#Svarog Aesfrost

[roaldseth]

Art trade w/ @pieadvisor

Going into this trade, I told myself I was going to specifically NOT do the Triangle Strategy option, but it said "Dragan" and "mines" so here we are.

[kelbunny]

Shout out to the Team Asano sad dads. I love them sm and they deserve to be happy.

[alien-onyx]

"negotiations" between aesfrost and hyzante or whatever. (gay)

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Art for Sycras, Svarog, and Dragan! They were all on the same 2 pages together, so I've put them together here as well.

Translation notes:

I tried to find a real meaning for "Hat U30," but came up short. It might be a unique label that the designers gave the hat, or it might just be that I misunderstood the characters.

"What a good idea!!" seemed to definitely have the word "What" in it, but I wasn't completely sure about the rest. It might have also been something like "What are you doing!!" but since Sycras seems to be smiling + there's no question mark, I decided to go with "What a good idea!!"

[tristrattournament]

[alien-onyx]

hope u dont mind me using your template thingy i made it but with tringly stringly while on a call with the bestie

hi, have a silly thing that I was possessed to suddenly make, don't take it too seriously

[randomnameless]

NGL it's amusing when I see Edelstans complain about other black eagle fans (who also love Edelgard and Hubert) because they refer to Edelgard and Hubert as antiheros and villain protagonists.

they basically be like "NO! they aren't antiheros they are HEROS! they are morally correct and good because everything they do is JUSTIFIED. yes its war of conquest but its necessary because dragons and church bad! therefore they are MORALLY GOOD! why can't these other BE fans see that !"

But like ??? There's no issue with liking a antihero or villain protagonist character who has flaws and is morally questionable. Why deny themselves that joy and choose to restrict themselves to morally good characters at all??

Fans DO NOT need to purify or moralize Edelgards character to justify themselves for liking her. No one needs to defend themselves for liking a character when they exist literally for entertainment. They can just enjoy her character as she is instead of wasting time using extreme mental gymnastics to claim she's a morally good and justified hero.

The other side is when edelstans truly believe Edelgard is correct and believe her imperialist wars of conquest is justifiable , that allying with TWSITD and being complicit in their crimes was necessary and therefore good, that violence IS the answer. If this is the case then maybe they only view her as morally good and heroic because they agree with her methods??

Like, hey I'm a good person, I'm morally correct and I agree with Edelgard (and Hubert's) choices! Surely this MUST mean her choices are good, morally correct, and justifiable! Since I agree with it then this means she IS a good and morally correct character! She is a HERO!

Anywaysss I thought the discourse between BE fans was interesting so I thought I'd share haha

Oh,

No pbs anon!

It was to be expected though, when a certain group of fans aggro on everyone about their HC and their opinion being "better" than everyone else's, everyone is on their hit list - it doesn't matter what or who you like, the only thing that matters is if you like what they like and how they like it.

Sure, at times, I also sigh at people saying they appreciate a character I also like, but have a, uh, very different opinion and take on that character's characterisation that it makes me wonder if they like the character, or their headcanon of said character, or are just trolling, idk.

But hey, don't like don't read - even if in this case, it's more don't like don't be an ass.

Still, I feel bad for people who genuinely try to have a civil discussion about Supreme Leader (and Hubert), either they're biased against because a lot of the fandom is so tired of the constant influx of "devoted fans" barging in uninvited and forgetting to remove their shoes in their spaces, or worse, they attract those "devoted fans" and every discussions spirals down to "theocratic fascisto-absolute monarchy and State of Quo and Revolution = Feudalism is the name of the ice cream I had 15 seconds ago".

I'm waiting for Jugdral Echoes to find kindred Hilda fans, only to realise they will make some olympic level acrobatics to absolve her of any "bad thing" and find a way to say Bobby and Mary - the two 5 years old running away from her - were criminals who had to die to usher a new society.

[triangle-strategy-text-bot]

Svarog: I used the Knell to destroy the blast furnace.

[these-detestable-hands]

Big fan of sad wet men grieving their kids

[three3two22]

Recently re-checked what the credits music are for the non-Golden endings and was having thoughts.

So every one of them has the appropriate character's battle theme at the beginning and their Path theme at the end. Between them are two pieces from the soundtrack, which is the part I decided to fixate on. For Morality ending, those two are The Diary of Orlaea, and Pride of the Three High Houses.

(spoilers incoming)

That's where my brain stopped because. Pride of the Three High Houses. That's exactly the thing that is... well, utterly destroyed at the end of that route. There is absolutely none of the three high houses left, and that is even if Serenoa survived.

It's such a bold statement, right in the credits. The Diary of Orlaea, that's an acceptable one. It reminds us why we chose that route, what we fought for, what we fought against, etc. But Pride of the Three High Houses takes away the focus from that "main plot", reminding us of the thing we chose to ignore rather than save or fight. The fact that it has a bright sound is an added sting, too.

As for Utility ending, alongside Roland's themes are Archduke Gustadolph and Chagrin Concealed. The first one is not surprising to find; it's a reminder of what we fought and achieved, straightforward like that. Chagrin Concealed gives a more somber tone, making us look deeper into what we lost. I will say it's not as oddly placed as Pride of the Three High Houses, since we do fight Svarog near the end. The game makes sure to talk about it in that scene straightforwardly enough.

I also think that the absence of any music that could reference Hyzante or the Roselle is this ending's last punch in the gut. The fact that even the credits decidedly ignore the Roselle's plight is... well, fitting.

Lastly, I'm going to say Liberty ending is the most confusing when I try to analyze it from this angle, although it's interesting nonetheless. There are Benedict's themes, as usual, and then there are He Who is Lord and Scales of Conviction. That seems... odd, especially compared to the other two endings. Those two don't have a strong flavor that could be pointing at something specific, consistently being used in objective moments in the story (persuasion + voting phases). If anything, using these two in Liberty's credits feels like an even stronger confirmation that Liberty was meant to be the "true non-Golden ending", or the antithesis of Golden. Golden is when Serenoa breaks free from the scales; Liberty is when he devotes himself to it. I like that there is no other distraction there -- no reference to Hyzante whom we defeated, no reference to Roland who left, no reference to Aesfrost whom we allied with. There is ONLY the scales.

[space-spring]

For the fandom ask meme, TriStrat for 15, 19, and 22?

Yayyy thanks so much for the ask!!!!! <3

15. Is there something I wish someone would draw as a fanart?

I'm always psyched to see stuff with any of the Avlora + Maxwell + Cordelia + Roland crew!! I don't really know of anything super specific outside of that hahaha. Tbh 90% of the reason I don't post more art myself is that coming up with art ideas is something that takes me approximately 2-3 business weeks under the best of conditions and even then it's usually just the character in a generic pose lol. I am continually amazed by how galaxy-brained other people are with all the different things they come up with :)

19. Favorite headcanon

Oooh one thing I like to think happens post-golden route is that Cordelia eventually takes over for Svarog as the governor of the Aesfrosti territory. There are a lot of different layers to this in my head that I feel like I can't totally explain right, but mostly I think it'd be interesting from a political standpoint (how much is Roland exerting control over Aesfrost? how would Aesfrost react to having Cordelia installed as a ruler over them? what steps would the Glenbrook crew have to take to make the transition a smooth one?) and from a personal one on Cordelia's end (how would she feel about Aesfrost at that point after everything that happened with Gustadolph? how do the Aesfrosti treat her and how does she feel about them treating her that way? would she and Svarog get along? how does she feel about finally getting a true, unconditional leadership role? does she consider it an unconditional leadership role or does she feel like Roland/others are still the ones in control?).

I also think it's fun from an Avlora perspective because I have Avlora brainworms bc I think Avlora in-game really comes to like Glenbrook + the people she meets there, but I also feel like she'd always struggle with some of the cultural differences and. maybe also the fact that most people there probably still hate her guts a little bit. It'd be interesting to see her return there and deal with everything she left behind. (are the Aesfrosti also mad at her for jumping ship at the end? Or do they still respect her the way they used to? How does Svarog feel about her? How much would she know about the diplomatic scene in Ironstone + how much would she try to help Cordelia out with the administrative side of it all vs. just keeping herself to a militaristic role?)

22. How I would describe the fandom to someone who is not in it

I've explained it to a few different people, and depending on how familiar they are with fandom stuff and tumblr specifically, I usually kind of start with that whole "tumblr is like a big auditorium where occasionally someone holds up a picture and a few people will clap," but then I explain that for tri strat the auditorium is more like a small library room with a handful of people sitting around a folding table and we all more or less know each other by name. Overall very small and chill as far as fandoms go :)

[crystalelemental]

Decided to just watch the True Ending for Triangle strategy, and...wow, that is deeply unsatisfying.

Aside from the fact that at least half of that 2.25 hour video is just generic Faith In Humanity speeches, my main gripe is that functionally, this is just the Benedict Ending but treated as if everything is completely different for no discernible reason.

The Benedict ending focuses on taking down Hyzante, using Aesfrost as an ally to destroy the Goddess' Shield, and in so doing, allow the salt crystals to be generally available through free trade, and finding multiple other uses for it. That ending is...frankly treated as the worst outcome. You get like three lines of the good: that this inspired trade, brought about a lot of innovations, and that the Roselle were in fact freed. Oh, but you see, it's bad because the free trade resulted in horrific wealth inequality, and the Roselle were freed, but without any inherited wealth to call their own, they fell straight to the bottom of the economic ladder and resort to desperate means of survival or die. Which, sure, if we want to be bleak, this is certainly a possible outcome.

What is actually different about the True Route? We still free the Roselle, if through them uprising and revolting rather than through diplomatic demands. We still allow salt to be generally available to the people and thus up for free trade. The only differences are superficial, in the form of whose ass is in which chair. Roland's still king, Svarog takes over Aesfrost instead of Gustadolph, and Lyla is for some reason spared and allowed to run Hyzante, so Serenoa goes back to Wolffort proper. But what does any of that matter for the long-term outcome? There is no functional difference between these two approaches, and thus no reason for such disparate outcomes. It exists just to be the hard to unlock true ending where you get to kill all the bad guys, for the sake of having a feel-good true end that's hard to unlock where you kill all the bad guys.

What's worse is I can't even say it's thematically coherent. It wants to espouse the idea that Believing in People is the true way, but it's not. Believing In People is using the scales; it's adhering to the others and letting them decide for themselves rather than them needing guidance, which is half your damn speech to Idore. But you didn't get here that way. The true route is unlocked through Serenoa making an executive decision for the first time in his life and telling everyone what we're doing to do. Yes, there's some measure of finding a way to execute all three goals of the people most invested in the outcome, but your direct decision-making is what got us here, not collaboration. It just doesn't mesh as well as it should.

I'm really not impressed with this game.

[kelbunny]

Drawtober 2023 - Day 6 - Ignite

Papa Svarog + Tiny Dragan!

How do you draw older men rip

[littledragonkana]

Ok I have reached chapter 17 and I dont know what to do. All three ways are horrible.

Not as in stupid or wrong. I just couldnt fully support any of them. Especially Roland

I get where Roland is coming from. He wants his people or rather everyone in Norzelia to be happy and thus wants to surrender Glenbrock to Heissand so there won't be another war if one country has all the salt. On the expanse of the Rosaile. Which I also understand because there is no other way in his plan to ensure peace for the masses.

But I feel like this goes against what he stood for for most of the story? He wanted to rebuild Glenbrock as its king. He was quick to take the title of ruler from Cordelia when Glenbrock Castle was retaken. And now he just wants to give all of this up?

I really didn't expect Roland to give up so easily. Well easily isn't the right word. So many things happened that were both painful for him and his people and he was disillusioned by it. But I kinda feel like he owes his people to stand strong now and keep going. He did so much to reclaim Glenbrock FOR his people. To free them from Aesfrost and build a better future. He can't just give up now. And surely this plan he makes won't play out the way thinks. Aesfrost still wants the salt and since they have this bomb (idk the English name) Heissand is an easy target for them. If they take Heissand's capital then what was once Glenbrock would also fall into Aesfrost's hands again. So everything Roland fought for was for nothing.

Also I can't agree to this plan on my own morals because we promised the Rosaile to do everything we can to free them when we convinced them to go back to Heissand where they essentially live as Slaves. I just cant do that. We betray them. And Frederica too. The Rosaile trusted us which was the only reason they agreed to this. Its just wrong.

You know a story is well written when it really makes you think deeply about what to do next. I wanted to go for Roland's route but now Idk what to do because I really disagree with him.

And Benedict's plan isn't much better either. After everything that's happened I don't want to cooperate with Aesfrost. We have no reason to trust them. They don't have any reason to trust us. Sure we basically have the same goal here but imo the end doesn't justify the means here. No way in hell am I going to stand on the side of the people who started this whole war. I can't stand the guts of any of the royals. Maybe Svarog isn't half as bad as the others but still. They are all terrible people. We don't know what they will do once we won against Heissand. What is keeping them from betraying us the moment the battle is over? Glenbrock is still weak. They can take over the mine again and then we didnt really win anything either. They want to be the strongest country in Norzelia and they are not afraid to kill to achieve that goal.

Also Benedict saying that Serenoa would be a better king than Roland? Idk. Probably. But I don't want to betray Roland after EVERYTHING we did. Sure Serenoa has the right to claim the throne but that is just a terrible thing to do. We fought so Roland could retake Glenbrock's throne and now we just say: 'Nope. Times up to play King. This is my country now. Bby buddy!' That's just wrong.

Honestly with Frederica's plan there isn't so much that bothers me but the fact that we are essentially running away from the whole geopolitical problems we have take responsibility for. She wants to free the Rosaile and lead them to Centralia where they came from in the beginning. Which is really good. We are keeping our promise to save them from slavery and bring them freedom. But we are pretty much abandoning all our responsibilities as a leader. We caused a lot of the problems. I mean Frederica didn't. I barely ever went with her plans. But she was involved in our doing either way. And Serenoa can't just leave. He is the head of house Wolffort. He is a prefect of Heissand. He is basically the right hand man of Roland. He can't just leave all of this behind and go somewhere else.

This feels like we're giving up on there ever being peace in Norzelia. It feels like we're betraying the trust of pretty much everyone who ever trusted us. Also Serenoa was raised to lead house Wolffort who are pretty much all of the military strength of Glenbrock. No matter what Roland or Glenbrock as a whole would do once we leave he would have no chance in a war.

These options are all horrible. I don't know what to do. I want to play the golden route whatever that may be. It can't be worse than this 🫠

[triangle-strategy-notes]

what do you think happens with Avlora in the non conviction endings?

Words cannot describe how excited I got when I saw this ask!! I think SO MUCH about what Avlora does in all of the different endings hahaha. Thanks for the question! <3

In general, my personal thoughts are that the Liberty/Benedict ending would eventually play out similarly to the Golden/Serenoa ending, Morality/Frederica would involve Avlora getting involved in Svarog's civil war, and Utility/Roland would probably have Avlora considering a rebellion of some type for a while but ultimately putting her sword away to focus on rebuilding the Aesfrosti community.

But if you're interested in more details/reasoning, I wrote up some of that as well! Don't worry about the readmore I wrote a normal amount about it :) it's a normal amount I promise. I only wrote a normal amount. I promise it's just a norma

Liberty/Benedict Ending

With Liberty ending, tbh I feel like story-wise it really feels weird that Avlora doesn't come back, given how it's essentially the Golden/Serenoa route except Aesfrost and Glenbrook are on good terms, which seems like it'd be a point in Avlora's favor.

But as far as looking at her reasons for staying away, here are a few possibilities:

— She didn't feel Cordelia needed her as badly since Glenbrook was now fighting a war on only one front (vs. the three in the Golden/Serenoa route) and she wasn't willing to risk her life by returning to face Glenbrook's judgment.

— She felt betrayed/demoralized by how Cordelia handed over her throne and went along with the whole alliance to Gustadolph. (Some reasoning along the lines of "Why exactly was I risking my life to stage a coup d'etat if Cordelia was just going to hand her power over as soon as things got inconvenient?")

— She didn't trust Serenoa and Benedict after they suddenly usurped Roland and allied with Aesfrost. She also canonically isn't a fan of Benedict's morals to begin with, so there's that.

— Or, (most likely explanation in my mind) she saw that Glenbrook was trying to secure an alliance with Aesfrost and felt that publicly swearing fealty to Cordelia would aggravate tensions between the two.

Depending on what you think her reasons were, there are a lot of different explanations for what she's up to during the time period between the Chapter 17 decision and the end of the game. Theoretically she might just be hiding out somewhere, or if you want to imagine her doing something more interesting it's possible that she'd quietly reach out to Cordelia and/or would try to track down Roland in order to make sure he's safe for Cordelia's sake.

Either way, I do think Avlora would eventually come around and rejoin Glenbrook once the war cools down and the alliance becomes less strategically important.

Benedict's treatment of Cordelia does kinda suck, and I think Avlora's worry for her would outweigh any other doubts she might have. Roland's absence from the castle would probably make the decision easier too, since Avlora a) doesn't have to worry about Roland's grudge against her and b) knows that Cordelia doesn't have Roland to protect her.

Morality/Frederica Ending

I like thinking about this one a lot :) I take a lot of my headcanons from Little Queen of All Things Forsaken on Ao3. I don't want to spoil the fic a ton for anyone who hasn't read it and wants to, but the basic premise centers around the question of "what if Cordelia stayed behind to rule Glenbrook when Roland and everyone else ran off to Centralia?" Which if that's the case, I would definitely assume Avlora would eventually decide to return and serve at Cordelia's side.

I'd imagine Avlora would essentially become the Dawnspear of Cordelia's reign, where she serves as both a political figure and the head of Cordelia's Kingsguard.

(^^ also this conversation would be really funny to me in the context of her literally taking his job)

BUT, if we're assuming Cordelia is recruited and goes along to Centralia with everyone, I think Avlora would wander around for a long while trying to figure out what she should do. Tracking down where Cordelia went is technically an option, but Avlora was never directly informed about Centralia. To add to that, rumors for sure would slowly filter in from Hyzante about the explosion that killed Idore, and it'd be easy to assume others died in the blast as well.

And even if Cordelia did manage to survive the escape, how much time is Avlora willing to spend looking? How far might the Roselle have fled? Since Avlora's not currently serving as Aesfrost's general, she doesn't have a boat, or supplies, or really any resources whatsoever. Is she really willing to throw her life away to search for someone who might very well already be dead?

I think eventually she'd catch wind of Svarog starting a civil war against Gustadolph and would join Svarog in that effort. Given Benedict serving as an advisor to Gustadolph, it seems possible-to-likely she'd lose the fight like she lost against Wolffort, and at that point would either be killed or would run off again and just try to live a normal life somewhere.

Or maybe she'd finally go "welp. guess I've officially got nothing to lose!" and go try and track down Cordelia. Another fic I really love is somewhere, beyond the sea which is Serenoa/Frederica-focused but also has a really cool bit about Avlora coming to Centralia.

Utility/Roland Ending

I think Avlora would be absolutely horrified at what Glenbrook + Hyzante do to Aesfrost. Like her entire nation is just. Gone. She was willing to oust Gustadolph, willing to join Cordelia, willing to take up a sword against people she once knew and worked with, but I don't think she ever expected the consequences to be the literal destruction of Aesfrost in its entirety.

The image of Avlora (or really ANY Aesfrosti) going back to Ironstone and finding the entire city buried beneath an impenetrable layer of blackened slag is haunting.

And given the history of conflict between Hyzante and Aesfrost, watching Hyzante take over all of Norzelia has gotta be. a whole thing for Avlora. However she felt about the Saintly Seven before, she definitely hates them now. I also can't see her ever wanting to associate again with Roland or Serenoa after hearing about their role in what happened.

(Though honestly I think the person she'd be the most furious toward would be Svarog. His duty, like hers, was to protect Aesfrost, and instead he completely destroyed what little they might have had left.)

I feel like she'd spend a good while thinking about revenge against Hyzante in a "as the last semblance of anything like a leader that Aesfrost has, I'm obligated to avenge that which was destroyed" type of way. Possibly even to the point of actually trying to put together a resistance. But with the way Hyzante crushes people's spirits and manipulates resources to encourage 100% obedience, I feel like she would really struggle to gain ground in that respect.

You could also imagine that she runs into Frederica at some point in all this, since both of them would likely be on the outskirts of society and/or wanted criminals. I don't know for sure whether I could see them fully joining forces (mostly just think they'd butt heads over specific goals and methods for fighting back against Hyzante), but they'd for sure have a lot to talk about.

As far as Cordelia goes, I think Avlora wouldn't really want to blame her for everything that happened. Like Avlora would be aware that Cordelia wasn't innocent in it, but on some level I think she would just sort of mentally go "it cannot be Cordelia's fault because if it was her fault then it was also my fault. We were both just following orders. We were both doing what our nations demanded of us." And also I think she likely would consider Cordelia to be the closest thing to a friend she has left, and as a result would have a hard time giving that relationship up.

Their dynamic in the Wolffort Wedding extra story cracks me up and I also think it would be in-character for Cordelia to hunt Avlora down as soon as she hears rumors that Avlora is still alive. If that happens then I wholeheartedly believe Cordelia would take one look at Avlora (wearing the same clothing she had on when she fell into the Norzelia River more than a year ago) (hasn't eaten in a week because she's avoiding the Hyzantian ration handouts and won't accept any from other displaced Aesfrosti) (generally stressed out of her mind and regularly daydreams about throwing her life away on an assassination attempt on Idore) and Cordelia would just go "okay yeah no I'm going to nurse you back to health and you're going to like it."

Roland would probably catch onto this at some point and I do imagine he'd try to attack or otherwise apprehend Avlora (he might feel a little bad about it because Cordelia obviously cares about her, but he's also tied himself inexorably to Hyzante at this point and not apprehending the last bastion of the Aesfrosti army would go against everything he's committed himself to). But assuming Cordelia's a little older and has had time to recover from the war, I think she'd put up a fight to the point that he'd back off and turn a blind eye to Avlora so long as she doesn't try anything too aggressive.

Getting deeper into "this is just me writing fanfiction" territory, I'm a sucker for "veteran gets to lay down their sword" arcs and I think it'd be nice to see Avlora eventually distance herself from plans of revenge and instead focus her energy on supporting the remaining people of Aesfrost as a sort of community leader, possibly with Cordelia's help.

I also really love the idea that Avlora would run an orphanage at some point. Working with orphans would be a good way of satisfying Avlora's desire to protect those who are otherwise alone, and it's also just funny/sweet to imagine General "There is nothing more agonizing than a child glaring at you through tears" Avlora trying to, for example, get a three-year-old to do something they don't want to do. Her personality and values as a character lend to her being a pretty big pushover with kids while simultaneously not having any frame of reference for "how to gently coax a child to do something" and I think it'd be a good and humbling experience for her :)

[tristrattournament]

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