#as well as the others

[lolliputian]

Some ramblings on the Tieflings' appearances...

Weirdly enough, this is inspired upon by a comment on a DNDBeyond Facebook post.

There's a book in a few places in the game (most notably Zevlor's area of the Grove) that reference the ritual that Asmodeus and his warlocks did after the Spellplague, which cursed all Tieflings to appear more in his image. Prior to that, my understanding is that Tieflings more closely resembled humans. (Doric from the D&D movie is a good example.)

Many, but not all, of WotC's official artwork in the books show Tieflings with their horns beginning at the brow line, extra growth on the chin to mimic a beard, bumps around their eyes or cheek bones, etc. Many players choose to omit those features in their Tieflings' appearances in their home D&D games. Which leads me to what spurned this ramble: the post I reference showed an old Tiefling woman with obvious protrusions on her brow line and cheeks. The commenter on the post hinted that this was what "old Tieflings used to look like" before everyone decided to make them hot. (To which I say: lulz okay nerd, let people make hot Tieflings.)

Who is the ONLY Tiefling in BG3 who has obvious extra definition to the brow and cheekbones? This handsome fella...

...who is the "old one." Which, admittedly, cracked me up. I'd personally argue that the ridges make him look older than the wrinkles would suggest, but that's neither here nor there.

Now, granted, the fact that the Tieflings aren't more varied in their appearances in the game makes complete sense. Larian could only use so many different facial models when they're giving a set amount to the player, and it's not worth their time to give every NPC a unique face when they could add a lot of variation using the character selection presets.

But we CAN look at the other two unique NPC Tiefling models, Rolan and Dammon:

Dammon's got the more pronounced brow area, which at the very least the face model that Danis and Damays use also share. Both of them also have more pronounced cheekbones that could hint at their infernal ancestry. For me, it's been less obvious on Dammon than it is Rolan; in certain lights in the game, it VERY much looks like his protrude more than normal. I notice it less often with Dammon. Granted, in both their cases, maybe they just have really excellent bone structure, and I'm reading too much into their character models. (Reading too much into things? On TUMBLR? Nah, never happens.) Regardless, two male characters younger than Zevlor don't have as many obvious infernal features, which is an undoubtedly unintentional but still funny call back to "old Tieflings" versus "new Tieflings."

Also consider that Karlach does not share these facial protrusions that the male characters have/seem to have. (I don't think any of the female Tieflings do, and there's some commentary to be had with that, but I digress.)

But who DOES get some extra infernal features in addition to the horns? Wyll. Who is not a Tiefling, but go with it.

For shits and giggles, Mizora and Raphael also have smoother facial features:

Again, I completely understand why most of the NPCs were generic face models for practical reasons. But it is interesting they only gave Zevlor the "traditional" 4e/5e Tiefling look.

What are your thoughts? Or theories, even? Let me hear them!

[sunnyelfs]

Halloween isn't over until I'm done with this dragon AU 🐉 Here's a little snippet

spoiler alert: it's gonna be dark (as if I'm able to write something else)

Simon is practically thrown forward, so he almost falls on the rock ahead of him. He knows this place. The flat stone, covered with runes on its sides, is surrounded by another four tall stone pillars. The altar. Simon lowers his gaze to where his palms rest against the stone surface, and the blood freezes in his veins. His hands are covered in ash.

“You wanted to know why the dragon wanted you? Then here's your answer. He was going to burn you."

Pearls are glistening treacherously among the ashes. The pearls were once gathered into necklaces or perhaps sewn into clothing. The little that had managed to survive the fire.

"This is what dragons would do with the brides given to them. They would bring them here and then burn them alive until there was nothing left but ashes. And a new dragon.”

Wilhelm's voice came out unusually low, echoing off the high vaults of the cave. He had never been so... frightening. The dragon had been. But Wilhelm, this- this sweet young man, with his charming smile and freckle-covered skin, with little to no idea of the world beyond the island- he had never been frightening. Until this moment.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

"I want you to understand that I could never be anything else. This is how I was born, this is my legacy.”

"No it's not,” Simon shakes his head. “You are not like that, you are so much more than-” he turns around momentarily, glancing at the altar behind him, “this. And you don't want to do this to me."

"Don't want to?” Wilhelm frowns. “You have no idea how much I want this. From the first day, from the moment I saw you in that boat, all I could think about was that you belong here."

"It's not you, Wilhelm, it's the-"

"I am the dragon!"

[obb-z-scene]

Rick Sanchez would listen to 7 Rings by Ariana Grande and Sorry Not Sorry by Demi Lavato

[theboxfort]

Peace and love

[thattripleabattery]

[sleepygaymerdisease]

[rivetgoth]

It's honestly crazy that discussion around testosterone HRT skews so much towards the beginning stages of it (to the point that you have dozens of guys thinking their transition is "failed" if they don't pass by like a year in lol) and what the initial changes of the first couple of months to years look like, like the classic laundry list of those early basic changes like bottom growth, voice drop, etc, when IMO literally none of that compares remotely to the depth and intensity of the long term total masculinization you start to experience like 3-5+ years in.

[reasonsforhope]

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

[dramatic-dolphin]

when we were studying the bible in literature class (so we have the context necessary for later works that reference the bible), i think we were at the book of jonah, and one of my classmates was studying the text very intently, and then looked up and earnestly said "professor, i don't understand the will of god"

the teacher was just like. well sadly i am a literature teacher and not a priest so i can't help you there. but if it helps, many people throughout history had the same problem.

[tariah23]

White people are miserable, racist losers period. They’ve even been getting mad at Japanese people for correcting them about Yasuke as well.

[druid-for-hire]

[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled "immortality” after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as “do not stand at my grave and weep”). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]

a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”

[cracklewink]

My Mane 6 Redesigns all together! I was going to post them separately but ended up finishing them all before I got around to it lol

[lemongogo]

dont forget what happened to icarus

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[insomniphic]

What's your take on Odysseus's trauma and recovery back in Ithaca?

*looks at all the comics I made*

Lol but really, I realistically expect it to be severely rocky. He’ll have good days, mostly bad days, but what keeps him grounded is of course his family, you know?

But imagine losing your entire fleet under your command...

...only to come back to an entire population of thousands of people, expecting that you will lead them.

What if he fails again?