#fuck you ionia

[teeto-peteto]

Brief pause to say Bilgewater has the prettiest characters. Its not a debatable fact.

[deathdxnces]

also also also they talk about how noxus wasn't the first nation to attack, because ionia being so decentralized and rich in magic made it a tempting target to the rest of the world (and we know a couple freljordians and pirates also have fucked things up in ionia) but more importantly, they say the ionians managed to stay the way they were because ionia was always dangerous to invaders and it fought back to protect herself and her people, and they give as examples the land making supplies disappear and scattering troops in 'soul altering' forests and i was reminded of ixtal again because it gets the noxians separated and killed in that one short story

but i am thinking specifically about the implication ionia fought back and fucked people up either physically or on a soul level and that's so interesting when so many ionians still struggle with the notion of fighting back

and even more specifically i'm thinking about that being a central thing on why irelia thinks it's so ok to kill noxians but not ionians

[bookishblogging]

THE ILIAD: FOR DUMMIES ☀️ MASTERPOST

just kidding you're not a dummy, you're some hot stuff right there! i will be going through the entire iliad and giving you a general overview, some interesting plot points, additional context, and some other analysis tools to better help you understand the epic!

This post will serve as a table of contents (at the end) to my Iliad posts and a general overview that I will be constantly updating! I am using the Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad, alongside my companion book by Malcom M. Wilcock

Before we get into analyzing the actual Iliad, we need to get into some essential questions and context about the book

WHAT IS THE ILIAD:

The Iliad was written by Homer (this is actually debated but we can get into that later) around 750 and 550 B.C.E.

At its core, the story is about heros and humans. It's an Iron Age poem about an event, the Trojan War, that was supposed to have taken place in the Bronze age. The Iliad is considered to be a poem comprised of multiple books, 24 to be exact

This story is only a few days of the tenth and final year of the Greek siege against the city of Troy- this means it relies on the audience already knowing most of the basic details about the Trojan war and the gods themselves (don't sorry, I will provide this for you as we go along)

WHO IS HOMER:

The age old question: who the fuck is Homer?

Literally nothing is known about this dude except that he wrote (or was credited with writing) the Odyssey and the Iliad

People have referenced his writings for EONS. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, and even Sappho have referenced the poems of Homer in their own works. These also were popular in fine art in the late 7th century B.C.E.

There is a general consensus that Homer was from Ionia- a territory in western Anatolia or modern day Turkey that was populated by Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect, aka the birthplace of Greek philosophy. Want more info on Ionia? Click Here!

His descendants were called the Homerids/Homeridae

There is scholarly debate on if he even wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey, or if he only wrote one, etc etc etc. This is due to some very specific differences in the structure of the words used (like the use of short vowels, and the seemingly unimportant semivowel of the digamma being missing from the epics...yeah it's a lot)

The poems were reproduced ORALLY. This means that the poems were passed down by word of mouth, which if I were to sit and listen to this entire book via a guy singing at me...idk man I think I would leave

All of this to say, we really don't know who Homer is. There's a lot more information about what he could have looked like, if he really did write the Iliad, and a million other things, but I've already talked your ear off and we haven't even gotten into the book yet. If you want more information about Homer, check out my sources at the end of the post!

WAS THE CITY OF TROY REAL:

Yeah. There were nine layers exposed at the site of where Troy was expected to be, and nearly fifty sublayers at the mound of Hisarlik

Troy was a vassal state: meaning it had an obligation to a superior state, which happened to be the Hittite Empire

Troy had a lot more allies than original fighters in the city, meaning they had many language barriers- making the army harder to control than the unified Greek enemy.

THE STYLE OF THE ILIAD:

Cause - Effect - Solution

The poem is concluded with a mirror image of its beginning: an old man ventures to the camp of his enemy in order to ransom his child

The poem foreshadows the death of Achilles in MULTIPLE passages! He knows he is destined to die young if he fights at Troy, and the demise of his lover (don't fight me on this) Patroclus gives us an even more extended foreshadowing of the grief that is to come

When Achilles dies, Thetis (his mom) takes his body from the pyre and takes him to a place called the White Island. It's not clear whether he is immortalized BUT the reference to Achilles funeral in the Odyssey states that Achilles is cremated and his bones are placed in a golden urn along those of Patroclus, and the urn is entombed under a prominent mound (tsoa fans...you're welcome)

This isn't really necessary knowledge but moreso something I think is cool: the backstory from the Iliad of an abducted bride also appears in the Sanskirt epic Ramayana (circa 4th century B.C.E.)

okay now here is the ACTUAL important stuff

Humanity is the center of the universe in the Iliad. Humans motivations and concerns generate action in the poem, while the gods are often reduced to the role of enablers or spectators

The style of the poem collaborates with the vision that the speciousness of this epic means that every thought and gesture, spear cast and threat, intimate conversation and lament CAN be recorded. It gives a consciousness behind the demands of the iliad that these interactions MUST be recorded, this attention to detail is another way of showing centrality and the worth of the human experience (Greek OR Trojan)

The Iliad is ultimately a poem about death, the chief elements that distinguish the mortals from gods are: Death shadows every action, and death is neither abhorred nor celebrated. Instead it crystalizes by means of this one theme, death in battle, the essence of what it means to be human (Life is a struggle each person will always lose, the question is how one acts with that knowledge)

Modern readers and analysis blogs will state that one's inner spirit is somehow the "real" self, however the Iliad assumes the opposite: The psykhai (soul, spirits) of dying heroes fly off to Hades while their autous ("selves") are left behind in the form of dead bodies

Glory is INCREDIBLY important in the iliad, why? If mortals could live forever (like gods) then glory would be useless. It's a commodity to be exchanged, and because of this it has an economic and symbolic reality

Companionship is incredibly important

Pity is also very important, it's the concluding note of the poem. Even the gods feel pity

THE GODS AND THE ILIAD:

The Iliad gains depth by the divine dimension shedding glory on the humans at Troy. The gods are so intensely concerned with warriors and their fates which elevates the mortals to a special plane

Mortals are only separated from gods because they grow old and die

The symbiotic bond of gods and mortals is always see-sawing between adoration and antagonism

Humans who get too close to the gods risk being struck down, case in point, Achilles. He's young, well-made, he's a warrior but also a singer/musician (the only hero to be seen doing such a thing), he looks and acts like Apollo. THEREFORE...it's no coincidence that Apollo is ultimately the god who slays Achilles, just as he did Patroclus

Poetry supplemented or even guided ancient Greek religious interpretation much more than the activity of priests due to the lack of any official religious text. This gave ancient Hellenism a very fluid nature

This was a long post, and it's only the first of many! I will continuously update this with more sources about the Iliad and answer any FAQs that come up! I love classic literature, and as a STEM student I need to entertain my passion somehow lol. There is a table of contents at the top of the post, as well as right here. This will be updated for each book of the Iliad I write about, as well as any supplemental posts I make about certain topics and themes as I go along. I am putting a LOT of work into this series of posts, so let me know your thoughts or anything you'd like me to change/add/etc! Happy reading!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

(This is empty because this is the only post...more posts coming soon)

Sources/Citations/Additional Material

Homer- Britannica

Homerids- Britannica

Who Is Homer- The British Museum (fuck the British Museum)

Ionia Information- World Encyclopedia

The Hittites- Britannica

Ramayana Overview- British Library

Overview of Greek Mythology- Theoi

The Iliad- Overview via Britannica

Thetis- World Encyclopedia

[league-of-blorbos]

I've been working on listing as many parallels as I can between Kayn and Rhaast, because I'm just unhinged like that, so here's the ones I noticed so far under the cut:

Design:

SA Kayn has a diamond on his forehead and Rhaast has one on his chest 

Can represent their different mentalities as “brain vs heart”

Kayn is more methodical and efficient in his killings while Rhaast just likes to go in and kill as brutally as possible

Both lose their pupils after transforming and become more “inhuman” looking

Rhaast is obvious how inhuman he looks, SA’s skin turns ghostly pale and has shadows crawling up his arms (in LoR Kayn even gains claws after becoming SA)

The loss of pupils could be another way to show how removed from their humanity they’ve become, “eyes are the window to the soul”

Magic:

Kayn’s magic comes from shadows and Rhaast’s magic comes from the Sun

Day vs Night, Sun vs Moon, Light vs Dark, you get it

Their skins also play with this, Night/Dawnbringer swapped their red/blue coding but Kayn is still dark-coded and Rhaast is still light-coded, and in Odyssey Kayn is now light-coded (golden ora and bright stars) and Rhaast is dark-coded (literally a DARK star)

Kayn’s magic is “incorporeal” and Rhaast’s is “physical”

Kayn can pass through physical objects while Rhaast can use hemomancy to control minds and warp bodies

Kayn is fighting for intangible power and Rhaast is fighting for a physical body, both have what the other desires most

Backstory:

Both were soldiers with war-related trauma

Made for fight for someone else’s immoral goals; Kayn was fighting against Ionia defending from an invasion and Rhaast was fighting against Icathian slaves revolting

Can also play into how they are both reduced down to being weapons; Rhaast is literally trapped within his scythe and Kayn sees himself as a weapon crafted to fight against Noxus (“I am the weapon, you are a tool”)

Both their minds were scarred from witnessing horror they couldn’t handle; Kayn, as a developing child, couldn’t handle the violence of war and Rhaast, who began as a mortal human, couldn’t handle the existential horror of the Void

Other:

Both are fucking lonely and don’t wanna admit it

In all his versions Kayn craves companionship; base Kayn has unwavering loyalty to Zed and sees him as a father figure, Heartsteel becomes like brothers to Kayn even when he thought they’d just be another stepping stone in his career, and Odyssey Kayn sees Rhaast as a friend and still calls from him even after killing Rhaast for power

All the Darkin have been isolated in their weapons for centuries and once they’re free they try to remedy that loneliness; Naafiri embraces being a pack mother, Varus slowly opens his heart to Kai and Valmar, Aatrox calls for the other Darkin to join him for on last battle, and Rhaast chooses to toy and joke with Kayn instead of being cold towards him

Kayn and Rhaast have the potential to set aside their conflict, coexist, "allow themselves to blend" and not be lonely anymore, but both are too stubborn and selfish to even consider the possibility

[clefaiiiry]

Join me as I try to figure out where the FUCK Sett's arena is

Since Riot haven't even given a name for Sett's mother's tribe, you know damn well they're not going to make this easy.

But anyway, long ramble under the cut;

For starters, we know it's in a city called Qayanvi. We know this via voicelines and flavour text in Legends of Runeterra.

Legends of Runeterra Voicelines from Sett

So what do we know about Qayanvi and, more importantly, where is it?

Title Menu Splash art for Legends of Runeterra shortly after the Glory in Navori expansion dropped.

This art for the title menu on LoR shows Jack presumably before crashing Sett's arena as shown in their card arts. While is is not confirmed outright, it's pretty safe to assume. But since we know what the interior looks like via multiple card arts, we don't even have to assume.

Sett and Jack's Level 1 Card Arts from LoR

Qayanvi must have been a region that Noxus controlled - or at least had influence in - during the First Invasion, and Sett wouldn't move since he wants to stay close to his mother. This is a little harder to figure out since the interactive map on universe only shows the areas currently occupied by Noxus during the Second Invasion.

First image; Red highlights show areas occupied by Noxus. Second image shows place names.

Some of the architecture also seems to have heavy Noxian influence, with this large brutalist grey stone courtyard. We can also see in other card arts that this Noxian style of architecture is present in other locations in Ionia.

Lord Broadmane Card Art from LoR. I don't think this is Qayanvi since the Ionian buildings in the background have blue roofs rather than red ones, but it shows how the Noxian structures coexist alongside the Ionian ones across the previously occupied regions.

We also know that Qayanvi is on the coast since we can see the harbour in the background here.

It also would have been reasonable to assume Qayanvi was a coastal city even without this confirmation since trade is so important for such a crime ridden city. Sett's arena is operating out in the open and everyone knows what sort of dirty business a crime boss like that gets into. Having direct trade links with Noxus and Piltover / Zaun just makes the who operation so much easier.

Navori as a region is described as having 'notable' criminal influence and is quite unstable due to it's previous occupation.

Card Art for The Witness. I'm not as confident about this one being Qayanvi, but the sea wall looks to be similar and the buildings in the background also appear to have a similar shape / red roofs.

Biome map used during development of the Interactive Runeterra map. Link attached to image.

The coastal area that I would have assumed Qayanvi to be in is shown to be a steppe / prairie. It's hard to judge in the images we have, but this looks somewhat consistent.

So we're looking for a coastal area in Navori, not necessarily still in Noxian controlled space, but close enough to continue trade.

Location of Ionian Capital taken from the Wiki; unable to find a source. The city is officially referred to as Ionia City, and is where the Ionian Council meet for various discussions / debates.

With all this in mind, I'm gonna take a stab and estimate that Qayanvi is somewhere within this red line;

Areas in black I think are highly unlikely, areas in yellow are potential but I'm not as confident. The large area south of Ionia City and west of Weh'le I believe(?) is the area attacked by Singed's chemical weapons and therefore are too barren to sustain a city like Qayanvi.

I'm not totally happy with my guess and I'd love to see other people take a swing, but this is the closest I would be happy to guess with the information I can find.

If you made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading and I hope this was interesting!

[fireycircus]

I’ve been thinking about Mother 3 a bit and I want to share some things that I think are really cool.

First thing’s first:

I Love Ionia so much

Well I love all the Magi honestly, but Ionia is like my favorite non party member character. She’s so interesting to me with how serious she is about the dark dragon’s awakening compared to the other Magi. The Magi seem very nonchalant about the fate of the islands except for her. I think this ties into how she has more relationships with the people living there. She’s a good friend to Alec while the other Magi don’t know him and I suspect she was the main person to raise Kumatora. Its stated that the Magi were given Kumatora but I don’t think a lot of them did much with her. By how Kumatora acts with Doria when she falls at her house, it seems to me they aren’t particularly close. But Kumatora is close to Ionia. The scene at Chupichupyoi temple is one of my favorites because of this. Ionia knows and understands Kumatora probably the most out of any npc we encounter. And the way Kumatora reacts to Ionia’s disappearance fucking KILLS ME. The game doesn’t let you hang onto that moment much, but it’s always stuck out to me. Previously Kumatora hasn’t really shown much sadness, only points of anger and frustration when things upset her. So to see her genuinely sad about something tells me just how close she was to Ionia.

Random Discussion Point 2: I think it’s really neat how Psi awakenings act like a subconscious defense system. I’ll keep this one brief. Every time someone awakens to new Psi it’s because of a dangerous situation, usually massive strikes of lightening or Psi being directed at them or even the fevers they get. I like the extra context behind the nature of Psi.

And lastly, some stuff about Locria. It’s really hard to feel any empathy for Locria after we’ve known them as Fassad. However, when you think about how Porky basically corrupted them first it gets kinda sad. The mouse in Locria’s house says that they used to dote over them excessively. I think it’s important to note that the detail of goodness we get about Locria is one to do with animals. We all know that what they did to Salsa was messed up. Porky made everything on the Nowhere Islands do a complete 180 and it’s fitting that he started by making one of it’s native inhabitants who is spiritually connected to the islands his first target. I can’t imagine what he did or said to make Locria change so horrifically.

*I saw an interpretation in the reblogs that Locria was always like that and they were just given an outlet to be the worst they could be. I like this idea as well, since it still gives impact to the plot while showing that some people just aren’t redeemable or have a good reason for doing bad. I wanted to share my thoughts with the person who added that but it was a tag so I added it in editing if that’s okay.

Anyways that’s all, just had to get these thoughts out of my system

[salubriwrites-blog]

Our Golden Demons, Ch 18 WIP

tl;dr Teaser for Chapter 18, Hwei took Sett's instructions to "do whatever you can to stay out of trouble with Jhin" too literally????

Oooh boy. I fucking Love this story.

I think that the JhinHwei ship is cool and all, but I love the healing nuances of SettHwei. In Our Golden Demons, we meet a version of Hwei who hasn't gone one way or the other toward darkness or light. He's just left in search of answers, meeting all sorts of people in Ionia and using his Ink Magic to soothe their own trauma. He hasn't found a cure or the strength to confront his own yet, and when he meets Sett he thinks he's found someone who might make those problems worth solving.

Spoiler: Yes he has! Also Spoiler: In this story, Hwei chooses light, and gains a mastery over his darkness with guidance from people like his loving hunk of a boyfriend/mate, and Ma. If you want a version of Hwei where the darkness envelops him, go read "My Mind, Your Mask" >:)

In Chapter 18 of Our Golden Demons, Sett and Ma have set off for Tuula, a small village on the absolute ass end of Ionia, which is - for all the lore junkies out there - is the Monastery where Jhin was incarcerated after Master Kusho apprehended him. Jhin has returned there with Hwei after a pretty sick kidnapping, and is using Hwei's power for some nefarious end that will be revealed.

I chose this specific piece to tease the chapter because it shows Hwei veering off the track that Sett had put him on. He starts to regress to a version of himself that Jhin recognizes, a version of Hwei which can be manipulated. So Jhin believes. When Sett wakes up from the nightmare, he realizes he might be running out of time to save Hwei.

Also because when I was writing this I had an intrusive thought to make a reference back to THIS little bit:

In the very first chapter of OGG, Hwei makes a bet. He'll go against one of Sett's fighters in his fighting pit, and if Hwei wins Sett has to cough up information about this person Hwei is searching for. If Sett's fighter wins, Hwei has to devote a year of servitude to Sett, including but not limited to that kind of servitude. Luckily Hwei wins, so that never gets realized, but my intrusive thoughts came in.

I played with the idea of making this dream sequence where Hwei is getting dressed up all slutty/provocative is actually his first night preparing to go to work for Sett. He comes down a sweeping staircase into the fight hall, and a bunch of Sett's investors/business partners immediately grab him, all while the real Sett watches a nightmare version of himself grab Hwei by the hair and remind him of bet he lost.

I decided against doing that cause I couldn't really justify it, but I might put it (along with some other intrusive JhinHwei smut I cooked) in its own story, because non-con is not part of this story.

Aaaaand that's it. Enjoy this snippet, and I'll be posting a link to chapter 18 once its done ^^.

I'm working on this story and towards its conclusion slowly, because my brainrot is demanding I do other stuff at the same time. But it's cooking, and it's gonna be delicious.

Once again if you read this far, thank you <3

[abunchofnumbers05]

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS HEADCANONS #5

Regions from least to most likely cheat on their SO:

Freljord- There just isn't anyone nearby to cheat on with. If you did it would be with your net-tent neighboor, it'd quickly found out and you'd exilied and left to be eaten by wolves.

Targon - Pretty much the same reason as Freljord + divine punishment if you did.

Zaun - Zaun takes marriage very serious, or to better put it, it takes the commitment both parties make to eachother very seriously. If you cheated on your SO you'd be ostrichised by the community, people would know you're not to be trusted and your life would suck from then on.

Demacia - Demacia is very focused on monogamy relationships and much emphasis is placed on faithfulness. The punishment for an affair is giving more than half of your belongins to the cheated on partner.

Ionia - forgot to put it here (edit)

Ixtal - I'd say it's a 50/50, more common amongst the rich.

Shurima - They allow open marriage and polygamy so the line between what is an affair and what is not is very blurry.

Piltover - Can't expect good things to come from rich folk. At least if you're also born rich you can pay for a good lawyer.

Noxus - Most couples don't see eachother for very long because one or both are battling somewhere. It's an unwritten rule but no marriage is truly faithful in Noxus. Your partner is bount to cheat on you so you might as well do it. You both know what you did, you're not going to make a storm about it. In resume: mind your own fucking bussiness.

Bilgewater - It's pirates what you want me to say?

[lessthanthreelalli]

so vis a vis that last post: ive been thinking about it, and looking through the notes really provides a neat microcosm about how you see people talking about helleno-tourkoi relations, and how it is conceived of as just a silly rivalry based on nothing when like, the greek genocide is still in living memory (though very barely) and the whole kypros situation has yet to be resolved. look, one comment here in the replies:

(to be clear, this nice lady is 100% correct) and a reply to her reply:

this is definitely not what's being referred to here. if you know that the armenian genocide exists, then it really isn't an extreme expectation for you to be at least willing to google if tourkia did that to anyone else, and quickly find an affirmative answer. Like, I'm not gonna waste my time saying why this is offensive, but it's offensive in the same way that saying enosis or even still saying ionia is greek is basically the same as saying that constantinople (istanbul) is still greek and rightfully belongs to the modern state of greece (obviously unreasonable). i try not to get mad on the internet but it is kind of maddening to see. when we talk about tourkia colonizing greece and armenia, we are not talking about the ottoman empire, needless (hopefully) to say.

just another mark on the scoreboard for me wishing that westerners would just all stop talking about greece entirely since they seem entirely incapable of understanding it because their brains are so rotted on the 'western civilization' mythologizing that posits that somehow everywhere west of the bosphorous has some interminable connection to us and therefore already understands us (perhaps better than we understand ourselves) so when talking about greece they just abdicate any responsibility they might otherwise feel they had to be culturally and historically sensitive. like seriously, "tourkia fucked over the armenians but didn't do anything to the greeks" is spectacularly stupid, spectacularly offensive

if any followers (especially mutuals) feel it's stupid that im saying greece was colonized by tourkia, please express yourself, id love to talk about it with you. I know it's something a lot of people react with skepticism to. That being said, if you can believe that tourkia colonized armenia, you can believe the same for greece*

[hexhomos]

hi. hello. at one point you recommended a jayvik ao3 fic where mr machine herald gives jayce his now-replaced heart in a glass jar and even though i'm barely into these two (legit the only stuff i know about them is from arcane. i'm more of an ionia fan in lore lmao) i read the fic and i want you to know that to this day it FUCKS with me. i have painted several drawings of a heart in a jar and all of my friends begrudgingly understand when i mention "the hallucination/spirit human heart thing". this fic made me descend into heart jar ghost artistic madness and i only read it once several months ago. so yeah. good recommendation ! haha.

ALL THE CREDITS MUST TO GO TO BON/KINEMATICS/ENGINEERING/ @29-12-2011 !!!!!! 💖💖the original undefeated unreplaceable showstopping classic brain ghost heartjar league of legends fic..... they're so good at writing btw. responsible for the delusions I have today. jayce giopara certified core reading material

For those wondering, the fic is The heart as a metaphor for the heart

and if you're looking for vkjc recs in general I did this fic rec post a while ago ♡♡♡

[squirrels-are-sleeping]

COUNTER/Weight 28: A Special Kind of Warmth, Liveblog

Faction game! I love to dread the faction game.

AUSTIN: [Ibex] puts a hand on the old hero’s head. … The press of a button, the flip of a switch, and then a cord pulled from its socket. And there on the bed, Jace Rethal struggles, desperate to feel cool air.

Excuse me, WTF did he do? I'm sure it'll become clear in due time, but for the moment I can't work out if he woke Jace up, or killed him. (ETA: Jace is awake, fine, phew.)

AUSTIN: Minerva does this amazing corporate blast about how important the privacy and security of its consumer citizens are. … [T]hey make it really fashionable to wear a different face that fucks up the alogrithmic read of what all of Petrichor’s face-scan technology is. ... You walk [into a shop], and they’re just like, "Oh, Mr." and then bzzzzt. Just noise. Nothing. It doesn’t know how to read you anymore.

I put to you that fucking up Rigour's ability to match data traces to personal profiles wouldn't be a massive blow.

Scientific management (the gross IRL practice that Rigour is based on, as we've figured out last time) treats people as interchangeable. Not being able to differentiate between them is a feature not a bug. A corporation like Minerva wants to know down to a granular level what somebody likes, so that it can sell to them more effectively. Whereas when you're aspiring to treat people like widgets in the grand machinery of your domain, maybe you want to smooth out the differences between them anyway.

Also, 'consumer citizens' is so spectacularly gross. And sailing straight past this detail adds another layer of existential horror, implying that it's just a normalised, stable part of political discourse, why would anyone even notice it? Nothing to notice here. Fuck Minerva very much.

AUSTIN: [T]he Rapid Evening is not Ibex. The Rapid Evening is not Sokrates. They are not coming to save people. They’re coming to destroy Minerva.

I'm just going to take this casually drawn parallel between Ibex and Sokrates on the basis of their noble intentions, and I'm going to slowly chew on it.

AUSTIN: The Golden Demarchy. So they also want Planetary Seizure here. They want to take over Gemm. Do they have anything on Gemm yet?  SYLVIA: They have a base of influence on Gemm. … And they have a demagogue. AUSTIN: A demagogue on Gemm. Ooo fancy. … What if it was someone who used to be a soldier in the Seventh Sun back when Sokrates was part of the Kingdom fleet?..

This moment, when they decide that the demagogue on Gemm is going to be the ex-soldier, Ariadne, whom Sokrates saved in the Kingdom game, is the faction game at its most thrilling, imo. When they come up with this, it just neatly rearranges canon such that it's impossible to imagine the story any other way. It utterly logical and graceful - but not plotted as much as serendipitously arrived at. I love it so much.

In other news, I'm wondering how Sokrates's PR situation across the Sector is, in places where they don't have a demagogue. Especially in places that are still licking their wounds after the war. Sure, the Demarchy is technically a different state from the old Empire, but that big war, where the rest of the Sector had to beat back Sokrates's parent with sticks, is very recent memory. It seems like, if the Demarchy starts making expansionist moves, everyone would get a little worried.

Mind you, everyone is about to have a big Rigour problem, it'll be a moot point probably.

DRE: Well, Rigour is currently on Ionias… AUSTIN: … You can move it to anywhere within 2 spots of JoyPark. DRE: Oh fuck! AUSTIN: It could be on September if you wanted.  SYLVIA: This just got scary. DRE: Okay. So I'm kind of torn between do I put it on September, because that's where the ground game is going? AUSTIN: Shit! Maybe we can put it on— OHHH NOOO! SYLVIA: OH SHIT! AUSTIN: Oh shit! SYLVIA: Oh shit! SYLVIA: Oh shit!

OH SHIT! Ohhhh no, they've got to do it, right, they've got to put Rigour on September?

AUSTIN: How about— here's the shot … And it's Natalya pulling up the September Institute's HQ on Rigour's scanners. … And it's just that shadow moving slowly toward September in the distance. This is going to be the worst. I'm very excited.

F U C K!!

What did I just say about the faction game rearranging canon in such a way that it's impossible to imagine the story any other way? Of course Rigour is going to September! Of course Rigour was always going to have been going to September?

I am losing! My mind! adksjedfhlaksfh

DRE: It's going to be great when Natalya and Orth get to meet again. SYLVIA: Oh fuck! AUSTIN: It's going to happen. [small moan] Oh, Orth. SYLVIA: I'm not looking forward to that. DRE: Poor Orth! AUSTIN: Oh, precious baby Orth. Fuck. Man. DRE: God, no matter what we do, we just shit on Orth.

Somebody check on Orth!

(Meanwhile, Orth is giving Mako fatherly instructions on how to clean glass surfaces without leaving streaks.)

Okay, deep breath, let's stop freaking out and listen to the rest of this game.

AUSTIN: God, I'm just thinking of the time we were like, "Oh, I guess this faction has a seductress. What's that look like? Uh, what if it's a cool dude named Ibex? Let's talk about that guy. What's that guy? Oh, that guy sounds cool. What's he like?" SYLVIA: Yeah. And now— AUSTIN: And now we have lots of ideas about what he's like. God.

You know what, Ibex is a prime examble of critical worldbuilding in action. They take the stupid, unnecessarily gendered term seductress inherited from the published game, question it, subvert it, and produce, well… THIS GUY.

AUSTIN: In the park at the core of Centralia, a new cadence had taken hold. People laughed. And when the laugh bounced from building to building, it didn't twist. It amplified in joy. As vehicles moved by blasting music through the park and the streets, the songs took the architecture into themselves so that each note was performed at a new venue, an intimate stage.

!! This is just fucking beautiful writing, that's all.

AUSTIN: I remember that it was warm that day, a special sort of warm. I remember, because when Ibex pulled away that fake sky … I shivered. And then he saw me, Jace did. And the warmth came back. And people cheered, but I barely remember that. I barely remember the speeches, or the music, or the food, or the dancing, or that night. But I remember the warmth, and even now I hold onto it. One vice, one gift I let myself have. The warmth.

First of all, I can't with how beautiful Austin's narration is.

Also. Is this?.. Am I reading into it? Because the way Austin says "…or that night" sounds like it's a stand in for a passionate reunion?

Anyway, I'm dying over here, RIGOUR IS GOING TO SEPTEMBER, and Ibex is just fully in charge on Counterweight, and Jace is awake, and I just…

[sonofshin]

Someone knocked out the child and now all I hear is "Oooh! Now you fucked up! You have fucked up now!"

All of Ionia has come together, united, in support of the little dragon. The living and the dead whisper, waiting for their champion to come forward and avenge the child. Who will be the brave individual?

[kakujis]

i talk about yone for too long under the cut:

i was literally rotting in bed and tehn decided to watch both the spirit blossom cinematics that centered on yone and its sooo interesting. he's such an interesting guy. cus in "the path, an ionian myth" he's so... not older brother-like. he's literally just a guy wandering around, trying to figure things out as he follows ahri. it's such an interesting contrast compared to kin of the stained blade where in yasuo's eyes yone is only ever his big brother. his big brother that although he defies he clearly looks up to, like he's someone who's got it all figured out.

like, another point is when yasuo says "i won't fail you," but yone replies, "it seems i've already failed you." like... imagine the pressure of dealing with your rebellious younger brother, who loves to fight meanwhile you fucking hate it. (we see this so many times! from the path cinematic where he's haunted by the battlefield to when he tells yasuo 'there will always be another fight, yasuo, finding it proves nothing'). ig what i'm getting at is... yone makes me so sad. he's so clearly disillusioned by the battlefield, the war, and violence that he tries soo hard to make sure yasuo doesn't have to see the horrors of it. yet yas can't see that because he's well.. at the school.

i also wanna touch on yone's response when yasuo says "you don't have anything to prove" CUS ITS SO FUCKING TELLINGKAJSDNFJKDSF THAT THESE TWO BROTEHRS ARE SO SIMILAR YET NO ONE TALKSSSS. yasuo is proving his worth through fighting and battle, while yone is trying to prove to his younger brother that he doesnt have to do these things. there's no point. he's trying to prove that violence should only be used when necessary.

yone's whole shtick is honor right? but i feel like underneath it all, yone wants to play this savior of ionia because he hates violence so much. he's devastated when it's presumed yasuo kills master soma (i think thats his name) because he's already seen so much death and carnage. on the battlefield you don't know your enemy, but someone like that is closer. it feels like yas killed a part of yone when he did that idk i might b reaching.

like imo, there's a reason why yone treasures lilia so much. she's a dreamer, she's fighting and "venturing out of her garden" for good, etc. and i feel like you see that in the path... he's also somewhat a dreamer, at least it's expressed in his childlike wonder when he gets excited seeing the tranquility and beauty of the spirit world. but still, he sees that darkness (the gate) and it's so familiar that he waltzes in anyway. he's stuck in both lives, as a general in one and an azakana hunter in another. but at least in his new form, he can actually fight when he wants to.

okay this is so stupid long but i also love the idea that both brothers had to face their regrets/fears. for yone, that's him on the field, that's the ionians he couldn't save, the people he killed, and in turn he killed himself. 'you could have saved them,' felt so similar to 'if you're not a murderer, why are you running?' like both of them are running from death. they're both trying to escape, except yasuo got out and yone didn't. but what's funny is that they still emotionally and theoretically end up in the same place.(i WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THIS UNLESS ASKED CUS IM RAMBLING TOO MUCH!!!)

anyways thats it i loe yone so much im gonna hurl. im so happy he's just a band mom with a strained relationship w his brother in heartsteel. long live yone <3

[collidescopeeyes]

Any specific champs on your radar that you really like? Male or female, or just one if you wanna start with a few.

Oooh boy I've had league brainrot for MONTHS, and also way too many ideas. I’ve been looking at the champs from Ionia a lot lately, esp Kayn/Rhaast since they just have a very fun dynamic. I've got WIPs for Swain, Aphelios and Jhin, plus a brain worm for an Aatrox arc where he stops trying to murder the world and takes a nice relaxing bath instead (extremely abridged version). Plus, I just fucking KNOW that when Arcane season 2 comes out Vi and Viktor are gonna have my brain falling out. Also, if Renata Glasc is in that season I WILL be exploding.

Anyway, point being that there are a LOT of champs I like 😅

[athensandspartaadventures]

Hi Hapo, would you mind play the OC Askbox with Aasa characters? If so I would like 10 for everyone and 15 for Sparta.

[anon is probably referring to this meme on my main blog]

10. Free Space #1: Which of your OCs would be most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse? Which would die immediately?

I'll do a handful of the major characters, I don't know offhand what the more minor characters would do and I'd have to think about that longer, haha.

I mean, [spoilers] given how the great plague of Athens really instilled this sense of hopelessness and "every man for himself" and "dont care about other people because thats how you get infected", Athens would gain a handful of points on being self sufficient (but very quickly succumb anyway and get himself in some avoidable situation)

Sparta would refuse to acknowledge it was happening but wouldn't actually have any defenses against either the zombies or the hordes of people fleeing the situation to come take his resources, and of course he would no doubt have a helot uprising to deal with on top of that so he's already single-handedly fighting a losing battle just to look cool.

Corinth geographically would be in a secure position so long as the epidemic stayed local, and if things got dicey she would probably fuck off to Sicily or something.

Persia is a great shot and so long as he has the high ground or fast wheels he'd cut right through the zombies. His tendency to keep everyone at arms length but still rely on others for support would mostly serve him well (until he went in for a kiss or a hand hold with one of his chosen few elites who are Too Brave to admit they've been infected and omnomnom)

Ionia would be like, so busy trying to find a philosophical answer to who gets infected and why and she would get bit while arguing with some guy in the agora talking about how if we are just more righteous the whole thing will pass. (and maybe it wasn't even a zombie bite, i mean, you know how cynics are).

15. Is your character's first instinct fight or flight? Is there something that could force them to do the opposite?

Sparta's first instinct is "stand there and do nothing and stare" or "don't get involved in the first place", but I guess if say, we set him up on a road trip and he gets ambushed by a wolf or bandits or something, obviously he's going to fight because he does have a rep to uphold, even if he's going to lose.

Unless he sees them from a great enough distance that he chooses a stupid long route or turns around and goes back home, of course.

[sholmeser]

i feel like yasuo and ahri’s relationship gets a bad rep because ppl simply cannot overlook the fact that they shouldn’t be in ruined king. “it doesn’t make sense for their character arcs for them to be in rk and they were placed there solely to boost sales because they are both incredibly popular + conventionally attractive” and “they have an incredibly well-written relationship progression and they have an extremely healthy relationship that works to make the both of them better” CAN COEXIST. at the end of the day, even if it’s completely illogical for them to have ditched ionia for bilgewater and joined a ragtag group of ruffians on a world-saving quest that has nothing to do with either of them, they have a GOOD RELATIONSHIP. they are the only ones who can understand each other’s pain. they are the only ones who have ever been able to get through to each other. they have faced years upon years of stigmatization, violence and societal exclusion because of their actions, they’ve both been responsible for the death of a loved one while stuck in an inescapable situation, and they’re the only ones who can even start to comprehend each other’s trauma and loneliness. they are good for each other regardless of whether you view their relationship as romantic or platonic, and if you can’t accept that because you’re salty that your fave doesn’t get enough love from the money-hungry riot execs then you have to grow the fuck up. they are never gonna do what you want them to lol