#elder scrolls online one shot

[sanicsmut]

Words of the Fallen

Technically Darien Gautier x Vestige!Reader, but all I can say is play Summerset's main quest in ESO before reading this.

part 2

Warnings : Use of Y/N once. Angst because it is. Spoilers for the end of Summerset. Language. The letter is taken directly from the game, which is why it’s written way better than what I’ve actually written.

Words: 1000 (I can't believe I got such a perfect count)

Robin’s comment: Cried making this, bon appétit. More seriously, this chapter (the game's DLC I mean) made me hate Meridia. She was one of my favorite daedric princes, but now it's over. All hail Azura. Anyway this is basically me telling Meridia what she deserves to hear. There's also a hint of a part two at the end ;). I'll try to write it, but I can't guarantee anything.

"Never trust a Daedric Prince. If there's anything I learned from all this, that's it in a nutshell. I used to think I had a purpose, a part to play in the grand scheme of things. I suppose I did, sort of, but the way things turned out, it wasn't at all the way I imagined. Meridia said I was her vessel. I guess my fate was sealed from the moment she brought me into existence.

Now, here I am, back in the Colored Rooms. I thought that when I gave my energy to restore the sword—and I did that for my friend, not for Meridia—I thought that was the end of me. I'm back, though, but this time is different. My light, it's fading. I can feel the darkness getting closer, pressing in. I expect that once the light goes out, that will be the end.

I need to tell you something about Meridia. She's a deceiver. She promised that if I served her faithfully, I'd earn my freedom. She never told me that freedom was just another word for the void. Don't trust her. Don't trust any of the Daedric Princes. Not ever.

I've found peace though. Meridia gave me a chance to see the world, and those I care about, one last time. To save those I loved. I'm grateful for that, at least.

I wish I had a chance to say goodbye to everyone. To Skordo. To Gabrielle. Gods, I'll miss them. But most of all, (Y/N). I don't know if she will understand how much she truly meant to me. Perhaps we'll see each other again, in another place, another time. I probably won't be the version of myself that's writing these words, though. That me will be gone. I can live with that.

I only wish I could have spent more time with everybody. Had a few more adventures. Ordered those drinks like we always talked about.

I hope my friends find peace, happiness, and love. They deserve what I could never have. If anyone ever finds this book, know that I will never forget those I named herein. And, if you find them, and I pray that you do, tell them this.

Protect the ones you love. Hold them close. Cherish their every moment. Make them laugh, and laugh with them. Smile together and never, ever, forget that the moments you have are so very precious.

Oh, and tell them not to forget me, either. I mean, I am a legend, as far as I know.

The polite, handsome, and humble knight,

Darien Gautier”

You let the book fall back on the bench where you found it.

No… No…

You were breathing heavily. And a few minutes later, surrounded by those trees, you let out your anguish.

Dawnbreaker gripped tight in your hand, you screamed.

“Take it back! Take your goddamn sword back!”

“It seems my vessel isn’t the only one who ended up having feelings when he shouldn’t.”

A bright light. There it was, this patronizing voice. This voice you had respected, after giving you back your soul and helping you in Coldharbour. This voice you grew to hate.

“You bitch, he was my friend!”

“Where is your respect, Vestige?”

Vestige. You hadn't been called that since that time you helped Abnur Tharn in Elsweyr. Only the companions called you that. The companions and Meridia. But even the Daedric Prince hasn’t called you that during this whole mission. It was like you were back in Coldharbour all over again. Back fighting for what you thought was right, back, fighting against and with forces you couldn’t comprehend.

“My respect for you died when Darien got condemned. By your fault.”

“He was my vessel, an empty shell, a weapon to do my bidding. He served his purpose.”

“He was my friend!” You yelled again.

“And a traitor.”

“How the f-”

“He sacrificed he life for you. He purified my sword, not to serve me, but to help you.”

“Oh, so this is it? You’re throwing a tantrum because your tool wasn’t devoted to you only?”

“Careful with your words, Vestige.”

“You owe me! I’m the one who fought Molag Bal, I’m the one who assembled all those allies to stop the coalition! I’m the one who just stopped Nocturnal! And you owe him too! He may have purified Dawnbreaker for me, but everything else he did was for you, to serve you, because he was your champion! Because he truly thought he could trust you!”

“And you owe me for your soul. And he owes me for the purpose I gave him.”

“You wouldn’t have been able to take my soul if I hadn’t fought in Coldharbour! It’s all thanks to me! And his purpose? He could’ve been a hero without disappearing for your fucking sake! Hell, he just wanted to help his friends!”

“Friends he shouldn’t have had in the first place.”

“I swear, I defeated Molag Bal and Nocturnal, I can defeat you too. Take back your fucking sword and give me back my friend.”

You could feel Meridia’s rising anger, the air feeling tense around you despite the Daedric prince not being here physically.

“You want your ‘friend’ back?” The prince of light asked, her voice filling you with a bad feeling.

“Yes!” You answered. “Free him from your realm!”

You swore you almost heard Meridia growling, even if that sounded out of character. But that being was strict and cold, full of authority, like a severe and cruel mother. But nothing about her was motherly. She might have been less ‘evil’ than other princes, but she still served her own interests, mortals were just tools for her, or obstacles she had to get rid of. And you were sure that she was now in the second category.

“You will have to free him yourself.” Meridia declared. “That is, if you can get out of my realm.”

Her voice was tainted in cruelty, and a blinding light burnt your eyes before everything went black.

[setsailforthestars]

I’m listening to the Critical Role Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood episodes again and Liam O’Brien is way too powerful as a DM. Every NPC he plays is so sexy

[lesbx]

I kinda hope they never make elder scrolls 6. i want that one single landscape shot to be every image result when searching it online forever

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

Warframe...Rant

Warframe has official taken the crown for me as the most frustrating, most aggravating, most pain in the ass video game that I have ever played and I have played a lot of games that frustrate me.

I recently came back to it because I have a friend that wants to teach me some stuff so I was getting back in the swing of things again but OMFG everything in this game is just so difficult and the community surround this game are a bunch of elitist assholes too.

I was doing some void fissures and had been getting pretty lucky with randoms for a few hours but then that all changed. Something that really bugs me in both Warframe and Destiny 2 is how people always try to just zoom through missions as fast as they possibly can and I hate that, I really hate that shit. I got LEFT BEHIND, only collected 7/10 of the void residue stuff and basically got forced to end the mission because I got LEFT BEHIND and didn't get to extraction in time. Then in the text chat the other players were calling me lazy, asking why I didn't go and so on and like why is it my fault that the other players go WAY TOO FAST and left me behind? How am I lazy? We're all doing the same damn mission, maybe they should slow down and actually kill some enemies.

Then, I started doing the Heart of Demios story questline because it's a story questline so it'll be easy. It took me to a free roam area and I started doing stuff and things were going fine until the second mission in this questline. It was something about finding the father and I basically run into these giant caterpiller creature boss things THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO FUCKING BEAT WITHOUT ANY HELP!!! The damn thing two shot me plus all the ads in has too like how is this a single player mission thing? How the fuck is anyone supposed to beat something like that??? Honestly, the difficulty balancing in this games does not existence at all.

I then decided to give up on that questline because it's literally impossible. So, I went and to do a Hijack mission and this was my first hijack mission and probably my last one because HIJACK MISSIONS ARE FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!! I get all the way to the end and then I die twice from getting one shot and then the thing I was following gets blown up! Why is EVERYTHING so damn difficult in Warframe???

The thing that really pisses me off the most about all of this is that 90% of the solutions to all of this is to get this or that better Warframe which, the only way to get this and that Warframe is through microtransactions and I refuse to pay for that shit. This is doesn't know how not to frustrate, aggravate and purely enrage me and I don't know why I keep giving it chances and I don't know why the majority of the community I've encountered are a bunch of assholes. I don't understand why no one helps new players and just expects them to be an expert as soon as they start and I really hate that shit because I've soon that in The Elder Scrolls Online too. Just fuck this game and its community.

Also, if anyone is going to say that my experience isn't valid because it's different from the experience you've had with Warframe then please, do me a favor and fuck off because I am so sick of that shit.

[aughby]

Like any other day, Tatsunori Otsuka was scrolling through his Instagram account when he noticed something unusual: photos by Mayu Ishikawa. Tatsunori's thumb reflexively double-tapped any image, be it a training photo, a picturesque scene from one of her walks in Italy, or even a goofy selfie with her teammates.

Tatsu consistently liked all of Mayu's posts, not just once or twice. Mayu was an amazing athlete and a good buddy, so he didn't give it much thought. However, what had initially been just a routine eventually became something more, and soon after that, Mayu's teammates also noticed.

While they were sitting in the locker room, one of her teammates nudged her and said, "Uy, Mayu! Tignan mo, like na naman ni Tatsu yung post mo!"

When Mayu looked down at her phone, she noticed Tatsunori's name appear in the likes once more. She couldn't suppress a small chuckle. "Consistent indeed, Tatsu," she remarked, smirking a little.

Mayu rolled her eyes and burst out laughing. "It’s probably nothing. He does that to everyone’s posts, right?"

No matter how common or random the content she posted, Tatsunori always seemed to be the first to respond. There was just a certain vibe about it. She had to admit that, well, the attention was kind of... charming.

"Hindi lang consistent—lahat ng post mo! Parang may gusto 'yan sa'yo!" exclaimed a fellow player, setting off a laughing fit that filled the entire room.

Meanwhile, the fans started to pick it up as well. A few keen fans began pointing up minor hints in the comments section of Mayu's posts:

"Grabe si Otsuka, naka-like palagi."

Tatsunori's teammate and Mayu's overly protective elder brother, Yuki Ishikawa, couldn't help but notice the consistency.

As the rumors grew louder, and the teasing from his teammates became unbearable, there was one person who wasn’t laughing: Yuki Ishikawa.

Yuki was suspicious because he had seen all of the posts and comments, and the team's group chat had only increased the rumors. Now that his teammate was the subject of an expanding online rumor concerning his little sister, Yuki was having none of it.

During their team practice one afternoon, Yuki noticed Tatsunori taking quick glances at his phone in between drills. With a suspicious glare, Yuki decided it was time to face him.

"Tatsunori, we really need to talk," Yuki stated in a composed yet grave tone. Tatsu took a big swallow. Here it comes, he thought.

Yuki arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "So, I’ve noticed you’ve been a little… consistent with my sister’s posts lately."

Tatsunori made an effort to laugh it off. "Oh, come on, Yuki. I’m just being supportive! Like I am with all my friends’ posts."

Yuki's eyes grew strained. He smirked and shot back, "All your friends? I don't remember you double-tapping my posts that much."

Tatsu, obviously anxious, scratched the back of his neck. "Seriously, it's just support! As a teammate... and a friend! Nothing more," he said, seeming frustrated as he saw Yuki's expression didn't mellow.

Ever the protective brother, Yuki wasn't persuaded. Standing off to the side, smirked at the awkward scene. "Just remember, Tatsu. Be careful who you’re double-tapping."

Before Tatsu could respond, a teammate who had heard the conversation smiled in response. "Tatsu, gusto mo bang humingi ng permiso kay Yuki bago mo i-like ulit yung mga post ni Mayu?"

Everyone on the team started laughing. Despite his blushing face, Tatsu continued to laugh as he attempted to brush off his humiliation.

"Relax, Tatsu," Yuki replied, smirking a little. "I’m not going to kill you… yet."

Tatsunori took a big breath. "Yet?"

Laughing, Yuki gave him a back pat. "Just be smart about it. Mayu deserves someone who’s serious, not someone who just likes her Instagram posts."

Tatsunori relaxed a bit and nodded. However, he knew he might need to improve if he wanted to be more than just a "supportive follower" 

[numbaoneflaya]

Errrm what the scallop ☝️ it’s a new oc post (drunken)

Had a few shots and I’m stretching out my oc muscles rn bcs it’s been a while since Iv rly gone in on making a new one (thurwen once again has been stealing my attention)

This is gonna be a rant for me to remember what the scallop I was thinking when I wake up tomorrow but I come up w all my best oc ideas drunk. So.

GWINDETH. nicknames Gwin, Gwinny, peapod, slipper. Don’t ask for context of the last names as she will not give it.

Breton female, about 5’7, 29 at the start of elder scrolls online so around the age of 1029 at the start of Skyrim. Black hair in a meticulously maintained short cut that doesn’t reach the bottom of her ears, side part bangs that reach just to the top of her eyebrows bcs if it gets any longer it makes her wanna shave her head. Healer/necromancer/it’s complicated. Starts out as a healer but as time goes on her life he much worse as does the state of the world, and she doesn’t trust anyone or anything else to take care of it so she becomes a lich. Easier said than done but she has… a lot of practice. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Her becoming a lich and getting interested in necromancy happens way after the events of ESO. God. Okay so no one gonna read this anyhow so I’m just marking main character traits so I remember

•genius

•obsessive

•kind hearted but unsure how to express it as she is v non expressive nd people frequently misinterpret her

•has a decent relationship w her parents. It’s not good it’s not bad it’s just slightly less than average but she seeks their approval

•has always been interested in the process of decay and corpses and thus was not very popular as a child :/

•her parents worry about her, but don’t understand her and don’t want to. They just want her to be normall

•loud noises, busyness and bright lights kind of make her go insane but she’s become an expert at internalizing discomfort so she just kind of goes nonresponsive when these things happen bcs she doesn’t wanna be a bother. But if they go on long enough and she can’t get a break she will be a bitch about it

•her favorite animal is the mountain lion! She relates to it a lot. That’s up to u 2 figure out how

•she’s prone to fits of melancholy and depression. The only thing she can do in these times to keep from spiraling is to throw herself into her studies

[headcanonrepository]

The Ravenwatch after Elder Scrolls Online

(warning for some darker themes)

The Three Banners War eventually ends. It doesn't really matter who 'officially' wins - there are no real victors in war.

High King Emeric eventually dies. It's not really important how - if nothing else, time catches up to everyone eventually. But this is a problem for the Ravenwatch - he is their biggest political ally and dies with no heir, leaving a power vacuum. The Covenant dissolves - without his leadership, the Orsimer loose interest in cooperation with men, and the Redguards want little to do with the Bretons now they have no political ties through marriage. There is trade between Redguard and Breton territories, but no active cooperation like sharing of military strength.

High Rock is a political nightmare - every highborn noble making their case for their slice of power, some through might and some through subtle allegiances and leveraging of favors or threats. There is something most nobles agree on - why exactly have they been allowing a whole nest of vampires to exist openly in their lands and play at being nobles themselves? Why should the (un)dead get any say on the lives of the living?

After all, the Ravenwatch is something of an open secret amongst the nobility. Tolerated while Emeric was alive - wouldn't do to openly cross the High King, after all. They could even accept Verandis to a certain degree, even if an Altmer holding Breton lands is something of a sore reminder of the Breton's cultural past. Verandis could play the political game, could charm and flatter where he needed to. Could drop just enough implication of a threat without being actively hostile to make people think twice. But with Verandis tied to the Dark Heart...

The nobles aren't sure which of his 'heirs' (which they'd challenge, given their adoptive status and nature - can you legally inherit a title and lands if you are officially dead?) is more insulting to them. A Khajiit, a Bosmer or another Altmer holding their lands? All three?

Adusa never really has a chance with diplomacy. There are too many racist assumptions before she even opens her mouth, and once she does, the Khajiiti pattern of speech marks her out as other. She isn't a natural diplomat to begin with, much preferring problems she can solve through actions, not words, but she would try, for the sake of their family.

Gwendis would try, too. She can do the noble thing for a bit - Verandis taught her well - even if she would prefer not to. She meets a lot of the same problems - deeply ingrained prejudices and an unwillingness to listen. It's deeply frustrating, and she has a harder time not showing it.

Fennorian has the best shot at resolving anything peacefully. He's seen as more 'legitimate' heir, being also an Altmer, and if the rumors are to be believed, a blood relation of Verandis'. He's also aware of etiquette and society in a way that speaks of his more 'civilised' upbringing. Unfortunately, he just isn't Verandis. He's hyperaware of etiquette because getting it wrong makes him anxious - and with such high stakes, he can't afford a single mistake. But he also hasn't had the practice, the long years of mastering just when to apply pressure and when to employ flattery.

Ultimately, no one had a chance of resolving this without bloodshed for one very simple reason: mortal nobles had no intention of peace with them in the first place.

Some noble gets the bright idea to mobilize an army against them. Well, less an army and more a mob. You see, getting common folk to fight for your latest grab for power is a hard sell - what's in it for them? But start spreading enough rumors about a nest of dangerous vampires up on the hill and people will band together to protect their families.

Every member of the Ravenwatch flees from the castle. No one is willing to fight and break their oaths - they know full well these people are guilty of nothing more than believing what they were told. Besides, the Ravenwatch castle and lands are now a target on their back - they will never be free of the vicious politics of the region if they defend their home. Nobles want any extra crumb of power they can get, and even a barren patch of dirt near the mountains is worth grabbing.

The Ravenwatch go into hiding. Gwendis, Adusa and Fennorian still try to actively hunt down and stop misbehaving vampires - they feel it is their duty. It also helps them keep some level of faith with mortals - most of them are essentially good people and worth helping, even if a small number of them ousted them from their home. Many of the other Ravenwatch members feel as though there's no point to continuing that work. It was different when they had shelter, resources, a safe place to call their own - they were happy to help back then - but now that daily survival is a more pressing concern, they don't feel quite so willing to throw themselves into more danger to protect mortals who treated them so callously. They still uphold their oaths, though whether that's out of loyalty towards the Ravenwatch ideals or fear of being the next hunted down vampire is debatable.

So the Ravenwatch is scattered, in hiding and few in number. But they are still around, still doing what they can from the shadows without any hope of recognition or reward. Over the long years, they helped a newly-turned Count in Skingraad come to terms with his nature and work out a support system that allowed him to conceal himself while still protecting his citizens. They helped a mage gain control of her hunger to the extend that she became a trusted Court Mage who only ever snacks on the contents of Solitude's prison.

They do good in the world. They try their best. And they carve out a life for themselves - a somewhat unpredictable, unstable life, but they have each other to rely on, and when they are weary, they are always welcome to stay a while in Arkathzand. Verandis always wants to know more about the state of the world on the surface and about the state of his family, even as much as it hurts to hear. It hurts more to see them leave after, knowing full well that there is no certainty they will return again, that Tamriel is more dangerous than ever for their kind. That should the worst happen, Verandis would have no way to know. That all he can do is hope and trust his family to come back to him.

[seriously-mike]

Welcome to the third installment of "Artists Through The AIs": this time, we're going way back to the classics with a certain young witch dressed up as a certain sorceress.

Due to odd behavior of the data model (the freshly updated Dreamshaper V7), I had to fiddle with the prompt. Namely, if emphasis was put on the "painting" part, the images were sprouting easels and/or heavy gilded frames every-goddamn-where, even with CLIP skip set at 2 instead of the usual 1. So "painting" was left at 1.0 weight, while "by X" was emphasised to 1.2. Other than that, the prompt is "embedding:kieshi3v with long (red hair):1.2, wearing long red medieval dress with corset, medieval castle exterior background, dramatic lighting, detailed, high definition", and the seed is 254762234227837. Negative prompt includes "((easel)), ((frame)), ((interior)), red eyes" in addition to my usual heavily magical list. So here we go.

Leonardo da Vinci - I'm having second thoughts about the background common for several of the renders, but there's enough distinction between them to highlight Leonardo's style. The main focus is skin shading and curly hair, as seen in Leonardo's depictions of Virgin Mary.

Caravaggio - deceptively similar to the previous one, but with a noticeable distinction: the deeper shadows and higher contrast, creating a very Caravaggian chiaroscuro.

Titian - asking for "Titian" and "Tiziano" generated very similar takes in a lamp-lit corridor with way too modern look and pretty much no similarity to the paintings you can view online.

It also appears that AI omits the paint and canvas textures from Renaissance paintings, something it didn't do with the impressionists previously. This is most probably due to less emphasis on the "painting" part, as I'm going to show you in another post. Moving most of the description two-three tokens down apparently also creates a new baseline with a window or portal (either fitted with a door or not) instead of an overcast outside shot.

Albrecht Durer - whether you spell him with an umlaut or not, the outcome is a generic take with a portal in the background. The umlaut just removes the door and gives Sabrina a handbag.

Lucas Cranach the Younger - what we have here is a miscommunication. If you ask for the art of Lucas Cranach, sure as shit you'll get your character in a black beret popularized by the elder one's paintings of German VIPs. However, the diametrically different interior characteristic of Renaissance painting and less pronounced effect of the embedded likeness of Kiernan Shipka makes me think that, once again, we're dealing with a "So you have heard of me" behavior.

Hans Holbein the Younger - once again, something's way off here. We have a similar Renaissance interior background with some traces of brushwork, less pronounced embedding and some odd lace bonnet, but nothing that would link the work to either of the two Holbeins. I think that we're dealing with the side effect of the prompt being knocked two further tokens down, but I'm not sure. It goes too far, particularly if you consider that differences between other images are much less pronounced.

Rembrandt - as in the case of Caravaggio, the distinct part of this one is the chiaroscuro. There's also more pronounced detailing of the collar and shoulders of the dress, possibly inspired by the outfits in "The Anatomy Lesson of dr Tulp", "Syndics of the Drapers' Guild" and "The Night Watch".

Vermeer - there's no doubt. This is Vermeer. Two different seeds and I got two very similar mashups of "The Girl Reading A Letter", "The Girl With Pearl Earring" and "The Milkmaid". This goes so far against the prompt that we're dealing with a similar case to Simon Stalenhag from the first test.

Peter Paul Rubens - this one itches my brain something fierce. While scrolling through the renders, this one and four neighboring ones share the exact same position of white shift and a dark underbust corset, meaning they're merely slight variations on a baseline, but I swear that I've seen a similar painting of a long-haired man in a black doublet with frilly white collar and sleeves. Was that a Rubens? I have no idea (it wasn't Hals' "The Laughing Cavalier", though).

Diego Velazquez - this one is trying to do something. Once again, we have a portal in the background, but the character's position is slightly off the baseline and the palette is slightly muted.

Murillo - way too generic. The background is curiously off, as it's not a portal but a vaulted ceiling supported by pillars, but the pose is shared by four other renders, including the Rubens one, meaning it's sticking to the baseline fairly closely.

Francisco Goya - this is an odd one. It has nothing to do with Goya's works, but still, the pose is off the baseline, the background features brushwork and an abrupt switch from a near wall to a wider expanse with bizarre levitating architecture. I have no idea what's going on with it.

Eugene Delacroix - it's generic. Sure, the background features an open street with some people as opposed to the typical portal and lamp or chandelier, but the pose and outfit are kinda samey. What, no attempt to go anywhere near "Liberty Leading The People"?!

Jacques-Louis David - another generic one. I mean, what the fuck. If you look at David's corpus of works on Wikipedia, this could have been done entirely differently, yet we have an underbust corset, a portal and a light source in the background.

Thomas Gainsborough - finally something. Discernible brushwork, unusual contrast and lighting, and - as a bonus - the Strawberry Hill Gothic castle in the background make this one distinctive and consistent without plowing straight into obnoxious homage slash blatant plagiarism territory.

[alethiometry]

get to know a blogger // tagged by the lovely @aeide!

Share your wallpaper:

i have a dual-monitor setup where on the left is a vertical non-4k monitor (i really thought i was gonna use it more for coding but now it's just where discord / game wikis / spotify live lol) and on the right is my main monitor which is curved 4k, so i had a hell of a time finding something that works for both — but this shot of leyndell actually works beautifully because the erdtree sanctuary area fits perfectly on the left, and the rest of the city sits nicely on the right. the resolution discrepancy isn't too jarring either, which can be tricky when you're trying to make a single image flow relatively seamlessly between non-4k and 4k. i mean it's definitely not perfect, but i think it looks really really good

Last song you listened to:

"carnival of rust" by poets of the fall

Currently reading:

a memory called empire by arkady martine

the hands of the emperor by victoria goddard

Last movie:

oooooo. uhhhhhhh. i think i rewatched the princess bride relatively recently?

Last show:

yellowjackets season 2 episode 2 "edible complex" babEYYYYY

Craving:

scrambled eggs

What are you wearing right now:

pajamas

How tall are you:

5'3"

Piercings:

just the earlobes! i don't wear earrings often though

Tattoos:

a small joshua tree design thing between my shoulderblades

chrysanthemums on my left bicep

a twin peaks owl + roses on my right thigh

the girl + triceratops skull from this promo pic from jurassic world fallen kingdom on my right calf. absolute dogshit movie but i really really liked the still lol

i do want more in theory but haven't decided what of / where on my body.... maybe a shark on my ribcage idk

Glasses? Contacts?

usually contacts. glasses if i'm having a really slow/lazy morning, but i don't wear them out

Last thing you ate:

blackcurrant candy drops

Favorite color:

dark purple / red / burgundy! anything from the range of eggplant to red wine.

Current obsession:

YELLOWJACKETS!!!!!! 🐝

elder scrolls online... i want to spend my real actual hard-earned american dollars on an in-game furnished house SOOOOOO BAD... i might do the math to see how long it would hypothetically take me to earn enough monthly crowns via the eso+ subscription vs a one-time crown purchase ughhh i hate this for me but also the game is quite fun! do i know what's going on? not really! but i am vibing

these stupid blackcurrant candies that i paid jeff bezos way too much money for to ship from the uk but goddamn they're good. simpkins established 1921 finest all-natural and original travel sweets blackcurrant drops hmu babe i would shill for you on instagram in a SECOND.

Any pets:

none, but i really want a dog!

Favorite fictional character:

kassandra from ass creed odyssey :)

The last place you traveled:

catalina island! but i'm also going to chicago soon!

i am tagging: @winedark @doomcountry @ellrond @dinluke @reiverreturns @thychesters and anyone else who wants to do this!

[thekuraning]

For the 2023 in review fic writer asks, please answer, let's say, five questions of your choice? 💚 (I guess one of my questions is 'which questions would you like to answer' 😅)

greqgreq five of them??? isle my friend u spoil me!!! I shall roll randomly from the table!

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

And thank fully I got an easy one to start..... I usually only ever write for Pokemon, but this year I dove head-first back into Tiger & Bunny so.... Pokemon and Tiger & Bunny! :') And that's pretty much it!!

28. How did you recharge between fics?

orz Mostly I just played elder scrolls and watched Supernatural lol. I don't remember much of what I've done with my free time this year besides that time I made a puppet. I know once Baldur's Gate launched I went really hard with that for a while. So I guess a lot of games lol

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

Actually y'know what??? I did!! Not... for finishing a fic. :') But for breaking 200k words on my current big longfic Zubat Fangs and Ditto Slime, I wrote a few silly little oneshots, including one where Petrel and Proton kidnap and murder me. Y'know. For funzies.

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

When the Flames Burn Away! It was a little funky getting started on it, but being a roomisodic quick lil one shot, there wasn't much set up to worry about, and with Kotetsu and Yuri both having such opposed views of justice, the dialogue basically wrote itself.

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

Definitely my Looker & Nanu thriller that is currently on the back-burner, UnBlinking. I've got 6 or 7 different attempts at writing a chapter 2 and it just ain't happening, but I wanted to do a series where a young Looker and an ex-Rocket Exec Nanu solved murders involving Ultra Beasts. It was loosely based off those creepy live action UB shorts TPC put online. I'd like to get back to it one day but until it starts behaving..... ya.....

[isagrimorie]

For someone who doesn’t play TTRPG I am fascinated with CR’s Illuminated Worlds and Daggerheart.

Especially when people are now speculating the fight system Matt used is the CR / Darrington team trying it out on the Elden Ring one shot.

Maybe even the Elder Scrolls online trilogy?

[sanicsmut]

MASTERLIST

REQUESTS : Open for headcanons. I can write for ESO, Skyrim more precisely, and JJK. I can refuse a request if I'm not confident enough to write the requested character, but I'll answer your ask anyway to inform you of that. Keep in mind that I now have a job which means less time to write because I also have other things to do outside of my job. Thanks for reading this.

headcanons

Elder Scrolls Online How Vivec treats a reader who needs a cane Jakarn and Darien + feelings for reader Fennorian and werewolf!Vestige Fennorian and Vestige who has to explain why they can't die Tribunal with philosopher s/o Fennorian and Lyris friendship Fennorian general headcanons You go berserk after they get hurt (Raz and Darien)

one-shots/two shots

Elder Scrolls Online "Not a problem to me" - Khamira x OC "Words of the Fallen" (P1) - Darien Gautier x Reader "Words of the Fallen" (P2) - Darien Gautier x Reader

You can also find me...

On Instagram (Also Threads)

On AO3

On Twitter/X

[francostrider]

Are Players Too Award-Focused?

So, let’s skip the usual preamble and just dive in. What is award-focused? Well, presumably, it is a mercenary attitude in videogaming where a player will not do something unless a tangible award is at the other end. This could be at the end of a quest, or a long arduous set of events that leads to an award. Or it could simply be killing an NPC because they got good stuff, if you are a complete psychopath.

This has come up in MMO circles a number of times. Namely, the “Josh Strife Says” video on MMO Doomscrolling. In this stream, Josh makes the point for level scaling players in MMO, down scaling them, in order for them to participate with lower level friends without outright carrying the whole task. His friend, Callum Upton, states that there is no award or purpose to that. That there is no tangible award, and therefore players won’t do that. He also argues that it has the other effect of making a player’s level “meaningless”. The “award” he argues is being able to one shot any enemy in a given area.

So, to counter point Callum’s argument, the level objectively is not meaningless. To give an example, Guild Wars 2 does level you DOWN to an area in raw stat points and numbers. However, you still carry the abilities and manuevers to you unlocked via leveling up. In Elder Scrolls Online, everyone is basically at the same base power range, but, again, your abilities and tricks and other things you have unlocked makes leveling up meaningful.

Second counter point, bulldozing enemies is, frankly, kind of boring. You have all these abilities for spell interruption, defense debuffs, buffs for yourself, speed and so on. But those become utterly pointless if you’re one shotting enemies. Therefore, you’re “award” is just boring gameplay where nothing challenges you. A good RPG, in my mind, is strategic, requiring you to think, not just plow through.

Side note: I do respect Callum Upton. He is a game designer with experience I likely will never have and he is one of many people doing good work calling out the crypto-bros for their collective bullshit. I recommend his channel wholeheartedly.

But the point I’m trying to illustrate here is the overt focus on some kind of objective award gets in the way of what is supposed to make an MMO fun: Playing with friends in a fantasy world. A friend of mine, once she is done with her dissertation, is planning on getting back into ESO, and I’m excited because it is a game where I already have a character and it does not matter what level she is. I can just do whatever she is doing. Being at max level, with only the Champion Point system giving me anymore buffs, I’m not really looking for a new item anymore. I just want some friends to play with.

And my motivation for going into ESO was never the big weapons or whatever. My goals are thus: 1) Creating a character through look and ability so I can dream up a narrative in my head between him and the main story 2) See the story to its end, 3) Enjoy the combat and some bosses, 4) Do the dungeon raids because they are just good loud fun 5) Check out Tamriel from a time before the “main series”.

Now, I’m NOT saying I’m looking for NO tangible awards. Obviously, I want my equipment to keep up in order to do all those things, but that is a means to an end, not the award I’m shooting for. And little things I would like come up here and there. I wanted my first character, a battlemage take on the Sorcerer class, to have a daedric greatsword. And not just any daedric greatsword: The best I could conjure up. It’s not part of an equipment set, but I cherish that sword because of what it represents: The character’s mastery of sword combat and daedric arts.

Are there better weapons? Probably, if I dig deep enough, there is a more fitting weapon for my build. But the game, for what I’m trying to do, does not require that my numbers are absolute tip top. For me, what is more important, is the look and feel of the character, and part of that is the weapon he uses. For now, I am more interested in how any given story plays out along with the gameplay that comes with it.

But then comes another question: am I still being award focused? After all, I’m expecting SOMETHING on the other end of what I’m doing. I want to play as a hero in a fantasy setting, and I want at least a fitting end to the adventure. I want to see new sites, fun characters and a good note to end a character’s narrative on. I want to see the legendary items and weapons, even if the numbers behind them hold little meaning to me.

I put up with this grind once, redoing dungeons to get the right equipment (the right award) for the Raid Finder during WoW’s Cataclysm expansion. And to be honest, it was the worst part of that whole experience. Dungeons were still fun for the madness that can occur, but it also became infuriating because there were no more sidequests to break them up. Once I GOT to the Raids via the Raid Finder, it was a blast. I threw on my Nightwish playlist and then, during the last Deathwing section, threw on their song “Fantasmic”. There is very little that can top stuffing a giant death dragon into the abyss to symphonic metal. It was such an end, that I knew I could not top it, and so with that, plus my blooming relationship at the time, I decided that was the end of the story. Further experiences in games have veered me away from that game ever since. But my point is that the number crunching award system was a means to see the big ending, not because I needed the Deathwing Axe and it’s accompanying dagger.

(Side note: I lucked out and got both in the same loot role. So not only did I help save the world, I managed to piss off 24 WoW players in the process. It was an objectively complete victory.)

Perhaps it is more a question of what motivates you. If you do not care for number crunching, World of Warcraft is not the game for you. I’ve heard people say that the constant build of numbers is part of the fantasy, and I guess it is not my place to naysay them. I want story completion, character arcs (even if they are just mostly in my head), cool weapons because of what they are and not because of numbers, and nice scenery. Perhaps I am setting/story motivated rather than numbers motivated?

Yet, there is another part of the constant award that does not sit well with me. In short, it is abusive. In length, the constant skinner box design of games abuses award addiction. It encourages the tossing out of relatively new gear for SLIGHTLY newer gear because of a value that the developers just, well, MADE UP. As I have said before, there is literally no mechanical difference between using a level 5 knife in WoW versus a level 30 short sword. The actions will remain the same. The award is not so much a new toy to play with, but a slight variation of the SAME toy. The backstory weapon/armor is meaningless next to its numbers.

The other problem, as illustrated in Folding Idea’s video: Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft. Because everyone is so performance focused with their numbers, the world might as well not be there. The design of WoW is so numbers focused that it became more optimal to have the graphical settings as low as possible to not have any distractions. So art assets that a whole team put a lot of work into basically gets tossed out the window because of how the game was designed. The world might as well be a blank page.

And that is what this kind of number crunch boils things down to: A blank page covered in numbers. Why even have the world at all? This is why the constant focus on “objective number awards” disgusts me. The fantasy is gone, and just numbers. The same numbers at your desk at work. The same numbers a bunch of CEO ghouls want you to keep increasing. Just numbers and numbers and numbers, in order to get higher numbers and numbers and numbers.

Forget the actual lore of Azeroth. Forget the characters and motivations. Forget the music. Forget the artwork. Forget story telling. Everything is just numbers.

But here’s the ultimate kicker: Players are enabling this design. It is a constant cycle of addict and drug dealer mentality. There’s a bit of “chicken-and-egg” here: We are told from birth that having more is better. So games are designed that way, and therefore encourage that behavior. And need I go over how toxic their relationship with other players can get, all for the sake of “optimization”? It is a constant pissing contest over made up value. It is an excuse for this award system to keep going.

For players, I encourage that you step back from the usual number crunch, skinner boxes and whatnot and really ask yourself the following questions:

- Why did I play this game in the first place? - Am I still having fun? - Do I understand the greater context?

This is a conversation we need to have, because I suspect the awards have become poison. Poison to us as players, the worlds we play in and the stories we witness.

[indefenceofvanillawow]

Starting This Blog

I have something of an appetite for MMORPGs. Runescape and WoW were the two I was hooked on as a kid, specifically the free version of Runescape 2 and a somewhat scrappy Wrath of the Lich King private server. You can tell I couldn't convince my parents to pay subscriptions.

This appetite has spurred me on to trying a decent variety of experiences. I've sampled Rift, Maplestory, and Realm of the Mad God, I've bought Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online and reached max level in both, I've been trying Final Fantasy 14 recently, and I have plans to try Warhammer Online. Runescape 3, Oldschool Runescape, and Warframe are probably my most played MMORPGs, and for good reason.

But an important part of this journey is that time when I decided to go back and try some of the older versions of WoW; TBC, Vanilla, and even another shot at WotLK. But while WotLK didn't hold up to my nostalgia and TBC had some real problems, Vanilla blindsided me with a lot of surprisingly great design. Not that Vanilla is perfect or even remotely polished, but it's clear why this game became the gold standard for its genre for such a long time.

What inspired me to make this blog was noticing, among some of the people I talked to, a pervuading dismissive attitude toward the original game's design. And after playing some of the more modern MMORPGs, I feel like they're affected by a similar attitude.

People see design elements that stem from Vanilla WoW, think 'that's poor design, I could do it better', and then it turns out they can't, because they fundamentally refuse to understand what those design elements were actually for. Other MMORPGs have long since surpassed Vanilla's weaknesses, but none have surpassed its strengths.

What strengths? What weaknesses? What design elements? That's what I want to elaborate on in this blog.

Game design is unfathomably complex as both an art and a science, and I resent any dismissive attitudes toward any game's design. That said, I do believe a not-insignificant part of Vanilla WoW's brilliance is by accident, with one particular rumour that one of its most brilliant and innovative decisions was originally a byproduct. These are also things I want to elaborate on later.

Vanilla WoW, despite being a genre touchstone, is something of an odd duck, the oddest duck of its genre. I'm dedicating this blog to examining this fascinating game, and I want to put special focus, not just on the pieces of brilliant design that didn't make it into other games, but the pieces of iffy design that stayed with the genre.

Ultimately, I want another game to do it better, and a richer understanding of MMORPG design and game design in general would help with that.

[redjademilktea]

For the CR ask game questions: Dwarf, rogue, and barbarian! ☺️

HI HI thanks for the ask <3

dwarf: what is your favorite one-shot

It has the be the Elder Scrolls Online three parter they did before campaign 3 kicked off!! Does that count as a one-shot? I'm counting it as a one-shot. I already love the setting of Tamriel, but there was something so charming about the low-stakes "Hey, we're just trying to run a tavern here" vibe of the characters and plot. I still think about Sam reading off that incredibly long-winded order full of restaurant slang before rolling a natural 1 to finish off the episode xD

Oh, and Laura was playing a barbarian that was wonderful too!!

rogue: what was a moment that made you cry

You know this more than anyone, but Laudna dying was probably the most devastated over a fictional death in a long, long time. There was the inherent teseness of the emotional stakes in the moment (that Otohan fight, like the more recent one, was BRUTAL), of course. But, after the dust settled (both literally and figuratively), the tragedy of the situation regarding Laudna and her story really set in for me. That moment really clarified for me how much I love that spooky dead tree lady!!

barbarian: who is your favorite villain

Oh! Tough one!!! Can you count Liliana as a villain? I guess that's the really compelling part of her character because I can see the argument in all its facets. There's that tweet that always gets brought up about how Imogen has all the makings of a classic villain, motivations and all, but actively chooses to be good. And I think it's a wonderful story choice to have Liliana serve as that foil for her.

Liliana misses tending to the horses too. Liliana also dealt with the trauma, isolation, and loneliness brought upon her via her Ruidusborn nature. Liliana's only crime up until the point she joined the Ruby Vanguard was - much like Imogen - simply being born when a cursed moon housing an ancient god killer decided to flare.

It's these parallels that make Imogen's struggles with her mother so visceral. Imogen understands Liliana's motivations. She understands her struggles. But, most importantly, she simply can't understand the choices Liliana made regarding the Vanguard, working with Ludinus, etc. Why can't she just leave? Push back against the pull of Predathos? Why can't she see the harm she's causing, especially to someone she supposedly loves? Imogen can and has. What's so different about Liliana's situation? What is piece is Imogen missing from this puzzle?

It's no wonder why Imogen has those same feelings of abandonment trudged up every time Liliana - in Imogen's eyes - makes the choice to stay. Further, it's no wonder why Imogen can never fully let go of the prospect that her mother could be saved.

They are so similar after all. If Imogen could just figure out the right words to say. Find the right time to say them. If she just knew what thing she could do to hammer home the fact that the daughter she's so desperate to save is right there in front of her. A daughter that wants nothing more than for her mother to come home.

(Well, other than a dead lady who spookily animates random objects as a girlfriend, but she already has that).

I'm excited to see where the story goes regarding Liliana. Regardless of how it plays out, it's bound to lead Imogen to such fascinating places on a character level, and I can't wait!!

[missizzy]

A Game Novice's Baldur's Gate 3 Log, One Hour In: I was expecting difficulties in the gameplay, but...

(Note: this will definitely contain spoilers for all I've played through, and probably quite of a bit of the later stuff I've also seen.)

So I'm someone who grew up in a household which believed video games were bad violent things good children didn't want to play. (The games we did play, such as The Sims, obviously didn't count.) As late as the start of the pandemic, I didn't know all that much about them. I mostly knew about GamerGate, which did not exactly improve my view of the related community.

Nor did I know much about Dungeons & Dragons, until I watched Relics & Rarities out of love for Deborah Ann Woll, and when there was no more of that to watch, I moved on to Critical Role, and promptly got hooked. By the time I got vaccinated, my first priority was to find an in-person group, which I did. It fell apart, as did the online campaign I later joined, due to people having real life happen to them, but I'm still planning to find another one, just as soon as my mother recovers enough from her stroke that I can make that kind of commitment again.

That wasn't quite all Critical Role got me interested in. I learned a bit more about video games, developing a lot of admiration in the process for the sheer amount of work that obviously had to go into making them. (And those doing so absolutely deserve better treatment than they've gotten, but that's late stage capitalism for you.) I even ended up buying Elder Scrolls, and played it from time to time, so I'm not a complete newbie. I started watching other Twitch streams, too. They even got me back to Sims.

So naturally I heard about Baldur's Gate 3 when it first came out. Initially I didn't think it'd be for me. Especially not when I got the impression it was a very challenging game to play. But I was curious enough to make an effort to watch other people play it, and then I went and fell in love with the characters and the world, and finally, not too long ago, I decided that actually, I would have a go at it myself.

I didn't even know whether or not it was available on PC until I went to look last Sunday. When I saw it was, but I would need to get a platform, I initially went for Steam, if only because it was the one I'd heard of. I even downloaded the app, then tried to make an account on it. And the Recaptcha. Would. Not. Let. Me. Through. A google search revealed that I was far from the only one this happened to. I tried a couple of tips I also found, but no dice. I uninstalled the app and looked into Gog instead. By then their recaptcha was enough to make me flinch, but at least it let me through.

So I was in and able to purchase the game, and it was even 10% off. Except then the charge got rejected. My bank has a bad habit of rejected a lot of my purchases as fraudulent, but this was the first time it had happened for a charge of less than three figures. Perhaps I should've taken that as a sign, but I didn't. Thankfully they typically also make charges fairly easy to clear, so I got it cleared and then was finally able to make the purchase and started the download.

It took a while. I had time to drano the bathtub, help my mother make her lunch, and even take her for her weekend constitutional. But it was there and ready when I got back. Now came the thing I was truly concerned about: whether my system could handle it.

It seemed okay at first. In fact, the opening cut scene played perfectly. But then I hit character creation. A couple of weeks after playing a character named Lyria Tully in a Spelljammer one shot, I had a vague idea of creating a character named Sara who was an ancestor of hers. I was wavering on class-until the creator presented me with a high elf barbarian to start with. It felt like the perfect contrast for the rules stickler Lyria. Besides, playing a barbarian sounded fun.

But even with that happening, I spent disgracefully little time in character creation, largely because that was where the lag was kicking in. Even slight movement from the character seemed to be a strain. I chose her body type based on her face, spent a little bit of time turning her eyes hazel and her hair brown and giving her freckles, chose the first hairstyle I saw that felt like the right vibes, and spent even less time on the guardian. When the next cut scene also played quite well, I though maybe the lag would be confined to the creator.

That hope didn't last past the first minute or gameplay. So far the lag has been very visible whenever Sara has moved about, or done much else. It got even more pronounced at the first dice roll, with the D20 looking sluggish on the screen and the modifiers being downright annoying in how much time they took to add themselves. Though at least I succeeded on it. Also, I honestly loved the look of my Sara Tully in the close-ups, if not so much how she moved. She made sure to destroy the tadpole pool before she left; the three points of damage were worth it, as far as she's concerned.

By the time she met Lae'zel, the lag was visibly getting worse. Although with all the slow motion that thus got added to their first meeting, she's currently the top candidate for Sara to romance. It made itself known, too, during our first battle together against the trio of imps. Though at least that was a very easy fight. Sara never even had to rage. I'm playing the game on the easiest level, of course, but I do wonder if that first encounter was also meant to just help the player get the combat mechanics down.

After that, I called it a day, and started looking for information about reducing lag. When I opened the game again the following evening, it was to look at the settings, and make a few changes that didn't seem to help much. When I opened it the third time, late Wednesday night, I made sure the Gog overlay was disabled, closed both it and the Larian launcher, and even set the priority of the game to high in the Task Manager.

Maybe it helped a little at first. As late as when Sara did the strength check to pull apart Shadowheart's pod like a proper barbarian (wasn't like she could read most of the controls), I thought maybe the die wasn't taking *quite* as long to roll. But when we got another scene where Lae'zel advised us we were getting close to the mindflayer's ship's helm, the lag showed itself to again be getting worse. And I happen to know that once we reach said helm, we're going to be fighting more than just a trio of imps, and I don't know how the game's going to handle that. And it was nearly midnight, so I called it again.

I've since done a verify/repair and more general update on the game, but I want to find a few more things to try before I attempted to play it again. Maybe even look into advice about playing it on a low end PC, although it's not like my computer's *that* weak....I think.