#heracles initiative stuff

[thesungod]

it just makes me sad bc i don't want to be a hater or pin everything on the queer author- i've heard their other books are good!- but also a lot of the stuff i dislike about tsats is explicitly stated to be oshiro's writing/influence. and they talked about how much research they did on the other books for this! but. the hades dream sequence. nico claiming to not have dream powers. the tartarus flashback overall was bad and underwhelming, but also nico saying he missed his "dear friend jason" even though they'd literally never met atp. picking the stymphalian birds for will bc "heracles killed them with archery"- yeah, but in that exact same myth he initially keeps them at bay by making a lot of noise! guess who has a sonic whistle

it’s honest to God embarrassing that r*ck and m*rk claimed to have reread the books for this mess.

i said so much about the Ha*des scene because it’s the biggest offense for me but all the sequences you mentioned are pretty terrible too.

“his dear friend Jason” give me a break😭😭😭😭

i genuinely have no idea how they managed to get such a product out. it’s so incoherent with previously established lore, badly written and (the worst thing) NOT funny or entertaining at all!!! it had the christ on a bike audacity to be a boring fucking book too!! that’s insane!!!!

and the way we were accused of not knowing how to have fun and taking shit too seriously for not liking it like girl, it’s a verbose, unedited, slow, confusing mess. what fun.

i remember i received so many asks complaining about it in May that i had to put a stop to it at one point because I didn’t want my pj*o blog to be a t*sa*ts hate page but god they (the writers) made it hard.

[kururu418]

Triton and Pandae Quotes

Triton 

“So, you still worried about your baby sis huh? She’s almost an adult ya know. You can’t keep babying her forever,” Triton said, snickering as he walked alongside his cousin.

Zagreus grunted. “There’s more and more titans popping up lately. She might think I’m being overprotective, but you know as well as I do how dangerous they can be,” he said, narrowing his eyes. 

“Yeah, but I also know there are exceptions to the rule. I mean, look at my ma’s side of the family.” 

“That’s different. You’re not one of them, so don’t try to pull that crap….” 

Triton smirked and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Ah relax a little. I know you’re just trying to protect your family, I can respect that. If my girls were in trouble I’d be the same way. If anything goes down let me know. You’re family too after all,” he said.  

~~~~

Dai Tai blinked as she noticed the slightest of tugs on her hair. “What the-?” She looked down and saw Triton was braiding a part of her hair. “Um, excuse me?” she asked. 

Triton waved a hand. “Sorry, sorry. I was bored. And it's a force of habit, ya know. I got three girls after all, and one of them wants to try out all these hairstyles the mortals are doing and junk,” he said. “Hey, ya wanna see pictures of them?” 

“Ugh…” 

Before she could answer, he formed a bubble in his hands, and a image of three young girls popped up. “There they are! That’s Triteia, that one is Pallas, that one is Calliste! Ain’t they adorable? Pallas is the one who wants to try out all those new hairstyles. The mortals sure know how to make stuff kids like, don’t they?” 

Dai Tai smiled nervously. She had a feeling she should have politely refused when she had the chance.  

~~~~

Triton narrowed his eyes down at the young boy, a scowl on his face. “So, you’re the little one my youngest has been seeing visions of huh?” he said, kneeling down to get a better look at Dusk. Even crouched down the tall god still loomed over Dusk. “What’s your name, boy?” 

Dusk raised an eyebrow. “You… there’s no way you don’t already know my name.” 

“You sassin me boy?” Triton asked. “Don’t go thinking just because you’re Queen’s Titania’s kid you can go getting all cozy with my daughter.” 

Dusk turned and began walking off. “Mom, there’s some weird guy here.”

“You running off to your mama?! What kind of man are you?!” 

Pandae

“Big brother Asterossa. I’ve come to Mewni in search of worthy opponents. Tell me, are you children of age yet? Surely they’re old enough to have-” 

“No,” Astro said, cutting her off. 

She looked surprised. “By why?” 

“Because if I let you fight you’re going to go overboard.” Maybe not with Dorado, but most certainly with Lacerta. And lord help them if she ended up coming across Scent. “I’ll spar with you later if I have the time.” 

She was silent for a moment, but then pouted and looked away childishly. “You never have the time. You're always too busy doing kingly duties.” This was just like when she was younger. Taiyo always had Umbriel to play with, but Astro was almost always too busy to hang out with her.

Astro sighed. “Tartarus help me… come get your child Heracles…” 

~~~~

Pandae raised her club and pointed it up at the beast. “Heed my warning creature! You stand before the mightiest of Heracles children! Relent now and you will be spared! Proceed and you will meet a most unfortunate end!” she shouted. 

The creature just roared back in response, and Apollo chuckled from beside her. “I don’t think it can understand your words,” he said. 

She raised her club up higher. “Then perhaps it will understand my club!” She charged forward, ready to attack, while Apollo shook his head. She was certainly an energetic one. But he could’t find himself to dislike her despite her usual choice in company. 

She was, after all, a perfect combination of beauty and power. 

~~~~

“Are there any heroic deeds or labors that you need from me, Hera?” Pandae asked. She had initially been distrustful of the blonde. Partly because she had taken her aunt Asterope’s spot as supreme goddess, and partly because she had a great dislike of the old Hera. But she had since learned that the woman was quite nice. 

Hera smiled back at her. “Not today dear. Please just keep an eye out for any trouble though,” she said. The girl had a strong sense of justice, much like her father. And she always wanted to be useful. 

Pandae pounded her chest. “Rest assured, no enemy will break through our gates while I am here!” she said.

[fancyfade]

Wonder Woman 1987 runs ranked

Greg Rucka's Run (#195-226) - This is my absolute favorite run on WW1987. Rucka's got a good handle on Diana's character, and is very good at creating plots with lots of threads that are interesting to read. I think the way that Greek Gods are re-imagined (except for Hera and Zeus) reflects well in other DC-universe stuff at this time with regards to magic, which is the idea that old gods change with humanity to survive.

Eric Luke's (#139-159) - creator of devastation, my all time favorite wonder woman villain!!!!! So much good just for that! And we also have Artemis training cassie, what is not to love?

George Perez's run (#1-62) and Messner-Loeb's (#63-100) - these two both have bits I really like and bits I really don't. they're this high, because the fact that they each ran for so many issues means that the good parts outweigh the bad parts, and it's easier to forget about those. George Perez does very strong worldbuilding for the Amazon's and Diana's initial cast of supporting characters, Messner-Loebs introduces some very fun plots and characters (like Space Era Diana, Donna Milton, and Artemis).

Philip Jimenez's (#164-188) - Jimenez's run I feel bad putting down here, though I did like it. It started very strong, and I loved the way he retconned the worst bits of Messner-Loeb's Hippolyte. With Hippolyte's actions in the contest no longer being tied to Messner-Loebs trying to make her partially responsible for what Heracles did, and almost vicitm blaming her, it made it feel much less just 'pile on hippolyte' to see the next part of what he addressed, which is the way that the amazons of bana mighdall were treated as second class citizens. the de-establishing of the monarchy was great. in general, my only complaint about jimenez's run is i feel like a lot of the plotlines are rushed, and we don't really have a lot of time to see the cool worldbuilding stuff he was setting up. And Villainy Inc was boring and wasted time we otherwise could have spent on the interesting worldbuilding stuff.

John Bryne's (#101-136) - reading this run was like pulling teeth. It was so boring. the only positive part is that he created Cassie. For that he ges one (1) right.

I did genuinely enjoy all of these runs except for Bryne's, it's just a ranking of which one I remember enjoying more.

[dootznbootz]

hades 2 anon again!

first of all i want to clarify an important detail: hades 2 gives you two paths, unlike hades 1 which only gives you one. initially the objective is to go down, passing through the underworld until reaching the house of hades where chronos is. however at a certain point it's said that olympus needs reinforcements, so the path to the surface is unblocked. there you pass through land and subordinate ships of chronos to reach olympus. it's possible to do either of the two paths. of the characters i'm going to mention:

scylla: is in the underworld, she's the second boss on this path

circe: is on the surface, she's a helpful character on this path

heracles: is on the surface, he's an interaction character similar to Thanatos (who will start attacking the monsters. other characters like this are icarus on the surface and artemis in both paths. nemesis also does this sometimes)

polyphemus: is on the surface, he's the first boss on this path

hecuba

i had forgotten to mention it but a post reminded me of this: hades is going with the version of the myth in which hecuba was transformed into a dog and became one of the dogs that follow hecate. in the game hecate has gale (weasel. In the myths she was also human before) and hecuba (black dog). and i know the dog is hecuba because mel uses the names gale and hecuba when asking ody where they went since they're not at the crossroads like they normally are, to which he replies that they're patrolling. it's been a while since this interaction and hecuba an gale still haven't returned to my game. it kind of made me think how weird it must be to have been a mortal from the trojan war, to look at hecate's dog and know that that's the trojan queen...

ody and heracles

on the surface,at one point you meet heracles (he's not in a fighting chamber). he's kind of harsh with you because he says he's already dealing with things on the surface but he doesn't do anything with you. at one point, while you are in a chamber to fight monsters, he appears and starts fighting and killing monsters. the bonus of this is that whoever kills the most monsters earns the most coins so you have to be quick to get coins. i managed to kill more than him the first time so i don't know what Heracles' reaction is if initially you are slower than him. anyway, if you're faster he will recognize you as a companion and the next time he appears, he will treat you well and will be satisfied that at least someone else is concerned about the situation on the surface

i'm telling you this because 2 or 3 interactions with heracles later, mel finally told ody about seeing heracles on the surface. ody talks about how he's really famous, half god and half human, and stuff like that. mel talks about how the gods entrusted the surface to heracles, in a way that implies that even though hermes asked her to go to olympus, they don't seem to trust her to do it. ody assures her that the gods are likely just being cautious. afterward he tells mel to be careful with heracles. i don't know if ody ending the dialogue this way is just him worrying about mel, if it's because of certain worrying events in heracles' history, if it's because heracles is kind of an unknown in the big scheme or if heracles causes damage in the player in his interventions. i'm in doubt whether heracles does damage or not because most of the time it's a bit frantic and i don't pay attention to whether the damage is because heracles appeared out of nowhere with a club hitting the ground or if it's because of the various monsters following me

in this dialogue it implies that heracles isn't a deity in hades, as mel mentions that he's supposed to be dead and ody kind of responds in a "oh he's heracles! not even death stops him" vibe. as far as i've played heracles is the only known mortal hero that ody has mentioned

ody, achilles and pat

some people were hoping for interactions between ody, pat and achilles...but well, i have news guys! after i went far into the underworld a few times (i haven't defeated chronos yet) and interacted with hades (who, as shown in the trailer, is actually trapped) at one point mel dreamed as if she were hades at the moment the underworld was invaded by chronos. that's actually what happened because when talking to hades he confirms it, so let's go:

hades and hecate are in his room talking about precautions. afterwards, hecate disappears. i imagine she was splitting into three and taking baby mel, sleeping hypnos and the family portrait (in a dialogue i had with hecate before she mentions that she only took these 3 because her form is triple)

hades leaves the room and right in the hallway nyx is frozen in time. he tries to wake her up but he can't

hades walks to the hall where he received souls and finds chronos seated on his throne and characters frozen in front of him, in attack or alarm positions.

these characters are: persephone, dusa, zagreus, meg, thanathos, and...well, achilles

there is a dialogue between hades and chronos but... returning to ody and achilles thing! the point is: achilles and ody won't be interacting anytime soon since achilles is actually also frozen by chronos and probably only has a chance to appear if mel saves him (something that isn't yet possible in early acess). i think the only possible way achilles, as a house guard, could have escaped is if he had been in pat's glade at the time but he wasn't. as for pat...i genuinely don't know where he is. there is no mention of him and he appears neither in the crossroads nor in the underworld. so i don't know about interactions between him and ody. to be fair, i also don't know what happened to orpheus since he doesn't appear frozen in the flashback and he was also a house employee. maybe he was caught too and they just didn't show it (after all they didn't show what happened to meg's sisters either) or he was in eurydice's chamber. patroclus wasn't a house character so i imagine he wasn't caught, but he didn't show any sign as far as i played. as previously mentioned, so far ody has only mentioned his shipmates (when talking about his conquests and about scylla eating some of his men) and heracles, so i don't know if he even mentions other heroes.

polyphemus and ody

i had dialogues about ody and polyphemus but they're basic lines like recognizing that polyphemus is blind because of ody and that he has a habit of eating people. nothing specifically noteworthy yet

siren, scylla and ody

guys...i remembered that there is a version of the myth in which amphitrite is the one who transforms scylla into a monster. since scylla didn't say the name of who transformed her i don't know which version the game is going with, although i still think it's more likely to be circe. i suppose i'll have to visit circe more often in hopes of her saying something

scylla is the lead singer in a band with sirens and is kind of bossy. when mel and ody talk about them, ody mentions the difficulty of hearing the sirens' song and wants to know if it doesn't affect mel, but mel responds that it doesn't affect her. mel also says she thinks the music is bad although ody describes the sirens' singing as something that attracts people. so the conclusion they reach is that: as scylla is a bit bossy she probably takes up too much space and overshadows the sirens and that's why mel doesn't think the singing is a big deal

circe

as for firce, she knew mel before and mel didn't know that she was kind of "on watch" on the surface. but hecate explains that selene, usually the "eye" of hecate, avoids the sea domains. then hecate asked circe to watch the sea from aeaea. circe accepted so that's why she stays on an island and waits for mel to give her some magical upgrade. she's quite nice to mel but doesn't seem to be very interested in people and prefers to spend time with her animals. the game already has weapon aspects, and one of them is the aspect of circe for the witch's staff (it's nice!! i tested)

more

and the other thing is that in hades 1 you repaired that bar in the house, and after that you met house employees there. these characters were either alone or were talking to other characters like meg talking to dusa. in hades 2 you also open a space to rest, but so far i've only seen ody use that and just one time. he was talking to the shades about his achievements when alive. i haven't seen ody talking to any character on screen other than that. i know he talked to nemesis because she complained that i vented to him about her (because she's really jealous of mel lol they had chemistry though) since he lectured her for it (i'm finding funny the idea of ody going to the goddess of divine retribution and saying god knows what about the relationship she has with the daughter of hades and persephone)...but, for example, i haven't seen that moros and ody's dialogue yet and that's why i haven't mentioned this yet

i got a slight spoiler in the steam discussions that apparently after giving ody enough nectar, the game establishes that the relationship between him and mel is something like an older brother but i don't know which is true yet. i'm going to have to give him more nectar (i'll be honest guys...ody is cool but nemesis is very hot and sounds like a possible girlfriend in a meg-style...i really wanted to bath with her and such. so yeah, i may have used nectar on her...even more so because she's a little slower to accept things than moros and ody)

Dear anon, don't change your gameplay just to tell me stuff!!! I love hearing these things but if you want to be with Nemesis then go ahead!!!

I always appreciate you sharing! :D

[pagan-sloth-witch]

It’s like 3AM

That site was a dead end. They weren’t lying about Inuit stories of humanoid shadow creatures, but that’s the only thing they gave a source for that I could find

They mention Greek daemons, which are a thing, but “shadow daemons” don’t seem to be a thing? Maybe I’m missing something. I’ve seen serpents, but nothing about them being mysterious shadowy black shapes

They mention Hecate having a daemon, which caught my eye initially, but they also had said that Athena helped Heracles when a shadowy daemon was trying to harm him or something, but I couldn’t find anything on that, so again, I doubt the Hecate story. I’ve looked into her, and I haven’t heard about daemons? Unless it’s just different terminology?

I need some sleep, maybe I’ll revisit this with fresh eyes tomorrow. Maybe I’ll ask Mother Lilith about it. Or Hecate? I’ll post updates if anything notable happens, I’ll keep notes and stuff written down about it in my grimoire

So lately I had this weird thing happen where I’ll see a little black thing out of the corner of my eye, so I look over to it and it scurries behind something and it’s gone. Both times it’s been the size of a bunny, and has been all black. Neither time I was wearing my glasses, and I’m nearsighted, so that could be affecting things. So I’m curious, has this happened to anyone else?

Some more details: Where I live, squirrels, bunnies, and birds are most common in our backyard. Rarely we get foxes, groundhogs, and cats. We do have black birds, but to my knowledge, we don’t have any other all black animals. The squirrels are greyish, and the bunnies are brown, with one albino squirrel

It seemed to move like a cat the first time, and it seemingly disappeared behind a tree. But eventually I thought maybe it was a squirrel in shadow and it went up the tree, which was why it didn’t show up on the other side of the tree

The second one was behind the shed, and it was like a little black thing, it reminded me of a rabbit. I was closer to this one, and it seemed to go under the shed, because it vanished again. I turned the corner around a bush and it was gone

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Am I just seeing things? Or could it just be a black animal?

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #278: The Dioscuri

alright, let’s get the obvious jokes out of the way. “you were expecting Jojo, but it was me!” “muda muda muda”, something about “za warudo”... yeah, I think we’re good.

Now that that’s out of our system, here’s the build for the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux. Don’t expect me to remember which one’s which, it barely matters anyway when they’re joined at the hip.

These two are Tempest Clerics for a little bit of backing from Zeus, as well as Hunter Rangers for extra fighting style and attacks. And of course they’re... Eldritch Knight Fighters? That must be a typo. I mean obviously they’re echo knights, right? Nnnnope, definitely Eldritch. We’ll get to the bottom of this in the build breakdown.

If you want to read that breakdown, it’s below the cut. Otherwise, check out their character sheet over here!

Next up: I’ve heard of “thick skinned”, but this is ridiculous!

Race, Background, and Piety

One of them’s a god, one of them’s human, together that balances out to a demigod, a.k.a. an Aasimar. A Protector Aasimar specifically to guide sailors on stormy seas. Or to fly around kicking ass, either or. You get Darkvision so you can see which way you’re going in a storm, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and Radiant damage which... isn’t how lightning works, last time I checked. On the plus side your Healing Hands gives you a little more tenacity by letting you heal your level in HP once a day, and you learn the Light cantrip to lead the way for others. Also when you hit level three your Radiant Soul will light up, letting you transform for a minute by spending a bonus action. You can deal extra radiant damage once a turn equal to your level, plus you gain a flying speed. Yes, I’m using the Volo’s version of Aasimar because it’s stronger, die mad about it WotC.Oh, you also get +2 Wisdom and +1 Strength.

“God” isn’t a background, but fortunately you had a day job on the Argo so Sailor is a pretty solid backup. That gives you Athletics and Perception proficiency.

I know we made Zeus Heliod in Europa’s build, but you’re more on his “zap the unworthy” side than she is so we’re picking up on Keranos’s Klironomia instead. You gain some when you solve puzzles, smite the foolish humans, plan for threats, and build temples in his name. You lose some when you make rash decisions or give into rage, subvert wise actions, or fail to prepare for a situation. If you gather up 3+ points of piety, you can add 1d6 Lightning damage to your weapon attack Intelligence modifier times a day. At 10+, you can re-roll a failed wisdom or intelligence save once a day (great to avoid getting lost). At 25+, you have advantage on initiative checks to move faster than most people. And finally at 50+, you can increase your Intelligence or Wisdom by 2, and for once either is a good pick.

Ability Scores

Number one is Strength, it’s almost like you’re as strong as two people. After that is Constitution, a big part of your fighting style is just never getting tired. I would’ve gone for the Deft Explorer feature specifically for that, but moving faster than light is high level stuff, who knew. Your Dexterity is also pretty solid, since tripping at light speed probably would kill you. You’re not particularly dumb or smart, so your Intelligence is just okay. Your Wisdom is once again torn in two directions. You see good, but you get goaded easily. Er, one of you does. Regardless, we need it for multiclassing so we can’t dump it too much. That spot’s reserved for Charisma. The whole “siscon” thing y’all got going on is creepy, and it’s not like you’re a huge fan of other people anyway.

Class Levels

Fighter 1: Starting off as a fighter gets you a little more HP as well as proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves to stay on the ship. Heracles is driving that thing, it’s a miracle nobody’s been flung off yet. You also get Intimidation for the avenger side and Survival for the wait-maybe-I-dont-want-to-kill-everyone-around-me side. You also get a Fighting Style, and the only way to defend yourself and kinda-sorta your sister is to pick up a Superior Technique, specifically Parry. Once per short rest you can spend your reaction upon taking a melee hit to reduce the damage by 1d6 plus your dexterity modifier. Defense requires armor, which you clearly don’t wear, and Mariner prevents you from using a shield, which is what I assume that floaty disc thing is supposed to be. You definitely have the strength for heavy armor though, I’d highly recommend using that instead in your home game. Also you can use a Second Wind as a bonus action to chill out with your sibling for a bit for some extra health.

Fighter 2: Second level fighters can use an Action Surge to take a second action on their turn once a short rest. I mean. There’s two of you. Just kinda makes sense, don’t it?

Fighter 3: Okay, here’s the part where I defend Eldritch Knight. Echo Knight’s great, I love it and all its flavor but it’s all about being in two spaces at once. The Dioscuri don’t do that. Castor’s so over-protective they’re never seen more than a few feet apart. Medb summoned expendable lovers to protect her. Bonny and Read had vastly different fighting styles. Castor and Pollux practically fight as a single unit, so they’d barely use any of the Echo Knight’s features. Plus there’s a late-game feature for Eldritch Knight that works really well for moving faster than light, and uses less setup than what echos could do. For right now though, they get Weapon Bonds. You can bond up to two weapons to you over a short rest, and while bonded you can’t be disarmed against your will, and you can summon them to your hands as a bonus action, one at a time. Technically a shield isn’t a weapon, but it’s cool so I’d allow it. Boom, now you can summon Pollux’s longsword and Castor’s shield...thing wherever you are. You can also cast Spells using your intelligence modifier. That’s not good though, so most of these are gonna be the kind that don’t care about it. Booming Blade uses your weapon attacks so that’s fine. And if you want to protect your sister use Mage Armor to make her AC 13 plus your dexterity modifier or Shield to add 5 to your AC for a round. We’ll also pick up Lightning Lure for some klironomia-free lightning, and Catapult to make shield-throwing a reasonable tactic. Just make sure to get it back again.

Fighter 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Dexterity for stronger parries and armor, and grab a point for Wisdom too so we can multiclass. You can also Absorb Elements to be even deadlier on a storm-slicked deck. How cool would it be to parry lightning and then hit someone with it next turn? Very, that’s how cool it would be.

Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack. Again, two of you. Two attacks. Makes sense.

Cleric 1: With our melee settled, it’s time to diversify. With the help of Zeus you become a Tempest cleric, getting a second set of Spells (check the PHB to figure out the slots you get from multiclassing) that you cast and prepare using your Wisdom. Pick up Guidance to help sailors find their way, Resistance to beef up your own saves, and Thamaturgy to let your godly side loose. You also get first level spells like Bless to help with long-term journeys, Guiding Bolt to empower your allies while smiting fools, and Inflict Wounds for an option for Pollux’s sword even if you can’t summon it.

Cleric 2: Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once a short rest, choosing one of two options. Turn Undead is the generic option, sending undead creatures running if they fail a wisdom save. The reason we’re here though is for Destructive Wrath, letting you max out the damage of any sort of lightning or thunder damage you deal. Right now your biggest options are Booming Blade, but once we get some save-dependent stuff this will help keep the damage up even if someone makes their save.

Ranger 1: One last stop before we head back to fighter, I swear. As a ranger, you get proficiency in Nature to tell when it’s gonna be stormy. You also have a Favored Enemy (Like humans) that you’ll have advantage on tracking and recalling information about. I don’t know why they gave a whole class hateboners, but w/e. We’re also finally picking up Natural Explorer for all sorts of travel bonuses while moving on the Coast. And hopefully the ocean too. This gives you expertise in all intelligence and wisdom skills while on the sea, you can ignore difficult terrain while sailing, you can’t get lost, you remain alert while performing other tasks, you can sail stealthily at a normal pace while alone (idk why that wouldn’t work with friends? maybe Herc’s just loud.), and you can fish twice as effectively. There’s also something about tracking, but... it’s water.

Ranger 2: Second level rangers get another Fighting Style, and Dueling will put a little power in Pollux’s arms giving her a +2 to damage done with one-handed weapons. Since her other hand is taken up by your shield, this works out so her longsword’s just as deadly as it would be in two hands. You also get another another spell list which also uses your wisdom. Been a while since we’ve had a spell list this convoluted, huh? Hunter’s Mark adds extra damage to attacks you do to a specific creature, and Longstrider makes you a little bit faster without concentration. We’ll get there, I promise.

Ranger 3: At third level you become a Hunter, turning everyone around you into Hunter’s Prey. Specifically we’re picking up the Horde Breaker option, so you can make an extra attack once per turn as long as you target a different creature than the one you just hit. To make that easier, you can cast Zephyr Strike to avoid opportunity attacks for up to a minute, and during that time you can give yourself advantage on your next attack, dealing extra damage on its hit and increasing your walking speed by 30′. It’s pretty hard to block light, and everyone you’re killing is about to figure that out first-hand! Also Primeval Awareness lets you spend a spell slot to find weird creatures nearby. I’m sure that’ll be useful on the Argo. Running into Scylla and Charybdis would suck.

Fighter 6: Finally back in fighter! For your next ASI pick up the War Caster feat so you can cast all those cool spells you just got without needing an empty hand. You also get advantage on concentration saves and you can use spells as opportunity attacks if they target one creature.

Fighter 7: Seventh level Eldritch Knights can cast War Magic, so if you spend your action casting a spell you can spend your bonus action making a weapon attack. Except not, since being a Horde Breaker lets you make an extra attack even on your bonus action. Synergy is the name of the game here. Also you can cast Gust of Wind. In order to guide sailors, they first have to be moving. It’ll also push creatures away from your beloved sister, and can disperse gases or vapors and small flames.

Fighter 8: Eighth level fighters get another ASI, and let’s bump up that Strength score for harder hits. And for those of you really sold on the Echo Knight thing we’ll also pick up Mirror Image for ya. Admittedly four Dioscuri is a bit too many, but every time one of the fakes gets hit they poof away so it’ll fix itself eventually.

Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, so you can re-roll a failed save once a day. I’d save this for saves you’re good at, but preventing failed death saves is always a good idea.

Fighter 10: A tenth level eldritch knight can make Eldritch Strikes, giving creatures you hit disadvantage on their next save against your spells. You also pick up Mage Hand since you sadly only have two hands as one person and Shatter for a bit of thunder. The lightning is coming, promise.

Fighter 11: Eleventh level fighters get an Extra Attack, so now you have three per action, up to six with action surge, and up to seven if you can pull off a horde breaker. You also pick up some St. Elmo’s Fire with Continual Flame. You can technically make this come out of literally any object you touch, so setting a whole ship on fire would be a really neat effect.

Fighter 12: That odd wisdom score’s been bugging me, so use this ASI to round up your Wisdom thanks to the Resilient feat. Now you’re proficient in wisdom saves too as a freebie.

Fighter 13: Thirteenth level fighters get another use of Indomitable per day, but more importantly you get third level spells like Lightning Bolt! Upcast this with your fourth level spell slot and use Destructive Wrath, and you’ve got a guaranteed 60 Lightning damage at anyone who fails their dex save!

Fighter 14: Use your last ASI to bump up your Intelligence for more electrifying attacks and stronger spell saves for your lightning bolts. You also learn one last spell, Ashardalon’s Stride. You get 20′ more movement, don’t provoke opportunity attacks by moving, and moving within 5′ of a creature or object deals fire damage to it once a turn. It’s a shame we can’t just call it lightning damage, but lightning does set stuff on fire, so it kind of works!

Fighter 15: With our final level you can push yourselves past your limits and move faster than light with an Arcane Charge. Immediately before or after using your Action Surge you can teleport up to 30′ feet away.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Thanks to your spells, speed, and flight, you have tons of options for slipping in and out of combat at will. Pick your fights wisely and you’ll always have the advantage.

You can also deal consistent damage with a nearly-capped attack modifier and a pretty consistent four attacks per turn. Toss in a hunter’s mark and you’ve got solid output on a single target, or you can use your Horde Breaker and Ashardalon’s Stride to deal damage over a large number of creatures each turn.

While you can’t rely on your spells with the limited amount you get, they give you just enough variety in a fight to keep yourself from having any one glaring weakness. Roast flying enemies with spells, or fight them up close with swordplay. Protect yourself from spells with Absorb Elements, then shield yourself from weapon attacks with a solid Parry.

Cons:

Multiclassing really hurt this build with the stat requirements, which gives us a couple weaknesses. None of your spells are that strong, and without putting on heavy armor your AC and HP aren’t quite high enough to fight on the front lines without relying heavily on your ability to bounce out of combat, which requires your spells or Action Surge, both of which are limited use abilities.

You also come packing low charisma and no proficiency in charisma skills, so don’t be surprised when people don’t warm up to you after you threaten to murder them over and over again, Castor.

Your various features don’t work perfectly together, giving you some mixed signals. Horde Breaker wants you to fling yourself headfirst into a mob of enemies, but again that makes it hard to escape without spending limited resources. It also doesn’t sync well with Hunter’s Mark (ironically). And despite Natural Explorer boosting your intelligence and wisdom skills we’re not really a skill build to capitalize on that. Shocker, the variety build doesn’t have much focus.

[therkalexander]

Is it true that after the initial myth of Persephone's abduction and return (HHtD), there are no more myths about her on Olympus and/or with Demeter? While she appears in many myths as the Dread Queen of the Underworld (including those of Heracles, Orpheus, Odysseus, Aeneas, Psyche, Theseus and Pirithous, Sisyphus), I cannot remember any about the other half of her year that she spends with her mother. Do a inordinate number of myths just happen to take place in winter?

Quite possibly. I mean, when we’re talking about Persephone’s place in the pantheon it’s pretty clear that her divine function is as Queen of the Underworld. So if a hero’s journey is taking them below then naturally they’ll interact with her.

“Winter” is a Western European transfer of when Persephone was actually in the underworld. For the people of ancient Hellas, she would have been below between the end of June and the beginning of October… the dry, fallow season. And what more, it’s only FOUR dry months between Skirophoros and the Thesmophoria.

I’ve often wondered the same, like, how many of these myths that feature a journey to Domos Haidou actually do take place in that four month span?

Perhaps… perhaps she’s there a little more frequently than just those four months. Perhaps she goes to visit. I often wonder if one were to do a really really deep read of the hero’s journeys to the underworld if they happen in all seasons. For instance, are there cues and clues about weather, plant availability, mentions of festivals, etc. that give time stamps outside of the dry season?

However, as I said above, any of these clues would be largely irrelevant. The HHtD tells the story of the Thesmophoria more than it gives a definitive span of time in which Persephone spends in the underworld. And in the rest of the mythos her story is pretty clear as the queen of the dead, and as the intercessionary force between life and death.

As far as my fictional work is concerned, there’s a lot of stuff involved in this very question that I can’t spoil, most of it from the end of The Good Counselor. But I do delve partway into how Persephone’s story changes over time and how she seems to be in the Underworld at more variable points in the year.

You’ll be able to read it on March 22. Check my website for where to get the paperback and ebook.

[dwollsadventures]

The second part of a request from TheLOAD from... a while back. The initial one was the Nix/Nokk/Knucker piece. This one took me a little longer for a few reasons. Mostly school reasons. And writer's block reasons,  which is why this is taking the place of the monthly preview. And because, for research, I had to re-read the entirety of Drakon by Daniel Ogden for information. For those not used to my pedantry, this is not an "in-canon" family tree of the Greek dragons, such as you might see in those huge Greek mythology family tree pictures that are on the internet (I've got a few in my favorites from waaaaayyyy back as well). Rather, this is a way of showing how the concept of the dragon came about throughout time and how other beings are related through those branching lines. Of course this is presented as a lot more neat than it probably should be. If it were truly accurate it would have interconnected lines all over the place and obscure the little lizards. Before we talk about what's on the tree let's talk about what's not on it. Though Odgen talks about every (and I mean every) slightly Draconic being in Greek and Roman mythology, I've opted to include a trimmed down version. Because some, like Medusa and Lamia, I personally do not consider dragons proper, and others like the goddess Keto are relatively obscure and probably only exist to explain the existence of a related being (like the ketea). Creatures like Chimera and Typhoeus are included because, while not usually serpentine or draconic, they are in effect dragons; horrible, vaguely reptilian monsters slain by a hero. Not every individual dragon is depicted, only the ones I thought pertinent to include. (warning: LONG)

To start with, a drakon is a snake. The Greeks used the word to refer to both huge monsters and mundane snakes. Drakon itself is derived from the word dérkomai and is believed to literally mean, "the one who sees". The hypnotizing power attributed to snakes is present in drakons, traditionally given the job of the sleepless guardian of treasure. Going back even further, we see that the drakon comes from two disparate cultural perceptions of snake, each of which is still present in its classical form.

Snake Goddess - One of the native precursors of the Greeks were the Minoans. They had more in common with their Egyptian and Near Eastern neighbors than the Italians and Balkans. From what little we can gather of their culture, it appears the snake was a symbol of the goddess. Whether or not it was any goddess in particular is unknown. This theme survives into ancient Greece, however. Athena often uses snakes as agents when acting with mortals, Hera uses them as well (the twin serpents who attempted to strangle Heracles and the Hydra), and Medea had a chariot pulled by snakes. Earth goddesses in particular are heavily associated with them. Python was a direct product of Gaia, and the snake was a divine symbol of Demeter, who also had a rad snake chariot. Even in mortal women, their dynamic with snakes and dragons is nurturing. Several heroines sing to snakes as their masculine counterparts steal the treasure they guard, fulfilling a nurturing role in comparison to the destructive masculine one. Here the snake is a guardian, a creature of the earth and everything beneath it, including gold and the dead. These dragons are usually not slain, but pacified by the presence of a woman. In addition, the beard is an originally Greek symbol associated with snakes, particularly those connected to the gods. This was quite possibly a signifier of their supernatural status above mundane serpents. The goddess depicted above isn't any one in particular, though her dress does pull from a statue of Athena holding a curled python.

Drakaina - One way in which the snake goddess has survived is in the drakaina. This word is simply the feminine form of drakon, but also encompasses the numerous beings characterized by having the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a drakon. Numerous beings in Greek mythology fit this theme, but the one I've focused on is the Scythian drakaina, a woman who intercepts Heracles during one of his labors and kidnaps some cows. She offers to return the cattle in exchange for a night of intercourse. And then Herc is off and we're told the three sons of that union go on to become kings of great renown in Scythia. Some authors interpret this as a Greek adaptation of a Scythian myth, with one of the key pieces of evidence being that the drakaina's name is Hora, meaning "Seasons". Regardless of whether or not this is a goddess, it is a story where the snake-woman is neither killed nor stolen from, instead given the prestige of being the founder of a line of kings.

PIE Chaos Serpent - From the Proto-Indo-Europeans up North, we get the dragon we're all more familiar with. Serpents of this breed, such as Apep, Tiamat, and Jormungand, are all enormous, destructive creatures allied with darkness and the unforgiving seas. They represent the primordial chaos from what order sprang out of, and often have a hand in trying to return the world to that way. One of the primary themes associated with them is the dragon slayer: a god or hero who fights a dragon to save something, be it a land or treasure or an Ethiopian princess.

Typhoeus - This guy, though significantly more humanoid and giant-like than any others, is the clearest example of a PIE chaos serpent in Greece. It does not get more typical than a giant snake (like) monster fighting a storm god. Typhoeus probably sprung from traditions where he was more serpentine, but gradually added other aspects. Such as his own storm god qualities. In Greece, gods associated with the winds are always given wings, save for Zeus. The two's battle is reflective of a battle between the terrible whirlwinds and lightning strikes and the calmer, helpful rain showers that enable humanity to survive. 

And then we get to the drakon proper. Taking elements from both sides of the tree, the archetypal Greek drakon is an enormous, often monstrous serpent associated with both the underground and the waters in some way. They are agents of gods, most often goddesses, sent to battle heroes or guard priceless treasures. Sometimes they're killed, sometimes they're merely lulled to sleep by a helpful maiden. Rather than breathing fire (which everything from mechanical bulls to horses to giants do), they possess venoms and rows of sharp teeth. Mention of their terrible gazes is often made. This drakon has both a beard and a casque-like crown, common elements in drakon descriptions from Greece. Its face is much less serpentine, being modeled after a clay illustration of the Colchian dragon. This gives is a suitably monstrous look, as if it were being pealed from layers of mud.

Chimera - Despite its odd appearance, the chimera fits the pattern of a dragon terrorizing a countryside and being slain by a plucky hero. The chimera may in fact be the originator of the classical Saint George imagery, where the saint is depicted as towering over a crawling, pitiful dragon. A 3rd century mosaic from Imperial Rome may have started this trend. What makes her (because despite her mane the Chimera is a female) stand apart from all the rest is the sheer strangeness of her form compared to others. Especially the little goat that comes out of her back, like a rider. Which I had to cut for spacing reasons :(

Hydra - Another classical Greek dragon is the multi-headed hydra, who has given its name to a whole genre of creatures with more heads than they ought to have. In addition to having the attributes of a typical Greek drakon, the Hydra has two traits seen in Mesopotamian monsters as well. The first is the amount of heads. Having many heads is not as common in Greece as it is in the Near East, where the idea of an eleven-headed sea serpent pops up numerous times across several different cultures. The second is that the hydra, in its earliest mentioning by Hesiod, is said to have been raised by Hera specifically to combat Heracles. This same tactic is done by a few Mesopotamian gods. In their realm of influence, monsters are pawns of the gods, who send them out to do their bidding on Earth while they lounge in Heaven. Our Hydra may have been a later influence from Greece's neighbors to the East. Also, had to add in the crab that Hera also sends in to help the hydra. If this were a spec bio piece, I would make it a species of crab that evolved to clean the hydra of parasites.

Cetus - Sea monsters such as these are perhaps the furthest from the traditional Greek drakon, while still remaining core parts of the mythology. In form cetoi range from exaggerations of real whales and sharks to dog-headed serpents with frilly fins and ears. Or even animal-headed fish. Because they live underwater, they almost always function as tools of divine vengeance. Kinda hard to steal treasure underwater. Heavy metal tends to sink. While cetus was originally a word for any sea monster, it would eventually become the root of the scientific term cetacean: whales and dolphins.

But the tree doesn't end there. See, even after the culture we recognize as the Ancient Greeks and Romans faded, their dragons still lived on. Medieval Europe, with its glorification of Greco-Roman texts, derived many of their folk beliefs from their predecessors. Or, the people who they liked to imagine were there predecessors.

Draco - The Romans adopted the Greek drakon whole-clothe, like a lot of stuff. The only noteworthy original dragon to come out of the pre-Fall Roman era was the Dacian Draco. The Dacians used the image of a dragon as a standard during war-time, represented as a serpent with the head of a dog. When conquered, the Romans adopted this, possibly beginning the Western tradition of associating dragons with military power and identity. The dog-headed serpent would also survive to the modern period, showing up in descriptions of Balkan lamya. 

Indian Drakon - Here begins a tradition in Greek and Roman literature that claimed that foreign parts were full of large, dangerous, and more interesting fauna than the mundane peninsula they were all stuck on. This is a common theme of humanity in general, where everyone you're not familiar with is teeming with exciting and ancient life. Just look at cryptozoology. India in particular was a favorite of Greek tall tales, being far away for journeys to be rare, but also rich and full of exotic animals. Philostratus populated India with three types of drakons: the lowly marsh, the silver hill, and the dazzling golden mountain drakons. They were typical in every respect, having enormous sizes, red crowns, beards, and guarding treasure beneath the earth. An interesting addition was that they were the mortal enemies of elephants. Being the largest land-animal (in real life), they made perfect prey for these humongous serpents. Feeding on them was fraught with peril, however, as the struggle between reptile and mammal could result in the death of either party, or both. To symbolize the foreignness of the drakon, I drew it as a sort of hybrid between the drakon and the Hindu naga. 

Pliny's Drakon - This drakon is otherwise the same as the Indian, but is the start of another theme. As time went on, philosophers began taking more grounded looks at fantastical animals. While also perpetuating even more outrageous falsehoods. None was more popular than Pliny the Elder, hence the name. He believed that, while foreign drakons might be real, they were much more similar to the snakes of Greece than the monsters of legend. He scoffed at the crowns and hair they were adorned with. His Natural History was the first of many instances where the fantastical elements of the dragon were toned down to seem more palatable to a scientifically minded audience. It also introduced an interest into the life history of the dragons, treating them as real animals with lives beyond the myths. Our dragon up top evolved to resemble pythons, rather than the other way around to what probably happened in real life, where pythons were exaggerated to become dragons.

Then, we get two foreign influences, which would come to shape the modern definition of the European dragon. Christianity's influence cannot be understated here. As Jonathan Evans states in Medieval Folklore, the dragon came to be confused with several other desert animals. In Jewish and early Christian belief, desert animals were themselves demonic, living in inhospitable regions devoid of human life. Later, texts like Revelations would specifically denote dragons as heralds of evil, and even harbingers of Armageddon itself. This is in contrast to the morally neutral Leviathan. In the medieval era, dragons were beings of evil, without a doubt. Bestiaries were full of on the nose fables about how the natural lives of dragons. Like how they could not stand the breath of a panther (a symbol of Jesus Christ). Or how they could not catch birds that nested in the Peridexion tree (the tree being the church and the birds being Christians, who are safe from the devil so long as they do not stray from the arms of God). This is represented by a typical medieval devil, being brightly colorful and made in mockery of God's creations, aka a weird hybrid with a snake coming out of his butt. Then, the Germanic dragon. This is seen especially in Northern and Western Europe. The Germanic dragon is otherwise similar to the Greek, except that it began as a character of evil. Lindworms and other serpents are almost always antagonists, and there is no heroine who saves them from their fate of death. They also had a stronger connection to treasure. Greek dragons guarded treasure as a job, but the very existence of Germanic dragons is tied with their golden hoards. In addition, in Greek myths, getting transformed into an animal is usually the end of one's story. With the Germanic dragon, it's merely the beginning. Transformed dragons act as antagonists and moral lessons wrapped in one; a lesson to all to not be greedy. Germanic dragons, represented by the lindworm, reinforced their role as antagonists and agents of selfish evil.

Which finally brings us to the medieval dragon. In a way, this creature is a mix of everything above. The dragon is an animal and demon in one, simultaneously a figure of evil who spoils the land around them and a living being with its own life and needs. The medieval era also introduces the origin of dragons, showing them as having nests and young, not simply coming into existence out of the earth or sea like before. They also developed some less reptilian traits, like wings and hair. This was probably because of artistic traditions among the monks who wrote bestiaries rather than popular legend, which continued to conflate them with snakes and lizards and even crocodiles. This particular line of the tree would develop a life of its own, spreading far and wide across Europe and eventually reaching beyond the seas. Our modern conceptions of dragons are a whole 'nother story.

[an-unraveling-unknown]

OKSY SO it’s a narrative about an android who saw the fall of the first human race and witness the rise of the second one over millions of millions of years [no I have not gotten the important logistics of this down why do you ask] their name is Locke and THEYRE MY MILLIONS OF YEARFS OLD SILLY-BILLY I AFPRE THEM THEY KIND KF EMBODY CHANGE IN STORIES AND PASSING TIME but that’s besides the point. SO, they were built in an effort to contain all human fear somehow because it was ‘hindering the capabilities of this great race’ and all that, built mainly by a team of four scientists who were very passionate about the project and loved the android immensely but had their reservations about this ideal, and what it meant for both Locke (who who had a different, official name at the time, that roughly translates into ‘Surfiet’) and for the entirety of humans in general. So everyone died and Locke was left alone at the end of the first recorded self-mass extinction event which actually does things to an AI BUT I AM MOVING AWAY FROM THE POINT SO BACKING IT UP, I’m making this narrative VERY focused on myths and legends and stories and folklore from different cultures because I love stories and I said so, and one of the main ones are Greek Myths; Locke has similarities to an older version of Pan, they call the Physical Embodiment of Human Fear ‘Deimos,’ and I’m aiming to work a lot of other things in there as I work out where to run with this concept from here. Well, I had no names for the scientists mentioned above, and this had me in a chokehold for some reason and so I tried to brainstorm some. This proved to be more difficult than initially anticipated, BUT I HAD AN IDEA

“hey, there’s a running theme of stars and stuff in the story [“They glitter in different tongues.” “Every last one of the old constellations have burnt themselves out of the sky without a loving gaze to mourn them” (conversation between another character and Locke)] what if I name them a cluster of four stars that’d be neat”

…

*remembers the keystone constellation* “WAIT A DAMN MINUTE”

FOR THE UNINFORMED, the keystone constellation is essentially part of the larger constellation of Heracles, a greek demigod hero, son of Zeus by questionable means and all that. It is a trapezoid of sorts is composed of four stars, Zeta, Pi, Eta, and Epsilon

I THINK THIS IS VERY COOL THINKING ON MY PART, ONE BECAUSE IT CONNECTS TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY (because they too were fond of the stars and also BIG DEMIGOD GUY) (It should also be noted that the stars thing is also connected to Welsh folklore by extension), TWO BECAUSE THERES A BIG FOCUS ON LOCKE WITH STARS, AND THREE BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE THE CHEESY THING WITH “LOCKE AND KEY” BECAUSE REASONS

WHATS MORE,

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT because one of the beliefs held in this specifc sect of culture that the science team lived within said that once people die, they become a star, AND IN TURN LOCKE WAS PROGRAMMED WITH THIS IN MIND TOO I AM LOOFISNG ITF

hi. hello yes good morning good evening good afternoon greetings and pleasantries IHAD THOUGHTS AND DID A NEAT THING IN MY CURRENT HYPERFIXATION STORY AND I THINK I MAY PERHAPS SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST WITH GLEE IF I DPN’T TALK ABOUT ITF IM VERY PROUD OF MYSELF

[the8thsphynx]

burdened by Knowledge in light of the lostbelts' premise of a multiverse and the solomon movie being released (and invading my thoughts Consequently) that things would have gone SO much better in the timeless temple if we had had river instead of gudao. like can you IMAGINE?? and if your herc was there too?? like 🪦. straight up just 💀. F in the CHAT there is no GOD the best timeline got steamrolled by a 2ft tall shrimp with better pr 🔥😭🔥

asjfkhKAJHKJDHFKHJ I'm so flattered????

I haven't seen the movie for GToT (the fact that the abbreviation for the movie looks like someone crying and shaking their fist is all the summary you need for that chapter) as it hasn't been released here in the US nor subtitled yet, but I remember it fully when I played the chapter in-game in 2019!

IT'S FUNNY YOU SAY THAT because I always theorized in my head if River was the protagonist Master for FGO and if I conducted things within my parameters for that, instead of how I wrote River's story for post-Part-1 for my Roleplay circles!

Heracles/Alcides is pretty versatile regardless of where I put her since she's a Heroic Spirit.

Disclaimer: I fucking love Grand Temple of Time. It is my favorite chapter and I love everything about how it is written and the characterization we get for Solomon/Romani, Goetia, Mash, and Ritsuka. This is just me playing around with how that story would go differently if my OCs were in place of Ritsuka.

(more text below)

So... without giving too much away!!! Uh, if River had been with Team Chaldea since the beginning, Goetia would have been incomplete and probably would have used Lev/Flauros or attempted every avenue throughout the Singularities to convince River to give up saving humanity. Also from the moment they met River would have had a weird attachment to Romani beyond just 'oh you're my acting director now through all this but we're also friends since we like the same stuff hahaha'.

....It's....! A sad but also interesting thing....!

...Also River's Berserk Button would get pressed with Mash's sacrifice because he would have basically adopted her as a little sister by this point. Even moreso when Romani sacrifices himself. So you have a master pyromancer recklessly throwing all hands with a mass of ancient demons. HAHAHAHAHHAHA.

Also having Heracles/Alcides (in-story everyone refers to her as Red Archer/Oeta until she reveals her identity in Babylonia) in the final fight in Solomon's Temple would have had to included intervention from one of the Argonauts or from Artemis (only Greek god available at that time) to kickstart her Spirit Origin and return her to Grand Berserker status, in which case oh man she would have wiped the DECK with Goetia.

For the DnD homebrew campaign I did on this last year, the last time she went Grand Berserker was to fight Actual Hera who had absorbed the whole Greek pantheon and then took over the FUCKING Mooncell. Alcides didn't have an immediate win then only because (and this was in roleplay verse) she contracted Goetia to herself and was passing a good portion of her mana through him to keep him existing and fighting at the same time (he didn't have the Incineration Ritual nor the Ars Paulina to give him energy).

Alcides could hold her own against Goetia, not to mention the narrative I've given there is that over time as a hero she lost her empathy to humanity and at the end of her life was a nihilistic and destructive demigod tyrant, so Alcides would be able to understand and potentially get through to Goetia.

Now I think it's a stretch to say Alcides could have defeated Goetia (esp with Ars Paulina and the Incineration Ritual), but she could have held him/most of his aspects back for a GOOD amount of time without the other Heroic Spirits having to go as hard as they initially did, at least enough to spare Mash or clear the way for Romani sooner.

EXCEPT THAT'S A LIE! I LIED! ALCIDES HAS REINCARNATION PANDORA AHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!

[seeminglyseph]

i ordered food from a movie theatre ‘cause they had cotton candy. I am going to try and sort some stuff out. again. completely beginning tonight with an intent to sort out a basic start to a timeline and maybe some base character traits to spin off of. (sometimes I don’t even keep the initial trait it’s just like a concept to start with.) try and figure out a vague timeline I can bullshit because... Ares is Dionysus’ great grandfather and Hermes was basically his babysitter and Apollo is older than Hermes and like how far do we go to bring in the like... concepts. The fates and children of Zeus that have fewer stories but are concepts and things that happen. Do I want to visually define the Titans from the Olympians? often they’re depicted bigger but also some of them get together with Olympians without question.... idk. there’s so much like....... history before Dionysus was born that sometimes it’s like ‘okay but then how do I explain the whole history of zeus and stuff???’ but I think I’ll slowly have Dionysus figure it out, that’s the most natural way for a story to work...

But I also want to work in stories of other gods ‘cause they are all super interesting so probably I can work stuff in like Apollo talking about Hyacinthus or Eros and Psyche fitting in.. plus since I’m taking liberties I can do stuff like have other myths that should have happened earlier happening at the same time @_@;;;; like during Dionysus’ journey somewhere in the background the labours of Heracles are going on... Since Perseus and Theseus affect Dionysus’ life I have to figure out how to fold them in and I get to consider doing horrible things to their bones. I have to.... figure out how to deal with Nycaea somehow and it might end up being another case of Eros being of an entirely chaotic neutral energy. it is written that Eros hits him with the arrow. I know there’s a lot of stuff that I could just write off or write out, but I’d like to see if there’s a way to make it work first... I’m gonna at least put down my thoughts if I can’t motivate myself to start drawing. Maybe collecting some references. I’m spending tonight indulgently reading articles on theoi and thinking about how I can definitely not host something this gory, incestuous or full of sexual violence as this on like.... fucking webtoon. (I do appreciate hosting sites like this for having a catalogue of titles I can find and it does a lot, buuuuuut I want to be an edgelord. also good lord, could you imagine trying to make a greek myth webtoon right now? I am not competing with that aesthetic. that art style was the smartest fucking thing to hit webcomics in ages. like it or not it catches your eye and that can be more than enough. I’m not capable of an art style that pops that much nor do I want that general an audience.

[fancyfade]

Recently read golden age wonder woman TPB so random factoids:

Diana DOES buy a nurse's Identity (the nurse is sobbing about not being able to go to her boyfriend who is on another continent, she's a dead ringer for diana appearance wise. diana offers her to give her money to go to her boyfriend if she can take the nurse's place). HOWEVER Diana clearly is trained in medical care and in Wonder Woman 1 invents the purple healing ray that brings steve back from the dead, so I guess at least she presumably doesn't kill anyone?

The principle goddess of the Amazons seems to be Aphrodite, rather than Athena (tho they still do mention Athena and she is the other goddess for the Amazons). Demeter, Hestia, and Artemis are not mentioned at all as they are in post 1986 continuity.

Aphrodite is at war with Mars (ares). many of the greek gods are referred to as their roman names including artemis, who is diana in roman mythology, who pre 1986 diana is named after (post 1986 diana is named after steve trevors mother. obviously).

the magic lasso is initially something that makes whoever is ensared obey what the person who is holding it tells them to do. however in practice it seems like diana uses it to get info, so im not surprised it was later turned into a lasso of truth.

the girdle that hippolyte wears is what makes her unconquerable - I do like the perez version better here, where she is just better than heracles, no magic girdle required. 1986 hippolyte is drugged by heracles, 1942 hippolyte defeats heracles then he acts like theyre friends and she gives him the girdle when he asks for it. golden age hippolyte and the amazons are enslaved by hercules and his men and then break out and they wear their bracelets as a reminder to never fall folly to man's tricks again, 1986 hippolyte leads the amazons to slaughter heracles' men and they wear their bracelets as a reminder to never err again. in general so far perez's run had a lot more harmful rhetoric around heracles and it was pushed as a moral obligation to forgive your rapist - Hellene's doubts give some alternate viewpoints, but she never deviates from the idea that it is not amazonian to forgive heracles and she feels less of an amazon for not being able to do so, so I think the forgiveness narrative is still pushed pretty heavily. that is not pushed as much (or at all) in the golden age WW comcs ive read, but also I read like. all of perez's 50 or 60 issue run and 16 or so golden age comics.

however this is not to say that moulton doesn't also really like forgiveness and reform narratives, its just normally women who do bad that get reformed XD In fact he never really lets women be honestly evil which I find kind of boring. like they always are doing bad stuff because someone has a beloved family member captive and is threatening them. which kind of weakens the reform narrative IMO because like ? they didn't even wanna do whatever bad thing in the first place?

Aphrodite sculpted the Amazons to be stronger than men and win her war against mars. all amazons have powers, Diana is just the strongest

Amazons speak all human languages. Diana can also speak tree language. for some reason.

Amazons have perfect memories

anyway it was interesting overall. some consistent parts are Amazons initial conflict with Hercules/Heracles and Hippolyte defeating Heracles in combat, the Amazons being enslaved, and then breaking out and going to paradise island. Perez's narrative was a lot more punitive in that the Amazons have to guard Dooms Doorway to purify their souls for having killed the men who enslaved them, whereas in the golden age paradise island is treated as a refuge for Amazons and so far is not on top of dooms doorway.

[kallistcs]

It'd been - not a gamble, not truly. Or maybe it had been, when he'd spent months and maybe even longer thinking about his initial worries and how he now very much wanted what he'd feared, in those first few months. He'd just had no idea how to get that, and now - maybe now he will, his whole body alive under that weighty stare. The only thing giving him half-pause is that Hylas isn't sure they're thinking of whatever danger inherent in his play in the same way. Something in the way Heracles says that, thoughtful, almost, maybe.

Not the same at all, but it doesn't matter.

Not when Heracles says that, in that way. Not when there's a hand in his hair, gently pulling his head back.

His blood is a fiery beat through his body, spilling out hot on his cheeks. Hylas swallows, the apple of his throat feeling all the more prominent against the curve of bared throat. And maybe he is, briefly, a little worried under that hungry stare.

Not afraid, though.

He just doesn't want to disappoint, now that they've gotten here.

"You commented on the great void of my mouth just last night," Hylas says, laughing, a smile on his lips against the pull on his throat, even as the blush briefly darkens. "I think I can handle it."

It'd been an innocent comment in the face of his ravenous need to stuff himself full, Heracles' deep voice full of humour. A comment now made less innocent, even as Hylas thinks back on moments in the evening or morning, when bathing in still lakes, and maybe that confidence isn't quite warranted. He's game to find out, though.

"To make sure I prove how apologetic I am, of course," Hylas adds mock-piously, a little breathless as he sinks downwards, hands following his path until they're resting on broad, solid thighs, as much of a thrill to touch as those arms.

From here! @himbohotel

-

Two years ago, this would've been impossible. An incomprehensible situation that Hylas would've been tossed between scornful laughter and a bit of angry fear about, if anyone suggested it.

But that would've been two years ago, and this is now, sailing high on his (very brief) success, watching with breathless attention as Heracles tosses his head back. His laughter is as much a victory wreath as the accomplishment itself, the stretched length of his throat fascinating.

The only thing more so would be the thick arms he's caging - in the loosest sense of the word - with his own. He likes those arms. He's not sure he would admit how early his gaze began to stray to them. As it is, Hylas lays one hand on one of said arms right as Heracles winds a hand through his hair. The grin on the man's face shoots Hylas' heart up into his throat, and, ahem, blood downwards, his own grin smothered into the kiss.

Clutching the bicep and practically massaging it by the point Heracles pulls back, Hylas has no chance to be disappointed. Not with the vision he's presented with, and then there's that challenge, too.

And perhaps the way Heracles says 'my', but he's not going to look at that too closely.

"No insult meant, oh lion-hearted son of Zeus," Hylas says, failing to make it winsome as he leans in, face raised and pressed close against that great bulk he's still pinning against the atrium wall. Grins again instead, eyes bright. "But if I should wager something on what seems plainly true since I got you here - my lips, then, since they so offended you."

A pause, as Hylas cocks his head, innocently serious in that moment despite his very deliberate tease of the words.

"That is, my lips, however you might want them."

[battletendency]

turgre?

Who accidentally pushes a door instead of pulling/vice versa

BOTH AND THEY ARE NERDS 

Who doodles little hearts all over the desk with their initials inside them

I’m pretty sure they would both deny it, but they would both do that in some kind of notebook they hide under their bed. 

Who starts the tickle fights

SADIK WOULD 

Who starts the pillow fights

They would both start pillow fights, at first because they would be annoyed at each other for something but they would probably end up making out. 

Who falls asleep last, watching the other with a small affectionate smile

I’VE BEEN WAITING TO ANSWER THIS BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT, THEY WOULD BOTH DO THAT BUT IN SECRET. EVEN BEFORE THEY ACTUALLY GOT TOGETHER. Like, imagine them just hanging out, Heracles has fallen alseep again and Sadik just freezes when he notices his handsome face and his face flushes, he really doesn’t know how to deal with this because he is still denying his feelings. So he just sits there, watching him with a completely lovestruck expression on his face. 

Who mistakes salt for sugar

OKAY BUT BOTH 

Who lets the microwave play the loud beeping sound at 1am in the morning

honestly, these two literally radiate the same energy so just imagine to tired old men just getting up at like 1 am to just eAT GYRO AND KEBAB. and tzatziki/cacik too because they have a different recipe for that but it’s practically the same. 

Who comes up with cheesy pick up lines

BOTH AND THEY WOULD DO IT AT FIRST TO ANNOY EACH OTHER BUT THINGS WOULD START TO BE MORE INTIMATE AND THAT WOULD MAKE THEM FALL FOR EACH OTHER. Okay really though, imagine them just shouting random pick up lines at each other only to get on their nerves but suddenly they would also feel flustered and “fuck, what is my heart rACIN-”

Who rearranges the bookshelf in alphabetical order

no-one and they would be way too bored to actually do it. 

Who licks the spoon when they’re baking brownies

BOTH OF THEM BECAUSE THEY WOULD COOK TOGETHER. 

Who buys candles for dinners even though there’s no special occasion

I think Sadik would really like scented candles so he would buy many in general. 

Who draws little tattoos on the other with a pen

HERACLES, at first he would write mean stuff only to get on his nerves but when they would finally get together he would stop and replace them with phrases like “I love you.” or “You are wonderful.” and that would make Sadik a flustered mess. 

Who comes home with a new souvenir magnet every time they go on vacation

HERACLES 

Who convinces the other to fill out those couple surveys in the back of magazines

BOTH BECAUSE I’M PRETTY SURE THEY WOULD BE ONE OF THOSE COUPLES WHO WOULD THINK THEY ARE ACTUALLY THE BEST ONE 

[spartan-officer-brasidas]

Alright, so here’s my hot take on the Fields of Elysium DLC and the two future ones, Torment of Hades and Judgement of Atlantis.

I didn’t think this initially because I didn’t put two and two together, but we seem to have a ‘theme’ in this DLC, if you will. All of the Isu Gods that we see are minorly Chthonic deities (Persephone, Hermes, And Hekate). They also all have an association with each other in one way or another (Persephone and Hekate are closely associated, and Hermes and Persephone do have their connections). And then, of course, lovely Adonis, who plays a major role in one of the most famous myths surrounding Persephone. If they keep up with this pattern, here’s what I think we might see in the future chapters:

1. Torment of Hades: Obviously, Hades. I think we can safely assume he will play a major role in this chapter, and I think the Gods we will see will be, more or less, related to death. I’m imagining Charon, Thanatos, the Erinyes, maybe even Apollon if they want to go that far. Should they go to focus on another hero, my best guess is Heracles. For one, it doesn’t really make sense to do a DLC based on Greek Mythology and not include perhaps the most iconic Greek hero. Moreover, he had his fair share of run ins with the realm of the dead. Heracles would make for a great follow up to Adonis, considering the sheer amount of story we could get from him. (Maybe we could even meet Theseus through this story as a nod to the myth? I’m getting ahead of myself, sorry.)

2. Judgement of Atlantis: Slightly less obviously is Poseidon, but it’s still not too far from a safe bet. I mean, Atlantis and Poseidon? It adds up. Here we will likely meet sea related Gods, like Amphitrite, various Nereids and Oceanids, or Thetis. We could also see Demeter or Athena here, simple due to their mythological associations with Poseidon, and moreover, the Gorgon sisters (except Medusa) could be present. The hero I believe is most likely to make an appearance is between Odysseus (which would make for a nice reference to the game itself) or Achilles. Both have a connection in one way or another to the ocean Gods, so I think it’s plausible to believe they could show up.

This is all just speculation based on my knowledge of mythology and what we have from the Fields of Elysium chapter. Honestly, I would’ve liked to see Helen, Cadmus, and Hector, but alas, I doubt that’ll happen. I’m incredibly excited to see what they choose to do regardless of what it is, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it no matter what. I love mythology (especially Greek Mythology) too much to not love it. Feel free to comment on what you think they’ll do if you’d like, or if you desperately want, you’re welcome to oppose what I’ve said. I just like talking about this stuff, so any excuse to do so is good by my books.

[theforgottengn]

Okay I actually want to know this. What does HERACLES stand for? What is the point of its existence? Is it funded? How are people picked to join? I want to know. I understand if spoilers spoil things.

LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN…

What Does H.E.R.A.C.L.E.S. Stand For?

In all honesty I’ve been dreading this exact question for one reason and one reason only… I’m an idiot and forgot to write all that down when I came up with the acronym and thus have forgotten it. I do remember that the second E stood for EFFECTIVE & that the S stood for SPY. So right now the acronym reads…

TheSomethingSomethingSomethingSomethingSomethingSomethingEffectiveSpyInitiative

Which will eventually be changed when I come up with, or remember what, the other letters stand for. And hopefully it’s not anything stupid.

What’s Its Purpose?

This kinda depends on who you ask…

You might just get a “That’s classified information, sir/m'am, need to know basis only” as a non-answer.

An agent wouldn’t tell you. They’re not stupid. They’d probably answer that with a question. Or any sort of topic-changing comment.

A handler would tell you something like “intelligence gathering, counter-intelligence, threat detection and threat elimination.” Or any sort of non-answer.

Anyone higher than a handler you’d get that “classified” non-answer.

If you ask me…

Well, I mean, you probably were aiming the ask at me in the first place. Anyway. The real purpose of HERACLES is to gather intelligence on and then eliminate any/all threats to the United States and it’s allies. (Which means that some missions come from other world leaders and stuff.) Sometimes that includes counter-intelligence measures. Sometimes it’s just a good ol’ assassination. Sometimes it’s stopping a threat before it becomes a threat. Stopping the thought of one so to speak.

Is It Funded?

Yep. It’s a section of the military branch of the U.S. govt so yeah it’s definitely funded. But it’s given more money than other things that are federally funded.

How Are People Picked?

Okay this is kinda spoilery but kinda not, and besides nobody else is interested in this piece of shit so, I’ll answer this anyway.

There’s this alternative prison sentence program thing which was put in place for people of power. Singers, business moguls, decorated servicemen, actors, Instagram stars, etc. etc. Literally anyone you could think of who could have some sort of power in modern day America. If some person of power did something wrong they wouldn’t have to serve their sentence if they so chose. But it has to be something pretty big.

Simple things like tax evasion or petty theft are excluded.

Instead of serving their sentence a random U.S. citizen would be charged with their crime. Charged fully and given the maximum sentence with no possibility of parole. This person would go to jail or a max sec prison or what have you instead of said celebrity.

Or so the person would be told…

In reality the HERACLES Initiative people, whom conduct all the interviews & investigation once the person claims their right to waive their sentence, take the person’s kid. And then said kid gets put into the HERACLES Initiative trainee program. (Side note: all of this is a lot easier to do with army personnel and/or govt employees.)

Step One: Be a person of power.Step Two: Have a kid.Step Three: Viciously break the law.Step Four: Invoke right to waive.Step Five: Say yes & nod.

You’re Home Free!

And that’s about all the explanation I can think of.