#fought in different Ruin Golems

[reginrokkr]

→ Study 𝐗𝐈𝐗: Timeline of befallen events in Sumeru —Schwanenritter and Knight Marshal Anfortas—.

It is known through non-collectable documents left in the interior of Ruin Golems scattered across various areas of Sumeru that in this country existed a group of Khaenri'ahn knights by the name of Schwanenritter led by Knight Marshal Anfortas who fought during the Cataclysm against the tide of the abyssal monsters to protect Sumeru using these Mechanical Wardens. However, this protection didn't come without its own struggles within the Schwanenritter such as the contraction of an unknown illness of one of its members (possibly Eleazar, the Curse of Immortality or both at the same time), the disappearance of Ynghildr amidst the combat and return to her post in the Ruin Golem as a transcendent one in the form of an abyssal Black Serpent Knight and Hadura's "betrayal" and death at the hand of Knight Marshal Anfortas.

Nevertheless, new information sheds light onto two matters: 1) the Schwanenritter were in Sumeru for more than just to fight abyssal monsters [Dev] and 2) they have fought another wave of Dev before the coming of the Cataclysm called Onslaught of Dark Beasts.

In Girdle of the Sands, there exists a Forge of the Abandoned Foundry that was used to manufacture Azosite energy blocks and Mechanical Wardens, and to also use as a battleground to test their efficacy before using them in the wilderness of Sumeru. However, while there is knowledge that Khaenri'ah used the abyssal energy to operate them, this forge in specific was using the power of elements crystallized in Azosite. The change from using pure elements to the Void thereafter suggests that Khaenri'ah didn't use always the latter and that its usage is a relatively recent thing in the story of Khaenri'ah [there is an event that took place in Tsurumi Island in which an "Anomalous" Model Ruin Grader kept sustaining itself with nearby Ley Lines. Furthermore, it is not so strange that the Khaenri'ahns would resort to change one energy for another, as it is known that they were looking after a perpetual energy which they achieved in the Abyss (if we're to recall the Caribert AQ, this would also give them a higher sense of power over the Abyss, as they believed that if they managed to control the Abyss, the gods would be no threat to them).

...Based on our projections, the Azosite concentration will exceed 60% after this round of smelting... ...Though it still fares poorly when compared with that newly-discovered so-called "perpetual" energy source, after these energy alloys form a matrix, they should suffice to break through the technical bottleneck in energy efficiency requirements imposed by the large-scale "Mechanical Wardens"... ...Not relying on some dogma from beyond the heavens, but only upon the wondrous achievements brought about by human intelligence. If we continue to explore this path, perhaps we shall one day be able to create a true perpetual machine...

                                                                   —Ancient Engineering Notes.

Something important to note is that Nasejuna —a man in the know of these things partly because of a man who became a transcendent one in the past, Klingsor— also mentions that Khaenri'ahns were able to use the power of impurity to master monsters, said monsters being none others than rifthounds created by Gold, alluded to having been created as if by mistake like one who makes absentminded sketches to be thrown away. Given the presence of rifthounds in this facility it's presumed that they might've been used in the proving grounds:

...We were attacked... The sudden rampage of the defense mechanisms from the previous set of ruins had already caused massive losses to our investigative team... Abyssal monsters that never should have been here appeared for some unknown reason... So many members of the team have vanished while trying to evacuate... Ever since the monsters appeared, we have lost track of Klingsor's whereabouts. [...]

                                        —Akademiya Investigation Team's Logs (IV).

Now, where does the discrepancy of whether the Schwanenritter fall in all of this? This falls in one place, arguably two:

The first one is that it is said that the Order of Skeptics have as per ancestors Khaenri'ahn knights that fought in Sumeru, said to be in the Cataclysm. But we know as per the Caribert AQ that children between pure Khaenri'ahn and any other of different nations are to become Hilichurls, yet this is not the case. This may be due to the fact that the progeny came before these Khaenri'ahn were cursed.

As for the second one, it's the fact that Knight Marshal Anfortas proclaimed that he will become a temporary Regent:

...In view of King Irmin's present indisposed state and the current unknown threats facing the Kingdom... ...Knight Marshal Anfortas has proclaimed that he will temporarily take up the post of Regent and lead the Regnum Concilium Ultimum until the Kingdom returns to a state of normalcy... All citizens... wait... will...

                                                                   —Barely-Legible Bulletin.

The discrepancy that occurs here is that there was once when the Schwanenritter fought Dev in Sumeru and they succeeded in defeating them to the last one as Knight Marshal Anfortas himself proclaims in an encrypted message that can only be accessed to its content by interacting with multiple Ruin Guards scattered in Sumeru. In view that timeline-wise this happened even before an Alberich member stepped in to become the Regent and it seems that King Irmin was still alive at the time, this paints the story as happening before the Cataclysm. But what happened in order for the Onslaught of Dark Beasts to take place in Sumeru? It seems like what the Khaenri'ahns were doing in this forge wasn't without its problems and detractors as a few documents suggest:

...Eminent Marshal... Of course, I am keenly aware that the four pillars of our kingdom have achieved the prosperity they have today precisely thanks to us spying upon secrets from beyond the skies, and thus have our mechanisms been able to throw off the shackles imposed by this world's laws... But that technology... It cannot be said to be perfect... The gods are untrustworthy and the demons, ineffable. If there is one thing that can pry open the corners of this hollow world, then it can only be human will... To this end, if you can petition the King to allow some machinery manufactured according to the old standards to be preserved under your ministry's purview, perhaps it may light a spark under the latent wills of countless future generations to devote themselves to exploring technology...

                                                                   —Someone's Abandoned Letter.

…It's beyond doubt that the elders of the Order of Skeptics are hiding something… Only while accompanying the investigation team from the rainforest was I finally able to resolve the doubts I have held for many years… the realm does not just belong to those of the blood of Khaenri'ah, but it is the homeland of all human beings… Holding fast to this maxim, my ancestor Hadura couldn't bear to see our people meet such a tragic end, and yet their dedication was rewarded with an unjust punishment, their reputation impugned and legacy stigmatized. I now understand the meaning of all this…

                                                                   —Records of Unknown Attribution (I).

...As the workshops and related areas are unsuited for large-scale combat operations as carried out by the Mechanical Wardens, I order you to activate the self-defense systems and then quickly evacuate the survivors to the surface before continuing to resist.. Schwanenritter Garrison Commander Hadura…

                                                                   —Soiled Orders.

These documents let on to the fact that 1) the Schwanenritter presence in Sumeru had an ulterior motive besides the aforementioned which is that of spying and in turn benefitting Khaenri'ah with what they learned and 2) Hadura couldn't agree with what was being done and against Knight Marshal Anfortas' will, they ordered the evacuation of the knights and to close the Mechanical Wardens (one of which broke as a result of this) and Anfortas, who didn't seem someone who cared about the negatives of what they were doing even at the cost of his knights' safety claimed this to be a "betrayal" and killed Hadura, losing his left eye in the strife.

What can be deduced by all this compiled information and deeds that the Schwanenritter committed in Sumeru is that there was an initial wave of Dev (Onslaught of Dark Beasts) that must've been inconsequential enough to not draw too much attention and that these knights took care of to completion (more like they were cleaning their own mess) and later on the Cataclysm happened, where the Schwanenritter also partook in to defeat these abyssal monsters and are treated as heroes whose history was erased for reasons unknown (although it calls for speculation that there was a valid reason behind this that I might address in another post if I remember). While in a way they were stationed in Sumeru for nefarious reasons to benefit Khaenri'ah, there were some of them with a noble heart that took the short end of the stick for going against what was being done or merely were collateral damage to what has befallen.

[hellonoblesky]

OK OK ive been thinking a lot about what you said about the fandoms portrayal of the relationship between kaeya and venti and how its very odd considering kaeya being khaenrian and venti being an archon. i think it’d be very interesting to write smth about the two and them kind of running circles around each other because they both think the other is going to do something.

on the same page, since you like khaenriah alot i wonder how you view the archons role in the cataclysm ? im personally inclined to believe they were .. controlled in a way ? not in the “oh theyre so innocent 🥺🥺🥺” because i dont think they were like. MIND CONTROLLED fully but i do think it was partially against their wills ? something to do with the gnosises and their true uses ? im sort of undecided on it still because i havent fully thought it out..

HEHEHE SPINS AROUND Also quick disclaimer I have not played Nahida's story quest yet (I. don't like her very much and haven't worked up the energy to play another like hour-long quest with her) so this is all based on information learned from the game up to the final Sumeru Archon Quest!!!

I think the Archons, initially, were summoned to quell the threat of the Abyss, and the Abyss alone. I think that despite Celestia's track record for suppressing nations that reach something comparable to their level of power (Vindagnyer), that Khaenri'ah legitimately wasn't majorly interfering with Teyvat to the point that Celestia would have grounds to step in and demolish it (like, again, they did with Vindagnyer).

(WHICH ISN'T to say that I think that Khaenri'ah was entirely cut off from the rest of Teyvat, I wholeheartedly believe that they had established trade and relations with other nations, especially because Khaenri'ah was founded on a mix of nations, so it would make sense for them to have established relations with those nations to accommodate for the variety of people. I just think that Khaenri'ah had no interest in Teyvat in terms of like, rising to power over it, which is why it persisted for give or take 2500+ years (it's definitely around the same time as Venti's lifespan, but I don't have an exact number yet). Which tracks with it being founded on people literally just trying to live without the Archons)

I think the Cataclysm was triggered by a select few (Gold likely one of them) digging too deep into Forbidden Knowlege, as Nahida said it was of the deepest depths of the Abyss, and if there's anything the Cataclysm is known for it's 1) The Destruction of Khaenri'ah and 2) The Emergence of the Abyss.

This initial surge of the Abyss, as in the Sages of Khaenri'ah/Gold discovering it and tugging at it, could have led to a lot of reactions in Celestia. If Celestia had been looking for a reason to sic the Archons on Khaenri'ah, this was definitely it. If Celestia had just been. Hangin out there and went like "OH SHIT LOL the fucking ABYSS is putting the IRMUNSIL in DANGER right now someone send the Archons" then that's. Different.

In the end, I think the Archons didn't know exactly what they were doing or the full effects of what would happen. They were summoned by Celestia, possibly by the Heavenly Principles themselves, and told to stop an Abyssal threat in Khaenri'ah.

Gold's outburst (which I still believe was originally a defensive move and not a move intended to destroy) caused the Abyss to come FLOODING through, sending the Archons into a panicked or more desperate state, leading to them using tactics and moves that focuses more on total annihilation than just getting the Abyss out, ESPECIALLY as the Curse began to manifest and people started succumbing to it, taking on more "monstrous" forms.

AND ITS ACTUALLY!!!! SO INTERESTING because from the Ruin Golem in the desert we know that the Curse may have (actually with what we know of Dainsleif and such it DEFINITELY) manifested in different ways with different people. And Khaenri'ahns fought AGAINST it. They used the machines of their nation to fend off the Abyss because it was destroying THEIR HOME. THEIR HOME WAS SUCCUMBING TO THIS FORCE BROUGHT UP FROM THE DEPTHS THAT THEY HAD NO SAY IN.

HOWEVER. I think the Archons SHOULD have made more of an effort to care for the survivors. I think Venti could have done better when handling the Durin situation (especially considering that Durin was a CHILD put in the body of a dragon and had minimal if not NO idea what was happening when he was fighting Dvalin). I think Zhongli and Liyue were in an optimal place to save and help people. I think that Ei, in her grief, should have gone to the other Archons with her questions. And I think that King Deshret and the Greater Lord should have made the proper preparations and/or proper documentation of the event.

Were they misinformed in their attack and destruction of Khaenri'ah? Yes.

Was the destruction of Khaenri'ah their INTENTION? No.

Do they understand in this day that what they did, in the end, caused a whole nation to lose itself and hundreds (if not thousands) of people to be stranded with a curse they didn't know about manifesting in them, and that the way that their nations now see Hilichurls may very Harmful? Yes.

I highly doubt that any of them believe what they did was wholly right, but I think some of them may be under the impression that, though, harsh, the ends justified the means. (Zhongli, mainly, I think. Love the guy but he WWAS the Warrior God, and the preservation of Liyue was his number one obligation).

BUT I think that Khaenri'ahns, those who's family lines survived (Kaeya ESPECIALLY, being of the Alberich Clan), do hold a (pretty rightful) hatred towards the Archons, because at the end of they day they don't know the full story (neither do the Archons, but they probably know a little more). From a normal Khaenri'ahn POV, the Archons descend on your nation, then the Abyss surges forward, and now everything is irreversibly fucked up and you've lost pretty much everything.

(Also I do wholey believe that Kaeya would like. Humor Venti as in he would be his usual cheery jokester self but at the end of the day, he doesn't like him. He's not a fan. Actually I could probably write a whole other post about Kaeya and how Mondstadtian religion probably had a hugely negative effect on him but that's like. Legitimately a whole other thing DKJFHSDJF)

[silenceindustries]

Worldbuilding June Day 3: The People of Terra

It’s a fantasy setting so a lot of typical fantasy races appear. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins (and variations), and Golems. Many of which vary depending on the environments they live in, kind of like how the environments of Earth affected us humans.

Elves Dwarves and Humans all share a common genetic background from early apes and thus are the most alike.

Placed under a readmore to keep from taking space. I’ll be covering basics of how each of the people live.

Humans you all know, more or less the dominant species on the planet due to sheer numbers and ability to be everywhere.

Elves aren’t the long lived race of know it alls, nor are they the Pratchett-esque nightmare fuel monsters. Elves live at most a few hundred years, and many just live day to day like everyone else, to the point that some Dwarves just call them, “Tall humans”.

Dwarves make their homes where they can, and while many are stereotypically dwarfy, they are decent people if a little short tempered. Dwarves can also be found in many university archaeology sections working with professors on uncovering the lost ruins of the many dead societies across the globe due to their expertise on the underground and lost technology.

Orcs are a nomadic warrior people who travel from land to land, despite their intimidating looks many orcs are very affable and very easy to get along with, though their standards of beauty differ in that if you look like you fought with a sentient lawnmower and won, hot damn, if you’re a more conventional standard of beauty, then enh...

Goblins and their various subraces are known to be nasty little misanthropes (though not Hobgoblins), but despite this they don’t act upon being nasty little misanthropes. Goblins may hate everyone and everything, but they’ve found that life is far easier living with people and just keeping their distance than trying to raid and pillage. Nearly all of them actually find the idea of causing misery detestable, they don’t want it happening to them so why would they do it to others?

Golems are unique in that they themselves will claim that they are A) not a race and B) aren’t alive. Golems are tools that were devised long ago using ancient arcane knowledge to build a humanoid form and animate it with worded instructions. The original Golems were the Men Of Clay, large imposing figures molded and fired in great furnaces, and the basis to how the Golem Arcana now works.

Golems are not dumb by any stretch, but are rather literal and their self awareness actually extends to how long they are cooked, some take this to mean that the longer a golem is cooked the smarter it is.

The Men of Bronze were the next step up from Clay and while their Clay counterparts resemble statues, Men of Bronze resemble bronze suits of armor and are generally sturdier than Men of Clay.

The most recent and technically most “Advanced” of the golems is the Men of Iron, Men of Iron take the longest to cook and are the strongest of all the golems. Men of Iron are also the rarest due to the time and resources needed to animate them.

Golem’s are afforded the same rights as everyone else, though many argue with any statements over them being “Alive”, as their argument is that all living things die, and what is life without Death? Golems don’t die, they don’t get bored, they must be artificially killed, if they were told to wait until the end of existence, they would. Despite these claims the Golems absolutely do want to be given the same basic rights as everyone else, a claim none would argue is unreasonable.

There exist numerous species of creatures, monsters, and some that stretch the definition of alive, such as the elusive Wishgranter race, a race of shapeshifters with powerful arcane abilities capable of bending reality. They typically take on the form of whatever the local population believes beings who grant wishes to look like, such as Genies in Kinnod.

And then, there are the Four Horsemen, not alive, not dead, not beings, more concepts, they took form upon the beginning of conscious thought and are beings of certainty. They are a inevitability and whenever the end comes, they will ride once more.

[kirbopher]

I went to see the "Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution" premiere at Anime-Expo!

Hey, everyone! I just returned from Anime-Expo where I was lucky enough to've seen the world premiere of the 22nd Pokemon film, Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution. Wanted to share some of my experiences on it!

I'll start with some information about the event, before going into details on the movie itself. First of all, this was (as far as I understand) the very first time any Japanese-language with English-subtitled Pokemon animation has been officially (and legally) released in North America (and possibly outside of Japan in general?) so I wanted to make sure I attended this pretty momentous occasion. The event itself was handled very well by the staff and there was a great bilingual host who oversaw the whole thing and really hyped up the audience. After the film screening was finished, the three related guests of honor, Kunihiko Yuyama (co-animation director), Motonori Sakakibara, (co-animation director) and Rica Matsumoto (Japanese voice actress of Satoshi/Ash) were brought to the stage to answer a few prepared questions and audience questions. Afterward, Rica Matsumoto performed "Mezase Pokemon Master" live for the audience, which was an absolute treat. Finally, after the reveal of Armored Mewtwo's upcoming appearance in Pokemon Go, we took a "family photo" with a mascot Pikachu making an appearance! The whole thing was a total blast.

Some key points involving the Q&A session:

Rica Matsumoto was in particular very excited to visit LA, especially because she had worked on the Japanese dub for Beverly Hills 90210 and got to visit the real location after wanting to for so long! In addition, she was so taken aback by the audience's enthusiasm for "Satoshi", knowing how they were far more familiar with "Ash", but felt a strong connection to them through the character and Pokemon in general. The two animation co-directors Mr. Sakakibara and Mr. Yuyama shared similar comments, being blown away by the audience's emotional reaction. The screening also gave them major nostalgic flashbacks to first working on the original over 20 years ago. They were also so grateful.

I was fortunate enough to be chosen to ask the first of the three audience questions. First, I thanked them for giving us the opportunity to see this film in its original language with subtitles, as this was a tremendous honor to begin with. After mentioning that the American fandom was very appreciative for the English dubbed version of the TV series and movies, I asked if they would be able to give us any other future opportunities to see ANY other Japanese-language Pokemon animation down the line. Mr. Yuyama said they have plans, with Rica Matsumoto following with "Count on it!!" Nothing further than that, but definitely a good sign!

The next question from the audience asked about a trailer featuring footage involving what appeared to be an older version of Misty, why it was cut and what its involvement was to the movie's early stages of development. Mr. Yuyama simply responded with (paraphrasing, here) "While that was meant to show the image of an adult, the character in question was not actually an older version of Misty. The haircut is very similar though, I can see why you would make that mistake!". Rica Matsumoto adds (again, paraphrasing) "It just goes show that there's so many pretty girls in Pokemon, it's easy to mistake them for each other sometimes!" (Personal note: obviously this is sort of 'dodging the actual question', but it's likely they either weren't allowed to go into detail as to what that early trailer was all about, or possibly forgot about the details since it had been so long ago.)

The final audience question asked about what led to the decision to re-do the original film with CG animation. Mr. Sakakibara mentioned that they had wanted to do a CG Animated Pokemon film for a long time, but thanks to the collaboration with the 3D animation studio they worked with (I've forgotten the studio's name unfortunately, sorry!) they were able to finally make it happen. They chose Mewtwo Strikes Back as the experiment piece in order to try pushing the original character animation even further with the expressiveness and emotion.

I'm sure fans of her know this already, but Rica Matsumoto is an absolute ROCK STAR on stage. She loved teasing the audience and getting them amped up, commanding us to get louder and louder! "When I say 'Pokemon', you say 'Getto da ze!'" was a real highlight. To her, "Mezase Pokemon Master" is THE defining Pokemon song.

Next, I'll talk about the film itself. To those of you who don't want to be potentially spoiled on some of the differences between this and the original movie, skip this part!

The subtitle track for the film used all of the official English names of all characters, including the humans, Pokemon creatures, attack names, locations and even the nicknames of the guest characters' starters ("Bruteroot" and "Shellshocker"). For the most part, the translation was very close to the original Japanese dialogue, but there were definitely a few liberties taken at times. Team Rocket's motto was changed to reflect the English adaptation ("Prepare for trouble and make it double" etc.) along with referring to Ash/Satoshi as "Twerp" (instead of "JARI-BOY!"). There was also a very obvious 'joke' on the translator's part involving a new scene where Brock/Takeshi hits on Neesha/Sweet, proclaiming something about his "jelly donuts" (ending in the ol' Misty-dragging-him-away-by-the-ear gag). As this scene had completely new dialogue, I wouldn't be able to cross-check whatever the 100% accurate translation would be off-hand. A couple other liberties taken (in a way), were that certain lines throughout the movie were word-for-word 'translated' as lines from the original English dub of Pokemon: The First Movie. Thankfully these were rare, but one that definitely sticks out was the "I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you DO with the gift of life, that determines who you are." at the film's climax. Lastly, Mewtwo's words asking "Was I created by God?" and the scientists' response, were adapted in the subtitles as "Was I created by nature?". (Personal note: Likely this was to avoid flat-out religious references.)

The film begins with Dr. Fuji and his crew retrieving the Mew fossil from the ancient ruins. The "Birth of Mewtwo" sequence involving Amber/Ai is NOT included in this version of the story; the following scene leads directly into Mewtwo's awakening in the tube, to which the movie plays out as you remember it.

Dr. Fuji's laboratory is tremendously redesigned, but the same events transpire.

Mewtwo's armor is, as you've noticed, also fully re-designed. We see many re-directed (in terms of cinematography) scenes from the sequence of his servitude to Giovanni/Sakaki, including Gary/Shigeru's from-behind cameo. The main element of difference in the armor's usage is, just before blowing up the Team Rocket base upon defying Giovanni, it transforms into a binding 'prison' sort of state, to keep Mewtwo confined if he ever fought back...of course, he breaks it easily and flies off, just as before.

The first sequence where we see Ash, Misty/Kasumi and Brock starts a little earlier than in the original, showing Ash more excited and offering to help set up the table for lunch. It then cuts to slightly later where he's tired and slumped over the table. The Pirate Trainer "Raymond" appears again (still with all his glorious Engrish), now with a slight redesign involving bigger hair and the theme song battle sequence plays out. Worth noting, during the 3-on-1 against Pikachu, his Golem is replaced with a Drowzee. (Personal note: Likely to circumvent the "Thunderbolt should be ineffective against a Ground-type" argument.) We also see glimpses of Mewtwo and the mind-controlled Nurse Joy viewing the battle. Just before Dragonite shows up to deliver the invitation, we also see a bit of the gang's other Pokemon used in the movie: Vulpix, Psyduck, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charizard, eating Pokemon food.

LOTS more trainers in the dock scene. The pier master Miranda/Voyager actually speaks of Wingulls showing signs of how bad the storm is, warning everyone again. We see a few more trainers attempt to travel to New Island, including one who tries Surfing on their Kingler and another who is carried by their Scyther...neither of them make it, along with whoever tried flying with their Fearow like in the original. RIP.

The Vikings-the-mostly-live-in-Minnesota are replaced with an equally-funny costume theme of the Team Rocket trio as some tourist-trap sailors utilizing a Lapras-shaped ferry service. Brock comments on how conveniently they showed up and they all get on. We then get a very Disneyland 3D Attraction-style sequence of the two trios riding through the storm before it crashes and Misty sends out Staryu to try and save the day. Another extended sequence of Ash, Misty and Brock clinging for dear life to Staryu plays out, including a really gorgeous orchestral arrangement of...the Sun & Moon Wild Pokemon Battle theme, of all things!

Ash and the others meet the other guest trainers. This is where the short added scene of Brock hitting on Neesha is added.

In general, while the grand majority of the things that happen in each scene are the same as they are in the original, a lot of the animation is expanded upon and really pushed in terms of expressiveness. Often this makes them longer than how they were before, but it's definitely paced out properly to fit with the adjustments they made.

The battle arena sequence plays out and all 3 of the battles between Venusaur, Blastoise and Charizard Vs. their super-clones are extended with new fight choreography and additional attack exchanges, including with later-added techniques like Energy Ball and Leaf Storm. This scene also features a completely new background music track from the one used in the original film (later used quite a bit in the anime).

The sequence of Mewtwo capturing all of the humans' Pokemon plays out, also with new background music as opposed to the original. A few new shots of the trainers trying to guard their Pokemon from being captured are added.

After the super-clones emerge, Mew appears to save Ash from being splattered against a wall, the Pokemon and their clones brutally beat each other, now with new sweeping camera angles and new music instead of the original.

When Ash rejoins Misty and Brock after climbing down from the castle, a few bits of dialogue are slightly played around with, but leads to the same untimely demise. Some new DBZ-esque glow effects are applied to when Ash is struck by the two psychic blasts and his turned-to-stone state is a bit more like crystal. Pikachu trying to Thundershock Ash back to life lingers a bit more, to show the desperation in Pikachu's attempt. When the other Pokemon begin shedding their tears, their actual sounds aren't heard and the scene is silent minus the background music.

The memory erasure happens yet again, sending everyone back to the docks. From just after Ash sees Mew flying in the sky, commenting on it, up through Team Rocket's sign-off on the now-abandoned New Island, the orchestral arrangement of the Pokemon Red & Blue Credits theme plays. For the movie credits, we're treated to a new remix of "Kaze to Isshi Ni" (featuring Shokotan) along with some 2D paintings of Ash, Misty and Brock traveling. One shows a flock of Wingull near the dock area! At the end, we see Mewtwo and the clones flying off to what appears to be Mount Quena from the "Mewtwo Returns" TV special.

Finally, as is always the case, a very short teaser of the "Pokemon 2020" film, showing a 2D-animated Pikachu in the style of the Sun & Moon series.

There might have been some things I missed, but that's everything I could recount! If you have any other questions, I'll try and answer them as best as I can. To anyone else who was there for the screening, feel free to add anything else you like! Overall, highly recommend folks who enjoyed the original Mewtwo Strikes Back movie to go see this when the English version comes out!

[dmsden]

The Forged Folk – A Legend of the Shattered Pact

They slept for countless days under the earth, their creators gone, their purpose silenced. What they dreamed in those long eons is unknown. Perhaps they slept without dreams, or perhaps their dreams vanished when they awoke, for they did not remember them when light struck their faces and they opened their eyes.

Ironically, no one remembers the names of the adventurers who were exploring the Broken Barrows, hoping to find treasures left behind by the Old Ones, those primordial folk who had made the Barrows in the first place. We know that they had found one Barrow that seemed to be a tomb, and they hoped to plunder ancient riches left behind, deep beneath the earth. Instead, they found what seemed to be bizarre metal and wood sculptures of humanoid figures. As they inspected one of the figures, the area around its eyes began to glow…

The constructed entities reacted to this intrusion with great violence. Several of the adventurers lost their lives, but, as the metal folk began to realize they didn’t recognize the races of the intruders, the combat slowed. And, finally, with magic aiding the communication, a dialogue began to take place.

The people who lived in the vicinity of the Broken Barrows, such as the people of the town of Seowyn’s Crossing to the north, began to see these strange people exploring the lands around them. Because of their fearsome appearance, these golem-like creatures were soon dubbed the Warforged, a title which they’ve accepted, since they could not recall any name that they had for themselves. All they seem to remember is a vague impression of their creators, tall, humanoid creatures with many arms.

At first, most people who encountered the Warforged thought that they were no different than a rock gnome’s mechanical toys, but, as the Warforged spent more time amongst humans, elves, dwarves, and the like, they displayed increasingly life-like traits, showing emotions, wants, goals, and ambitions of their own. Clerics of the Twelve, having inspected the Warforged, have declared that they possess souls like any living creature, something that many find disturbing. Many believe that these souls were stolen from other living creatures and imbued into artificial shells. Many others don’t believe them to be living at all, and they wait for the Warforged to awaken to some goal of their masters, likely to the detriment of all.

The majority of Warforged live in the partially subterranean settlement of Firsthome, where they were first discovered. Although no new Warforged are born, many pockets of Warforged, including individuals, have been found in chambers in various Old Ones ruins. These Warforged are often disoriented at first, but, once they meet their fellows, they settle into a comfortable rhythm of life. These “young” Warforged are likely millennia old, but they are treated much like children by those Warforged who have already been around.

Although many Warforged, feeling no connection to anything but war, swore themselves to the military of Summerlund, many others scattered throughout Aldorath to learn and take up residence elsewhere. Warforged fought on both sides of the Second Witching War, for example. Many of them become adventurers, hoping to find other enclaves or truths about their origin and why they were left behind. Recently, Warforged have found a dangerously trapped series of caverns that they believe leads to a place they call “Greathome” underneath Snowcrest Mountain. Time will tell if they can make their way through, or what they will find there.

((I knew I wanted to have the Warforged available as an option for players to play in my campaign, but with no Last War or House Cannith, I wanted to give them a very different sort of origin. I have left much of their origin and purpose a mystery, though I would likely work with a player to develop those elements should anyone decide to play one in the future. Hopefully this will give you some inspiration on how to include this or other unusual races in your own campaign.))

[gametweaks]

The World as it is

The world of Dark Souls 3 suffers from a similar problem as its predecessor Dark Souls 2. The connectivity of the world is not on the same level as the first game.

In the first game the basic design of the world can be described as the majority of the game world being within easy reach. In so far as you can walk to nearly every location without hitting a loading screen from your homebase of firelink shrine. This is excluding the tutorial area, Anor Londo and the areas around it, and the DLC. This is just not the case in 3.

The major issue is that the Firelink Shrine of the 3rd game is completely disconnected from the world except for the tutorial area. This is a major problem as it disjoints the game by forcing the character to return to the home area to level up, improve their weapons, and buy items. Not having the ability to level up at any bonfire and not having the vendors and smiths out in the world hampers the third game.

Another issue with the world is the way in which the game starts you out near the highest part of the map. This may sound like a stupid gripe but the imagery and symbolism of descending and ascending to greater challenges has been present in all the games. To give perspective, it would be like the first game starting you off in the early part of Anor Londo where the enemies normally there are swapped with those from the undead burg before fighting a very weak version of the iron golem and then being carried by the bat demons to the undead Parish immediately.

A final issue with the design, which is also a stylistic choice, is the way in which locations, and entire environments change. This can be seen in how the Carthus catacombs, a desert inspired area, immediately leads to Irithyll, a cold area. I personally disliked the idea of the world crashing together and forming these impossible lay outs just to have further diversity of location within the game.

How I would change the World

Addressing my issues in order we start with the basic layout of the world. Lothric is no longer a mountaintop citadel but a large city built on a hill with the royal palace at the summit. I want to one up the first game and reduce the loading screens even further. The player starts in my version of the cemetery of Ash directly outside of the walls, from there you will progress to the first boss of the game which guards the door to the home base.

From there the map will open up to the early game area. The first and second bosses being in opposite directions, one higher up the hill near the gate to the city itself and the other further down near the edge of the outskirts. These areas would be populated with the city’s hollowed militia and hollowed inhabitants respectively.

The mid game would then become available as you go on your quest to reclaim the lords of cinder. There would be no changes to the lord’s themselves except for Aldrich who i thought should have had a design that was more than a sludge worm with Gwyndolin sticking out the top.

Yhorm would be in the ruins of his old fortress atop a nearby mountain, his linking of the fire having led to his people becoming leaderless and tearing his empire apart. Basically it would combine the backstories of Yhorm and Wolnir into a single piece, there is a reason behind this that will be discussed in the story post.

The Abyss Watchers would have begun purging what was left of Lothric, marching out and establishing a war camp in the woods on the slopes of Yhorm’s mountain. Similarly to the main game they would fall to infighting due to the influence of the Abyss on them and the forces they summoned would likewise follow suit. The player would effectively have to fight their way through a war zone to face them.

Also no poison swamp.

Just no.

Aldrich would return to the Cathedral of the Deep which is now in the center of the Boreal Valley. The entrance is in a ravine accessed through the Abyss Watchers’ camp. The ravine leads to the valley and the ruins of Irithyll, these areas are notable for the monsters fought there. There will be two bosses fought on the way to Aldrich, one in the ruins and one inside the cathedral, Aldrich will then be fought at the deep shore. Imagine an abyss tainted ash lake. These areas will include the presence of the undead legion trying to purge this corruption, as they do.

From there, Lothric city opens up. It’s pretty much the same except for being more like the castle than it originally was. More knights, more wyverns, you get the idea.

The royal chambers will not be the end of this path though. Neither will Lothric and Lorian be the boss you fight there. Instead you will fight the boss i’ve decided should be here and continue on to the final main game area.

It is predictable but the final area is the kiln of the first flame yet more like it looked in the first game. There will be a difference though, the dunes will be choked with the corpses of those who came to link or snuff out the flame. There will be two bosses in this area. One who i call the royal sentinel and then the twin princes.

From there the game will end and its either new game plus or roam about doing optional bosses and stuff. Unlike the original i want to add the bonfire ascetic mechanic back in. I thought it was a good mechanic that allowed you to replay your favourite bosses at your level without having to go back through the game all over again.

I believe that this layout honours the symbolic and stylistic choices of the producers at Fromsoftware. It fixes the issues i had with the original game, specifically linking the world together so that it feels like you can walk everywhere on a whim and not have to teleport.

Furthermore, though i think the locations are not as diverse as the main game; they still would maintain enough distinction from one another to keep environments fresh. Though optional areas were not mentioned above they will receive their own post to further elaborate on.

[a-memory-of]

Ellere Valahan approached the dusty ruins of Qarn, a bag slung over her shoulder. She looked around, finally spotting a head of blonde hair in the distance. Giving a wave, she hopped up and over a fallen wall, calling out, "Hello, dear!"

Ruran Vas was tugging on his gloves, having discarded his usual armor for the occasion. Upon hearing her call, he peeked up. "Ah--hello," his quiet voice called as far as his mask would allow. "You look prepared."

Ellere looked down at herself, shrugging, "Do I? I suppose a skirt would do me little good in a spar, hm?" As she approached, she let the bag off her shoulder, and leaned it up against a nearby wall. "Most of this is for tonight, honestly. I figured I may as well steal a spot near your fire again, than try and trek all the way home after."

He perked at that, his head canting. "Oh? You know I never mind your company," he replied in agreement to this plan. "I ought to show you my progress in my travel journal, later."

Ellere smiled, giving a nod as she wiped her brow. "I would very much like to see it," she bent to dig about for something in her bag a moment, "Now, how did your studies go? Would you like to show me before we get started?" Finally, she withdrew her mother's carefully folded starglobe and straightened.

"Ah--yes, actually. I have...gotten quick at the basic runes you showed me." He put his hand on the hilt of his sword, which seemed to help him focus. Taking a breath, he lifted his opposite hand and began to form a runic pattern in the air: protection. It did not take long for a golden shimmer to veil in front of him. He waited to see her reaction before he continued, his hand pausing in the air.

She stepped a bit closer, holding the globe between her hands. "Look at you," she marveled at the barrier, not doubting it's strength. It was so different than her own, gold against the blue.

Ruran peeked between her and starglobe, something curious in his eyes, but he didn't voice it. His hand lowered, and he fidgeted. "There was something else I learned. I--I was helping Renaud. We fought a voidsent, and...it grabbed me and began to drain my aether." 

His brow furrowed at the memory. "I escaped, but... I could not think clearly, it was all a blur..." The words were slow and thoughtful. "I recall moving my hand, but it was as if Ari'doram was...directing my aether as well. Forming runes I did not recognize..."

Ellere waited for the barrier to fall away between them, frowning at the tale. But she knew better than to scold him. It was what he did, after all. What they all did. "And, I shall assume Ari'doram was not inclined to share when asked? It... has taken control of you before. Perhaps it was merely showing what potential you have yet?"

"Perhaps so," he sighed, uncertain. "Ari'doram has knowledge within that goes back to the Belah'dian age, perhaps even farther. It just...does not know how to express it, I think." He rubbed the side of his neck, sheepish. "The runes were complex, and they...summoned a bolt, like lightning--but holy. I have been trying to replicate it, with little success..."

She furrowed her brow in thought, "I suppose it could have been instinctual... Without fully understanding Ari'doram and what kind of entity it truly is, it is hard to say. I would not let it dishearten either of you, though." She took a step to the side, almost starting to pace, "If Ari'doram cannot teach you, we must simply find something that can. I have inquired to my own contacts already about writings that I did not personally have. There may be something yet."

Ruran canted his head. "Truly..? I had thought to seek out the golems that I found in Qarn... They have...runes carved all over them. Perhaps they might be useful, at least for reference." He scratched the side of his mask. "B-but, ah--shall we? Spar, I mean, though it has been a while since my last..."

Ellere turned back, nodding her head with a smile, "I did specify any information they had especially on things of this area, and of Qarn's time. If you made copies of the inscriptions on the golems, perhaps we might be able to cross-reference them." She gave a bit of a laugh, "And I never have, so I shall still refer to you for proper etiquette."

With @weepingknight

He nodded, a soft light of interest in his eyes. "I shall do that, then," he agreed. "And ah...it may not be advised to do a proper spar just yet. You are still learning offensive spells, yes? H-how about we exchange some practice? I shall focus on my shields, and you try to destroy them..?"

Ellere looked down at her globe a moment, hands tightening around her hold slightly. She might not admit to being nervous, but she knew where she was lacking, after all. "Yes, still learning much. I spent a good amount of my life trying to forget astromancy. I think that sounds like it shall work well." Taking a breath, she moved to give them some space.

"Forget..? W-well, I am...glad that you are attempting again." His voice quieted, and he stood a little taller to focus. "Simply pretend I am not here--just a wall. I shall not judge you, this is practice." Assuming the same position as before, one hand on his blade and one extended, he began to form the rune. However, instead of allowing it to shimmer and disappear, he placed his hand on it to bolster and maintain its strength.

She flowed a bit aether into the globe, and it came to life in her hand. As it hovered above her palm, she smiled, "You are very sweet, but turning a spell on you, as ill-practiced as I am is still worrying. But I also am very much confident in your new abilities." She took another deep breath, before channeling again, a small burst of blue aether, just as she had done when he walked upon her that day at the beach.

Ruran braced himself, spreading his feet apart a bit more. He seemed focused, and behind the shield, there was even a flicker of gold in his eyes. The shield remained strong, even shone a little brighter, as Ellere's spell struck its surface and fizzled out.

She had quite expected that honestly. She was far too hesitant to let loose something of greater strength. But, she knew she would be doing him a disservice if she did not. No voidsent or best would hold back, after all. Another spell was sent toward the barrier.

Ruran's barrier held fast against the next burst of astral energy; the knight was getting familiar with at least this one rune. That she was casting--that was the purpose, yet he felt her hesitation in the way it glanced off his shield. "You can do it," Ruran assured. "Imagine the barrier is not mine. Imagine you...must break through in order to save me."

Ellere watched the spell burst into little flecks of starlight, and bit down on the inside of her cheek. But as he spoke, she gave a nod. Feeding more aether through the globe, she once more directed the spell at the barrier, doing her best to imagine as he said. "Well, I shall still applaud your ability to maintain something like this so soon."

Ruran concentrated, but he was still quite new at this. The next volley of aether collided into his barrier, and this time, he felt the balance of energy shift. A crack had formed. He did not yet know how to fix it. The crack webbed across his shield, and it shattered. "Oh--"

She held back on firing another spell, wishing to still make this a lesson. "Do not panic, remain focused. A shield is reliant much on your will. Try the rune of power I showed you, strengthen it, repair."

He nodded, taking a breath and focusing on the spell again. The stone around his neck flared, and he moved his hand to form another rune, one of power. It added to what he had, as well as caused another spark in his eyes.

With the barrier re-enforced, she too drew out more aether into another spell, but this time a force. He likely had seen her do it many times, walls of aether, a gravitational force. It pressed against one of the sides of the wall. "One does not often get the chance to choose where their barrier will be struck. Where can you lessen the strain? Where must you strengthen?"

Ruran's eyes flared. As she pushed, he succeeded in feeling where it was weakest. The top-right, furthest from his hand. "There," he murmured, and his hand moved, directing more aether to the thinnest point, and focusing less on the area immediately in front of him.

Ellere smiled proudly to herself, knowing it was likely unseen in his focus, "Good, dear, good." He was doing remarkably well. It took a bit to divide her own focus, but keeping directed force against that upper point, another small blast of aether as before targeted somewhere else.

Writing an arcane rune was one thing, but building and maintaining a barrier was another matter entirely. One he was not experienced enough in doing. He was so focused on keeping the top repaired, that he did not notice the small burst below. And once he did, he quickly reacted--but too much. It all became uneven, and it shattered from top to bottom. The force blew Ruran back just a few paces, and he landed on his back.

She gave a startled gasp, folding the astroglobe back and jogging over to his side. "Ah... are you all right? I am sorry, that was probably too much for our first try." She offered her hand to him, to help him back to his feet.

Ruran seemed fine, though he was exhausted. He fought to catch his breath. "I spent...far too much. That was too ambitious on my part, I think." His tone was good-natured, he seemed satisfied with the outcome, and he waved a dismissive hand to the one she offered. "I...think I shall lie here a bit. Have a seat?"

Ellere blinked down at him, unable to shake the worry, still. She too, had a bit of sweat on her brow, but merely nodded her head in agreement. "That was quite amazing, really," she praised, lowering herself beside him in the sand. "Sensing weak points in a barrier as you did, and adapting. I am proud."

"And you, for breaking through it," he complimented. "I...hope it was helpful. We ought to try again, but perhaps something less...taxing. I pray I do not need to maintain a barrier of that size or duration anytime soon..."

She laughed, nodding her head and gently laying the globe in her lap. "I believe something you said struck a chord with me. I should use every spell I have at my disposal to help others. Not only in healing, but  should someone depend on me to attack..." She reached over, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Even I would struggle to maintain something so large, for so long. I believe I have an idea for our next meeting."

Ruran studied her a moment and tilted his head. "Oh? What shall we do?"

Ellere hummed, shifting the hand at his shoulder to her chin, "Well, as good as an exercise it was, the times you shall need a sheer wall of defense are rare. Perhaps a more... rapid-fire test will help you focus. I can sling spells, aiming for different areas, and you can focus on a smaller shield."

His brows rose. "Oh--" He nodded, for all it was worth with his head on the ground. "That seems very--practical for me. It is what I oft try to do, with...flattening the orbs, as you taught me. Perhaps there is a way to combine the two..."

"Yes, and you mentioned making progress with such," she agreed, then gestured a bit with her arms, mimicking a shield to one side. "You struggled with their size, but that is not the case with your rune, as shown today. We just need to work on covering yourself, allowing strength to be diverted where you need it."

Ruran took a slow breath and nodded again. "I am certain it will get easier with time... I--I do not know how you do it, managing to maintain and adapt as you do. I have a new appreciation for it."

Ellere slowly flopped beside him in the sand, hands resting on her stomach. "We all have our strengths, sugar. I still cannot pick up a sword, hm? My whole life, I studied hard so that I could heal others, protect people. Beginning with my mother. It is a feeling I know that we share, so I have little doubt, in time, you will do the most amazing things."

He quietly hummed, thinking on all that was spoken. "If I do, it will be because I have an amazing teacher." He peeked her way, then up at the sky again.

Ellere smiled, moving one hand over and seeking his out blindly. "You flatter me. But I shall do my very best. Ah, look... the here come the stars."

[kapanbenernya]

Path of Exile -- Daddy Diablo’s Little Hellspawn

 Do you remember Diablo? If you're a guy that's been playing the PC when LAN was still the best method to play together since the internet is still an undependable piece of shit it was before puberty hit it hard and turned it into digital cocaine, you probably do. That's right, how can you forget about Blizzo's isometric dungeon crawler? I still remember my first hit of Diablo II, it was in the computer lab of my middle school. I never tried it again since until my college days, when me and my 3 friends basically rushed through the story in 3 days straight, all while cramped together in a 3 x 4 metres room. I'll spare you the gnarly details, but one of them involved laying my legs on the bathroom floor just to make some room.

So, um, let me change the topic here: Do you LIKE Diablo? Well if you remember it and are still playing it's sequels to this day, I'd say you do. And you know who else likes Diablo?

These guys!

That's right, they like Diablo so much they made their own Diablo. They cloned Diablo, mutated its genes and gave birth to their own brand of grindy isometric RPG: Path of Exile and Torchlight, respectively. 

I've actually played Torchlight before, the first and the second. The first one was very simple: 1 town, 2 pets, 3 classes, and like, a billion enemies. The second one was more fleshed out with more towns, more classes, but I didn't like it as much as the first. I liked the first one because it doesn't try to emulate Diablo that much. It's got a more laid back cartoony style, which sets it apart from the competition because it's always demonic horrors with these kind of games. Don't wanna swing too far from under Daddy Diablo's hairy ballsack, eh guys?

That's about all I can say about Torchlight, so let's change gears and finally talk about Path of Exile.

Story is, you are a criminal of some sort in a city that seems to be filled exclusively by pompous assholes, and your sentence is --you guessed it-- being the person that rubs the King's left ballsack until it shines. Of course you fucking don't, it's exile. You are sent away into the wilderness before you stain all the marble and rugs with your filthy criminal hands. So on your way. the boat you are sent on shipwrecks because God feels like karma's been to slow these days and he wants to take control once in a while. You then awaken in the land of Wraeclast, filled to the brim with criminals, monsters, and other undesirables you might think of. And so begins your journey to find your path. As an exile. The Path of Exile, if you will (BOOM TITLE DROP). 

And that's about all the story you need. For the rest of them, you can make an effort and click on the NPCs. If you do want to bother yourself by reading all the flavor text you can access in the game, you will actually find a quite decent story of the city, the culture, their gods and progenitors, and why everything is fucked the way it is now. I personally couldn't be bothered because I know it’s going to be the same shit over and over again. In fact, let me summarize everything for you, the plot is basically "Everything's gone to shit, there’s demons everywhere, oh God somebody do something”. That's my mantra for the story of Diablo, and it works fine enough with PoE. Now let's talk mechanics

I promise you, this is where the section where the game shines anyway

Now I'm not gonna go into the details here because almost everyone knows the general mechanics of isometric RPGs: you click around to move, attack, use skills, pickup items, drop items, initiate conversations, end conversations, open loot, pay respects, and so much more. What I'm going to discuss is the one thing that I think is the unique selling point of PoE, which is the Skill Gems. In PoE, the skills are not tied to your class or level or any skill tree, it's tied only to the aforementioned skill gem. To equip a skill, you have put the skill gem into a socket in the equipment in accordance to their color: red, green, or blue. So if you happen to unequip an item with a skill gem, the skill becomes inactive and you can't use it. To me, this is a game changer since it changes the way you look at weapons and armors from the old traditional way. The old way was that the higher the number equals better weapon or armor and usually it's the one you want. But in PoE, this might not be the case since the skill system is tied to the equipment. And here comes the part where you have to think hard. Let's say you found some cool new bling to wear with higher numbers than the one you have, so naturally you wanna equip it right away, right? But what about the gem slots? The colors? The gem links? Does it accomodate your build? How about element resistances? Is it an armor armor or an evasion armor? It makes you choose between the mystic plate mail made out of virgin tears with a measly single slot or the plain white T-shirt with 6 linked slots. It's like making you consider going out in a Lamborghini that'll turn all the ladies' heads or a minivan because it can fit more whores.

While you're thinking about that, let me give you another headache: the passive skill tree.

Intimidating, isn’t it?

This is the reason why I decided against playing the game when I first heard about it from my friend. I can’t give you the numbers because I couldn’t find the total number of all the passive skills on the internet. And I think it’s a testament to how utterly ridiculous it is! I mean the internet’s got all kinds of information, so the fact that the total number isn’t available means that no one can be bothered to count them all. And you know that internet nerds would do anything just to get any semblance of productivity and sense of self-worth. Oh whatever, it’s not the numbers I’m here to talk to you about, because in the long run the numbers aren’t important. The important one is the passive build. If you’re not familiar, a build in RPG is kind of like a template or a preset that you plan in accordance to how you want your character to be. Or in other words, building your character. In the case of Path of Exile, your build is about taking the right passive skills that supports the active skills you want to use. Now that you know what a build is, here’s an advice to save you from tears: pick a build before you play. Well ok, maybe you’re a veteran RPG player or you just wanna go in blind and improvise (like me), but how about you think again? There are about 100+ passive skill nodes you can take from the God-knows-how-many are available, not to mention the active skills you’d want to use. I mean the numbers alone are terrifying, how about the synergy between the passives and the actives? What if you want to change your active skills and the passives are no longer compatible? Should you take the health node or an offensive node? How about the special nodes that grants you unique abilities? Would you like to invest in the socket node that buffs your skill gem?

OH GOD OH LORD MAKE IT STOP

So far I've listed the mechanics and the happenings of the game. So here's the last thing on my checklist before I draw my conclusion: do I enjoy it? 

Well, here's the part where it starts going sideways.

On my playthrough, of course I decide to go at it with my friend, since these dungeon crawlers are kind of made to be played that way. My friend told me to search for a build guide, but I decided I'm gonna be a brave boy and go blind on this character. For a while, we journeyed together, slayed together, get slayed together, and fought over the loot together. Then I went offline for several days and came back to find my friend had continued grinding for those days. The power gap had become too much of a difference to the point he coudn't flex his arms without a monster dying somewhere in the vicinity, and that's already after the party nerf. Turns out the stat nerf doesn't mean that much shit when he's already got most of the endgame skill jewels. So there I was just picking up the loot while he's busy mowing down the enemies. The most helpful thing I could do was cast a debuff spell to curse the enemies (as if they aren't helpless enough already). And it is in that moment that I thought to myself, "How am I anymore useful than the golem following his ass around?". It is at that moment where I stopped taking the game and its fancy ass skill tree seriously and just go at it for shits and giggles.

But of course, being a credible man of high-credibility and redundancy, it would be unfair to judge the game based on my experience with my friends. I mean how would I know that my friend didn't ruin the game for me? He turned me into a vestigial golem for fuck's sake, and I'd bet your ass that wasn't the intended game experience! (I mean maybe, I didn't check if there's a fucking build for that). I went off to set out on a lonely journey of my own; alone and without any companions 

ok I'll stop with the redundancy thing, I promise

So I made a new character to test out the game unhindered by my friends only to have it backfire on me because after half an hour of playing alone, all I can feel is the grind. I mean it made sense, at least when I'm with my friends I can still chat and crack jokes with each other. Take the social aspect away and in comes the grind, just like real life.

So finally I gave up on the new character and I'm about to give up on the game entirely. Or at least that was the plan until my friend suggested to take a look at my sloppily made character. 10 mins after he looked at my build, he told me that I got a lot of things wrong and that I'm a fucking waste of human life. He then proceeds to tell me which passives to get, which skills to throw away, and gave me his hand-me-downs. Afterwards, I took my optimized guy for a test drive, and I found out that he performs a lot better than before. And that's when the game feels great for me. No longer am I dead after I brushed elbows with a monster, and no longer do I have to spend 3 minutes to clear a normal enemy mob. It turned my dungeon crawl into my dungeon one way bullet train to Funtown. The grind feels less grindy, and that's about all I can ask for because I'm starting to enjoy the game proper. Or at least that was the case until I beat the final boss and my friends introduced me to the endgame content. I went in confident as hell, and I ended up getting 1 hit-KO’d once more. No. That’s too much. This has been an uphill struggle from the start and now that I’ve reached the peak, my reward is another mountain to scale. So no thanks buddies, I’m fully content with THIS mountain peak, it’s a good enough place for me to throw myself off the cliff.

In Brief

There's no easier way for me to summarize PoE. It always goes back to the Diablo comparison, so the conclusion is: if you like Diablo, I'm 90% sure that you'll like this one. The other 10% however depends solely on your tastes, and the differences lie in the skill gems and the passive tree which is the 2 things that defines PoE. Here's the cliffsnotes to help you with your decision so you can get on your way. If you think Diablo is too simple and you want a creative challenge in creating a build that feels unique to you, go get PoE. If you like Diablo as is and you think that the skill gem and passive tree appeals only to maniacs whose wrists should be broken with pipe wrenches for their own good, I'd suggest you buy an expensive mobile phone and keep your credit card nearby.

The one thing I learnt from this is that it's all about optimisation. It's either you go all-in and find the best build, skill, and equips or you'd better off not playing the game at all, because all that's left is the grind and pain. And fuck me if grind and pain is what passes for fun these days. Cause if it does, then I fear for the humans of the future and how they're gonna have to find a way to eat spaghetti with their ball-gag still on.

15/4/2019

[twitchesandstitches]

In the continuity of the crossovers, ficlets, original stuff and various AUs I like to write, I have an idea for the overall cosmology it takes place in. This is the multiverse, comprising the worlds characters might travel in and stranger realms from which magic and eldritch beings might originate, as well as many unique realms of no particular astral alignment but might make good plot hooks, brief adventures or sources of antagonists or treasures, or even answers relevant to a given story.

This cosmology is very much a work in progress and heavily inspired by a mess of different series - primarily the Great Wheel of 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons as seen in Planescape: Torment, aspects of 4th Edition D&D, whatever was going on in Exalted, and whatever else feels like an appropriate addition. Consequently any of this might change later on, and I welcome suggestions.

A few ground rules for how things work, on the scale of the regular universes the characters know. These are places that aren’t so different from the world we know.

On the current scene of things, the multiverse - and thus the casts - has only recently recovered from a catastrophic incident that occured about a thousand years ago, with brief flare ups resulting in further damage a little less than a hundred years ago. This has left many universes collapsed, arun with terrible monsters and destroyed civilizations; warbands of hopeful conquerors run rampant, and newly established societies struggle to gain a foothold, while roaming bands of nomads move from world to world. However, things are not all doom and gloom, as society is making a comeback and people are recovering, now exploring the ruins of the past to piece together what happened and restore lost technologies and arts.

The multiverse itself is still wounded; demons, cosmic horrors, world-eating abominations and mysterious entities of all kinds regularly invade the material realms and make a real nuisance of themselves.

The general tone is similar to Space Opera settings, with a dash of epic fantasy overlaid with sci fi aesthetics; grand and, well, operatic adventures in space, flying from planet to planet, battling with wicked warlords who command whole systems and entreating with ancient empires and vast galactic councils that all beings have a voice in. Battles and wars are fought with laser swords, rocket hammers and energy shields, with firearms shooting stuff like lightning, mini-rockets and chainsaw-grains instead of bullets. Power armor and mini mecha are ubiquitous among the more powerful factions, tending towards ‘mechanical exoskeletons’ in design.

Visually, as far as the stuff relevant to our characters is, the look is a little bit of a combination of post-cyberpunk space travel, with a hint of modern Mass Effect-style shininess, and a heavy dose of scavengerpunk. Spaceships are big, bulky, round and scarred by the ages. People wear leathers, hexagon-toned bodysuits, bulky spacesuit/exoskeletons, or whatever rags they can stitch together into something cool. (If you’ve ever seen Eclipse Phase artwork, you might get an idea.) Technology generally looks bulky, powerful and comically oversized for whatever it’s purpose is; evidently miniaturization was not in fashion before the big breakdown of things. Things mostly look like grand and glorious works of quasi-magical wonder, but worn down by the ages and scavenged, pasted back together and holding on with tape.

This is not universal, however. Certainly some newfound place of philosophy and enlightenment might harken to buildings of crystal spires that act as vast computers, the people wearing elegant lengths of cloth fashioned into togas and robes. The marauding warband trying to annoy them with loud music might wear bulky armor bolted together and painted red (BECAUSE IT GOES FASTER). And RIGHT NEXT to that, is a cyberpunk corporation world of gloomy spires, neon lights, and a lot of slots to plug your stuff into your body.

The overall technology level and series tone can be described as Warhammer 40k IF Mass Effect’s Paragon tone modified the setting to be less grimdark and stabby. (Alternatively, it USED to be super grimdark but the near destruction of all reality made things calm down a lot. All the people responsible for bad stuff got killed and the societies that enabled them were no longer relevant.) Minus the most destructive weaponry and world-buster bombs, barring caches of weaponry or automated factories that pragmatic factions or overeager warlords would just LOVE to have.

This translates roughly to a very high tech setting prior to the big catastrophe; technology capabilities are usually pretty good (to the point that space travel is pretty common for regular folks and not a national effort), but the most powerful and game-breaking things are the stuff of old civilizations, and are bitterly fought for and studied. Massive war ships that can destroy whole civilizations or legendary mech suits are irreplaceable and unique, because no one knows how they work or how to make more of them, due to the surrounding sciences no longer existing.

Modding. This refers to the use of biological alterations (mods, or biomods for more formal stuff), as well as slang for minor aesthetic alterations, and full on reshaping of someone’s body. This is EXTREMELY common in this setting, not just to enable hyper curves, gigantic sizes or other appropriate changes, but for more practical purposes. Someone might make themselves huge and with powerful muscles to be a better fighter, for instance, or alter their brain for greater thinking. Hyper fertility for one-woman population booms is also quite popular, linked to mega-curve changes. Often these alterations are NOT subtle in the slightest, and will show dramatic changes; how kink-related those might be is situational.

Modding also refers to cybernetics. In keeping with the aesthetics, these cybernetics might be polished or elegant, but they are rarely subtle. People don’t have tiny chips in their brains, they have huge bulky thinking engines fused to their brains in perfect harmony. Robot prosthetic limbs are massive, bulky and shimmering masses of machinery. Even synthetic muscle tissue WILL be pretty dang obvious, whether it be glowy, replace weaker organic muscles, or just be huge. Finally, cybernetics has no inherently negative effect just because it isn’t ‘natural’. Neither is sitting at a table looking at a phone or computer, but there you are! Any complications are strictly health-related, rather than innate or spiritual.

Now, to explain the fantasy-ish elements.

There are gods, and angels, and demons, and other beings. They exist far out in the multiverse, far from mortal dealings, and mostly they do their own thing. The affairs of mortals is not their main concern, but they do take an interest in us. Gods and similar beings take on different forms based on the cultures revering them, and they might be shaped by mortal belief, but there is a notable distinction between gods MADE from mortal belief, and those who exist apart from mortal relevance.

Magic is a thing. Specifically it follows the model of magic as just a thing that almost everyone can do, but it takes skill and training to do impressive stuff with it. An example: plenty of people have enough ability to, say, boost their skills to superhuman levels briefly or have great control over their body’s growth, but not everyone can throw a fireball. Typically people draw magical energy and shape it into various effects - perhaps forging it into one of a kind relics for ‘super science’ gadgetry - or more standard fantasy sorcery, with a hint of sci fi rationale to it. It can be understood and is rarely persecuted, and underlies a lot of the technological abilities in the setting. There is a distinction between arcane energy in its many forms, which is just the background essence of the cosmos, and divine magic, which is the raw power of genuine gods or spiritual powers, descending onto mortal believers and champions and empowering them.

Magic is hugely differentiated across the cosmos, and even in specific universes. It is heavily informed by culture and personal experience, and magic is more or less a power caused by emotion and perspective bleeding into the fabric of reality, backed up by energy and force of willpower, and shaping it. (Thus, magic is related to the soul; all beings that have souls can use magic, and using magic means you HAVE a soul.) In some places, you might have people who inherit influence over an element that their people are culturally tied to. In another, it might be a matter of academic study with little personal relevance. HAving them MEET can result in some interesting consequences for their abilities.

A soul, for that note, is the consequence of sapience and also sentience; self-awareness combined with the ability to say to the universe ‘I AM’. Clones, robots, self-aware golems, and every conceivable artificial being has as much of a soul as a naturally born human. They are people, and if it can ask ‘Do I have a soul’, then they do.

Many standards of sci fi, and indeed many archaic concepts (berserkers, knights, plate armor, weaponry of all sort and many varieties of ancient armor) are still quite present. However they are rendered with a sci fi aesthetic. Instead of knights, you have monastic orders of power armored warriors that rule as lords over regions. Instead of berserkers, you have ferocious warriors who have modded themselves

Some tech and sci fi thoughts:

As mentioned above, warfare is more similar to older forms of combat in the romantic tradition rather than modern notions of military action. This is partly because I find realistic warfare to be rather boring to really handle on its own. On a practical level, its harder to do it; one can’t just bomb your enemies into submission when targeting systems are difficult to figure out and you’re not really sure how they work except in the most arcane terms. (And they might be magical and can argue with you.) Modern military action CAN still happen, it’s just not an immediate option most of the time. Tanks, speedy jet-bikes, big time charges ad people gazing in awe as giant robots march into the field like living gods is definitely a feature here. Again, think of Warhammer 40k-style battles. Mechanized stuff is still relevant, as well. It is likely also televised and made into entertainment… which is super messed up.

Technology levels vary… a lot. In general it can be assumed that your standard space faring faction, band or society can produce their own spacecraft without relying on treasure troves of ancient relics or treasure hunts to find intact ships; this also implies intact understanding of relevant scientific fields. Thing might get iffier with things like energy-based weapons, advanced personal shields, or something, but they are still reasonably common. It’s usually a local question whether that means that such things can be made cheaply, or if there is a very large pre-collapse cache of them.

Magic involved with technology is very, very common. Cosmic internet that manifests as interconnected chains of psychic energy between populations, bizarre creations that only function because of their magical nature, the use of mental powers to safely navigate through mysterious realms or send telepathic messages to a distant world; all of these are reasonably common. Many groups may replace advanced scientific know-how with magical experimentation entirely, causing a great deal of diversity in individual tool use and fashions.

On that note: faster-than-light travel. It is a thing in universe (how else would you go from world to world to have fun adventures?) but it’s not easy. It is not simple and it can be very, very dangerous. There are a few different methods; phasing into other realms of existence to ignore the speed of light, as that rule won’t apply, is a common one, but this runs the risk of attracting the attention of potentially malicious cosmic horrors, and surging people up with magic, for all kinds of weird transformations. There is also the use of ancient artifacts that transport ships from one point to another, or complicated warp drives that do stuff to gravity at the cost of enormous fuel requirements. In general, this stuff can’t be weaponized, and its most common that public transit between the stars involves the cosmic equivalent of buses; people pack their ships into really large barges and go along for the ride, saving on costs.

Alien life. It’s there! It’s a big deal! And most of it doesn’t look like us, SERIOUSLY GUYS I HATE THE RUBBER FOREHEAD HUMAN TROPE SO MUCH IT CAN BURN IN A DITCH. Think in terms of Mass Effect or Animorphs alien designs for how distinct they can get. Alien races that are canonically similar to humans will likely either be reimagined as being derived from humanity or redesigned into something more appropriate to their homeworld or, if artificial, the circumstances of their creation.

Feel free to ask me about other stuff you might want to know, or should take into consideration for world building!

[chaldeluxe]

LONDON: CHAPTER 5.

____________

Andersen: Hoh. Not bad for a hideaway. I like it. I’ll take the study.

Andersen: I’ll be unpacking, so call me if you need something. Ah, and if you’re entering, be sure to knock.

Mordred: ... Ahh, I’m exhausted. Twice as much thanks to the luggage. Three times, even!

Jekyll: You’re treating my sofa so roughly again… if possible, I’d like it to be a guest-only… … no, nevermind.

Jekyll: It’s fine as is. Listen closely, Mashu and Gudako.

Jekyll: Jack the Ripper appeared again. Only this time it wasn’t to murder a woman under the cover of the fog.

Jekyll: They’ve got Scotland Yard under siege. I’ve received telegraphs for reinforcements from police stations all over London.

Mordred: That bastard’s finally shown up again!

[CHOICE]

1. Is that some kind of fated encounter for you? 2. An acquaintance of yours?

Mordred: Yeah. They’re a Servant. Assassin Class. We fought a lot in the fog, but…

Mordred: Every time they get away. I can’t lock ‘em down. They just escape into the fog!

Mordred: That and I can’t remember a single concrete detail about them. Not their face, or form, or even their abilities. It’s frustrating as hell… !

Mordred: Best I can do is nod my head whenever I hear the name Jack the Ripper like, ooh yeah, that Assassin!

Mordred: Damn. My head’s all fuzzy just thinking about that asshole!

Jekyll: You two might’ve run into them as well. What do you think? Do you recall fighting an Assassin?

Mashu: Ah…

Mashu: Now that you mention it… it sort of feels like we did. A surprise attack... by...

Mashu: That’s right… we got ambushed. My memories are suddenly coming back to me.

Mashu: I almost forgot everything. But, there has to be some reason for what happened...

[CHOICE]

1. A skill? 2. A Noble Phantasm?

Mashu: Yes, Senpai. That must be it. I wonder which one it was, though? A skill or Noble Phantasm.

Mordred: That one’s quick to run. If we don’t get moving, they’ll have cleared out already. Let’s go!

Andersen: What, you’re leaving? You should’ve said something. If you’re going out, let’s see... I’ll take a scone, then.

Mordred: Like hell you're going! Well, not like you’d be useful if you did…

Mordred: … hold up. You think we’ll have as easy of a time as before?

Andersen: That was an phenomenal exception. Don’t go depending on me for everything. And just what are you looking to get out of us authors, truly?

Andersen: Do you think of me as some all-knowing being? If so, you’d best reconsider.

Andersen: Listen up. Authors are just morons whose words run off the page simply because they couldn’t get anything in life!

Andersen: Do you think someone like that could ever be useful?

Mordred: … I was stupid for even asking. Let’s get moving, Mashu, Gudako!

// SHIFT TO OUTSIDE. //

Mordred: Full speed ahead to our destination. Mashu, carry Gudako. It’s a race against the clock.

Mordred: There’s no way a human can keep up. We’ll head straight for the Yard with pure Servant sprinting power.

Mashu: R-Right …excuse me, Senpai. It’s just for a little while.

[CHOICE]

1. Try not to drop me. 2. Likewise. Sorry for this.

Mashu: O-Okay.

Mashu: …I’ll be as careful as possible. Be sure not to let go of me, Senpai.

Mordred: Hey, get movi--- tch. Soon as I say it, there's enemies at our flanks!

Dr. Roman: Huge enemy readings. They’re closing in from all directions. Break through before they surround you!

// BATTLE. //

Mordred: We almost crushed ‘em all! Forget the rest. We’re making a run for it, Mashu!

Mashu: Right!

Dr. Roman: She sure is full of moxie. I guess they don’t call her the Knight of Treachery for nothing.

Mashu: That’s right. That combat efficiency is straight out of the legend.

Mashu: As swift and accurate as a bolt of lightning across the sky, the point of her sword never wavers.

[CHOICE]

1. Knight of Treachery? 2. You mean Mordred?

Dr. Roman: Ah, that reminds me--- no one said anything to you, did they, Gudako-chan?

Dr. Roman: The Knight of Treachery, Mordred. A Heroic Spirit manifested in this world under the Saber class.

Dr. Roman: He’s[1] not from this era, of course. His origins lie in the 5th-6th century with the legend of King Arthur.

Dr. Roman: The individual who brought about the end of an era. The one person who literally staged a rebellion against King Arthur.

Mashu: And it was by all means an exceptional rebellion. It was the first time someone had ever rallied together anti-Arthur forces made up of their foreign enemies.

Mashu: In order words, Mordred stood alone as the King of Treachery. If times had been more peaceful, perhaps she might’ve even succeeded the King.

Mashu: There are countless legends about Mordred’s bravery as well. As one of the Knights of the Round---

Dr. Roman: They called him the son of King Arthur. Only they also said the King never properly acknowledged his child.

Dr. Roman: That may be the reason why he changed their mind about the rebellion. So why did Mordred still defy King Arthur at every turn?

Dr. Roman: I suppose only he--- she[1], would know the real reason why.

[CHOICE]

1. The rebellion succeeded? 2. The rebellion was a failure?

Mashu: … yes. The knight Mordred lost her life during the Battle of Camlann.

Mashu: In reality, it was more of a tie. She wielded the Demonic Sword Clarent against King Arthur in battle.

Mashu: King Arthur fought with his holy lance and pierced the traitor.

Mashu: The king himself had also fallen, mortally wounded when---

Mordred: What’re you blabbing about over there!? Get moving already!

Mashu: Ah, r-right!

[CHOICE]

1. Let’s go!

Mashu: …Roger, Master!

// BATTLE. //

Mordred: They’re closing in from the side, one after the other!

Mordred: Pick up the pace again, Mashu!

Mashu: Okay… !

Dr. Roman: Sorry to interrupt while you’re en-route. I’ve got a hot report straight from Da Vinci-chan!

Dr. Roman: It’s about those huge, armored, mysterious robots. I’ll be reporting the results of our findings concerning the Helter Skelters.  

Dr. Roman: It’s as accurate as we can be while still analyzing, but here’s what I’ve got, based on the preliminaries.

Dr. Roman: First of all, they’re not golems. Traces of magical mechanisms can’t be confirmed with video evidence.

Dr. Roman: Though they’re purely mechanical… there’s still a lot I don’t get. It seems like they’re running on steam engines. Any other details are unknown.

Dr. Roman: It seems like technology you’d find in our time, the year 2017.

Dr. Roman: Made with some kind of hidden or long-lost technique---

Dr. Roman: Almost like they made rapid progress with their super technology by taking a different path from our world.

Dr. Roman: … ...yep.

Dr. Roman: … well, of course. Of course you wouldn’t answer, ‘cause you’re busy running and stuff…

Dr. Roman: That’s enough out of me. Do your best out there!

// BATTLE. //

Jack the Ripper: … ....huh?

Jack the Ripper: So you came from that direction. Then, hehe, we’ll… What should we do with you?

Jack the Ripper: Should we kill you? One, two, three. So many. A whole lot.

Jack the Ripper: Hehe. We already killed a whole bunch, but we’re still hungry. Starving.

Jack the Ripper: All ‘cause Mr. Policeman didn’t have much magical energy.

Jack the Ripper: So, thank you! We’ll eat your magical energy up and be full!

Mordred: We made it---

Mordred: Or not, it looks like. The smell of blood… so the Yard’s been wiped out.

Dr. Roman: I’m detecting two other signatures besides you guys. Jack the Ripper and one other.

Mashu: I can guess pretty well who the unknown Servant is. That man over there---

(???): Yes. I just so happen to be a Caster Servant. One of the three pulling the strings of that “Project”.

[CHOICE]

1. The Demon Fog Project? 2. Why’re you doing this?

(???): We have several of our own conditions and circumstances. You may call me “P”, if you wish.

P: I’m afraid you were just a tad too late. The poor Scotland Yard has already been annihilated.

P: They all died in such horrid, gruesome ways. For you see, that child hasn’t an ounce of compassion in her heart.

P: It was all necessary, however. An unavoidable sacrifice. It almost seems a tribute to the fallen when you say express it in such a way.

P: Truly, man is a creature who ought to be adored. Both love and affection are such dazzling things.

P: How sad, that the cause sometimes takes precedence.

P: Something we required was tucked safely away in Scotland Yard’s headquarters.

P: As one would expect, the Mage’s Association, Clock Tower, reside in the British Empire. They applied a strong magical seal to the place.

P: Thus they, while unfortunate, ended up posing a grand obstacle to our cause.

Mordred: What's with this blowhard. Who gives a damn about love or affection!

Mordred: You went and put your hand on what’s mine again. You, who are not the king, have touched that which belongs to the king.

[CHOICE]

1. You killed innocent people despite being a Heroic Spirit? 2. Don’t you have any pride as a hero!?

P: Indeed. And that is why I cannot show any sadness.

P: Those bound to hope should be noble. Those bound to love should be brilliant.

P: I’m not likely to save them with this paltry power of mine. That alone should be clear when you consider the aforementioned outcome.

P: This era will fall to ruin. Even humanity itself will fall to ruin.

P: Annihilate desires, love, humanity’s progression, and only four idiosyncrasies will remain in this left behind world.

P: What a miserable outcome it’ll be. But neither you nor I can stop it.

P: No. If you’re unable to stop it, that is---

Mashu: … you’re contradicting yourself.

Mashu: I feel a deep discrepancy in those words of yours, Caster. No, P. Who are you, really?

Mashu: You’re using Jack just to take human lives. It sounds to me like you’re the one who lacks an ounce of compassion.

P: That may very well be true, beautiful young lady.

P: I’m nothing more than a wicked magus in the end, it seems. Even now, I command an innocent girl.

P: Jack. I’ll leave the rest to you.

P: Do as you like. That girl may even be your Mother, you know.

Jack: Eh? Is that… true. ?

Jack: So that’s how it is. Hmm. Then… we’ll treat you just like our own Mother.

Jack: Will you let us go back? Deep, deep inside of you… inside Mother…

Mordred: Forget it. You’re going straight back to the Throne. Here’s where you die.

Mashu: We need to think of a way to stop Assassin in her tracks. ...Senpai…

[CHOICE]

1. We’ve got to stop her. 2. Let’s start this.

Mashu: ---OK! Master!

// BATTLE. //

Jack: Mo… ther…. no…. no, no, no… it, hurts…

Jack: Why… why did you…

Jack: … why, did… tell me... hey… …?

P: Farewell, child who knows naught of love. One day, you’ll obtain the affection you seek.

P: ---now, then. I suppose this is where I die, felled by your hand.

P: The cold-blooded magus is defeated by the hero. Therein lies the sole answer I seek.

P: But. I must carry out my role first.

P: Farewell, you heroes who walk on a radiant path. And you, Knight of the Round---

P: I pray for your continued existence as a champion of justice who strikes down treachery.

Mordred: Wait! Shit, he vanished! Magi always do this!

Mashu: Spatial Transportation--- that’s the spell that let him be forcibly removed.

Mashu: It was originally a form of magecraft that could hold a candle to True Magic. Using it like that... it’s very possible that a Holy Grail is…

Dr. Roman: It’s very likely. At least for the sole mastermind who’s behind the “Demon Fog Project” that’s trying to destroy this era.

Dr. Roman: Otherwise, it’s possible that possession of the Holy Grail was transferred to him.

Dr. Roman: I wonder what his true purpose in London is…

Mordred: I could care less. All we’ve gotta do is flush him out and flatten him!

// TO THE LEAGUE OF GENIUSES. //

P: … I’ve returned safely.

B: Psssh… kohh…

M: Good work. …that girl was defeated, then?

P: She died, unfortunately. We've suffered a sequence of failure since Mephistopheles’ loss.

M: It won’t affect that much. All we need to focus on is carrying out the “Project”.

P: Yes. I suppose so. You’re right. We three are Servants. All we need do is follow the whims of our Master.

P: There’s no need to wallow in regret. You should be moving forward with your own “Project”, yes?

M: …I know.

B: Creating a path for this world and its civilization--- therein lies the greatest mission for we wise scholars.

B: If this world were incinerated, both humanity and civilization itself would be well on its way to that established point of demise.

B: We would no longer be---

[1] Roman only uses カレ and 彼 (kare, katakana then kanji, he/him) in reference to Mordred when he gets carried away talking about the legend here. Mashu doesn’t do that in that segment. Once Roman catches himself, he corrects himself to 彼女 (kanojo, she/her) which is also what Mashu and everyone else uses for Mordred usually.

It’s difficult to put in English because in Japanese pronouns aren’t necessarily required when referring to someone and Mashu isn’t using any during the exposition. It’s only supposed to be Roman, so the official translation probably missed the context and falsely had Mashu use he/him too while explaining Mordred’s legend.

Editor V note: Since it’s a topic in tandem, everyone uses kanojo for Mordred and usually she doesn’t slice their throats open so she doesn’t care about pronouns. Just don’t call her or treat her explicitly like a man or a woman. That’s why she threatened Jekyll in the other chapter.

[rattle-me-bones]

World of Warcraft races ranked from least to most goth

13: Pandaren - They have their own thing so this is more of a compliment than an insult

12: Draenei - Worshipping the light is not goth, call me a gatekeeper all you like it is the truth. They’re only above Pandaren due to the ability of having some Death Knights, who are most definitely goth

11: Trolls - Blizz has never touched on Dark Trolls since WC3, effectively erasing gothness from their culture. Shame on you Blizz.

10: Goblins - Capitalism isn’t goth but Goblins like to explore different subcultures like goth through classes like Warlock and Death Knight

8: Gnomes - Gnomes have some pretty good goths through being warlocks and all that, but they have yet to establish their own goth-subculture unlike many of the following races, perhaps they’ll be the first Cyber-goths in wow?

9: Blood Elves - Very very close to Night Elves in terms of goth. Goth can be seen in Blood Elf society through warlocks and blood mages but their numbers are small and while some have become goths since TBC and likely after the events of WC3: TFT, through becoming demon hunters, it has only been a recent thing whereas Night Elves invented Demon Hunters and had them since the War of the Ancients

7: Night Elves - Really un-goth for the most part despite their name, but they did have the first demon hunters which is undeniably a goth group and has persisted to this day. Demon hunters have been really influential in the goth section of WoW and have only become more goth as time has gone on, eating demon hearts etc. Very goth things

6: Worgen - It’s surprising to me to not have Worgen at least in the top three, but while worgen visually are really goth, it’s hard to say whether they’ve fully embraced gothic culture completely. Gilneas is a pretty gothic place but it’s more old english gothic than the goth we all know and love. Also, being able to turn off your goth and go back to looking like a human is not goth at all. They could easily be at least number 2 goth race if they used their amazing potential to its fullest.

5: Tauren - Despite most Tauren being pretty ungoth, the Grimtotem Tauren are a prime example of an established goth subculture within a race. Black fur is already leaps and bounds over most of the less goth races, not only that but they paint skulls on their faces too which is very goth.

4: Dwarves - Dark Iron Dwarves are most definitely goth although they do lean a little more to the metal-head side of the subculture, but these things are not mutually exclusive and you can certainly be both. Living inside of a volcano and making your own city inside of it, and working with Twilight cultists is very much a goth thing, they even build metal golems and hang out with giant evil fire dudes. The other dwarf races aren’t really that goth and are holding the race back from being really goth.

3: Humans - While humans are mostly a non-goth culture it can not be even be dismissed that a human was responsible for launching the previously not too large goth subculture ran by a orc spirit trapped in armour, trapped in an ice cube, into the biggest goth group that has ever been created on Azeroth. Arthas got his goth sword, his goth armour and proceeded to goth up Lordaeron beyond imaging, after this he went to meet the Goth King but was interrupted and impeded by the Great Goth Discourse of Year 26, where Arthas and and Illidan fought in a battle to determine who was more goth. I would like to just mention now that fighting over who is more goth is the most ungoth thing you can do. Shame on both of you, Illidan and Arthas...

2: Orcs - Orcs have been innovating and creating new types of goth since the Gul’dan (the first orc goth) came into power and the got the horde to drink the fel goop. All this makes Orcs the first goths to appear in the Warcraft universe. Orcs have been raising the dead, making death knights, using void magic all before it was wide-spread to the modern-day races of Azeroth. The goth subcultures on Azeroth can nearly all be traced back to the orcs who first brought it to Azeroth.

1: Forsaken - Sylvanas has been a goth trend-setter since day one and has encouraged her people to do the same, she even let some ghost angels join the Forsaken purely for the aesthetic. Sylvanas welcomes all undead into her faction and has rebuilt the ruins of Arthas’ previously gothed up Lordaeron and somehow made it even more goth. Sylvanas is the goth hero that we need and her all inclusive attitude is extremely goth.

[evolutionsvoid]

Springshots are a species of insect that live in grasslands and open temperate environments. When compared to other giant insects that can walk these lands, Springshots are not a formidable size. When finished growing, a Springshot maxes at about the size of a human head.  The young start off quite small, only being about the size of your thumb. With time, though, they can quickly gain in size and mass, reaching their full size in just a few years. When it comes to group sizes, it is quite tricky to pin down their behavior. When observed in controlled environments, Springshots appear to live a solitary lifestyle. They do not seek out others of their kind, and only go to where the food is plentiful. This is what causes the dilemma, though. Since Springshots all seek out food rich areas, these solitary creatures inevitably run into more of their kind. Since food is their major concern, they do not waste energy on fighting or putting on displays, they just all scurry their way to their next meal. This causes locals and researchers to note large clusters of Springshots scuttling from one area to the other, which would confuse you into thinking that they live in large family groups. This just makes it an absolute mess when it comes to pinpointing their behavior. How does one classify a solitary creature that just happens to constantly group up with others of its kind unwillingly? They are raised to live by themselves, but just always happen to run into others. They don't seek them out, or try to keep with them. They just all happen to be heading to the same place. It is not like they need to travel in clusters to survive, as Springshots are rather good at deterring predators. Their carapace is quite hard, having exoskeletons that are tough as a crab's. Running up and down this shell are rows of wicked spikes, which are not as sharp as they appear. Though they look like they could shred skin, the edges are not sharpened and the tips are a bit blunted. Regardless, they do well at keeping predators away. No beast wants to try and bite something like that. A predator's best bet is to try and flip the insect over, in order to chew through the vulnerable underbelly. To combat that, Springshots have tough little legs that allow them to clamp down. You get them latched to a boulder, then you better call a golem over to dislodge them. There is a way to get them to come off of surfaces without having to use brute strength, but it is not a pleasant way if you aren't quick in your step.

Despite having strong legs and a shell made of spikes, they are not the favorite defense of a Springshot. No, the Springshot has a better way to scare away predators. Tucked underneath their bodies is something like a tail, an extra appendage of chitin and muscle. The "tail" remains mostly under its body, held close so that it does not drag on the ground. This specialized appendage is only brought into use when a Springshot is threatened. When a beast approaches, the Springshot will "click" this appendage into place. Somehow it seems to lock it into a framework of muscles that are wound up tight. When the "tail" is snapped into place, it sits parallel to the main body. When the predator draws close for a bite, the Springshot will release this pent up energy and let the "tail" fly! The "tail" strikes the ground and will launch the Springshot like a stone from a catapult! The force that is exerted is incredible, with the Springshots able to launch themselves at a forward distance of almost 10 meters! And that is only if something isn't in their way! When fired off near a snooping critter, the Springshot will barrel into them like a thorny shotput. Those blunted spikes won't feel so dull then! The force of their flight will allow their spikes to tear through hide and scales, and their projected mass can leave nasty bruises. I have heard from colleagues that they have witnessed Springshots knocking hounds out cold! Nothing ruins an appetite faster than your meal punching you square in the face! This amazing method of theirs works in different ways. If they are successful in striking their foe, the predator will most likely run off. Even if they miss, though, they will have launched themselves out of harms way, giving them a chance to flee. I say this, because Springshots don't exactly have much control over their flight. When they release their "tails," it is like unleashing a giant spring. They have no control over which direction they go or how far they fly. They just point in a general direction and hope for the best! Sometimes, their defensive methods actually land them in more trouble! I have heard stories of Springshots launching themselves into rivers or lakes. I have even heard of Springshots striking trees when they fly and their spikes sticking them to the bark! That has to be a sight to see! Though I have covered this amazing mechanism in terms of defense, I have not yet covered the strangest thing about it. Their "tails" are fired off so that they can scare away predators or flee from danger, but that is not all it can do. You see, the amount of force they launch themselves is quite incredible, to the point where it can be deadly. When attacked by a small reptile or mammal, say a raccoon, a direct hit of a Springshot launch can actually kill the animal. One thorny, solid blow to the skull and they are dead as a doornail. The Springshot did not mean to kill them, it was just trying to scare them away. It is a shame that the predator is dead, but hey free food! I may have not mentioned this earlier, but it was first believed that Springshots were strictly herbivorous. They prefer to cut down grasses with their mandibles and munch on their roots and greens. However, this view is changing, as it seems Springshots are leaning more towards opportunistic omnivore. When an attacker is killed by a Springshot's launch, the insect will not leave a free meal to rot. It will begin to feed on the downed opponent. When they are moving about in a cluster, the whole group will converge upon the corpse and feed. A foe looking to find a bite to eat in a group of Springshots may unintentionally make themselves a meal for them! This by no means is an intentional hunting method for the Springshot, just pure chance that they quickly take advantage of. The question is: how long before that is no longer the case? What if Springshots were to find out the usefulness of such a method? What if they discovered that their cluster size and strength could help bring down prey in a consistent manner? Imagine! Clusters of Springshots roaming the grasslands, finding suitable prey and then beating them to death with a hail of spiky bodies! It could work! The question is, are the Springshots smart enough to figure it out? And is that something we should actually hope for? Though a good source of migraines and concussions, people have found good uses for the Springshots. The main resource to gain from them are their tough shells. The exoskeleton can be hulled out and used for a variety of things. I have seen them used for armor, like shoulder pads and knee pads. I have even seen a merciless pugilist use them like a cestus (Needless to say, it was not a legal fight)! The plated sections can be divided, allowing one to put singular pieces on a variety of surfaces. I have seen clubs and maces being constructed with these shell fragments, and some farmers have put these chunks on fences to ward off intruders. Humans, fairies and dryads all find uses for these shells. For us dryads, we have found uses for the whole thing. When hollowed out, the shell of a Springshot makes a wonderful bowl and a nice decorative piece for any end table. You flip that thing on its back, fill it with soil and some seeds and you get a lovely potted plant! Great for herb gardens or single flower plantings. Also perfect for bashing a thief's skull in when they sneak in at night. On a less pleasant side, Springshot shells have seen much use when dryads are pulled into battles or wars. When the times come when we must take up arms, these will quickly make their way onto the battlefield. Like I said before, they are great for making weapons and armor. They also are good projectiles. Hollow them out and fill them with hardened sap, and you will have a solid weapon to launch at enemies. Used in slings and launchers, they can be fired off with enough strength to dent helmets and cave skulls. Even if the blow doesn't kill the opponent outright, it will soon. Since their spikes can easily open wounds, dryads always love to cover the shots with poison or ivy oil. The liquid seeps into the cuts and will take out the opponent hours later. Long ago, when the demon hordes tried to cleanse the surface, these poisoned weapons were used against them. As our kind fought to survive the burning legions, we turned to any weapon we had. Poisoned Springshots were one thing, but shells filled with deadly spores were another thing entirely. With the right mix, one could release a cloud of infectious spores that rooted itself into raw flesh and fed on rot. Many demon camps knew this weapon well, as we rained them down on their heads as they slept. Hey, I know it sounds super bad, but you have to remember what was at stake at the time. The demons fought to please their gods, the dryads fought to prevent their own extinction. When pushed to the edge of oblivion, dryads can be cruel, merciless fighters, and that is how we roll. We are the ones who always give peace a chance, but once that chance is up, the fight is on. Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

[the--kaleidoscope]

The legend of Orb the horse:

A story to help Ethan remember Orb the horse. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBQUeVPdYvo

Orb was once an ordinary horse, it was born as the only child to its parents and raised by its loving owners on a farm deep within the kingdom. Yet the blissful days of Orb’s youth were not to last, for on its fourth birthday it got separated from it owners while on a trip. For days it searched for them and yet could not find them until at last, it made its way back to the farm.

There it was met with a terrible sight, the farm was nought but a charred ruin, with the ashes of his former owners scattered across the ruin. Before Orb knew what was happening or could grieve for his loss several servants of the dark lord charged the horse.

In the nick of time Orb was saved by a sorcerer from the adventurer's guild. Who froze the servants and allowed Orb to shatter them.

Orb was taken in by the sorcerer who taught Orb how to understand the language spoken by creatures of the kingdom then explained what had transpired: The kingdom has been ruled over by good king Percival, everyone was enjoying a time of happiness until the king's advisor: Dorl Krad betrayed the king, killing him and taking the kingdom for himself.

Dorl Krad then began his reign of terror, bringing his servants of darkness in from the shadow realm. Many heroes had tried to kill him, however, he was guarded by a demonic horse of great size, wielding the power of stone of magma.

Finally, the sorcerer told Orb of his legacy, he was the horse who was able to wield the power of the stone of frost. The sorcerer presented Orb the stone and placed using a special harness onto Orb’s head.

For the next few years, Orb spent his time training with the stone in preparation for the fight ahead. Outside of his hidden home, the forces of Dorl Krad brought death and destruction to the land, while the dark lord himself lived in the capital, content in the knowledge nothing could stop him.

Then came the fateful day. Orb set out with several companions: the sorcerer, a knight of the realm called Heroica, her half brother, who was himself a half-elf. The dwarf: Simon and the stone golem: Silicon.

Together they fought their way to the capital, killing many of Dorl Krad’s servants. There they rallied the remnants of the kingdoms army behind them, swelling the forces numbers. Until they reached the walls of the capital where they were met with a full army of the servants of darkness. All but Heroica and Orb stayed to lead the army in the fight, distracting the dark lord's forces while the two sneaked in.

The two managed to make it past the sentries until they reached the king's hall where they were confronted by Dorl Krad and his horse: Crimson moon. Heroica charged Dorl Krad while Crimson moon and Orb duel.

Their fight was long and great and destroyed much of the castle, till finally Orb struck Moon with a spear of ice and slew the demonic horse. The death of the horse distracted Dorl for just a second allowing Heroica to drive her blade through his heart.

Orb collapsed of the wounds inflicted by Moon and eventually succumbed to them. Not before seeing the army of darkness fade away with the death of their master. When the kingdom was restored Orb was given a statue and written about in many books so that Orb’s legacy would never be forgotten.

Some say though that Orb’s spirit lives on and will visit the occasional individual, appearing in a different form each time. Who knows where next Orb will appear, yet it is still known that they are out there and that Orb’s legacy will never fade.

@resonantrequiem

[dungeons-and-dwegons]

Destined to Die (Strings of Fate)

Session 21 Recap [Abridged]

-Party along with Korska, the Pyromancer, and Zin have all been thrown into strange Nightmare Realm -Everyone is paralyzed with fear except for Fein who takes massive damage from Psychic Guardian -Naughty Fein falls back and casts Darkness to shroud himself -Psychic Guardians approach party members -Korska runs to Yumi and attempts to break her out of the psychic bubble -Nim is able to break out of fear and is bombarded by Psychic Guardians, rendering her unconscious -Natlia breaks out of her own fear and casts slow in a square around Yumi, hoping to slow the effects of whatever’s going on with her -Leonne eventually breaks out of his fear and starts mixing a liquid using things he’s gathered recently -All party members eventually break out of the fear, except for Lilith who remains stuck -The Psychic Guardians attack the party members near them/who hit them, and the party must fight them -Natlia attempts to speak to Yumi telepathically and takes a huge amount of damage for it -Hachi sneaks around and is able to attack some of the Psychic Guardians from afar -Zin creates duplicates of himself and the Psychic Guardians attack them, leaving Zin weakened -Pyromancer also attempts to help Yumi but is wounded -Leonne creates a holy concoction using Infinity Drink to create a mass of blessed water mixed with holy incense -Party fights the Guardians and have no idea where Naughty Fein is -Hachi notices via the light of the Lantern of Revealing hanging on Fein’s tail, Naughty Fein has escaped from the Darkness and is attacking them from outside of the Slowed area -Eventually Naughty Fein begins massacring basically everyone -Ulan tries to call out to Naughty Fein, who just shrugs him off -Pyromancer is attacked by the Psychic Guardians -Pyromancer then gets torn to shreds by Naughty Fein, killing her instantly -Natlia flees using Misty Step and her Wild Magic ends up creating illusionary doubles which make it harder to hit her -Leonne’s attack golem tried to attack Naughty Fein but got blown to pieces in the process -Natlia blasts Naughty Fein with Lightning Bolt and it deals massive damage thanks to Naughty Fein’s metal armor -Enraged Fein attacks Natlia and kills her super dead in just one turn -Ulan falls to his knees in shock and grief -Fein goes up against Naughty Fein, but faces the same fate, going down in one turn after Naughty Fein takes off his arm -BloodAxe’s appearance begins forming -Zin and Leonne grab Ulan and Natlia’s body and drag them away from the area close to Naughty Fein [Who lands the finishing blow on Naughty Fein before he rises up again? Like, before Fein kills them both? Leonne? Lilith? Hachi? Pls lemme know!!] -Naughty Fein comes back up and attacks, but Fein also comes back up and kicks Naughty Fein’s weakened leg and pulls him into his blade -Both Fein’s die in the process -Nim is up again, she sees her friends dead or dying and enters Rage before running towards BloodAxe who is now almost fully formed -Yumi has fallen out of her Psychic Shield -Leonne Revifies Natlia and the Pyromancer -Hachi is fending off the Psychic Guardians -Nim jumps onto BloodAxe and begins tearing into him -Hachi calls out to Korska to look at BloodAxe--they do -Korksa also starts attacking BloodAxe -Pyromancer rushes towards them all -Suddenly BloodAxe enacts one last action, self destruction -Nim, Pyromancer, and Korska are all hit with the blast -Nim and the Pyromancer are dead, Nim’s body is missing vital parts -The party rush over to the bodies, Leonne Revifies the Pyromancer who is now missing her legs and one of her arms -Leonne desperately attempts to Revivify Nim, but to no avail -Pyromancer goes to Yumi and hugs her, promising her she did no wrong taking on a blast of damage falling unconscious (Sigh, does she want to die?) -”Yumi, your parents would be so proud of you, your grandmother too. Never give up.” -Party mourns for their lost friend -Torihel appears and collects Naughty Fein’s spirit -”I see.. After I defeated BloodAxe, Naughty Fein wanted to bring him back. So he tempted the Fates, creating the children. But he didn’t know exactly how BloodAxe would return. Later Fein created a cult that would bring him back. They failed, but Naughty Fein found the child’s grandmother. Knowing who she was, he seeded into her mind the fear of BloodAxe, he tricked her into searching for the books. Naughty Fein assumed the book would be a way to bring him back. But they brought back you all instead.. Wow, what a wild drama. No wonder the Fates were so willing to listen to him. Tsk tsk tsk.. Poor angry fool.” -Nim’s soul floats above her body, seeing her friends below -A figure (Emissary of Death) greets her, saying that Nim has passed on and it’s time to go to the next plane -Nim refuses -Nim resists Death itself and floats away with great strength -Death cannot capture her -Nim floats aimlessly and finds herself in front of a large figure who tells her she has made a foolish decision -Fein suddenly senses a presence, Nim’s soul attempting to return -Party set out to find a way to bring her back -The guild is slightly in ruins, they discover Pecora’s centaur friend died protecting Albie -Various people have been killed at the Guild -They ask Pecora if she knows someone that can bring back Nim and her friend -Pecora brings them to a place far away hidden in the forest, it is now late at night -A tribe of Druids greet her, they attempt to find a way to revive the spirits -The Centaur’s spirit wishes to pass on, but Nim’s spirit remains, wanting to return -Collecting materials the elder Carebear starts a ceremony, hoping to create Nim a new body -After some time, a new body is born of the earth, but this body is different as is the nature of Reincarnation -Nim souls returns in a now Demonic Nim, she is reborn a Demon Rock Gnome -The party rejoice heartily and return to the guild -That night, Nim goes to sleep with her sweet Albie and is transported into Torihel’s home -Torihel warmly welcomes Nim as her own, a Demon of Rage -They are greeted by another guest, Contract -Contract is a Demon that works for the higher power that held onto Nim’s soul -Contract states Nim works for them now, and her mission is to find the Diamond Sword -The next morning the party get together for breakfast -Dade gives the party the three Neverending Stories, apologizes for keeping them secretive -Mother Goose’s Fairy Tales, History of Emesyu, Untitled Journal -Their own book, the History Book is no longer active -Danric says there may be notes in Xanth’s castle on how to revive beings from the books -Ryder shows them the paper -PREPARING FOR WAR: Scarlet Guild begins mobilizing after cities around the country are overthrown by the Valencio Military and Draco’s Army, Collaborating with new service Craig’s List.. -UNDEAD UPRISING: Undead have driven out the Gulguun Gnomes leaving them with nowhere to go. Rumors claim cultists are to blame, known Necromancers are being taken in for questioning -STRANGE MONSTERS SIGHTINGS INCREASED: Strange Monsters are being sighted all over the country. Some claim they have seen Dragons. No reason has yet been tied to these occurrences. Be cautious, these beasts are unpredictable. -NARIUS’S MAGIC TOURNAMENT POSTPONED: Narius has postponed magic tournament for an undisclosed amount of time, no official statement given, rumors say Narius is working with Destiny to help protect the school of magic after the death of two students -DRACO’S NUMBER ONE ENEMY: A notorious group of Anti-Draco warriors fought back in the city if Blackthorn which was recently taken under control by Draco’s army. Having wiped out most the forces, the city has been deserted. The fighters are rumored to have been the same warriors fighting at the late Great Magician Xanth’s funeral. Members of the Feinclub claim the reports match the description of the notorious fighters from Fein’s Fables.. -RECORD SCRATCH TOUR RUMORS: Everyone’s favorite Monster Boyband, Record Scratch has been promoting their world tour and are currently planned to perform in Burkenkeen. Rumors circling that the band may need to postpone their tour due to Kingdom conflicts. Quote from Elfis, “The whole war thing is hella bad. We believe in peace, love, and rock’n’roll.” -Party also try out Craig’s List for the first time -Natlia realizes Craig’s caravan is the same one that Zin’s father owned and goes to get them -Zin claims ownership of the caravan is gets a fraction of the price -Party let Strox out of prison to go to Narius’s College -Yumi & Korska also go with -Pyromancer is talked to, Natlia gets rude -Pyromancer says she will no longer lead the guild -Party take off to Narius’s College

[whatsanapocalae]

Chapter 9

@hurrypollo​

Once Ms Lavender was with them and whole, it was easy to find their way to the border. The trees were less dense and there were easy trails, devoid of brambles and roots to catch at their feet. They had made it far enough that The Forest wasn’t trying to force them to go back. Instead it wanted them to continue forward. It didn’t care how the book was removed from itself, as long as it was gone, that was all that mattered to it.

Chindaria was the first to notice the utter terror of the border itself, crying out and hiding her face behind Hilgarin’s hip. Ms Lavender, stopping her conversation mid sentence and jumped out of Hilgarin’s hold. She took Chindaria in her arms and the girl folded down to bury her face in Ms Lavender’s miniscule shoulder.

The site of the border, the portal between one world and the next, was more than enough to make Rule feel ill, bile rising in zir throat as a cold sweat broke out over zim.

There were bodies. They were everywhere. Broken, dumped, cut and bloody, they were ruined and stinking. The trees were mostly dead here and the leaves were no more than mulch. There were poles, long rods of wood with sharpened ends, pierced together, making a spiky nest shape with an empty hole, perfectly bordered with the sharp edges, at one end. The floor between them and it was littered though, the bodies everywhere, different stages of decay plaguing them.

Rule recognized both the bodies of humans and witches, as well as some of those corrupted things, the freshest of them all, purple from blood and blue ink melding upon them.

There was no sound, aside from that of Chindaria sobbing in both terror and disgust and the flies buzzing around the fresher of the the bodies.

Rule swallowed, kept zir eyes on that gap between the poles. There was nothing on the other side, just a white fog that hid what the world could be. Zi didn’t want to see the bodies. The world was sickeningly sweet, the liquid of rot in the hot sun, like dying lilies and old meat. There was no escaping the truth of their surroundings, as much as zi wished zi could.

A raven, feathers white and beak white and eyes red, fluttered down and landed on one of the fresher bodies. It cawed twice and then started to peck and pull at the more delicious pieces.

Another landed on the wall, the whiteness of its feathers almost yellow in the shadows.

Three more came, all identical, landing in the dead trees.

They came and they came, more and more of them, until there was so much sound and whiteness that there was hardly anything else.

Hilgarin tensed under Rule. It was strange to feel, the different stones slotting together in a way that felt like the shifting of muscle. His hand tightened on his sword and he bent forward, the same way he usually did to set Rule down. Instead of continuing to his knees though, he just opened his arm and let Rule fall the few feet to the ground.

Rule scrambled and tried to grip onto Hilgarin, keep zimself from falling, but it wasn’t too long of a fall and zi were able to land on zir feet without too much difficulty. If it weren’t for how stressed the stone man was, how ready it was to fight and protect, and they weren’t surrounded by the dead, Rule would have given him a stern glare. As it was, zi was only glad zi hadn’t landed on a body.

They could leave. Rule was already backing away from the doorway and all of the birds that protected it. They could just go back to The Witch Kingdom. Perhaps it had been foolish to not let the scholars see the book, they could find a way to open it without causing further damage, surely. They would have been able to find some other way to stop the corruption and the curse.

They didn’t have to be here. They could leave. They could go home.

The ravens all rose up at once before spiraling together and going down towards the ground, diving before them and making a hurricane around them. It was impossible. There were too many of them. There was no way that they could break their way through them all. Hilgarin tried to stand between them and the birds, but they were too many and too quick.

A man stepped out from amongst the birds and then they were gone, hardly even a feather to prove of their presence.

The man was thin and pale, skin almost translucent. His hair, as white as his skin, was shorn close to his scalp and his veins were easily noticeable through it. He wore armor made of smooth leather and it was so black against his skin it was akin to staring down into the abyss. The only hint of color on him stemmed from his eyes, a bright unnerving red, and the veins that just worked to make him look paler. Scars mapped their way across his features like rivers, as did a look of hatred and rage.

“You do not have permission to leave here.” He explained, his voice so calm and smooth that it sounded like it was coming from someone else. It did not match the storm in his expression. “You are a witch and things made up of magic. You are not allowed to affect the world of humans. And, I know your argument, that there are those from the other side here, but they know too much. I am here to protect this place, to make sure the barrier remains pure.”

The argument in Rule’s mouth died where it was. They were there to protect the barrier as well. The man had already failed in his mission, had let both a child and a large group of hunters enter, but there were so many dead bodies around it was clear he had done what he could. There was only so much one person could do against so many. If Rule brought any of that up, zi doubted that a warning would be their penultimate punishment for their trespass. The man was angry enough, drawing a sword large enough to need a foot long counter weight for a pommel.

The sword was narrow and elegant, nothing like the thick slab of metal that Hilgarin carried. It was curved like the beak of one of the ravens and there was a gold inlay, intricate and ceremonial, to show his purpose.

He stepped forward, ready to slay all of them. Hilgarin took a step forward, making sure he was the first line of defense.

“Please,” The White Man offered, his voice hardly more than a whisper, “make this easy for yourselves. I could make our deaths so easy, so kind and gentle.”

Hilgarin started to circle the man, getting closer with each step, threatening. He could take more than the rest of them, could, possibly, not even die. The White Man moved slowly, following the pattern that Hilgarin set, almost expectantly, almost bored. There was no concern or fear in his face, no thought that there was even a chance that he would lose.

He moved oddly though, a pinch to his back, the nerves between his shoulder blades.

When he rushed Hilgarin, there was elegance even then in his attack. Rule grabbed Chindaria, ignoring Ms Lavender, and threw her towards the white fog. The White Man was distracted, this may have been their only chance. She stumbled, catching herself before tripping on the broken ribcage before her. Ms Lavender ran after her, grabbing her and keeping her upright and moving, stealing the momentum Rule had given her.

Rule ran after them, trying not to be distracted from the ignoring the sound of metal against metal or worse, metal against stone.

They were getting closer. They were going to make it. There was the sound of a loud crashing of sword against sword and then a woosh as The White Man’s sword swished through the air, bending as it fought against the heavier weapon.

The sound of battle faded, replaced with the sound of wings, many of them. The man was in front of them, in front of Chindaria and Ms Lavender, walking towards them as he inspected his blade. The two of them slid to a stop in the half formed leaves, letting Rule catch up to them. Zi took Chindaria by the shoulder, ready to push her back, to step between her and the threat. Zi didn’t know how to fight but she was a child, as little as she looked like one, and zi would do zir best to make sure she was safe.

“Do you truly believe that you’re the first to try that?” he asked, looking over Chindaria and Ms Lavender before turning his attention and his weapon to Rule. “You are the biggest threat to them out there, little witch. I find it apprehensible to have to fight a golem instead of you, seeing as how you are the one who needs to die first.”

“I think you’ll find that Rule isn’t the biggest threat you need to worry about.” Ms Lavender hissed, taking a step towards the guardian, weaponless and magicless.

Rule looked around. Zi needed celandine, yucca, some black hellbore. Zi couldn’t let Ms Lavender be struck down for such a mild action. There was none but that wasn’t a surprise. It was the wrong climate for such things to grow. There was yucca root in the pouch at Rule’s side, but that was only one of the ingredients.

A different approach; the rock from a wall, the mud from travel, and magic. Zi wasn’t sure it would work, if zir magic would work, but it was all zi could think of.

The White Man, snarling and annoyed at Ms Lavender’s interruption, thrust forward with his long blade. It was quick, the blade sharp and ready to skewer her, but then it stopped. There was a wall, not of Rule’s design, in the way of the blade.

All three of them leaned to see around Hilgarin, who wasn’t even moving. He hadn’t attacked the guardian, hadn’t even stopped the blade. Instead, he had grabbed The White Man’s wrist, stopping him from attacking, his momentum completely dissipated. He growled and glared up at Hilgarin, trying to wrench his wrist away from the stone’s hold.

Hilgarin cocked his head to one side and squeezed.

The White Man screamed but the sound of his agony was not enough to block out the crunching of bones. His wrist shattered in the simple action of Hilgarin’s crushing grip, muscles and tendons pulverizing and tearing. Blood poured out from between Hilgarin’s fingers, leaking from the seams in the dark armor.

He dropped his sword, his back arching, as his fingers flailed and folded, grasping at nothing. It was more pain than a man should rightfully bare, more than a witch could imagine. He was screaming and wailing in anguish, red eyes lolling, but he wasn’t falling, was still clinging to consciousness.

Hilgarin tossed him aside like he was no more than a doll. The White Man was so thin and light that he flew with ease, going yards before crashing into one of the dead trees hard enough to make it groan and creak, threatening to fall.

He was down, but wasn’t for long. Already he was trying to get up, shaking his head to clear it of pain. They didn’t wait to see him clutch at his wrist, for him to cling onto consciousness and come after them. They ran for the border, for the white fog.

It was cold around them, moisture clinging to them. Then it was gone. The Forest was gone. The gore and the terror was nowhere in sight.

They were in a field. It was green and healthy, rolling hills softly folding the distance. There was no signs of death or chaos. There was a town in the distance, some smoke rising from the chimneys. It was calm and peaceful. There was no fear here. They had escaped.

Hilgarin was not so certain and he walked backwards, his attention on the wall. From this side the wall was made of rock, not sharpened poles, the nest-like opening now a circle made of brick and mortar. The forest beyond was lush and serene. The land and the wall were well kept, as if the people of the town took pride in maintaining it. Rule was certain though that it was The Forest’s, and it would change as much as The Forest did.

The fog was still there, another barrier between one world and the next. Most wouldn’t want to face the unknown, and the fog aided that, hiding what was on the other side. The stories that Chindaria and Ms Lavender had mentioned, they were more than just fancy, they saved lives.

The White Man stepped out through the fog.

He held his sword in his right hand, his grip awkward. His left was against his chest, red blood pouring down from it, staining the grass with it. He was no longer standing up straight, no longer had so much pride in his lithe form, He was bent forward, hunched with pain. He had a duty to do though and it was one that he would not fight.

“Stop!” Rule called out to the man, “There is no need for this, we are doing what we can to help!”

“You are going to destroy everything.” The White Man spat out the words, fighting to get them out through the pain that lanced his words and every step that he took. “Why can’t you just stay in your places? Humans, witches, you are all fools. There is no need for you to trespass into one anothers worlds. It only causes you hardships.”

Again, he rushed Hilgarin and the stone man returned to the fight, not bombarded by pain or exhaustion. There was no point to the fight and Hilgarin knew this, was blocking more than attacking. Even if The White Man were to somehow cut off one of Hilgarin’s limbs he would continue to fight. It was just a waste of their time but The White Man was never going to give in.

The guardian was off balance and using the wrong hand to fight, yet he wouldn’t stop. He struck true and well, over and over again, and if his opponent had been mortal there would have been no chance against him.

Hilgarin blocked and parried, tried to push him away, and even tried to hit a few times, but The man dodged and turned and worked his way in deeper.

Rule remembered how the corrupt had gotten close, how much damage they were able to do without weapons or their own minds. With The White Man jamming Hilgarin’s movements, things were going to get very messy.

“Go.” Rule ordered to Chindaria and Ms Lavender, “Make your way to the town, we shall reach you there.”

Ms Lavender nodded and took Chindaria by the hand before turning and racing in the direction of the town. Chindaria stumbled a few steps behind her before catching on. The White Man growled and redoubled his attack, getting into the position he needed against Hilgarin.

He sliced and jabbed, cutting and breaking off small pieces of Hilgarin’s arms and legs. Hilgarin did what he could, but elbows were in the way of his hands and his knees were in the way of his feet. He couldn’t do anything but back away and The White Man moved with him with each step.

Rule dashed in the other direction, back towards The Forest, past the fighting. It wasn’t enough to dissuade The White Man, was hardly enough to even distract him, but that wasn’t what zi intended. Zi didn’t even want to go back in through the fog. Zi wanted the wall.

Dropping the book to rest on the top of it, zi started working at the stones,  pushing and pulling and trying to find one loose enough. There was gravel and sand coming from Hilgarin, zi could hear the guardian chiseling him. This was going to take time that they didn’t have if zi didn’t do anything about it, and quickly.

The stone popped out, leaving an awkward gap in the wall. The stone was heavy and zi cursed, almost dropping it. It would work though, it had to.

Zi dumped it on the ground and went to work on zir clothes. The cloak was heavy with dirt, cracked and flaking. It had been mud, the rain and the earth combining and making the cloak aged and filthy. Zi spat on it and rubbed the saliva in, turning it into mud once more.

The fight wasn’t slowing. The White Man was panting, but it sounded more like it was from pain than exhaustion. It was possible that he could be defeated, but not that he could be outrun or even slowed with time. Guardians rarely could.

Rule used the mud to draw the sigil, a straight line with four intersecting lines, the middle two shorter and passing down alongside the first line. Dots and crosses, a curve underneath to connect the lowest running lines. It was intricate and consuming of both time and magical energy, and Rule only had one to give willingly.

The fighting was drawing closer.

Thyme, marigold, carnation, garlic, ginger, rose, holly, lady’s slipper, rosemary, and mint, there was far too many things in zir pouch. They weren’t even properly labeled. ZI should have spent more time labeling them. They were easy enough to tell apart but time was needed for that and zi didn’t have enough of that. This was taking too long as it was.

There was a vial of a dull goldenrod powder, the label on it a scribble but still recognizable with the multiple curves and long y. Zi poured a generous amount of it into zir palm. The mud was almost dry again. Zi didn’t have a way to dampen it without washing away the sigil. Zi sprinkled the powdered yucca root onto the mud and pressed it in, making sure it stayed in place.

Long cracks had formed over Hilgarin. A few more hits to crucial weak points and those cracks would spread, limbs breaking off in large chunks. Hilgarin was losing. He wasn’t supposed to be able to lose.

Rule dragged the stone towards the fight, getting as close as zi could without falling into the fray.  The book was tucked under one arm, directly in zir armpit making everything more difficult than it needed to be. The stone was too heavy for zir weak arms and they shook as zi lifted the stone over zir head as best zi could, only to spike it into the ground, trying to get it in between the fighters. It wasn’t perfectly between them, but it was close enough and the wall that grew from it went both upwards and out.

The wall was fast and it forced the two of them apart. Rule had only a moment to dart to the correct side of it, the side with Hilgarin and the town, and their allies. It wasn’t a beautiful wall, it wasn’t even well made, but it would be difficult to climb one handed and take too long to walk around.

Rule was panting, wheezing, dizzy. Zi had poured a large recess of magic into the spell, primarily during the sigil making process, but more at the last instance. It was more than zi’d used for most. Zi felt ready to collapse.

Hilgarin didn’t look like he was doing much better, but he at least didn’t have to worry about the functions of a mortal body failing him.

Hilgarin placed a hand on Rule’s shoulder, wrapping it all the way around zim. Zi hadn’t even noticed that zi were drenched in sweat until the fabric was pressed against zir skin. It clung there awkwardly. Rule looked up at Hilgarin though and offered a small smile, even though that in itself felt like it was more work than it was worth. The world was spinning.

“Good job.” The words came out slow, slurred. “We did it. We got out and now we’re here.”

Hilgarin nodded and he lowered his arms down to Rule’s sides, fingers gentle against zir arms. Rule closed zir eyes and leaned into the touch and didn’t know if zi fell into Hilgarin’s hold or if it were only an illusion caused by zir swimming mind.

[catgirlthecrazy]

Real Brides Don’t Get Wedding Armor

A totally silly and self-indulgent idea I got.

Alianne Cousland had survived a lot of strange shit in the last couple years, far more than most people had any right to in one lifetime. She’d joined the Wardens, and survived. She’d battled darkspawn, spiders, abominations, werewolves, bears, broodmothers, golems, and Maker only knew what else. She’d been trapped in the Fade, a non-mage, and escaped. She’d ventured to the Deep Roads’ nethermost depths and returned with a Paragon’s crown. Then she’d journeyed in the stuff of fables to retrieve a sacred relic to save a dying man- and succeeded. Oh, and she slew an archdemon and lived. That was probably worth mentioning too.

Aly would like to say that none of it had scared her, but she’d be a damn liar if she did. Still, the burning need to brown her own pants hadn’t stopped her from twirling a dagger, tossing a clever quip, and throwing herself at the next threat of death and dismemberment if it meant saving others.

Wedding dresses, however, might defeat her.

Aly stared at her reflection the mirror, mouth pursed tight. Her very white, very glittery, very poofy reflection stared back at her. A silky white bodice that valiantly tried and utterly failed to add curves to Aly’s beanpole figure. A poofy skirt that poofed out so aggressively that Aly thought even if she tripped on the hem she’d simply roll back upright from the sheer weight of it. And the whole thing was encrusted with so many diamonds that even Shale probably would have called them “slightly excessive.” All in all, it gave the impression of a glittery toothpick sticking out of a marshmallow.

Eventually, Aly’s brain emerged from the ice scape of horror to which it had retreated long enough to form a coherent sound.

“No.”

Mother Bronwyn raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry?”

Aly glared at her. “I said, no. No way in the Black City am I going to wear this-” She waved her arms emphatically, causing the servants currently pinning and hemming the dress into place to duck- “This thing. Andraste’s tits, I’m the Warden-Commander, not a cake decoration.”

Bronwyn’s eyes narrowed. “I knew Teryna Eleanor quite well, my lady, and I know she did not teach her daughter to use such language.”

Aly glared back. “Andraste’s dank, yeasty-“ She enunciated each word like a carefully aimed arrow.

“In any case,” Mother Bronwyn bouldered over Aly’s cursing, “You are marrying a king, meaning you will become queen. On your wedding day, that will be the title of highest precedence, and therefore you must wear a dress appropriate to your new rank.”

Aly decided to change tacks. “And if we’re attacked by assassins? I can’t move for shit in this froofy monstrosity, and silk doesn’t do jack against knives or arrows.”

Bronwyn sniffed. “I hardly think that is likely.”

“Queen Moira had assassins out her arse when she got married,” Aly argued, naming King Maric’s mother and Alistair’s grandmother.

“The Rebel Queen was married in a tent in the Southron Hills, while being actively hunted by Orlesian troops. You are getting married in the most fortified city in Ferelden. The situations are hardly comparable. Now enough of this. You will wear the dress and we will argue no more on this matter.” Not giving Aly a chance to interject, Bronwyn turned on her heel and walked out.

Aly stood there in fuming silence as the servants finished pinning. She felt twelve again. Her mother had tried on more than occasion to subject her to dresses. Every time, Aly had fought, wheedled, tantrumed, and in general made her mother’s life a misery every time she tried to stuff Aly into one. The few times Eleanor Cousland had won, Aly made it her mission to ruin the dress as quickly and thoroughly as possible: jumping in mud puddles, “accidentally” dribbling food and drink, or just cuddling Ser Rufus and letting the slobber and dog hair do its work.

Even now, Aly was tempted to storm out of the room and toss the horrible thing into the fire. But Bronwyn would just take it out on the servants for not finishing the alterations, and the money for a new dress would be money they couldn’t spend on resettling Blight refugees. Petty childishness was so much less fun when you had to think about the consequences for others.

Eventually, the servants finished their work and Aly escaped. It was late, but she went back to her rooms and she got some useful things done that day: reports about rebuilding the city, supplies for refugees, the planned Warden fortress in Amaranthine, and so on. She was still at her writing desk when the door clicked open. A pair of brawny arms draped over her shoulders, and she looked up with a grin at dancing brown eyes she loved very much.

“So I heard a rumor,” Alistair said with a grin, “That a gorgeous woman is getting married to some hapless idiot next week.”

Aly grinned back. “That can’t be true. I heard she was marrying a handsome prince.” They kissed, slow and unhurried, enjoying the quiet peace of the moment, like a stroll in a familiar and favorite garden.

They broke apart, and Alistair glanced down at her writing desk. “Ooh, grain imports. Exciting! And here I thought queening was all balls and gowns and waving at people from carriages.”

He meant it as joke for her to share. Aly knew that. But she thought of the gown Mother Bronwyn had bullied her into, and her good mood soured. “Maker forbid we have a queen who can do something useful with her life,” she muttered, with considerably more bitterness than she’d intended.

“Your latest joust with the old dragon didn’t go well I take it? I heard something about dress-fittings.”

Aly scowled. “It’s not just the dress, although that was impressively awful. It feels like Bronwyn and her minions are using this whole wedding to try to force me into a proper-lady-shaped box, even if she has to hack off bits of me to make me fit. Like now that we’re supposedly at peace, I should hang up my dagger and lock pick and retire to hearth and home like that’s all I’m good for.”

Alistair drew back. “Aly… Dear… If you want to- I know this life wasn’t your first choice, so if you don’t-” He laughed at his own stumbling. “Maker, words just do not seem to like me tonight, do they?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “What I’m trying to say is-”

Aly was on her feet with her finger on his lips. “Don’t. I chose this, remember?”

“If you say so.” Alistair chuckled. “You know, you might not need to worry. The ceremonial armour that Eamon commissioned for me is so shiny I think it will blind the whole audience. Then no one will be able to see the hideous marshmallow dress of doom.”

Aly grinned. “Perhaps I could arrange for someone to dump muck on us.”

Alistair chuckled. “Tempting. But Mother Bronwyn would probably murder us. And we’d never get to sample the stinky cheese platter at the reception.”

“We can’t have that.” Impulsively, Aly pulled him in for another kiss. When they separated, she grinned ruefully. “You know, I am a little envious. You at least get to wear actual armour, even if it’s silly shiny armor. Women don’t get-” She stopped abruptly.

Alistair raised an eyebrow. “Women don’t get…?”

She looked up at him, a manic delight in her eyes that usually indicated his life was about to get especially interesting. “I just had the best idea.”

It was somewhere around the tenth knock before the door finally opened. “Can’t you see the sign? We’re closed- ” Herren’s irritable voice cut off abruptly when he saw Aly standing there, hooded and cloaked, fist still raised mid-knock. Herren scowled. If looks could kill, Aly would be a bloody smear on the pavement right now. “You’re not welcome here,” he snapped. Only Aly’s quickly inserted foot kept him from slamming the door in her face.

“I have have a deal for you,” Aly said.

“We’re not making any more free armor, now go awa-”

“Herren, dear, what are you still doing up? Come to bed, it’s far too cold tonight.” Aly heard Wade- it could only be Wade- yawning from somewhere in the shop.

“I will as soon as this pest leaves.” Herren tried to shove her foot out the door, but Aly braced her hands between the door and door frame. Wade’s face appeared over Herren’s in the doorway and brightened.

“Why, if it isn’t my favorite customer! Don’t be rude Herren, let her in.” The door was flung open and Aly was pulled in with much fussing from Wade and much growling from Herren. When they were all seated at the counter, Aly made her offer.

“I need something… special made, and in a hurry.”

Wade’s face brightened. “Have you brought me more dragon scale? Herren keeps me quite bereft of truly masterful projects.”

Herren snorted. “I keep us in profit, I think is what you meant. I don’t care if you brought us hide from the archdemon itself, we’re not making you any more free armor.”

Wade’s eyes glittered with speculative excitement. “Archdemon hide… Just imagine the properties!” Aly could imagine, and did. The archdemon corpse hadn’t decomposed after she killed it- not even maggots would go near it. It simply lay atop Fort Drakon, oozing its miasmatic evil for weeks until Wardens from Jader came to dispose of it. The thought of anyone trying to make armor from it made her blanch. Only Wade would think it was exciting.

“Er, no,” Aly coughed. “I had a… Different sort of challenge in mind.” She looked at Herren, calculating. “The Grey Wardens officially confirmed me as Ferelden’s Commander of the Grey last month. We’re setting up our new headquarters in Amaranthine in a few months, and we’re going to need an armorer. Wade could be that armorer.”

Herren’s eyes narrowed. “In exchange for…?”

Alianne slid a sheaf of parchment across the counter. “You make this by next week.”

As Aly emerged from the bridal dressing chamber, Fergus looked her up and down. The corners of his mouth twitched. “I feel like I should be surprised, but somehow, I’m not.”

Aly grinned and twirled. “What, you’ve never seen a wedding dress like this?”

Her brother’s mouth twitched again. “Not quite like that one, no. You do realize that Bronwyn is going to murder you?”

Aly snorted a very un-queenly snort. “Please. I’ve faced dragons, and I’ve faced Mother. I can handle one bitchy Chantry mother.”

Fergus’ face softened into a smile. “You know they would be proud of you right now.”

Aly’s throat tightened. It should have been her father walking her down the aisle. It should have been her mother squabbling with her over dress fittings. A lot of things should have been that weren’t.

After a moment, Fergus held out a handkerchief. Aly took it, used it, then handed it back. She took a few deep breaths, then held out her arm.

“Shall we?”

If one stood in the rafters of the Denerim Grand Cathedral, one might have been able to see the murmur spread through the hall like a wave as Aly and Fergus walked down the aisle. More specifically, the murmur spread as the attendees realized that their queen-to-be was not wearing a wedding dress.

She was wearing armor.

In Aly’s defense, it was probably the prettiest armour a bride had worn to her own wedding in the history of… ever. A snow white leather armor tunic, with gold filigree and the Ferelden coat of arms embossed on the chest. Small versions of the Cousland twin vines and the Grey Warden twin griffons graced her left and right shoulders, respectively. A short, white waist-length cape hung over her back. A miniature rose tucked into her bun completed the ensemble. It wasn’t the rose, sadly. That beloved gift had crumbled to nothing under the hardships of travel months ago. Still, when she was being so heavily scrutinized, the rose felt like a little private signal, just for her and Alistair, like flaunting a love letter written in code.

The murmur reached the back of the room and bounced back like waves in a bucket. The crowd was scandalized, but it was a delighted sort of scandal. Aly’s reputation had spread during the Blight, and Ferelden could take pride in a queen who defied tradition, as long as she did it in style.

Mother Bronwyn, for her part, looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. But what could she do? If she made a scene over this now, she’d be the one to look bad. That was the key to winning with people like Bronwyn. You never argued, because they would argue back until the end of time and you’d never win. Better to forge ahead and not give them the chance.

By the time Aly reached the altar, Alistair was trying his best not to grin like a loon, without much success. He was the only one (besides Wade and Herren) who had known Aly’s plan ahead of time, but this was the first time he’d actually seen her armor in person.

He took her hands as Mother Bronwyn began the time-worn ceremony. “Blessed Andraste, beloved of the Maker, we are gathered here today…”

She was halfway through the ritual words when Aly noticed a glint of metal somewhere in the rafters. A reflex that bypassed simple thought barreled her into Alistair just as the first arrow loosed, which is why it glanced off her shoulder instead of going through his neck.

“Vengeance for Loghain!” A man in the robes of a Chantry lay-brother charged the altar, two wicked looking daggers in each hand. Aly danced out of the way, but not before one dagger connected with her abdomen. Fortunately, Wade had done his work well, and the frantic jab slid uselessly off Aly’s toughened leather armor. She drew her own boot daggers, vaguely aware of commotion throughout the chapel, and that Alistair had drawn his sword and was fighting someone behind her, but she was too focused on the current fight to note the details. Aly feinted left, then struck right, putting a nasty gash in his arm. The assassin grimaced in pain but didn’t drop his weapon. Aly gave him points for that- She knew from experience how hard that was with a cut that deep.

They stood there for a moment, panting. Then the assassin struck out at her left. It was clearly a feint, so Aly moved right to block, but the assassin didn’t. He went straight for Alistair. Alistair, who had his back to them, blades locked with another assassin. Alistair, who despite his shiny plate armor, had nothing to protect him from a throat cutting.

Aly swore as she scrambled to defend him, too slow, too slow…

A dagger thunked into the assassin’s back and he toppled to the ground. Leliana appeared a moment later, yanking the knife out and wiping the blade on her Chantry robes. She nodded at Aly. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Aly panted. She glanced over at Alistair, who’d finally managed to run his opponent through. He didn’t seem to be hurt. “I owe you one.”

“What do we owe Leliana for this time?” Alistair asked, turning to join them.

Instead of answering, Aly pulled him into a bruising kiss. He grunted in surprise, but leaned into it eagerly as she sought reassurance with lips and hands. Eventually they pulled apart, panting. “You’re in one piece?” she murmured.

He grinned weakly. “Of course. You?”

Aly tried to make a show of scoffing. “Takes more than that to take me down.” Her voice was shakier than she would have liked.

Throughout the hall, various royal guards and other well armed attendees were quickly subduing the other assassins that had appeared. There was even an elderly woman in Grand Cleric’s robes calmly pulling a dagger out of an assassin’s back.

“Sodding nughumpers, is that it?” Oghren shouted. “This party was just getting fun! Where’s the ale?”

Alistair chuckled. “Glad someone’s enjoying this.”

“Your majesty, please.” That was Captain Easton of the royal guard, pulling on Alistair’s shoulder. “This room is not secure. If you would please come away…?”

Alistair looked incredulous. “Leave? Now? I can’t do that while people are hurt here!”

“Sire, we already have people-”

“His Majesty is right,” Leliana interrupted. Aly saw Alistair wince at the formal title coming from a close friend. “The assassins appear to all be dead. If the king left now, it would only start rumors that he was seriously injured or killed by this attack. It is vital that people see for themselves that this is not so. And if he is seen tending to the wounded, then it can only enhance his reputation.”

Aly didn’t need to see Alistair’s face to know that that he hated having a basic act of decency reframed in such cravenly political terms. But it worked. As Alistair went to find Wynne, Aly pulled Easton aside. “Have your men search the rafters. There was at least one man up there who’s gone now, and I didn’t see him fall-”

They all jumped as a body fell from the ceiling with a great thud. There was a very familiar looking dagger in its back. “My apologies, friend,” drawled Zevran from the rafters. “I should have anticipated something of this kind. The festivities have been making me lax.”

Aly flung out a hand to stop Easton’s lieutenant from putting a crossbow bolt in her friend. “Don’t. He’s on our side.” She looked up at Zevran. “If you get yourself killed pulling stunts like that, I’m never speaking to you again.”

He mock bowed. “So helpful. I wouldn’t dream of offending you that way my friend.”

All in all, they were stupendously lucky. No one other than the assassins had died. There were some injuries, but none were life threatening. The worst hurt was Bronwyn, who had to be carried out by two guards, but Wynne assured them she’d recover.

When most of the chapel had cleared, Aly found Alistair in the back wiping down his sword. She pulled him into another fierce kiss. When they pulled apart Alistair had a twinkle in his eye. “You know, after all that trouble, we still didn’t manage to actually get married?”

Aly blinked. “Fuck, you’re right.”

“I know. Really inconsiderate of them. They could at least have waited until we’d said our ‘I do’s. Now we’ll have to do the whole thing over again.”

Aly made a face. “Oh fuck that. Let’s go find Leliana.”

It turned out that a mere lay sister like Leliana did not have the authority to perform weddings. But she procured an Orlesian Grand Cleric from somewhere (the same one who Aly had noticed earlier dueling assassins with daggers), Alistair had Eamon gather up as many nobles as could still stand, and assembled them in the chapel.

It would probably go down as the most unconventional royal wedding in Ferelden’s history. The king and his queen-to-be standing at the altar, grinning like fools, armor looking much more well used than it had that morning. The Grand Cleric saying the ritual words, robes soaked in blood (“None of it is mine,” she had assured them.)

But it was their wedding. Aly and Alistair’s. And that was all that mattered in the end.