#hero mechquest

[high-voltage-rat]

POV: you're a student at GEARS University and the weird 35-year-old who sat next to you in Mecha Piloting 101 and never took off their safety goggles is your neuroscience TA because it turns out she's a literal actual doctor.

As I mentioned in my art of her post-reset self, Ravyn is much more fleshed out as a character in Mechquest. So here's my lore-dump, which may serve as the preface to me posting the fic I'm writing of her (if I can work up the courage to do so, lmao).

As a fun little intro, some trivia:

Always introduces themself as "Ravyn, Ray if you prefer single syllables".

Wears their lab goggles and white coat as part of their piloting gear because they're paranoid about ocular open globe injuries and their coat is fire-resistant. Other medical professionals tease her for being like a med student who wears their first white coat everywhere.

Uses her energy blade for everything: lighting the way to the bathroom, opening packages, making toast, and cutting her hair over the garbage can any time it gets long enough to be in the way.

Lectures everyone who will listen on why acetaminophen and ibuprofen should be taken together for their synergistic mechanisms, the ideal nutrient intake to have energy throughout the day, and the neurochemical reasons why one should maintain good sleep hygiene.

Is also a hypocrite who doesn't eat or sleep right themself.

Considered joining Mystraven, but couldn't bear the jokes about Ravyn and Ravens that were sure to come, so joined Runehawk instead. Still hears bird jokes regularly from Starbuck anyway.

Loves to design new ways to inject mecha into combat. Really enjoys a "fastball special"-esque entry using the momentum of a dropship taking a tight turn to fling her at the enemy. Sys-Zero is the only one brave enough to do it, though.

(Thanks to @cyraen-ae for the character sheet template!!!)

Unlike most students of GEARS, Ravyn isn't a young teen full of fire when she enrolls. In fact, up until the Shadowscythe war, they'd never really piloted a mecha before. Born in Tibattleonia on Loreon, Ravyn discovered early on in their life that they were gifted with a natural affinity for psychic, specifically empathetic, magic. Able to feel the emotions of others, and even manipulate them to a degree, she naturally fell into the path of a doctor- using her abilities to soothe pain, ease fear, and even diagnose issues in the cases where patients found themselves unable to describe their ailments. In cases where anaesthesia wasn't an option, her abilities were highly valued- though using them always left her feeling quite drained.

She was a Neurocritical Care specialist serving with the Soluna Defence Force's Medical Corps, nearly through her fellowship with no thoughts of a career change- when the MASH unit she was stationed at suddenly found itself under constant fire from a threat they'd never seen before. The Shadowscythe hit them hard, the soldiers posted to protect them were going down, and for the first time, the doctors of the camp had to requisition a communal mech to allow them to chip in on defending their patients. Originally very reluctant to pilot, Ravyn was taught how to pilot by the head surgeon of their camp, Col. Henry, and quickly found that they were a natural prodigy- and a bit of an adrenaline junkie, to boot. Their quick thinking, impulsive but tactical, and highly adaptable nature meant that their piloting was full of decisive and strategic moves that made them a very effective pilot- and the precision of a doctor accustomed to neurological procedures is not to be underestimated.

Over the next few months, she began spending less and less time in the O.R., and more and more time at the helm of their Skuld mecha, affectionately nicknamed "the Monster M.A.S.H.". Her coworkers pushed for her to receive formal training at GEARS, believing that she could do a great deal of good if she honed her natural talent. She didn't want to leave her patients and colleagues, but eventually reluctantly agreed, and the camp chipped in to buy a new communal mecha, sending The Monster M.A.S.H. with her as a not-so-regulation parting gift when she left. In the spirit of that mecha, she tries to keep her oath of non-maleficence whenever possible, avoiding fights with non-Shadowscythe at every opportunity, and fighting to subdue and minimize harm when she can't.

As one might expect, this highly atypical background left them pretty alienated from the rest of their GEARS class- being a solid 12 years older than everyone else will do that to you. They ended up being closer to professors like Sys-Zero, external professionals like Helia, and grad students like Starbuck, Jaania, Casca, and Xaria- though they did also form an odd friendship with the Reliant crew (River, Sally, Dooder). As the war progressed, they grew closer with the crew as they ran missions together regularly, and with Sys-Zero, Warlic, Char, the house leaders, and Odessa as the people bearing the burden of leadership in the darkest times their world had ever seen.

The Shadowscythe take a lot from Ravyn- she witnesses the ruins of her hometown firsthand, has to fight twisted creatures in its crumbling rubble. She watches the mecha of friends crumple and burn under their fire. One day, one of her closest friends from the M.A.S.H. camp comes into Specific Hospital on a stretcher, and breaks down as he tells her that everyone else is gone. She sees the horror of the Shadowscythe virus, turning people she cares about into enemies. This all leaves her with significant PTSD, including night terrors. Despite it all, however, she fights hard to hold onto her sense of humour, to love warmly, and to keep hope alive in the hearts of those she protects.

That's something the reset can never change.

[little-demy]

Hero of Prophecies

Or as I'd like to call them, the traumatized michel (?)

I've shared this elsewhere before but I forgot I have tumblr so I'll upload some stuff I've shared on twitter her for now I guess

And so meet the Michel aka Johanna A. Michel for MQ, Joanne B. Michel for DF, and Jeannette C. Michel for AQW

Personal lore for them below!

In term of identities Johanna, Joanne, and Jeannette are actually one single soul with three different identiites. Johanna and Joanne are directly related; they're just the same soul but the Reset made the unknown virus within Johanna (that corrupts her and slowly made her body decay) merged and thus made Joanne a little hit resistant to Doom but also made her compatible with Doom power

While for Jeannette is a being from another universe; in which Joanne was killed by Drakath alongside Arc and reincarnated into Jeannette. Jeannette was not born, but manifested from Joanne's soul that merged with EDoT's power. She's not really a human and feels like an anomaly. She onky received her name and became more humane after being adopted by Yvonne (Joanne's mother, who just recently lost her daughter too)

[gayson-voorhees]

have you guys seen this npc before???? weird.

[tmae3114]

oooh, thought thought thought

early Book 3 Hero feeling betrayed by Jaania and not fully understanding why they feel that way to the depth that they do

Yeah, Jaania betrayed them! She was an ally and she turned on them with no warning or explanation! But also they knew her for, like, two days, so why does it hurt so much?

[theloverofdragons]

“So you’re a university student?”

“Yep! Graduated from GEARS with top marks in mecha piloting and energy blade combat, and assigned to Captain Sys-Zero to fight against the Shadowscythe! What about you?”

“Uh, I understood about half of those words, but I’ve also been fighting against the Shadowscythe, mostly Sepulchure, with my dragon, say hi Draco!”

“Oh wow, a dragon! We thought there were no more dragons left in the universe… Wait til I tell Jaania about this!”

“Oh there’s loads here…wait you said mecha. Like Kordana? She’s this huge structure deep in Sho’Nuff forest full of gears and whirry things and defence robots.”

“I don’t know Kordana personally, but she sure does sound like a mech!”

“Wow…small universe huh.”

“Very. Oh wait, I have to go, I’m being called for deployment!”

“I should go too, there’s probably an undead attack somewhere. Good to meet you!”

“You too!”

“Thanks for letting me try out this portal thing, Cysero!” The Hero scooped Draco up and deposited them on their shoulders. “See ya!”

“Watch out for low flying eyeballs!” Cysero called after the Hero, expression tightening ever so slightly as he glanced over at the mirror they had been speaking into.

****

For Requiem Angel who requested: DF Hero has a chat with MQ Hero

[seiji-the-ice-drake]

Some doodles of Eveline

Jacket on

Jacket off (plus a fixed belt)

Unfinished doodle that was driving me insane, tbh. May attempt again at a later point in time

[cyraen-ae]

Currently having profound Mechquest Reset brainrot because I looked back on how the DF Hero is shocked to see that Myalos is a robot dragon despite having met two dragonoids in his Mechquest iteration and how it profoundly drives home the fact that these are simultaneously the same person while being fundamentally different, having had vastly different lives, experiences and knowledge.

[crouton-knight]

Imagine abyssal elf talismans in the shape of rubber ducks. This will be a little long and have screenshots so I'm putting it under a readmore.

So we all remember how Kathool was beaten up by a college student in a duck-shaped submarine, right?

And we know that in Kathool's nightmares in several of the quests, the submarine shows up, right?

(above screenshots taken from TechnoHawk1996's youtube channel)

And we recently found out that the abyssal elves were tasked by Neso with protecting the depths, and presumably also minimizing Kathool's influence?

"In ages past, the Abyssal Elves were charged by Neso with securing the depths of the seas-- maintaining order, and defending from threats."

Consider. Consider for a moment.

Abyssal elf talismans to ward against evil.

In the shape of yellow rubber duckies.

It makes sense in context, right?

But most of them probably didn't even know what ducks are, let alone what a rubber duck would look like, or if someone described a duckling to them, I don't think they'd make a connection beyond "yellow" and "small", which can apply to far too broad a category to be all that useful for imagining an actual IRL duckling.

So imagine, for a moment, these ancient sea-people who consider the surface world a distant dream like we thought of outer space for a long time, gifting each other talismans in the shape of rubber ducks, and at some point during this most recent foray into the deeps, perhaps, the hero finds one and goes.

"Huh. That looks familiar. How did that get here?"

We know how it got there. But the theological and metaphysical implications on Lore itself, as soon as someone points it out, would be staggering.

[asylumdream]

Found a glitch of my allies remaining even though I'm now playing a different character. Very funny to imagine zhoom takeing a comission from this bag of bones.

Correct! That is the game Im playing! Love dableing in fragon as you do. But honestly this whole water orb saga is great, i love the one guy sneezing at te beginning to foreshadow kathool achuu (if its spelled wrong No It Isnt). Im a little (read:lot) bit concerned about the heros mental health after all that but Its Probably Fine. Im sure this will have no repercussions in the future :) (<knows about remthalas).

I also know... very little, about mechquest so i cant really do more then be like Ah! I see Mechquest! Whenever the reset is mentioned, but i do think its morbidly funny that kathool has nightmares about the rubberducky machine.

[uooj601]

Dragon fable - Hero of the past

Did some art for my Dragonfable character while ago, His name is PIZZA, for reasons that make sense but are currently irrelevant

For anyones interested in the abbreviated story, He is the hero of mechQuest However after the universe reset he retained a little more then most, his Name, a mechanical hand and ghosts of memory from a war that never was Now he makes his way through a world equal parts alien and familiar, in search of friends and foes he can scarcely recall save for there names and banners

Since typically soul weaver gauntlets have a stone on them - I assume the purpose of witch is to bind them somehow or act as a focal point of magic - I decided to place both stones on the same arm

Strangely he has no natural affinity for magic and can only use that of his soul ally, Lacking the innate gift for magic he stands entirely on the only gifts remaining, Valor and Cunning

[cyten0]

Ok, so after ranting a bit about my upcoming pathfinder 2e campaign, I figured I might as well make a separate post about it cause I like it so much and It's honestly extremely detailed. It's heavily based on both Dragonfable and FF15

So to start off with, a basic summary. In this world, there are a pair of Divine dragons. Reincarnations of the twin gods that made the world. These twin dragons appear and form a bond with a given person throughout history, usually a member of the line of Somnus, children of Lucien Somnus. These champions usually end up becoming adventurer kings, rulers and wanderers in equal measure, often changing the nature of the realm.

At the start of the campaign, due to an unusual error caused by several magical mishaps, both eggs have split into 3. One group has been hatched by an unnamed hero, and the other by the Doomknight Sepulchure.

The campaign will consist of 2 parties, each playing as the freshly hatched baby dragons. To give them some backstory, divine dragons often inherit the memories and skills of someone who had died before, in order to give themselves a kickstart in life. The parties will be in opposition, at the very least at the beginning, and will be using the Kingmaker kingdoms system to run entire kingdoms to help their war/adventure.

I also have a (frankly VERY detailed) custom world map I've made, based heavily off of dragonfables book 3 map. The kingdoms with stars under them represent the player's starting kingdom spots, and other kingdoms and town are scattered around the map. People who know Artix games will likely recognize several of these places, but there are some that I added for added adventures!

This is my latest and final entry into a series of campaigns I've been running for about 2 years straight. SOme may be excited to learn my previous entry was a cyberpunk campaign where reality reset, and created this world (mechquest reference achieved!), but has been even more chaotic and I'm likely gonna have to summarize hose campaigns at some other point.

My friends are running some games (per my request, I GM'ed through graduation and had a massive case of burnout), and I'll start this campaign once at least the majority of them have finished.

[high-voltage-rat]

man okay so I used to play mechquest and dragonfable back in like, 2008 when I was a kid with very little patience to follow a storyline. coming back as an adult and finishing mechquest has absolutely slapped me silly with how deep and serious the story is in between all the absurdist humour. I have. so many emotions over the whole storyline, and especially so many thoughts about the unique form of tragedy that is The Reset.

You save the world but it's not the world anymore. You and your friends survive but you don't know each other anymore- have nothing left of the lives you fought to keep. You 'save' everything but it's still all gone. Everything you knew and loved, gone, and you don't even know what you've lost. You can't even keep the memory of what you had- and that's almost kinder compared to being one of the 3ish people who DO remember... and have to live around everyone else who doesn't, knowing their closest friends look at them and see a stranger, and that they may as well be because they aren't that person they remember being.

And to top it all off, that terrible sacrifice doesn't even end it. you're still left fighting impossible and devastating wars over and over. It's the tragedy of doomed time loops with extra layers of devastating all over the place. The GEARS University students being forced to become soldiers because they're all that's left to protect their homeworld. The horrors of the Shadowscythe virus taking over friends and loved ones you may be forced to put down to save yourself. The town of Falconreach burning over and over because no matter how hard they fight, it's never enough. The people like Sha'rae who sacrifice themselves to try and prevent tyrrany from seizing power, only for it to be utterly useless.

Anyway the brainrot is severe and especially dangerous since I'm coming into exam season and all my hyperfixated brain wants to do is chew on glass about these games.

[little-demy]

Heroes

Bound by destiny and doom. Fated to bear responsibility and power.

[claratehkitty]

The Mechquest Hero is very smart.

[tmae3114]

Helia Quinn 🤝 Riadne

shrinking something to inject it into someone’s body where it can later cause explosions while still tiny is a valid form of medical treatment

[theloverofdragons]

Down in the Mana Core

as we're approaching the descent into the mana core for the book three finale (side note: AAAAAAAAAAA-), and all signs are pointing to the aequilibria slumbering down there, but what if they're not alone

in adventurequest 3D, the hero journeys to the centre of lore where they meet this giant ancient creature called or'lath, who has been there since a war between his people - who are made of mana - was fought on lore, providing mana to the world

during his conversation with the hero, or'lath talks about how lore was once flourishing but due to his people's war, practically all life was exterminated, so as penance he remained to heal the world

and lore(on) was uninhabitable when the explorers who would become the loreons arrived

so what if or'lath and his kind pre-date mechquest

and their war is the reason loreon was so devastated when the explorers arrived, and the combination of their technology and or'lath remaining to heal the world is what allowed it to become the world full of life that we see in mq

powerful enough beings like kathool were unaffected by the reset, so or'lath could be down in the mana core, watching over lore and the aequilibria in their slumber, healing the world with his mana (which he has more than enough of to last through mechquest and dragonfable even with the 5000 years of the reset), giving his gift to all (except akanthus lol, get rekt akanthus no one likes you)