#four elves aesthetic

[ac9129]

a girls wish for Nnt/4kota to be a little bit more gothic and dreadful 😞

[centrally-unplanned]

Time for a pet peeve take response - let me capture our target below:

[Unpopular Fantasy Opinion Take:] The fantasy genre by-and-large took the wrong takeaway from Tolkien, and has been generally spiraling since as a result. They took his surface-level aesthetics and fantastical elements, and left his engagement with real, historical texts, his philology & his moral seriosity. In a different timeline, subsequent authors would have adopted Tolkien's erudite love of language and mythology and applied it to other cultures & mythologies - not just superficially, but by engaging with the great Chinese novels or the Shahnameh like he did with Beowulf. Even when you *do* see more recent novels "inspired by" other cultures, they are very blatantly just taking the (degraded distillate of the) Western, Tolkien-esque tradition and coating it in a thin veneer of Chinese or Mesoamerican lore.

This is not the first time I have seen this specific take, and it is part of a "fallen literature" genre that is always confusing supply & demand, with a hefty bout of selection bias for good measure.

To get the obvious out of the way, the "lessons" people took from Tolkien are entirely what audiences want to read, and were never going to be any other way. Most people don't wanna read hard, heavy books! Even if they want that sometimes, for every one Gravity's Rainbow they are gonna read a dozen Gone Girl's as a palette-cleansing snack, which means by-the-numbers the latter will dominate. Fantasy did not invent the genre of adventure stories and swashbuckling heroes and hot maidens to woo and mystical mumbo-jumbo; people stapling tried-and-true genre tropes onto elves and orcs once they took off was a given. The "shallow" part was the only part that could have changed; a world where the median fantasy novel is dealing with theological issues could never have been.

And to top this all off, no disrespect to Tolkien at all, but like...he isn't that deep? The "moral seriousness" of the Lord of the Rings is very simple - characters are often cartoonishly evil or blatantly good, the conflicts they face are often black and white, and in particular the moral dilemmas faced by characters boil down to tests of courage more than half the time. What Tolkien does have is his own unique interests? Like in Middle Earth the "act of creation", from art to life, is itself a moral undertaking with metaphysical implications. This is super cool - but it is also again very simple, it is barely even discussed in the novels and his ideas can be summarized in a paragraph. This is all good btw! The novels would not benefit from more complicated morality. But modern books are just as complex, and often more so.

Actually just a little aside here - a lot of people do this thing with Tolkien where they mention his letters and drafts like that is canonical story text? Yeah he wrote like an essay about the theological implications of the various orc origin stories, but he didn't publish that, it is nowhere in the Lord of the Rings and is barely in the Silmarillion. Other authors have notes like those; you just don't read them.

And the "other cultures" stuff is particularly egregious - I'm sorry, are we just not reading many modern stories? You think Spinning Silver isn't pulling great threads from Slavic folklore? You think the Chinese Gays in Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed aren't dropping refs to Daoism and the four classics in between their will-they-won't-they necromancy shenanigans? In response this author would, of course, pivot from their bailey of "no one references other traditions" to the motte of "and if they do it is shallow" with no definition of what qualifies as such, nor again any admittance that audiences care way more about getting the gays than the deep cut cultural refs. The fact that the median person in the west prefers their Dungeons & Dragons campaigns in a default Tolkien-esque setting because the point is to have a comfortable backdrop for ease of play of a combat dice game will just not factor into their analysis.

The elephant in the room for all of this is that foundational texts differ, structurally, from modern texts, because they were made in different environments. The Lord of the Rings probably wouldn't sell well today! The prose is wooden, the characters are flat, it throws random lore it never explains at you, Tom Bombadil is just there as a walking momentum-destroying plot hole, etc. People read it because it was a first in a world that didn't have books committing to this level of world-building & detail in a fantasy environment. And as a new genre, things like his crazy level of language building are appealing, it's all so new and different, something cool to dig into.

But imagine picking up your 185th elves-and-orcs sword & sorcery book in 1998 and reading "ah yes Quenya is just one of two alphabets for the Elven tongue and it is inspired by Finnish-Germanic and I write entire poems in it even though I never finished a cohesive dictionary or grammar system but I do have 15 pages of pronunciation notes"?? You would throw at it at a fucking wall, absolutely insufferable. It was cool the first time, and that is why you learn Elvish, just like you learn Klingon. That was never gonna keep as a zeitgeist - instead just popping up here or there as this or that series takes off.

You have to accept that audiences are in the driver's seat on this one - they have infinite stories to choose from, they are absolutely not being dragged along by willful writers. Which means genres will evolve and change over time - and that is fine.

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

I think western media has relied on non-human races as shorthand for oppressed groups so much that audiences have been primed to look for that instead of actual imperialist ideology.

One of the criticisms I've repeated about the Dragon Prince is how the writers take the Aesthetics of fantasy imperialism/indigenous people and just switch them without bothering to change anything about their ideology or historical context.

Kenna on TikTok was right when she said that a franchise where the oppressor and oppressed were all the same species makes a better racism allegory.

The fact that the Four Nations were all human added to the themes of imperialism and genocide in ATLA. While on the opposite side of the coin, the Xadians all being different species undermines it.

You can say Fire Nation people were a bunch of imperialists without going into bioessentialism. You CAN'T say humans are a bunch of warmongering monsters without sounding like an eco fascist.

The Sunfire elves textually being the most fantasy racist group is fine because they're elves, therefore oppressed, and the white writers made them superficially based on African-French speakers.

Meanwhile Katolis is "obviously" a Fantasy European Imperialist nation and therefore the oppressor. Never mind that it's had a black, now mixed, ruling family for a thousand years. Or that it's citizens aren't just white.

I remember seeing a post comparing the taboo against Black Magic to Xtian fundamentalism. At first I thought that was a bit much but no. Season six revealed that TDP has a canonical Hierarchy of Beings so that guy was absolutely right.

In Xtian fundamentalism doing something good the "wrong" way is the same as doing something bad.

Save a kingdom from starving? Well you had to kill a rock monster so obviously the right thing to do was let hundreds of thousands of people starve to death. (I've had weirdos go onto my posts and literally say this.)

Break the chains preventing you from saving the people you love? Well it hurt you so the right thing to do was let your friends and loved ones drown I guess.

Your son is dying? Better protect some old man's sense of moral purity than save a child.

All of these actions are not considered bad because they had a negative effect. They're considered bad because they go against the dominant power's desired order.

They're inherently bad because "humans" are inherently bad. Because human ways are not as pure as a direct connection to an Arcanum.

Note: this^ is imperialist ideology.

The idea that a group of people fighting for their survival justifies ethnic cleansing and mass murder is imperialist ideology.

The idea that the scary, blasphemous practices of a people you don't understand makes them dangerous, and therefore justifies you "defending yourself", is imperialist ideology.

The Liberal focus on "cycles of violence" and "both sides are at fault". Instead of on reparations for the people they killed and the homes they destroyed is imperialist ideology.

But Katolis has a pseudo-medieval aesthetic and the elves do not.

I was so angry at the scene where Sol Regem burns Katolis because THIS is the poor helpless dragons the humans "colonized"!? This living air bomber is the "victim" of the big, bad humans? One Archdragon can destroy an entire city single handedly and you expect me to believe the elves and dragons ethnic cleansing of humanity was REASONABLE!?

No. We are past any doubt or rationalization. What Sol Regem did to Katolis was just a small glimpse of what the elves and dragons did during the Human Exile. Just a small glimpse into how imperialist powers treat those that they cannot exploit.

And then demonize them for daring to oppose/question/subvert the imperialist's god(s) given superiority.

[fumifooms]

Marchil crumbs part 7

Part 1 - Part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6

They made bonus illustrations for the Blu-ray. Idk what to make of this

Kui don’t do this to me…….. The placement <3

1) Trigger please elaborate. Speak on that. Huh. In the other Bluray illustrations with duos the characters aren’t blushing like this…?? This sure is a choice. Very normal. No tension in the air.

2) Those were assorted fullbodies she did for advertisements for a Dunmeshi cafe event in Shibuya, that she then put in the Complete Adventurer’s Bible… They line up so well that it looks like they’re interacting together it’s so cute.

Chilchuck having torrid tension with Marcille’s crepe Do you think Chilchuck was in Marcille’s shot behind/besides her food… Is he looking at her like that because he’s being sassy about having to wait on her, or is he using his watch as an excuse to steal glances at her… Did Marcille call out to him to be like "hey get in the shot!!" and get pics of their coffeeshop date out in town…

Cooking soap together for the fate of Senshi’s beard

I could have SWORN I’ve talked about this page below in the crumbs post before but apparently not. Ok so first of all this is peak them strategizing together. They seek each other out to plan out their next move- And this is soon after she did ancient magic! It’s after Chilchuck’s most important character moment, where he admits that he cares about the party and things aren’t purely professional, so that helps him move on from keeping her at arm’s length due to the very illegal scary thing she did I think, but besides that! This still shows a very strong bond of trust and respect between the two, that he values her input even still. Also supported in this chapter by how he felt the need to keep tabs on Laios and Senshi to not get them all killed but Marcille letting it slip about what she did or anything didn’t even enter his mind as I went over in part 2.

Okok but more in depth… I’m spoiling a future analysis of mine with this too but remember this panel? And who might be the personalization itself of projecting gentlemanly, heroic good will while having hidden/manipulative intentions? I’ve never known what to make of Kabru smiling at her and more importantly her blushing at him here… Until I realized that he really fits her ideal type from what we can extrapolate: He looks rather feminine and is seemingly very gallant/gentlemanly, very charismatic, and was raised by elves so has a grasp on etiquette. And yet, she only gives his smile a passing glance before going back to strategizing with Chilchuck— Because unlike what her reputation as someone frivolous who idealizes and romanticizes anything like in her storybooks, she can put rationality above aesthetics. Because she values Chilchuck and his input much more than she ever would a pretty face alone, the aesthetic of a prince charming. Because she knows he was right, at least partly, and knows where her actual allies lie. She doesn’t waver, and she chooses Chilchuck. A part of her arc is to judge by acts more than looks, and this is very much a part of it I think, Chilchuck cares and wants to help much more than someone who might look kinder or more welcoming.

Ehem sorry for going off Now that I reread the full scene this might be one of my fave marchil moments as weird as that might be… Chilchuck seeing her hesitance and explaining to her what’s going on without being prompted, sticking together out of everyone on the battlefield, them so easily slipping into strategizing with each other without the rest of the group. I never noticed the whole comedy of corpses falling around them and them keeping talking together lol.

Ok so merch wise they’re making hair clips! And there are 4 sets of two, it’s always Marcille with a different hairstyle and a different party member (for one of the four sets the other is a walking mushroom). Here’s the Marcille & Chil one! You can now have them in your hair yippee

I never put this one in a crumbs part but it’s funny so might as well, for as much as they care for each other and Marcille’s been shown to be very worried for & careful with Chilchuck the dainty rogue™️ the second he becomes a tallman without his cute face suddenly it’s FREE GAME. Their bestieship is so strong for them to be able to brush this incident right off and strategize like they’re close knit so soon after this lol.

Love a duo that will just trip onto their face in the same page. Cringefail.

Matching frog skin fits yayyyy!! <3 (Also stop making him look at her in ads I’ll die)

STOP ITTTTT

I had always assumed in the ‘feeding liver to Marcille’ part that Laios was always the one feeding her because the hands and speech bubbles aren’t clear in the manga scene, but the anime makes it clear that everyone does it after the other. So here’s Chil’s turn. Asking after if she liked it and encouraging to eat more is cute too. There’s also obviously how panicked he is to see her in danger earlier in the ep, but idk if I already showed that manga panel in an earlier comp

And woohoo the anime made this interaction between them even more sus!! Why. Why are you looking at each other like that. Stop people could misunderstand

Protecting her from the monster food

Thank you for the food episode 10. Made me notice a healing/caing moment I’d never paid attention to before!

"Huh your hands seem okay" ARE YOU SURE… They’re so cute when they team up together oml, hassling Senshi instead of each other lmaoo. Love how they made her look at him all happy

I wish I could put the screenshots for the whole sequence here but. How to hook and reel in your Chilchuck.

In chapter 97 cover they took the seats facing each other this time again <3 Like in the golden kingdom. It’s a recurring thing. Seemingly he’s looking at Falin so involved in the same conversation at her? :> Oh it’d be cute if he was the one who made her laugh sob, he looks like he just cracked a wise joke.

Today’s healing touch

Dude you are going to die let her go

They changed the gesture Marcille did to chide Chil here, instead of having her hand on his shoulder and tapping his head she gives him an elbow nudge. Idm the change this is so cute too. Also Chil extending her his sympathies

Not a crumb tbh but the way this was his POV during the Marcille vs Thistle fight is hilarious to me. No wonder he thought she was bonkers

Not the way these quote keychains are set up… Every protagonist has their own EXCEPT Chil’s who includes Marcille, and it’s one of my fav marchil moments I looove being validated that this scene is important

And to finish it up, the manga scene of this exchange in the anime that really stole my heart. They’re so fond of each other aw. Teasing on the job is free, her expression here is so cute, rare reversal of their roles in the dynamic

More crumbs soon! Not many in here yet (edit: at the time of first posting) but I was dying to post it with the modern cutouts art (I have so much fanart planned based on it hehe) but then the bluray illustration came out and fucking one hit KOd me. I am not that strong. I am only human.

They didn’t blush here in the manga guysss

[static-electric-dreams]

Hmm, this Other Skies party looks kinda familiar....

Design notes below 👇

Laios: Eshenali Knight

I obviously wanted Laios and Falin to be "dragons," but it was hard to decide what color scales to give Laios (Falin, who I'll draw later, is of course red and fluffy). I settled on white with golden eyes, lol. He has more futuristic power armor here and carries a light sword inhabited by a strange alien creature. I also want to say he cuts/shaves the fur off his tail and feet for Personal Reasons. In Other Skies, he's obsessed with alien beasts in lieu of monsters.

Senshi: Zair Survivor

Senshi is already perfectly suited for the survivor class, and it made sense to translate him to a hairy and magnanimous Zair with black fur and brown markings. He lived out in the dangerous wilderness of Palazair before meeting his current party, and makes sure to always have some grub around to keep people's psyche up. Think of how fast one could cook with four hands!

Marcille: Sucralite Psion

I had a hard time deciding what species to translate Marcille into, but I think the glamorous and androgynous Sucralites are the best analog to elves that I can think of. Other Skies!Marcille might have a more Sucralite name ("Ambrosia" might actually be a good one), or they might choose to present as feminine while traveling. Her staff has been translated to a high-tech device that can connect to her thoughts and amplify her psychic power, thus making her attacks stronger.

Chilchuck: Santornan Assassin

I chose the "assassin" class for Chilchuck because it's the one with the most lockpicking and sneaking related moves and skills; the name implies that killing is the end result, but it doesn't have to be. He's of course a Santornan because of their small stature and "cute" faces. He has a closed piercing hole where his wedding earring once was. As a side note, I considered changing his color palette to blues and pinks to match Santornan aesthetics, but I wanted the design to be recognizable so I didn't. Maybe another time!

In the future I also want to draw Falin, Kabru, Izutsumi, and perhaps Thistle.... We shall see.

[nattvingen]

You've single-handedly opened my eyes to how absolutely darling Aethas is (why was I ever sleeping on him??). :3 Anyway, I'm curious about your belf origin story!! <3 What initially drew you to your favorite blood elf NPCs?

Aaah, I'm so glad!!! It's funny, so was I lmao until I saw all of the great fanart by @syrosaur (ALL AMAZING)! And then we started talking about him, and I wrote that first Hal/Aethas fic, and the rest is history <3

When BC came out I fell in love with the blood elves at once for their dubious morals and coolass aesthetics. <3 I've been playing WoW on and off since 2006 with a friend, mostly off since Pandaria (friend stopped playing, so I was only really playing for free on the PTR in brief windows), and never in a really story-invested way until... I started playing again in this new place called Boralus and there was this one funky pirate guy, and I looked him up for fun and oh damn, you can be queer in WoW now?!

So then when I inevitably went back to Silvermoon I had some Thoughts In Mind and saw the beloved triumvirate standing there /no and thumbsup-ing each other... "Surely they must be wildly popular!" I thought to myself, so when I went on AO3 and found all of four (4) fics, I said to myself, "Barely any fandom content? Guess someone has to do something about that!" And the more I write them the more I want of them!!! Please!!! The elves are good!!! WoW: Midnight fills me with Such Dread.

[elfreek]

Birth of a Wish grew out of desire to reuse elements from an earlier project after i had scrapped them (A reluctant god/Fantasy Chemical Weapons). It started life as a Fabula Ulitma Concept that bounced between several systems (including Lancer) before ultimately ending up in Numenera.

I had been reading about historical perceptions of Kami in Shinto and alot of academic stuff on Shinto in general at the time and was fascinated by the synchronicity between it and Buddhism. I wanted to capture that heian period fantasy that seems to exist in the historical record while cutting it with my own sensibilities. This really came together and got moving a few weeks after the worst moment of my life; i invested a lot in as escapism and a way to distract myself while was going through it. I'm real attached in that way, I wish i had gotten to run it. Appologies for the bad editing and scattered sentence structures in the PDF. Deeper thoughts, story beats and art below under the cut

General Commentary

It was... alot of work trying to lay the ground work for alot of the mechanical stuff that existed within setting. (as i discovered what defines a kami isn't common knowledge and how you related to an unfamiliar audience is extremely difficult)

There was alot of really wonderful synergy with the elements i wanted to write about and preexisting ideas i had such as the Shinto concept of purity and how that relates to death vs the concept of spiritual Nerve Gas. I was leaning into to the thinning of the boundary between life and death and souls not only being real but a thing to be used and harness. As I was developing the backstory it sort of... drifted into a mythical retelling of a Super Robot Anime's plot, so much so that the conflict between high heaven and the planet and the god warriors are directly inspired by EVA in both mood, aesthetics and the fact that they are vulgar expressions of humanity. I really really liked the decay of this godly power into a lesser form as a motif. All the Kami within the world of Roshana/Sadogoma can be derived from the rotting and corrupted cadavers of a pair of twins (directly mirroring Izanagi/Izanami).

The impetus for the four+one linages of species came from personal biases but the ones i wanted to point out in particular are the dregs and elves (which aren't mentioned directly) Elves first because it'll be quick, I wanted them to serve as an interest marker both for "oh fuck they're strong" as well as them being close to "divinity" which is derived from what "humans" looked like from the prior to the apocalypse as a little visual lore tidbit.

The dregs serve two purposes narratively, the first is to isolate the populations of the world by making sea travel extremely difficult thus limiting trade and other exchanges through open warfare with the chosen four. Secondary I wanted to show the primary divinities as maybe not so great, given that the dregs were the negative aspects of divinity filtered and abandoned by them. That kind of callousness and distain for the difference is an ugly thing to me and i wanted to bring it up but leave it to the player to draw their own conclusion.

The trio of divinities are pretty self explanatory except for 1) Managitu is a Kangaroo with two sets of ears and that Tsukimi isn't a product of the Brother Unit's rot. They are an alien probe that came to the planet after the war with High Heaven. Their roll is to observe and record. It's why there isn't a tribe of man modeled in their image. The early history of the trios rise to power is deliberately altered and obscured to hide Tsukimi's origin.

Plot Beats

The inital setup for the campaign was that the party was going to be part of a commercial expedition to open up a theocracy that had been silent for centuries to global trade. (haha geddit?) The first major thing to happen would be an attack of wraiths/ghouls and other undead fiends lead by a pair hulking armored figures during the parties ascent up the mountain with the goal being to trap them there and harvest their souls for an evil magus (we'll get to that).

Players would fight their way out with scattered survivors and end up at a village that would be warry of them but would open up to them after they deal with various problems for them which would double as showing the players that there's something wrong here and hint at the magus. From their they'd learn that the theocracy they were here for had suffered a catatrophic civil war that permanently scared the region. Eventually they'd link up with a shunned elven historian named Zelkova/Mizunara (depending on the draft) who turned into one 400 years ago during a academic visit to the mountain. She would serve as their guide and plot explainer/director for the over arcing narrative.

She would inform the players that there's an evil mage (Astra, never ended up having a setting appropriate name) with a vice grip on the region after helping plunge it into chaos. Astra would capture and sacrifice people from on and off mountain in a sick ritual to awaken a pre-apocalypse titan whom she and many others venerated as a new form of divinity, the same kind who's decomposition created the divinities. Following the plot the players would find out Astra is a spiritual scientist that is responsible for the soul killing chemical weapons that plague a lot of the region as well as committing atrocities in the name of awaking the titan through appeals to it's sense of mercy. The players would learn that Astra needs so many souls to not only power her magic but to serve as a spark to ignite the engine that powers the pre-apocalypse titan

Ultimately the party would sabotage Astra's efforts and defeat her. Ultimately before she could curse them with a spiteful death rattle that invoked her sunk cost fallacy of needing to kill so many for her own personal absolution the titan would wake and kill her in a gross display of it's own power. This New final boss would introduce itself as a nameless titan that was deemed unfit to serve it's original makers but was awoken by the honest pleas and appeals for salvation by Astra and her ilk. She had been awake during the civil war and saw that they did in her name, choosing to stay silent because the acts scared her. After meditating for so long she finally found her answer, accepting the calls for mercy and salvation of the people that placed their faith in her. Accepting her new mantle as an awakened being, she takes a feirce from made of fire called the Avatar of Mercy, announcing to the players that'll cleans the planet of suffering the only way she knows how. However she recognizes the hypocrisy, suffering she has caused and and the gulf of power between herself and the party. She offer the party a chance to fight her on fair terms, challenging the party to fight for their own future. Projecting her soul as a fire-y incarnation and absorbing what remains of Astra while the titan itself begins its ignition sequence.

If the players beat her, the sequence stops and the world is saved, if she wins or the players acquiesce to her ideology the world would be consumed in fire burning away the good, the evil and the in-between leaving only fertile ground for plants to take root.

That bad end is a leading for another idea I had but thats a story for another time.

Art Commentary

I did a lot stuff I was proud of from a design perspective for this project. I adore the way this landing page/title card turned out. It not only highlights the main antagonist and her motivations but also hinting at the bad end.

I did these three with the intentions of them being major NPCS in their own right, the right two being from the mountain and the leftmost being from a distant land. Personally I really think i did will capturing an overall aesthetic as well as demonstrating regionality in their clothing choices

Closing Thoughts

I am really attached to this world, not in the "i love the characters and places in it" sense but more in the fact that I find the subject matter fascinating and it was with me during the worst hours of my life. I really owe alot of my stability during that time to this world and the art i did for it. It's a shame it has to be put to bed like this but I'd rather burry it with full honors then have it fizzle on me because of circumstances beyond my control.

[mrfrunky]

Something I noticed is that in the age of fantasy, the mainstream tabletop and CRPG enjoyers love elves more than dwarfs at the moment. around the 2000s-2010s this was not the case, as RPGs like arcanum and Dragon Age Inquisition had SO MUCH neat dwarf stuff in it.

in the present day, dwarf stuff isn’t many, such as how Baldurs gate 3 has a distinct lack of dwarf companions but 5 (FIVE (V (

)))

ELF COMPANIONS. WHAT AM I TO DO WITH ALL THESE ELVES???

Of course it’s fine but then the kicker is when mountain dwarfs are as useful as glasses without their fucking frames AND AN UNCOMFORTABLE AMOUNT OF THE DWARVES YOU FIND DONT HAVE BEARDS! WHAT?? I think it’s outrageous.

There’s also of course the amount of players that (seriously) play dwarf. Luckily the group im in are dwarf-aligned so we have encountered a fair amount of dorf. But in other groups I noticed that they are quite uncommon. Which I think is interesting.

Besides the point, while elves are more popular in CRPG and Tabletop games (most likely due to them being very much akin to a human in aesthetic, plus the fact that there are just so many cool options and clear differences between elves) I have noticed an influx of dwarf related games and media. There’s Wind Rose (a really good dwarf metal band) LOTR return to Moira which is a co-op dwarf game, and deep rock galactic, which is an awesome four person co op game too. Lastly I'd like to mention that there should be more elf games besides Elder Scrolls, PLEASE.

[xadianglyphs]

Star Iconography: Four-Point and Triple Stars

This post is part of a series collecting, categorizing, and exploring types of star iconography used through s6. Reading the other parts is not required to understand any individual post, but they are related.

—

The four-point star can be interpreted as the standard star shape/symbol within the setting—representing stars in general as seen in the sky, rather than the primal source of The Stars. The symbol is universal enough to appear in a child's drawings:

Though the four-point star is of course associated with the same four-point shape in the Star primal symbol, it's a lot more malleable. It can be highly geometric and composed of precise lines, or it can be effectively a rhombus/diamond shape with slightly concave sides. Sometimes one point—usually the bottom one—is elongated.

The four-point star appears in pretty much every star-related context, from the Celestial elves and the Starscraper to the Startouch elves themselves, and to elven documents related to them. The Celestial elves even incorporate it in their insignia, rather than the primal symbol:

The decorations throughout the Starscraper also frequently combine the Star primal symbol enclosed within a four-point star, which is probably just a way to make everything look fancier but is also interesting in the context of their insignia being the eye within the four-point star.

Now, I don't think there's necessarily any meaning to the four-point star and its use—it's a symbol that says "star" without saying "Star primal" and all that entails, which is something visually needed. So this is going to get a bit... out there, but I want to call attention to the recurring prominent decorative use of triple stars: three four-point stars or diamonds in a cluster.

Leola wears three star/diamonds in her hair, the Merciful One has three decorating the waist of their robes, Aaravos has three on each of his god-dang literal face cheeks.

Obviously there is a very strong chance that it's all is coincidence due to three being a very aesthetic number of things to arrange—way better than two or four, and five is often just too many. This means even the solid predominance of three-star clusters in the Star primal symbol concept art could mean nothing at all:

But then we start to get things like "only three quasar diamonds, of unknown origin, in the entire world" and the three star/diamond crest on the "Chronicles of Elarion" cover, and I dunno... I start to go huh.

Is the number three, particularly three stars, of significance to Startouch elves, and/or ancient humans? Does it commemorate three significant star-related beings? There's a lot of emphasis in the series on character triads, and we still don't know anything about how Laurelion fits in with Aaravos and Startouch elves in Xadia. Is it related to why there are only three quasar diamonds? Or is there a connection between only a couple of these elements, like the three quasar diamonds and Elarion, and the rest are aesthetic coincidence?

This is all stuff I think is unlikely to be explored or resolved in s7, unless it gets into what's up with the whole "three quasar diamonds" thing. But it's neat to think about.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 16 - Empire In Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Okay, now onto the May reviews! Backlog vanishing before my eyes (or at least is now only 6 books long).

So I went into this book almost entirely blind – my roommate had gotten it as a secret santa gift from someone without much understanding of their taste in fiction, and it had just been laying unopened on the book shelf for four months until I grabbed it entirely based on the author.

I have actually read a decent amount of Tchaikovsky before – Children of Time and Ruin, and then Elder Race – but Empire was honestly entirely different than any of them (beyond a clear aesthetic fascination with anthropods, anyways). Which really only makes sense, considering it’s the first volume of a ten-book map fantasy series instead of hard sci fi or a fairly literary genre-blending novella, and also that it was published the better part of a decade before any of them. But these are things I did not know!

Anyway, there was some fast expectation adjustment going on as I read; the book is map fantasy, of the ‘could basically be someone’s D&D campaign except for how often they split the party’ variety. The central conceits (or gimmicks, depending on how uncharitable you’re feeling) are first of all that instead of having a world populated by humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and so forth, everyone in the setting is one type of another of insect/arachnid-kinden, humans offshoots whose ancestors infused themselves with the essences of some of the gigantic anthropods who are what the world has instead of chimera and dragons. They physically vary about as much as people in fantasy worlds usually do, and also they each have their own kind of magic. Importantly, the ability to understand, use and maintain complex machinery – to be ‘apt’ – is one of those inherited types of magic, and the Lowlands (the books setting) went through some real upheavel a couple centuries back when the Apt ants and beetles got good enough at technology to overthrow their wasp and mantis overlords.

The story itself is about the looming threat of conquest by the expandsionist Wasp Empire on the border of the Lowlands, and the refusal of the city states’ robber barons and magnates to see it as a threat instead of a profitable trading partner. The protagonists are barely-grown students who are wards or clients of an aging self-appointed spymaster whose been trying to rouse the alarm who are thrown into the spy games after a botched assassination attempt and from there there are duels, slavers, airships, prison breaks, heroic resistance fighters, love triangles, fraught long-lost parental relationships, etc, etc.

That probably sounds pretty dismissive, but I do want to emphasize that it’s not at all bad – it’s just all much more conventional than I’m used to from Tchaikovsky, which is was a bit disappointing. Tropey as it all was, it was still fun, and well-executed and -written enough to be the most enjoyable book I’d read in a decent bit.

Anyway, if a book must have fantasy race science with civilizations of entirely-human-but-also-meaningfully-biologically-distinct demographics, I thought this was pretty well done? Mainly in that it always seemed pretty clear that the ostensible immutable differences in character and intelligence between them are just our main POV being sheltered and unthinkingly racist, and it just barely manages to avoid having one of the kinden be ‘the evil one’, or be a bunch of stupid savages (barely).

I also did appreciate that Tchaikovsky managed to avoid making the Lowlands seem like any sort of utopia (or even, like, a good place – slavery and amoral robber barons and violent chauvinism everywhere), without it ever really being in question whether the whole place getting conquered by the vaguely Roman slaver empire would be any sort of good thing. Likewise also kind of amusing how the main villain’s whole subplot involves having his nose repeatedly rubbed in the fact that, even if he is personally incorruptible and devoted only to the good of the empire, absolutely none of his superiors, peers or subordinates are.)

Anyway, overall a fun read, most of the main cast was pretty endearing, fun pulpy adventure plot with not-entirely-awful pacing, love triangle plot that didn’t entirely make me was to light the book on fire. Still, can’t say it got anywhere close to inspiring me to read the other 9 volumes of the series.

[generalluxun]

Say, remember that "Neo Nobility" cult stuff we discussed on and off again? I think I did a submission with the various codenames/titles awarded to the members ETC.

Anyway, I was musing on it & wanted to share the two inspiration sources.

Outside of what I saw of S5's mask party & Chloe zeroing in on Marinette anyway XD

1: Baccano's mafia having a rite of passage along these lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx6EMt33BFI

I imagine Kagami & Tomoe are stand outs here, but athletic and nimble Chloe with dual daggers is not one to underestimate ;)

2: This world building from the very impressive Travels Through Azeroth and Outland:

“ Sin’dorei are in love with idleness and frivolity, especially here in the capital. Many of our priests and sages say that such behavior is the mark of true civilization, and the only way that an elf can find happiness. They may be right; doubtless for most elves, this is the case. But idleness is a poison for others.” “I’ve observed the same among some human nobles,” I said. “Human nobles are not the same as elven nobles.” She raised her wine glass to her lips and drank deeply before continuing. “Some elves grew bored and jaded. They turned to darker entertainments, forming secret societies. Most were harmless but a few became dangerous, delving into warlock grimoires and summoning demons in hidden cellars all along Murder Row.” “That’s how the place got it’s name?” “Not exactly. Souls are required to summon most forms of demons, but these wayward elves culled souls from wild beasts. Distasteful, but not necessarily criminal. Around four centuries ago, one of these groups, the Fount of Wisdom, sought to summon a pit lord. They were young fools who had no idea what they were doing.” “A pit lord?” Those living maelstroms of destruction are among the most terrible demons in existence. “Horrible, I know. To do this, they kidnapped the daughter of Lord Fairbreeze and sacrificed her on an altar. Evidently the demons were displeased with such a sacrifice. Instead of a pit lord, they summoned an explosion which killed most of them.” “What happened to the survivors?” “They were found, admitted to their crimes, and executed. The ringleader was a scion of House Falconwing, but even that could not save him. His own father dealt the killing blow.” “Was that the last of such societies?” “Only for a while. Gradually they returned, though none were ever so reckless as the Fount of Wisdom.”

3: After that... I can't recall if that came before or after speaking with you, but I think I think:

Yu Yu Hakusho's Black Black Club (Wealthy humans who dabbled in blood sports, & selling demons as as slaves) Along with their "Feast of Human Vices" could or did or do play some degree of aesthetic inspiration. For reference, said Feast was horrific enough that when Demon Hunter Shinobu Sensui found it, his mind fractured and he killed all the humans there. Then he stole the "Chapter Black" a record of all humanities worst crimes & let's just say things didn't get better from there.

Not sure why, but I felt the context was interesting, especially given Gabriel, Emilie & others tinkering with magic artifacts too.

A lot of interesting ideas here, unfortunately I'm not familiar with any of the source material at al >.<;;

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

Some more Shadowrun/Cyberpunk crossover thoughts

I've been thinking more about the idea, and now I'm wondering, if such a crossover existed, we would definitely have certain characters from Cyberpunk as metahumans (i.e. elves, orcs, trolls, etc).

So then the question becomes: who would be what?

There are 5(6) main metatypes in Shadowrun:

Humans

Elves (they're basically what might be termed "high elves" in some fantasy settings. There is also a variant called Night Ones that are, at least in 4th edition, basically just drow)

Dwarves (they're dwarves)

Orks (aesthetics wise, fairly standard fantasy orcs save for half-orcs not being a thing, and the most numerous metahuman type that isn't bog standard human)

Trolls (really tall, muscular, dermal armor)

T'skrang (funky lizard people; not technically in Shadowrun, but they were in Earthdawn, the prequel game, and there's at least one semi-major NPC that is one, even if they can't use the proper name for licensing reasons)

There are also a healthy amount of "non-metahuman sapients" in the Shadowrun setting:

Naga (talking snakes, no arms or human like features at all; they're usually around the size of an anaconda, and typically resemble the dominant venomous or apex predator snake type in their region of origin - in Brazil you get anaconda naga, for example; in the American Southwest you'd get rattlesnake naga, in India/Southeast Asia, you'd probably get king cobra naga. They're very skilled with magic, often using it as a replacement for things metahuman hands can do)

Sasquatches: what it says on the tin. It's Bigfoot/Yeti, but sapient and capable of limited communication.

Centaurs: imagine a horse-taur - horse lower body, upper body of an anthro horse, and that's a Shadowrun centaur.

Shapeshfiters: essentially reverse were-animals, born a sapient animal, but can shift into the form of a metahuman. Various types exist: wolf, fox, coyote, bear, alligator, anaconda, bovine, domestic dogs, deer, horse, eagles/falcons, jaguar, leopard, lion, panther, seal, tigers, etc).

Spirits (a wide array of spirit types exist, from "standard" metahuman looking summoned spirits, to corrupted toxic spirits, insect spirits that don't always get along with people, etc)

Drakes (essentially miniature were-dragons, that come in all the dragon flavors: Western, Eastern, Feathered Serpent, and Leviathan/Sea Dragon). Originally a creation of dragonkind (the so called "true drakes), there are also one that have inherited the abilities and form (so called "bred drakes").

The many and varied Human-MetaHuman Vampiric Virus Infected - the most common being ghouls (can only subsist on metahuman meat, have an entire functioning and sympathetically presented nation to themselves), vampires and nosferatu (must drink metahuman blood, as well as feed on Essence - the magical energy inherit to all creatures; Nosferatu are essentially super-Vampires). There are variants for all metatypes and most non-human sapients (naga and centaur vampires!). The most ethical and chill of these tend to subsist on cloned metahuman meat (for ghouls) or blood banks and livestock animals (for vampires/nosferatu; the blood bank for the obvious; the livestock animals as an Essence source).

Dragons: the big scaly boys and girls that get a ton of publicity. Split into four main types: Western (ala European style, wings and four legs), Eastern (Japanese/Chinese/Southeast Asian style fancy looking hover-noodles), Feathered Serpents (FASHION in dragon form, pretty much Quetzalcoatl), and Leviathans (Sea Dragons; one of which may have been Nessie). There's a further subdivision between standard dragons and Great Dragons (note the capital letters). Greats are regular dragons who have lived long enough to undergo some form of change process that results in them getting much bigger, much more physically and magically powerful, gives them an innate ability to shift into a metahuman form (lesser dragons make do with illusion spells), and gives them the ability to straight up alter fate, luck, and probability (they can essentially go "oh, you killed me? No you didn't" and can actively fuck with your dice rolls). Greats are, by design, unkillable by PCs, and if you fight them, you lose. No ifs or buts. That said, most dragons, and even most Greats, aren't massive scheming dickbags. Some can be arrogant but pricks (Lofwyr), some can be hippies (Hestaby), some can be beloved talk show hosts and presidents (Dunkelzahn), and some can be terrorists (Sirrurg/Alamais).

There are a few other variations and such on sapient life in Shadowrun:

AI: as it says, Artificial Intelligences, ranging from small programs that emerge from Matrix systems, to the giant Godlike entities like Deus, Megaera, and such.

Technomancers: metahumans that can access the Matrix without cyberware or commlinks, essentially technowizards.

SURGE: An umbrella term for metahumans and non-metahuman sapients who have undergone Sudden Unexplained Recessive Genetic Expression, and essentially magically mutated, with a wide variety of possible features. Most players I've known have used it to make other fantasy races (tiefling and dragonborn) and full on furries (if they don't want to do so via cyberware/bioware).

[inquisitor-julia]

So! not exactly sure how I want to format this but here I am to babble about my OCs starting with the original love of my life: Elsanna Cousland

Putting this giant post under the cut so I don't clog up anyone's dash!

So to start off, just the basics:

Status: Alive and well, Queen of Ferelden

Name Meaning: “Powerful Sparrow”

Full Name: Elsanna Norette Cousland [Theirin]

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Date of Birth: 15th of Firstfall 9:12 Dragon

Age: 18 (at the start of Origins)

Class: Rogue (Dual-Wielder)

Specializations: Duelist, Assassin, Shadow

Romance: Alistair

Shares World-State With: Serafina Hawke and Nayeli Trevelyan

Height: 5'8"

Family: Eleanor (Mother)(Dead), Bryce (Father)(Dead), Fergus (Older Brother), Oriana (Sister-In-Law)(Dead), Oren (Nephew)(Dead), Cassia (Sister-In-Law), Eleanora (Niece), Bryson (Nephew), Vilaida (Mabari)

Children: Alessandra (Daughter)

MBTI: ENFJ

Astrology: Scorpio [3rd Decan]

Pinterest Board

Playlist

Romance Playlist (for sure needs updating)

Her in game decisions:

she recruits and keeps all of the available companions

she’s friends with all of her companions

her mabari is named Vilaida

sided with the mages

protected redcliffe

helped connor with the help of the circle of magi and isolde and connor lived

did not defile the sacred ashes

made peace between the elves and werewolves

Avernus allowed to live and continue experiments humanely

did not drink Avernus’ potion and did not destroy it

destroyed the anvil and sided with cairidin

Bhelen rules Orzammar

“killed” flemeth (by which i mean she absolutely fought flemeth but obviously flemeth isn’t actually dead so…)

Loghain was executed by Alistair

Alistair rules Ferelden with Elsanna as his Queen

The dark ritual was done by Alistair

Elsanna killed the archdemon and lived

Elsanna became warden commander and arlessa of amaranthine

recruited all awakening companions

friends with all awakening companions

protected both vigil’s keep and amaranthine

killed the architect

let morrigan leave through the eluvian

Some posts I've made about her previously

Aesthetic Post

Infodump Post

Short Fic

Elsanna and Four Colors

16 Factors Test

Wedding Dress

Warden or Queen Ask

Sad Cousland Headcanon

Elsi and Alistair Gifset

Feelings About Loghain

Excuse You I Am Your Queen

Feelings About Wardens

Hogwarts Aesthetic (no i don't engage with HP anymore but i still like this post)

Eamon vs. Alessandra

In Five Gifs

Leliana and Shale

Happy Ending

Kiss, Marry, Get Drinks With

Dog and Ser Pounce

How Deeply She Feels

Elsanna's Theme

Dollmakers 1 2 3 4 5

Art of her:

by changelingsandothernonsense

by paranoidfactors

by junie-junette

by mirandemia

by me

by deeplord

I know this post is really just links but this is just to start me off talking about her! I have more info written down (somewhere) that I'm going to post and I'm open to any questions! :)

[winterpinetrees]

Here’s another Gap Years post

It’s my tumblr and I can do what I want.

………………

The north wing of the palace is built around a single room. Four thousand years of use have worn away any fancy name that it might have had, and now it is only known as The Problem Room. When there is a problem, the leaders of the elven world discuss it in The Problem Room. The Problem Room is also known as the source of many problems.

It doesn’t look particularly important. It’s the size of a human conference room and has about the same layout. The walls are covered in monitors and displays, and a huge holographic globe hovers in the center. All of this surrounds a beautiful table with nine matching chairs. The furniture is in grayscale, made of dark glass and detailed metal. The room usually has another dozen mismatched chairs shoved against the walls that don’t fit the aesthetic. The room has lasted four thousand years. That doesn’t mean that it has lasted particularly well.

The Apex always sits at the head of the table. As of three days ago, that is Apex Ishtar Mercuralis. She has a sizable cut over one eye and her signature braid is a little bit shorter, but all things considered, she’s well and ready to lead. Ryn Stormson Mercuralis sits to her left doing complex equations on a sheet of paper. Three other councilors sit around them.

The first is Devana Marolak, a stout woman with sharp fangs and feathery brown hair. A human might guess that her family came from anywhere between Eastern Europe and Mongolia. Devana is a traitor. Not to Ishtar, but to the old Apex. She represents the Hunters, a huge faction devoted to keeping those uppity wild humans in their place. When Emer failed to act quickly enough, she switched sides, betraying centuries of family history and getting her own brother killed. Ishtar is well aware of her councillor’s true loyalties, and prefers it to the normal sort of betrayal that happens in court.

An older elf sits on the other side of Ryn. He is Gullin Eburos, and he is nearly 500 years old. Genus Eburos is one of the high nobility though, so the pale elf only appears about 60. He has long white hair and looks the most like a stereotypical Tolkien elf of anyone in the government. Gullin is a biologist specializing in viruses and disease. Commoners call him the plaguekeeper. He likes the status quo regarding the human realm, but Ishtar needed an apocalyptic pandemic and knew who to call. He is a well-liked person, and quite down to earth considering his skills and power. However, there is a reason why Apex Emer Sondaica didn’t call on him to manage her own doomsday plague. Gullin has some skeletons in his closet.

The final occupied seat holds a very young elf. Due to their long lives, elves can stagnate as a culture. To avoid this, their government switches hands constantly and every High Council must have a scrappy youngster. Does it help? Not really. Ishtar’s scrappy youngster is Amedi Kebero, a prodigy from the outer nobility who won their year at the Conservatory less than twenty years before. They have reddish brown skin and dark gold hair in short loose coils. Amedi wears an archery armguard along with their noble vambrace, and their magic sometimes flickers from Mercuralis indigo to its original rust red. The other four seats are empty, as Ishtar has not chosen the rest of her council. However, Amedi and Ishtar’s seneschals stand at the edges of the room taking notes.

The five talk for a while. They are the High Council and there is always a lot to discuss. Other experts cycle in and out of the room giving reports. Some of it is good (the low casualties during the coup, public support), some it is annoying but harmless (Ishtar caused a magnitude 4 earthquake during her final duel with the old Apex that somehow affected both worlds), but some of it is definitely bad. In any coup, even a human one, the new government needs to eliminate their opponents. Elves typically do this by killing most of the ruling genus and its high noble supporters, and assimilating the rest into more neutral families. Ishtar has tried to keep casualties low this time around. Unfortunately, her attempt to capture her enemies alive has left three young adult heirs to the high nobility at large. It has also left one of her liutenants dead and another high noble seriously injured.

They always expected one heir to escape. Zerada Adust, the enchanting noblewoman betrothed to Marin Sondaica, has been wandering the human realm for a few years now. She seems more interested in human affairs, and the council thinks that if they leave her alone, she’ll be content to slip into obscurity. Either way, no one has been able to find her. Perhaps her captured brother has some information. More threatening though is Kova Marolak, Devana’s fiersome niece who was only a year shy of attending the Conservatory and becoming a true noble. She dodged the soldiers sent to take her into custody and disappeared to the human realm. Lastly, of course, is Marin Sondaica, the son of the former Apex. He unexpectedly ran off to the human world as well, seemingly having no idea that a coup was about to happen.

The prince must have found out somehow, because he had gathered three extremely capable humans and swayed them to his side by he was found. The testimony of the soldiers is enough to know that Marin chose his allies for a reason. The tall blond boy was an archetypical human warrior, and the one with glasses clearly had no qualms about violence. Even the less physically impresive human noticed the presence of elves before he should have. The council has a theory that the boys are the children of three human oligarchs as well. They’re a nearly perfect crew to keep an outlaw prince alive.

The council need to catch him, and they need to do it soon. Sooner or later the wild humans with their geiger counters and worldwide web will notice that things aren’t adding up. They will learn that they aren’t alone in the universe, and every elf alive knows what wild humans do when they feel threatened. Wilders are blunt, fanatic creatures. They’ll die for any cause, and keep fighting a losing battle on nothing but spite. Giving them a common enemy, a true outsider that every last human would hate and fear, would create an army like none of them can imagine.

No elf, not even the most honorbound noble, wants to die at the hands of a desperate teenage human with nothing left to lose. Elvenkind must avoid discovery until after they have already won.

…………

Congratulations! You’ve now met the entire (starting) main cast. Marin, Brian, Xavier and Clay make up the A plot as they drive across the USA, and Ishtar, Ryn, and Amedi are the B plot, trying to stop them. They will meet many other elves and humans along the way.

[your-talos-is-problematic]

riverwood, solitude, riften, and throat of the world for the skyrim asks!

Riverwood - Hadvar or Ralof? Why?

So I have only played Skyrim once, but I would say I’m a Hadvar person. Something about him immediately greeting Afonya with “the gods really have abandoned your people” was really funny to me, so I went with him. He also has some interesting character moments with the Imperial torturer, and it’s funny to me that he can’t recognize the Jagged Crown by appearance alone.

Solitude - Who's your favorite Jarl? Who's your least favorite? Why these?

I’m so glad you asked me this one because I’ve never seen anyone else even acknowledge that my favorite Jarl exists. Brunwulf Free-Winter, Ulfric’s replacement, has stolen so much space in my brain. He’s one of the few people in Windhelm I look forward to (others include Ambarys Rendar and all the pissed-off Jarls) because he’s so much nicer to the Dunmer than everyone else. He’s much more progressive than most of his kin, but still flawed- it’s really interesting to me that he still uses “dark/high elves”. He also refuses as Jarl to let Argonians in to the city, at least for the time being, which is interesting to me because it’s so open to interpretation. He’s either genuinely afraid of violence from Windhelm’s citizens (which hints that they’re even worse people than they seem and also at the strength of beastfolk hate even in comparison to elf hate) or he doesn’t actually care enough to accommodate and protect them (which combos with his strange, albeit accidental on the part of the devs, use of cat and lizard to refer to the pc). Also he’s having a secret relationship with Elda Early-Dawn of all people, and never acknowledges her very racist tendencies. I want to write something with him and Afonya, since there’s a lot there with Windhelm’s Dunmer-positive Jarl and its Dunmeri Thane. Also his non-Jarl schedule is in four-hour increments so he takes four-hour naps and it’s very funny to me.

As for least favorite, Laila Law-Giver really gets on my nerves. She’s so oblivious to all the city’s problems and so unaware that Maven’s using her. Also her son’s like “I don’t like Ulfric” and her reaction is to assume he has some sort of magical sickness. The switch in Jarls from her to Maven is one of my favorites, though, since it incurs so little change in policy. Maven’s always been in control, so she doesn’t need to be Jarl, but she still revels in the title. She’s probably my second-favorite, honestly. Writing her is fun.

Riften - What's your favorite guild? How do you feel about their questline?

I love love love the College of Winterhold! It is the most nostalgic thing ever for me because it reminds me of middle-grade fantasy books. I love the professors, I love the apprentices (of course my girl Brelyna), and I love the indoor and outdoor aesthetics of the College. I know the questline gets a lot of hate, but honestly I was having too much fun to care. Being randomly visited by the Psijic monks is surprising, and learning about the Augur of Dunlain is mysterious, and Ancano is comically suspicious, and that’s enough for me. The dwarven ruin visit with the ghosts was honesty super fascinating and fun, and the moment where the spirits break out into the town is honesty my favorite questline climax (second to killing Ulfric, honesty). And its side quests are great, of course. Where else are you going to get shapeshifted into a horse by your future wife?

Throat of the World - How do you feel about "Season Unending"?

I love it! Season Undending is probably in my top three quests in the entire game. I really like this feeling during it of like “why does everyone listen to me about these things”- the interactions really make you realize how and why the Dragonborn holds so much political power. Also, being able to affect how the world of Skyrim functions to such a large extent is such a crazy feeling. I let Elenwen stay during the meeting, too, which is perfect fanfic fodder for Afonya. Refreshing my memory on uesp while writing this also just taught me about the hidden scoring system, which is really cool. Generally, I like when RPGs let you do major things with no fighting involved. Also, because the Reach was temporarily Stormcloack, the quest where that guy delivers the poem involved him running all the way to Solitude to give it to the girl he liked, when he was supposed to just go to the Markarth throne room.

[autopotion]

I finished my first playthrough of Crimson Shroud and...

I think in many ways Crimson Shroud is the least insightful of Matsuno's games. A lot of tropes are played straight in this one, whereas I feel like his other games turn a lot of those on their heads. All of the games he's worked on are racist & orientalist in some way (the sexual violence of Rapha's plot in FFT; the viera in FFXII [he didn't invent them but all the same], and also the fact that FFXII is set in a place clearly inspired by Syria but most of the main cast from that area have very light skin; the cult in Lea Monde in Vagrant Story was started by a sexy belly-dancing priestess) but Crimson Shroud is the most egregious of the lot IMO. We've got standard racist tabletop conventions--like the sentient, evil, and very killable goblins, and the oppressed fantasy ethnic group (the Qish) that is also a source of Strange Magicks, sort of a stand-in for elves minus the pointy ears. We've got Frea, of the Qish, in yet another belly-dancer outfit. And it turns out the "reason" the Qish are oppressed perpetual wanderers is because one of them (the main villain of the game) made a deal with the devil and brought the first "gifts" (magical items) into the world, which sowed chaos in the region, so there are a number of racist ideas wrapped up in that.

Also, it's really quite misogynistic, more so than some of the other games (even FFT, which has... let me count... three? four? damsel in distress plots?). In addition to the intense sexualization of Frea, a young woman "in her late teens", the main villain of the game, Abigail, covets Frea's body so that she can use their "bond of blood" to possess it and cause the apocalypse. Why? Because, centuries ago, she was once a devoted servant of a king, and she desired him, but never acted on those desires--yet the people around her saw her lustful looks and had her tortured in a horrifically gruesome way. So she's the evil hysterical angry ex type of villainness (great), except, for all that trouble, she was never even in a relationship with the guy. The other "apostles" ganged up on her because she was a woman who wanted someone, and also I guess she was insane and evil all along I guess. Cool.

AND YET.... IN SPITE OF ALL OF THAT..... something about Crimson Shroud has completely hooked me. I don't know if I could name what yet, I have to mull it over (and play New Game+), but I was fairly moved by most of the story, even though the bad end is quite abrupt IMO. What did I like? Was I moved purely out of nostalgia for FFT & Vagrant Story, because they share more than a few plot points / character types / moods in common? Was it the party dynamic, which nails "found family" in a way most games with this premise struggle to achieve (three societal deviants who've teamed up because they have no one else)? Was it because I enjoyed the tight storytelling & amount of lore for the short playtime? Was it the tabletop aesthetic, and what relation that aesthetic has to the story and how it's told (a post for a different day)? Was it because, at the end of the day, I felt sympathy for Abigail, and wondered what her relationship with Frea, whose body she inhabits in the bad ending, will be like post-game? I have no clue. It's much easier for me to say what I don't like about something than what I do, so I'll have to think on it a bit longer.

Oh, also, the gameplay is exhausting and requires a lot of thought, but I think it worked for me. We'll see how I feel on NG+ though, which is harder, I've heard.