#The maelstrom

[pedroam-bang]

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

[brontios-helm]

Destiny 2: Commander And Company

[pippydog]

I love you retro futurism I love you edutainment I love you creative storytelling I love you unique character creation I love you practical effects I love you old EPCOT

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Maelstrom | Author: Henry H. Neff | Publisher: Random House (2012)

[honourablejester]

More Pathfinder: I’m watching Mythkeeper’s video on the Proteans, the ancient inhabitants of the Maelstrom and possibly the most ancient creatures in existence. Sidenote, the Maelstrom is incredibly cool, I adore it. But. As he’s going through the types of Proteans you can get, he mentions the voidworms as a … I was going to say ‘more animalistic’ but it’s less that and just … less concerned with big plans or conflicts, sort of cousins. And they’re adorable.

Voidworms are cheerful little 2ft long shimmering iridescent flying creatures that zoom around the foaming chaos of the Maelstrom uncaring of the machinations of their larger cousins. When they leave the raw foaming chaos of the Maelstrom, though, you get the following:

“Elsewhere (such as on the Material Plane), voidworms are mesmerized by the principle of object permanence; many latch onto specific features of a region (such as a hillside or pond) and flit through the air around it for months or even years as they wait for the object of their curiosity to change. Minor changes— such as a tree’s change of color in the fall, a corpse’s slow decay, or periodic venting of steam from a geyser—all fascinate voidworms.”

They’re dopey little flying fish serpents that basically like to fly around watching paint dry. Because they come from a realm of constant massive change, they just don’t get the way other planes tend to hold shapes and states a lot longer, and just hover around watching things to figure out when the changes are going to happen. It’s adorable. They’re so cute.

(They do have 8 INT, they have language, they can talk, they’re not animal-level intelligence, they just don’t really get permanence as a concept).

And I think … it would be really adorable if a character had a voidworm following them, not as a pet or a familiar or a slave or out of loyalty or anything like that, but just because the object the voidworm has gotten fascinated with is them? They have a little iridescent flying chaos worm flitting around after them just watching the way they slowly age in fascination. A cheerful, curious stalker who just follows them around being fascinated by their growth, their hair changing colour, their injuries, their healing, their scars, their wrinkles. Do they speak Protean? Can they learn it, to try and talk to the voidworm? Are they protective of the voidworm, even though it does nothing whatsoever to help them out, just because it was weird at first but now they’re attached? Does the voidworm get attached?

I just. I don’t want to say I want one, because they’re intelligent creatures and that would be weird, but I would love to meet a voidworm. They seem like really cool, chill creatures. It’d be cool to have one hanging around, you know?

Anyway. Pathfinder voidworms are really cute and I love them? Heh. Carry on.

[greengamernoob]

A queen is a queen

whether at sea or land .

Some don crowns.

Others, axe in hand.

Tis fool’s folly

What tests her right

To swing ‘er blade

Or sail at night

For a queen is a queen

Till her ire does stir

For she’s never afraid

To cuff a cur.

[moonfurthetemmie]

The Maelstrom and the beasts

Beasts

Those most at risk to turn into beasts are those who have trouble regulating their emotions. This is one of the things that Nightmare and Dream managed to find out before they died, though it had only been a theory. The others have since seen this proven as fact.

People like Cross and Error, who were close to a spirit, happen to have a slight immunity buff, but if it won’t save them if they can’t keep calm. There’s also only a handful of people like that. Finch and Ink may be the only other ones.

Hacker and Bobby are probably high risk wuh oh

Xena is very high risk and Cross is trying very hard to help her work on that, but Xena doesn’t want to work on it. She doesn’t want to fight this thing! No one else can seem to convince her to at least try.

The radiance beasts are called ‘radibeasts’ (said like ‘ray-dee-I beasts’), and the corruption beasts are ‘negabeasts’. Totally did not base the radibeasts off of the Sin Eaters from FFXIV: Shadowbringers. Me? Never

None of the beasts are sentient. 

The radibeasts’ blood glows gold, and the negabeasts’ tend to glow purple, but not always. Similarly, the radibeasts tend to come mostly in white, yellow/gold, and sometimes orange, while the negabeasts’ can come in any number of colors. This is because radiance and positivity are gold, and while negativity is purple, corruption’s color somewhat depends on the user. At least in DS and other kai + frey involved AU/MVs

The radibeasts and negabeasts will go after each other at any and every opportunity. The only thing they want to kill more are humans, monsters, and Corvus and Orion.

The Maelstrom

The Maelstrom, after it absorbs the old Tree’s magic, is able to form tentacle-like appendages from its body, made of it’s super toxic corruption or radiance. That’s why Orion was mumbling about calamari and squid

The Maelstrom might be sentient, but it couldn’t understand its surroundings for a while. It can only sense emotions, positivity, negativity, radiance, and corruption. It didn’t know Corvus and Orion were statues, and then destroying them would destroy the magic it wanted.

The Maelstrom controls the beasts. It directs them to certain places or people during a fight, and can command them to ‘retrieve’ things, such as the statues of a couple of spirits

The Maelstrom also acts almost entirely on instinct. It seeks out strong sources of positive or negative emotions and takes it for itself, turning it into magic for itself. It has no real goal except to ‘survive’, and as it’s own magic is constantly warring against itself, it needs to consume large amounts of magic frequently. 

It would likely spread to another multiverse if given the chance. 

Due to the Maelstrom’s nature, the multiverse is actually sitting in a balance between positivity and negativity! Unfortunately that balance is still fucked up right now somehow.

The Maelstrom, oddly enough, will leave unusually strong spirits alone until it can find a source of the opposing magic. For example, Dream’s radiance might’ve been a tempting target, but it didn’t have an equally powerful source of negativity, so it didn’t go after him right away. If it knocks its own shit out of balance, that’s not going to be good for it! Or anyone else, with how powerful it’s gotten. If it becomes purely negative or positive the whole multiverse will probably crash and burn. So that’s a fun thought.

Origin story!

In Corvus and Orion’s universe, a very small settlement of priests lived near the Tree. They had decided to try to help protect it, as a tree with this sort of magic must surely be very important. Lots of people, human and monster, seem to want to take the apples, too. 

Two of those people have been hatching a plan for a while now. And while they’re working out how to distract the priests, not realizing that there’s a guardian spirit as well, the humans run into this little creature. A little impish dude. A trickster. A little bastard, if you will.

The imp had tried to steal apples from the Tree before, evading the priests but being chased off by the guardian with a few scratches. They’re not too happy with the spirit guarding the Tree, and decide to be a little bitch about it. The humans don’t know this, though. 

The imp, disguised as a regular monster, asks the humans what they’re up to, and goes “oh? You wanna steal the apples? Well, I tried that once. I failed, but I’ve been working on a way to deal with the spirit. I can help you, if you promise to share.”

The humans agree, not realizing that by ‘share’ the imp meant ‘give them all to me’, and they all make a plan. 

The imp has been painstakingly working on a weapon that can deal with the Tree’s guardian. An ornate magic dagger, which they refuse to show the humans until the time comes.

During a short lapse in the priests’ active watches, they attack. The imp goes for the spirit, only for her to jump out of the way. They wind up stabbing the Tree itself instead, and before they can pull it out the spirit kills them, their hand still clasped around the hilt of the dagger. That’s um. Not good for the spirit. 

The priests had heard a commotion and come running, and the humans are forced to flee, but the spirit’s fuuucked. The priests can’t seem to heal her. 

She tells them the Tree is going to need a new guardian, and they’re all like “yes, yes, we will steal their firstborn children.”

“That’s. Oddly specific. and kind of medieval. But whatever i guess, as long as they can protect the Tree.”

The spirit expires, and they begin looking for the two humans that attacked with that little imp fucker.

…It seems like there’s still a presence inside the Tree, though.

They study the imp’s dagger and learn about many of the enchantments on it, but do not notice that it was also very capable of transferring certain energies. Guess what little bastard in stuck inside the tree

The process caused them to lose a lot of themself, though, and they’re essentially asleep. Once they wake up…weird shit starts happening, eventually leading up to the Maelstrom’s ‘birth.’ Anything of the person it once was is gone, now. They paid a much bigger price for their greed than they could’ve known.

[blackbloodedisabel]

me ranting to myself about the parallels and relationships between my OCs (it's 1am)

[mrdrgr]

The Maelstrom - Thrall Earth-Warder

#wow

The Maelstrom – Thrall Earth-Warder Ads The Maelstrom – Thrall Earth-Warder ASAP The Barrens – Ratchet

[privateolives]

Shocking new footage from the sahagin conflict rocks Limsa Lominsa.

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Magnificent Bastard Monday!

Today's Magnificent Bastard of the Week: Wazir "The Maelstrom" Kale

[mezzopurrloin]

Count Shax has fled from his manor to the hidden reliquary at the center of a frozen whirlpool. It is there that the Dragon will have to reach to end his terror once and for all.

[brontios-helm]

Destiny 2: The Distance, Halved

[bigmsaxon]

Day 29, fuck it - Maelstrom Miku!

[wr1t3w1tm3]

I'm sorry.

The forbidden ussy??!?!?!?!

Bro you can't just drop that on me while I'm in public.

I commend you, brave soul.

I know every potc fan worth their salt knows this already but the maelstrom really is such a genius set piece and I love how it's utilised. like one thing I've been noticing during my most recent rewatches is how the battle starts out a lot more controlled with everyone waiting for orders before they fire the cannons and such but then as the ships go further into the forbidden ussy everything just gets more and more chaotic. I think mr mercer's death is a part of this because he represents the control beckett - ie the natural world - has over jones so having him be present for the start of the battle before eventually getting killed off as they go deeper into the chaos is really nifty

[389]

‘maelstrom’ cabinet, hand sculpted by caleb woodard for kelly wearstler (2002)