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boethiah · 2 years

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About Cyrodiil Empire as an evil institution-TVTropes says "While initially forged by the iron fists of the Imperial Legions under the leadership of Tiber Septim, it quickly shifted to a (mostly) benevolent force of goodit's shown to be a benevolent force, espousing generally liberal values like religious and racial tolerance while establishing strong diplomatic and mercantile ties between the provinces." Can you explain why that's bullshit?

that '(mostly)' is doing a LOT of work in this description huh

i'm sure you could write a whole essay debunking this, but because i'm too lazy to do research i'm going to stick to examples off the top of my head

religious tolerance: in morrowind, the empire sends in a secret agent for the rather explicit purpose of ultimately overthrowing the local gods, + the imperial cult is engaged in active prosetylization. skyrim goes from majority-old pantheon worship in the 2nd era (eso) to majority eight-divines worship in the fourth (skyrim), with the only major intervening event being the imperialization of skyrim. across the empire, daedric cults and witch covens (e.g. the glenmoril wyrd) are consistently viewed with suspicion and typically live as outcasts in the wilderness.

racial tolerance: the empire is "tolerant" of other races only in that it views them as barbarians who can potentially be civilized rather than barbarians who need to be exterminated. again, morrowind is a good example-- how many times to imperial figures refer to dunmer as "savages" (and incidentally, the imperial cult mission is framed as a mission to "civilize" the backwards dunmer). the imperial empire accommodates members of all races so long as they're imperialized and so long as they're useful; e.g. prior to daggerfall orcs weren't recognized as people but still make up an essential component of the imperial military, and even then orsinium was sacked on their watch.

diplomatic ties: the empire "fosters diplomatic ties" by overthrowing local rulers and installing imperial-aligned puppet-rulers in their place. look at the helseth-almalexia conflict. look at torygg and the other imperial high kings. look at barenziah and the other rulers of daggerfall. look at REDGUARD, where the entire game is situated in a recently-colonized island whose rightful ruler was killed in favour of a literal colonial governor. i'm trying to think of examples of 'strong diplomatic ties' created by the empire and all i'm coming up with is like.. maybe breaking the isolationism of vvardenfell and summurset? but that's like me saying that driving my car through your bedroom wall is creating strong ties between you and the outside world. you're welcome

mercantile ties: considering that the main/only beneficiary to these "strong mercantile ties" is imperial-aligned forces, mainly the fucking east empire company (named after the east india company, which... is not the namesake you choose for a Benevolent organization), "strong mercantile ties" here feels like a code-word for "wanton economic exploitation". again, look at the naked pilfering of ebony from morrowind. incidentally, morrowind also has lore about tax riots caused by the unfair taxation of local goods vs imperial imports. skyrim has little evidence of imperial imports, and the well-known merchants in skyrim are strongly aligned with the empire. to suggest that the imperial economy benefits entire provinces rather than a select few high-ranking imperials is, like, just wrong.

to quote the lorebook 'on the eastern provinces', a lorebook arguing (albeit somewht problematically) that occupation of the eastern provinces is wrong: "Within the ebony mines of Morrowind, bloated monopolists under Imperial charters exploit slave labor to harvest the outrageous profits assured by rampant graft and corruption."

corruption within the empire is a theme throughout the games and exposes the reality of the septim empire: like all empires, it exists to enrich a fortunate few at the expense of the many, and any rhetoric about its lofty goals only serves to justify this great injustice after the fact

tl;dr tvtropes is not immune to propaganda

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activate-shadow-of-the-window · 6 months

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Hey guys guess what I’m back on my mcyt song analysis nonsense

Today I was trying to memorize Eurus by the Oh Hellos for no particular reason as you do, and bloody hell to the lyrics hit harder than I thought

Like I knew the whole album hits hard and goes hard (staring intensely at Passerine and Hieroglyphs) but goodness does its namesake do it differently

So imma connect it to the life series for no reason

“Spinning that stone uphill again / Like atonement for a bygone sin / Under the weight of it my bones / Are cracking like a dry branch in a westward wind” a general statement for the angstier members of the smp, especially Martyn because come on! A continuous and torturous punishment for something long past and seemingly long forgotten by anything else?

“But Zeus and his pantheon of kin / Take the first nine out of every ten / Minas like lighting changing hands / It all returns back to his pockets in the end” in relation to the Watchers being the creators and gods of this death game, taking the players one by one, their lives as quick as lightning, nothing but fleeting feelings that feed them no matter what, until only the winner is left

“You can’t take any gold or rings / Further than the grave / Nothing we make can we bring / But still the bait hanging from the string / Is calling my name / And like the wind / it slips again, out of my fingers” about how the players don’t know that they are playthings for the gods, and keep on trying to make their little lives better. They chase that bait, only to miss it and fall down the hole of violence and despair every time

“As Fortuna sits idly by / I spin her wheel with all my might / Crushing my kin for warring-wage / minted from the ivory of your tooth and eye” the Watchers don’t even have to do anything, the players will make themselves suffer all on their own. Violence and death will happen without any intervention

“Under the table where she dines / I sit hungry with my mouth foamed white / Fighting for crumbs that trickle down / She finishes her cake and takes a bite out of mine” shows how truly desperate the players are, fighting for every little advantage in this game that they can get. And the Watchers don’t care one bit

“You can’t take any gold or rings / Further than the grave / Nothing we make can we bring / But still the bait hanging from the string / Is calling my name / And like the wind / it slips again, out of my fingers” one last repeat of the chorus, as the players realize they really can’t win the game right before they meet their ends

Okay at least this time its actual analysis and not just a cool animatic plan I’m never going to animate

And its pretty poetic that this song, about realizing how hopeless one’s situation is, leads into A Convocation of Fauns (A Faunvocation, If You Will), which is a large gathering of fauns, which themselves are trickster goat faeries, who, like the players, would probably be more than down for overthrowing some gods.

That then transitions into Hieroglyphs, a song about acceptance, an indifferent universe, and having a good time while one still has time.

Which THEN would lead into Passerine, a song about disillusionment with god(s), not knowing what to do next, and arson (possibly).

AND! The album starts off with O Sleeper, a song about someone realizing how screwed up the world is, and how they really need to change things around here by toppling tables and definite arson and probable murder.

WHICH ITSELF is followed by Dry Branches, whose title is REFERENCED in Eurus, and could be viewed as being about someone being to weak on their own to change things, or at least perceiving themself to be too weak!

AND THAT ONE transitions into Grow, a song about someone getting gaslit into cutting back who they used to be, only for who they used to be to come creeping back into their life and bring the house down and force them to change and grow!

AND AND AND the whole bloody album features feather symbolism out the wazoo! From lyrics like “and get your feathers ruffled” to “like an eagle to an aerie” and “pruning my feathers like leaves from a vine” to the actual bloody album art being a bird shedding bits of grain like feathers (which in of itself is symbolic of the players being nothing but crops to harvest for the Watchers)

Holy hell this ran away from me again

Dang

TL;DR: The album Eurus by the Oh Hellos is way to symbolic of the life series and presents a lot of cool opportunities for bloody deep and thoughtful fanfic

Don’t wanna be a broken record, but

Have fun with this!

#trafficblr #traffic smp #the oh hellos #the four winds #eurus #passerine #hieroglyphs #o sleeper #grow #a convocation of fauns (a faunvocation if you will)#dry branches

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pyreo · 3 years

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Loreposting about Abaddon

Abaddon doesn’t get a lot of attention. As a deposed god he doesn’t seem relevant to the Guild Wars timeline after Nightfall. But I keep thinking about him because Abaddon is probably the most influential character Tyria ever had.

Let’s just go over where he appears in-game if you start off in GW2. Everyone knows the six human gods. They’re in statues, temples, personal shrines everywhere. The base game story makes you detour through a sunken temple dedicated to Abaddon, while the Orrian temples to the other five gods are still intact on the surface. This is not by chance. It’s also nudging you to notice that there are no Orrian temples to Kormir, because she replaced Abaddon only two centuries ago. This is reflected again later on in Siren’s Landing on the other side of Orr, where the Five, and Abaddon, each have a personal reliquary, and Abaddon’s is central, connected to all the others, and still intact.

Building on that refresher on human divinity, in Path of Fire you visit the actual place Abaddon was defeated by the other Five gods and pushed into a side dimension to keep him out of the world.

And when you visit the archives of the Durmand Priory, they have an imposing Abaddon statue towering over the stairs. Other than being reflected in three major environments, he doesn’t have a role in the plot. BUT.

As Kormir explains to you, the weakness of the human gods is that their excess of power keeps fucking up the world. The Desolation, a map that covers only a part of the sulfur desert, is completely uninhabitable because Abaddon was destroyed there. This happened because Abaddon, who was actually the most powerful of the Six and the leader of the group, wanted humans to share in the gift of magic. He was the god of knowledge, after all. This proved disastrous and the other gods reduced and compartmentalised the magic, and Abaddon went on a whole attempt to overthrow them and become one, single god of all.

The destruction of Abaddon’s temples and relics was intentional. He was wiped from memory. The pantheon was called The Five until Nightfall, wherein the existence of Abaddon was revealed as he tried to drag himself back into the mortal plane. As a god his spheres of power were water and knowledge. Erasing knowledge of him was what made him powerless. (Interestingly, the Priory’s special collections contains the Scroll of the Five True Gods, an ancient record of what the human gods knew about the Elder Dragons, but one dragon is missing - the water dragon, who like Abaddon, has a damaged and erased history. The six Elder Dragons and six human gods have many respective connections.)

When he lived, Abaddon’s followers were the Margonites, who believed him the only real god and worshipped him exclusively, unlike other humans who revere all the Six together. They were rewarded with transformation into etheral beings with an extremely long lifespan, and were imprisoned in Abaddon’s Realm, the Realm of Torment, when he was forced out of Tyria. As the god of knowledge he had a realm to himself, and when fallen, his sphere inversed. Knowledge became madness, the theme his realm embodies. Temples were sunk, records destroyed, because to remove all knowledge of the god of knowledge made him powerless.

I can’t remember where, but it’s implied that by Nightfall comes around a thousand years after his banishment, Abaddon is finally able to claw his way back into Tyria because people are starting to remember him. There’s one side quest that sticks out in my memory called The Search for Enlightenment about a scholar stealing scriptures from an Elonian library which leads to a massive raid by Margonites. The scholar was ‘babbling’ about a forgotten god. Proximity to knowledge about Abaddon seems to bestow insanity, the connection between Abaddon in his inverted realm and his hold over anyone who knows he exists. Though the Five Gods tried, they didn’t erase everything (hell, Trahearne and Sayeh al' Rajihd give you a guided tour of an Abaddon temple). Over a thousand years, relics popped up and people began to remember The Five was once The Six. As they did his influence returned until he was able to attempt to merge the Realm of Torment with Tyria and become a single, all powerful god in the absence of the others.

But wait how does that make a forgotten god the most influential character in both games?

Well.

Guild Wars lore is nothing if not completely linked together. Every single thing has cause and effect, every event is a domino. The story is consistent from Prophecies to this day. So let’s start with the first GW1 chapter, Prophecies.

It all starts at the Citadel of Flame.

It was built into the volcano Hrangmer. The charr had been displaced, pushed out of Ascalon by the successful expansion of humankind. 450 years before GW2 the Flame Legion found this volcano and, inside, Titans. You know how Mordremoth’s minions are Mordrem, Zhaitan’s minions are Risen, etc? Titans are Abaddon minions, left behind and hidden after his defeat. They change their appearance to suit their environment. In a jungle they’re vegetative, in mountains they’re made of ice, in the Realm of Torment they’re twisted constructs of flesh, in a volcano, they’re fire. The Flame Legion brings the Titans back to the charr, charr worship them, and in exchange, get immense fire powers. Flame Legion completely takes over charr society and makes it a theistic, misogynist nightmare with the Shamans at the top.

Abaddon has just restructured charr society.

Using their overpowered fire magic indirectly from a human god, charr, ironically, rally against the humans and nuke Ascalon to pieces. The few survivors escape to Kryta. Charr are now pretty much unstoppable and invade all the way to Orr. Vizier Khilbron used a powerful stolen scroll to repel the charr with magic, and it completely destroys Orr, collapsing the island into the ocean.

Abaddon has just wiped out two nations of the humans who used to worship him, with Orr as the final goal - to tear down the resplendent city of the Gods who betrayed him. This is referenced, if you know what you’re looking for, in GW2. You can scale the Vizier’s Tower, where he read the scroll that sank all of Orr, and on the wall...

A mural to the lost god, a testament to power that, a thousand years later, one who was expunged from history had a faithful likeness depicted.

Ascalon’s a burning hole and Orr is underwater. Now what? Those Ascalonian survivors in Kryta find the place is controlled by White Mantle. The White Mantle are committing mass murder via bloodstone sacrifice (bloodstones being the power curb the gods introduced after imbuing humans with magic) in order to halt the prophecy of a Chosen One opening the Door of Komalie. Vizier Khilbron turns up, shaking out some mysteriously wet boots don’t worry about that, and leads you against these genocidal cultists. Which, whoops, does lead to the Door of Komalie being opened - and it’s a doorway into Abbadon’s Realm of Torment, out of which Titans power through. This was the apocalypse planned for Kryta. Unlike the first two, this one is thwarted by the player. Kryta lives on. Vizier Khilbron is the final boss and turns out to have been a lich.

That’s 3 of the 5 human nations. What about Cantha and Elona?

GW: Factions is the Canthan chapter in which Shiro Tagachi, the emperor’s bodyguard, continually visits a fortune teller until she inflicts such paranoia on his mindset that he believes he needs to kill the emperor in self-defense. His defeat causes the Jade Wind that creates the Jade Sea. As a spirit, Shiro then engulfs Cantha in a plague that warps people into tumorous mutants. The fortune teller turns out to be an Abaddon minion whose task was the eventual destruction of Cantha. This one also is foiled by the player.

GW: Nightfall is the culmination chapter. Abaddon is now powerful enough, well known enough, to breach Tyria and try to come back. His agent is Varesh Ossa, who slowly transforms into a Margonite over the course of the game. The player confronts the breach between planes and finally enters the Realm of Torment, meeting the shades of Abaddon’s servants that came before, the lich form of Vizier Khilbron, and the spirit of Shiro Tagachi, before facing Abaddon himself.

And that’s the end of it. In Guild Wars magic cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred, so another god ascends in Abaddon’s place. They are once again The Six.

It’s Abaddon that ruined half the Elonian desert, Abaddon whose sinking of Orr gave Zhaitan the perfect mass grave to necromance, Abaddon who froze the Cantha sea into solid jade, and Abaddon whose final death and eruption of magic started waking Primordus, leading to the norn, dwarf and asuran alliance to stop it in 1078 AE-- introducing the norn and asura to the rest of Tyria, and making the dwarves extinct, cutting their entire race’s existence short. If it wasn’t for Abaddon, the charr wouldn’t have been taken over by their magic-toting shaman caste, only to come to their senses and rebel and ostracize the Flame Legion afterward. Hell, the current Flame Legion Imperators STILL style their horns in an homage to Abaddon, and probably don’t even remember why! To a human god, gone for over a thousand years, who used their race as pawns in a revenge attempt at wiping out every nation the humans had built!

And even after being thoroughly and completely destroyed, his magic STILL haunts Tyria enough for his statues to punish you for not showing the proper respect.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #long post #LONG fucking post (apologetic)#abaddon #guild wars 1 #had to get this out me brain there we go

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hellishhin · 3 years

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Since today is the last challenge day, Day 30 is all yours: Tell me something you wish I'd asked you, and didn't cross my mind! Rubber duck it out or simply talk as much or as little as you want about something from your wip or your wip in general! I'd really love to hear your thoughts😊

(You already know how much I love your three girls. And you've taught me so much lore about dnd?? I'm very very grateful. Your answers were always so rich and I loved reading them to the end, sometimes I was pulled right in that I even forgot it was my question that started the prompt)

Wishing you the best!

Ok so I had a whole post for this then my computer shut off and I lost it soooo take two! I am so sad underwing is ending but it's not like we are all disappearing. Let me tell you though, I have absolutely loved your questions and I have had so much fun diving into them! I needed to get back into the lore and you gave me the push I needed to do that <3

Gosh I have no freaking clue where to even start. You tell me to talk about anything but anything is a lot of things! lol! So I really think one of my favorite things is how Sadie interacts with the gods. There are so many different gods with different personalities and so many of them appreciate her for one reason or another. I'll just spoil this a bit, Sadie ended up literally in the heavens, standing in the middle of a table where the entire pantheon of deities were around the table all in their fifteen foot tall god-like forms. They had this meeting called because there were several gods vying to have Sadie bear their child and she had enough of being jumped by gods so she forced them all to a meeting and they surprisingly agreed.

She had most of the table trying to convince her to pick them to be the father of her child and you freaking BET that her husband was there and was absolutely ready to blow his freaking lid. It was one of the most fun RP scenarios we've ever done, my DM and I. Because of that meeting, Sadie eyed a few different gods and even after she chose one the others were still very interested in being next in line. I will say that this is how Sadie and Skolfi the Beastlord became close with her. But other than that, Sadie also has such a close relationship with Chaldira, aka Lady Luck.

Ok so there's just so much stuff and telling this one part is not going to spoil much. History timeeeee! When Sadie learns about this it is really profound for her but it won't be worse knowing the information beforehand gosh I can't even type fast enough I'm so excited.

So the Hin is the official racial name for a halfling. Halflings are a "nickname" given by the humans that stuck and became the common term for that race of small people. But the Hin used to be an entire nation all on their own. They used to have such rich customs and history and they used to live completely separate from humans. They even had their own pantheon of gods.

That was until the humans decided that they couldn't have another set of gods within their realm so they attacked the Hin and said worship our gods or die. There were so many brave small Hin who stood up for their deities but unfortunately it was not enough. The Hin had to bow to the humans and their gods. Years and years went by and the Hin ended up becoming halflings who were forced to worship the human gods to such an extent that their pantheon was fully forgotten. Their culture fully destroyed. I can say pretty much nobody even knows this piece of history. Sadie only learned it from the spirits of the halflings who had died a long time ago but research into it found it to be true. This upset her so so much that she made a pledge she would restore her gods to their former glory. She would tell the Hin of their culture, their history, and get them to return to what their people used to be.

Chaldira is halfling goddess who is actually in the human pantheon. This happened because Tolaar the Mad God did what he does best. He went mad and killed the human goddess of luck many years ago. This had him banished to Pandemonium, no longer a part of the pantheon anymore. In order to have her place and domain filled, Chaldira was put in her place and sort of switched pantheons. Then the humans made the Hin forget the other Hinnish gods and when they lose worshippers they lose power, nearly fading away. But they all managed to continue existing and now they are gaining power because Sadie is raising awareness.

Seeing what she is doing, Chaldira blesses Sadie with Fatespinner, her artifact of luck. It's an amazing staff for Sadie that gives her more magic, it protects her, and she continues to unlock powers for it as she proves herself to Chaldira and prove her loyalty to the Hinnish gods. But if she upsets Chaldira, like she already did once, Chaldira will take powers away. Currently the rod is at about half power from what it was because she cursed the gods and threw it away when she had to watch her soldiers die on the battlefield and nobody she called on would help.

But I digress. Chaldira and Maelel are like her goddess mothers. They both come to her when she desperately needs them and they help steer her in the right direction. Sometimes she doesn't like that direction though. Her husband convinces her to do less than great things and so she basically has a devil and an angel on her shoulder but it's more like a hot devil she married and two goddesses which you can imagine the kind of pressure that puts her under. It's always a stairway to heaven and a highway to hell because its so much easier and more fun to go to hell.

So anyway that was kind of rambly but I really wanted to talk about the Hinnish gods. They are all so sweet and lovely and the Hin deserve so much more than what the stupid fucking humans did to them. Also, in order to be successful at all Sadie literally has to overthrow the church because you can bet your ass they will persecute any Hin they catch worshipping the wrong pantheon.

By this point all I ask is that you hate the Imperial Church as much as Sadie and I do <3

#underwing challenge #ask #answered #drippingmoon #sadiestuff #lore #Hin lore #the fact its the last underwing makes me way too sad #it's not like you're gonna disappear lol #at least I hope not!#I like you! <3 #I'm still so gonna ask you questions when I think of them #I'm so sick of being busy and I'm about to stop time to get back to writing I'm so frustrated haha #so many hugs!#I can't thank you enough for being so awesome and interested #you validated me daily over this month and honestly #you're a big part of the reason I had the courage to start the Stag #I realized that things I do can matter to some people <3

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thedcdunce · 5 years

Text

Nemesis

“This was a bad idea. I guess that's what happens when you let a stripper play psychiatrist.” - Nemesis

Real Name: Lady Charis of the Adrastea

Aliases:

Charis

Gender: Female

Height: 5′ 10″

Weight: 192 lbs (87 kg)

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black

Powers:

Kherubim Physiology

Abilities:

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)

Thievery

Swordsmanship

Weaknesses:

Mental Illness

Equipment:

Stealth Suit

Pegasus

Creation Engine Blades

Genetic Concussion Grenades

Universe: Wildstorm Universe

Origin: Formerly a lowly thief of her people, Nemesis fell in love with Majestic and trained in the arts of the Coda.

Citizenship: American

Marital Status: Single

Occupation:

Adventurer

Warrior

Education: Educated in the ways of the Coda

First Appearance: Wildcats: Nemesis #1 (November, 2005)

Powers

Kherubim Physiology: Kherubim resemble humans in appearance, but are physically far stronger and more durable and extremely long-lived, nearly immortal. However an evolutionary drawback to their near-immortality is that Kherans are almost infertile, only very rarely will a Kheran produce offspring. This effect is seen in real world natural environments, as longer living organisms will have fewer offspring than organisms with short lifespans. This is a natural check against overpopulation.

Enhanced Senses: Charis has very high levels of senses. most notably sight and hearing. She is easily at human peak as far as her ability to note detailed objects. Her hearing on the other hand is very enhanced.

Immortality: As a Kheran, Charis possesses virtual immortality. Her race is extremely long lived and she has been on Earth for literally the whole of human civilization and is showing no sign of growing old anytime soon.

Enhanced Healing

Enhanced Durability: As a Kheribum she is very very tough and durable. A regular bullet and gun will not adequately harm her and her skin could be considered super hard and dense to a normal human.

Enhanced Speed

Telekinesis

Telepathy

Enhanced Strength: As a Kheran, Charis is naturally stronger then a normal human. She can lift/press up to two tons of weight with effort and in addition to this, knows how to best apply her strength.

Empathy: As an Adrastean, she has psychic powers, the strongest of these being empathy, allowing her to sense others by sensing their feelings, as well as learn their past and secret desires among other things.

Abilities

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Charis was trained as a Coda so she is a spectacular fighter in both armed and unarmed combat.

Thievery

Swordsmanship

Weaknesses

Mental Illness: If she comes into contact the body of a murder victim, her empathetic ability causes her to experience the feelings of pain and horror of the person who died and compel her to avenge them.

Equipment

Stealth Suit: She also wears a special stealth suit that lets her create forcefields.

Force Field

Pegasus: An assault hover-bike made from the finest technologies presumably from Khera, Daemon and earth; capable of launching ranged plasma blasts or mounting pickup upon voice command.

Creation Engine Blades: When fighting, Charis wields two blades forged from shards of the Creation Engine that can cut through any material in the universe.

Genetic Concussion Grenades: Pieces of Kherubim ordinance that, once after detonation, horribly wrought ones genetic structure beyond comprehension. Agonizingly warping the recipients bodies apart as their D.N.A caustically disintegrates.

History

Nemesis was born Charis, a member of the Adrastea. They are like the normal Kherubim but they all have psychic powers. The group was originally a slave caste but became a powerful underground criminal organization.

Charis' first chronological appearance was when she met Mister Majestic on Khera. At the time, she was trying to steal his weapon so she could sell it after. After he caught her, they soon became friends and lovers, and Majestic was able to get her Coda training, something an Adrastean like Charis was normally not allowed due to intense discrimination. Unfortunately, since Charis was an Adrastea, Majestic being with her was frowned upon so they had to stay together in secret. However, their secret wasn't as well hidden as they thought. Kheran politicians, trying to make peace for their planet, chose Majestic to sleep with Zealot, an act that would unite the two most powerful factions on the planet, the Pantheon and the Coda. Majestic felt it was his duty as a Kherubim to do what he was asked of him for the sake of Khera, but the politicians would have blackmailed him by threatening to tell others about Charis if he didn't. Because of his "duty" Majestic and Charis separated, though they still loved each other. They ended up on Earth together though when their ship crashed on the planet.

Charis was part of the Coda on Earth but was betrayed by another faction, the Brotherhood of the Blade. The Brotherhood had joined with some rogue Daemonites in a plan to overthrow both their people. The first step of this plan was to kill hundreds of Coda and frame Charis. They did, leaving only Charis alive among the original Coda. After this, both Zealot and Majestic swore to hunt down Charis, not knowing that she had also sworn to avenge her sisters. The whole betrayal had taken place in Ancient Greece, and Nemesis hadn't been seen since. However, she appeared under the radar in Europe, Japan, and American under various monikers, killing Daemonite enclaves, encountering figures like Majestic and Sherlock Holmes along the way. It wasn't until 2005 that she fully showed up again.

Majestic, Zealot, and the other Wildcats with them, found Nemesis in the middle of killing some Brotherhood assassins, though the Wildcats didn't know that was who they were. She had been hunting and killing Brotherhood members since the betrayal in Greece. After she had killed them, the Wildcats tried to stop her from kidnapping a child that was with the men, but Nemesis made short work of the team. She even managed to cut Majestic with a sword. She escaped with the child but Majestic and the team eventually found her.

Before the Wildcats could arrive tough, Daemonites found Charis and Kara and managed to take them by surprise, but she was able to hold her own until Majestic arrived looking to take Kara back and to kill Charis. After surrounding herself and Kara with a forcefield, Charis blew up the building, with Daemonites and Majestic caught in the explosion. Majestic survived though and used his former relationship with Nemesis to take her down.

Majestros took both of them to a Halo Corporation building in New York City. While there, Charis revealed the truth behind her “betrayal” and also explained what was going on with the girl. The Brotherhood had been mutating humanity since they had betrayed the Coda and their people in Ancient Greece. The girl was created as an activator to trigger the mutations so Nemesis was keeping her safe so the Brotherhood couldn't use her to control humanity. Majestic and Zealot accepted her story, but before Nemesis could be released, a Brotherhood spacecraft emerged from a bleed portal and fired hundreds of projectiles into the Halo building with the Wildcats inside.

The projectiles were Scimitars, Brotherhood/Shaper hybrids, living weapons born and bred to kill. Majestros saved Nemesis at the last minute from being cut in half by a Scimitar. While Majestic was fighting some of the Scimitars, Kara was kidnapped and the Bladeship attacked. After the Brotherhood ship bombarded the building with plasma canons, Charis was the last one standing, thanks to her force field. Following the Scimitar that had captured Kara onto the ship, she came face to face with Raven, the leader of the Brotherhood. She was too late to stop him from activating the girl, and the resulting blast knocked her off the flying ship and to the ground. When she awoke, she was with Majestic, Zealot, Grifter and Savant. It was then that Majestic and Zealot called a truce with Nemesis and offered her the chance to finally avenge her slain sisters of the Coda. Majestic, Nemesis and the Wildcats battled the human mutates in New York City, while other Wildstorm teams fought mutates all over America.

Savant located the Brotherhood's battleship in space, and teleported all the Wildcats using the Halo teleportation system. On board they found that Raven had the entire population of New Jersey frozen in status pods as hostages. He was ready to kill them if the Wildcats didn't surrender. Nemesis, being a Coda warrior, was unable to surrender, and threw out some special grenades, taking out the Brotherhood and buying time for her to send the hostages back to Earth and set the ship to self-destruct. Nemesis was able to locate Kara and free her, but she was attacked by a Daemonite and was about to be shot. Grifter, deeply in lust with Nemesis, took the hit for her. Savant tried to teleport the team back, but there weren't enough beacons to get them all back, so Nemesis gave hers to Kara. She also gave Grifter a goodbye kiss and told Zealot to tell Majestros that had she not sacrificed herself, she would have showed him what he had been missing for the past three millenia.

After the Wildcats were gone, Charis faced off against Raven. Raven also had a blade forged from the material that allowed Charis' blade to cut through anything, so when they fought, it was especially dangerous. They fought and Nemesis won, but in killing Raven, she had damaged the ship and she was sucked out into open space. It was then that Majestic returned, saving her from certain death since the forcefields she had activated when she was sucked out, were losing power. Back at the Halo Corporation building in New York City, Majestros asked Charis to stay with him and be with him as well as join the Wildcats. She turned him down, and after one last kiss went on her way to more adventures. Nemesis, now armed with two indestructible blades was on her own once again.

Armageddon & Revelations

After some time the Void contacted Nemesis to inform her of the on-coming cataclysm that would bring about Armageddon. Void transports Nemesis to a future where the majority of the Earth is destroyed by powerful metahumans. Furthermore, she discovered that Majestros became a mad tyrant and sought to rebuild a "New Khera" on the ruined Earth, while becoming enemies of the Wildcats. Returning to her own time Nemesis joins forces with Savant and Backlash in an attempt to stop that dark future from happening. Ultimately their lead led to a hidden missile bunker in western Utah and discovered that the American government had been weaponizing clones of The High known as Reapers. With the silo destroyed and having killed off a escaped Reaper, Nemesis was rescued by Mister Majestic. However, on the next day she realized too late that the destruction of the silo wasn't able to prevent the inevitable apocalypse, culminating into the events of Number of the Beast.

World's End

Nemesis found herself with the Wildcats when Armageddon hit, and guiltily believed that she herself allowed the cataclysm to happen. She stayed with them for a while, battling against Majestic who had begun a new Kheran empire on the islands of Hawaii. Majestic offered for her to join him in his new empire but she refused. However, after a battle against Lord Defile and his Daemonites, Nemesis and Jodi Slayton decided to take Majestic's offer and left the Wildcats to join him.

However, it was later revealed that Nemesis and Jodi's reason for coming to "New Khera" as they were blackmailed by Majestic as he has been imprisoning Savant for the means of breeding pure Kherubim "heirs" via test tubes. Furthermore, Savant was also imprison for learning that there was something other than Armageddon that driven Majestic to go mad. After the Wildcats came to rescue the three women, Majestic attempted to stop them. Nemesis, alone, fought Majestic in order to gave time for the others to escape. As the two reluctantly fought, their fight brought them over to a active volcano in which Nemesis decides to sacrifice herself to kill her lover into the volcano. However, after the two plunge into the volcano's lava, Majestic was the first to emerge alive and believes that Nemesis didn't survive, forcing him to briefly take his anger on the Wildcats. Majestic later returned to the place of Nemesis' supposed death and had been searching vainly for her trace, but finds only her swords.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Nemesis was saved by someone when she fell into the volcano. Whoever saved her told her that she could have whatever she wanted and what she wanted most was Majestic. She came to UnLondon among the gathered heroes that were notified of the chance to leave Earth on the Authority's Carrier. Following the Carrier's departure and during the Knights of Khera's attack, Nemesis remained hidden throughout the conflict and rescued a wounded Majestic who was impaled in the neck by Sebastian. She took him to be recuperate at his Mount Rushmore hideout and chosen to keep the mute/paralyzed Majestic against his will to conceive a child she desires, which would take years or more to conceive according to their Kherubim physiology. It became apparent that Nemesis's sudden change of personality is being controlled apparently by the individual who rescued her. After the three months period of Earth's restoration, Nemesis finally became pregnant. She then decided that Majestic is in no condition to be a father, and sought the one who rescued her from the volcano to be her unborn child's father figure instead.

Fun Facts

Nemesis once fell in love with Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan, who was also the basis for one of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers character. She regretted being immortal while seeing him growing up to his old age.

It is stated in the 1939 edition of the Planetary Guide, that its author had personally met Nemesis.

Nemesis was an acquaintance of Detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.

Nemesis sailed on the RMS Titanic and fought Daemonite/Brotherhood assassins who were responsible for sinking the ship.

According to Nemesis, she actually served as the inspiration to or the actual Greek Goddess of Vengeance in ancient times.

#nemesis #lady charis of the adrastea #charis #wildcats #WildC.A.T.s #the coda #dc #DC comics #thedcdunce

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doodlegraveyard · 6 years

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i just had the idea of the kai/supreme kai/buu if u dont have any plans for him being part of one pantheon and the gods of destruction/angels/some of the other deities introduced in super being part of another one? maybe both religions have counterparts for some deities or there could be just one religion that was originally two separate ones. thats something i would explore at least. anyways i love this au to bits and i await any future developments there may be

SO this might be a longish answer because you’ve given me a lot to think about. I hope you didn’t mind waiting so long (I was kind of joking about it needing subheadings but then i realized it did?)

The status of ‘gods’ in dbz is very weird to begin with because of the nature of power scaling within the show, and the authority of said deities gets undermined very quickly (see: how quickly shin goes from ominous and mysterious entity to completely blown out of the water by the saiyans in a matter of episodes). I like to think I’ve taken care of this to some extent by scaling the power back; there’s still magic in the world, magic items, ki blasts and all that, but there is (hopefully) still a sense that technology and the development of different nations makes a difference (ie: guns can Hurt and vehicles and transportation are a big deal because no one is flying across the planet in a matter of hours/minutes/however fast they can go at this point – in fact no one is flying at all until crane school gets introduced.)

There’s also an utter lack of reverence present which i guess could be a side effect of that’s just how goku IS but i like some sense of power and mystery to be retained…

Systems of worship

Systems of worship I’ve thought about already in the world of JW include the Saiyan’s central Moon Goddess, their veneration of heavenly bodies, as well as a strong tradition of folk heroes and ancestor worship (& the idea that great chosen heroes/warriors/kings ascend to godhood to sort of mimic the vibe of the super saiyan mythos); the Namekians who worship Porunga and have a dedicated priestly class; and Shengxiao (Chi Chi’s kingdom) where they also practice a lot of ancestor worship (the Ox King’s Giant bloodline tradition says they are descended from the mountains themselves), folk religion/animism/nature spirits, etc.

The Kai

The Kai are an interesting case because even though they are high ranking gods within the world of dragon ball the story is kind of shit at communicating any kind of power they might have (I’m not salty, promise) HOWEVER the whole system of ridiculous heavenly bureaucracy they have kind of lends itself to the government I already wanted for Mifan (biggest country where a lot of the story happens, mainly Qing empire inspired). After realizing this and discussing with @luminiaaravis, I’ve decided that that’s the most likely route I’ll take them.

SO: Shin, aka His Imperial Highness Emperor Higashi, Son of Heaven, is the emperor of Mifan. Someone like King Kai is a government official - in the world, they’re both very powerful and influential but also mortal, and therefore someone the other characters can interact with more in the way they do in canon - aka not as deities. Them being further up the food chain also probably means someone like Goku wouldn’t meet then until he’s properly a folk hero/ helped overthrow corrupt powers, etc.

Also, it just seems really fitting for Shin to be portrayed as a young and sheltered emperor who’s basically a figurehead but really wants to be a good leader. I think it’s a nice parallel to his canon background

TL;DR the kai are mortal and the royal family of the empire of Mifan, Beerus on the other hand…..

Worship of Beerus

now that i’ve been thinking about it a while, at this point I don’t see the story getting to the point where including interactions with actual gods-who-get-treated-as-gods would be necessary, but I do like including some of the gods in actual pantheons. Beerus especially has an egyptian aesthetic already and i’d be really interested in including his worship within the story - also they do quite a lot of adventuring for dragon balls and i’d love to have an opportunity to do all sorts of The Mummy style antics in a pyramid or ancient temple dedicated to Beerus.

The concept of a god of destruction is extant in all kinds of cultures, BUT usually balanced either by another aspect or other gods in the pantheon - which beerus is lacking if I take the Kai out of the situation. The gluttony aspect of his personality could also potentially be swung as a god of harvest, abundance etc.? But that doesn’t track with his personality to me.

I think that once again his actual canon situation works pretty well - a dormant god, one to be appeased to fend off the end times (religions with a definite apocalypse in the future a la the Norse Ragnarok are always fun)

Buu also seems like some kind of destructive force/deity. Actually if i made him a deity he’d seemingly have a lot of the of aspects as Beerus but somehow a completely different tone? But i’m not sure if I’m super invested in Buu for JW, sorry 😅

and……….i’m not going to even try to deal with Zeno.

#hotpantsonly #dragon ball #dbz #journey westward au #its lore ya'll!#asks #inscriptions #i’m also going to post these images separately

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vorthosjay · 6 years

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Theros: The True History

Welcome to Theros: The True History. This is probably one of the most tin foil theories I have come up with, but I think it lends an interesting twist to Theros and the true nature of the gods on the plane. We already know the gods aren’t what they seem, and that Heliod may have once been a planeswalker named Heliud... but what else might have happened there in the past? Note: This is basically every crackpot headcanon I have about Theros in one article, I have no confidence that any of this is correct. Parts might be, but I want to be clear this is entirely for fun, to connect a whole lot of dots.

Please Note: This piece was supposed to include a theory about Heliod and Jaya Ballard to finish it off, along with the Demigid theory. Jaya Ballard Returns contains the Jaya Ballard portion, and a future full Demigid theory will be coming out... when a new Theros set is announced.

Art by Adam Paquette

Before we begin, it’s important to remember that from the start, it’s been established that the Theros history we’ve been given probably isn’t accurate. The first clue came from Theros: Godsend Part 1 again.

Xenagos recognized these events, which had occurred barely a decade earlier. Deiphon spoke as if they were the distant past even though the boy would have been alive, though very young. On Theros, history had a way of transforming to myth much more quickly than on other worlds.

If the story Deiphon was telling was already turning into myth just a decade later, what would happen to events a century past? A millennia?

Arkhos, Vela, and Krond

While not directly related to Theros, Arkhos was an early version of a greek-inspired plane. Note how memory and day/night seem to be themes of this early draft. It was probable that this was intended to be Theros before some creative shift behind the scenes resulted in it being a distinct location.

Arkhos is the plane represented by the Future Sight card River of Tears (also illustrated by Chris J. Anderson). It's a dreamlike world where night and day intermingle according to its own strange internal logic—check out the delicate quality of the light in the art. Near Lethe Lake on Arkhos, memories ebb away like the current of an old stone watercourse. Most mages tend to steer clear of the psychic ravages of the Lake, but surprisingly, some seek it out, believing they need to be cleansed of all remnants of the past in order to make their minds free for new magical creations.

Also the theme of rivers (Theros notably has rivers surrounding ‘the world’) is present in the River of Tears flavor text.

“The Westfolk wept, and their tears wore winding rivers into the cheek of the world.” —Glem the Lonebard, “Origins of Kholon”

While not necessarily connected to Theros, there’s been a lot of speculation about the home of Vela the Night-Clad. Coming out a year before Theros, it seemed like Vela was an early indication of what was to come, but there’s been no reference to her since, and most fans ultimately chalked it up to an early draft, not unlike Arkhos. In fact, rather than be the secret history of Theros, they might be from Arkhos. Or maybe Arkhos was the name of Theros before the gods came.

Vela the Night-Clad by Allen Williams

Still, that starry sky left in her wake got me thinking again. We know that Archons once ruled portions of Theros, not unlike the Titans once reigning before the gods. So Vela’s connection to an Archon is fascinating.

Vela snuffs out every trace of Krond's reign, leaving pure nightfall in her wake.

This is curious, because given her Nyx-like motif... might it be possible that Vela created Nyx as a means to stop the archons? Theros: Godsend Part 1 clues us in that there is more to Theros than meets the eye, while using an interesting phrase:

There were monsters whose shadows dwarfed mountains, and there were interminable pits of darkness where Heliod’s sun had never touched. It was there Nylea liked to go and test her skills against the ferocious night-clad beasts.

So there are mysterious night-clad beasts? That seems like awfully specific phrasing. And who was Krond?

Krond the Dawn-Clad by Zoltan Boros

Krond doesn’t seem to match up with the known Theros archons much, and his blurb doesn’t seem to give any clues. But it’s possible these events were so long ago, Theros was a much different place.

Krond, the personification of the dawn's light, lives to exact justice on his nemesis Vela.

So anyway, step one of my theory here is that Vela was the wizard who invented the magic behind Nyx. But when do the gods come in?

Agnomakhos and the Guardians of Meletis

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis by Willian Murai

If you read my piece on the Liberators of Meletis (and please do, because I’m referring to it here), you’ll know that there once was an Archon tyrant named Agnomakhos that ruled Meletis. The Archon and his leonin army were defeated on the Plateau of the Four Winds just outside Meletis. But how they were defeated isn’t exactly clear. Around the original Theros block, we were told Ephara granted magic to humans which allowed them to help them overthrow Agnomakhos. But when Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis came out, their blurb explained they led a revolt that overthrew the tyrant... and no mention of Ephara. And later legends would say they were feuding rulers, not lovers.

So what’s the truth?

If we’re mirroring Greek Myth, I think the Archons (in place of the titans) were cast down by the Therosi gods. Maybe Vela aided Kynaios and Tiro, or maybe the legacy of her magic finally gave humanity the edge they needed to defeat Agnomakhos. The legacy of Kynaios and Tiro’s victory would be chalked up to Ephara (who may not have even existed at the time).

But why would Kynaios and Tiro later be slandered as rival rulers?

Xenagos shows that it’s possible for mortals to ascend to godhood. I have pretty high confidence that Heliud ascended in a similar capacity, and that if Xenagos had lived long enough he would have forgotten his mortal origins and so would the people of Theros. Kruphix offers valuable insight into this the aptly titled Kruphix’s Insight:

Indeed. And more, that mortals have forgotten. Or did you think Heliod was always the sun god?

"How can there have been other gods? We would remember them."

If you remembered them, said Kruphix, they would still exist. As soon as Heliod took his place in the pantheon, he was the sun god—and always had been. Mortals have short memories in these matters. If they had longer ones, Nyx would tear itself apart with rivalries and contradictions.

So... what’s the truth? Well... what if the Kynaios and Tiro became gods themselves? They had the following of the people of Meletis, and like the power Xenagos took from the revels after the defeat of the Minotaur invasion, they might have gained (consciously or unconsciously) the same power from their rebellion against Agnomakhos. That would connect the dots with ‘magic granted by Ephara’, or in reality the two gaining the power of Nyx.

But if they became gods, where are they?

Dictate of the Twin Gods by Chase Stone

Given how tragically things turn out for people on Theros, this is by far the most tragic ending I can think of for them. It would explain the legends saying they were rival rulers (as the mortal origins of the two would have been forgotten), and it would give them the ultimate tragedy of being forced to do battle with their other halves forever, not even remembering they were once lovers.

I’d like to reiterate this was just for fun. I have zero confidence in any of this, but wanted to try to connect the proto-Theros from Vela to Theros proper and also follow-up on the tragedy of how Kynaios and Tiro were remembered.

#terrible theories #vorthos #archive trap blog

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peoniepoetals · 6 years

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one line description tag

hey guys! I saw this tagging thing floating around and I thought it was fun, so here I am, doing it too without being tagged hahahaha. warning: this will get pretty darn long. I’ll put most of it under the cut.

Describe your story in one sentence:

Our Own Devices: a young witch starts living at the court of a manipulative young king and they teach each other trust, friendship and betrayal.

Crown Jewels: nine girls who were accidentally imbued with powerful magic infiltrate the dimension of their maker in the hopes of making a home for themselves.

Falling in Reverse: twelve youngsters in an alternate version of 1950s France decide to overthrow the government while they should really be focusing on getting their shit together.

The Ace of Diamonds: Three sisters with a lot of history end up working for a rich game designer who has a big secret.

Crimson: Audrelia is sent out to kill her evil father’s enemy, a mischievous guy who keeps stopping his evil plans, but she slowly learns that, really, she doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do.

Crystal Hearts: a sceptical young man goes to the top of a mountain on the other side of the country, according to his grandfather’s dying wish, to find a mythical being he doesn’t really believe exists.

FATE&LUCK: Peonie is transported to a world where two rivalling forces, fate and luck, are constantly battling for power, and before she knows it is caught right in the middle of it.

Fifty Words For Murder: A monster hunter in disguise goes to a village full of evil celtic supernatural creatures and kills them off one by one.

Game of Light and Dark: the nine daughters of the moon run into the nine sons of satan and form a disturbing connection.

Glass Palace: When Genevieve becomes the queen of a small kingdom that’s caught up in a lot of border-issues, she has to make some rigorous changes.

The Leech Queen: Cody is the Chosen One and he has only one goal – get back the love of his life from Hell, even if she’s a demon, but said love of his life has other ideas.

Masquerade: Gwen’s father has sold her soul to the devil for money, and demons have been tormenting her ever since, but when a new servant appears at her house, it turns out he knows a lot more about it than he wants to say.

The Moon Woods: Before Nathalie has to get married, she goes on one last trip with her brother, which leads them to a castle that is supposedly haunted, owned by a master who is supposedly a vampire.

The Most Beautiful Mind: Madilyn hung out with the wrong crowd and now she’s been set up for murder, but thankfully an old friend manages to track down her genius ex-boyfriend, who breaks her out of prison and hides her away in Austria, where they’re forced to face each other again.

Ocean Blue Ocean Grey: a shapeshifting mermaid comes across a pirate looking for a magical wand so he can become the king of Albion.

The Pantheon Plays: the Greek Gods are playing D&D, but neither they nor their characters know how real the game is exactly.

Say My Name: When Bethany inherits an old house, she soon finds out it is haunted by a spirit who cannot cross over before he rememers who he is and she decides to help him.

So Smile the Heavens: After years of being in a secret relationship, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet have eloped and now have to deal with a whole new level of secrecy.

St. Deonna: the adopted Tamara has had a fascination for the St Deonna cathedral for as long as she can remember and when she’s eighteen, she finds out why – her birth mother is one of the legendary superheroes of the cathedral.

Strings On Me: In a post-apocalyptic world, when a group of powerful young people defeats an evil overlord, they are left with scars they don't talk about while they're trying to rebuild their world; but some things just can't be ignored - and one of them is a minion of an old enemy who is accidentally brought back to life.

The Taste of Ice: Felicity is a succubus who ends up accidentally going to a school with a lot more supernaturals, where she is taught that she isn’t defined by her powers.

Throwing Stones At The Stars: when Sterre’s twin sister meets her almost-boyfriend Diego, it’s love at first sight, and before Sterre can deal with this, her sister is kidnapped to another dimension where Diego was apparently born.

A Violent Nature: Deirdre has lived in isolation all of her life, alone with her unusual powers, until she is kidnapped by a powerful organisation and given the chance to change the world - but she does not go the way they had expected her to.

The Wallflower Wars: After a hostile take-over of their boarding school, a group of teenagers needs to find a way to either escape or take them down.

A Warm Welcome: A pair of twins in their twenties have to rapidly grow up when their father dies and leaves the family hotel to them, which mostly exhausts them, until something happens that enables them to revisit their former mischievousness: a thief in the hotel.

We’re Not Superheroes: When a man who can see the future tells Cyrus that if he isn’t trained, he will end up killing someone, he is soon convinced to go along with him and ends up with a set of other people with powers and a boy who can change the fate of the entire universe.

Wild Hearts For Sale: A group of damaged youngsters from all over the world go to an island in the summer and have a lot of fun together.

#original #okay this is insanely long #but whatever right?

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moonlit-maiden · 6 years

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I was tagged by @andrxnmeda to do the one line description tag. Prepare for ALL THE RUN-ON SENTANCES because I can't keep plots simple. They need to be on Iliad and Odyssey -level of extra and complex.

Describe your story in one sentence:

The Legend Series

Legend of the Red Comet: The story of Tenshi Tanaka - only heir to the Tanaka Clan - going on adventure hijinks with his 3 best friends while going to the yearly festival that celebrates the birth of the current, flamingly bisexual, princess-priestess and when there reunites with his lost love, finds out he is at the center of a prophesy and why the fuck did not one tell him he could end the world or save it and would his demon ancestor PLEASE stop trying to touch him in bad places he's trying to fuck his girlfriend star crossed lovers-style since their families hate one another for over 1,000 years and save the world.

Legend of the Moving Mountain: Prequel to Red Comet, following Tenshi's ancestors, Punzo and Tokiko Tanaka who are trying to save the world and humanity from the apocalypse while seeing which of them will become a Phoenix and which will become a Demon because that's their fate according to the current Oracle who has the hots for the cute blond man who is low-key homophobics and Liem just wants to die but these damn kids and Fate won't let him, meanwhile Zenshou is trying to figure out a way to fuck both Tanaka siblings because damn has he wanted it since he was 15; everything is a mess of hormones, prophesy, corruption, lies and attempted incest.

Legend of the Masks: Novella series that bridges the time gap between Moving Mountain and Red Comet, following Zenshou throughout all his incarnations because incarnation does not discriminate and he has been reborn as both male and female but still loves Tokiko and eventually realizes despite all the horrible, disturbing things done to him he still wants Punzo to fuck him as hard as possible because he is hopelessly in love with them and his existence is literally Suffering.

Tales of the Land: The only not-angsty thing, a complimentary book by the in-world author Masako Ginachi about the various legends and stories of Tenruon'ou as well as descriptions of the Gods and Spirits there, this is the book you need if I am able to make my readers become obsessed with Tenruon'ou so they can make ALL THE OCS AND FANFICITONS!

Memoirs of a Goddess Series

Birth by Blood: The start of Elena Zlatariav's story, which is her discovering she is a brand new Goddess and subsequently having a war fought over her because as being both new and in a human body she has free will to choose how she will grow and develop but she don't want to stand to the side and let others do her battles so she fights too and did I mention SHE IS 12 when this occurs and one of her friends snaps and shoots up the school too good times.

Shattering the Moon: Next part of Elena's journey with a time skip so she is now 16 and recovered from the war and torture and school shooting but she still have PTSD and oh look, there's a freshman girl and she likes her and starts to fall for her and turns out the girl was the siren the human part of her soul loved in its first like, did I mention having your first love reject you as a person tends to make you suicidal?

Repairing the Soul: Third part of this fucked-up Greek epic, Elena is in college and Wants To Die but it seems she can't die because there is Someone who has been looking for her and they fall in love in a way that goes beyond human explanation and Elena starts to finally Get Her Shit Together while dealing with college work and a part-time job at Starbuck with a literal sadist of a manager also at this point she kind of has a harem of lovers When Did This Happen.

Succession of Olympus: Final leg of this episodic mess, Elena finally pieces together form the past almost 10 years her lineage and is introduced formally to the Olympian pantheon which apparently was the trigger Gaia was waiting for to start the overthrow of Zeus as she predicted eons ago so there's another war Elena is dragged into but this time she has more shiny, pointy things to use to kill with and Hermes isn't having his big sis Athena be used as a puppet by the Morai and Gaia so it's time for Elena to do what she does best; mess up Fate's plans and kill a lot of things.

Memoirs of the Guardians: A novella series looking into the lives of Elena's Guardians, where they come from and how they came to eventually meet Elena and pledge themselves to her it's very heartfelt and heartstring-tugging you'll need tissues for several of them.

Elena Zlatariva's Guide to the Dimensions: A novella idea that's still in the soft stage, would detail the more interesting worlds and people she interacts with both during and post series might also cross over with other stories with the various author's permissions still not sure about this one.

I tag the whole damn @femmefatalenet

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dysfunctional-family-fight · 8 months

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Quarterfinals

The Asanos (Assassination Classroom) VS The Greek Pantheon (Greek Mythology)

The Asanos

Members: Gakuhou Asano (father) and Gakushuu Asano (son)

Propaganda:

CW: physical abuse

"Crazy dad whose misguided goal is just to make his son strong (but whose definition of real strength leaves much to be desired), and son who does see the error in his dad's ways but is brainwashed enough to imagine that his "filial duty" under the circumstances is to "take control". No one knows for sure if a mom exists, but she clearly doesn't want to have much to do with these lunatics." "The dad doesn't even consider his son family, just a "student" as he is a principal. Utterly unhumane conditions is where he trains his son in. And worst of all, they compete on who will control the other, leash included. The first time the son even considers calling him father is when he literally abuses him physically."

Greek Pantheon

Members: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, literally hundreds more.

Propaganda:

"There's a reason why "Saturn devouring his son" is one of the most famous paintings out there" "Zeus and Poseidon having ALL the affairs, People trying to overthrow Zeus, Zeus and Poseidon almost starting a war, Poseidon and Athena rivalry over a competition that happened hundreds of years ago, Aphrodite cheating on Hephaestus with Ares, Hermes killing Apollo's cows, The whole Demeter and Hades thing, The Trojan war, Genuinely any story from Greek mythology"

#polls #the asanos #assassination classroom #greek pantheon #greek mythology #quarterfinals

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takaraphoenix · 6 years

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OK OK OK So I really really fell in love with your Helios x Apollo story and I've been toying with asking you about writing a small thing about Helios' reaction to Zeus banishing Apollo? And what he does about it. Or just his reaction to Zeus /trying/ to banish Apollo. A sort of fix-it-so-it-never-happens type thing. Totes get you're bogged down with stuff so if you don't have time that's totally okay. If you do decide to do it, could I get it by January 4th?

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || (You are here)|| The whole thing on AO3

Helios was exhausted.

His duties were straining in on themselves, but in the past years in particular. After all, his lover was very busy with Olympian duties - mainly so related to his prophetic gifts. So Helios, being the good, caring boyfriend he was, of course took over some of his lover’s duties. Mainly the sun-related ones.

Only that his duties had been very straining and distracting lately. Especially the closer the Giant War drew. Helios hated that. He wished to stand by his lover’s side, have Apollo’s back.

Apollo had smiled sweetly at him, those mismatched eyes sparkling brightly as he had leaned up on his tip-toes to kiss Helios’ cheek and then shove him hard.

His little sunshine was a fighter, not just a lover. Helios knew that. Of course did he know that. The only one matching him with a bow and arrow was his twin-sister Artemis. Apollo could hold himself in a fight if he had to.

That didn’t mean Helios wanted him in the middle of a fight though. A war no less.

Yet this one… was different.

Gods loved using demigods as pawns. But this war required the gods to also fight themselves. To slay the Giants at the demigods’ side.

Helios trusted his sunshine. He knew Apollo would be fine during the war. And now that the war was over, Helios was looking forward to embracing his lover again, just grab Apollo, take him home and live in peace for a century or two.

Maybe take some time off to spend in Alfheim? They did have this cozy little vacation home there… It would be nice. And Apollo surely would be happy to spend more time with his best friend Frey. That might sway Apollo.

And to be honest, that idea wasn’t so spontaneous. Helios had spent the past few weeks preparing said vacation home, making it as homey as possible for his love. Apollo deserved the rest.

“Helios, my dear, old friend.”

Helios paused. He didn’t turn around. That sweet voice, like poisoned honey. A scowl etched its way onto his face as he took a deep breath to turn around and give Loki Laufeyson a piece of his mind. Said piece of mind was stuck in his throat when he noticed that Loki wasn’t alone.

“Hel Lokisdatter. A rare pleasure, milady”, stated Helios, voice very soft as he bowed.

He knew to respect a king or queen when he met them, regardless what pantheon they were from. Hel offered him the smallest smile in return, a shy one. Her long hair fell into her face, covering the rotting half and only revealing the beautiful one. Her dress, long sleeves on one side, a glove that reached all the way up to her shoulder in addition to it. She half hid behind her father and Loki, as always, stood in a protective stance in front of his only daughter.

The trickster had a pleased half-smirk on his face as he regarded Helios curiously, fingers playing with his well-groomed goaty as he tilted his head. It were his eyes that had always unsettled Helios, if he was being honest. Green as poison, shimmering silver with lies and danger.

Helios stood straight, looking at the two Norse gods curiously. What were they doing in Alfheim? Loki preferred… Well, none really, he was always everywhere - wherever he could cause most mischief. But Hel? The queen of Helheim? Why would the Ice Queen seek the realm of the sun god? Helios could see how clearly uncomfortable the goddess was, looking a bit red-cheeked there.

“Listen, this isn’t a favor for you, Titan”, stated Loki, voice unusually serious.

“A favor?”, echoed Helios surprised. “What do you want, lie smith?”

Helios was startled as Loki threw a golden apple at him. Helios blinked slowly, eyes wide as he stared at the holy fruit. The immortality granting fruit, guarded by the Goddess Iduna for all the gods and pantheons (though she had gardeners assisting her from all the pantheons too. The Hesperides from the Graeco-Romans, for example). Not many knew that ambrosia, the food of the gods that granted them immortality, was actually made, among other ingredients, of the golden apples.

“Father speaks the truth”, pieped Hel up, looking displeased. “That’s why I’m here. I know how unreasonably unrealistic that statement is.”

“Hey. A bit more respect for your old man”, grunted Loki with a glare.

Hel gave him a deadpan look before returning her attention to Helios once more. “Your Olympians have decided to strip one of your own off his immortality. Your king couldn’t make that decision without Hades knowing. After all, a god now runs the danger of being killed and dying. And, well, when I was in the park with my puppy Garm last week, we walked with Hades and Zerberus for a while and he mentioned it. And when I heard who…”

Helios didn’t like where this was going. He gripped the apple tighter. Loki’s smirk grew more knowing and wicked. Helios had the urge to throw the apple into his pretty face.

“My dear daughter told me and I could not let it stand like that”, drawled Loki. “I mean, he is my best friend’s favorite brother. Hermes would be quite unbearable if something happened to precious Apollo.”

“Then why not go to Hermes?”, asked Helios, still suspicious.

“Ah”, grunted Loki with a careless shrug. “Daddy issues. You know the guy can’t go up agains Zeus. You? A Titan? This could be… entertaining.”

Helios gritted his teeth and averted his eyes to stare at the floor. Loki and Hel remained for a long stretch of silence. He really didn’t like Loki - mainly because Loki and Apollo had kind of a fling prior to Helios and Apollo getting together. Helios wasn’t a fan of how much Loki enjoyed reminding him of this.

“Thank you, Loki. You… have my grattitude”, grunted Helios out unwillingly. “You too, Queen Hel.”

The self-satisfied smile on Loki’s face made Helios really want to throw the apple. “My, it would be a shame if something so pretty would be wasted. Just… take care of this, Titan.”

“I will, Eldojotun”, replied Helios sharply, watching with satisfaction how Loki flinched.

The Aes did not like being reminded that his status as a god was an earned one and that, foremost, he was still a born Fire Giant. Loki sneered at him briefly before returning to his charming smile.

“Very well then. Come along, sweetie. Grandma invited us for tea and cake”, declared Loki, waving a dismissive hand in Helios’ general direction.

“Oh! Grandma Laufey makes the best cakes. Bye, Helios”, chimed Hel, seemingly far more motivated by that prospect.

With that, the two Norse gods disappeared. Leaving Helios with his apple.

“W–Who in the world…?”, grunted a startled teenager.

The boy, with messy black hair, stared up at Helios with surprised, sea-green eyes. Helios only spared the human one glance before turning to the one in the boy’s company. A scowl found its way onto Helios’ face as he threw the golden apple at his boyfriend. Apollo smiled brighter than the sun as he caught it.

“Oh! Wonderful. Early rescue. Just started wondering where our new little dynamic duo was going to head next to solve this little… problem of mine”, chimed Apollo happily, rubbing the apple against his robes. “Huh. Those things are not handed out easily. Iduna is possessive of them. How did you…?”

“A thief dropped it off”, growled Helios and grabbed Apollo by the arm. “Come.”

“…I don’t like it when you’re angry”, noted Apollo dubiously. “Are you… angry with me?”

“No”, replied Helios, the growl growing darker as the sky above them clouded over. “Someone else. I’m glad you’re fine, my love.” His voice grew gentler at that as he cupped Apollo’s cheek and checked him for injuries before turning toward the human. “Thank you, for protecting my sunshine. I am indebted to you. If any god gives you a hard time again, call for Helios and I will stand by your side.”

“A free favor from a god. That’s a new one. Cool.”

Apollo wrapped one arm aroung Helios’ neck, the other hand still holding the apple as he brought it up to his rosy lips and took a large bite from it. To grand immortality, one needed a whole apple. The tiny bit that was mushed into the ambrosia was enough to keep the immortality going for the gods, but it would never be enough to restore Apollo’s godhood. Apollo yelped as Helios teleported them away.

The sky around Olympus darkened as though night had come early. Zeus frowned confused. He knew Helios was taking care of the sun - it was the main reason why he had even gotten his punishment for Apollo through.

“How dare you”, roared an angry, dark voice.

Zeus sat up straighter on his throne as the Sun Titan materialized in front of him, looking like a vicious, avenging angel. There were still many Titans around and the general rule of thumb was to perhaps not anger them. They were ancient and also powerful in most cases. Zeus blinked as he spotted his son behind Helios. The son Zeus had only just banished from Olympus.

“Apollo”, growled Zeus in warning.

“No”, hollered Helios.

“You broke an Oath of Styx twice, siring two demigods.

You interfered and turned one of them into a tree to cheat Death himself.

You are the king and were responsible to keep things such as Tartarus secure yet you allowed for your Father to reform and nearly overthrow you.

You let a teenage boy steal your symbol of power.

You let your son Ares allign himself with Kronos during the Titan War without repercussions.

You let your wife make a fool out of you by playing with the memories of the heroes and having Romans and Greeks mingle, single-handedly throwing all of Olympus into an identity crisis that very well nearly cost you all your lives and this war.

And yet here you are, acting like you are the one, true king who does no wrong. Punishing Apollo for… What exactly did he do wrong? He has helped your little pawns during both wars. He has done his best to restore the Oracle after it had been lost because you had to anger Lord Hades.”

Helios had stalked up to Zeus and by now was lifting the young god up by his throat, a nasty expression on Helios’ face as he squeezed. No amount of thundering and sparks was going to get Zeus out of the supernova-hot burning fury of a Sun Titan.

“You will never lay a hand on Apollo again or you will find yourself right down there alongside your father”, growled Helios in warning. “Believe me, no one is pleased with you and Hera anymore. The past handful of years alone have proven what incapable rulers you have become. You allowed not one, not two, but four major wars to happen right under your nose within the last century alone. And so far, the only thing keeping from a revolution is that everyone is still licking their wounds. But so help me Chaos herself, if you ever lay hand on Apollo again, I will personally throw the first speer.”

Zeus looked positively mortified as Helios just dropped him. Still glowering, Helios went to his lover and picked Apollo up bridal-style before teleporting them to Alfheim. Apollo blinked dazed up at him as he slowly oriented himself.

“That was… really fucking hot”, grunted Apollo stunned. “My knight in golden-shining armor.”

Grinning and batting his eyelashes playfully, Apollo pulled Helios down into a kiss. “We’re taking a vacation. Right now.”

“No arguments from me, babe”, hummed Apollo pleased.

THE END

So you caught me on the right foot there. Because I just got back from seeing Thor: Ragnarok and I needed some comfort. Fics are comfort. And I found a nice way of including Hel and Loki in this too. Pleased by that. I hope this was the kind of comfort you were looking for too there? ;)

#story: the birth of musica #helios x apollo #helios #apollo #percy jackson and the olympians #Loki Friggason #hel #greek mythology #greek gods #norse gods #norse mythology #emariialex #pjoverse #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Heroes of Olympus

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izzyisamachine · 7 years

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A Scathing Review of Descendants 2

Confession: It’s not like I hated this movie, I was just kinda frustrated and had to rant about it? No hate if you really loved this movie. Also this review has Swears™ and is completely 100% Unedited™. Sorry. Also, spoilers are here so that’s fun.

To preface this review, I don’t think I’m this film’s target audience. That is to say, I’m old enough to be embarrassed by current affairs and the state of my bank account. But I’ve always been into that good good fairy tale shit, so when I heard Disney was making a kids movie about some of their most popular (and profitable) characters, I went, “seems legit,” ignored the similarities to Mattel’s “Ever After High” franchise (I’m a sucker for fairy tale shit okay and this stuff’s free on Youtube) and hunkered down to watch. Descendants The First was… not what I’d call good per se, but it was good enough. It was a little dull, the costumes oozed kitsch that made my eyes really want to cry, and every supposedly “well known” character from Disney’s pantheon seemed a little “off” (which wasn’t really anyone’s fault, since I was expecting everyone to look like a cartoon), but ultimately it was competent. There was a plot, the pacing was decent, and there were a couple bops thrown in, since the director of Descendants also did High School Musical. This is an assessment of the first Descendants movie that I think is valid, mainly because I’ve watched a couple of reviews on film theory on Youtube, meaning that I’m a fucking expert now I guess.

But we ain’t here to talk about Descendants the first. We’re here to talk about it’s sequel, Descendants 2. Oh ho ho. Descendants 2.

Lemme start with some good stuff: the outfits definitely got a lot better, the new characters introduced are pretty cool (Uma, daughter of Ursula, and Harry Hook, self explanatory. I don't really fuck with Gil though? He’s okay I just don’t really care about him), and there are still some mf’ing bops (mainly, Uma’s intro number “What’s My Name”, and that other one where the kids try to teach Ben how to stop being so fucking white I forgot what it’s called but whatever). I understand also why a lot of people are saying this movie is the better of the two Descendants films. It’s got some good character development, and, according to some review I saw online, it’s “darker” than the first film. I don’t really remember the first film all that well so I guess I have to go along with that. But I still have major beef with the second film so here we fucking go:

DESCENDANTS 2 MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE.

Not as a standalone movie, not in the context of the movie’s universe, not in like, any scenario ever.

So like first of all: the whole point of the first movie was that Prince Ben, aka generic blonde love interest (GBLI), decides that the villain kids, or VKs, as they call themselves (I know, cringe barf), deserve a chance. So, despite the advice of like, everyone, he invites the kids of Maleficent, Jafar, the Evil Queen, and Cruella de Vil (??? Why the fuck is she here she doesn’t even have any magical powers that need to be contained??? They could have let her kid get adopted by someone instead of leaving him to rot on Evil McEvil Islandsville???) to come to his high school (another thing: is he the prince of the school, or the prince of the whole country?? Because we literally never see anything not within walking distance of this fucking prep school. Is there an Auradon public school where the kids of like… side characters go?) to go hang at his school. And surprisingly (to no one in the audience), they turn out to be Productive Members of Society™ who were just Misunderstood™ (after an adjustment period where they fuck everything up for a while). At the beginning of the movie, Prince GBLI turns into King GBLI. Why? I don’t fucking know. His parents are still alive AND his dad is only like… 50? At most? Why the fuck is he retiring so early??? In this economy? My dad’s like pushing 60 and still working??? What kinda bourgeoisie fuckery is this?

So. Anyway.

What is King GBLI doing with his time?

Is he improving infrastructure? Attending to foreign affairs? Or maybe, I dunno, extending his villain kid outreach program past 4 fucking people?

No. This bitch plans a party. Specifically, he plans fairy tale character prom, or “Cotillion.” Whatever.

So of course, some villain kids are (understandably) pissed about being forgotten. Specifically, one kid named Uma, played by China Anne McClain. Uma is a fucking queen. She’s cool. I like her and her pal Harry. Not Gil though. He’s the son of Gaston and I don’t really get why he’s there. But he’s okay I guess. But anyway, like a muthafucking communist boss, she’s like “Imma overthrow the bourgeoisie!” So she plans to get the fairy godmother’s magic McGuffin wand so she can reverse the social hierarchy and bring justice to the oppressed. I fuck with that. It’s understandable. Basically, King GBLI decided to pick a bunch of random villains to bring to the prep school that he's somehow king of, and forgot about literally everyone else. What a dick.

But meanwhile, King GBLI’s girlfriend Mal, the “hero” of our story (jk, it’s Uma. I love Uma) decides that she’s had ENOUGH of playing perfect girlfriend and wants to go back to being villainous Maleficent’s daughter again. So she packs up her shit, including her own personal McGuffin, her magic spell book that she somehow can’t perform magic without (did she not think to memorize the spells she uses really often or is that book the source of all her power? Whatever, the movie never fucking explains this so I won’t even try), and fucks on off to Evil McEvilsville (or the “Isle of the Lost”. Whatever.) Here, she gets a dramatic dye job and basically does whatever the fuck she wants while her friends worry about her.

Her friends find out she’s missing and follow her to the isle, taking the most inconspicuous vehicle they can find: a magic barrier breaking limousine. Sorry, did I say most inconspicuous? I meant least inconspicuous. Then, Uma kidnaps GBLI and is like, “hey. You forgot about us and thats not cool.” To which he’s like, “well I remember you now so that’s like, totally enough to make you good now, right?” To which she, understandably, is like, Bitch No. SO THEN, she tell Mal that if she ever wants to see GBLI again, she has to bring her fairy godmother’s Magic McGuffin™. The Gang™ tricks her with a 3D printed wand (what fucking century does this movie take place in I’m confused), and fucks off back to their super cool party. BUT WAIT! MAL HAS LEFT HER MCGUFFIN SPELL BOOK ON THE ISLAND! WHAT HAPPENS NOOOOOOWWW????

This is where the movie really starts to piss me the fuck off. You see, in film theory, there’s a little thing called “planting and payoff.” Basically, when the camera focusses on a specific object in detail, you expect to see that shit pop up later on. Example: if you see some guy holding a suitcase and then the camera pans to the suitcase, you expect it to be germane to the plot later on. So the assumption with Descendants 2 is: Uma finds Mal’s spell book and confronts her at the party thing. She then uses Mal’s only source of power against her. Since Mal has never been seen doing any magic without her spell book, she would now be powerless and have to find a way to do magic without it through an 11th hour power up or else use her wits and the help of her friends to retrieve her spell book and save the day. Instead, Uma seduces (I know it’s a kid’s movie so there’s no actual seducing but I dunno what else to call it) GBLI through a spell that she did NOT get from the spell book. Which Mal breaks easily with true love’s kiss, because this is a fairy tale movie. Then, Uma kinda uses her magic necklace (that’s here now) to grow huge and splash the prom boat. Lame. My prom was also on a boat. Double lame. And everyone on the boat acts super scared because now there’s water in it!… but no like holes, so the deck’s just a little wet and maybe the boat tilts a little. Everyone just kinda stands on the deck instead of getting below deck like a group of normal people and acts surprised that it’s tilting back and forth. No shit buddy! There’s a giant tentacle lady who’s angry at you in the water! What did you think was going to happen? Then Mal fucking TURNS INTO A DRAGON for some reason. And she fights Uma by blowing fire at her. In the middle of the ocean. Which has like, no effect because Mal just really really likes aiming like, three feet in front of Uma into the water. And water kinda does this thing where it puts out fire? I dunno maybe she should work on aiming better or something or find something more useful to transform into. Anyway, GBLI jumps into the water like an IDIOT and is like “Why can’t we be friends?” To which Uma is like, “what the fuck man.” Understandable. But then she just, like

GOES AWAY?

My girl just decides to fucking leave for some reason what the fuck she could have easily won whatever the fuck that battle was and 5 minutes in she just WALKS AWAY??? This whole battle scene just savors of anti-climax. Kinda like a faked orgasm. And then they FIND MAL’S SPELL BOOK BELOW THE DECK??? AFTER EVERYTHING IS OVER??? WHAT THE FUCK??? Y’all lead me to believe it’s a salient plot point and now this shit? And then Mal decides to give her book to a museum because it’s “too dangerous.” What the fuck? No one in this movie did anything remotely dangerous with that fucking book? And then GBLI has obviously learned his lesson. Because he decides to admit one (1, uno, yi, une) more villain kid to the prep school. Because one of the other villain kids, Evie (who I kinda overlook in this review even though I kinda like her), literally asks him point blank. And then everyone dances in the rain like they haven’t learned an important lesson about social class and what the lack of opportunities to underprivileged youths can mean for society.

Fuck.

#descendants 2 #descendants #uma #i'm sorry if you liked this movie?#i know a lot of people did #i just #have a lot of feelings about it #spoilers

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renarinkholin · 7 years

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yo so I really wanna get more into the whole Cosmere world and I was wondering if you could help me out a bit on all the books and a good order and stuff! Already read the first two Stormlight Archive books and I have the first Mistborn book on my shelf!

Ooh, well Mistborn is usually where I tell people to start, though if you’ve already read Stormlight, you might like Warbreaker, which has some Stormlight tie ins!

Alright, I’m going to talk about the Cosmere by books that take place on the same world, because I’m a nerd. Quick intro to the Cosmere series below the cut!

World: Scadrial

Mistborn is actually two series, a trilogy and a (soon-to-be) quadrilogy set at a later era. The original trilogy is The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. It starts as kind of a magical heist novel, with some political intrigue and a scrappy group of street thieves trying to overthrow an immortal evil god emperor and spirals out into something concerning the mysteries of ancient gods and trying to prevent the end of the world. It’s a great read.

The sequel series will have four books eventually, but it currently has three: Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, and Bands of Mourning. The second series is set about 300 years after the events of the first series, with a new cast. Little bit more lighthearted to start, this series has kind of a steampunk-meets-wild-west vibe, with some cops and robbers plots as our lawman hero hunts down some interesting magic criminals. Starts out as kind of a fun romp, but by Bands of Mourning, it’s slipped back more towards the epic fantasy end of the spectrum with ancient artifacts and powerful mysteries to unravel.

Lastly, there’s a novella called Mistborn: Secret History that takes place during the events of the first series, but has some big implications (and semi-spoilers) for the second series, so it’s recommended to be read last.

World: Nalthis

Warbreaker stands alone, and it’s available legally for free on Brandon’s website if you just want to try it out. It will eventually have a sequel, but not for a while, and it’s a fine read just on it’s own. No big cliffhanger to worry about or anything.

Warbreaker’s very colorful, about a pantheon of gods in a tropical paradise and two sister princesses who get caught up in a plot within the divine court. It’s probably one of the funniest and wittiest of the Cosmere series, with lots of great humor moments, but it’s also not afraid to bring the plot in hard and heavy when you’re least expecting it, in that true Brandon plot-twist fashion.

Swordmaster Zahel from Stormlight Archive is actually a major character in Warbreaker (though he goes by a different name over here on this one!) So keep an eye out for him!

World: Sel

So this world is the setting of Brandon’s first published book, Elantris, and is currently standalone. It’s about a city that used to grant normal people incredible magic and great powers, but has become corrupted somehow and now transforms them into barely-living magic lepers who cannot heal and cannot die. There’s some political intrigue in the neighboring kingdom and the mystery of what happened to the city to change the magic so drastically.

As Brandon’s first work, Elantris, is a little rougher around the edges in my opinion, but it’s Cosmere canon, and it’s still good!

The other work on the world of Sel is The Emperor’s Soul, which is a novella that takes place in a totally different part of the world from Elantris and has a totally different magic. It’s one of the more poetic of Brandon’s works, concerning the nature of art and the soul, and it gives some interesting insights into the underlying mechanics of the Cosmere as a whole and how the very idea of magic on all the worlds actually works.

World: Taldain

Not a book, but a graphic novel actually! There’s a comic-book style series known as White Sand that has just started coming out. There’s only one volume out right now, but more on the way, and a long way for the plot to go. White Sand is kind of an origin story for Khriss, an awesome lady who has some ties to all the other series too. (She’s what we call a worldhopper, people who show up in multiple stories and travel around the Cosmere. There’s a few of them around!)

Other

So recently, this Other category got easier, because Brandon published a collection called Arcanum Unbounded that consists of short stories, novellas, and maps from across the Cosmere. Mistborn: Secret History and The Emperor’s Soul are included in here, as well as some other novellas about worlds that don’t have a full series:

Such as Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, which is kind of a eerie novella about an awesome bounty hunter lady who lives in a forest haunted by undead, ghostly “shades.” It takes place on a world known as Threnody.

Another is Sixth of the Dusk, a novella about a guy who breeds magical birds known as Aviar who give magic abilities to the people who keep them. That world is known as First of the Sun.

Arcanum Unbounded also contains the Edgedancer novella, which is set on Roshar, and takes place after Words of Radiance. It’s all about everyone’s favorite awesome dinner thief, Lift, who was one of the interlude characters in WoR, and it’s a great addition to the Stormlight Archive.

Aside from Edgedancer, which can be read right after the rest of Stormlight Archive, I’d recommend holding off on diving into most of the Arcanum Unbounded stories until after you’ve read some of the others. They tend to be more interesting when you’re already familiar with the main series they’re referencing.

Conclusion:

So that’s my mostly comprehensive guide to all the works in the Cosmere. And yes, there’s a lot of them, but the nice thing is that for the most part you don’t have to read any of them to enjoy the others. So, I’d say pick the ones that sound interesting and go for that.

Coming off of Stormlight, Warbreaker’s going to have some of the closest tie ins, but Mistborn’s one of my favorite series in general and it’s definitely a Cosmere staple. Either would be my recommendations for your next step into the Cosmere.

After that, maybe Elantris if you want another novel, or one of the novellas if any of those sound interesting to you!

Eventually you’ll start to pick up on some of the bigger Cosmere things going on, such as the worldhoppers and things like the Three Realms (Physical, Cognitive, Spiritual), which exist everywhere in the Cosmere and influence all the magic systems.

For now, keep an eye out for Hoid. You know him as Wit from Stormlight Archive, but he shows up in just about all the Cosmere books that are out. He’s a little easter egg in most of them, but yes, he’s the same person every time. Very mysterious…

#cfsbf #lionsintheembers #cosmere #brandon sanderson #stormlight archive #yeah we'll stick this in the stormlight tag #since it's kind of meant as a jumping off point after an SA read #there's a lot!#but you don't have to read it all #also v nice shiro avatar #luv that space dad

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