#also theyre both cult leaders

[kitilouise]

YOU ASKED FOR THIS!!!

For both bc I don't wanna get it wrong:

Gender/pronous/sexuality/age/any other basics? (AND THEIR RELATION TO EACH OTHER IM CURIOUS!!)

For purple cat one:

-Favorite food? Or specifically cheese?

-Why ourple?

-Opinion on trampoline parks or parkour?

-Music genre or song?

-Do they allow ear scratches?

For the blonde (I think) one:

-Specificly favorite cheese or beef jerky?

-Is toxic waste yummy? They look like they'd know.

-Opinions on swimming? Public pool or beach?

-How would you describe their style?

-Least favorite color?

And totally feel free to answer questions for the opposite one, not answer one, idc; HAVE FUN!!

LORE DUMP INCOMING!

porple cat: Aelurus (#09)

- Agender (Xey/xem/it/its)

- Pansexual

- probably a few centuries old

- 7’ 11”

blonde white haired one: Ambrozia (#61)

- Female (She/her)

- Pansexual

- 30

- 7’

and they are both lovers/partners :D

more below the cut :3

Answers for Aelurus’ questions!

- Hmm… probably any type of meat, i dont think xey’ve tried cheese but i think xey’d like it!. but do NOT try to feed xem cat food you will get scratched

- species related reasons ;) (will probably make a seperate post at some point)

- think cats on trampolines. absolutely not

- xey would probably listen to breakcore/any genre that absolutely obliterates your ears.

- if you ask really nicely xey might let you (good luck reaching it)

Answers for Ambrozia’s questions!

- Probably brie, and she LOVES jerky, it is a tad bit dry for her though

- yes, she drinks it on a daily basis (techinically its drugs but thats for another post)

- she HATES the water, keep it far, far away from her

- two moods: elegant, robes, silk dresses, or a homeless crack addict

- blue, despite it being almost everywhere she goes

✨BONUS✨

(yes ive probably already posted this here idgaf)

ps: dont question the numbers ;)

[arolesbianism]

In tomodachi life recently Juliet and Parker started dating and I was initially thinking of resetting over it but a moment of weakness prevented me and now it's planted a tiny seed in the back of my mind. They wouldn't. But what if. Think of all the phycological warfare they could have going on. Also I simply think it'd be funny.

[the-s1lly-corner]

YoHi! I really like your posts;), I wanted to order a romantic one of Cotl, a Lambert meeting a S/o who is also a lamb? I can imagine how much he got attached and happy to find another one just like him

Lambert x lamb!reader

speed writing this while my silly little period of sadness dies down a little because my ass cannot focus while im like that grrrrrrr notes: reader is gn, lamb reader, short post cws: mentions of mass death and murder, canon typical stuff

to say you both cling onto one another the second you find each other is... a soft way of saying it

they always mask themselves as this put together leader who is bothered by nothing- but the fact that there is still another lamb takes them out of it for a moment

and if they find you in the process of being sacrificed by cultists?

you blink and the next second all of them are dead, and youre being cut from your restraints

even after the danger is over and youre brought back to the cult you hover around each other a lot

of course they ask if there were others with you, and visibly wilts when you say there werent

the bishops of the old faith were thorough when purging sheepkind- but not enough, leaving just the two of you behind

naturally theres some bias for you, you ascend the ranks of the cult- from simple follower to disicple

and the second they get a golden skull necklace, theyre giving it to you

better than constantly dying and getting ressurected

the dread they feel when you die for the first time cannot be put into words, they scramble to bring you back as soon as possible

you both have clothing made with some of each other's wool- id like to view it the same way as when people wore necklaces with their loved ones hair in it... you carry a piece of each other everywhere you go

so gentle with you, but when they hold you their grip is firm

not enough to hurt you, but they seem scared that someone is going to steal you away

loves showing you some of the areas around the cult's grounds- maybe they can take you fishing.. just the two of them!

doesnt want you to go on crusades with them, though, and refuses to let you leave the grounds without a missionary necklace

[falloutnewnobody]

i keep thinking about that comic strip where gort at the coronation tells durge theyre married both because it's funny and i can't help but wonder

1. who ordained this wedding?

2. was this done with bane and baahl's permission or did they have an entirely seperate god if any at all approve their marraige

3. who attended this wedding? like theyre both very sucessful and charismatic cult leaders (gortash being straight up baldurian nobility) but theyre also *gestures vaugley at durgetash*

4. where was this wedding held?

5. what was the plan for post-absolute? like were they gonna get divorced before durge had to kill gort for real or were they just gonna be married during the whole 'durge killing everything until theyre the last people alive and then dying together on the altar of baahl thing'

6. did they have a prenup? if so who proposed it

7. on that note who proposed? what was the context?

8. was Hope invited given that she's kinda gort's family? was orin invited? was rapheal? were gort's parents? was serevok?

9. gort made the rings that's not a question that's justan idea that came into my head as i was typing this.

10. please i need a guest list for this fucking wedding this is driving me mad.

[cconfusedkat]

I think the reason why I have a tendency to draw new things every few months is bc im Still relatively new to digital art and always wonder how much i improve in months

So mainly it's for my sake because im like Oh wait ive been drawing this character differently recently ?? And then Boom i take my eyes away for one second and theres redesigns

Plus instead of making clothing so complex i decided to go w my heart and base their clothes off of how id characterize them If That Makes Sense ,, i figure kallamars is the most obvious one for him being a tailor for example

Whereas shamura is the (main) undertaker , Leshy and Heket are the two missionary party leaders , and Narinders isnt very obvious but hes considered the gladiator :-3c

Lamb and Goat (Allure & Giuseppe) are the two leaders of the cult!! (Allure main leader, giuseppe co leader) As time went on and giuseppe settled in allure's cult , the name changed from just alluring lamb to the cult of death and wisdom ,,, Ram (aaliyah) isnt a very repetitive person that shows up at the cult since she has her own cult to run (within another universe , a war cult specifically) but she likes to show up every so often just to check in with her brother [giuseppe] :>c

And ofc how could i forget wilt lol- i forgot to add giuseppes cape here Woops ,, But its what giuseppes main clothes r in the other cult

And well i kinda wanted to incorporate the healed designs ,, another thing i wanted to add is that i constantly yap about them all being rlly strong (minus Narinder however- i believe he wouldn't be able to go on crusades or missionaries due to fibromyalgia) but its not too obvious either ,, id def say that leshy and allure are probably the strongest out of everyone else (leshy can summon roots from the ground and uses his body as an advantage, where as to allure their main weapon is withholding a heavy axe ,, but that shit is Not Easy so both leshy and allure are bottom heavy cuz of that- their back muscles and legs carry shit for the both of them HELPP)

Shamura isnt exactly a battlefield person though, they're probably the only bishop to not wanting to fight ?? Those days r Way behind them ,, Kallamar can make himself taller due to Allure reserving some strength left of the blue crown as apart of a compromise they were forced to make with kallamar to stay within the cult-

One thing in common Giuseppe and Narinder have is pacifism ,, narinder is a pacifist because of seeing allure so ill and he didnt actually like seeing people in pain- whereas Giuseppe is pacifist because hes a god of wisdom nd prefers to take things with a lighter approach. The complete opposites of those two are Allure and Aaliyah, theyre both aiming for any type of genocidal route because of what they went through for both the lamb and goat genocides occuring in different worlds of theirs ,, giuseppe doesnt rlly like crusading with allure for that reason 😭 even though aaliyah is Much worse since shes a god of war- its just the way that bloodthirst makes giuseppe incredibly uncomfortable,, to see such a shy lamb act the opposite on their crusades is Lowkey what terrifies him lmao-

Herrmm ,, heket and kallamar are pretty similiar in the stances of not rlly gaf-ing about fighting and crusades ,, heket is good at stealth and kallamar just aims right for the target because shi's just Impatient-

Okay thats all the yapping i have left in me fur now i also have these to share

The only decency here is giuseppe lmaooo 😭🙏

Oh one last thing is heights :-3

(Shamura is 4'7, Ram is 5'1, Lamb is 5'5, Narinder is 6'0, Goat is 6'1, Kallamar is 6'3, Heket is 6'6, and Leshy is 7'2 ,, Idk why i put sozo there but maybe bc its fur my own reference)

[xx-psych0-rabbit-xx]

anyways heres some misc info on the jamba cults development from the artbook, note these were google translated through lens n might not be accurate lol

-the original set characteristics for the mages were francisca would be girly, gentle n introverted, flamberge sporty n passionate n zan mature n sincere, these would be reflected in their designs where the shapes of their weapons appeared behind their heads (frans would resemble a bow, berges a ponytail n zans long free hair)

-flamberges dialogue indicated she had less faith than the other 2, so its noted her hair covering her hats symbol in one of her betas (the ponytail one) would fit that, in the final (unclear how long it was. between beta n final for this, but personally i doubt much was altered) dialogue this lack of faith is kept (she only fights you for hurting francisca n later on slacks on the job (from the jp screen, translated in english shes just taking a lil break)) but the hair covering symbolism is lost

-while looking through the sisters many betas, youll likely notice that flamberge sometimes has the leaders hat:her final design page confirms she was considered for the leader, but they decided her personality would shine best if she wasnt

-youll also notice there once was a beta design where zan seems to have been one of those excited super happy characters.this depiction would age soon after.

-zan had an initial short beta name that lens is saying translates as "paruza", later on in her final design page its mentioned her name was actually gonna be even longer, but the UI couldnt show all of it, meaning technically, her full name ended up still an abbreviation

-hyness final character is meant to be a religious version of a mad scientist, essentially

-occasionally lens will translate hes related to buddhism, n sometimes just say magic, its v likely magic is the intended word of the sentence ("but rather a high ranking leader who is skilled in magic" in relation to the scientist thing) but do you see why i dont trust lens that much those r WILDLY different implications

-the cults symbol present in the sisters hats is an eye in the middle of an heart, which mixes both of the cults associated symbols together, this is much more obvious in older designs for the symbol

-the jambastion is designed after a katar, an indian dagger, interestingly, wikipedia notes cerimonial katars have been used in worship, going from the source being a book discussing tamil culture, this is likely from hinduism, this continues the trend the cult has references to multiple religions

-jambandra in the meantime, is designed after the holy grail, a religious treasure from the arthurian legends, its usually associated w christianity, though its debated if the grail trope couldnt instead be celtic or from yet another religious origin, again, the multi religion references

-in the interview section w some of the staff at the end of the artbook, its confirmed by kumazaki himself its meant to be up to interpretation if the mages r adoptive sisters or sisters as in nuns, the only info set in stone is they were taken in as children

-in that same section its also said outside of the drawing of the cultists at the beach, its up in the air whatll happen to them after KSA, this fits it being ambiguous if theyre still together as a cult or not in the mages playable screens

-ALSO in that part of the interview, its explained they had a beta backstory where they were animated weapons given life by hyness, n at the end would go back to being lifeless objects, this made kumazaki feel bad however, so he let them be real girls who live at the end in exchange their backstories r now traumatic

none of the void pages had anything new or that you cant immediately tell from looking at it, sooo nothing from there lol

[koeiasequoia]

Stature, motion, road, armor, bling, hair for whoever you choose!

*cracks knuckles* time to invent a modern Audra AU already. Something something modern day vampire, is working for/is the child of "Godwyn the Golden" as one of his Death Knights (personal guards and private military type thing). Godwyn while being a vampire is very public facing, runs a huge business(not sure what kind) all to fund the other part of his business, the acquisition of and protection of objects/relics/entities/information/sometimes taking out targets/etc that would make his particular group of vampires more powerful and more protected, willing to work with anyone (at least in private) to accomplish that. Audra also, generally (both in ER and modern) does not give a shit about gender, theyre "far too dead to give a damn", call them whatever pronouns you want, and they will dress and present how they want. (Also yes Audra still had lightning magic)

Stature - What's your OC's body type? How tall are they? Do they wear clothing to accentuate their look or do they try to mask it?

Fit, not overtly super buff, but muscular. About 6'5". The clothing they wear is mostly to afford them full range of motion while still looking nice, whether that be suits/dresses/casual clothes (though they do indulge in dressing in more normal clothes from time to time, rather than keep up the refined appearance a vampire, and guard to Godwyn one would expect, it's a guilty pleasure)

Motion - How does your OC move? How does their clothing help or hinder their range of motion? Are they flexible, coordinated, clumsy?

Audra moves with purpose, every step calculated to get them where they need to be, and to the destination they seek, whether that be a physical place, or with their claws in your chest. They are exceptionally coordinated, each step, even in combat feeling intentional, almost graceful at times.

Road - What does your OC wear while traveling? Do they have high-quality equipment, or are they making do? What does their gear look like?

Depends on the travel. Business or food/hunting or pleasure? Business depends on whether it's being a guard for Godwyn, or accomplishing a mission. Food/hunting, they'd likely forgo modern clothing in favor of things they used to wear (besides their armor) yknow old vampire clothing, refined and macabre. *pure* pleasure, not caring about any eyes on them... sleeveless hoodie, tank top, shorts/capris. And yes no matter the situation, their clothing is WELL taken care of and high quality

Armor - What kind of armor does your OC wear? Is it well kept? Bonus: where does it come from? Is there a story behind it?

So, technically they have two sets of armor. The old armor they don't wear anymore, basically just a cleaned up/complete/full version of the Death Knight set from ER. Aaaaand the more, modern... tactical/military/black-ops kinda stuff (yes, their modern stuff still has a full skull mask), we do not know much about modern stuff so, apologies for being vague X3. Both sets are well kept and well maintained, with Audra even stitching up any rips or tears when they aren't in combat. As for where they came from, well they've been alive for a LONG time, and have been leader of the Death Knights as both a knight, and in this more modern age where knights aren't around. They've needed armor always, and it's been graciously provided by their benefactor and lord

Bling - What jewelry does your OC wear? Does it have any meaning?

Not much honestly, mostly just a pin/badge, it's, it's just the symbol for the dragon cult incants in ER lmao, black and bright and shiny gold with a ruby lightning stake (pics for example, the real thing would be fully colored obviously lol)

Hair - How does your OC wear their hair? Does it have some kind of meaning?

Partially braided, ending about halfway down in a loose ponytail, often worn over one shoulder. Not really any meaning, we just thought it'd look cool XP

[catwyk]

what are your Sibling Rane headcanons 👀

FOAMING AT THE MOUTH. OK OK.

they were born into the faith in a very zealous family, but for some reason they have little contact with their parents (and younger sibling)

theyre very young, like 18-20, during season 3 (for reference i hc faulkner to be 19ish in s1 anc probably around 22 in s3)

theyve been on like 2 pilgrimages, which were both relatively low stakes but successful, so they really feel like they need to prove themself some way other than a pilgrimage (being faulkner's right hand is a way of doing this)

they really, really look up to faulkner and want his approval badly. Rane is a victim of his cult leader charisma like everyone else, but its not just that - faulkner is a young, devout, successful and loved member of the faith, eveything rane wants to be. they arent necessarily jealous of him, but they certainly long for his position

they see faulkner as the ultimate conduit of the trawlerman and have sacrificed the long-held traditional beliefs of their family to follow him

they fear that if their family found out about their denomination changing, theyd disown them, or worse

thats why they really need faulkner to be the "right choice" to follow, so theyre justified. they also think that by fully committing to faulkner's cause, theyll be less accountable if he's proven wrong - victim of charisma, like i said

thats why they curse carpenter so vehemently, even though they must see her as an almost legendary figure from their childhood stories

i think that covers it.... im so normal about this character with like 2 appearances and 4 lines sibling rane i love you

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Saix

Ok so his story (chronologically) is that he was trying to save a girl with his best friend and got trapped in a basically-cult at the age of 16. And in this cult he and best friend lost ALL ability to feel emotions. For TEN YEARS. and the whole time he was trying to get closer to cult leader in order to find out about what happened to the girl, and it’s basically saïx and his friend against the entire world. When you (player character) meet him its after those ten years have passed and his best friend regained emotions and left him basically alone in this horrible situation and hes just so angry and betrayed and hes convincing himself that he doesn't care about it and ALSO hes like kinda 50% possessed by the cult leader in a way? and during this segment he’s basically the Worst Guy. Hes aggressive to best friends NEW friends and this leads to him kinda ensuring the destruction of both best friend and his new friends (he intentionally stabs best friend), so yeah. He sucks a lot. But fan interpretations are always “oooh saix did a BAD THING and thats bad so he should be put in a nuclear reactor” which ignores his situation COMPLETELY or theyre like “ooooh hes my precious baby and he was hurt :( he was sad and had no agency whatsoever :( so every character should forgive him immediately” which. Is almost worse tbh because he really did spend a whole game harrasing two 16 year olds for being friends with someone.

Six (long propaganda)

Once again (just like with every morally grey character I think) there's a war between "she's a monster" and "she's an angel".

Six, as a character, is very cool because there's no dialogue or anything in the Little Nightmares games, and a lot of things that are just not showed. The whole point is everyone can have their own interpretations and theories. But Six is just so disrespected by the fandom !

On one side, it's "she's a monster, we hate her, she's selfish and uses people to get what she wants !"

On the other side it's "she's a kid and my favorite character so by default she can't be a bad person, she's actually a sweet and pure angel !"

None of them are right.

For the first ones... Six isn't that much of a monster. And I'm gonna say it : yes, she is a literal kid. That doesn't mean she can't be bad, but she thinks like a kid. She probably cared for Mono before she betrayed him – we can see her trying to help him when he was in the TVs. She probably has a reason why she betrayed him. There's a lot of different theories on that and none of them is more valid than the others because again you're meant to have your own interpretation, so I won't tell any of the popular theories here. You can think she did it for selfish reasons. That doesn't mean she's a literal monster, and that doesn't mean the people who don't think it was selfish are mischaracterizing her.

For the second ones... I don't even know what to tell you. If there's one CLEAR thing in these games, it's that Six is morally grey and could do something scary at any moment. As the player you're literally MEANT to be scared of her and what she could do. In the first game you are meant to slowly realize her hunger isn't human. You can also see how she doesn't try to help any of the kids trapped here, she's just helping herself. In the second one she does scary thing all along the game to keep you scared that she could kill and eat Mono at any time, only for her to betray him in the worst way possible at the end. We don't know her reasons but she still did it.

Six is a morally grey character. She's just a kid trying to survive in a world full of monsters. She's also full of darkness, acts like a creep and eats literal people. You can't say she's "just a monster", the same way you can't say she's "a little angel who did nothing wrong".

(Different Propaganda)The whole thing with Little Nightmares is that the world is terrifying and horrible. It is eat or be eaten in the most literal sense. Six does what she has to to survive. Has she done some bad things? Yes. Was it her fault? …Debatable. But the fandom treats this CHILD like she’s the worst person to ever exist. Like, she’s not even ten years old. She’s a survivor. Mono did plenty of questionable things too, but I’ve never seen anyone hate on him.

[limpfisted]

so ideally. my act 3 threads would be. wyll breaksvthe pact with his father at tav’s request after being unable to make the decision for himself, he then starts using his connections as the son of duke ravengard and also the cute kid the common people used to know, to find out where his father is located

he is no longer passive, tav will either take him to the places he wants to go, or he will go there himself

most nobles are all beholden to gortash’s mind control, or completely susceptible to his charms and idea of the steel watch. the ones that aren’t, gortash wants u to kill for him in his elaborate cat and mouse game with the player where he wants to form a proper partnership. all the while, ur also going into the lower city and helping oocal unions work against the crimes of the dead three and the guild, only for the guild to eventually side with you as theyre PROFESSIONAL criminals—and too much senseless death is bad for business.

orin keeps sending u bodies as love notes, n just fenerally appearing unhinged as both noble and merchant alike. trust no one.

orin of course kidnaps a party member. by default, i want to say its wyll as having the son of the frandduke is a better token for politics. u can realize hes a fake bc he is NOT INCREASINGLY UNHINGED N FRAZZLED IN THE SEARCH FOR HIS FATHER. before wyll is taken out, he left a map with the location of the iron throne

this then leads to u deciding between taking down the steel watch, saving the gondonians, etc, to “save” wyll, or still siding with gortash. either way u can save wyll, bc duh, but if u side with gortash, and DON’T go save ulder, he kills ulder, and wyll will try to kill him and be killed in the process.

you of course can also kill both orin AND gortash! (wyll heavily approves.)

by default, you save wyll, you then go save the gondonians and ulder, u disable the steel watch, u free florick from the prison, u free the wyrm, wyll has to make the difficult decision of whether he wants to rule baldur’s gate or be his own man,

and then u fight gortash, gortash becomes a political prisoner either under ulder or wyll, they go fight the netherbrain, the dead three are defeated, yippee

except NO, because there are still HUNDREDS of refugees outside baldur’s gate. ansur has been killed, thatsa big enough crime to start a new cult abt. the tiamut cultists want their stolen gold back from what remains of bhaals chosen. the guild has more power than ever. vanthampur hasnt been taken care of. most of the nobles believe in gortash n not the ravengards, the flaming fist is in shambles, the steel watch has turned to shit, the amnh can finally take away bg’s power from the council of the sword coast, there are TWO VACANT DUKE SEATS, elections to be had, there is literally NO SPACE for the refugees, there Awill Be a struggle of politics, wyll will gave to fend off assasination attempts as he tries to do The Right thing

theres also the githyanki, the shar thing, the vampire spawn, gale and the mystra of it all, karlach in avernus.

and they STILL HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING TO STOP ZARIEL FROM BALDING THAT GATE!

wyll either has to go to avernus with karlach and (ur party) and try to find the sword of zariel becoming a badass hell pirate in the process, making deals with war bosses and shit, ending with the party deciding who the NEW leader of hell is

OR

wyll stays behind in bg3 and cleans up the absolute (teehee) mess left behind, while dreaming of avernus

also thus isnt “canon” to descent of avernus, but i want ulder to be like, kinda posessed by visions from baphomet that make him kind of ill, lol.

[enlighten3d]

since i am TIRED i’ll quickly show you the murder lesbians and quickly try to speedrun their lore hehe

So this is Janette Biswar!! (art by my amazing mutual @iersei since this is my fav drawing of her so farrr) and she’s an unwilling church/cult leader (and lesbian)! She tries to undo the damage her mum did with the cult and tries to dismantle the cult as a whole but then Adele Beckett shows up and fucks up her plan!!

(ART ALSO DONE BY IERSEI!!! they drew both of them so uhh mutual art be upon ye!!) Speaking of the devil, Adele Beckett! She’s technically a cop (acab) and someone with a lot of internalised queerphobia (transphobia- her husband and son are trans, arophobia- janette is aro-spec) and does not take janette seriously uhhh and then the plot happens lmao

(then they try to kill eachother a couple of times, janette gets resurrected, adele cheats on her husband with janette uhh yeah there’s more i could go into but i don’t want to dump that all on you!)

I am very normal about them. <-says a guy who is LYING (also go to sleep/nf/silly)

WOAHHHHHHHH

oh thats so cool. AND THEYRE SO PRETTY !!! (veryy pretty art, kudos yo that mutual of yours). i love them actually. this is fascinating....

so weird enemies to lovers murder lesbians cult thing... thats amazing and beautiful. this is SOOO cool.

also, resurrected ?? woah ?? damn..

agh i dont have many structured thoughts. THIS IS JUST SO VERY VERY COOL

i am very very much lsitening if you want to talk abt them more... ever shfjdj

thanks for telling me abt the.... they will live in my mind now /silly

(also i will go to sleep !! soon !! (: )

[cyanorth]

Your faith AU looks really interesting and will probably live in my brain rent free. Absolutely love the art! Is there any more info you'd be ok with sharing about the AU?

aw thank you very much!!! and heh. im Glad you asked (<- doesnt have much)

so aside from john = oscar and gary = arthur, so far i have

the unspeakable = the king in yellow

garcia = noel

michael = emily macfarland

lisa = alexander (he lives 🎉🎉🎉)

and maybe mckenna = allred

im honestly not sure who the mother and daughter of the trinity would be. bella and faroe seem like the obvious answer and theyre what im going for For Now... but i wouldnt say miriam = bella. i wanna keep the whole "the unholy trinity relates to both the mc and antagonist" thing, e.g. miriam being garys literal mother and johns mother figure, but idk how LOL which is why im hesitant on this part specifically. i could probably implement it if i just took the time to actually Think about it

i havent really explored much story-wise besides arthur being the leader of hasturism and how he gouged his eyes out as a sign of devotion. if i do end up going with bella and faroe as mother and daughter (which i most likely will) then theyd be like a little cult family <3 how nice <3 arthur is also kind of john (doe)? the same way gary is astaroth

ummm yeah thats all i have for now HAHA its very messy and unfinished at the moment

[druidposting]

On the Value of Using Real World Political Allegory to Analize Fictional/Fantasy Political Structures

Figured i should just make my own post on this subject instead of trying to explain it in the comments of other people's posts.

For starters, i completely understand the distaste for bringing "politics" into discussions on escapist media. It can be boring as hell and you can get bogged down with details REAL fast if you dont know hpw to articulate your points. But that doesnt mean its invaluable, or something that ought to be avoided in discussions or metas - i think rather that a solid ability to draw parallels between irl politics and the politics of media you enjoy can help make your media literacy more robust, as well as give you a better understanding of politics in general.

When you draw these parallels, you have to be able to recognize sociological and historical patterns in groups of people throughput the world in order to understand what political attributes youre likening to the ones you think are occuring in the media youre analyzing. Im gonna use CR campaign 3 as my example here because its discussion is what inspired me to make this post in the first place.

A while back, I made a handful of posts about how and why i believed Ludinus' Ruby Vanguard could be likened to modern right wing populism (for instance, the maga movement). This was around the time that the solstice had just occured, and we'd gotten to see a little bit more into the workings of the Vanguard as a political movement, as well as Ludinus' whole evil villain speach before flipping the bridge switch. Those few episodes in the Tishtan tite were the biggest sirens for me in concluding that the Vanguard was a right wing populist allegory, but you could see the first signs even before then, when the Hells interogated that member with Ryn's help.

At the time of making those posts, id seen some dissagreement with the comparison to phony populism, specifically because there wasnt yet any evidence that Ludinus was doing outreach, or trying to pull in the common man - thus, the Ruby Vanguard should be likened more to a cult than a big populist movement.

But what is a fake populist movement if not a cult at a broader scale?

Fundamentally, cults are built on the backbones of lies told by a strongman leader in order to hold power over their people. And while looking at them throughout history, it's kind of hard to know where to draw the line on what movement is or isnt a cult (as it turns out, almost all definitions that try to capture specifics about social processes are very nebulous and riddled with caveats), but you could absolutly describe the Ruby Vanguard as a cult! Just as I beleive you can describe the american MAGA movement as a cult - and you can also describe both as fake populism. I truly think the only difference between cults vs fake populists is the scale at which theyre able to bring in people.

In regards to the broader comparison between irl right wing populism vs Ludinus', the way i saw it at the time was is like this;

You have a large population of politically disseffected or politically unknowledgable people who are upset about the current state of the world.

For MAGA, literally 50% of americans fell into this. Its not uncommon - which is why theyre such a great group to prey on if you want to bolster support for a fake cause.

For Ludinus, it seems theres a large population of Exandrians upset that the gods wont answer their every prayer, or frustrated with their lot in life and are able tp find blame in the current world regime (ie. The gods). We saw this with the first Ruby Vanguard member the Hells ever encountered, when they interogated him with Ryn - the guy was miserable about his life and the state of the world. These kinds of people are PRIME targets for faux populist rhetoric, and this was the first big red flag to me that this was the kind of thing the Vanguard would be built on.

A charismatic strongman swoops in to appeal to the frustrations of the above people to pose as the leader of the movement.

MAGA had Trump. Say what you will about the man (and i will say a lot), but he had undeniable charisma. This is a HALLMARK of fake populism.

The Vanguard obviously have Ludinus. Again, say what you will, but he seems to be capturing the hearts and minds of the commonfolk.

The things this leader says to appeal to the common man are lies, often presented as surface-level truths. When you really analize their proposed solutions though, theyre either internally contradictory, dont solve anything, or imperically will cause more harm than whats been the status-quo.

Not even gonna substantiate this with the MAGA movement because if you think theres anything good in there you shpuld unfollow me now

Ludinus preaches that all exandrians will be free of the gods, while failing to mention that the method of freeing is an unknown god-eater. Will the whole world be swallowed? Will the god-eater become the new god? This information is conveniently unmentioned by Ludinus, and theres a lot more regarding the whole god situation he's lying about or painting over, too.

Finally, the main thing that typically propells a cult-like movement into being populist-like is a big catalyst event that propells their leader's message into the mainstream.

For MAGA, i think you can chock this up to Trump as a person. The media went CRAZY with him because of how unlike every other candidate on stage was - this bolstered his voice and his ability to preach to the masses, and him subsequently taking the presidency propelled him into the stratosphere.

For Ludinus, this was VERY obviously the Maleus Key being turned on. An event seen across continents, paired with Ludinus' message being beamed into the heads of every exandrian on earth. Before this event, you could predict that the Ruby Vanguard would become a faux populist movement. This was the event that basically confirmed the hypothesis for me.

And, now that we've been able to see hpw expansive the efforts pf the Vanguard have been to draw common folk into the cause, much like right-wing populist efforts, you can even more plainly see the allegory. But as mentioned before, even without seeing explicit scenes of hologram Ludinus popping up in city squares to preach his word, or learning of the countless common folk drawn in to the cause with the hopes of a better life than their own sad lonely ones, you could use examples of very similar political movements irl in order to pretty acuratly predict where the Vanguard's movement was headed.

I'd like to extrapolate this a little further. In those same posts a while ago, I'd also theorized that Ludinus is aiming to become god-emperor of Exandria, and this is for the simple reason that this is a fundamental desire of many real world leaders like him.

With regards to populist revolutionary movements (and a revolution is undeniably what Ludinus is gearing for), you'll see there are two kinds of ways in which the leaders lie to their followers.

This one you see quite often with specifically vanguardist revolutionary movements, in which the leader knowingly lies to their masses, but in service of a greater "truth" they believe in. They beleive that in order to acheive what they truly think will be a greater world, they must lie and do bad things in order to get there

The other kind of leader lies in service of acheiving greater power for themself. There is no real "greater good" theyre fighting for, no better world on the other side. At the root of their being, they simply want to become god-emperors by any means necessary. This kind of person is very megalomaniacal and narcissistic, and will do anything for applause from the people following them. This is the kind of leader Trump is, for instance.

Admittedly, we dont really have concrete proof that Ludinus is one way or the other in terms of how it is he lies to his followers, but i believe that he is more of the narcissistic megalomaniac style of leadership, and we'll be seeing more and more evidence of this as time goes on. It takes a true narcissist to believe they can kill god, let alone a whole PANTHEON. I also beleive that even if a leader starts out as the former, they will inevitably slip into the latter over time (take the USSR for example). When you hold such uncontested power over so many people, given enough time that power will go to your head.

Something you also see a in history, is when the leader of a vanguard populist movement aftually succeeds in their revolution, the leader then becomes a megalomaniacal dictator, again, seeking to be god-emperor of the universe. The obvious examples of this are the Soviet Union and Mao's China.

Furthermore, Ludinus is a smart guy. He absolutly has to know that killing all the gods is going to create a MASSIVE power vacuum over Exandria. He then also has to know that someone's gonna fill that vacuum, and he sure as hell hasnt posited any suggestions for how the Vanguard might go about making sure an even more oppressive system of power isnt instantly installed in the gods' place. And with as narcissistic as this man has to be, would he not think himself the most appropriate person to fill that position? Why work so hard for so long on this insane centuries long plan to rid the world of the gods?

One answer is that he truly believes its for the greater-good. This answer would be the one in which Ludinus quietly fades away into the background once the gods are dead, letting the world carry on unchained as he believes it was meant to.

The other answer is that he realized that when that power vacuum opens up, he will have put himself in the perfect position to take control over everything, thus becoming god-emperor of Exandria.

But yeah, as long-winded as this all was, you can kind of see how exercises like this can really help with media analysis and understanding the motivations of characters, or making predictions on where certain threads or story beats might be going. As humans, we are fundamentally social creatures - does it not make sense, then, that the stories we tell would be woven with the essences of social structure? And whats more fundamentally social than politics?

[cconfusedkat]

a little lore dump for regretful war & regretful wisdom as i procrastinate on emails ^v^;; ,,

So ofc this is the one who wilts before The Incident™ (that they caused) ,, they used to be more softer and fuzzier as well as appealing to the eye Cuz Like. Youre a leader now you gotta dress properly for your cult ?? Each five of the siblings had a same robe with their corresponding crown colors and different religious symbols on their body either as accessories or clothes

They held two crowns, war and wisdom, withholding them at different times when they were needed for separate occasions ! They preferred the war crown anyways cuz it was more fun for them to use nd stuff ,, theyre kinda like the opposite of mystic pursuit shamura where THAT spider is more like goddess athena.. this spider is more like god ares with war specifically

their cult of war and wisdom were growing SO significantly that it wasnt their siblings jealous of them; the people were going insane and preaching nonstop over war and wisdom, protesting how the other four cults were useless for the old faith society. Their siblings got scared of them and their power advantage so much, that wilt took offense to it ,, winding up killing their siblings and hunting them down when they all went to hide within their cults

Cw for skull & blood & suicide mention under the cut (for more of the,,, Worse parts of rw&rw versus mystic pursuit)

"i destroyed a bond of friendship and respect between the only people lefy who'd even look me in the eye" is very fitting for wilt and narinder for this world

They got a bit too downhill and spiraled really bad mentally?? Eventually having Narinder as their last "victim" they were gonna kill as the fourth, but it wasnt until they walked into his kingdom while he laid behind his throne, already a skinned off head & skull because he never wanted to be killed underneath the hands of the god of war and wisdom. Essentially , narinder DID kill himself before wilt would get there , knowing how much itd break them given how close these two siblings were

Thats exactly the moment they got found out by the other god of war (Areem) (very similar to athena) to imprison wilt, but they kept refusing. So with that and their refusal of wanting to go to the pillory, areem did the opposite of whats told of them;

killing wilt with their spear in hand by engraving it all the way into their brain to their whole body (so its basically that areem dug the spear into the beginning of their head, and then right down to their pancreas)

Which explains the chain because it was.the only way to keep Wilt alive in purgatory, the chain so deeply pitted in their stomach area that if it got pulled out by themself or areem then itd kill them within three seconds ,, which is actually how their boss fight would go , so ':-D ,,

But yeah ,, the lyrics are from kiss me song of god to clarify,, i believe its rlly fitting for them the way they went against their own politics and family morale (rising into absolute government + killing all their siblings)

"The blood of the exploited working class"i was thinking of drawing the other four bishops for , nd also is kinda inspired off of a certain game anyways,, for the first millenia Wilt was locked above in purgatory they would constantly hallucinate their dead siblings and repeat "take responsibility" to everything they did that

"Yes the world screams kiss me son of god" is the part where goat and ram are the first ever company Wilt has had in three thousand years. 3 millenia. They had a strong attachment to ram cuz she took the crown o war ,, nd cuz she reminded them too much of narinder with her high and fun energy etc,, they still appreciated goat for their pacifism but they still had that bad habit of advocating violence

wilt treats the two with bad attachment issues and that's what lead ram to killing wilt 10 years later instead of areem (who they both were meant to kill originally after finding out all the bullshit wilt got away with) ,, ram hates wilt even more after goat resurrects them into the cult ,, goat and wilts relationship is 50/50 but it wasnt until goat fully moves to allures cult (another universe) and both wilt + ram are incredibly heartbroken and hurt

Goat,, goat got tired of the constant war going on. They just wanted a break from the constant screaming , violence , everything terribly wrong with the environments of rw&rw ,,

They arent rlly expressive much about their trauma regarding their own universe like how Allure is an already open book for being so paranoid & anxious about mystic , buuut i will give goats own post at a given point :> this is a wilt post lidslfjskdk

Thats mainly all i could think of for wilt ,,but they *are* the villain of their story,, for spiraling into insanity after reaching so much recognition with war & wisdom they kill their siblings to show their cult they didn't need family to survive (wrong! They in fact DID need them but they werent thinking right) (whats worse is that you cant resurrect old gods there so they were haunted by both real ghosts of them and hallucinations)

[toxic-ship-tournament]

OK AT LAST THE PROMISED ESMERALICE RANT

OK SO... THEY BOTH ENDED UP DRUGGING EACH OTHER MULTIPLE TIMES, AS WELL AS KNOCKING EACH OTHER UNCONSCIOUS AND WHILE WHEN POOFENPLOTZ WAS DOING IT(PREBREAKUP) SHE MOSTLY DID IT AS A WAY TO CONVINCE ALICE SHE WAS ENJOYING THE PARTIES AND GROUP STUFF POOFENPLOTZ WAS BRINGING HER TO("I MEAN, DENY HOW YOU GOT SHITFACED DRUNK ALL YOU LIKE, I HAD TO CARRY YOU TO MY HOUSE."(SOMETHING WHICH IS ALSO SPECIFICALLY MEANT TO TICK OFF ALICE BASED ON HOW YOUNG ALICE INTERPRETS PERFECTION)) WHEREAS. ALICE(BOTH BACK THEN AND NOW) MOSTLY DID IT TO KIDNAP OR TAUNT HER. IN ADDITION, ALICE(CURRENT ASSUME ALL OF THIS STUFF IS CURRENT) MIND CONTROLS OR READS HER MIND DESPITE POOFENPLOTZ DOING EVERYTHING IN HER POWER TO BOTH TELL HER TO AND MAKE HER STOP THAT, AND USES THAT CONTROL AND INFORMATION TO BASICALLY BE REALLY PETTY AND DIG AT POOFENPLOTZ, ALTHOUGH SHE ALSO USES IT TO LIKE. TRY AND KILL THE CLOSEST THING SHE HAS TO AN ACCEPTING FAMILY BUT WE'LL GET INTO THAT LATER. ALSO OBLIGATORY "NONE OF THE DRUGGING OR MIND CONTROL GOES IN A NON/DUB-CON DIRECTION. POOFENPLOTZ WOULDN'T WANT TO DO SEX USUALLY ANYWAYS BUT ITS A DEFINITE NO WHEN SHE JUST DRUGGED HER PARTNER, AND ALICE HAS VERY SPECIFIC "RULES" ABOUT MAKING SURE PEOPLE AGREE TO WHAT SHE WANTS IN THEIR "RIGHT MIND" (INCREDIBLY VAGUE USUALLY BUT FOR POOFENPLOTZ IT BASICALLY MEANS "NOT DRUGGED DRUNK OR MIND CONTROLLED") SO"

ALSO ALICE AND POOFENPLOTZ BOTH GAVE EACH OTHER EATING DISORDERS. THAT'S ONLY KIND OF A SIMPLIFIED WAY OF PUTTING IT. ALICE MADE SURE POOFENPLOTZ HAD TO "KEEP UP APPEARANCES" AND POOFENPLOTZ MOCKED HER ABOUT IT ENOUGH THAT THEY BOTH KINDA ENDED UP SPIRALING. IRONICALLY, THIS IS THE ONE SITUATION WHERE ALICE RECOVERED BETTER THEN POOFENPLOTZ. MOSTLY BY PROCEEDING TO GO "ACTUALLY I DONT CARE ABOUT MY EX AT ALL" AND DENIALED SO HARD SHE MANIFESTED NOT CARING ABOUT THAT STUFF EITHER ANYMORE. SHE DID THEN USE POOFENPLOTZS TECHNIQUES WITH A HEALTHY DOSE OF ATTEMPTED CULT LEADER WISDOM TO GIVE OTHER PEOPLE EATING DISORDERS TO INCREASE HER CONTROL OVER THEM. SO.... YUP. ALICE ABSOLUTELY SNAPS AT POOFENPLOTZ ABOUT THE HORRIFIC DOUBLE STANDARD, BUT ITS WELL AFTER IT WOULD HAVE APPLIED AND WHEN ITS IN A SITUATION WHERE ALICE GOT TO HEAL AND POOFENPLOTZ STILL STRUGGLES WITH IT CONSTANTLY? OOF. (ALSO IM SORRY FOR THE JOKING TONE ON THIS I PROMISE I DO TAKE EATING DISORDERS AS SERIOUSLY AS POSSIBLE THEYRE JUST HARD FOR ME TO TALK ABOUT OTHERWISE BC. WELL I DONT NEED TO GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFORMATION LIKE THIS BUT I THINK IF YOU READ THIS BIT ITS OBVIOUS.)

THERES THE USUAL "MURDER FOR EACH OTHER, DEATH THREATS, SUICIDE THREATS, KIDNAPPING, COERCION, ETC" BETWEEN THEM BUT THOSE ARE MOSTLY BASIC STUFF AND IM RUNNING ON ZERO BRAINPOWER AND A LOTTA EXHAUSTION SO ILL SKIP ABOUT SEVEN MORE PARAGRAPHS RN AND GO TO THE FAMILY THING I PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED.

ESSENTIALLY(AT THIS POINT IN THE STORY) POOFENPLOTZS ENDED UP FINDING SOME SORT OF SOLIDARITY AND FAMILY WITHIN MILLIE AND PINKY, ALONG WITH A LITTLE BIT OF SUPPORT AND COMMUNITY W THE OTHER FIRESIDE GIRLS SO FAR. NOW, ALICE HAS A WHOLE THING OF REACHING PERFECTION THAT POOFENPLOTZ EGGED HER ON ABOUT, AND HER CURRENT STEP ON THAT ROAD REQUIRES HER TO BASICALLY KIDNAP MILLIE AND PINKY(PINKY ISNT NECESSARY SO MUCH AS SHE JUST WANTS TO EXPIRAMENT A BIT BUT THATS THE SAME AS NEEDING HIM TO HER), SO HAVING HER HALF EX HALF CURRENT GIRLFRIEND WHOS BEEN ROASTING HER ALIVE FOR ALL THE SHORTCOMINGS AND THINGS SHE CANT STAND ABOUT HERSELF, STANDING IN THE WAY OF THE TWO PEOPLE SHE NEEDS TO TAKE? POOFENPLOTZ IS GOOD AT FIGHTING BUT SHES NOT GONNA SURVIVE ALICE WITHOUT ANY WEAPONS. ALICE BASICALLY USES ALL OF POOFENPLOTZ'S INSECURITIES AND ISSUES RIGHT BACK AT HER, USING WHAT INFORMATION SHE GAINED BY NOT GIVING TWO SHITS ABOUT POOFENPLOTZS BOUNDARIES OR ANYTHING TO BASICALLY KILL HER *JAZZ HANDS*. ALSO KIDNAPPING THE TWO PEOPLE SHE ACTUALLY HAD WHILE SHE BLEEDS OUT ON THE FLOOR. IT ALL ENDS UP FINE NECROMANCY/HJ BUT LIKW. YEAH.

I PROMISE THIS IS A COHERENT NOT GRIMDARK EVERYONE ENDS UP HAPPY IN CHARACTER PHINEAS AND FERB AU. AM VERY EXHAUSTED SORRY IF THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. THEY'RE BASICALLY THE DEFINITION OF THIS POST

.

[kingcunny]

reply @aaronized

wellll okayyyyy…… 👉👈 if you insist……

used one of my fave picrews and screenshots from my ocs pintrest boards so you can get basic appearance + vibes…..

adrian and blair (200X) they share a pintrest board. adrian was molested by family member as a child and never told anyone about it. has an undiagnosed chronic illness. turns to drugs and alcohol to cope. turns around and molests his younger sibling all throughout her childhood. blair eventually comes out to adrian as a trans woman. doesnt come out to their father. names herself after the blair witch. shes bullied all throughout school. anytime she tries to go adrian for help hes strung out. one day dad comes home early and finds adrians jacket thrown over the couch. picks it up and a little baggie of powder falls out of his pocket. dad goes to confront adrian and finds him and (blair) in bed together. tells them to get their shit and get out of his house. while homeless adrian gets very withdrawal sick and forces blair into sex work to provide for them but more importantly his drugs. even after getting his fix adrian cant work bc hes sick :( blair has to take care of him :(. they drift from long stay motel to long stay motel for maybe a year. one day blair is coming back ‘home’ from an appointment with a john when she finds adrian dead from a herion overdose. their room was paid up for a week and she spends that week alternating between lying on adrians lap, dissociating. curled into a corner facing the wall as fsr away from his corpse as she can get, dissociating. and yelling at his body ‘what am i supposed to do now?! what do you want me to do?!’ when time comes for checkout blair panics and tries to kill herself too. but shes (un)fortunately(?) found and wakes up in the er, her estranged father sitting in a chair next to her bed. they havent seen each other since he kicked them out and hasnt seen transitioned blair yet. he tells (her) hes sending (her) to an inpatient facility to get help. no arguments. she asks about adrians funeral. at first dad tries to tell her it wouldnt be ‘appropriate’ for her to attend but after she throws a fit and threatens to kill herself he lets her. but makes her wear a suit and tie up her hair and shes off on a plane early next morning.

noa goderun and her wife hollie (XXXX) (no pintrest… yet?) (they also have twin daughters i havent named yet but they take after noa and theyre the twins from the shining) they both grew up in a cult. noa cant feel anything, physically or emotionally. she develops a fascination with inducing feelings in others that she cant experience. their cult arranges marriages and forces procreation. (hollie is trans) the conception of their twins is the one and only time noa let hollie top. noa terrorizes hollie just to see how she reacts to it. likes to see how hollie walks on eggshells and tries to please her. knowing its an impossibility. (i have this scene in my mind were hollie, at her breaking point asks noa what she did wrong. why noa hates her. noa would be like ???i dont hate you. i enjoy your company. thats worse for hollie) eventually their cult announces a crusade and noa immediately hops on it. shes assigned her own troop and let loose. throughout the crusade noa indulges her fascination and likes to torture nuns to death especially. she sends ‘love letters’ back home to hollie detailing how she tortured a bunch of women to death today. how some of the girls reminded her of hollie. how she took extra time with them. sending hollie locks of hair or finger bones as momentos. their cult eventually looses, badly! and has to sue to peace, running back home. but noa has been winning all her battles and says fuck that and keeps burning churches and killing holy leaders. giving noa up becomes one of their conditions for peace. noa continues to send her love letters to hollie and accidentally reveals her location in one of them. hollie turns noa in and shes ambushed. her troop is killed and noa is publicly executed for her many many crimes. noa goes to hell and makes a deal with the devil to be resurrected, as long as she goes on a new crusade. this time for satan against her former cult. noa asks if that means shell get to kill her wife

shedshy (placeholder name) (present day. present time) scene queen taxidermist. my completely original oc character not based on any preexisting media. spends too much time on sh.ed twt. likes dead and gross things