#but that also has elves being edgy

[thegreateyeofsauron]

i never read harry potter because i saw the cover and was like "this book has a dumb looking kid on the cover and its about going to school so that means its for babies. i only read grown up fantasy novels about dark elves being edgy."

[theaceofskulls]

This upcoming week's preorders for warhammer are the funniest combination they could think of.

For Kill Team, 40k's small scale game where you play as a single squad of dudes, you have the Chaos Space Marine Night Lords vs Druhkari Mandrakes.

To quickly sum that up, you have a terror troop that makes the "normal" space hell-infused supersoldier barbarians look nice. These are the people that skin their victims, broadcast screams to their friends, and generally are the most edgy of the edgy faction in general. You can see them below with all sorts of skin hanging off them, swords made of bone, and a whole ass banner made of a partial dead supersoldier.

Opposing them are the shadow demons of the torture elf faction. These are the guys that lurk in the shadows of Edgy Shadow Murder Elf City that scare even the people who live there. They also skin people and wear them as their clothes too. And they wield edgy dark magics that they throw to burn people alive (and possibly their souls as well).

Then you have the War Cry box, the Age of Sigmar Fantasy skirmish game which has Lumineth vs Nighthaunt.

The Nighthaunt are cursed spirits that the god of the dead personally has constructed ironic punishments for. These ones in particular are eternally burning ghosts that used to be healers, alchemists, and priests who attempted to use sacred fires or potions to burn away death or purify areas of the undead who now spend their afterlives aflame or having to keep the awful flames of Nagash's realm alight upon pain of worse fates.

So that leaves us with the elves who are the exception right? Well they're nicer than the above, being monk/druid/paladins who are trying to save the realms. However, anyone familiar with Lumineth or with the trope of "too good makes an evil paladin" kind of tropes, you can figure out that they're not always the good guys in the stories. Still they're mostly good, but let's hope they don't run out of villains to fight

They're also dropping the dark fantasy human hunters alongside the eternally starving ogres who are mutating teeth and tusks out of their body (they previously were for sale together but they're now splitting the box).

So these opposed and themed boxes are dropping soon alongside... gnomes.

The whiplash between these products feels like being hit with a truck

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Izutsumi! and Elves

Chilchuck my love, you so fucking asked for that one.

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You woke him from his nap!!

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Asfslkfjsk was the fact that Senshi accidentally made this guy in the show? I don't remember it.

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I love how this fight showcases how fast Izutsumi is. Girl's got a Dex of like 22.

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Fuckin' tragic that this is just a chapter cover and they never actually, so far as I'm aware, dress in sheepskins the way they dressed in frogskins.

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Not to be Edgy(TM) but I'm pretty sure that by this definition, humans, especially magic-users, are also "monsters."

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The green-growing, snow-free cavern with the barometz suddenly appearing is I'm pretty sure the most blatant the dungeon has been so far about giving people what they want - except possibly for this usually hot & humid floor being freezing in the first place, just because Laios said he didn't like the heat.

I hope it keeps doing this sort of thing after he becomes king. I know that's not how this works but god I love a sentient land, especially one that tries to accommodate its people. Alas that this one's all a honey trap for flies.

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It's very clear to me that, while Izutsumi may genuinely prefer to avoid strenuous effort, either physical or emotional, most of her argument with Marcille in this chapter is about her testing the boundaries of the group's tolerance for her. Where she was before, they'd tell her, "You'd think you could be a little more grateful to us for taking you in." And this is a philosophy that Tade, Izutsumi's closest friend and the one other subordinate-due-to-species person among them, bought into:

Izutsumi was skeptical...but that's still what she lived with. Until now, with this new group, where she's getting mixed messages - or, what feels like mixed messages, between what the group does and says and what she thinks they're saying based on her past experience.

Chilchuck calls her a beast, then basically has her act as distracting bait for a dangerous period of time while the rest of the party (is busy being injured or tending to the injured) does nothing to help, and all Chilchuck does to help Izutsumi kill the ice golem is mark its weak point for her. But then he compliments her skills, apologizes for being rude, and gives her her own pack and bedroll, truly welcoming her to the group. And when she remarks sarcastically that nobody cares about a beast being naked, Marcille only redoubles her efforts to help her keep her modesty, while the others bind Laios's eyes because he's the one who's going to Make It Weird - not Izursumi. Laios stays blindfolded throughout the steam bath scene because the party respects Izutsumi as a person.

So then she starts that fight over food, partly because she genuinely doesn't want to eat gross things - and more importantly, doesn't want to risk becoming even more a monster than most people already view her. But also because she wants, perhaps subconsciously, to see what happens when she's "supposed" to be a "team member" now but she disobeys the more senior members of the group.

This chapter threads two needles, builds two distinctions: between "earning your place" and "pulling your fair weight", and between "doing things you don't like for others (on their orders/for their goals)" and "doing things you don't like for you (for your own goals)." I think it...could do better at it? Like, Tade is kinda failing at step 1, because it's not clear to me that she realizes needing to "be useful" in order to stay is inherently fucked up. But she DOES think of that as her personal goal, even if it's actually externally imposed, and she's okay with putting in hard, sometimes unpleasant work in order to achieve it.

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Kabru internally, triumphantly: CAHOOOOOOOOTS!

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{fond sigh} the Elves from the West on their white ships with avian figureheads... They may be dicks, but we do love a Tolkien reference.

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CANARIES IN THE COAL MINE. I have NO idea if that translation is intended but my god I love it. If it's deliberate, is it a subversion of that concept or is it an indication of what the Elvish government thinks of their crack team of dungeon-delvers?

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BIGGEST, BLUEST EYES OF PERFECT* HONESTY*...followed by the visible pupils of honest evasion. Man, I'm really enjoying the Shuro-Kabru dynamic here, too? Shuro like, "Don't bullshit me. I'm a prince. I'm willing to help, but I know a politician when I see one." They vibe, your honor. They bonded over one of the weirdest and most traumatic meals of both their lives.

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LMAOOOO. This was NOT in the show!

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I love how Namari greets him excitedly and immediately asks for news of Falin, and Shuro says nothing but, really, everything; and Namari changes the subject to something lighter that's still gossip about their friends. I don't really expect it to happen but I'd LOVE to see the whole old Touden party reunite in battle or just around a campfire again, because it's clear they were a very good party of dungeon-competent people who worked and got along well together.

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Srsly though the opening view of this scene is such eloquent dynamic-establishing, vis a vis the elves relationship with the Island Lord and, well, everyone else here. We heard people muttering nervously in the streets, we heard Kabru's brief but heartfelt story of Utaya... And now we get this:

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The words of a man who would definitely for sure not have a single problem, not a one!

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Wait, what shady side business did Shuro have?! I love that Chilchuck is objectively the most reputable person in the party... Except really he fits in with the others: I bet a lot of parties don't want to hire That Bitchy Pushy Halffoot, any more than they want to hire an Easterner with weird vibes or the daughter of an infamous thief. (Or a mysterious elvish mage who won't explain her real reasons for wanting to explore dungeons, but Marcille would've joined the Touden party anyway, for Falin.)

It shows how Laios's trust of others pays off just as often as it doesn't.

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THIS IS IT, THIS SORT OF IMAGINE SPOT IS WHY I LOVE KABRU VERY MUCH.

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THE WORDS OF A MAN WHO WILL DEFINITELY FOR SURE NOT HAVE A SINGLE PROBLEM, NOT A ONE!

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...hot.

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kitty cat

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I like how this sort of comment is obviously genuinely hurting Laios, and Chilchuck does kinda genuinely mean it, but also he's saying it more reflexively than anything. Laios says or does something Particularly Fucking Weird; Chilchuck comments and keeps going along with him. I do look forward to Chilchuck growing accepting of Laios's weirdness rather than just resigned, but it's a good character beat all around.

[kid-az]

Which Persona characters do you think would be the most invested in Warhammer lore?

(Fuuka is one of the obvious answers, and I know she would’ve had a blast killing things in Space Marines 1 & 2)

Considering Mitsuru is ridiculously rich, she’d probably play a 2,000+ point Sisters of Battle army & have the Adeptus Custode’s as her secondary 40k army. If she played Warhammer Fantasy she’d likely have the High Elves as her main army.

Before his untimely passing, Shinjiro once played the Imperial Guard (40k) & the Empire of Man (Fantasy). I abide to the headcanon that Fuuka plays the Tau, that of the Ultramarines. She is unfortunately not interested in Fantasy as she’s a diehard Sci Fi nerd.

Most of the Persona characters aren’t rich (Or crazy) enough to buy Warhammer miniatures due to the sheer expense. However, I can see a good few who’d buy those overpriced plastic/metal soldiers.

Yosuke has enough money to buy multiple large-scale armies for not only him but for the rest of the investigation team, and he'd definitely play the Adeptus Mechanicus (If you know you know). He isn’t interested in Fantasy unfortunately.

Chie is definitely a diehard Ork(c) player, that is an objective fact for both settings. She’s also the type of person to scream “WAAAGH!!!” whenever her Boyz win.

Chie would introduce Yukiko to Warhammer, and she’d grow a deep interest & investment for Fantasy (And be livid about the End Times) instead of 40k. Being an appreciator of horror, she’d vibe far more with the Skaven & Beastmen of Chaos.

Teddie was banned from the GW stores due to him eating some of the miniatures.

Naoto would at first show disinterest & even be baffled by the prices of the models, but they would eventually find interest after learning about the lore, particular Necromunda. Becoming one of the few to take deeper interest in the specialist games over the main ones, Naoto primarily plays House Delaque due to their mystique.

For Persona 5, Makoto & Haru play Warhammer 40k, and they play Tau & World Eaters respectively. Yusuke also buys many of the miniatures (Primarily those from Age of Sigmar), but this is literally just because he likes painting the miniatures, and he never actually plays the tabletop game.

Since Futaba is not good at talking to strangers (And Sojiro would have a heart attack if she ever decided to but the miniatures), she only plays the videogames as they’re far less expensive. Her favorite is the Space Marine duology & Vermintide.

As for the protags, Makoto’s the kind of edgy boi to play Dark Eldar (After actually getting enough money to buy the army), while his counterpart Kotone plays the High Elves from Warhammer Fantasy. Yu Chadkami plays Imperial Knights (40k) or the Beastclaw Raiders (AoS), and Ren plays the Chaos Warriors (Fantasy) & the Thousand Sons (40k).

These are just my opinions though.

[claire-starsword]

Authentic Story of the Shining Force - Saint Fencer Max - Chapter 2

Translation notes:

The map in the first page is not the one seen in the final game, but the early version released during development. More info on my pre-release page as usual.

The enemies in that page are also enemies announced early before release: Rune Knights, Dark Priests, Dark Dwarves, Goblins, and the scrapped Mimic of course! That's fun to see.

Save for Lowe's odd age here, the training with Varios is very similar with how it goes in the actual game, with Lowe singing praises of how Max is on par with the knight captain. If none of that sounded familiar to you, you are welcome to hate the localization as much as I do.

Like, you think we're done with this? No way baby, Max's speech on memories is also a reference to a NPC in the start of the game! I legit got angry while doing the comparison on that one, it's a very iconic line that matches both Max's amnesia plot and the series' whole theme of forgotten evils resurfacing, it did not deserve to be replaced by generic slop. I'm glad I get to bring it back here and that it gets space in the manga as well.

Nova seems to have ears instead of horns in his brief cameo during the castle audience scene. Could be an old design, or the manga artist taking liberties or misunderstanding things. I find it curious though, because in the final version he's classified as dragonewt, however the GBA version will notoriously declare Elliot the last dragonewt on earth instead. This would make sense if Nova was intended to be something else at some point, and the GBA version tried to restore that, though it was nonetheless very badly explained.

Let's talk a bit about Max's speech patterns. In the original game, he obviously doesn't speak much, but the ending still shows him using the formal pronoun "watashi" for himself, and speaking casually to Adam, while more politely to the stranger they meet there. This continues in Final Conflict, where he's pretty casual to the team but sticks using watashi at the same time. This changed in the GBA version, where he switches between the more casual and masculine pronouns "boku" (softer) and "ore" (rougher) depending on who he's speaking to. I'm not knowledgeable enough to discuss this in depth but I do get the feeling that the choice of "watashi" for him in the original was a bit unusual. In any case, this manga just makes him use "ore" constantly. At the same time, he's pretty much always polite, even to his teammates. So he definitely doesn't come off as rough.

As example of this politeness, Max here also uses the usual "-san" honorific for basically everyone except Lowe, a literal child. I usually ignore those since they don't flow very naturally in english (at least for dialogue between friends/close teammates), but I did keep a couple instances when he has barely met Tao and Hans, because it felt fitting for a first meeting, especially with him being so notably polite in this version.

Let's talk about the rest of the team now! I've translated their in-game introductions in case you're not aware of how their personalities differs from the english version.

Hans was announced since the early coverage of the game, so every design difference you see here is the artist's choice. At no point was his personality touched upon however. So could it be that we were meant to have edgy rival Hans at some point? I find it unlikely given Hans' cute face, but my theory is that Hans had zero official personality at this point, so the manga artist just threw some elf stereotypes in and tweaked the design to fit that. It's hard to not associate Hans' attitude here with Mae's in the final game though. There's a lot of evidence in the pre-release page I keep linking to for Mae and the other centaurs' prejudice against Max to have been added late in development. So could it be that at some point elves were supposed to be the arrogant ones? Maybe! Could it be that the artist just shoved Mae's personality on Hans instead to erase her instead? Also possible! It should be clear already that the guy is not decent about female characters, and mild spoilers but, Mae is simply not gonna be around for this one save for small background cameos, which is mind boggling when she was clearly the main female character at this point in development. But could it be this has nothing to do with Hans and it's just a coincidence that his personality matches hers here? Also maybe! If it's not obvious I'm just rambling ideas at this point. To close the topic on Hans, he would eventually be confirmed as a noble in Shining Force Gaiden, as his son is mentioned to come from a noble family in the manuals. Though this is just the standard background for most characters in this game.

Tao is a curious case. She is seen in screenshots since the game's announcement, but it took longer until her art and profile were revealed. Said profile also says nothing on her personality, so my take on her here is the same as Hans. I doubt she was meant as the spunky girl we see here, but it's possible that the artist isn't warping her final personality, and she was just a blank state at this point. But it's hard to tell for certain.

Ken, on the other hand, was announced from day one to admire Max, which is probably why he's very much the same as his game version here.

Luke is the only one of the starting team to not be seen in early screenshots, and there's some evidence that Gort was meant to be the first warrior of the team instead. So the manga here gives us a better idea of when Luke was worked on during development.

The fighting tournament Ken mentions is brought up in the ASCII guide book as a tradition of Guardiana. Always fun to see little worldbuilding tidbits like this were planned from the start. And while nowhere else mentions this as the place where Ken first saw Max, it makes a lot of sense.

Finally, the battle at the Gate taking place on the inside, so dark it needs to be illuminated by torches? That's how the place looked in early builds as well.

[steve-needs-a-hug]

A feminist analysis of the Galadriel vs Sauron confrontation in the finale

After watching the Rings of Power finale twice, I keep thinking about the strong friendship/bond that was forged (hehe) between Galadriel and Halbrand and how much of it is predicated on the theme of power. As we know, this bond has been heavily romanticized by some fans, and while the actors do not exclude this interpretation, I believe the focus on possible romance is obscuring a deeper aspect of their bond - that of power dynamics.

Galadriel is thousands of years old. She has seen and endured much. However, the audience's mixed reception of her portrayal is interesting: some people say they found her unlikable and bossy, she's too arrogant and out of control. These pejoratives are commonly lobbied at women, whether in fiction or in real life, who are clearly strong-willed and ambitious (high in agency) but are perceived to lack sufficient friendliness and social tact (low in communality). The use of the 'Guyladriel' nickname further illustrates that RoP's Galadriel violates some audience members' expectations of how a female Elf behaves.

If Galadriel was male, or even if her appearance reflected the darkness within her, she would most likely be seen as a tragic anti-hero whose trauma adds a sympathetic or even romantic appeal to an otherwise stoic character (as we commonly see with the reception of edgy and/or male characters who display the same traits). She acts like Robert Pattinson's Batman (actually showing a more murderous desire for vengeance at times), but she looks like (for lack of better words) a 'nice girl', smaller in stature with soft facial features, intentionally not dissimilar to the serene and gentle Galadriel we're familiar with from the LotR movies. You can't 'see' her darkness the way that we're used to it being visually coded (dark hair/clothes, brooding, ominous presence, etc), yet it is threatening to completely consume her.

Within the show, it's also interesting to consider her reactions to the way people treat her. I'd like to make one thing clear: her soldiers, Gil-Galad, and Elrond were objectively quite justified in their reactions to her behaviour. She is clearly blinded by her singular focus on bringing Sauron to justice. My aim here is not to excuse her behaviour, but to offer an interpretation of her distress when she feels dismissed, disrespected, and not taken seriously by others.

While it is the greatest honour and reward an Elf could receive to be granted passage to Valinor, it was also a simple solution to Gil-Galad's problem - Galadriel. Her insistence on finding Sauron had become a nuisance at best, a danger at worst. And in Númenor, where she expected to be treated with reverence, it quickly became clear that Elves were being held in contempt rather than in high esteem. The Númenoreans mock her and want to send her back to where she came from. This undoubtedly worsened her feelings of everyone being against her. She expresses the isolation of being 'the only one who knows' to Míriel in the hopes that someone will finally believe her when she says the threat of Sauron is real.

TL;DR: Galadriel, who would be expected to command awe and respect, feels disrespected and cast aside. Halbrand, on the other hand, is effortlessly charming and persuasive. Although he has the appearance of a common 'low man', a grimy Southlander, Galadriel (and the audience) quickly begin to sense that there's more to him than meets the eye (comparisons to the rugged-yet-heroic Aragorn ensue). Galadriel sees potential for greatness in him, and uses it to her advantage for her own goals. He knows full well that she's using him, and her own ambition reawakens his ambition to rule over people.

In their big confrontation scene in the finale, he expresses that he wants to 'redeem' himself by healing what he helped ruin, and he wouldn't be a Dark Lord if Galadriel was by his side, binding him to the light. He is seeking moral legitimacy for his ambition to rule. It could be argued that Saurbrand is playing on age-old heterosexual narratives: The wayward man who needs to be reformed by a virtuous woman.

In exchange, he offers Galadriel what he believes she is seeking: authoritative legitimacy. While it's true that as an ancient and legendary being Sauron is literally more powerful than her, he also offers her a form of credibility, the chance to change how people see her and treat her. The alliance that Sauron proposes to her is based on the assumption that Galadriel will never be respected on her own. "All others look on you with doubt; I alone can see your greatness...your light." He preys on her feelings of isolation and being misunderstood, and tells her she needs him. As his Queen, she would be obeyed without question, loved and feared. She recognizes that despite her desire for respect, tyranny will not be the solution she needs.

Rather than complementing or completing each other, Galadriel and Halbrand are remarkably similar - they seemed to recognize each other as kindred spirits, for a time. Their confrontation in the finale really revealed where they differ on what matters most.

In summary, Saurbrand offering Galadriel access to power while wanting access to Galadriel's virtue mirrors the classic tropes of an ambitious woman who won't be taken seriously without the help of a man, and an ambitious man who needs his rough edges softened out by a good woman. These gendered power games are far from romantic in my estimation, but I'll leave that open to individual interpretation ;) Thanks for reading.

[greypetrel]

I see you've been asked several already, so for the Tolkein asks: whichever question you want to answer most, but haven't been asked c:

Hi Mo! :D

Thank you! The temptation to answer all the questions left was there... But I don't want to pester you with basically an essay, so I'll select a few x°D

Edit after writing it: *it's still an essay* Oops.

2. If you were the Middle Earth race that your personality most matches, which would it be?

I'm a Hobbit. Definitely a Hobbit. No love for being on centre stage, will eat six meals per day (listen, snacks are important ok), is very comfortable at home, but resourceful when needed. I miss the love for gardening, my thumb is very black and I have little interest for plants that I can't eat because what's the point. But Bilbo in the book dreaming while camping in the cold of a cozy afternoon spent reading with the kettle on the fire speaks to my soul.

10. Favorite performance by any actor in the Tolkien film projects? Bonus: What's your favorite scene with them?

Bernard Hill as Theoden always gets me. He's just the right level of intensity, melancholy and grieving because he's old and feels like he hasn't accomplished anything. The tenderness and the respect he has for Eowyn as his beloved niece AND a wise woman he can be happy leaving his kingdom to (Eomer goes with him to a potentially suicidal mission. He's saying, to me, that his heir is HER, not him). And his speeches are all-!!! The Pelennor Field's one always have me shivering. The words are nice, sure, but his acting was just great. All of the Rohan part is just peak casting and great. Miranda Otto did a stunning job, her singing the mourning song haunts me. And THAT SCENE where Karl Urban just screams himself raw when he finds apparently dead Eowyn. I still don't know why exactly it was cut from the cinematic version, it was a pity.

Andy Serkis. I am appalled that he doesn't appear in more movies because honestly find me any other person who would have delivered a Gollum in the same way. (and please Hollywood cast him in more diverse roles, make me see his face, he's GOOD, give him a chance)

Since no one named him: Sean Astin as Sam. REALLY. The way he can go from grumpy and pouty to bright and happy seeing Frodo and absolutely EPIC. He's a whole journey by himself. Favourite scene: I can tell you the PO-TAY-TOES scene by heart, mimicking Gollum as well. But his speech at the end of Two Towers.

And also. Not a favourite because it's down for lines that are not so good, but... I know it's highly unpopular, but I really liked Morfydd Clark as Galadriel. She's not Cate Blanchett, and she's not supposed to be. That's still Edgy!Galadriel that she plays, she's younger and still hot-headed and please read the book and find out that Galadriel is not an ethereal lady, she's a Noldorin and she can and she WILL kick your ass. Clark does it, she has the right look for it. (her lines could have been better? Yes. I still think she did good with what she had.) (I'm all for edgy and angry, more human-like elves, and thought I know it's flawed, but I liked Rings of Power.)

12. Tolkien's work contains a lot of interesting themes: devastation of war, things lost that cannot be restored, rebirth/renewal, holding true to one's companions even when it is darkest, and others. Which is the most important to you?

I'll try to be brief here, I could fill a dissertation over this.

But mainly:

“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for."

This.

The fact that no matter how dark it is outside, there's the promise of light and joy at the end of the tunnel. Hope in spite of everything.

And the fact that it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter who your ancestors were, how tall are you, how much your people has been involved in a situation before. You are valuable, your help is not in vain, there's some good you can do. See: Pippin's arc. Going from fool of a Took, basically a baby thrown in a world so much greater than him... And standing up to the situation, in the end, just because he wants to help, even if he's scared. His taking the Palantir and talking to Sauron, in the end, is one of the biggest assists given to Frodo... and he's the member of the Fellowship that had the least reasons to be there, the least experience and knowledge to help the mission. In the end, he's just as useful as everyone else.

[g33se]

Playing bg3 right now. Got to the point with the druids and the tiefling city. A couple of opinions about the party:

Lae'zel: I liked her a lot when I met her first (competent, straightforward, my type of girl) but she's being very rude about the tieflings. Given that I'm playing a tiefling... well. Not keen on the way she compared us to cockroaches or the way she made the tiefling bow- granted the tieflings did have reason to want to stab her. So liking her quite a bit less now. Still, looking at her respectfully. She is hot.

Shadowheart: Never really liked elves all that much. Not super keen on the way she did a racism at Lae'zel as soon as we met her, but the moments of emotional vulnerability have me liking her a lot more.

Astarion: Stupid loser bastard. That man is clearly a vampire- I mean, look at the eyes/teeth/the literal VAMPIRE BITE on his neck and the ten thousand clues he's been dropping. Sexy of him to greet me by holding a knife to my neck I thought he was going to rob me. He's such a fucking idiot I want to jump his bones.

Gale: This man has bard energy. At least, the way I play bards. Also kind of single dad energy? Just a random wizard running around. Just a Dude, if you will. Had to put him back in the campsite since I'm a sorcerer and party comp will get fucked though.

Wyll: Thought he was a paladin at first. Then he started doing warlocky things. I like how he acts it's a nonstandard edgy warlock thing, I hope his storyline pans out well. Really like his back-and-forth with Lae'zel about ever doing nice things with her life. Immediately taken with the fight scene I saw him in first, looked fucking epic.

Overall, I really love Mind Flayers. They're fucking cool, that little starter scene when I converted a woman into one was fucking nightmare fuel. I did see the button saying perfect and press it knowing what it would probably mean. What the hell were they doing in Avernus though. And isn't Zariel the angel who fell because she wanted to kill demons with GREAT PREJUDICE?

I've also been save scumming whenever I steal stuff a lot because, habit. I just want to collect all the boxes and put them into the campsite. Also reloaded the same save three times because I wanted Asterion to take that one potato off a crying guard. (Probably going to try to see if I can do a revivify on the dead guard later? I don't know if the game has the 1 min timer on revivify or not.) Also I do like how yoinking just makes people do 'hey wtf' or 'you're getting arrested' because instantly trying to kill the party is. Weird.

Also reloaded the save once because I couldn't revivify Shadowheart because she died on stairs that were on fire. I know how to play dnd I just have a hard time conceptualizing it with game graphics.

Lower level dnd's always interesting. The take action to restore someone else at 1hp is also... inspired. Would be interested to see normal downing rules- that would force me to think in more dnd terms to play the game. I also keep clicking wrong and wasting attacks on the space right next to a person.

Weird how everyone can use scrolls.

I hate the 1/short rest mage hand it's a fucking cantrip and it can do, like, nothing. Going to download a mod for it later.

Going to have to use the speak with dead amulet a lot I hope. I love that spell. Not quite sure how I feel about your camp being a separate room- I feel like it trivializes inventory management and sending things there is. Weird. Where is all the weight going. I do like stacking all the boxes I find though.

Thought the Absolute people were part of a mind flayer cult so had to kill a few of them.

Current leader druid is a bit cringe. Don't want to kill her but definitely ousting her asap. Stop being a dick to my people (tieflings). Also really liking the tiefling responses so far.

Also wonder at the deal about the tiefling village. They seem to have a lot of hell stuff going on there.

Anyway, this is cool! Looking forward to what happens next.

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

in the GGZ collab elysia met mei and asked her why shes wearing a maid outfit and where her horn is 💀

Yeah it's isekai'd Sim Elysia 😭

GGZ Mei asks her if she has a horn fetish and Elysia is questioning why she's not edgy anymore. Also wants Mei to make her dessert. And she has terrible spending habits because of Eden

Translation by Bun Bun #6007 on discord

Elysia: Though, I think that they're just being really blunt with their fear of strangers. And by eliminating that strangeness, they'll also bluntly be attracted to you. Elysia: Especially by my Mei, who can gain the favor of anyone just with her cooking skills alone. What's more, no goblin can refuse such beautiful horns… Hey, Mei, where are your horns? What happened to the beautiful horns!? Mei: What kind of…. do you have that particular fetish? Sorry, I'm not like that. Elysia: That, "Kuangfeng, chenfu yu wo"*, is also gone? Elysia: (Her appearance and voice are undoubtedly that of Raiden Mei, but…) Elysia: Ah, I'm sorry for being so abrupt, but I probably missed Mei's cooking too much. When I saw you dressed like that, my first through was, "Ah, Mei is finally going to make dessert for me"! Elysia: Then, how about something more sincere? I, Elysia, give out a special invitation to Mei, and the two beautiful human girls~ (Kyuushou and Sirin) Elysia: Join the Crystal Flower Adventure Group, and let's retrieve the legendary Concentric Sword and Bow from the Mountain of Origin together, so we can re-establish the friendship between humans and elves! Elysia: Mei, Mei~ I inquired about a special dessert in a nearby village, can you make it? Elysia: Hmm… Why are they all looking at me like that? Is it because I'm especially beautiful today? (context: Elysia wasted all their in game currency on desserts and dumb shit)

*remember the ult line Griseo copied into "Paintbrush, obey me"?

[acealistair]

🏷️🗣️ and 🤝 for any character!

i will do Finch since i haven't gotten a chance to do her yet :3

🏷️: What is their full name? Do any of their names have any special meaning? How did you come up with them?

"Finch" is a nickname/the alias she chose for herself; her full name is technically "S’anvela Ven’thanyrias'elae Zaha Ilia Enwen’elae D’elae’ya." I can't remember the direct translation but it's how she's introduced in royal court and has info on her title and dynasty and whatnot (that's just how high elves be in the world she's from). The whole name was picked by my DM, but I came up with Ven’thanyrias'elae and Finch myself.

"Ven’thanyrias'elae" was essentially a keysmash name in an effort to come up with a complicated, almost silly long elven name. 😆 It doesn't have any particular meaning in Elvish at the moment but I do want to come up with something for that!

"Finch," however, was chosen by her when she fled the palace as an expression of her newfound freedom. It's probably the most poetic thing she's ever done and she would never casually admit to it. Another piece of picking it was that she was smart enough to know some intensely edgy alias, like she was tempted to pick, would be too obvious that it was her to her pursuers.

🗣️: How social are they? Do they speak to strangers because they like to or only when necessary? How differently do they act with strangers vs. friends?

Finch is firmly an introvert and straight up will not speak to strangers unless she has to. Part of that is anxiety over being in a world she's not quite used to yet outside of the palace and she is concerned about subjects being brought up that she doesn't know anything about (she does not like feeling stupid). The other part is paranoia that any given person could be an agent of her family's that is looking for her. If it wasn't for her party members rather forcefully entering her life, she'd be in a very different, lonely situation in the city right now.

Because of aforementioned reasons, Finch comes across as terribly shifty to strangers. To those more insightful, it's incredibly obvious she's hiding something. She's tense and awkward around strangers, trying to let as little personal info go as she can, even if they're trying to have a perfectly normal conversation with her. Around her friends, Finch is much more relaxed but retains her crass attitude; it's just louder. She's quicker to laugh and banter. But she's also slowly but surely allowing herself to express more genuine, heartfelt emotions around them like fear, affection, sadness, and joy.

🤝: How do they express platonic affection? When does an acquaintance become a friend for them?

This kinda overlaps with the previous questions because a big part of Finch expressing friendship with someone is by being more vulnerable around them (showing more emotions than just anger or petty amusement, letting them in on her secrets, etc). She doesn't say that though, and unfortunately hasn't quite grasped platonic gestures like gift-giving or hugging, so it can be hard for people to realize exactly how "friendly" Finch is actually being. She's trying, though! Recently for the first time she didn't take gold she found and gave it to another party member instead since she remembered they were complaining about their lack of gold lol

As for when someone becomes a friend, the line is a little fuzzy but it's not too terribly hard. The solid indication that Finch considers you a True Friend is if she tells you her secret about being the missing high elven princess, which means she deeply trusts you, of course. Otherwise, if you're relatively nice to her and hang out often enough to indicate you won't betray her at any given time, she'll consider you a casual friend or acquaintance depending on how well she knows you, or however she's feeling when she's asked the question.

[shadowglens]

2, 3, 14, 17, and 25 for miss olympia ☀️

edgy oc ask meme

2. what's something about your oc that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

in many ways, olympia is quite .... conceited? that comes with the territory for a lot of high elves, sure, but many people assume she's different because she's so altruistic and devout. she's not as open with it as others in her life (like her twin), but her self confidence definitely isn't lacking. it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can make some people uncomfortable.

3. what is your oc's fatal flaw? are they aware of this flaw?

she holds everyone up to her same standards, to their betterment or detriment. she expects people to be able to be hopeful and altruistic and confident like she is, to be able to juggle various duties at once; if anyone falls short, she tends to judge them for it (albeit subtly, and not aloud). this was worse when she was younger, and was a large reason for the rift between her and oleander - she couldn't bring herself to see why he struggled against their mother, couldn't understand why he simply couldn't live his life split equally between the feywild and material planes. she had done it for decades by then, her faith and familial duty weighed on both shoulders, so why couldn't he?

her years travelling between monasteries and seeing more of the world beyond her gilded walls definitely helps to soften this flaw in her. she still subconsciously has standards that she judges people against, and she will always strive for self perfection, but she's also come to accept that the world isn't so easy to live in for some people.

14. how does your oc want to be seen by other characters?

above all, she wants to be seen as the epitome of lathander's faith - kind and powerful, and someone who values duty and light. she likes being a warm, calm presence in peoples lives.

17. what is the worst thing you have put your oc through story-wise?

prior to the game, her life was fairly good (sibling rift aside), and even when things look dire at the start of their adventure, olympia pushes through fairly well. returning to baldur's gate, and in particular meeting orin, does a number on olympia though.

to summarise, orin shapeshifts into oleander and torments olympia with him. olympia knows of orin's powers by this point, but is so blinded by her brother's visage that she doesn't even consider it not being him (orin plays him so well). eventually, orin leads olympia to her family's estate , where she's been torturing the real oleander, and in the ensuing confrontation, olympia is unknowingly forced to kill her twin. between her and shadowheart, they manage to resurrect him, but the memory of her hand gut-deep in her brother's body haunts her for decades.

(orin kidnaps lae'zel the next day, and the group go to confront her that night. olympia isn't usually one to take joy in killing, but she feels a terrible sort of satisfaction watching orin bleed out at her feet.)

25. what is your favorite thing about your oc?

i like her strength and optimism! i don't normally make characters like this, so it's nice to explore a character who is so full of hope but not weak with it.

[theaceofskulls]

Fixing WoW's Modern Story: BFA

Got stuck the other day thinking about World of Warcraft story fixes and I've got to get it out of my head.

It began with me thinking of how I've come around to how the faction conflict was handled in Legion, where a complete misunderstanding and actions taken led to two specific members being the ones to duke it out and it shifted into an entire rewrite of BFA and SLands with a quick detour at the start to Legion.

Anyways let's start.

There's very little I'd change about the main story of Legion to be honest (but I have opinions on zones and class halls). But I think the major thing I'd change to start out is not killing Vol'jin.

It feels like it was done for parity because that's something that the community and blizzard at the time were obsessed with. If something bad happens to one side, the other has to get an equal black eye. But it was clear that Varian was the focus with getting Sylvanas into the Warchief seat as the other driving force and I feel like it undercuts a lot of potential down the line.

So to change, he still gets stabbed, he still nominates Sylvanas to take over due to Loa whispers, but instead he's now in a coma. And to add to it, the Horde starts trying everything but his condition keeps worsening. This furthers the bad blood between the two factions as rumors about dark magics being practiced by the Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves (letting them be edgy again), and even the undead are reaching the Alliance. This also gives the other leaders something more tangible to be working on than the assumption that they're just fighting the Legion elsewhere.

We end things mostly the same way, with Azerite being a thing from the wound but we're going to change some stuff. The big stinger though isn't the goblins mining, it's news that Vol'jin has awoken.

Now onto BFA.

First up, I'm doing this as a fix it, not a replace it, meaning I still want this to be a Faction War xpac with a void twist. But we're going to do some massive changes to get there.

Acknowledging fan discussions done to death by this point, everyone is correct and it's the most common items mentioned: Teldrissal burning is too far and the Alliance has to be the ones to strike first in order for it to play out.

However, we're going to make some changes to things.

First up, let's go to Vol'jin who has come back into things. Sylvanas will attempt to hand over the title of Warchief to him, but he declines, saying that she lead them through the Legion invasion and deserves to command the armies of the Horde. Before anyone can say anything, he then states that the Horde must change and that it will no longer be ruled by a Warchief, but by a new leader. Title pending here but let's go with True Chief.

This rankles some people but others want Vol'jin back. Sylvanas steps back, complicated expression on her face. Vol'jin sees the Azerite found and decides it's time to start mining to fix the damage done by the Legion and to empower the horde. It should be noted that there's a little bit of a mystery on whether or not Vol'jin is benevolent on his return or if there's hidden plans. We'll lean into that later.

Meanwhile the Alliance is now confronted with multiple new items. The Horde emerged from Legion strong. Tyrande fumbled the Nightborne who are looking to join the Horde along with the Highmountain, though they have been bolstered by Alleria and Turalyon, both of whom have opinions on the Blood Elves, the Undead, the Orcs (with the Lightforged also taking some particular umbrage), Theramore, and Genn's reports about the Broken Shore and the mysteries of Vol'jin's recovery.

We make a point here to start to address the concept of the Alliance and what it means and whether Anduin should even be the leader of it. The reports of Azerite being mined add to the fire, as do reports of undead activity (more on that later).

Rather than copying Makani's homework here regarding the undead-be-gone (though it's a great option to also stick here), this does eventually lead to a conflict that escalates to Lordaeron after Blight stores are detonated too close to Gilneas during one of the border conflicts.

One thing that players discover that they're unable to share in time for the battle however is that both alliance troops and forsaken involved in a couple of these conflicts seem... wrong. And some of the damage to the surrounding area doesn't seem like it was the Blight.

Before we get to that we're going to rework Before the Storm into here with some minor tweaks because I like Calia and elements of that story enough to keep and because I'm trying not to toss too much here.

However, a couple of important details here. First up, Sylvanas reveals that despite Vol'jin's proclamation, there have been troop movements in the eastern kingdoms that she hasn't been informed of, including some forsaken, so when Calia appears and the council begins forming, she begins to panic. However, before she does anything, someone else kills the Menethal princess with an arrow that disappears in a puff of black smoke. One of the undead in attendance claims Sylvanas planned this all along to complete her revenge on the family that wronged her, but in the aftermath this undead is not among the captured or dead and no one can identify them.

The Battle for Lordaeron happens. On the Alliance side, we see Anduin take to the field to try and solidify his hold on the fracturing Alliance. During the battle, he is overwhelmed by oddly powerful soldiers after being separated. With his sword knocked from his hand, he tries to reach out for the light only for a darker power to answer, obliterating his foes to his horror. The Light still answers him and he tries to push past this as he regroups with his allies.

On the horde side, we fight a losing battle as something is stopping teleportation magic from working. We suspect it to be Jaina when she's revealed, but the times don't match up. Blood Elf reinforcements along with Nightborne who traveled with them show up but it's not enough to turn the tide of the focused Alliance. As those inside prepare for a last stand, not sure that they would be able to surrender, Blight begins to erupt from the ground. Sylvanas denies this to be her fault to Saurfang (who had been sent with an advance force to hold out), but it's clear he doesn't believe her and at this point it's not clear if she's telling the truth. Eagle eyed players noticed some horde soldiers leaving the battle to retreat underground during the middle portion of the battle before a general retreat inside was sounded.

The alliance manages to teleport away to the surprise of the Horde. While they confirm it's working, they'll never be able to get everyone to the silvermoon gate in time. This is when we see the airships of the Horde arrive, allowing escape just in time.

Vol'jin takes the news poorly as Lorthemar and Thalyssra attempt to console Sylvanas who is fuming about losing her home. It's revealed at this point that a shipment of Azerite was raided, with signs pointing towards the draenei and night elves. Vol'jin declares that he won't have enemies in Kalimdor any more, but promises Baine that he will show mercy to them if they surrender after he objects. Baine is given command to ensure this, enraging Sylvanas who should as Warchief and who is still upset over Lorderaon.

We move towards Teldrassil now, though Alliance players are allowed to learn that the shipment raid is suspicious as it seems to have come from Theramore and the Azerite has vanished completely. An investigation was launched but the ships vanished along the way. Something is wrong but the World Tree is in danger and we have to move to save it.

This battle is more solidly in the side of the Horde. Most of the Alliance's attempts to fight back fail unexpectedly. Dwarven and gnomish ammo and machinery is missing or damaged. Darkshore's nature seems to be working against them for some reason. The Vindicaar is experiencing malfunctions. Something is wrong and it's quickly apparent the battle is lost.

Malfurion stays to buy time for an evacuation but is beaten and captured (I'm not killing him in this because while Night Elves won't suffer as much, I'm not doing that after Ysera went down. Nelves still have to take a black eye but don't worry we'll do better by you before the xpac is over). Unfortunately, not everyone gets out.

True to his word at least, Vol'jin spares those left behind, but Teldrassil is occupied by the Horde. We're going to have some small raiding adventures later for the alliance to rescue people, including some smaller named Nelves to give the feeling of fighting back and a little bit of underdog love to it down the line.

At this point though, it's clear, it's open war now.

We still need our navy plot line but we're heading into this with one big change: It's clear to players who have been following along that someone is pulling the strings.

(Quick aside, we're just going to have the allied races be left alone. I'm gonna be typing too much anyways here and I want them in)

So we'll start with the Horde.

We still have Talanji approach the Horde and honestly we still have Rokhan be one of the primary characters there too along with Nathanos. We're going to edit up the leveling story but this is gonna be a long post so I don't have time for that here. We do raise the question of how relationships will work out between Vol'jin and Rasatakhan all things considered but we're mostly keeping some stuff the same.

When we get to the war campaign, we still have Sylvanas raise Deryk and Baine still gets pissy and eventually sends him to Kul Tiras, but Vol'jin shuts down the plan to use him as a hostage but doesn't condemn Sylvanas for raising him. She does it as she feels she's losing control of the military and isn't actually in command in anything but name and wanted to enact a scheme. She's also concerned that several of her soldiers appear to be MIA or have disobeyed commands.

This culminates in her killing Zelling under the belief of him being a traitor when it comes out that he's the one who alerted Baine to her scheme. Baine is disgusted but it's not enough to make him quit the Horde but he demands she face justice. Vol'jin points out that as Warchief it's in her rights but chastises her as well.

Meanwhile this sets up more conflict between her and Saurfang where the players will eventually pick a side but it's less of an obvious "pick the resistance or the clearly evil tyrant".

Meanwhile on the alliance side we're making some more changes this time around. Sure the fact that Sylvanas isn't in charge changes a lot of the war campaign, but for this side we're starting with some immediate stuff.

The first thing of note is that the theme of Kul Tiras is going to be different. It needs to be about the Alliance being a force of building and healing rather than just gathering up the different nations together to fight together. It still does that part but one big thing is to work on how your actions make peoples' lives better.

(Note: I am primarily a horde player but part of my fix-it for this xpac involves examining the alliance and its justification for continuing to exist after the faction conflict is over. This is not a "The Alliance needs to be the good guys" because trust me that's not going to happen)

Most of the zones need just slight tweaking but Drustvar is where I'm setting my sights on fixing things. Drustvar is so disconnected and while I enjoy it, it also could use some extra touch ups.

To do that, the Drust are just flat out going to be pointed out as a result of a flare up of Death magic. We're gonna do better setup for the next xpac and we're not going to have them be a weird afterthought. We could also maybe use a lore character to weave into here to explore that rather than leaving them until the end but again runtime on this post is too long here, let's keep moving. (I'd pick Vereesa to get her into a story about Theramoore here and have her do something a little more relevant for once)

We do need to weave in more Ghuun things into Kul'Tiras for the raid to make sense though. That's important. We'll eventually have Anduin learn about it and task the players with taking care of it as he's concerned about the Void stuff that keeps popping up.

Going to the war campaign, we're going to work on it in a number of ways. First up, the stuff you don't see on the Horde side is going to appear over there. Horde players will learn about the San'layn and the blood elves using Anima (pandaria era). The San'layn are going to hint that they're throwing in with the horde because events in Icecrown are unfolding.

What we're going to add here is Telaamon as a rising star in the Lightforged army and we're going to have him butting heads with Velen who is looking at finally healing in the wake of the victory over the Legion. Since a large amount of Draenei are vindictaars, more and more have been joining the ranks of the Lightforged, and Telaamon is firmly in the hawk faction of the Alliance at this point, having learned more about Draenor and is furious. Velen is worried that his time has come to an end and that he should step down and let another lead.

In both Kul'Tiras and Zandalar, we're going to have some of those Azerite zones not just have people trying to harvest it, but we'll also have some void stuff going on as an attempt to corrupt it. That's just to hammer home for people who have somehow missed it where we're heading.

We have some patch content to go through now.

Calia has her stuff alongside Deryk but Voss is less... admiring (I charitably considered it shippy but it always came off more as "the rightful heir" until they attempted to change course in SL). Xal'atath is still let go but not due to Sylvanas. In fact this is probably the time to actually have some void elf specific content come up.

We have a couple of reports on the alliance side that the Zandalari fleet is sinking ships, but Shaw and Flynn don't find anything true to that after digging but the ships are missing.

With Vol'jin not dead we instead do a little more with Talanji and him as characters as a questline. Vol'jin will by this point have been a little more aggro than players were expecting and will acknowledge that himself, wondering if the stress has gotten to him.

Quick side trip, let's address Arathi. We're still keeping that warzone but we're building it up more. We're pointing out that the hawk faction is supporting the reconstruction and emphasizing the fact that this was where Before the Storm went down. With the Wildhammer Dwarves and the Arathi Kingdom on the rise, Vol'jin authorizes fighting there, while Anduin is concerned about the human kingdoms splitting. He meanwhile tasks you with finding out who killed Calia. Players will discover an undead corpse, thoroughly corrupted by void magic.

Dazaralor still unfolds though during setup we have Telaamon fight against Saurfang and dies facing the orc but not before rattling him about his actions in the past (because I like that one bit of his story). This eventually deepens his feud with Sylvanas but it's also to allow us to air out the scars the factions have against each other.

Rastakhan is killed, Talanji declares vengeance and things seem worse than ever.

Lastly we have Darkshore with the Night Warrior as a rescue mission (and attempted retaking of the tree, and while the latter isn't successful, we do free Malfurion).

We move to the next patch and we've got to address both of the zones.

Mechagon starts up not because "Bwhaha, I will rule the surface world" but because all of the void corruption that has led to the King deciding that the curse of flesh must absolutely be undone right now.

Mostly things unfold the same way but we fix that zone to be vastly more interesting outside of the dungeon or just make it into just the dungeon.

Nazjatar is a lot different however. Well mostly it's the same. Azshara schemes to get our artifact power to fully free N'Zoth and kill him in one blow but we're doing something fun:

Inciting incident is that both sides have received reports of a giant island of azerite and both rush to get there first. We're keeping the boat the same but we're not having Nathanos leave since this isn't a trap set up by him and Sylvanas. However here's where a lot of the characters learn about the void saboteurs that have invaded their armies and been egging on this war.

While Nathanos and Genn both still want to continue the conflict, when both of them realize that the conflicts that started this fight were done by agents of their own nations with Genn realizing that Gilneas is at risk of being consumed consumed by the void and Nathanos realizing that so much of his queen's suffering has been caused by Azshara's meddling, the two are convinced by their allies to parley. For now.

Btw, the raid happens similarly, and Azshara lives in the same way. Because I love her and support women's wrongs.

Meanwhile, since Saurfang isn't in exile (I don't know what to do with Zappy Boi in this fix but I'm not too concerned with sitting down and figuring out what to do with him since his character seems to begin and end with Saurfang), we need someone else to pull Thrall out of Outlands because we might want him down the line.

And here's where I put Anduin, who has been losing control of the Alliance as the hawk side has begun to really take over as the war has gone on. I'm also using this to parallel down the line for the War Within because let's assume we planned that far ahead.

Anduin goes there in part to try and get someone who Vol'jin respects to tell him about the dangers he's discovered. As the conversation unfolds, Anduin questions if he should just give up the High King position. Thrall realizes the parallel with his own decision to give up the Warchief position to Garrosh, looking to the distance in Nagrand at where the duel in the alternate universe took place. He tells Anduin he regrets the pain he allowed to happen by letting the Horde be led by those who only want war and the atrocities committed because he felt he couldn't be the one to lead it. Both of them leave determined to put an end to the Fourth War.

The Horde players get to have a Saurfang vs Sylvanas questline here as Sylvanas begins executing various people very publicly all of a sudden and the players are asked to pick a side.

Saurfang's side uncovers that Sylvanas has been deteriorating over the course of the war, egged on by the factions own hawk faction such as Gallywix (who has decided to encourage the Warchief in order to help sell more weapons and keep the azerite profits coming), Talanji (mourning her father), Geya'rah (since we don't edit the allied quests too much she's still convinced the alliance is outright evil), and a couple of the sub leaders. Moreover, he learns the Vol'jin isn't blind to the various plots and schemes we see throughout the war campaign and that he's allowing the executions. Saurfang realizes at this point that the Horde will always be at war and feels that the very position of Warchief is to blame, with some shots of him seeing Sylvanas in the same light as the Lich King and shots of his dead son scattered throughout it.

He comes to a decision: he must eliminate the Warchief position somehow if they are to break free from this and finally find peace, with his talk about how honor is a lie being given to someone other than Anduin.

(Sorry I'm robbing anduin of a dad, but he collects those like pokemon)

Sylvanas supporters meanwhile get to see the full nature of how everything was manipulated by the void and learn her executions are targeting void agents. However we also get to learn that there's movements in Icecrown and Sylvanas has been receiving psychic messages from what she believes to be the Lich King, terrifying her. She confides in the player that she has seen the other side and can't die or be enslaved again. We see hints of the death magic radiating off her.

Both of these quests end with Saurfang publicly challenging Sylvanas to Mak'Gora for the position of Warchief with the duel taking place later.

Swapping to the Alliance side, Anduin summons his council. We frame the shot to very clearly show the hawk side is in the majority by this point. Notably, Genn is still among this side. Anduin reveals his findings that the war has been manipulated by agents of the void and Azshara. This is going to be one of those "hard to place if it comes before the raid" type cutscenes so we don't mention Nzoth being freed by this point.

Night Warrior Tyrande points out that while the war may have started under false pretenses, the Horde still hold Teldrassil and still threaten the Alliance as well as how much losses have been incurred by all up to this point. Jaina is the one to break the silence that follows, speaking of her experience back in her home and stating that the scars we gain don't define us, but how we choose to move forward. That continuing to suffer helps no one. She stands by Anduin but most of the hawk faction continues to hold their ground.

Tyrande asks if this want for peace is an order from the High King, asks directly if she and her people, and gestures towards the others, if their people should heed his commands because of his lineage. Another silence follows.

Anduin speaks up sorrowfully and asks "What is the Alliance for? Is it a weapon to strike back against those that wronged us? Is it a shield we only turn to when there are enemies before us? Are we united only by hate, strangers to each other when that is gone? Are we just soldiers who fight alongside each other? Was I a fool to think we were friends and family".

We show several members of the hawks looking to one another. Moira gazes away from the meeting, towards Magni who is waiting a bit away, watching apprehensively. We see a bandaged Mekkatorque looking towards the other members of the three hammers. We see Genn look at Anduin, squeeze his eyes shut before opening them again and striding forward to put a hand on his shoulder.

"We are here for one another when they need us."

Moira comes forth joined by the other two, "We move forward together."

Malfurion looks at his wife and daughter and moves over to Anduin, a look of small surprise on their faces before saying "Together, we protect this world and those that live in it"

Shandris looks at her mother and joins the rest of the others as the slowly drift towards the other side. Squeezing her eyes shut for a second, she opens them and moves forward herself, asking "well then, what path would you have us follow?"

Anduin shakes his head, "Not follow." He gestures to those around him and says "We shall lead our people forward. For the Alliance. For Azeroth."

A smile crosses Tyrande's face only to be interrupted by a messenger bursting into the room with a message, from Vol'jin. The gathered members turn together to hear what he has to say.

(Unfortunately I'm working still within WoW story constraints here so we can't actually sit down and plan what the new direction of the Alliance would be and we still have to have grand but vague gestures to illustrate that everyone is now on the same page but that it's from a position of strength. The forums will still hate it but I don't respect them enough to care).

The duel arrives, and we see a gathered crowd. The horde leadership is seated on a small platform, watching the empty arena apprehensively. As we cut to shots of Sylvanas and Saurfang preparing, a figure approaches the leadership from the side, making his way past the seated leaders, those noticing him showing their surprise on their face. Vol'jin fails to notice as he's observing the arena too closely until the voice shakes him from it.

"Mind if I sit here?" Thrall asks, depositing a chair next to the stunned but slightly gladdened troll.

The two exchange some words but Thrall becomes serious and says "We need to talk. About the Horde."

Their conversation is interrupted by the duel's start. During the battle, which is less one sided but not as much as you'd expect, Saurfang declares to Sylvanas that these wars must end, that the Horde must change. From Sylvanas's side we hear whispers that we can't make out. She blocks one of Saurfang's overhanded blows with her daggers easily and begins to push an advantage, stating that all she's ever done is to protect everyone and that they don't understand the true danger out there. (I'm sorry to those of you scarred by this from the actual story but we're going to have to still keep some vague gesturing right now)

Saurfang rallies, and if we somehow kept Zappy Boi, we'll have the two of them exchange looks before he manages a solid blow and gives her that stupidly small scar. She's knocked to the ground and Saurfang tells her to give up and that she can still serve the horde, but not as Warchief.

We're gonna copy paste the "Serve" bit from the Sanctum of Domination cutscene here, with Sylvanas rising up, whisps of dark energy gathering on her arms. Saurfang closes his eyes regretfully and prepares to charge for the killing blow as the undead elf extends her hand with the expected line of "I will never serve!"

"For the Hord-" We have our blast and Saurfang is dead to the shock and horror of everyone including Sylvanas though she's the quickest to shake it off, loudly proclaiming those in attendance to be blind and that she will be the one to save them before taking off.

Thrall questions if it was void magic only for Vol'jin to say it was something else. Something familiar.

After Saurfang's funeral, Thrall approaches Vol'jin to tell him he needs to end this war, to focus on the true enemy, N'zoth. Vol'jin gets angry with Thrall and during the conversation we see evidence that Vol'jin has a little bit of that void in him, though in a moment of realization, he loudly shouts that this isn't him, and it is expelled by a wave of force. The shadowy figure that emerges from the discarded void energies remarks it's a pity but that all will serve soon enough anyways.

Thrall asks if his friend is alright, and Vol'jin states that he's got one last enemy to fight but afterwards, things need to change. The two nod and say their "For Azeroth"s together before Vol'jin summons a messenger and says he needs to tell something to the Alliance.

Anduin still punches Wrathion cause we gotta though we show the king trying to manage the void corruption with some light magic. Unfortunately 8.3 plays out mostly the same but I'll have N'zoth trapped in the dagger rather than killed outright with the dagger taken by the Light or something at the end.

God that's a massive post. We'll get a part 2 for Shadowlands.

[rosella-writes]

From the edgy/misc OC ask meme:

What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

What is your favorite thing about your OC?

for Vir and/or Tilda? <3

Thank you so much!!

For Vir: she's constantly thought to be more aggressive and angry than she really is, by virtue of her resting face being very frowny (and people being racist and sexist towards intimidated by strong female Dalish elves). They wouldn't know that she's soft-hearted, knows a staggering number of Dalish folktales, and is patient and kind to children.

For Tilda: She began as an excuse for me to play Cadash, and I wanted to see if I could make a dwarf with albinism. She went from a pretty straightforward "sarcastic/jokey archer dwarf" to a character whose attitude reflects a lot of Iron Bull's type of infiltration and doesn't believe in the Stone (despite having a keen Stonesense that she chalks up to good luck and an excellent sense of direction). I also decided that I didn't want to use her appearance for aesthetics alone, and gave her other complications of her lack of melanin — she experiences ocular albinism too, which causes some nystagmus (shaky eyes) and moderate blindness. She can only see shapes and colours when above ground, and can't bear the bright, direct sunlight.

Absolutely not, not with either of them lol. Virelan would not like me, and I'd not like Tilda.

I'll do this one for Vir: I love how her strengths are also her flaws. I feel like it makes her such a person. What helps her succeed as Inquisitor causes her problems in her interpersonal relationships, and vice versa.

[the-cryptographer]

Notes on Lurk’s DA OCs

- (Sereda?) Aeducan. Diplomatically evil. Critical of human prejudice against elves and mages, but completely unwilling to look at Dwarven class prejudice (yes, she kept the anvil). Convinced Leliana to murder Marjo (who, yes, objectively needed to die) because she wanted to see if Leli would kill someone she loved on her command. Turned down the position of Warden Commander and fucked off back to Orzammar at the end of Origins. Took Gorim, Leli, and her personal assassin (Zev) with her. Currently embroiled in trying to snatch the throne after Harrowmont dies.

- Unnamed Kader. The Orlesian Warden Commander who took over after Aeducan fucked off. I wrote a fic where she and Sigrun kissed.

- Dominic Amell. Of Chasind descent, but got passed off as Amell when actual Amell drowned due to Templar negligence while they were both being escorted to the Circle Tower. He does not remember this and has completely embraced his noble Amell lineage. Mage supremacist and Uldred fanboy, but unfortunately(?) wasn’t cool enough to ever get invited to the militant liberationist hangouts. Also Karl def caught Dominic trying to spy on an orgy he and Anders were hosting and kicked him to the curb. Bonds with Morrigan over them both being edgy misanthropic teenagers, but loses steam on it a lot quicker than her when the outside world doesn’t really conform to his worldview. Breaks up with her to explore his bisexuality with Zev, but there are still feelings for Morrigan when the Dark Ritual happens.

- Halliserre ‘Halli’ Surana. Not the Warden. Racially marginalised honor student, teacher’s pet, and wannabe Knight Enchanter. Dominic’s rival for Jowan’s attention until they both get overlooked for Lily. Left Dominic behind when she grabbed Lily and Jowan and escaped the tower in the Origin. Bc fuck that guy.

- Dolores ‘Lola’ Tabris. If Aeducan is diplomatically evil, Tabris is rudely and unpleasantly heroic. Angry and bitey and volatile and violent and a total pill. Would have liked to be happily married, but has beef with her father trying to silence her anger about her mother’s death. Tried to make her worthy of the ‘Like dogs, Shianni’ line. Religious syncretist. My one straight OC, and her taste is suave mercenary pump-&-dump fuckboys. Is surprised when Zev actually sticks around.

- Marian Hawke. Mage. Diplomatically evil (are we noticing a theme?). A bit of a user. Extremely into political power grabs. Had a fling with Isabela, but sweet on Merrill. Considered Anders a bit beneath her and not really worth the negative press of associating with him, but enjoys his sense of humour and the slight sadism of him putting others down. Doesn’t take it well when he assassinates the Grand Cleric and ruins her plans to become Viscount and sends him away. Currently hanging out in Ostwick, getting drunk and partying and reminiscing about how she almost became Viscount, while her wife, Merrill, and Velanna (whose contact deets Merr got from Anders) plan militant elf uprisings. Would absolutely never be caught dead publicly taking responsibility for anything that happened regarding Corypheus, and did not appear in DAI (Varric hired an actor). Towards the end of the game, Fenris clearly wasn’t very happy with her in Kirkwall, so she sent him to Ostwick where he was promptly mistaken for a mage and interned in Ostwick’s Circle Tower. But that’s a story for another day.

- Aedros Hawke. Runesmith, researcher, dwarven tech and history fan, and all around lover of the scientific method. They’re a blood mage, but not in a combat oriented way as much as a ‘let’s bleed a rune onto this rock’ kind of way. Transed their gender after Malcolm’s death. Their beard is v curly. Mama’s boy, but resembles Malcolm (who was of Rivani descent) more. Their biggest dream is to publish their own scientific journal about theirs and their research team’s (Merrill, Anders, Fenris) research. With that goal in mind, they are working in coordination with Xenon in Act II instead of Viscount Dumar. Also they mucked around with Darktown enough to reinstate the old tevinter plumbing system, so they are, in fact, a sexy plumber. Also they’re bad with money and drive Carver up a wall.

- Unnamed Adaar. idk, my canon Adaar. She’s levelheaded and centrist to a fault, as DAI protags tend to be. She romanced Thom, let him go after he kept pushing her away and went for Josie, then she and Josie together start something back up with him after he becomes a Warden. I like the idea of Josie doing diplomacy work at Weisshaupt.

- ‘Lady’ Lavellan. She has a Dalish name, but goes by ‘Lady’ in her line of work. She had half a falling out with her Clan after the Keeper’s son made a pass at her, and has since been doing work as a liaison for Clan Lavellan in their dealings with human cities. She is a chronic liar, very good at telling people what they want to hear, and not letting anti-elf aggressions get to her. This becomes important when she romances Sera. Has Elgar’nan Vallaslin so everybody knows she’s baby butch.

- Felice ‘White Tears’ Trevelyan. Ex-Circle Mage. Neurotic and extremely baby. Cries at the drop of the hat. Therefore it catches people unprepared when she schemes or shows any kind of backbone or reveals herself to be a competent fighter. Is a responsible Antiquarian, and was completely unprepared for the Mage Rebellion or being the Inquisitor, but pretty relieved she doesn’t have to seduce any scary noble dudes (all dudes are scary) to buy her way out of the Circle. She is perpetually scared of a good half of the DAI party (Dorian, Bull, Blackwall, Cassandra). Hero worships Vivienne like- whoa! Vivienne is mostly pissed off that babying this extremely neurotic blonde little magelet is now necessary to properly rub elbows with the Inquisition. But, yanno, it’s hard not to become the mask and start sympathising with someone who adores you so.

[britcision]

Hey I’m back to just throw this out here because the way it’s done in Marcille’s case especially is super clever and interesting

Spoilers below

So Marcille is a half elf, and this is a spoiler which is actually specifically the interesting thing; on the surface, this should be pretty straight forward

It’s a stock fantasy thing, half elf means you get prejudice from both sides, grow up with people who don’t understand you, classic edgy character backstory

But because of the way half elves work in Dungeon Meshi, it really highlights where the stock models fall down

Half elves don’t age in a linear fashion; Marcille could talk almost immediately, but couldn’t walk for years, and took 20 years to lose all her baby teeth. She wasn’t on the same developmental level as anyone else her age anywhere in the world except maybe, potentially another half elf, and even that could not continue

And it’s actually important to the story later on; we learn Marcille’s closest playmates to her own age where short lived adults like her father, that she couldn’t hang out with children in towns because they were growing so drastically differently

She’s also going to live twice as long as the elves, which you’d think would shake their superiority of “we live the longest” a little, but it’s not based in logic so that’s fine

Marcille is 50; most half elves definitely don’t reach 1000 because of sickness or injury (now quick apply that to the rest of your friends cuz you literally might die tomorrow Marcille I have seen your self preservation skills)

But conceivably, by lifespan angst math, for 450 years Marcille will outlive every single person who isn’t also a half elf, in the entire world. No question, every baby born will die before her for the next 450 years, and then those elves are gonna be pushing it

That’s 23 generations of humans/tallmen (a generation being every 20 years; it’s about 40 generations of halffoots like Chilchuck)

Marcille is othered in a literal, physical sense which is completely undeniable in two ways; her extended lifespan and inconsistent physical growth, and her infertility, with every single elf she meets assuming she wants to use the dungeon’s power to become a full elf, or be able to have kids

And that’s the actual real interesting thing about Marcille and the racism in Dungeon Meshi; we don’t even know she’s a half elf until Thistle brings it up

Marcille never bothers to mention it, and no one else can tell apparently (even Pattadol didn’t notice, so it’s not that every single elf ever has immediately clocked her… although it is only Pattadol that didn’t notice)

Marcille never mentions a single desire to become a full anything, or to have children, and doesn’t consider it worth bringing up to her party

The two major claims that are immediately whipped out at her every time the party run into elves (Thistle and then the Canaries) have so little to do with anything Marcille actually cares about that they come right out of left field

(I could be wrong, but I don’t think the demon ever bothers offering to give Marcille the ability to have kids. I don’t think Marcille ever mentions it herself except to confirm to Laios and Chilchuck “yeah Thistle was right that I can’t”)

And Marcille rebukes both claims every single time (and shoulda one-shotted Thistle with that “ugh elves are so embarrassing” if he wasn’t even more of an angsty teen)

She not only doesn’t think an extended lifespan makes her better than anyone else, she fully calls it embarrassing that anyone would ever think it could, but the only people who can identify her as a half elf all have extremely limited ideas about what she might want based on that information alone, and it explicitly fucks them over every time

Because she promptly dismisses them and gets irritated and untrusting, which Goes Great

And this is interesting because we’ve seen some explicit examples of racism already with Namari’s backstory and the dwarves on the island, and with the Canaries both in abstract and in person when they come sailing in to scoop the big scary dungeon away from all these short-lived babies

We’ve seen a bias against elves, because elves are biased against everyone else and people did not take kindly to that

There’s clearly a bias against half elves at least from the elven side, although apparently it’s hard enough to tell that most people throughout the story just assume she’s an elf

But none of the bullshit she immediately gets from said elves surprises Marcille

She responds with familiarity and contempt; we the reader have just been given brand new information about her literal species, and instantly shown a bias we have never even seen a hint of, and it is old news to Marcille

Because… yeah. You don’t recognise micro aggressions until you’re told what to look out for, but it being new to you doesn’t make it new to people who’ve been living with it their whole lives

(Laios and co promptly are good noodles and agree it’s ridiculous and support their friend that yeah, it doesn’t matter that it never came up before because it doesn’t change anything about their friendship, because again they are good noodles)

We started out with a pretty diverse party already (one dwarf, one elf, one halffoot, one tallman - and having an elf is rare enough to be identifying) and then we learn that Marcille is actually a second secret even smaller minority with Extra Bigotry, and y’know the very best part?

It’s fucking irrelevant

How Marcille grew up out of step with everyone else only comes up because they’re trying to get a doppleganger to tell them what kind of food she liked as a kid

Her Terrible Tragic Past As A Half Elf Who No One Can Understand adds an extra degree of poignancy to her goals, but they made sense without it

We didn’t question Marcille wanting to extend everyones’ lives when she was just an elf who’d live 500 years, because it’s still so much longer than her friends

It’s a gut punch, and oh the scene where she explains her mom told her she runs at a different pace from everyone else and will watch a lot of people fucking die is a kicker

(There’s a reason she has no siblings I’m just saying)

The half elf reveal adds spice, and depth, and tragedy to the story we already knew about Marcille, but it isn’t the most important or the only important thing about her

She’s a magical prodigy who decided that the world would be a better place if everyone got the same amount of time to live in it, and then set about making it happen

Antagonists can try and reduce her to “just another half elf, bet you want half elf things like Not Being A Half Elf and Babies”, but what she actually wants and who she actually is is so much more complex than that

Being in such a drastic minority is part of Marcille’s story, and it shapes her, but it isn’t all she is and that’s deadass proven in the text because we are not told she is one until we’re reaching the climax

Ryoko Kui isn’t just addressing and including racism in her world in incredible and well thought out ways, she directly challenged it in the core cast and it’s just incredible

(Oh and also that late stage reveal where we learned Chilchuck started his union because PEOPLE WERE USING HALFFOOTS AS MONSTER BAIT and he just Never Bothered To Mention This??????)

its a shame how ryoko kui managed to make a series with such a realistic portrayal of sistemic and internalized racism only for people to have it fly over their heads and go 'x character is racist!! how dare you like them!!!' when like. literally every single character has said something racist. your blorbo is racist. my blorbo is racist.

marcille hates orcs. kabru has dehumanized kobolds. mithrun said a slur. laios and falin treat mountain people like savages. analyse these traits meaningfully or perish

[bizarrepotpourri]

Behind the Scenes: "Ruby Slippers"

[Previously: Learning the Ropes]

While organizing the stories and behind-the-scenes posts for the previous parts of the Special Officer 432 series, I realized that I haven’t written a behind-the-scenes for the fourth one, “Ruby Slippers”. This one was a bit hard to write: on one hand, I wanted to write it for someone on A Certain Website, on the other, it’s once again based on an actual case.

This post, once again, contains mentions of violent crime, death, hornyposting and spoilers for “Last Night in Soho”, so everything is under the cut. You have been warned.

To summarize the teasers: the core concept I had came from the 2013 case of the Peterborough ditch murders and Anya Taylor-Joy’s character from the movie “Last Night In Soho”, as well as being written for someone from A Certain Website who has a thing for stockings. And then, when I started researching everything, things hit peak crazy.

Namely, googling the name of the perpetrator of the Peterborough ditch murders, Joanna Dennehy, resulted in me getting hit with Too Much Information. The entirely theoretical disgust that Mrs Officer has for tabloid press, that I didn’t feel that much myself while writing “The Murderous Brat”, became entirely practical and personal for me as the author: I discovered that the local tabloids, compared to the British ones, are tame. For example, they didn’t try to milk the social media accounts for both inspirations of “The Murderous Brat” as hard as the British ones did with Joanna Dennehy, despite all cases having happened around the same time (the local ones happened a few years later, I think). The red tops picked her Facebook account clean and posted all the edgy and supposedly saucy photos they could find - thank god that my saucy goth teen/college girl photos disappeared when the local social media site I posted them on went bust. But those were only a prelude to the absurdly sensationalized main course that was the “shocking reveal” that she amuses herself writing… gore porn. That was the "GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE" moment for me, because I was about to write a gore porn story about her. Oh, the irony.

The person I wrote it for was less than cooperative, to say the least. I managed to get the idea about stockings out of her before she ghosted me for a full month, and I worked with the very bare concept of stockings and high heels, with the condemned named “[DOROTHY GALE]” and the working title “Ruby Slippers”. And since the condemned was A Very Stylish Girl and not a female version of The Kurgan, the weirdest detail from the real case became even weirder. Really, don’t ask me how she managed to shove a full-grown man into a dumpster, because I don't have a clue. I had a beautiful homicidal weirdo on my hands, and I had to sell her as too dangerous to live. From “Last Night in Soho”, I had the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” concept of someone hiding how fucked up they really are for decades, mostly because everyone fell for her pretty face. From the real case, I had the idea of a remorseless killer getting her sexual kicks from murder. And with Anya Taylor-Joy’s looks reminding me of elves drawn by Todd Lockwood, I got the idea of her being kind of spacey, like a changeling that caused enough havoc and now was just checking out.

This also served as a contrast with the mention of a Katherine Knight analogue, one that I didn’t want to give a full story to due to being deeply disturbing and very much unsexy. The short description mentioning a strongly built woman, full six feet of extreme anger issues, who had to be dragged to the gallows in a straitjacket and leg irons, cursing, spitting and only quickly blindfolded instead of the full procedure after needing to be subdued by four guards instead of the usual two, was meant to show a brute, someone who was intimidating physically. And then, Mrs Officer is dealing with a pretty, unassuming girl who killed three men and attacked a fourth one, all for fun. Where the monstrous pig farmer violently resisted all the way to her end, A Very Stylish Girl seems amused by everything, humming a tune as she walks in high heels down the hallway to the gallows, effortlessly assuming an innocent facade when facing the Court Delegate reading her sentence, finally trying to crudely flirt with Mrs Officer before being restrained and blindfolded. Even her last words are a cryptic “fair enough”, with her visibly aroused by the perspective of being executed. And, since I started with the “Wizard of Oz” reference in the title, she’s impatiently clicking her heels on the trapdoor.

The rewrite published on AO3 doesn’t change much in the story, mostly adding details about the Shackleton prison as I intend to remove the original first story where it was introduced, “Unlucky Thirteen”, from the canon. Various parts of the narrative establishing the world of the stories were also moved to the rewrite of “Learning the Ropes” that now serves as the first story both chronologically and in the reading order. The decision behind decanonizing “Unlucky Thirteen” is mostly based on how it sticks out tonally, with knee-jerk law leading to an overly harsh sentence bordering on abuse of justice and the character of Mrs Officer lacking personality developed from “The Murderous Brat” onwards.