were an observant child, quickly learning to know your place and emulate your betters, be it their deviousness or combat prowess, allowing you to survive to adulthood without major incident. +5 Perception and +5 WS, Agi or Int

Former Aspect Warrior - you are a veteran of many skirmishes and campaigns, serving your craftworld dutifully, before stopping short of losing yourself on the Path in a rather traumatic bout of fate. You spent the last hundred or more years actively unlearning and coping with all the things you went through in your Path of the Warrior, essentially starting your entire life completely over. When you finally found inner peace you were called to duty again. While you have managed to forget a lot of the horrors of the past, you also lost most of your skills during the many years of never picking up a weapon. +5 BS and +5 WS

Outcast - a child born among Corsair fleets and rangers, not an unwelcome surprise, but also likely not the best setting for an Aeldari child to be in. Despite this, the adults in charge managed to muster some responsibility and raise you well according to the ways of Aeldari that would protect your soul from Slaanesh, even if a bit skewed towards the shenanigans of the Outcast kin. Surrounded by many an Aeldar who you considered your uncle or your aunt, it was only a matter of time until someone started secretly showing you how to use their Shuriken old reliable. You were also encouraged from early on to participate in going-ons of the voidship, often helping around with menial labour. +5 BS and +5 Str, Fel or Wil

Factions:

Rather than having large segmented departments that define a given citizen’s entire life and career path while also being their own self-contained kingdoms that compete with each other for resources and standing with the powers that be of the Imperium, Aeldari have much more harmonious and cooperative social structure where any given group does not override the interests of the group at large, every member working together in a symbiotic kind of way, while factional differences lie in another dimension compared to Imperium politics. As such, rather than having a career-as-a-faction system for Imperial citizens, Aeldari have a separation between the general factions and their roles in those factions. Essentially, the thing you get out of one of the factions is influence, while having to choose between different ways of life your character took before the adventures.

"Careers" common to all three factions:

Exiled Exodite Exodites are the descendants of those Aeldari that chose to isolate themselves on Maiden Worlds to avoid whatever disaster their kin were headed into with their hedonistic and rapacious lifestyles, moving far away from the core worlds of the Aeldari empire that existed before the Fall. This foresight saved them from the catastrophe that followed the birth of Slaanesh and their approach to life, away from the galactic politics and maintaining spiritual health through attunement with their worlds and avoiding most of the technology that allowed Aeldari to enjoy all the benefits of a post-scarcity society, allowed them to sustainably exist for many millennia without the extremely strict limitations of the Paths. While rarely faring outside their worlds and avoiding technology that enabled the same hedonistic excess that led to the Fall, they are by no means primitive or ignorant, often readily maintaining contact with their Craftworld cousins, acknowledging that their ultimate aims align. The player is an Exodite who, for one reason or another, was sent away from their world and joined one of the bigger factions, while continuing to maintain their Exodite culture and way of life. Regardless whether you committed a grievous crime, yearned for a life beyond your world or were sent on a mission by your elders, this essentially amounted to an exile, and if you ever return to your world it will take a long time until you become a familiar face among your kin again. Attributes: +5 Strength, +5 Agility, +5 Willpower or +5 Toughness Skill Advances: 1 Melee, 1 Intuition (Surroundings), 1 Athletics, 1 Fortitude, 1 Navigation (Surface). Talent: Familiar Terrain (Nature) or Well-Prepared. Items: Staff, Exodite Boneplate and Helmet, Backpack, Survival Gear, Rune of Space.

Drukhari Outcast Whether you were born among the Craftworlders and chose to tread the Path of Damnation or simply found your home in Commorragh after being exiled or captured. All in all, you were brought into the Drukhari society with all its vileness and excesses, managing to rise above the slaves and riffraff. However, living in these conditions never sat right with you for some reason, whether you acknowledged the excesses and cruelty of your kin, were afraid for your soul, craved for adventure among a more diverse kind of crowd or were persuaded by Ynnari cults to join their crusade to wake up Ynnead. One way or another you managed to make yourself tolerated if not welcome among one of the other major groups and set to a path of some kind of redemption, at the cost of your status and possessions within the workings Commorragh. Additionally, you being embraced among the other Aeldari and protected from the Slaanesh’s clutches, has afforded you to regain some of the long numbed psychic senses. However, Drukhari do not tolerate desertion lightly, especially if that means cavorting with their Craftworld cousins, meaning that any band of Drukhari recognizing your betrayal will not be very welcoming at all. Attributes: +5 Toughness, +5 Agility or +5 Willpower Skill Advances: 1 Melee (One-Handed), 1 Presence, 1 Reflexes, 1 Lore (Forbidden, Drukhari), Intuition (People) Talent: Gallows Humour or Exploit Vulnerability Items: Venom Blade, Kabalite Chestpiece and Helmet, Excruciator Kit, Wraithbone Amulet

Seer Usually those who take Path of the Seer, also known as the Path of the Witch, which is the longest, most treacherous, most complex, and rarest of all paths. The Spiritseers are specialists in the handling of spirit stones for the raising of the Wraithguards and Wraithlords. The Warlocks previously underwent the Path of the Warrior and now lead the Eldar into battle. The Farseers are lost upon the path of the Seer, and are the most powerful Eldar psykers of all. Bonesingers are Seers who use their psychic talents to manipulate the growth of Wraithbone. The player, on the other hand, should be someone who had only just begun their life on this path, having to disconnect with whatever other path they led in life and focus on learning to control and exploit their nascent psychic powers. Attributes: +5 Willpower, +5 Intelligence Skill Advances: 1 Psychic Mastery, 1 Psychic Mastery (spec choice), 1 Discipline (Psychic), 2 Advances between Rapport (Charm), Presence (Intimidation), Lore and Intuition Talent: Psyker and Diplomat Items: Set of Aeldari Robes (Ornamental), Witch Staff, Anchoring Rune, Rune of Time, Wraithbone Amulet

Ranger Those are those among the Aeldari who either cannot cope with their lives so strictly constrained by the Paths or sometimes take up the mantle of an outcast to better serve their craftworld in time of need. These wanderers travel around the galaxy, often employed as scouts and knowledge gatherers for their respective craftworlds, but also sometimes joining corsair fleets or even Ynnari. They usually survive alone, learning to live on their own and hidden amongst many other species that populate the galaxy, exploring far and wide and never staying at one place too long. The player should be a moderately experienced ranger, satisfying their wanderlust and exploring the secrets of the galaxy or performing a certain duty for their respective faction, not having been able to stay on any other path for a long time. Attributes: +5 Agility and either +5 Perception or +5 Toughness Skill Advances: 1 Fortitude, 1 Dexterity, 1 Ranged (Long Guns), 1 Stealth (Hide), 1 Awareness Talent: Well-Prepared or Secret Identity (Infractionist) Items: Ranger Rifle, Aeldari Jumpsuit or Heavy Jumpsuit, Backpack, Cloak of Shadows

Mariner Those Asuryani who embark upon the Path of the Mariner serve as the crewmen and officers of their home craftworld's fleet of starships. Important to both civilian and military endeavours of Aeldari, they are entrusted with the art of piloting an Aeldari voidship, learning how to interact with its psychoactive interfaces, but also learning the more technical side of controlling voidships and navigating through the void. Those who seek this Path out often wish to see the sights of the galaxy and satisfy their wanderlust, which also often leads to Mariners joining Corsair fleets, that never pass on services of experienced and dedicated voidship crew members. Attributes: +5 Agility, +5 Perception Skills: 1 Navigation, 1 Navigation (Void), 1 Piloting (Minor Voidship), 1 Reflexes, 1 Intuition Talent: Void Legs Items: Aeldari Jumpsuit or Heavy Jumpsuit, Shuriken Pistol, Aeldari Space Glove, Grav Boots, Nightseers

Craftworlds

Path of Awakening It is a path in which Eldar learn how to analyze their surroundings. Those trained on this path can notice things that would seem insignificant or impossible to see, even to a normal Eldar. The Path of Awakening is one of the first Paths many young Aeldari choose to take, as they're overwhelmed with choice of all they can do in the world. This Path involves rigorous training of senses, keen investigation of one's surroundings, spiritual meditation and learning complex patterns. In a way these Aeldari learn to learn all about the crafts that they could then take upon. While not trained for any specific skill, some of the exercises they do might give them an edge in some tasks. Attributes: +5 Perception, +5 Intellect Skill Advances: 1 Intuition (Surroundings), 3 Awareness (any specialization, can be several), 1 in either Dexterity (Lock Picking) or Linguistics (Cipher) Talent: Acute Sense or Ever Vigilant Items: Set of Aeldari Robes, Sensory runestone, Wraithbone Dagger, Aeldari Lens, Nightseers

Path of the Scholar Asuryani Scholars are those Aeldari who find fulfillment only in mastering academic knowledge, often choosing a specific area they want to be expert with and then passing this knowledge along to other Aeldari who are traveling this Path or who wish to benefit from understanding the discipline, but many others are not satisfied with only one area of knowledge or instead choose generalist knowledge, focusing on perfecting the process of study itself. Asuryani on the Path of the Scholar includes all those of their kind who search for, create, unravel or transmit knowledge, including teachers, librarians, philosophers, scientific researchers, archaeologists, loremasters etc. Attributes: +5 Intellect, +5 Perception, Willpower or Fellowship Skill Advances: 1 Linguistics (High Gothic or Forbidden), 3 Lore (any specialization including forbidden as long as plausible, can be several), 1 in either Logic (Investigation) or Rapport (Inquiry) Talent: Eidetic Memory or Academic Items: Set of Aeldari Robes, Wraithbone Dagger, Writing Kit, Wraithbone Amulet, Memory Crystal

Path of Service The Path of Service is a Path in which Asuryani give themselves over to the service of their kin and the good of their craftworld, finding in such activity both spiritual fulfillment and the knowledge that the labour they do is necessary for their society to continue to thrive. Though most of a craftworld's economy is fully automated, there are still some personal services that require physical labour and expert but dull technical knowledge, and it is to these tasks that those who tread the Path of Service seek to apply themselves. Asuryani take up the Path of Service out of the same sense of duty that inspires others of their kind to take up the more militant Paths. Attributes: +5 Agility, +5 Intellect Skill Advances: 1 Tech (Engineering), 1 Tech (Security), 1 Dexterity (Defuse), 1 Logic (Evaluation), 1 in either Rapport (Haggle) or Rapport (Inquiry) Talent: Attentive Assistant or Devoted Servant Items: Set of Aeldari Robes, Backpack, Aeldari Multi-Tool, Aeldari Data Pad, Signal Interceptor, Rune of Time, Psyelectric Crystal

Path of the Healer The Path of the Healer is pursued by those Asuryani who find spiritual satisfaction in bringing living things back to full wellness. Often taken by the more empathetic of their kind, Asuryani Healers learn all about biological functions required for life of an Aeldar, learning all the same things educated Imperial Chirurgeons do about human biology, but without the baggage of fanatical dogma. While they use a range of psychoactive instruments and the more expert Healers use the full spectrum of psychic powers to treat their patients, the novice Healers begin with learning to conduct the most complex surgeries with the simplest of instruments. This Path includes all physicians, surgeons and what Humans might consider biomedical researchers. Attributes: +5 Intellect, +5 Willpower Skill Advances: 2 Medicae (Human), 1 Medicae (Augmentations), 1 Dexterity, 1 Reflexes (Balance) Talent: Chirurgeon or Field Medicae Items: Set of Aeldari Robes, Aeldari Surgeon Kit, Attunement runestone, Healing Runes (5), Aeldari Data Pad

Corsairs

Maverick The Corsair pilots are usually found among those piratical Asuryani and Drukhari who love the thrill of high-speed chases, vehicle duels and overall mayhem, but lack patience, discipline and theoretical know-how needed to control a voidship, preferring up-and-close personal approach to vehicle combat, unlike that of the spacious void. Most often they operate surface support vehicles that allow them to get up much more close and personal than the much more  strategic and slow void combat, such as jetbikes or nightwings. Though much more adept at piloting their favored vehicle, they are also proficient in personal combat as well as carry some general technical knowledge. Attributes: +5 Agility and either +5 Perception or +5 Ballistic Skill Skill Advances: 1 Piloting, 1 Piloting (Military or Aeronautica), 3 Advances in Melee, Ranged, Reflexes, Intuition, Tech Talent: Extended Proprioception Items: Craftworlder or Kabalite Chestpiece, Corsair Sabre, Shuriken Pistol, Aeldari Multi-Tool, Aeldari Lascutter

Kurnite Hunter Followers of the Eldar God of the Hunt Kurnous among their piratical kin, these Aeldari share a special bond with animals on whom they rely for scouting, hunting and companionship during their numerous religious hunts that they accompany the Corsair fleets for. Specifically, they share a special bond with their pet Faolchús and often bring them into their adventures. These smart and perceptive hunting birds are often used to uncover foes and objects that are hidden from the Hunter's sight, detect ambushes and find concealed items and also are able to sense psychic presences. Apart from being proficient in animal bonding, these Hunters are also often utilized as scouts or ambushers for their advanced skill set that aids them in their hunts. Attributes: +5 Perception and either +5 Agility, +5 Fellowship or +5 Willpower Skill Advances: 1 Rapport (Animal), 1 Medicae (Animal), 3 Advances in Ranged, Melee, Navigation (Tracking), Awareness Talent: Animal Connection Items: Faolchú, Aeldari Jumpsuit or Heavy Jumpsuit, Shuriken Pistol or Corsair Sword, Sensory runestone

Swashbuckler Sometimes the rigid constraints of the Eldar Path are intolerable even for an Eldar to bear; such individuals leave their Craftworlds and become known as Outcasts, often either joining Corsair Fleets or treading their own paths in the galaxy. Those who join the Corsairs are often young, inexperienced and impressionable Aeldari, doing it for the thrill of adventure, new emotional experiences and battle experience on a level never seen among the Craftworlders, becoming deadly raiders, flamboyant adventurers and underhanded tacticians, often treading dangerously close to the Path of Damnation or losing their souls to Slaanesh. The Swashbucklers are usually found among the Corsair raiding parties, expert in sudden attacks, hit and run tactics, boarding enemy vehicles and quickly overwhelming enemy defenses. Attributes: +5 Weapon Skill and either +5 Ballistic Skill, +5 Fellowship or +5 Toughness Skill Advances: 1 Melee (One Armed), 1 Ranged, 3 Advances in Presence (Leadership or Intimidation), Rapport (Charm), Fortitude, Dexterity, Reflexes Talent: Hit and Run or Slippery Items: Void Sabre, Shuriken or Splinter Pistol, Craftworlder or Kabalite Chestplate, Corsair jet pack

Ynnari

Wych Cultist Wyches, also known as Hekatarii, are gladiatorial warriors of the Drukhari, many of whom abandoned their life in Commorragh to serve the quest to resurrect the Ynnead, often deserting from their Wych Cults, although entire Wych Cults joining the Ynnari cause is not unheard of. Often chosen from promising candidates among either the Commorragh residents or those captive or visiting Aeldari that proved themselves worthy in the arena, Wyches spend most of their lives fighting in duels with one another and with various captured aliens and beasts, leaving those who survive with invaluable experience and real viciousness, making Wyches highly proficient at close-quarters combat. Abandoning your Cult for the Ynnari, however, did not leave you without consequences, as your vengeful and paranoid kin would hunt you down with fervour if they recognized you. Attributes: +5 Weapon Skill and either +5 Agility, +5 Toughness or +5 Strength Skill Advances: 1 Melee (One Armed), 1 Reflexes (Dodge), 3 Advances in Ranged (Pistols), Athletics, Fortitude, Intuition, Presence (Intimidation or Interrogation) Talent: Duellist or Frenzy Items: Wychblade, Wychsuit, Excruciator Kit, Nightseers, Splinter pistol

Reborn Whether you were a resident of a Craftworld, Maiden World or Commorragh, the past of barely surviving and hiding from the foes that wish to eradicate your people is behind you, as the Aeldari finally have a chance to break through the status-quo by obtaining salvation and freedom in the form of the Seventh Path and resurrecting Ynnead. However, for this monumental task all hands are required to assist the Ynnari on their crusade against Slaanesh, but there are many of those too stubborn, too afraid or too greedy for power to listen. Once induced into the Ynnari you dedicated yourself to spreading the word of Ynnead to the more distant and ignorant of the Craftworlders and Exodites, as well as secretly preaching to the Drukhari, whose powers that be treating the preachings as direct assault on their power. Attributes: +5 Fellowship and either +5 Willpower, +5 Intelligence or +5 Toughness Skill Advances: 1 Rapport (Charm), 1 Presence (Leadership), 3 Advances in Intuition (People), Lore, Rapport (any), Presence Talent: Faithful (Ynnari) or Unflinching Presence Items: Set of Aeldari Robes, Corsair Sabre, Aeldari Icon (Ynnead, any skill), Rune of Space, Telepath Amulet

Spirit Guardian One of the important tasks in the monumental struggle that is to release the Aeldari from Slaanesh’s vile clutches is recovery of the Spirit Stones, lost to thousands years of war across all of the galaxy and bring them back into the saving grace of the Ynnari, as they bring about a chance for salvation. Once joining the Ynnari, your superiors noticed you had a special connection to the dead, being attuned to the voices, thoughts and emotions of the souls of kin long gone, managing to communicate with the souls inside of Spirit Stones more easily that most others, often bringing clarity and focus to the otherwise ethereal beings inside of the stones. As such you were tasked with a special task, often traveling to dead, wild or Imperium occupied worlds and recovering the spirit stones, either lost in the ancient ruins of conflicts long past or stashed away by ignorant humans in their trophy rooms. Attributes: +5 Willpower and either +5 Agility, +5 Toughness or +5 Ballistic Skill Skill Advances: 1 Rapport (Inquiry), 1 Ranged (Pistols), 3 Advances in Navigation, Fortitude, Intuition, Discipline, Stealth Talent: Commune with the Spirits Items: Aeldari Jumpsuit or Heavy Jumpsuit, Shuriken Pistol, Wraithbone Dagger, Wraithbone Amulet, Psychic Jammer

Source: https://twitter.com/MusketAnna or https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vuijroklprtei2lpkuxc44pk

Patrons:

Universal

Pathfinder

Pathfinders are some of those Rangers who walked Path of the Outcast for centuries if not millenia. While not necessarily lost on this Path and having successfully resisted all temptations and the dangers of Chaos, they still feel the call to travel across the wide galaxy, not being able to re-integrate in Aeldari society. Despite this, they still maintain connections and loyalties with their kin, often assisting young Rangers who have just embarked on their Path, while also aiding the larger factions by being some of the most proficient scouts, spies and assassins. While not harbouring any serious institutional power in factions they hail from, they are individually very influential and have connections all across the galaxy, including some of the non-Aeldari species.

Duty Boon:

Mysterious Harlequin

The Harlequins are  a truly ancient remnant of the Aeldari Empire, that persist to this day and age with the help of the god Cegorach, who hid their followers in the impossible labyrinth of the Webway. Mystics, artists, musicians, dancers and acrobats, they unsuccessfully tried to stall the hedonism that led to the Fall, having to learn to be proficient at combat as they were persecuted by their kin in response. Arcane and mysterious, little is known what drives these Aeldari, however, after the Fall, they do indeed fulfill many important tasks to aid the course of survival of their species and defeating Slaanesh. Some of the things they do is travel all across the galaxy, performing strange theatrical acts that warn the audience of the tragedies that befall those who answer the call of Chaos, such as the Fall of the Aeldari, but also they often act as spies, assassins and guardians of ancient relics upon a request for aid from any of the Aeldari that their Masque finds fancy. You don’t really know who this Mysterious Harlequin is and why they took an interest in you, one day they just appeared in your life and through coercion, persuasion, blackmail, reward or life saving aid you became indebted to them. Far from understanding the ultimate purpose of your tasks or the mind of their issuer, you at least can find comfort that in doing so you advance the goal of fighting Chaos, preserving ancient history from ne'er-do wells or aiding the Aeldari.

Duty Boon: Cegorach’s Blessing

Wandering Scholar

Those who tread Path of the Scholar sometimes become akin to those who walk the Path of the Outcast, exchanging their wanderlust for unquenchable thirst for knowledge and understanding in the world that can see you killed or corrupted for it. Not satisfied with being confined to a laboratory or only ever going out on the expeditions when the powers that be allow it, a Wandering Scholar chooses to abandon the comforts of their home and, often employing the aid of Rangers and Corsairs in exchange for their invaluable expertise and precious artifacts, explore the deepest corners of the galaxy, recording new flora, fauna, intelligent species, discovering ancient artifacts, new philosophical forms of thought, technology, while also always keeping their kin in mind, actively sharing the information that could advance the goals of the Aeldari with those who has the best potential to wield it. While not powerful in personal combat or holding major institutional power, they are very expert in nearly every field of knowledge as well as racked up quite a lot of favors in their hundreds of years of travels.

Duty Boon: Archeologist

Craftworld

Farseer

The Farseer caste is often seen as synonymous with the influence and spiritual strength any given Craftworld holds. Some of the strongest psykers in the entire galaxy, these arcane Aeldari are also the engines of the decision-making processes that rule the remnants of the once great Aeldari Empire, with Autarchs being their grinding gears. Lost on the Path of the Seer, these Aeldari are so far removed from the material world, some of the more ignorant species who had the chance of seeing them up close and not losing their life aren’t sure they are even truly alive anymore. Following multiple threads of fate and seeing many of the horrors that might occur in the future if the right course is not taken, they are dedicated to manipulating the current events to ensure an acceptable outcome, to the point they sometimes lose all empathy and even common sense in the process, almost blinded to the reality by the many visions and plans to act upon them they hold in their mind.

Duty Boon: Prophecy

Spirit Seer

The Spirit Seers are the guardians of spiritual health of dead Aeldari souls, sometimes also acting as part-time necromancers. Feared and sometimes despised, they are masters to all matters that pertain to the Infinity Circuit, the spirit stones and also are guardians of certain relics that protect the souls of both living and dead Aeldari from the corruption of Chaos. As watchers of one of the most important parts of each given Craftworld and are crucial to the preservation of the species that embark upon Craftworlds, they hold nearly as much influence as Farseers. Actively communicating with the dead, they sometimes forget how to deal with the living, however they also tend to have access to an insurmountable amount of history, experience and knowledge. The reason they’re often despised, however, is that they sometimes use their powers to create Wraith constructs - biomechanical constructs that house the souls of the fallen Aeldari, an atrocity in the eyes of most of their kin. As holders of such an important title, Spirit Seers tend to be quite autonomous and seek the help of others to recover spirit stones, gather lore and technology that would advance their mission of communicating with the dead and calm dead souls by doing tasks that remain unfinished by the original agent.

Duty Boon: Wraithbone Salvation

Warlock

While most of the Aeldari Seers constrain their powers for the purposes of divination and telepathy, not risking getting them out of control in the midst of battle, some rare Seers start honing their powers to be less peaceful and much more destructive. After rigorous and long training, these rare Seers then become Warlocks, learning how to control their powers to efficiently destroy their foe, deploy battle runes and use force weapons, while leading Guardians into battle. Nearly always, Warlocks are among those Seers who perfected the Path of the Warrior before embarking upon Path of the Seer, thus being able to control their violent impulses and maintain cool, while engaging in a battle using both their weapons and psychic powers, and also commanding large units of troops and utilising powers of divination to predict the moves of the enemy. These Aeldari are widely respected for their powers and while also being much more grounded than their Farseer brethren, making others, especially those on the Path of the Warrior, follow them even more readily. As such these Seers are usually much more involved in the military campaigns, expeditions, directly dealing with threats and maintaining structure of command along with Autarchs, with Farseers acting behind the scenes.

Duty Boon: Combat Psyker

Corsairs

Corsair Baron

Corsair Barons are the closest advisors, chiefs and allies of a Corsair Prince, delegated different functions in the machinations of a Corsair Fleet and always wying for power, reputation and the graces of the Prince, perfectly matching some of the human warlords in their ambition, avarice and lust for glory. While much more united than most piratical bands of other species, Corsair fleets are still the places where ambitions clash and hot hearts unleash their prowess, sometimes upon each other, with the most cunning and goal-oriented rising above ranks to become Barons, ultimately hoping to become a Prince of their own fleet themselves. To that goal, they usually tend to stop at very little, almost approaching in deviousness to their Drukhari cousins, and readily applying themselves in various forms of intrigue, warfare and backroom-dealing, going as far as employing other species as mercenaries and even dealing with the corrupt Imperial administrators, before usually betraying them or extorting every material thing from them. While not immediately trustworthy, those piratical lords still respect prowess, cunning and ambition quite a lot, making them more amicable than their Craftworld cousins in some ways.

Duty Boon: Voidship

Felarch

Felarchs are the leaders of the Corsair warbands, forsaking any ambition for the power of the rank and instead focusing on fully satisfying their lust for battle, adventure, exploration and fellowship, ultimately winning the respect and loyalty of their brethren that trust them to lead them in battle, lead their expeditions and create opportunities for an epic adventure. While not nearly as immediately influential as the Prince and his immediate cronies, Felarchs enjoy quite the autonomy in the fleet, often not asking for permission before engaging their band in an adventure that they lead their own way. This usually results in Felarchs setting on many different and dangerous tasks, which they do with a diverse range of methods, very often unorthodox for Aeldari, sometimes even banding with human and Xenos pirates that very rarely manage to win their respect.

Duty Boon: Second Adventure

Rogue Dracon

Dracons are the Kabal commanders, second only to Archon, serving as his advisors and as field commanders of Kabal’s forces. Not always satisfied with their position and opportunities within the vicious and lethal political web of lies and manipulation that permeates Commorragh, many Drukhari choose to join Corsair fleets, even to the extent that they abandon the Path of Damnation, while still being off-limit to the Craftworlds due to either distrust or their own unwillingness to take up on rigid system of the Paths. Rarily, entire bands within a Kabal have been known to desert to the Corsair fleet, often spurred on by their Dracon by the promises of battles, riches and power, usually incurring wrath of an Archon or because of Archon wanting their second gone in the first place. While usually, somewhat less sadistic and more unorthodox than their Drukhari brethren, often enjoying the benefits of working with the Craftworlders among the Corsairs, these are still very cruel and violent people, stopping at nothing to achieve their own personal ambitions and seeing others as ultimately disposable, respecting those capable of reliably following orders however. 

Duty Boon: Sow Terror

Ynnari

Succubus

A Wych Cult is a prestigious and autonomous organization among those in Commorragh, that is formed around ritualistic fights and blood sacrifices performed by Wyches, some of the most talented Drukhari in all that concerns personal combat and hit-and-run tactics. These are led by the Succubi that count among the most dangerous fighters and assassins in the entire Commorragh, if not all of the Aeldari. Although Wych Cults and their extreme bloodlust were born out of the sadistic and murderous landscape of the Commorragh, they never rightly fit into the weave of political intrigue that was permeated on all levels of Drukhari society, always preferring direct and in a way honest conflict to manipulation and skullduggery in an almost idealistic kind of way. It was perhaps this incompatibility that led many Wyches to desert to the Ynnari cause, creating major upheaval among the Commorragh elites, as entire Cults have left to fight for Ynnead. The Succubi of such cults, incidentally, often became less sadistic influenced by their more moderate brethren among the Ynnari, more practical as they now had a defined goal and bolstered with resolve more than ever now that their bloodlust, savagery and murder serves a greater purpose of saving their entire species.

Duty Boon: Kiss of the Succubus

Visarch’s Agent

The Visarch, also known as the Sword of Ynnead, is Yvraine’s personal bodyguard and second-in-command, aiding her in matters of military strategy and tactics. As he followed Yvraine along her various expeditions and campaigns to resurrect Ynnead, he had to delegate the matters of military, security and intelligence across the vast expanses of galaxy to many of his personal agents that were tasked with ensuring that no threat to the Ynnari quest for salvation remains anywhere in the galaxy by the more direct means. Often sent along with Yvraine’s personal envoys as their protectors and equals in the matters of organizing Ynnari missions in any given area, these Aeldari come from a vast variety of backgrounds, with their past long forgotten and they themselves dedicated to one mission. They will organize raids, eliminate dangerous targets, gather data on military installations in any given area, sometimes even resorting to quite unorthodox methods, such as employing Drukhari mercenaries or bribing officials of Astra Militarum. Despite working for the common goal and being equals in a given area, however, these agents are not invulnerable in differences of vision and arguments about how to proceed, often clashing with those, who prefer more diplomatic if not extremely backhanded tactics, while trying to moderate some of the more fanatical brethren.

Duty Boon: Blessing of Khaine

Envoy of Yvraine

Yvraine is an extremely powerful Aeldar who acts as the emissary to Ynnead and the ultimate leader of the Ynnari faction. As she travels across the galaxy, doing all in her power to save her species from very slow but extinction, she delegates the tasks of fostering relationships with other Aeldari, spying on the potential enemies of the cause, recovering any useful resource or artifact that could aid her and collecting all possible knowledge that could make Seventh Path a reality and bring salvation. Rarely coming from martial combat, these envoys are usually concerned with religious, spiritual, logistical and scientific goals of the Ynnari cause, often being far more religiously observant in ways that underscores the sometimes rather macabre outlook on life and death. They will stop at nothing to help Yvraine on this quest, to the point that they sometimes ally with other Xenos and even the Imperium agents to further their goals and also push back the forces of Chaos wherever they could.

Duty Boon: Guidance of the Dead

Rewards

Aeldari live in a by-large post-scarcity society, however their society doesn’t look past wasteful behavior and would always seek justification for needing some of the less common items. To simulate the Aeldari economics in a simple manner a system that represents the goodwill your party has with the quartermasters of your Patron’s faction that gives you credit equivalent in Imperial solars to get equipment based on the price tables for items below. This credit is party-wide and also should be separate from the actual solars each individual has on their person. Otherwise you have a similar payment grade as you would with Imperial Patrons, with the amount of solars per day in the credit doubled, however if you’d like to convert that into actual solars, your credit point equivalent must be quartered. In this way, your Patron will provide you access to their faction’s supply roughly equivalent to their assessment of your job being well done or not, while getting actual Imperial currency in bulk may be not as trivial for Aeldari without counterfeiting. Additionally, at the start of the game you always start with 4000 credit with the Patron’s faction.

New Boons

Archeologist - your Patron is a renowned artifact hunter who believes that ancient relics belong in a (Craftworld) museum, but doesn’t mind your party possessing them, if they cannot reach those themselves, for whatever reason. The Patron gives you coordinates of a special ancient undiscovered, hidden or well-protected location that might house unique or exotic stuff, with certain dangers involved, naturally, but also very worth it, while also arranging transport to its general area.

Benevolence - your Patron believes your party deserves a little treat or maybe they’re being patronizing and don’t believe you’ll succeed without extra aid. In any case, the Patron will go an extra mile making sure your party is well equipped. You get a 10% (minimum, rounded up) discount for each point of the highest Influence that your Patron has with any of the factions.

Black Library Secrets - your Patron somehow has access to the biggest and the most mysterious of the knowledge repositories in the known universe and is allowed to carry some of that knowledge back with themselves, alive. Between missions, you can meet with your Patron and choose any 4 specialized skills, including forbidden and rare knowledge, that will be available for 20 Experience discount.

Cegorach’s Blessing - your Patron carries special favor with the Aeldari Laughing God and they can petition their God to gaze upon you and your misadventures. Once per mission and per player, any character who does something very stupidly impressive can restore a burned Fate point, regardless of if they succeed or not, as long as they make Cegorach laugh. The action must be determined and provided as a chance by the GM, and should be something irrational, borderline demented and unlikely to end well for the character or their entire party.

Call In Favour - your Patron carries favor with an influential person that is willing to lend you a hand on their behalf, however interpersonal mistrust, jealousy or apathy exposes you to the less pleasant sides of that individual. You can choose a non-duty boon of another Patron once per mission, however you will suffer a randomly chosen Liability of that Patron as well, which the GM might withhold for a later unpleasant surprise or make known and conditional for receiving the Boon.

Corsair Adventurers - your Patron holds sway with a band of Corsairs who owe it to them to aid you in your mission, however they need time to get to you first. GM must roll 1d10 to choose between 1 to 5 days of delay. After that the Corsairs stay in the Area for two weeks and will assist you in any one big battle or invasion of your choice. However, these Aeldari are fickle and do not easily obey orders, and, as such, they are prone to suddenly change priorities and go raid someplace else or execute their own plan of attack.

Combat Psyker - your Patron is a masterful psyker who has used many different forms of psychic powers in combat and is willing to train you and help you hone your skills as a psyker. Between missions you can approach the Patron for aid and they will offer you training in any form of Psychic Mastery specializations, including any custom and exotic powers (as long as it makes sense for them to know those, share those and them not being to unbalanced for gameplay in case of a custom power, for example an Aeldari would never teach you how to summon daemons or toy with Chaos gods). Additionally, during this training you get 15 experience discounts for increasing your skills in Psychic Mastery, Awareness (Psyniscience) and Discipline (Psychic).

Combat Stimulants - once per mission, the Patron provides the party with an amount of combat stimulants equal to thrice the amount of party members. Each combat stimulant can be customized, lasts 4 Rounds and gives the character an Advantage in the two of Fortitude, Melee, Athletics, Discipline, Awareness or Reflexes tests. If a combat stimulant is giving an Advantage to something that is already Advantaged, it gives +1 SL instead.

Classified Information - your Patron has many contacts to different kinds of information that once per mission may assist you, either in form of maps of restricted areas, critical information about your enemies or even blackmail information that you can leverage against an Imperial ranking agent. It is up for players and the GM to agree on the amount and quality of information obtained, however the information should be generally something with restricted access or a relatively well-preserved secret in case of blackmail, enough to intimidate but not enough to completely dominate someone.

Dancing Rune - your Patron can, once per mission, obtain a weird Aeldari rune that contains the psychic energy that manifested during one of the Harlequins many dancing performances. When used, this rune releases psychic energy that induces the urge and the ability to perform wild and acrobatic dancing, which can greatly help during combat. The rune has 10 charges that can be used for each party member that gives them +1 SL to all dodge attempts and Advantage on Reflex tests, lasts 10 minutes/rounds each.

Daemon Vanquisher - your Patron is a famous hunter of daemons and other various servants of Chaos gods and has developed special psychic aids to wither away the powers of nearby Chaos entities. You gain a rune that can be used during 5 different encounters and gives you an Advantage on all tests against Chaos entities and servants.

Divine Intervention - your Patron is a powerful psyker that can redirect the skeins of your fate via future-altering powers of Warp. Once per mission your Patron can save any player’s life once without the player having to burn their Fate points.

Elf Insurance - your Patron has access to the Aeldari medical equipment and psychic powers that can do what amounts to miracles in the majority of Imperium. Any lost limb, organ or critical wound can be healed and restored between missions or when you reach your Patron. Additionally augmetic surgeries are provided free of charge, however you wouldn’t see too much enthusiasm from your Patron to deal with Imperial equipment.

Friendly Rogue Trader - your Patron has saved or cooperated with a Rogue Trader on one of their adventures or, perhaps, the Rogue Trader dynasty owes your Patron some kind of blood debt. In any case. In any case, Rogue Trader and their clout are willing to lend you a hand in your missions, as long as it doesn’t directly interfere with Imperium politics at large and it doesn’t cause any mass casualties among the Imperial citizens. You gain +1 Influence with a minimal starting Influence of 1 (so that the increase counts for players who already have influence with the Rogue Traders) with that particular dynasty, as well as immediate recognition by that dynasty’s servants who will help you out of immediate scrutiny.

Free Jetbike - your Patron can provide your party with the minimal amount of Aeldari jetbikes (that can be refurbished to be less conspicuous for the Imperial citizens) that can carry your entire party. If you lose those jetbikes you can only get new ones from your Patron after the start of a new mission.

Ghost Warrior - your Patron provides you with a special device that uses spirit stones to summon the ghosts of the Aeldari interred inside while tying them to the material realm, assuring their soul isn’t taken by Slaanesh, essentially summoning a ghost to aid the party. The device can be used and obtained once per mission, but must be returned to the Patron shortly after retrieval, which may have to occur during the mission, rather than before it, as such it is best used when you expect big fights or dangerous crawls into enemy territory. The ghost is a psychic apparition that cannot be physically targeted or physically hurt others. Psychic powers however can make it retreat into the device if damage equal to its wounds has been dealt or alternatively if the ghost fails tests against Perils of the Warp. The ghost will stay with you for the duration of your immediate activities within the hostile area, up for a few hours. The ghost warrior is able to use the following psychic abilities: Dread Presence, Dull Pain, Ill Omen, Jinx, Luck, Lull, Soul Sight, Seal Wounds, Spectral Hands, Armour Bane, Forewarning, Deflection, Nightshroud, Psychic Fortitude, Psychic Shriek, Terrifying Visions.

Ghost Current - the players are gifted a unique Ynnari artifact charged through the power of spirit stones that allows its users to lift themselves in the air via psychic means. The artifact can be used without distinct psychic abilities on behalf of the user and comes with 10 charges that can be directed either towards the user or to anyone within the Zone that the user can see. One charge grants one person Flying trait with Normal speed for 10 minutes/rounds each. Can be recharged by the Patron both between and during missions if you happen to rendezvous with them.

Ranger Caches - your Patron is operating a network of rangers and has access to numerous locations to leave equipment for their agents. Once per mission, the player will be directed to item caches with Aeldari equipment in a location a day of distance away from the party’s general area. The cache might be located in an unsafe location with the intent to make it less likely to be reached and found by strangers. Each location contains non-Exotic Aeldari weapons and non-Exotic Aeldari armor amounting to half the party (rounded up) and 4 pieces of non-Exotic Aeldari equipment.

Ranger Mentor - your Patron has been training Rangers the skills they need to survive during their many adventures around the Galaxy for hundreds of years and can offer many tips and tricks that are unknown to many people yet make their lives as Rangers much more manageable. A 20 Experience discount is applied to the following Skills between missions or when you visit your Patron: Athletics (Running, Climbing), Ranged, Ranged (Long Guns), Awareness, Awareness (Sight), Intuition (Surroundings), Navigation (Surface, Tracking), Stealth (All)

Remove Nuisance - your Patron is either a skilled assassin themselves or has access to a network of killers-for-hire, which allows them to assist you in clandestine murder of an enemy inconveniencing your progress. Once per mission, you can choose any reasonable target to be assassinated the next day. Reasonability is determined by that target not being the target of your mission or absolutely crucial to your mission goals, both in terms of aid or interference, and also shouldn’t be too high-ranking or well-protected, on GMs decision. The GM then decides how hard it would be to kill the target and rolls 1d100. A local mid-level bureaucrat should be very easy (10%) to assassinate, a general of the planetary garrison somewhat harder (35%) and an Inquisitor assigned to the planet can pose some issues (65%). Upon success the target is dead and it looks like an accident, if the assassination fails, the target never finds out how close they were to death. Upon failure, you can also spend 1000 of your credit after at least 5 days to attempt the assassination again.

Prophecy - your Patron is a potent psyker with experience in divination and oracular powers, spending a big chunk of their time gazing into the deep corners of the Warp to try and untangle the weaves of fate and observe future events. Once per mission, during or before it begins, you may ask your Patron to use any of the Divination powers with automatic success and additionally use Skeingazer’s Amulet for a player with +2 SL automatically, or, alternatively, only use Skeingazer’s Amulet +4 SL.

Psychic Protection - your Patron has been on the front lines of fighting Chaos for many a decade, where the matter of learning how to resist its insidious Corruption and how to protect their comrades was that of immediate survival. The Patron is familiar with various rituals, psychic therapeutic methods and artifacts that help you resist Corruption. Once per mission all players may use Advantage once on their rolls to resist Corruption and also once on their rolls to resist mutation. Between missions, the Patron may remove 3 points of Corruption from each player.

Psych gas - this special psychically tampered psychedelic gas is a common item within the Harlequin arsenal, to which your Patron has a certain degree of access to that they can provide you with this gas free of charge. Once per mission or before the new one, you may request 4 grenades with psychedelic gas. The grenade fills a part of the Zone with the psychedelic gas that is active for three rounds (can be reduced if there’s strong wind or ventilation). Everyone affected by gas gains the Frenzy condition with Frenzied Momentum addon and additional +1 SL on all Strength checks (+2 in total) and Toughness checks, however since the affected can no longer differentiate between hallucinations and reality, they become hostile to everything in the Zone. Additionally, this gas gives the players Frenzy conditions, but without the SL bonuses and without making other party members your enemies.

Sabotage - your Patron has access to a team of professional saboteurs and has been organizing such missions for a very long time. Once per mission, your Patron can create a large-scale diversion or sabotage, leaving a large area closed off to public and military activities, leaving only Adeptus Arbites and potentially Inquisitorial investigators in that area, but not in any large amount and usually not suspecting a second attack and being very convenient to dispatch of without raising a wider area alarm.

Sow Terror - your Patron has an affinity to cause immeasurable terror among the enemies, military and civilians alike, while not even having to resort to causing mass casualties, preferring surgical actions to instill terror, such as brutally murdering a well-known local bureaucrat or causing various acts of minor but psychologically impactful sabotage. Once per mission the players can choose a general area that will be terrorized. For the duration of the mission, the players get an Advantage on Presence (Intimidation) and Presence (Interrogation) on all tests concerning rank-and-file in that location. Additionally, upon seeing something that reminds them of either the act of terror the Patron inflicted or something equally intimidating the players are doing, the rank-and-file citizens must pass a Challenging (+0) Discipline (Fear) test or become Frightened.

Spy Trainer - your Patron is a master at various espionage activities and is sociable and trusting enough to teach the members of your party the skills they need to fool their enemies, hide from their pursuers and commit various acts of subterfuge around the Galaxy. A 20 Experience discount is applied to the following Skills between missions or when you visit your Patron: Stealth (All), Ranged (Pistols), Melee (Brawl, One-Handed), Rapport (Charm, Deception, Inquiry), Intuition (Group, People), Presence (Interrogation)

Soul Expert - your Patron is an expert on dealing with souls detached from their bodies, both contained in relics such as spirit stones, infinity circuits or other similar artifacts and peering into Warp to contact lost souls that avoided the attention of the Chaos gods. Your Patron provides you an artifact that can capture souls of any non-Aeldari for a week. Additionally the Patron can freely commune with spirits inhabiting spirit stones, will give you great rewards for soul stone recovery determined by the GM, as well as once per mission give you or your weapons bonuses from the spirit stones. The bonuses from spirit stones work in the same vein as the Commune with the Spirits talent, in the case of Spirit Guardian having this Patron they may hold two spirit stone bonuses. The bonuses to the weapons must be determined by the GM in a way that synergises well with the soul in the spirit stone (great melee duellist on a sword), the bonus must make it a pretty strong artifact. However, losing a spirit stone is a catastrophe of a large scale, so the players should be careful.

Join the Raid - your Patron is famous among their people for always seeking combat and conflict with their enemies, often attacking them behind their lines and aiding their allies in the hour of need free of charge. Next raid is particularly important to your Patron and your allies and thus you are invited to join in with the raiding party against Imperium, with your anonymity and transport in and out being guaranteed. Apart from loot in a successful completion you gain +3 Influence with the faction you aided, 8000 in credit, any other reward determined by the GM and -2 Influence (due to mistrust and paranoia towards everyone) with those you raided until the end of the mission.

Masque Cameo - your Patron has an accord with a Harlequin Masque, it’s unknown how they reached it, what they sacrificed or what leverage they managed to obtain, but the servants of the Laughing God are very keen to help your Patron’s endeavors, with full blessing of Cegorach. However, it’s never up to the players to order these mysterious Aeldari around or call them for help, they act on their own accord and often appear in the hardest moments out of nowhere, helping you massacre your enemies and then blowing you a kiss before immediately vanishing out of sight as if they were never there. Once per mission, upon GMs discretion (should be at least somewhat random and reserved for extreme circumstances), a Harlequin appears to aid the party in combat encounters which the party is extremely likely to lose, either because they’re completely outnumbered or get seriously damaged during one. They stay until 1d3 strongest enemies (as determined by the sum of their health, armor and damage of their weapons) are dead while focusing mostly on them (unless defending from another enemy attacking them), then disappear as suddenly as they have arrived.

Martial Tutor - your Patron has been training warriors many skills necessary to survive in combat against many types of enemies that can be found around the Galaxy, expertly and quickly turning fresh recruits into deadly killing machines. A 20 Experience discount is applied to the following Skills between missions or when you visit your Patron:

Mercenaries - your Patron is acquainted with a dubious Adeptus Administratum bureaucrat that had been manipulating two noble houses in the Macharian Sector to wage war against each other over some gravel quarry mining worlds. This shady character has immediate access to some of the best mercenaries one can find in the sector and your Patron can arrange a visit from them to aid you in your mission. Once per mission you can call upon the mercenaries to grant you a squad equal to the party size that will stay with you for a day or more if this is a protracted battle/encounter/crawl. You can choose which mercenaries will arrive, from the following selection:

Nightwing Raid - your Patron has access to a small fleet of Nightwings and their pilots with the ability to quickly navigate them to your vicinity. Once per mission, you can call a single Nightwing strike that, in absence of a larger and more dangerous enemy it can focus fire upon, will target up to 3 enemies with a Ranged 60 skill Lancer weapon. 

Hideout Network - your Patron is well-traveled and has a plenty of experience having to hide from trouble, angry locals or enemies obsessively going after them. The Patron has a vast network of hideout locations, scattered all around important locations and planets and they will share those to help you succeed on your mission. Every large general area that is important to your current mission has a conveniently located hideout that no one knows of except you and your Patron. Additionally, you can run a Scarce Availability test for any general area to determine if there’s a hideout there, however, unlike the mandatory hideouts, these may be located in really inconvenient or outright dangerous places.

Holo-suit - this suit is a special psychically activated piece of Aeldari equipment equivalent in stats to Aeldari Heavy Jumpsuit, mostly used by the Harlequins, that uses holographic projections to obscure your visage, makes you look like a storm of fractal pieces or prismatic colors, appearing in sizes that are larger or smaller than your actual body, making it appear moving chaotically and in every possible direction at once. You may get one per mission and additional ones with 15% Availability test per each player. The suits are rigged to be able to be used by non-Aeldari and have psychoactive runes that allow non-psykers to activate them. These suits grant you +2 SL to any tests involving dodging or parrying as long as you moved your position during that round.

Kiss of the Succubus - your Patron is a Succubus, fortunately for you they are completely devoted to the Ynnari cause and have moderated their methods and requirements if only a little. However, there is still many a foul tradition and ritual that Wyches do routinely to enhance their body and mind during combat, those rituals being as sacred and individual to each Cult as they are borderline alien to even other Drukhari. Despite this, your Patron is willing to conduct one such ritual with the players between missions, which involves them getting together with the Patron in a private chamber, only to return after bouts of painful screaming and other weird noises covered in blood, looking moderately traumatized and holding no memory whatsoever what happened just moments before. This allows players to use Frenzy talent with Frenzied Momentum addon and additional Advantage on all Melee tests upon a successful 1d10 roll on evens (or if GM deems the situation critical) once every 3 days during a mission. You must submit to the ritual again to be able to use it next mission. Additionally you must pass a Challenging (+0) Discipline (Pain) test or you will start the mission with half your Wounds.

Telepathic Secrets - your Patron has been using the powers of Warp to communicate over extreme distances with their allies and enemies alike, having all the necessary knowledge to protect themselves from the powers of Chaos and anyone who would be listening. This knowledge the Patron will readily share with the party’s psykers, allowing them a much more effective communication. Telepathic Link is immediately known to all psykers, while Difficulty becomes Routine (+10), Warp Rating 2 and the Range Extreme. Additionally, once per mission you may roll with Advantage on any of your Telepathy powers and also your Patron has low-key psychic link established with all party members, including non-psykers, and can receive short and abrupt communications as well as generally feel the vibe of what’s going on with the party right that moment.

Trove of Knowledge - the Patron has access to large archives containing diverse and vast specialized knowledge, collected by them for a very long time and they offer you access to it between your missions or when you visit them. A 20 Experience discount is applied to the following Skills between missions or when you visit your Patron: Medicae (All), Lore (All), Linguistics (All), Tech (All), Logic (Evaluation), Navigation (Warp).

Webway Access - your Patron knows their way around a long lost Webway network in the Macharian sector and trusts your party enough to share their knowledge, at least as long as it helps your current mission. You will have access to Webway gates and paths on any planets and large general areas that are important to your mission. Additionally, for any planet you can roll a 20% Availability test and upon a successful Challenging (+0) Rapport (Charm) test the Patron will grant you the information about Webway access to that planet. However, in any case, the Webway gate should be located somewhere rather inconvenient and undiscovered for and by the Imperial forces, which might somewhat complicate your getting there.

Wraithbone Salvation - your Patron is someone who creates, shapes and commands wraithbone constructs powered by spirit stones. As such they can create a specialized and more subtle wraith-construct to assist you on your missions. Once per mission you can summon a Wraithbone construct to assist you in your mission, all Wraith-constructs have the same base stats, but skills and characteristics, as well as weaponry and equipment, can be further changed on the GM’s determination based on what kind of assistance you need. Alternatively, any Aeldar player (and maybe even human depending on how liberal GM with the lore, technically it's not impossible but most likely would be completely unheard of, also would require something akin to a soul stone to temporarily anchor their soul to the material realm, which would be a rather rare artefact) may be resurrected as a wraith-construct, provided you retain their soul stone. As you begin to inhabit the new body, your entire being is fundamentally changed, impacting even your thought and memory. The talents are then migrated as the player’s new stats, attributes revert to baseline if the player had them higher before death or are kept if they were lower than the baseline, the WS, BS, Wil attributes and acquired skills are kept regardless, except 2 Advances reduction for all Reflexes, Dexterity, Piloting and Stealth (but you don’t need special training again to be able to train in those up to the advancements you had before). The equipment for a summonable Wraithbone Construct is not included and Critical Wounds are recalculated.

Wraithbone Craft - you can Commission a special wraithbone artifact or weapon up to your specifications, including custom designs as long as GM deems it balanced, without Availability tests or having to Consult Savant, however the Aeldari equipment that requires any complex interfacing require Awareness(Psyniscience) or Psyker Talent. Any commissioned piece of equipment, even if it follows Aeldari design, will be rigged by the Patron to be able to be used by the non-Aeldari without having to Study them.

Wyches Sabbathical - your Patron commands the respect of a Wych warband and is able to summon them to your aid upon your request, without them additionally killing you and your party, no matter the urge. Once per mission you can summon a band of Wyches equal to half the number of players (rounded up) to stay a week in your general location and which you can summon to any one large engagement or invasion. However you must exercise care, as these Wyches will proceed to kill all of your enemies in efficient and brutal ways and must be convinced to stand down when needed. Additionally, they are a bit fickle and if not given anything to kill they may wander off somewhere close and engage in combat with random enemies (as long as they are evenly matched of course).

Woe to the Conquered - your Patron’s skill in combat exceeds mere motoric skills necessary to wield a gun or a sword and is rooted in the deep psychological attitude they take with them to their fights, nearly indoctrinating themselves to fight like there’s no day after. The Patron is able to teach you a very special battle trance technique coupled with a special chant that will send fear into the hearts of your enemies while making you seem like a rabid force of nature. However, using this technique must be done in tandem by the party and is exhausting in a way that a repeat attempt without some meditative rest will fail to produce a similar effect, given that you are a beginner in such techniques. You can use this technique once every day, in any given encounter all enemies must roll a Hard (-20) Discipline (Fear) test not to become Frightened of you.

New Liabilities

Archon's Vendetta - your Patron has enacted some long-needed justice on a particularly mean and vengeful Archon. The Archon will not let this slide and will take on every opportunity to hurt your Patron, which includes hurting their allies and sabotaging their missions, regardless of even if these missions would provide Archon with opportunities. Per GMs discretion, every mission you will encounter acts of sabotage, roadblocks, assassination attempts, attacks by mercenaries or even kabalites, organized for you by the Archon. They should detract the party from their path, however shouldn’t become a secondary mission on their own and should be avoidable.

Arrogant - your Patron is particularly arrogant and likes to very vocally voice their low opinion of everyone, excruciate their allies over minor mistakes and laugh in the face of their enemy over the most inconsequential of their failures. They pretty much managed to personally annoy everyone they met, giving you a disadvantage on Fellowship rolls during any attempt to use their Influence, as well as -1 Influence with every Aeldari faction, except the Patron’s, plus Infractionists, Rogue Traders and Inquisition.

Artifact Collector - your Patron is an avid collector of different artifacts, relics and archeotech and takes interest in whatever valuable and ancient curios their subordinates have collected on their adventures. Between missions your Patron will demand you surrender any Exotic item or any rare and interesting archeological relic that the players have collected during their adventures. If this item is something that the players have bought, Patron will compensate you with the price. If the players refuse to surrender the item, Patron will withdraw the amount of credit equal to the item’s price (with some discounting upon GMs discretion not to make players permanently bankrupt). The Patron will be targeting items that have significant potential for use for the party, however they might be persuaded to take another and potentially useless (but still valuable) relic that the party comes up with.

Banished - your Patron has not been following their Path too diligently or, perhaps, they were pursuing forbidden knowledge, believing in ideas or acting with methods considered unacceptable by Craftworld standards. In any case, your Patron barely values tradition and being careful, often acting like a loose cannon. This has earned your Patron a banishment from some Craftworlds, although this doesn’t at all mean outright hostility or that Patron can’t still help the Craftworlders with their issues, just that there is a substantial amount of distrust between you and your Patron. Your Patron has -2 Influence with the Craftworld faction and the Craftworlders occasionally can harass you but in non-lethal ways.

Bloodlust - your Patron values the thrill of battle and the letting of the blood way too much, and demands their subordinates to prove themselves as worthy warriors before being treated with any respect by the Patron. Once per mission, your Patron expects you to defeat an opponent without excessive subterfuge and with roughly equal numbers or being outnumbered. Ideally the opponent must also die, however as long as the blood is spilt and the battle is glorious there shouldn’t be much issue. If such combat is not performed, the Patron may withhold their Boon next mission or deduct credit.

Busy Assassin - your Patron has a long list of targets they wish were dead, whether they have a lot of personal enemies or they’ve been overburdened by their faction’s superiors to take care of every little threat present in the sector. In any case, your Patron can’t do everything at once and often delegates their chores to their underlings. Once per mission, at the start your Patron will mark a secondary assassination task that often requires you to go off the path on your larger mission goals. You are expected to do it as a part of your regular duties with no extra reward, not assassinating the target will result in deduced/docked credit or withheld boon next mission. If you attempt but fail to kill the target, however, your Patron still might be convinced to give you another chance next mission, although the target will also be wiser to threats to their life next time around.

Conservative - your Patron has lived a long life sticking to the Path system and the life on Craftworlds, developed a healthy distaste for their Drukhari and Corsair brethren and tends to be quite the stickler when it comes for their subordinates not committing to radical and untested means. This philosophy has put your Patron at odds with the Ynnari, who believe that all means are justified to achieve victory over Slaanesh, and these frequent disagreements over both tactics and strategy has made your Patron be seen as too old-fashioned for the entirety of Aeldari species by the Ynnari. Your Patron has -2 Influence with the Ynnari faction and you could encounter interference from Ynnari trying to achieve similar ends but through different means that don’t include you (and often impede your mission non-lethally).

Chaos Hunter - your Patron is a famous hater of all things daemonic and Chaos, to a quite unhealthy extent where their zeal and suspicion matches that of the most fanatical of Imperial Inquisitors. Whether your mission is of utmost importance or not, your Patron expects you to drop everything and investigate any potential Chaos activity, even if that means putting the mission on hold. Once per mission, your Patron may request you to further investigate suspicious activity of a person, group or faction you have encountered during your adventures. Additionally, you are expected to pursue any legitimate and strong lead about Chaos you may encounter. Failure to do any of this will result in deduced/docked credit or withheld boon next mission.

Depressed - your Patron has seen too much death, too much destruction, too much tragedy and it has been overwhelming them to the point they often lock themselves up to meditate, calm down, destress or just do nothing at all. Every session and between missions period the GM rolls 1d10, on even results and on 7+ respectively you will be unable to contact your Patron (except to be given mission details and procure equipment for credit) or use their boon.

Daemon’s Wrath - your Patron has personally wronged a powerful daemon who currently is fomenting dissent and strife in the Macharian Sector. Whether they previously foiled their evil plans or there is a whole ancient rivalry going on, the daemon doesn’t forgive or forget and it knows of your Patrons presence in the Sector and will do anything to sabotage your missions, whatever they may be. Upon GMs discretion a Chaos interference may happen during any of your missions, whether a Chaos cult will try to either subtly sabotage your efforts or directly attack you, or the local corrupt bureaucrats and leaders might get some whispers that are easily confused with internal dialogue telling them to obstruct you. Chaos will be a recurring theme on your missions, however it shouldn’t obstruct players too much and any chaotic interference must be possible for the players to be investigated and deduced as such (for example a psyker might feel daemonic influence over a bureaucrat refusing to surrender critical documents). 

Destructive - while your Patron might be a renowned warrior or tactician, they are not a brilliant strategist, constantly misleading their own efforts in the sector by acting too rashly, too aggressively and changing plans on the fly. Your Patron is prone to provoke or manipulate any two factions into open conflict, send a raid, destroy important infrastructure or do something that would raise authorities’ suspicions in the middle of your mission. Once per mission something that, albeit not directly targeting the players, will produce a lot of “wrong time wrong place” situations will happen with severity upon GMs consideration.

Demands Discretion - same as original rules, however this also concerns Aeldari factions.

Expects Proficiency - your Patron has very high standards for their underlings and always finds them lacking in expertise and proficiency with different skills and knowledge. Once per mission the Patron chooses a small set of skills (number and skills are up for GM for consideration, might be chosen randomly) for the players, the players then must choose one of them to put an advancement in during the mission. The skills the Patron chooses are often inconvenient to the players’ intended build or are among the restricted set and not readily available. Not satisfying this demand can result in increasing credit penalties and even withholding a boon on the next mission.

Hates Subterfuge - your Patron is either too honorable for their own good or just plain hates liars and backstabbers and prefers taking their conflict straight to their enemy’s face. Often brutally honest, your Patron expects honesty from their underlings, even when dealing with the enemy, thinking that taking direct approach and avoiding skullduggery is both more honorable and avoids many complications that might go horribly wrong. While not expecting the players to seriously endanger themselves by always taking the direct approach to the problem and can be persuaded to accept your less-than-direct actions and backstabbery. However, they still expect you to take a direct and honest route to resolving conflicts and completing mission goals if it’s not near impossible to do it this way. Too much chicanery on your part might earn you docked/reduced credit or even withheld boon next mission.

Incomprehensible Mind - your Patron’s mind is truly alien, even to their own species, the way they experience the material world is so different, warped by arcane and forbidden knowledge, visions of the future, inner dialogues and telepathic links that evolved beyond language. They often speak in riddles, give obscure hints rather than actual information, even struggle in adequately describing the goal of the main mission, often also giving a lot of otherwise incomprehensible advice that might never come up unless you try really hard in pursuing it and giving random predictions of the different futures that might or might not come true, but it will definitely confuse their subordinates, who will probably consider their Patron somewhat insane.

Insulted the Prince - the Corsairs are often not like the Craftworld Aeldari, behaving in fickle and capricious ways that are often hard to follow even for the other Aeldari. Your Patron has misinterpreted a Corsair Prince’s wish, disagreed with them on a course of action or attracted a lot of unwanted jealousy, which made Corsair Prince swear to not forget this insult before it can be settled, preferably in a duel. Corsair Prince might send some inconvenience down on your party (however it never should be anything immediately lethal as they aim to bother you, not kill you) and your Patron has -2 influence with the Corsairs.

Lost on a Path - when treading a Path, the Aeldari are supposed to perfect it and then move onto the next Path, otherwise they become lost on their path, unable to let go and losing a part of their humanity (as much as the world can be applied to the Aeldari). This fate is terrible for many, however it doesn’t mean they become dysfunctional, your Patron is still able to assist your faction in many ways and will require your help on your missions. However the mission goals your Patron will outline for you will be tied to their Path and as such using boons for situations that do not align towards the Patron’s Path would require some hard bargaining. For example your Patron lost on the Path of the Scholar wouldn’t grant you a boon to dispense with a gang preventing you from reaching a location necessary for your mission, however if the gang is in possession of a relic that would be of academic interest for the Patron, they will. The interpretation is up to the GM.

Obsessive Strategist - your Patron has a talent for strategizing, tactics, planning and personally taking command of important missions, however they are also known for being rather arrogant and set in their mind, rarely ever being convinced in changing their tactics or listening to their subordinates suggestions. After all, they have been doing this for so long and with a high degree, that means they must know better. Your Patron will create a rather detailed plan with primary and secondary objectives and strict conditions, they have to be convinced before taking any deviation to the plan, or you might see your credit reduced or docker, or even your boon withheld depending on how much you deviate from the Patron’s laid out strategy. The Patron’s plan must not be suicidal or impossible to achieve without deviating, however it should also not be the ideal approach to the situation, as your Patron still doesn’t have all the information and their approach might be situationally ineffective.

Public Enemy - your Patron did or was blamed for something particularly horrible, terrifying and particularly despicable to the Imperials in the past that placed them on a list of enemies of the Imperium wanted dead, a list that isn’t just privy to the Inquisition, but their name is actively placed on active bounty lists among rank-and-file Imperials or maybe the local population still lucidly remembers whatever made your Patron so infamous. Even the more pragmatic of Imperials will almost never work with you if they recognize you as servants of your Patron. Your Patron gets -2 Influence with all the Imperial factions and invoking their name can produce really bad results, with rare exceptions.

Psychic Discipline - your Patron does not accept their subordinates to be corrupted by Chaos, even by accident, as they cannot allow the Ruinous Powers to learn of or affect their plans in any way, something even a slightly and unintentionally corrupted party member can bring upon your Patron. Your Patron expects your party not to get corrupted or at the very least to cleanse yourself before coming into contact with them, as well as not to conduct any extended dealings with anyone who can be confidently deduced as corrupted by Ruinous Powers. Depending on the amount of Corruption in your party your credit might be docked/reduced, you may be denied from meeting your Patron face-to-face and too much Corruption might get your boons withheld or your Patron tasking you to cleanse yourself directly before doing anything further.

Mission Urgency - your Patron does not mess around and has a lot of other things going on, fitting into a rather tight schedule. Everything must fall into place by a certain date to yield perfect results and the Patron is pretty strict about that. As such, you have a rigid timeline to complete the mission, even if the mission by itself will not fail if you do not follow the schedule it will still make delays in your Patron’s many plans and they won’t appreciate that. Being late with completing your mission will result in docked pay after failing to meet the deadline, potentially reduced credit and in severe delays even withheld boons next mission.

Reckless Adventurer - your Patron loves the thrill of a good adventure that involves lots of action, dramatic events and nearly impossible goals. They see their subordinates more as fellow adventurers and doesn't like when this illusion is broken. Often they end up going on their own adventures and missions that do not always go well for them. In any case, once per mission the Patron expects you to participate in an adventure secondary to your mission that is usually adjacent to their own adventuring at that moment, sometimes even involving bailing your Patron out in one way or another. You get no rewards for this adventure and not participating in it or neglecting it will personally hurt your Patron’s ego and will result in docked/reduced credit and withheld boon next mission.  

Respects Warriors - the Patron will expect you to spare anyone who has shown themselves to be a very skilled and (to an extent by the Corsair standards) honorable warrior after they’ve been defeated, unless their death is directly mandated by the mission or is practically unavoidable by the mission’s conclusion. The exception holds for Daemons, Genestealer and identified Chaos cultists. Safe to say not all such defeated warriors will respect you in turn or even just avoid you and never show up again, some in fact may choose to pursue a vendetta against you, becoming a recurring enemy. Such survivors also gain one chance to avoid death and become significantly stronger next time you encounter them. The performance, honor and bravery of any given opponent is evaluated by the GM, not sparing a worthy opponent will end up in penalties to credit and boons.

Sadistic - your Patron enjoys suffering of your enemies, enjoys the feeling of revenge against those who have wronged them or the Aeldari at large, prides themselves for being a menace towards all who wish harm, imagined or otherwise, towards their faction. Once per mission, the Patron demands you to thoroughly ruin a life of someone who could be vaguely interpreted as a particularly guilty enemy to the Aeldari or the Patron or the overall cause. Ruining a life might be just ending it in a very painful and torturous way or could be a much more revenge best served cold style where you expose someone to the misery of losing status, prestige and respect of their peers, utterly humiliated, dispossessed and driven towards the darker edges of their respective society. The Patron might suggest such an enemy, but players can find one of their own, as long as it’s not someone random from the streets and someone actually having something to lose, while impending you or having history with the Aeldari in some way. Not doing this will result in docked/reduced credit or even withheld boons next mission.

Sacrificial - your Patron does not believe that the price in lives outweigh the importance of the greater goal to bring about the defeat of Chaos. In fact your Patron believes you and your party owe your lives to the mission, especially if dying doesn’t necessarily mean you will end, notably such is the cause with the Aeldari. The way the Patron arranges your missions actively endangers you and presents the approach to achieve your goal to effectively be suicidal, although they still will direct you to achieve you to your goal, it’s just not important to them if you die or not. They expect you to take on this fanatical attitude as well and, as such, if your approach to the mission deviates too much from their timeline or doesn’t achieve the goals as effectively, the Patron might dock/reduce your credit or even withhold boon for the next mission, if you are too cowardly, slow and do not take risks more readily.

Superiority Complex - even if they’re pretty tolerant by the standards of the average Imperial, your Patron is still very xenophobic, often calling humans mon-keigh and believing the galaxy would be better off if there were (at the very least) less humans around. This attitude might stem from both regular belief that Aeldari are the pinnacle of creation while humans are its mockery or might be a result of deep resentment and trauma that might come from previous dealings with Imperials. In any case, this attitude still doesn’t preclude your Patron from working with some humans, although these are rare cases and these humans must be seen as worth the time, while still being rather expendable. However, the regular rank-and-file Imperial humans outside your party deserve nothing but disgust and antipathy and, as such, your Patron will take issue if you ally yourself with Imperial-aligned humans if you do not plan to betray or dispose of them later. The only exception might be if these Imperials were absolutely critical to the mission, however you will need to persuade your Patron. The restriction on fraternizing doesn’t include basic interactions and transactions, however your Patron will always approve if you just take rather than give anything back. Too much fraternizing will result in docked/reduced credit on GMs judgment.

Unapologetically Manipulative - your Patron never tells the truth to anyone who’s not their peer and unfortunately no one in your party is their peer. As such, the Patron while giving you the same immediate goal for the mission, will unapologetically lie about the reasons and context behind the mission, will omit critical details such as potential dangers in the mission and will outright lie about important aspects of the mission, such as making look a potential ally an enemy. While not lying 100% of the time, you can never fully trust anything the Patron tells you, except the mission’s primary and direct goal. Everything else is up to the GM to lie about.

Wanton Cruelty - your Patron likes to be cruel with their subordinates although they rarely see it that way, often thinking they’re helping their underlings to be better prepared for sudden conflict, change of plans or harder missions. During missions your Patron will actively direct you into at least an unpleasant and tedious situation and at most a dangerous situation that might see your party get hurt, as long as this distraction doesn’t immediately threaten your overall mission. For example they might pay a bunch of gangers that they know you are likely to defeat to ambush you on your relative down time during the mission.

Wastrel - your Patron became kind of infamous for losing equipment left and right, using too much firepower on really insignificant targets and for equipping the least trained and fit for duty with the most exotic equipment available. As such, even when dealing with a post-scarcity society, your Patron has lost the trust of your faction’s quartermasters. All equipment procuring through your Patron or your Patron’s faction/contacts requires a Routine (+10) Rapport test for every piece of equipment and also with 10% markup.

Xenohysteria - your Patron is a filthy (even if they’re quite hygienic) xenos and the Imperium of Man abhors the xenos. It’s not that your Patron has necessarily done anything really wrong or damaged Imperial forces in any significant way, rather they have captured the attention of one or more really paranoid and xenophobic high-ranking Imperials, who are now wise to their presence in the Sector and are on their toes when it comes to potential xenos infiltration. During your missions on any relatively developed area of an Imperial world any unsubtle action that might occur to other Imperials as something more than random crime or gang conflicts will immediately attract higher and more strict security presence in that area.

Source: https://twitter.com/MusketAnna or https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vuijroklprtei2lpkuxc44pk

Additional Rules and Notes:

Speed: Fast, Size: Medium

Skills: 1 Awareness (Psyniscience) regardless of having Psyker trait. They are however afflicted with Psychic Sensitivity which provides them with Disadvantage to resist Psychic Powers, unless they have a Psyker talent.

Know the Aeldari language and basic lore automatically.

Can read and write in Aeldari, for Imperial texts and effective feigning being a human requires Linguistics (Low Gothic), without which while understanding conversations, the language comes off as broken and heavily accented. Similarly, Humans require Linguistics (Forbidden, Aeldari) before attempting to speak, read or write Aeldari language.

All Aeldari are provided with Secret Identity (Infractionists) without the influence bonus, otherwise they have 0 Influence with Infractionists and Rogue Traders, -3 with Inquisition, -4 with all the others, additionally immediately provoking hostility in most situations (exceptions might be for example a rogue trader, corrupt official or gang leader explicitly seeking out contact with Xenos) when recognized. Aeldari may also purchase Secret Identity (Rogue Traders) and Secret Identity (Adeptus Astra Telepathica) and also the following additional conditions apply:

All Humans have starting -3 Influence with all the Aeldari factions, however they should generally have much more leeway to avoid conflict with them if those Aeldari in question aren’t Drukhari and the humans politely stay away from their business. Having an Aeldari Patron of a certain faction brings the influence with that faction for humans to -1. >All Aeldari characters are provided with a set of Basic Imperial clothes that can disguise them from being recognized by regular citizens when seen, however they should still avoid pict scanners, identification mechanisms, powerful psykers, diagnostic tools and people a bit too zealous about preventing Xenos and Chaos infiltration (usually found among the guards). >Suspicious Imperials may demand a Linguistics roll or Lore roll from disguised Aeldari (shouldn’t be a hard one). Psykers may cast a contested Awareness (Psyniscience) against Aeldar’s Discipline (Psychic) or Psychic Mastery roll. Pict scanners and other ID instruments may alert the analysts using them to mismatch in biometrics, however it won’t cause immediate alarm as it might be due to mutation, disease or glitch, however more than basic diagnostic tools will reveal your Xenos biology very quickly. >Height difference is not that drastic for people not to assume the players are just from a lower-gravity planet.

Can only gain Malignancies, however upon earning a Malignancy add a second Malignancy: Appetites of Slaanesh - You feel your soul being slowly siphoned away into the Dark Prince’s hungry maw as you get exposed to more and more Chaos corruption and the Chaos God Slaanesh has put their sights on you. Roll 1d10 on all Fortitude (Pain) and Discipline (Psychic) tests, if the number is even you get -1 SL. This Malignancy can be cured through either intervention of >Aeldari spirit healers or humans with real expertise of exorcizing chaos without killing the victim.

For simplicity Medicae requirements are the same as Medicae (Human), biology is considered to be similar enough that Eldar and Humans can be treated for general injuries and illnesses with similar methods and cures (if the GM is generous with their game's premise even interbreed with some additional extremely advanced medical technology (either Aeldari biomedical technology or Imperial archeotech)). Xenology book from 2005 is a poorly written mess that conflicts with other lore and that tries really hard to overcompensate for Aeldari and humans looking similar by writing illiterate bullshit. I could make an entire tirade on the issues of it, however I will just say that in this module the book is considered to be completely outdated. Liber Xenologis which is supposed to be its update actually foregoes trying to overexplain biological aspects and that's how it should be in a setting chock full of space magic and suspension of disbelief. Aeldari and humans are very different when examining the intricacies of each, however both are humanoid and that means that surface and general things would also work not entirely dissimilarly. Just like a veterinary surgeon can treat a human during an emergency, or an ape being a hominid yet removed from us biologically.

May purchase Awareness (Psyniscience) at twice the XP cost, without the Psyker talent.

Crossovers

While it’s generally very unlikely for Aeldari and humans to cooperate, it is not implausible and there are many examples for such alliances, while historically other TTRPGs in the 40k setting allowed such things to occur or allowed players to have mixed-species parties. As such it is advised to the GMs to allow aeldari-human crossovers, be it a full party of human expendable mercs answering to Aeldari Patron in a system where they are yet to achieve a foothold, a mixed party solving a crisis that concerns both sides equally, or a bunch of Aeldari tasked with babysitting a certain Imperial Patron who was deemed important to the future successes of the Aeldari cause. There shouldn’t be any problems as long as players and GM reach collective decisions to harmonize their character and Patron creation in a way that harmonizes the story with a fact that there’s an unlikely crossover of species that don’t necessarily hold each other in high regard.

#warhammer 40k #aeldari #craftworld eldar #ttrpg #homebrew

[vacantgodling]

i’m just gonna make this bullet points bc i’ve not the time to be eloquent

the thesis of what i saw was “suffering isn’t character development because after a point it’s gratuitous, boring, and if they’re constantly tortured what are they developing from”

and as someone who isn’t particularly a fan of what most people nowadays call this (whump) ig, here’s me weighing in on the war on whump in favor of it in its theoretical form:

people can do whatever they want forever. even if it’s shit you don’t like. someone writing gratuitous, “boring”, overdone torture porn is not affecting you and your life. there is no need for “concern” as the post said. most people who write this shit are just people. even if they do have something that makes them act or feel things in a certain way that doesn’t mean you can or should deprive them of the joy that’s making art in any of its forms; whimsical or horrific, whether you like it or not.

as someone who again, doesn’t like it particularly either, i am once again tapping the sign that i keep having to drag out anytime i see shit like this: preferences aren’t advice. they are preferences. unless you are seeking to help the person do what they’re trying to accomplish your input is invalid. i bring up that i don’t like it because listen i can tell these thoughts were said as a knee jerk reaction to seeing shit you don’t like. and i get it, i feel the same way but

disengage with shit you don’t like. don’t hate watch or hate read anything. don’t be daft.

stop the assumption that character development is always positive. negative character development also exists and is common in day to day life. people are shaped by the experiences they have. they cannot develop from anything if there are no experiences to warrant the developing. saying that “suffering isn’t character development” is like me saying that consequences for driving 100 miles an hour into oncoming traffic don’t exist. they do.

i understand wanting levity. i don’t like whump solely because i can’t sit through endless suffering. but that doesn’t mean i think there isn’t character development. if a character goes through strife and trials and tribulations that changes them. usually for worse in this scenario. that’s. still. development. like the argument you have doesn’t even hold up.

to provide you an example, much of my life between the ages of 19-22 was straight suffering. like i was having a Bad Time my g. and those behaviors, patterns, defense mechanisms, coping strategies, and attitudes are still things i have with me to this day. not all of them are healthy. not all of them are positive. but they exist in response to the shit that i’ve faced.

it’s not even like endless suffering isn’t a real thing like my guy go anywhere in the world and i guarantee in every city you’ll find people suffering in ways you didn’t even think were possible. not that it’s good. but it’s not Unrealistic per se.

fiction and reality aren’t equal btw and allowing people to explore dark fantasies and ideas in the safe place of stories and fiction is more healthy than trying to suppress or shame people into not thinking about it or talking about it. humans will always be creatures of “what if”

finally, again, i reiterate that not every story is supposed to be happy (requiem for a dream is harrowing for instance. just endless suffering. but there Is a lot of character development. it’s just all Bad. and guess what, that’s the point!! its supposed to show the horrors of addiction and it worked. but i will never watch it again. same thing with bedeviled. or hell half the horror genre. even very popular titles like game of thrones get popular and are just cesspools of suffering. it’s safer to read and watch it than live it. i’d rather us do that).

and also, FINALLY finally. your preferences aren’t writing advice stop it. *spritzes with water*

#i said all that then i wrote the post anyway #maybe i’ll delete this idk but i’m feeling a way #again i don’t think i worded it good but it’s too late now #ren hot cakes

[witchloversupreme]

So, I was thinking about Garlemald lore again, because I'm mentally ill and obsessed, and I had a kinda fucked up thought. Explaining it is gonna take some doing, so stay with me.

If the garlean historians are to be believed (and the Sharlayans agree (As seen in Encyclopaedea Eorzea 1), so they're likely correct), roughly 1500 years ago, the garlean people lived in Corvos alongside the G tribe, in a situation probably not dissimilar to the M and Ala Mhigo, with a sedentary tribe fairly peacefully sharing their territory with a nomadic one.

Okay, so, here's where shit gets a little bit tricky.

There is only the ONE race of Garleans (Unless you count Jullus and Cid as a different race for being Short Kings), unlike all the other species of humans, who have at least two (Midlanders/Highlanders, Xaela/Raen, Dunesfolk/Plainsfolk), and sometimes even three (Duskwights/Wildwood/Ishgardians, Hellsguard/Sea Wolves/Far Eastern). This implies a very, very small, and very specialized population. A population that could, very easily, be displaced by a larger, more powerful group, like (as the historians posit) a large tribe of Elezen from what would later become Bozja, who, very likely, were themselves, forced from their homelands by invading Roegadyn and Hrothgar. If this tribe was sufficiently large (and magically skilled) enough, they could have very easily expunged the proto-Garleans from Corvos and forced them northward.

The Garlean historians claim that this forced exodus pushed them all the way into north central Ilsabard, but this is incredibly unlikely, as no matter how devoted to a people's total annihilation a tribe may be, hounding them the entire distance from Fantasy Greece to Fantasy Siberia is more than a bit ridiculous. But I digress.

What is more likely is that the Garleans were forced more westward, nearer to proto-Werlyt, where they likely settled for a time, before expanding north into the mountains which cut the continent in half (it is still violently upsetting to me we don't have a full map of Ilsabard). A few centuries of relative peace followed, where the proto-Garleans expanded ever so slightly further north, before, once again, they lost a war, most likely one against Hyurs and Raen from either Proto-Werlyt or Proto-Thavnair, and lost their southerly territories.

With no other option but continue colonizing northward, the Garleans did exactly that, eventually founding "Garlemald", the city, a few decades later, and the rest is, quite literally, history.

Now, with that lore dump out of the way, we can get to the real meat of my thought.

Almost all evidence points towards the Garleans simply being another species of human, just like Hyurs, Elezen, and Au ra, and not a "created species", like the Ixal, and, therefore, they definitely had a mirror race on the other shards.

But where the fuck are they?

I have seen neither hide nor hair of a single Garlean, be it in the flesh, as a statue, or in a tomb in Amh Areng, Kholusia, Lakeland, or Rak'tika. There's absolutely nothing to show that the Garlean people existed on the First, which is very, very fucking strange, as even the Amalj'aa and Ixal (sort of) have mirrors on the First in the form of the Zun and the Amaro.

I can think of two answers to my question:

The Doylist answer, (which is much less interesting), is just that Square either forgot to make any Garlean NPCs for the first, or decided against depicting First!Garleans, possibly because the race both didn't have an equivalent from a previous FF game, like the Hrothgar/Ronso, or Elezen/Elves, nor were playable, like like the Au ra/Drahn, or, because the Garleans are the go-to "Bad Guy Race" and they didn't want to confuse players.

The Watsonian answer, (and the one I subscribe to), is that the First!Garleans are extinct, having been driven to the brink by The Flood and over the edge in the ensuing century of strife, alongside many, many other species and peoples.

#This is probably almost incomprehensible #It is five in the fucking morning for me #and I woke up from a dead sleep to goz this autism onto your timelines as if by Divine Mandate. #Anyway #I really hope we get more Garlemald lore in general #For being THE main (non-magical) bad guys of the setting #we really do know jack shit fuck all about their history and culture #And the crumbs Endwalker gave us really doesn't fucking cut it #ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #garlemald #Shadowbringers Spoilers (kind of) #Shadowbringers #Endwalker

[lec743]

Darksiders concept thing-y with War

War was taking up the rear as they were all traveling through the snow covered forest. Death was taking the lead, showing them the way to the temple they were going to, to find the needed power source within. The snow made everything quiet, with only the soft nickering of their combined horses and Strife's low whistling filling the air.

The human woman was riding with him. She has her back pressed flush to his chest and abdomen as she is absorbing as much of his body heat as she can. He apparently radiates a lot of heat in her very loud opinion. It was annoying at first, as she had mostly been riding with Death or Strife during their journey together. Now after riding with her in his grasp for days, it's become comfortable... Almost soothing, even. Though he'll be damned before he lets anyone know about that.

"War?"

War blinked from his usual focus on his surrounding area as he looked down at her a little. She was still fussing with that string on her fingers making odd shapes out of it and then making new shapes out of the old shapes. War hummed an acknowledgement at her.

"What makes you happy?"

War turned his focus forward as he stared at the back of his sister's head. What an odd question to ask him.

"Why are you asking me that?" He ground out.

"The snow made me think of Christmas and Christmas made me think of my family and my family made me think of presents and then I thought about getting you and your siblings gifts, but it's not like I know you all super well. So that's why I'm asking."

"We don't need gifts," War said matter-of-factly.

War felt her bonk the back of her head against his chest a bit roughly and he looked down at her to see her frowning up at him. "No. Of course you don't need gifts. I just want to do it because I care. Now come on big guy, dig deep. What makes you happy?"

He kept eye contact with her for a minute longer before looking away from her determined look. War did try. He thought very hard about what made him happy. He told her about the joy of a really good fight. He told her of his love for his weapons. He told her about how much he cares about his horse. He told her how he enjoyed it when Strife was quiet, which made her laugh. She nodded along to what he enjoyed and when he finished she made her announcement.

"Alright. This is going to be harder than I thought, but it's a worthy challenge." Then she chuckled to herself as she made her voice sound funny in the end there, like she was trying to mimic how he and his siblings talk.

"Why do you insist on this quest of yours. We are the Horsemen, the great Enforcers. Bringers of the apocalypse. Mighty warriors that demons and angels fear a like. We need for nothing."

She huffed at him as she continued to fiddle with her string. "Keep talking like that Mister, and I'll end up being determined to gift you presents everyday."

War only gave her a rumbling grumble in return, making her giggle for some reason.

"Oh hush. Just accept that you have someone in your life now who wants to shower you and your siblings with affection. And this form of affection is taking the shape of gift giving."

The conversation petered out, and they continued on in silence, but War couldn't stop thinking about what she said.

"Human?"

"Hmmm?"

"... What makes you happy?"

She shifted a lot in his hold and when he looked down to see what she's doing, he got a face full of her hands as she stood up on her one foot. She then wrapped her arms around his head and his vision was blocked by her chest as she embraced him.

"Awe! War! It's so sweet of you to ask me that," she cooed and patted the back of his head as she rested her head on top of his.

War heard his blood roar in his ears as he started to feel light headed. He immediately brought a hand up to her back to pull her off him. She refused to budge. She was too distracted with fawning over him and the more he listened to her, the more he wanted to get rid of her.

He managed to maneuver her enough where he could see, then he compelled Ruin to trot faster so that he past Fury and was beside Strife.

"Take your human back," War growled at his older brother before fully pulling her off his person and throwing her into Strife's awaiting arms.

"Ah! No! Wait! Don't leave me with Strife!" She whined. "His armor makes him super cold!"

War looked away as he grabbed her peg leg and tossed it to her. "Not my problem."

She caught it. "Awe, War! Don't be like that! I didn't mean to embarrass you!"

"I'm a warrior. Warriors don't get embarrassed."

"Then why are you blushing so damn hard," Strife teased.

War gave him his best death glare before falling behind. He ignored the way the human woman reached out to him, her teeth already chattering from the cold and he ignored Fury's snickering. She can handle being cold for a little while.

#darksiders #fanfiction #darksiders war

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group G Round 3: #G5 vs #G6

#G5: Sheltered city boy meets outlaw and learns dark truth about the city

#G6: Emperor and Empress bodyswap in ancient China

Details and poll under the cut!

#G5: No.6

Summary:

Many years ago, after the end of a bloody world war, mankind took shelter in six city-states that were peaceful and perfect… at least on the surface. However, Shion—an elite resident of the city-state No. 6—gained a new perspective on the world he lives in, thanks to a chance encounter with a mysterious boy, Nezumi. Nezumi turned out to be just one of many who lived in the desolate wasteland beyond the walls of the supposed utopia. But despite knowing that the other boy was a fugitive, Shion decided to take him in for the night and protect him, which resulted in drastic consequences: because of his actions, Shion and his mother lost their status as elites and were relocated elsewhere, and the darker side of the city began to make itself known.

Now, a long time after their life-altering first meeting, Shion and Nezumi are finally brought together once again—the former elite and the boy on the run are about to embark on an adventure that will, in time, reveal the shattering secrets of No. 6.

Propaganda 1:

Ever watched a show that was obviously adapted from something, and you feel like there must be more to it? Such shows are often obvious to spot—My Happy Marriage, Pandora Hearts, Mekakucity Actors, etc. They present to us a unique plot with great worldbuilding, yet while watching, it always feels like it falls short somewhere. The characters aren’t that developed, plot points don’t seem to connect, side characters aren’t given much attention, etc. So much missed potential, and you can’t help but lament it.

No.6 is another one of such shows. I haven’t read the original novel, but as an avid web novel reader, I could just feel that there is so much more to it than the anime lets on. The mystery is intriguing, the world is complex, and the budding relationship between the two main characters felt natural and relevant (No.6 has a shounen ai subplot, by the way).

Overall, the anime managed a coherent plot, and I still like it. But after watching, you’ll be left unsatisfied. It keeps you wanting for more. Keeps you searching for answers. But despite this, I believe it’s worth a shot. Whether you vote for it or not, try watching it anyway.

Propaganda 2:

It's a suspenseful science fiction that has a unique take on class issues using the setting of a world post apocalypse. It crafts a unique world with incredible characters you want to succeed. The relationship that develops between the two mains is a heartwarming respite in the cold world they inhabit. The mystery of the show keeps the audience entertained and on the edge of their seat.

Trigger Warnings: Body Horror, Genocide, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Implied Child Abuse, Guns, Humans being treated like objects, Sexual assault on a supporting character, Mentions of prostitution

#G6: No Doubt in Us (Liang Bu Yi)

Summary:

Within the Chinese imperial court, stern-faced Emperor Xiao Jinyun and spirited Empress Xu Yu are at constant odds with one another. But the universe has an interesting way to solve their issues: an accident causes the two to switch bodies, forcing them to put themselves in the other’s shoes—literally. Now responsible for unfamiliar duties and court dynamics, the Emperor and the Empress must navigate the maintenance of their identities, unruly concubines, and the nation itself. In doing so, Xiao Jinyun and Xu Yu’s personal qualities and unconventional skills find new purpose, and a sense of understanding and compassion grows between the two.

However, great threats loom within and outside the court. If the imperial astrologer cannot discover the key to switching them back in time, then internal strife and suspicion may lead to the duo's untimely demise.

Propaganda:

Liang Bu Yi/No Doubt in Us is one of the most interesting donghua I’ve ever watched. The characters have varying personalities and, because it’s set in ancient China, are rather unique. Considering that Emperors had to keep harems and the fact that this is a straight couple rom-com makes the drama rather spicy. Plus, the Empress is far more qualified in the things a woman in those times wouldn’t be interested in, like sword fighting, archery etc.

To be honest, the contrast between Xu Yu (the Empress) and Xiao Jinyun (the Emperor) results in the show being far more interesting than other ones with the same trope.

Trigger Warnings: None.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

#anime #donghua #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 3 #tournament polls #no.6 #no. 6 #no 6 #no.6 anime #no 6 anime #no doubt in us #liang bu yi #两不疑 #group g

[imagine-darksiders]

A reader asked the Horsemen to keep an eye on their nephew/niece, I’m wondering if it’s safe to leave them with a child because they’ve met human children, but what do you think?

I mean, bottom line? That niece/nephew is now the safest human in the Universe. Nothing is going to happen to them, not with any one of the Four keeping guard.

First, Death is just relieved you asked him before you went to one of his volatile siblings with this request. Then, he's suddenly humbled, uncertain, tentative. Are you sure? Him? You realise he's not exactly the most friendly being in existence, don't you? The children won't like him. You beg to differ. Death is so paranoid about something happening to them on his watch - they're not his, they're your family, he can't let anything happen to your family - he doesn't let them out of his sight. He even has Dust keep a secondary eye on them. To his surprise, while the children are wary of the masked Horsemen who has been employed to 'babysit' them, it doesn't take them long to decide he's more interesting than scary.

Fury isn't great with kids. She knows they have to be treated with far more patience and gentleness than human adults, two things she's noticeably short of. That isn't to say she would just let them get hurt on her watch. Far from it. She's not exactly thrilled you asked her to watch your little ones - is even tempted to track down Ulthane to do the job for her - but she vows to keep them safe, and you know she will.

When you ask War if he'd mind keeping an eye on your nieces and nephews while you and their parents are gone for the day, he reacts as if he's just been given a duty by the Creator himself. You're placing your trust in the Horseman to protect your kin, and that's a responsibility he leans into with determined doggedness. War would lay his life down for those kids. Pity that he ends up scaring them and making them think he's angry with them all the time because of his gruff demeanour and permanent scowl.

You're asking Strife to watch over a couple of kids who are related to you? Consider those kids his as well now. The fact you asked him instead of his arguably more 'responsible' siblings means more to Strife than you could possibly know. He won't let you down. Sure, he might teach the kids to shoot pistols with frightening accuracy while he's in charge, and yes, maybe he tells them some of his most exciting [and gruesome] escapades that are definitely not PG, but they're safe with him. He'd take a bullet for you, and is willing to extend the same courtesy for your family.

#darksiders #darksiders 2 #Horsemen #fluff

[moodymisty]

How would the Horsemen react if their human s/o was secretly learning enchantment with Makers and presented them with a great enchanted item for them to wear as a gift?

[ 𝕸𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖞'𝖘 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙 | 𝕬𝖔3 ]

Author's Note: Omg this is cute. Let's give it a shot. The Horsemen deserve lovingly handcrafted gifts. I made War's a knife just because I thought it fit, but the others are totally vague and can be whatever you wish.

Relationships: Fury/Gn!Reader, War/Gn!Reader, Strife/Gn!Reader, Death/Gn!Reader

Warnings: None

✦ Death ✦

I think Death would be angry. At first, I should specify.

He knows magic is extremely dangerous and not something to be trifled with, and humans have an insatiable lust for curiosity. Death sees it as one of your race's greatest strengths, but he also knows that magic and curiosity has often lead one down a dark path.

So it isn't something he's fond of hearing you've been secretly messing around with at first.

Once he has enough time to cool down, and he feels the weight of your handmade trinket in his pocket, he sighs and calms on the idea.

Though, he insists in the future he either teach you himself, or at least be there when the Makers teach you the magics only they know. It's stifling, but from what little Death has told you it's hard to blame him for worrying. You have to remind yourself he's seen a lot more in his life than he'll ever explain to you.

After all of that blows over I think Death is extremely surprised you ever even considered giving him a gift. He struggles to think of a time in his life he's ever gotten one.

Just the thought of it, and of all the effort you put into it, he's extremely grateful even if he's incapable of expressing it.

He never takes it off his person. You'd sooner be able to rid him of an arm than your gift. To have something made just for him, not for battle but because you love him; He's a secret sap and even if he'll never admit it, nothing makes him happier that looking at it sometimes and realizing that all over again.

✦ War ✦

At first War instantly demands to know where you learned that sort of magic from. When you tell him the Makers, he calms significantly but you can still see he's clearly on edge.

They wouldn't have taught you anything dangerous, but War doesn't have a fond view of magic after having to battle it for so many years. He gets over it far more quickly than Death, however.

He's just so enamored by it when you place it in his hand.

You made this? For him? You spend all that time learning a skill (skills if you made the knife itself as well) that can take centuries to master just for him? He's in love. If he wasn't already, you now have a giant horsemen. Congratulations.

If anyone even dares to try and turn their nose up at it, whether it be the knife itself or your enchantment, War is on sight.

He will instantly suggest that they familiarize themselves with it via their throat, and no amount of you tugging on his arm and pleading for him to calm down is going to stop him from threatening them until they take back what they said.

You are War's little human; One of the first of your race to wield magic and you gave it to him as a gift. What is probably the only gift the youngest horsemen has ever gotten.

When you give it to him, if you're already in a relationship, he'll give you a kiss on the top of your head. If not, you'll see his face turn hot and red, looking away and muttering an unlike him soft but sincere 'thank you'.

✦ Strife ✦

In love. He is actually swooning if you ever gave him something.

And to know you learned something as skilled as magic for it? Strife knows that Death has spend thousands of years learning and while the two of you are no comparison, for a young human like you to even grasp the concept is incredible. And you did it all for him.

People don't 'do things' for them. Especially him. And for someone with massive attachment issues like Strife, this sticks him to you like glue. Hope you enjoy a snuggly Horsemen who's still on the high of you showing him that you love him. Expect plenty of hugs and kisses.

Once when he was on a mission with War and they had to split up he was nervous it would break, and so he had nervously handed it to War and forced him to vow nothing would happen to it. The Red Rider had returned it to him safe, but he didn't enjoy having his little reminder of you away from him.

He jokingly refers to it as his little guiding light, but it is to him in a way. He likes having it and knowing you're out there waiting for him. It's a reminder that he isn't doing all of this for no reason. That especially now, he has someone to fight for.

Will absolutely give you something back. Even if it's something silly like one of his old ratty scarves. If you wear said ratty old scarf, he won't know what to do. His heart wasn't ready for this.

✦ Fury ✦

She's the one who takes it the best externally.

She thanks you for such a sweet little gift, might give you a hug or kiss depending, but once she's out of your eyesight, she's just as bad at dealing with that sort of up front show of love as the rest of the Horsemen. Which is absolutely terrible.

Your little casual show of affection is, surprising. She assumes it's a human thing to show such affection so readily, which she's very much fond of.

After all, for centuries she's thought that she was no long allowed that sort of thing when she became a Horsemen.

She keeps it safe somewhere on her person. More than likely her belt, or wrist if it's some sort of jewelry. Making sure that there's absolutely no way she could loose it. Sometimes she may habitually check if it's there, especially if she hasn't seen you in awhile.

It's a good reminder for her, and helps keep her grounded. Magic feels and reacts different depending on who casts it, and since it feels uniquely you, Fury always thinks of you whenever it does.

Absolutely jokingly says you should've asked her to teach you the magic instead, even if it wasn't something she knew. She just enjoys the way it makes you roll your eyes.

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