#CLERIC ON CLERIC VIOLENCE

[fukiana]

BALDUR'S GATE 3 (2023) dev. Larian Studios

[melancholiaenthroned]

crazy for even suggesting this

[magnetic-rose]

i just thought this was the funniest opportunity to reveal my dark urges to shadowheart.

[marsuro]

Late revenge on @xiphosuras , in which Ford bursts in another door and almost gets gutted for it!

[ruvviks]

// ocs as patron saints. [x]

tagged by; @katsigian, @deadrlngers and @devilbrakers, thank you so much!!

tagging; @mojaves, @dickytwister, @ordinarymaine, @claudiawolf and YOU!

– PATRON SAINT OF RELICS.

patron saint of remembering. patron saint of holding something close. patron saint of holding on for too long. for a saint, a relic is often a part of the body, kept for some physical memento of their holiness. they are all in your hands, now: does it feel like remembrance? does it feel sanctified? are the dust and blood as precious as they're supposed to be?

hindsight carries the gun of his deceased father, the last memory he holds of the past and of what used to be his family; he is alone, a vessel for all that used to be, carrying the burden of remembrance like a chain around his neck. he has made himself easily digestible, to fit in, to not stand out; yet the past clings to him tighter than the present and forces him on his knees, forced to worship a twisted and faux idyllic retelling of a place he can no longer get back to.

– PATRON SAINT OF HEARTBREAK.

not of comfort. not of condolences. there is a heart and there is a fissure, a fracture, something that starts to splinter and break open. you're the patron saint of the way a heart is rent open. the way it tears itself apart. patron saint of the rift. patron saint of the gash. when they say to "open your heart" to somebody, you are the patron saint of bleeding out.

erytheia is a grave domain cleric, and has witnessed more burials in her lifetime than any being ever should. she has seen the countless ways in which the best of her abilities still did not suffice, her healing more than often merely prolonging a life rather than saving it; and she carries the consequences of it wherever she goes, the faces of those who were left behind, the broken hearts and wails of sorrow like a symphony in the dead of night, chasing after the trail of blood left by her bleeding heart.

– PATRON SAINT OF BLOOD.

patron saint of the life that flows through our bodies. patron saint of violence. patron saint of love. something that does not watch over but exists within: not for protection but for vitality. there is no passion without a beating heart at its core. when that heart breaks open, someone has to be responsible for what it bleeds.

juniper is full of life, full of passion. her heart hungers and beats viciously within her ribcage, threatening to burst out; all of which shows in her unexpected ferocity in battle, as well as in the way her hands hold the waist of her lover, whoever is within her reach when her desire threatens to spill over. a mouth that kisses as much as it bites, and teeth that graze vulnerable skin and dig into tender flesh; she is a predator, and gods save whoever becomes her next prey.

[its-raining-cats]

"Okay, counter offer; you tell me what I want to know, and maybe I'll let you leave here WITHOUT A BROKEN LEG."

It's amazing what a natural 20 intimidation roll can do.

[tromroan]

Art attack on @catsnspats and their fascinating blood cleric Lady Leech Guildenstern! Here she is killing an entire army via... blood cleric... techniques...

[anteomnia]

lae’zel basically saying she’s mean because that’s how she was taught to survive, yeah

[ranger-danger]

I miss my dnd ranger :( Joyce I miss you. Much more now that the 2024 rules turned out to be really good for rangers.

Anyways have some of the only decent drawings I’m made of him (in his entire lifespan, idk why but he is the worst character to draw. I have never struggled with a character as much as I have him and Likaria).

Also a baby one I did for some reason??

[rodimissliveblogs]

Gnawing on the dialogue option "I know you think this will set you free, but it won't. This power will trap you, just like it trapped Cazador" because like. that is the inevitability of vampire lords! Fucking Strahd, who is the vampire lord, is a monstrous man who has near-complete control over all the people of Barovia and keeps them trapped within his domain, but he is also, just as literally, trapped there himself. He's spent 400 years pursuing the reincarnations of a woman who wants nothing to do with him, and if he does manage to turn her into a vampire spawn, he then just locks her up in the crypts beneath his castle and never bothers with her again. He's miserable and pathetic and is never going to be satisfied and is never, ever going to be free, either literally or figuratively. That is what comes of being a powerful vampire lord.

[pinacoladamatata]

I need to be up in 4 hours and here I am, writing fic

[shadowkira]

I'm convinced this scene is just rigged to fuck with me now. 💀

[edifythedefiance]

Edify The Defiance Vol.1

Chapter 1, page 5

[START] ……… [PREVIOUS PAGE] ……… [NEXT PAGE]

Panel by panel under cut

[barkyshark]

No return

[giantkillerjack]

Christ's sacrifice on the cross fulfilled prophecies, freed us from the old covenant (that would be what your friend was talking about with the animal sacrifices), and reconciled us in our fallen nature to God our heavenly Father. Why would God want to prevent the fulfilment of a prophecy of our redemption through his Son? You can find really clearly broken down explanations with simple Google searches. or even on Youtube, if reading isn't your thing.

[Continued in second anon]:

also, catholics don't believe that people capable of change are condemned to hell... that's sort of the whole shindig of purgatory.

it seems like the issue wasn't that you were "too much of a fag" to stay, but rather when the questions you had weren't addressed by those in your immediate circle of influence you decided it was all bogus. cause these are good questions! good questions that have been answered hundreds of times over hundreds of years beginning with the early church fathers

[This is in reference to a post I made about how I feel Jesus died for no reason and that my childhood in Catholic school failed to explain it to me. I wrote "thank goodness I was too much of a fag to stay."]

I mean I very much was too much of a fag to stay - the Catholic Church is not kind to queers, and there's a reason every one of my queer friends who grew up Catholic is no longer part of the Church. Lil Nas X knows what's up! Better to rule in Hell and all that. My girlfriend often talks about how she believes if she was raised Catholic as an autistic queer, she would not have lived to adulthood. I agree with her. The shame of it all would have destroyed her. So I very much was and AM too faggy to be a Catholic, and I am immensely grateful for this because I was very very unhappy in the Church.

But actually, the initial reason I had a long agonizing crisis of faith and then dropped it entirely was actually a thought that occurred years before my realization of my own queerness would have forced me either out of the Church anyway or else deep into dangerous self-loathing.

I think the actual heart of the question that destroyed my faith is this:

Is God omnipotent, or not? And if yes, why does he need us to suffer?

Because if he's not omnipotent, then all of this makes sense to me. The whole theology, I mean. Horrible sacrifices had to be made to stop every human soul from going to Hell for all eternity. A long painful battle against the Adversary waged by the good God and his people! It would make sense that he had to suffer if there are other powerful forces at play that established the prophecies he is fulfilling!

But... if he wrote the prophecy..... then....... why? Someone has to write the prophecy in the first place, right? It's not impressive to fulfill your own prophecy, and it doesn't explain why he made one.

If God is not omnipotent, then of course child abuse exists in this world on a massive scale. He hates it and is doing his best to fight it! This fits with the picture of a loving and merciful God that I was taught in school.

But... if he IS omnipotent, then I need to know why child abuse exists. "Mysterious ways" won't cut it because that just means "it doesn't make sense and also maybe that suffering is actually necessary." Which is not an answer I will accept.

The thing that killed my faith was the idea that God cannot be both all-powerful AND kind.

And everything I have experienced about God's Love has been through threats of Hell. I don't think it's kind to save someone from Hell if you condemned them in the first place and also you created Hell. That sounds a lot like an abuser saying you ought to be grateful they didn't hit you and will let you make it up to them. It's a warped version of mercy.

The Catholic church has historically relied on and continues to rely on shame, fear, and social ostracization in order to gain funding and influence. These are very powerful weapons that they use very liberally - shame, fear, isolation - and as long as that Central Paradox I mentioned above continues to exist, then their claim to power and righteousness sounds awfully hollow.

Which brings me back to the concept of martyrdom. I was taught, in no uncertain terms, that sacrifice was something inherently holy. Even when it didn't help anyone! Lent was just a practice in self-denial. It was never clear why Jesus needed it from us.

I was told the only way to 100% be a good person is to never stop sacrificing myself, and even after I stopped believing in a god, this attitude remained deeply, poisonously rooted. (Thanks, Capitalism!) When I was 25, I worked myself nearly to death, and I'm still dealing with the permanent health consequences of that. So ingrained is this mindset in me.

Being gay helped me to avoid falling back into the Church because they hate queers so much, and I am so so grateful for that.

The day I decided God didn't exist, I remember feeling like I could breathe for the first time. I was free! I was loved! I was no longer alone! I no longer had to define my life around shame and guilt! It was terrifying, but also like going from a world full of gray to one full of color!

I think in the end, little 11-year-old me decided that if God was not kind, then I don't know what the point of him is.

And as much as it hurt, knowing that going back wasn't an option for me also helped me stay safe!! Thank goodness I am a dyke!!!

[rainbowstargazerlilies]

An in-progress pic of another craft project. This one’s been sitting on the side for ages— dolls for the family D&D campaign I’m DMing. There’s one more not pictured, as I’m waiting for that uncle to get back to me about what sort of clothes he wants his character to be wearing. . .

A picture of them with one of my four-inch Mechs and a quarter for scale.