#Regular golems are not like this

[theonlyren]

Converted Golem Power Theory A rough draft of some lore I did up on Discord, will probably add to the lore document somewhere I can squeeze it.

[keferon]

Hey, I don't know if you're still open to answering questions about this, but if you are I am SO curious to know about what Tarantulas would be like the monster hunter au? Even if he's basically the same I'm really curious what the more mythical setting and Prowl being a golem would change (if it changes much of anything at all)

I love your art! It's a big source of inspiration to me

Oh, I've been asked this before and didn't have an answer last time, but now I do.

Tarantulas would be the ultimate weirdo, studying magic and Beastformers, but he himself would originally be a regular mech.

At some point he became so inspired by his research that he essentially invented a way to turn regular mechs into Monsters, and the first thing he did was turn into a spider himself.

He also, as in the comics, works with Prowl and he's one of the very few to know that Prowl is a golem and not a real mech, even though he looks and acts like one. This information actually gives Tarantulus a great idea to try to create a golem that is so elaborate and advanced that it is essentially a mech.

He decides to break every possible rule of golem creation to create Ostaros. While Prowl is essentially a hollow armor powered by magic - Ostaros is something like Frankenstein's monster. Tarantulas put him together, taking care of every little detail. He gave him a processor and internal components (and a transformation cog hehehe). Ostaros still doesn't have a spark, but he has free will, intelligence, emotions and all. And two modes. He can look like a normal mech, or he can transform into an insecticon.

Prowl is so fucking confused by the way, because he just walks into Tarantulas' lab one day and there's a completely random mech with a face that could be a mirror image of Prowl's. And Tarantulas is like, hey look, I created life and now it's your problem how and where to house him, because this kid needs to go to school.

(Prowl ends up sending Ostaros to Shockwave Academy to become a knight)

[vee-art-zone]

God i wish Igloos got the same structure love that 1.20 gave to ocean ruins, wells and desert temples. I hope I've made it clear that the snowy biomes are imo the least interesting biome in MC to explore and potentially my least favorite overall. When I'm flying around with my elytra exploring for new loot (as i often am) I find myself instinctively turning around when I hit a snowy biome because even my subconscious knows there's no unique loot to be found there.

Let's compare the Snowy Plains with a biome that is, in many ways, its counterpart - The Desert. One hot and one cold, but both barren, flat, devoid of most passive mobs to set up farms, and chock full of rabbits. The differences though, lie in the loot and structures tied to these 2 biomes.

The Desert:

Best source of Sand, one of the last major non-renewable resources that have endgame players returning to them to gather it up by the boxful

Cacti (also found in badlands, the desert's cousin) are the only source of Green dye.

Are the only biome whos representative village has a unique mob - the Camel. A reliable mount, players are encouraged to seek out 2 desert villages to breed up a population of camels.

Desert temples have, hands down, the best loot for their place in the game. 4 chests that regularly have diamonds, enchanted books, gunpowder, gold, and an exclusive Armor Trim? Also have an archaeology pit with 4 exclusive sherds

Even desert wells have 2 sherds to their name, making 6 of these collectable trinkets exclusive to deserts.

Ranking: A biome I make sure to scour every inch of when I find one to loot every structure there for the minerals, trims and sherds. and return to again and again to grab extra sand and eventually bring Camels home.

Now let's look at the Tundra:

You need 8 snowballs (which can be found far more plentifully in biomes far more interesting) to make a snow golem, giving you access to infinite snow and no reason to return here

Polar Bears are semi-exclusive to this biome, although can also be found in Frozen Oceans (which have more loot courtesy of the shipwrecks and ocean ruins). However, Polar Bears are imo one of the least interesting animals in MC, due to being unbreedable and not really. Doing anything. (As much as I preach not every mob needs a 'Use'™, they should still have interesting behaviors and Do Things. There's not a whole lot the player can do with polar bears to inspire the imagination. I'd love to see them get reworked and polished someday!)

Ice Spikes are interesting biomes with basically nothing in them other than the pretty scenery (which I'll admit is very pretty, it gets points for that). It used to be the only source of the highly-useful Packed Ice block, until 1.13 made it 100x more plentiful in the much more common Frozen Ocean biome, and made it craftable from regular ice.

Snowy Villages are like finding any other village, but notedly without Hay Bales, arguably making them Worse to the seasoned minecraft player than finding any other village, even if they look nice)

The only Real unique structure to snowy biomes is Igloos, which have an interesting mechanic with the secret basement (that only half of all igloos actually Have) showing the player how to cure zombie villagers. While interesting and good for new players, there's no reason for experienced players to bother exploring igloos when the best thing to find in them is a single Golden Apple. Igloos should've gotten a unique armor trim!

Ranking: A biome whos lack of interesting treasure or animals makes them not worth the firework rockets it takes to fly through them.

The Snowy Plains is an important biome. Or at least, should be. It's the Snow Biome! It should have unique things like the Desert has unique things.

Maybe add a unique animal to tundra villages, like a Yak or a Muskox or something, to encourage noobs and pros alike to farm in the winter wonderland. Add a unique armor trim to igloo basement chests for new players who spawn in the snow biome to find, as well as maybe some Suspicious Snow blocks around it. Maybe some new pottery sherds or, since whoever lived here liked to experiment so much with DNA, maybe they've been trying to bring back a long-extinct species like the Sniffer. Hell, add a Snow Temple the same way deserts & jungles have temples, with loot chests and traps and whatnot! Something to make flying through the snowfields as much of a rip-roaring treasure hunting expedition as flying through the sand dunes is.

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Graveyard Smash

Craig Brownlie: Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this the tale of the monster friends Brownlie: it's about a bunch of monsters who get together in order to have some sort of Brownlie: some sort of Brownlie: well, i guess you could call it a smash or a bash or something

King: you mean, like a mash? Brownlie: a mash? Brownlie: hmm interesting Brownlie: a mash Brownlie: i hadn't considered that

Craig Brownlie: in fact, it was a mash! Brownlie: a monster mash! King: A MONSTER MASH?!?! Poe: oh no King: did it catch on in a flash??

King: [dancing wildly] the monster mash! Brownlie: it caught on in a flash! King: [dancing wildly] the monster mash! Brownlie: it was a graveyard smash!

Mary Shelley: sup fuckers? Shelley: Shelley: steve what the hell are you doing King: [dancing wildly] the monster mash! Shelley: Shelley: that's not the monster mash

King: what do you mean? of course its the monster mash! Shelley; how do you figure that? King: well, it's like the regular mash King: but you know King: more uh monstery

Barker: ah steve well Mary's got a point Barker: you're making a big assumption there, that the monster mash and the regular mash are in fact related Barker: the song never actually specifies that King: well for pete's sake clive Barker: the song's really more about raising awareness of the monster mash

Brownlie: now these monster pals include a vampire, a gilman, a werewolf, and an assemblage Mary Shelley: you mean a Frankenstein

King: oh i don't think it's necessarily a frankenstein Shelley: don't fuckin tell me it's not a Frankenstein! Shelley: i know a fuckin Frankenstein when i see one Shelley: i fuckin invented Frankensteins!

Brownlie: okay okay Brownlie: i'll admit he is Frankenstein coded Shelley: he's a fuckin Frankenstein! Shelley: call him a Frankenstein! Shelley: i want credit!

King: that raises an interesting point King: what would be the generic term for a Frankenstein type monster? Shelley: he's a Frankenstein King: like, you could call it a golem or a construct or Shelley: IT'S A FUCKIN FRANKENSTEIN Shelley: i swear i'll fuckin stab all of you!

[dandysworldhcs]

Oh, I gots some hcs.

Shrimpo is good at cooking. But his speciality is fried rice. He has secretly snuck into the kitchen and left fried rice. Nobody has ever found out (besides Pebble but Pebble can't tell anyone because doggy). In fact, it has happened so often that Cosmo and Sprout have started to tell the younger/newer toons about the Rice Fairy who leaves rice in your kitchen. There was a whole episode about it.

And moth astro is VERY sensitive/attracted to bright lights. In blackouts when toons are real glowy, he gets attracted to them like, well, moths to a light. Despite this, he hates light. It makes his eyes hurt. It especially hurts Twisted Astro's eyes because he doesn't usually experience the amount of light regular Astro does.

Do YOOOUUUU have any hcs? About either idrc

-The blood golem anon

THE BLOOD GOLEM. IM EVEN MORE SCARED OF YOU THAN I AM SKIN ANON

[katyspersonal]

I've had some old gods and Fell God thoughts again

(Reference by Moonlight Ruin ( x ), note that giant skulls can vary in sizes and be like 55m too)

I addressed the arrowhead description at some point before, but again; seeing how there are colossal skulls found across the Lands Between, there were 'old gods' who weren't Outer Gods and the greatsword is a tip of an arrow from their arsenal, they were REALLY big in size! Yet, also humanoid in build

I am not sure what they needed weapons for though. Who were they battling? When there are many colossal skulls, I question if that wasn't a war between their own that didn't leave survivors? Or they've lost whatever that war was? Could they have battled against Ancient Dragons, who also must have used to be bigger and stronger back then, for ownership of Elden Ring? Or it were Drakes that they were fighting, back when they were as big as the one found at Altar of Dragon Communion?

And, yeah, Fell God is never referred to as an Outer God unlike the three others, so what if he just wasn't one? Needless to mention that he is depicted as a humanoid, just cyclopic when old gods otherwise had regular two eyes! Outer Gods are just not humanoid; they're a scorpion-like creature (Scorpion's Stinger is a part of God of Rot), formless being and.. one not shown, but associated with birds!

Hornsent on the other hand envisioned him with two eyes and covered in horns, but it feels more like just an interpretation I think? Since mark of Fell God on Giants that worshipped him is still a cyclopic face with a beard, I guess this look is truer one.. just not that Hornsent would know about that!

Also could Fell God's fire be the source of fire that animates Golems and was used for forges in the Lands Between? A lot of Golems are found in Mountaintops, and they originate from Rauh too; cave where you fight Makar and cave where you fight a Golem as a boss (and find Blue Dancer charm) have Rauh architecture!

Even the Giants' forge itself has Rauh architecture! And.... well, it is forge. Can be used to create weapons. And there is fire in there. And Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword is found in the forge connected to Rauh as well! It is also a meteoric ore, the arrowheads of old gods weapons were made of rock from space. And you remember how Fire Giants and Astrologers were allied? A sentiment specified in Sword of Night and Flame stored in Caria, and also Japanese description of Rellana's swords saying "after all Moon and Fire were always together"! And also some Golems using magic too I guess:

Since Makar is a Magma Wyrm, so a person consuming too much Dragon Hearts (a practice of hunting Drakes), and Fire Giants were at war with Ice Drakes, maybe it really were Drakes that old gods were battling with? They were way more big and impressive in ancient history, like the dead guy on the Altar! Heck, maybe Bayle and Placidusax just shrunk in size over having lived for way too long?

Though I wonder whether Fell God was always 'Fell', or he undergone some sort of corruption? Maybe he "came back wrong" after being injured or killed at some point before Marika did it again much later in history? After all Fire Giants but one were dead, Marika realized that the fire of ruin could never be put down! That's why she cursed the last survivor to tend to it!

Basically? Maybe same thing applied to old gods; all of them died except for Fell God? He simply could not, for some reason? He could lose body, but his nature is within the fire of the forge itself...? Feels like something one would do to themselves rather than a natural thing, and he cursed himself with becoming element to lend others flame and weapons for whatever reason needed? Cursed himself with immortality to make world something else, ironically just like Marika did! Though I still love the idea that he is 'evil' because for people the use of his flame was primarily for warfare.. The flame can make rock statues into life, let alone warmth and guidance, but all everyone wanted from it was weapons and destructive power, so it rubbed onto him....

But, yeah, he is a really unusual entity, and really super ancient. As for why potential hostility of his kind towards dragons or drakes, that survived for generations? The idea of "cleaning" the landscape from dragons to build upon freed territory is something ever since Dark Souls trilogy! Elden Ring adops a bit too much from those, might as well :p

____________

P.S.: Nox were super ancient too, not far from ancient civilization and Rauh, and are progenitors of Astrologers and following sorcerers who originally were hostile to the Erdtree same as Flame of Ruin.. Nox also had the Black Moon, and also Night/Moon and Flame are "allies" in this lore, also Fire and Moonlight being allies is also a big DS thing.... if turns out Lord of Night and Fell God were allied and similar entities in nature I am going to have the biggest brain explosion yet. Literally no other ship would beat a yaoi like this

[is-the-thing-actually-jewish]

So, ummm...

https://www.tumblr.com/themussarcenter?source=share

This Tumblr just started following me, and idk, I have a bad feeling about it. It's like they're trying too hard to be Jewish. Plus, mussar isn't something that you can do??? It's a moral code.

There's something sus about this.

Rating: NOT JEWISH—WELL KNOWN MESSIANIC MISSIONARY

Izzy, as those who know him unaffectionately call him, is a Christian Missionary cosplaying as a Jew; he's associated with a number of Messianic groups, regularly remakes his tumblr accounts to get around blocks and bans, and actively stalks Judaism-related tags here on Tumblr trying to find fresh victims who aren't already wise to who and what he is.

Literally just mentioning Judaism on your blog is enough to summon him (over on my fandom blog, I kept my Judaism quiet for years, and within literal days of going public on that he had followed me there), and "themussarcenter" is just one of several urls he uses and reuses. @jumblr-protector-golem has a list, in his own dedicated subsection, of the regular urls that he reuses. The man is, to put it bluntly, obsessed and creepy even by the standards of Messianics.

—Mod Joseph

[sinful-lanterns]

On the topic of monster breeding, I would like to add in some more interesting information:

Do be wary though, this is pretty much a lore dump post for my AU 😅

There are only two ways to be a monster. 1. You were naturally born as a monster, or 2. You were unnaturally created to be a monster.

Monsters who are naturally born, are monsters who can be conceived by sexual intercourse, just like any other animal. However, there is a whole other category of monsters who are unnaturally created, those who weren’t born monsters but instead, were humans who have become monsters. Think ghosts, vampires, automatons, golems, chimeras, etc. beings who were created and changed into entities who aren’t considered human.

Most monsters who were unnaturally created are unable to produce offspring, even when having sexual intercourse with the same species or a human. An example of this would be that it’s impossible to be born a ghost, as ghosts are dead spirits that were formerly human.

This does of course mean that not every monster woman can “breed” with the Researcher, but adoption exists and many of them are alright caring for the other children that are procured from other monsters :)

Some extra detailed info about specific monsters and outliers:

- Fallen Angels are former Angel monsters who have committed grave sins and have become corrupted. Even though Fallen Angels are considered unnaturally created, they are still able to breed. Their offspring however, will be Angels as their parent was formerly an Angel. Whether or not they become Fallen Angels depends on what they do in their life.

- In this AU, Devils/Demons and Angels are not former humans. They are born as what they are, so they are able to procure offspring naturally.

- Eldritch Beings (such as Deren) are unable to produce offspring. It is currently unknown and impossible to find out how Eldritch Beings form, so many speculate they just exist.

- Plant-type monsters reproduce using sexual intercourse rather than how plants usually reproduce.

- Witches are just regular humans who are born with the capability to use magic. Because they are biologically still human, they are able to breed naturally with humans and different monster species alike.

- Luvia Ray specifically, who is a “Jekyll and Hyde” monster, is also able to produce offspring naturally. Although she is considered an “unnatural creation” her biology is still mostly human other than the fact she can transform into a monstrous “Ray” when provoked.

[discordiansamba]

werewolf au rin is absolutely a mama's boy. key essential fact. he was already shaping up into one even before the lycanthropy, but afterwards yuri just spends so much more time with him. it's clear even with the medication, rin's never leading a normal life again, and that's before he starts shapeshifting. but if there's one thing yuri knows, it's demons, and while lycanthropes aren't technically demons, they're closer to them than they are humans. so who better to teach rin to get a handle on it than her?

(is there also some guilt there? oh absolutely. this never would have happened if she hadn't left the room to make a phone call, she keeps telling herself. she thinks she's lucky rin's not dead, and yukio was with his father)

she decides to homeschool rin throughout elementary school. just until they can all be sure he has a solid handle on his condition. yukio goes to a regular school, and sometimes rin's jealous of that. on the flip side, yukio is a bit jealous of all the time rin gets to spend with their mom... though both yuri and shiro pick up on this early on, and counter it by making sure shiro can spend what free time he has with yukio.

(rin when he finally goes to middle school: hey wait a fucking second. this sucks.)

yuri's goal is to make rin 100% comfortable with himself- and to make them all comfortable around him, even in wolf form. she's remarkably successful! it's only when rin starts to go out into the wider world that he gradually starts to develop just a tiny bit of a complex around his lycanthropy. it's why he tries to lie by omission when he joins the cram school at first. all the teachers already know. do his fellow students have to as well?

yuri teaches rin a lot about demons. they sit in the monastery garden and watch her greenmen familiars and her tiny manmade golems work. kuro's always around these days- shiro calls his familiar back from his post at the gates of true cross academy to guard the monastery instead, so nothing like that can ever happen again. kuro goes with rin when he leaves home for the dorms.

shiro: yuri. i think rin has stolen my familiar.

yuri: he sure has!

(then rin goes to cram school, and discovers he has zero talent as a tamer. absolute devastation. at least he can still learn to be a knight like shura.

shura: then use your sword more! stop defaulting to punching things all the time!

rin: my bad. i just get caught up in the moment.)

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 41

I love the snowman on the title image. It has living mushroom feet for eyes, a mandrake for a nose, a pearl centipede mouth, and treasure insects for buttons. The scarf is a snakeskin.

I'll just call her Izutsumi for this post since she tells us that's her name at the end of the chapter.

Was Marcille's "Not this again..." thought referring to when Shuro's party caught them, how they've been captured by other parties several times, or how Marcille has been grabbed more often than the others?

Izutsumi has really long nails.

And yeah, her race reveal is a big deal. It's not an established one though. Izutsumi is a cat beastman. Chilchuck said she's an engineered one, which implies the existence of natural beastmen.

Kuro probably acted the way he did at the end of chapter 32 because he sensed the black magic that was used to make Izutsumi. He made the same face when Falin appeared as well.

The detail on Izutsumi's hands implies she has fur on her hands and fingers.

The only other chapter where Izutsumi's hands are drawn with any detail was that panel I brought up in chapter 37, and that panel only shows her thumb. I looked at it again and noticed two new details. First, the general outline of her hand in that chapter didn't have the smoothness that other people's hands have. Second, Kabru was standing behind her and his gaze was on her hand. He probably figured out she's a beastman.

If Marcille was bolder, she could turn this entire hostage situation on its head. Izutsumi needs Marcille to do something for her, but the party doesn't need anything from her. If Marcille were bold, the next time Izutsumi threatened to kill her, Marcille could just say "If you kill me, no one will be able to break the spell on you and the others will kill you."

Even before her picky-eating habit is explicitly stated, there's a small hint when Chilchuck gives her their supply bag and the one thing she chooses to eat is the ration pellet, aka the only food item she would be familiar with.

Secret monster info lore dropped. Walking mushrooms initially grow like normal mushrooms but then grow legs.

I'm probably wrong about this but I think the parts of the mushroom that grows above-ground are the reproductive parts of the fungus. If so, then maybe walking mushrooms proliferate by spawning the caps and simply letting them run off somewhere. Then the offspring plant themselves in a good spot, spread their mycelia, and repeat the cycle.

It's not just the spoon she doesn't hold properly. Izutsumi also stuck her thumb in the bowl.

She licked the bowl like a cat!

I have never feared for a fictional character's life more than in this moment.

In her defense, depending on how that cat soul is integrated into her body, Izutsumi might not be able to eat mushrooms like a regular human could. Cats are obligate carnivores so they have to eat meat to get any nutrition.

Senshi is about to take this child up on his knee and give her a spanking.

So if Maizuru can't touch the collar on Izutsumi's neck periodically, it summons a hag who attempts to kill her. And did Shuro abandon her knowing this would happen?

I just noticed Marcille and Senshi have been wearing little bags around their feet since chapter 39. They normally wear sandals.

It looks like they're made from pieces of the frog skin used to make Chilchuck's outfit from chapter 21. Maybe they're stuffed with harpy feather or some type of animal fur? After this is over, they could try tanning some of the shapeshifter's fur to make them more insulated.

We don't see it properly, but Senshi knocked Marcille to the ground as well when he tackled Izutsumi. She got knocked out during the whole fight with the hag.

Senshi and Laios were amazingly competent dealing with that hag. Senshi was acting as if it was a minor annoyance to get rid of. Meanwhile, Laios figured out immediately how to destroy it when he realized it was made of paper.

Quick guess: Hags are an eastern variant of golem. Marcille mentioned the spell that summoned it was a repurposed gnome spell, and golems seem to be a gnome creation based on MMT2. So maybe the hag uses the same general magic formula to make an automata out of a certain material, but it conjures the material and controls it remotely when activated rather than needing to be inserted into it first.

Izutsumi is making the face of a cat that has decided you are trustworthy.

Marcille is trying to remove the stigma against black magic by calling it ancient magic instead, but she nearly slipped up for a moment. After what happened to Falin, maybe she's starting to think that black magic really should be forbidden.

Everyone thinks it's Marcille's fault Falin turned into a monster. No one was around when the magician transformed her.

She's so cute in this panel.

Why is Laios blushing while talking to Izutsumi? Is he excited to have finally met his monster waifu?

Izutsumi really didn't plan ahead here. As Chilchuck pointed out, she can't get back to the surface on her own. She deserted from Shuro's team so she could force Marcille to remove her beast soul, and that was as far as she thought. And now she has to travel with them because she has no other option. She's going to find out really quickly that the Touden party is not stuck with her, she's stuck with them.

It's a start, but Izutsumi is at least holding her spoon properly at the end of the chapter.

Izutsumi was a character in the Chapter 0 oneshot. Her interactions with the party made it clear that she had joined them at a later point in their adventure and wasn't aware that they ate monsters.

The party was on a journey to save Falin, but the end goal of the oneshot was to fight the red dragon. With some light tweaking, chapter 0 could easily be a miscellaneous story after this point.

I definitely feel like Ryoko Kui had the whole story planned from the start. She might have wanted to add Izutsumi sooner but held off until after Falin's transformation to establish human-monster chimeras before introducing a cat-girl ninja.

Izutsumi is definitely going to add a new dynamic to the party. Kind of like how Shuro represents the dangers of not taking time to eat and sleep, I feel like Izutsumi is going to represent the importance of eating a balanced diet, eating your food properly, and not letting yourself be picky about food.

SENSHI FLASH!!

back

[littl3d0ll-art]

I don’t normally give lore dumps on art posts but I will for this one cuz it’s important for my au(and also another au I wanna do later…). Rant about lamb and goat backstory stuff ahead.

Anyways this is Chive(pronounced chee-veh), they’re Lambie(the lamb’s) childhood friend! They both lived and grew up in the same little sheep village together, but Chive was the only goat there. Nobody really knows where they came from; they were found by the lamb half-dead in the forest nearby while they were very young. They didn’t know how to talk, but once they learned they were still a mystery since they had no memories of anything, and so they were taken in by the sheep and raised as one of their own. Chive and Lambie were the only children so they became best friends really quickly, and were basically inseparable from the start.

Years later, Chive became the village knight as a way of repaying back the village, vowing to protect them all- especially Lambie- to their last breath, which is what they did. Chive died at the hand of the soldiers of the old faith who had invaded the village, killing everyone except for the lamb who Chive was trying to keep hidden. I’m gonna admit I don’t have this next part figured out, but somehow the lamb gets a hold of a piece of Chive’s horn to keep as like a memento before they’re captured and then sacrificed. Regular game plot ensues for the first few days after their resurrection until through the crown or Narinder’s knowledge they learn how to make a golem to help them out around the cult and on crusades, and so they make the goat(given the name Goatsie)

Sometime between Chive’s death and the creation of the goat, Chive finds themself before Narinder to be helped in passing through to the afterlife as he usually does, but they plead with Narinder to be sent back somehow to continue being by Lambie’s side to help and protect them. Narinder gives them a deal, saying he’ll send their soul back to possess the nearest and best vessel, but they won’t have any memories of their life, just a vague feeling and sense of purpose. Chive finds this to be more than good enough and so they agree, and end up possessing the golem Lambie makes.

Goatsie being a goat and looking a lot like Chive is honestly just a coincidence caused by Lambie trying to use the horn piece first during the golem ritual instead of their own flesh as a way of trying to bring Chive back somehow. This obviously doesn’t work, and so they end up doing what they originally had to, but since the horn piece was used first this created a golem that looked more like Chive while having the Lamb’s same exact face(minus the pupils ofc). This is just a cosmetic thing though and doesn’t affect anything. All personality traits that the goat didn’t get from Lambie are just traces of Chive as a consequence of their ghost possessing them. The only person that knows of Chive’s ghost situation is Narinder, not even the goat is aware of this

[flightyquinn]

hey, minecraft tumblr, can we talk about something for a second?

this is what "horror mods" in minecraft look like right now. some long-limged oogabooga creature, usually black and with a big mouth, that chases you down while flailing and does a bunch of damage.

and yeah, i know that there are differences in mechanics between them, but in the end it still comes down to "you see an oogabooga in the distance, and then it chases you"

i'm not saying that this can't be scary. i'm just saying that it's getting a little oversaturated at this point, and there's other kinds of horror than just being chased by a model from spirit halloween's big & tall

if you want to stand out, you need to bring some new spooks

let me give you an example from a mod i've thought up, but probably won't end up making

i call it "The Innocent"

The Innocent looks like a baby villager with black eyes and a tattered robe in the nitwit colors. that's it. it doesn't even chase the player normally. in fact, it doesn't even move except to turn and face the player if they look at it. and that's where the fun begins...

The Innocent naturally spawns in uninhabited biomes, far away from both villagers and illagers. if the player looks at it for more than a second (so, long enough to be actually looking at it, and not just mousing past without noticing) it "bonds" to that player. once bonded to a player, it will keep appearing near them at random intervals, never under solid blocks (so not in caves or your house), spawning out of line of sight, watching them. it can and will watch through windows.

whenever it watches the player, The Innocent is also judging them. if the player kills living mobs, hits villagers, tramples crops, or other "bad" actions, this lowers an invisible karma score, while trading, building golems, breeding animals, and other "good" actions raise it.

if the player attacks The Innocent, it disappears in a puff of smoke, and this naturally lowers their karma a lot.

as The Innocent becomes more displeased, and it will over time become more displeased, bad things start to happen.

the sounds of crying, and eventually screaming children can sometimes be heard in the distance

baby zombie spawns become more common

nearby plants may turn to dead bushes when the player sleeps

paintings may change to others of the same size

rain and lightning become more frequent

zombies detect the player from farther away

etc...

if the player's karma is too low, then The Innocent may even turn into a (still black eyed) Drowned version of itself and attack. it's actually weaker than a regular baby zombie, though just as fast, so killing it isn't too hard. however, killing it doesn't make it stop, it just lowers your karma more, whereas dying to it is a Very Good Act. after all, you deserve it

but if killing it doesn't work, how does one get rid of The Innocent, i hear you ask. well, that's simple, after a certain number of encounters, every time you have a positive gain in karma by the time it disappears - that it to say, your karma at the end of the encounter is higher than it was at the start - there is a chance that The Innocent will be satisfied, meaning it will stop being bonded to you, and won't come back. there's just a couple of catches.

the number of encounters before it can be satisfied is random.

the player won't always be aware of when an encounter is happening.

"neutral" encounters - ones with no net change in karma - don't count towards the number.

the player doesn't get any direct indication of when The Innocent has stopped haunting them

[camels-pen]

drooble #6 - sparring partner

-

Sanji dodged the sword aiming for his head and it lodged itself in the wall above him. He ran and skidded around the corner, grinning all the while.

"This guy's pretty good-"

Sanji suddenly blocked high, the same sword appearing as if from thin air. "And quiet," Usopp said. "Let's get out of here before we lose our lucky streak."

"Lucky streak?!" Sanji laughed, breaking the deadlock and jumping back. "Have a little more faith in me, Usopp."

"I did before you punted a rock at its head!"

"Shut up, we both thought he was busted. No harm checking-" Sanji blocked again, the blade catching in Usopp's heel. "Maybe some harm checking, but we can take him."

"We don't have to take him!" Usopp wailed. "He's a golem!"

"He'd be a pretty decent sparring partner," Sanji continued, putting more distance between them and the golem. "Definitely better than that mossheaded bastard."

"You wanna take it home?!" Usopp partially pulled out of weapon form, hovering over Sanji's shoulder and looking like he was about to cry. "No! No. Absolutely not. This isn't a stray dog you take home because you feel bad for it!"

"Obviously. Dogs are a lot more work." Usopp made a strangled noise. "And you'll love it when you get to tell people you beat up golems twice your size on the regular. You'll be all-"

Sanji flipped out of the way of another slash and Usopp shifted back down to his weapon form. They had another trade of blows with the golem before Sanji jumped back.

Sanji clasped his hands together. "Oh, Sanji-kun," he said, pitching his voice higher. "I'm so sorry I ever doubted you. You're so cool and amazing."

"I don't sound like that! And I thought you only wanted girls to fawn over you."

"I make exceptions for 'i told you so's." He sighed. "But putting that aside, you really think we can run without beating him?"

"You shouldn't underestimate my ability to run."

"I don't think that's something to boast about-" He grunted as he blocked high. "Just take a look around."

Usopp was silent a long moment. Long enough for Sanji to break off and dash for the nearest cover. "...I see it," he said quietly.

Sanji took a drag of his cigarette. "You ready to fight?"

"No." Before Sanji could say anything, Usopp added, "But I'll fight anyway."

"Attaboy."

"I'm not letting you bring it home."

Sanji smirked. "You'll change your mind."

As one, they synced up their breathing, concentrating their energy.

"Soul-"

"-Resonance."

Miles away, a small town bustled with life and lived in ignorance.

[shantismurf]

for your wip ask gane you know I have to ask abt tangled!

Tangled!! I had SO much fun reading the Rapunzel works for our fairy tale series with the book club recently, because I was constantly thinking either "oh I was thinking it could be *this*" or, "that's a great idea!" 😅 I updated my wip doc on that one a few times that week! I developed the idea to submit as an option in our rather doomed Writing Round Robin project last year, but it was just too vibrant and complete to totally set aside!

Belladonna Baggins craves adventure, so much so she simply must go on one last jaunt before she and Bungo settle down and start their family. Alone in the wilds, she encounters a battle between desperate orcs and fierce dwarrow. One of the orcs drops a glittering stone that Belladonna snatches up without even thinking. When an orc then swings its blade at her chest, it strikes the stone and an explosion of light sends them all flying. When she wakes, all the orc and dwarrow are seemingly dead and she steals away alone, thankful to be done with her last adventure. When her darling Bilbo is born seven months later with full, silvery hair that sparkles like a gem, she knows that he's been chosen for a fate far grander than any Hobbit before, and she despairs. Stolen from his family as a young faunt but raised thinking he was given over to be a ward in "protective custody" to the imposing wizard Saruman, Bilbo lives alone in the tall White Tower of Elostirion with only a sentient stone golem named Pal to care for him. Located deep in the wilds of Westmarch, the White Towers stand on the Tower Hills overlooking the Shire below, where Bilbo longs to go and see the villages that sparkle in the distance, and especially to see the explosions of color and light that occur on a particular day every autumn.

Despite his isolation and the cold nature of the wizard, Bilbo grows to be loving and kind, though desperately starved for affection. He is never allowed to cut his beautiful hair which glows like moonlight, silver and luminous, glinting with all the colors of the rainbow. His hair possesses strange powers which the wizard covets jealously and studies intensively on his regular visits. With only his many books and his faithful stone guardian to keep him company, Bilbo dreams of adventure and the outside world, though he's been raised to believe that the world is dangerous and all races would want to possess his magic hair, to his ruin.

One day a dwarrow Prince scales his tower and Bilbo promptly knocks him out with a frying pan, before making a tentative truce and accepting his aid to escape. Bilbo learns to embrace the world outside his tower and the motley crew of dwarrow who follow Thorin Oakenshield, exiled Prince of the distant kingdom of Erebor, which is under a terrible curse since the loss of the Arkenstone. A prophecy predicted that the curse would be broken when the bearer of the mountain's heart was brought to her gates, and so Thorin has vowed not to return without the stone. Plus, his grandfather has tried to have them all assassinated so really it's better not to go back until things can be settled. Thorin, his widowed sister and her sons, and a loyal following have settled in Ered Luin while Thorin sets out on his quest. His father and brother remained in Erebor in an effort to temper the actions of her mad king. Bonus: Thorin tries to braid Bilbo's ridiculous amount of hair but it's so much that he has to have Fili and Kili help him. He ends up lending Bilbo a sky blue hood with a silver tassel to keep his hair under wraps while they're out and about. The dwarves all lose their mind a little over so much sparkly beautiful hair the color of living mithril, but when it's eventually lost they see it as a battle scar and respect him even more. Erebor Never Fell, No One Ring AU cause we ain't got time for dragons or cursed rings, we have hair to braid!

[mcyt-hc-writing]

some thoughts on magic in minecraft

Most magic in Minecraft can be classified into two disciplines - enchantments and alchemy, of which alchemy is the more broad. I posit there is also a third type - evocation. But let's discuss all of them.

1. Enchantments

Enchantments are a kind of magic used to enhance or alter the functions of an item. Enchantments are permanent, and they do not appear to alter the user directly in any way.

The most obvious examples are of course the enchantments and curses placed on gear. Most of them enhance a function of that gear - making it last longer, mine faster, hit harder, or lure better - but some instead add new functions, like Mending, Wind Burst, or Riptide.

Besides gear enchantments, enchanting is overtly involved with the Enchanted Golden Apple - which is an enhanced version of a regular golden apple, indicating that enchanting can also be used to enhance the functions of consumables.

Based on its characteristic glint it's possible that enchanting is in some way involved with written books, End Crystals, Nether Stars, but it's hard to say in what way that could be.

Enchanting, notably, is tied heavily to XP - which, as we know thanks to sculk, is related to souls in some way. It is likely that anything in the game which requires XP is a form of enchanting. I posit, for example, that renaming items is actually enchanting - it isn't so simple as putting a tag on them, but in fact consists of the player altering that item's True Name through enchanting.

Could that also be true of written books?

2. Alchemy

Alchemy is a more broad term than you might think - alchemy in Minecraft is the magic art of temporarily enhancing or altering a being, typically through the use of external reagents.

The most obvious example of alchemy is potions - these alter mobs such as the player, temporarily enhancing abilities like strength or resistance, or giving them new abilities. There are many other examples, however.

There are several foods in the game that grant potion effects or interact with them, indicating that alchemy is not limited to intelligent life but that it can arise through evolution too.

Other sources of alchemical effects include beacons, conduits, end crystals (which heal the ender dragon). They appear to be in a similar category and indicate that consumption is not necessary for alchemical effects, merely some source of energy - the pyramid and sacrifice for a beacon, prismarine for a conduit, or the vast amount of energy stored within an end crystal. The beams of end crystals are similar in form to guardian laser beams - which are a natural form of alchemy (indicated by guardian beam damage being identical to Instant Damage)

Curing zombies is an alchemical process.

Finally, totems of undying are an interesting item that seem to indicate a good understanding of alchemy, due to their unique function. I also believe that they may have a link to the third school of magic...

3. Evocation

I believe that Evocation (or Summoning) is the third field of magic in Minecraft, and (unlike the others) it is compatible with other forms of magic. Evocation creates or permanently alters creatures.

The natural form of evocation is lightning - it can permanently alter many kinds of mobs, and can even summon them in the form of skeleton horse traps. Interestingly, lightning can be evoked through an enchantment - Channeling - indicating that enchantments can be used to trigger evocations.

Evokers are masters of evocation, able to summon vexes and fangs - their unique use of totems of undying suggests that totems are also a creation of evocation, not just triggering alchemical effects but actually un-doing the user's death through evocation. Considering even the evokers themselves don't use their totems, I wonder how exactly a totem permanently alters the user - such that their own creators are afraid of them.

I believe that the creation of golems - snow golems, iron golems, and the Wither - is another expression of evocation. Again, Withers are a source of a rare alchemical reagent, indicating that evocation can be used alongside alchemy.

It is likely that spawners and vaults use evocation to summon mobs.

What societies use them?

Minecraft's societies all make use of magic in some form.

Villagers appear to have some knowledge of alchemy (clerics, wandering traders), and are familiar enough with evocation to create iron golems, but the magic they are most familiar with is enchantment - enchanting appears to be well known and well understood in villager society, much better than among players.

Illagers on the other hand, despite shared origins, seem to detest enchanting and use it sparingly. They are skilled in other fields - Evokers, as said before, have mastery over evocation, while witches are experts in alchemy.

Piglins are the final major magic-using society. As the only society based in the nether they have access to nether wart and potions through it, though they seem to only use fire resistance. They also possess a divergent discipline of enchanting; we see only soul speed as players, but I wonder what other enchantments they may be keeping to themselves.

Endermen do not appear to make use of magic. End cities contain potions and enchanted gear but the endermen don't use them.

Disciplines unmentioned

There are some things that some people consider magic which I failed to mention. Let's quickly go through them.

Redstone: Probably not magic, since it is all related to a particular mineral.

Cross-dimensional travel: All portals and teleportation appear to have the same source. They aren't really linked to anything else.

[diamondwerewolf]

Thinking some more about my new favorite big guy

How starved for contact is AZ? Tumblr shall suffer my curiosity, cause I can write paragraphs here ok

He doesn’t appear to have issues approaching or talking to people, but I can’t imagine him having any regular intimacy. Not just speaking about sex or romance (I’ll get to that later because I think I can have confident HCs now). Just a regular pat or hug every now and again.

Someone in his position may caution or distance themselves from close relationships. And I think he may be too intimidating to approach for the average person. He’s enormous, very direct or intense in the eyes, and…probably a tad smelly.

His Pokémon aren’t exactly the kind you cuddle either? I suppose you could if you were determined to love them anyway. They all know Return so they’ve probably helped keep him sane. A metal golem, a spindly sigil bird, and a tortoise that burns like a furnace …not intuitive to closeness. Something soft and fluffy you hold to your chest is more common, but nothing ever really replaces human to human connection.

I have it in my head that AZ and Kiss’ relationship is a terribly slow burn. 3 years of beating around the bush. He’ll disappear sometimes, for a month or two even, resisting getting his heart torn apart all over again. He thinks he’ll eventually have to say goodbye to her at the end of her own life

But her hands, her smile, their private conversations are powerful. When you click with someone mentally and physically, really truly like them, sometimes it’s intoxicating. He keeps coming back to see her, making excuses to visit, and then making excuses to leave until she doesn’t allow him to run anymore

…

How lucky an immortal man and the descendant of the blood cursed should meet