#HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THE EMPIRES SMP

[kittylordaurie]

Lizzie!!!

I kinda combined both her empires characters together

I also would have drawn Joel as well, but I want to solidify a design for him first

(Edit: I forgot to add, I have a masterlist!)

[drunkwithoutalchohol]

Oh my god chat I just realized something

Is ‘Shrub Berry’ from Empires a play on ‘shrubbery’

[thetomorrowshow]

hubris killed the god - ch 5

first part

cw: apocalypse setting, talk of death

~

The crew that leaves is Scott, Jimmy, False, Shelby, and Katherine, leaving fWhip and Gem behind (though to be fair, both fWhip and Gem volunteer to stay behind, despite Jimmy clearly wanting at least one of them to come along in place of Scott).

The whole trip, Jimmy ignores Scott—and to be fair, Scott doesn’t make any extra effort to get in his way. Their fight of the previous week clearly hasn’t left either of their minds.

Scott’s not entirely sure what had changed Jimmy’s mind—if he’d just been looking to avoid another fight, or if he’d realized he was wrong at some point. Whatever it was, Scott isn’t going to argue any further. He’s just happy that Jimmy let him come along.

Also, the airship probably isn’t the best place for a fight like they’d had last week. Scott shudders as he pictures Jimmy shoving him again, the two of them clearing the railing entirely and being dead on impact with the ground.

Hopefully dead on impact. If he’s going to die, Scott doesn’t want to feel the mites tearing him apart as he does.

Pix’s land isn’t too far away—not nearly as far as Stratos had been. They arrive after maybe half an hour, hovering over the grand gate that leads to the catacombs.

“All right, you know the plan!” Jimmy hollers over the sound of fans and gears droning. “I take point, Shelby’s got the rear. Katherine behind me. Scott in the middle to keep eyes around. We go in, we get out quick! Got it?”

“And look for coal!” calls False from the stern. Jimmy acknowledges with a wave of his hand, then heaves himself over the railing and onto the rolled-out ladder.

The mites are swarming around below, but they watch as Jimmy draws his pistol and fires an echoing shot below him, scattering the ones directly below him. For a moment, wind catches the ladder and it sways—Jimmy’s one-handed hold is looking pretty loose—but before any of them can shout for him, Jimmy jumps the rest of the way down, landing hard on the ground and firing off another shot.

It’s Scott’s turn next, and he can’t afford to take a moment to feel nervous about it. Jimmy’s down there, howling at the top of his lungs, trying to keep hordes of plaguelings away. He needs help, and Scott just so happens to have a magical eye that repulses evil.

The wind is roaring in his ears and terrifying as he clambers down the rope ladder, it swinging and curling below him while his shovel knocks against his leg. But Scott bites his lip and holds on tight, taking it one shaky step at a time as he climbs.

Eventually, his feet hit solid ground (his knees shake and he nearly falls, but he finds his footing after a precarious moment), and he pulls his shovel from his belt and starts beating at the dirt before he even has a chance to get his legs steady. The mites scurry away from the force, or go still and slowly move away under his gaze, and he casts his eyes around, trying to keep them spooked long enough to stay a good meter away (and hitting with his shovel when they get too close). Jimmy’s still yelling and stomping his feet, and Katherine swings down and joins in.

Once Shelby joins them, Jimmy (still shouting nonsense) leads the way in, shoving at the looming, sealed stone doors until one of them starts to give. Katherine joins him, and with their combined strength, they force one of the doors to scrape open wide enough for them to squeeze through.

It’s a tight fit—and Scott doesn’t like that there are mites on the doors, that could drop down on him as he’s going in, so he pulls up his coat above his head and shimmies through—but it works well enough, and soon all four of them are within the catacombs.

The air within is like a cool breeze washing over them, out of the sun, yet stuffy—but Scott hardly notices it while his eyes adjust to the dark. The crack of the door casts little light within the hollowed out hall, and they all stand there for several long moments (Scott keeps an eye on the door, glaring at any mites that dare shuffle around the corner) while Jimmy strikes a match and lights the torch that he’d strapped to his hip.

Scott lets his coat slide back down from his head to settle on his shoulders again. He’s already starting to have second thoughts, something about the darkness unsettling his stomach. He swallows a couple of times, making sure that he isn’t going to throw up.

It’s tough to see the roughly-hewn stone, even with Jimmy’s torch. The light barely reaches the walls, and Scott can just make out the lumpy shapes of sconces at fixed intervals to light up the place the way Pix always had it. It would’ve been nice if they’d been able to bring as many torches as could fill those—then maybe it would feel less spooky, less . . . off.

In addition to the disconcerting darkness, it feels like they’re in a holy place, and no one speaks while they pass between pillars to reach the main staircase. 

Scott’s been in plenty of holy places, and in each one, there’s a certain quality to the air—maybe the way the dust hangs in unnatural stillness, or the stale scent that brings to mind churches and private places of worship. Something that feels as if it would be unwise to disturb it, whether because of the god that watches over it, or because of whatever lies within.

In this case, it could be either, he observes, as Jimmy’s torchlight passes over a painting of a goddess.

Peril, the plaque beneath it reads. Scott only catches a glimpse of the painting as he passes, but she seems stern, stone-like, forbidding.

She seems like an omen.

With every dark hallway and tomb they pass, Scott’s heart sinks lower and lower. If Pix were here, surely he’d have lit the place up, shown some sign of life. 

There’s nothing, though. No lit torches, dust settled on the few seats they pass and layered thick on the ground. And the further in they get, the lower the chances are that Pix is somehow still here.

Jimmy’s growing antsy, too. Every room he shines his torch into, he sighs louder, his steps sounding more and more like stomps.

Scott doesn’t dare suggest they turn back, even as the tombs go on and on. He’s not sure how Jimmy’s navigating them, or if he’s navigating at all, so he looks up at him after a moment to see that he has chalk, and is marking each turn they take.

Scott turns his eyes back to the floor, scanning each cranny they pass for any mites that could be hiding in the darkness. The silence feels heavy, weighing down on his shoulders, and he’s assaulted with the image of Martina in the inn, her limp llama form already being torn apart by the mites.

If Pix is down here, what condition will they find him in? Will he be partially decayed, mites crawling around him? Will there be anything left?

Scott shakes himself. There aren’t any mites in here. Well, now there may be, now that they’ve opened the door, but if Pix is here, there can’t be mites. They haven’t encountered any yet, have they? If they were already in here, they would’ve seen one.

Right?

And then, almost before he notices, they’re in the main (and final) chamber.

It’s dark. It’s silent. The torchlight doesn’t fill the entire room, leaving the edges of the room in darkness. The can’t see the walls, they can’t see the ceiling. They can’t see any signs of life.

What they can see is some crypts, inscribed with weathered words in a language Scott doesn’t recognize. A couple of barrels here and there, mostly empty, one or two with shovels or similar excavation tools. A sheet here, a bucket there.

No Pix. This is clearly where he’d been working before everything went down, but he isn’t here.

With a couple of gestures, Jimmy directs them all to various corners of the room to search, despite the futility of it. Scott heads off to his left, feeling along one of the crypts, his fingers digging into the dusty grooves of the lettering.

There’s nothing in his corner. It’s bare, but for a cobweb and more dust. He kicks at the dust, watches idly as it puffs up in a little cloud.

There’s a short shriek behind him, a clattering sound—Scott whips around—Katherine’s leapt back from her corner and knocked over a barrel, her axe raised, eyes focused on a spot on the floor.

“There’s a mite here,” she calls to them when everyone looks to her. “I don’t know if it was already here or if it followed us in. We should go.”

Jimmy nods sharply, heads to the door. Scott falls into line behind him, trying to keep his heart from beating out of his chest. If the mites are already in here—

Jimmy leaves without waiting for Katherine and Shelby to join them, and Scott can’t hang back because Jimmy’s going forward and Scott has to watch out for mites in his path. They aren’t far behind, so he’s confident that they’ll be able to catch up. After all, they can handle themselves for a couple of seconds.

If they’d waited, maybe things would’ve been different. Maybe Scott would have noticed something was off, because he caught sight of some movement on the ceiling but assumed it was just the torchlight flickering as Jimmy hurried down the hallway and up the first flight of stairs.

But now, in an attempt to not let Jimmy get too far ahead, he ignores whatever he’d seen on the ceiling. And when the girls shout behind him, he knows instantly that he should’ve looked closer.

Scott whips around to see his worst nightmare.

It’s Shelby, and there’s a mite on her cheek.

And a mite on her hat.

And a mite on her hand.

And she’s yelling and trying to shake off the mites, and Katherine’s screaming and circling her to try and fend off any others, and the sick feeling that’s been growing in Scott’s stomach this whole time rises to his throat and he nearly vomits.

It’s certain death. There’s no way to survive this plague, and Shelby’s covered in those things and there’s no way to help her and she’s going to die, she’s going to die, she’s going to die—

“Just run!” Jimmy roars, and Scott can’t stay. There’s more of them, the plague dripping from the ceiling and spreading across the walls and Shelby’s going to die and there’s nothing he can do.

Scott pulls the collar of his coat up over his head and runs for it.

The mites scatter from their feet, and all Scott can hear is the pounding of his blood in his ears and all he can feel is his feet slamming against stone, but he keeps pushing, up flights of stairs and down hallways, his eyes on the ground to try and keep it clear. He doesn’t know if Shelby and Katherine are following. He doesn’t know if Jimmy’s still in front of him. He just knows he has to get out.

Something light bounces off his coat over his head and Scott swears in a voice that comes out as more of a shriek than a mutter, as intended. He doesn’t stop running, though, even as each breath tears from his lungs and his legs start to feel like jelly.

And finally, blessedly, he hits the door.

There’s more mites than he’s ever seen in his life swarming around the door, piled up upon each other as they scramble to explore this new place. Scott screams at them, wordless and random, stomping and glaring and swinging with his shovel, until their piles fall apart and scatter and he has a path through.

He can hear other screams, somebody beating something metal against the wall with a repeated, deafening clanging noise that sends Scott’s head spinning and his ears ringing. He squeezes his way out the door, doing his best to shove the door open a bit wider in the process, and finally is free in the open air.

Jimmy’s right there, and the sound is him slamming his pistol against the outer wall as he shouts, making a small clearing in the sea of blackness that surrounds them. Scott spins around, too fast, he’s dizzy he’s going to be sick, casting his eyes on every mite he can to incite them to pull away.

The ladder drops in front of him and Jimmy, still yelling, shoves his pistol into his waistband and starts climbing.

Scott tells himself, frantically, that he’s going to wait for Katherine and Shelby as long as he can. He and Jimmy left them back there, they didn’t wait, and because they didn’t wait they lost one of their number.

Luckily, he doesn’t have to wait long. Within the minute, Shelby exits the catacombs, bereft of her witch hat and her face red with tears. Katherine���s right behind her, and she helps Shelby onto the rope ladder before climbing up herself.

Scott waits until they’re both fully onto the airship, then steels himself. His legs already feel so terribly weak; he isn’t sure that he can make it all the way up.

Well. It’s either make it, or die here.

Scott starts climbing.

His determination is strong, but even so, his legs nearly give out before he reaches the top. When that happens, he just wraps his arms all the way around the ladder and moves slower, shimmying himself up.

He rolls over the railing, onto the deck and out of the way, ready for Katherine to pull the ladder up. Scott shrugs out of his coat, the sun beating down on his back and head.

His ears are still ringing, his head aching, his limbs trembling. He still feels like one wrong move could cause him to lose his breakfast. He still feels like he just wants to sit down and sob.

Scott doesn’t have time for that, though.

He shakes out his coat to find nothing, twists around to check his back just in case. It doesn’t look like he made any skin contact with a mite. He needs to invest in a pair of gloves, though—he’d been hit by the horrifying thought halfway up the ladder that there could be a mite sitting on his shoulder, and he’d have no way to get it off without infecting himself.

There’s a conversation going on around him, he realizes as his ears abruptly stop ringing, yelled over the sound of the airship.

“—okay, we’re right here with you,” Jimmy’s shouting, and Scott turns to see him holding Shelby’s hands as she shudders with barely-contained sobs.

Shelby says something Scott can’t hear, and Jimmy’s face twists. He pulls her close to his chest, wraps her in a hug.

That’s his friend. Shelby is Scott’s friend, and she’s hurting, and she’s going to die soon.

Scott takes a few shaky steps over to her, waiting for her to open her eyes and notice him—and when she does, she reaches out with one of her arms, pulling him into the hug with Jimmy.

“I’m sorry,” Shelby croaks into his ear, and Scott just hugs her tighter.

-

The ride back is quiet. Shelby sits on the deck, back up against the railing, chin on her knees as she stares at nothing. Katherine paces, back and forth from the stern to the bow, casting anxious glances toward Shelby and Scott.

Jimmy disappears belowdecks, after giving each of them a hug—nothing huge, just a quick slap on the back. Scott leans on the railing at the bow, gazing out over the land.

The worst part is, Jimmy was right.

He was right. Scott had just begun to assume that of course Pix would be there. Of course they would be able to rescue him. And he’d thought, at the time, that even if Pix wasn’t there, it would be worth it just to try (and yet, he was so certain that Pix would be there that it didn’t even matter).

And here they are, with a light pink mark on Shelby’s face and another on her hand, denoting exactly where death had marked her.

Jimmy was right, and he isn’t even doing anything about it.

He’s changed since the apocalypse, Scott thinks. In the past, he imagines Jimmy would be glaring at them all, muttering “I told you so”s and just generally being obnoxious about being right.

In fact, Scott would honestly find it easier to deal with than this silence. He can handle Jimmy being a bit stuck-up and full of himself. He knows that side of Jimmy, he knows what to expect.

No Pix, Scott remembers suddenly with a pang. No sign of him whatsoever. The catacombs had been sealed well enough that until they got there, there’d only been one or two mites in the place total. Had Pix sealed it from the outside, trying to preserve the history within? That sounds like something stupid and self-sacrificing the man would do in the name of history.

And there wasn’t any coal either, Scott realizes with a start. They’d gone in there to save Pix and collect coal, and they hadn’t completed either objective.

The sick feeling he’s had since they entered the catacombs increases just slightly. This was a terrible idea. They’ve lost—they’ve lost another trip in the flying machine, wasted on nothing. False had said that the coal they found in Stratos was enough for a handful of flights, and now one of those limited flights has been used up on nothing.

And Shelby, a pointless sacrifice that he had foolishly thought worth it.

Scott slides down to sit on the deck, burying his face in his knees. His eyes are burning at the corners, and he thinks it isn’t exactly because of the wind.

It’s his fault. He riled everyone up, he fought with Jimmy, he insisted that they look for Pix. It’s all his fault that Shelby is dying.

For a moment, with frightening clarity that bubbles up in his chest like a sob, Scott wonders if this is how Jimmy feels.

In a greater sense, this whole thing is Jimmy’s fault. It was Jimmy’s rash actions and anger that had caused the apocalypse, killed thousands of people, ended the world.

And maybe it’s just because Scott doesn’t have time to process anything, he hasn’t had time, he’s never going to have time, but he’s not all that mad at Jimmy right now. If they can work out an impossible escape, and somehow find peace and time to process and heal, then he’d be mad.

But at this point, Scott’s not sure that he would call for punishment. He doesn’t think that he could ever be friends with Jimmy again, but. . . .

He’d really rather forget everything that happened here. Move on.

He’d rather everyone forget about his own terrible decision.

Scott sits there, wind pulling his hair every which way, face tucked into his knees, until they arrive. He tries not to think. He tries not to let his heart break over and over again. He just sits there and breathes and ignores the smarting of his eyes.

-

Somehow, Scott’s the only one who thinks to tell Sausage that they’re back, and the only one to tell him of Shelby’s condition.

Everyone else tells fWhip and Gem, then heads off in their separate directions—to bed, to patrol, to find a quiet place to cry—whatever it is they do.

Sausage doesn’t take it well, exactly, but where fWhip had cried and Gem had hugged Shelby, Sausage’s face hardens with determination and he starts . . . something.

He opens up a compartment in the back of the altar, draws from it a line of beads—pearls, probably—from which a moon hangs. He sets that on the altar, then pulls out the next thing—a well-preserved sunflower head. Last of all, a tiny little cylindrical container, gleaming gold, that he lays beside the other two items.

“Tell Shelby to come in here. And to bring whatever she uses for her magic,” Sausage instructs, stricter than Scott’s ever heard. And Scott, of course, obeys, turning on his heel and marching right out of the chapel.

fWhip insists on coming too, and then Gem, and then Katherine, so they all follow Scott and Shelby into the chapel, where Sausage is now piling as many pillows as he can onto a table behind the altar.

“Sausage, what’s going on?” Shelby asks wearily, leaning against the altar. “It’s—I’m—I’m d-dead, all right? Don’t try to save me, focus your energy on everyone else.”

“I think I can do something, though,” Sausage declares, and he pats the makeshift bed he’s made on the table. “See, my magic has been keeping the darkness away. And your magic kind of works to keep you safe, right? So I’ve been thinking—just in case, I didn’t plan for anyone to get hurt or anything—that we could try and combine our magic and see what happens!”

That sounds like a terrible idea, from Scott’s point of view. What happens if their magics hate each other? What happens if the combination ends up exploding in ways both literal and not?

But Shelby stills, tilts her head, considering. She scratches absently (not that Scott knows it’s absent scratching, if it were him he’d be overly aware) at the tiny pink splotch on her cheek.

“We can try,” she says slowly. “I mean, I’m already gone. We might as well, right? And it could be kind of fun.”

“Wait, could this actually work?” Gem asks, pushing past Scott to stand directly in front of Sausage. “Could you—if you and Shelby worked together, could you save other people, too?”

As opposed to the moment before, Sausage looks rather unsure of himself, rocking back on his heels and chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Um, maybe! And it can’t hurt to try, mostly. Otherwise I wouldn’t even suggest it, if it could hurt someone.”

He’s sure Sausage didn’t mean to address that statement toward anyone, but Scott feels a pang in his chest at those words. He’d fought to go look for Pix, knowing full well that someone could get hurt. And someone did.

“Then by all means, let’s do it!” fWhip declares, bouncing in place, and Scott can’t stand it.

He doesn’t want hope. He doesn’t want to get excited about the possibility of his friend being okay, because if it doesn’t work then it’ll be like she’s dying all over again.

Scott knows they need to try. He knows that this is a possible fix, not just for Shelby, but for everyone. He knows that there’s hope here.

But there are already far too many bottled-up emotions shoved into the deepest corner of his chest, and the lid is barely staying on the bottle. Opening it up to add hope would send all those other nasty, grieving feelings flying into everything.

So, instead of joining the excited chatter and helping Shelby get comfortable on the table there (where she’ll apparently be spending a lot of time), Scott quietly slips out.

That night, he stays in his room in the inn, instead of heading for the pew where he normally sleeps in the chapel.

That night, Scott barely sleeps at all.

[lemonthesh4rk]

Have you noticed who's NOT in the Misadventures crypts?

Okay so I know we've all been crying and mourning the canonized deaths of all the emperors in empires smp, but have you noticed that like, not everyone is there??

Here's a list of all the ppl in the crypts (as far as I've seen there could be more and i could be forgetting a few)

Pearl s1 - "The Goddess"

Fwhip s1 - "The Tinkerer"

Fwhip s2 - "The Goblin"

Gem s1 - "The Wizard"

Gem s2 - "The Dawn Princess"

Jimmy s1 - "The Codfish Boy"

Jimmy s2 - "The Sheriff"

Shubble s1 - "The Gnome"

Shubble s2 - "The Witch of Evermore"

Katherine s1 - "The Sheep Queen"

Ren for some reason??? - "The Red King"

Katherine s1 - "The Sheep Queen"

Joey s1 - "Ruler of the Lost Empire"

Joey s2 - "The Pirate King"

Pix s1 - "The King of Copper"

Pix s2 - "The Archeologist"

Joel s1 - "The Mezalean King"

Joel s2 - "The God of Thunder"

Lizzie s1 - "The Queen of the Ocean"

Lizzie s2 - "The Mayor of Animailia"

Scott s1 - "The Elvish Emperor"

Oli s2 - "The Bard"

Now this is probably just because Sausage (since he made it) had limited space or he was just picking emperors that were played by people participating in Misadventures as a fun little easter egg for them

BUT IN THE LORE-

Okay before I start to ramble I want to clarify some more things, the list above is just a list of people who had names on their crypts/were named in their "boss" battle (those being Shubble s1, Katherine s1, and Joey s2, as ppl who became individual bosses/enemies for the person running the crypt to fight). That being said, there is also a phase in the crypt where you have to kill several skeleton sheep, and in his episode Sausage refers the them as Blood Sheep, there is also a larger tomb labeled "The King", where the players can bring raw gold to get more dungeon loot. I'm going to infer through these two references that Sausage s1 aka the Mythland King is also in the Crypt.

Also Pearl s1, Gem s1, and Fwhip s1 all had their tombs in the same room as the "The King"'s crypt, so that is probably a room dedicated to the Wither Rose Alliance, further proving that Mythland Sausage is probably "The King".

Although she does not have a labeled tomb, False from s2 is also likely buried in the crypt, as by looking at Lizzie's mc skin history she has several recent skins with skull heads, likely used as decoration for the dungeon, one of which has False's goggles on it. (in case you're curious the other skull skins were Oli s2 (had his hat), Pix s1 (had his crown), Joey s2 (had his hat), and a 4th one that has some sort of markings on the side which i'm choosing to interpret as axolotl gills for Lizzie s1 although it's not quite clear)

Okay future me here she does have a labeled tomb it's called "Emperor of Cogsmeade" it just hadn't been shown in any of the youtube povs I watched

There is also another few crypts, those being "The Withered Man", "The Vampire", "The Protector" (which might be katherine s2?), and "The Warrior" (and the Warrior's Companion so I don't think that's Katherine as she didn't really have a dog)

So here's the list of emperors who were NOT in the crypts based on everything we've gathered;

Katherine s2

Scott s2

Sausage s2

The majority of this list is s2, which makes some sense

But I think that raises another question

How are Pearl and Sausage from s1 in the Misadventures crypts?

Pix in s2 discovered their tombs in the catacombs in empires s2

It's very possible that they were moved, but STILL

so uh yeah

just something i noticed

This post has been edited as I did leave out some ppl mb

[give-grian-rights]

Where did Canary!Jimmy come from?

After a deepdive, I believe that there is no one person who can be accredited with this. There is one very notable presence who was ahead of the curb, vyeoh, their imagination would go on to inspire us in early 2022. It is thanks to Vyeoh and every artist from 2022 that it is where it is today. Thank you to every artist, every writer, everyone who helped spread it. But there are a few that I think could be directly accredited.

First, we need to acknowledge the video that was the last straw - 100 Hours Hardcore SMP. This series included Grian, Scar, and Joel, in janaury-febuary of 2022, during the period between Last Life and Double Life. Several guests, including Jimmy, were on.

When Jimmy was visiting, Grian died. People called him an omen, a harbringer of death. After Third Life, Last Life, and Empires season one apocalypse, 100 Hours SMP was the final notion needed to FULLY kickstart Canary!Jimmy, evident in fanart dated Febuary of 2022.

One of the earliest instances, if not the earliest, would belong to: vyeoh, whose art work depicted Canary!Jimmy far ahead of the game, in November of 2021.

Notable posts, post-100 Hours SMP, include:

yb-cringe - the explanation of what canary in the coal mine means, and how it applies to Jimmy.

the-cooler-philza - the Canary Poem

floweroflaurelin - Beautiful art Inspired By Poem - and the first acknowledgement from Jimmy

wither-rose-circus - I hope Canary!Jimmy gets widespread

[silly-anon]

One thing I always think about is Lizzie's Secret Life death

Like, it's so abrupt. Sure, it seemed inevitable when she backed herself onto the ledge but the ENDERMAN! I couldn't spot where or when she looks at it. So, here's what I propose.

That enderman was already mad at Lizzie when she brought Scott to the End. Why? Because she planned her death. She broke the Canary Curse on purpose.

After Last Life, Jimmy told Lizzie about the curse and how much it hurt. Lizzie made a decision there and then. She would break it.

Before leading Scott to the End, she set up that enderman. She angered it and trapped it in a mechanism that would release it once she was on the edge.

The Watchers despise Lizzie for this. The only time They took notice of her before was when she made the bet that Joel would be the first red during Last Life. They involved her because of Kingdom Craft, They wanted to get Their hands on her. They realised They couldn't force Lizzie to be insane during Last Life so They forgot about her. But she freed the Canary, she broke one of Their curses.

The assassination attempts during Wild Life weren't just everyone trying to get Lizzie off dark green, it was the Watchers trying to make a new Canary. But they underestimated Lizzie. Now They really want her either dead or under their control.

Lizzie keeps evading Them. She isn't playing Their game, They are playing her's. Lizzie is no fool, she builds an image of herself and drops it when it's convenient.

The other thing They despise about her is the fact that she's keeping Them from making Joel follow the lore. This means They can't get to Joel.

Because Joel wasn't meant to win. They wanted Ren to win, They wanted to show Martyn what happens when he ignores Them. Making him win Limited Life wasn't enough, so They went after Ren.

Lizzie has an obligation to protect Ren after Last Life, so she did the one thing she could.

Be a shadow leading people to their death.

Lizzie breaks the rules, she puts a dent in the Watchers' plans. And she gets away with it. Because she doesn't mess around like everyone thinks. She knows what she has to do.

She took Jimmy out with her. She knew Grian had trapped the bunker but she didn't care because she could get Jimmy out of there with it. She's doing what Grian can't because the Watchers can't touch her. She bows to no entity.

And it's not the first instance of it either. Throughout Empires SMP 1, she wasn't concerned by Xornoth, she barely acknowledged him. And he left her alone because he knew better. She was constantly after the crown when it was introduced and hesitant to follow the others laws at best.

The same thing happened in Empires SMP 2, she made people bend to her whims and she didn't get involved with the crossover. She had her own agenda and wasn't going to be put off.

But she took notice of Tag. Because it showed her how Grian functioned as a runaway. She observed him and deduced what she could use against the Watchers.

[connorsnothereeither]

whats one of your favourite pieces of fable smp worldbuilding?

Ooooh okay that’s hard. Hmm.

My first instinct was the concept of the telchin being a self-fulfilling prophecy of Lennarius’ own hubris but I think that falls more under narrative than world building.

I adore the Kingdoms that are alluded to. Not the realms or anything necessarily, but the Overworld kingdoms like the Morningstar Kingdom, or the Nightingale’s Kingdom, obviously the Telchin Empire, and even the Gilded Empire to an extent. And this is going to sound kind of counter intuitive a bit, but I think one of my favourite parts of the worldbuilding of Fable regarding them specifically is the gaps in knowledge we have about them.

Maybe it is just from the perspective of being a historian, but there’s something so emotional and impactful to me about having entire kingdoms that you know existed, but you could never really comprehend how it was when it did. Entire societies that flourished and had centuries of history and now aren’t there anymore.

I love when narratives have parts of the world that don’t need to tie into the story but you know are there. We don’t need to know what happened to them, because it’s not important to the story, but the fact that they’re there meant something. Narratively it gives characters places to be from, and means that the ghost of failing to resist Fable’s armies literally haunt the world. But canonically, the characters don’t know what happened to them either. It makes the world feel bigger and richer and lived in to me. We don’t need to know the ins and outs of the Nightingale’s kingdom, but we know it was there. We know that there were people who lived there and farmed for it and fought for it. And they’re now gone. And I think one of my favourite things about getting to explore what the Telchin civilization was, is that it puts into perspective how much of that knowledge was lost, and how much we don’t get to know about those other kingdoms.

I love not necessarily unanswered questions, but questions that don’t need an answer. And I think Fable is full of that, worldbuilding wise. And I love that about it.

[peacheeeliz]

011. hurry up we're hungry (1k wc)

“Thank you all for joining today, and I hope you enjoyed the stream!” You speak towards your camera, waving goodbye to chat with a sweet smile. “See you guys on Wednesday for the fourth session of empires!”

You say a few more goodbyes before you finally shut down the stream, letting out a sigh. Playing with Yuyu went great, and you had a lot more fun than you thought you would. But after streaming for about five hours with him, you were ready to hit the sack and sleep until noon tomorrow. You're about to just walk away from your desk completely before a deep chuckle brings you from your sleep-filled thoughts.

“Feeling tired?” He questions. You totally forgot you were still on call with him, as he kept quiet while you did your outro.

“Yeah, a little,” you answer, laughing softly. “But, knowing me, I'll probably just be lying in my bed for hours, scrolling through TikTok.”

He lets out another laugh at that comment, “same, not gonna lie.”

You smile softly at his laughter, leaning back in your chair. “If you're not in any rush to head to bed,” you start, playing with the wire of your headphones. “Would you mind maybe chatting for a bit?” He falls silent for a bit, and you continue before he has a chance to answer. “Just because it feels like we don't know each other that well, is all. Want you to feel more comfortable with me, despite the whole war going on and stuff.”

“I'd love to,” he responds, and you can almost hear the smile in his voice. “I don't really know anyone on the server that well, to be honest, so I kinda needed this.”

“Not even Yeonjun?” You ask, hearing a quiet ‘nuh-uh’ as your answer. “I'm surprised seeing as he invited you to join the smp.”

“I think it's just because I'm another popular streamer, honestly,” Yuyu answers truthfully, and you hear the shuffle of his shoulders shrugging.

“But you're not just any other popular streamer. You're obviously more than that,” you tell him, a small frown forming on your lips. “How did you even start streaming? You started just over a year ago, right?”

“Yeah, July last year,” he tells her, finally smiling as he reminisces about that time. “I always played Valorant, you know, it's been my favorite game ever since it came out. So, when my friend suggested streaming in my downtime, it actually sounded really interesting.”

“You don't stream all that often, though,” you note. “You must not have a lot of downtime?”

He lets out a pained laugh at that, “you got that right. My job is pretty demanding,” he pauses for a moment. “But, I really enjoy it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.”

You smile at that, “that's really sweet.”

“I mean, that's how you feel about streaming, no?” He questions. “That's what I'm assuming, anyway. You stream a lot more than me, and it seems like you really enjoy doing it.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right,” you respond with a small nod, despite the fact that he can't see it. “God, I've been streaming for so long. It's not really a job for me anymore. You know? Like I can just hop on stream, play silly games with my friends, and it keeps me stable on top of all of that. It's crazy to see how far I've come and how far we've all come.”

“Yeah, you started way back when, huh?” He jokes, laughing through his nose. “Six years ago, right? Sorry, I have a friend who's a big fan, so I know a lot more than it might seem.”

“Aww, you do?” You tease, leaning forward once again to rest your chin on your hand. “I'd love to meet him one day.”

“Trust me, you do not,” he warns. “He's already threatened to crash my stream today. Almost disowned me after I killed you during the first empires session.”

You let out a soft chuckle, “that's cute. Come on, it won't be that bad if we just talk for a bit, you tell him, drawing out a couple of words.

He shakes his head lightly, “I'll think about it, alright? But I really don't think you two will be a good duo,” he starts, hearing your exaggerated gasp through his headphones. “He's crazy, and you're…. also crazy.”

“Wooow,” you exclaim, letting out a pained laugh. “Says the one who just blew me up the other day.”

“Hey, hey, that,” he pauses, chuckling. “That was an accident. I really did think Soobin was going to walk in first.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry for foiling your plans by walking into my building first,” you say, rolling your eyes. “Thank you for rebuilding it, though. Very sweet of you,” you tease, smiling softly.

You can just tell he's rolling his eyes in response, “it was the right thing to do, after killing you what? Three times now?”

“Even more if you count the Among Us stream,” you comment, giggling.

“Damn, I owe you big time, don't I?” He replies, sighing. “I'll make it up to you whenever you ask.”

Before you can respond, you hear a muffled voice coming from your headphones. Yuyu gives a quick ‘sorry,’ before responding to who you assume is his roommate. You sit there quietly, trying your best not to listen in or interrupt the two.

“Sorry, forgot I had plans with a few of my friends after the stream,” he comes back to you, frowning that your time together was cut short.

“No, it's all good, don't worry,” you tell him. “Go hang out with your friends, have fun.”

“Thanks for understanding,” he says, smiling. He hesitates, but doesn’t forget to tell you: “We should, uhm, do this again sometime. It was nice.”

You smile as well, “we should. I'm here whenever, alright?” You respond. “Well, unless Sungchan pulls me away. He gets a little jealous when others get more attention than him.” His deep chuckle rings through your ears again. “Talk to you later, Yuyu.”

“Yeah, talk to you later, Y/N,” he replies, waiting until you leave the call to finally close out of the app. He leans back in his chair again, smiling to himself.

synopsis ⤏ you're trying to peacefully build your starter house on the empires server when your neighbor so rudely (accidentally) kills you, starting the biggest war on the server just one day in.

prev / masterlist / next

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ taglist is closed!

[mallylonglegs]

Past Life

This has absolutely nothing to do with my au, it’s just a little blurb that my brain was making up about a fake Life Series Season

Titled “Past Life”, everyone groups up ahead of time in order to coordinate. Because in this season, they get to sort of emulate past seasons or even past smps. This gives players the chance to have their skins ready from the get-go should they choose to have a themed skin.

People decide to make groups based on a season or SMP they’re each considering doing.

Team Evo:

-Pearl in her classic skin, except adds a hidden watcher/Evo logo onto it

-Grian changes his sweater to green, adds a hidden watcher/Evo logo onto it

-BigB in his classic skin, except adds a hidden watcher/Evo logo on it

-Martyn adds sunglasses and a badge to his skin, as well as a hidden watcher/Evo logo

-Jimmy adds sunglasses and a badge to his skin, as well as a hidden watcher/Evo logo

Team Empires:

-Lizzie as the Ocean Queen

-Joel as the Mazelean King (sorry if I misspelled it)

-Gem as the Head Wizard (sorry if I got the title wrong)

-Scott as Ruler of Rivendell

Team Secret Life:

-Cleo as a human

-Scar in his sunflower skin, changes to poppy/lilac one at his red life

Team Last Life:

-Bdubs in last life skin

-Etho

-Skizz (changes to red life skin at red)

-Tango in his classic skin

Team Hermitcraft:

-Impulse in his season 10 cyberpunk skin (changes to monochrome at red)

-Mumbo in his season 8 waffled-hair skin (changes to “moon big” skin at red)

-Ren in his season 9 diamond RenTheKing skin (changes to classic skin at red)

Some people choose to act like they did with the skins they chose (especially Martyn/Jimmy/Team Empires) but they don’t have to.

I’d imagine some pretty funny moments of Lizzie and Scott trying to get Jimmy to come and join them since they had somewhat close relationships with Empires Jimmy, and Martyn warding them off because that’s his fellow officer.

Do I know how the life mechanic would work in this or what the other gameplay mechanics would be? No, not really. I honestly just went into this thinking it’d be a fun idea. Especially having to put Joel and Scott on the same team, giving team BEST a second chance, and most importantly and dear to me, an Evo team up.

Evo SMP my beloved- I’m proud to say I watched Evo from start to finish as it got posted, it’s got a lot of nostalgia for me. (Mostly Grian’s pov tbh, but also a lot of Martyn, some Netty, and some Salem. I definitely didn’t watch all of them-)

But yeah, like I said, just a little blurb and thought I had earlier today. Gotta let your mind wander sometimes so that you don’t get stuck in a creative block when working on a bigger/longer project!

[moldyrainbowbutter]

Empires SMP Headcanons

(most of these are season 1, I'm not caught up on season 2 lore)

S1 Gem and fWhip were both born human. They each chose different paths to gain power regardless: Gem chose wizardry and fWhip chose to be an artificer/alchemist. Part of the reason he moved to the Grimlands from the Crystal Cliffs is because of the corruption there (not the Xornoth corruption). It fascinated him. Eventually, prolonged exposure to it changed him. Like how in cannon, the corruption gave him real dragon wings to replace his mechanical wings, but I think it also turned him into a vampire.

This one is pretty vague but I think the floating islands of Stratos might have something to do with the floating islands in The Overgrown or the ones Wizard Gem fled to.

IDK if this is cannon but the lines from where water level changed that you can see at the Pix's archaeological dig are from when the ocean drained.

Sheriff Jimmy, Princess Katherine, and Princess Gem were childhood friends (I stole this from a YouTube comment)

Apollo (Gem's s2 bear) is a reincarnation of her X Life bear, Blue. This would fit with the cannon fact that she brought the season 1 dragons over from a previous world she'd lived in.

In season 1, Scott felt particularly protective of Shrub because he felt guilty for her home being destroyed (even though he literally did not cause it and could not have stopped it, he's just like that). That's why he didn't get too mad when she stole the Xornoth crystal. The reason he gave her those boots in the first episode was because he could sense that she had been near his brother, even though he didn't know that was what was happening.

In season 2, Pix, Gem, and Joel always knew about Lizzie being a cat. Pix and Gem because they know none of this is real, and Joel because he's her husband so of course he'd know

[snaky1ello]

Okay… so I may have changed my whole perspective of jornoth and Xornoth/Joey in general.

Cuz while writing trying to fix all the plot holes, i realized that i should do a little more research. And rewatched joeys pov and some others. Then I saw a bunch of fic that picture xornoth as someone of the ace community.

And then that went into doing my own research because I heard something about it a little while ago.

demiromanticism or just Demi-romantic which is basically having that romantic attraction after having a strong emotional bond with someone.

And after looking more into this, this is how I mostly see xornoth. And yes I know that the fic I wrote a while ago, does NOT portray xornoth as demiromanticism. And that bc that was a quick WIP of a different idea.

Then how does that affect how I see Joey?

As we’ve seen, Joey is basically a hopeless romantic when it comes to his character in empires smp. Sure there is some moments he’s not like that when interacting with xornoth. (Like in the beginning of when xornoth was harassing all the emperors).

Now I still see it this way, and also a big headcannon of mine is that there is a LOT of arranged marriages to keep alliances in check. There’s only a couple I feel like happen on there own (jizzie and flower husbands) but other then that. Most were arranged, not that it was the worst for most people saying that it usually turned out well.

And I believe that happened with Joey and Xornoth, to hold an alliance with the lost empire. And Rivendell offered the arrangement, bc of other headcannons I’ve stated in previous posts.

Basically to sum it up, Rivendell is not the biggest fan of xornoth, I mean sure they stand him but they don’t go out of their way to be nice to him.

Even if Xornoth was older than Scott, Xornoth predicted that he was likely to not take the throne. And like most royal children that were not favored by the kingdom. It was wise to not cause distrust within the empire.

So basically, it wasn’t a surprise to Xornoth that he was getting married off. Sure it was a little insulting, not to mention he was likely going to live in the lost empire for most of his life. (In which I think of it as one of the worst climates for high elves like Xornoth, like the amount of humidity and all the differences from snowy peaks to humid jungles. Even with cultural differences)

Now Joey was for sure surprised, as the firstborn son and next in line for the crown (not that he had many siblings). It definitely did not expect to get an arranged marriage. Especially to the so called “snobby” elven prince of a freezing empire that the lost empire did not have the best relationship in the first place.

But as I just said I see xornoth as more Demi-romantic rather than Joeys hopeless romance. And not to start a new whole ass war, both try to be polite to each other.

Blah blah blah the whole thing of Joey falling in love then a while later xornoth falls in love as well, it goes surprisingly well all things considered and Rivendell is glad to have xornoth off there hands and the lost empire is glad that Joey not only found a partner he loves but also very good politically.

Then something happens (exor). And oh NO! Xornoth is corrupted/banished, and now everyone thinks that they’re dead or just never coming back. I mean never even leaving a letter not even for his husband? Well a declaration of haunting the empires till its last breath is something?

OKAY NOW ONTO THE MORE SAD(ish) STUFF

The main reason for making this post, I see joeys character as one more stuck in the past. Trying to see his relationship with xornoth like it was before, and just trying to get back to it.

And Xornoth, someone to far into the future to look back. Hating their past self so much, that they try to destroy it. (Like any remaining paintings, or any document/literature that had to do with them)

Also being another reason for emperors like shrub who was never able to see their relationship before finds it so hard to see what Joey is trying to latch onto. Saying that he has no evidence that Xornoth even loved him in the first place. Because Xornoth destroyed it, and the people of Rivendell tried to erase him from history. To cover up this disgrace, and keep their reputation perfectly preserved.

(Also after the corruption bc of exors magic or something, Xornoth now has some god awful memory and now can mostly only really imagine all the bad stuff in there life even if it’s minor. All the other stuff is fuzzy and it’s a mix between knowing everything and nothing at the same time)

Making their relationship even more complicated, with xornoth not ever understanding Joey. Like anything he try’s to talk or say to Joey feels like it’s on the tip of his tongue with all the answers, but he will not ever be able to speak in that foreign tone.

And Joey just trying to get the man he loved so much back, no matter what. Just hopping that one day will go back.

This was ment to be a quick little post but ig not lol.

Another thing to add that i mentioned a little while ago, that exor has like a huge ick over romance (my ace king). While it’s a fun little headcannon, i also think about how they despises Joey so much it’s unnecessary. Because he’s also worried that Joey can read and understand xornoth in a way that if the other emperors knew it could become their downfall.

And exor wanted to kill him, but Xornoth refuses to. He won’t even give an answer to why he wanted to keep Joey around even if he would be more useful dead to them.



[loud-whistling-yes]

All i know is the Season 9 of Hermitcraft, hc x dsmp crossover and Tilly do us apart. The rest you mention is foreign to me. So yeah and also I agreed that no person should see the entirety of dsmp history. Like damn... many things have occur in a short period of time?!

Glad you've asked! Here is a list of things part of mcyt history that has happened in the last 4 years:

Hermitcraft season 7 will be 4 years old in a month (February 2020)

The dsmp will be 4 too in a few months (April 2020)

Dream SMP War by Sadist, the video that caused one of the largest surges of popularity for the dsmp, turns 4 in August

Doomsday celebrated it's 3rd anniversary about a week ago (6th January 2021)

Yes. Almost ALL of the dsmp story up to that point happened within the span of about 5 months. From the VERY BEGINNING OF THE DISC SAGA TO THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF LMANBURG. It all took place from July to early January. What the fuck.

3rd life will be turning 3 in April (April 2021)

Penismp turns 3 in May. I cannot stress this enough. Remember the fake smp that predated goncharov BY A FUCKING YEAR AND A HALF and trended 3rd on Tumblr for 2 days straight??? That was almost 3 years ago now.

The surge of popularity for Passerine happens around May of 2021, following Sadist's animation Sunsprite's Eulogy

Empires season 1 will be 3 years old in June

Hermitcraft season 8 will also be 3 in June (exactly one week apart! Esmp started on 12th June while hcs8 started on the 19th)

Yes, you heard it right, the life series and empires predate season 8! Pearl and Gem became hermits roughly a week AFTER the cactus ring.

June 2021 is ALSO the month where MCC Pride 2021 took place. Y'know, the one with Wilbur's office on fire and technoblade getting nicknamed Tech by grian. THIS IS ALSO turning 3 this year. June 2021 was a wild month.

Techno's escape from prison will be 3 years old this year too. September fucking 2021. It's been 3 years since this happened.

The canary's curse has been a concept in the fandom for a little over 2 years now, following jimmy's final death in last life (early November 2021)

Moon Big also occurred around this time frame, which means it's turning 3 this year!

Mangoball becomes a dsmp fandom staple around early December 2021

The 2 year anniversary of @/chrisrin's curses last life animation is in 2 days! (16th January 2022)

Following the end of empires season 1, hermitcraft season 8 and the lore drought of the dsmp, this is where the big Content Drought of 2022 happens. This is where dreamempirescraft became a thing. This is also where that drawing came from.

Hermitcraft season 9 will also be 2 soon (March 2022). Longest season, everyone.

Double life is currently a year and a half old! (June 2022) Every mention of tilly, pearl being the devil, the scarlet pearl, something wicked this way comes, ALL of it, came from a year and a half ago

Yes, this means that season 9 saw the beginning and end of not one, not two, but THREE seasons of the life series. Longest season, everyone.

Speaking of longest season, anyone remember the esmp crossover? This will also turn 2 this year (November 2022)

Qsmp is about to turn a year old soon! This is less of a fact to make you feel old but a fact that makes you think "ALL THAT IN LESS THAN A YEAR?????", and you'd be right! What the fuck! How did this all happen in less than a year!

[the-mcyt-crackships-brackets]

You know it, We know it, in the end there can only be one, and it is hereby decreted that the newest and only crackship ever is...

JOELBEANS!

Yeah, we could have seen this one coming from an overworld a way, but its win still hits us like a car, or a comet maybe! But who else could match his freak but himself, be honest. that man is the only being capable to have an homoerotic relationship between himself, and himself (editing), even the creators agree, look at guess the build, they made fanart of joelbeans there! In a thousand words or in just one, this ship could have just been called "egomania" and we'd all still get it, joel's head is so big, of course he'd want to have some of it!

But, what are winners without runner-ups?

IN SECOND PLACE WE SEE...

THE PANTHEON QPR!

Hell yeah! i cannot express how i personally am so happy it got this far, while the idea itself wasn't mine, i did change it with the help of the other admins. what is better but a platonic polycule between 10 gods from 10 different servers? Joelbeans apparently. So some presentations are probably needed, and the pantheon is always open to new deifications! In first, standing at her 10 feet tall, it's lizzie, the godess of the ocean herself; At her right lay in all her ratjesty folly, spreading life across worlds in the form of her folly trees; Next up is saint pearl, santa perla, godess of moon and the light it brings; Of course, even the darkest places can see light, and that's something kristin, the godess of death, can tell you a lot about; After this line-up, you could be led to think all gods are mature and wise, and here come joel, ruler of stratos and god of thunder, it is said that when his cheeks clap, lighting strikes... Well, to a slightly serious note, even if the wisdom is still far, here is lifestealowner, the fading, discreet god of warriors and fighters, who leads armies in battle, no matter the side. We talked about the saint pearl, godess of the moon, so what about bdubs, god of the sun and the day, bringing his light to the world every time he sleeps. After the more *benevolent* gods, time to get to the more controversial ones, Jschlatt, god of hubris, making sure every icarus will see their downfall, so if the deal ever seems to good to be true, it probably is, never sign a contract with a god, never take Jschlatt's apple. Next is Grian, the watcher, God of fate, more of a silent observer than anything, watching the strings of life twists and pull. And finaly, on the more active side, and less mature one too, is evbo, the god of parkour and all things challenging, because what is life without a little competition?

Well well well, that sure is a nice selection we got here, but does it hold up to previous winners?

Sligthly more from the admins:

Admin 1 here, still loyal to this dumb idea since the start, and it actually costed me more than anything... how many of my own crations have rebelled and are now living rent-free in my mind? only i can know, but at least i can inflict the same on you lot!

I'll never regret this blog, firstly because every time it's so fun and filled with great ideas, but also because i met a bunch of peoples through here, the obvious like other admins and admins on other blogs (looking at you @mcyt-builds-contest, can't wait for the fic ;D), but also the regulars, (looking at you fwhilza analyst, i'm manifesting them on the realm smp so hard rn)

All in all, it's been fun, and i'll see you all next time for season 4! but before we get to that, let's get some sponsors! if you have any blog you want boosted that is even slightly related/inspired by this one, let us know!

Admin 2 here! you may know me as the one who reblog stuff sometimes and is always way too late, you may also know me as the one who stole the account of a previous admin and is still using it!

Contrarly to admin 1, i ain't a big tumblr user, more of a tumblr lurker, so this whole brackets got really out of hands really quickly for me, it's already stressful to run a blog for fans when it gets kinda big, but it's even worst when a bunch of CCs start to interact with it, but alas, i discovered so many niche creators through the very non-neuronormative rant about our crackships (i'm one of y'all i can make this joke lul) and i can only say, man i love mcytblr

Admin 3 here! i'm the newest one so sorry if i don't have much to add, i'm trying my best😁! I still don't know how i got here, i wasn't even a big minecrafter and somehow got myself in this mess (/aff❤️) i won't make this a long block of text and will instead simply say:

I love you all 🫶💖 and remember to stay silly ✌️kekw

Also to keep you all entertained while we wait, we're bringing back bingo!

send us an ask with a crackship and you'll get the opinion of a random admin about it!

[ant1quarian]

THE ELABORATION

DID C!Philza System edition (Since it won in this vote)

Okay, so I headcanon Philza to have DID. (Or Dissociative Identity Disorder. If you need clarification on what it is, feel free to send an ask, or search it up :D)

Why? Because I think this could be funny and would make a lot of sense.

This brings us to the topic of Alters - Who I have decided worship each of CC!Philza's Deities in his hardcore world

Philza is the host. He is entirely and 100% unaware of the system as a whole. In fact he just considers himself to have bad memory and be distracted easily, going about his day only to look back on it and have it all just... static. (PS. He worships Kristin)

Arctic was his first alter, formed way back in SMP Earth when tensions started running high and Philza's mind simply couldn't handle the struggle of getting hunted down practically every day. Plus having to run an empire. Arctic worships the Ocean Overlord (Ocean Himbo) and he's not even sure why he does, but it's pretty funny. He's also a Gatekeeper.

Whenever Arctic fronts, he's usually characterized by his rise in territorial nature, how outwardly layback he becomes about a lot of things, and how he prefers colder colours and biomes. Of course, his personality is pretty different, but he can usually mask it quite well.

Crowfather, or just Crow as he's usually going by, worships the Ender King. He's OSMP Philza and formed from Philza struggling with losing everything and everyone (It's canon to CC!Philza that Crow just Died because the world got nuked so I'm running with the idea).

Crow is greedy. Greedy and is constantly filled with the urge to steal and yoink to make up for the trauma that he and Philza went through with losing everything. He's a kleptomaniac, too. He and Ender King did not help Philza during the Ender Possession Arc.

Aerion is essentially Purgatory Philza. He was technically around during the lead-up and the intense stress of the codes and the workers, but the first time he really fronted was after Etoiles killed Philza. He also worships the Blaze Empress.

Aerion generally only ever speaks to people he trusts, but everyone else he meets gets no communication whatsoever. He's spiteful and usually tends to go off on his own to find a secluded area to just mine or farm in. If threatened, he has a kill-now ask-questions-never basis. Very strong fight response.

Depending on how The Realm SMP goes, there could be another alter forming later on :D

[jayflying]

Screw it, does anyone wanna hear about the Life Series AU I've been working on for two years now? It's absurdly large. It threads Third Life, Last Life, Empires SMP season 1 and Hermitcraft seasons 8 and 9 into one storyline. It's surprisingly canon-compliant for how much it keeps diverging from canon.

Highlights:

Scott pushes someone into a pool and it inadvertently kills a lot of people.

Someone knowing how to crochet is a genuine plot point.

BigB knows too much but doesn't realize it.

"Did Double Life happen?" is a very complicated question.

Most of the eldritch horror happens on Hermitcraft of all places.

There is a single overarching villain throughout all of this.

Redstone is psychoactive. This is relevant multiple times.

Somehow every traumatic event happens to catch Impulse in the crossfire. Including the ones in Empires.

There's a serial fourth-wall breaker and I guarantee you it's not who you think.

Really, just, ask me anything and I will gladly share my hoard of headcanons.

[missycolorful]

It's important to remember that the Antarctic Empire, and therefore SMP Earth, is essentially canon to QSMP. (as far as I'm aware) (it definitely will be for this post, so shhh)

Think about all the destruction, mayhem, and cruel things Philza did on SMPE. How nothing held him back. He committed so many war crimes with a damn smile on his face. As part of the Antarctic Empire, he took over the world.

And if SMP Earth Philza is also q!Philza, then it's interesting to see how much has changed since the old days. How, before being thrust into Purgatory, he's been chill and minding his own business. Never really got into conflicts, never caused mayhem or destruction. The only exceptions are two occasions: a) when he returned to the eggs being missing, and he lava casted the Presidential Building, and b) at the Guy Fawkes event.

(Which as I'm typing this I'm realizing. The Guy Fawkes day was an event set the day before things went to hell. An event designed to create mass destruction. An event in which the capybaras gave Philza all the power and control, to blow up with so many stacks of TNT. and Philza fucking loved it. Perhaps to just give us a taste of what's to come.)

But anyway! Philza hasn't really delved into chaos on this server all that much. And even in the beginning of Purgatory, what he has been saying about the Red Team being underdogs is true. They weren't off to a great start; the first day and a half were hell! And yes, he only killed in self defense. He didn't trust the eye worth shit. And of course, he didn't want to hurt anyone. And I'm sure that is still true.

But as time as gone on, as the days have passed, the underdog statement just isn't the case now, as they've embraced what has made them strong, even if they are lacking in other places (i.e. not a lot of PVP players, no enchanted equipment). And they've done some questionable stuff. The situation with q!Rivers, for example. And also one I don't see mentioned which, I think was Day 8? When Phil just. Stole a saddle and a stack of potatoes from Blue Team's base while he was taking/replanting their crops. But still, Philza wants to justify these actions. "It's the bolas way." "it was for a quest" "we did this cause this." He wants to believe that what he's doing isn't bad, because he's just trying to survive in purgatory, right? Philza is a survivalist, this is how he survives.

Then we had today, where Philza's intense gameplay shined. He fought so many people in PVP, didn't even take a second to hold back, used his impressive minecraft skills to work his way to Green's base, and he killed the statue. He went wild today. Just imagine, Philza, wearing the Bolas gas mask, descending upon you with a sword, with no mercy. No, not just Philza, but the Angel of Death.

I think this is what Purgatory wants out of him. Right? Because clearly, Purgatory wants to bring the worst out of everyone.

I also think the reason that q!Phil tries to justify so much of his actions isn't simply ruled as hypocrisy (though it's a bit, in a way) or, in meta, born from self deprecation. No, there's something more to it.

It's because Philza does not want to be corrupted by Purgatory. He refuses to accept that it's dragging him to a dark place. A familiar place, even. I genuinely believe that Philza simply does not want to be like how he was all those years ago. Destructive and cruel. He doesn't want to go back. He's not like that anymore. He's a better person now. He doesn't want to hurt people, and I absolutely believe that. That's different, though, than saying I won't.