#her ingame buff name

[karamellisokeri]

Art style study but with su jue🦊 I fell for her charm it seems

Colored and the line art version

[ohhnorr]

Genshin impact is so painful now

I love this game to death, the open world and its lore, the dragons, the gameplay, and the land of liyue reeled me in. And ofc Kaeya was one of the major reasons I started playing. I've been playing the game like maybe a month since it was released. So, like the launch era (yes I take pride in that it was the best era).

Mondstadt was an amazing introduction, to the familiar buildings of Germany. And the beautiful design of the culture mixed with the signature of genshin's design made the characters brilliant. Now the first story event (reconciling stars??) made me heavily excited about all the lore that was hidden ingame.

When I got to liyue I was glued to the game, forever, I thought. This was china from a whole nother perspective for me as a Moroccan. And to see such an elegant (not heavily sexualized) character like Ninguang in that cutscene. Yo, I fell in love. Childe was cute too, but then the man that got me everything or anything related to excitement and admiration came upon us. Zhongli. Oh, he was the package, with a beautiful outfit reminding u of the Chinese culture as it has its own modern genshin signature twist. Stunning. It's such characters that get me obsessed with games. Next to all of the intricate details and lore plus gameplay.

To finish off, Inazuma. That was one beautiful region, from the flora to the architecture. The temples and that beautiful quest. Ayaka's design is by far one of my favourites. Her design has her culture written all over it and it's beautiful. In Inazuma, we have so many characters inspired by their Japanese ancestry and it looks stunning and recognizable.

But then the sumeru leaks dwindled along. I was super excited for sumeru, that was my downfall.

After seeing these 3 beautifully represented cultures i was so naïvely excited for Sumeru. And thats expected right, i was rightfully excited to see the beautiful culture of the middle east, north africa and SEA being equally represented like the other three.

But thats when i heard al haitham an important arab figure whose name is now being occupied by a white buff tech man with a fandom who couldnt even pronounce his name right and call him habibi ?

ATTENTION: REPRESENTING. SWANA

Unrecognizable. In no way was the representation of Sumeru as intricately thought out as with the other regions. We have been colorised, orientalized and sexualized once again.

I'm gonna start with the one hurting me the most, Dehya.

(Listen i only heard her name and i was so excited to see my culture in this game i was jumping and ecstatic to see representation--- wait she is a cat girl warrior tf)

Dehya's name is inspired by Dihya, the name of an Amazigh Algerian military queen (Kahena). So quite a name to live up to. The Imazighen (us North Africans) barely get any representation as it is. And when we do, we become drawn out as barbarians or savages (for example another "name" for us is Berbers which the Romans called us).

Now what does Dehya look like huh? Yes indeed she has been revealed to be some warrior cat with an wild and savage look. And as an amazigh i hoped to see at least a little of our beautiful culture respresented. Yet i didint recognize any cultural aspects in comparison to litteraly any character in this game.

While we actually wear alot of beautiful jewelry! And we also have beautiful tribal tattoos, and Dihya herself is such a stunning figure to take refrence from.

But instead we get practically nothing. So we are now standing up for her. And yet there are people complaining against us saying that sexualization happens to every character. But Dehya is litteraly oversexualized on such a level that no cultural aspect is recognizable nor a point of interest.

Look im aware of the sexualization of female characters in games especially in gacha's. And its mostly the reason why i dont play alot of them. Yet in genshin its more mild and the design still upholds cultural aspects. Like with Inazuman characters; https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/o7eifv/inazuma_characters_design_analysis_spoilers_for/

And alot of Liyue characters;

This is why i ask of the bare minimum. To analyze and take interest in the amazigh culture. So Dehya's design could be oh so much more elevated and still badass. Because we as well would love to see a badass cat warrior with actual amazigh tattoos, clothes and jewelry.

Unfortunatly she isint the only problematic character.

Nilou, is an Persian dancer. Whilst having culturally accurate horns from the Sassanian period and a burst move from the gorgeous Persian dance. She has still been sexualized and orientalized. Dancers have always had their stomachs covered. Its culture, it's beautiful. By exposing the belly it's unrecognizable as Persian and becomes mixed with the Arab belly dancing outfit. If they want to sexualise her that badly then exposing the belly is the worst move- it erases the culture, it mixes with another culture, it sexualizes and orientalizes. It becomes a problem.

(Cr: demonscallme on twitter)

Tighnari, an amazigh name supposedly Moroccan. With ears from the fennec an animal from the western desert. Other than that his outfit and design is all over the place. In genshin they are more than capable of making modern day clothing mix with cultural themes. Yet this is not working at all. Nothing is recognizable nor representative of anything amazigh nor arab. Its just a jumbled mess. Disappointing in comparison to the modern clothing and cultural mixture of design with for example zhongli.

Dori is the worst of all the characters. She is orientalized and sexualized. No one encounters representation except seeing a  fucking joke. She has no cultural aspects that are recognizable instead she is the spitting image of an orientalized character. They have a huge region and countries with countless cultures to take interest in. Yet they went with none and followed stereotypes. Her clothing is also grossly sexualized for a child model. It's disappointing how we are being spat on, our cultures are being treated like a joke.

Now a major argument against anything related to the word orientalism had been "it's fictional".

Stereotyping and racism are stated under orientalism. When we say it's racist, stereotyped, and so orientalized it is wrong, it should not be spread around as if it's nothing. It hurts to see and it's disrespectful. So we SWANA deserve just like the german, Chinese and Japanese to be respected and upheld with the same input into our designated region. This game isin't so fictional anymore.

Colourism, all characters until now are pale. Not denying it. We have in the swana region, people of all colours. If u are gonna represent characters from that region we expect different skin tones. To be recognizing oneself is an amazing experience. And it would be representing swana perfectly. It does not hurt it only embraces. That's why we are speaking up about this. Look I'm willing to wait, to take this back, the moment we get a broad set of people from different skin colours. Its not hard to do, it does not contradict anything. So why are people still pressed? Aren't we supposed to break free from the stupid standard of the pale is elevated. There are white Arabs yes, I'm not saying we can't have any pale characters. But with a region as broad as the swana region. There are bound to be some different skin tones and that should not be ignored.

To conclude,

we want to have equal input into our region as there has been done with the previous three. We want people to see our beautiful cultures. And above all, we want to be respected. Yes, we cannot have everything, but it does not hurt to try. It does not hurt to speak out. And you who are against this notion, you are not achieving freemogems out of this. You are not changing our minds. You are not the only one in the world. Broaden your perspectives. For the sake of an exceptional game.

[eurekq]

>be me >today i will make a height chart for my da protags and their love interests >okay maybe ill make it an outfit and color reference too >well i dont want it to be too boring to look at >draw this

so here we are with all my sweet little ladies and their lis :]!!! from left to right: cassie cousland, marian hawke and anders, aoife lavellan and cullen, rhiannon tabris and alistair, cecelia hawke and fenris, melly cadash and sera

LOTS of extra stuff under the cut!!!

lovely da protag templates are from marian churchland!

dear sweet cassie, partaker in the forbidden non-romantic alistair marriage that the game never knows how to acknowledge. very much the definition of gaslight gatekeep girlboss. and by that i mean a genuinely bad person in the sense that she tends to toy with peoples feelings. had an extremely public affair with anders during the events of awakening. It takes a good 5 years for her and alistairs marriage to be anything even approaching functional. extremely savvy, ambitious, and charismatic; a great politician and an extremely effective ruler. morrigan is her closest friend in the world (yes i know i never had her in my party. thats because im bad at video games and needed a healer.) and they’re like sisters.

my default hawke. 6′2, buff as shit, slept her way through half of her friends before finally settling with anders. she’s a blood mage and her first use of blood magic was during a particularly nasty fight where she got speared through the stomach. she carves herself up for mana; anders puts her back together. does things in anger and impulse and then regrets them (see: giving isabela to the arishok, never reconciling with carver after leandras death). mean if you dont know her, intensely protective if you do, but takes betrayal extremely poorly. constantly taking action, even if it doesn’t turn out very well; she is physically incapable of being a bystander. her and anders are my fave da couple ever... ask me about my post da2 hcs <3 theyre happy and have a daughter named bethany :] she punched cullen in the mouth at the end of da2 so hard that it left that scar.

literally is there anything like your first dai playthrough being an elf. aoife is... remarkably well realized in my brain for a character who’s life began as my friend chanting “goth elf! goth elf! goth elf!” over my shoulder while i was in character creator. very affable and friendly, but extremely politically adept with a capability for subterfuge that even she isn’t fully comfortable with. huge history buff. solas was like a big brother to her and her faith was extremely important to her so trespasser was crushing. very curious, especially about magic; definitely learned some blood magic from hawke after hearing dorian and solas talk about it. dorian is her closest platonic friend, but cullen is her rock. as in he is literally so normal compared to everything else that happens to her and she loves him for it. also her and hawke are friends and a scenario that lives rent free in my mind is them hanging out while anders and cullen attempt to kill each other in increasingly looney toons-esque ways in the background. she turned out remarkably pretty for an inquisitor... look at her

....and that’s it for my canon timeline. onto the secondary timeline!

DEAR SWEET RHIANNON. 4′8 powerhouse with a sword longer than she is tall. i first played rhiannon with a friend who was very new to rpgs and she picked all of the mean dialogue options because she thought they were funny, which led to me discovering that alistair reacts oddly and kind of hilariously well to being made fun of by a female warden pre-duncan dying. rhiannon is fun in that she literally gives no shits about conflict avoidance; if you start something with her, she’ll see it through. disliked alistair on principle and poked fun at him when they first met, but after the events at ostagar bonded to him extremely strongly. very close to him pretty much at the exclusion of all her other companions. extremely strong willed, laughs loud and smiles wide, no real concept of subterfuge except for when she’s hiding her own pain, generally goes in the path of least resistance if it gets to her goal faster. #1 arl eamon hater. she looks pretty different when i draw her compared to how she looked ingame but this screenshot of her doing the like. dead deer tinder profile pic pose is extremely powerful

cecelia is the truest tragic hawke that i’ve played (rip cecelia. you had the misfortune to exist in the warden alistair timeline). lost carver, lost bethany in the deep roads, lost her mother, believes that fenris has left her. act 2; a real rough ride for cecelia. aside from all the tragedy, she’s tough as nails, direct, and extremely blunt. very cautious in combat, even more so since she lost both carver and bethany. plans upon plans upon plans and prefers to strike unseen and unheard from the shadows. DEEPLY in love with fenris, best friends with isabela and merrill. aware of anders affection for her and keeps some distance for both their sakes; after the chantry explosion she helps him fake his own death on the condition that she never sees him again. when terrible things are not constantly happening she has a very dry wit, part of the reason her and fenris get along so well. too many bad things happen to her for someone with such nice thighs and such a stylish cape. her save file had some weird bugs with companion like.... staring???? in weird directions???

the absolute energy here. she also turned out very pretty in inquisition.

melly is easily my most powerful da oc. not in terms of in-universe power (although sword and board reaver is like. unkillable.) but in the sense that she is a catholic (read: andrastian) mid-40′s widowed mobster milf. she’s very close to cassandra and vivienne and consults them for advice before she goes to her actual advisors. even she was surprised by her relationship with sera; she finds sera’s unique sense of humor very charming and really likes pulling silly pranks with her as a reprieve from her everyday life. when she’s not with sera, she tends to be very pragmatic and logical when making decisions for the inquisition and has a very defined sense of purpose. she takes her role as both as the inquisitor and the herald of andraste very seriously. she’s very warm and soothing to be around during off hours and random inquisition members will often drift towards her for life advice. first draft of her and sera in this drawing had sera wearing this

[verdantspringcourtyard]

Land of Gagaku Event

Yet another long "tower" type event that coincides with Kinnara's release. The event format doesn't share many similarities to other events, but the actual activities are like most multiple stage/boss clearing events that have happened this year. Consists of 3 major parts; Sonata, Recalling Voices and Night Aratama boss. During this event, Kinnara will have a buff for damage dealt and damage reduction.

Sonata

Upon starting this part of the event, you must select 1 of the 4 chapters and 1 of 3 musical instruments but can change them at any time. At first only chapter 1 will be unlocked, the rest will be gradually unlocked. Each chapter has 3 instruments that provide buffs, the buffs can be viewed in one of the below sections.

When the server collects certain amounts of sheet music, rewards for the entire server will be unlocked. Sheet music is obtained by defeating bosses or by purchasing with jade. Buying sheet music can reward you with items like event AP, event currency, blue summon tickets, black daruma shards, gold, etc.

To fight a boss you must pick 1 of 5 "notes" on the music bar, which one you pick will not affect the difficulty or your rewards. However, if you pick 1 of the 3 "notes" with a ball of light in the same column as it, a bar next to the button used to switch difficulties will slowly fill up. When the bar is filled up, you won't have to fight a boss plus you'll get event currency and sheet music. Costs 6 event AP to challenge bosses (solo only), may cost more if you need multiple attempts. Cannot switch difficulty after picking a "note". Can be done on auto.

Sonata will not be accessible on the last day of the event. So please make sure you have maxed out the "Ray of Hope" stat boosts and has unlocked the bonus effects before then.

Ray of Hope

"Rays of Hope” are really important for Sonata and the Night Aratama boss. They are obtained by defeating bosses in Sonata. There are stat boosts and bonus effects for having certain amounts of them, which are listed below.

Stat boosts:

Gain +2% ATK and +2% HP per 1 (max +80%)

After gaining 40, gain +1 SPD and +1% Crit per 1 (max +40 and +40%)

After gaining 80, gain +2% DEF and +2% Crit DMG per 1 (max +80% and +40%)

After gaining 120, gain +1 HIT +1% RES per 1 (max +40% and +40%)

Bonus Effects:

21: Gain 20% HP Steal.

41: If Crit exceeds 100% then every excess 1% is converted in Crit DMG, when dealing damage also have a 30% base chance to inflict freeze and when receiving damage the attacker's SPD is reduced by 30.

61: Can negate 1 lethal attack and recover HP by 10%, only works once per battle.

81: Damage dealt to enemies inflicted with control effects is increased by 15%.

Although it isn't mentioned ingame, the bonus effects act as additional soul effects. So when dealing damage the icons for Nightwing, Snow Spirit and House Imp will pop-up above your shiki in battle.

Musical Instruments

Chapter 1

Koto: When dealing ST (and random target) damage, also deal 60% splash damage.

Gakubiwa: Skills cost -1 onibi.

Kagurabue: Indirect damage is increased by 40%.

Chapter 2

Miko Suzu: Indirect damage is increased by 40%.

Shakuhachi: Enemy DEF is decreased by 50%. 

Tsuzumi: The shiki with the highest ATK has an 80% chance to gain a new turn.

Chapter 3

Ekiro: Enemy DEF is decreased by 50%.

Shami: Crit for normal attacks is increased by 20% and if the normal attacks crit, damage is increased by 50%.

Dadaiko: Damage dealt outside of turn is increased by 50%.

Chapter 4

Shinrei: Crit for normal attacks is increased by 20% and if the normal attacks crit, damage is increased by 50%. 

Doura: When dealing ST (and random target) damage, also deal 60% splash damage.

Horagai: Skills cost -1 onibi.

If you’re unfamiliar with the jp names of the listed instruments and would prefer images of them, please refer to the wiki version of this guide.

The rewards for the total accumulated sheet music collected by the entire-server are; 2 red daruma, 10 orochi scales, 5000 event currency, 2 demon parade tickets, 10000 event currency. These rewards can be unlocked for every instrument.

At the bottom of the screen for Sonata is a progress bar. When it reaches 100%, the current instrument you're using will become "cleared" and you'll get a special kekkai/realm card as a reward.

Recalling Voices

Spirit Fragments

Collect spirit fragments to unlock short sentences of story. Fragments are obtained by defeating bosses in Sonata. There are a total of 83. Only 20-21 fragments can be obtained per chapters.

Recalling the Story

Can reread the event’s daily story dialogue.

Ancient Nocturne

Can rewatch the event CG videos.

Night Aratama Boss

At top of main event page, there is a music bar with a boss icon / multiple boss icons with a timer under it. When the timer ends, the boss/es can be fought. Costs 3 AP to challenge, battles have a 3-minute timer and "Rays of Hope" are also applied here. There are 5 types of bosses, each one has its own ranking. Ranking rewards are the same for each boss.

 Opening Note (Boss)

Can be challenged within an 8-hour time period.

Has 5 difficulties.

Format is similar to vanquish or boss challenges, ie goal is to KO the boss as fast as possible.

Boss has 2 phases, has 2 skills and nuribotoke in phase 1 and gains 2 more skills in phase 2.

Summons waves of minions.

There are 1st time clear rewards for each difficulty.

There's ranking. Ranking rewards include; black daruma, white daruma, blue summon tickets, gold and event currency.

Broken Song & Hurried Music (Netherworld Gate)

Can be challenged within a 24-hour time period.

It's kind of like Netherworld Gate.

Clear up to 150 stages of bosses.

Can change teams inbetween stages.

Enemies change every 10 stages.

Which enemies can be fought per 10 stages can be viewed on the boss page.

Enemies gradually become tankier as you progress through more stages.

Total rewards for the 1st 50 stages of Broken Song are; 60000 gold, 50000 event currency, and some white daruma.

Total rewards for the 1st 50 stages of Hurried Music are; 55000 event currency, and some white daruma.

There's ranking. Ranking rewards include; black daruma, white daruma, blue summon tickets, gold and event currency.

Sound Spirit: Wish & Curse (Boss Netherworld Gate)

Becomes accessible on the last day of the event. (at 12 noon & 4PM)

It's like Broken Song and Hurried Music, but if they were server-wide and the enemies had crazy high HP.

There are 10 stages.

Enemy HP seems to be shared server-wide.

Enemies don't hit very hard.

Shares the damage rewards with The Final Note.

Night Aratama (Boss)

Becomes accessible on the last day of the event. (at 8AM)

It's a server-wide boss.

Boss has 2 phases, has 3 skills and nuribotoke in phase 1 and gains 1 more skill in phase 2.

Summons waves of minions.

Shares the damage rewards with The Final Note.

The Final Note:

Becomes accessible on the last day of the event. (at 8PM)

Can be challenged within a 2-hour time period.

Requires special event AP to challenge the boss.

When you run of special AP, you can use another's team to challenge the boss.

Format is like the Sealand Defense part of Battle of Mt Oe, ie the boss will not take any damage and endless waves of minions will be summoned.

Enemy HP is shared across the server.

Total rewards for dealing 10-100mil damage are; 160000 gold, 20 demon souls, a 2* special kekkai/realm card and 13 black daruma shards.

Recommend newbies to ignore Night Aratama and Sound Spirits and unlock the damage rewards via this instead.

Exchange Shop

The most notable items are: 2 event icon frames, ? loading screen illustrations, new Kinnara skin, random SSR/SP, random SSN (frog N shiki), black daruma, 3-4-5* white daruma, 2 blue summon tickets, orochi scales, demon souls, AP, mochi, gold, evo and soul boosts, 5 event packs, etc. The icon frames are the exact same, one is still and one is animated.

Like always, the more appealing items like the random SSR/SP and new skin are locked by a requirement. In this event the requirements are event points, however, they are not obtained as drops or rewards for doing anything. Instead, event points simply represent your total accumulated event currency.

The type of items that can be obtained from the 5 event packs are all the same, items include; gold, AP, guild feats, demon souls, orochi scales, bio affection items, evo/soul/gold/EXP boosts, daruma shards, full daruma, 3-5* white daruma, EXP souls, etc. For every pack bought you'll get 1 random 6* soul, so if you buy 20 you'll get 20 random 6* souls. The types (2-set effects) of souls obtained are determined by the pack;

"Do" Pack 1: Crit%

"Re" Pack 2: ATK%

"Mi" Pack 3: HP%

"So" Pack 4: DEF%

"La" Pack 5: HIT% and RES%

Each pack can be bought a max of 300 times. The pack names should match the names of the musical notes in Kinnara’s skill 2.

Just so it's extra clear - the types of souls obtained refers to the 2-set effects, not the main stats.

Music from the Past

The unlabeled button in the top right corner of the main event page will become accessible. Here you will be able to listen to some BGM from past events and songs from CG or recent animated memory scroll videos. Can also create a small playlist so you can listen to your favourite songs while doing the event (doesn't work in battles).

Unsure if this will be a CN only feature.

Recommended Teams

Reminder - Kinnara has a buff for damage dealt and damage reduction for this event. So if you're lucky enough to get her and have enough materials to 6* her, then please use her in the event to take advantage of the buff. 

Sonata

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

2 Random Target attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

2 Random Target attackers + SP Kiyohime + Kiyohime + Enmusubi

SP Ootengu + Kinnara + Kiyohime + Aoandon + Enmusubi

Takiyasha + Ryoumen + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

Ryoumen + Menreiki + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Double Shuten + Shiranui + Enmusubi + Ushi

Double Shuten + Shiranui + Enmusubi + Kiyohime

Recommended random target attackers are; SP Ootengu, SP Tamamo, Kinnara, Kisei, etc. Best combos are; double SP Ootengu, double Kinnara or 1 of both SP Ootengu and Kinnara. Recommended AOE multi-hit attackers are; Takiyasha, Ryomen, Ootengu, Ubume. If you don't have Enmusubi, the alternatives to her in this event are Ushi, Kosode or even Shoyou.

By default, Kiyo should always have snow spirit equipped even outside of events. However, after you unlock the 2nd bonus effect for "Rays of Hope", you should either swap her soul set to something else like seductress or fortune cat.

You should try using multiple teams to take full advantage of the buffs provided by the instruments. There are a couple of other teams that can be used but they require targeting, so I personally don’t recommend using them.

The Night Aratama

Boss:

SP Iba + Oitsuki + Ushi + Enmusubi + Aoandon

SP Iba + Oitsuki + Ushi + Enmusubi + Shoyou

SP Iba + Kinnara + Oitsuki + Ushi + Shoyou

Netherworld Gate:

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

Takiyasha + Ushi + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Ryoumen + Ushi + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Takiyasha + Kinnara + Ushi + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

Boss Netherworld Gate 

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Kiyohime + Oitsuki + Enmusubi 

The Final Note

2 AOE Multi-hit attackers + Ushi + Oitsuki + Kiyohime

Takiyasha + Kinnara + Ushi + Oitsuki + Enmusubi

For Opening Note and Night Aratama (boss), the same teams are used for it.

For Takiyasha in the Netherworld Gate type stuff, she can use the following soul sets; seductress + songstress, hyousube + tsuchigumo, house imp + tsuchigumo, tsuchigumo + gashadokuro + songstress/namazu. So use whatever set you have or works best for you.

Hurried Music is a bit easier than Broken Song, so Kiyo and her def shred aren't really needed for it.

For The Final Note, recommend newbies to use up all your special event AP and borrow another player's team. By doing this you’ll be able to quickly boost your total damage and unlock all the total damage rewards. If you can’t play when this boss is available, then fight the Sound Spirits instead.

[pkmnomegaverse]

What fankids do the Galar characters have?

So first things first is that I’m not all that quick to develop fankids.  It takes me a while to decide on the canon cast, both what they’re doing in the future and if any of them get together, let alone deciding on fankids.  So this is one of those things that will likely expand with time.  Here’s my initial thoughts after beating the game though.  Which is more about the characters than any potential fankids.

Bede

Bede is definitely the character I’m going to hyperfocus development on, which both means he gets the most drama, but in theory, his children are the “main Galar fankids”. He’s an omega, no question there. I’m pretty set on endgaming Victor/Bede, but it takes a while for them to officially get together. 

I’m like 90% committed to the idea of Bede having a son conceived during ingame events, pretty much during the Champion Tournament.  Let’s just say I had the terrible realization that my fankid, Darcel, would make a really good child for Bede and this other character. Darcel is too established in Kalos to switch his parents, but I was stuck on the idea for its max-drama potential, so I decided to make a new fankid. A “not-Darcel”. Bede raises his son on his own and while it’s not the primary reason he turns his life around under Opal’s guidance, he is determined to be a strong and good parent to his child. Get his life together for both their sakes. My prototype name for the kid is Roan, although I might give that name to a Pier’s kid.  Regardless, someone is getting that name. 

Victor and Bede kinda end up with a complicated relationship early on, in the sense that Victor wants to be more official while Bede is often pushing him away. Plus Bede has kind of a warped perspective on what’s normal in a relationship, due to his past. Despite how far he’s come, he still has a long way to go.  He also doesn’t completely let go of his tsun tendencies when it comes to Victor, so even from a non-angst perspective, the guy plays hard to get.  At some point, they end up with a kid, a younger half-sibling to Bede’s first child. More than likely also an accident baby.

This one is way more up in the air, but given Bede’s backstory, I can see him possibly wanting to adopt if he ever came across some unfortunate orphan in need.  He’d see himself in the kid, and want to be a much better guardian than Rose was to him.  Break the cycle. So perhaps he and Victor end up with a third child who’s adopted.

Piers

Piers is the other character I really loved from the game, so he gets to be hyperfocus #2.  Also an omega since that’s my preference. I’m not 100% set on the pairing, but I am strongly leaning towards Raihan/Piers as endgame.  I do like Raihan/Leon as well, but my vast preference for Piers means I want to do more with him. So the pairing involving him wins. I’m too bad at OT3s to generally make a threeway work, so I can’t see myself going in that direction with these three.  

Kid wise, I feel like Piers has at least two kids, since I can see him wanting his child to have a sibling the way he did. As his first child is certainly an accident.  The second one could be an accident as well, but is likely deliberate, since again, he wants a younger sibling for his oldest child. He likely aims for them being closer in age than he and Marnie are. 

I do think that Raihan and Piers would have…problems making things work longterm. Not impossible, but I see Raihan as too into himself.  Kind of selfish and also likely not liking the idea of being “tied down”. One could say Piers would similarly not want to be “tied down” but given his relationship with Marnie, I see him as much more family focused. So were he to have children with Raihan, he’d be more willing to make sacrifices to make the relationship work. But a guy can only do so much on his own. It’d be on Raihan to make some compromises as well. I still need to think about this pairing more before anything is set though. 

Everyone Else

The main issue is other then the above ships, I really don’t ship anyone else. I liked Hop, but I felt he only really worked with Victor. But since Victor is with Bede…Hop is either a single dad, or maybe I’ll rarepair/crackship him with someone. 

Marnie was fine, but like Hop, no one really stood out as shippable with her.  Presumably Gloria could be shipped with either her or Hop, but I still have to decide if/how I want to implement her.  I’m fine with the idea of her as Victor’s twin, but since it goes against what I’ve done for every other region, I’m leaning towards not doing that (since even though I made Sun and Moon twins, I had a good reason for Moon not appearing in-game.  I wouldn’t be able to use the same excuse for Gloria, and I don’t want to rewrite the game plot to pretend she was there all along).  So maybe she’s some random girl, in which case, she probably would work better with Marnie over Hop?  Since Hop is too closely linked to the protag.  Were she to be Victor’s twin though, then Hop is the more likely ship.  As for omegaverse aspects, Marnie is an omega, like her brother.

Nessa/Sonia makes sense as a pairing and I can see the potential, I just don’t feel strongly enough about them to give them a fankid at this point. But they’re likely endgame.  Nessa is maybe an omega, but I can honestly see her as anything. Valid arguments for each.  Sonia is probably a beta.

Milo has strong potential Dad Energy, but I really have no ships for him, so probably nada for fankids.  Milo is an alpha.

@pokemon-legends-and-legacies‘s suggested Bea/Gordie as a couple and the idea is really growing on me.  So that one is at least a consideration.  Gordie is probably an alpha and I actually kinda like the idea of Bea as a buff fighter-type omega, since I always make fighter-type trainers alphas. Although she could possibly be an alpha as well.

I like Allister in theory, but again, I don’t have the slightest clue who I’d pair him with. There’s really no one who stands out, since all the younger characters I’d likely ship with someone else. He’s an omega cause I’m like that.

Opal is an omega since I like the idea of her being able to relate to Bede in that way.  Offer him some advice and probably teach him the ends and outs.  Since there’s no way Rose was giving him any practical information. He probably had to rely on the internet for anything he wanted to know that wasn’t taught in whatever schooling he had. I don’t think Opal has any children, since that was the overall impression I got from her trainer cards. She just skipped straight to sorta-grandma for Bede.

I don’t really think about Kabu all that much, but he’s likely an alpha.  Maybe he has family back in Hoenn, maybe he doesn’t. 

Leon and Hop are both alphas, since I like the idea of all the similarities between the two being part of what fuels Hop to want to be just like his big brother at the beginning of the game.  If I were going the single dad route for one of the brothers, it’d be Hop first, so Leon is the cool uncle to any of Hop’s kids.  Perhaps he and Raihan end up true bros as well, so he’s kinda the cool uncle to the Raihan/Pier’s kids. Maybe. 

Raihan is an alpha because of course he.  No question.  I feel like regardless on whether he and Pier’s make it long term, he’s still the father of Pier’s children. A dad with way too many pictures of his children.

Rose is an alpha and we’re not gonna discuss him right now since I’m struggling to decide what happens with him after the events of the game.  Oleana is maybe an omega?  Like Nessa, I can see there being a good argument for her being an alpha or a beta instead.  I lean towards omega going with the idea Rose “rescues” both her and Bede from a life of poverty.  And both are omegas, despite the fact the two don’t get along.  Cause I like parallels. Oleana likely won’t have children since she’s at the bottom of my list of characters to develop.

Victor is an alpha and Gloria is maybe a beta?  If I add her.  Will depend on what I decide her origin story is.

[dasozelotvonnebenan]

— OC QUESTIONS

everything for lorna so a lot of stuff

BASICS

1. What’s their full name?

Lorna Astriddottir.

2. What does their name mean? Why were they named that?

Her name doesn’t mean anything special. Just Lorna the daughter of Astrid. Regular norn stuff.

3. Do they have any nicknames?

Lorna von Kodash when she wants to sound a little more epic. She made that name up when she was a kid and didn’t even know where or what Kodash was. She read it somewhere and thought “well that sounds cool”

4. How old are they?

28 or so

5. When’s their birthday?

somewhere in winter, close after wintersday. She says she gets less presents because of that

6.What’s their zodiac sign/element/birthstone/etc.? Do they believe that holds any significance?

I don’t know much about that, so I’m gonna extend that to her and say she doesn’t really think about it.

7. What’s their species/subspecies? Do they have any special/magical abilities?

She’s a Norn, coming from a long line of Owl shamans. She thinks that is why she can’t transform, but its a little more complicated.

8. What “class” do they belong to (for fantasy characters)? If none, what weapon do they favor?

She’s a necromancer, mostly fighting with a big ass greatsword. And when I say bigass I mean it. The sword as a whole is about as tall as she is, so the blade is about 3 m long.

APPEARANCE

1. What do they look like?

Note how big that sword is? Lorna is 3 and a half metres tall (that’s 11′5′’). I hc norn to be taller than they are in game so they are a little more like giants so she isn’t astronomically taller than everyone but she is still very tall for a norn. She’s also buff as hell. She will stomp you and spit in your eyeeeeee.

have a screen

2. Do they have a face claim?

no. though I think her face ingame is pretty accurate

3. What’s their style like? Clothes, hair, makeup?

She makes a point of casually wearing plate armor to show how strong she is. The rest of the time she wears her robes from the necromancy academy. Her hair is most often braided back, though she changes the pattern often. Makeup wise... excentric and playing off her tatoos.

4. How do they carry themselves? What’s their default expression?

Lorna knows she is intimidating and she revels in the feeling. She’ll stand to her tallest, look expressionless into your eyes and watch you melt into a scared puddle under her gaze.

With friends she is a lot more relaxed though and actually laughs a lot. She still doesn’t smile much though.

5. Do they have any physical ailments or disabilities?

She sometimes accidentally turnes swearing into harmfull magic, but that’s mostly under controll now.

PERSONALITY

1.What’s their alignment?

Chaotic Good

2. Which one of the 16 Personality Types do they fit into?

No clue about those

3. What are their hobbies and interests? Do they have any particular “favorites” (food, books, and so on)?

She does enjoy hunting, usually with daggers becaues if she uses her swords it’s an unfair fight for the boar. She plays DnD with her cousins when she is staying with them and is an excellent kegbrawl player. She does read sometimes, mostly bad romance novels. The more predictable the better.

4. What are they bad at?

Cooking that is more complicated that holding something over fire. She has in her life not once produced a meal that was properly seasoned and is not allowed near the salt box.

5. What kind of things do they dislike/hate?

Jokes about her height.

6. Do they have any vices/addictions/mental illnesses?

nope

7. What are their goals and motivations?

She wants to get into complete controll of her magic swearing, but other than that she doesn’t have any big goals in life.

8. What are their manners like? Any habits?

Theoretically she knows how to act well mannered. However she elects to be obnoxious because she knows people are too afraid to tell her off.

9. What are they most afraid of?

Being alone. As much as she plays the untouchable loner she values her friends greatly.

BACKGROUND

1. Where were they born? What was their childhood like?

Lorna was born in Hoelbrak, where her parents lived most of year. Her parents died when she was very little though, and she was raised by her uncles. She spent a lot of time with the Akis and Dak’s sisters.

2. What’s their family like?

Her parents were owl devotees, by tradition from her mothers side, and her father kind of picked it up because of her mother. They were very caring until they died. Her aunts and uncles are a wild bunch. The Akis are sibling grade cousins and obviously very nice people to be around.

3. What factions or organizations are they a part of? What ranks and titles do they hold?

She’s a Scientica at the Thule Academy of Thanatology (My dad’s necromancer school rp guild) which means she is in the third semester.

In the Family Kegbrawl Team she plays as a brawler and has 14 year streak in getting the highest points for a single player.

4. How do they fit into their “story”?

Most of her personality developed through and around the academy rp. Her magic swearing for example was introduced as a reason why she would want to go there in the first place. Now that the guild isn’t active anymore she is part of my wholesome group of Akis and friends for when I want to think about happy people being happy.

5. Where do they currently live? What’s their place like?

Lorna doesn’t have a place of her own. She mostly stays with the Akis in their homestead or stays at the hunters lodge in queensdale for the school year.

6. How do they eventually die?

no plan yet

RELATIONSHIPS

1. Do they have any friends? Would they consider anyone to be their best friend?

The Akis are definitely not only family but also friends, and she is friends with a few of her classmates. You could count Era and Cap but they are more friends of friends to her.

2. What’s their friend group like? What role do they play in it?

3. What’s their love life like? (See also: ship question meme.) Do they have any kids?

no significant other, no kids.

4. Who do they look up to? Who do they trust?

Her Jotun historian great uncle who for most of her life was the coolest person she ever met, and if she hadn’t met Knut Whitebear one time.

5. Who do they hate? Do they have any enemies?

I don’t think Lorna hates any specific person, but she has a deep and powerful hatred for the svarnir because of her parents.

6. Do they have any pets?

no pets

7. Are they good with kids? Animals?

Lorna is okay with kids, others admire her for how much she can keep up with the energetic little ones without getting tired. She doesn’t particualarly enjoy it but she just can’t say no when they want to play.

With animals sually yes, though she doesn’t like animals that are close to her size or even bigger than her. She isn’t used to it finds it intimidating.

FUN FACTS

1. Which tropes do they fit? Which archetypes?

She’s the Loner that isn’t actually alone just plays that mysterious aura.

2. Do they play any instruments? Sports?

She can play drums :D And yeah as said above she is a good kegbrawl player.

3. What are some items they always carry?

She has a chak claw that is made to be a continer for life force, so that she doesn’t actively hold onto some all the time. It was the first thing she had to craft in the academy. She also carries around a small owl feather in a locket for good luck.

4. Do they collect anything?

The only thing you could say she collects are insults. She knows quite a lot of those.

5. What position do they sleep in?

Curled up because most beds are too small for her. The guest bed at the Akis’ homestead is theoretically big enough for her, but she is so used curling by now she never uses the full length.

6. Which emoji would they use the most?

😈

7. What languages do they speak?

Common, the Norns’ own language (with a pronounciation/word selection that sounds old), a bit of jotunn.

8. What’s their favorite expletive?

(I’m gonna lift this one straight from myself because it kinda fits and Lorna is a bit self inserty anyways) most used is something simple. Fuck and shit in comparable amounts. Her favourite though is “blood and ash!” (which may or may not be the expletive of choice in the wheel of time)

9. What’s their favorite candle scent?

honey

10. What songs remind you of them?

Can’t come up with one right now, but I’ve never been big on the connecting ocs with music thing.

11. Which animal would you say represents them?

You know how cats roam around alone but actually are group animals that raise their kittens together and stuff? That’s lorna.

12. What stereotypical high school clique would they fit into?

She’d be with the emos for sure.

13. What would their favorite ride at an amusement park be?

Haunted House

14. Do they believe in aliens? Ghosts? Reincarnation or something else?

Aliens and Ghosts are both a thing in tyria. I don’t know of any instance of reincarnation but our collection of immortals and sentient zombies makes up for that. So yeah she believes in those.

As for like tyrian cryptids or unprecedented and absurd supernatural happenings she isn’t big on those.

15. Do they follow any religions/gods? Do they celebrate holidays?

She’s a norn and does the norn things.

16. Which Deadly Sin do they most correspond to? Which Heavenly Virtue?

Wroth and Diligence

17. If you had to choose one tarot card to represent them, which would it be?

hmm the hermit would be the obvious one but because she doesn’t actually want to be alone I think the Stars fits even better.

[nouru-vi]

New character, who comes with a very important announcement concerning another, very important character!

This is Chronicler Aocca, warrior and Priory historian. Sweet and soft-spoken, with an “I woke up like this” coolness and fabulousness factor, few would expect Aocca to be a knowledgeable nerd, or a highly trained and capable warrior, yet she is all of those.

A literal history buff, she has spent several years at the Priory and travelling all around Tyria, researching contemporary cultures as well as cultural relics and history, while also training to be an exceptionally good melee fighter. Scholar and muscle in one person, Aocca has lead expeditions to highly dangerous locations and come out unscathed, thanks to her wit and her fighting style which combines greatly disciplined combat moves with the exploitation of her small size and speed. Her secret is actually a solid background of Eternal Alchemy studies, which has given her a knowledge of physics and combat magic few melee opponents can match. For someone with so many things to boast of, Aocca is quite modest. She had not actually excelled much at the sciences back in Rata Sum, and her curiosity for other cultures had not been valued there, so she still kind of sees herself as just a nerd with an obsession, who also likes to lift. This has lead her to be a lot more shy than she appears at first glance. Her moral neutrality, also a relic from Rata Sum, has been evolving, though, which will lead her to participate in  significant current events as described below.

And now for the announcement: reflecting my own evolving preferences in characters, I’m making Nouru biromantic, bisexual and polyamorous, and her second love interest will be - you guessed it - Aocca! I’ve been planning on a secondary group of heroes consisting of some of my more offbeat heroic/hero-ish characters - Zaarin, Ecnilios and Laria so far, and now Aocca will be joining them too. This group will be allied with the Pact, but not officially associated with them, working independently and helping fight the latest threats arising all around Tyria. Now, during the time of the PS, Nouru had already ran into Aocca sometimes at the Priory, but back then the Gay had not been awakened in her yet. Fast forward to LS S3 when, with group 2 (I really need a name for them) out in the field, the two are bound to meet again, likely even work together - which gives Nouru ample opportunity to fall for cotton candy hunk Aocca. Stay tuned for further developments.

(I realise I accidentally dyed her armour in sort of trans flag colours, which is funny bc I am trans nb and have a bunch of trans/nb characters but Aocca actually happens to be cis lol)

(Also I had to delete Hroskell to free up a slot for her as I didn’t have enough money for a slot next to other stuff I needed from the gemstore. Hroskell still exists as a character outside of the game of course, but I realised he wasn’t really gonna get anywhere ingame - he’s been low level for more than a year and I didn’t have a build or even outfit planned for him. Rip)

[zydrateacademy]

Review: Darkest Dungeon

Full disclosure; I have done several things to make the game as easy on me as possible. Many of the ingame options includes disabling certain features, including debuff chances and monster corpses (Which can mess with your attack formations) to name a couple. Alongside that, I’ve utilized the workshop and downloaded several quality-of-life mods that include bigger inventory (and thus higher payouts at the end of quests, if you nab enough things), Stronger Start (which effectively buffs your starting two heroes), and level restriction removal which allows me to bring higher level people on lower level missions which would help “Carry” new characters. There’s several more but nothing quite so severe as what I have done to XCOM2. If you people only knew... You’ve probably already heard about Darkest Dungeon. It’s one of the very few Early Access success stories. What we have here is a roguelike turned based roleplaying game. For those just joining us, “Rogue” was an older game, effectively inventing its own genre of difficulty and progression. Roguelikes tend to be punishing, destroying your early game while slowly earning currencies and upgrades that continually aid you in your further attempts. 

In the story, some nobleman got some gold fever and started digging around his lands and unleashed a literal eldritch abomination which cast a swath of land into darkness, turning the whole place into a hellscape. I don’t know what matter of character we, as the player, plays as but we lead a band of mercenaries across these lands to explore dungeons and forests. You scrape up gold and treasure, eventually upgrading your township and champions so you can take on higher challenges. The overarching goal is to assault the Darkest Dungeon itself, which I’m sure is full of good times and parties. That’s the baseline concept but there are a ton of nuances that go into the game. I for one am happy to have some turn based combat in my life again, the last memory of which was Final Fantasy X which I enjoyed greatly in my teenage years. There may be a reason the genre faded in the background as it’s a bit of a flow-breaker, which had no place in a world of Call of Duty’s and Halo’s and Arkham’s. Darkest Dungeon makes the concept really work, with an interesting art style that makes it look like you’re reading an ancient tome with plenty of pictures to go along with the legend, helped by the narrator who occasionally spouts antiquated language like “Perched at the very precipice of oblivion...” You really do feel like you’re playing through an interactive book at times.

If you’ve played a Dark Souls or any roguelike game, you probably know the score. Your people will die. If they don’t die, they might get to a point where you can no longer tenably sustain their negative quirks and high stress levels. Quirks and stress (stress being comparable to any insanity mechanic in a Call of Cthulhu RPG or Amnesia game) bring your heroes down constantly, from easily ignored to debilitating. I don’t care if my tank has -3 speed, but I do care when someone gets a tapeworm which doubles their food consumption. That’s basically pissing my money away. At a certain point, characters become so stressed, they gain an affliction which is usually much harsher. A healer of mine once became “Paranoid”, not only fleeing to the back of the group but sometimes wrestled control away from me on her turn, using her own decision making to pop a heal or attack without my command. These can be cured for high sums of gold in your township but most players choose to abandon the character.

Thankfully, retreating is a possible option. You don’t get the high payout quest rewards but you do keep everything you acquired in the dungeon itself. If you made it past 80% of the dungeon but all your people are at 10% health, one of them is bleeding, one of them is paranoid, it might just be better to flee, take your earnings, and send some of the worse-off characters on their way. I’ve probably abandoned quests more often than I’ve completed them, but I’m still making some progress in the game and that’s what matters. Now, I’m a fairly casual scrub player. I like my games fun and easy if at all possible but there is something positively enchanting about Darkest Dungeon. The combat is incredibly intense, and I can feel my heart skip a beat every time I see “dodge” or “miss” pop up. Every time my people don’t land a blow, it opens me up for another attack and that frightens me to a decent degree. The game’s tone is dreadful but it works in its favor with its highly stylized... style. I just like looking at the game, which is impressive because I find myself thinking about it when not playing it. Due to the steam summer sale, I also was able to get Watch Dogs 2, but this game is drawing more of my attention than any triple A game at the moment and that’s always a good sign.

If I had a complaint, it’s probably the same complaint you might have seen while skimming over other reviews. The random number generator aspect of the game can be seen as a detriment. People like to progress, and we also like having our decisions matter in the grand scheme of things. Other times, it feels hopeless. I once equipped a character with a -25% stress trinket only to have a very harsh fight with a Madman enemy constantly unload high stress on the entire team before I was able to take him out. It’s moments like that, that give me the sense of “Why did I even bother?” 

I do believe that’s how some of this is supposed to work. Retreating from dungeons more often than completing them makes it all the more satisfying when I am actually able to complete one and see that sweet, juicy 4500 gold enter my theoretical bank account.

Still, there can be a bit of that old “nothing I do matters” feeling that creeps up while you play. I certainly get that from time to time but I’m doing my best with some of the easiest settings cranked up and I find myself enjoying the experience anyway. Would I recommend this game? As usual it depends on what you look for in games. It has plenty to offer for challenge seekers, with a lot of gear management, loot, and town upgrading to cater to any RPG lovers. The general consensus across the internet can be very mixed, with every update having a vocal outcry on things being too easy or too hard. I wasn’t there during many of these updates, I’ve come in two years later into their development and I’m probably experiencing one of the most refined versions of this game and as it is, I’m enjoying it. I’m as surprised as anyone.

[yuri-cocaine]

Fill in about your muse:

➥ What is your character’s full name?: Yun Khatayin

➥ Do they have any brothers or sisters?:  She has a big brother called Khaishan, and a little sister called Altani. ➥ What kind of eyes do they have?:  Green with a lighter green limbal ring. ➥ What kind of hair do they have?: Dark blue hair either kept in twintails or in a bun.  ➥ What is their complexion like?:  Fair with very faint freckles across her nose.  ➥ What body type are they?: Pretty tall and buff! She’s really tall for an Auri woman. The ingame model doesn’t show it but Yun is almost six feet. ➥ What is listening to their voice like?: Her voice is a monotone drawl. She does have a high, clear singing voice. ➥ What do they hate most about themselves?: Her inability to guarantee the safety of those she cares for.  ➥ Do they have a favorite quote?: “It’s free food.” ➥ What sort of music do they enjoy?: Bawdy sailor shanties and Xaela throat singing. ➥ Have/would they ever cheat(ed) on a partner?:  Nope ➥ Have they been cheated on by a partner?: Nope ➥ Have they ever lost someone close to them?:  She lost her father to illness and some hunting partners to wild beasts. ➥ What is their favorite sound?: The roar of the tide, seagulls, birdsong, goat bells clanking, the wind blowing through trees. ➥ Are they judgmental of others?: Yes. She judgmental of everyone and on the most arbitrary grounds. ➥ Have they ever been drunk?: No. Yun’s alcohol tolerance is insane. You will never see her drunk even after the tenth mug of who-knows-what. ➥ What are they like when they stay up all night?: Very hungry and very mean. ➥ Have they ever been arrested?: She was arrested the first day she came to Limsa Lominsa for accidentally starting a tavern brawl in the Drowning Wench. She was released on account of being foreign. ➥ What evokes strong memories for them?: Pine forests and dragons flying in the sky. ➥ What do they do on rainy days?: Splashing in the biggest puddles and taking her korpokkur kid out for a walk. ➥ What religion are they?: She doesn’t really believe in much other than three square meals a day and good strong drink. ➥ What word do they overuse the most?: uh idk ➥ What do they wear to bed?: The Auri hempen set, dyed banana yellow. ➥ Do they have any tattoos or piercings?: Her horns are pierced despite the process being really painful but who cares. Piercings are badass in her opinion. ➥ What type of clothing are they most comfortable in?: She likes clothing that she could be comfortable fighting in. She also likes outfits with lots of pockets and pouches for her various knives and poisons. ➥ What is their most disliked food?: Oranges.  ➥ Do they have any enemies?: Pirates, Garleans, Ishgardian bigots, Sahagin, kobolds, all manner of elite marks, L’lakshai’s mammets, Aoife’s fat cat, Elliot Cadieux (for being a snob), the titanic sawfish, etc. ➥ What does their writing look like?: Illegible chicken scratch ➥ What disgusts them?: Injustice, Ishgard, having to read really long books, boiled vegetables Tagged by: @emilyplaysgames!!

Tagging: @goldbasar, @arufinos, @aethercurrent, @uldahnwitch, @yaianse,  @thefateofivalice, @etoilesmourantes and uh anyone else who hasn’t been tagged yet!