#Gostoc

[tarnussy]

I crammed as much lore into this as possible

[momijigari]

Grafting

[chubitheshroom]

Magma stuff

Seluvis/Gostoc/Varré is probably the ship ever

[boltofgransex]

Yay, art dump with characters that don't get ENOUGH love!

[thefruityb]

HELP I'M STUCK ON THIS BOSS

[greys-slippings]

Knowing i was gonna inevitably get locked in with that knight was more stressful than the re8 baby chase

[lotus-lynx]

as an animal and anthro artist with *zero* skill in drawing humans, all i can do is turn human characters into depressed unkempt borzoi, like i did with gostoc here.

i also made a little sticker pack for telegram with gosdog:

[tanzaradei]

he can keep my runes if he wants. i don't mind

[tarnishedinquirer]

Godrick the Grafted

I summoned Nepheli Loux to my side, stepped through the golden mist, and exited into a long strip of land flanked with graves. At the end was a central keep, looking as much mausoleum or temple as seat of power. A small dragon was impaled on a spire, presumably the one that crashed into the floors just outside. A massive, lumpy, misshapen figure approached it.

This could only be Godrick.

The wind carried his words to me. He spoke to the dragon lovingly, calling it a "kindred" and a "trueborn heir," and asked it to deliver him to greater heights.

Then he noticed my presence, and his demeanor shifted. See, everything I'd heard about this man told me he was a coward. Hiding from Radahn, licking Malenia's boots, sneaking out of Leyndell. His legitimacy was in question, his castle was crumbling, his soldiers were deserting... every sign pointed to a reign that was at an end.

And then I showed up. A Tarnished of no renown. Having defeated all his soldiers, looted his entire castle. To him, in this moment, I was a living manifestation of his every inadequacy and failure. I represented the inevitability of his fall.

My presence enraged Godrick.

He threw off his clloak, revealing the tangled mass of arms that was his body. His limbs were made of knotted coils of other limbs like muscle fibers. Some hands hung free at his shoulders. One held a spare axe. But in his main hands, he held a giant, golden axe with a heraldic crest on it. He slammed it into the ground and shouted, "I command thee KNEEL!"

At first, he was slow and lumbering, dragging his axe behind him as he hobbled towards me. His body was a patchwork of limbs and torsos, grafted from other unfortunates who had come through here, and I thought they weren't all working in concert. I had plenty of time to summon Aurelia before he got to me. But the second she spat poison at him, he whipped his axe in a vortex around his head, summoned the wind, and started rolling at me.

Walking like a normal person might not be his strongest suit but powered by the wind, and with so many limbs to propel him, he could tumble with breathtaking agility. It was all I could do to avoid his axe.

Nepheli Loux barreled into him, matching control of wind for hers. But she had an advantage he did not: she could also command the lightning. Each blow of her axe was accompanied by a yellow levinbolt. But Godrick had other tricks up his sleeve. He brought his axe down on the ground, stomped on hit like it were a shovel, and the earth around him heaved, knocking Nepheli Loux off her feet.

I was hanging back and throwing Glintstone Pebbles at him, but he sent two blasts of wind my way. I dodged them both, and lunged in with my sword ablaze in blue magic just as Nepheli Loux recovered and hit him with everything she had in her. He dropped to his knees, and I took the opportunity to plunge my sword into his chest, somewhere in the general vicinity of where his heart was.

I was not close enough.

Godrick threw us off, raised his axe, and....

...severed his own arm?

I think we were both too stunned to stop what happened next. Even Aurelia stopped, whatever passed for her brain failing to comprehend what exactly he could possibly be doing. Godrick staggered over to the dragon, screaming and laughing maniacally, clearly pushed to to the brink. He plunged his the bleeding stump into the dragon's neck and wrenched it off.

The dragon's head twitched.

I don't know the rules of grafting, but this seemed somehow against them.

Godrick raised the dragon's head above his and, despite its lack of lungs, it roared.

"Forefathers one and all," he shouted, as it breathed a gout of flame into the air. "Bear witness!"

My battle with Agheel had taught me that the best place to be when a dragon breathed fire was behind it, so without hesitation I sprinted past Godrick. The fire had a physical force that seemed to add to its mass, and he could not turn fast enough to catch me. He summoned the wind, but added a tiny gout of flame, turning it into a firestorm. He rolled at me again, and when he landed, a wave of flame went out from his axe. Even his stomp as empowered, now rocking the entire land bridge. He did not even care if he perished anymore, as long as we perished with him.

Nepheli Loux, barely clinging to life, slammed her axe into his gut and spun him around so his back was to me. I leaped on top of him, charged my sword once more, and plunged it down through his collarbone—his original collarbone. He spasmed, gagged, then went utterly still.

Nepheli Loux leaped in and he caught her in the dragon's arm, cackling like a madman as slammed her into the ground and roasted her alive. As I watched, the arm was already erupting in sores and pustules. There was no way it would last this fight, but he could certainly kill us before it rotted away.

Suddenly, he coughed. Choked, even. Godrick was seized by a coughing fit that only ended when he vomited black bile, forcing him to release Nepheli. I realized what was happening when I saw another spurt of purple fluid from Aurelia. Her poison had finally taken effect!

Staring unseeing at the Erdtree, he said:

I am lord of all that is golden One day we'll return together To our home bathed in rays of gold...

It sounded like the man had rehearsed his last words, like he knew this day would come and wanted them to be good. It was a poem, but I didn't get to hear any more. He hadn't accounted that his lungs would be filling up with blood and bile. The next lines trailed off into gurgles as all the various limbs started falling off his body. I took the sword and jumped back as he came apart, rotted into nothing, and left only a tiny, shriveled torso on the ground.

Nepheli Loux returned to her world, Aurelia to her ashes, and I stared down at the broken thing before me that was once a demigod.

Then Gostoc appeared and stomped on his head.

He continued ranting as he stomped the former lord's head into pulp, and I decided that whatever those two had going on before this, I didn't need to know. It was time to move on.

Is the Golden Lineage descended from dragons?

Why does his axe have a similar emblem to the Grafted Blade Greatsword?

[blaiddfailcam]

Godrick the Grafted

In the Age of Godfrey, First Elden Lord, the rite of grafting was reserved only for the most valorant of champions.

To the withered flower of the Golden Lineage, heresy would prove necessity, and in time would be gnarled into depravity. The promise of return had long since faded into a distant and tattered fantasy.

[wanderingmausoleum]

holy fuck i just realized i never posted this. it’s gostoc doing the saul goodman/anime girl pose

[tarnussy]

Stormveil dwellers

[demonic-bubonic]

Since day 1 I loved gostoc. I dont care if he steals your runes. I think hes silly

[thistoowillpasss]

Gostoc is so fuckin tall man

[cerberus253]

Goes to Stormveil in the sluttiest outfit: “Have fun looting my corpse, Gostoc!”

Gostoc:

[monstrousvoice]

Spoiler territory? Now i'm going to be consumed with Thoughts even harder.

Also in regards to your fic i keep amusing myself with the idea of Godrick trying to receive guests. Does he clean the bodies up. Does he make the Scion in the kitchen dust the rafters. Which dining room gets used. How many holes in the castle wall does he try to bullshit filling in so they look presentable. I know this is also possible spoilers bc we'll get there, but i like to imagine the silly scenario of him pulling a "NO ONE CAN KNOW WE SIT" because someone from Lyndell with actual power wants to see him.

Unrelated, how do you think Mohg found the Moghwyn palace? I like to think that the Formless Mother just had him go on a pilgrimage to the warp gate and he got to play house flipper on something the Nox built. Speaking of which, what're your thoughts on them? Personally i really like their character designs.

Godrick: "Gostoc, if you haven't made your bed throw it away. It's too late to make it now!"

"We need more pillows! I need those things looking PUMPED! I need those things looking FLUFFED!"

"We can't have any clothes! Everyone take off your clothes!"

"Gostoc this is a dish towel! We need a hand towel! What are we, barbarians!?" Towel drops onto a pile of rotting Tarnished corpses. "But it's too late- AUHG!"

Godrick really is trying to pull a major Gayle, for sure for sure. The state of the castle will be a topic of discussion don't you worry 👀

As for Mohg finding the palace he did, I think the Formless Mother gave him directions too that location because it was a place they are able to influence with minimal interference from other gods in the realm. It's underground and away from the Greater Will's influence, and while the Nox are still waiting for their Lord of Night, there isn't much of a god presence in such areas.

I think the palace is a place the Formless Mother had been trying to break thru the veil separating mortals and gods there, and with Mohg being there the connection between the two of them is even stronger.