#dragon barbu

[fidjiefidjie]

😁 🐈 Oups ! 🦎 🤣

Source: Gork

Bel après-midi 👋

[dexadin]

Hi there! I love your guides for Curse of Strahd! 💞 If it's not too much, could you give some tips for running the abbey of St. Markovia? Or really just how you dealt with the module's ableism in general, since it's a lot to tackle and I'm not sure where to begin. Thank you! 💋

Hello! Sorry this took me a while to work on, like you said, it's a lot to tackle. Curse of Strahd suffers from being both a product of its genre and a product of the typical carelessness D&D likes to serve its marginalized fans. As much as I adore the genre, (modern) gothic horror does often rely on ableist tropes to create fear and suspense in what I'd call a misguided attempt to recreate the scenarios present in the literature that formed the basis of the genre in the early 19th century. Ableism is rife in early gothic novels, in part because of the rampant ableism of the time and in part because a lot of these works were critiques of ableism written by both disabled and abled but progressive authors. Then there's just WotC, who isn't exactly known for always making good moves in their settings. Sometimes they at least realize they fucked up, like with the Hadozee (😬), but as evident with their CoS "Revamped" edition, they thought making a meager attempt to Remove the Slurs was... more or less enough work for it. Lol.

So, here's some of my notes of what I've needed to fix up and how I did it. Abbey of St. Markovia will be at the end because... yikes. Major spoilers for CoS and CW for ableism below!

Casual Ableism A.K.A. The Real Curse Of Strahd Is Mental Illness

There are questionable story beats about mental illness from really early on. Mad Mary is the first NPC I can think of that really explicitly exemplifies this, but Stella Wachter in Vallaki and Luca Barbu in Kresk both also fit the bill of being random NPCs who got painted with the ableism brush. Treating these characters with empathy I think is the best way to fix a lot of them.

In ATSBB, I chose to keep the name "Mad Mary" as a pejorative title from the other villagers, because my game includes an amount of real-world ableism that is portrayed negatively. The party heard her cries and went to her house to find a lonely woman grieving the loss of her daughter. They spent a snall fortune at the mercantile to make her a big pot of soup she could simmer for days over her stove and helped her clean up her house a bit, before giving her hours of company over dinner. Mary was kind and appreciative and treated them terribly well. They did eventually sneak upstairs to find evidence of the circumstances of her daughter's disappearance (I just turned her into a werewolf to avoid the Yikes factor there). We see that Mary is unwell because upon seeing that her beloved daughter was cursed with Lycanthropy, she did everything (even too much) to ensure her safety, and then Gertruda still got out. Mary is more than "mad," she's heartbroken. She's devastated of grief and feels like a failed mother because she couldn't protect her baby. That amount of empathy gives her more depth and makes her portrayed as not ableist, but as a victim of vilified in-world ableism because nobody will give her the time of day.

In Stella's case, I did have a hard time. I wanted the party to have a clear reason to fight Victor (I don't know how some parties make him an ally, that guy is such a tool) and I did like the idea fleshed out in MandyMod's guide of Victor trying to leave Barovia through self-taught wizardry. Instead of changing much about Stella's cat curse, I just gave it privacy. They saw Stella very, very briefly--just enough to note the condition she was in and see that interrogating her would do very little for them, and then her siblings came in to tell them Stella needed her rest and it was time for them to go. Stella was not a spectacle to them, and it was portrayed as bizarre, but ultimately a product of Victor's abuse and Fiona's neglect to fix it. The party kicked Victor's ass and made a plan to sneak Stella out and get her to the house of a particularly nurturing NPC.

Luca Barbu was a little easier for me to fix because they tried to write him with sympathy but the module still certainly isn't nice to him, and it felt really gross a lot of the time. Luca is an adult man "with the intelligence of a 3 year old" who was "hit in the head with a rock" as an explanation for it, whose father and presumably full-time carer passed away, leaving him no support. If you didn't catch on yet, yikes. My Luca Barbu is autistic and had a farming accident that gave him a head injury that causes him to have a hard time processing information quickly, particularly numbers and the passage of time, and that can make him vulnerable to manipulation because he's a good hearted guy who has a hard time discerning if people are being genuine or not. He's very smart about farming, and good with the sheep like nobody's business, but he sometimes will forget to take care of himself when nobody's around because his dad isn't around to remind him. The townsfolk are not suspicious of him at all, and only have the chance to become so inclined if the party truly fails the encounter with Ilya. In fact, in my campaign, the situation with Anna Kreskov and the broken fence can only happen because she brings him dinner and bread every night since his fathers passing so she can make sure he eats every day. Anna's betrayal is then portrayed as desperate, not malicious, and it's a lot more tragic than it is evil.

Ez d'Avenir

Weird move of CoS to make an explicitly disabled character in a blink-and-you-miss-it passage who uses the coolest prosthetic ever and then just hide it from shame (???) They did add in a passage that changes this in the errata and in the revamped, as well as fleshing out Ez a lot more in Van Richten's Guide, so I'm giving them half a pass for this, because at least they admitted and fixed how they fucked up. That said, I think it's weird to do that with someone who is apparently the only disabled person in Barovia. This can be helped by letting Ez play a more active role in your campaign, as well as by having other disabled characters. You don't need to be ablebodied to be important to the world, so why should it be in fantasy? You don't really need a reason for a character to be disabled either, because disability doesn't happen because of a Reason in the real world. Not giving Ez the burden of being the only disabled rep in Barovia lets you have more fun with her and with other NPCs.

Finally, The Abbey of St. Markovia

The Abbey is infamous in ATSBB for me having planned out my alterations in advance and still finding places in the text I missed in which I said, "Oh, god, well, we're not doing that," and had to improv in several areas. To preface this, for my campaign, I did give my players a red/yellow/green light consent list in advance in which I included "asylum horror" as one of the potential triggers, and it was greenlit by my party, so we all went in knowing that there would be some ableist medical type horror. I explained that I wanted the vibe to feel less like Arkham Asylum and more like the way people treat asylums and old hospitals on ghost hunting TV shows--with the knowledge that something is deeply, deeply wrong here, but the fault never lies with the patients. Now, a lot of my edits are additions to MandyMod's "Fleshing Out CoS" on Reddit rather than on the official text, so if you're not familiar with it, I highly reccommend you check that out and then return here.

First off, I didn't call the people here Mongrelfolk, because... who thought that was a good idea in the first place, much less one that wss good enough not to fix in Revamped?? Anyway, I simply referred to the people residing at the Abbey as "patients" and it worked just fine. Inspired by MandyMod's guide, I wanted the Abbot to be an angel who lost his way in his desperation to help people in the absence of the Morning Lord, an angel who doesn't really understand the intricacies of sustaining life in humanoids, and treats sick and injured people with the same curiosity and naivety as a child "fixing" their broken toys by sticking together parts that only kind of fit with duct tape and glue. My abbot tried to heal the people as best he could with his limited magic, without understanding the differences between people and animals, or why a person with a broken hand might not be able to return to his every day life when that hand has been replaced with a turkey's claw. He's not trying to be evil, he just doesn't realize what he's doing isn't helping, because he's distracted by his own goal of building Vasilka. Now, I know Vasilka is sort of controversial in the CoS scene, but I think the concept is So Fucking Cool. I also think that building a little Frankenstein's monster that should be able to stop Strahd from hurting people is a suitible gothic, but ultimately noble goal for the Abbott to have. Does it justify the Abbot "borrowing" pieces from people who asked him for healing? Well, no. But it certainly makes sense for an angel desperate to escape Barovia to lose his shit a little bit and use unethical means to a supposedly moral end.

I also wanted to give agency back to the patients at the Abbey. Rather than the hallway of rooms of "laughing mongrels" and "violent mongrels," I just filled the rooms with families of patients. They were trying to start their own little civilization at the Abbey, far from their old lives, that they felt they couldn't return to for a variety of reasons. Some patients were too in shock and horrified by the results of their 'surgery' to return home alone, as the Barovian mountains are dangerous. Others had sought out the Abbot because they had already lost everything they had at home. Some people needed continuous upkeep on their replacement bits, just like Vasilka does, and don't want to stray too far from the Abbey. The Belviews and Clovin exist, but more as middlemen between the Abbott and the patients, who often understandably do not with to communicate with the Abbott. The Belviews will go hunting in the local woods and bring back stew meat for everyone at the Abbey (a plot point that makes them an easy suspect in Ilya's plotline). In short, the patients aren't 'insane,' they're disabled and/or chronically ill, and were failed by the Abbott. Again, this only works if you lean into the tragic, gothic horror tilt and lean away from the more modern "freakshow" type horror that was written in the text.

I think those are the main points I really wanted to make regarding the ableism in CoS, but if there's anything glaring I missed, please feel free to add on!!

[enabarbu]

Welcome to what used to be my art blog.

Tumblr has sold us all out.

[arecaceae175]

MONSTROUS FUSION LINKS AS FISH AND OTHER AQUATIC CREATURES IF MONSTROUS FUSION WERE FISH OR OTHER AQUATIC CREATURES

All characters belong to @monstrous-fusion!!! This is my other mermay contribution. Each Link has a different place in the world of cultural inspiration, so at least one of the fish included for each is endemic to that region. Endemic means it is native to that specific area and not found (naturally) anywhere else in the world!! It’s really cool. There are some fish that are endemic to a singular lake!!!! Big lakes, but still one singular lake!!!! Or one reach of a tributary stream!!! It’s super cool.

Anyway. FISH!!!!! Image descriptions at the very bottom! :D

IMAGE ID: Images are the names of each link and then a saltwater fish and a freshwater fish. Each fish has the common name, the common name in the native language of wherever it is found, and then the scientific name. The fish are listed below. Since I am posting this on mobile I only have an English keyboard, so I am only including the common names in the ISO Latin alphabet in the descriptions.

Artisan. Saltwater: Transparent goby, Aphia minuta. Freshwater: Blue discus, Acará disco azul, Symphysodon aequifasciatus.

Engie. Saltwater: Blackspot tuskfish, Marigyan, Mugadyi, Nggalanggari, Choerodon schoeleinii. Freshwater: Doumea reidi.

Eras. Saltwater: Whale shark, Rhincodon typus. Freshwater: Evia barbel, Petropsaro, Barbus euboicus.

Faye. Saltwater: Vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis. FreshwaterL Butterflyfish, Lifululu, Kanyoninfii, Akwadmakode, Ndako-nnakonyika, Lapooti, Isala kanga, Pantodon buchholzi.

Rancher: Saltwater: Bonnethead shark, Sphyrna tiburo. Freshwater: Redline darter, Etheostoma ruffilineatum.

Minish: Saltwater: Butterfly goby, ‘O’opu, Amblygobius albimaculatus. Freshwater: Black skirt tetra, Monjita, Gymnocorymbus ternetzi.

Mirror. Saltwater: Common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalus. Freshwater: Dabune bream, Abranis brama.

Tune. Saltwater: Japanese pygmy seahorse, Hachijo-tatsu, Hippocampus japapigu. Freshwater: Oopu nakea, Awaous stamineus.

Feathers. Saltwater: Blotchwing flyingfish, Peshk fluturues, Rundinella, Uçan balik, Cheilopogon heterurus. Freshwater: Van loach, Oxynoemacheilus ercisianus.

Rue. Saltwater: Pearl-spotted wrasse, Sugale-uluvela, Drividrivi, Halichoeres margaritaceus. Freshwater: Chanchita, Australoheros tembe.

Wild. Saltwater: Ornate cowfish, Arcana ornata. Freshwater: Blunt-nosed Irish charr, Salvelinus obtusus.

Zonau. Saltwater: Blue sea dragon, Glaucus atlanticus. Freshwater (brackish preferred): Banded dragon goby, Amblygobius phalaena.

/END ID.

[maganimal]

Un lézard change de sexe pour faire face à la canicule

Le phénomène a été observé chez le dragon barbu d’Australie. Il est observé pour la première fois chez les reptiles en milieu naturel. THERMOSENSIBILITÉ. Chez l’être humain comme chez la plupart des mammifères, le genre est défini par un système génique basé sur la présence de chromosomes X ou Y. Un double X indique que nous sommes en présence d’une femelle, une paire XY témoigne qu’il s’agit…

[ncxaeterna]

orchestrate our fall from grace

azrael barbu ; prince of nyxen // song inspo // psychometrics

dante valdinia ; lord of bistrita, member of transvania's court of assassins // song inspo // psychometrics

elja dragola ; prince of transvania , dragon rider // song inspo // psychometrics

icarus maresh ; lord of branholm , owner of the indigo room // song inspo // psychometrics

kassian valora ; hand of transvania's king // song inspo // psychometrics

mikhail volkov ; master assassin of transvania // song inspo // psychometrics

osfirth "oz" vulpe ; member of celesta's court of spies , servant in thornwood keep  // song inspo // psychometrics

varian halliard ; lord of valachia , member of transvania's king's guard // song inspo // psychometrics

[jessica-roussel]

Mes animaux... ce sont la raison de mon bonheur ! Il est dur de choisir une chose pour laquelle on serait prête à n’importe quoi dans ce monde... je vois peut être les gens de la mauvaise manière ! Et je suis peut être tomber que sur des mauvaise expérience...

Mais mes animaux ne me feront jamais défaut... ils ne me laisseront pas et moi non plus ! C’est pour ça que je suis heureuse de les avoirs, ils me donnent le sourire 😀

Photo : Peter & moi

[drmartenstoujours-blog]

Candy.✨ #drmartenstoujours #drmartens #drmartenstyle#docmartens #drmartensoriginal #drmartensfrance #vintage #doc #docslife #docs4life #dr#martens #boots #cuir #dms #lifestyle #worndifferent #bootslover #pogona #pogo #lezard#reptile #reptilesofinstagram #duo #duet #dragonbarbu

Rejoins le groupe : https://www.facebook.com/groups/drmartensforever

[shitposting-theshitmosting]

over half the cast of the dragon prince has either been featured in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Inuyasha, an adaption of my little pony or at least one barbie movie

[skyrim-ghost]

I don’t think people who killed Barbus are to be trusted and I simply think people who killed Paarthurnax don’t exist

[fura-falevan]

Hestaby my little bearded dragon :3

[wilmortberneusetrefenma-blog]

[wherehaveyoubeard]

[lytoshi]

Baby Lance is ready for Christmas ! 🐉🎄🎁

[sovcrcigns]

𓂅           ˖ ࣪ 𖥔     𝚂𝙾𝚅𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙸𝙶𝙽𝚂     :     a dependent multi-muse blog written for,  and associated with,  warbornhq only ;  featuring baldur hartvigsen,  katana malik,  roxelana barbu,  &  zahra mahin.

✦     𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐃  𝐁𝐘  𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐄 !     ✦

hellooo !  i’m chrissie, twenty-five, my pronouns are she/her,  &  i hail from ireland, which means i’m gmt.  i’m currently in full-time education at university,  &  also work part-time, plus i’m looking after my lil pupper 24/7 so pls bear with me as i may be busier than usual some days !  i’m always down to plot and work out connections so please always feel free to reach out via ims or hmu on discord instead if you prefer !  :-)

𝙱𝙰𝙻𝙳𝚄𝚁  𝙷𝙰𝚁𝚃𝚅𝙸𝙶𝚂𝙴𝙽     :     court assassin,  vrajiit,  twenty-eight,  leo suter fc.

〝   here is what they don’t tell you :  icarus laughed as he fell.  threw his head back and yelled into the winds, arms spread wide, teeth bared to the world.  (  there is a bitter triumph in crashing when you should be soaring.  )  the wax scorched his skin, ran blazing trails down his back, his thighs, his ankles, his feet.  feathers floated like prayers past his fingers, close enough to snatch back.  death breathed burning kisses against his shoulders, where the wings joined the harness.  the sun painted everything in shades of gold.  (  there is a certain beauty in setting the world on fire and watching from the centre of the flames.  )   〞

𝙺𝙰𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙰  𝙼𝙰𝙻𝙸𝙺     :     lady in waiting,  court spy,  vrajiit,  thirty-one,  summer bishil fc.

〝   she licks blood off her fingers and she looks like divine absolution.  careful, meleager ;  this is your sport but she’s not playing a game.  do not think you are safe because you love her.  do not think she will not stain her mouth red with your blood too.   〞

𝚁𝙾𝚇𝙴𝙻𝙰𝙽𝙰  𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙱𝚄     :     lady of house barbu,  non-vrajiit,  twenty-seven,  hazal filiz küçükköse fc.

〝   they won’t tell you fairytales of how girls can be dangerous and still win.  they will only tell you stories where girls are sweet and kind and reject all sin.  i guess to them it’s a terrifying thought, a red riding hood who knew exactly what she was doing when she invited the wild in.   〞

𝚉𝙰𝙷𝚁𝙰  𝙼𝙰𝙷𝙸𝙽     :     scholar,  vrajiit,  twenty-nine,  medalion rahimi fc.

〝   they sent a knight to save you once and found you curled up with the dragon.  crown askew, skirts singed.  they tried marrying you, couldn’t hack it.  went home, you liked the acoustics much better in empty castles.  (  the dragon was teaching you to roar.  )  six wars they waged against you, disgruntled princes with their silent knights.  blood in the fields, in the water, in the snow.  on their crowns, when you added them to your collection.  rarely smiled, laughed only with the dragon.  looked so often over your shoulder you almost forgot to watch ahead.  here’s the secret you took to your grave :  you were holding whole kingdoms but your palms were made of sand.   〞

[doruna]

A scaly chicken dragon ~ Based on a sweet hen I once had. She was a Barbu de Watermael breed and her name was Hilde. I really miss her, so a lil tribute to her.