#the golden city

[zorthania]

Fear stems from a lack of control, and this man just confessed to finding comfort in letting the world do with him as it pleases.

Do you understand just how incredible Hytham really is? Basim sure does.

#bytham #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #the golden city #this scene lives rent free in my head #my bytham

[angelicsnowlily]

They make me sick I wanna put them in a snow globe and shake it aggressively

#bytham #basim ibn ishaq #hytham #the golden city #assassins creed

[hamthezombie]

We had D&D yesterday (first game in a few weeks because of covid), and it was a lot of fun! We made our way onto a pirate ship under the guise of prisoners, absolutely destroyed the pirates, and used teamwork to free the kraken that was chained to the ship and being magically controlled.

My character even got to use the FORBIDDEN NECROMANCY SPELL he's been saving as a last resort. It wasn't REALLY a last resort situation, but it was a lot of fun.

Sometimes with TTRPGs you have sessions where some players and characters feel like they're just supporting characters because the focus is on one of the others. And that can be fine and good, sometimes it's appropriate for the focus to be them. But occasionally it happens just through circumstance and one or more characters don't get to do much in a session.

But THIS session! It really felt like everyone had a chance to shine, it was great!!

#d&d #the golden city

[wesslesprout]

Reading through The Golden City now I'm done with the main plot of Valhalla and I rlly do wish we got more time to spend with Basim and Hytham especially like he's so cute and soft with kids even though he swore he could never be a dad aaaa

#ac hytham #assassins creed #assassin's creed valhalla #basim ibn ishaq #the golden city

[firerwolf]

I’m about half way through The Golden City and I’m enjoying the book so far. It’s certainly a good book if you’re a fan of Hytham or political plots. There are a few things that I’ve noticed which the book established that seem pretty important. Assuming the book is fully canon and approved of by Ubisoft then it is very informative.

First thing is that the book still doesn’t really tell you anything about Hytham’s history. Who he was before the Hidden Ones has been completely absent in the book meaning that I don’t think Ubisoft had any actual history for him. It’s sad to think his codex entry was really as little as it feels they cared about him.

Second is that his and Basim’s relationship was very different. In the book Basim is not the completely absent man he is in Valhalla. He is in the shadows but he is always there, he does teach Hytham, and he seems to genuinely care if Hytham feels offended or questioned by him. I’d say that Basim feels a little Loki like but as though having not found Sigurd that there is still some of the man who we’d meet in Mirage. It does give a good explanation of why it is that Hytham would have had some faith in Basim and been accepting of his absence.

Third, Hytham would be a fantastic father. In the book he states that after his first kill he gave up on being a father despite wanting to be one. He basically claims that he doesn’t feel like he can bring a child into the violent world he lives in. I wonder if living with the vikings and age would change that. The vikings exist in a world of violence and they still can have children and take care of them. Because in the book Hytham has to take care of a child and he is just good with the kid. He’s kind and caring and the kid really likes him.

Fourth, Hytham was a very skilled fighter and assassin who was likely to make Master. The book makes it very clear that Hytham is a skilled fighter, starting off the book with a sparring match between him and Basim where he can hold his own. Hytham is also smart, being skilled with words, memory, and is very observant. He is shown to not be as good as Basim but that simply means he’s not a master, not that he isn’t skilled. It represents exactly how bad the injury he received was and how frustrating it must be for him to be unable to fight as he did before. He had a future as a master and in an instance it was taken away. It also sort of makes the moment in Vahalla make less sense because it seems like a sloppy assassination attempt but Hytham is skilled. It does highlight the fact that the actual action is never addressed in the game or Hytham giving an end to his arc and makes it more annoying to me in retrospect.

Fifth, Hytham’s big weakness is that he gets emotionally involved. With several characters and the boy the main cause of fault for Hytham is that he lets his emotions take part in his decisions and it can sometimes be a fault. This makes it make a little more sense that Hytham is suspicious of Eivor who he feels Basim is making the same mistakes he was. Basim is being chummy with vikings and it seems like he’s blinded by his friendship with them and it makes Hytham’s attitude make more sense. And their blades are hidden making his objectives on that matter also make more sense. So far the book has done well in making the Hytham and Basim we meet at the start of Valhalla make more sense. Also the show of his abilities coupled with Sword of the White Horse which showed that people easily become loyal and protective of him they do lead to a good basis for assuming that Hytham was the first Mentor of the English brotherhood.

Sixth, it really makes me again wish that they weren’t making a game about Basim but instead were making one about Hytham. You could get the exactly same stealth heavy and limited story but you have more reason with Hytham. Basim is Loki, which means that him being limited doesn’t really make sense when we’ve seen what he should be able to do. Hytham is just a man. An injured man who is limited in what he can physically do. Him learning to be an effective assassin with his limitations would have allowed for player progression and skills, would have forced more reliance on stealth as Hytham couldn’t be in prolonged combat, and building a brand new branch to the brotherhood is an interesting story. It also would have worked better to actually give a Hidden One story to England and Valhalla.

#The Golden City #Hytham #Basim #Assassin's Creed #Book #opinion

[theroseempress]

Okay so I decided I wanna talk about my wips more, HOWEVER, I have an entire cabinet full of them and i don't know where to start, soooooo

i'll try an' make a rambly intro post for the winnerrrr ok bye *backflips out window*

#rose rambles #the golden city #chasing butterflies #the 4th wall #backburner wips; superheroes

[rosella-writes]

hello happy friday, for dadwc I bring a poem for fettered Pride and her loves:

When Love with unconfinèd wings Hovers within my Gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at the Grates; When I lie tangled in her hair, And fettered to her eye, The Gods that wanton in the Air, Know no such Liberty.

From Richard Lovelace - To Althea, from Prison

I think this only answers this one in a sideways fashion, Blue lol. But it made for a wonderful excuse to try out this idea for @dadrunkwriting — Solas tells us raising the Veil was his best option, because every alternative was worse. What if he’d chosen one of the worse solutions?

Pairing: Pride & Wisdom Rating: T for Themes Summary: Wisdom witnesses the fall of Arlathan (after the Plagues)

~~~

Wisdom looks to the sky. 

She has been warned. She is ready. Her blood writing even now lays dormant as mere tattoos on her face. When it begins — if it begins — she is free to forsake her body and plunge into the Beyond, far away from what is to come. For the gods have gone too far. Mythal lies dead, and Pride has been missing for days — weeks — and Hope along with her. The Allmother’s blood calls out from the ground for justice… and only Elgar’nan’s vengeance stands to answer her.

It begins at night, in her dreams. It is so quiet that she is sure it is her own thought, her own soul, calling the words out into the darkness. 

I send a pestilence and plague.

Her skin crawls, itching and burning in the wake of those words whispered across it. 

Into your house, into your bed.

She wakes, the remnants of her dream ringing in her ears. She sees it still, scorched into the insides of her eyelids — the beauty of Justice, their Mother, plucking Elgar’nan’s Pride from him in the wake of the destruction he wrought. With each blink, she sees the sun’s return from where Elgar’nan had banished it. With each glimpse of the light out her window, she remembers Pride’s birth from the defeat of Elgar’nan’s rage. 

Into your dreams, into your sleep.

She casts her blanket aside and stumbles to the window. Her fingers grip the sill until it creaks.

Until you break, until you yield.

Wisdom pushes back from the window and nearly falls — stumbles — runs towards the door. She does not pause for her weapon, nor her armour, nor even shoes. She climbs the crystal stairs. Her hands run along the carven bannisters and feel the scrolling patterns that were painstakingly carved into them by slaves after generations of slaves. There are no slaves in these halls, on these stairs, now. 

Only she is awake. 

She emerges onto the landing that broadens its curved walls into an exposed balcony atop this, Elgar’nan’s favoured holiday home. It is the tallest building outside the walls of Arlathan, and stands alone in these fields outside Elvhenan’s greatest city. She turns her eyes towards the sky — she gazes at the far away spires of the Golden City, the spires that glow upon the rising of each day’s sun. 

I send the swarm, I send the horde.

Wisdom muffles a low groan of horror behind her raised hand. The voice still echoes between her ears, as near as her own thoughts — she wonders if all who wake now can hear it. She stares, unblinking, as the sky pollutes its softly flowing blues and greens and violets against the glossy black darkness with red. Nothing but red, sickly red that glows with the power of the Void. 

I send the thunder from the sky.

The sky cracks. Its luminous light snaps into nothing — all that remains is its red as vivid and deep as blood, twisting and swirling against the blackness like poison within wine. Wisdom watches through rising tears in her eyes as the forms of spirits grow clearer against every spire. They weave between them, as fish through seaweed. 

I send the fire raining down.

Arlathan’s wards flare then, bright and fiery, and blast apart the forms of what spirits linger too close to the spires. But more come, and more, and more, until their bodies are smoke swirling between the rising towers. Arlathan’s topmost points disappear into blackness. 

Wisdom knows now is the time. She knows where to go, what to do, how to do it — but she cannot wrench her eyes away. Her heart thuds in her ears, but the voice drowns out her every other thought. She finally recognises it for what it is, as the source comes into view. 

In the gnarled blackness shines a light. 

This light is not like the familiar ones of the Dreaming. It is not vivid with colour. It is sharp, blinding, whiter even than pure sunlight, and Wisdom knows if she were nearer what she would see at its heart — Pride, terrible in her rage, girded with armour and holding her weapon that sends forth that fearsome light. It glows brighter as the voice comes again, and Wisdom aches with the agony of its might. 

I send the locusts on a wind.

The scarlet magic that so sickens Wisdom to even behold begins to wind around each spire, following the darkness towards Arlathan’s core. Wisdom hears the first of what becomes many screams — she clamps her hands over her ears but hears them still. 

On every leaf, on every stalk.

Blackness seeps as poison from Arlathan’s heart. The gold and crystal become dull darkness — the scarlet joins this darkness and flows from the city’s roots, rushing with terrible certainty to swallow roads, trees, grass. It is inevitable, as magma from an erupting volcano is inevitable.

Until there's nothing left of green.

Wisdom backs away, eyes fixed on the oncoming wave of Pride’s fearsome power. She wishes to scream, just as those dying in the Golden City must scream still, but not a sound passes her clenched teeth. She can only turn and run, hands outstretched, back down the stairs. Wisdom knows, as only the wise do, that the only person she can save now is herself. 

In the moments before Wisdom throws open the doors to Elgar’nan’s home — his empty home, since the god himself is within the bowels of Arlathan — and lets the husk of her body drop to the ground, she hears a final booming cry. A final exultation, cast into the minds of all those who behold Pride and witness her bearing the weapon that allows for such terrible justice to be meted out. 

I send my scourge, I send my sword.

Wisdom tastes the blighted magic that rushes over the land, just as she crosses into the Beyond. It lingers, bitter as blood magic, cloying as poison, cold as death, at the back of her throat. 

She then feels no more.

#arlathan #the golden city #arlathan au #solas #dragon age #my writing #dadwc #no refuge so sure as valor #um yeah so i listened to the plagues from prince of egypt about twenty times while writing this #credit to hans zimmer for these lyrics i borrowed lol

[dakethumoses]

every once in awhile i think about / work on my home game the golden city (the unsleeping city equiv for san francisco, a trio of dnd games set in 1967 summer of love sf (referred to as "love"), 90s dotcom boom sf (referred to as "changes") and the late 2010s campaign leading up to nuria's absorption into the later-named null (referred to as "death") and then i get really worked up in my frustration towards brennan's non-nyc details in tuc

#and about iga but that's not a bay area thing that's a polish thing #tuc is written with so much love and familiarity for new york and then brennan casually as someone who afaik has never lived in the bay #decides the “magic” of the bay is dead and unsaveable; nyc is rotting but the bay is already a corpse #and i have mixed feelings on the bay area as someone who never intends to live here again but brennan doesnt know the bay at all and #it smarts. brennan doesnt even know the rot that drips through!! he doesnt know what the tech industry did to my home or family or #whatever. the poison drips through but an inspector who has barely even looked at photographs of the building has chosen to condemn it #if its more than five tags deep it still doesn't show up in the tags right. if not WHOOPSIE #d20 #the unsleeping city #the golden city #.txt

[gan-ceann]

Detail on haveli window in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

#jain #Inde #asia #The Golden city #oriental

[project-zorthania]

so does Hytham... like.. ever stop gushing about Basim whenever he talks about him or...

#the golden city #bytham #he's so whipped #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #zor talks tgc

[spilladabalia]

Mimi Plumb, from "The Golden City" (2021), images of San Francisco 1984 to 2020. © Mimi Plumb 1984-present. Part 2.

#mimi plumb #the golden city #photography #b&w photography #photobook #san francisco #2021

[zorthania]

let's play a game called, "is it fanfic or canon?"

#bytham #hytham #basim ibn ishaq #the golden city #never forget that hytham canonically made basim bleed #This continues to be one of my absolute favourite scenes in the golden city 💕💕 fuck me #my bytham

[davidbrussat]

Radiant Garden City Beautiful

Court of Honor at center of World’s Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, 1893. Henry Hope Reed, who wrote The Golden City in 1959 and led the opposition to modern architecture in the mid-20th century and helped to found the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art in 1968 (originally called Classical America), was not totally infallable. In his exaltation of Greco-Roman classical styles, he fell…

View On WordPress

#Classical America #Henry Hope Reed #Institute of Architecture & Art #Jane Jacobs #The Death and Life of Great American Cities #The Golden City

[hamthezombie]

In our spooky D&D campaign I think we're nearly done with the current adventure, and we'll probably be levelling up to 11 before the next adventure (we're currently level 10)

And friends, I am struggling to decide whether my Bard should keep barding, or if he should multiclass (the class will be a secret for now).

Bard Pros:

At level 13 I can start learning level 7 spells, and there are some really fun possibilities there!

At level 14 I get access to a cool ability which lets me learn 2 spells (of level 7 or lower) from ANY class. I already have a few good options I'm considering.

Bard Cons:

Levels 11 and 12 only give me access to level 6 spells, and the Bard options are pretty boring to me.

The only new Bard things I really care about are the spells, all the other abilities that I don't already have (and some that I do) aren't really worth it to me.

Multiclass Pros:

I get access to some fun stuff basically straight away, but especially at 2nd level.

It's thematically appropriate and suits his personality and back-story.

Multiclass Cons:

Since I'd be skipping (or at least putting off) 12th level of Bard, I'm missing out on the ability score bonus or extra feat.

I'd probably never gain access to any spells higher than 5th level.

It's a tricky choice! I love the idea of multiclassing, but doing when I already have 10 whole levels of my first class feels a bit weird.

#the golden city #edwin tag #d&d

[mittromulan]

Detail on haveli window in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

#jain #Inde #asia #The Golden city #oriental

[firerwolf]

So I finished The Golden City. My basic review is that it’s a good book. Not super long but I tore through it which is saying a lot. Desert Oath wasn’t much longer and that took me a few months to finish its well paced, all the original characters from it are good, and it’s a book about Hytham so always a plus. So before I say anything negative I want to be clear I very much recommend this book.

So first I'm gonna talk about just the generally good. The mystery of how is the enemy and who can be trusted is good. The writing is good. There's only one scene that's sort of stupid but it doesn't detract from the book as a whole. The side characters like the empress and Thyra aren't really characters, you never really get to know either of them but Justin and Leo are both good characters and that's good because they're in the book a lot.

Hytham in this book is great. He's the kind and caring man that made him a good character in Valhalla. He's a skilled fighter showing us really how much he lost when he failed his assassination attempt in Norway and it makes him more tragic. He comes off as even more tragic when, as is basically the only thing people mention, he makes a mistake and endangers the mission(more on that when I start talking about spoiler stuff) and he takes on all the blame for it and like a child who's been yelled at by their parents in the past and is terrified to bring home a test he got a B+ on he's terrified that he'll basically be kicked out of the Hidden Ones. It's all made worse because Basim also refuses to talk to him after his mistake. So then you get to England where after failing and getting himself basically crippled Basim then completely abandons Hytham. So Hytham is left feeling like he's being punished for a failure for all of Valhalla.

The negative is that the book doesn't really have to much of a conversation about the merits of Hytham's more emotional way as an assassin than Basim's emotionless version. There is only one line in the book after Hytham's mistake where he asserts that he believes caring should be a part of their creed but it's never really a conversation. Which it feels like there really should have been and it's missing. There's also nothing about Hytham's past. Like we learn more about Basim's history than Hytham which is sad because he's pretty clearly not going to be in Mirage and Ubisoft seems uninterested in his history so I wish the author had given us something. I mean you could infer from his self hatred that he's either in some way neurodivergent or he's the son of emotionally abusive parents. But even though he's around a child he never thinks of his own parents. Sort of gives the feeling that in the Last Chapter they really just pulled the 'orphan' thing out of their asses and they never had a plan.

Basim, if you like him you'll like him in this book and if you dislike him like me you'll maybe see it as he's a complete ass hole in this book. Both work. Like this book isn't going to change your opinion of Basim. Well it might make it more negative if you're like me and you think things through and if you read all the way through I promise to rant about why I came out thinking he's a monster. But for Basim's part he's not really in the book a lot. He's off getting information for the most part but he is present for major events. There is some of Hytham commenting on how unnatural Basim is and sympathy for his clear pass trauma but it really doesn't feel like Hytham really gets to know Basim.

So on to spoiler stuff. I'm gonna start with Hytham. So part way through the book Hytham has them follow Justin and they save him but it turns out that it was a diversion to try to assassinate the kid. So they run back, Hytham gets hurt but saves the kid, and then two assassin's get away. Basim orders him to say with the kid and Hytham says they should go after the injured assassins. For some reason Basim claims this is Hytham getting to emotional and forgetting their mission. But the thing is he isn't. While Hytham is emotional about having saved the kid he's not really emotional about chasing the assassin. It's not an illogical suggestion. But then Basim says he's making it personal but the reality is he isn't. This will come back later when I get to why this makes me think he's a monster because it comes off manipulative and accusatory in order to provoke Hytham. Because it doesn't come from anything logical to claim this as being personal. Not to say he isn't emotional, because he reacts emotionally to the accusation but going after injured enemies that could have information isn't crazy. Oh, also he doesn't get to kill the leader of the order, that for no reason is given to Basim, which means he literally doesn't make a single significant kill anywhere in the series.

Everything else I have to say is connected to Basim but before I lay out how he can come off as a monster in this book I just wanna talk about how this book helped me realize why I don't like him. Basim suffers from a bad case of 'main character' syndrome despite being a side character. That means he claims to have negatives, but he doesn't or they aren't negatives. So at one point he says he arrogant and to a degree he is but nothing arrogant he does have any negative side effects. Everything works out. He never struggles in a fight, never is wrong, and he never takes the blame. Like Hytham's big mistake is partially Basim's fault but at no point does Basim ever really admit that. He only claims that his failing is not keeping Hytham from getting attached to a child which Hytham points out is a stupid request. So he's basically a flawless character and at the end he magically makes everything work out. It just makes him a bad character to me. And the fact that he's using that main character power callously sucks. It makes it clear that the Basim that some fans like is going to have to be nothing like the one in Valhalla if Mirage isn't going to be a super boring game. Ezio, Arno, the twins, Bayek, even Kassandra and Eivor are all flawed characters who's flaws are present and they do fail even when they're trying. Having a flawed character at the helm is a key part of the games and Basim just isn't flawed. It just explains why hearing a game is going to be about him was not exciting for me.

Now lets get to why I feel like Basim can be viewed as a monster based on this book. So at the very end it turns out that Basim somehow made everything playout exactly how he wants it to. He perfectly saves the kid, makes him and Justin beloved by the people, makes the vikings look good, makes the emperor look good, and it was all made to happen by him and he knew it would all work out because he's just so special and such a great assassin. The thing is that if he was able to do all that and get what he wants then it makes the path Hytham takes to being willing to not tattle to the Hidden Ones and even support his viking obsession suspect. Because the path is that Hytham wants to follow the assassin's, Basim says no, Hytham reveals that he has been given a mission by the Hidden Ones to watch Basim in an emotional moment, then Basim cruelly reveals to Hytham that he knew all along because he finds Hytham really easy to read, then insults him and says that he's not competent, and then just walks away.

Thing is that if Basim knows Hytham so well then how would he not know that Hytham would follow the assassin. Maybe he didn't know that Hytham would get captured, threatened, injured, and nearly tortured by the Order but he did know something would happen and he'd have grounds to be mad. Not to mention that Hytham regularly asks why Basim came for him and Basim's response is suspect because, again, he's such a super ubber assassin. Because Basim brings the child to the rescue putting him in danger and traumatizing him which further puts Hytham in a position where he hates and blames himself for the events. And then Basim leaves Hytham with no contact, making him feel worse about his failure and when they do meet up finally they have like a fight, not a spar because Basim could have killed him a few times but Hytham barely survived, and then once Hytham is tried and beaten Basim then makes some claims that could very easily be lies. Performances. He claims he should have some of the blame, which he never actually takes for his failure, and that he saved Hytham because he's still useful to the Hidden ones and him. And Hytham believes this, he claims that the tone isn't like he's just a tool but Basim literally told him that the only reason why he didn't reveal he knew Hytham was watching him is because the Hidden Ones would send someone more competent. With the full context it makes it seem like Basim only saved him because he would have to deal with someone more skilled. And because Basim really hasn't done anything to make his tone trustworthy then how Hytham reads him is untrustworthy. Basim makes it clear he knows how to manipulate Hytham. So he uses that beaten down and in debt way that Hytham is to make him go along with his plan to use the child as bait and that plan works perfectly. And that plan working perfectly makes Hytham feel even more in debt to Basim basically making Hytham fully manipulated into a pawn for Basim to the point Hytham is the one that pushes them to go to the vikings.

It's the problem with him being so flawless is that there is no moment where it feels like Hytham for sure is seeing the real man or couldn't be being used. Because Basim is shown to always be manipulating. This also leads into the game which makes Basim even worse. It means he likely did dump the assassination on Hytham of Kjotva. The game could have put some effort in to give a reason why Hytham even tried to assassinate him which it didn't so even if we assume that was Hytham's misjudgment it makes everything in England just Basim fully discarding Hytham as he talked to him once in England and then completely abandons him. And as he supposedly knows Hytham so well he'd know how his abandonment would be seen but he doesn't care. It also could be stretched to the claim that he knew then that Sigurd would be taken by Fulke and tortured which would eventually give him what he wants. The thing is that when things work out for a character perfectly and you establish that they can get whatever they want by choice and their actions when they get that stuff through the suffering of others it makes you look pretty fucking awful.

Of course I do tend to over analyze, and I don't really like Basim or how he treats Hytham. But I am entitled to my own reading of the text so...That's it. It should be clear that not liking Basim makes me not really see this as a negative. I thought he as a jerk so thinking he's a turbo jerk is just more of what i viewed. But that is my opinion so feel free to not think that it read that way. I'm entitled to my view and you're entitled to yours.

Anyways, go read the book.

#assassin's creed #hytham #Basim #The Golden City #Spoilers #opinon