#did we survive? a-mancers did we survive

[eviebofficial]

A-mancers after that Christmas winter special. Can I get a AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHWHATTHEFU C K

[blackjackkent]

As I have done for the last two major patch drops, here's a collection of things that stood out for me in the Patch 7 patch notes! :D

There's quite a lot of them - and this isn't even close to the whole list of changes, so definitely check out the full patch notes here if you're interested.

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First of all, the things I'm actively excited about:

Introducing 'Evil Endings': Brand new cinematic endings for the truly villainous playthroughs. (Exciting! I've started pondering what my next BG3 liveblog will be - though I might switch to another game for a while first after Rakha is done - and I am starting to lean towards reworking Alexis, my bard, into an evil-run Minthara-mancer. So... intrigued to see more of this in the future!)

Added our very own Mod Manager, which lets you browse, install, and use mods created by the community. (I don't know details about the existing modding process but the new system seems like it'll be pretty intuitive so - hype!)

You can now start Custom Mode games using Honour Mode mechanics when starting a new playthrough. You'll be able to do this via the 'Ruleset' dropdown. (Neat! I may do this as well on my next liveblog playthrough - not the difficulty changes but just forcing me to stick to my choices with one save.)

The kuo-toa that promised to build you an army will now support you in the final battle. Unless they all died in Act I. (Amazing. I'm unironically in love with this addition.)

The help that the Gondians promised for the final battle will now arrive in the form of a friendly Steel Watcher. Apologies from Zanner Toobin for the delay.

Added a dialogue option asking for a kiss in more paths of Wyll's epilogue dialogue.

A bug that had been preventing Wyll’s romance greeting from triggering has now been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

In Act II, Minthara will now react to you having knocked her out in Act I.

Made the romance scene at night with Wyll in Act III unskippable if it triggers to avoid accidentally skipping it and not being able to finish the romance arc.

To improve her chances of survival, Hope now has a new passive called Last Hope that grants her Death Ward for free when she enters combat.

Fixed a bug causing Dark Urge characters to get renamed after using the Magic Mirror. (This threw me for such a loop when I accidentally did it with Rakha.)

When playing as the Dark Urge, if you invite her, Alfira will now actually join your party as a controllable character if there's room for her in your party setup. Temporarily, of course.

Fixed several issues with the portrait that Oskar gives you. Principally, the image on the portrait will now be that of the active character claiming the reward, regardless of their position on the Party Line. (THANK THE GODS. I'm still not over having so many feels about Hector commissioning a portrait of Karlach to have after she was gone, and Oskar cheerfully handing him a painting of Jaheira to look at instead. XD )

Karlach will now tell you her backstory if you reach the point of no return in the Shadow-Cursed Lands even if you didn't confront the paladins of Tyr.

You can now return Mol's eyepatch to her when you find her in the Guildhall.

Fixed the Monastic Robes stretching into a violent-looking point when you wake up on the beach after falling from the nautiloid. (Thank god - this happened all the time with Hector and it drove me crazy. Hopefully this means it's been fixed in other parts of the game too.)

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And then the changes and bug fixes that made me laugh:

If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit [in honor mode], he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.

Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage. ( Oh dear. ��� )

We noticed some of you hiccoughing bubbles, so the action for washing yourself with soap and sponges is now called 'Use' instead of 'Consume'.

You can no longer cheese the Leap of Faith trial at the Gauntlet of Shar by just clicking the final platform and letting your character pathfind their way there. Shar threatened to smite us if we didn't fix this one.

Fixed Minthara's body sometimes turning invisible on the Level Up screen. (We sorta liked the floating-head-and-hands look, but hey.) (Eyyyy, I ran into this in Rakha's run and it made me laugh a lot. XD )

Added a new idle animation for Minsc at camp - Boo may or may not have taught him some tai chi.

Karlach will no longer brush the shaved side of her head.

If you're in holographic form in the epilogue, Wyll won't automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel.

Companions should now be more sympathetic to Astarion fleeing from the sun.

Fixed several issues (related to resurrecting characters via Withers, restructuring the party at night, and automatic camp night scenes) that would trap you in an eternal slumber, unable to end a Long Rest.

Fixed several occurrences of Wyll still having an exclamation mark above his head when he already told you everything he had to say. 

Minthara does, in fact, now have something to say about Orin after you kill her.

Fixed the fade-to-black after Karlach's scene in Avernus at the end of the game, which would give you a very brief glimpse of Game Developer Land.

Fixed some issues with Long Rest: Loading a save made during a Long Rest could cause a crash and you could sometimes get stuck in a Long Rest forever and ever, amen.

Fixed a blocker related to Orin's dagger, which will now respawn near the altar if you hurled her into a chasm and a cultist picked it up before you did. (Because it's bound to her, it would zip back to her corpse in the chasm, lost forevermore.)

Monks' Clench of the North Wind spell now targets up to 2 characters at Level 9. They just have to clench a little harder.

Priestess Gut will no longer hit herself with her own conditions. Silly gob-gob.

We've suggested to Yurgir that when he's invisible he should take advantage of it and actually try to move around a little so that he's harder to find.

Fixed some technical names showing up for each of Ansur's limbs. Naming them all 'Ansur' was the ansur.

Raphael can no longer steal souls from creatures that narratively don't have souls, such as Undead and Constructs.

Kled doesn't have Dror Ragzlin's Legendary Actions anymore. Dror's not one for sharing.

Fixed how the Chest of the Mundane handles item stacks higher than its maximum. (It should no longer gobble up your enormous coin stack and spit back a measly 21 cups in return.)

Prevented summons and followers like Glut from being able to consume Noblestalk. Yes, your Mage Hand probably ate it. No, we don't know where its mouth is.

When Withers resurrects an avatar, the Dream Guardian will no longer immediately prompt another nearby avatar to loot them for a tadpole. Similarly, dead, dismissed avatars will no longer trigger this same prompt. Some decorum, please.

When multiple characters in the party discover a trap or hidden item, only one will comment on it. We figured you don't need four people telling you to watch out for the same trap at the same time.

You can now swap out party members by speaking to the companion you want to replace even if the one you want to replace them with is Wild-Shaped. What your companion will think of you replacing them with a sheep is another story.

Fixed multiple spots where Perception checks were being made through solid objects.

Elminster should no longer react to crimes that don't affect him. (We distracted him with some Stilton.)

Fixed an issue on multiplayer where Gale would briefly appear to be in his undies for the client if the host has the Donate UI open and Gale is wearing magical robes that he can consume.

Fixed a bug that would let you waltz your way through destructible walls without actually destroying them. (You could attempt to attack the wall and your character would pathfind right through it in search of a comfortable spot from which to take a swing.)

Bald characters with the Wet condition will no longer have darker scalps.

You can no longer loot the underwear of non-recruited companions when you knock them out. (Justice for Minthara's dignity! \o/ )

Fixed a split screen issue where Invisible characters would sometimes not render at all for a second player joining the game. We need them to be invisible, but not that invisible.

Fixed a bug where your party members would very quickly change out of their armour and into their cosy camp clothes when you talked to them after having left the Astral Plane. We don't really blame them for being so desperate to hit the hay.

Fixed an issue where resurrecting a mind-controlled Nightsong would cause enemies to become allied to you.

During the final battle, backup companions being called upon with ally abilities will now appear with some clothes on for the occasion.

You can no longer use the Active Search feature to bypass the booby-trapped display case in Ramazith's Tower and pick up the key inside it. Smarty-pantses.

Improved Lumbar support: Lumbar will now stand still after you paid him to hit him.

Fixed a bug where interacting with the crate full of explosive toys in Rivington could cause you to get stuck in an endless loop of crime dialogues (being interrogated and sent to prison) and/or in combat with temporarily hostile NPCs.

Fixed a bug where dropping or selling certain items looted from the Lower City graveyard could cause NPCs to react as though you'd committed the crime of moving a corpse.

Fixed Cordrane the Recent being able to raise a zombie in Sorcerous Sundries when he shouldn't be able to, like when he's dead or Silenced.

Shadowheart is now more engaged with the flora and fauna at camp. (I don't know what this means but I hope it means she plays with the owlbear and Scratch.)

A camp night scene with Shadowheart will no longer trigger if she's not in the party and, uh, also dead.

Fixed Gale's 'splosion sometimes not showing correctly, meaning you'd get a Game Over without knowing why.

Fixed your player character introducing themselves with the wrong name when talking to Mizora.

Fixed Avatar Lae'zel behaving like a companion at the end of the tutorial and telling you (or telling herself) to hurry.

Kagha will now be imbibing if she's at the tiefling party. (I didn't know Kagha could even COME to the tiefling party. O.O Is this if Halsin's dead? )

Fixed Abdirak's self-flagellation idle animation. (Game dev must be a weird job sometimes. :P )

Ward Magmar and Ward Pistle, the duergar at Grymforge, will now make a snide remark if you're playing a small race.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel will now have new equipment if it was taken during the nautiloid escape and they have travelled sufficiently far to realistically acquire it before getting recruited.

Benryn will no longer follow you to camp or leave with you through a waypoint while you're in the process of escorting him out of the burning building at Waukeen's Rest.

Fixed Korrilla being killable in the goblin camp prison after she kills Priestess Gut. This was causing her to spawn as a corpse later on in Act III.

Fixed a bug where leaving the Shadowfell could resurrect an unrecruited Shadowheart and have her turn up at your camp anyway. She just liked the cut of your jib.

Karlach's death scene no longer ends abruptly when a non-gith player chooses to leave with Lae'zel.

Fixed a bug where, if you promised Cazador to bring Astarion to him and Astarion was in your party, you could go to Astarion at camp and tell him to replace himself in your party.

Zanner Toobin will now trigger the self-destruct sequence correctly instead of suddenly forgetting he was supposed to be in a panic because of the Steel Watcher Titan.

Told Devella to be more patient and wait until the end of the dialogue before she moves on to Basilisk Gate after being saved from Dolor.

Jogged Nine-Fingers' foggy memory - she will now recognise you when you bring Jaheira to her after she asked you to.

Shadowheart no longer sometimes still thinks that Viconia is alive after having killed her. Poor thing.

Wulbren will no longer comment on Toobin's daughter being dead if Toobin is not present.

Gave Sticky Dondo more lines to yell to sell his wares in the Guildhall. (Thank fuck tbh.)

Fixed player characters and the Narrator talking over each other when interacting with Minsc's relics in his hidden chamber. (MINSC HAS A HIDDEN CHAMBER? I have some hunting to do with Rakha lmao.)

You can no longer open the barricaded doors at the Crimson Draughts apothecary from the inside. We forgot barricades are supposed to work both ways.

Yoinked Sceleritas Fel's hat back from Helsik's desk.

You should no longer potentially see the great empty void of Game Developer Land after starting the epilogue.

Added more lines for Jaheira and Minsc to exclaim during the battle with the Stone Lord.

Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck in a dialogue with the Emperor about killing Gortash if you clicked on Gortash's corpse with Karlach (which starts a dialogue, after which she leaves the party and goes to camp) while, with another character, you also clicked on Gortash's body and sent his gauntlet to Karlach via the context menu right before her dialogue ended and she left the party. Yep. You can read it again if you want.

If you fail a pickpocket attempt at High Hall, your allies will no longer become hostile towards you. We reminded them that the fate of the world lies in the balance and that you play a pretty big part in it, thief or not.

Fixed Gortash's title potentially reverting back to 'Archduke Nominee' when reloading a savegame after the ceremony.

Wyll will no longer talk about hunting down Mizora when she's, like, right there.

The 'Embrace Your Potential' quest will now close if you choose to squelch the Astral-Touched Tadpole beneath your toes like a sentient little grape.

Jaheira's journal could at times say she had something to talk to you about, but then she wouldn't discuss it. She's a bit less tight-lipped now, so you know what to do in the city.

Someone pulled the ol' switcheroo on the Eldritch Knight and Battle Master subclass icons. We've switchereed them back.

Fixed a bug where examining a character and then examining an item would merge both character and item into a monstrous model in a single Examine window. The character would also be T-posing and naked.

Removed the turrets from the ground floor of Wyrm's Crossing since they weren't supposed to be there in the first place and never worked.

Fixed an unreachable fruit porridge in Wyrm's Rock. Makes you wonder how it got there in the first place.

Moved an unreachable book ('On the Greater Healing Potion') at Last Light. (Unironically this has driven me crazy on every playthrough.)

If Minthara's camp trousers get blood on them, the spatters will now be spread across them more tastefully rather than concentrated between the legs. (Holy shit.)

Kerz, the half-orc hireling, was wearing clothes that didn't fit properly. We found a tailor and everything's looking spiffy now.

Fixed some particularly intense and alarming-looking smoke coming out of the chimney at the Rivington General.

Gave a skirt to the chicken lady who mentions a skirt.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Fixed the animation for the Crawling Claw's footsteps. (Fingersteps?)

Fixed Brynna's clothes clipping through her arm and revealing her armpit. She informed us she was not, in fact, begging for a tickle.

Fixed the Graceful Cloth and Mighty Cloth looking like crop tops on male halflings.

The magicians outside of Sorcerous Sundries were yelling and casting spells so loudly that it was hard to hear your companions over them if you spoke to them nearby. We've toned this down and cleaned up the mix.

Added death vocals ('uurghghhh's) for dragonborn and half-orc NPCs.

Fixed the name of a decorative pot in the Colony, which was lying about being a cookpot.

Tweaked the spikes on the artefact in the dialogue where it passes from Shadowheart over to you so it doesn't look like it's impaling you.

Fixed your hand clipping into your face while smearing poo on it.

Told Wyll he doesn't need to hold his sword threateningly close to the chest of small races during his recruitment dialogue.

Fixed Mizora's body popping when she comes to pay Wyll a visit at camp. Save the popping and locking for the club.

Fixed Volo's hand clipping into your head while he performs his highly professional and sanitary surgical intervention.

Fixed the Dream Guardian's leg getting all jittery when they kneel down to let you stab them. The facade of stoicism breaks a little when you can see their legs turn to jelly.

Fixed a bug where biting off Crusher's toe and then defeating him in a fist fight would result in a cinematic where the toe was still present. An embarrassing inconsistency in an otherwise realistic chain of events. (I noticed this on Rakha's run and was judging you so hard, Larian. XD )

Fixed Shadowheart sometimes turning her head concerningly far over her shoulder during her recruitment dialogue at the Emerald Grove.

Fixed minor pops when playing as Avatar Shadowheart if the artefact explodes and kills Lae'zel. (This can happen???)

Fixed your character snapping their body backwards and wibbly-wobbling around as though trying to pass beneath a cursed limbo stick in the cutscene where Kar'niss approaches you in the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

Fixed the chalice that you hold when talking to Jaheira at Last Light vibrating suspiciously after you set it down on the table.

Fixed a Reconstituted Duellist's line getting cut off prematurely. He really, really wanted you to hear him finish saying 'come to my inner chambers'.

Dark Urge characters who have not cured themselves of Bhaal's influence or who have embraced Bhaal at the end of the game will no longer appear in Karlach's final scene as though they didn't just stalk off on a mad hunt for blood.

During Gortash's inauguration, Ravengard's head, sword, and legs will no longer leave his body suspended in the air behind him when he walks down the steps. (😱 )

Fixed a cinematic bug where the submersible would approach the Iron Throne and, the moment it arrived, would nope out and appear to reverse back to the surface.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Short Story: Midsummer Pt. 1

 The months have passed since Hohenheim became a cocoon in a cave, the container’s green glow dimming as its fibers loosen. Silver tone streams of fluids poured from the opening of the cocoon after a boot-like appendage ran its wing-like groves on the weakened fibers. Heaving its first breath from three heads, the thing once Hohenheim pulled itself out of the cocoon. The body pulsed for the next few minutes, wings expanding with each beat of its heart. The beast’s body was scaled and shined like bubble solution in the sun with the face of Hohenheim embossed on its chest, gasping for any form of relief from this hell as it made its way out of the cave with renewed needs. The three writhing heads twitched and wriggled in the frosty air before realizing a very important detail: it was too cold to ensure the creature’s survival. The snow was too much, too cold for such a specimen of Hohenheim’s degree. Using the once human brain in its possession, Hohenheim stealthy made its way towards Resembool by wing for the warmth it promised as well as the readily available food source. 

=======================================================================

 The winter came and passed into the new year of 1990, the weather being unusually mild as midsummer preparations in the household of the Mancers. There hadn’t been a flaying in months since Gluttony had chased off Hohenheim into the wilderness with threats of being devoured hideously, most figuring Hohenheim died from the injuries. Because there was the ease of Hohenheim likely being dead and no longer a dangerous presence, plans were made to head down to Resembool for the Midsummer of this year’s celebration. Carmilla the dreadful had mellowed out ever since being placed under the care of Lust after winning full custody rights from Thomas and his now ex wife. Thomas, after the events of the Yule festivities was fully exiled from the Mancer Household, rumor being he got a job on a crab fishing boat elsewhere to make ends meet. At least, that’s what Envy had wanted everyone to believe as they sat on the bottle cap adorned chair like a grody dumpster gremlin as Dolly backed her luggage. Ever since not getting custody of Carmilla, Envy had been dead set on getting a mutant ever since that topic came back once more. “Wayfarer, we’re not going to build a monster from the spare body parts in the morgue.” Dolly calmly stated to Envy as she rolled her luggage towards the exit from her bedroom. “But it’d be fun!” Envy argued, the idea of a frankensteined abomination had absolutely tickled Envy’s fancy. “I might be great with sewing, but I’ve never sewn organic body parts together to make a fully living person. Besides, we have Ernest and Dorian.” Dolly placed her luggage with the familys’ collective suitcases that’ll be rolled out to the van.

 “Exactly! I think we should make them a new sibling!” Envy pointed out, clearly that would be the winning argument. “If that’s the case, then why not go with the clay like before?” Dolly pointed out as the fight for reanimating a nightmare of spare body parts fell apart right away. “Because patchwork monstrosities are better. Besides, I’m sure Face Fur isn’t wanting to make us another clay monster.” Envy clearly wasn’t going to let go of the reanimated monster path as they sat on that damn chair as though it were a throne. 

 “True, Freddy was traumatized by both Ernest and Dorian, but we’re still not going to craft a patchwork reanimated corpse.” Dolly waited a bit on Envy to conclude the debate and hoped they would start packing their bag soon.

 “Fine, dash our hopes for another mutant in our lives! But, I’ll needle Face Fur for another clay asshole instead.” Envy gave a very melodramatic swoon out of humor much to Dolly’s dwindling patiences. 

 “Just don’t get your hopes up on that, Wayfarer. Like I said, Freddy was pretty messed up after the creation of Ernest and Dorian, especially given that Ernest did eat a chunk of his arm back in his youth.” Dolly cautioned as continued to wait for Envy to get their things together for the family vacation.

 “Fairytale please, I’m a master at the art of convincing! I’m sure I’ll get Face Fur on board with making us another clay monster, Grody Gertie will be reality I promise you!” Envy said, clearly proud of the name they had picked out for the hypothetical monster and was clearly determined to have that name. “Oh my gods Wayfarer we are not naming our potential lifeform Grody Gertie!” Dolly paused upon realizing she just agreed to making a monster with Envy as they just gave a shit eating grin at the response.

 “Hey now, I just got you to say ‘our’!” Envy teased immediately, thrilled that Dolly was now sold on another clay monster for Ernest and Dorian. “Envy.” Dolly gave a very deadpanned look at Envy’s antics and was prepared to just pack Envy’s bag herself. “Alright, I’ll get my bag packed now, but we’re definitely going with Grody Gertie.” Envy just had to get that one last shot in for Grody Gertie as an official name before they started packing the bag with what could only be described as a gremlin’s survival pack from the hallway closet.. “No, we are not naming our monster Grody Gertie, we can come up with a better name later once we’re in Resembool.” Dolly gave a sigh at the fact Envy was very much dead set on Grody Gertie and would have to formulate a better name to get Envy hooked on.

 Dolly made her way out of the bedroom to go check on fixing up snacks for the long train ride out to Resembool, the very idea of using planes was not even an option with her. Envy watched as Dolly left, smirking away as making Dolly flustered was now a new fun thing to do. To Envy, Dolly was super adorable when flustered like that as they finished packing their garbage gremlin bag with their favorite Kuromi plush and placed it with everyone else's luggage. Sure, it would be a lot of convincing on Envy’s end to get another clay monster made towards Freddy and just as much convincing to name it ‘Grody Gertie’ once that’s been achieved. Envy stopped for a moment to debate on what to do. They could go straight for Freddy and pester the living hell out of the ancient man to make another clay monster or be a turd in the kitchen while Dolly is packing their snacks for the long ride out. Though it was to make things easy for snack prepping, it was also a bit of an economical move on having each family member book their own cabins on the train in small groups. Envy would be riding in a cabin with Dolly, Ernest, Dorian, Freddy, and Greed as he found a break on tour for it. 

 The fact Greed would be in the same cabin had Envy a little on edge for that pestering of the Face Fur for another clay monster plan. They would have to forgo the snack pestering and head for hunting old man Freddy down for just this occasion. It didn’t take Envy very long to locate Freddy, a smirk coming on their face upon noticing the old man was alone. Perfect, everything was going as planned for getting that shared alchemical abomination. Freddy had been resting in his favorite cushioned rocking chair, relaxing after having to help load up his father into the van for the family vacation. This was possibly the last family vacation Joel could have, seeing as his health finally started to go into decline after Talia’s passing last year. Talks of death and funeral plans had been the topic for the past couple of months, Freddy doing what he could do to make the last moments as pleasant as possible. Freddy had requested to be the one solely responsible for his father instead of Dolly for a change. There came a grip on Freddy’s shoulder, strong and firm as the aging Face Fur sighed knowing who that could be. “Yes Envy, what do you want? Are you even packed?” Freddy sighed as he looked up to greet the family’s garbage gremlin in full view grinning away.

 “Of course I’ve packed, Face Fur! I’m not that lazy now, am I?” Envy scoffed indignantly at being called out in such an unfitting fashion. “Would you care if I responded with yes?” Freddy sniped at Envy rather quickly, having grown tired of this game.

 “Ha ha, you’re such a comedic genius. I’m not here to joke around though, I’m here to talk to you about a possible favor.” Envy shifted topic, their being bruised a bit from that come back. “You realize when you say ‘favor’, it usually revolves around me getting harmed horrifically in some form.” Freddy narrowed his eyes as he said it, a pit forming in his stomach of what was to come next.

 “Well it simply depends on how well you pull it off. Dolly and I have been speaking about getting a third clay construct, how’d yah feel about making that for us?” Envy grinned as widely as possible to sell this plan to old man Freddy who looked at Envy as though they gleefully spoke about a homicide. “Envy, I have that fucking scar still on my arm from Ernest..I rather not get my flesh dissolved once again if I made a third little bastard.” Freddy stated blankly that Envy would even request something as awful as the first time.

 “It could be less flesh hungry than Ernest was when he was made, like Dorian. I’m sure Grody Gertie would be a very fine addition to our little clay based family.” Envy said reassuringly as they revealed that dreadful chosen name for the poor construct. “....Are you being serious with that name?” Freddy had to hold back a laugh at such a ridiculous name that Envy produced. “Why is everyone so against me naming the third clay construct Grody Gertie!?” Envy looked frustrated that their picked out name was being trashed once more. “Because it’s a terrible name!” Freddy finally began to laugh at the absurdity of that name alone and the fact Envy was so determined for it to be official.

“I’ll have you know that Grody Gertie is the most superior name I’ve come up with on my own!” Envy didn’t care much for being mocked like this for a beautifully crafted name such as Grody Gertie.

 “Envy, it’s clear Dolly didn’t even like that name since you left her out in that comment just now. Tell you what, if you and Dolly can come up with a better name than that travesty, then maybe I’ll play nice in making that clay construct.” Freddy was morbidly curious what other dumb names would potentially come out of Envy’s mouth as he gave that offer.

 “You’ll make it if Dolly and I come up with the perfect name? It’s on.” Envy readily took up that perceived offer and ran off to the kitchen to tell Dolly what that old Face Fur said.

 “I said maybe….goddamnit I’m too old to be dealing with this  bullshit…” Freddy mentally declared his chair time was over as he went to get his own luggage into the van to stay there instead until it was time to leave.

[autisticcole]

Intro

Hello I am Kitty, he/they/voi, 22+, white, queer, neurodivergent (Autistic, etc)

Howdy! This is a side blog to @kitty-does-stuff for Dragon Age where I will be posting a variety of things, mainly writing (fic & meta) & art for the fandom! Be warned this blog is not spoiler free! When DAV comes out I will tag that game's spoilers as #DAV Spoilers but I am not doing that for pre-release material nor games & outside media that has came out before now.

Tags/Links

My Main ☆ Ko-Fi ☆ Ao3 ☆ My Meta ☆ My Fic ☆ My Art ☆ Of Jade & Catnip Tag

What Is “Of Jade & Catnip/OJ&C”?

It is a world state, specifically me & @wickedapostate 's canon world state which we write for, RP in & otherwise look through the lenses of when it comes to Dragon Age.

Our protagonists go like this:

Darrian Tabris, my city elf Zevren-mancer rogue, more details in OC section below 

Garrett Hawke, @wickedapostate's Hawke & one of the Hawkes of Of Jade & Catnip, check zir's page for more info.

Marian Hawke, purple mage Anders-mancer, she is Garrett's twin & a Hawke experiencing some of the stuff Garrett won't (like rewritten Rival paths), more details in OC section below

Zinnia Lavellan, @wickedapostate's Inky & main Inquisitor of Of Jade & Catnip, check zir's page for more info.

Yared ???, my Rook who is obviously a WIP but will be a Rook for Of Jade & Catnip & I plan to be a elven crow romancing Davrin.

Nazari, @wickedapostate's rook & the 2ndry rook, check zir's page for more info.

Though important note, the potential protagonists do still exist within the world, they are just off doing other stuff.

OCs

Wardens/HoF/Potential Wardens

Darrian Tabris, The Hero Of Ferelden

He is the Hero of Ferelden for me & @wickedapostate's main worldstate Of Jade & Catnip

A city elf archer (crossbow) rogue with (lore) specializations in Assassin, Duelist & Shadow.

Trans man, he/him, gay

He is a Zevran-mancer who did also have feelings for Alistair but never fessed up.

He chose most of the good outcomes, especially for those in lesser power like elves & mages but towards foes was merciless.

He softened both Alistair & Leliana & in turn they softened him a bit.

He made Alistair king, he didn't trust Anora, he wanted Alistair safe and… While he loved Alistair he also wanted him to know what it felt like to be thrown in a leadership role he didn't want.

He survived DAO by having Alistair perform the Dark Ritual.

The above two things are his own biggest personal regrets.

He is traveling the world with his love Zevran, hoping to one-day return to his friends with a cure to the calling in hand.

He has a child with Zevran, her name is Adaia Tabris II, she has a puppy mabari named “Woofsbane” and I am still working out details but she is roughly 10ish by DAV

Solona Amell, The Escaped Mage

A human mage who as a warden would have (in lore) specializatied in Arcane Warrior & Battlemage, as well as her true main specialization which is non-canon but a expansion on Ice magic.

Cis Woman, she/her, Bi

Amell as the warden would have tried to stay loyal to Chantry but ultimately does care deeply for others, still a lack of social skills meant a lot of blood like the werewolves, she would have been a Alistair-mancer but would lose him the Landsmeet when she couldn't bare to take Anora's father from her like how Amell had lost her own parents, ultimately she would have given up her life to defeat the Archdemon, leaving her friends & once-lover haunted by her short life.

But that is not the main world state, Amell is only a potential warden.

Within Of Jade & Catnip Duncan never came to The Circle, Amell was taken down into the dungeons to await judgment, everyone thought when the circle went to shit she died down there, there was enough blood for it.

But no, as templars died above Amell noticed the enchantments of her cell weaken, to the point she was able to use some of her magic, in a panic fueled state she was able to freeze the bars & break out, then slipped out and swimmed across the lake, she doesn't remember how she made it across the lake.

After this she disguised herself as a fleeing commoner & escaped to Kirkwall as a refugee, for awhile she just worked odd jobs until eventually she got a letter that pointed her to a interesting employer, the letter led her to The Black Emporium.

During the events of DA2 & DAI Amell works as someone who tracks down & brings back items for The Black Emporium to sell, meaning she's gotten to see much more of the world.

Between Trespasser & Veilguard Amell & Cullen have rencountered each other & at first things were tense as they highlighted the many flaws they had both yet to deal with (Amell's emotional walls & attempts to act “perfect”, Cullen not yet confronting the anti-mage stuff of the Chantry & that he partook in)

As they both self-improve by dealing with the other they form a earnest bound & eventually get together, Amell happy to have some security & a family of her own.

Fey Mahariel, The Guardian of the Forest

A Dalish Elven two-handed warrior, specialization not picked yet

Non-binary woman, she/they/he, Lesbian 

As a warden she would be a Morrigan-mancer

I haven't figured too much out about her, main worldstate or warden, she's a remake of a old PC of mine, so this has room to grow

As a warden she is tbh one of the least morally gray, she is a pretty kind person & leads with that & she has some natural leadership skills

Within the main world state Fey alone without Duncan wandered deeper & deeper into the forest looking for her clan, as she started to weaken & thought for sure she would die, the guardian of the forest aka the sprint responsible for the werewolves found her, and seeing the kind heart did the only thing she could to prevent Fey dying, which was turning her into a werewolf

Due to Fey's extreme level of willpower she kept her personality & intelligence, she stayed away while The Warden dealt with the werewolves & oddly she wasn't turned back to normal, that would have just killed her, but instead gained the ablity to transform between their wolf & elf forms.

I do think Fey did look for his clan & did eventually find out what became of her friend, but after that I have yet to decide their fate

Lucien Cousland, The Prideful Heir

A noble human, sword & shield warrior specialized in Reaver, Spirit Warrior & probably other stuff too

Cis Man, he/him, Bi

This is my stinky, no good, war criminal, chantry-boy, abusive cunt of a warden! Aka I made him for the Evil!Of Jade & Catnip worldstate & he works as an antagonistic force within the normal Of Jade & Catnip as well.

Something important to know is that Lucien was possessed at a young age by a spirit of wisdom (eventually becoming a demon of pride) that stayed around the Chantry inside his family's castle & was made up of primarily the wisdom of Chantry teachings, which for Lucien always give into Pride

As the Warden Lucien at the start is just an extremist Chantry-boy, he doesn't do things to be cruel but does do things like siding with the templars at the Tower, he is though within the realm of like Leliana thinking she can make him better & being with him. This changes disaticaly at the Temple Of Scard Ashes, Lucien is actually very interested in what the disciplines of Andraste have to say on the matter & ultimately sides with them & kills Leliana in the process, at this point he becomes fully self-serving, so while on the surface he would still say he is doing as Andraste would, but even he knows that isn't true, he just wants power, ultimately leading to him marrying Anora & becoming King

Within Of Jade & Catnip he reached that completely selfish thing a lot faster, pruly because he lost his dog named Buddy, who went on to be Darrian's Barkspawn, yeah uh Lucien is not really stable in the same way a rapid dog is.

It was by only the fact that he was poocessed that he was able to escape the massacre of the rest of the Couslands, he did try to head for Ostagar to warn his brother, but hearing the news of what became of the army he assumed that his brother had died & that it was highly likely if his survival became known a price would be put on his head, so he headed for Orles despite his distate for the country. 

This is around the time he & Wisdom really lost it, it being their collective morals as they killed & stole to survive & internalized how it was okay, because they… Well they convinced themselves that they mattered in some sort of faith-based way, and as they studied along the road Lucien started to piece together a new belief system, one cemented when he had to fight a dragon along the border between Ferelden & Orles

The idea was this, that he was meant to spread the Chant across the world, make the few non-believers left have to accept it, and the way to do it was to harness the power of dragons, so he became a reaver & he planned out a idea, to have a mage child & see if there was a way to combine blood magic & reaver abilities, use dragon blood as power for spells & the body, & have that person at Lucien's beck & call as he figured a child would have to be

This is when Winona enters the picture which is better explained below

Since then Lucien has been traveling all of Thedas looking for sources of power & ways to get training for Nell, his son who he kidnapped from the boy's mother & renamed after his own lost mother.

Funfact, Lucien is very loosely based off my very first Warden who was a human rogue, not evil but did name his dog “Buddy” & I wanted to explore a deconstruction of DA's habit of making human noble characters who are morally pure & otherwise the framework the games dialog is based on.

Winona Amell, The Orlesian

Warden-Commander (Might also play her as a Rook depending on the background of human mage gray wardens)

A human mage specialized in Blood Magic, & probably other things, she's meant to be a very scary foe in combat.

Cis Woman, she/her, demi-Aroace (Bi)

Tbh Winona is a more recent OC that I came up with by combining three implied characters, Solana Amell's sblings, the Orlesian Warden-Commander & the mother of Nell Cousland, a oc of mine & Lucien's son

Winona is a apostate mage, during the time of the blight she escaped a tower within Orles & started making her way to Ferelden to try to find Solana, in world states where the HoF dies (like Solona) this is the point where she is conscripted by the Grey Wardens & quickly starts moving up ranks due to her magical skill.

But within main Of Jade & Catnip she instead met Lucien Cousland, a fleeing Ferelden noble, who laid on the charm & bounded with her as he said like her he had lost his family & was deeply alone like her, they ended up together & Lucien got her pregnant.

Shortly after that Lucien disappeared, she had no idea where he went & had to rely on the kindness of a small town to survive during her pregnancy, unfortunately it gets worse.

When she finally gave birth she had a little baby boy, & she treasured him, as both the only other Amell she had gotten to hold in years & as a reminder of a man she thought understood her, unfortunately he had tricked her.

A few months after the birth Winona woke up in horror one night to find a empty crib & a open window, asking around town she to her horror was told a man matching Lucien's description had been seen with her baby boy.

Winona did try to go after him but was found out as a apostate but “luckily” was recruited for the Grey Wardens & has been rising in the ranks.

I do intend on Winona eventually finding her son, Nell around the time of DAV, as well as reuniting with her surviving siblings. Also getting bloody revenge on Lucien & being the death of him

Hawke & Hawke Family

Marian Hawke, Twin B

Marian is a purple mage, specialized in Blood Magic & IDK 🤷‍♂️ 

Non-binary, she/they, Pan

She is a Anders-Mancer

Marian is one of Hawke, within OJ&C there is sometimes two protagonists, they're there to show off stuff that would be missed with one protagonist, like rivalry/friendships, the other Hawke is Marian's twin brother Garrett Hawke, who belongs to @wickedapostate

Marian is very pro-mage & has a hard time getting along with lawful or anti-mage folk, so had (rewritten) rivalries with people like Fenris, Aveline & Sebastian.

Marian has a permanent injury to their leg which they got saving Craver from dying during the prolog

For most of the game Marian is trying to urge Garrett away from responsibility politics to mixed results.

After the Chantry blow-up Marian side agree with Anders but elected to spend time away, mainly because she was worried she would encourage him to do more things that would piss off The Chantry, during this time she stayed with Isabela

Within OJ&C we have the choice of who to leave in the fade be between the two Hawkes since otherwise it'd be Strode, the one left behind was Garrett who had to ask Inquisitor Zinnia to knock Marian out so she won't stop him.

After this & the mages being freed Marian sets to work in Kirkwall making fucking sure The Gallows would never be used for evil again, and joined the College of Magi

The College in Kirkwall acts as a school as well as living space & collective hall, Marian is one of the teachers & heads of it.

More details are to be explored in a fic about Robin Hawke but the important things are: Marian becomes possessed, Marian & Anders reunite & get back together, Marian adopts two students, Robin & Arthur

I have her on my rp blog & thusly she has a character bio! Here is a link

Robin Hawke, Dreamer Daughter 

A human mage, she is a dreamer! & in the worldstate where she is a rook she would be with the Veil Jumpers

Cis Woman, she/her, ???

She is intended to be the blue Hawke out of the OJ&C Hawkes

Robin was a orphan Apostate who was wandering the world before mages were freed, afterwards she went to Kirkwall hoping to be mentored by the Mage icon of Hawke

She is going to be the protagonist of a series of mid-length fics that cover the time between Trespasser & DAV and expand the world in reflection to the worldstate, specifically Robin will be getting schooled at the magi college of Kirkwall & going on adventures around Thedas with Arthur & one other friend

Given the fanfic thing I am not going to share more since I want it to naturally come up, just one important thing to know is that Robin is adopted alongside Arthur by Marian.

Arthur Hawke, Bloody Son

I may be handing him to @wickedapostate at some point for the stake of RP'ing & so he can have one of Marian's kids, if this happens go pester Jay about him!

…I honestly don't know his gender or orientation details, he/him

Arthur was a young imprisoned blood mage who was released shortly after Leliana was made Divine & was sent to the Kirkwall College as his mother had died in imprisonment

He is meant to be a red Hawke option

He is intended to be a supporting character in the fic series that is about Robin, during the events of it he is adopted alongside her by Marian

Inquisitors

Hemlock Adaar, The Haphazard Inquisitor 

She is a Vashoth Dual-Dagger Rogue, specialization not picked yet

Woman (haven't thought much about it) she/her, Lesbian

She is a Sera-mancer

Hemlock is not someone that ever aspired to be a leader, within the main canon of Of Jade & Catnip she luckily was stationed in Heaven during the conclave & worked for the Inquisition as one of the many mercenaries that joined & later went back to the mercenary lifestyle after the group was disbanded.

As an Inquisitor she is… Not the best for the job, but does try to help where she can, she conspiracts the Templars, messily manages to get Briala shadow control, keeps the gray wardens around. 

In general her leadership is highly influenced by Sera & Blackwall, always trying to protect the little guys but not understanding what is going on nessaily

I haven't figured out many details of what she's like as the Inquisitor 

Willow “Will” Lavellan, The Ruthless Inquisitor 

He is a elven anchor rogue,  specialization not picked yet

Trans Man, he/him, gay

He is a Adoribull-mancer, poly rights! 

He is Zinnia Lavellan's cousin, in main Of Jade & Catnip canon he simply stayed with the Clan instead of going to the Conclave & helped protect them during the war table quests.

As a Inquisitor Willow is rather ruthless towards his enemies & anything that could be a threat, he does side with the mages & have them join willingly, but as for most quests & judgements he can get cold, this is in large part due a mix of the large amount weighing on him & how he is worried humans will undermine him if they don't respect him, or fear him & he knows which one humans are more likely as a whole to feel about him.

Unfortunately as a Inquisitor he has a purely Watsonian view during Demands Of The Qun which causes him to be more scared of losing the aid of & possibly invoking the wrath of The Qunari, alongside the unknown of how many would die in the boat, now from a Doylist pov we understand how bad a plan this was since you don't have to deal with fallout nor get much help & the lives of the Qunari on that boat are not really brought up, but the Chargers are & ultimately for Inquisitor Willow he & Dorian lose The Iron Bull to this choice.

Here is the good news, Willow isn't the Inquisitor & instead Zinnia is within Of Jade & Catnip, The Iron Bull & his Chargers are okay! Also Dorian but there was no doubt about that.

As for what Willow is doing, he is a skilled hunter of the clan, and he is specifically outside of hunting animals the one the clan goes to if there is (a) human(s) that need to be fought off or otherwise dealt with

Willow was raised by his aunt & uncle alongside Zinnia & Aster due to the deaths of his parents, they were hunters and unfortunately were killed one day by humans after their & a human hunting parties ran into each other & got into a fight. This is also why Willow is a hunter, and why he has put his faith in the god of vengeance.

within Of Jade & Catnip if he has not met Dorian or Bull… Yet.

Era’Alen, The Child Inquisitor 

She is a non-canon city elf anchor rogue, specialization not picked yet

She very obviously doesn't romance anyone within the Inquisition, she met them all at 13.

She was a elven “servant ” (slave) working at the Conclave with her parents for a noble family, I currently do not know what became of her within the main Of Jade & Catnip worldstate, so the rest of the below only talks about her as a Inquisitor.

When Era’Alen was found she was not suspected in the same way, there was some question to if she was actually a child or if she was a demon in disguise but as it became clear she was a flesh & blood child suspicion died quickly.

Due to her being again, a child there was not as much expectation for her to defend herself but Era’Alen raised to the challenge & started to learn different ways of fighting as soon as she was able, settling on archery as she could stay safe in the backline but could still impact the fight.

As for her choices, she was at first easily swayed by whatever the people around her thought was best, which led to good things like the Chargers being saved but also bad things like Cullen's addiction getting worse, overtime she became more confident making choices alone & tended towards slow but steady progress to help the oppressed.

Given the above is it much surprise that she is closest with Vivienne? Vivienne saw this young girl from a disadvantaged background trying to play politics & decided to take the girl under her wing, Era’Alen deeply appreciated the guidance & help, and eventually returned that kindness by making Vivienne the Divine.

As for the Inquisition she keeps it together & with the purpose of defeating Solas no matter the cost.

Rooks

Yared ???, The Hopeful Revolutionary 

He is right now planned to be a elven duel dagger rogue Crow who will be romancing Davrin

Trans Man, he/him, ???

Much of his backstory is up in the air until I find out what the game intends, my main idea is that he is originally from Orles, his family was one of the many that died in the fires Celene ordered, and Yared was luckily(?) Found by a crow who had taken a job in Orles

Yared is a romantic optimist who earnestly believes with kindness he & others might be able to make a better world & that is the perspective he is coming from.

He is going to be one of two Rooks for Of Jade & Catnip alongside @wickedapostate 's Nazari, the two are besties.

He is inspired by the Hadestown version of Orpheus & due to this is a musician, even though I doubt there will be a way to reflect that in-game (if Bard had been a specialization option or faction I would have picked it)

Neve-mancer (Name & everything WIP), The Femmes Fatale

I just know I want to play a Femme Fatale Lord of Fortune to romance Neve since Neve is a detective, that's all I really have right now

Credits

My co-writer for the Of Jade & Catnip worldstate is @wickedapostate

Used piccrews: Thedas Elf Maker, ElenaA's Windswept Oc Maker, Tiefling Maker

[blueoctobass]

The link between Rylie and Prisma

At this point, the comic has made it pretty clear that those two are linked somehow… They look extremely alike, Prisma recognizes Rylie and even knows her name.

Alright so, what do we know exactly ?

I’ve made a handy relationship chart, and I even included some more people that will be talked about when elaborating the different possibilities :

So why would Prisma and Rylie look so alike ?

The main possibilities are :

They are Family

They are reincarnation of the other

A mix of both

However, we know there are at least 1000 years separating them, so direct family might be tricky, unless…. 

But we’ll get to that later.

Here’s the list of all the theories I will explore in this post :

Rylie is Prisma’s reincarnation

Rylie is Prisma’s descendant

Rylie is Prisma’s reincarnated child

Rylie is Prisma’s child

Rylie and Prisma are sisters

I won’t address the reason why Yellow wants Rylie dead and why did Amadeus do that to Prisma because we simply do not have enough informations. 

Enough rambling, time to dive.

Rylie is Prisma’s reincarnation

From the looks of it, this is the most obvious one. They look like each other, they live 1000 years apart, and reincarnation has been ‘‘confirmed’’ in canon. It’s even part of Stratoverse’s culture.

Purple states that : “I assume me, and anyone else who changed color are somehow related to the Mancer’s servants”. He doesn’t say it’s reincarnation, it could be a bloodline “curse”, but going off what we know, reincarnation is very likely. 

Upon seeing Violet, Rylie’s first reaction confirms that they looks like Purple. That could be proof enough that Rylie is also a reincarnation, except the reincarnation of a Mancer instead of a Color. 

But there’s one detail that ticks me off.

Names.

Rylie’s name reveal is pretty important. Names in gloomverse, more often than not, have meaning pertaining to their magic abilities. Rylie remained unnamed, solely known as “Assistant”, until after she got her magic. But as opposed to the Colors, this is mostly for symbolic (and comedic) purposes, as she had a name before that, and it also started with R. Meanwhile, the Colors had their name overwritten after gaining magic. 

This hasn’t been made explicit in comic yet, and sure, some gloomversians have weird names like Triangle or Pi, but that would be an enormous coincidence, wouldn’t it ? Especially for the colors whose countries have particular naming trend (for example, if Orange was their birth name, wouldn’t it be Egnaro ?). 

Virga also mentions to Yellow that Madame President “has Red, Blue, Indigo and Violet… though he goes by Purple.” so Purple did change his name, yet he kept the color naming trend. Sure they could all have decided to change name after gaining magic, but like I said, that would be a pretty big coincidence.

Let’s go back to Rylie. Her name didn’t change to Prisma after getting magic. She didn’t change color, and she didn’t change names. Prisma even calls her ‘‘Rylie’’, not Royletta or Greenwitch, but Rylie. Her preferred name. For me, this seems like a statement that she is her own individual, and not a reincarnation. 

However, her middle name is ‘‘Greenwitch’’, and Prisma is a green haired and eyed mancer, a green witch. It’s quite possibly Prisma’s last name. Maybe only that name was passed down to her ? If that’s the case, it seems more like a “they’re family” than a “they’re reincarnation” proof.

Another point is that Prisma looks very much alive and conscious, albeit trapped somewhere. For a reincarnation to happen, you would need the individual to be dead. 

TL;DR : Rylie is not Prisma’s reincarnation, because Prisma is not dead, and Rylie still has her own name.

Rylie is Prisma’s descendant

Yellow has been seen with a baby during Rylie’s nightmares, and in the most recent chapter, she is currently in labor. There’s a lot of emphasis on that baby, it would be weird if they weren’t relevant to the story somehow (see Chekhov's gun).

We don’t know the identity of the other parent yet. Violet is a good candidate, they seem worried, they have the parental stress, it could make sense. But for this theory and the next ones, we’ll say that Prisma is the parent. She literally arrives screaming about Yellow, asking about her health, clearly upset that she isn’t at her side. (And like friends pointed out, it would make Prisma a transparent, a very good pun that i love).

 We don’t know if the baby survived Amadeus’ attack. Maybe they didn’t, maybe the same thing that happened to Prisma happened to them, or maybe they got to grow up and live their life, have a family and die of old age. 

Yellow has been tracking someone’s family line. There’s a lot of generations here, probably enough to cover the lineage of someone for 1000 years. We know she’s been tracking the Colors, and she’s been looking for someone, who happens to be Rylie. She recognize her instantly. She’s shocked, she’s sad, she’s nostalgic. She’s seeing the face of an old friend for the first time in many many years, photography being a recent invention in Gloomverse. 

But after this many years, and this many generations, why would they look so alike ?

Well, Purple looks like Violet, he might be their descendant like Rylie is Prisma’s. His face didn’t change when getting magic, he still look like himself as a kid. But in his case, he is most likely a reincarnation of Violet, and thus has the same face and features, while Rylie is not a reincarnation of Prisma, just a descendant.

One thing to note : 

Yellow learn Rylie’s name (Royletta) by looking at the journal : she doesn’t recognize the name, she hesitates when saying it. The journal calls her Royletta G. Biv, and not Royletta Greenwitch Biv, so we don’t know if she would have recognized the name Greenwitch. Meanwhile, Prisma knew that her name was Rylie. She has no ways of knowing this, except if she’s been spying on her or listening to some conversations. Perhaps Amadeus can still talk to her.

TL;DR : It’s very likely that Rylie is Prisma’s descendant from the same family line that Yellow is tracking. However it doesn’t explain why they look alike.

Rylie is Prisma’s child’s reincarnation 

This theory is based of the previous one, and the arguments are mostly the same. 

The difference is that instead of being Prisma’s descendant from a bloodline perspective, she is the reincarnation of Prisma’s child, the baby Yellow was holding, but not necessarily a direct descendant.

We don’t know what happens to Yellow’s child after Amadeus is done with Prisma. He just murdered some people, why not a baby ? In her first nightmare, the dark figures turns towards Rylie and says : “Now… It’s your turn.” and she feels as if it’s addressed to her, even though it was likely aimed at Yellow and the baby. 

Yellow is still here. The baby is not. 

If the baby is dead, then they can reincarnate, and just like Purple ended up looking just like Violet, Rylie looks a lot like her past baby self’s mom, just like a daughter can looks like her mother, just like the baby would have looked if they had the chance to grow up.

Makes sense right ?

Well I have an objection. 

The Colors changed hue after gaining magic, and the fact that they reincarnate might be due to how the alphas got their magic. Harold changed color scheme when the dark overlord gave him a hat and magic that weren’t “his”, so maybe that’s what happened to the Colors ? 

Because the baby was too young to have magic, I don’t think they would have reincarnated if they died like that, without magic. 

TL;DR : While it would explain how they look so alike, we don’t know if Prisma’s child could have reincarnated when dying as a magicless baby

Rylie is Prisma’s child

The simplest solution : Rylie looks like Prisma because she’s her direct daughter. No reincarnation shenanigans going on.

But how would it possible with 1000 years separating them ? Rylie is seventeen in the comic, and we even see her parents. 

Let’s start with the 1000 years problem :

Thanks to the recent appearance of Prisma, we know that she’s not as dead as we first thought. She disappeared without a trace, but Amadeus didn’t completely destroy her. She seems stuck somewhere, a timeless space, a dream or a memory. Amadeus can hide hats in shadows, he can summon lemon kids from shadows, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hide people in those shadows. 

After making Prisma disappears, he looks towards Yellow and the baby - its their turn now.

If he can keep Prisma alive in a timeless prison for 1000 years, he can do the same for a baby ! But why free her now ? 

Petunia ask him if its not “getting harder for you to do” and his answer is not very convincing. He could be getting tired, or weaker over time, and decided that keeping a baby prisoner like that was maybe an overreaction, and let her be. 

That turned out well, didn’t it ?

And this is pure speculation, but spending this much time in a pocket dimension made by a dark overlord might have changed her appearance. It would explain why she has black hair and eyes when Prisma and Yellow don’t.

What about Rylie’s parents ? She looks like them, there’s no reason to believe they’re not her parents. Well she could be adopted, it’s common for couples to adopt a child that looks like them. And if you’ve read beta gloomverse, you might remember that Assistant’s dad tells him he’s adopted. It could be a lie, it could have been written off, but its not negligible. 

TL;DR : Rylie is Prisma’s direct child, that Amadeus kept locked away for 1000 years before letting her go and she got adopted by her current parents.

Rylie and Prisma are sisters

This one is a bit more complicated than the others, but bear with me.

Let’s start easy with : Who would be the parents ? 

In this theory, Yellow would be Rylie and Prisma’s mom, with Rylie being the baby she was holding, the little sister to Prisma. Siblings tend to look like each other, and the 1000 years difference can be explained like in the previous theory.

Alright then, who's the other parent ? Amadeus, or Hobo as we’ve come to know him. Yes I know, this is a bit crazy, but I like exploring possibilities.

So we would have this kind of Family tree !

What are my proofs then ? This is kind of a crazy looking theory ! 

Well I don’t have any, really. We know Amadeus was alive at this time period, and that Yellow knew them by name. 

Rylie has some of Amadeus features, black hair, and her eyes even turn red on occasions, like his ‘‘dark overlord form’’. Rylie and Prisma’s skin color is an intermediary between his and Yellow’s, and Prisma’s green hair show that she has ecoversian roots despite coming from Stratoverse, which confirms that Yellow could be her mom.

It would also make Rylie, Harold and Wallis siblings, which has been alluded to already. In the dreamscape, Rylie imagine them as kids, sharing a childhood, like siblings. 

As much as I think it was worth mentioning, I don’t like this theory. Mostly because it destroys the meaning of the line “We may not be bond by blood...but we’re still family... no matter what.” by dream!Wallis. It throws the message of “found family can be more important than blood family” in the garbage by making them blood family.

Also at this point, Hobo would deserves the worst father award for his very bad parenting techniques. 

TL;DR : If Rylie and Prisma were sisters with Amadeus and Yellow as their parents, the found family trope would die.

And that’s the end of it ! Thank you for reading it all, it turned out extremely long. Don’t hesitate to add stuff, theories, opinions, or corrections !

[jamesbyerj]

Modder to Developer - muppetpuppet

Today we have a special treat. We caught up with Tomas Sala, a.k.a. the esteemed Skyrim modder muppetpuppet, about his upcoming game release and his history in modding. For those unfamiliar with his work, muppetpuppet created one of the first "new world" mods for Skyrim back in 2012 - Moonpath to Elsweyr. [b][b]Thank you for joining us for this interview Tomas (aka [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/3232189]muppetpuppet[/url]). [/b]So, going back to the very start, when and how did you first get into gaming?[/b] I actually started straight out of art school in 2001, we started a studio in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But at that time there was no self-publishing, I think Steam wasn't live yet and iPhones would be years away. So we rolled into educational and advertising work for hire, making games for anyone and everyone, it took many years to progress into entertainment games properly eventually creating PSVR exclusives for Playstation as games for the Wii, Switch and mobile. [b]How long have you been working in the gaming industry and what roles have you taken up during that time?[/b]  I've been working there since 2001 and have always been a multirole person. I'm a 3D artist by trade, but I'm more than handy with a scripting language and nowadays C#. I've also been creative director and game designer over the years. I think that diversity is now coming into its own with The Falconeer. [b] Tomas is the sole developer of the upcoming game "[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135260/The_Falconeer/]The Falconeer[/url]". From the screenshots and gameplay videos, it looks fantastic. For our readers who've not heard of the game, how would you describe it?[/b] Well, it's a throwback to the games I loved as a kid, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game)]Freelancer[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_TIE_Fighter]Tie Fighter[/url] even [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson_Skies_(video_game)]Crimson Skies[/url], and - of course - a good dose of open-world love inherited from Skyrim thrown in. So basically, you are a pilot or rider of a giant Falcon and you serve as a mounted warrior for your faction, doing air -combat missions as well as open-world exploration. Someone online described it as "what would happen if Gandalf had ridden into Mordor on a giant eagle..... but with lasers", which is a fair description. The actual combat gameplay is very WWI-WWII style close up dogfighting but with giant falcons, dragons and other fantastical creatures. [center][youtube]3viT_KoZ538[/youtube][/center] [b]It's not just the game itself you created. I've been reading the [url=https://www.thefalconeer.com/world/]extensive lore and set-dressing[/url] you've meticulously written to create a cohesive world for your story to unfold in. What can you tell us about the setting of The Falconeer?[/b] Well, I love lore-heavy worlds, for me, it makes exploring an open world so much better if the setting makes sense and has depth. The world of the Falconeer is called the Ursee and it's a bleak yet beautiful icy ocean world. Mankind has always had a hard time surviving on it, and societies have been founded and collapsing for millennia, leaving the seafloor scattered with wrecks and ancient relics. One major faction steering these societies are the Mancer Order, an organisation that has access to a wide array of technologies hidden away in their massive vaults. They manipulate and organise the other factions by doling out these technologies through permits and grants. If a king has the Mancer's favour he'll get steam engines, if he loses it, he might find his competitor suddenly has machine guns. The Mancer order doesn't involve themselves with the daily politics of factions such as the empire in which most of the game takes place, they have a hidden agenda with a long term goal. Part of the different campaigns you'll participate in, inside this world, is to figure the true goal and history of the Mancer Order, and with it the Ursee. [b]In a [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0VJAaZpkfM]video by Digital Foundry[/url] covering The Falconeer, they mentioned that the entire game is created without using any conventional textures, is that true? If so, what made you choose this approach to game design?[/b]  Indeed, it's better described as no pre-made textures. So I don't work with a painting or material editor or even something like photoshop to create the material expression of my world. Rather I use procedural tricks and fairly abstracted shaders to do the heavy lifting. So, for instance, the snow on objects is a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlin_noise]Perlin noise[/url] I generate in the game, and I then also use that for lava and water foam. The same goes for the colouring of the world, It's all done with gradients based on lighting and atmospheric parameters and values. It basically means I can create models and paint them fairly simple and have the game itself add a lot of detail and environmental colouring. I've had comments saying this must be because I'm lazy, and I certainly like an efficient art pipeline. But it isn't 100% the case - the effort I put in to create certain effects would be many times less if I'd simply use a texture. Take the clouds, creating those without textures was a crazy endeavour iterated over months. The same goes for the ocean another very advanced effect, stuff that certainly wouldn't have been possible a generation or so ago. The reason I do it is mostly twofold. One, it forces me to adhere to a very strict esthetic, and it keeps everything I make very, very compatible and unified. Giving the game a very clean and stark look while having radically different objects, buildings, vehicles and so forth in it. I both love how that looks and how "together" it makes everything feel. Secondly, it forces me to find novel and original solutions to visual designs, I cannot use "out of the box" clouds, water or lighting, so I have to take a different path to get there. Both the journey of that as well as the end result are usually novel and interesting, which is what appeals to me. [b]The Falconeer uses Unity at its core. What did you consider when choosing the engine for your game?[/b] I've used Unity through my work, so I was familiar with it, which is a huge boon because knowing what you are capable off is quite a good thing to have, especially alone. You don't always want to dive off the deep end. That said I'm quite attracted by Unreal's blueprints and after the Falconeer is done, I aim to dive into that for a bit as well. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581950089-410859194.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581950095-1401396009.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Some Unity games allow mods (or can be modded with tools like Harmony), will The Falconeer have any scope for user-created content? [/b] It's something under consideration, but modding and even game development are very distinct from enabling the creation of mods for your game. So basically because I'm working by myself it's quite a daunting task, but it is very much on my mind. It's also one of the few aspects I'd consider having external help with, as it's just such a specialisation to create adequate tooling and an open framework from the ground up for your game. [b]In terms of modding, your biggest achievement has to be [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9782]Moonpath to Elsweyr[/url]. When you released it in 2012, it was one of the only true "new world" mods. That must have been quite an undertaking, considering the Creation Kit had only been out for just over a week at the time. What can you remember about the process of putting it all together?[/b] Well, I remember getting into a bit of a creative frenzy after diving into a few tutorials. At my work, we had just wrapped up a kid-friendly RPG for a local dutch theme park ("[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raveleijn]Raveleijn[/url]"), so there was lots of curiosity on how the big games did certain things. I think there was already a group of people trying to use the existing NIF tools and update them for Skyrim. Being a 3D artist grasping some of the odd quirks and oddities of that format and the tools seemed less of an issue. And within a very short while I had some [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/10312]trees and foliage[/url] imported. I think those were the palm trees and other greeneries uncommon to Skyrim. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581947917-582928013.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581947923-1718214276.jpeg[/img][/center] From there I just went crazy, first with adjusting some of the material properties of default Skyrim objects, such as turning the snow into green moss (just fiddling got pretty good results fast). I think I then set about exploring the library of atmospheric fog and light FX and tweaking those to create a tropical vibe. So initially I released a player home really quick, it's actually a really simple and manageable mod type to start with. What then happened is that the community just jumped on board and started offering voice acting, pointing out bugs and even assisting with my horrible spelling. That in itself was a ridiculous driver to continue, the player base (and other modders) was always waiting at the Moonpath Nexus page, ready with more feedback, more requests and more general helpfulness. I think up to that point I had never had such a direct audience engagement, and it was a complete trip that burned away every free hour I had for about six months until most of what is now the Moonpath was there. [b]I noticed that both The Falconeer and Moonpath to Elsweyr feature airships, would you say that's something a staple in your creative works? [/b] I think the need to fly away and escape has a very literal form in much of the art and games I create, so I'd say that's something that's just a part of me. I'm also a huge fan of tall ships and historic sailing ships in general, so visually I'm always drawn to ships and airships. [b]For Skyrim Special Edition, you entrusted the development of Moonpath to Elsweyr to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1240951]Illiani[/url] was this a difficult decision for you?[/b] No not at all, there was a point where I realized I needed to focus on other things and long before Special Edition, I opened up the Moonpath and all its assets to any modder that wanted to use them. The [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/24587]Dev Aveza[/url] already showed what sharing things could lead to (I think it might actually still use my base airship model underneath all their epic expanding they did to it). So no the community was part of creating the Moonpath and happy to see other modders take it onwards to new places. And improving it in many places I might add. [b]How do you feel modding Skyrim helped (or hindered!) your career as a game developer?[/b] It has been an incredible boon because the direct contact with the community is a unique perspective which is hard to get when doing a more classical game dev project. I've also met plenty of people in the industry that played the Moonpath and it's opened many cool conversations over the years. I even met some people from Bethesda who knew it (I guess they kept close tabs on the modding scene in the early days). [b]If you were to work on an Elder Scrolls title with everything you know now, is there anything you'd do differently?[/b]  I have nothing but admiration for how Skyrim was made. I've made my own educated guesses on why certain choices were made and understand the lineage of the creation kit, and I think it delivered an unparalleled game world and modding environment. I wouldn't presume to be able to improve on that. I do really like the more "out there" aspects of the TES lore and would love to see that remain centre stage in a new iteration. [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581951105-1941102210.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Important question - when do you expect we can get our hands on The Falconeer?[/b]  Hahaha. Definitely later this year, working as hard as I can. ;) It'll be playable at [url=https://east.paxsite.com/]PAX East[/url] (Feb 27 - Mar 1) for those wanting a gameplay taste. [b]Do you have any final words of wisdom for aspiring game devs in the Nexus Mods community? [/b] I think for those who want to use modding as a stepping stone it's good to keep realizing how much a part of the wider game industry modding has become. It's part of game development. And there might be moments where people showing off their mods can get apologetic because it's "just" a mod and they fear people might still see it as something derivative or adapted from something original. But I've never met anyone in the games industry who isn't a huge fan of mods. Mods are such creative original works of art by themselves. So if you make something don't be afraid to show it to any game developer or artist you might meet, good chance they love mods, are gamers themselves or have even modded in the past. [b]Thank you for joining us Tomas, we wish you the best of luck with the release![/b] [line] A big thank you to Tomas for taking the time to speak to us! If there's an author or mod project you'd like to know more about, send your suggestions to [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b].  [center][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135260/The_Falconeer/] Add The Falconeer to your Steam wishlist to get notified when it releases. [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1581950708-1759106569.png[/img][/url][/center] Published first at Modder to Developer - muppetpuppet

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Twenty Two: Don't Fear the Reaper Pt. 7

“Dolly…whatever happens, just know that we’re going to be right here to support you, alright?” Greed spoked softly as he looked over to a very mortified Dolly who was watching this all unfold in horrifying splendor. “Oh gods…Freddy..Envy…they were both down there….” Dolly had tears forming in her eyes as the thoughts of Freddy being dead and everyone else stuck in an endless burning cycle.

 “Boss…what are we going to do?” Dolcetto asked as they did manage to escape with the loot from the Villa before it launched itself.

 “We’re going to wait a bit before walking down to a place with a phone to report back to the cabin on what happened. After that, we need to figure out a way to get Lust, Gluttony, Hughes, Tim, and Envy out of the fire pit.” Greed had no clue what the best choice would be other than to wait a bit and hope that the group down below had escaped.

 “Dolly, I’m sorry..I’m sorry I said that..” Dorian said as he crawled up onto Dolly’s lap to comfort her as guilt finally got a good grip on him.

 “I’m sorry I even agreed with the statement..” Ernest joined in with comforting Dolly as she hugged the two clay lion constructs for comfort.

 “Damn straight you little shits better be sorry!” Yelled a voice from behind the group, forcing everyone to look around to the source.

 Standing there, covered in ash and grime was the other half of the group, Freddy looking livid that the lions had wished he’d burn in the blaze and rightfully so. There were others too such as George, Roy, Joel, and Talia who had survived the clash with Fuhrer King Bradley just before the underground erupted. Dolly let her lions go from the hug as she slowly got up from the ground, overjoyed that everyone survived that nightmare. While yes, the capital would be lost to all for many generations to come, the ultimate goal was met in ending Dante’s reign of tyranny for the past many centuries. The two groups finally met at last after the nightmare that had plagued everyone came to its fiery end.

“Damn Freddy…you have no eyebrows anymore..” Greed whistled a bit at the missing eyebrows that became a new feature on Freddy’s face. “...What happened to my eyebrows!?” Freddy freaked out upon being told that he lost his eyebrows in the fiery inferno as he fell to his knees. “Freiderick Augustus Mancer, we all just escaped a horrible fiery inferno with our lives!” Talia scolded, still upset about losing their prize to a literal hell hole. “I have a better thing to cry about, my car is still in the capital!” Roy added on as he realized that the beautiful beach day car of his was likely reduced to molten metal by now.

 “Your priority is off, the capital is gone now. Amestris is going to need to declare a new capital with the current acting leader to avoid everything falling into a state of lawlessness.” George said as the reality of the situation became devastatingly clear amongst other things. “Are teams going to be made to go into the city to retrieve the books and research papers…” Edward spoke as the fact that countless and priceless works were now in danger of being lost forever all because of fucking Kimblee was now a reality.

 “It’ll have to be a combination of Sheska’s incredible memory and a recovery team to save whatever hasn’t been damaged.” Hughes said as he patted Edward’s back after both of them survived such a horrifying incident.

 “Now that we’re all out, we need to make some calls and plan a meet up at the bar Hughes so you can explain why you’re back from the dead.” Roy hooked his arm around Hughes’s neck in a playful head hold.

 “Oh that one is simple, Dante made him into a homunculus.” Envy answered, unaware just how much information was given at a bad time.

 “....what?” Roy’s face dropped upon learning that little truth.

 “Envy!” Hughes shouted, not thrilled that he didn’t get to be the one to tell Roy this. “Well it’s true, Dante got desperate when Pride went on his tantrum rampage over Ernest there and made Hughes a Homunculus to replace him with.” Envy continued, not catching on how bad of an idea it was to be so open on this matter.

 “You know what, I’m just going to breathe and accept that I have my best friend back from the dead. I’m not even surprised that the horrible little monster is here as well. I just want a bath, get nicer things on, and then have drinks with my friends after everything I’ve been through.” Roy went to sit down after having that sudden whiplash of information being thrown on him like that.

 “I’m going to go ahead and find a house with a phone. Hopefully, we’ll get a ride towards the train station from there before the masses arrive.” Greed said as he started the long track up the road to see if he could get a hold of a phone to use. “Dolly..?” Envy approached Dolly after noticing she had been silent for a while, only to be surprised as she immediately gripped the green gremlin Homunculus in a tight hug. “Oh my gods, Wayfarer!” Dolly cried out as she hugged Envy as though they’d disappeared if she were to let go. “Hey now, I’m covered in gross shit right now.” Envy was struggling to breathe a little bit as they truly were covered in awful things no beings should ever encounter. “I don’t care right now, I’m just glad you and Freddy are safe!” Dolly cried as Envy patted the top of Dolly’s head, though Envy didn’t care much for being grouped in with Freddy.

 Envy and Dolly hugged one another for a while with the two clay lions staying close by, the group still decompressing from the events of the day that had led to a massive disaster. Greed, knowing full well to leave things be, started making his way up the road to fetch a ride for the entire group to reach the train station before it gets overcrowded. The only one not really decompressing or really chatting with anyone at the moment was George. George very much still remembered Dolly, the one who gave him a much nicer name than ‘Scar’ and the fact she allowed him to eat at the apartment that one time when having to hide away during the lockdown. There was a smile on George face, thankful that things did turn out better in the end for him after finally getting rid of the fuhrer that caused the genocide and was alive now thanks to the kindness shown. It would be about an hour until Greed returned with transportation for the station up ahead. Once everyone was on board, they took off for the station as the radios reported on the loss of the Capital and the Fuhrer was finally dead.