#hector the zombie

[soralviper]

Favorite friendly forces in the Zombie Army series

🥺🥺🥺🤲💙

[vendetta935]

Zombie army inspirational quotes by character

Boris: don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done.

Jun: the future belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Karl: it always seems impossible until I've snipped you in the balls from 500 yards away.

Shola: do something today that your future self will thank you for.

Hector: remember, a spitfire doesn't take off with the wind, it goes against it.

Josiah: the darkest hour is just before dawn.

Werner: you know what you are, but not what you might be.

Marie: you only live once? Nuh-uh! You only die once, you live everyday.

Sibyl: as my cheater used to say, everyday is a chance to be better.

Curtis: nothing is impossible, even the word says i'm possible.

Bruno: sometimes later never happens, do it now.

Edie: you are an example, whether you're a good example or not is up to you.

Jacques: a hero is not someone who gives up when beaten down.

Efram: it's always the accidents that produce the most damage.

Hermann: our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Umbra: Be the destruction, of earth you wish to be.

Hitler: if my ball can conceive it and my brain can think it, then I can achieve world domination.

[beevean]

Idea: What if Hector at first enjoyed creating Innocent Devils because they loved him unconditionally, but came to realise how hollow and empty it was to only be loved by creatures that he specifically created to love him. And what he really wanted was someone to love him for who he was (even if he had to change to earn that love) rather than something that loved him because it was made to.

See, this was my first thought, that little Hector would simply be happy to be surrounded by creatures who love him unconditionally after a lifetime of being hated. But I just can't make it fit with what we know of Hector.

Another big difference between the two Hectors is that, if you pay attention, N!Hector's pets are only dead animals:

And this is very interesting. For how much N!Hector is associated with pure, simple love for animals, he doesn't seem to be interested in real, living pets. Only undead creatures that he brought back to life. The more you think about it, the creepier it is, and the more unsavory implications it brings.

I could also talk about N!Hector's morbid fascination with death, how he surrounds himself with death and how he learned to defy it since he was a child and didn't even understand what he was doing, just the childish desire of "no, poor doggo, I can help!"... but eh, can't be bothered to put more work in than the writer did 🙃

Hector, on the other hand, seems to attract normal animals.

Of course, they came to him because he was "cursed", so it wasn't unconditional love either, but it's definitely more balanced. Hector didn't do anything to force them to him, they're still living, conscious beings (until the demons speak through them lmao), and it's implied that he sees himself in them, as all these animals are considered bad omens or simply disgusting.

So no, Hector just doesn't have N!Hector's tendency to force his will on other creatures. As I pointed out, he displays more signs of being love starved and willing to devote himself to anyone than the infamously gullible N!Hector. Everything about him implies that he believes that he has to earn the right to live and be loved, by serving Dracula, by repaying Rosaly in chores or with his own possessions - the complete opposite of creating creatures that will easily, mindlessly love him.

It is possible, of course, that little Hector simply didn't understand the implications of what he was doing. He was just like "yay i can create fairies with my own hands :D new friends!", and that was that, not that deep. The "unconditional" part would not register to him: he's more than happy with conditional love, oh hi drac 🙂

We do know that later on, in PtR, he muses more about the nature of IDs, but it comes from a place of concern for them, and his problem was in how he was forced to use them:

Is there an innate “sin”? Nevertheless, we are born… Why? Don’t go, Hector…

[Forgive me...] It's not your fault... For something like this...?

("fault" could also be "sin")

So I think that yes, while he still saw them as his friends (as per the last cutscene of CoD), eventually Hector grew horrified at the idea of using innocent creatures who only understand their devotion to their creator to kill equally innocent humans. As if he was taking advantage of them, you know?

Oh hey. A "child" created through magic who is intensely devoted to his master and made to commit atrocities because his master is a bastard who took advantage of the pure love of said child? Reminds me of someone else 🙂 <- i am normal about this parallel

I went on a tangent. I suppose that yes, in part, I could include the detail "Hector at first is simply happy with his new powers before he grows up and understands how truly cursed they are, and not just because they go against God", but I simply can't shoehorn N!Hector's very specific warped view of love and attachment, because it's the opposite of what we're shown in canon. And it's frustrating, because you could really eviscerate it to bring to the light a creepy, yet sympathetic character.

[mondaygroobles]

The Zombie Knight Saga By George M. Frost

Zombie Knight Saga or ZKS cause I am lazy is my absolute favorite web novel. It has over 3000 pages and been in progress for over 10 years of and on by it's author Frost but mostly keeping a rate of one page a day.

It is a modern setting progression fantasy with hundreds of interesting characters. monolithic scale in terms of the small day to day people and the incredibly powerful organizations. The story starts fun but slow and tricks you into learning all about his world and caring about every character.

The power system is unlike any other I have seen and creates engaging fights with a solid basis on how the powers of the story work. If you like weird but solid power systems you will love this.

spoilers

The story starts with the main character Hector's death. But with a timely intervention Garovel a reaper offers him a second chance at life. Hector and Garovel become reaper and servant or more accurately low self preservation best friends. Together they help people using a combination of undead perks and reaper weirdness.

My favorite characters are Hector Goffe, Garovel and Ibai.

My partners favorite is Geoffrey Rofal

[chibishortdeath]

OH I AM BEING SO INCREDIBLY NORMAL ABOUT CORDOVA TOWN RN—

[kevotheamazo]

Here is my first batch of valentine day cards “anyone can give this to their love ones just please just mention me” Happy Valentines Day!

[carionto]

Too tough for paradise

One peculiar side effect of Humans hailing from a Deathworld is that their biological well-being is partly dependent on some degree of microscopic hostility from the environment and what they consume.

It is normal among most species that, should their surroundings change to more hospitable conditions, their minds and bodies would feel relief and be under less stress. However, as with any changes, if they deviate too far too quickly from their normal, you risk damage from a sudden shock to the system.

___________________________

Abigail "Abby" Hostaz had been legally grounded by the Gyin-Trov due to her, ahem, "expansion of business" without the right permits. Not that she bothered to learn that nobody outside Human controlled space in the Galactic Coalition would allow the creation of a deadly asteroid race track AND let sentient beings directly pilot ships through it.

Hell, finding an Alien crazy enough to partake in an activity even most Humans consider insane is one in a trillion. She still did find seven non-Humans, so that math actually is within a reasonable margin. Everything else is not reasonable.

The local Gyin-Trov government learned of the true nature of her activities when a rogue asteroid suddenly appeared on their threat detection systems. The unnatural change of course quickly pointed to where she had set up her latest "thrill track", which the authorities rapidly dismantled, impounded her vessel, named "Victor", and put her under house arrest in the Human embassy awaiting the conclusion of the investigation and subsequent trial.

While station based embassies are effectively fully contained perfect habitats for the respective species, planet based ones tend to adopt a lot of the local elements and integrate what they can simply due to proximity and availability.

Humans, the resourceful buggers that they are, used everything the planet had to offer (that wasn't outright lethal to Humans, which in the case of the Gyin-Trov homeworld were only a few pollen producing crops found in the poles of the planet).

A combination of a almost perfect temperature range (near constant lows of 14C at night, highs of 21C mid-day), slightly higher moisture levels, and bio-engineered local flora that made the water into this somewhat thicker soup containing virtually every nutrient, vitamin and mineral a carbon-based lifeform could ever want, leaving little for the digestive system to tackle. Heck, just being within a field of such plants lets the body absorb everything for healthy survival.

In short, the Gyin-Trov homeworld, also named Gyin-Trov, is as close to Utopia as you can get.

Aaaaaaand Abby is not having a fun time there.

It's not like she was imprisoned - she was allowed to wander around the city and surrounding area under light supervision, she even had her cat, Hector, with her. But there just wasn't enough excitement to be found anywhere.

They had arcades and various physical activities, but she never felt her body grow tired after hours of competitive gaming and contests. No feeling of hunger or exhaustion ever disturbed her focus. The only thing that kept Abby from becoming, essentially, a zombie perpetually engaged in whatever activity was most fun at the moment was the inherent nature of the Human brain - it gets... wobbly after a while and needs sleep.

Not even a week had passed and people noticed Abby had become... different. No strong reactions to anything, no outbursts of some crazy ideas, just a general positive but not quite cheerful apathy. The Human ambassadors had experienced a much milder version of this, and it is theorized that they did not deem it as concerning due to the simple fact the ambassadors always had something to do, and more importantly - something that put their minds, if not bodies, to the test. Regular challenges, worries, and stress from work in general kept them on edge in some ways.

Abby was just waiting around, "put on vacation" as one of the ambassadors had put it. After a couple of more days of this peace, she seemed more like a automaton than anything else. Mindlessly going from place to place, trying out whatever activities were available, but clearly none offered anything close to the level of excitement and danger she had grown so used to. Not even the flawed thirty year old Human body she was in offered any surprises or discomforts.

Everything was just perfectly fine.

When the paperwork finally cleared and she was issued a fine and formally banned from engaging in any construction efforts in Gyin-Trov controlled space, she was reunited with Victor, and the personality changes she had undergone during her short time were seemingly instantly reversed.

Once she was in her ship and the self-diagnostics showed a few blinking lights, Abby immediately became energized and took action. Breathing in the recycled air with a hint of dry rust made that old bruise on her right side make itself known again. She pulled an all-nighter making repairs and "adjustments" to Victor and collapsed from exhaustion on the hard floor.

The next day, she was already near the border to neutral space when she noticed a dwarf planet with a rock formation in the shape of a trebuchet (very vaguely, if you squint really, really hard, and imagine half of the parts), and that gave her an idea.

All the while, Hector the cat did not exhibit any noticeable changes during his stay with Abby on Gyin-Trov. Maybe just a few more hours of sleep per day than normal.

[wylldebee]

Castlevania AU where everything is the same except Hector's little zombie pug Cezar survives the attack on the castle in season one. Alucard finds him in Hector's forge all alone and proceeds to look after him, and the two of them bond, and Alucard isn't all alone in his big childhood home. Cezar's favourite chew toy is the Trevor doll. He keeps carrying it around in his mouth by the crotch. Alucard finds it hilarious.

[cake-apostate]

Let's look a bit closer at the new Devil Forgemaster, shall we?

Much is made of how Devil Forging requires a human touch. Only living hands can reach into hell, but it's more than that. Hector treats his little zombie dog as a pet, and Isaac regards his work as holy redemption for sinners. They make their own Forging tools, which are treated as special.

The Devil Forgemaster of this season doesn't use a hammer like Hector and Isaac, but a machine. He explicitly didn't build it himself; a demon from Hell gave it to him, and it's implied that he made the other warrior monks share the cost with him. He doesn't touch the corpses he's given, but has his night creatures mount them on meathooks and wheel them into the machine to be mass-produced. And he regards both the work and the night creatures with disdain; he believes it to be suffering for a greater cause.

[zaynmirrors]

Fire on Fire: Part 20

A/N: Getting close to the end guys! Does anyone have any ideas for another series or blurbs? Open to suggestions.

Chapter 20

10k stayed in and out of consciousness, so much to the point I was starting to worry. Eventually, by luck, we met up with Warren and the others. 

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this” Warren spoke, glancing back at me in the rearview mirror. 

I shook my head, “All good” though I’m not sure it was. 

“How’s your little girl?” She smiled fondly at the memory of her. 

A small smile tugged on my lips, “She’s good, talking, being a menace” which earned a chuckle from Warren. 

“Where is your daughter now?” Hector, who I managed to learn they had beef with for a while but was now on our side. 

I winced, “it’s a long story, but she's with this couple that took us in. Very fortified place”

Hector nodded and mumbled something about that being nice as Doctor Sun Mei glanced back at 10k who slept, she said nothing but looked skeptical. 

“What can you tell us about Murphy town?” Warren asked. 

I shook my head. “Not much, there’s a lot of security, a zombie moat, and these people just listen to him”

“Now that’s odd” Warren grunted, I nodded. 

“That’s all I got before he knocked me out” I stated 

Hector raised an eyebrow “knocked you out?”

I nodded, “yeah, woke up in a psych ward, that’s how I met up with doc and 10k”

“Oh you’re gonna wanna hear this!” Doc piped up and went on to tell the whole story, I snorted, laughing at some of the funny parts. 

“Sounds like you guys have been up to quite a bit” Addy pipes up. I nod. The ride continued swapping stories of zombies, family before, and just what we wish the world was now. 

Warren pulled to a stop at a lookout that gave us a good view of Murphy's little village. If it came to a fight I don't know if I'd be able to go down swinging. I promised I'd make it back to Em. 

I sighed quietly, taking a look at 10k who was still passed out. Good, sleep it off. The more time I have to plan out this conversation the better. 

Warren decided to set up camp here, so we sat around a low-burning fire eating beans Maggie packed for me. I stood taking what was left of my bowl over to the opened trunk of the car where 10k lay. Though instead of asleep, his eyes were open staring at the roof of the car. His head turned my way. Fuck. 

“How long have you been here?” He asked, voice still groggy from sleep, or drugs, or Murphy, hell maybe a combo. 

I took a breath, “been here a while” he sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the trunk. 

He looked at the bowl in my hand and then back up to my face. “Come to really put a knife in my chest?” He deadpanned. 

No emotion was shown in his eyes, I glanced over to see if anyone was listening, if they were they were doing a good job hiding it. 

“I came to apologize, and save your ass” I offered up the bowl of beans, he crossed his arms over his chest in rejection so I set it on the edge of the trunk beside him. 

He stayed silent, either not wanting to listen or telling me to continue. Regardless I continued. “I was selfish, I chose Emma over you and the mission and I’m sorry.”

He loosened the tightness of his arms but his face remained stoic so I just went on, “Every waking moment I think about you, about us. fuck you’re in my dreams too. I was stupid and you can hate me all you want, I deserve it.” 

He remained silent, as tears threatened to spill. Heat ran its way up from my cheeks to the tops of my ears. I could tell he was in contemplation, I knew him all too well. “I would’ve gone with you,” he said, firm and truthful. “You could’ve just said something, everything could’ve been okay. All you had to do was just fucking say something!” His fist hit the carpet inside but still made a loud enough noise that made me jump. 

He went on, “The little savior act isn’t going to fix things. I should’ve known you would’ve picked that thing over me. I was happier thinking you were dead” 

I couldn’t stop the tear that fell down my cheek but I wasn’t about to cry in earshot of everyone else. I simply nodded and walked away, noticing we had gathered an audience. 

My feet carried me past the group, ignoring Warren calling out for me. This is exactly how I figured it would go. I should’ve just stayed at the farm. Crawling into one of the tents we set up, I laid on the sleeping bag and sobbed, Not caring about anyone hearing me. 

I sobbed, knowing you fucked up was one guilt but hearing it was a whole other level. I almost hadn’t heard Addy enter the tent. “Y/N, you wanna talk?”

Shaking my head earned a sigh from her, then some rustling and a sudden warmth at my back. I didn’t stray from her touch when she wrapped around me.

Addy rested her nose on the top of my head. A hand in my hair, rubbing in soothing circles. “I don’t think he means what he said,” she said lowly. So they had heard. 

I shook my head but she just shushed me, “Give him time, it’s obvious he’s not in the right mind at the moment”. It didn’t matter to me, somewhere deep in his mind he meant that. She held me, soothing me as I cried. Even as I fell asleep. 

That morning I woke alone, not that it bothered me. I was becoming used to waking up alone. I didn’t want to leave the safety of the tent. Leaving meant facing the group. Facing 10k. I couldn’t do that, though there wasn’t much choice in that matter. I’d have to leave eventually. 

Before I could even think about getting up Warren made her way into the tent, biscuit in hand which she offered out to me. I took it with a small smile. 

“He ran off” was all she said, I knew though. I just nodded and so she continued “We’re gonna fight, it'll be messy. I know you got that little girl to take care of so if you wanted to leave” Did I want to leave? I felt indifferent about fighting.

“If you find yourselves out our way, stop by,” I said, she nodded. I’m sure she knew what my choice was going to be. I told her how to find us, “when 10K gets fixed-“

She smiled, “I’ll send him your way, give that little girl a hug for me” I nodded and smiled, turning on my heel to face the tent. 

I didn’t waste time gathering my stuff. When I was done, I went to say my goodbyes but saw Addie talking to Warren who held a sullen expression on her face. 

Doc grabbed my attention as he said “I hate to see you go again” I turned to look at him. 

“I know, I want to stay and make sure he’s okay but I can’t.” He held his hand up as if he understood, “If I would’ve just stayed-“

“Hey, don’t. None of us could’ve known that Murphy was going to do that.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “Murphy set that whole thing up, he knew what he was doing, it wasn’t your fault”

It was like everything clicked together, he truly had planned it all out. Fucker. He deserves everything that’s coming. “You bring him home to me,” I said, pulling Doc into a tight hug.

“We’ll be right behind you kiddo,” he said into my hair, slowly loosening his hold on me. With that, I left. 

Chapter 21

Taglist:

@whenmypartysover @multifandomlesbianic @isimpfordanielpark

@ophelia-nightt @peezbabey @lizzardgreene @lizx13 @nohemi2500

@missricecrispy @nightowlgirl

[blackjackkent]

OK, time for another boss battle report, Cazador Szarr edition. This one got pretty elaborate. XD

Opening state of play:

Enemy list is Cazador plus two ghasts (labeled "Fallen Gur Hunter," upsettingly), four werewolves, a skeleton named "Chatterteeth," and six bats. The bats have one hit point each but I'm making no assumptions at this point.

Cazador starts out with seven stacks of a buff called "Ritual Sources" - corresponding to the seven spawn currently being held in magical fields around the arena - which gives him 70 temp HP, 7m extra movement speed, and extra necrotic damage. He also gets an individual unique buff for three of the spawn (For "Yousen", he gets an extra 2-16 hitpoint regain every turn, for "Violet" he gets a +5 to AC, and for Astarion himself, he gets an extra bonus action.)

All of this also means we are shorthanded by one person because Astarion is currently being used as a power socket. (On the bright side, despite the cutscene, he still has all his armor and stuff on, so maybe we can get him back into the fight and let him get the killing blow.)

Cazador can apparently use Call Lightning for ten turns without using a spell slot, with which he immediately beats the shit out of Jaheira on his first turn.

He can turn into vampire mist and run around the arena which makes him immune to non-magical damage. "This status is removed by sunlight," says the description of the form. Well, this at least is good news, because guess what Jaheira has:

The spawns themselves all have a "sacrificial lamb" condition which states: "If Cazador draws power from all the spawns bound this way three times, he will ascend." So we're on something of a time limit.

By the way Cazador has 270 hit points, including the 70 temp HP he's getting from the spawns. O.O;

We do get a bit of a hint to kick things off.

"Those runes," Karlach says. "Cazzy's using them to suck the power right out of those poor fuckers."

"If we can reach the glowing sigils, maybe we can redirect that power from him to us," says Hector.

First of all, I love that Karlach calls him "Cazzy". Second, I can't imagine Hector is much more thrilled about taking that power for himself, even temporarily, than he is about Cazador getting it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I think our top priority here is as follows:

a) Get everyone onto one of those sigils (ideally Astarion's? maybe we can get him back into the fight?) to start disrupting Cazador's power sources. b) Get Daylight cast on as much of the arena as possible. c) ????? we'll figure it out from there.

Let's go.

-----

Combat report:

Getting Karlach onto one of the sigils on her first turn passed one of the "Ritual Sources" buffs from Cazador onto her, so that seems like a good start. The problem here, though, is that stepping back OFF the sigil immediately gives the buff back to Cazador. So the utility here seems a bit limited since most of our squad is kinda up close and personal.

Not entirely clear on whether I am supposed to be trying to kill the non-Astarion spawn, although that does seem like it would certainly remove the buff more permanently. They're basically resistant to everything so it doesn't seem like a GREAT use of our time, but options feel really limited.

The ghasts are surprisingly annoying as they all run straight at Hector and cast Stench to make him nauseous, meaning he can't take actions. He's so powerful tho that he kills one of the werewolves with bonus actions alone.

Karlach meanwhile gets surrounded by all five bats and bit a whole bunch and Jaheira gets downed by the second round of Call Lightning. This is off to a great start.

The one spore zombie that was still following Jaheira around from the fight earlier misses every single one of its attacks in this fight, bless its heart.

Hector manages to take out all the ghasts by turn three but is now the only good guy conscious on the field as Karlach has gotten bitten into unconsciousness. More bats have spawned at the start of the round. Cazador has managed to avoid starting his turn in the Daylight spell repeatedly so he has not yet taken any damage from it yet. All the bats have now come over to surround Hector instead. This is going terribly.

DISCOVERY: When Jaheira's spore zombie kills something (in this case, a bat) it turns into a new friendly spore zombie! That's nice! Everything else, however, is terrible.

At this point, Cazador ascends. All of the spawns, including Astarion, explode into a giant pile of wet meat. Astarion's personal quest is marked complete. I sigh, very heavily, and reload. Yeesh.

Attempt 2!

I feel like there's a trick here that I'm missing, but the second pass does start off much more optimistically; Hector and Karlach are able to take out all three ghouls immediately and Jaheira gets Daylight up again.

Once again Jaheira gets wrecked at the top of the second round when Cazador gets his next turn. She really is squishy as fuck and I am not sure why I suck so badly at playing her. :( I love you, Jaheira, I'm sorry I keep getting you killed.

Eventually I got frustrated and sent Hector over to just whale on Cazador, and he's such a battering ram that he did manage to get him all the way down to 100HP. However, it was on turn 3 and so Cazador promptly got up afterwards and turned everyone into marinara sauce.

Realistically, Hector and Karlach are powerful enough between them that I'm pretty sure we can cheese this fight but just going straight to Cazador on turn 1 and beating the shit out of him; however, I would kind of like to figure out how to do this fight the "correct" way. Reload.

Attempt 3!

New strategy - what if we ignore all the enemies and just run all three of us onto three of the sigils immediately? (Specifically, the three sigils for the spawn that are giving him extra buffs. Unfortunately, they're of course the ones furthest away from us but we have dash actions for a reason.)

With this in mind, backing up an extra save and doing some pre-work. Jaheira gets the Misty Step amulet back, ritually casts Longstrider on everyone which will give them extra movement speed until long rest, and precasts Conjure Elemental, Conjure Woodland Being to get more bodies on the field, and Heroes Feast too, why not (immunity to the Stench poison for one thing), then casts Protection from Energy on herself to help offset the fucking Call Lightning that's wrecking us right out of the gate.

While I'm doing this, @ryssabrin comes in clutch with some advice in the replies in my previous post, pointing out that we can use the Help action on Astarion to pull him out of the ritual and back into the fight. "cazador will focus fire on him but he won't do the ritual." This is HUGE because that three-turn limit was what was really fucking things up.

So that's our new priority. Jaheira and Karlach go to stand on two of the sigils, and Hector books it towards Astarion to free him. Ryssabrin also pointed out the utility of Sanctuary in this case - presumably to put on Astarion if Cazzy is gonna focus fire him - so I have Hector load that up too, and cast Protection from Evil and Good on himself.

Heroes Feast is fun. It also gives us a big hamper of camp supplies in addition to all the buffs. Please fill in your own joke:

Mad prep, let's go:

OK let's give this another try. I'm not scared, what are you talking about.

In addition to all the buffs, we also luck out here somewhat in that on this run, all three of the team get top initiative (second only to Cazador himself). Jaheira's concentration on Protection from Energy gets broken INSTANTLY but she does take less damage than she did previously.

Jaheira misty steps onto Yousen's sigil, stealing Cazador's per-turn heal and one of his ritual stacks (and casts Daylight). Karlach goes to Violet's sigil and steals Cazador's extra AC and another ritual stack (and rages for extra DR). Hector as planned beelines straight for Astarion, Help-actions him into the fight, casts Sanctuary on him, and barrels towards one of the other sigils. Cazador is now down to four buff stacks and no special buffs, and cannot ascend. QUICKSAVE.

"YOU ARE GOING TO SUFFER FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID TO ME!" Astarion bellows, and then I have him stand absolutely still and not do anything, because he can't be targeted by attacks in Sanctuary but only while he doesn't attack anything. I like to think he is debuffing Cazador with the pure power of his ANGRY GLARE, though.

Jaheira once again gets fucking trounced immediately but at least her unconscious body is on top of the sigil so it's still debuffing Cazador.

Round 2 - Cazador's out of mist form and I could keep Hector on the sigil removing the extra stack from him - but realistically the dangerous ones were the two that Jaheira and Karlach are on. Hector is best served barreling straight at Cazador and battering ram smacking the shit out of him. So that is what he does. For a total of [does quick math] 183 DAMAGE! :D Cazador lost Call Lightning concentration too. Big moves from Team Juggernaut and this is all looking much more manageable. (For insult to injury he still had enough movement left to go and stand on the nearby sigil again too. XD )

Karlach hurled two separate health potions at Jaheira, using up both of her actions, and neither of them did anything useful for some reason. Very annoying. So now I just sit here while the 513451345 enemies on the field take their turns and hope for the best.

Time for some roleplay choices. Cazador is down to 65 HP and still prone, which means Astarion can get a sneak atack on him. So I make the executive decision to SCREW SANCTUARY because Astarion needs this killing blow.

Jaheira dies. Again. And, again, from a story perspective, we are pretending this didn't happen. XD

Round 3 - Cazador once again mists up, so I spend Hector and Karlach's turns taking out some of the adds. Astarion tries to take a stab at the mist form just to see if it works. It doesn't.

Round 4 - Hector flattens Cazador down to 13HP and positions himself to give Astarion sneak attack. Karlach stares menacingly at everyone...

And Astarion gets the killing blow.

And then we killed the 113451324 bats that had spawned during this whole process. Victory!

[vendetta935]

@thunderbirdslover2001 here you are my friend

[beevean]

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Cordova Town

[thoodleoo]

thinking about the parallels between zombie hector in aeneas's dream in book 2 and zombie aeneas coming up out of the underworld in book 6

[grav3encovnters]

hector medina perez. 44 years old. trying to survive after the collapse of the world. ( any kind of apocalypse will do. )

setting : hector is dealing with zombies - a result of the virus that took the lives of billions all over the world.

open to all genders ( any for romantic ) .ᐟ

as if it wasn't enough that the world had ended, now hector was stuck in this shithole with these walkers. he was walking his normal route , trucking it from the woods to the city for a supply run , when the ground began to rumble. he couldn't outrun the crack as the ground opened up and he fell in. he's been fighting his way out of the crack, but hasn't had any luck getting out of it by himself. ❝ a little help over here ? ❞ he calls out to anyone who may be around.

[alpaca-clouds]

Religion in Castlevania

So, uhm. Castlevania has a strange relationship to the concept of religion, right? The games are of course Japanese and to the average Japanese person Christianity is about doused in as much mysticism and alieness as Shinto is to the average white person. As such the games do kinda mirror this like many other Japanese media with European inspired settings. We will get a lot of Christian symbolism and maybe a line or two referencing it, but as much as the average western story using Shinto and Buddhism, it is barely more than set-dressing. It is not offensive or anything, just also not very in depth

The series meanwhile runs into the opposite problem. It is a western production first and foremost and in western circles the relation people have towards religion is... complicated. Especially when it comes to Christianity. Because the fact is that you really can only do wrong.

You show Christianity as something positive? Yeah, fuck it, you are doing white supremacist propaganda (because Christianity sadly is tied to that other believe as a vehicle. Not because of anything inherent to Christianity, just because of history). You show Christianity as something negative? Fuck you, you hate all Christians and are basically the antichrist time to boycot you!

Which leads to the interesting phenomenon that Castlevania has a Muslim character whose relationship with his religion is in depth explored. While Christianity... is somewhat iffy.

First and foremost: The only explicitly Christian characters we have are bad guy who get killed within the first season. Namely the bishop and the arch bishop. Who of course use their religion as a tool to spread hatred. In this case of witches. (Note to self: Write a blog about witch hunts.) And then there are of course the corrupted monks in season 3. The show does not go so far to imply "Christianity = Bad", especially as the show does have some no-dialogue characters who end up siding with the protagonists and what not. But... It also does not have an explicitly positive portrayel of religion, right?

Now, from our main characters outside of Isaac we barely know anything about their religious affiliation.

We know that Sypha believes in Jeshoa (Jesus) and some of the bible stories, but in a way that actually frames God as a vengeful, bad god, rather than a force of good. This is never further explored, though. It is basically two lines over the course of the series we get. All we know is: Yes, she believes it. She things Jeshoa was okay and that God is bad and hates the speakers.

And for the others?

We know nothing about the relation Trevor and Alucard have towards religion, and while there is like two very vague hints that Hector might be of Jewish descent we also do not learn much about that.

And it is kinda ironic, really. While the games do have very little in terms of dialogue linking Alucard to Christianity, there for sure is endless symbolism of him holding rosaries and what not. And it would have been interesting to explore.

Especially given that I also think that the relation between Dracula/Mathias and religion would be super interesting to explore and would be fun to see more about. But of course... we do not get that.

And while it is to be assumed that the Belmonts should be Christian... Well, outside of him cussing out God a lot, there is not a lot of him and his religious affiliation going on.

Which is kinda a pity. Because I found it makes for interesting storytelling. Especially in a world like this.

I mean, we know for a fact that priests can bless water and through this act turn it into a weapon against vampires and demons. And it would be such a fun thing to discuss, whether this actually means they get that power from God - or whether they just use a sort of spell. (Especially given that I somehow doubt that God is gonna channel his power through an undead bishop, you know? Making me think that the zombie bishop rather uses a spell.)

Side note: I would've totally loved to see Isaac use some Muslim prayer to hurt a vampire or demon. That would have been kinda fun - and it is something we barely see in media.

But there is of course more than that: The people in the Castlevania world (especially the series) live in a world where the existence of the afterlife is undeniable, based on the fact that people can literally summon souls from there. People can have a long discussion on whether or not that actually is hell - but it is undeniable that it is an afterlife. It is a place where souls move to after death.

And I do have to wonder how that would affect the people's relationship to religion?

I honestly never realized how interesting it is to write about religious characters. Because due to my own religious trauma, I just stayed the hell away from religion in my writing. Like, sure, in my own vampire novel there is a subplot about the main characters religious trauma (being a queer kid in a conservative Christian household). But she had left her religion behind and all that.

So... me writing Isaac in my fics was literally the first time I ever wrote a religious character in a story who was not framed negatively. And I learned that it actually... can do so much to enrich a story. Because it allows you as a writer to have yet another point of view to frame the story through.

And yes, it also ended up with me thinking a lot on religious backgrounds for the characters and their relation to religion - especially inside a world, where, again, the existence of an afterlife is undeniable.

And honestly, one of the favorite things to me in terms of writing was this bit about Gilles de Rais loosing his religion, upon realizing the corruption of the church. As a more gutteral and painful experience, than I have written before.

Also: Yeah, I have FlysEyes (who I have christened Nicolai, to give him a proper name) still a practicing Christian. Because that is kinda fun.