#elven focus

[the-northern-continent]

My favorite bit of the Dawn Will Come scene is when Solas is laser-focusing (heh) on the orb, meanwhile the Anchor has already decided what its focus is, and it is so transparently NOT the orb.

Solas is all “elven focus” this, “stolen power” that, meanwhile the Anchor is totally ignoring the shiny titan ball and sprinkling focus bars on the Inquisitor and all their companions. Something something the power of a god comes from their people.

[asterdeer]

really been struggling with finding good mindless queer audiobooks to distract myself with lately. today i started not one but two different poorly written fantasy romances where the main characters bone within 24 hours of meeting each other (one of them was literally 5 minutes after meeting). allos are wild

[social-cocoon]

I've been feeling like I should do a dwarven or qunari Rook since I have 2 human PCs and 1 elven PC, but I'm leaning sooo hard towards playing another elf given who and what the main villains are. Also I rly want to be an angry Dalish to make up for what my Inky couldn't be

[dhwty-writes]

for oc asks - ghost for you most haunted oc and secret for your least haunted oc!

Thanks for the ask!

ghost: Who or what haunts your OC? What happened? How do they live with their ghosts?

Most haunted is Eridis. At twelve years old, she witnessed the slaughter of many, many nobles including her best friend and her surrogate father. She then was raised by the church and became a knight who is just... the most dutiful. During that time both her parents died, only weeks before she was knighted and could have helped them. So now she is grieving for two families she's lost and on a quest to reclaim her ancestral blade and destroy all the other magic blades that caused that much death and destruction with it.

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

My least haunted OC is maybe Morys? He's an alchemist journeyman who desperately wants to advance to master but can't because his father and older sister are already masters and the guild won't allow for that. Besides that, he is just happy to be there and included! His (not so secret) secret is probably that he is very much in love with Amalinde, who's his parents' tenant and also a princess in exile. While that would already be an obstacle, she's also, unfortunately for him, a lesbian.

Send me some OC asks!

[mithrun-house-of-kerensil]

Lately, I've been thinking about Mithrun and the ways he is dehumanized in canon.

Before I get started, we know that elven society is incredibly afraid of death and illness. This is obvious in how they look down on the short lived races and see them as weak and childlike. We also know that Mithrun himself had ableist views toward his brother and these values did not leave him once he, himself, became disabled. He is a product of the society that raised him, but I also think how Mithrun is currently being treated contributes to his view of himself.

Mithrun has had three different caretaking groups over the years. The first are the ones his brother hired for him. From what we can see, they did the job, but we can understand that they did not know what to do with him. No one had ever recovered from having their desires eaten so the focus was less on rehabilitation and more on keeping him alive.

Later we see Milsiril take an interest in him because of his desire to return to the dungeon. Since she did not bother to visit him for decades after finding him, we can assume that there is an ulterior motive here. Timeline-wise, this was when the majority of the canaries had just been wiped out. They needed more men, and Mithrun is set up to be the perfect single-focused soldier.

Honestly, we can assume that Milsiril doesn't really care about him or see him as a person. Mithrun is just a new project for her to play with. We can see this in how she's focused on superficial level concerns like the fact that he doesn't look nice and wanting him to be overly grateful toward her. She also talks about him like he's not in the room and can't hear her. This is a dehumanizing trait shared by many characters when talking about Mithrun.

When he finally does recover enough to return to the canaries, the military does not make any effort to accommodate his needs. We know the canaries are understaffed and the ethics are already bad, but they really did not even try to care about Mithrun's safety at all.

Entrusting a criminal with his care was questionable at best, especially when Cithis immediately took the opportunity to abuse her power over him and no one stopped her.

While acknowledging the light-hearted nature of the manga, it's uncomfortable that Mithrun was treated like a child and an animal by Cithis for her amusement. Regardless of her 'learning to respect him' later, the point is that Mithrun was taken advantage of and degraded because she believed he couldn't say no. No one bothered to do anything about this until Pattadol yelled at her.

Truly his treatment is summarized well by Milsiril here. Mithrun is extremely vulnerable to being abused by those taking care of him because he won't advocate for himself. He has one desire so he won't fight for himself in any other way.

It is obvious that Mithrun was not treated well by his caretakers and this has resulted in him identifying his needs through a disconnected and frankly, infantilizing lens.

I understand that it may have been a translator's decision, but I always thought it was interesting that Mithrun says that he's "not sleepy" which is a childish term. Otherwise, he speaks like everyone else, if not rather posh.

This, followed by the fact that he is responsive to Kabru treating him like a literal infant to get him to eat, paints a clear picture of the fact that Mithrun is not unfamiliar with being treated like this. He responds to it because he's used to it and has no desire to argue with being treated this way. When we consider the fact that the chapter started with Milsiril treating an older child Kabru in the same way, it is likely that she also did the same thing to Mithrun when he was under her care.

In these panels, we see that Mithrun does not believe that he can sleep without magical assistance, even though it is immediately refuted when Kabru takes the time to bundle him up and help him relax. Not only does he fully believe he can't sleep without external assistance, but he states directly that there is no point in him getting comfortable.

As Kabru observes, Mithrun's inability to recognize his needs applies to needs such as hunger and exhaustion, but it obviously also applies to emotional needs. Kabru just wanting to feed him something delicious and not wanting him to give up on life is the most consideration someone has given Mithrun in years.

The relationship they form over the course of a single week is enough to shape Mithrun's behaviour completely. Mithrun ignores Cithis's demand in favour of asking Kabru's opinion. It is Kabru's hand Mithrun takes to pull him out of his defeated state. It is Kabru Mithrun confessed his true desire to.

Do you realize how depressing that is? All it took was the new perspectives from Kabru and Senshi to make him consider the fact that he should keep living despite no longer needing to fulfill his duty. Being treated well could have helped Mithrun much sooner and this shift in the way he sees himself contributes to his recovery going forward.

TLDR: Mithrun has no desire to be respected, but why does that make people feel comfortable acting like he doesn't deserve it? Someone not caring about being treated well doesn't give you permission to treat them poorly. This feels like a playschool-level consent lesson: just because he's not saying no to a humiliating or degrading act doesn't mean it's a yes and therefore okay to do. Acknowledging this is the bare minimum of treating him as a person.

[ajdrawshq]

i finished 7th dragon a lil while ago n some of the worldbuilding is so funny i cant stop thinking abt it. why is the lost city of atlantis populated by catgirls

[thevulturesquadron]

This is a good time to talk again about how important the relationship between the Inquisitor and Solas is, regardless if it's a romantic one or not (maybe with even more weight and clarity on Solas’ character when it’s not the romance version because there’s less of those muddy feelings).

The way their connection, the trust and respect they have for each other, form and take shape during Inquisition is so organic and meaningful. Fen’Harel is a prideful bastard who doubles down on the things he knows even if they are wrong because he thinks it’s on him to fix them, and his arrogance keeps him blind to other options. But Solas, the one that walked by the Inquisitor’s side is, at the end of Trespasser, giving the Inquisitor the chance to ‘live well while time remains.’ But he knows them, he knows that the Inquisitor won’t be spending that time running away from this. That is Solas’ way of asking for help without saying ‘Please, don’t let me be right. Please find another way. Time is all I can give, see you at the end.’

And that is one amazing and strong connection, and a proof of trust, maybe even more so if the Inquisitor is not of elven origin, but a dwarf, qunari or human.

This isn’t meant to take away something from anyone. It's just that a lot of the focus in these online conversations falls on a Lavellan relationship or a romantic relationship, and the story of the inquisitor and Solas has more nuance to it, an often less talked about one.

[thesummerestsolstice]

Only the elves really see Elrond as "half-elven." They focus, of course, on who he is in relation to them. He's sort-of an elf– enough that they can accept him into their society, but not enough to erase his differences. They understand the different parts of him– his propensity to get sick, his elvish-sharp hearing, his need for sleep, his immortality– as "elvish" or "not-elvish." And while they can be rather condescending about anything they see as "not-elvish," they aren't usually very curious.

Most men regard Elrond vaguely as a fae being. This isn't unique to him– much of Middle-Earth's changling and fairy stories were built on the strange human-and-not-human nature of half-elves. Of course, different humans regard them very differently– sometimes with respect, even reverence, believing that "fairies" are beings of great wisdom and knowledge. Others see them with suspicion and fear, viewing them as sources of danger and deception.

To the Numenorians, Elrond is just one of them– a kind of "immortal man." He is like them in several key ways– he gets ill, he needs sleep, he regards the passage of time in a very "human" way. More importantly, he is their kin, a living remnant and reminder of both their mythical founder and non-human blood they share. He acts as a healer and counselor when they need him. This is all well and good until some of them start thinking that if Elrond could make the choice to be immortal, surely they should be able to as well.

The dwarves see Elrond as an elf. They absolutely do not care enough to tell the difference between him and the others. He's immortal, he's always with a bunch of elves. He's an elf.

The Maiar do not really understand what Elrond is, and have kind of defaulting to seeing him as one of them but like, small. Look, they're all uncounted thousands of years old, he's a child to them. They dote on him and think he's adorable, but sometimes forget that he's also part-elf and part-human, and can't just drop his physical form whenever he likes to go be a disembodied spirit in the clouds. Gandalf encourages all their antics. Elrond is working on it.

(Contrary to popular belief, the average hobbit does not have any kind of opinion on Elrond Peredhel. Bilbo Baggins, who lives in his house and has written several long, extremely personal ballads about his family history, is a statistical outlier and should not have been counted.)

[lobselvith8]

Regarding Gaider's "Modern Elves are Partly to blame for their own oppression"

In a conversation with Christina Gonzalez and a few other people on twitter, David Gaider, the former headwriter of Dragon Age, mocked fans of the Dalish. I took issue with his statement and pointed out why people are critical of how he and the other writers handled the Dalish in Dragon Age (while Allan Schumacher of Epic Games had nothing of substance to say in response). The Dalish are nomadic as a consequence of Andrastian societies violently attacking them if they stay too long in one area. The Andrastian Chantry outlawed their religion, making them criminals as a consequence of their faith. Andrastians will threaten the Dalish with violence in an attempt to force conversion to the Andrastian faith. Templars will hunt down the Dalish, and will even torture children. Andrastian elves also suffer from Andrastian oppression as Andrastian humans can massacre all of them, down to the children in an orphanage.

Gaider postulates that one could discuss how the ancient elves were "partly to blame" for their enslavement (let's keep in mind that being slaves is what he's talking about, even though he's careful not to put that into his tweet) or how "modern elves are partly to blame for their own oppression" which is essentially what we are told throughout the whole of Inquisition and the DLCs that accompanied the game (even JoH tries to romanticize the genocidal tyrant Drakon and place all of the blame on the Dales for the elves not trusting the tyrant who was invading their neighbors, forcing conversion, and massacring the people who would not convert - like the peaceful pacifists known as the Daughters of Song).

Inquisition even rectonned previously established lore on the Dalish in order to have characters like Iron Bull denigrate the Dalish. It's a game that will side-step Celene burning thousands of elves alive in Halamshiral while it will demonize the Dalish for wanting to maintain their autonomy from what's essentially a group of colonizers who want to rule over them and force them to convert, and the white Canadian writers (who are from Canada, a place known for its long history of horrific treatment towards Indigenous people) are firmly on the side of those who think that the Dalish (who, as Gaider himself once said at the Dragon Central forums before the release of Origins, were modeled after "Northern Native Americans") are wrong not to subjugate themselves to white Andrastian rulers.

Andrastian elves similarly face hardships because of Andrastian rule. In Ferelden even the efforts of the Night Elves fighting to free the nation from Orlesian rule didn't the elves any greater freedoms once Maric came to power. The Boon of the City Elf faces a number of dire consequences unless the Warden assumes control themselves as the new Bann. Inquisition ignores the plight of the elves of the Dales entirely to focus on a white human noble as the focus of the storyline in the Dales, and you can potentially help chevalier Michel de Chevin (a white man with blonde hair who is part of the chevaliers, a group who murder innocent elves as part of their initiation rite, although this isn't properly addressed in-game) while Briala's role is marginalized in-game despite being the leader of an elven rebellion across Orlais (and she strangely became white despite her in-book description making it clear she's a woman of color, which accompanying artwork confirmed).

Whether you're talking about the slavery of ancient elves or the 'modern' oppression of Andrastian elves and Dalish elves, I don't see how you can blame either the victims of slavery or the victims of racial (and in the case of the Dalish religious) persecution for the oppression they face. And Gaider doesn't seem to understand that at all, which explains the inherent problems with how the plight of the elves is framed within Dragon Age.

[velvet4510]

Here’s the thing.

Many Bagginshield shippers, especially in fics, focus on how Bilbo never got over Thorin, to the point where some describe Bilbo’s entire life as sad and empty and unfulfilled because of that loss.

Don’t get me wrong: I do agree that he suffered terrible loss and undeserved torment by the Ring. And the fact that he never married probably did have some connection to the memory of Thorin.

But, y’all, don’t forget or ignore the fact that, in Tolkien’s text, Bilbo does move on from grief and live the rest of his life well.

He does not become bitter from his pain. He retains his kind heart.

He is generous with his wealth, helping in every way he can the very community that ostracizes him.

He sees in Frodo a kindred spirit and takes it upon himself to be the parental figure that Frodo so badly needs as an orphan.

He and Frodo develop an uncle-nephew (really more like father-son) relationship built on trust, keeping no secrets from each other, to the level where he tells Frodo the truth about his encounter with Gollum. (And probably the truth about his feelings for Thorin, too.)

He and Frodo have so much fun, going for walks every day, studying the Elvish languages, and throwing big birthday parties to show the community a good time. It’s plain to see that caring for Frodo filled that massive void inside Bilbo, finally giving him someone to love and devote himself to looking after, after his first chance at that (albeit the first being a different kind of love) was taken from him.

He does not see himself as superior to the lower class despite his riches, and always treats the Gamgees with the utmost respect.

He teaches Sam to read and write.

He tells his story to the younger hobbits, inspiring more of them to want to learn more about the outside world and not be so sheltered and ignorant…an effort which ultimately saves Middle-earth because the Travelers learn from him to be curious and interested in the lands outside the Shire, and he inspires them daily, as they constantly say to themselves “if Bilbo could go there and back again despite great danger, so can we.”

He even learns to love having a tarnished reputation, ultimately taking advantage of being “mad” to play a fun prank.

When he is no longer at rest in the Shire, he gifts Frodo all his property which will ensure Frodo is set for life, and through all his passive aggressive gifts to his relatives, he gives the Gaffer genuinely useful items that he knows will help him, including ointment for creaky joints.

He gets a peaceful retirement among his Elven friends, which he spends writing his memoir so that future generations will know all about his lost friends.

And ultimately, he embraces the special gift of an exception from the Valar and rare permission to set foot in the Blessed Realm for one last adventure, where he will continue to look after his beloved nephew.

And the fact is, he never would’ve gotten any of these things if he’d stayed in Erebor. He would never have developed that special bond with Frodo - he may never have even met him - and consequently, Frodo may never have met Sam.

Yes, a lot of his life was lonely and somber. But much more of it, even after experiencing such a tragedy, was full of love and joy and fun and excitement. He became an invaluable caretaker and mentor to the next generation of hobbits, got a taste of fatherhood, passed on his expertise and his story, and spent his last years surrounded by friends and family.

Bilbo Baggins may have lost the love of his life, but he did not give up on life itself, and he lived a full one. Don’t forget that.

[the-northern-continent]

How many random magical knicknacks does this guy own though. The knife is supposedly his, the orb (deceased) is his, and let’s not forget that mask from Redemption. Is the jawbone necklace the only thing that didn’t get raided from his junk drawer while he was sleeping.

[rawrsatthetree]

Dark urge and Astarion hold a baby

GN!Durge!Tav x Astarion

Inspired by a fanart of Astarion holding a baby and an audio of Neil talking about babies as Star

Warings: well it's druge so descriptions of violence

As you and your party waded through the crowd of refugees a strange sound caught your attention. It sounded like crying but far too high pitched to be any person or child. The sound grated and scrapped at your mind and before your realized it, you had wandered off from your party in search of the source.

Among the crowd of broken families and lost souls you found an old elven woman cradling a squirming bundle in her arms. The thing wriggling about in her grasp was what had been making the terrible noise that had now quieted down into a pathetic whine.

You didn't notice how close you were lingering until the old woman spoke up. "Can I help you dear?" She questioned, her demeanor warm and friendly.

"Oh, um I was just um..." You were at a loss of words, your eyes fixed on the thing in her arms.

"Would you like to see him? Come closer, no need to be shy." She gave you a warm smile.

Hesitantly you shuffled forward to where you could see what it was she was holding, expecting some sort of animal or other strange creature.

"A baby?"

"Yes, a precious little thing, his name's Arthur." The woman rocked him in her arms.

The baby took a reprieve from it's fussing to turn and look at you. It stared at you blankly for a moment as you stared back before it broke into a smile and babbled at you.

"Would you look at that." The woman cooed, "he hasn't smiled once since he lost his mother to the Absolute's army."

The very sight made you mind ache and twist. Thoughts of all the horrible ways you could end the small innocent life flooded your skull. Perhaps you could simply smash it, the little ball of goo and viscera that it is. Or maybe it would be fun to squeeze its little neck until its doll like eyes popped out of its skull and its neck snapped.

Your vision started to blur, your pulse pounding, hands shaking. You tried to regain your sanity, remembering the mediation exercises you had practiced with Halsin. First ground yourself, breathe, what can you hear, what can you see.

Breathe in, you heard the footsteps on the crowd.

Breathe out, you felt the cool breeze.

Breathe in, you smelled smoke and farm animals.

Breathe out, you heard the chatter of the crowd around you.

Breathe in, you heard the old woman speak. "Would you like to hold him?"

Breathe out, you could see the baby still smiling up at you.

Your mind cleared as your vision came back into focus. The Urge had passed for now and relief washed over you. You answered the woman, "Can I? Are you sure its okay?" You asked mostly to her but partly to yourself.

"Of course dear, he seems quite fond of you and it would give my old arms a much needed rest." The woman held little Arthur out to you.

You stood there stiff as a board not sure how you were meant to take the baby.

"Have you never held a baby before?" She asked noticing your apprehension.

You shook your head 'no'. Even if you could remember you doubted you had ever held a baby in your past, at least in a way that it's limbs stayed intact.

"Here, hold your arms like mine, almost like your making a basket."

You followed her example as best you could. The woman shifted the baby into your arms with out warning.

"There just like that! Be sure to support his head, see you're a natural." She encouraged you as you panicked with the infant in your grasp.

After an awkward moment of adjusting to the warm squirmy little weight in your arms, Arthur calmed and snuggled into your chest. The innocent little thing feel asleep in your arms happy and at peace. You were over come with emotion, it felt so sick and wrong, it shouldn't have been possible for you to hold something so precious. Yet there your were holding a baby gently without any intent to harm it. The feeling of his little body in your arms filled your heart with a feeling you didn't quiet understand but it brought tears to your eyes all the same.

*************

Ever since that night he had you restrained, Astarion had tried his damnedest to keep an eye on you. It figured the moment he got distracted by some snide comment from Shadowheart, you had vanished. He hadn't even noticed until he went to turn to you for back up only to discover you were gone. Panic over came him as he frantically scanned the crowd for any sign of you. Either you had been abducted by one of your countless enemies or your urge had drawn your attention away from the party. Both outcomes filled him with dread.

Without even a word to the others he rushed though the crowd. He smelled the air for any hint of blood, yours or your victim's. Nothing, at least you weren't hurt or hadn't hurt anyone else yet. He only grew more worried as he moved though the refugees with no sign of you, surly you couldn't have gotten far.

Just when he was sure you had been kidnapped by some villain never to be seen again, he found you. There you were with your back to him standing with some old woman. Whatever relief he felt was quickly replace with concern as he noticed how you rocked and swayed.

"Darling, what are you doing?" He approached you cautiously hoping he wasn't to late to save you from the urge.

"Oh, is this your husband? What a handsome young man." The old crone greeted.

Astarion ignored the woman only focused on stopping you from what ever nightmarish act you were about to commit. Before he could reach out to you and pull you way, you turned around to him.

"Astarion look! I'm holding a baby!" You beamed at him. You moved closer and whispered so only he could hear you, "and I'm not hurting him."

You were a sight to behold grinning from ear to ear with dried tears staining you cheeks. Just as you said, there in you arms was a fat little lump of a baby curled up and completely intact.

He wasn't sure why but seeing you standing there with a baby cradled in you arms made his cold heart ache. He was relieved you were safe, proud that you had fought through your urge, deeply sad - although that was nothing new; but there was something else, a longing he didn't understand. Not wanting to dwell on the feeling he turned his attention to the baby.

"Just look at the little thing, so cute and helpless." He smiled fondly at the infant.

You noticed the way he looked at the baby with such softness, a genuine smile tugging at his lips. "Can my husband hold him for a bit?" You asked the woman, not realizing how naturally the word 'husband' had rolled off your tongue.

"What?" Astarion was taken aback, "No, I couldn't possibly." He looked to the woman hoping she would object.

The woman gave the two of you a knowing look before answering, "of course dear."

You turned back to him, your eyes shining, holding out the baby, "only if you want you Starlight."

Astarion caved under your loving gaze, he hated how easily you swayed his heart. "well alright give it here, you know I can't say no to that face."

His action did not reflect his words as he stood there froze just as you had, not sure how to take the baby. If he had ever held a baby it was centuries ago long before he had been turned and far to long ago to remember.

"Here Star, hold you arms like mine." You instructed him just as the old woman had done for you before gently passing the baby into his arms.

The aching longing tore a hole in his heart as he held the sleeping infant in his arms. You felt it too as you watched him, your love, cradling the baby as if it were the most precious thing in the world. You moved closer to him warping an arm around his waist, you cuddled into his side as he relaxed into you resting his head against yours. The two of you didn't need words to understand what the other was feeling. The baby, although a source of pain, was also a symbol of your hope. Hope you'd both find freedom, hope you'd survive this whole ordeal, hope you'd have a future.

"Astarion, I-" You were cut off by a familiar voice calling out over the crowd breaking your tender moment.

"There they are! Hey!" Shadowheart was waving at you as she approached with Lae'zel close behind her.

As if snapped out of a trance Astarion quickly handed the baby back to his caregiver and thanked her. He whipped misty eye before either of them could notice.

"What the hells are you two doing, we've been looking everywhere." Shadowheart scolded, examining you both with suspicion.

"Sorry, I had another episode," You lied. "Thankfully Astarion found me before I could hurt anyone."

"Enough doddling, we've wasted enough time searching for you." Lae'zel turned as if to leave with out you. Shadowheart simply rolled her eyes, turning to follow.

"Come my love, we don't want to be left behind." Astarion spoke to you softly as laced his fingers with yours, pulling you toward the party. You waved goodbye to baby Arthur and the woman before turning to continue you journey.

[disasterofastory]

Ink and bruises (Thranduil x Reader)

Ink and bruises Thranduil x Reader Warnings: porn without plot

Summary: There is nothing to summarize. It’s porn.

Your eyes are on the tall doors of the library not far away from your desk. They are closed. And even though a part of you knows there is no way somebody would come here this late, you can't help but stare at it as if your life depended on it. The dim lights of the candles dance on the fine details crafted into the thick wood. If you focus enough, you can notice the story it tells you. "Nobody will come here," Thranduil grunts behind you. "Do not worry about it, love." Your fingers curl on the edge of the table under you as you let your head fall on the hard surface. Your eyelids fall shut for a second. A deep breath leaves your lungs.

When you look up, the door is still closed.

"Do I bore you now?" You can hear the laugh in the elven king's words. His chest vibrates against your back. "You could never, my King," you reply, pushing back your bottom against his thrusts. A relieved moan leaves your lips when his cock reaches that sweet spot inside you that always makes you see stars. "Good," he grunts. One of his hands from your hips runs up to your throat. His long fingers curl around your neck, lifting you up from the table. Your back arches as you keep your hips at the right angle. Thranduil still pounds into you without slowing down. "I would hate to waste your time," he says, biting your earlobe. Your eyes fall shut again, and your hands grip his arm in front of your chest. His hold tightens around your neck. Your breathing gets rapid. Your head gets dizzy.

The door not far from where Thranduil is fucking you is long forgotten.

"Come for me, Y/N," he hisses into your ear. "Cum on my cock before I feed you with my seed." A hoarse cry escapes from your lips at his words. You can already feel your walls tightening around his thick shaft. Your mixed juices run down inside of your thighs. "Thranduil," you gasp his name, feeling his other hand cupping your pussy. His hold on your most intimate part is so primal and possessive it's almost enough to push you over the edge. "Yesyesyes! PleaseThranduil!" "That's sweet pussy," he hums with a heavy breath. His lips brush against your ear with each word. "I had it so many times, and I still can't get enough. I can't think of anything else but your tightness around my cock, milking me and begging for more." His index finger slips over your folds, smearing your wetness against your clit. He draws circles on the hard bud, chasing you higher and higher. Every powerful thrust of his hips pushes you against the table, but the dull pain on your hips seems far away and unimportant. You feel nothing but his tense muscles against your back and his length inside your hot channel. He stretches your walls and demands more. One more squeeze of his hand around your throat, and nothing seems important anymore. Your eyes roll back, your head falls against his shoulder, and your thighs clench, making the elf behind you moan at the newfound tightness. He can barely move in your hold while you pulse around him. Thranduil bites onto the sensitive spot where your neck and shoulder meet to keep himself from coming. No matter how much he loves shooting his seed inside your heated cunt, he wants to feel your mouth around him. He couldn't think of anything else all day. Just you, kneeling in front of him with your mouth full of his cock. Such a pretty and maddening picture.

You barely have time to come back to reality, and you are already on your knees in front of the elven king. Your hands land on his thighs, feeling the muscles work under your warm touch. His fingers brush into your hair, grabbing the strands with so much force that makes you moan with pleasure and pain at the same time. Your lips fall open, and Thranduil's cock is in your mouth instantly. "Suck me, Y/N," he grunts, looking down on you with satisfaction. "Make me cum on your tongue." Grabbing the base of his shaft, you start to work on his cock despite the pain in your throat. You can still feel his fingers around your neck, keeping your blood pressure low and your head dizzy. "That's it," Thranduil praises you. "So good, Y/N. You are so pretty, love, on your knees with my cock in your mouth. Don't look away from me. I want to see you." His dark blue eyes bore into yours as your lips close around his cock. Hollowing your cheeks, you suck him deeper until he reaches the back of your throat. His salty taste is all over your tongue. Your nails dig into the flesh of his thigh, and tears run down your cheeks, mixing with the saliva dripping on your jaw.

You are a mess, and Thranduil never saw anything more beautiful.

"I will come," the elven king grunts with a loud hiss. "You will make me cum into your mouth, love." Your relieved gasp is muffled as you push yourself away a bit. The tip of Thranduil's cock is now on your tongue as you continue to lick and such him. You let your saliva soak his shaft, teasing the soft skin under the head while your free hand pumps him faster. You brush over the veins under your fingertips. You can feel him twitch, and his muscles grow even more taut. "So pretty," he growls. "Swallow everything, Y/N." His cum floods your mouth, and because of his hand on the back of your head, you can't do anything else but gulp. Even the taste of his seed is enough to wake the desire inside you once more. Your pussy aches to be filled with him until you are half-mad from the pleasure.

Long seconds pass by while you help him through his orgasm. Your movements grow slower and softer as you still watch his face. He is flushed but still as powerful as ever. His thick brows are in a frown, and his lips are open with throaty moans, and groans are escaping the whole time.

"Show me," he grunts when he finds his voice. His eyes are still hazy and disoriented. His grip on your hair becomes a soft caress. Taking him out of your mouth, you open your lips wide you show his seed on your tongue. A few drops are still running down your jaw, falling onto your chest and breasts. "Good," he sighs with satisfaction. "I am the only one who can see you like this, do you understand? Nobody will know how good you suck and how hungry your cunt is for cock. My cock is the only one you will ever have in your sweet hole." "Of course, my King," you reply with a knowing smirk. Your last two words always fuel him for another round, and your pussy already aches for more. "You are a witch," he grows, grabbing your arm to put you on the table. The parchments and books are pushed into messy piles on the wooden surface. "You bewitched my body and soul." His gaze runs down from your face to your neck, where the bruises he caused are already forming. You look beautiful with them. Like a necklace. A collar with his name on it. "And I can't get enough of you," he continues with a soft, quiet hum. His gaze drops lower to your chest, and a smirk curves his lips upward. Your chest is a mess of saliva, cum, and ink you got on yourself when he pushed you down on the table not long ago. He smears the black liquid over your nipple. Your back already arches to get more of his touches. "Good," you sigh, curling your legs around his waist. His cock is hard again, shining with your mixed juices. "Because I can't get enough of my King either."

[darantha]

How to Spot AI images (Hopefully)

So, I did see GailyNovelry's excellent post on this (Link here), but saw that there also were some confusion and they were using a environment image as their example, so I thought I'd do a breakdown that was more character centric.

The key thing with AI images is that the program does not know what it is making. And, arguably, they thrive on that we are currently conditioned to not really look at things for too long before we hit that engagement button and/or just scroll onwards to whatever next the algorithm feeds us.

It's hard to fight that urge, I know, but if you just pause and look, you'll soon start spotting things that just do not make sense, and I don't just mean that the pretty booby elven fighter is sporting seven fingers on one hand. Those are the obvious things. I'll try to cover the general sort of artefacts that tend to tip me off to the fact that a image is generated rather than actually hand-made by someone making informed design decisions as opposed to trust what amounts to RNG. I think this is important as there's those who do not tag their images as AI generated, and try to scam people with commissions.

And, as the saying goes... The devil is in the details.

To start with I picked this image from deviantuser CeiEllem. At first glance, it looks... very impressive. Sharp looking elf lady with killer hair. 10/10 wish I could rock that haircolour.

But, it is AI generated. Aside from the general tell that is this hyper rendered, near photorealistic style that AI images often have, there's a lot of details that tips it off to just not having been made by a human who actually made the decisions.

Since AI is just working off patterns and not actual decisions, things like hair is a immediate giveaway that you're looking at a AI image.

(Deviantart users: daralyth, DavidZarn and lunayokai)

In all these three images you can see just how hair whisps off into weird nonsense shapes or even meld into the background or clothing. Because, again, the AI doesn't know what its doing, just working with shapes. Similarly, background elements that just stop and start randomly is a dead giveaway, like the tail in the first image.

As I've said, details is the key to spotting these images, and another giveaway is the sheer density of details that is just noise.

This is from users Rigtorok7, and the details are so noisy, absolutely miniscule in scale, and hypersharp, yet have no actual design to them. Artists imply details all the time. We don't render out every single nook and crevice, and since we actually know what we want the viewer to look at, we'll pull back and simplify things so you don't want to look at the big chunk of very noisy hair ornament or necklace instead of the face of the character.

For comparison, this is how it looks when I, personally, indulge in doing 'overdetailing' of something (because I am forever weak for painting jewelry).

BUT I want to stress that the key here isn't that detailing equals AI generated. The key is the lack of design choices IN the details. There's a lot of artists out there, and someone painting out all those nooks and crannies in something doesn't mean they are a AI user. This painting by Leighton is super detailed but you see the intent with all the details. You have a focus with the people in the boat and secondary read of the figure in the door, where the details are a lot more implied and less sharp.

AI can't do that, because AI isn't making any decisions.

I couldn't find any good example once I went looking, but if you're into fantasy art: look for people just holding weird 'swords'.

AI is rapidly evolving, so who knows how much this'll help in 3 months, but for now, this is how I spot things.

But, in the end, the biggest giveaway that someone is using an AI generator is that they've filled up page after page on deviantart/artstation/wherever in the past like... six to nine months, and often swing between wildly different styles. If you're unsure, look up the source of a image. Another clue can be generic 'untitled' or just 'elf lady' sort of titles, since someone uploading 30 images a week isn't going to make unique titles for each image.

Also, commissioners. ... you should ALWAYS get a sketch and progress image from a artist that you hire. My art directors would have my head on a plate if I didn't send them a rough sketch and progress shot before finalising the image.

[felassan]

[source]

We learned in a Game Informer article that during the prologue of the game,

As you traverse deeper and deeper into Solas’ hideout, more of his murals appear on the walls, and things 'get more elven’. Rhodes says “this is because you’re symbolically going back in time, as Minrathous is a city built by mages on the bones of what was originally the home of the elves” At the heart of Solas’ hideout is his personal eluvian [original post]

The scenes being described here were among the ones that had been edited out of the gameplay reveal video. The rest of the scenes in the new NVIDIA trailer are from the prologue of the game, so maybe these images from it are too?

Image 1: Solas' eluvian? Maybe the one in his Minrathous hideout?

Image 2: On either side of the room is a Fen'Harel statue standing in attendance. they look to me like this one, only these good boys are also holding lanterns very helpfully :) In the center of the room in the foreground, is that coal? like maybe the area enclosed in the gold ring sometimes lights up on fire like a brazier? just a lightsource, or maybe part of a puzzle? In the right hand side of the room in the corner is what looks like a lootable chest. In the center of the room is a desk and chair[?]. if this room is somewhere in Solas' Minrathous hideout (or a Solas hideout), I guess this is Solas' desk and chair? ^^ on the other side of the room opposite the desk, some complicated-looking instruments. :)

also in Image 2, the central focus is the elven tree statue. the tree statue asset is found all over DA:I in ancient elfy places, including Fen'Harel's mountain ruins in Trespasser, the area in the DA:I postcredits scene when Solas kills Flemythal, the Crossroads, and the Dead Hand puzzle in Ghilan'nain's Grove.

(Image from DA:I)

Here's another quote about Solas' hideout.

“[Neve] informs us that Solas has a hideout beneath a nearby statue, and lo and behold, it is Solas’ hideout. He has painted murals around it, magic is used uniquely even by Tevinter standards, and at the end awaits a beautiful Eluvian” [source]

[s-aint-elmo]

it always tickles me that despite the fact that falin wields a literal mace as an arcane focus it's five-foot-something noodle-armed elven waif marcille with her delicately woven branch staff and bare minimum strength and constitution who is categorically more violent and destructive and unhinged. falin touden can tenderize a walking mushroom with one hit and still marcille "i cast explode your brain point blank on reflex when threatened" donato is truly something else