#With first boss I mean like the one at the end of the crusade

[drawbudd]

played cult of the lamb with a controller for the first time but since it was kinda a cheapy one it had drift

So anyways I decided to see how hard I can make it for myself and ended up playing pentinence mode on extra hard difficulty along with controller drift (because that's how I am) and I beat the first boss first try!!

[the-artist-grimm]

What does Anthea do about spies/dissenters in the cult? Sorry if you answered before!

I've gotten an ask about dissenters previously, but not one about spies before!

Though all in all Anthea handles them almost the same as dissenters-they just get sent to Nona and usually either A, get so fed up with being bossed around by the old lady that they leave early or B, are forced to actually look at the cult as a community of people with names, personalities, and lives rather than just 'heretics' they can hand-wave off. Usually its the latter that happens since Anthea prefers trying to see the best in people first, especially since a lot of the bishops' followings are built on fear. Like for many they were born into the Old Faith and think the behaviors there are normal.

You catch more flies with honey, and when you're used to a leader whom would kill you without a second thought and fellow cultists who'd slit your throat to get ahead, spies suddenly finding themselves in an actual community where everyone tries to help each other can be a bit of a reality check.

Though that's not to say that Anthea takes no precautions. Dissenters are annoying but are typically quicker to subdue/are usually just angry over their pride being hurt or unused to community life. Spies however have a mission with an expectation of reward in the end. Their job is to gather information such as Anthea's movements, cult numbers, plans, weak points, ect.-things that can be used to launch an attack or hinder Anthea's crusades.

The first spy appeared not long after Barbatos' defeat, meaning the cult had 3 of Chaos' disciples in its ranks. Amdusias, Valefar, and Barbatos. (which unrelated sidenote why did I think that all the mini-bosses were witnesses??? I've been calling them all witnesses this whole time, gonna have to go edit some texts it seems now KEKW. Anyway...) As the rest of the cult was unable to fight due to either inexperience or physical injuries, Anthea decided to create a new role within the cult-one where former high-ranking generals or disciples of the Bishops, once proven trustworthy, are permitted to act at their discretion IF a threat arises when Anthea's not present. They know how to fight and how to get around outside the cult grounds without dying, and thus if a spy turns violent are allowed to physically defend, or if the spy flees they are permitted to follow and intercept. Later on as Witnesses are added they too are given the same permission, though as they trend far older (likely centuries even with many having been beside their Bishops for a long, long time), Anthea usually has them work in more scholarly areas instead.

[kneelingshadowsalome]

As a history and Mythological lover, I love your works, they are so addictive, and you write so well, and the Minotaur konig fic was such a pleasure to read. I remember when you first uploaded the Roman konig story and I was so ecstatic about it, I remember checking on my break at work, If you’d uploaded another part haha, I mean I still check tumblr on my breaks to see who had uploaded so I know what I can read after I get home lol.

I think you’ve found your niche!

Also if you don’t mind answering what other time periods you’d think konig would fit in? Victorian era?

Nasty, oily and covered in coal, konig is walking home through the streets and bumped into a clean wealthy beautiful young woman, ooh do I love forbidden romances, just like your nun fic lol.

Ahh thank you! Mythology, fairytales and historical au’s are a passion of mine 😭

And puh-leeze, a forbidden romance between a dirty worker and a rich uptown girl? Filthy coal miner König who bumps into this fancy lady dressed in white? How can he ever make up for his clumsiness?? Please don’t have him beaten like the poor bastard he is, he already fucked up today by accidentally destroying boss’s new machinery by showing off his strength...

Tries to steal a peek at her ankles, and under her dress while dusting off her skirts with some napkin that’s hardly much cleaner than his hands. And she’s just giggling at him – great, now he’s hard... How is he going to explain this when he rises from here?? (Rich lady also being protected at all costs from dirty dogs like him! He's soon panting at her door!)

As for other historical au’s and fairytales... >:)

CW: Fear of SA (historical au), wife stealing (yandere fairytale imagine)

Obviously I see König as this dark knight of the Teutonic Order, punishing pagans with his sword somewhere in the wild woods of old Europe. How about another forbidden romance between a cold-hearted crusader & a cute pagan girl who lives in the woods and worships the old gods?

She gets captured during some awful raid, and is pulled into the camp by her hair, angry tears streaming down her face. The soldiers tie her to a thick wooden cross and leave her in the rain, probably to have their way with her later, taking turns with her after they've gambled and had a drink. Then this dark, giant knight happens to walk by, not a regular foot soldier but an actual knight with armor as black as night. She remembers him from the battlefield, wielding a fat morningstar, splitting people’s skulls from atop the huge black destrier he rode...

A terrible beast, dark and silent and big, the rain batters his helmet as he takes one look at the shivering maiden on the cross, her white linen dress glued to her skin in the downpour, and stops.

The soldiers have a crude sense of humour and what’s arousing, but he has seen worse… The knights of the Holy Order are even more perverted when it comes to having “fun” with women. But something pierces his defense when seeing the frightened stare of this pagan girl, her weak body trembling on the cross, the wide dark nipples perked up from cold. He’s seen so much death, his soul is drenched in blood by this point, but somehow, this woman who hasn’t even been broken in is the last straw.

Ends up taking her down, and she attaches herself to him like he’s her saviour, even the cold black armor apparently warmer to her skin than the cold rain. The cruelest of knights feels a moment of pity for this girl and sets her free, pushes her to the woods and waves his hand in a gesture of Get the hell out of here while you still can. (=gtfo before I get hard enough to take you in the mud...)

Months later, she finds him bleeding to death under a tree after a battle. All the other soldiers are screaming and crying for their mothers, but this one is silent, eyes darkening when he recognizes her. He says something, already delusional, and she can’t help but kneel and offer him water…

(and from this point on it would go somewhere in @wordstome s Kosovo maiden territory, perhaps slightly darker? But you get the point!)

And then there’s this old Inuit story that always reminds me of König, it has many variations but it’s basically about this lonely hunter who gets a little too resentful for not having a wife yet. Goes to paddle his boat in these moonlit waters and sees a bunch of maidens dancing in the moonlight on a small little island, notices their seal skins on the ground, and because he’s lonely and in despair, he steals one of them.

One by one, the maidens put their seal skins on and rush back into the water, but one woman can’t find her seal skin no matter how hard she looks for it. The hunter emerges, holding her beautiful skin, saying he’ll give it back to her if she comes to live as his wife for 7 years. She has no other choice but to say yes, and for a while they live happily, they even have a son, but then the seal woman starts to miss her seal skin and the sea...

It’s a tragic tale and the hunter won’t let her leave even if she cries so this would make a wonderful yandere scenario, you could always make a twist and write the woman as some other animal, a deer perhaps, and König as this lonely brooding hunter of the Austrian mountains :)

[theadhddimsenion]

Some ideas for helluva boss episodes and short that I have had for both a long time and a short time.

Episodes.

Guardian @$$hole!. The plot revolves around blitz by some mistake getting his very own guardian angel and more specifically a power of the second sphere an angel specifically designed to kill demons and dark spirits. After blasting through the same wall that is nearly always destroyed and explaining that he wasn't here to kill them the angel confesses that he doesn't understand why his higher ups want him to guard a demon but he's not the type to question orders. The angel in contrast to a lot of the cast has a very solem and sacred energy to him feeling much more like how you would imagine an angelic warrior as opposed to the comical cherubs and the hedonistic adam being very dutiful and tact but the problem is that he is a power so that means that he is very smite first ask questions never and that poses a problem because now blitz has to make sure for example the angel doesn’t smite loona over making a sarcastic comment towards him and this only become a bigger and funnier problem as blitz tries to go through life with this seemingly invicable and perfectly moral angelic warrior always a few feet away from him. Eventually blitz has had enough when the angel stops him and his crew from doing their job but another problem is the fact that they can't force the angel to leave stolas mentioned that even a full strength goetia would struggle to overcome a power so they can't make him leave and he won't leave on his own as he is committed to his orders so the team try and think up ideas to make the angel leave throwing around ideas but none of them can think of anything that would work but as the angel absently mindedly goes through blitzs desk after blitz told him to wait in the office he finds out about veroskias hate party and finds his next target.

The next day everyone is happy that the angel seemingly left on his own but when loona goes to her phone she finds on the news that the angel was going on a rampage and headed towards veroskias Manison smashing through the streets of hell like the doom slayer not ever responding to some of the attacks. The gang immediately race after the him but nothing they do even slows his advance smashing his way through the Manison determined to find and smite veroskia for her disrespect towards the imp he had been assigned to and just as his sword is about to chop veroskia in half he finaly got his proper orders and stops his attack he notes how blitz and his found family risked their lives for someone who had done nothing but cause trouble for them and with that he admits that he had underestimated helldorns potential for righteousness and after thanking them for helping him see beyond the world he was raised in he flies off back to heaven and the episode ends.

A few other ideas I had for episodes that are much less fleshed out are.

1. The team having to help a seemingly immortal human with (cw) assisted suicide.

2. Some alternative ideas for ways to teach stolas the errors of his ways pre mastermind such as having to deal with his angel counterpart shem malaphiatis (I definitely got that wrong) and his prefect "yaoi fanfic" esqu relationship with his lizard cherub boyfriend named bolt and trying to spitefully ruin their relationship out of envy but eventually apologizing for his behavior and learning his lesson.

3. A stolitz bodyswap episode inspired by a piece of fanart.

4. Various crossovers with franchises like doom, devil may cry, bayonetta, supernatural, ghostbusters, scp foundation, owl house, spawn, hellboy, trench crusade, Buffy the vampire slayer, bendy, my little pony, good omens, etc etc.

5. Ronaldo coming back for revenge in a role reversed verison of ghostfuckers where blitz supports millie this time.

6. A bunch of ideas about an episode where the boys are the smart and mature ones and the girls are the ones who need to be saved.

7. Octativa doing some detective work.

8. Stolitz is having their first healthy date at ozzies along side m&m as fizz and ozzies way of making it up to them after what happened last time but while couples are enjoying a nice double date the b team consisting of loona, fizz, octativa (who is here because while she still resents her father a little she isn't willing to let him die as proven in sinsmas) and vassago have to fend off an army of dhorks agents now fitted with proper weapons (they still have some edo period stuff on them of course but it's modified with sci fi gadgetry), Stella's personal legion of actual goetian legionaries but most of them couldn't stand her and quit so she hired a bunch of half rate Mercs to blostier her forces led by an exhausted striker and an army of mammons fizz bots led by the one from loo loo land! Bonus! Fizz gets to pull a megamind button of doom and defeat his past by blowing up an evil robot verison of himself.

9. Veroskia gets captured by the dhorks and the i.m.p team reluctantly save her with blitz and Vero finaly putting their past behind them once and for all.

10. Veroskia learning she had a half human (cambrion) son and having to deal with her own pre development loona. With gags like who I'm gonna call Daimen sarcasticly asking if blitz is his father.

11. Another one with veroskia has her fizz and blitz all work together to bring down glitz and glam.

12. One that involves the team getting stranded on earth of at least a week.

13.loona getting saved from hells animal control.

14. The team going up against a human magic user.

15. A trip to the real world non Canon episode where blitz argues then makes out with Brandon.

Shorts.

1. The i.m.p employees training tapes.

2. Paimons guide to daddying ft. Cash buckso and crimson knowlastname.

3. Loona vs emberlynns brother.

4. Mille vs her pregnancy. 0-1

5. Barbies adventures with Jimmy.

6. The team get summoned by a demonic cult and have a spa day.

7. They go to the shinto underworld and meet/annoy the local demons such as oni. Moxxie gers really into that anime about the singing music programs.

8. The team have a trip to Europe and meet the friend of the famous Lincoln imp who warms them about keeping those close to you safe and the dangers of messing with angels.

9. X fails the adventures of the dhorks.

10. The return of blitzs little goat friend!

11. The slur penguins strik back feat Andy!

12. Millie was wrong ghost are real and blitz finally gets to fuck them!

13. Loona just has one nice day out.

14. The life of Pringle.

15. Pixar bloopers!

16. Little stolas and little stella doing a chowder and pani skit.

17. Blitz recapping the series with his horse ocs.

18. Blitz goes to equestria and has to be forced to leave like in Mabel land (theirs potential for a crossover there) after fluttershy reassures him.

19. Sally gets an adventure all to herself in the hellish world of babysitting m&m's kid who is a demon child in more ways then one!

20. Bltiz hires a doom imp and things sure do happen!

21. Mammons sales pitches!

22. The cherubs trying to help people who really can't be helped.

23. A day in the life of your average imp.

[horderlock-aeonsland]

A Schizoanalysis of Everhood 2 - Slime Sex, DMT Jesters and the Denial of Enlightenment.

This originally started as my thoughts and critics of Everhood 2 as a whole, but the more I ruminated on the characters and what's presented in the story, the more I found myself entranced in the interpretation of what the game is trying to tell you.

In short, I believe Everhood 2 is about denial of Enlightenment.

If Everhood 1 shares a view on Buddhism, accepting death and achieving Enlightenment, Everhood 2 does the opposite and instead shows you all the ways people lose themselves in their journey to ascending.

This is a point that gets repeated again, and again, and again, and again.

You are here. You are still here. Why?

It never ends in Everhood.

Everything in Everhood 2 is related to the Light Being and the Shade, they are the true 'God' of the world, and the world is their consciousness.

That 'world' is meant for the Light Being's ascension, their Enlightenment - But that never happens. There is no "Good Ending" in Everhood 2. You cannot go alone on your Crusade of Death, despite what Evren tells you. The Gnomes and the Mushrooms tell you this is Just one More Adventure, yet you can never complete it.

Why?

It never ends in Everhood - A Lost Soul's Disorder

Think about all the characters Shade uses as puppets. Bobo "Becomes God" by drinking the "Elixir of Truth". Riley "Becomes God" just by requesting it. All these characters try to achieve Enlightenment by taking the easy route, skipping the path altogether. There is never a journey like the one Red/Pink goes through in Everhood 1's "True Ending". The Light Being is the light being too disordered to achieve enlightenment.

Lucy is a representation of hedonism, indulgent sexuality. She is locked away in one of the areas you can first meet her. Repressed. "The repression of sexual desires can lead to neuroses, and what is repressed often emerges in dreams, art, or perversions." Taboo urges, vices of the soul that get in the way of enlightenment, that feeds the creation of the Shadow-Self.

It never ends in Everhood - The Longing of Self-Destruction

The Identity of the Shade.

I think most people agree on what the Shade represents. They are the counterpart of the Light Being, the second-half in Duality, Chris Nordgren's self-insert, and finally - They are the Shadow-Self. What I also believe, is that they're the Narrator from Everhood 1 - The one that delivers the Absolute Truths. Why?, This specific ending from Everhood 1 is where it's most apparent..

Some people come off from Everhood 2 believing the Shade's words.

While "Evil" as a concept can have a variety of meanings, Shade is absolutely the Antagonist, and as the Shadow-Self. All he does is to impede the Light Being from achieving Enlightenment, this is his role in the narrative, and the message of Everhood 2. He is the barrier that keeps 'Duality' from becoming 'Oneness'. When fighting "Scary Shade", Shade symbolically and literally tells the player that the only two outcomes for the search for Enlightenment - For a "satisfying ending" - Are either Insanity, or Stagnation.

He does this while holding a pendulum clock, mind you, because it's hypnosis. It's a conclusion he has to convince the player of, because that is his role as the Shadow-Self.

He is in line with the Homunculi. Tricksters, Jesters, Opportunists. They are not living beings, not humans or higher beings. Their realm is the chaotic in-between of different planes of existence and states of being. For those familiar with the idea of DMT Jesters, they are basically that. Thriving on interrupting the human experience. Just like the Shade represents eternal vanity, distractions from completing your goals and reaching true enlightenment.

And why does he mock Sam so?

Sam is afraid of Fate. Afraid of Darkness. Afraid of what he's meant to become.

"I know this place." "That place scares me..."

Sam being afraid of darkness is representing that he is afraid of confronting his own Shadow-Self, afraid of his own Shade. It's another Denial of Enlightenment.

If we want to be pedantic, what does the Shade say he is in his boss-fight? "I am the end of all your dreams" "I am the need in you for more." 

If you want to be a downer, you could say the Shade wins in Everhood 2 because it exists out of principle. His existence, and the game's existence as a whole is like telling the player "Why are you playing a game instead of reaching Enlightenment?"

It never ends in Everhood - Limitless Self-Discovery

Let's pose a question. If Everhood 2's world is the Light Being's consciousness, why does Evren say she created the world? Why does she say that God made her create it, and why does she stand in our way even when "Destroying the World" is something the Light Being can never achieve in the first place? "This is how it usually goes for you "light beings". You wander around these realms, and after a certain amount of time, you start daydreaming. The human experience has a tendency to numb you with physical restraints, such as: Ears, Mouths, Nose, Eyes... It can take some time to dissociate from these phantom illusions. But soon enough, these mirages fade and you are left with nothing but the mind."

Evren has a striking resemblance to the Lost Spirits, and as we are told in Everhood 1, becoming a Lost Spirit tends to happen after dying and remembering something from your life. And like Raven continues his monologue about Light Beings...

The only way that Evren can have created the world, this Consciousness, is if it belonged to her in the first place. The Id, the Ego and the Superego.

"In Freudian psychoanalysis, the ego, which mediates between the id's desires and the superego's moral constraints, might strive to weaken or even "kill" the superego to reduce internal conflict and allow for more unrestrained expression of the id's impulses..." This is the reason I propose Evren wants to kill the Light Being - And even when she fails at that, the death of the Ego still allows the Shade to win at the end.

It never ends in Everhood - The Labyrinth of the Soulless Dimension

In the end (Which may I remind you, nevers), what does this mean for Everhood 2? I still think the game was rushed for anniversary release, but I stand by the point that it was always meant as an "opposite" to Everhood 1, a counter-point, and a continuation of the theme that the "Quests never End!". It's a reflection of Backwards Obsession players had with the first Everhood, and a reflection of how one can fail to reach Enlightenment. If Everhood 1 was about letting go of your body, of accepting Death, and having a Buddha telling you how to achieve Enlightenment, then Everhood 2 with it's mechanical, facsimile of Buddha shows you what happens when you try to skip the steps, how stumbling into your own vices and failing to reach Enlightenment may look like. There was no point in reinforcing the message of the first game, so if what they were going for is even near to what I proposed here, I think it was a clever way of going about it. The souls of Everhood, created by the Godmachine/Shade/Chris Nordgen as they may be, residing in the Sludge of Everhood's 2 reality, still can ascend in their own timeline. Pink can still learn to move on, or he can find purpose anew in becoming a Soul Weapon - As temporary as that may be...

[warsofasoiaf]

Alright. I'll bite. What do you make of sad boi Vlad, sorry, I mean Messmer the Impaler?

When I first saw Messmer the Impaler in the trailer, there was some stuff that I figured out going in. He was a demigod, responsible for Marika's brutal purge in the Land of Shadow. A genocidal warlord waging a war so brutal that no one outside of it could ever be made aware of its existence. Given my experience with FromSoft games, I should perhaps have known better than to simply accept it all at face value. Messmer has been stated by Miyazaki as being one of GRRM's favorite characters that just couldn't find his way into the base game. What we get is brutal, as FromSoft loves to give.

Messmer is barely hinted at in the first game, an off-hand reference to a "forgotten son" which could have easily been applied to Mohg or Morgott, cast off into the Subterranean Shunning Grounds. The Impaler's Catacombs, and the bodies of giants on the Mountaintop, impaled as befits Messmer's sobriquet. His vibrant red hair suggests that he was a son to Radagon, and this has some issues with the timeline. He must have been in the Lands Between, and not the Lands of Shadow, after Radagon's marriage to Renalla in order to successfully have Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight and sister to Rennala, join his crusade. However, he is an "older brother" to Radahn, who was borne of Radagon's union with Rennala. That means Marika must have had Messmer either before her marriage to Godfrey and the position of Elden Lord (before she became a god) or she had taken Radagon as a lover while Godfrey was her consort making Messmer a bastard. Of these two, I actually like the second thematically, Messmer being shunted to do the cruel, unfortunate, unwanted task of destroying those without the grace of Gold in the Lands of Shadow.

As further proof that Radagon was Messmer's father, Messmer, like Malenia and Miquella, was born with a terrible curse. From birth, Messmer was afflicted with the Abyssal Serpent, a terrible, transcendent curse that Marika tried to cure in vain. First, she attempted to cure him with the Blessing of Marika, but it availed him not. Much as we see with Malenia and Miquella's curses, the power of Marika and/or Radagon is incapable of ending the afflictions inflicted upon the children of their divine self-cest by other Outer Gods. What Outer God afflicted the Abyssal Serpent, and what relation this serpent may have had, if any, to Rykard's blasphemous studies regarding the God-Devouring Serpent, is unknown. When that failed, Marika plucked out Messmer's eye and placed a seal of grace upon him, sealing the serpent away, a seal which holds until the Tarnished forces Messmer to unseal it during their boss fight. This is fascinating, because we do not see a similar seal of grace placed upon Malenia to seal away her rot or Miquella to restore his ability to age. Maybe the Abyssal Serpent is a wholly weaker curse that it could be sealed by the grace of gold. Maybe Marika permanently weakened herself with such a seal that she could not replicate the feat with her other cursed children. Whatever the case, we do know that whatever Messmer had to keep the serpent in check, it lasted until his death when he willingly surrendered it - it did not creep out of his body the way the Scarlet Rot leaked out of Malenia and infested the Haligtree.

At some point after the incorporation of Caria into the Golden Order, Marika charged Messmer with going into the Land of Shadow, to cleanse the land with flame. All those without the guidance of grace would perish by Messmer's flame. Messmer would serve as the focal point for the wrath of the Hornsent, and as death centered in the Lands of Shadow with the spectral gravestone piling higher and higher, it was Messmer who they cursed. Messmer would pursue this crusade with abject cruelty with an assortment of troops, commoners, nobles, from across the Golden Order's lands. Those who followed Messmer were of mixed loyalty - his Fire Knights were said to truly know him and his serpentine nature, while Black Knight Commander Andreas and his son Huw rebelled when they learned of the serpent within. Rellana was known to be absolutely loyal in her belief, as was Commander Gaius, both would rise to be Messmer's senior leaders, and swore away any rights and titles they would have in the Lands Between to pursue his crusade. And pursue it he did, breaking Belurat Tower Settlement and sealing away the Divine Gateway, impaling the Hornsents great Dancing Lions and destroying them as a people, now reduced to mere fringes and scattered survivors desperately hiding from Marika's crusade.

Messmer however, is not simply a cackling villain. Deep under the Shadow Keep, he tends to the wounded jars that the Hornsent brutalized, trying to give what comfort he can to Marika's people, tortured in the Bonny Village, butchered and melded into viscera to be made into saints for the Hornsents own attempts to create divinity on earth. When his men betrayed him, he gave them honorable burials, wanting to give regard to their intent both to come with him on the crusade and stick to his beliefs.

Marika's intentions were to seal Messmer away, to consign him to the Land of Shadow, fearful of the serpent that he carried within him. When Messmer marched to the Land of Shadow, it was a one-way trip. He would be forgotten by the Lands Between, cursed by the Land of Shadow, and he would receive no sense of recompense. Messmer burned inside just as he burned those with his flames, and yet, he was committed. Even as it continued with no end in sight, he continued to throw the Hornsent into the great Furnace Golems, continued to dispatch troops to wander the Land of Shadow and slay those without the grace of gold. His troops began to resent Marika, even in the Shadow Keep, statues of Marika are often decapitated as the people realize they're perpetually sentenced to stain their souls for eternity, a new twist on hell. The cruelty once given to Marika's people by the Hornsent is now visited back on them, forever, trapping everyone in a negative nexus from which neither body nor soul escapes.

Messmer as a boss is a tremendous presentation. From his first words, he sounds properly menacing - and yet your presence makes him wonder. Why does a Tarnished, bereft of grace and banished from the Lands Between, now come to take the mantle of Elden Lord? His moves are sinewy and flowing, like a snake. He looks lean, hungry, ever bit the sinister villain he was depicted in the trailer. He dances, jumps, and integrates his spear and flame spells artfully. He constantly puts pressure on the player, and his combos are fast but predictable. He can summon spears to impale you, and use the same flame spells that his Fire Knights used that kept pestering you as you climbed up the Specimen Storehouse, as well as a big one of his own creation.

When Messmer is wounded enough, he realizes that his own strength is insufficient, he apologizes to Marika, and tears out the seal of grace within his own eye, unleashing the Abyssal Serpent in his body. His new move set adds visually impressive serpents, such as the Orb of Messmer being in the abyssal serpent's mouth, and his dive engulfing him in serpents. His form changes as well, not just his empty eye socket. His legs change to look like serpent scales, he sheds his armor like a snake. The Hornsent, if he was summoned, exalts in the glory of Messmer's new form, as to the Crucible, the melding of life and the taking on of aspects of it was considered holy. The snakes not only make Messmer more intimidating, but they distract the player from dodging, incentivizing panic rolling and upping the pressure while decreasing Messmer's punish windows. It's a proper fight, start to finish.

When the Tarnished finally cuts him down, Messmer falls, cursing Marika for the things she compelled him to do. To become a figure of hatred due to the circumstances of his birth, to wage a war for Marika's glory that he could never share. To be separated from his siblings - Radahn who he regarded with fondness as a younger brother, and Melina who was also cursed with visions of fire (and possibly also inherited the Gloam-Eye from the previous Empreyean of the Godskin Apostles thus making them share in a curse contained within their eyes), and possibly others - after all, everyone seemed to love Godwyn the Golden.

Messmer: genocidal warlord and deeply wounded fighter. Commanded to be despised, he did the despicable to the despicable, and the genocide that defined Marika's life would in turn define Messmer's, until all that was left was a bitter shell wrapped around a curse, cut down by the Tarnished, cursing the mother that condemned him.

Thanks for the question, Mist.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[bellepeppergirl]

The Rauh Civilization

Throughout the base game, there were always strange structures that I and many others wondered about. They were pillars and platforms built into or out of the cliffsides; almost looking as if they were holding the very world up. These ruins could be found everywhere, but never were the explained, nor did we get to see much of them aside from these pillars and platforms, save for two locations; the Highroad Cave in Limgrave and the Ruin-Strewn Precipice connecting Liurnia and Altus.

It would not be until the DLC came out that we got anymore information about these ruins, which came with the Rauh Ruins in the Northeastern region of the Lands of Shadow. Even then, information is rather scarce, as these locations and the cultures that inhabit them seem incredibly ancient.

If I were to hazard a guess, my first idea would be that the people of Rauh were the original inhabitants of the land when the Lands Between and Land of Shadow were one; existing before the arrival of Marika's people or even the Hornsent. I would also assume they were likely the worshippers of the Crucible as we can find Devonia in the Rauh Ruins, as well as the Bird Warriors and Golden Hippos, all of which use Aspects of the Crucible.

Devonia in particular was said to have set out on her own to search for the Crucible, so her being in this location suggests to me that this place has to be very important to and connected to that which she is looking for.

Throughout Rauh, we can also find statues of a strange woman.

We have no idea who this woman is as of yet, nor what her significance was. I have seen some put forward the idea that she herself is Rauh, but I am personally of the opinion that Rauh was simply the name of region/nation and its culture, rather than a singular person. Regardless, she is objectively important to them and this place; possibly even being the god the Lands Between during the Age of the Crucible prior to the take over of the Hornsent and then Marika.

Her outfit also has some similarity to good ol' Elden John from the base game, who is notably absent from the DLC, as is much of the architecture we currently associate with the underground and the Uld Palace Ruins. It's possible these two cultures had some connection; possibly being one in the same or, perhaps the people of Rauh were not the first to inhabit the land, but took it from the Uld people, only to have the land taken by the Hornsent, and then taken again by the Golden Order. Perhaps this cycle of taking land and erasing ancient cultures is far older than we realize.

Another idea I had about the Rauh lady is that she could be Romina. Evidence? Well, she's the boss of Rauh, and Romina's Kindred can be found around the base of the ruins, as well as within alongside some good old rot puddles. We also never see what Romina looked like before her transformation, save for her silhouette during the crusade in the Story Trailer for the DLC. The end point of Rauh is also notably a church filled with Rot and Romina, which could imply that this area and civilization was one that worshipped the Rot, which I have mentioned in a previous post has its own sort of cycle of life, death, and rebirth like the Golden Order did. Rot's power is rather intense; after all, just look at Caelid. There's also the Lake of Rot, which connects to the Grand Cloister, which has the Uld civilization ruin architecture and Elden John statues, possibly linking these two once more, but it could also just be a coincidence.

One idea that I am a fan of is that the Rauh people are actually Ancestral Followers. The title of Ancestral implies an ancient heritage, which of course could simply imply the worship, or follow, their ancestors, but perhaps it also means they are the ancestral people of these lands; the natives who were looked down upon for their "primitive" ways by the overzealous Golden Order, and thus shunned and left to live underground. It would not be the only time undesirables found themselves trapped underground, after all. And, once again, this may connect Uld to Rauh, as Uld is a place where we can find Ancestral Followers. In fact, it is the only place they can be found above ground.

Rauh also seems a bit like a tomb. This is a weak connection, but if they are worshippers of their ancestors, a giant tomb would be fitting. Additionally, Hornsent legend speak of ancient Horned Warriors, whom their own horned warriors are based upon, according to their item descriptions. The Ancestral Followers are seen wearing headdresses of horns and antlers, possibly implying that they were the horned warriors of legend who the Hornsent appropriated following the banishment of the Followers, or that they too revered some ancient horned warrior and sought to imitate them in the same manor as the Hornsent.

Another idea that I had was that these people worshipped Eiglay; the God-Devouring Serpent. We learn there were worshippers from the Serpent Curved Sword, which can be found in the Ruin-Strewn Precipice. Their potential reverence of snakes could explain why they would be erased from history, assuming they were. Aside from that though, and the Sword of Light being available in Rauh, which connects to the Sword of Dark, which loosely connects maybe to the Abyssal Serpent, and then the snake skin in the Land of Shadow... there's not much there.

Once again, I'll have to do some more digging around and stuff to come to more conclusive conclusions, but it's also possible that all we'll ever be able to do is speculate, and that's part of the fun. Would love to hear any other potential theories. One thing we can be sure of, however, is that the Rauh people were likely once a dominant civilization in the Lands Between pre-split and that, whoever they are and whatever happened to them, they are seemingly gone and forgotten; possibly even intentionally so.

[folcanta]

i'm trying to summarise the way i engage with the fiction i really enjoy, like, the divide between enjoying its presentation at face value and enjoying pulling it apart to see how it works. in trying to talk about it through text it's sorta hard to avoid coming off as pretentious instead of earnest, so just know the crux of this is that i'm both fun funny and whimsical and also deadly fucking serious.

contains spoilers for escaflowne and jjba. and i guess metal gear?

i love to feel. i love melodrama. i love art which seeks to consume you, to share a body with you, briefly, to remind you what it is to feel a feeling. not in literal form (and melodrama is usually taken to mean "flat", lacking subtlety) but a fantastical representation of an ache deeply felt— and in that way it becomes more real than anything. the desperate dejection of the father in INTO THE WEST. the hard and physical, breathless, and then suddenly floating, drifting mood at the end of HEAT.

i've never been much of a shipper or whatever because most of the time, with the stuff i really love, focusing on that feels like a distraction. i don't enjoy Ace Attorney through the lens of phoenix/edgeworth, because i find their canon (and implications therein) friendship (along with larry) so riveting, i want to follow that thread to its many conclusions. if that makes me sound like a joyless crank, um... well, i'm not.

my JJBA OTP, namesake of this blog lol, is a personal delusion yes, but the reason why it struck me the way that it did is because it's based on a moment in JJBA which is then repeated with other characters going forward— a turning point between two people (this is key to it also, that it suddenly turns intimate) which expands the story right out from under you, a painful rugpull, a literary move. it's not solely about the plot expanding— the plot of stardust crusaders remains the same— but the entire work expands because the author has suddenly revealed that there was always more going on, and to stay on your toes. shaking your foundation. everything is the same and everything has begun to change. that's what grips me about it, that's why i find it so romantic, and i mean that in a classical sense too.

going back to Ace Attorney, most of those turning point moments are expressed/developed by the story of the familial bond between maya and phoenix. because that is/coincides with the actual plot, i don't really find myself inventing new "what if?" relationships because i'm so satisfied by the presentation of the facts.

i think the storyline of MGS3: Snake Eater falls into this too. you know what your mission is, and can expect what will happen, but the heartbreak of finally fulfilling what it promises feels completely new once you reach it. the Boss is like the peak example of characters who are aware of their narrative, aware of the role they're made to play by forces beyond their control, and despite being correct, must suffer for it. in my own work i tend to call this The (trans) Male Cassandra, because that's the type of guy i keep writing, almost like i have a vested interest in doing so. it's in this one way that i think characters like n'doul and jotaro are similar, and that's not only rare, but the way it's presented is rare too. especially for a story like stardust crusaders. but from there on, because of it being in stardust crusaders, i can see the future more clearly, and i can hold the story to a higher standard, because it's also holding me as a reader to a higher standard.

spoiler | the way n'doul reacts to jotaro, what he says about him, admires about him, laments to him, tells us more about how we should see jotaro. the way jotaro reacts to him does the same thing. in this singular fight, first jotaro is freaked the fuck out, then they're both having fun and mutual respect is earned and acted upon. when we realise jotaro means to keep n'doul alive, the reader is abruptly put in a position of knowing what's about to come before jotaro does. he should, but he doesn't, because, for this one moment, he thought something else was possible. even the type of death is different (suicide) and jotaro's reaction is different (shock/horror.) we saw rules, we suddenly see exceptions to rules, we knew what to expect, suddenly those expectations are changed— and the immediate tragedy of possibility denied. watching him try to do something we know isn't going to work out also serves to make him seem younger, and putting this in sometime before the fight with dio is a good reminder that he's human.

spoiler | it's a big part of what compels me about folken, as well as what i find bottomlessly heartbreaking about him. death seems to be a necessary component of the role of the seer/cassandra, but escaflowne shows us how desperate and dire the escape from fear and violence is. this being folken's ultimate aim above all else (to free van from the cycle), and hitomi pleading with him saying if he dies, then van will be all alone... hitomi is telling me why it doesn't make sense, and the story then sets it up such that it lacks even the paltry comfort of closeness, if not catharsis, for van. at that point in the story, i can't help but find it cruel in a way i don't find n'doul to be, or even the boss. cruelty is done to the boss in the storyline, the internal world is cruel to her. you can critique the "fridging" or whatever, but it isn't a departure. it doesn't unravel the story, it's key to it, for all time.

i was telling my partner that when it comes to something like Metal Gear or Ace Attorney, the quality of the thing imo speaks entirely for itself. if someone doesn't like it, or focuses on only some minute aspect of it, or goes off on a mad one interpreting signs and symbols that imo aren't there, the thing speaks for itself so loudly and plainly that any difference of opinion rolls right off my back.

then with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure it's similar, where i think araki's career and evolution of maturity in his storytelling and contemplation speaks for itself too, but my experience in the fandom (going way back now) was of people who claimed to enjoy it admitting they neither read nor even watched it, and were in no way capable of or interested in taking it as a piece of art. instead it was something to consume through someone else's summary, as fast as possible. which made having genuine conversations about it difficult when i'd try to talk about textual aspects of the series. conversations were dominated by moralising and headcanons. so compared to the above, i do feel more moved to defend it on that basis.

there's a nasty habit of presuming araki is a fucking slapdash idiot and that none of his choices have any internal coherence, which is plainly wrong, rude, anti-intellectual, and past a certain point, probably racist. the man has written books about his approach to writing manga and there's decades worth of interviews for more. but the game of telephone people play with JJBA in lieu of any sincerely felt relationship to it is a barrier i have a hard time talking through. so while it bothers me and i still try to talk it up, ultimately i have to shrug this off. we're having two different conversations.

then with Escaflowne i feel like i have to defend her with a knife LOL.

i know this isn't literally true, but having seen and read and talked a lot over the years, it seems like a huge chunk of people on earth are coming to it with either preconceived notions and expectations or preconceived notions in the form of feelings crystalised at grade school age. the latter isn't a criticism, it's life, it happened to me. if your feelings crystalised simply but positively, i do believe it was for a reason; you felt something and couldn't make heads or tails of it then. or you attributed it to something which then becomes something else later.

i'm not going to pretend there's no alternative to liking escaflowne, lol, i understand disliking it. however, dislike shouldn't preclude one from respecting it/taking it seriously. i talk about this below, but designating a piece of art— particularly from a time period in which art was funded, lol— valueless, especially foreign art, isn't something i personally want to be caught doing.

preconception of any kind is hard to disentangle because it must be tested. i think it was like that for me, and now with my adult perspective i can really easily point to what about it stirred and stuck with me because i have a map of creative work from then to now which points to it. (particularly in writing, if not art, though i think the film particularly informed my sensibilities.) and i'm still surprised by many things i missed. even if emotionally they landed, conceptually they didn't. which is why i really believe that in key respects it Is that deep.

i see people compare it to magic knight rayearth, but it's simply the truth that escaflowne sought to accomplish different things than rayearth and for a different audience. rayearth's narrative in the manga and anime is furibund in a way escaflowne isn't. escaflowne's masterful approach to pacing means episodes can fit a lot in them without being hectic— what frenzy there is, it's sustained only within the scene for which it's appropriate. but it doesn't have the same bounce as rayearth. there's breathing room. it differs structurally. escaflowne's story is in great part shown not only through character parallels, but scene parallels, done back to back in direct poetic contrast. so from that, i understand it's only being compared in terms of genre, but in terms of genre, escaflowne defies shorthanding. and as time goes on, that's more and more impressive to me. elevator pitches don't do much for me, and "[IP] meets [IP] x [trope]" takes me out instantly. inability to summarise it concisely (without ignoring some key component) is to me a credit to its form, not a shortcoming.

the problem is, like JJBA, it takes time to show someone what makes escaflowne's deft feats of emotional storytelling stand out. even though everyone agree the soundtrack is beast mode, for some reason it's harder to believe that escaflowne deserves that soundtrack. deserves its all-star team of artists. deserves its film. as if to say, you, the viewer, also don't deserve to witness (and are encouraged not to think about) this great joint effort, this great coalescing of ideas.

its staying power isn't immediately recognisable in still images. among things i'll mention further down, lack of time/patience and preference for secondhand experience is a real problem which affects art as much as anything. the art may not appeal to everyone but with how much art i hope fellow artists (in particular) have been exposed to, i need them to come to grips with the possibility that outright aversion to style might be a juvenile bias relative to where they're at in their creative career. if you're a professional artist, and the most technically skilled you've ever been, and you can't recognise or value work different from your own, or amateur work, there is a gaping deficiency in your skillset. unwillingness to engage in "low culture" is as tedious to me as unwillingness to engage in like... theory or whatever.

like great people, great works of art are often reviled in their time, then smoothed out and rebranded, defanged, resold. discussing art and examining ones own responses to that art is i think essential for the spirit and those around you. it's infectious and influential. it's actually, like, good and important to be self-serious sometimes. there's a totally insufferable cowardice in refraining from emotional indulgence. not just making "weird art," but feeling it. admitting your influences. admitting what you wish you could do. and trying.

and i really think even if you don't like the art, there are other aspects that succeed. i'm interested in film enough that i can point out all the camera work, shifting of perspective, timing, that make the series uniquely filmic, utilising techniques we associate with live action. that should be interesting to you not just on its own but because it isn't something we tend to have reason to expect from anime (because anime can tell a story through other means) nor expect it to be carried throughout so consistently as a crucial part of what we're meant to understand. if you don't like the plot, i still think the means of the plot expanding are executed with clever creativity. but it's the same problem: this requires time, and this comes through in motion. the visuals of the series are informed, altered, recontextualised, by the sound and the silence. someone has to be willing to see it, not past it.

escaflowne is a huge exercise in inference.

and it rewards for that reason— it rewards care and attention. because it doesn't beat you over the head with exposition, there's room for more nuanced storytelling. i think that is The enduring magic of it, what it demands from the viewer as a participant in the experience. it's not passive. or, its seeming passivity as a story/experience is a deception. i have full faith in the writer and team that the metaphors, symbols, parallels are exactly as intentional and significant as they are, because they are what sells the meaning of the story— but even at the time it stood apart for the same reason it's difficult to get people into it now, which is that we've since rapidly moved into such an age of western literalism and graceless lore and total lack of respect for art as craft, as work, as language. art as not simply aesthetics, but art as communication. when what's being communicated becomes simpler and done through simpler means, in as simple a process as possible, and only references the aesthetics of the past to imply history/thought without having to think, and in turn buries history.

one has to deeply, earnestly want to communicate something. and be willing to work to accomplish it, risks and all. the risks are necessary. failure is a teacher, and in that way, failure ceases to exist. and i don't say this stuff because i think it's easy. i am bad at working. i am bad at staying afloat. the same qualifiers as always: the work is hard, making time is hard, the work you like may not be what you're naturally inclined to make, not all forms of work are accessible/possible for all people, communication comes in many forms, and it's not only work to communicate, it's also work to learn how to become fluent/familiar with someone else's communication style/method. but that process fascinates me. it's a challenge. i'm not always up for it. but i can't help wanting for connection. i value the time i allow myself to sit inside something for however long it takes to process. if i dislike something, i want to understand my reaction and see if i can understand the method and motivation in which it's told, and if that clarifies something. i'm always hungry to understand. art is also fearless for me— the craft, the labour, if nothing else, makes me closer, more familiar, with the world, including the people i admire. sentiments like this mean so little to me. i don't imagine my inspirations/aspirations in defensive RPF like this and if i were treated poorly by someone i admire, i wouldn't admire them, because i don't admire that behaviour. and, their disapproval of my work wouldn't sway me. but i also don't approach art, or artists, even my favourites, with the goal of permission-seeking.

bearing in mind how much physical and mental effort it takes to create art, i am completely comfortable meeting/respecting it when it's shown to me, and, completely comfortable ignoring something disingenuous and soulless. escaflowne does not need a remake, no matter how much more "content" you might want. look at the anime remakes of recent years, they're horrifying. the source of your nostalgia already exists— it doesn't justify a hollow reanimation.

in a similar vein, i also don't need or yearn for it to be gay or trans just because i am, because my identity comes from myself, and the experience of being me is expressed in the art/stories i make. absent of my response to it, the media i enjoy is, to others, as representative of me as a blank sheet of paper. i don't cultivate my interests based on what i think will best represent me As Gay. i don't cultivate my interests based on the checkboxes of a scene i'm trying to fit into. transness is inextricable from me, but the things that look and feel like transness to me do not to other people. this doesn't make it lesser.

folken's narrative could effortlessly be explored as a transsexual one even if just because it mirrors what in my own life feels intrinsic, inseparable from transness, in the only way i've experienced it. but it's my own art that i hope speaks loudest to the nature and quality of my soul and ethics/ethos. you should demand better. but knowing when to demand that of yourself, not others, is important and affirming. shipping etc. is your own imagination, so you've already accomplished part of the work of creation. not all, but some!

it feels too easy and unfair to insist the series would be "better" if it were less heterosexual, as if profound pain and romance can only affect you if it's a 1:1 recreation of yourself. you are always bringing yourself into what you love. and you can aspire to it. you can be shaped by it. you can be dissatisfied and seek resolution, but eventually you're going to hit a wall where there are no more answers, because they were never intended to be answered in the first place. what's your next move?

i like thinking about art and i like making it. i have insane, baseless faith in my motivations and, if not my execution, then my interest in learning how to execute them. it isn't enough for me to have my interests, ideas, inspirations floating around in the realm of the hypothetical. i demand more. at the same time, i should settle for less, and i'm making a serious effort to learn how so i can avoid burning out (if that's even possible when capitalism is designed to be punitive and disabling.) but i also know i won't be satisfied by languishing. art has been the singular constant in my shitty, chaotic life— by making, i'm also making myself more real.

i'll always be able to laugh at Ace Attorney as much as i'm able to be held in the cinematic grip of, in particular, the drama of the last case of the 3rd game. and i'll always be able to think about eli snake hanging out with his 3 dipshit dads and whipping machine parts off of mother base and zipping around in heelys til he eats shit. as well as thinking about how beautiful it is that david snake fulfills the role/will of the boss in a way of which the same dipshit dad is incapable. i'm invited to play and also to contemplate the critique of the american war machine. i'm not saying this because i think this is a unique ability, lmfao! this is very simple, this is the baseline.

what i AM saying is... what a treat it is to love escaflowne. to enjoy such well-considered art, indulging in the wholeness of the vision. it can't be overstated just how much effort went into its creation— to have not only a series but a chance to revisit in the form of (possibly? definitely?) one of the most lavish anime films ever made. even my ample critiques come from a place of trying to meet and respect the art from its position, in its own internal context, its place in the world, and in my life. if i'm a good artist/writer, it's because i saw escaflowne when i was 12.

and that's why i wield the knife. lmao

[issak]

AHHHHH I did it, Nari almighty!

Praise the Lamb.

Seriously, every single follower is so NEEDY, It takes me like 3-4 days to set up a new crusade, otherwise the cult grounds are in shambles, Stop Killing each other just because you know I can bring you Back, Stop destroying the Bishop's statutes whenever you are drunk, Please eat some food the farmlands are right THERE!!!!

YOU WHINY , TRAUMATIZED , CHILDREN !!!!

I love them all.

Did I seriously play an entire game because of some FanFic I happen to pick at random.... Yes yes I did, you should too.

+Play Cult of the Lamb, It has a love of love into it, the art in the backgrounds, the multitude of weapons and curses, the bosses, it can be as short as you want it to be. May the RNG... I mean may THE ONE WHO WAITS smile upon ye.

+Read The Rehabilitation of Death By BamSara on AO3, I got curious due to the influx of fanart on Tumblr since Devolver announce the next update to be release on August 12, I didn't realized the severity of the undertaking I was about to embark into, It's Good, Post first ending with a What if story line when the lamb Challenges Narinder for the Red Crown, and If you like emotionally constipated Characters OHH BOY Nari is your Boy, that cat is 90% the root of all his problems, But he is addicted to that Denial Copeism, you get trauma And YOU get trauma, YOU ALL GET TRAUMA, they are also on Tumblr and they update a slightly more humorous version of TROD in comic format.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Alexei  navalny did not like tragedies. He preferred Hollywood films and fables in which heroes vanquish villains and good triumphs over evil. He had the looks and talent to be one of those heroes, but he was born in Russia and lived in dark times, spending his last days in a penal colony in the Arctic permafrost. A fan of “Star Wars”, he described his ordeal in lyrical terms. “Prison [exists] in one’s mind,” he wrote from his cell in 2021. “And if you think carefully, I am not in prison but on a space voyage…to a wonderful new world.” That voyage ended on February 16th.

Mr Navalny’s death was blamed by Russian prison authorities on a blood clot—though his doctor said he suffered from no condition which made that likely. Whatever ends up on his death certificate, he was killed by Vladimir Putin. Russia’s president locked him up; in his name Mr Navalny was subjected to a regime of forced labour and solitary confinement. Mr Navalny will be celebrated as a man of remarkable courage. His life will be remembered for what it says about Mr Putin, what it portends for Russia and what it demands of the world.

A man of formidable intelligence, Mr Navalny identified the two foundations on which Mr Putin has built his power: fear and greed. In Mr Putin’s world everyone can be bribed or threatened. Not only did Mr Navalny understand those impulses, he struck at them in devastating ways.

His insight was that corruption was not just a side hustle but the moral rot at the heart of Mr Putin’s state. His anti-corruption crusade formed a new genre of immaculately documented and thriller-like films that displayed the yachts, villas and planes of Russia’s rulers. These videos, posted on YouTube, culminated in an exposé of Mr Putin’s billion-dollar palace on the Black Sea coast that has been watched 130m times. Despite the palace’s iron gates, adorned with a two-headed imperial eagle, Mr Navalny portrayed its owner not as a tsar so much as a tasteless mafia boss.

Mr Navalny also understood fear and how to defeat it. Mr Putin’s first attempt to kill him was in 2020, when he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok smeared inside his underwear. By sheer good luck Mr Navalny survived, regained his strength in Germany and less than a year later flew back to Moscow to defy Mr Putin in a blast of publicity.

He returned in the full knowledge that he would probably be arrested. On the way back to confront the evil ruler who had tried to poison him he did not read Hamlet. He watched Rick and Morty, an American cartoon. By mocking Mr Putin, he diminished him. “I’ve mortally offended him by surviving,” he said from the dock during his trial in 2021. “He will enter history as a poisoner. We had Yaroslav the Wise and Alexander the Liberator. And now we will have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.”

Mr Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in jail on extremism charges. He turned his sentence into an act of cheerful defiance. Every time he appeared in court hearings via video link from prison, his smile cut through the walls of his cell and beamed across Russia’s 11 time zones. On February 15th, on the eve of his death, he was in court again. Dressed in dark-grey prison uniform he laughed in the face of Mr Putin’s judges, suggesting they should put some money into his account as he was running short. In the end there was only one way Mr Putin could wipe the smile off his face.

In his essay “Live Not by Lies”, in 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel-prize-winning Soviet novelist, wrote that “when violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: ‘I am violence. Run away, make way for me—I will crush you’.” Mr Navalny understood, but instead of running he held his ground.

His great strength was to understand Mr Putin’s fear of other people’s courage. In one of his early communications from jail he wrote that: “it is not honest people who frighten the authorities…but those who are not afraid, or, to be more precise: those who may be afraid, but overcome their fear.”

That is why his death portends a deepening of repression inside Russia. Mr Navalny’s murder was not the first and it will not be the last. The next targets could be Ilya Yashin, a brave politician who followed Mr Navalny to prison, or Vladimir Kara-Murza, a historian, journalist and politician who has been sentenced to 25 years on treason charges for speaking against the war. The lawyers and activists who continue to defend these dissidents are also in danger. Since Mr Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, the number of prisoners has increased 15 times. Even as the remnants of Stalin’s gulag fill with political prisoners, professional criminals are being recruited and released to fight in Ukraine.

Mr Navalny’s death also casts a shadow over ordinary Russians. In Moscow and across Russia, people flooded the streets at the news. Before the police started to arrest them, they covered memorials for previous victims of political repression in flowers. Yet that repression is intensifying. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, 1,305 men and women have been prosecuted for speaking out against it. A wave of repression is also swallowing up people who never before engaged in politics. The president will shoot into the crowds if he must.

For the West, Mr Navalny’s death contains a call to action. Mr Putin considers its leaders too weak and too decadent to resist him. And for many years Western politicians and businessmen did much to prove that fear and greed work in the West, too. When Mr Putin first bombed and shelled Chechnya in the early 2000s, Western politicians turned a blind eye and continued to do business with his cronies. When he murdered his opponents in Moscow and annexed Crimea in 2014, they slapped his wrist. Even after he had invaded Ukraine in 2022, they hesitated to provide enough weapons for Russia to be defeated. Every time the West stepped back, Mr Putin took a step forward. Every time Western politicians expressed their “grave concern”, he smirked.

The West needs to find the strength and courage that Mr Navalny showed. It should understand that Mr Navalny’s murder, the soaring number of political prisoners, the torture and beating of people across Russia, the assassination of Mr Putin’s opponents in Europe and the shelling of Ukrainian cities are all part of the same war. Without resolve, the West’s military and economic superiority will count for nothing.

Western governments should start by treating people like Mr Kara-Murza as prisoners of Mr Putin’s war who need to be exchanged with Russian prisoners in the West or prisoners of war in Ukraine. They should not stigmatise ordinary Russians living under a paranoid dictator and his goons, or put the onus on ordinary people to overthrow the dictator who is repressing them.

The best retort to Mr Putin is by arming Ukraine. Every time America’s Congress votes down aid, Russia takes comfort. The leaders assembled at the Munich Security Conference, who heard Mr Navalny’s wife, Yulia, speak of justice for her husband’s death, need to stiffen their resolve to see through the war. For their part Ukrainian politicians must see that standing up for Russian activists and prisoners is also a way of helping their own country—just as Mr Navalny called for peace, for rebuilding Ukraine and the prosecution of Russian war crimes. Liberating Ukraine would be the best way to liberate Russia, too.

The voyage ends

After he had been poisoned, Mr Navalny returned home because he believed that history was on his side and that Russia was freeing itself from the deadly grip of its own imperial past. “Putin is the last chord of the ussr,” he told The Economist a few months before he took that last fateful journey. “People in the Kremlin know there is a historic current that is moving against them.” Mr Putin invaded Ukraine to reverse that current. Now he has killed Mr Navalny.

Mr Navalny would not want Mr Putin’s message to prevail. “[If I get killed] the obvious thing is: don’t give up,” he once told American film-makers. “All it takes for evil to triumph is the inaction of good people. There’s no need for inaction.”

Mr Navalny’s death has seemed imminent for months. And yet there is something crushing about it. He was not alone in believing that good triumphs over evil, and that heroes vanquish villains. His courage was an inspiration. To see that moral order so brutally overturned is a terrible affront. ■

[thewingedbaron]

The Queen's Task

SPOILERS FOR END OF ACT 3

Just hit Act 4 again on my Wrath of the Righteous playthrough with my Atza Knight-Commander Vysk. I remember this moment very clearly in my first playthrough (angel commander), and I felt like Vysk needed to have a little more bite in her responses to the Queen.

Literally paused the game during the conversation to write this. I am sitting in the Abyss, talking to the Hand of the Inheritor as we speak. Enjoy Vysk blowing off a little steam on her boss. (I was also let go at my job recently, so this might be a little extra therapy for me.)

Story below the cut, and also on Ao3 :)

(It's about 1,300 words, I recommend Ao3 if you don't want to scroll forever.)

“We should - no, must - track the demon’s path and settle this issue once and for all. And that means venturing into the Abyss. No one but you, Vysk, with your unique power, can handle this task. That is why I shall take over the command of the crusader armies, and you will journey forth on this great mission.”

Vysk’s head spun. Her knees wobbled and legs lost feeling as if they would drop out from under her. The wound in her chest, freshly healed over, felt as if it might split and weep blood anew, leaving her on the dirty stones of the Abyss’s temple far below the city she gave so much to save.

Her protests slipped from her mind like rain down a gutter. The slight… satisfaction in the Queen’s voice cut her like a whip. Around her, the Commander’s retinue shared looks of shock and anger. They had been wading through the blood of demons for hours. Dodged in and out of the Abyss in search of keys to access the Baylor’s Sanctum. They had slain one of the Abyss’ great generals in his own stronghold, and barely lived to tell the tale. Now, their leader had been removed from her station, stripped of her title, and was to be sent into the Abyss? Only Regill managed to maintain his stoic exterior.

Vysk felt as if the air had been stolen from her lungs. Her usual arsenal of witty comments and tricks had fled her, leaving only a gaping, dark hole in their place.

“My- my Lady?” She stammered. In her mind the Sable Company Marine of her old life and the budding Atza battled for control of her tongue. ‘You can’t be serious.” Queen Galfrey nodded solumnly. “The crystals must have come from the other side, you saw them here, yourself. If I am to expect anyone to survive the journey ahead, I must rely on you, Vysk. Your abilities have proved greater than any challenge.”

“A-and what, you will lead my armies? You’ll march my soldiers into the teeth of the Worldwound and watch as they die by the thousands?” Alyss demanded. The Marine in her recoiled, but the Atza didn’t care.

“I would remind you who you are addressing.” The Queen replied, her voice suddenly cool. “Do not think this was a decision made lightly. I have led this crusade for over a century, I will not gamble with the lives you so desperately covet.”

“Hog shit!” Vysk cried, a favorite insult of her halfling crusaders. “You’ve run this war for a hundred years and yet I’ve gained more ground in two! Your people are dying, Your Grace. Your tactics are outdated, your tricks long since solved. I’ve seen how your generals lead, my Lady. Forgive me if I find them wanting.”

The Queen’s eyes burned now, all semblance of her royal aura replace with a deep rage. “You go to far.” She spat.

“You do not go far enough.” Alyss bit back. “I-“

Her protest turned to a strangled sob as an armored hand landed gently on her shoulder. She looked back into Seelah’s sympathetic gaze. Now is not the time, she seemed to say with a small shake of her head.

“What if I refuse?” Vysk asked.

“The crystals are too great a threat.” The Hand of the Inheritor cut in, though his voice sounded as troubled as an angel could manage. “I may disagree with my syster-in-arms at times, but she is indisputably right; this evil must be killed at the root. We may never get another chance at reaching their source.”

“Correct.” The Queen nodded, regaining some of her composure. “I can handle the crusades, but your mission in the Abyss is critical.”

“Fine.” Vysk forced the word from where it had become lodged in her throat. “But this conversation is not over. I will not forget this. “

“Valor! Bravery! Loyal comrades! We have all this in abundance. With it, the Abyss holds no fear for us.” The Hand cut off the Queen’s reply, forcing her to settle for a deeply furrowed brow.

“Wish me luck as well, then.” She said, her voice strangled. “Until next we meet.”

She turned to stride from the chamber, head held high, then paused as if something had just occurred to her.

“This mission will be dangerous. Perhaps the most dangerous assignment I have ever given in my long years as Monarch. I trust that you have chosen your companions well, Knight-Commander, but should any of them be unfit for such a mission, I would see that they are well appointed to continue to aid our cause.” Vysk ground her teeth, biting back against the venom that welled in her throat as the Marine enacted some control over her fey impulses. Instead, she turned to her friends.

“The Queen speaks the truth.” She said. “I would not begrudge any of your the chance to remain here. If there is anyone who would like to aid the Queen, go with my blessing.” For a long moment, nothing moved. Vysk’s breathing sounded too loud to her own ears as she waited for one to step forward. Then two. Then for them all to trickle past her until only she and the angel remained.

Daeran stepped forward, brushing a bit of dried blood from his clothes with a frown of distaste. He stepped right up to her, close enough that she could smell his perfume, even under the demon blood that soaked his fine silks. He smiled and began to step past her before bursting out into a belly aching laugh.

“Sometimes you are precious dear.” He said, patting Vysk on the cheek as if she were some child asking for candy at the fare. To his royal cousin he said. “Your Majesty, you always were saying that I should get out and see the world beyond my parties. I do find myself wondering what wine tastes like in the Abyss.”

With a self satisfied smile, he turned and strolled toward the portal, whistling to himself as if stepping into the park.

“I’m with you, sister. No matter where you lead.” Seelah said, slamming an armored hand down on Vysk’s shoulder.

“The Abyss will have many fascinating specimen for observation. I had debated on taking a trip there myself to ask the demons some questions.” Nenio said. Then she too joined Daeran by the portal. Regill joined them without a word.

Sosiel stared longingly at the door from which they had come, but there was nothing but steely determination in his eyes when they met Vysk’s. “I will not abandon you, my friend. This may be my only chance to find Trevor as well…”

“Cheer up, Sosiel.” Lann grinned. “At least we’ll all die together.”

“Think of the stories they will tell of us!” Ulbrig roared.

Greybor shrugged, following the giant toward the portal.

Finally, Vysk’s eyes met Arueshalae’s.

“I can’t ask you to go back.” She whispered. To her surprise the succubus smiled.

“Nor would you, but I can’t let you go alone.” She said. “My experience will give us a chance at seeing the sun again.”

Vysk tried for a smile that ended somewhere near a grimace before turning back to the Queen. “I believe I am ready.”

Galfrey nodded. “I will block this passage as soon as you are gone. Vysk…” Something close to regret crossed the ancient woman’s face. Then, it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. “May Iomaede go with you.”

Vysk reclined her head toward the ceiling, not trusting her words as she clasped the holy butterfly of Desna around her neck and imagined the blue skies and green forests high above. Then, she turned and strode toward the great portal of writhing purple energy. Jester, her hippogriff fell into steady step beside her.

“Do you think the Abyss has cookies?”Aivu asked, skipping ahead. “I don’t think they will, but a dragon can dream right.”

“Yes, Aivu. A dragon can.” Vysk smiled. She turned back for one last look at the blood soaked hall. “I hope we can all dream like that again.”

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

some notes and suggestions on MD2 hard mode for people struggling with it;

- you are expected to lose clashes, the game up to this point has largely framed losing a clash as a freak accident. It Will Happen in MD2H and learning how to take these losses gracefully is important, in abnormality fights inparticular try to line up clashes you can’t beat with units that have a resistance to the enemy’s damage type, bonus points if their stagger resist is high, Meur is great for this as a lot of his IDs have a very generous starting stagger resist, usually around 60% as opposed to 75%, many shi IDs have good stagger resists as well. You can obviously do that in a non abnormality fight too, but you obviously have less options. Do your best, and remember defense dice exist, they have very generous rolls and can save you from a bad time sometimes, and block dice straight up reduce damage via a shield so they’re usually good.

- Do Not Use An EGO Just Because You’re Losing A Clash; this partially ties in to my above point, but if you’re using an EGO to avoid losing a clash that’s going to do like 2 damage because it’s 1 coin and the target has ineffective resist to the damage type and applies no status effects you’re wasting EGO resources that are going to be Very Valuable on the higher floors; most final MD2H bosses require some degree of EGO spam at this point, uptie 4 may change this. Again, Losing Clashes Is Okay; enemy attacks can be surprisingly ineffective in the right circumstances.

- EGO gift meta right now leans towards ego resource generation gifts and healing gifts; if you’re struggling healing gifts will give you much more wiggle room, homeward and phlebotomy pack are both extremely good, but any heals you can get are great. Other EGO gifts aren’t bad nessacerily but they’re obviously more comp dependent and often more reliant on winning clashes

- Stacking similar damage types and resists is a heavy risk, especially in your initial party. If you’re anything like me you have all 4 liu units built up, but if you take all 4 into your initial party and guido shows up on the first boss, he is going to turn you inside out. Him and his gang do mostly pierce damage, liu IDs are all fatal resist against pierce damage, and all his buddies roll extremely well and will roll extremely Better when they start dying; gregor and meur liu are basically useless in this scenario and they can’t even risk taking a losing clash because they’ll take boatloads of damage from basically anything they do. Crusaders might be weak to blunt, but that doesn’t mean they’re weak to liu.

- some ID/EGO suggestions: Base heathcliff is honestly surprisingly good, his sk2 and sk3 clash well in lower floors and he has a self power buff that can make them competitive even on higher floors. Lobotomy Corp Remnant faust was and still is among the best clashers in the game, she can neutral clash even some surprisingly big rolls in higher floors with opportunistic, and her sk2 shreds on lower floors. This is counterbalanced by her having maybe one of the worst sk1′s in the game, keep an eye out for skill swap machines with her face on em.

Shi don isn’t incredible for general use but overbreathe is an EGO tier coin that can help take some pressure off your EGO resource reserves.

R Heathcliff is as always decent, though he can struggle to clash sometimes (though not more then base heathcliff! would argue he’s always worth taking over base heath, though I’m still working with base heath, his self power buffs might end up making him clash better on higher floors)

Defensive IDs in general are helpful as they can usually take clashes more gracefully, meur is a surprisingly good sinner in general just because all his IDs are skewed towards being able to take shots; presumably K corp hong lu is a beast as usual but I don’t have him so I can’t confirm on how well he clashes.

If you have Fluid Sac Faust, it’s an excellent support EGO that is also an AoE; it’s the best of both worlds.

Pursuance is a targeted heal and can really save a sinner’s butt if they’re in trouble

AoE EGOs can be helpful in general for boss fights that summon adds; they’re also just good damage in general on non boss fights. Legerdemain continues to be extremely good.

MD2 Hard mode is mostly hard because the game up to this point hasn’t really been encouraging good play habits, I suspect as time goes on this content will get “solved”, but for now this stuff should help you out if you’re struggling to clear. As you get some of these habits into your system I suspect the content will get much easier to handle; again this is mostly just learning there’s more to the system then auto win and use ego when clash bad (I certainly know that’s how I was playing before MD2H).

[squalodinoappreciationsquad]

Headcanons: Dino Cavallone's entire family tree - Pt. 1

Because I can and I will.

Ofc this is ALL headcanons and also I have ADHD, pls don't take this too seriously.

So, because of several conversations I had with beloved anons, I am going to do this at best of my ability, because I am very hyped.

Let's start this one. Under cut pls :D

PART ONE!!!

The Cavallone Family Ancestor

Well, all families have a start and sometimes the start is not as glorious as one might think.

The first was Bencivenni lo Caballone. He was a knight who rersponded to Pope Innocent III's call for crusades. He participated to the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), sacked Costantinople (1204) bringing home some souvenirs, let's call the loot like that.

The Pope ofc granted him a piece of land on the Romagnan coast, a small castle, a noble title and the forgiveness for all of his sins, because that's what the Pope had for people who could not pay actual cash money to have their sins forgiven.

Also "lo Caballone" was originally just a nickname, but that is how the 60% of Italian surnames were born.

We now have several centuries of relative anonymity, during which the family formally established their name as Cavallone and expanded their influence through strategic alliances and marriages and whatnot.

Most notably, the firstborn daughter of Marquis Duccio Cavallone, Gemma, was sent to be married into the D'Este family, a most notable noble family (c.a. 1400s) and a couple of centuries later the second born son of Marquis Petronio Cavallone, Ambrogio Cavallone, became a quite influential cardinal at the Vatican (c.a. 1600s).

This of course granted the family quite the fortune, and also granted their survival amongst the various wars among who should rule the Sacred Roman Empire, who had to be Pope and who should survive Plague 1.0 (1300s) and Plague 2.0 (1600s).

But then we arrive at the 1700s.

The Austrian Wars and the birth of Cavallone the 1st

This will be the summary of the summary of the summary historically speaking.

The 1700s are interesting years for the peninsula. Italy will only fully reunite only in 1871, so there is still a long way to go. Historically speaking the Spanish who had invaded the peninsula and took possession of it started to lose their grip, also because King Charles II of Ausburg dies with no heir, thus beginning a war lasting for 13 years, they therefore sign first the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714 and finally the Treaty of Aja in 1720, thus ending their domination in the peninsula.

The peninsula is not free, but becomes property to be sold and divided among the powerful dynasties. It is a mess and by 1748 the geopolitical panorama has completely changed.

This includes also the Romagnan territory, which is now half under the Medici's dominion and half under the Pope's dominion. Which means that all of the small families were very limited. However the Romagnan people were rioting and this is definitely fertile soil for ANY sort of change.

Now, up until that moment the Cavallone family has been fairly quiet, but all of this happening in their area is worrying, so Duke Domenico Cavallone has to do some damage control.

It's the period where the Illuminists really take on Italy, so there are newspapers, magazines for men and for women, cafes, places where people can debate and talk about phylosophy et cetera.

So Domenico Cavallone invests some cash money and becomes the patron and founder of several cafes and promotes several magazines and newspapers.

He also pours some other cash money in creating his own personal army, which will later become the foundation of the future bosses body of subordinates.

This is because he is secretly financing the riots against the Pope/the Medici and he is expecting an attack at any moment.

And the attack arrives.

Duke Domenico Cavallone is in the front line, ready to defend his turf. There is also his army behind him and the Pope has sent his army to quiet down, quote, "the dirt and the plebs", but the pope was expecting barely armed populace, NOT a full army and the Duke Cavallone.

Chronicles report that the Commander in charge of the Pope's army told Duke Cavallone that he would be in trouble, and that the Duke replied with a "we will talk after I win".

And the Duke won. Chronicles report that a white flame engulfed him as he charged to defend his city and his land and defeated the Pope's army. Ever since a flame mark appeared on his left arm.

In any case after the defeat the Pope retreated and left the Duke and his territory alone. The Duke however was excommunicated, and the excommunication has not yet been lifted.

None of the Cavallone has had any interest in having that lifted yet though.

Duke Domenico and his wife Bice Ricciardelli went on and prospered. They had four children who lived after infancy. The second born and first son, Alvise Cavallone, inherited the will and the assets of Duke Domenico Cavallone.

Lo and behold the family tree part 1

***

NEXT GENERATION ON A DIFFERENT POST!

[paniwarhamauser]

I just realized I never finished posting Grot crusade write-ups here! Last was week 3! And that Crusade has ended back in May, and new one starts in a month😅

Guess I'll just dump weeks 4-10 here all at once.

And also end-of-crusade art for my guy 😁

Week 4

Me and ladz 'ere rollin' around lookin' for da good scrap. And dere it was. Da shiny fishboy Devilfish, dem curves glistenin' in da sun!

Nachurally we WAAAAGH'd!

Fishboyz are ded shooty, but you know wot? Stompa is ded STOMPY! 

Afta Bigtoof turned deir kommander into da kanned fishpaste dey 'ere done for!

Only one fishboy on da floaty fingie flew off. Looked so smug too. As if 'e was not running away, but akchually won. Weird...

Speakin' of winnin'. Zippy better deliver on 'is promise to build anuvva Gargant!

Da ladz collected enuff scrap today ta finish da job!

WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAAAGH!

Week 5

Gorksome is da beatiful little Gargant.

Zippy did da mighty gud job. Not dat I'd ever tell it to 'is face. Not givin 'im any ideas of bein betta at sum fings den da greatest Grotboss in 'istory!

And Gork was pleased by it too. We did not even had to look for da fight dis time! Bugboyz came to us!

Dis was a glorius day! Fighting everywhere! Gorksome got to shoot its first targetz! Even Zippy remembered 'e can fight too!

Too bad bugboyz 'ave nuffin' ta scrap. No matter, dey go SQUISH funny! Ladz larfed deir rumps off! And 'e got bugboyz snaks for dayz too!

WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAAGH!

Week 6

'E made it, ladz! Da 'umie Empra's shiny boyz (mega nobz beakies or whateva dese Kustardes are?) came ta fight us! And everywun knows dey fight only da most dangeros foez!

Of course I ALWAYZ knew I am da most dangeros! But 'tis nice ta be aknowleged.

And da best fing? Da stompa went BOOM. Dis was glorius! I almost kried of joy - ta witness da wrath of Gork and Mork wiff me own eyez!

'E even got enuff of goldy scrap ta fix stompa right up.

WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAAAGH!

Week 7

Da fightin' is da most fun, but 'e gotta make anuvva Gargant. And dis means 'e need more scrap.

Mork smiled upon us today. 'E 'eard 'BLOOD FOR DA BLOOD GOD' warcry, and I knew my ladz 'ere sent anuvva gud fight! 

Red and spikey beakies are ded fighty. And dey charge like da best of orkz too. Gotta respect dat! Also dey brought tanks! Wich mean dere was plenty of spikey scrap to collect afta da battle.

Da ladz even charged da spiky rhino and stole deir icon! Scrap and trophiez, da best life all around!

WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAGH!

Week 8

Would you look at dat! Stuntiez again! And dey have a new trukk too! Time to scrap it! WAAAAGH!

'Tis was fun! DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA! Dead stuntiez everywhere! 

And den weirdgurl and hammergurl 'ere at it again. Is Gork'n'Mork trying to tell me somefing by sendin' dem at me again? That I should I get a weirdboy and a hammer too? Interestin'...

Either way, a message from Gork and Mork is always a WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAGH!

Week 9

I was an idiot! Surprised at me sayin' dat? Da greatest grotboss is not afraid to admit mistakes!

I thought Devilfish were shiny! But Empra's goldie boyz showed me how wrong I was! Deir gravy-tank is proppa shiny! I 'ave never seen such a beauty in me life before!

Nachurally I called WAAAGH and sent ladz ta get me dat gravy-tank at all costs!

'Tis was a good fight. We krumped deir boss and deir nob too! Gargants are da best! Not as best as me, but close! Though I only cared for gravy-tank, if I'm honest. Nuffin else mattered.

Always keep da eyez on da prize, as dey say!

And wot a prize it is! Now I has da Goldy Throne of me own!

WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAGH!

Week 10

I was sittin' on Da Goldy Throne, surrounded by me trophies, pettin' me squig and thinkin' of changin' me title from Grot Boss to Grot Empra. No uvver boss has Da Goldy Throne, after all!

Me thinkin' was interrupted by watchlad screaming 'SCRAWNIES ON DA HORIZON'

Scrawnies are sure need to be krumped. Let me finish my shroom brew and den we WAAAGH!

W-wot is happenin'? Why I can no move? Wot is dis green glow? Did Gork and Mork came to see me and name me deir new profeet? Now dat's a REAL WIN FOR DA GROT WAAAAGH!

***

Trazyn closed the tessaract and chuckled to himself, - 'Don't you just love when a specimen arranges itself into a nice display, saving me the trouble!'

[recusantchicky]

some things that bother me and i want to rant about

the path to the scadutree avatar goes through a cave that leads to a marika church, the tree worship sanctum. this is where tree worship began, was exclusive and hidden. this was marika's black castle, not built by messmer's forces for the sake of the crusade. marika's young statue means something beyond "messmer wuvs his mommy so mwuch" and "they hated marika so her

hey why is the flooded church district filled with tibia mariner boats why are there tibia mariner boats here hey who used to be a death god wonder what the downward arms marika could mean wonder why marika has some sort of eclipsed shaded darkened eye situation going on in the lore.

the SHAMAN worship in the gaols and pray for the jars to become better people, good samaritans, "saints". the shaman wish to gain control of the naturally occurring power of rebirth, which makes perfect sense on the path to establishing the erdtree. we're trying to meld souls into a permanent vessel that can escape the fate of the stars: death indiscriminate. we need souls that do not--or cannot--reject the erdtree because everything is riding on the fate established by the golden order overriding the fate of the stars. like the stone coffins, the erdtree is meant to be a kind of arkship to save the information of lives that those in power wish to save. either they sincerely want the jars to become Good, or they want the jars to Conform to their goals.

the stone coffins were saving something!!!

sainthood is not about becoming a god, but being a virtuous person who is accepted into heaven. the hornsent were building a tower TO HEAVEN to MEET WITH THE GODS, not to forge the first ever god or a god of their own, because everyone was free to be a god of their own already. ymir specifically tells us that marika's enforced worldview robs us of our intrinsic divinity. the only instances of the hornsent talking about achieving godhood is in reference to miquella's ascension granting them salvation FROM MARIKA.

the erdtree is a kind of divinity forcibly attached to us. this is why the sight of it is nauseating and its amber is less effective in those who invoke "outer" gods--those not accepted into the erdtree. the erdtree and whatever other god you might channel are fighting inside you for dominance--and to absorb you. those who invoke divinity must be powerful, by nature (horns), by occupation (shaman) or by raw material power like runes (gold, which wards away ~outer gods~) which allowed rykard to fuse with eiglay instead of being consumed by it.

that new goat man boss probably relates to scrapped designs related to the goat invocation we get on the raya lucaria library wall.

powerful individuals can move their souls into different vessels. the important thing about a doll is that it not break. the jars are very strong vessels perfumers harvest for battle buffs of iron skin. inevitably, all vessels break.

why the fell god face on furnace golems matching the face on the halig tree that seems like the face of the martyred goddess

the verdigris talisman is in front of the big mama to tell us she was a rot god and that there was a balance to rot which has been forgotten due to rejecting nature itself.

the old kingdom was a rot god (miranda??) who died and bloomed and was the crucible of life and begat many chimeric children, including twin offshoots who prepared her body and ruled in her absence with the balance of light + dark & life + death. they grafted the golden star onto her stump after burning her, forming a pocket dimension to escape the end of the greater will and recreate a universe under their control.

the universe is one whole that has subdivided and will eventually reunite.

the greater will is trying to escape this universe and become a new one. this results in marika making a golden gated community for nazis.

crucible era elden ring is about the death twins redirecting tending the dead into using the dead as material to build this new world glistening with life. made of flesh and blood and fire, immediately demonizing and forbidding those things so no one else can grasp the same power.

putrescence is anaerobic decay.

marika claims to be eternal but dies anyway

[unmeiokaemasu]

GENEALOGY OF THE HOLY WAR - CLEARED!!!

So my top 10 deadliest units were:

** Arthur 128

~ Sigurd 97

** Lester 66

~ Midir 65

** Ced 60

~ Lewyn 52

~ Jamke 52

** Seliph 50

** Finn (Gen 2) 41

** Ares 37

...all boys, apparently. Not surprising I guess, since my best girls were all support, including Julia, who was also pretty deadly. She probably would've made the top 10 if the game didn't STEAL HER FROM YOU. Also obviously Lene was just straight up my best unit. You can't win a campaign with just a dancer, but the value-per-turn she provided was unrivaled. Also want to shout out Lana, who promoted on the last map, and cleared all but the last arena level with a fire tome.

Whew, so....final thoughts. I wonder if I'd feel compelled to play other Fire Emblem games if this were the first one I'd ever played...I'm glad it's part of the franchise, and it's still unique for building a second generation that's completely separate from their parents, but man, those maps...idk. Again, I'm glad it is the way it is. But I don't know if we need another like it.

It was interesting how Gen 2 was so much more a typical FE game. It really read like Shadow Dragon or The Binding Blade, but having played the previous generation really added weight to victory. But also it meant that the whole "defeat the evil dragon" thing almost felt out of place. Most of the antagonists weren't part of the Loptyr cult or mind-controlled or anything, they were just normal greedy people battling for power.

I wasn't sure what to make of Ishtar; they said she was responsible for saving the recent kidnapped children, and she initially seemed conflicted about fighting the rebels, but I didn't fully get decision to fight at the end. I mean, it was a more interesting story choice than having Loptyr!Julius send her out on purpose with the typical FE-villain "I don't care what happens to underlings" attitude, but her saying it was just for her pride felt like an excuse, and I kept thinking she was going to give some other justification. Maybe if I'd attacked her with Seliph or Tine I would've gotten a conversation (Arthur killed her; in fact, he single-handed killed her whole family. At least he had words with Hilda) ...Anyway, I guess it really was just grief over her family, even though she knew the suffering they'd caused. I just felt like her story lacked closure.

The fact that Altena and Arion (can) survive definitely answers my question about what happened to Thracia. I fully expected Arion was either going to be a boss character or, after I recruited him, that he would be scripted to die, so it's really cool that he survives. Yeah, in fact, I kinda thought he and Ishtar would change roles I guess. Not complaining.

Well, overall, I guess I liked this game. Maybe one day I'll try it again...I'm curious about different pairing combinations obviously, and I want to see if there're any secret conversations I missed (may of which are again tied to certain pairings). It really is weird when certain pairings don't shake out the way the game expects; it felt particularly weird that Ced and Fee weren't Lewyn's kids.

WAIT, SPEAKING OF LEWYN...right at the end, Seliph seemed to imply he was literally the dragon Forseti??? maybe he was just being poetic...idk man, that'd be cool if true, it'd be a wild final twist and it'd explain why Lewyn was so insistent he couldn't stay and rule his kingdom, but again, maybe it was more like Seliph was acknowledging his crusader lineage or whatever. I'll have to re-read the dialogue and maybe get my hands on the Japanese if I can.

SO, anyway, yeah, good game. Lene MVP