#Servants of Shadow

[titanomancy]

C̶̡͇̟͈͈̭̳͚̝͔̬̫̾́̚͜͜Ǫ̶̧̛̣̲̝̤̗̮͖̰̹̋̅͑͂̍̈̏̏̈̊̃̈́̚͠͝ͅN̷̨̛̳͇̹̍̾́̚S̶̖̳̦͎̤͓̹͍̬͓͈͓͇͚̐̅̈̓̈͒͝Ù̷̧̢͈̞̹̻͓̬̣͖͇̱̱̻͔̼̽ͅḾ̶̛̛̞̮͇̱̝̟̤̳̪͇͍̟̈́̏͋̀͆͜͜͝E̷̡̼̠̲̯̬͔̠̜̣̹͓̙͕̽̽̄̍̎͆͊̈̾͆̕͘͜͝ͅ

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

M'lady, doth this harlot bother thee?

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[aressida]

[bedtimegiraffe]

Here's my little essay about King Arlan (and a little bit about Baldur) and their complicated relationship with ruling effectively.

Arlan, the (overall) very good king

King Arlan is keeping the kingdom running well

In the very first lore tablet, you learn that, "King Arlan Valleros VII currently sits on the throne. Known as the Gentle King, Arlan has reigned over a period of great peace and prosperity."

Periods of great peace and prosperity are not easy! It's a combination of luck, delegating effectively, and putting in a ton of administrative work to make sure the laws and policies work for the unique situation your nation is in at this moment. That stuff does not happen on accident.

Based on Aerin's statements that he never really saw his father, I'm assuming Arlan keeps busy with actually running the country. We never see Arlan show interest in hunting or any vices that would take similar amounts of time. I also don't get the sense that Arlan and Baldur are always like, hanging out. And we don't interact with many administrators, making him seem pretty hands-on.

King Arlan knows how to maintain an image

When you return from the Shadow Realm...

King Arlan is very savvy. Maybe he's sincere, who knows! But publicly honoring the heroes who saved your ass is a great way to get goodwill for yourself and make it so you no longer owe those heroes. Your party puts in quite a lot of work to save Morella and King Arlan just lets you take some weapons and armor no one was using anyway. Doesn't even send a single guard to help. Unlike Book 2...

Before the battle he does a great job making it seem like he's doing you a favor. Like you asked for his help and he's magnanimously granting it, even though the Ash Empire is very much coming to destroy his capital!

Which brings us to his take on Aerin being gone (assuming he was imprisoned previously)...

This is an awful thing to say about your son! But it's actually a pretty cunning move as a king. Arlan was absolutely right- his best move was to let Aerin go and hope he got killed. He gets to eliminate a problem making him look bad to the court (his son who committed murder and treason in a very public manner) and keep his reputation as a nice guy. He's the 'Gentle King,' not the 'Strong King' or 'Decisive King.'

And in the very unlikely (in his estimation) chance Aerin did come back alive and looking heroic, Arlan could keep him imprisoned indefinitely. Or (much less likely) he could say Aerin was corrupted before and use his success as an excuse to get one of his kids back in the line of succession. That's good for your ego and can help prevent a succession crisis if there isn't a super clear heir in place (which seems to be the case currently).

Overall, (and completely separate from him being a horrendous father) it seems to be like Arlan is actually a very good king. But there is one part of the job he sucks at...

Arlan's fatal flaw is that he is terrible at reading people.

'Baldur's great, no concerns!'

Obviously, we know that thinking that Baldur is going to be a good king is stupid.

But why didn't King Arlan know that? Aerin (who does seem to be pretty good at reading people) says he's, "handsome, bold, outgoing." Those things are all great for winning people over!

But not nearly enough to actually run a country. We know Baldur's not really even trying to have any of the practical, administrative skills that requires. And this system does not seem set up to function with a figurehead.

You know that tutor must have clocked that Baldur was asleep! It was probably common knowledge at the palace that Baldur never learned a damn thing. Either Arlan didn't realize his heir was not gaining any practical ruling skills (bad sign) or he didn't care (also a bad sign).

Even monarchs who aren't invested in their kids as people are usually very invested in their education. Because that's how you make sure the wheels don't fall off once you die, ending your glorious bloodline.

Aerin tells us that Baldur would never contradict their father. So Arlan absolutely could have forced him to read a damn book. But for some reason, he didn't.

'My second son sucks...

Arlan truly thinks that Aerin is useless. Which is a wild stance to take after you watched him kill big strong Baldur in a single blow and open a portal to the Shadow Realm.

Arlan got there a little late for Aerin's full villain monologue. But the second your party disappears through the portal, the smart thing would have been to determine if Aerin did any more damage. It didn't feel like it to Aerin, but he had tremendous access to people and resources. For all King Arlan knows, this could have been just one piece of a bigger plot.

And it was! Aerin admitted to corrupting dozens of people, usually very connected people. That's a ticking time bomb just waiting to cause more damage. One it doesn't seem like King Arlan ever looks into.

Arlan seems to just assume that Aerin can't cause damage because he's... not physically imposing? Because knowledge and connections are never a threat to power?

Pre-crisis, Aerin also talks about trying to smooth over Baldur's brash decisions. Having someone to soften the blow of harsh or unpopular decisions is absolutely crucial for any ruler, but especially one like Baldur. Yet Arlan doesn't seem to have any awareness of that either.

So Arlan at least picked up some vibes from Aerin that he was... something. Troubled could be 'miserable,' but this statement makes it feel more 'he creeps me out.'

-and I'm not worried about that.'

Even if Aerin was incompetent or messed up, King Arlan should have been concerned about that! Baldur is very strong and presumably good at not dying. But he throws himself into dangerous situations all the time for fun! There is a very good reason most monarchs don't stop at one kid if they can help it.

History is absolutely littered with examples of people who inherited a throne and ran things into the ground because they didn't have the ability to manage the amount of power they had effectively. If Arlan thought Aerin could fall into that category, he should have had people working around the clock to get him up to standard just in case.

Instead, King Arlan fully ignored Aerin, letting him just haunt the archives like a depressed ghost.

'The Heroes of Morella obviously agree with me, they're important!'

King Arlan makes the assumption, based on your party's status, that you'll agree with him on the 'complicated politics' of executing your own kid. Because you're not 'commoners.' Your party includes one elven noble, one orcish (until like 2 days ago) princess, and one human with a very prominent position in the Temple. Mal is more under the radar, but he was still proclaimed a hero. And your character is the most Hero of all.

So Arlan basically does that thing some people do where they trash talk a marginalized group, because everyone in the room looks like they belong to the majority group, so why would they object? (Never a good look.)

But Mal and Nia are both, at least to you, visibly angry with Arlan for being excited his son is (presumably) dead.

Still, no effort to backtrack or soften the blow from King Arlan. Just sails right over the dude's head that Mal looks pissed and Nia is using her damn customer service voice.

Seriously, King Arlan should probably keep an eye out for Mal... Not a big monarchist, that one.

Bonus Baldur, the tremendous idiot

The fact that Baldur thinks he's the first of his name, when "Baldur Valleros" literally founded his dynasty, is incredibly funny to me. Such ignorance. Such hubris.

I am not about to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe Baldur I went straight to being king, so our dumbass is the first "Prince Baldur Valleros." His father is Arlan VII, there's no way no other king has named their heir after the founder of the dynasty. More evidence that he has never once learned a thing.

(Don't worry about Kade- he took a shadow lance to the face but he's fine. He's mostly fine. Feel free to look at my older posts if you're curious how that went down.)

Baldur seems to make the same assumptions about people based on their status as his father. I don't think it's an accident that when Baldur wants to tell gross stories (including the phrase "slum girls"), he immediately grabs Mal, the human man. Mal isn't all that subtle about his disdain for the nobility, but he still looks like the best one for Baldur to win over. Mal is also the one who steps up and negotiates for the group, making him look like the leader- even more Baldur catnip.

[shadowwizdaily]

The Shadow Wizard of the Day is the Dark Servant from Wizard 101!

[asoiafreadthru]

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys III

“I hit him,” she said, wonder in her voice. Now that it was over, it seemed like some strange dream that she had dreamed.

“Ser Jorah, do you think…he’ll be so angry when he gets back…” She shivered.

“I woke the dragon, didn’t I?”

Ser Jorah snorted. “Can you wake the dead, girl?

“Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, and he died on the Trident. Viserys is less than the shadow of a snake.”

His blunt words startled her. It seemed as though all the things she had always believed were suddenly called into question.

“You…you swore him your sword…”

“That I did, girl,” Ser Jorah said. “And if your brother is the shadow of a snake, what does that make his servants?” His voice was bitter.

[ascendantloser]

Rest in peace Erin Eckbert you would've LOVED Imogen 🙏

[anonzentimes]

I have trouble understanding what the line between surface level knowledge is and fan knowledge is often and I'm thinking about it more because the Terios the Hedgehog skin apparently doesn't register in people's mind immediately that it's Shadow the Hedgehog's beta design Lol. I love telling people a whole bunch of knowledge when I do remember it isn't common knowledge though it's very funny to me. Like, apparently the average person does not know that Komaeda is in a servant outfit at some point in canon and that's hilarious.

[weaponizedducks]

nandor and guillermo are arthur and merlin in another universe where it worked out and they were happy

[hanakihan]

Howl’s moving castle Chulwoo AU feat. Ashborn being a tired grumpy purple flame, Kamish not caring there’s entire house on his back and Jinwoo having whole house or random shadow creatures that just kinda started to live here as servants

and jinchul finally looking accurate to his inner age of 90 y.o. tired annoyed grandpa

[moghedien]

"Women who could channel were dangerous animals rather than people."

honestly cracking up laughing at this thought from Egeanin because like, famous last words for someone about to get Wondergirled

like she is so deep in her Seanchan indoctrination even like up to the moment that she met Elayne and Nynaeve, and they really just broke her by being nice to her and treating her like a person, all while openly claiming to be Aes Sedai

[drawingducktalesducks]

Lena with no friends writing fake pleas for help on notes and tossing them out to sea, only for lonely left-out Webby to find them and follow them back to her-

Lena deciding to leave Magica, just to be reminded that she can’t- being forced to give up the friendship bracelet Webby made for her and laying it gently in the same salt water…

Lena's not at her waterside hideout, the writings she left behind say she was Magica's shadow spy, but Webby doesn't believe that and her friendship bracelet gives Lena a way to come back- for a moment- long enough to prove Webby right

Lena's gone in the nightmare. Magica's here. She's wearing Lena's friendship bracelet, she just pushed Webby out of harm's way; Webby realizes she's actually Lena-

this time she gets to save her. A few tears, a bit of salt water spilled between them, a few carefully woven threads, and the nightmare ends

Lena standing in the middle of a swamp when she stops needing Magica's power to stay with her friends- Webby and Violet's support for her channeled through the bracelets- and now Magica's the one dropped in the stagnant water and left behind

yeah idk where I was going with this. something something parallels ripping apart my heart    

[mako-neexu]

you, who has lost your command spells and master rights is hunted down. no servant. no support. no chaldea in contact/chaldea no longer exists....fatigued and running for your life. you are on your own. your mystic code is broken. you have no one to rely on. you are running from. something. after everything happened, youre still pushing yourself to move since youre in danger. you have to live no matter what. or else everyone's efforts would be all for naught. you have to live you have to live you have to live.., but one of the things hunting you down catches up, injures you severely, you fall down and the things that want to tear you to pieces surround you. you have no way of escaping. you have no way out. but, of course...the sword that will always be in your hands and the abyssal insect who reaches out to the stars deliver a powerful blow to what hunts you to keep you safe. two servants wipe out what hunts you down. you didnt summon them. youre unable to summon. yet here they are. here you are. and you can only lie on the ground from relief, exhaustion, overwhelming joy and sadness and pain as you see two people- friends you love and cherish. but they turn to you, their faces cant be discerned. their entire being obscured by black fog. oh. they are shadow servants. they are shadows of the people you love. they arent the friends themselves. still, you reach out, you hug them even as you stagger from the injury. "thank you" you croak out, barely able to utter them aloud. theres something warm on your face. its a little wet. but youre not sure what it is. they cant speak. they cant respond unless its to fight. they are like whisps. you can barely touch them but still solid enough to hold. and in the embrace, you hear your name called out. the two people you love, though shadows, call out to you.

"▅▅▅▅" "▅▅▅▅"

....you realize you have to go. you let go of them, hesitant. yet you give them a determined smile, a grateful smile. though they have no expressions of their own as shadows, you feel as if you can imagine their usual reactions of snark and comments as they stare back at you. thank you, ill be okay, you say again. reassurance. a smile. a second of happiness. a step back. and another, along with one last look, you run ahead without looking back.

[shadowwizdaily]

The Shadow Wizard of the Day is the Soul Servant/Soulless Servant from Wizard 101!

[bg3smash-or-pass]

[empty-dream]