#Assassin Culture

[wyked-ao3]

the assassin's guild who probably won't be mentioned in book one but plots change lol

The current assassin's king

TPKODR tag list

@thatuselesshuman @gioiaalbanoart @lychhiker @goth-automaton

@thecomfywriter @evilwriter37 @saebasanart @the-golden-comet

@mauannacreates @kind-lion @alinacapellabooks @kuebiko-writing

@kaeru483 @differentnighttale @theink-stainedfolk

@unstableunicornsofasgard @mysticstarlightduck

[ahollowyear]

A collection, feel free to add, and if you know the artist (and the artist wants to be known) LMK in comments, thx.

[parasiticstars]

nooooo little chronically online leftist don’t fall for the media’s pervasive purity testing and villainizing that’s specifically made to divide us and keep us fighting amongst ourselves when we should be focusing on getting the boot off our throats

[videogamesincolor]

Despite all the perceived controversy and faux outrage in the leadup to its release, few games have had as impactful of a launch as Assassin's Creed Shadows. Within days of its release, the game had crossed over 2,000,000 players, becoming Ubisoft's second-biggest launch of all-time and on pace to hit 6,000,000 players in a month. But if you ask legendary Japanese developer Hideki Kamiya why that may be, it's because most people aren't enraged with the game. Most "normal" people, that is. Taking to Twitter, Kamiya first congratulated Ubisoft on passing 2,000,000 players. Then, in a follow-up post, he noted that a "majority of normal people" have been silent as compared to the vocal minority of outraged gamers. He added, "I wonder if there's (a) way to make these "normal people" equally visible in everything..."

[madame-helen]

[damian-lil-babybat]

"My Anatolia" & "My Alexander"

If DC remained truthful to their own canon, and let Talia lied about the miscarriage/abortion instead (like before the retcon, which the author admitted to have misremembered details for iirc), then my OTP since "Batman: The Animated Series", would have not crushed and burn like the city of Alexandria, rendered to ashes and dust that it could never be fully revived in canon.

Based on this panel from Boy Wonder (2024) by Juni Ba.

Headcanon: This is the rose of taif, you cannot convince me otherwise 😭

[nenestansunsthings]

having svsss au ideas beyond my station

thinking. shang qinghua goes on a mission as a young disciple to some town in fuckoff nowhere and finds himself in the qiu household. and there he finds a young shen jiu, undergoing the plot he originally intended for him and hadn't realised had become real and he's so young oh god hes so young why is he so small what do you mean that part was real, he hadn't kept it why is it real—

and he panics and sneaks him the Fuck out of that house

and he's not sure what to do but surely sending him to cang qiong will fuck up something in the plot and he can't come under even more investigation and cang qiong tryouts dont happen for months anyway and his system would probably never allow it (it doesnt. it would interfere with yue qingyuans story) but shen jiu is refusing to stay anywhere near this place and wants to learn cultivating to protect himself make sure nothing like this ever happens again and sqh panics harder and

calls mobei jun.

okay. on second thought, maybe this was a bad idea. but he stumbles over himself and shushes baby shen jiu's very understandable freaking out and asks his king for the first thing hes ever asked for other than his own life.

is there any way this human child could learn cultivation in the demon world?

[thou-babbling-brook]

I can’t believe canonically this holiday season Basim can go see Wicked and Sonic 3. I hate ac lore.

[batty4her]

This morning, I mentioned the assassination to my coworkers. 2/3 of them said they would turn in the shooter for the reward money, and I think it says a lot about capitalism as a whole simply for the simple fact that Brian Thomason has a body-count of people I feel it would be impossible to count that he has killed due to his selfishness, laziness, and overall greed.

Not one person I have seen has been upset about his death. Not one. In fact, when they announced his murder on Facebook, the majority of reactions to it were out of the (last seen) 65k+ reactions, just over 58k were laugh reactions. The GP is not unhappy this man is dead.

It’s the fact they know the GP has suffered in the hands of (capitalism) Brian Thompson, and still beg for their help in the name of reward money. They’re asking a public that has been brutalized and robbed by this man to help find him and are only offering them a measly 60 thousand dollars to anyone who has any information that will lead to his arrest. Money that will probably go back to paying debts — some maybe caused by Brian Thompson and his team.

$60k.

That won’t even buy you a house.

So sure, turn him in for that money. That money they stole and are giving back to you. But just like I seen someone say — this is is like Katniss shooting the arrow up into the arena.

This is why capitalism continues to keep devastating the population of the world, not just the American population. Conquer, divide, control.

Raise a glass to the new world, it only gets scarier from here, folks.

[caffeinatedvigilantewriter]

So you know how Danny is head cannoned to have two obsessions

Protection and Space

So what if Dani also had two obsessions

I haven’t watched the show, but to my understanding, she immediately went off and started traveling the world, so I would assume that her main obsession would be exploration.

But for her second obsession with would be culture.

But to my understanding, there’s a lot to explore about culture, like history, food, combat, fashion, religion, etc.

This gives any content creator a lot of opportunities to explore how Danis travels affected her political view and world view, in comparison to Danny, who probably didn’t leave the USA (at least not that I know of) she would have a better understanding of what people wanted and need to be happy, who would make her a better ruler of the Ghost zone than Danny would be.

This also gives a lot of crossover opportunities.

For example, what if Dani ended up joining the League of Assassins (bc when has a Fenton actually cared about their wellbeing?) and she meets Jason, Damian, Talia, Cass(?)

To them? She would be a major enigma. A mysterious girl that wants to joins the LOA, has a strange connection with the pits and takes every opportunity to learn different styles of combat? They needed to figure her out immediately.

Unfortunately, she vanished before they could investigate her, and that put a pause on the investigation.

Years later, she and her (never mentioned before) brother randomly appear in Gotham with fake names, traumatic backstory and the Wayne family adoption traits.

Any type of media is welcomed as long as you tag and comment :)))

[mrskennedy]

“Jackie, surely as much as Jack, helped make the magic we called Camelot. But when an assassins bullets shattered the dream, she showed the world that there was an unimagined strength beneath the silk. Her courage, her dignity, her grave restraint in the face of such horror held this nation together and showed us how to grieve.”

- Hugh Sidney

[mrpresidentjohnnie]

hey do you think my chemical romance is real emo or not? there IS a right and wrong answer to this question

It would be un-American to dictate what is emo for another person. Emo is one of the great cultural movements of our time, and encompasses a wide variety of bands. Personally I believe that MCR is, in fact, emo. Especially their first album. I have a soft spot for the band. I find Gerard Way's fixation with me quite charming, actually. The "fuck like a Kennedy" in Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) always makes me smile.

[dragon-susceptible]

Moonshadow Headcanons

A collection of random headcanons about Moonshadow Forest and its culture, which will be relevant for the Different Path Taken universe.

Moonshadow Forest is dangerous. Runaan talks about this a little bit in Bloodmoon Huntress; it's full of illusions and plays tricks on the mind even at the best of times, and it can be a killer during the Blood Moon for even the most experienced of warriors. Children in Moonshadow Forest go nowhere alone, and are taught from the time they can talk and move around under their own power "Five is company, four is enough, three is a test, two is a risk, and one is a death" in reference to leaving the safety of the village. Only assassins and rangers move outside the village boundaries alone, and even they don't go far on the blood moon, because the illusions get extra aggressive.

That said, the Forest is never quite safe, especially for someone who is struggling with grief. It plays tricks on the mind, shows you want you want to see, draws you into its dangerous depths. Ethari saw Runaan around every corner and heard his voice constantly after his death in canon, and never left the village because he knew it was a trick meant to pull him in. Others have fallen for it and never returned. Moonshadow grief is often focused less on remembering the dead and more on preserving whoever they left behind.

The ritual of ghosting requiring a unanimous vote from the village is not unique. Moonshadow villages are run on democracies, with every able adult casting votes for who to fill various roles. Keeper Lyrennus earned his place as the leading Keeper of the Silvergrove's sacred places, just as Runaan earned his as the leader of the assassins' guild. Guilds are unique in that they are not voted on by villages, but by the people inside the guild. So while both Runaan and Ethari voted on Lyrennus' election, neither Lyrennus nor Ethari had say in Runaan's election as the leader of his guild. Guilds are done like this because they span multiple villages and must coordinate over longer periods of time as a result.

Because of the danger of the Forest and the generally fairly casual view Moonshadow elves have of death, it's a quietly accepted fact that Moonshadow elders sometimes just wander off into the trees alone of their own volition. If they are tired of living, they go into the forest and let the illusions take them, and generally are never found again. They leave behind anything of importance in a shrine for their loved ones. Generally, this is considered a respectable enough choice, as the elf just cannot take this phase of existence anymore, and they have no cultural fear or shame around the concept of death. It is considered a shame (as in, regrettable that it happened) if a younger elf is driven to this mental state, and they do try to help each other through mental struggles that will lead to it. If the support of the community simply isn't enough, there's no shame on the elf who wandered away. Wandering into the woods is a euphemism for death for Moonshadow elves as a result of this.

The Mooncubs is a system the Moonshadow developed to deal with their heavily decimated numbers and new, incredibly dangerous home ground after the Mage Wars drove them to Moonshadow Forest. Prides of Mooncubs are small groups of children (around 3-5 of them) in roughly the same age group, which the adults of the village take responsibility for on rotation. Pride leaders' job is to keep the children safe, primarily, though different leaders may offer them different life lessons too. Pride leaders are separate from teachers though. The children in a Pride tend to be within 5 years of age of each other, but if say, the village has 9 kids of 5-10 years, they'll be separated into a Pride of 4 kids 5 through 7 and 5 kids 8 through 10. Prides are kept deliberately small because a single pride leader is expected to keep track of the entire pride at once. Assassins are often exempt from the rotation of pride leaders because they spend so much time away from their home villages, but they are allowed to volunteer for rotations when they're home, and expected to participate if they have their own children.

Moonshadow elves are said to be largely vegetarian, but their primary mounts are shadowpaws, moonstriders, and gryphons, all of which are carnivorous animals, so either they just let the animals hunt for their own food or they do have some hunting culture to feed those mounts. This may be why they don't seem to keep smaller pets all that much, though.

After the Mage Wars and the war over the Cult of the Blood Moon had decimated their numbers twice over, the Moonshadow invented the concept of marriage as separate from romances. Marriage was initially a contractual deal to partner two compatible elves in order to produce children; they weren't required to stay together after the fact, except in that they were both responsible for the child or children, but it was considered something of an obligation to ensure their people would survive. Because they also prioritize personal choice so much, though, the concept of a Challenge was also brought up, where if an elf's love was contracted to be married, they could challenge their betrothed for their hand. The elf being fought over had to validate the challenge for it to be considered binding, and some effort was made to level the playing field if the challenger or betrothed had significantly more training than the other, and the winner of the challenge was granted the privilege of marrying the elf they were fighting over.

Privileges of the challenge were not granted to gay couples during this time, until the magic that allowed them to produce children was invented by Earthblood elves and made its way into Moonshadow Forest. After that magic was discovered, the Challenge was broadened to everyone, and as tensions cooled with other elves and their available pool of partners broadened, the concept of marriage became just a way to officially recognize mated couples.

In the modern day, Challenge Season (longer post about it here) is largely just a big game, as its purpose is now defunct. It can sometimes be used to make a point about thinking your friend's partner is bad for them, but mostly it's all in good fun. Lethal weapons are now banned, as is using too significant of force; leaving scars is fine, they do have fangs and horns so it's somewhat to be expected, but no permanent or severe damage. It's considered somewhat rude by some to leave horn scars on one's opponent's chest, arms, or face, as those are regions most often scarred by sexual partners who throw their head back too quickly.

Connected to that, Moonshadow elves have a sort of "we all know, we just politely don't talk about it in front of the kids until they get old enough to figure it out" mentality towards some minor exhibitionism in the form of visible marks and some noises. It's considered more eyebrow-raising if neither of a couple have any scars from horns or fangs somewhere visible, because it tends to indicate either they're Incredibly Soft with each other or they're immobilizing each other (through pinning or ropes) as a kink.

Women tend to have more slender horns than men, which led to their horn cuffs in marriage being more like armored plates as we see with Tiadrin. This is also largely just a personal choice now, though longer cuffs that cover more of the horn have a remnant of a "feminine" connotation. Ethari's cuffs are more typical of a masculine fashion despite being more intricate, because Runaan's are longer. Lain's were similar.

Moonshadow elves also still practice duels. They value preservation of their people too much to allow duels to the death, but if two Moonshadow are having too deep a disagreement and they are too heated to solve it with words, they are allowed to challenge each other to fight it out. It often just leads to them shouting while they fight and eventually burning themselves out enough to actually discuss their problems like civil adults, since the same rules apply to duels as to challenge season - no permanent damage, no deaths.

The leaping up into the air to come down on an opponent trick that Runaan, Rayla, and Skor do is a highly traditional form of Moonshadow combat, which is reminiscent of the style they used when they lived in the mountains near the Moon Nexus. It was far more practical back then, when they could often just drop from a higher ledge like mountain lions. Because of their cliffside origins and habit of climbing anything that looks vaguely climbable, they're also very hardy when it comes to blunt force impact, and often don't take as much damage from falls as humans do. Their horns work as shock absorbers when they strike them against things, as well.

Coming of age ceremonies are done when the adults in an elfling's life have judged that their horns have reached their adult stage. Horns continue to grow throughout a creature's life, but elflings have dull nubs that sharpen with age. When they are sharp enough to cut, they are "fully grown", so to speak, though their angle can still be adjusted somewhat with metal caps if they grow too far directly backward and become unwieldy. At this age, the elfling's parents wash their hair and stain their horns with a faint color (Runaan's and Rayla's are stained pink, but Ethari's are purple, and Lujanne and Andromeda's are blue), and the wood grain stripes we see on most of the adults. Children will sometimes draw stripes on too, for special occasions, but the staining is a ritual using the same henna as their tattoos and lasts much longer. What color their horns are stained with does not really mean anything in particular, though it often runs in families with children choosing a color that reflects someone they admire. (Runaan came to terms with being Rayla's father because she didn't even think to ask about Lain filling the role at her coming of age, she just came straight to him and never mentioned her birth parents)

Hollow Wood is one of the more open villages in Moonshadow Forest and has a handful of elves living in it who are not Moonshadow, often partners or children of Moonshadow elves. It's where Ethari is from; his mother was a Sunfire weaponsmith, who met his father, a Moonshadow jeweller, at Moonshadow Market on the edge of the forest. The Silvergrove is shrouded more than the other villages because it was explicitly established as a base of operations for assassins, and simply grew later to include their families and eventually a community beyond them. They generally do not have outsiders in the Silvergrove. However, their tenets of loyalty are so strong that if one does enter, as Callum does, without setting off any magical defenses, it's safe to assume they have earned the trust of a local, which means they are also safe to be around. That's why no one batted an eye at Callum taking Ethari's rotation with the Mooncubs.

Edit to add: Moonshadow Market is a bazaar/outdoor market with stands that is posted on the edge of the forest, and is the primary location of trade with other types of elves in Xadia, because most avoid Moonshadow Forest and the illusions get more dangerous the deeper in you go. It remains behind the treeline, in the forest, but there are clearly marked, roped off paths to get to it and indicate its boundaries. Guests are generally advised not to duck under or go over the ropes into the actual forest, but Moonshadow elves do it with impunity because they live there, and the illusions on the edge of the forest are like shitty AI images to them compared to the more convincing/dangerous ones further within.

might add more later, just wanted these consolidated in text.

[yinyuedijun]

Ngl if I heard him mutter that I think I would fall in love then and there because I'm very big about food. Like I'm a big foodie fr fr

The fact that he genuinely cares enough to ask how he can get the reader to eat more is sweet

it's actually so crazy how much he works to make you comfortable, the olive oil is only a bit of it 😭 it's just. so hard to get the reader to budge for him because it's literally the worst situation possible (she is his prisoner of war and has prophetic visions of dying at his hand). but we will get there chat dw WE WILL GET THERE 💪

[miss-canon-event]

Rooting for Egyptian culture

I've watched Moon Knight again and I've been playing Assassin's Creed Origins once more... and my new hyperfixation is Egyptian culture -cringes-

PS: I LOVE STEVEN AND BAYEK WITH ALL OF MY HEART!

[sombertide-0]

so i had a fun time talking with @avoidantvoidd this morning and got inspired to write a fic about Desmond being biracial (half white half syrian) and i focused on arab culture and yeah, here it is if anyone's interested

basically it's ramadan and desmond is sad about not being able to properly participate and it kinda fucks up his animus syncing, so becks and shaun decide to do something about it

Desmond comes up from the animus with a gasp, clutching at his throat. He’d been unfocused, hadn’t seen the guard coming at him before it was too late. He coughs, the taste of blood lingering on his tongue as the world steadily slows its spinning. He can hear voices, see faces that aren’t really there, feel the cold metal slicing his neck-

“Desmond!” He’s startled out of his thoughts by a very worried Rebecca. Right, he’s Desmond Miles, he was in the animus, he desynced. He groans and tugs the needle out, hunching over and clutching his stomach.

“Merda, fa male,” he wheezes. He shuts his eyes tightly. “No, wrong language, fuck… Sorry. Give me a minute.”

“What gives, Des? This is the fifth time you’ve desynced in half an hour. We need you to get through this memory.” Her voice sounds far away as he tries to separate himself from Ezio. He recites movie quotes under his breath, tries to remember his days as a bartender, remember what date it is.

It's Ramadan.

Fuck.

“Fuck…”

Shaun glances at Desmond over the rim of his glasses. "You aren't planning on fasting, are you?” Desmond cringes. He didn’t mean to say it out loud. Shaun keeps going. “Fate of the world hanging in the balance and all? We need you at your best, relatively speaking."

Desmond sighs and rubs his face. The bags under his eyes are more pronounced, stubble growing sporadically across his jaw, hair a mess. He shakes his head.

"No. I... I'd like to, but it's... not the same. Alone," he mutters tiredly. Beck and Shaun share a concerned look.

"Try to get some rest, Des," she says, powering down the animus. He nods mutely and stands on unsteady feet, slowly making his way to the room they have their bedrolls in.

"Poor guy," Becks whispers," Must be hard, being so disconnected from his culture." Shaun nods silently, staring as the door to their room shuts behind Desmond. "What do you know about Ramadan?", she asks. Shaun pauses. What does he know?

It's a social holiday, focusing on fasting during the sunlit hours of the day, followed by a big feast with family and friends. It lasts for 29 to 30 days, then is followed by three or four days of Eid, the celebration time. Sweets, gifts, parties, dances, music, it's all community based, and here they are, an American, a brit, and a sad Arab.

He sighs. As much as Shaun loathes Desmond, he can understand the isolation that comes with finding himself in such a different environment. "Okay," he says, "Here's what we're going to do."

Desmond wakes up from his nap not knowing if he feels better or worse. He groans, turns on his side, then the other, before deciding he wouldn't get anymore sleep. He stands, shadows dancing in his vision; Altair, Malik and Maria, sitting together around a warm meal. His stomach growls. God, when was the last time he ate?

No light seeps through the rotted curtains, alerting him that it's night. He must have slept for a while if it's already dark out. The others aren't in their beds though, so it can't be that late.

He slowly makes his way back to what was most likely a living room, before freezing at the door to the sorry excuse of a kitchen they have. Shaun and Rebecca were there, cooking together. Desmond shakes his head to make sure he's actually awake. He can see some of the food they'd already put out: a bowl of fresh dates, kisra and moulah, falafels, salata't rob, even a platter with freshly cut watermelon. When he looks back at what they were preparing now, he could see the telltale golden hue of one of his favorite sweets; basbousa.

Rebecca's the first to notice him standing there in shock. She offers a grin and beckons him to the table. "Hey, Des! We thought you could use a little pick me up," she says. Shaun rolls his eyes, cutting the cake into even squares and placing an almond in the middle of each one.

"Little is quite the understatement, don't you think?", he snarks, wiping his hands clean of the syrup, "We have enough food to feed a small town." Becks shoves his shoulder with a laugh. "Oh hush, this was your idea!" Shaun sputters.

"I- it was not! I simply answered your questions-"

"Then decided to look up the proper recipes and go out and buy the right ingredients and put in the time and effort to make all of this-"

"Listen, it wouldn't be worth anything if we couldn't do the culture justice!", he bristles, face a lovely shade of red. Rebecca snickers and drops the conversation, looking over to Desmond who's still simply staring.

"I...", he starts, swallows the lump in his throat, "What is this?"

Shaun scoffs. "What does it look like? Iftar. And you're late, the sun set over an hour ago."

"Iftar... But you don't celebrate, why...?" Shaun's gaze softens ever so slightly. He shifts his weight from one leg to another. "Well, Rebecca and I have noticed you weren't... performing as well as usual. So, we thought giving you a break and something nice would help get you back to your old self, however poor your performance already was." Desmond laughs despite the jab. "You did this for me. All of this, you..." His voice breaks. Dammit, he's not going to cry, he's not going to cry, he's not-!

Thin arms wrap around him tightly, the smell of rubber and cheap shampoo a strange yet comforting mix.

"You deserve nice things, Des," Rebecca says, rubbing soothing circles on his back. He hugs her tightly in return, tears stinging at his eyes.

He hasn't been able to truly participate in this holiday since he ren away from the farm, not having anyone around him to share it with. It used to be fine, but recently, with Altair's memories still knocking around in his head, and Ezio's celebrations he couldn't get through, it hurt a lot more. He never realized how alone he felt.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly pulls away from Rebecca to give her a warm smile. She gives one back and pats his shoulder. "Come on," she says, taking a seat at the table, "You better eat while it's still warm, I did not spend all this time and effort just for us to get a cold meal."

Desmond laughs. He's about to join her when he notices Shaun standing awkwardly with his arms crossed. The tips of his ears are still pink.

"Shaun?", he calls. The brit perks up. "Yes?" "Thank you." Shaun releases a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Don't mention it."

As they sit down and break the fast they hadn't started that day with a date, Desmond feels at home for the first time in a long time.

"Ramadan Kareem, Desmond," Shaun says with a hint of a smile. Desmond beams. He can’t help the fondness warming his chest. Maybe… maybe he’d be okay after all. Saving the world can wait for just one night.

“Ramadan Kareem, you guys.”

“… you overcooked the falafels. “

“Just shut it and eat, Miles!”