#going from just an immortal necromancer to someone who lives between worlds

[opaleyedprince]

smashing the old salem to bits and arranging some shiny pieces like glass is this anything

[supernovaa-remnant]

Hei hei hei

https://www.tumblr.com/writing-prompt-s/725377575947534336/you-used-to-be-the-scourge-of-kingdoms-the-reaper

Hunter/Warrior!Dream and history nerdbur 💀💀💀💀 wil got bored one time and decided to stalk that one legendary immortal reaper who just disappeared one day

hii how are you doing today? :)

Had a lot of fun with this one so it's gonna get a bit long lol. Or, maybe not super long, but it feels dense to me. I've packed it with a lot of worldbuilding. There's still cute madduo moments but this is actually mostly worldbuilding oops.

(this is written as platonic intimacy, but y'all can interpret it however you'd like)

Millennia ago, Dream was a feared warrior and necromancer who was practically a god. Some even argued that he was a god or that he made a deal with one. Some stories said he toppled empires with the Blood God, whilst some stories made it seem like the toppled empires were merely a casualty of fights between the two. (Both were right to some extent: Dream & Techno were long time rivals but also friends, and they often turned their toppling of empires into a competition of sorts).

Dream ended up befriending two mortals: Sapnap & George. They went on many adventures together, and, for a while, they were even known as heroes to some. All of them were legends in their own right, and the Dream Team were known throughout the lands. But only one of them had the benefits of immortality. Eventually, Sapnap & George died, and that was when Dream disappeared. He took away most records of himself when he left, and all that was left were stories told by word of mouth and old books in the back of very old libraries.

Wilbur is a scholar from a small town in one of the many kingdoms in the land. His favorite pastimes include annoying his younger brother (Tommy) and researching forgotten and forbidden history. A part of his fixation on history comes from the fact that he knows nothing about his biological parents—he remembers cold yet comforting embraces, the sounds of crows and ravens, and faded voices telling him stories. He was found by Tommy's parents when he was very little, and they've been the only family he's known.

One day he finds a story about Dream, and something about the story feels so familiar, so he begins to search for anything and everything he can find about this mysterious legend who seems to have been erased from history. He spends many nights holed up in his room trying to figure out where Dream disappeared to and most importantly why.

At some point, Wilbur is on the verge of making a discovery. A big discovery. As in, he's about to connect some dots that point towards the world as they know it being in danger. However, after he goes to sleep that night, he wakes up to the village burning. He manages to get Tommy out, but their parents aren't so lucky. All of Wilbur's research has gone down the drain. But, luckily, he has a good idea of where Dream has been this whole time.

But there's one problem: Tommy. Tommy's not quite an adult yet, and for all the teen proclaims himself as "a big man," Wilbur can't put him in danger. Wilbur ends up taking him to a friend's place in the nearest city (it's Schlatt's place who's Tubbo's dad—yay clingyduo). Tommy argues because he wants to go with Wilbur. And, maybe it's a shitty move because their parents just died and it's understandable that Tommy would want to stay with his only living relative, but Wilbur leaves in the middle of the night. (He leaves a plush sheep named friend for Tommy <3). (Also this 100% leads to clingyduo sneaking out themselves and looking for Wilbur. They end up running into an enderman hybrid with amnesia but who may or may not have some connections to a certain Blood God).

Eventually, Wilbur ends up in the hidden valley where Dream resides. Dream, feeling someone pass through the magic wards is understandably cautious. So he goes to investigate (re: hold an axe to Wilbur's throat), but then in a very uncertain voice, Dream asks "are you Phil and Kristin's son?"

Now, Wilbur is, understandably, confused. Because he doesn't recognize those names. Because he grew up with adopted parents. So, then, he turns to questioning Dream despite still having an axe to his throat.

The thing is, Wilbur undeniably has traces of Phil and Kristin. There are his looks, of course, but Dream's a necromancer who's spent much of his immortal life in the presence of gods despite not quite being one himself. He can feel death lingering around Wilbur in a way it only would with a child of death. But, Wilbur doesn't show any signs of godhood nor immortality nor magic. He doesn't show any signs of being a hybrid either. It doesn't make sense.

So, in the end, Dream ends up as fascinated with Wilbur as Wilbur is with him.

Wilbur sticks around. It's due to a mix of factors: their mutual interest in one another, the fact that it's safer for Wilbur within the valley, and because of what Wilbur knows. The information he's discovered that put him at risk in the first place is something Dream needs to know.

As Wilbur sticks around he's introduced to Sapnap & George—

("I thought they were dead?"

"And? I'm a necromancer."

"Ah, yes, of course. Then where are they?"

"My necromancy abilities may be slightly weaker than they used to be. They're ghosts."

"Ghosts?"

"But they're able to occasionally take a really cute blob form.")

—and learns more about why Dream disappeared, and more about who he truly is. Dream's the protegee of one of the elder gods—ExDee—and he was on the path to godhood before, well, everything. ExDee noticed a corruption beginning to spread that could affect even the gods. So, to stop the spread, xe (xe/xem pronouns for ExDee because, uh, yes) sealed xemself in The End and locked the dimension away from the other realms. It worked, and it rendered the corruption within ExDee dormant, but it was too late—due to ExDee's connection with Dream, Dream was also affected.

That's the true reason Dream disappeared. He cut off all contact with the other gods (and this is why his necromancy powers are weaker—he could still raise armies of the undead, but to breathe life and souls back into a body requires special favors from Kristin), and he magically sealed himself into a hidden Valley. The corruption, when magically cut off from the rest of the realm, remains dormant, but Dream can't leave because he hasn't found a way to purge it completely.

Unfortunately, it seems that the origin of the corruption has found more ways to worm itself into the realms.

Dream & Wilbur work together to try to find solutions to this. Wilbur helps the dream team in their research on how to purge the corruption from Dream, and they also work together to try to learn the origin of the corruption and thus how to defeat it once and for all.

Through this all, though, Dream is doing some research of his own: most importantly, he's trying to figure out why Wilbur doesn't show obvious signs of being Phil and Kristin's kid and why he doesn't know his parents.

(The reason he doesn't know is because Phil & Kristin & Techno and a bunch of other gods were essentially called away due to the corruption worming its way into the overworld. They didn't know anything about it due to ExDee & Dream disappearing before they could share what they knew, so it was an unknown variable. Phil & Kristin sealed Wilbur's divinity to keep him safe).

Whilst all this happens, Dream & Wilbur get closer. Dream's the only person Wilbur can talk to (he can't see ghosts and he can't understand Sapnap & George when they're in their blob form), so he gravitates towards the immortal a lot.

They'll dance in the kitchen, cook together, cuddle in bed, garden, and overall do a lot of domestic stuff. When they're researching they get distracted by their banter which inevitably ends with the two of them laughing from the dramatics of it all. They'll read stories whilst curled up next to one another. It's overall really soft.

One night they're stargazing and Dream shows Wilbur some of his scars. There's intimacy in the way Wilbur softly traced the marks. It was at that moment that they both realized how close they'd become and how much they cared for each other.

Soon, Dream finds a way to break the seal on Wilbur. Dream's told Wilbur some stories about his parentage (which Wilbur soaks up with rapt attention), so Wilbur's excited to unlock this part of himself.

It goes worse than they'd hoped. Turns out, the seal also locked away his avian heritage, so he immediately begins the winging process which usually happens when avian hybrids are fledglings. It's really, really painful, and the entire time Dream's calling upon any healing magic he knows to ease the pain.

Wilbur passes out for a week, but he's okay in the end. Dream spends a lot of the time hovering in worry, and Sapnap & George end up taking shifts watching Wilbur just so that Dream will get some sleep. (Most of the time Dream falls asleep next to Wilbur anyway, but at least he's getting rest).

The recovery (and discovery) period for Wilbur involves him leaning on Dream for a lot of stuff. Though, with his newfound connection to death, he can actually interact w/ Sap & George in their ghost forms, so a lot of the time they'll snitch on Dream whenever Dream is overworking himself. When this happens Wilbur basically drags him to bed for cuddles under the guise that it's for Wilbur's benefit.

Dream guides Wilbur through his new powers to the best of his abilities, and Dream also preens Wilbur's wings (he has experience, luckily). Wilbur wants to learn to fly, but that's an area that Dream can't help with.

("How about you just jump off the roof?"

"Sapnap! You're going to get him killed."

"Wait that's perfect. Wilbur. Wilbur. Join the ghost squad. We're so much cooler than Dream."

"George! Stop! Wil, why are you laughing? They're trying to kill you!")

(In the future, Techno will find his way to Dream's valley, asking for help in saving Phil & Kristin. He'll be oh so familiar to Wilbur, and Techno will look at Wil and wonder how much time has passed. The toddler he told stories to is now fully grown.

Techno will speak of a child from the end with memory problems who may be a key part in stopping the corruption. Eventually this will lead them all to bench trio—and Tommy will yell at Wilbur for leaving him—and the story will have a happy ending, though not after plenty of hardship.

For now, though, there's impromptu karaoke nights, pillow fights, and stargazing. There's naps on the couch and arms wrapped around one another. There's teasing and banter and dramatics fitting of theater kids. There's forehead kisses and nose boops and intimacy. For now, there's a moment of peace—a calm before the storm).

[symphonicmetal101]

Citizens of the Devildom HCs

Ok, so this isn't my normal kind of post, this is kind of a world building thing, but I think its kinda cool and is the only thing I have motivation to write- so hopefully y'all like this, I have a part two brewing in my head, and it might actually get typed out-

Anyways, I think its about time we delve into what the "citizens of the Devildom" entails-

Firstly, I believe they would be split into three main categories-

Spirit

Humanoid

Monster/non-humanoid

Below the cut is me breaking each category down farther and a bunch of stuff I came up with, hcs of how I think this works- enjoy!

Spirits

- Wisps- these are fragmented bits of souls, usually of lower ranking beings, or cursed beings. Some have enough consciousness to lead people wayward in their travels through the woods or into the outer rings of hell, thanks to legends and myths leading people to believe that they would lead them to knowledge or fortune.

- Ghosts- these guys gain more power the longer they remain this way, however they also have a closer connection with their body the more recently theyve passed. This means returning their soul to their body only works if they were an extremely powerful being, or if there happens to be an extremely powerful being nearby to assist- they go through different stages once their connection with their body is completely severed, which can vary depending on how willing they were to pass.**** Stage 1, they cannot interact in any way with the living. Stage 2, only necromancers and those who actively seek them out can interact with them for short, unsteady chunks of time. (This is like..the absolute last chance they have to maybe return to their body.) They can move small objects, like keys or figurines, but it can be exhausting. Stage 3, they can interact with more living world things, and mess with animals a bit. Stage 4, they can show themselves to the living for short amounts of time if they wish to, or remain invisible. They can possess objects. Stage 5, they can switch between being seen or not, as well as now curse objects if they were a magic weilder before they died. Stage 6, They have full control of their powers, and can possess humans. As their power grows, they will be able to possess more powerful beings, the hardest to do being an angel.

Ghosts only exist because they

1. Dont realize theyve passed on

2. Have unfinished business, and have a need/want to finish it on their own, or they have someone they need to communicate with.

3. They want to be a ghost-

**** in some cases, a ghost is aware they have passed on, but refuses to accept it. They do not meet any of the three things listed above- these ghosts are still grow in power, but are extremely unstable and unsafe for others in the Devildom, not to mention humans. They are exiled to the outer rings of hell until they change, or in rare cases, make it to the human realm.

- Shadow People- they don't quite fit anywhere else- these are often confused for stage 4 ghosts, however they are different. They flow freely between the human realm and the Devildom. They fade into the shadows, and follow people. As they grow more powerful, they can manipulate other shadows of objects. They cannot speak, but between shadow people, they can communicate through touch, but to other people, there is perhaps a type of energy they feel, but they cannot touch or speak. There are very very few shadow people that can materalize into something physical, though when they can, they can be extremely dangerous, or completely harmless and just curious- best to just not piss any of them off.

Humanoid

- Vampires- Canonically, dont think these guys exist if they had an event about it, but whatever. These have your typical vampiric powers, which I'll sum up with shape-shifting, heightened senses, hypnosis, super strength/speed, immortality, and of course though not designated as a "power", fangs. Their diet in the Devildom are compareable to human diets, blood being more of a dessert food, and when eaten/drunk, usually from a common Devildom livestock animal.

- Succubi/Incubi- again, same sort of thing as vampires- ya know the powers they got, I wont get into it if you dont, bc this is not the right kinda blog to go into that.😂

- Witches/Warlocks

ok so heres where we break this down again.

First there are witch-born and witch-learned folks, witch-born being exponentially more powerful than those who just learn witchcraft, though anybody can.

After that we have Elemental, Potion and Spell-based, Healing, Sin-Directed, and Great Witches, which know a fair amount of each magic type, and have mastered two types.

Elemental witches, as the name suggests, study the elements and usually try to specialize in one element, and then branch out. The four basic elements, (air, fire, water, earth), are gateways into learning other kinds of magic, such as earth- metal, or air- poison, etc.

Potion and Spell-Based witches, again, the name suggests, create potions and spells. Many witches do these as a source of income. This kind of ties into Sin-Directed witches, who usually find one of the sins most appealing, then focus their magic and learning to create spells/potions that relate to that sin, however Sin-Directed witches are usually the offspring of a demon and a witch and can usual make people feel a bit o the sin they study just by touching them.

So if there is a Sloth witch, their potions and spells relate to a full nights rest, to relaxation, etc.

Healing witches are on the brink of Devildoms society, almost outcasts as their magic is one learned from angels, but takes the most control and power, thus are respected nonetheless. Do I have a potential Romeo and Juliet story to go with this? Possibly

Demons

- Ok, again gotta split this up into

Demon born vs Fallen angel

As well as Elemental vs Sin

Demon born- they are inherently more aggressive. Early years are a pain....young demons likely being the most difficult children in devildom to raise.

Fallen angel- depends whether they wantwd to fall or not this isnt important rn-

Sin demons- the result of either accidental offspring from the brothers, or years of dedicated servuce to any one brother allowing their sin to slowly corrupt and invade the family line.

Elemental demons- like elemental witches.

Included under the humanoid category would be other beings like merfolk, as well as necromancers.

Demons are also ranked from nobility down to imps.

Monster

There are way too many to get into for this, but there is no way everyone is humanoid in the Devildom- thus allowing hell to be a home for goblins, trolls, gorgons, monsters without names, SCPs/other cryptids- literally, everything. If yall want me to get more into it, then let me know- I think I might be able too-

[hawthxrnerps]

{So, this is a wanted plots post, I’ll probably add to it over time but here is some stuff I’d like for most if not all muses}:

Primary:

Robert:

 A polyamory plot involving Robert and Gabriel, these two have been friends for well over twenty years and they often meet and share drinks and talks. Gabriel is Robert’s closest friend and if he was going to share a lover with anyone, it’d be him. Maybe they’re a Prince or other royal from another Kingdom that just happened to be sent over during one of Gabriel’s visits to Robert, and the three are sat on Roberts balcony or in the castle gardens talking and sharing drinks before things take a heated turn. Maybe it’s from a joke about Robert’s retirement from being a King and people calling him old. 

Eurion:

Always used to getting what he wants, Eurion found himself enamoured with someone that it might not be socially ‘acceptable’ for him to want. Maybe they’re a thief, assassin, or some kind of supernatural creature like werewolf or what not. Some things have been said between them here and there but nothing had happened until Eurion finds his way into their chambers and waits naked for their return. 

Jinse:

Being the new King is a hard job for Jinse, and he’d caused some ruckus among the court due to switching out and around all of his Father’s advisers and other people he employed for people of his own choosing instead of just dealing with what was left for him. Among them is a fellow noble and the pair have been sleeping together on the side for some time, but then said noble approaches Jinse with an idea, they wed. They marry and Jinse won’t be constantly hounded by offers of marriage from people he doesn’t know. Maybe it’s an open marriage, with the two sleeping with each other and sometimes other people, sometimes even sharing the same person or people. 

Rok:

Rok is a rare half-elf that doesn’t feel welcome among humans or elves, so he found a new place to call him in the way of always being on the move and never settling down. But maybe along the way he had recruited someone who wanted to help him hunt monsters and save villages? This person can be non-human or whatever. But things had turned steamy between the pair one night at a camp fire while they had finished bathing in a lake. Rok is a power bottom to the core, so a sub-top for him.        

Garrot:

A new warrior, or mage, joined the mercenary troop and Garrot finds himself interested in things they can do...in many ways of the word. The spark is quick and fast between the pair, and it soon becomes a partnership of them leading the mercenary troop together, each offering advice that maybe the other couldn’t. 

Franchis:

   A mage with a thing for non-humans, maybe Franchis becomes entangled with a werewolf, or orc, or anything creature like. Two options: Maybe they’re also a mage and they can bond over spells and books, or they’re a typical warrior and the pair make a deadly fighting duo who fuck a lot. 

Aarush:

Only valuing strength, Aarush likes it when people can prove themselves in any way of the word. Maybe someone comes to Sunwalker isle, wanting to be a part of the famous warriors that defeated a Demon King and they must prove themselves to the general. The two spar, with them being possibly evenly matched, Aarush accepts them then eventually approaches them in their chamber. He offered them a proposition, which they are free to ignore. He very much enjoyed their training and expresses his desire to fuck them. 

Gale:

 Threesome. Greedy pirate captain brings either two whores or just two younger men who seek travel on his ship, they’re called to the Captain’s quarters and Gale offers them a chance. If they want to, they can let him fuck them and they can stay in the captain’s quarters, or they can return back below deck with the rest of the crew and its never brought up again. 

Dorrian:

Feeling stuck with being unable to master a specific spell, he seeks out other highly trained mages for advice. But being a Necromancer, he’s often turned away or insulted, when he meets someone else who offers to share their knowledge. Feelings grow and a kiss is shared over a dusty old book. 

Uruk:

An envoy sent to the Orc settlement, Uruk welcomes them with open arms and offers to try and make their stay as pleasant as possible. Then later that day, this person approaches Uruk while he is bathing and things happen from there. 

Fletcher + Nathaniel:

Polyamory, Fletcher and Nathaniel always worked closely together for many years now, the two do almost everything together. Including men, maybe a strapping strong knight, or smart mage comes to Faelignum for a visit and is seduced by the Fae King and Prince. They would have to be vers, since fletcher is a bottom and Nathaniel is vers. 

Bader:

Someone from his old life finally figured out where ‘Coster’ had went, Coster was his alias when he was living among the humans as a petty thief before being called to return and take over the Throne of the Night Folk. Maybe they had started a relationship, only for Bader to vanish and return to his ‘real life’. They track him down and want answers, but the spark hasn’t fizzled out, they seek to repair their relationship and want to find out who he really is. 

Riel:

Riel is against arranged marriage, constantly turning down suitors and omega’s who wish to marry the Werewolf King. When a muse is sent to try and entice him, he falls for the bait, but still refuses marriage. He says he would like to be with them, but on their own terms and not what others want for them. 

Laurence:

An omega wolf who is loyal to King Riel, most of his time is spent around the castle. But he’s more than just the hand of the king, he’s the personal assassin and executioner of Riel. Always keeping things a secret from others, Laurence’s love life is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps he has has been spending time with someone in secret, meeting in discreet locations or maybe they’re an outsider to the Kingdom. 

Garland:

A shape-shifter who is more often than not, scared for his life. Upon being ambushed by bandits he is rescued by someone and taken in, they think he is just a simple peasant who was injured but he becomes attached to their company and eventually reveals the truth. But they accept him and they live together, maybe out in the woods, peacefully where no one can hear them fuck. 

Kharron:

Alone after being revived from the dead a few hundred years after his death, he feels lost. But then he surprisingly encounters an old flame, not realising at the time they were an immortal of sorts, he stays with them to try and ease into this world he knows nothing about. The flame is rekindled. 

Maxwell:

He’s a young, bratty novice mage who loves to be spanked and fucked roughly. Maybe he gets his wish when he’s sent as a messenger to a foreign Kingdom, where he catches the eye of either a King, Knight, royal or noble and they indulge in his fantasy's. 

Szu-Ku:

An arranged marriage, someone is sent to Dynasty Kingdom as a political envoy and they get along well with Szu-Ku. They slept together a few times and they become a confidant of the King, then they propose the offer to Szu-Ku. The pair get married and they can secure / bring in larger amounts of funds from their home kingdom to help with the rebuilding effort. Szu-Ku agrees. 

Secondary:

Paul Rovia / Jesus:

Surviving is hard, and even harder doing it alone. Someone is brought into the group after being found, and there is an instant connection between the two. Why waste time and hide it when you could die at any time?

Dr.Thorn:

Leading a supervillain team is hard, as well as being the CEO of Falcon Industries. While using his real name, Marcus, he hired a new assistant who seems very eager to please their new boss. 

Tyler:

Goofing around during guard duty, Tyler just loves to spend his time with his face in the pillow and getting fucked. Maybe it’s someone who indulges him repeatedly. 

Chameleon:

Being a cameraman during the day, using it as a cover to hide his super powers, he gets hired by someone who is doing a one man ‘show’ and Clancy finds himself a little too distracted. Eventually the person notices, and finding Clancy attractive, invites him to make it a ‘proper show’.   

Axel:

Before the end of the world, they were dating. But then everything went to shit, zombies everywhere and you didn’t know who was dead or not. But then by absolute chance, they encounter each other again. Maybe assuming one is an intruder, they meet again with their guns pointed at one each other before they recognise the other person. 

Steven:

A twink top who likes to fuck daddy bottoms, it can be anything from his friend’s dad, to the hot guy next door or his attractive professor. 

Rick:

When Rick became separated from his group for a few days, he encountered someone else. They stick together, having to share warmth or something for a night and then one night it turns into something more. A kiss, then the offer to help each other forget the hell-hole world they’re in. Rick brings them back to Alexandria and they continue what they had. 

[doctorslippery]

(Knowledge) Ancient tomes of sacred lore begin fading away.

(Life) All healing magic now comes at a cost to the casters own health.

(Light) The sky is darkened to a permanent twilight.

(Nature) Large swathes of wilderness are infected by a strange rot.

(Tempest) Droughts spread across the land as rain doesn’t fall as often.

(Trickery) People with normally good humor become cold and bitter.

(War) Morale is decreased and soldiers begin to mutiny against their officers.

(Death/Grave) Undead creatures have a chance to randomly rise from graves without a spell cast by a necromancer.

(Forge) The knowledge of forging mithral and adamantine armor and weapons is lost.

Nothing. Once the god is the creator of it’s own domain, but it is able to maintain itself in its absence

(Arcana) All spells now have a chance to go wild.

(Fire) The world becomes cold as it goes into a long winter

(Air) The air becomes polluted and difficult to breath. Many people die of lung related issues.

(Water) Rivers and oceans go stagnant and unmoving.

(Earth) The land becomes infertile and unusable.

(Time) Time rifts start appearing everywhere causing things from the past and the future to come into the present.

(Dragons) All dragons, dragonborn, and kobolds turn to dust

(Darkness) The world becomes filled with endless light and a never ending day

(Love) Family and friends start to hate one another and form grudges over the smallest things

(Order) Revolutions happen everywhere and anarchy reigns supreme

(Good) Empathy and altruism are no more as people are looking out for themselves

(Evil) Angels descend from the heavens to purge the world now knowing that there is no evil god to protect the wicked

(Nature) The forests run amok. Animals and plants invade cities, as every natural order accelerates out of control.

(Nature) Conversely, the forests and fields begin to die. Animals grow sickly and lethargic.

(Nature) The seasons begin to spin out of control. A day dawns with blazing heat, but snow covers the ground to a foot by lunch, and a monsoon rages that night.

(Death) Nothing may die. Nothing. Not the cattle, not the sickly, not the old, not those grievously wounded. Souls are bound to their bodies, and may never set off on their journey. Chop someone into bits, and every tiny piece still twitches in agony.

(Any) As the gods ‘body’ decomposes their essence (what they were the god of) infects the land affecting all who lived below their realm eg if the goddess of nature dies – nature explodes over the area (eventually after hundreds of years the natural green will die and become the land will become barren after the body completes decomposing). If it was the god of war or anger – every person and animal in the realm becomes driven by anger/easily angered, and plants become more dangerous, etc

(Nature) nature becomes twisted and more and more aberration like.

(Nature) herbivores turn predatory and hunt for meat

(Forge) weapons turn weak, Metal is prone to bending and it tarnishes easily.

(Weather) drought spreads across the land

(Weather) destructive “sunder storms” where lightning falls like rain destroy the landscape.

(Weather) winter never ends.

(Any) Angels, demons, fey, other gods, and spirits start competing for that gods power and worship to fill the vacuum

(Any) If the god who dies has worshippers still his corpse enters an odd undead state. He’s too week to be an actual god again or become truly alive again. However his remaining worshippers keep him from truly dying.

(Any) desecration of the area in which it died.

(Any) the nature and landscape where it died twisting to reflect the gods domain

(Any) people in the area also changing to reflect the gods domain

(Any) powerful magic soaks into the land creating powerful items. Things like spiders whose venom can only be cured by other god touched magic. Plants whose berries heal you and their juice can even raise the dead, etc.

(Knowledge) every self aware creature must succeed on a DC 10 Int saving throw or take 1D4 psychic damage and lose as many memories as the DM decides while also losing 1d4 Ing Stat.

(Any) The heavens begin to fall to earth/fuse with the material plane

(Any) Paladins will be in a huge pickle during their conquests.

(Protection) Warding and shielding spells no longer work.

(Protection) The ancient wards that kept the Elder Evils, horrible beings whose power even the gods fear, at bay fall.

(Any) People realize the gods are not immortal, and in reaction, faith in all of the gods begins to falter.

(Tempest) The entire world becomes still: no wind, no waves, not even clouds, like the world is perfectly smooth.

(Trickery) Nobody remembers that they can lie. Everyone either states the truth or is silent, ruining the world’s governments by disabling political maneuvering.

(Forge) Metal no longer melts, making all previously forged weapons exponentially more valuable, even an old rusty sword.

(Any) All of the people that were sacrificed to the gods come back (betrayed heroes, betrayed family members etc), but all of the things that gods has given to us fade away.

(Any) Outsiders from other worlds reveal themselves as the liberators, freeing us from our oppressors by killing the gods.

(Any) The god is replaced by another god that does a terrible (or better) job as the dead god temporary replacement.

(Any) The god was slain, the being that slew the god gains the gods power or becomes the god

(Any) Nothing. The god may have been responsible for creating or shaping it’s aspect, but once it was created it doesn’t need the god to maintain it.

(Any) The gods power leaks from its remains. Any magic of the gods aspect is greatly amplified for several years. The closer to the remains the greater the power is amplified

(Death) Everything that dies rises as a zombie.

(Death) Spirits of the dead are unable to move on. Everything that dies becomes a ghost.

(Death) Spirits of the dead start coming back to the living world

(Knowledge) people begin to forget things. (Names, places, history, how to do things, what they were doing, etc.)

(Life) every living thing becomes sterile (animals are unable to have children / plants cant produce seeds)

(Nature) microorganisms reproduce at an accelerated rate & every other living thing gets wiped out

(Nature) plants and animals become withered anemic versions of themselves

(Nature) plants and animals begin to die off (decay / rot / slowly crumble to dust / slowly turn to ash)

(Nature) plants and animals begin to mutate into monstrous versions of themselves

(Nature) plants experience explosive growth and begin to take over everything

(War) People begin to become more violent and warlike.

(War) People begin to become too apathetic to fight each other. Eventually, people become too apathetic to do much of anything. They just stand around in a daze until the die of starvation or thirst.

(Any) All clerics suddenly overload on divine power (as if the gods power has been divided between them). And they all start to slowly go mad, and start to lose control.

(Light) a massive and well known constellation vanishes and leaves a dark patch right in the middle of the night sky

(War) A vanquished war-god drops his enormous miles-long sword, which falls to Earth and pierces deep into the planet’s mantle

(Death) The god’s followers begin killing at random, hoping the power of their faith will resurrect him

(Light) Random people all over the realm begin to go blind

(Tempest) A whirling hurricane forms in the middle of the Ocean… and doesn’t stop growing

(Forge) The followers of this deceased god begin a pilgrimage to destroy every craft ever created and stamped with his symbol

(Arcana) The god’s death leaves a hole in the weave. Something… unwanted fills in the gap with Its body.

(Nature) The wood of the deity’s patron plant (oak) begins to disintegrate into dust all over the world. Buildings topple.

(Life) This god’s followers have a crisis at the oxymoron of their god dying. They are slowly driven insane

(Grave) The god itself rises as an undead, an anathema to its own mission

(Arcana) People start forgetting spells. (As a spell is cast, roll to see if that is the last time it is cast)

(Arcana) Everyone gains a cantrip. Now this minor power is just something everyone does, like breathing or eating.

(Any) Suddenly there is a war in the cosmos. Minor deities, greatly powerful beings like Warlock Patrons, and other generally unknown greater powers are vying for the position.

(Any) Upon the god’s death, their body is split into thousands and thousands of pieces. These rain down like meteorites but instead of being falling rock bits, it’s a new people recently awoken. Who are these newcomers and what is their memory of or connection to this lost god?

(Tempest) Ocean currents fluctuate wildly

(Earth) Widespread tremors and volcanic activity

(Tempest) Unpredictable squalls

(Light) Continuous winter sets in

(Order) Ubiquitous revolutionary sentiment arises

(Music) Instruments quickly go out of tune, and singers forget words and have their voices crack more often

(Magic) All casters and magic items are treated as one level lower

(Nature) Animals behave erratically and crops fail

(Fate) Prominent heroes begin to meet ignominious ends

(Luck) Coin tosses and dice rolls result in predictable patterns (Heads tails, heads, tails/1,2,3,4,5,6,1 etc.)

(Luck) Randomness begins to fade. The first to go are critical successes and critical fails, but very rapidly all rolls end up as 10.5’s.

(Any) Their power returns to its source where anyone could take it for themselves

(Any) When trees and plants are cut down, instead of sap, blood starts to weep from the cuts.

(Winter) Animals that hibernate don’t wake. Plants and trees stay in their winter state. Even if the weather gets warmer things affected by season act like it never ended.

(Knowledge) every creature’s INT ticks down steadily as their memories slowly disappear until all life is reduced to animalistic intelligence.

(Death) no one can die anymore. HP can’t be dropped below 0 and no one can die of old age, accumulating age bonuses and penalties until all physical stats are reduced to 0.

(Light/sun) the sun and stars go out. The temperature continuously drops until the entire world is frozen over.

(Magic) all spells, enchantments, supernatural and spell-like abilities, etc. get progressively weaker until the entire world is basically in a null-magic zone.

(Nature) plants and animals become incapable of reproducing.

(Life) healing magic no longer works. Natural healing progressively weakens until it too is no longer possible.

(Trickery) it becomes impossible for anyone to lie or mislead

(Forge) a small mountain range of metals and the occasional gem crashes into the planet in 3… 2… 1…

(Knowledge) everyone receives random revelations rather simultaneously.

(Trickery) some guy shows up three days later, wondering what all the hubbub’s about.

(Life) Every wound healed by their clerics starts to rot, and everyone reanimated becomes undead.

(Trickery) Their holy texts go blank, holy symbols turn to dust, and all knowledge of the god is ripped from mortal minds, the god is dead and forgotten in all ways. While most people feel like they’ve forgotten something, the most devout worshippers to the lost god go mad from the hole in their mind and soul.

(Trickery) The gods secrets are spread throughout the world, the common-folk learn of their rulers corruption, people discover their spouses cheating, children learn their beloved dog didn’t go to a farm, all secrets good and bad are made known and will rip families, kingdoms, and even other faiths apart.

(Any) A shockwave of power blasts through the realms, knocking everything unconscious for d10 hours

(Arcana) Spellcasters and magic items begin to “glitch”, causing them to either be completely unable to cast spells/activate items or the spells go wild.

(Any) People and clerics begin to notice that something is…missing…

(Nature) Many two headed animals are born the following day.

(Any) The god(s) start to slip away out of people’s mind, and they start questioning if they were ever thing to begin with.

[bittybattybunny]

Did Kai have any sort of family after losing her foster family and becoming the Demon King? Or did she only have her husband?

Yes actually!!! A lot of Kai’s own story involves her own found family collection (i say collection just. cuz she tends to outlive them)

I’ve briefly mentioned she has a few kids and you see them in one of my sketchbook tours

but she also has a group of friends who she was close to

and the opening chapter of one of her ‘stories’ involves her dealing with the loss of a close friend she considered family (she even tried to go through legal means to see him but when humans turned around and said fuck you she snuck in. I can actually post this writing if people wanna read it?)

She also has some of her adoptive family still alive tho the bloodline is thinner. The Hellsing family she was raised in still exists to a point in her story (before the great catastrophe at least) Her whole ‘became the demon king’ thing happened when her uncle attacked her but she was able to get her sister in law and unborn nephew to escape while she distracted the rest (i have a whole ass animatic planned for this to the song “monster” from frozen’s musical. someday. someday I’ll be able to sit down on it weep)

This nephew was the one who hired Ren to help find ���the king of fear” as she was known at that point. Alex is a good boy. His son was the one who went to find his great aunt after Ren’s death and she fully became a fallen god and offered her a place to stay and just. try to relax. She ended up falling into a deep sleep for a while and his family was the ones to build the ‘tomb’ she normally rests in when ever she has these extreme ‘low energy’ periods which can last between 5 years to her longest one was 5000. Typically she’ll rest for between 20-50 years at a time. and there’s a legit reason she does this too. But that’s not about family---

Point is that family is still very fond of their matriarchal demoness and she helped them found “Prometheus” a group to help humans deal with monsters and monsters live in peace. (cuz boy howdy do people have trigger fingers) there are other groups in their world with either similar goals or ones to ‘suppress’ monsters (example: The Order is a group who sees monsters as tools and lesser beings. sometimes Prometheus is forced to work with them and normally they send strong demons or dragons and such so that The Order can’t do anything to their operative. it was on one of these collaborations that Kai kidnapped Booberry from them. she regrets nothing.)

Kai often just refers to the current descendant as just “her nephew” as she’s too lazy to shove the amount of “great” in front of it because she’s old. there’s only one case of a niece and that’s where the bloodline ended (again that’s another story all together)

When Kai woke up after the Great Catastrophe alone she ended up meeting a young man named Leo (who if you look in Kai’s tag on my blog you can see him!) Who she bonded with and she likes hanging out with (and there’s other things but I’m not gonna talk about it)

There’s also her ‘generals’ and a few of them are gonna show in TLC soon (just a brief cameo) A group of 4 who’ve met Kai in a few incarnations and they always tend to get along. Original names were Matt, Trisha, Faith, and Maki is Maki (she’s an elf so she lives longer) Current names are Byron, Tiffny, Jacob and Maki. These four actually form Ren’s party when he’s trying to find his wife at the actual start of “Nightmare’s Dream” and you learn they each have a connection to Kai through the story.

Matt/Branden/Byron; he’s featured in the writing I mentioned up top, he’s kinda similar to Leo in the way he interacts with Kai as an almost human morality pet for Kai. He used to be Kai’s student when she was teaching, and his father was the warden at the jail her friend Sammy was in (this is the friend she lost) Matt can see through her disguise when she’s showcasing nightmares. Kai can cause hallucinations on targets using her ‘fear’ hence her title “king of fear” and normally they are only visible to her and her target. But Matt can see them.

He ends up getting in trouble a few times; once with a tribe of demons who want to turn children into imps, once with the literal Anti christ, once with a haunted house. And each time Kai was there and ends up saving him.

Matt later is in an accident and ends up reincarnating as a winged human named Branden and has all his past memories. So when he starts working at Prometheus as one of their ‘informants’ (aka he goes to gather information in both human and supernatural affairs. he’s referred to often as the angel of trust because of his silver tongue) and he meets her again he shouts something from one of his classes with her causing her to snap back on reflex until she realizes (running joke is Kai loathes Julius Ceaser and if you say his name she always whips around shouting “WAS A SLUT AND A HARLOT” in a very aggressive tone. It makes people laugh when she does and she always gets embarrassed afterwards)

The two of them end up working together for a while and become good friends (and maybe a bit more but they never state really) but then when with his new work partner Trisha (nicknamed angel of death, she works in the sector that deals with cleanup) he ends up betraying Prometheus and Trisha rips his wings off and kills him (this is the context between the ‘redraw’ meme I do every few years of a man with a bleeding back drowning)

Trisha is also someone who grew close to Kai (hence she killed Branden because his folly led to Kai nearly going berserk) but she was killed by a sleeper agent from the order. And this is how Kai lost two of her close friends.

Now backing up to Sammy the inmate one; he was with her when Kai met her first child, the young moon goddess Artemis. Arty is a constant for the demoness ever since she picked her up in the woods (her arc also has one of my favorite kai lines: (which i can’t find the direct line but)

Sam shuddered as he looked around the woods, “Do you ever feel like there’s 100 eyes watching you?”

“Yes but it didn’t work out so we broke up.” The demon responded flatly as she looked around with a deep set scowl.

While she was out with Sammy when he was hunting they ended up finding a little girl who turned out to be a new goddess and her elder sister was kidnapped by the embodiment of Greed in his attempt to become a god. Kai ends up stopping this but also kinda ends up becoming Arty’s mom. While she doesn’t raised Arty fully she does do a lot of teaching and such for her and does refer to her as “her daughter” and Arty calls her mom. when the great catastrophe occurs, Arty is one of the few gods who remained when the rest went to new ‘realms’ or simply vanished and is considered one of the main gods of their world because of this.

And then there’s her son Ganon, an Orc Lord she adopted when his village was ruined. he currently poses as her ‘demon king’ while she pretends to be the chancellor (this is the ruse she uses. normally heroes will fight the ‘king’ and lose but if they actually are a threat or have poor reasoning she kills them from behind. this is also how the story starts as someone found a spell to try and incapacitate her buttt)

There’s also morte and her daughter demeter (I’ve shown them before, a set of necromancers) who she’s very friendly with. Demeter even calls her aunty Kaya and loves to sit on her lap and such during meetings. (i have one snippet when Kai was recruiting someone to their side but hadn’t told her yet she was the REAL demon king and Demeter was sitting on her lap laughing) Morte is thankful to Kai for saving her circus (Morte runs a circus that helps those stuck in limbo pass on but at one point demons of sin over took it in a way to gather souls)

There’s also her friend Ciera, the daughter of the girm reaper. she’s Kai’s best friend for the most part of her life, and is the one who helps Ren when the gods of life and death try to prevent him from reincarnating again (which is like other things a whole other story) (she also briefly shows in Bone Stealer at one point. While visiting bunny’s sick grandmother, Bunny and Steve run into Ciera as she’s leaving. Steve stops Bunny from attacking her) She’s over all chill.

There’s also Nicki. Kai’s ‘twin’ brother. He’s the ‘bad guy’ through the arc that contains Leo and sets up ‘the great Split’ that Kai will cause (this is lore/plot stuff) He originally was raised to hate her by their maternal Uncle who’s a arch mage like Ren however he’s fallen due to his hatred of Kai’s birth. Nicki is not really her brother (in the first life) but a failed clone of the demoness. When Kai is reborn Nicki gets to actually be her brother and the two get along really well and he’s very protective of his sister now that he understands what her actual deal is and not the bs his uncle fed him. Before the rebirth too Nicki helped kai solve some stuff and worked with her until his death (unlike her, he was not immortal)

And then Kai actually has two bio children with Ren! Akito her son takes after her and he’s the one who takes over her role as the true demon king of Tir-Na-Nocht so she’s able to die and try life again, and a daughter, Rei who takes after Ren in looks but... she’s a himbo. pure moron. she got her grandpa’s himbo gene strong. She’s a cat girl who works with her brother and she is the head of the guard.

Aki actually has his own story where he grew up in a ‘mundane’ world but then his entire class got ‘isekaid’ to another. it gets shown that this isn’t truly the case. the great ‘split’ mentioned above was Kai literally broke the world in two realms. She made one primarily humans and high tech and then the other was magic and mostly monsters. there are a mix of both but it cut down heavily on the murder. She raised Aki in the human side for his and Rei’s safety due to them being the children of a fallen god (mama worries) and Aki inherited his mother’s odd ‘status’ “Hero/Demon King”  so he has to not expose his demon nature and also stay below the radar (it turns out the person who summoned them was attempting to break a centuries old treaty) until his mother and father can figure out what happened to him (thankfully he can go to a church and his older sister Arty can act as a messenger but there’s a bit of a time split in the worlds) That world is actually the one “Fae Rules” takes place in o7o.

She also is friends with a dead prince named “Shade” (yes this is who you think it is) as well as her ‘cousin’ Sena (who she loves to give shit to)

And in her second life she obvs has her brother, cousins, her father (her father’s boyfriend/her manny), aunt’s etc!!!

So yes; she had family other than her husband!!!! And she cherishes them all.

[nocerealmilk]

Harrow the Ninth Timeline + Synopsis + AtN Predictions

Ok So I know I wasn’t the only one really confused after reading HtN, so when I reread it I made a bunch of notes so I could try to piece together the timeline! Here’s what I got, it’s as accurate as I could make it.

The universe is dominated by the force that is called the Cohort at the behest of the Necrolord prime AKA John AKA God AKA the Emperor, a man who resurrected all of our solar system to use “thanergy” (dead stuff energy) instead of “thalergy” (alive stuff energy). For unknown reasons, instead of just living in the galaxy, the Cohort overtakes planets by “flipping” them from thalergetic into thanergetic, allowing the arrival of necromancy. This is achieved by front line Cohort non-necromantic soldiers indiscriminately killing enough of the creatures on said planets that the Cohort necromancers can then use that energy to perform necromancy which causes the planet to die, releasing thanergetic material that can then be used for necromancy. It should also be mentioned interstellar travel is apparently only easily achievable for regular people by obelisk, which is a structure that must be bathed in fresh blood daily. They are, basically, super evil. 

They are at war with Blood of Eden, a rebellion insurgency of people who want to cleanse the universe of necromancy, which was (ambiguously?) created at some point by God and then betrayed him.

 Wake, the previous leader of Blood of Eden, was sent by Mercymorn and Augustine, who had betrayed God to work with BoE, to the Ninth House to take samples and look for signs of life within the locked tomb, which contains The Body (AKA A.L., Annabel Lee, or Alecto), God’s cavalier. Because the locked tomb is only accessible by God’s genetic material, Mercy gains God’s genetic material via menage e trois, and uses it to make foetal dummies, which all die, leading to Wake carrying God’s genetic child to term. 

Gideon the First, Lyctor, is sent to intercept her - he does not and betrays god, Because both him (Gideon) and his lyctor (Pyrrha), who both share Gideon’s body, were both separately having an affair with Wake, and believed the child to be theirs. Wake crashed to the Ninth and died, but the baby lived; as Wake died she said “Gideon”, so the child was named Gideon, although she was referring to Gideon the Firsts name when she said it. (Note: I don’t believe it is ever mentioned what happened before Wake came crashing to the Ninth, only that she was intercepted by Gideon1, who failed to kill her.) 

Wake’s hatred of necromancy is so strong that her ghost remains a revenant, haunting first her old bones, then haunting a two-handed blade, which the child of hers and God’s, Gideon9, the Ninth raises wields and loves. 

When Gideon9 and Harrow are 10 years old, they get into a fight - it’s important to note that Harrow says specifically that Gideon9’s skin was under her fingernails, because she is able to bypass the wards that only God (or a genetically similar being) can access. Harrow looks inside of The Locked Tomb and sees Alecto’s body, who she both falls in love with, and is haunted by her via auditory and visual hallucination.

8 years later, Gideon9 and Harrow go to Canaan house, all of the events of GtN happen. Gideon9 dies and something (which I will speculate on later) happens in the time between. 

Harrow the Ninth starts with Harrow not remembering Gideon’s existence, having made a debt to Ianthe to compartmentalize her memories of Gideon so as to avoid truly absorbing her soul. (Harrow does not remember this either). It is important to note that Harrow feels none of the rapid healing benefits of lyctorship, although her soul/body is a void like other lyctors. 

The body of Gideon was not recovered, neither were the living Coronabeth, Camilla, or Judith, who ended up with Blood of Eden (It is easy to extrapolate that Gideon’s body is probably also currently in possession of BoE).

 In the meantime, Wake’s soul haunts the two handed sword Harrow possesses, which her past, cognizant self has told her to never let leave her side, and not allow it to come in contact with flesh. (Harrow’s past self is evidently aware of the sword’s haunting; she also is aware the revenant wishes to leave the sword, and apparently that was not intended) During a moment of sleepwalking or possession, Harrow stabs the sword into the body of the dead lyctor Cytherea, whom the ghost of Wake leaves the sword and possesses the body of. 

Later, Harrow is on a faraway planet, murdering it, when Camilla Hect and the other two who survived Canaan show up in a spaceship. Harrow’s letter to herself tells her to seal Judith Deuteros’ mouth shut, which she does just as Judith attempts to tell her someone has betrayed God and that she is a “prisoner of war”. She also successfully restores part of Palamedes Sextus’s body, creating an articulated hand for his soul to possess. Important to note, Gideon9 is not there, alive or dead. 

In the meantime, in the River, which is basically a limbo-type place souls go after they die, and also where alive people can go if they know how, Harrow has been reliving an incorrect version of the events of GtN within her mind, using the trapped ghosts of those who died to re-enact the story. The story, however, goes haywire when The Sleeper, AKA the ghost of Wake, attempts to kill Harrow (and the others) in this dream-bubble esque world. Wake’s ghost changes the parameters of the story, causing Canaan to fall apart, be plunged into freezing cold, blood raining from the sky etc. Abigail Pent, a spirit caller who is also a ghost now, helps Harrow’s memories return and then awakens the Sleeper/Wake.

 In the real world, Harrow has been fatally stabbed by Mercymorn, who attempted to kill her because she didn’t want Harrow to go insane and suffer as a resurrection beast, the soul of one of the nine originally resurrected planets, approaches them. Instead, Harrow’s memories are restored and she is trapped within the simulation she created, fighting Wake’s ghost, while Gideon’s soul is able to overtake her body.

 Shortly before this, Harrow’s visual hallucination of The Body AKA Alecto vanished.

 Gideon9, in Harrow’s body, is able to fight off the heralds of the resurrection beast easily, and has wicked regeneration powers - her thumb grows back entirely within seconds, something that was directly stated to not be possible for normal lyctors. Mercymorn and Augustine have a big reaction to seeing Gideon9’s eye color inside of Harrow’s body. 

Gideon9 and Ianthe find God, Mercymorn, Augustine, Gideon1, and a tied up Wake-possessed Cytherea having a discussion. Mercymorn and Augustine confront God about Gideon’s yellow eyes, which God does not have but Alecto has. The only possible way Gideon9 could have yellow eyes like Alecto is not because she is the child of Alecto, but because she is the child of God, and Alecto is God’s cavalier, whose eyes were perfectly swapped with God’s, and Gideon9 is God’s daughter. Previously God told the Lyctors that to become immortal they had to kill and absorb the soul of their cavaliers, but since Alecto/The Body was still alive after the eye swap that took place before they all met, it was apparently a lie and perfect Lyctorship was possible the entire time (in which both parties absorb and share the combined power of their souls, resulting in a reversal of their eyes, and remain living). 

Wake tells God that Mercymorn, Gideon1 and Augustine betrayed him and had had prior contact with her. Mercymorn also, importantly, notes that when she checked Gideon’s body at Canaan house she neglected to open her eyes, implying that Mercymorn was at Canaan house and worked with BoE to ferry Corona, Camilla, Judith, and Gideon9 out of Canaan.

 Mercymorn explodes God. Augustine and Mercymorn express a hope for the death of necromancy in the future. 

God somehow rematerializes (will get into my theory on that later), and explodes Mercymorn back, who does not rematerialize, because she is dead. God admits the resurrection beasts cannot kill him, and he lied to their faces for 10,000 years.

 God offers to spare Gideon9, Gideon1, Ianthe, and Augustine. Augustine instead plunges the entirety of the space station into the bottom of the River, attempting to throw God and the rest of them into the stoma, which is basically just Hell or Nothingness. Augustine and God fight; Gideon1 tells Gideon9 (still in Harrow’s body) that Gideon1 actually died, and who is taking through Gideon1’s body is his necromancer Pyrrha, whose soul was compartmentalized similar to how Gideon9’s was. Ianthe chooses to push Augustine into Hell and save God, which is very evil of her.

 Gideon9 decides she would rather try to save Harrow’s body and brave the river, a futile act. In her last moments, Gideon9 sees light, and then sees the face of Alecto leaning over her saying to perform chest compressions despite her shattered chest (Which, I believe, is Gideon’s soul returning to her own body)

 At the same time, Harrow has defeated the sleeper and everyone has left the dream bubble except her and Dulcinea. The bubble is falling apart. Dulcinea tells her something left intentionally ambiguous to the reader, which leads to Harrow popping the bubble. In Harrow’s last moments she walks into a coffin that has Gideon’s sword and spicy magazines inside of it, and falls asleep with a smile on her face. Important to note it specifically says this happened in a “faraway place”. This is happening, I believe, in tandem with Gideon seeing that final vision. 

The epilogue describes an unknown character with unusual healing powers (most likely in the body of Gideon), living in a faraway land (Harrow is also there, possibly?), who is given bones and a sword but does not understand what to do with either of them, and Camilla Hect is there, but her eyes are gray, the color Palamedes’ eyes are described to be. The narrator notes their specific love for those eyes.

Ok now ~predictions~ which I mostly wanted to put here to look at later when the new book comes out.

Dulcinea is the character that we see in the epilogue. Honestly, I’m not completely sure; I think Harrow or Gideon both could love Pal’s eyes, they did care about him, but it feels kind of like a weird thing to point out unless it was relevant. If it was Alecto, like i’ve seen some speculation on, why would she comment about the eyes of someone she doesn’t know? Dulcinea also alludes to an understanding of perfect lyctorship in HtN: “Goodbye, Palamedes my first strand, Goodbye Camila, my second...One cord was overpowered, two cords could defend themselves, but three were not broken by the living or the dead”...One by itself was very strong, two could defend (as a cavalier defends their necro in the river), and three were not broken by the living or the dead (essentially, true immortality with invulnerability). This, and the board in the Lyctor room at Canaan in GtN also describes the pinboard as having numerous clusters of three pins. (Granted it is not stated completely what perfect lyctorship between three people would entail, or if the pinboard in GtN was alluding specifically to lyctorship.)

I don’t think Harrow is in Harrow’s body right now, if she is, I don’t think she is lucid. Harrow also states “There’s a difference between saving a shred of dance card, and saving the last dance” Dulcinea gave Harrow the information that crawling into that coffin, whatever it means, would allow Gideon to survive. That is what she wants above everything else, I think knowing that is the only way Harrow would be content at the last and go without fighting.

Harrow planned the entire thing. I actually do think this is possible. I don’t think Harrow does anything irrationally. I think she erased her memories knowing that it would cause her to forget a plan she made at Canaan with the others, agreeing to go with Ianthe to the First. She did specifically give instructions to her future self to seal Judith Deuteros’ mouth shut, to stop Deuteros from giving her the information required to stop the attempt on God’s life. My personal prediction here is that Harrow always meant to reconvene with BoE at the end, and Wake’s revenant leaving the sword and Mercymorn’s failure to kill god compromised all of that.

Harrow and Gideon are currently occupying Gideon’s body together, but neither of them are at the wheel.

Alecto is not dead, and maybe never was dead. I know she is literally called The Body and is described as being dead. However, I don’t think she’s in a state of death she can’t come back from. I believe that “perfect” lyctorship involves one body being able to remotely protect the other, hence why God reformed from complete paste and Alecto is who Gideon sees. I think God being dead would involve somehow killing the both of them, or killing one and then stopping the other from reforming while you kill the other.

Alecto is not human, she’s a robot or alien? She is referred to as a monster most of the time, and originally had the black and white eyes of God.

God’s three person Lyctorship is him, Samael and/or Anastasia and Alecto. Still not totally sold on 3 person lyctorship being the goal, but I think if it is the case that’s it. I know Gideon says Alecto’s voice is “wrong twiceover”, which is what made me think it was two people, and neither were Alecto.

I don’t think Alecto is the main character of the third book. I think Gideon will still be the speaking character, but I think Alecto will be the pivotal character.

The Cohort is bad actually. I think it’s one of those things where it seems glamorous because the main characters are brainwashed a bit. I mean as far as I can tell, it’s outrightly stated in the text that the Cohort murders innocents and overtakes planets. Real Empire vibes!!

BoE is also bad actually. I think we’ll learn Cohort bad, then BoE good, then BoE bad as a twist at the end, that they have some kind of hidden agenda or something like that.

Corona kills Ianthe. Most people just suspect this because of the whole Cainabeth and Abelle placeholder names and I’m also in this camp. I think Ianthe is pretty morally gray so I don’t necessarily think she will end up being killed because she’s straight up a villain, but I think she will be killed.

Harrow comes face to face with Alecto

Necromancy goes byebye, God is Kill

[incandescent-eden]

STORY MASTERLIST

A (not so) comprehensive list of all the things I write about, all of which are subject to change at any given time because I do a lot of refactoring!

LOOOOONG POST INCOMING I write... a LOT, and I have... MANY projects :) Feel free to ask me about any of them! :)

With love <3 Continue reading below the cutoff if you want to know the basic rundown of my worlds and works!

ANGELVERSE:

This universe encompasses all of the angels and demons I like to focus on. Works in the angelverse will likely be about Faraday (formerly known as Efrem), a demon lieutenant, Ezekiel, a young angel, the archangel Uriel, or angel Raguel / angel Sophia (their stories are intertwined).

The main concept I have on Angelverse surrounds Faraday, who has grown into himself as a demon and made something of himself. He finds it impossible to shake who he was before. The question comes up during an important meeting between Heaven and Hell of whether he is truly Faraday or Efrem, his own self that he has shakily become, or the self he inherited from being his father’s son. There’s also brotherly angst between Faraday and Ezekiel, who refuses to let go of the past. (If you look at my old works tagged ‘ezekiel,’ you’ll see Ezekiel used to be a part of Faraday/his ‘ideal’ self, which is why new Ezekiel, separate from Faraday, reads so differently.)

The Raguel and Sophia stories are also closely linked to characters Andromeda and possibly Zachariah. Andromeda’s father runs a cult and has captured an angel in his attic. When Andromeda finds the angel (Sophia), her otherwise “normal” life is thrown into disarray as she starts unraveling threads about her father’s actions as a cult leader. If Zachariah is to be a part of it, he would be living with Andromeda’s family, having run away from his past.

Prominent characters in Angelverse include: Faraday, Uriel, Ezekiel, Stena, Michael, Ramiel, Raguel, Sophia, Zachariah, Ambriel, Ruhiel, Gabriel, Raphael, Luci, Bee, Sasha, Saoirse, and Heather. With the exception of Sophia, all names ending with “el” are angels, while the rest are demons. Also, I say prominent, but like half of these characters are from a bygone era (2018 when I first created them).

TW/CW for heavy religious (Christian) imagery, emotional abuse, violence, transphobia mentions and cult talk. Additional content warning because I tend to write angels as LGBT, but I recognize that some people are not comfortable with this affiliation with Christianity.

LUXTRURA (NOTE: LUXTRURA IS ON PERMANENT HIATUS):

Luxtrura is the name of a fictional country in ye olde European fantasy style, and I haven’t thought of a title for the WIP yet, so I mainly tag it ‘luxtrura’ or ‘luxtruran trio.’ This WIP is a fantasy / dystopian / political intrigue about an uprising in the kingdom of Luxtrura run by an inexperienced king and corrupt nobles all vying for the crown.

Luxtrura (at the current moment) follows the life of His Majesty Devron Fharren, the Eighth Fharren King, who inherited the crown by kingdom decrees at the age of 21. Unlike most kings, Devron has only had seven years of proper royal tutelage on statecraft, having only been named heir to the throne when he was 14. He soon finds he has inherited a kingdom that has been deeply wounded, that his people hate him, and that he has few allies among his own country’s nobles, his friends, and neighboring royalty. Revolution is brewing, and he has a choice to make: to claim his birthright or to help his people.

Prominent characters include: Devron Fharren, Eden Barison, Mili Starr, Plumeria Rwalke, Lilia Tao, Rassaya Tao, Andrea (a mysterious stranger who gives only her first name), Jakob Fiyre, Cordelia Fiyre, Liseline Fiyre, Sonja, and Orange and Rouse (the dragons).

TW/CW for violence, sexual assault mentions, transphobia mentions, political talk, blatant classism, and death.

GLOWING EYES:

A “what-if” scenario where Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray had met and become friends and also Frankenstein wasn’t a man and was named Viola and was not a pleb weakling like Victor. Also Dorian Gray is fat because I said so.

This story reimagines the Frankenstein and Dorian Gray cast as students in their final year of the prestigious University of Ingolstadt, with Frankenstein having returned from a year off during which she was suspended for [redacted] reasons. The vibe we’re going for is dark academia, but I don’t think they ever actually do any learning?

Prominent characters include: Viola Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clerval, Basil Hallward, Deukalion, and special shoutout to Justine Moritz and Sibyl Vane because I didn’t want to put them in, but they definitely deserved better in the source material.

TW/CW for death, violence, toxic/obsessive relationships, grave-robbing, body part mentions (eyes, limbs, etc), and mentions of the Devil. Basically, if it was a concerning part of either the Frankenstein or Dorian Gray stories, it will still be concerning.

Fun fact, there is a Glowing Eyes playlist that I am NOT too ashamed to share with the public! :D

HELEN OF LEGEND:

A retelling of the Helen of Sparta story that explores Helen’s thoughts and motivations. Who was the woman behind the face that launched a thousand ships? And did she ever even want those ships to be launched? (Spoiler alert: the answer is no.)

Helen of Legend gets pretty heavy handed because I get really mad about people lauding the Greeks as the end all be all of culture, and I’m still really mad about how people dress Millie Bobby Brown up like she’s 25-40, so make of that what you will.

On the bright side, Helen of Legend is a sapphic retelling!

Prominent characters include: Helen, Leda, Menelaus, Clytemnestra, Penelope, Theseus, Aphrodite, Paris, Cassandra, Hector, and Hecuba.

TW/CW for misogyny, implied past sexual assault, sexual assault mentions, mentions of spousal and emotional abuse, people being generally creepy about bodies, people being creepy toward children (Theseus), cities burning, subtle classism, and death.

OF DANCERS AND DREAMERS:

A musical about Anne-Marie, a non-binary Vietnamese lesbian born into a wealthy family, and Jules, a Tunisian baker’s daughter who is working her way into the Paris ballet. Anne-Marie wants to be a designer, but their mother, Mme Trinh, has other plans. The year is 1884, and it was hard for the Trinh family, as immigrants, to establish their foothold in society, and Mme Trinh will not have her child throw away the family’s hard work. One day, while at the ballet, Anne-Marie becomes smitten with Jules, a ballerina with the most dazzling smile. They find solace in sharing their passions with one another and become friends, each eventually realizing they have fallen for the other in a time that is unfriendly to both of them.

Prominent characters include: Anne-Marie, Jules, Victor, Mme Trinh, and Amandine.

TW/CW for subtle homophobia, classism, mental illness, and parental guilt tripping/emotional toxicity.

THE LYRE EFFECT:

A play about life after death, and what it means to live and love. This play follows Patroclus upon his death, desperate to return to Achilles. He meets the reluctant Eurydice, embittered by decades alone in limbo halfway between life and death. Together, they almost throw someone off a boat (is it really murder if they’re already dead?) and have a chance to tell their stories, stepping out from the shadows of their more famous lovers.

I took a lot of liberties with this, so Orpheus is a woman (wlw OrphEurydice), and I would like for both Achilles and Patroclus to be played by trans men, and for all of the characters to be played by non-white actors.

Prominent characters include: Patroclus, Eurydice, Achilles, Orpheus, Apollo, Hades, Charon

TW/CW for talk about death

SPEED ROUND (OR: THINGS I WRITE ABOUT THAT AREN’T AS AMBITIOUS JUST YET/AT THE CURRENT MOMENT):

Here Lies Forever - a story focusing around two young people, Medb Flaherty and Virgil Sutherland, growing up at an orphanage amid war, abandonment, and sickness. Medb is a blind writer who dreams of traveling the world with Virgil, her best friend since their teen years, but when the war strikes too close to home, Virgil leaves Medb and their peaceful student life behind to join the army. Unwilling to let go, and recognizing the pain Virgil is in, Medb takes it upon herself to save Virgil, the both of them haunted by the ghosts of their pasts.

On the Corner of Maple Street - short stories about the lives of Sarah and Evangeline together, two lesbian women who met when Sarah was 28 and Evangeline was 31. Sarah was a toy maker and Evangeline was an actress. They have a son named Oliver, who’s now in his forties, and they’re grandmas to all the neighborhood children. They live on the corner of Maple Street :)

Partager Un Reve - short stories, often romantic, about two circus performers, Alyona Ledbedeva (who does aerial silks) and Li Mey Ri (an acrobat). They’re cute together, there’s not really much to say here.

Claire  - there’s a really old novelette floating around on my account and you can find it if you search Claire, but like it’s OLD. An 18th century French lady who contracted TB and died but was brought back by a necromancer named Cecil (Cecil is the character of my friend @sinnabon-cosplay !) and is now immortal. Fun times with Claire and Anthony usually involve lamenting the fact that they’re stuck as teenagers.

Miscellaneous - miscellaneous demon and monster characters like Alexander, Felicity (both vampires), Sparrow (succubus/Heather’s youngest sister), Zephyr (fae, husband of Spar), Lycan (she’s... a werewolf), and so on. Not really connected to a plot

Performing Possumhood - uh this was a play I wrote with my friend @holdingonmyheartlikeahandgrenade for a 24 hour play festival, it’s about a guy named Thomas who becomes herald for a kingdom and then on his first day of work, the king dies, and his son becomes king, except the new king??? is a possum???? and like no one does anything about it, so Thomas just feels like he’s going insane, poor guy (also everyone else is named Thomas except the king, whose name is His Majesty King Parthur Pencildragon of Alpacalot)

Nordic questing team - I’ve literally written nothing for these fools, but I’m tempted to make it into a dnd campaign! The characters I have are Val (short for Valnotte) (she’s a nokke), Hanne (human poison seller who wears an eyepatch just because), Fur (short for Bjorgolfur, he’s a werewolf who left his pack because he was too good at being alpha wolf but he didn’t want to be alpha, he wanted to press flowers and have a cute little cottage by a cliffside with a pretty garden damn it), and Bo (full name: Boscobel Blue, he’s a cow boy. Literally. He has cow ears and a big septum piercing and a tail. Also he’s a shepherd. His sheep are carnivorous :))) Make of that what you will)

Alice x Secret Garden - another play but where Alice Liddell and Mary Lennox are 18 years old and find themselves in Wonderland, after Mary is jaded from the end of WW1 and is frustrated at her friend Dickon’s marriage proposal, and Alice runs away, trying to retain her childhood as best she can

Retellings - I do myth and fairy tale and folk retellings! :) You can search ‘Tithonia’ for my sleeping beauty retelling, and I wrote Orpheus and Eurydice a while back. Still working my way through Icarus :’) Also ‘Mermaids Can’t See’ is a retelling of the classic mermaid story but written as a ??? field guide? journal entry? notes about mermaids?

If there’s a work you want specifically about a character, I always tag characters, and I also will tag character introductions and pictures/references of them as “beanpuff char[]”!

[melodiouswhite]

Live forever - Ch. 02

(A/N: Yep. This thing still exists. :3)

It was 1550 and just like so many times before, he could never run fast enough.

Those blasted witch persecutions were getting out of control!

Yes, he was used to being persecuted.

For almost his entire life, he had been both revered and abhorred by people, who either were frightened of him and his powers or were simply malevolent.

He remembered a particularly nasty incident in 1507 (shortly after his 41st birthday), when he had been schoolmaster of a cram school in Sickingen. Someone had come and accused him of indulging in sodomy with some of the male students! Yes, he had lain with both men and women, but never had he touched his own pupils! Not to mention they had been mere children! This was wrong in so many ways! How had someone even got that idea?! Needless to say, he would have been severely punished, had he not escaped in time.

Never had he been so hurt in his entire life. Just the memory went down to his substance.

All the other times it blasphemy or outright heresy, witchcraft and similar fun stuff.

Nothing surprising in these days, in this war between the Catholics and the newly formed Protestant Church. The fact that he had real magic powers didn't exactly help matters, even though he had learned by now to keep his mouth shut (most of the time).

He was used to it.

But this was the 3rd time in five years that he had to flee from a bloodthirsty mob or a narrow-minded inquisition that wanted to see him burn! Some of them even had chased after him with firearms!

This was too much!

Having enough of this, he decided to migrate to France. He had heard that persecution wasn't as extreme there and he still remembered the time, before the Protestant Church had been a thing. Acting like a good Catholic, no one would notice him – he hoped.

Problem was just … he wasn't a good Catholic – or even a good Christian.

Never had been.

It had always been too suffocating for him to bear.

But he couldn't always go against the stream and hope that he wouldn't be hunted down with pitchforks and such for at least a week.

Well, I guess I have no other choice. Perhaps I will be lucky and find an area that isn't wrecked by war and where the people are more relaxed than here.

Shortly before his 100th birthday, a French couple walked into his life to change it forever.

He had got into a bar fight and had to run from a group of thugs that obviously wanted to beat him to death.

Why trouble just flung itself around his neck was beyond him, but now was no time to ponder on that – he had to avoid getting lynched!

As he ran around a corner, he spied a chubby, friendly-looking woman sitting in front of a bookshop and embroidering a handkerchief, singing a gay tune.

He didn't think twice.

He ran over to her, fell onto his knees and begged: “Madame! Please, help me!”

For a second she seemed bewildered, but then she caught on instantly. She grabbed his wrist, pulled him up and pushed him inside the bookshop.

“Stay there”, she ordered.

He pressed himself against the inside wall beside the door and tried to catch his breath.

Then he noticed the man standing behind the counter of the shop.

It was a tall, thin man with platinum blond hair and friendly, silvery eyes that looked at him curiously through big glasses. Probably the shop-owner and husband of the lady outside.

“Can I help you?”, he asked in French.

“Hide me, please!”, the other pleaded, “If you don't, I will die!”

The blond Frenchman rolled his eyes and told him to come behind the counter, which he did.

He curled together to fit under the counter.

Just as he had hidden, the door burst open and he heard the footsteps of several people.

“Have you seen this guy?”, one of them asked gruffly.

“What guy?”, the bookseller queried coolly, “Be more specific.”

“Some ugly ginger! About as big as me, with a fancy green cloak, black hat and white shirt! Looks like the Devil incarnate!”

Under the counter he felt his blood boil.

Ugly ginger?! Devil incarnate?!

Alright, he knew that he wasn't exactly handsome, but this was just incredibly insulting!

The rudeness seemed to agitate the blond bookseller as well, as he could see him tense up. But the man kept his cool.

“First of all, I didn't see an ugly ginger or anyone for that matter, for I was in here the entire time. Ask my wife, if she has seen anyone. She's the one who was sitting outside. Secondly, that's incredibly rude. Learn some manners. And thirdly, what do you want in the first place? Beat the unfortunate man up and rob him?”

Awkward silence.

“I suspected as much”, the bookseller remarked scornfully. “Anyway, you won't find him here. Now get out of my bookshop.”

The blond radiated such calm authority that the thugs hurried to obey his request.

After they were gone, the bookseller and his refugee waited for a bit to make sure that the mob wasn't still lurking outside.

Then the latter could hear the door open and tensed up again.

But it was just the lady from earlier.

“They're gone”, she sighed, “Such ruffians. People really have no manners these days.”

“Really”, her husband agreed, before bending down to inform their refugee that he could come out.

“Thank you so much”, he groaned in relief. “I thought I was going to die!”

Well, not exactly that, but he definitely would have been worse for wear.

“You're welcome”, the Frenchman responded, “You're not the first one we've had to save from a bloodthirsty mob. What was their problem anyway? Are you a Jew or an huguenot?”

“No”, the German snarled. He was something far worse, but knew better than to say that out loud. “Just a stupid bar fight.”

Their thoughts told him that they didn't buy it, but they didn't say that out loud.

He on the other hand was curious, who his saviours were and decided to dive into their minds.

A quick scan made his eyes widen in shock.

“By the way”, the other man spoke up, “We haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is-”

“Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel!”, the redhead whispered. “No way!”

Their eyes widened in return.

“How do you know?”, Perenelle Flamel demanded to know. “Who are you?”

He swallowed and stretched out a hand.

“I'm Dr. Johann Georg Faust. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

He was pleasantly surprised, when they invited him to stay with them for the time being.

“We have heard of you”, Nicolas Flamel stated, as they were having dinner.

“The German merchants who come here speak of you. They tell wondrous tales, one more fantastic or ludicrous than the other.”

“And some very blasphemous things”, Perenelle told him. “That you boasted of being able to perform the miracles of Christ.”

He frowned. “I can't remember ever saying that. In fact, I'm quite sure that I never said that. I admit that I'm not a humble man, but this is defamation. What other things did they say about me?”

“That you were a worshipper of Satan, a son of the Devil, a witch or a warlock, a fraud … charming things like that”, Nicolas answered ironically.

“Charming indeed”, the ginger-haired alchemist grumbled sourly.

Perenelle quickly amended: “But they also said you were a great doctor, astrologer and healer. An encyclopedist, they say.”

Their guest smiled. “Thank you. I have studied and practised long and hard to become exactly that.”

“Out of curiosity though”, Nicolas spoke up again, “How much of the unflattering things is true? I mean, you're obviously like us. But how did you know who we are?”

He wasn't sure, if he should entrust that secret to the Flamels.

“What ever it is, you can tell us”, the blond assured him, “We're three immortal alchemists, who discovered the Philosophers' Stone. It doesn't get much more unhallowed than that.”

He took a deep breath, before telling them this: “I can read minds and see the future. And … I'm a black mage. But I have never hurt anyone, I swear!”, he added hurriedly. “I just use these abilities to get by!”

“We believe you”, Perenelle assured him and took his hand. “Two centuries have told us to know when someone lies.”

She and her husband exchanged a look.

“Well, since you obviously have nowhere else to go, Dr. Faust, why don't you stay with us?”, she offered, “Alchemists should stick together, especially immortals like us.”

Her husband nodded. “It would be refreshing to have a comrade on our journeys through the world. We could always use help around the household and we could generally support each other.”

The German alchemist and necromancer thought for a bit.

Now that he thought about it, his life had been pretty lonely so far. He couldn't remember ever having friends, nor had he ever been in love.

“Sure. As long as you don't mind wandering around with a mad alchemist who practises witchcraft, is way too showy and magically attracts trouble wherever he goes.”

The Flamels exchanged another glance.

Then they smiled and shook hands with him.

[salvatoreschool]

All The Vampire Diaries and The Originals Easter Eggs in Legacies Season 1

Legacies may have accrued a whole new generation of viewers who've invested in Hope (Danielle Rose Russell), Landon (Aria Shahghasemi), and the Saltzman twins' stories this year, but there are still a bunch of us who got grandfathered in thanks to our obsession with The Vampire Diaries and The Originals.

Luckily for us, while Legacies can definitely stand on its own two feet, several episodes in Season 1 took the time to pay homage to the two series that came before, as well as the beloved characters that are no longer on our screens every week. TV Guide has kept an eagle eye on the lookout for Easter eggs from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals all year,so without further ado, please enjoy this rundown of every reference, big or small, in Legacies Season 1.

1. The Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) Memorial Library (Episode 1). The Salvatore library may have once been a place for Stefan and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) to drink bourbon and make bad choices, but now that the boarding house has been transformed into a school, the library is a popular hangout for students. It's also been renamed The Stefan Salvatore Memorial Library in honor of him sacrificing his life in The Vampire Diaries series finale to save the town of Mystic Falls from Katherine Pierce (Nina Dobrev) and her evil hellfire. The school even built a special case that holds Stefan's journals, his daylight ring, and even the necklace he gave Elena (Nina Dobrev).

2. Teachers summoning hellfire (Episode 1). Speaking of Hellfire, Josie (Kaylee Bryant) mentions in her tour of the school that their chemistry of magic professor accidentally incinerated himself with the stuff. Hellfire played a huge role in The Vampire Diaries series finale, as it was summoned by Katherine Pierce (who'd been cooling her heels in Hell since Stefan murdered her) to destroy Mystic Falls once and for all.

3. "It's not a competition." (Episode 1). In the pilot, M.G. (Quincy Fouse) and Josie have a little talk about Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) staking her claim on Rafael even though he's already clicked with Josie. Josie refuses to feel hurt about her twin beating her to the punch though, telling M.G., "It's not a competition," which is actually a callback to a line from Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) in The Vampire Diaries pilot in reference to Elena beating Caroline (Candice King) to the Stefan Salvatore punch.

4. Vervain in the water supply (Episode 1). Also in the premiere was the ever-popular "sheriff slipping vervain into the town water supply" move, which was a habit the former Mystic Falls secret council formed as a means of warding off vampires. This time around, the sheriff happens to be Matt Donovan, who appears to frequently slip vervain into the gas station coffee. Let's just hope he does it to ward off strange vamps instead of the kids at the Salvatore School.

5. The werewolf curse (Episode 1). While explaining the supernatural world to Landon, Alaric (Matthew Davis) makes reference to the werewolf bloodline curse passed down from parent to child, which is triggered when someone with the gene murders a human. While the curse was never fully explored on The Vampire Diaries, The Originals explained its origins as a curse cast by The Hollow in her dying moments on her tribe in retribution for killing her.

6. "Not now, Dana!" (Episode 2). Lizzie's rival at Mystic Falls High, Dana Lilien, is actually a nod to a minor character on The Vampire Diaries, as is Lizzie's line, "Not now, Dana!" at their flag football game. A chipper girl named Dana periodically appeared as a student and fellow-cheerleader on The Vampire Diaries, but she became a bit of an inside joke with the fans after one of her exchanges with Matt ("Not now, Dana!"). She inevitably met her end at Stefan's hand (well, fangs) on Senior Prank Night in Season 3, but, "Not now, Dana!" will live on forever.

7. Bonnie's magical assistance (Episode 5). As always, when our heroes are in a pickle, they call up Bonnie to provide a magical fix it. In this case, Dorian called Bonnie to help him track down and summon a vampire named Oliver who used to be the one true love of a Dryad who'd been thrown into Malivore. This Easter egg was mostly just a name drop, but it confirmed that Bonnie is still alive and still practicing magic.

8. Klaus' time in New Orleans (Episode 7). The Necromancer mentioned in his walk through Hope's subconscious that he spent a great deal of time in New Orleans before the 1920s since Klaus was always good for his business, killing people all the time. That was a subtle nod to the Klaus' murder spree on The Originals which subsequently forced him and Rebekah (Claire Holt) to flee to Chicago in the 1920s when Mikael showed up to hunt them down.

9. Ripper vampires (Episode 7). After discovering some students feeding on townies, Dorian explains what a Ripper is to Kaleb (Chris Lee), defining it as a vampire who is driven by obsession and the gratification of their own desires, even if that means feeding to the last drop and ripping the bodies apart. He says this in reference to Stefan going on Ripper bender with Klaus in 2010 (set between Season 2 and 3 of The Vampire Diaries) and even implies that M.G. is susceptible to becoming one.

10. Damon and Elena's babies (Episode 10). When Lizzie wished for an alternate reality where Hope never came to the Salvatore School, we saw Josie mention Damon and Elena's kids while explaining why the school is so hard up for money. Apparently, the Salvatores had been very generous to the school, but they had their own kids to take care of, confirming that at least in this alternate timeline, Delena had babies! In yet another alternate reality, Josie made mention of Stephanie Salvatore, who is almost definitely Damon and Elena's daughter.

11. Klaus and Caroline as "Enemies of the State" (Episode 10). In Lizzie's wish world where Hope was never born, Klaus turned off his humanity and started a war, outing supernaturals to the world. We saw his face on wanted posters, and a newspaper clipping had drawings of him and Caroline, declaring them enemies of the state. Some super industrious fans even zoomed in on the newspaper and discovered that Caroline was reference as "his wife, Caroline Mikaelson," revealing that in this world, they were married, giving a pretty major nod to the Klaroline romance that never quite got its time in the sun on The Vampire Diaries or The Originals.

12. Kai Parker footnote (Episode 10). When Alaric was researching The Merge, we saw his notes in the margins of the book, The History of the Gemini Coven. Kai Parker's name was scribbled in the margins next to the paragraph explaining The Merge and how the ritual pits twins against one another in a bid to rule the coven. Kai, the last leader of the Gemini coven and the twins' uncle, was the big bad of The Vampire Diaries Season 6, and he was locked away in a prison world (twice) to keep him from wreaking havoc on the world.

13. The painting Hope made with Klaus (Episode 12). While trying to determine who really set the fire that ruined Spring Break three years ago, Hope told Lizzie that the fire destroyed the only painting she ever created with her dad. Considering this fire predated The Originals final season, we can only assume she meant the watercolor painting she made with Klaus the day she first met him in The Originals Season 4.

14. The Crescent Pack (Episode 13). When M.G. went missing on spring break, Hope opted to use a "family recipe" from her mother's wolf pack, the Crescent Pack, that would allow Rafael to access his wolf mind while still in human form. In addition to their ability to turn at will, the Crescent Pack were once under a curse placed on them by Marcel which meant they were only human during the full moon and had to be in wolf form the rest of the month, which would have made this kind of recipe invaluable to them.

15. Caroline's ballgown (Episode 14). To help Hope's bid for the Miss Mystic Falls title, Lizzie lent her a gown that used to belong to her mother Caroline, but both girls only later found out that the dress was actually a gift from Klaus Mikaelson. On The Vampire Diaries, when Klaus was first trying to woo Caroline, he sent her this ballgown along with an invitation to his family's ball with a request to save him a dance.

16. Freya explains The Merge (Episode 15). When Lizzie clued Hope in on The Merge mystery, Hope called her Aunt Freya (Riley Voelkel) to ask if she knew what the ritual was and how it pertained to the Gemini Coven. Freya explained the truth — that Gemini twins have to overtake each other in a ritual when they turn 22 that kills one of them in the process. It's no wonder Freya had the answer given the Mikaelson's familiarity with siphoner witches.

17. The reverse Kyanite ring (Episode 15). After the Crescent Pack elixir muddled Raf's mind, Hope gave him a ring that let him shift into a wolf permanently instead of just on the full moon. She told him it's like a "reverse kyanite ring," which is used to stop wolves from shifting on the full moon. Said rings were developed in Season 1 of The Originals when Klaus was trying to win over the Crescent Pack.

18. "There's always a loophole." (Episode 16). The episode title of the Legacies Season 1 finale was one major homage to the mythology of both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, which was based on the theory that nature always finds a balance. No supernatural being could ever be truly immortal because nature would create a loophole that provided a way to kill it in order to maintain balance; for the Original vampires that loophole was the white oak wood that could kill them, and for Malivore, it was Hope's existence as a tribrid of the three species that created it.

19. Wickery Bridge (Episode 16). In the season finale, Alaric got stuck behind a roadblock because the Triad blew up Wickery Bridge. Wickery Bridge was a staple of The Vampire Diaries as it was the site of the car crash that claimed the lives of Elena's parents and the crash where she later died and became a vampire. It also happened to be entirely made of white oak, the only wood that can kill an Original vampire, which is why Rebekah burned it to ash in Season 3.

20. The Travelers (Episode 16). The Triad used a creepy blood fountain to nullify the school's magic in the finale, which Alaric revealed to be a creation of a coven of witches called the Travelers. These witches were the big bad of The Vampire Diaries Season 5. A curse had been placed on their line centuries ago that prevented them from ever settling in one place, making them nomads. They specialized in body-jumping, doppelganger magic, and the previously-mentioned magic nullification.

21. The Ascendant (Episode 16). Alaric wasn't just keeping his daughters' Gemini heritage a secret from them, he was also hiding a mystical trinket called the Ascendant in his bookshelf. On The Vampire Diaries, the Ascendant was a magical device that allowed witches to harness a celestial event to create a portal to another world — in this case, the Ascendant Josie found was one she and her sister created as children to it could be used by Bonnie Bennett to imprison Kai Parker in a prison world in the final season of The Vampire Diaries.

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

                               Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft and Ghosts,                                           whose origins stem from Ancient Greece.                                       She is now the owner of It’s a Motherly Thing.

FC NAME/GROUP: Im Jinah (Nana)/ Afterskool GOD NAME: Hecate PANTHEON: Greek Pantheon OCCUPATION: Potion/Tarot Shop Owner of IT’S A MOTHERLY THING ; Owner of the regularly updated gossip, potions and youtube channel IT’S A MOTHERLY THING HEIGHT: 171cm WEIGHT: 49kg DEFINING FEATURES: An Ankh Tattoo behind her right ear, the word Roots on the back of her left foot heel, Perseverance written on her right foot heel, Flying bird tattoos from the side of her neck up to behind her left ear (Most Recent) [ All of her tattoos are in miniature fonts, cursive for the words, and always covered by her hair, clothes or makeup]

PERSONALITY: Seductive, Alluring and yet fun loving, Hecate is someone who has a deeply skewered sense of justice as the goddess of crossroads and witchcraft. Rather sociopathic, she finds things and does them mostly for her own benefit, whilst maintaining a very laidback, but yet playful attitude to others most of the time. She is however, deceitful and cunning if not for her own personal gains. Everything she does must have some kind of benefit to her, be it entertainment or material and physical benefit.

HISTORY: Boredom.

That was the only thing that had driven Hecate to descend down into Mount Phoenix. After all, there were rumours of the most juicy kinds of gossip happening. What was it that she heard—a lame ass love triangle between certain gods? Maybe it wasn’t even a love triangle and more of a pining. Hecate would often chortle in amusement at that thought. Foolish was the girl that thought men could ever sustain them, she thought mockingly. All she ever had within her dark castle in the underworld was merely the endless sound of darkness and death, and the soft bubbling of potions that she constantly brewed to pass her boredom.

It was truly a mundane life to have – the goddess of witchcraft and crossroads would find herself contemplating with a deep sigh most, if not all the time. She was someone that liked the glamour—the honour, the rhythm and the beat of life’s blood that flowed through everyone’s veins like a steady beat of adrenaline coursing through one’s veins. It was utterly boring, to simply sit in her seat, stare through her cauldron into the mortal realm, and merely comment on things that passed by her in this world. Why couldn’t she be a part of all that fun? All that—joy, jealousy and drama? Hecate dreamlessly sighed at the thought. If only she could be mortal—how fun things would be.

…

And so she visits the mortal realm, and stays there for more than ten years. Its nothing like the underworld where she lived in for the age long millennia. The mortal world is bright where the underworld is misty and dark, the lights a myriad of special colours that she never sees in the darkness of her realm. Red, Blue, Pink—Green…did she mention how much she hated the colour green..? The lights in the underworld always flickered with such colours. Dark, black, gloomy and green.

Hecate wanted to live for once, flamboyantly—to live like a human, the greatest irony of a goddess filled to the brim with immortality.

And so she did.

It had to be the greatest laughing stock of all the Greek gods in the pantheon—the goddess Hecate going AWOL in her position, only to be found in the mortal realm, partying her head off. Hecate wanted so badly to feel something—that yearning that listed deeply within her chest forever that she practically threw all caution into the wind. Lovers after lover, parties and drinks after drinks—if Hecate had been any regular mortal, she was clearly on a stark path of utter destruction.

Ten long years of partying, drinking, and doing every single questionable but human act possible, and yet…still, Hecate felt nothing. Perhaps it was high time that the goddess herself came to terms with the fact that she was a flawed goddess, unable to feel like others did for the mortals that worshipped at her feet. A sociopathic goddess that couldn’t come to terms with being unable to feel anything—how much of a monster would one be considered if they were that?

She parties and sleeps around, going through more lovers one after another than she could ever with her own clothes, until she’s struck with a strange anomaly that she never believed would happen to a goddess like her. Feeling life grow and form within you should be something utterly normal for an all powerful goddess like her, but strangely enough, it stirs something deep within her. Perhaps this thing, whatever it was, could stir the depths of her heart like no others could. Wasn’t all females made to be the most motherly?

Perhaps a child would fill that hole in her heart. Its an outlandish thought, one that she comes to regret years nine years down the road when the child she created is old enough to open her mouth and retort back words she never want to hear from its mouth—but still, a valid thought. It’s a tribute to the male that contributed to the making of her daughter by naming her Minji, instead of a Greek name that Hecate had thought of naming for the child just days before her birth.

Its indeed an idea that’s too fantastic to be true—Hecate thinks as she looks at her daughter and feels nothing. Not even something that is of her own flesh and blood gave her any inclination of love and pleasure unlike no other. Minji is just another being that she’s created, even if she’s her own child—and Hecate feels nothing but slight pity for the demigod that she’s allowed to exist with her within her universe. If anything, the underworld is no place to bring up a precocious child. Leaving Minji with a father that didn’t want and wasn’t ready for a child would be far too cruel, even for a goddess of crossroads like herself. But still—Hecate left the child with her mortal father, because it was even more ridiculous for someone like her to raise a child all on her own.

She was Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft and Crossroads, her residence the belly of the Underworld.

She wasn’t supposed—to feel anything. That was the one flaw that it was decided that she would have.

…

She hits a record of continuing enjoying herself without checking up on the girl for five years, before an encounter with another mortal child reminds her of the offspring she left behind. The child is supposed to live a blessed life—afterall, it was a blessing that she’d purposely given the child and crafted with her own hands. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

But she finds her daughter left alone for hours on end, dirty clothes upon her back and hungered. Hecate isn’t known as a goddess with a vengeance streak without any good reason—against her better senses, she whisks Minji away with her, and leaves behind a trail of vengeance for the man that had failed her wishes for her child.

Its more for Minji’s benefit that she moves to Mount Phoenix, though ultimately it was the call of the radiant bars and freedom of life that made the final decision for her to move to Mount Phoenix. After all, she ultimately still couldn’t resist the more luxurious calls of life.

POWERS: Main Power:

Potion Making & Occultism: The ability to be able to constantly produce successful results when it comes to the art of brewing potions. She’s able to generate magic circles to cast her spells immediately, without requiring the shedding of blood or invocation. As mainly a necromancer and a herb/ poison practitioner, Hecate is incredibly proficient in rituals and magical circles, as well as the art of potion making. Because of this, Hecate is able to accurate differentiate various herbs and poisons to use at first glance, both due to practice as well as it being her domain as a goddess of witchcraft.

Sub Powers:

Crossroad Generation: Hecate is the goddess of Crossroads, and she tends to have an inclination to cause dilemmas for those who do not receive her favour, and bless those that do when it comes to making difficult decisions. This power allows Hecate to generate 3 different doors (called crossroads), and present to anyone three different choices. She may choose to give all good options or bad options, or fairly give a chance to someone depending on her mood as well as her impression of someone. The three doors that she can generate have names as well. Charos (the door of death), Orthos (the door of justice), Amevo (the door of rewards/remuneration). These doors usually appear to those that are near the end of their lives, since Hecate helps various spirits transition smoothly into the underworld, as well as those whom Hecate wants to bless or trouble.

Chrono Vision: The ability to perceive and see the past, present and future. Hecate is able to see into the past, see into the present (a few minutes or hours after, or different timeline possibilities) as well as the future (precognition). It is an ability that pertains only to Hecate herself as the goddess of crossroads. Her children usually only inherit ONE of these abilities (the ability to perceive either the past, the present or the future). It is a completely disorientating power, and is usually the strongest under the influence of the moon, due to Hecate’s association with the blood or the dark moon.

STRENGTHS: Decisive, Sensual, Self-confident WEAKNESSES: Sociopathic, Wild, Uncontrollable

[xadoheandterra]

Series: The Burning of Solheim Title: The Path Untrodden Fandom: Final Fantasy XV Chapters: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII Characters: Prompto Argentum, Ignis Scientia, Cor Leonis, Gladiolus Amicitia, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Gilgamesh Tags: 10 years older!Prompto, Noctis is a devious little shit, Noctis will do anything for Prompto, Prompto’s gay little heart, Cor is done with this bullshit, Everyone needs to stop and think, Gilgamesh is tired and just wants to be left alone, Gilgamesh is a necromancer, Gilgamesh is basically like a drow okay?! Summary:  Solheim was the height of civilization long enough that their ruins were ruins over 2000 years ago, and still had the power to function in the time of the King of Light. They should’ve realized something was very wrong the minute Prompto remarked on the lights being on, and yet no one was home.

Prompto woke Noctis at dawn, much to his King’s consternation—but then it’d been Noctis’ demand to be roused with the sun and Prompto found himself only following through. Sure he could easily have ignored the words. It wasn’t like Noctis gave him a royal decree—he hadn’t even used the voice that caused Iggy to stiffen his spine in reaction, or really did things to people in general because it was Noctis and the voice.

Ardyn’s version of the voice was pure rapturous torture and Prompto really didn’t want to think about that because it reminded him how terribly gay he was for his two best friends and they weren’t even available. Noctis had a pretty blonde bride-to-be in Atissia, a Princess in her own right, that he’d met all of a week and never again after. Ardyn had his beautiful Astral-blessed Oracle back in Civitas Lucii that awaited him with a smile and a kiss and the auburn haired man was utterly besotted and no, Prompto refused to get between that.

End all be all Noctis hadn’t used the voice and so Prompto found himself in the unique position of not required to wake Noctis at dawn, yet at the same time required to wake Noctis at dawn. He took to the position with gleeful aplomb, found a pool of water in the canyon, and proceeded to dump it on Noctis’ face. The spluttered look of betrayal, sleep-sodden that it was, was beautifully perfect and Prompto found himself with a wide grin and a giddy bubbling feeling in his chest that only Noctis could make him feel.

“Mornin’!” Prompto cheered, and Noctis groaned and flopped himself over with a heavy sigh and a faint whine.

“It’s too early,” Noctis complained, the words dragged out of him with a torturous groan.

“You said Dawn, Your Majesty,” Prompto teased, and Noctis grabbed his pillow and threw it in Prompto’s direction in response. Prompto laughed and pranced out of the tent, assured that Noctis would follow in short order.

Surely enough, five minutes later Noctis emerged from the tent, dressed, and with a stifled yawn from behind one hand. Prompto moved to quickly disassemble their tent and camping supplies. He nudged Noctis over toward the small can of cold beans to which the King of Lucis pulled a disgusted face at. He looked to Prompto who arched an eyebrow and waited. Noctis’ hate of vegetables of all kinds was well known, and that included beans into the mix. After a moment stare down Noctis took the spoon out of the can and with a scowl stuffed the beans into his mouth. He pulled a face, but Prompto expected that.

The camping supplies were neatly stacked back away into Noctis’ armiger by the time Noctis finished his can of beans. He washed down the taste with a bottle of water from the armiger and a betrayed look at Prompto. Prompto shrugged his shoulders.

“Best I could do,” Prompto said.

“Beans,” Noctis ground out, and left it at that because Prompto knew and Noctis knew that Prompto knew and that was all that mattered. He ate them, so Prompto counted it as a win.

One to one, Noct, the blond thought viciously, and let his grin show when Noctis huffed, annoyed.

After a moment where they stood in their little cavern with the dying light of the magic that Noctis infused, Noctis scrubbed his hand through his still soaked hair with a sigh. They both eyed the exit of the cave contemplatively before Noctis mumbled, “Which direction should we go?”

“Continue the way we were?” Prompto suggested, just the barest hint of concern in his voice that it might be wrong. How would he know where to go? The Blademaster could be anywhere and Taelpar Crag covered from Lestallum to Cape Caem like a giant gash straight through the continent that Lucis existed upon.

“How do you expect to find your friend?” Noctis questioned as they started out. “Do you have some way to—sense him or something?”

Prompto huffed. “I planned to have Cor and Gladio show us the way, then yell really loud once we got there. Maybe call him out for being a coward or something—because seriously who the fuck abandons their godsdamn friend like that?”

Noctis eyed Prompto, and Prompto felt relieved that he didn’t bring up the fact that Cor and Gladio very obviously were not going to bring them to the Tempering Grounds. Prompto was thankful Noctis decided to fuck that decision and drag him down, he just wished it were in another way. Still, Noctis looked off to the side and asked, tone light, “How do you know he abandoned your friend?”

Prompto kicked at a rock. “He’s still here, isn’t he?”

Noctis frowned, and then pointed out logically, “That doesn’t mean he abandoned your friend.” Prompto looked at him with a frown. “You traveled through time, Prom. Ardyn could’ve done the same and—”

Prompto shook his head and muttered a short, “I think I would’ve known if Gil was immortal, Noct. He might’ve been a necromancer but he wasn’t, like, some sort of lich or something.” Noctis fell silent at the phrasing because what. Prompto continued, “There’s no way he could still be around if Ardyn—no,” and Noctis decided to just ignore the former half of Prompto’s rambling as Prompto-brand logic wherein games could be applied to reality in some strange, half-mad way.

The only other thing that left as for why Gilgamesh remained in the world and why Ardyn walked the earth was Divine Punishment, but neither wanted to think about that. Prompto, because that meant something happened when Gilgamesh abandoned Ardyn, and Gilgamesh would never abandon Ardyn as far as Prompto knew. Unless Ardyn commanded it—but Ardyn wouldn’t. He couldn’t—except, Prompto knew, Ardyn would, could, and potentially did and he hated that even moreso.

For Noctis the implication was just as bad in another way, and the young King hated it. He hated how his father kept secrets from him, how people still keep things from him. He hated that Regis died in Insomnia and sent him away—and he hated that somewhere, someone in his line had wronged a member of their family. A member that was stuck living an immortal life for who knows what reason because Noctis surely didn’t! Someone, somewhere, would’ve written it down but it was as if Lucis as a collective whole just forgot and that was wrong. For a moment Noctis stopped walking and clenched his hands into a fist.

No wonder Ardyn lived as the Chancellor of Niflheim. Noctis might’ve done the same in his shoes.

“Uh, Noct?” Prompto spoke up when he registered the look on Noctis’ face—the one where Noctis seemed to be intently contemplating murder—"You okay?”

Noctis shook himself and said, “It’s nothing.” They walked on in silence for another five feet before Noctis said, “Why don’t you?”

Prompto tilted his head. “Why don’t I what?”

Noctis looked at Prompto, brow furrowed and gaze half-distant. “Why don’t you call him out? Yell his name and call him a coward?”

Prompto paused. He wanted to say because he felt fairly certain Gilgamesh couldn’t—wouldn’t—hear him, but he had no reason to really think so. They were in a canyon and sound carried after all and—a small grin crossed Prompto’s face. Noctis blinked.

“Permission to scream at one of my good friends?” Prompto asked, lips quirked up just a titch toward the side of cheeky.

Noctis huffed out a faint laugh, then waved his hand and said faux grandly, “Permission granted.”

Prompto opened his mouth and screamed. Noctis regretted his approval almost instantly as his hands slapped over his ears and he gave Prompto a betrayed look, even as the blond continued to yell as loudly as he could.

“GIL YOU MOTHERFUCKING COWARDLY PIECE OF SHIT GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE SO I CAN KICK IT!”

Gilgamesh felt a stiff breeze within the cavern system and raised his head from the stew he diligently tended toward. With a murmured softness, his own voice amidst the thousands of dead that flocked to him like parasites, Gilgamesh murmured, “An ill omen.” Calmly Gilgamesh pulled the ladle from the stew and with a clenched fist he smothered the flames. A secondary wave of his hand had the stew frozen over in chill hoarfrost of the dead.

The Home of Gilgamesh nestled deep into the cavern system, well passed the bridge he tested those foolish enough to throw their life away at his hands. It made itself of rotted logs and scavenged clothes from the dead and their weaponry, but it worked for Gilgamesh’s purposes, and it worked well. It kept out the worst of the chill, at the very least, and that was all he could ask for in his self-imposed exile.

As Gilgamesh stepped past the threshold of his home his armor began to form around the simple cloth he used as clothing when not in the middle of combat. It came to him on spectral wind and with the faintest charm of shattering glass. Before him knelt ten ghosts of dead long past as he moved, and Gilgamesh paid them no heed. The dead were useless without true form, and these were unthinking pests at best. No, Gilgamesh sought out one with more thought in its head—more recent, more tangible in its shape and belief. He sought out one of the remnants that hadn’t yet fully bound themselves into his service—and he found one, tall, that awaited him near the bridge.

“What news is born on the ill wind?” Gilgamesh questioned. “Another Challenger to Witness, another Soul to claim at the Gates?”

The Spirit shook its head and ducked it low. Gilgamesh ignored the way it trembled—it had years left before it subsumed with the rest, so it remembered its own death and its own failings and that was on the Spirit and not on Gilgamesh. It said, “No, milord.”

“Then what has drawn me to this place, if no Challenger comes—no Soul awaits?” Gilgamesh pulled his mask into hand—wisps of the dead swirled into his palm until it formed heavy to hold.

“A scream on the wind,” the Spirit spoke. “It calls for you.”

“There is no scream to beholden me,” Gilgamesh said, tone short and the Spirit ducked low.

“It calls for you,” the Spirit spoke. “It bids you Coward and names you Gil, the Motherfucker.”

Gilgamesh froze, stiff and as unmoving as the Glacian, and then he murmured, “Oh, he didn’t,” with the falling tones of one long sort of suffering. Gilgamesh took a step and vanished into the sudden mists. He took two more into the fog of the dead, and when he stepped a third time it was to leave the mists and to stand at the front of the Tempering Grounds. Gilgamesh stared, and listened, and waited.

“I SWEAR TO FUCK IF I DON’T SEE YOU IN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES I AM GOING TO DROP A FIRAJA ON YOUR ASS SO HARD.”

Gilgamesh settled with a faint shudder at the thought of flames and heat, then slid his mask home. He knew that voice, knew the barely controlled grief within it and the rage that buried itself beneath the waves of childishness and scholastic glee. It was a voice he long, long believed to be lost to the ravages of time and even to his own memory. Had not the Scourge devoured the bright one whole? Or had yet another lie been told to him, in a long list of lies and mockeries of his devotion?

A second and Gilgamesh decided it mattered not. Even if the boy had lived, even if the Scourge had not devoured his brightness, he surely could not exist two thousand years hence that day. The Accursed had his facsimile of life as a Gift from the Draconian—a Curse, in truth—and Gilgamesh’s own choices wrought him here in this world, two thousand years on and well past when he should’ve crossed through the Gates to the Beyond. He breathed in the air, crisp and lacking in the staleness of the cave, and with determination to see this phantom memory to its completion Gilgamesh stepped out into the bright of the sun for the first time in two thousand years.

Once the job was done, this distraction completed, Gilgamesh would return to his cavern home to await his inevitable end with the end of the Night Eternal.

The scene that Cor expected to come upon was not the scene he found himself at. Firstly, they weren’t near the Tempering Grounds in the least, which for a brief moment Cor found himself thankful for. He would never have survived if Regis even suspected he let his boy get into that hell-pit. The man would’ve come back as one of the Lucii and impaled Cor in the worst way imaginable, he had no doubt.

Secondly, the Blademaster was out of his cave. The minute Cor gazed upon the familiar armor, stood across Noctis and Prompto with blade in his singular hand, Cor felt his chest constrict. A half-a-second he thought he might’ve had a heart attack, before he realized he just wasn’t breathing. Cor forced himself to take in a breath and consider the situation before him—yet he didn’t even have that half-second to do so because once Gladio and Ignis registered the situation it went from tense and unusual to completely fucked.

“Noctis!” Ignis screamed, alongside Gladiolus who charged right back at the Blademaster with a yell of, “Get away from them you undead bastard!” and Cor—Cor could do nothing to stop them as they raced into a fight that hadn’t even begun. In the time he’d taken a step—a time where the Blademaster yanked up his sword, followed by six others, all spectral and refracted in the light of the sun, to block Gladiolus’ downswing of the Genji Blade. In that instant Ignis ducked up and under the Blademaster’s guard with his Spelldaggers and slicked into the armor—through it—and into the belly of the swordsman who grunted, surprised.

Cor felt faint. Ignis ducked backward, twisted into a roll, and dodged one blade that flew after him with a faint shimmer of a hand near invisible wrapped around its hilt. Gladiolus shoved the five remaining blades away with the Genji Blade and switched swords to a much heavier broadsword that he slammed down into the ground with a thunderous crash that shook the very earth. As Ignis sweeped back around with his hands wrapped in spellfire Cor’s view of the mess became inexplicably ruined by the telltale ripping of the world through a warp and Noctis’ rather bright smile in his face.

“Hey, Cor,” the young King uttered, completely unfazed by the mess that raged behind him. Cor thought he saw Prompto pull out some giant Nif-made thing but Noctis just moved to block his view and—Cor sighed and found himself reminded of Regis and how Regis would often play distraction to Weskham as he, Clarus, and Cid got themselves into trouble.

“Noctis,” Cor rumbled, tone just on this side of disappointed.

“It’s cool. They got this,” Noctis said instead of anything, and for a moment Cor frowned. Certainly, Gladiolus had bested the Blademaster—the beast gave him the Genji Blade back—but Ignis was foremost an elementalist and not a warrior like Gladiolus and Prompto—Prompto was an unknown, now, Cor admitted silently. “Seriously, Cor, Prom’s got this.”

“Your Majesty,” Cor started when the ground rocked with sudden force and all of Cor’s clothes tugged forward. He could feel his feet dragging in the dust and dirt, even Noctis’ drifted backward as the young King grinned at him with a joy that Cor hadn’t seen in his eyes in a long, long while. Everything had been muted with the young King for so long that Cor thought perhaps the strongest emotion he’d felt had been that anger back in the Tomb, but the pure joy and mischief eclipsed the sudden outburst from before and Cor found himself—still.

Noctis shifted to the side to show Cor what happened, and Cor stared almost breathless at the sight of Prompto between two giant black holes worth of magical energy. One tugged Gladiolus and Ignis backward off of their feet and the other kept the Blademaster in place as the blond glared at him, giant behemoth of a Nif-make weapon in hand.

“See?” Noctis said from beside Cor, who wondered why he even thought these kids weren’t capable of shit. Apparently, they were more than capable of shit and—fuck why did he even leave them alone? Obviously, Cor realized, he’d not been thinking after he left them in Leide. The amount of craziness they got up to was worse then Regis and himself combined and that frightened Cor just the slightest bit.

“Your Highness?” Cor said, voice just barely strangled in surprise.

“I told you,” Noctis said with bright eyes and a wide grin. “Prom’s got this.”

[mister-tom-a-dildo-lover]

Strive Pt. 20

{PART 1} {PART 2} {PART 3} {PART 4} {PART 5} {PART 6} {PART 7} {PART 8} {PART 9} {PART 10} {PART 11} {PART 12} {PART 13} {PART 14} {PART 15} {PART 16} {PART 17} {PART 18} {PART 19}

Pair: Tomarry

Rating: M-E(depends)

Tags: Mild Language, Homosexuality, Sexism, Obsessed Tom, Time-Travel/Dimension-Travel, Teacher/Student, Eventual Romance, Teacher-Harry, Grey!Harry, MoD(sort of), Death!being,

A/N: I forgot to add the Tumblr version of this chapter months back!

The very first day where he was no longer a Hogwarts student, Tom found himself perusing the library's Restricted Section. As he was now free to come and go as he pleased since he was legally an adult as well as a new member of the staff, he decided to get in as much study time as he could while he had the chance. And that meant research.

There was a limit to how many books he could remove from the Restricted Section at once though. And that was one. A single book was allowed to leave through one person at a time no matter who it was, just as a precaution. It was definitely a bit of a setback but Tom was just grateful to even be able to get to the books in the first place without someone interfering, so he wouldn't dare complain to anyone about it or they might think him too immature to handle the responsibility and may ban him. Also it would no doubt have Potter angry and Tom didn't want that.

He had full use of any of the school owls and he got a first hand look at who was caring for them. Hagrid. The boy was being groomed to be the perfect groundskeeper and often times, Tom would see him thumping along behind Dumbledore as they went on walks of the grounds. Tom made sure to avoid those places once he memorised their schedule well enough. While not necessarily feeling hatred toward the boy, he was angry at Dumbledore's insistence upon pampering him and favouring his precious Gryffindors all the damn time.

Dumbledore didn't seem to have a life outside of Hogwarts which was exceedingly annoying. He was always around even when he shouldn't be. Others like Slughorn, had homes to get to and living family to spend time with. And friends to see whenever they wanted. Apparently, the great Dumbledore had none of that save for a brother who lived in Hogsmeade and didn't like him all too much, which Tom found to be amusing, and a couple men here and there who rarely visited the school.

The paragon of Light and goodness wasn't even liked by his own family and could count his number of friends on one hand. Now if only Tom knew the reasons behind such things, then he'd be able to use the information to his advantage.

Being able to stay at Hogwarts also meant that he was free to go to Hogsmeade whenever he so chose, and found himself travelling down now and then either for the scenery, for a stroll around the bookshop, or for a Butterbeer because even Tom had to admit that they were delicious. And without the stress of having to posture for his fellow Slytherins, he felt more calm.

His absolute favourite thing however, was whenever he and Harry - he'd given Tom permission to call him by name since they'd officially be coworkers come September! - sat down for tea. And tea was never just tea. It was talking. Either about Defence, Grindelwald's War, World War 2, or their different opinions on controversial topics.

Harry also felt that the wizarding war was ridiculous. He held absolutely no respect for Gellert Grindelwald and explained exactly why.

The symbol the man used was that of the Deathly Hallows. The items belonging to The Necromancers Three. A myth told that Death had gifted the very objects to the brothers when they'd cleverly evaded a gruesome death at the being's hands. The one to gather all objects was supposed to become immortal and the Master of Death or so the legend proclaimed.

Grindelwald had perverted a simple story from Britain's roots. He used the symbol of the Deathly Hallows to spread fear and hatred across the European Continent. Enough for people to misunderstand what it originally was meant to mean. And while he was slowly trying to take over, he was also searching for something precious to him.

The odd attacks and the strange behaviour he'd been exhibiting for several months now, was finally explained.

According to Harry, the man was searching for the most powerful wand in existence. He truly believed it existed and was murdering people left, right, and center just to get his hands on it. And he wanted the Elder Wand as much as he wanted the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak. He wanted immortality and was causing a ridiculous amount of strife just to get it.

Tom's method had been better if he was to be so bold as to claim. The ritual had hurt of course, but it had been quick and easy enough to perform both times he'd done it. No unnecessary bloodshed involved. No more exertion than a flick of the wrist and the drawing of Runes.

But Gellert had blinded himself by his own greed. Yet he also proved how selfish he was. As Tom had noted months before, he wasn't doing this to help the wizarding world. Grindelwald wanted to rule over everyone. He wanted them all to bow down, magicals and muggles alike. And that was why Tom thought his idea was stupid.

He was also incredibly bitter over his hand in Hitler rising to power because the man and his following had put Tom through some hell as a child and he hated them all!

Tom couldn't wait for Harry to just finish Grindelwald off for good. He was waiting for it, but knew he had to be patient if he wanted to win that bet he'd participated in.

But slipping the idea into their conversations was easy enough. Especially since Harry was already angry at the Dark Lord's actions. It would take one truly terrible thing to make him go after Grindelwald personally.

Other things they talked about were magical creatures. Harry was very adamant that they deserved rights, especially those with a level of sentience. He had read the recently published Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newton Scamander, and found himself siding with the magizoologist on many things. He then happily explained some of his experiences with magical creatures.

House Elves, Dragons, Gnomes, Thestrals, Basilisks, Cornish Pixies, Dementors, Boggarts, Acromantulas, Merfolk, Grindylows, Demiguises, Phoenixes, and so much more. He'd come to understand them and felt that just because each could be dangerous, didn't mean they deserved to be killed off and sold for potions ingredients. That just because some were considered Dark, didn't mean they were evil and must be eradicated.

The man was a firmly Grey wizard and Tom had to be honest when he said that he'd met no one as split down the middle as Potter.

The only thing that annoyed him about his stay at Hogwarts, was Dumbledore's presence. Everything else was perfection!

Tom stared down at the stationary in his hand. It was a light shade of blue and the script was golden and glittering. He didn't read too much into that for his own sanity.

It was an invitation to dinner. With the Potters. Charmont and Ella Potter to be precise. And the invitation had been given to him by Harry, who had been lightly flushed as he handed it over while saying, "Ellie wanted me to give you her letter. She said you needed some new correspondence."

Lady Potter wanted Tom to come to a dinner she and her husband were having. A dinner that was, according to her letter, just between them and Harry, and Tom if he decided to come.

And the difference between being invited to a Potter's home, verses being invited to a Malfoy's home, was that the Malfoys had a negative agenda no matter what. Ella Potter actually seemed like a decent person and while she had been a Slytherin in her youth, she'd willingly married a Gryffindor and let him mellow her out.

Also, while she certainly had an agenda as well, it most likely had to do with her attempts to match Tom and Harry together. So such an agenda worked to his benefit and wasn't being done with malicious intent. She wasn't planning on using him later, he was certain. And he couldn't find it in himself to believe that Charmont Potter had a manipulative bone in his body. The man had a reputation for being generous and a bit naive.

So with all of this in mind, Tom decided to put his quill to the parchment and write out his acceptance of their hospitality. This could also be a chance for him to learn more about Professor Potter and it would be foolish to pass it up. This would give Tom the upper hand over everyone else and establish a more secure connection between he and the man he most admired.

And because Tom coveted attention and information and things others didn't know because they would put him above them, nothing would pass from his lips to his followers. They didn't deserve the privilege of knowing Harry Potter like Tom would. Tom liked to keep his most treasured possessions close and any knowledge about Harry Potter was to be kept unlock and key in his own, impenetrable mind.

He was welcomed with wide smiles from the Potters and a shocked look from his… coworker. Harry obviously hadn't known he would show up, and Tom was thrilled to be a surprise.

The man was also attired in the most fanciful robes Tom had ever seen on him. Potter didn't often resort to magical clothing, preferring more freedom of movement in the newer, more modern clothes being introduced through various trade agreements with other nations. He was most likely dressed so well for the Heads of his House.

"It's so lovely to see you, Mr. Riddle," Ella said with a smile. "I've been dying to pick your brain over certain topics. This is my husband, Charmont."

Charmont was a messy-haired brunet with blue/green eyes, a sharp jaw, and a charming smile ironically. He was the same height as Tom at 186 cm, and came across as a kind individual upon first glance.

"Good to know you," the man said with a calm smile. "My Ella has had many a thing to say about your first meeting. I do hope you and our Harry get on well enough, yes?"

Tom plastered a not so fake smile on his face, genuinely pleased to speak about his former professor. "Harry is a diamond in the rough, sir."

Said man sputtered, his face taking on a lovely shade of pink.

"Come! Come! Dinner is being served as we speak and I want to get all the details from Mr. Riddle!" prompted Ella, shooing them toward one of the many open rooms off to the right of the grand, marble foyer of Potter Manor.

Dinner was a lavish affair. Not as pompous as something a Malfoy would host, thank Merlin, but still proper as expected of a Pureblood family. Though there were no veiled insults being thrown around and no one seemed to be trying to outdo another.

Tom had been asked every possible question under the sun, and occasionally Harry would be called into the conversation to give his input on certain topics. Ella seemed endlessly fascinated by whatever Tom responded with, and constantly sent Harry knowing looks that he seemed to pointedly ignore in favour of his wine. And he ended up drinking a lot of wine as a result.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle is such a unique name," said Charmont at some point near dessert. "It makes you sound mysterious and I find it to be fitting."

His smile became a little more forced. "The other children in the orphanage mocked me for it. Marvolo isn't a muggle name and they said it only made me weirder. I have come to dislike my name. Tom is bland, Marvolo is too strange, and Riddle sounds very..." He couldn't even finish his thought. He hated being connected to that piece of filth.

Ella smiled with understanding. "I know all about hating your given name, Tom. My true name is Avariella and I despise it. Sure, it means 'woman of great strength' but it sounds atrocious to my ear. Thankfully, Charmont was very understanding and adopted my nickname easily," the woman said, aiming a dazzling smile at her husband who smiled back with just as much affection.

"I like both of your names," Harry interjected quickly, pouting. "Names that make you think twice. Interesting sounding in my opinion. A sense of strength to them."

Ella beamed and Tom flushed lightly, looking away from the man's imploring, green eyes. Harry Potter had this odd affect on him and it wasn't fair!

"I apologise for my aunt's curiosity this evening. Ella tends to like to talk and she takes issue with not knowing enough of anything," Potter said with a small but mischievous smile that made Tom's heart flutter abnormally in his chest. "She means well."

"She is good company," Tom decided to say. "I like her." He was shocked at how true it was. The woman had been very interesting to speak with and she was very sly as she managed to drag Harry into the conversation by somehow finding a similarity between he and Tom for her to comment on.

Tom had learned that his former professor loved green. That he once Apparated when he was a child. That he could regrow his hair immediately if it was ever cut too short. And sometimes he would change his teacher's appearance whenever they annoyed him. Such as turning someone's hair blue for criticising how he did his homework.

During his childhood, Tom had done similar things, and it had been refreshing to hear that Potter was very much the same. Tom used to hate it when anybody did the exact same thing as him. He had always had the desire to be unique. Finding out about magic had been in both parts amazing and terrible because it meant he wasn't the only one and he wasn't as special as he thought he was.

This kind of attitude followed him well up until this point in his life. He liked being able to do things others couldn't. He liked knowing things others never would, or would have to rely on him into order to learn. And yet when he found out that him and the man he admired most were a lot similar than at first glance, it made him feel... dare he say, tingly inside.

He'd somehow gotten an invitation to return to Potter Manor in the future for their small celebration for Harry's birthday which was coming up on the thirty-first of July. Exactly six months away form Tom's birthday.

He had to think about the gift he should get the man. Potter had given him Slytheirn's Locket for his birthday. He'd found one of the only things remaining from Tom's family's history and had returned it to him instead of keeping the priceless artifact for himself. Not many people would ever do such a thing. How could Tom possibly top that?

Harry liked Quidditch, so a broom would probably work. At the same time he was a Potter and they had money. Anything Tom got him could be easily acquired on his own if he didn't already have it. Tom had to be unique.

A/N: Making up for forgetting to post this on Tumblr before uploading it on AO3 and FFN back in August.

[agameofsouls]

backstory // jackson + lyra

so, jackson and lyra are ocs that i created for a group rp that i used to run a year or so back. the history and lore was really really deep, and i actually spent months writing it and tying little pieces together to make a blend of rural folk village / supernatural monsters / scifi horror whatever that made me really happy to think about and plan out.

i actually had an entire notebook filled with different arcs and conflicts i wanted the group to work through, including a huntress, a dragon, blood spells, etc. unfortunately, we only got about half way through the huntress before things died out due to busy personal lives, and what have you.

this is just a small directory and explanation to certain parts of that world that are integral to the development of jackson and lyra as characters, and things that they have experienced from their old home, as well as links to posts from the group page with even more stories and information.

mostly, this is for my benefit so i can sort of feel better referencing their backstories knowing that this exists for anyone to read that’s interested.

also, i just really want my old favorite stories to see the light of day again. nightmare was honestly so important to me as a writer, lmao.

NOTE. this is a long post!

the town itself

Nightmare has been around for two hundred and forty horrific years. It was originally created by the legendary group called The Eleven, which consisted of: Five witches, two vampires, three werewolves, one necromancer, and several children belonging to most of the members.

The story is that left their homes in Salem, followed by groups of hunters, and traveled all the way down to Tennessee before disappearing into the Smoky Mountains, losing their would-be killers forever. It took them a while and a lot of settling down and uprooting before finally deciding on a permanent home, but they did it, and here we are: hidden, secret, and safe. ( more here )

essentially, the town is self sufficient, isolated in deep within the smoky mountains. there are several sister towns spread across the us, typically either in more wooded areas, or deep within the rarely traveled plains of the midwest, or the deserts of the mojave.

they are connected by ‘trails’ that are only traveled by those in the know, and nomads travel from town to town with goods to trade on a regular basis, and often bring newcomers with them that they found along the way.

the government system is fairly simplistic as well -- each species that resides in nightmare has one representative, whether because they were elected or are the only one of their kind, that sits on a council.

the power is usually passed through the family of the current council member, and doesn’t often switch hands unless something drastic happens. in the case that there are no familial relations of the current council member available, they will select another member of their species as their ‘heir.’

lyra + jackson

in this world, lyra lived a very carefree life. she was a bit of a criminal, and would often get into trouble on purpose just to have the sheriff of the town, tris, arrest her. she developed a crush on him, and they eventually started seeing each other, much to the dismay of lyra’s mother. she hated that tris was older than lyra, as well as a shape shifter. she thought he was dangerous, but lyra wouldn’t hear a bad word against him.

she also had a best friend, a witch named antonia, who she would drag into all sorts of trouble with her. the two were inseparable, except for when the law man came around. lyra never let toni go down with her, and always took the heat. freya always forgave lyra for any wrongdoing she did, and was the kind of mom that instead got upset with the guards rather than her own daughter for her ever growing criminal record.

on the other hand, jackson lived quietly. even in a place like nightmare, necromancers were still feared. their power was different than that of any of the witches, and it was mysterious. it made other people uneasy, and they didn’t have a lot of trust for young or new necromancers like him.

so he typically stayed home, tending to his plants and decorating his house to look like an hgtv model home. he also sold his fruits and veggies in the town center at his little produce stall, and made some extra cash that way. it was a far cry from his previous life, but he liked it.

he made friends slowly, and eventually befriended lyra. the two, along with toni, became close friends and would often spend time in jackson’s home having tea and snacks during the day, and going to parties at night. toni, while she spent her time with jackson and lyra often, still had a slight distrust of jackson, and would often make excuses to not join them on ventures. this left a lot of time for him and lyra to be alone and bond, and he quickly became her second most trusted friend in town.

when shit hit the fan and it was time to leave, they went together, trying to make sense of all the shit they had been through. after everything, they are inseparable, and would probably die for each other. there are very few friends as close as them, and they depend on each other to survive in the outside world.

the problem

For some reason or another, though, our population has started falling, and not because our citizens are leaving, either. Something’s been coming around when we don’t know it and making people drop dead left and right, whether it’s from a sickness or people being outright murdered, we don’t know.

The recent deaths are causing some tensions between groups and have cause productivity to dwindle as well. Some parents won’t send their kids down to the school and community events have begun to see a decrease in attendance as well. The Council is working on finding the source of the problem and a solution, but with even the Elders finding it difficult to work together, some people are afraid that this is the end of Nightmare.

so, basically, there was a sickness spreading, but it was only affecting certain groups, such as the witches and sirens, specifically. it had slowly started to spread to other species as well, enough that a true ‘pattern’ hadn’t been picked up just yet. no one could figure out how it spread, and no one could figure out a cure or a source for it.

there was no magic that could stop it, no potion that could slow it. it seemed to suddenly hit a person, and within a matter of hours to days, they were dead.

what the townspeople didn’t know was that the sickness was entirely created in a lab. freya, the alpha of the werewolf pack and current holder of the werewolf council seat, had been contacted by a mysterious organization from the outside world regarding a research project into special beings.

the organization wanted to study the dna of supernatural beings, to see what made it different from humans, and if it was possible to cure, or if it was possible to weaponize and turn regular humans into these creatures.

they wanted to see if they could modify regular human dna to pass it on like any regular trait and have it manifest in their children, thus manufacturing witches, werewolves, or even hybrids of any of these species. it was a long shot by far, but they were willing to pay for any help.

for a while, she helped the organization by gathering dna samples and sending it off to a drop point. it was harmless. they compensated her well, and she was able to provide the town with wealth and new things that they never had before. but then, operations at the organization switched hands to someone with a little more darker intentions.

this new head had led the scientists in the direction of extermination -- treat the genetic markers like a virus, create a serum that destroys it, kill the monsters, ensure the survival of pure humans. now, this worried freya, and she pulled out almost immediately, until the head made a deal with her -- provide the dna of the creatures you don’t like and we’ll stick with them. your kind will be safe.

she quickly bought into this, and brought her brother in on the situation, and continued to provide dna from witches, shape shifters, and sirens alike, always avoiding her kind. the organization gave her a satellite phone, as described in this post, and she began to poison the town slowly through the well systems.

the huntress

in the midst of all the chaos and fear caused by the sickness in town, something perhaps worse came to nightmare via an old legend called the huntress, fully explained here.

Legend tells of an ancient hunter made immortal and unstoppable by a group of religious witches to destroy the races of monsters. Their chosen Huntress was taken from her life of poverty and misery and used in a forbidden ritual dedicated to the dark gods. During this ritual, half of her soul was ripped from her body and placed in a token of the Huntress, for safe keeping. The gods replaced the missing piece of her mortal soul with pieces of their own, effectively making her one of them, therefore making it impossible for her to die by normal means.

the story ends with the huntress being trapped in a chest, passed down by the bloodlines of the original witches that created and later imprisoned her. a ritual was to be performed during a full moon every century, but that instruction eventually fell to myth and then became hardly a memory, and the whereabouts of the chest were eventually forgotten.

it turns out, like a lot of things do in this town, that the chest ended up in the attic of the council building, just waiting for a little something like the hunter’s moon to come out and let the huntress out to play. 

That moment finally came as the moon reached the highest point in the night sky, casting moonbeams through the trees and onto the buildings in town. One in particular hit the attic window of the Council Hall, illuminating the small, dusty area. It rested on the wooden panels of a particularly dusty and battered looking chest that hadn’t been touched since the Founders chucked it into the attic – which was the last time the chest had been touched.

Just minutes after the light of the moon touched the chest, it began to rumble, softly at first, and then violently. The rumbling then spread to the attic itself and then to the building, making ceiling tiles fall and the wood flooring and walls crack. A dark smoke, moving almost like liquid, began to seep from the seams of the chest and surround it, hissing whenever it came into contact with the wood. Finally, the rumbling stopped, the smoke disappeared, and all was silent.

BANG

It sounded as if several canons had gone off in unison, temporarily deafening anyone in the vicinity of the Council Hall. As the sound went off, a burst of magic exploded from the chest, sending wood pieces flying through the attic and either becoming lodged in the walls or blowing holes right through them like a shotgun blast. The burst of magic flew through the entire town, knocking every living being off of their feet and also knocked the wind right from their lungs. Several light bulbs blew out with the blast and windows shattered, and some people even dropped dead, causing more terror and panic than the initial magic had caused itself.

the rest of the huntress returning to this world can be read here!

after her return, one of the ghosts alerted the town to an ongoing crisis by ringing the bells and causing an even bigger alarm than her arrival did. that can be read here, and so can the official death count from the morning after.

this arc was never finished. i like to think that the town eventually solved it, that they were able to find her token and destroy it. i imagine that it was crushed by either tris or toni. but it was in a climactic moment. fire raging around them, the huntress standing with an arrow ready. the hero drops the token, and crushes it beneath their boot.

with a scream, the huntress let a final arrow fly, killing the hero, just as the trapped piece of her mortal soul came flooding back into her, and forcing the immortal bits out with another flash bang of magic. it forces the huntress onto her knees, and another of the heroes, either lyra or jackson, was able to take the sword and kill the huntress with it.

in the end, a majority of the town was killed, and it was evident to most people that the population would never recover from what had happened between the huntress and the sickness. a few dozen people decided to stay and rebuild, having faith that things could ever go back to normal.

others left, whether to rejoin regular society, or to join the other sister towns for a while, it wasn’t specified. but this event essentially blew nightmare off of the supernatural haven map for a while.

it was from this that jackson and lyra decided to leave. they had witnessed so many friends and family members die, and they both wanted out of that life. lyra left behind her mother and her future as alpha of the pack. jackson left his home behind, and off they went.

[wanderingstoryteller]

Guild Wars Lore: The Red Lady

I’ve gotta say, these past few months of Guild Wars content have been heaven for me, as a fan of the game’s lore. Our trip to Elona gave me everything I could have wanted. It took me days to stop nerding out over the Flameseeker Prophecies alone. 

And now, with Living World almost back and Current Events becoming A Thing again, we’re getting even more. This Halloween, Arenanet gave us a lovely murder mystery to chew on... and if this is my idea of heaven, isn’t it fitting that said mystery involves the afterlife? 

Buckle up, guys -- today we talk about necromancy, the Underworld, and a most curious murder...

The Mystery

A few weeks ago, Arenanet dropped a balance patch into the game, the first since PoF launched. For certain folks in the community, this was a pretty big event -- when Arenanet tweaks skill balance, it’s a race to figure out how the meta has shifted. But of course, this one was important for other reasons, too, and with all the hubbub around... that... a lot of people didn’t notice the new content they added to the Shadow Behemoth fight. 

They added Skeletons. These Skeletons, specifically. These little guys appeared out of the Underworld Portals the spawned by the Shadow Behemoth , just like the Shades and Aatxes that already appear in the event. They’re angry, hostile, and evidently got lost on the way to Halloween. 

But that wasn’t the strange bit. The real strangeness, you see, comes afterward. Once the Behemoth was dead, players started noticing these floating red... light thingies appearing around the swamp, near where the boss was killed. Following them, they came across this: 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a dead body. According to the player character, there are huge cuts all over his body, suggesting he was hacked to death by someone with an axe. This is a good time to mention that the Skeletons from earlier are all carrying axes. 

Looking around, it’s possible to find another clue -- a necromancer lives in a shack not too far away, and he’s got new dialogue if you approach him after interacting with the body. His statement? 

“A necromancer. Answering a call, he said. Dark tidings followed him. I'm not surprised he ended up a corpse.”

In other words: Someone (or something) lured him to the swamp before he was suddenly killed by axe-wielding dead people. Intriguing. Then we found the second victim, and all this became downright fascinating. 

Dead Body #2 was found at the Reaper’s Gate, an isolated area deep within Lornar’s Pass. In the first game, this site was sacred to Grenth, and like the Temple of the Ages, players used that location to enter the Underworld. Also like the Temple of the Ages, the place is now infested with Underworld Shades. 

Or it was, until Arenanet replaced all those Shades with Skeletons -- the same Skeletons from the Behemoth fight, with axes and everything. The connection isn’t exactly subtle, but the mystery is deepened by the second victim’s bloodstained journal. Most of it illegible, what with all the blood, but we did get this juicy tidbit: 

“...speaks to me in dreams...the red lady...seeking allies...answer the call...”

The bit that most interests me is the mention of this “red lady”. Because I think I know who the Red Lady is.

The Culprit

Ladies in gentlemen, please meet my prime suspect... the Nameless Lich.

She’s not a very well-known figure in Guild Wars lore, but that’s not because she isn’t interesting. She simply had very bad luck -- put into the game during the very last Halloween update for Guild Wars, ever. Whatever story the devs were planning to tell here, they never got the chance to tell it before they were all moved to Guild Wars 2. 

Because of that, we know very little about her. Basically, she’s from the Underworld, she seems to be affiliated with the Lunatic Court, she has a special appreciation for the color red, and that’s pretty much it. But doesn’t all that line up perfectly with our murderer? A being from the Underworld, a woman affiliated with the color red, shows up right after Halloween to set her plans into motion? That fits waaaay too well.

Of course, she’s not the only possibility. The phrase “It was Livia!” is halfway to memehood by now, and for good reason -- that highly-suspicious red-haired necromancer may yet show her face again. Hell, I’ve even heard theories about Scarlet being involved, which does make some sense if you think about it. I mean, she’s definitely in the Underworld right now and she fits the “Red Lady” moniker very well. It’s not likely... but hey, it’s not like the Nameless Lich is a slam dunk either. Could be that I’m way off. 

But here’s the most interesting thing about all this, at least to me: The murder mystery is only half the story. 

The Implications

No matter who killed them, here’s the situation: A spirit of the Underworld is manipulating the living from beyond the grave. Communicating through dreams. Sending minions through Underworld portals. Making a big ruckus. 

And that, my friends, is a Really Big Problem. We know now that Grenth is gone, and that the Judge is the only thing standing between us and the wicked spirits of the Underworld. We also know that the Judge isn’t very good at this, or the Shades wouldn’t have been such a big problem in the first place. The villains of this franchise now have the ability to subvert death itself, and past experience tells us this is a bad thing. 

Not only that, but scroll back up to the necromancer’s journal for a second. Did you catch that bit about “seeking allies”? To me, that implies much more than a single spirit messing with people. It implies a conspiracy, or a multi-faction standoff of some kind. 

The Red Lady may just be a proxy for something greater... or an ally whose calls for help are being interrupted. And that makes a lot of sense, too. Because even though the Red Lady is the most likely suspect, I see another hand behind these murders. A bony, skeletal hand. 

Meet Dhuum. God of Death (former). Resident of the Underworld (current). PoF Raid Boss (future). 

Dhuum, like Abaddon, used to be one of the Six, ruling over the Underworld when the pantheon first arrived on Tyria. But he was terribly unpopular, even among his worshipers, and eventually a posse of eight mortal heroes decided that someone needed to stop him. Led by Grenth, they marched into Dhuum’s temple and challenged him to a fight.

Long story short: Grenth kicked his ass, stole his power, and turned his seven buddies into his immortal servants, the Reapers. 

But Dhuum, for some reason, was never killed. He was locked away in the Underworld, where he tries to escape every now and then (everyone needs a hobby). All Grenth ever had to do was send in the players if his predecessor ever got too uppity. 

Now that Grenth is gone, though, Dhuum’s prison is pretty much wide open. The only thing standing between him and freedom is the Judge. And possibly Joko, but I feel like Joko would be on Dhuum’s side more than anyone else’s. So really, only one thing can stop Dhuum’s army of Skeletons from ravaging Tyria: little old us.  

If things go the way I think they’ll go in the patch tomorrow, Dhuum will be revealed as a major threat to Tyria. The Red Lady is just his proxy (or potentially his rival). And if you thought PoF was a nostalgia trip... if my theory is right, you ain’t seen nothing yet. 

See you guys for the patch tomorrow. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing these things. <3

[the-reason-to-sail-home]

✨CS Fairy Tale Prompts✨

As promised, here is a collected list of (50+) fairy tale, fantasy, and mythology prompts. I’ve also included a handful of smutty prompts and hearty helping of dark fantasy prompts for CS Halloweek. Feel free to use any of these for anything, and if you do, I’d appreciate it if you link back to this list! Happy writing!

General Fairy Tale Prompts

Killian is an apothecary, Emma is the woman who tracks down the rare and dangerous ingredients for him.

Character A has vowed to kill a dragon, unbeknownst to them that their lover, Character B, is really the beast they’re hunting.

Pirate Killian follows his map to where treasure is sure to lie. Instead, he only finds the humble cottage of a poor woman living by herself.

The fictional character that person A has fallen in love with steps out of the pages of a book, running away from something disastrous happening in their own world.

Write about the forbidden love between two very different mythological creatures (ie; fairies, nymphs, humans, mermaids, etc).

Character A is an unhappy siren who has fallen for their latest prey, Character B, the only person who is unaffected by A’s charms.

Emma is a messenger that continually runs into sailor Killian as they travel across the world, her by land, and he by sea.

Emma is a Robin Hood type character protecting her village from the Pirate Jones who wishes to plunder it.

Alternatively, Emma is tired of her stifling life in her small village and stows herself away on a pirate ship in hopes of finding adventure.

An evil witch has princess Emma locked in a tower, but little does Emma know, the witch has a pirate locked just the room below her. During one of the pirate’s escape plans, he and Emma meet. (Possible Rapunzel AU?)

Character A is a fortune teller who sees themselves in Character B’s future.

Emma disguises herself as a princess to steal from the prince’s treasury during his ball. Everything goes according to plan, except, you know, the part where she falls in love with him.

Character A is immortal and character B reincarnates over and over and over again. Sometimes they fall in love, sometimes they don’t.

The village leaves character A behind as a sacrifice to the god/dess of the forest, character B is the god who finds character A, beaten and neglected.

Character A is a chess master who is enlisted to teach the royal character B how to play. Character A soon surpasses their teacher.

This also works with music, swordsmanship, and other things where mastery can be taught!

Killian is a map creator who needs an escort to give him as he marks down uncharted lands. Emma just happens to be the best in the land.

Killian and Emma are the demon of evil and the angel of good. They have a fierce rivalry with each other, trying to bring lowly mortals to their respective side. 

Princess Emma discovers a secret library within the depths of her castle run by a strange librarian, Killian Jones.

Character A falls in love with the palace gardener, Character B.

Write about a masquerade ball. Emma and Killian could be royalty, spies, castle servants, thieves, guests, military officers, knights. The dynamics could be neat on this one.

Spooky Fairy tales

Emma is the youngest and most powerful of three witches. One day, Killian stumbles upon their home as an overnight guest. He teaches her that she can use her witch powers for good. (Based off of Barbara Picard’s story, “The Third Witch”)

The Spirit of Death, Emma, taunts and follows Killian Jones as he escapes her grasp countless times, up until the day he doesn’t.

Emma is a witch living on an enchanted island by herself, Killian is the sole sailor who washes up on her shores.

Killian finds himself wandering into an abandoned castle, haunted by the princess who died there.

Emma is the necromancer that Killian hires to bring his deceased brother back from the grave.

Killian finds twelve ghost princesses dancing in the forest, and somehow, has caught the attention of one of them.

In the middle of the night, Emma finds that stone statue in her palace has come to life: the likeness of Killian Jones, a deceased naval captain.

During one of this sea voyages, Killian meets and falls in love with a woman he finds floating in the water. It’s only after they part that one of his crew tells him that Emma Swan has been dead for over a hundred years.

Character A is a plague doctor, Character B is on their deathbed.

Hook is lost in the Dark Woods of Neverland, and Emma is the queen that reigns over them. If he wants to make it back to his ship, he’ll have to go through the queen first.

Emma is spirit of death/temptress/etc who takes the lives of men by sleeping with them. The only men she doesn’t want to kill is the only man she really wants to sleep with.

Zombie Snow White!AU except the character in a sleeping curse has started to decay and when woken by TLK, never truly comes fully back to life.

Emma Swan is a fallen angel who takes out her rage on a spiteful pirate, but little does she know, there’s not she can do to him that he hasn’t lived through already.

Killian is the necromancer in charge of bringing Princess Emma back to life, but for some reason, he can’t bring back her life, and instead, only relive her memories in his own mind.

Emma grows up alone on the streets selling matches with her imaginary friend, the ghost of a dead boy who died in slavery.

Prompts based off of specific fairy tales

Beauty and the Beast AU: Person A is the only person alive who doesn’t see person B’s cursed appearance. Person B has no idea that they don’t appear as a beast to person A.

Cinderella!AU where Killian and Emma are both commoners crashing the king’s party in hopes of finding true love. The one who gets left behind has a seriously harder time finding the one who got away.

Cinderella!AU where Pirate Killian steals a princess’ pair of glass slippers and gives them to his first mate, Emma. They’re a perfect fit.

Peter Pan AU where Emma has secretly been growing up and turns to Pan’s enemy to help get her off of the island. She much prefers her life as a pirate to her old one as a lost girl, anyhow.

Prince Killian of the Sea loses his favorite ring (or other beloved object) on shore and goes above land to find it. Emma, thief extraordinaire, helps him find it and steal it back. (Based off of Barabara Picard’s, “The Coral Comb.” )

Royal Killian finds Emma, a stranger without her memories. They fall in love, marry, but when Killian discovers that  she’s actually a fairy, he has to choose between her happiness and their marriage. (Based off of Barbara Picard’s story, “Count Alaric’s Lady”).

In the actual fairy tale, the only way they can stay together is if their love for one another is true.

Killian is an artist who is thrown in the royal dungeons for not accurately painting the king. Princess Emma sees him and they begin a forbidden love affair. (Based off of Barbara Picard’s story “The Blackbird’s Song”).

Princess Emma must pick one of many suitors to marry. Prince Killian is on his way to be considered, when an evil witch turns him into a dog. Princess Emma finds the dog. (Based off of Picard’s “The White Hound”).

In the original fairy tale, the prince has 2 minutes at midnight on the night of the full moon to talk with his full voice. This is how the princess realizes he’s actually a man and not a  dog.

Emma grows up playing in the forest, where she continually meets a mysterious woodland man, Killian (as a wood nymph/faun/fairy/elf/etc), but the second he leaves her side, she loses her memories of him. She returns to the forest, though, because her heart knows she has a reason to. They grow closer up until the day her step-mother/grandmother makes her marry someone else. (Based off of Picard’s “The Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter”). 

Is the fairy tale, the faun comes to the daughter’s rescue on the day of her wedding, but ultimately she saves herself.

This story also works genderswapped. Perhaps Emma is the wood nymph/fairy and Killian is the Harbormaster’s brother.

Snow white!AU: Character A is a mercenary hired by the queen to kill character B. They stumble into each other and form an unlikely team. Ultimately character A just can’t kill character B.

Prompts based off of mythology

A fic based off of the story of Greek astronomer, Endymion, who has a love affair with the moon goddess, Selene.

A fic based off of Hades and Persephone, where with Emma or Killian is the ruler of the underworld.

A romance between the goddess of the sun and the god of the moon.

Alternatively, the goddess of the land and the god of the sea.

Character A declares to the heavens that they won’t ever fall in love. Aphrodite sees this as a challenge. They stumble into character B the next day.

A mortal falls in love with a god/dess and goes about the strangest ways in getting their attention and favor.

King Midas!AU: Everything character A touches turns to gold, everything except character B.

Emma is one of the huntresses of Artemis. After being scorned by love before, she swears off men. On one of her hunts, she meets a sailor who makes her change her mind.

The gods in olympus think Character A would be great for character B. The two mortals can’t figure out why they keep running into each other, but it’s really because of a plan that’s a bit more...divine.

Killian Jones has spent his entire life at sea fearing the storms, but he has never considered loving them, especially not the goddess who makes them.

Smutty Fairy Tale Prompts

Royal person A has taken notice to the way person B stares at them as they work about the castle.

Character A is a sculptor for the royal family and gets well acquainted with the body of the prince/princess.

A couple in a forbidden love affair escape to the enchanted woods to consummate their love.

A couple separated by distance can communicate with a magic mirror. Character A just doesn’t account for character B accidentally “stepping in” when they pleasure themselves, but they realize they can have some fun.

Who doesn’t love a good femme fatale?

Princess Emma has eyes for her protector and intends to have him.

This is a fairly general, common prompt, but I felt I should still give credit to a fic that has already done exactly this: Frustrated, Princess? by YouSaidWho on Ao3.

A pair of strangers share a passionate night together, only to find out character A is the royal and is actually in an arranged engagement to character B.