#but the goblin lore is very in depth

[seriousbrat]

me inventing an entire magical drinking game as well as a whole language system and social structure for the goblins and then not really including them in my fic lol

[lunastrophe]

Drow Lore 🕷️ Dangerous Merchants

Drow merchants are often not who they seem to be. Some of them are more or less independent information brokers, selling not only goods, but also knowledge to those who can pay for it. Some others secretly work for noble drow houses, occasionally serving as their spies, agents or assassins.

Normally, the drow merchants' first and foremost priority is to ensure the prosperity of their business, but they are often fine with taking an additional assignment now and then - for a fee, of course, or in exchange for other benefits.

In the Icewind Dale series we can meet a great example of a prosperous drow merchant who is much more powerful than he seems to be at first glance - Nym.

🕷️ Polite Drow Merchant - Nym can be found in the hidden svirfneblin village in the Lower Dorn's Deep and after being approached, he greets the player characters in drow language:

"Mallan uss, dis malli usstan tal tanas talthalra. Usstan zha Nym."

This line contains some drow words from canon sources and some others that seem to be distorted - but it can probably be translated as: Honoured one, you honour me with this meeting. I am Nym.

Nym is always exceptionally polite while talking to adventurers, referring to them as "honored customers" - however, soon it becomes clear that under this veneer of politeness and almost-friendliness, there is a cold, cunning and manipulative mind.

🕷️ Profit And Self Above All Else - when the player character points out that it is strange to see a dark elf in a village of deep gnomes, since svirfneblin typically hate drow, Nym replies casually:

"Dire need overcomes simple hatred in periods of duress. I am a businessman. Petty racial differences are irrelevant in my dealings. The deep gnomes have gems. I have goods. It's an excellent relationship. Most profitable."

Since svirfneblin from Lower Dorn's Deep are in deplorable situation, doing business with them - or maybe rather taking advantage of their misfortune and lack of other options - must be "most profitable" indeed.

Nym also tries to take advantage of the visiting adventurers: he buys even quite valuable items cheaply, but his prices are high; he offers special services (enchanting a shield), but demands an outrageous amount of gold as a payment; he is also a slippery negotiator - if you are not careful, you may end up paying him way too much for a simple dagger +2.

But as it turns out, in the past Nym was doing much worse things for a profit.

🕷️ Skilled Thief - the player character can ask Nym about his profession, commenting that being an Underdark merchant sounds like a possibly dangerous and short career. Nym replies calmly that for many, it is, but then states:

"However, I have been in this trade for over four hundred years. I have seen my way into and out of places that no other dark elf has ever seen. You'd be surprised how powerful a single merchant can be."

He is clearly proud of his accomplishments and cannot resist boasting a bit:

"I have seen many things, been many places. The gem mines of Thay aren't quite as frightening as some might lead you to believe. The depths of the Moonsea aren't filled with undead. Oh, and the treasury of Dorn's Deep wasn't very secure even when it was inhabited by the dwarves."

Why is the information about the treasury of Dorn's Deep so important?

🕷️ Nym's Stratagem - sometime after 900 DR, the elves from the fortress known as Hand of the Seldarine and the dwarves from Dorn's Deep formed an alliance and together they created many powerful artifacts. At some point, though, many of those artifacts mysteriously vanished from the treasury and inexplicably fell into the hands of enemies - orcs and goblins. The elves accused the dwarves for secretly supplying the orcs and ultimately, the alliance was severed. The war that came after destroyed both nations.

The vanishing of artifacts was apparently Nym's doing:

"The darthiir [elven] and dwarven artifacts produced by the so-called "Time of Cooperation" were too valuable to resist. Selling the artifacts to the goblinoid armies was the best business decision I ever made. It had so many angles to play. The stupid goblins went bankrupt just to buy artifacts that they couldn't use properly. The dwarves who were threatening to attack some drow outposts were implicated, and the darthiir slit their own throats when they decided to wage war against the goblins and dwarves. Silly elves."

🕷️ Drow Cause - Nym's words about "dwarves threatening to attack some drow outposts" suggest that he was acting not only for his own benefit, but also for the benefit of some local drow community - likely Rilauven, drow city located below the caverns of Lower Dorn's Deep.

Was Nym supported, or maybe even employed and sponsored by Rilauvenian drow? Or was he acting independently - and making the entire drow city owing him a debt was only a side consequence of his plan?

It is not really known - but when we meet Nym several decades later during the events of Icewind Dale II, he seems to be on good terms with Rilauvenian leaders like Malavon Despana and he even works for them...

Also, in one of the books that can be found in game, we can find this note:

"It is rumored that a dark elf by the name of 'Nym' was the individual truly responsible for the fall of the Hand. Through magical means he entered the vaults of the dwarves, stole their artifacts, and sold them to the goblinoid armies. He then sat back and watched as the elves and dwarves destroyed their alliance with accusations of guilt.

It is speculated that Nym did this to remove a significant threat to the drow population in the area of the Hand. With the elves and dwarves vanquished, the drow were free to claim their territory as their own with no consequence..."

🕷️ So, to sum things up - beware of the Underdark drow merchants... especially the ones who somehow manage to stay in this dangerous business for centuries.

For more of my drow lore ramblings, feel free to check my pinned post 🕷️

[satoshi-mochida]

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights sequel ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist announced for Switch

From Gematsu

Publisher Binary Haze Interactive and developers Live Wire and Adglobe have announced ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights sequel ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist for Switch. It will launch in 2024. It will support English, Japanese French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean language options.

“We teased a sequel to ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights nearly two years ago, and we have received countless requests from our online community for a second adventure,” said Binary Haze Interactive CEO Hiroyuki Kobayashi in a press release. “It is an honor and a pleasure to announce our next title with the help of Nintendo during such a prestigious event. We have much much to share in the very near future, stay tuned!”

Here is an overview of the game, via Binary Haze Interactive:

Decades after the Rain of Death, a new journey begins in the Land of Fumes, where mystical powers lie beneath the earth. The kingdom’s desire for conquest led to the creation of the Homunculi, machine-like artificial life forms prepared to execute the king’s will. A recent resource-harvesting mission gone awry caused toxic vapors to emerge from underground, driving both man and machine to feral madness. As the Homonculi devolve into dangerous creatures, guide Lilac—an “Attuner” with the power to purify those infected by the fumes—on a quest to save the kingdom. With the help of friendly machines and spirits who fight in Lilac’s stead, fend off mechanized legions of lunging carcasses, cannonball-firing corpses and chainsaw-wielding goblins terrorizing the land. Turn foes into friends by exorcizing corruption from enemy bosses. Wield their powers to add 30 different abilities to Lilac‘s combat repertoire in an enhanced battle system where she can equip up to four special abilities at once. Improve Lilac’s odds of surviving this hunt for lost memories by leveling up attack strength, HP, and armor. Explore the depths, heights and far corners of the kingdom for lore-filled relics. Collect and trade gold for upgraded items at the Blacksmith’s storefront. Combine story fragments from the kingdom’s fleeing inhabitants with Lilac’s forgotten memories. Seek the truth in an atmospheric hand-drawn setting set to the soothing serenades of returning musical group Mili (Ghost in the Shell, Goblin Slayer) with a brand new original soundtrack available for purchase at launch.

More information will be announced on February 26 at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m. ET via the game’s official website.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

Japanese

[wanderingswampbeast]

Long Post: Why I Don’t Like The Drow

I’ve been ranting about this to a friend on discord (a lot of points I make will come from him) but I’ve finally figured out what my issue with the drow is outside of inherently evil groups being dumb.

The drow are boring. Drow lore is less of a dive into a unique culture and more of a list of fucked up things they do. Like, I cannot name a single interesting aspect of typical drow society that does not directly involve murder, sexism, or slavery, or Lolth. And even then, most of those things are written about in an incredibly bland fashion with them.

The Drow don’t really have much depth to them, and are just kind of evil for evil’s sake (or “because Lolth said so”). They do slavery, but the only real purpose of doing slavery for them is “because Lolth said so”. It isn’t for cheap labor, it’s to be more evil. They betray each other purely because that’s what evil people do. They’re misandrist, not for any real societal reason, but because Lolth hates men. There’s none of what would make slavery an interesting topic or story element, no justification for why they should be allowed to commit one of the worst injustices possible, no real economic reason for it. They just do it because Lolth says they should, and from a writing perspective it hammers home the fact that they’re evil. They aren’t evil because they enslave and murder, they enslave and murder because they’re evil, if that makes any sense.

Them being written as comically evil as they are also hurts them from a worldbuilding perspective. They’re so reliant on slaves for menial labor that the lower class of their society struggle to get jobs. Drow culture so obsessed with betrayal and dumbass house wars that even when actively under attack from the outside they sabotage each other. They’re so decadent that their buildings are held up with magic and semi regularly collapse when a spell fails. To put it bluntly, drow society feels like one that should have collapsed in a few centuries, which, funnily enough, is way longer than D&D elves live.

Their culture being so monolithic also makes writing anything about them difficult. Every drow antagonist is going to have near identical motivations, methods, and ideologies as every other drow antagonist. Every drow protagonist is going to ultimately feel very similar to Drizzt, because leaving their fucked up society to become a do-gooder is such a common backstory element that they added a whole extra god just for doing that. In fact, you can divide 90% of drow characters from any official materials into these categories:

Manservant

Ambitious male, usually a wizard (5 bucks says he has long hair and a widow’s peak)

Dommy Mommy Warcrime Woman

Drizzt Do’Urden or one of his many duplicates

Self-loathing and/or resentful Drider

And finally, their existence almost purely to be humanoid enemies you can fight at nearly any levels is just kind of lazy. This is a problem that I have with the “evil races” of a lot of fantasy but having a group that’s evil by birth just feels like an excuse to not have to write actual motivations for your antagonists. It’s the difference between “go attack this camp of soldiers because they’re part of the SkullMurder army and their general wants to use our land to build a dread fortress” vs “go attack this camp of soldiers specifically because they’re drow/goblins/orcs/the dreaded peepee-poopoo folk”. Using stuff like this just feels like an excuse to not have to write an actual antagonist since it comes pre-written in the group’s lore. This has the side effect of whenever such a group is the antagonist of the plot, the players or audience know near exactly what to expect. The orc is here to conquer, the goblin is here to steal, and the drow is here to enslave or do some dark ritual.

I’ve legitimately heard people say “well if XYZ can’t be inherently evil anymore, who will we use as bad guys?” It’s very simple: whoever the fuck we want. Write an evil queen, or a scheming wizard, or an underground slave trade network. For God’s sake, anyone can be evil, you don’t need to tie that to a specific ethnic group and write it as “they’re just like that”. Write an actual character for your antagonist.

[whaledenwtf]

Hey, can I request a drow!Tav who's actually very kind, has strong sense of justice and tries to help people out when she can with Astarion? It seems a bit tricky combination, but I really love your writing. 💛

I love elf-type races so the idea of a soft-spoken sweet drow is actually very interesting and I'm totally interested in exploring! Since you wrote she I'm assuming you wanted AFAB!Tav so I will be writing with she/her pronouns. Warning that there is a minor Non Consensual/ Dubious Consensual moment in the fic. I will be marking it with two stars ** so you are aware of when it ends and when it begins.

REQUEST: HERE BALDUR'S GATE 3 MASTERLIST: HERE

Request: Drow!Tav/Drow!Reader x Astarion - As Sweet As Can Be

WORD COUNT: 1795

Warnings: ANGST (Lots of it) Fluff, Some Smut (NonCon/DubCon), AFAB!Reader, SPOILERS!!!! Speak of Astarion's Lore (Including and not limited to S/A and lack of choices) and Act 1, Love and Support for my Angel Astarion 💖

As always, the goal is to keep the characters as close to their in-game personalities as possible.

People always tell you "it's so easy to just be nice". What a load of bullshit. They never could understand how difficult it was to go against your very nature at every turn. You were raised in the depths of the Underdark, fighting your way out to feel the rays of the sun on your amethyst-toned skin.

That may be why you sympathize with Astarion. You understood what it felt like to be in constant darkness because of your nature. Fighting tooth and nail for freedom, without being someone's puppet. When he tried biting you, you accepted him whole-heartedly. When he asked to drink from you, you accepted him whole-heartedly.

"I still cannot comprehend why you are so kind. They do not deserve your pity." He told you once, at the beginning of your adventure. You ponder his words, and your response.

"All it takes is one kind soul to change a person's future." You had responded. He also pondered your words late at night. He questions what one kind person would have done to change his life.

You told yourself you found a kindred spirit in Astarion, but he wonders if he too had found a kindred spirit in you.

You had saved Arabella from Kagha's viper. Despite many of your companions approving of your actions, you saw Astarion wasn't too pleased with time being wasted on a child.

"We're not getting the information we need. Should we not focus on the worms wriggling in our skulls?" Astarion said to you as you leave the inner sanctums of the Emerald Grove. You could see other companions shoot your spoilsport vampire some sour looks. You put a hand on his shoulder.

"The worms in our skulls are not going to disappear. We have time to focus on them."

"Exactly. They are not going to disappear. You may be content with turning into a mindflayer, but I have my good looks to keep!" He says loudly, earning more disapproving looks from your companions. You sigh.

"You may question my actions, but I will not let an innocent child die at the hands of a treacherous viper. We got our information, and we will find the Arch Druid Halsin. After all, he may have the answers we seek." This seems to appease him, slightly.

"Plus, you get to kill goblins." He grins at those words.

"Now you are speaking my language." You grin at him, patting his shoulder gently. You turn to your other companions.

"We will tread forward and save Halsin, then go to this Creche. I understand that these are much more stops than intended, however we must gain as much information as possible so we could get a full understanding of what is happening and how to prevent it from getting worse." Gale walks up to you and puts a hand on your shoulder.

"I will follow your lead, wherever it leads us." You smile at the human, nodding at everyone else.

Astarion can't help but scoff at Gale's actions.

It was late at night now, and everyone else was asleep. You notice a particularly antsy vampire pacing around quietly, deep in thought.

"Penny for your thoughts?" You ask him when you walk up to him. He jumps, shocked.

"Gods! You can't scare a vampire like that... I'll bite." He ends with a seductive lilt in his tone. He smirks at you as you blush, turning away.

"I am just... thinking." He answers your previous question, frowning. You see his defeated stance, and sigh.

"We're going for a walk." You decide, grabbing his hand and pulling him away from camp, nodding at Halsin as you pass. He lets you drag him until you're in the thicket of the forest, the light of the camp a dot in the distance.

"Why are we walking? Don't we do that enough?" Astarion complains to you, whining loudly. Once you have distance from the camp, you let go of his hand and continue walking.

"I think you need to clear your head." You tell him, humming a soft tune.

"The only thing I need to clear my head of is this tadpole, darling." He says quietly, following you. You find a small clearing near a river, the treeline becoming sparser and allowing the moon's light to bathe you both. You sit near the shoreline, the water lazily moving as if it was also taking reprieve. He grumbles about his clothes getting dirty as he sits next to you.

"I understand how difficult it is for you, Astarion-"

"Nothing is difficult for me. I'm perfect." He says confidently, though you can tell it is forced.

"Must have slipped my mind." You say simply. He continues his act, boasting of his greatness.

"I am wonderfully stealthy, and beautiful." You nod, smiling at him. "I can speak my way out of anything, including Gale's dreadfully boring speeches-" You giggle at his words. He smiles at you, turning to look at you.

"The world is for the taking, darling. And I plan to take it." He says with certainty.

"Are you done your speech?" You tease him, turning to look forward and watch the stars. He gapes next to you, galled at your audacity. He splutters, unable to form a sentence in shock. You laugh loudly, the sound melodic.

"I want to speak about your troubles." He turns away from you now, no longer analyzing your profile.

"All this talk is wasted on me." He whispers, frowning. You turn to look at him again, seeing his scarlet eyes focusing on the rocks below your feet.

"Nothing is wasted on you." You answer simply. His gaze snaps to you. For the first time, you can clearly read his emotions through his eyes. There is a sadness, all encompassing.

"You think I do not understand your plight?-" You look into eachother's eyes, leaning closer. "I was once Lolth's puppet, like most Drow." You turn to look at the sky now, the moon's beams illuminating your face. If Astarion did not know better, he'd think you were a fae, magical and powerful. Beautiful.

"Lolth is a chaotic goddess, blood-thirsty and uncaring. Many of my years in the Underdark were filled with loss, anger, bloodshed... betrayal. I trusted no one. I still find it difficult to trust." You say quietly. He stays silent, allowing you to continue your story. "I began to rebel. I was punished, severely. I knew at that moment I needed to go on the surface. Those years were filled with darkness... the first moment I felt the sun's rays on my skin- I cried. A century of darkness and pain was behind me. I began to follow Eilistraee, and found my path. This anger was a weapon, and I wielded it poorly. Innocent people do not deserve that. I decided to be the good I desperately needed in the Underdark." You ended, tears in your eyes. You turn to look back at him and he was closer, only a couple inches away from you. His eyes flicker to your lips before looking back up at you. He surges forward, kissing you passionately. In shock, you stay still, though your lips move against his.

**NonCon/DubCon Content Warning**

He climbs on top of you, hand going up your night clothes. You pull away when his hand grazes your under boob.

"Astarion-" He kisses your neck, lips kissing the mark he made two nights prior, when he drank from you.

"Astarion, please." He misunderstands you once more, his hand going up to touch your breast, groping it lightly. Your hands go on his chest and push him away. He falls backwards, giving you both some very needed distance. He looks broken, his gaze void.

**NonCon/DubCon Content Warning**

"This isn't right." You tell him, biting your lip. He frowns, turning away.

"I've never had someone turn me away..." He says quietly, looking down. Your heart breaks for him.

"Is this what Cazador asked of you?" You whisper, biting the inside of your cheek. He doesn't answer, but his body language is enough.

"You do not need to put up an act for me, Astarion. You are worthy and enough as you are. I do not need you for your body." You see his eyes get misty, but the tears never fall. He doesn't answer, staying silent.

"Come here, please." You tell him, lying down and spreading your arms. His gaze leaves the ground and he looks at you, before nudging himself closer slowly. He lies next to you, still not touching you.

"May I hold your hand?" You ask him softly. You turn to look at his profile, but he does not meet your gaze. He nods. You take his cold hand in yours, linking your fingers.

"I'm sorry." He whispers. You shake your head.

"I do not want you to apologize to me." You tell him. He turns to you then.

"I... I almost..." He bites his lip, unable to finish his sentence.

"Listen to me, please-" You grip his hand tighter, thumb caressing the alabaster skin.

"You are hurting. You do not deserve this. You are surrounded by darkness. Your reaction... you were conditioned to act in such a way. Did you mean what you did?" He shakes his head, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Then I will not hold it against you." He turns over, laying on his side to look at you. You turn as well, both facing one another and on your sides.

"You're too good for me." He whispers again.

"You're much more than what Cazador has made you believe you are. You aren't just a puppet. I am proof of that." You tell him. His other hand goes up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear.

"Let us just... lay here for awhile. Look at the stars. Enjoy the freedom we found." You right yourself, laying on your back. He mirrors you, laying on his back.

"This freedom will not last... not for me." He says after a long period of silence.

"I will make sure it will." He turns to look at you. You turn to him, gazing at his beautiful features.

"200 years of pure shit. I lost all hope in anything." He says to you. You squeeze his hand, fingers still linked.

"I will kill Cazador." You say simply. He laughs loudly, his whole body shaking at the intensity.

"You can certainly try, darling." You smile at him.

"We can do it, together. You do not have to carry your burdens on your own, Astarion." He nudges closer to you, his head leaning on your shoulder.

"I will think about it." That was enough for you. You hum in acceptance, before leaning your cheek against the crown of his head and enjoying the darkness together.

Suddenly, the world didn't feel so alone.

Exploring Astarion's lore and storyline always hurts me, and I try to use it to better fulfill what I wish for him, which is growth and happiness. The scene I wrote which was noncon/dubcon is something I particularly found important to write about because I personally feel like Astarion would use sex as a coping mechanism, and is not used to people pushing him away. Abuse is a cycle, and throughout the game we see Astarion stuck in that cycle, and later on continue it (despite him thinking otherwise).

I think many people overlook the psychological layers to a character like Astarion. To write something that I feel is close to the character, I try to explore every aspect of their past and personality, especially the dark parts. I hope I was able to do so.

[wanderingnork]

Hi! Loved the lore dump yesterday and it got me really curious:

Githyanki worship Vlaakith, right? But do the githzerai have any religion (I'm not entirely sure how faith features into the monk class in D&D)? And do you know anything more about that long-dead goddess whom they used to worship?

What did the illithids use the githyanki for exactly? Just food? Manual labor? As soldiers?

Also, the Penumbran's "alien sheep" made me wonder what kind of livestock (if any) the gith keep nowadays and if you know whether they might also keep pets?

Which THEN got me wondering whether the gith are into music, performative arts, and poetry aside from the art you've described in that lovely one shot with the artist and the solider on AO3? /very long ask over And thank you so much for sharing all this lore with the rest of us! I'm really enjoying learning from your blog.

ALL RIGHT LET'S GO I HAVE SOURCES >:3

Starting off with worship: Back in the 2nd Edition D&D Monstrous Manual, Zerthimon is portrayed as a prophet-like figure, who died fighting Gith but will eventually return to lead the githzerai into a paradise. In Dragon magazine #390, which is a 4th edition publication, there's a sect of githzerai who carved their residence out of the petrified body of a dead god and live by its religious tenets. But the closest the githzerai have to an active deity in 5th Edition sources is their king, Zaerith Menyar-Ag Gith. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes depicts him as a transcendent monk with incredible psionic powers, who looks like he's dead and just exists in a coffin projecting his thoughts.

What did the illithids use the githyanki for? All of the above. In the Mind Flayer Trilogy, we see them used as gardeners, food, manual labor, and eventually psionic supersoldiers (the illithids' final downfall). In all accounts, Gith was a bodyguard and soldier. According to the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon from Planescape: Torment, he worked in fields where bodies of gith used for food were turned to fertilizer for illithid crops.

Livestock and pets: The githyanki have an entire caste devoted to farming, the g'lathk (which has two apostrophes in earlier editions). The most detailed description of the g'lathk I've found is the web supplement for Dungeon #100 (Lich-Queen's Beloved), which goes in-depth on Tu'narath's farming district. To quote the article: "everything from rothé to chained humanoid captives (goblins, kobolds, gnomes, dwarves, halflings, elves, humans, bariaurs, and other “cattle”)." More recent editions have seriously downplayed or eliminated the idea of the githyanki keeping slaves this way (4th Edition's "Secrets of the Astral Sea" goes as far as saying that githyanki abhor slavery as hypocrisy when they themselves were slaves), but yeah. That's the livestock situation.

AS FOR PETS, that's MUCH more fun. Githyanki are frequently accompanied by spectral hounds, or ride interesting mounts like nightmares or the hybrids of dinosaurs and red dragons. However, in Dragon magazine #117, there's the wonderful article "Hounds of Space and Darkness." Here we learn about the dogs specially bred by the githyanki and githzerai. The githyanki breed guard dogs called kaoulgrim which are essentially super aggressive Russian bear-hunting dogs, huge and fluffy. The githzerai breed the szarkel, which are Extremely Extremely Cursed borzoi that have some limited shapechanging ability.

Finally, art: The githyanki have always been portrayed as a highly artistic group. In their earliest AD&D incarnations, they wear a great deal of jewelry and beautiful armor. By 2nd Edition, especially in the Planescape books, we see the craftsmen (mlar or m'lar) popping up. Planescape's Faction War supplement discusses beautiful and magical jewelry being sold in the city of Sigil. A Guide to the Astral Plane (also 2E) presents glorious artwork by Tony diTerlizzi of githyanki arms and armor and clothes. The Black Spine adventure for the 2nd Edition Dark Sun campaign setting offers the chance to visit a githyanki palace and includes a palace with whole wings devoted to music and art. In the 3rd Edition Tome of Battle, we get the entire story of a famous githyanki smith who made a legendary and (from the accompanying art) beautiful sword. The same Dungeon web supplement above details the mlar district of Tu'narath, where artists live in studios to create spectacular and often magical works of art.

In 5th Edition, going back to Mordenkainen, this takes a sour turn. That book portrays the githyanki as a society of bored, semi-immortal dilettantes, who get halfway through works of art or other creative projects before abandoning them for something new. I don't particularly like that, considering just how much has gone before about the githyanki being an artistic society.

I suspect that Larian agrees with me. In a banter between Gale and Lae'zel, she informs him that the githyanki paint frescoes, write symphonies, and make wine. Given how much Larian has already diverged from mainline D&D githyanki lore in their game, I think that it's a safe bet that the githyanki of Baldur's Gate 3 are more in line with the previous editions of D&D in terms of art.

[sqarletsworldlesswandering]

Got any silly trivia for Skoteinos?

*rifles through my lore-goblin bag*

Both Skoteinos and Kavodim have pretty distinct love-languages. Everyone expects Teino's to be physical affection, but that's actually Kavo's, while her strongest one is gift giving. They both love quality time too.

That full form I drew out is very much a New Eden thing - within the main storyline of Eden Eclipsed, the two are still largely stuck together. Summum and Quimera help them clean up their fused form properly before we formally fight them, but they don't fully separate until after the main campaign.

Skoteinos is, as I've mentioned, a Dark Paladin, and on fairly solid terms with Kleisme. The partial head-piece she has is actually just half of a full head-piece - pre-Conflict, when hers was awarded, they were given for outstanding courage, and were pretty rare given that there wasn't much demand for such. During the Conflict, they were given for military prowess.

Skoteinos is notorious name among the Lightfolk, and labelled as "avoid at all costs" if you're not an angel. She's... taken out a couple angels on her own as well (Kavodim was very nearly one of them).

This gets into something I'm toying with for Eclipsed, so don't take it as confirmed yet, but - Skoteinos is a descended Archangel (a decent number of female Darkfolk are descended Lightfolk, though not all - same with male Lightfolk being ascended Darkfolk).

Because she's formerly Lightfolk, she pointedly doesn't go after natural lightfolk. She doesn't... quite want to sabotage those she still sees as "her own," but even then that desire is still clouded in the Conflict-Call. She will, however, hunt down ascended Darkfolk and try to ascend through them instead, which is how she ends up transcending with Kavodim (an ascended Paladin).

She's done serious damage to a few natural angels, and yet more to ascendeds. In fact, she had a small contingent of descended Lightfolk with her and started engaging and incapacitating ascended Lightfolk for them to absorb. She was the last to try and re-ascend, and... here she is. (This whole concept has some continuity issues that I need to sort out, so it may be revoked later. Consider this a dry run.)

In much lighter-hearted news, Skoteinos loves mushrooms! She can tell you about them for as long as you'll listen, and is very good at foraging for them. The Amethyst Bog is her homeland (Continuity Error #1-), and she drags Kavodim thither and thon through it telling him about all the things.

She really enjoys the Overgrown Sanctuary - tons of flora to admire, and so much open air. It's freeing, and reminds her of her time as an Angel.

When she eventually grows her hair out, it takes on a fiery orange color at the tips. The glyphs on her head also end up transferring into her hair color as well.

She can absolutely rock chunky and/or geometrically funky jewelry (Tzafira is so jealous, lol-). This also makes Kavodim's job really easy when gift-shopping-

(Stars the whole descended/ascended thing could add a lot of depth to their relationship but stars I would have so much revision to do-)

[boomboxboi]

absolutely love your based and poggers headcanons, not sure if you've done it yet but can we get the gang as like mythical creatures or fantasy beings, pirates, vampires, fairies, dragons etc.

Thanks, Anon!!

Mythical Creatures and Fantasy….

I haven’t yet! I know others have and, for the most part, I would agree with the ones I’ve seen floating around here. But for the sake of being different here’s a different take!

Bruno Bucciarati

Dullahan.

He would 100% enjoy taking his head off to be goofy.

Leaves his head in random spots while his body just walks around and bumps into things.

Will also make head puns.

Everyone hates the head puns.

But they tolerate it because it’s Bruno.

He will cuddle his head in his sleep, sometimes.

Also being able to remove his head makes styling his hair that much easier.

Leone Abbacchio

Charybdis.

Always lurking in the deep.

He would enjoy the solitude that the depths of the ocean would bring.

Hates land and will hang out in the tub to spend time with Bruno while he’s styling his hair.

May or may not have destroyed many ships.

Had a rivalry with Scylla back in the day.

Pannacotta Fugo

Dybbuk.

Though- without the questionable lore behind it.

He simply has a pension for haunting and possessing others.

Used to possess his housemates to get things done a certain way.

Certified control freak.

He no longer possesses them without their consent.

Especially because it leaves the host feeling very ill afterwards.

Narancia Ghirga

Goblin.

Hoards trinkets in his room.

Loves shiny things, in particular.

If you have a shiny, Narancia will take it.

Easily swayed into doing things for others if he gets a shiny thing in return.

100% Gollum energy at times.

Will call things “My Precious”.

Does it because he watched Fugo watch Lord of the Rings once.

And it pisses Fugo off.

Guido Mista

Gorgon.

Why do you think he’s always wearing a hat?

Because he doesn’t want others to turn into stone.

Also the snakes all have little numbers on them.

No number four.

Has migraines because the snakes sometimes just never stop talking.

And they steal his food.

Ya feel?

Giorno Giovanna

Griffin.

Proud and considered noble by others.

He just gives that energy off to others.

You would think he’d be a vampire because of Dio.

But no.

Griffin all the way because of Jonathan.

He just got his looks from Dio, that’s all.

Takes good care of his feathers and talons, though.

Trish Una

Phoenix.

When her life went into chaos, she was able to be reborn into a version of herself to better suit her new life.

Loved sun bathing.

Preens a lot.

Gets feather care tips from Giorno.

Has been the only one to ever see the snakes on Guido’s head.

She turned to stone.

Then burst into flames.

Then was simply reborn.

[gardensprincess]

I wrote a synopsis of the beginning of age of sigmar for a fren

I’m forcing you to read it now

In the beginning the world exploded

And magic brought back 8 entire flat earths each based on each kind of magic

Hysh: The realm (flat earth) of light

Ulgu: the realm of shadow

Chamon: the realm of metal

Ghur: the realm of beasts

Ghyran: the realm of life

Shyish: the realm of death

Aqshy: the realm of fire

Azyr: The realm of heaven

As well as the aetheric void and a bunch of other sub realms we can talk about later

After the world exploded a few funny friends were still kickin around somehow

One of which was Sigmar Heldenhammer, who for all intents and purposes is British Zeus. He hit his head on a rock and died kinda but woke up in azyr and thought “huh, I guess I should build a city” and so azyrheim was built, from here humans kinda appeared and started populating the other realms slowly through grueling pilgrimages called dawnbringer crusades, where they literally DRAG A FUCKING CITY ALONG A LEY LINE

In between Ulgu and Hysh, a few other gods were still hoppin about

Tyrion and Teclis, the twin gods of light

Malerion(formerly malekith), the god of shadows

And the only gods to canonically fuck: kurnoth and allarielle, the god of the hunt and the goddes of life

They were huddled around the sorta dead sorta captured body of the chaos god of excess, slaanesh, who ate all the elven souls from the world that exploded. Slaanesh didn’t do that tho that was Archaon, we’ll talk about him later. Anyway slaanesh ate all the elven souls cuz they were hungy and the elven gods didn’t like that, so they cut slaanesh open to retrieve the souls

But just before the do, malerions mortal mom, morathi, pops out of slaanesh and is immediately mad she’s not a god.

But they use her survival to help take out elven souls from the tummy of slaanesh

The first souls sucked and telcis hated them and was gonna kill them all but they fled to the depths of the seas and became the idoneth, the sea elves

After that malerion and morathi were like “you suck” and took a bunch of souls out and they become umbraneth, the dark elves

Morathi also took the opportunity to start slowly eating a bunch of souls herself to become a god, which we’ll get to in a few millennia

The other gods thought that was very rude and kept salvaging souls

Next came the kurnothi and sylvaneth, wild and wood elves (wood elves are mostly trees) which kurnoth and allarielle decided to take care of

Finally teclis and tyrion took out the last of what they could and made the lumineth, the high elves.

Back in not space there are a bunch of frogs and lizards in ships, they aren’t important yet

Meanwhile the dwarven gods get no lore except a few sentences, grungi is helping sigmar with a special project, and grimnyr fuxking exploded

During this time a bunch of cool stuff happens in the age of myth

But the good times can’t last and the gods of chaos figure out “oh hey, people are still alive???” So they break reality and start subjugating the mortal realms

Khorne, the blood god

Nurgle, the plague god

Tzeentch, the magic squid man

Slaanesh is still being help via her cock ring in ulgysh (I’m not kidding)

After a few billion years of this (not really) sigmar and grungi finish their special project and make the stormcast eternals to kill chaos, this is using souls stolen from nagash, the god of death and he’s all bad

Nagash and his most not loyal followers start fuckin with both chaos daemons and the other “good” guys and invent skeletons, ghosts, ghouls, and vampires

Meanwhile orks appear out of nowhere and there are goblins piloting majoras mask moons, there’s also rat men

Congratulations that’s the base knowledge. I’m so sorry I went too hard

[floofyfungi]

HEYYY I JUST REREAD THE SERIES FOR LIKE. THE 10TH TIME [save me i'm obsessed] and i've just gotta say i LOVE the worldbuilding you do for your series.. it gets me so invested I LOVE ITTT OUGHHGHGH IM A MIRACLE LOVER which gives me the question are dragons in this world strictly cybertronian? and what other mythical creatures are there this shit is so Cool bro

Thanks Em! I have no self control. I have a literal word document that's just filled with lore. Most of it won't ever make it into the actual story. But I find it useful to have to maintain internal consistency. World building is one of my favourite parts of writing, glad you enjoy it <3

All dragons in the Miracle AU are Cybertronian. There are no organic dragons. As for other Mythical creatures, you have the Mermaids, Centaurs, Trolls, Giants, and Harpies. There are also extinct races like the Ents and Griffins.

I'm going to tell you a bit about these races as I have no self control and you've gotten the writing juices flowing XD

Mermaids are sometimes spotted off the south western shores of the Earth continent. The nations of these regions knew them to be very real, and many snow elf kingdoms established trade routes and military alliances with them. Mermaids make excellent pirates. However, this changed when the Decepticons began their invasion of the Southern Realms. This was known as the Scorching, and it all but drove the snow elves to extinction. The mermaids retreated from the shallow waters of the coastline. They are rarely seen today. Some sailors say they have a great city deep in the ocean depths, where they remain hidden from the Decepticons.

Trolls are a well-known race, and are often seen working alongside orcs and goblins. Aside from the mythical Giants, Trolls are physically the strongest of the organic races. Their large and imposing physique leans them towards bodyguard positions. But this is no hard rule. However, their strength comes at a cost. Besides humans, Trolls are the least magical of the organic races.

Centaurs are also well known. Their birth lands are a great plateau north of the Sun mountains, though still within the Middle Realms. Today one can find centaurs all over Earth, though they are not as common as humans, elves, dwarves, or orcs. Centaurs are the fastest non-flying organics. They are invaluable as calvary units.

The harpies are a rarer race. Their homelands in the Ruby mountains were destroyed during the Scorching. However, their wings allowed a large portion of the population to escape north. Today most Harpies can be found in large nomadic flocks, looking for a new home. No nation has allowed the flock to stay in their lands for long. They are viewed as a drain on resources. Some have even tried to attack the flocks, though they quickly regretted this aggression. Even weakened, the harpies are no pushovers. Today the largest of the flocks roams somewhere north west of the Sun mountains.

The Giants are myth and legend to the Middle and Southern Realms. But in the Northern Realms, they are very real. The ruling power of the north, the Federation, was specifically formed to fight back giant invasions. Giants are the most northern of the organic races. Their homelands are amongst the frozen wastes at the tail end of the Spine mountain range, just south of the polar ice cap. An aggressive race, not much is known about them besides their battle tactics and near other worldly strength. Even a vehicon would struggle to take down a giant one on one. Attempts to learn more about this race are usually met with failure. Between the frigid temperatures and the giants' nasty habit of eating people, northern explorers rarely return.

The Ents are often documented in literature and old oral legends, but little remains of them today. They were slow to reproduce and slower to grow, ancient wars with the wood elves took their toll and ent populations dwindled. Today they are believed extinct. Though rumours of ent sightings persist in the thick Cloud rainforest of the Middle Realms. Though these sightings are only the words of far flung travelers, and can be safely ignored.

The Griffins were never a common race. Even when the world was young. They lived on a scattered archipelago to the west of the Earth continent. Griffin rock is one of these islands. Centuries ago, an unknown calamity struck the Griffins. Their homes were left empty and untouched. No signs of a struggle were ever found. Other races moved to claim the empty islands, for example the Dwarven kingdom of the Jade mountains. Today, no one has seen a Griffin in centuries. Only the elves remember what they looked like.

This is a short introduction to the less common races of Earth. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs outnumber each one by a significant margin. The history between these peoples are vast, full of war, trade, alliances, kindness, and staggering cruelty. Many fall into the stereotypes of their kind, and many do not. Each race is a note, and only together can one hear the song of Earth.

And every last one will fall silent, if the Decepticons are not stopped.

[hivemuthur]

the Ilithid

Or - diving into the original AD&D lore form Monstrous Arcana by Bruce R. Cordell on types of Ilithids players can encounter.

Colloquially known as "mind flayers", Ilithids universally elicit images of horror and fear in the minds of surface dwellers and underwolrders alike. Ilithids shock and repulse other races due mostly to their practice of cephalophagy (...). This abominable habit has such power to appal that the saying "The 'flayer hasn't eaten yet!" was coined centuries ago to convey hope in the face of near-impossible situations.

So - hot topic, tadpoles! Originally, they come from mind flayer eggs, which Ilithids can produce only twice during their entire life. From those eggs, little, helpless tadpoles hatch after a whole month of extremely well protected incubation. And they remain so for another decade, thus it takes this long for a tadpole to mature and be ceromorphosis-ready. The tadpole survival count is 1:1000 - most of them get consumed by the elder brain which resides in the depths of the briny pool.

The criteria for ceromorphosis are also somewhat difficult, as the only acceptable races would be humans, elves, drow, githzerai and githyanki, grimlocks, gnolls, goblins and orcs. After having a tadpole inserted into one's ear, the magic begins - the process completely replaces the original tissue of the victim with Ilithid tissue, therefore - the original victim is dead. From this an Ilithid is formed - any they come in many shapes and sizes.

Generally, all of this makes Ilithids an extremely rare race to encounter (lucky original characters) and also - an extreme threat. As a society they highly resemble anything produced for Alien saga (especially Prometheus).

Arcane Ilithids Which in the lore are said to not even exist, since they are most likely the wrongly recognized type by those, who are not aware of psionic abilities effects. As per most of handbooks, psionics being different to spells, since the source of this power is science.

Ulitharids Or super-jacked Ilithids. Forming from tadpoles seasoned for not 10, but 20 years, reaching over 7 ft height and 6 tentacles and live for at least 250 years.

Elder Brain A sentient disembodied mind that resides at the bottom of the briny pool and initially is a conglomerate creation of deceased Ilithid brains. That makes it a united consciousness for all Ilithid colony. The elder brain suborns individual egos to the gestalt consciousness that suffuses it's mass of tangled, fibrous tissues. Generally, it reaches a 10-foot diameter in size (it is believed that the rest of the brain mass is shunt directly into a node of Astral Plane and remains unified with the elder brain on the Prime Material Plane).

Alhoons (Illithilichs) Rogue Ilithids! Basically undead magical adepts - strayed away from the collective consciousness and general Ilithid teachings to find their own way (in death, apparently). They "live" in solitude, being frowned upon by orthodox Ilithids.

Ilithid Vampires Exactly what is says on the cover - now eating both brains and blood. Their main area of inhabitancy is Demiplane of Dread. They are insane, not able to pass the curse to their victims and are being hunted down by their original race, since Ilithids absolutely hate them. Thankfully, no plague of vampiric mind flayers is imminent.

Urophions So, sometimes Ilithids experiment and do put the tadpole where they shouldn't. If it works, what they get is a very brain-thirsty but also not very comprehensive or mobile creature that ends up as an Ilithid watch dog. Some of them escape into the Underdark, in search of their true purpose.

Neothelids An insanely cool concept named leviathan slug by the author of the supplement. How does it happen? If someone or something kills the elder brain, the entire Ilithid colony around it dies, which leaves poor tadpoles with no food and care. As they grow hungrier, they, well... eat each other. Until the greatest tadpole survives. And the greatest tadpole still has to lurk around for little creatures' non-sentient brains. But with the right measures it will grow enough to finally eat a mind that thinks and this does the trick. Something called reciprocal sentience is triggered, creating a dragon-size neothelid, whose breath dissolves everything but brains.

[wormwoodandhoney]

mid-year book freakout tag

I’ve read 81 books so far this year! I like to look back on my last half of the year and see what kind of books have stuck with me! I stole these questions from YouTube. Here are my answers from last year.

best book you’ve read so far in 2023? I'm going with the Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (graphic here!) & It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine, Goblin Emperor is about a young goblin who unexpectedly becomes emperor after his estranged father dies. It's about fantasy politics and learning court intrigue, but it's also about kindness. It's OK is about grief and I felt very seen.

best sequel you’ve read so far in 2023? Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (graphic here). This series is about Jade Daniels, an outcast Indigenous teen who is obsessed with slasher movies. She begins to recognize the signs of an impending slasher coming to her town, and she attempts to stop it.

new release you haven’t read yet, but want to: Painted Devils by Margaret Owen is the sequel to one of my very favorite fairy tale retellings. To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Monquill Blackgoose is a about a young Indigenous woman who enters a dragon academy. I'm waiting for both of these to come into my library!

most anticipated release for the second half of the year: My two most anticipated books are Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, the adult debut of one of my all time favorite YA authors; The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, an absolute staple author of horror. I read a nonfiction book based on a similar real-life event and I know Due is going to bring such depth to the idea.

biggest surprise: The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff was a book I picked up on a whim and ended up being one of my favorites of the year!

favorite new author (debut or new to you): Either Tre'vell Anderson for their nonfiction book We See Each Other about trans representation in media, or Jumata Emill's the Black Queen.

newest favorite character: Oh definitely my sweet Maia from the Goblin Emperor.

book that made you cry: Hide and Seeker by Daka Harmon is a delightful middle grade horror, in which the main character is dealing with a monster as well as the death of his mother, and some of the grief stuff made me cry.

book that made you happy: The Witchlings series makes me so happy!

most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): Probably a special edition of The Song of Achilles.

what books do you need to read by the end of the year? Waiting at the library for me right now are Hamra and the Jungle of Memories and Empire of Exiles!

[thewisaaaaad]

GIVE US OC LORE PLEEK PLEEK PLEEEEEK PLEEK

VERY WELL MY GOOD FRIEND KAY

So to start with, he is called Oscar! Hes my persona, so to speak.

And then I came up with a bunch of lore for him and his species so he doesn't act like me canonically WHOOPS

so. the idea started with "how would a plant survive in the void." and to clarify, by "void" i mean a dimention filled with dead, shattered worlds. so. not space.

ANYWAY how does the plant get nutition when the environment itself tries to sap away life? well you grow like a weed, of course! So i tried to base his design off of a dandelion. Those bastards grow EVERYWHERE and you CANNOT get rid of them. rip them out at the roots and they will STILL find some way to grow back.

So basically Mandrakes are rapidly mutating dryads with impressive regenerative capabilities that enable them to stave off the corrosive effects of the void. Great! That provides a wide range of abilities and appearances that Mandrakes can take, from stinging nettle to clovers!

But what do they eat? well, normally they drain what little nutrients they can find in the drifting chunks of rock that drift through their home dimension. But thats not nearly enough to keep the population alive.

So naturally they feed on blood. Surprise! their humanoid shape is to lure in dimensional travelers to root in their corpse!

Anyway what about Oscar? Most mandrakes have the intelligence of your average fantasy goblin, without the whimsy. but with such a rapidly mutating species, naturally one or two had to come about that have a higher level of intelligence. And that would be him! (ignore how i misspelled like half of that paragraph AND THIS ADDENDUM)

So he wanders the void, looking for SOMETHING to do. Mandrakes tend to split off from each other- competition for resources is fierce. He winds up finding a ruined library that used to belong to a sect of wizards that were studying the void and its powers. Seeing as the library is a very recent addition to the void and the rest of its world did NOT follow, you can imagine how that went.

Oscar uses the library and its fresh, loamy earth to study the books and learn all about GRAVITY MAGIC. he... didn't need it to fly, seeing as gravity was already subjective in the void (hence study of it resulted in gravity magic) but it was very handy in making his staff hit much harder. And also for flinging rivals into the depths of the void.

As he was studying, though, he got the attention of the being that sent the library INTO the void in the first place. It found him because he learned its name.

That was how Oscar found himself in service to an entity only safely called The Ends Witness. It sends him to various worlds already touched by Its influence...

and it is his job to make sure It never arrives.

Can you imagine how horrible it must be, to witness countless fantastical worlds, only for them to wither under your gaze?

It wishes for the end of its own domain. For It to be able to hold a flower, to feel grass under Its feet.

[simlit]

Judine 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 18, 22, 25

What architectural or design aesthetic would best suit them?

oriental; I think Judine works best in his canon elven aesthetic. The only equivalent to this in the real world, in my opinion, is the architecture and layout of traditional Chinese and Japanese homes and temples, with their walled courtyard, gardens, and indoor-outdoor features: one | two | three

What character from myth or fairytale best represents them?

The Most Foolish Traveler in the World; I heard of this story from the anime Fruits Basket, but I’ve seen online that it might have origins in Buddhist stories (I can’t say for certain, there is likely similar stories/fairytales like this but I don’t know of any). The story goes that the traveler was so kindhearted and generous, that he was constantly fooled wherever he went. People would tell him all sorts of made up stories and lies, saying things like “please, spare money for medicine, my son is sick” and always the traveler would agree, smile and say “I wish you happiness”. He gave away his money, he gave away his clothes, his shoes, until he wandered naked into the woods. There he met goblins who wanted to eat him, and so they told him a story to trick him until he allowed them to devour his body. I think, in the same way, Judine is a terrible fool. He’s foolish because he is genuinely kind, and can be easily tricked by those around him, because he will never refuse them. He’s the epitome of the fault of being too nice for your own good. And yet he remains so, no matter how others may hurt him. You can find a better/full recounting of the story here.

If your OC was a character in a novel from literary canon (doesn’t have to be western canon), who would they be?

Melanie Hamilton Wilkes | Gone with the Wind; I had to reach to find an ultimately virtuous character in literature. Apparently, I haven't read many books about stereotypically "good" people. But actually, Melanie is a great example because of how much I never liked her lmao. I didn't like her as a child, the first time I saw GwtW, and I still don't really like her 25 years later. But I can at least appreciate her somewhat. I think Judine had a very similar trajectory to Melanie, having been generally well-liked his whole life and outwardly popular, even if behind closed doors people were envious and hated him out of jealousy. Melanie's personality always bothered me because in being good, she was often naive, and only skated by on the fact that others respected her too much to be cruel. I think Judine, like Melanie, often knows the true hearts of those he interacts with, and even meeting evil people, greets them with forgiveness. In the end, Melanie is an all-around self-sacrificing person, and gives to much too the point where she loses her life. In the same way, I think Judine foolishly puts others first. But inevitably, I think Melanie is the stronger person, as she was capable of making the difficult decisions Judine often shies away from.

If your OC could meet any historical or past figure, whether in the real world or in their own canon lore, who would it be and why?

The first kings of Kehl’Lorrania. He’d want to meet his forebearers and learn from them how to be a better sovereign, but only because he doesn’t know the depth of their corruption. 

If your OC were to live in some other time period, which era would they be best suited for?

Regency; the era of gallantry and romance. As I imagine him in most eras as one of those obnoxiously philanthropic socialites who uses his social status to guilt other nobles into being excessively charitable.

What is their character theme song and why? If it has lyrics, which line best fits them?

“Go Do” - Jonsi

What is one thing that they only let those closest to them see?

His intimacy. Judine is open with all other feelings, but he absolutely only shows those private romantic displays to Anora.

What is some advice or guidance they received that had a big impact on their lives or outlook? Was it a positive or negative impact?

One of Judine's biggest faults is letting others have too much sway over him. Whether that guidance is well-intended, or malicious, he considers other's opinions. He wants to be fair, to be open and listen to different points of view, but in doing so, leaves himself vulnerable to manipulation. Most advice came from his father, and despite knowing the sort of person Aseris was, he still struggles not to paint his perspective with that tainted brush. Maybe the most impactful thing he's heard, which wasn't intended as advice at all, but he treated it as such, came from Taryn, who told him he was weak to let himself be controlled by circumstance. Since then, Judine has actively tried to control his own destiny, more than being controlled by it.

Which “tortured artist” does your OC share the most similarities with?

None. Judine is the antithesis of a tortured artist lol.

[knaivcs]

What sort of muses do you tend to write?

Normally my go to answer would be villains, but that's not even really true.

I guess I really gravitate towards muses that I feel have a lot of unexplored depth. I love expanding on side characters with like maybe 15 seconds worth of canon, or in the case of me creating OCs I literally will just be like "Oh my God, what if XYZ" and then impulsively make a blog because I cannot be stopped.

With popular canons, it's very rare that I take on muses because normally the RPCs are so saturated by hot takes, I feel like I really don't have anything new that I can bring to the table- So to speak. Usually when I do, it's because I'm sick of fanon reducing a complex character down to like maybe one or two traits and idk, I'm a spite fueled fucking goblin who is like "NO!!! *STAMPS MY LITTLE ASEXUAL FEET*" and I have to fucking write the muse MYSELF.

Other times it's because I am projecting WAYYY too hard on a character and my hell brain is like "OH HAI THERE VEHICLE TO EXPLORE MY TRAGIC IRL LORE, how we feelin' baby".

And then sometimes I just get dragged kicking and screaming into a fandom by my asshole friends (j/k, I fucking love you guys pls don't hate me) and they're like "PLEASE WRITE DIS MUSE. FOR ME? 🥺🥺🥺" and I can't say no cuz I'm like the biggest goddamn simp for my pals' interpretations.

Also sometimes I just literally cannot stop thinking about a character and have to scream about them every day or I feel like I might die from emotional constipation.

Hope that helps.

[lordofthenerds97]

HIIIII I’M THE ANON THAT ASKED FOR THE TED TALK ABOUT OBI-WAN!!! THANK YOU FOR GETTING ON THAT SOAPBOX!!!!

I loved reading your thoughts and I do agree with most of them! I really only know Star Wars from TCW and TBB when it comes to a personal level because I never really got into the movies that well (although I do know like . . . 50% of the lore? Or 75% between legends and clone wars and tbb and other sw material, I’m just winging it at this point), so I can’t really say much but Qui-Gon and beginning Obi-Wan, but I share a lot of the same opinions when it comes to Sabine, Ahsoka, and the Mortis situation. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and I would love to see more!!!

Additionally, I wanna apologize for scaring you for a moment! I would never breathe a bad word about Roy. She’s great and I love her fics! I’m just a little (well very) anxious about popping up randomly in people’s chats, asks, and reblogs so I elected to come on anon instead. ^^; I’ve always been interested in reading peeps in-depth discussions about fics, but I wanna apologize if I’ve invaded anything at all. That wasn’t my intention.

HELLO LOVELY!!! Im glad you enjoyed it 😂

I’m a little bit of a SW lore Goblin (it’s kind of insane the depths I’ve deep dived into the universe lmaooooo, of all the fandoms I’m in it’s probably the one I know the most about so it’s easier for me to get super excited and go on and on and on and on 😁) so I can get a bit carried away sometimes lololol

There was a lot I cut out to try and shave it down…I have thoughts about Obi-Wan’s relationship with Ventress, his shady deals with Hondo, a ton more about Mustafar, his position on the Council, the whole Mortis situation….yeah 💀 so I’ll def reblog later with more ranting bc there’s so much I didn’t cover

Aw, honey, no worries! I was mostly just teasing ☺️ and I totally get that, I have high anxiety too. This blog shall forever be a safe space for anyone! And don’t feel like you invaded anything!! I honestly was super excited and kinda squealed a bit that you liked the brain dumps so much that you wanted a whole ass rant from me 🤣🤣 I love leaving all of my thoughts, even if they aren’t always coherent, and it makes me happy that Roy and others enjoy them! ❤️❤️ you’re always welcome to pop into the conversation via reblogs, or if you wanna add something via anon, that’s completely fine too, love!! However you feel most comfortable interacting ❤️