#ballaster hermine

[do-you-ship-this-taz-ship]

Propaganda: They were both so young when they became Ballasters!! All the other Ballasters were so much older and no one else their age understood the weight that was suddenly on their shoulders. There's no way they didn't gravitate towards each other -- platonically, romantically, whatever, but they were definitely each other's main person, at the very least for the first couple years after the storm.

Image credit: @tqtc-art

[tqtc-art]

This is my official proposal for Hermine x Kodeira they could be a Ballaster power couple if we all believe 🙏

last day of @tazsapphicweek for the prompt "dance"! thank you so much for running this, it was a lot of fun <33

[boydykedevo]

BTW I’ve been thinking a lot about Hermine outfits and I think shoreside!Hermine dresses more lowkey than a proper boyar but definitely still looks super noble, her clothes are still very elaborate, just with some modifications to be a bit more practical. (she’s the Rebellious Noble, after all) She has a pretty flashy sense of style and that never really changes but as she gets older she starts to take less and less inspiration from her noble background (i mean her old clothes probably get damaged and or stop fitting at some point so that’s part of it).

Also I’m taking some inspo from actual Russian boyars (or at least what google images says are boyars, I’m not too concerned about being 100% historically accurate lol)

I think the climate in Delmer is probably warmer, so a lot less layers, and the culture is very practical, so even the nobles’ clothes would probably lean more practical, but something vaguely similar to these

[ethersierra]

Holy shit in the finale hermine was like oh yeah Devo , Zoox, meet with the ballasters tomorrow to talk this through.

And the only ones left are her and Declan cern- are you KIDDING me... We never got to see this scene and it's literally his family member. I'm screaming. Plus like I wanna know what happened to the government! I know the finale was hella busy but I wonder, cause Devo and Zoox seem like they're in positions of leadership now for two of the departments that fell through, so are they ballasters now? Did joshy ever become ballaster of the voice cause I swear I remembered that happening.?... Lots of unanswered questions which is why I'm glad season two is on the table

[power-of-fluffy-boys]

A little ethersea drabble

[fantasyphantomsea]

Hellooooooo High Ballaster Hermine, it’s officially TGMRMIC time

In light of The Ballaster Hermene’s ascension to leadership in conjunction with the ~30 years that have passed since the set-up episodes, I would like to take this moment to identify a new universal law that I’m calling The Griffin McElroy Rule of Milfs In Charge, or TGMRMIC for short.

TGMRMIC states that for any ttrpg world gm’ed by Griffin Andrew McElroy, there is an inevitable and inescapable trend towards important leadership roles being filled by hyper-competent older women. If none are originally written, all random acts of chance in said ttrpgs will trend towards the creation and subsequent rise to power of female characters until such time as they have reached (1) an age of forty or more, and (2) the highest position of power that the rules of the game deem important.

TGMRMIC can perhaps most accurately be compared to the way that all natural selection processes eventually lead to crabs.

[thepringlesofblood]

so when i listened to taz ethersea, i listened to the first 17 episodes, fell off the wagon for a while, and then listened to the rest all at once over like a week.

this means, that in the finale when *SPOILERS* devo says his real name is damien cern, my immediate reaction was “fuck, i really should know who that is.”

so i went back. and I looked. and I was still confused. and i looked harder. and i took notes. and i am less confused, but now i have a true pepe sylvia conspiracy theory board. which i will share.

here is a timeline of What We Know About The Cerns, complete with all my various conspiracy theories. spoilers, obvs, for the whole series

Timeline

Hominine traveling performance troupe comes to beach

Benevolence comes to beach

Declan’s eldest son, Tolliver (98% certain that it’s him), goes missing. (prologue V: The Weight of History)

He has two other sons. If Amber’s account of Tolliver being “Declan Cern’s little boy” is taken literally, Tolliver can’t be older than 12 or so, and is likely under 10 (little).

We have no indication of another parent in the picture, and no indication of whether the kids are adopted (from the traveling troupe) or not.

The Storm - we go under the sea. (prologue V: The Weight of History)

2 years later - Devo is born!

Was supposedly raised “with” the Church and his mom, who was a member of the traveling performance troupe (TTAZZ Ethersea Wrap-up)

important, Declan Cern is never mentioned when discussing Devo’s backstory. The implication is that he is/was uninvolved in Devo’s life, and judging by his 0 voiced lines in the podcast it is possible that he doesn’t know Devo is his son OR does not recognize him as his son (legally or just by face)

Some Point before age 6 or 7 - name is changed from Damien to Devotion, this is when the ‘fulfill your destiny’ stuff starts (Episode 25, Cambria’s Call pt 4)

age 7 - mom “disappears”, the Church and more specifically the Hand of Guidance takes over his care (TTAZZ Ethersea Wrap-up)

So the scene with the lights + the hand of guidance in ep. 25 (Travis says Devo was “6 or 7″) would’ve been right around the time his fucking mom disappeared, Christ, guidance.

Some point (unknown, could’ve been before now) Brother Seldom leaves the church

Some point (slightly more known- 7-22) Devo hears Brother Seldom’s broadcast and is inspired to leave the parish

23 - he leaves!

Beginning of true podcast time

When Devo asks Felix for a line of credit (Episode 6, interlude 1), this happens:

Devo: And along with this, if I die, before I am able to pay you back, you can take this—

Travis: And Devo writes out a note.

Devo: To the Cern family. And they will pay my debt, no questions asked.

I HAVE MANY QUESTIONS TO ASK TRAVIS

The ONLY direct interaction I can find with Declan Cern is when they go before the Ballasters in the interlude when the Sallow comes (Episode 22)

He doesn’t say a fuckin word. He just sits in his Ballaster of Transit chair and watches. Travis recognizes him and asks about him - we don’t know if Devo recognizes him. Devo doesn’t act particularly out of character in the trial, at least as far as I can tell so maybe no?

We’re assuming when Hermine gets up and leads them all off, Declan goes back to whatever he was doing, as none of the other Ballasters follow them. He literally sits there and says nothing, even as Kodeira vouches for them and looks to Guidance and Aloyicius Supreme for confirmation, but not Declan

Doylist explanation - Griffin forgot he was there after describing him bc he’s #irrelevant

Watsonian explanation - this man is sinking into the floor. Or Kodeira has no reason to think that Declan knows anyone in the party, which is also VERY INTERESTING

He’s “in his 70s” so he was 47-57 when Devo was born, 45-55 on the beach. Either he aged real bad or Travis has a galaxy brain take on what “charismatic young man” (how he’s described in a quiet year V) can mean.

In the Menagerie, Devo meets a spectral, hologram-ish being that confirms themselves to be the Auctioneer and says he can call them Tolliver. They mostly discuss ethics and environmentalism and how to not be an asshole. (Ep. 24-25, The Menagerie parts 4-5)

Tolliver uses he/him pronouns from this point forward - the Auctioneer used they/them.

He is described as young man in his early 30s with three scars on his face, one of which goes over his eye which no longer works.

This age lines up with Devo’s if Tolliver is the eldest

At the end of the Menagerie mission Amber recalls that Tolliver was the name of “Declan Cern’s little boy” (Ep 25, The Menagerie Pt 5)

After Devo splits the timeline (Ep. 44 “Finale”), Tolliver shows up and basically says “hey what the fuck??? What the fuck did you do?? Even I don’t know what you did and I’m magic”

He also claims himself to be the “embodiment of the will of magic”

Devo reveals both his “real name”- Damien Cern - and his plan to kill Benevolence.

The former (Devo = Damien Cern) Tolliver scoffs at

Devo: Or I could just go by my real name, if you would prefer. And I could just be Damien Cern.

Tolliver: [scoffs]

Griffin: He smiles when you say that, and he says...

Tolliver: You’ve really got layers, don’t you?”

The latter (killing Benevolence) really freaks him out

Griffin: Tolliver, even in this moment where he has admitted that he doesn’t know as much as he’s letting on, still seems pretty uh... cocky. When you say that, he... is taken aback. And then he just kind of like looks around the room in a panic, like he’s trying to think his way through it. And he says...

Tolliver: [shaken] Wow, you’ve... You’ve really got layers, um... Hm. Okay. I can help you with that. And in exchange, maybe you can help me too. Because... I... I am pretty powerful, but I am only doing what I am called to do. I’m acting on instinct, doing what I’m supposed to do, and you were not supposed to call out to the family of Benefactor Orlene, but you did.

Devo: Mm-hmm.

Tolliver: And in doing so, you defied fate itself, and that makes you very, very interesting! 

So. That’s the timeline.

OBSERVATIONS:

We know that Devo is a Cern.

We know that his mother was in his life until he was 7, and that she raised him “with” the Church, until she disappeared and the Church took over completely. 

We know that he is the child of one of the traveling performers from Hominine, and he was “adopted by the Church” (TTAZZ)

We know that the only Cern mentioned on the show is Declan Cern, and his three sons, the eldest of which went missing.

The simplest answer is that his mother was one of the traveling performers, and his father was Declan Cern. These are the assumptions we will be operating under.

My nitpicky autistic ass absolutely has to point out several technicalities that probably do not matter

We don’t know for certain that his mother was one of the traveling performers. The two facts are mentioned separately.

Declan Cern could’ve been one of the traveling performers who retired and became a council member. He isn’t mentioned by name until Prologue V. It’s definitely not the most likely thing, but it is possible.

the performer, his mother, and Declan Cern could’ve all been separate people, with his mother being a church member related to Declan Cern in some way who adopted him from the performer/troupe

We don’t know for certain that Devo is Declan Cern’s son. We just know that he is a member of the Cern family - he could be a nephew, a cousin, etc.

We don’t know for certain that Devo’s mother and Declan Cern were romantically/sexually involved in any way. Again, she could’ve just been a church member that adopted him, or she could be a sister/relative of Declan Cern’s.

When Devo talks about his break with the church, he does not mention Declan - his focus is on Guidance, Orlean, and other current church members. So I don’t think the rift b/w him and Declan was caused by Devo’s break with the parish

Important to remember: when talking about his upbringing, Devo NEVER mentions having friends his own age. He emphasizes over and over how isolated and alone he felt. Would this have been the case if his brothers were there? Were any of the other Cerns present in Devo’s life at all?

potential answer - Devo emphasizes the isolation because that’s how he felt but there might have been other kids or his brothers around just not easily accessible to him as friends or family.

Devo was isolated by Guidance early on to be groomed into taking her place - nothing the Cerns could’ve done, assuming they’d want to do anything, would have stopped The Hand Of Guidance from getting what she wants - she’s consistently described as Incredibly Powerful. This is the mostly likely answer I think.

QUESTIONS

Why was Declan Cern not a prominent figure in Devo’s upbringing?

What happened to the other sons? Were they ever in Devo’s life?

To what degree do the Cerns know that Devo is a Cern? To what degree does the Church know?

How big is the Cern family? Is it just Declan and his sons?

Why was the Church raising Devo with his mother rather than Declan? What was The Church’s role in Devo’s upbringing before his mom died compared to after?

What happened that made the Church adopt him when his mother disappeared, instead of his next of kin? Would his mother have approved of it?

Why were his mother and father separated? Were they? To what extent? For what reason?

Did the other two sons have a parent figure other than Declan before he met Devo’s mom? What happened to them?

Why did his mother disappear? Was it intentional on her part? Did the Church or Guidance have something to do with it? Is she dead? If not, where did she go?? It’s not like it’s a big city, or like there’s anywhere else to go

Maybe she took a ship and just went for it. Idk. Maybe she went looking for the Ark Fleet - if the Hominine traveling theater troupe picked up members as it traveled she could’ve conceivably joined it from somewhere other than Hominine. Perhaps……..France? (my crack theory is that Devo got his accent from his mother)

Maybe Guidance took her out of the picture some other way. Maybe she was scared of something/someone. We’ll probably never know, but doesn’t hurt to theorize. She also could’ve fallen off a cliff or something.

THEORIES

My initial thought was that Declan could’ve cheated on his existing partner who he had the initial three sons with, by sleeping with one of the performing troupe members, so when they get pregnant it has to be kept quiet bc he’s a Public Figure, and he’s had enough of the public eye after Tolliver went missing, right?

So they’re separated and decide that she will raise Devo at the Church and he’ll send child support (notice Devo saying ‘the Cern family will pay it [the debt] no questions asked’ - this corroborates that!) but something mysteriously happens to her, leaving the way clear and unimpeded for the Hand of Guidance to groom Devo into the perfect successor.

His mother could’ve told him he was a Cern before her disappearance, and the child support kept coming in. I imagine the Hand of Guidance would’ve wanted to use the lux herself, maybe she framed it as funding his education, so of course it would go to her, she was his education.

I do feel like Guidance would try to steer Devo away from checking on his Cern family though for cult reasons.

It is physically impossible for his other sons to also be children of this traveling performance troupe member unless he adopted a whole bunch of orphans they conveniently had around.

Unless (unless)

Both the performing troupe and Declan are Hominine. What if the Cern family was living in Hominine, and Declan heard the call, but the mom didn’t? They could’ve had a big blowout fight about it, ending with her joining the performance troupe and him taking the kids to the beach.

Then, when the rest of the troupe realized hey fuck there’s nowhere to go they come to the beach, Declan and the mom reunite and go under together, then 2 years later have Devo

It also lays the groundwork for why Devo might have been raised on his own - if they had marital problems and separated again, the older kids might choose to go with their dad, while baby Devo stays with mom.

Also, Declan’s kinda old and this is a hard world. Maybe he was too caught up in work (canonically he’s a “nose to the grindstone” kind of guy) to take care of a baby so that fell to Devos mom, who also needed to parent two other kids so she enlisted the church to help.

That might also explain why Devo didn’t see much of his brothers! If the Church was doing childcare, it could’ve been separated by age group, so the older kids might be off with Brother Seldom or whatever other group they have while Devo stayed at the Church with the other little kids.

Also if they’re staying in a bathysphere…three kids two parents is a big family is all. Maybe the mom stayed at the Church with Devo some nights when it got too crowded, and that’s how it started. Then more and more often, the Hand of Guidance helps out, seemingly taking on more responsibility out of the goodness of her heart, while actually taking over more and more of his upbringing, grooming him to be her successor because she’s noticed his gifts at this point.

Alternately, polyamory is always an option. Maybe Declan Cern has (or had) multiple partners who aren’t really involved in each other’s lives.

Alternately, Declan Cern could’ve been a single dad before they even set foot on that beach.

Alternately, Declan wasn’t involved in the pregnancy - he just adopted the son of a traveling performer.

Where the mom fits in here is...tricky. Maybe she had a kid she wasn’t able to take care of, and Declan offered to adopt him, then had him grow up in the church, where Guidance got her greedy little hands on him, and the mom could be semi-involved.

Or whatever partner Declan had his other kids with died/divorced him and he fell in love Devo’s mom. Or again, polyamory, or single dad.

If Devo’s age is real, Declan either adopted Devo post-Storm, or fathered him post-Storm.

or. We know Devo is a Cern - it is not explicit that Declan is his father. Does Declan have any other family in Founder’s Wake? Lord only knows.

If this wasn’t a long enough post for you, I put all the transcripts i cited below (thank u tazscripts they do have official transcripts at maximum fun but some episodes don’t and they always wind up being the ones I need)

TTAZZ Ethersea Wrap Up

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-the-adventure-zone-zone-ethersea-wrap-up/

the main thing from this one is:

“Travis:...I don’t know if it was ever clear, Devo’s mom was with him for like seven years at the Church, and then one day disappeared, and the rest of the time raised by the Church alone.” (TTAZZ Ethersea Wrap-up)

ily travis but this is in fact not particularly clear

Episode 44 - finale

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-adventure-zone-ethersea-episode-44/

Episode 34, The Menagerie pt 4

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-adventure-zone-ethersea-episode-34/

Episode 35, The Menagerie pt 5

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-adventure-zone-ethersea-episode-35/

Episode 36, The Menagerie pt 6

there isn’t. a transcript. for this. on maxfun or tazscripts. i had to go in and write it down myself. this is the podcast link, what it said and the approx. timestamp

https://maximumfun.org/episodes/adventure-zone/the-adventure-zone-ethersea-episode-36/

(1:18:58- 1:19:40)

Devo: “…It was pretty shitty, there was a dude there named Tolliver, I don’t know if that’s his real name, who was the Auctioneer that we dealt with before, he fucking sucked Griffin: Hey Amber? Roll uh, Roll a history check. Justin: Alright…22 Griffin: That name rings a bell for you, because you have only known one Tolliver in your, in your long life, it’s a name you’ve not heard in a long time, but…it hits you, all of a sudden, that the only Tolliver you’ve ever known, the only person that ever had that name, was Declan Cern’s little boy.”

Episode 25 Cambria’s Call pt 4 (thank u tazscripts)

https://href.li/?https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/e/2PACX-1vSqE8hk7nt9dpISprv8L6WkxWnZ-H2By3XaOeXqRxDSLzExGhtwa6k0QhFgiYFQUzmoG9DNlHBEE3aC/pub

Episode 22 (interlude 3 (b/w Abyssal Auction and Cambria’s Call))

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-adventure-zone-ethersea-episode-22/

Ep. 6 (interlude 1 (b/w The Gallery Job and The Infinite Clam))

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-adventure-zone-ethersea-episode-6/

prologue V: The Weight of History

https://maximumfun.org/transcripts/adventure-zone/transcript-the-adventure-zone-ethersea-prologue-v-the-weight-of-history/

[juha-art]

the ladies of founder's wake, because i'm so so normal about each and every one of them

[boydykedevo]

im still sticking w my answer of hermine btw. especially shoreside hermine. yeah she's like 16 but honestly between running away from home to become the defacto leader for a ragtag group of people escaping the apocalypse and sneaking into the club underage i think the second would've been healthier at that age

[badgoth]

Especially if you consider Supreme was a recently appointed Ballaster AND they had someone before him also resign in disgrace? (If I remember correctly?)

Wild.

so with the death of both the hand of guidance and aluicous supreme (spelling?? idk) that means that 2 ballasters and the leader of the parish died in the span of like. a day? that is quite the power vacuum and i am afraid to see who's going to try to step in

[boydykedevo]

Looking into the etymology of some Ethersea character’s names for fun and. I’m just gonna share my findings real quick cuz I think its cool lol (sources used are mostly wikipedia and behindthename. I could be wrong about some of this idk)

Oksana/Oxana is a Ukrainian name. It derives from either the Greek name Xenia, meaning “hospitality” or the word Xenos, meaning “stranger”. (Its also spelled “Aksana”!)

Griffin says “Boyar” is a German word for the child of a baron when he names Hermine, but its actually an Eastern European aristocratic term (apparently it WAS used by Baltic Germans too? But as far as I can tell not IN Germany) Hermine IS German though, its the feminine version of Herman, which means “army man”.

Tolliver is an anglicized variant of Taliaferro, which comes from Tagliaferro, an Italian surname meaning “iron cutter”. The spelling Taliaferro probably came from a transcription error. I was very surprised to find out its unrelated to Oliver lol

Declan is an Irish name. The Wikipedia article said it is “believed to mean” either “man of prayer” or “full of goodness” but there was no citation so idk.

Damian is used in a lot of countries with a lot of variations, but it’s ultimately from the Greek name Damianos, meaning “(I) conquer/tame/overcome”. Also the name of the Antichrist in The Omen, which I can’t help but feel might be related to why Travis picked it.

Cern is a German surname meaning “carrier” (some sort of connection to Declan being the Ballaster of Transit? Idk that might be a stretch)

Phineas is the anglicized form of Phinehas, a priest in the Hebrew Bible. The spelling Finneas might be influenced by Irish names containing the element “Finn”. Cawl was hard to find a good source on, but it’s the name of a Welsh soup, and it might be related to the Scottish surname Cowl or the Gaelic surname Cawley? Definitely seems Gaelic, in any case.

Aloysius is a Latinized form of Aloys, which is related to the name Louis. In the US, it’s mostly used by Roman Catholics. As far as I can tell Supreme isn’t actually used as a surname, but it comes from the Latin suprēmus.

Ravi is a Hindi name meaning “sun”. Montrell is Spanish or Italian (sources vary) and ultimately derives from the Latin word “monte”, meaning mountain.

Tessellation is a word meaning a tiling pattern with no gaps, which I think fits pretty well with the concept of brinarr

Guthrie is a surname that comes from the Gaelic word “gaothair”, meaning “windy place”.

Orlean comes from the French place name Orleans, which is related to the Roman family name Aurelius, meaning “golden, gilded.” The spelling Orlene is a French girl’s name meaning “golden” as well.

Aaaand I think thats all the ones I was gonna do thanks for bearing with me if you read this far o7

[boydykedevo]

is Hermine her first name or last name cuz she's only ever referred to by it so i've been assuming first name but Oksana Kodira's referred to as Ballaster Kodira and she's referred to as Boyar/Ballaster Hermine so maybe Hermine's her last name...

[boydykedevo]

the ballaster council must be in SHAMBLES post canon. it's JUST Hermine and Declan now. They lost THREE ballasters in the span of a WEEK.

[boydykedevo]

I feel like she and Kodeira were pretty close, especially in the early days. They were both so young and just happened to be put into these leadership positions.

At least Hermine wanted to be a leader -- Kodeira just happened to be one of the people Koda would speak to!! I know Griffin said "he" here but it fits so well with my idea of how Kodeira became the captain (? does she have a job title im just assuming) of the Biggest Baby that I'm gonna headcanon it was her

Idk it's just so mindblowing to me how young they both were!! and suddenly they're Ballasters!!

There's no way they didn't gravitate towards each other. No one else is in a remotely comparable position. All the other Ballasters are so much older. Like I personally headcanon it was romantic at one point or another, (not permanently) but first and foremost it was about finding connection with another person however they could.

hermine was so YOUNG on the shoreside. she was just a teenager!!! she was just a rebellious teenager who ran away from Delmer and become a de facto leader of an entire CITY. Like holy shit.

[ethersierra]

Lup completely overthrew the scale of the last poll so.

Lmk if you want a poll for balance too👀 I may have to eliminate Lup on that one since. You know

This is still also for science.

[juha-art]

anyway the most underrated character in ethersea is hermine. i'd die on this hill but there's no one else on or even around this hill to kill me, that's how badly you're missing out on her. she's was a charismatic rebellious young royal that turned into the new world leader in a year. my girl basically overthrew the government and made a completely new, better system. and 25 year later she's still so cheerful and funny and hopeful and kind despite having, very literally, the weight of the world on her shoulders.

and her relationship with the every other character is sooo crazy like- finneas was her collaborator and friend/father figure and she lost him twice. when zoox said that finneas was in the lantern and she asked 'wh- where is he now?' she sounded like a little kid. literally heartbreaking. her causal 'well, i know you' to amber in the trial while amber's freaking out because this kid who was her neighbour on the shoreside is now the most powerful person in the city and she doesn't know how to behave around authority? hilarious. 'i never met a brinarr i didn't like' to zoox.. 'THAT'S ENOUGH' to koda. to a fucking god. are you kidding me?? she even shops at nermal's pile. she's perfect.