#crest beast

[la-horrorosa]

Dimidue comm I made for @murdertramp25 this month, featuring demonic beast!dedue...

[isan0rt]

One of these days I really need to get around to writing an actual essay about the strong narrative and thematic parallels between Dedue and Edelgard. Today is not that day. But one of these days I will write the essay.

(It's about two people who lose their entire families and their entire worlds and react by covering themselves in literal armor and picking up a physical shield the size of their own bodies to defend their hearts from further pain. It's about picking up an axe and deciding to change the world with your own hands. It's about how only one other person in the world at the beginning of the story knows their true selves and loves them as an individual first. It's about how totally human and ordinary Dedue would be the perfect example of the deserving in Edelgard's ideal crestless meritocracy if Dedue didn't fundamentally reject Edelgard's worldview, and if Edelgard didn't completely overlook him. It's about how in the only route where Edelgard doesn't turn herself into a monster as a futile last ditch desperation effort to save her dream of a better future, Dedue does to try to save his.

It's about wanting a savior to reach out their hand to them in the worst moments of their lives, and how Dedue gets that and Edelgard doesn't and that emotionally and thematically makes every single bit of difference.)

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Raeticodactylus thinks it might be raining

[silent-shanin]

"Rumors have spoken about a beast wandering the Woods of Edmund."

My take on Marianne turning into a monster

[nazrigar]

Weretober 2023 Batch Part 1 - Featuring Newts, Cats, Boars and Local Wildlife

It's Weretober! A big month for my worldbuilding project of Beast Fables, as there's so much worldbuilding to do. Now, to break down the rows:

Pets! A Were-Crested Newt takes his pet otter for a walk, and a were-cat hugs her precious Dire Cat, named tibbles. In Urvara, there's a LOT more varieties of domesticated pets, from otters, to monitor lizards, to even miniature hippos!

Mercenary work is a popular profession in Urvara, especially after a big conflict, where many former military werefolk cannot acclimate back to civilian life. This wereboar shows off his scars, while this werelion, decked in gamebson and hardened leather grieves and armed with both kriegsmesser and musket, demonstrates that, even in the age of gunpowder, melee weapons and armor still has a place in a world where every human can turn into anything from a bear to a scorpion.

A Were-Giant Anteater paleontologist finds the discovery of a lifetime: A Dinosaur chimera, one that looks takes the dragon as its chimeric form.

A werefrog gets the fright of its life, as a Capricorn (a chimeric form of Catfish that gets traits from caprines, such as goats) takes its bait and then some!

A young werebull prepares to duel against a Minotaur, for he is a Minotaur wrestler, like his father and grandfather before him.

[moghedien]

so I ended up watching the first two episodes of Percy Jackson with my mom because I was gonna use her Disney + account to watch it and she was like "oh I might want to watch that" which wasn't the response I was expecting but ok

anyway, I haven't read the books since literally middle school so my memory on all the little details won't be great, but so far I like it and it seems like basically what I remember from the books. my mom who also knows nothing about the books and also Greek mythology also seems to like it

[pyrotechnicdarts]

i know everyone was disappointed when they revealed that this wasnt a baby pukei but its gotta be at least somewhat related i mean LOOK at it

[transmetal-tk]

Does his new Chaingun shoot healing Energon goodness or Predacon-shredding hot lead?

Only one way to find out, hold still...

[randomnameless]

With most of the Church characters, the commoner / noble starting classes feel like more of an aftertought than anything. Because in addition to Alois, Seteth & Flayn both have the noble class (? why ? they clearly aren't nobles ? Did they feel like they couldn't put "commoner" on the Nabateans ???)

I think the only case of discrepancy that could have a cool / interesting explanation is Petra having the commoner base class : her status as princess is not recognised by Adrestia, as she is a political hostage ?

Mercie too is a commoner, even if she was an Adrestian noble -

But given how she ran away from her dad and her adoptive one is not a noble it'd make sense that she would have been registered as a "commoner".

For Seteth'n'Flayn, maybe it's more or less to explain that they are "special people" in the Archbishop's immediate circle, thus more or less considered and seen as "nobles" rather than commoners, but fwiw, especially in the Church, it doesn't amount to a thing.

In the rest of Fodlan though, maybe due to their perceived link to Rhea, they are treated like nobles?

5 years later, and I still can't fathom how the game(s) completely elude the background of the Nabateans and their paperthin disguise to pretend to be common and totes regular "humans".

They don't have surnames, they don't have any "made-up" backstory like being born and raised in a remote church or whatever, hell Rhea's backstory - as the Archbishop! - isn't developed at all and we had to wait for Nopes to get confirmation that she periodically fakes her death to appoint a new persona as her successor, because her title isn't hereditary...

How did this even manage to work, idk - but then their horrible dyejob was enough to convince humans that the Saints were totally not the people with green hair and pointy ears Nemesis'n'pals butchered a few decades ago.

So it's just a big "idk" and/or another proof that the devs dgaf about Nabateans because even writing this down makes me realise that if you want to get a plausible enough backstory/background/cover story for them, you either need to rework Jeralt's entire story or write Fodlan people to be extremely gullible, but with the conspiracy theories going on in the game it isn't coherent :

Manu believesthe Monastery is set between the three countries for a ReAsOn - but won't comment on Rhea's eternal youth, or how she looks like the other Archbishops, only Hanneman muses on Seteth's age while inquisitive!Sylvain is only puzzled by the resemblance between Rhea and the blonde lady from his stepmom's painting (granted, he is at war so maybe coming up with weird theories isn't on his priority list).

[fellowshipofthenoodles]

Wet eyes wednesday!!!

[newtypecosmonaut]

[maranull]

kinda funny that I can look at the ER map and picture almost perfectly the in-game areas and the majority of enemies

it's like I've been messing around this game for more than a year or something

[edns]

I have no edgy or whimsical caption for this one I am just sobbing on the floor. Woe

[crevassier]

🍪 + 2

( i guess it really isn’t his day. )

“ yo! sylvain, yeah? ”

he’s only got a vague remembrance of his name—yeah, there was That Whole Situation, but that wasn’t the time for pleasantries—but that is no matter. fogado comes bearing a delicious pocky treat between interested fingers.

“ y’wanna try this game out? it’s totally new to me—you’ll go easy on me, right~? ”

pocky game (accepting)

Roll: 6, victory!

Sylvain hadn’t seen Fogado around too much ever since their first encounter. He doesn’t have much of a clear memory on what happened and part of him didn’t want to know what happened in the first place, feeling satisfied with just knowing nothing too dangerous had taken place and Fogado’s life wasn’t at risk (or so he let himself think).

That being said, seeing the guy again brought a smile to his face. So their first impression hadn’t been that bad after all. “The one and only! So you wanna get in the loop, eh?”

A devious smile bloomed on his features as soon as the cookie was positioned between their lips. He could go easy, yes…but he also could do something much, much funnier- in the form of taking two big bites, putting him so close to Fogado’s face that he could feel the warm puffs of air from his nose. One more bite, and it would most definitely end in a kiss.

“Going easy isn’t really my brand, sorry friend.” A wink completed his setup, dull golden eyes focused on Fogado’s starry ones.

[mwezina]

The Devil & FE3H

Contrary to how the card looks, The Devil is not actually about the devil sitting upon a stool in the back of the card, but about the two figures in front of it. A foil to The Lovers card, The Devil symbolises forced restraint and perceived powerlessness -- in other words, a lack of choice. 

The chains upon the two people’s heads are fitted loosely around their necks, showing that it’s a trick. The Devil tricks them into thinking they are stuck, but they can easily slip the chains from over their heads and escape. The problem is that both of them have succumbed to their basest instincts, shown by the horns upon their heads, and have fallen to addictions of pleasure and power, as symbolised by the tails of fruit and fire respectively. 

The crest associated with this card is the Crest of Maurice. The name itself likely belongs to the last Byzantine Emperor. His reign was troubled by constant warfare, most likely because that was the only thing he was good at. By keeping his people focused on wars, which he excelled at, they would ignore his other shortcomings. 

During battles, he was fierce and brilliant. He united a fractured Byzantine Empire. However, during peacetime, he was a poor ruler and his reign struggled financially. He made policies that did not keep the people’s needs in mind, leading to his citizens and military rebelling against him. 

The dragon associated with this crest is the Storm Dragon. This name could be alluding to the god of thunder, lightning, and storms. The problem with storms is that they are often necessary to bring rain. However, in their wake they can leave chaos and destruction. So storms can be balanced out in terms of the good and bad they bring to the world. 

In my mind, the Storm Dragon would be a cloudlike being that flies through the sky. Maybe its most prominent features would be its large black wings that darken the sky when an oncoming storm is near. 

Instead of connecting all these things to a bearer of the crest, I actually think Edelgard von Hresvelg is a better fit. Edelgard frequently alludes to herself as being trapped by Agarthan forces, being forced to do things she would never do. However, she actually has all the power to strike back against them. She is simply too focused on the power they bring her to do so. On the other hand, Edelgard is like the devil herself, tempting or manipulating others to her side with the promise of power (as she does for Ferdinand) or the promise of her love (as she does for Byleth). 

Maurice is also a good fit for the type of reign that Edelgard has on Adrestia. She brought harmony to Adrestia by taking the power of the nobles. And if she succeeds in her war of conquest, she will be seen as bringing Fòdlan back together in the history books. However, Edelgard gives little thought to the state of the world in peacetime. She does not consider the common citizen, starving them and using them in Agarthan experiments. She does not consider how a meritocracy could ever be fair, leaving Ferdinand to point out that free education must be necessary, otherwise the meritocracy would be nothing but a joke. Not only that, but her new weapon bears the Crest of Maurice, giving an indication that the writers may have meant for her to be connected to these ideas. 

Finally, the Storm Dragon seems to suggest Edelgard’s violent rule. While some may consider her conquest necessary or inevitable, it is destructive and the echoes of chaos will be felt for many generations. 

Personally, I think the writers did a fantastic job linking Edelgard to The Devil card, even more so than a reversed The High Priestess card. But what do you think? Could Marianne have filled these tough breeches as well as Edelgard?

Previous: Temperance

Next: The Tower

[taylordoesdraw]

Bearer of the Crest of the Beast