#hollow Knight time era

[cognitivemania]

It's been a long...."while" since I last written something niche about hollow Knight (last post was written in early 2024, we're almost heading for '25 good lord).

So to keep myself sound about there being no news for silksong and it's release day I'll speculate on the time era it resides in. (Take with the fattest grain of salt please)

Lurien the watcher owns a telescope (invented in 1608, wonder what's the bug equivalent of that). But there's underground so....I guess it could've been something like binoculars (invented in ~1609? We're not that far off as I imagined)

Even though there's tram stations; stag stations are more accessible which would mean, in a very long stretch, that they're akin to trains (invented in 1804)

The pale king could've have invented buzzsaws in-universe and all the shenanigans inside the white palace (he's a higher being after all). Saws were invented in late 18th century.

I would also like to mention Charm lover saluba has something akin to a cash register in her shop (something invented in 1879) but it could've been a souvenir.

Let's not forget the lighthouse in the abyss. Invented in 280 B.C but in game it takes the appearance of gothic architecture (around 12th-16th century). Sounds like a long stretch to make because the pale king had some influence involved.

I am undoubtedly missing A LOT of stuff to mesh into a proper conclusion, but looking at backrounds (especially the city of tears) I think that hollow Knight takes place in a post apocalyptic world of the 19th-20th century. (They were still monarchs back then, if we're assuming this is early, early 20th century)

But then again, I could be wrong. It's starting to give me wild West vibes the longer I think of it.

[oysterbarfugitive]

I've just played nine hours straight of celeste how do I continue life as normal now; I'm severely impacted

[cybersp4ced]

im going to take break on all other project have in favor of focus on prepare for directing ttrpg for real life friends pls wish me luck pls give tips if have , will be run era of radiance hollow knight rpg ::) so excited so excited so excited . if anyone here can pls send reminder to work on this sometime , i forget often . thanks

[esggs]

[ #1, Lord!Sukuna x knight!reader, heian-era trueform Sukuna, cannibalism as a metaphor for love, d/s relationship, graphic details, gnc reader, 600+ words ]

pt.2 (jealousy)

Ryomen Sukuna is to feast tonight. You, his right-hand knight, his first line of defence, his ever-faithful dog, his closest confidante, have prepared a banquet: you’ve slaughtered an entire Suguwara battalion. A fine stew they made, but Sukuna is still unsatisfied. 

“Be there no noble or peasant to fill my belly? No ample morsel in all these fertile lands?” Sukuna drawls, brows curled in annoyance. His entire court stands fearing their fates. The stew is finished, so is the rice and the wine.

“Then must I fare pale today?” His anger is terrible. Play your part, strong knight, save these trembling men. 

“O Lord,” You kneel onto one knee amid a parting crowd. “Point your finger and I shall hunt. My bow shall I draw, my sword shall I swing. You shall not go without your heart’s content.”

“Is that all you offer me, then?” His silken robes tinkle as he leans forward. 

“For you, I give you my teeth and nails,” comes your feverish vow. “My self and my soul, too. Pledged yours am I.”

“Hearty words, but my stomach goes unsated.”

“Then request, Lord. The sky itself will not be spared if you desire it so.”

“Will sky-air fill my hunger? I shall dine on something more precious.” His eyes burn crimson-flamed. “Your meat.”  

For a second you are taken aback, but the next one fills Sukuna with your aroma. Your unsheathed sword screeches against the marbled ground as you drag it with you up to his throne. In his lap you lay yourself and present your sword to him: Take it. Carve my flesh out as you desire. It’s all yours, anyway. 

If his courtiers, wives, concubines, soldiers and subjects gawk at the spectacle, Sukuna does not care. He caresses a gentle hand through your hair lest they cover the unwavering sincerity in your eyes. “No,” he declares, “Your deflowered sword shall not touch your skin. You deserve–,” his head leant down to yours, you breathe in the warmth of his exhale, “–a touch more worthy of you.”

You see the delight in Sukuna’s eyes before the horrifying pain rends through the centre of your chest. With one hand he’s broken your sternum apart and digs elbow-deep into your bloody mess of organs. Even with your reversed cursed technique it’s hard to keep awake: the hollow in your chest, the bloodloss, the unimaginable torture of it all pulling you under, away from your Lord’s blazing eyes that are all that you can perceive. You can feel every stretch of his finger inside you, every ripping tissue, every pulse on his heaving breath that echoes a desire that only you bring him. Only you and – found it – Sukuna, robes drenched in your blood red as his eyes, rips your heart out of you. It still beats for him. 

You can only lie limp cradled on his thighs and left arms as he sinks his teeth in, devotedly. An eye on his meal, another on his audience, and two on you. He does not say a word as he eats. What is there to say that you do not already understand? He eats your heart with overwhelming love and respect. 

Sukuna takes his time to chew through each bite, savouring the taste of your rich blood and strong sinews. This heart that nourished you since your birth, the one that stored memories of your childhood loves and dreams, all melt on his tongue. The flavour of your cursed energy, unparalleled. It pairs well with his own. 

He licks his fingers clean when he’s done. Not a single drop of blood of yours is wasted. You’re too pale, lips blue and palms white; Sukuna carries you to your chambers in his own arms. He does not offer to help you regenerate, he knows you can do it yourself. He trusts you. 

When you wake up, you find your sword next to you. Sukuna’s own blood, you can tell by its taste, is drying on your blade.

pt.2 (jealousy) masterlist

a/n: obsession x consumption x devotion my beloved trio

[dukku-of-catempty]

Linking my translation of Red Candle's interview yesterday here, also typed out below. I didn't translate everything, but hopefully it's enough for fans to get a glimpse of their game dev process. Interview vod here.

Ninesols was delayed twice. As their first try at a metroidvania, they found out there's a lot more to be done. Their first game play video was actually an accident. Someone clicked the wrong button on the obs and it became a live stream.

For the interview today, we have 2 of the 6 co-founders of redcandlegames, Henry and Vincent/4wei, plus the game play designer Lighty and Art designer Pege/XiaoHe.

Game Dev Process

Back then Yi was a head shorter, pretty close to Hollow Knight. Devs call it the "Hollow Cat era". It took them 1-2 years to progress from Hollow Cat to 2D Sekiro.

Q: You've already set such a high bar for game play (hollow knight, sekiro), why did you have the same high standard for art and story as well?

Henry:(points at Vincent) this is all him. I said, just focus on the game play! Then he decided to throw in the story

Vincent: I didn't set it out to be so dialogue heavy. But simple gameplay doesn't keep gamers playing, they have to be invested in the world to want to play more.

Vincent: I wanted to save budget so I thought, comics, they're simple enough. Turned out they were costly too. Pege got the other end of that. She drew all the in-game comics.

Pege: Comic works in that you can get up close to the characters and see the details, their expressions.

Their initial inspo for the artstyle was Akira... really reaching for the heights of everything

On the designing process:

Vincent: pacing comes first, whether it's story, combat, or the gaming experience

About 35mins in: Lighty explains the initial concept of TaoPunk

Vincent come up with keywords and Pege designs the character. For example, Goumang was "princess, tsundere", Lady Ethereal was based on "Zhuangzi and the butterfly dream".

40min, Pege explains the character designing process

Pege had the hardest time designing JieQuan. Girls are easier.

Vincent: he's the typical straight macho dude

MCs: what do you mean straight? All I see is 🌈

Vincent wanted there to be a low point for the gamer, since the first 3 bosses were relatively easy. He drew inspiration from Bloodborne and MGS, and JieQuan was born as Yi's tormentor.

Pege's favorite character is Ji, based on his character design and gender.

Vincent: I said Ji can be a they, but Pege insisted on him being male.

MC: So we can actually see stuff under his skirt

Henry: Yi had to struggle to not get flashed during the fight

Lighty also likes Ji best, because of his character. He likes his views as an immortal.

Henry also likes Ji best, because of his combat pattern. Out of all the bosses, his combat pattern is the only one thats entirely original. He wanted to make a 3rd stage.

Since all the characters came from Vincent, he doesn't have a favorite, but is impressed by how popular some of them are. Lady Ethereal's fight was actually the least costly. The platforming was a budget choice. Including the jumpscare, Ethereal was the easiest stage to make.

Vincent: Even the bgm. For Lady Ethereal, I didn't need to tell the composer what I want, they finished it perfectly.

Henry: This is a collaboration where everyone provides their expertise, and Lady Ethereal is an example of us working extremely in sync.

They ran out of time and funds at the research center, and were not entirely satisfied with it even when the game launched.

Solarian was based on Middle Chinese. Old Chinese sounds close to Vietnamese and is too hard for the VAs to pronounce. Vincent thinks since the game is sci-fi in ancient times, a new language is needed for immersion.

Everyone's stressed at the end of the project: it's been five years, and the game hadn't been tested by the mass public, so they weren't sure how it'd be received

Solarian language and Voiceover

Vincent: in Taiwanese we have checked tones, libiodentals, we digged deeper into these traits and referenced Taiwanese/Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese and Middle Chinese for the Solarian language. Our Solarian expert, Sheng-Han Lin worked on it for 3 months. He even wrote a program where it converts a word into Solarian automatically, complete with KK phonetic symbols.

Basic Solarian words/phrases:

(Making these up, tone numbers are mandarin)

Bi³ Suen² = big brother

Shuai² In³ = Hello Friend

Why⁴ Song⁴ = Stop right there

Uen Zai² Chok = got it (I think?)

Ket Do³ = thank you

Vincent: first thing I said to the VAs was "sorry". Even after the recording process they still weren't sure what they were saying 😂

Many thanks to our voice director Neven Chang. It's the VAs performance that convinced me that Solarian is an actual language.

The Solarian characters came out of the need for there to be inscriptions on the background architectures, but modern Chinese characters breaks the immersion, so the art team came up with the idea to use the CangJie input method.

Vincent: initially we wanted to use the oracle bone script, but it's too time consuming, we needed something systemized. We do have our own Solarian font tho.

Solarian font has been dicephered here

Fan made font

Q&A section!

First question: are there plans for future nine sols DLCs?

Vincent: we still have a lot of work, like console ports and adding more languages, plus the crowndfund reawards... so currently we're looking to finish these first.

Vincent: as you know, we are a bunch of overachievers, so if there is a DLC, there's no telling how long we'll work on it... but atleast for me, I do hope to tell more stories in this world. That's all I'll say for now.

Q: will there be merch?

A: Yes, all the crowdfund rewards will also be sold as merch, like the art book and physical game pack, but at a higher price. Not the figure though, they're already finished, to make more we'll go bankrupt.

Unless, there's a really high demand for it 👀

Q: were there any additional plot you had to cut due to lack of resources?

.

*SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

A: Chien's boss fight, Ji's 3rd phase, Yi fighting himself in Eigong's soul sanctum, a TianHuo last boss, Abacus was supposed to be Yi from the past, Kanghui, the dragon... we cut a lot

Vincent: There are two plotlines I stood my ground on: the revenge plot, and the relationship between Yi and Heng.

We actually changed Shuanshuan's story a lot. Initially he was supposed to be super energetic and run around all of New Kunlun.

Q: there are a lot of ways the player can fight in #ninesols, were you worried about it being too hard?

A: Yes. It's very parry focused, so if you can't parry, you're dead. The Story Mode was made out of this fear. But from the response we've got so far, it seems to be ok.

Vincent: the real problem is gamers having false expectations. Souls fans get frustrated with the parrying and combat fans get frustrated with the dialouges. So we have to let the gamers know, this isn't hollow knight, isn't Sekiro, this is Nine Sols.

Q: what do the lyrics in the bgm mean?

A: they are all really simple. Like "heroes are forged in agony". For Fuxi and Nuwa, their keyword was "Peony Pavilion", opera related, so the composer incorporated 牧虎關 into their battle bgm.

All #ninesols boss music was composed by @/FFXX_sound. 4-5 of the songs were recomposed after betaing. The boss fight in plumblossom village wasn't supposed to be this hard, but the bgm was too fire, so the team adjusted it.

Vincent: the composer could choose whether to use Solarian or Mandarin lyrics. I was there during recording. We got a talented Taiwanese men's choir to sing for us. Four professional singers singing "Huh! Hah! Heroes are forged in agony!" It looked ridiculous.

For the ending song, redcandle wanted to connect to the international audience, and Collage fit that perfectly. Plus our fans kept recommending them to us. Communication was smooth, apparently Natsuko is a gamer and really liked us.

Taopunk was a mix of Eastern and Western cultures, so it was decided early on that there would be English lyrics in the ED.

There was an ARG on discord where fans can uncover the ED bit by bit.

There are also plans for future interactive games like that

Q: what are some challenges for the EN locoalizatuon?

A: It was pretty smooth, we had a lot of help from our discrod server, including JP proofreading. Both EN and JP TL was actually done in a month before release. We just posted our beta dialougues and everyone came to help us.

Lady Ethereal used to be FuDie, but it sounds terrible in English, so she was renamed.

KangHui used to be GongGong, but it's too confusing to non mandarin speakers.

Eigong too, she used to be Yigong, Yi as in change, but players may mistake her to be related to Yi.

Solarian society trivia:

-they are a matriarchal society

-the average age of death is 140

-cats are evolved from Solarians

They are working on more languages, all of them EU ones. MC asked if there are plans for SEA languages. They say that'll require ppl fluent in these languages, since the other TL are mostly done by community members/fans.

2-3days after release, their text file was hacked. It's a Google doc, Lighty went on there and found someone typing Italian text there, all correct dialougues. They kicked them out then emailed the Italian.

The Italian : I'm just a player, I just want to help.

They translated pages of text, the team was terrified. Security breach!

the Italian said thank you to the team for being patient with them, cause they did the same thing with other games and got severe responses.

RedCandle: thanks but please don't ever do it again.

Q: are you satisfied with the response from non CN speaking players?

A: Yes. Most of the reviews we got were English. It's our goal anyway, to break the culture barrier.

There are of course some surprises.

MC: you mean the furries?

A: the amount of fanart was unexpected

Vincent: I was also surprised by the response we got on reddit. We actually realized our goal, so I was pretty happy with that.

Q: any plans for a new game?

they've worked on nine sols for 5 years already, pretty drained right now, so (as a team) theres no new content planned yet

And here comes the funniest part lol (clip)

Q: any plans for a new game?

Vincent: Having ideas for a new game is one thing, but we still--

(Thunder claps)

Vincent: 😱 Did I say the wrong thing? I'm sorry! OK? We'll start working on it!

Discussing the ending...

Devs consider the true ending a good ending. Its ok if life has no meaning, having lived is enough and all that.

And ED is Collage's take on the ending.

I'll end the thread here, though there are 30mins more to go. Many thank to Wenlobong for hosting the interview, and Red Candle for making the game! Really hope #ninesols will get more recognition

[feral-childs-word]

I really like your writing style, and could you do the second part of Yandere!totk x knight reader?

I wish you success!!!

A knight honor

Yan!totk x knight!reader

Description: As a knight it is your sworn duty to protect the royal family until your dying breath. As you protect your princess that both you and her fallen to the past but first you need to understand where you are and how you ended up here.

A/n: thank you you got me squealing and blushing like a school girl!

Warning: Cursing, blood, lots of drama, obsessed people, made by a minor and not proof read

Chapter 2- into the past

Previous

Word count?: I dunno man

××××××

There was a soft glow before I bursted into a soft light making the two royal couple notice it. They immediately went to investigate and was shocked to find Zelda peacefully asleep with a secret stone on her opened balm.

The yelled hair women gasped softly and knelt down to Zeldas laying form. "Oh! Oh dear" She softly said. The voice made Zelda stir and slowly wake up from a slumber thinking it was a dream.

Zeldas eyes fluttered open and looked up only to see two unfamiliar faces. Her eyes snapped wide open as she sat up and scooted away quickly. "Where am I?" Zelda asked looking afraid. "We didn't mean to startle you" The soft blonde haired women said smiling.

"It's okay my name is Sonia" Sonia said smiling while placing her hand on her chest. "And could we ask what your name is?" The animal like man asked placing his furry hand on his chin.

"I- I am the daughter of king rhoam of hyrule. Zelda" Zelda said bit she sounded hesitant to answer. "What an unexpected answer. We are king and queen who founded hyrule, after all. Atleast the last time we checked." The furry animal said looking like he was amused by zeldas answer.

"You two founded hyrule? And you're the king?" Zelda asked, honestly shocked and amazed at the two. "Hm my name is rauru. King of hyrule." Rauru responded. "King rauru....queen Sonia" Zelda muttered placing her chin on her hand questioning and thinking if she heard of those names before widening her eyes and looking at them. "That must mean-" Before Zelda could respond there was a grunt and shuffling from the trees. Rauru looked alerted and Zelda yelped and moved back. After a couple seconds you suddenly came out of the bushes grunting in pain and clutching your eyelets eye.

"Y/n!?" Zelda gasped scrambling up and ran to the taller person who grunted in response now looking at the smaller female and the two couple. "Zelda?" You softly said your voice raspy like you screamed loudly and lost your voice. "Oh God y/n let me see" Zelda said gently taking your bloody dried up hand and removing it and gasping seeing what the red stuff had done to you. The red stuff had completely destroyed your eye ball only left was a hollow eyesocket. The familiar color of the red stuff was glowing and spreaded around your eye like it was veins or....part of you.

"Y/n?" Sonia muttered looking worried as seeing the tall female looking so injured and in pain. "Oh gods y/n" Zelda whimpered and you just smiled weakly. "It's find madam it isn't hurting as much" You said softly before standing up to your full height and looking around. "This place....it looks like where in hyrule." You muttered looking at Zelda and nodded as she carefully held your hand and dragged you to the edge and looked around as you did, trying to ignore the pulsing pain.

"As I thought..." Zelda muttered finally taking everything in that is around her including y/n after a while of processing this new world. "This is not the world we know y/n" Zelda said with a shaky breath. "A time so far back into the past, it had become a legend" You spoke softly looking at everything. Everything seemed so clean well taken care of and most importantly.....peaceful. Sonia and rauru looked at the two with worry mostly as the tall female who looked like she's been through it all.

"So it is true. This is really the Era of hyrules founding?" Zelda asked turning around and looking at Sonia and rauru with egarness and sparkling eyes. While you looked at them with caution. Your gut telling you that something bad is going to happens as Zelda and and you are going to this world.

"You and your friends presence is as strange to us, Zelda and y/n" rauru said looking at the two. "But if you, like Sonia have a secret stone you are able to manipulate time, then your story makes sense." Rauru said as Zeldas eyes looked down at the secret stone and you looked at zelda with worry even though it was a bit of her fault for going down that place that gives you goosebumps thinking of it and her picking up that stone you and zelda would've not make it.

Oh God now you think about it what's link doing right now? The last thing you remembered was link and his arm corrupted. You napped put of it once Sonia spoke once again.

"Oh? I believed her right away. You needed the secret stone as proof rauru?" Sonia asked looking up at rauru who looked down at her.

"I can feel your light power within her. As well as my time power" Sonia smiled as Zelda looked puzzled. Sonia then looked at y/n who looked back at her. "As for you I can feel a certain power yet I can't put a finger on what it is." Sonia hummed looking at y/n with amusement thinking how adorable y/n looked like a big dog looking all cute and sweet but hidden underneath lies a beast that is waiting until the right moment to come out and attack its prey.

"Addintional I sense we share a blood connection" Sonia said shifting her gaze away from ypu and to zelda smiling oh so softly making your heart skip a beat a little. Zelda gasped as her eyes widened yet you stood there awkwardly with Zelda clutching your bloody dried hand tightly.

"Ah, I see" rauru responded to the new information. "In any case Zelda and y/n, you said that you needed to go back to your Era as soon as you possibly could." Rauru said looking at Zelda suddenly glancing at y/n who nodded either raurus words.

"Yes." Zelda managed to utter out and looked down on the ground. "In our time something terrible has happened." You said calmly ignoring how your voice and your body hurts from moving and talking. "We need to get back there. Bit how do we do that?" Zelda asked softly as y/n rubbed zeldas soft and tiny hand in comfort. Zeldas heart skipped a beat as she looked at y/n with slightly teary eyes and you gave Zelda a comforting smile.

"We don't even know how we got here in the first place" Zelda spoke and y/n nodded in agreement trying to remember what had happened but everything was to fusy to remember. Zelda and y/ didn't notice but Sonia harshly nudged rauru who was thinking and flinched. Sonia smiled and moved where y/n and Zelda where as rauru watched and held his side in pain.

"Now zelda and y/n dears..." Sonia said her voice comforting to you and zelda. "You both don't need to solve all your problems all at once. How about you both come with us to the castle?" Sonia asked. "No.....i...." Zelda stuttered feeling a little embarrassed and letting go of y/s hand as Sonia held one of your hands and zeldas to. "Well tell everything your.....a distanct relative of hours and you..." Sonia said to Zelda chuckling "it is true after all." Sonia said and now looking at you. "And you..." Sonia hums softly. "A knight your majesty I'm one of zeldas apointing knights and general of hyrule castle sworn to protect the royal family until my dying breath." You said bowing to Sonia who looked amazed on how a tall female such as yourself could be a hylian. "Yes a royal knight of zeldas." Sonia smiled. "Well get both of you some fresh clothes to." Sonia smiled brightly making Zelda blush slightly and look down.

"Im sure your answer will take time. After all wisdom takes time." Sonia said easing both you and zeldas mind slightly. Zelda gasped and soon smiled "I don't know what to saw" Zelda says smiling even more as you were to deep in thought about how hungry and how you probably smell.

"Hm, I wonder" rauru hums finally snapping out of his daze and you did also and looked at him. "Mineru.....she may have some idea how to get back to your era." Rauru hums placing his hand on his chin. "Mineru you say?" Zelda asked looking confused and you also looked at rauru with wonder.

"Yes...she knows far more than anyone than our people" Rauru answered looking at Zelda. "Like us, my older sister has a secret stone as well. We'll call on her" rauru said smiling lightly.

Zelda nodded her hand all four of them started walking down the path to the castle. "Now that I think of if how did you end up in the bushes y/n?" Zelda asked looking up at y/n who barley spoke during the conversation. Y/n looked down as Zelda looking confused. "I wasn't in the bush I woke up on a tree and fell. I was stumbling around until I found your voice and two unfamiliar ones." Y/n spoke. "A tree!? Goodness y/n you always end up in the strangest places. Gosh do you have any bruises from falling!?" Zelda asked looking at y/n and trying to see if you were injured. "I'm find madam don't worry to much" You chuckles and continued venturing forward with Zelda not noticing two stares staring at her.

"They looks just like them" Sonia whispers and rauru agreed. "The one part missing is their stone" rauru hums looking at the tall female. "Should I pull those clothes for them?" Sonia asked and rauru nodded. "If they ask tell them it's one of the hyrule traditional clothes." Rauru said holding Sonia hand which Sonia smiled and walked behind the two bickering people.....well one of them was bickering.

Though for some reason you felt like this whole entire thing going in the past meeting the original rulers is going to end up bad. After all this was the era when calamity Ganon was originally born in.

[85-rend]

im almost definitely forgetting something in the timeline of things but im just going off what like my major hyperfixations were over a long period of time was there. Also yeah theres some overlap in years idk thats just how things were idk, there wasnt really clear cut offs for most of em theres still some kinda sprinkled between but i feel like theres enough of a switch most of the time for what the main focus is.

[ruthlesslistener]

A History of Regions in Hallownest (with marked maps)

*Note: this is HEAVY speculation/veering into headcanon territory, because we honestly just don't know most of the details to the history of Hallownest other than architectural cues, brief one-liners, and fossils. I'm mostly just doing this to provide a visual explanation for what my rough guess is, so take it with a grain of salt.

Anyways, did anyone else notice the fact that in Hollow Knight, you can tell which tribe lives in which area of the game based off of architectural differences? How about the fact that you can tell which gods rule in certain areas based off of environmental cues? Different areas on the official map are colour-coded, which is helpful and can give us some idea of which tribe lives where, but the gods are more fickle, especially since their territories have canonically changed over time as new gods were introduced, old ones began to fade, and bloody wars were waged over the indoctrination of new followers. I wanted to mark off the ancestral regions of the tribes of Hallownest, but those have a measure of overlap with the historical territories of their deities, so to begin with, I took the map of Hallownest as it appears post-fall (aka during the game), and picked out colours to indicate the main ones that we know of so that we can keep track of how their territories might have looked over the years. I left out minor/debatable gods simply because these five (The Radiance, the Pale King, the White Lady, the Lord of Shades/Void, and Unn) are technically the only ones that we can confirm where their territory holds were via environment.

[ID: the map of Hallownest as it appears in-game, with an additional note reading 'Map of Hallownest with Major Gods Colour Coded (post-fall)' on top. On the left, Unn is marked in pale green, White Lady in hunter's green, and grey text is used to indicate undisputed/neutral areas. On the right, the Radiance is indicated in pale pink, and the Pale King is depicted in pale purple. The Lord of Shades is marked below in darker grey.]

Next, I want to indicate where I believe the major god's territories were in three different ages in Hallownest: the time of the Void Civilization (pre-Radiance), the time of the Radiance (pre-Pale King), and the time of the Pale Gods. Because the goal of a god is to true-kill another and capture/secure the loyalty of their followers by erasing any evidence of their predecessor's influence, we are going to assume that there have been two stages of records-wiping and potential civilization-breaking, done by first the Radiance and then the Pale King. Therefore, the amount of speculation decreases the further down we go along the timeline.

Hallownest as it was during the time of the Void Civilization:

[ID: the same map of Hallownest as before, but now with transparent, colour-coded blobs over certain areas to indicate the potential territories of the gods during the era before the Radiance. The vast majority of the map is overtaken by a blob of grey, with a couple smaller blobs to the left and right, and a green blob over Greenpath. The green blob correlates to the colour indicative of Unn, while the grey blob indicates the potential range of the void civilization, including monuments and void gates (which is written on it in white). A note underneath states 'likely vast overestimate due to lack of knowledge of this era'. Blue text at the upper right states 'outlier unaccounted for: Lifeblood God]

Like I said, this era is pretty much mostly left up to speculation, as we have little to no information on the void civilization other than the fact that they existed, and the vitrolic hatred that the Radiance had for their god (the Void itself). We also don't know if Unn was actually here during this time period, but I included her because her civilization feels extremely old, and because I interpreted the fact that she pulled the Mosskin and much of Greenpath from her dreams to mean that the Radiance likely either didn't exist yet, or if she did, had not yet ascended to the God of the Dream Realm.

As for the Void Civilization itself, I made a rough indicator of where it probably was based off of the location of the void, the number of strange statues and voidgates/free floating void present in the air, the composition of the walls, and the areas where large, ancient-looking beetles are found, similar to the one in the Abyss itself. The cutoff point and 'extras' written on the higher blobs indicate areas where certain members of the tribes might have spread, based on the presence of voidgates, the Black Egg Temple, and soul totems that are carved in the abyssal style, but that's mostly just tentative speculation. The tribes likely involved in this worship were the Snail Shamans (who are tied to death/can teach void spells upon death/are now very scattered/rare), and the predecessors to the Beetle Tribe.

Next is the Radiance.

Hallownest as it was during the dominion of the Radiance (pre- Pale King):

[ID: the map of Hallownest, now with different transparent territorial indicators. The vast majority of the top right area is taken up by pink, which is tied to the Radiance. A stronger pink outline shows a more canonical guess as to where her actual seat of power was located. To the left, Unn's territory has expanded, and underneath both, an area of the map has been circled in purple and cut in with slashes to indicate the fall of the Void Civilization. Pink text says 'potential extermination via Radiance(?)' with an arrow pointing to it, and pink slashes bridge the gap between this circled area and the Radiance's territory. To the right, a small circle of darker green is visible on the fringe of the map in Kingdom's Edge, with the text 'maybe WL germination spot' and an arrow pointed at it.]

How the godly territories looked during the time of the Radiance is still mostly speculation, but it's less rough than the era of the Void Civilization, as we have environmental indicators to point where the seat of the Radiance's power was, and where Unn's influence spread to the max before the Pale King and the White Lady became threats. I am personally of the belief that the Radiance destroyed the Void Civilization and whatever god they worshiped when establishing her power, which was a necessary act for her own survival, but was brutal nonetheless (remember that gods depend on worship to survive and are countered by gods of specific other elements- these turf wars are very similar to lions and hyenas fighting, in a way). In solid pale pink, I've indicated the areas that might have technically fallen under her territory after she destroyed the Void Civilization, and outlined the ares where we know that the Moth Tribe (her favored followers) dwelled. Pink dashes indicate potential areas with her tampering, while the purple circle with the dashes through it is where I believe the stronghold of the Void Civilization was, and where she might have fully destroyed them. Because Unn was also a God of Dream, no danger was posed by her and thus the two likely survived next to each other in relative harmony, with Unn benefitting from the Radiance's ravages.*

Oh, and since the White Lady's roots are strongly present in the area where the White Palace was eventually built, it's likely that she germinated in Kingdom's Edge during the end of the Radiance's reign, and ascended to full godhood with the assistance of the Pale Wyrm (and visa versa) when they were taking territory of their own.

*Note that I do not fully blame the Radiance for her actions. They were brutal, yes, and likely unfathomably cruel, but the Void is one of the few deities/elements that could kill her, and securing a territory with followers is essential to the survival of a Higher Being. I cannot judge her for this any more than I can judge a new male lion from killing off all the cubs in his fresh pride to ensure his paternity. It's just how nature works.

Now we have everyone's favorites (sarcasm), the Pale Gods.

Hallownest as it was during the dominion of the Pale King and White Lady (pre-fall):

[ID: the map of Hallownest, this time with different territorial indicators. The map is dominated by a massive blob of pale blue at the top, a sizable blob of pale purple directly below with a section of it circled and crossed out with darker green, and a large chunk of olive green now takes up half of what used to be Unn's lands. The pale blue indicates territory shared between the Pale King and the White Lady, the purple indicates where the influence of the Pale King reigned stronger, and the olive green is where the White Lady's prescence was more apparent. The section where the White Palace is technically falls under the Pale King's territory, but has heavy influence from the White Lady. Purple crosshatching up by the King's Pass also indicates where PK's claim of the land comes to an end.]

Aaand out of all the godly territories, this one was the easiest to map out, as it was the most recent and thus easiest to define. This one, however, is somewhat unique, as much of it is shared between two gods instead of dominated by just one- likely why the Pale King and White Lady managed to claim such a large swathe for themselves in the first place. Marking exactly what was the Pale King's was far more difficult than marking what was the White Lady's, as her boundaries and claim are felt far stronger than his influence (mostly regulated to the City of Tears and Ancient Basin), however his insistence on commerce and trade routes meant that his architectural touch extended all the way up into Dirtmouth, King's Pass, and the Crystal Peaks, even though his actual hold over those lands was probably held only by the expansion of the tribes loyal to him (the Beetles for sure, the Moths at least for a little bit), and the backing of the White Lady, whose pale flora are seen in those areas. As you can see, large chunks of Unn's lands have been annexed into the Pale God's power, potentially due to Unn weakening enough for them to quietly move their territorial boundaries further outwards, while the land that lead to the squabble between them and the Radiance came about from the Moth Tribe changing loyalties, allowing the Pale King the rights to the Radiance's territory. While it seems like this switch was done voluntarily and with full consent of the moths, it should be regarded with the same amount of suspicion that one should hold for the annexing of Unn's lands into their domain.

*Please also note that the Pale King and the White Lady's conquering of their lands was similar to the Radiance's in terms of necessity, in that both needed to conquer a territory of their own and obtain followers in order to sustain themselves. WL seems to have managed to do this with relatively little fuss and was on her way to slowly replace Unn as the god of greenery, however the Pale King persuading the moths to defect was probably primarily what caused the conflict between him and the Radiance. The worship of one tribe (in this case, the moths) is an important resource to a god, so the conflict arose when he tried to steal her source of sustenance, and the Infection arose when she attempted to regain her territory. Both of their actions are technically valid from a survival standpoint, however the brutality of the fight and its effect on both the mortal tribes and the vessels was inexcusable.

And last but not least, we have the potential ancestral lands of the tribes of Hallownest! In this case, I've saved the best for last, as this is the most interesting from a cultural perspective if you're not out here oggling at the gods like a biologist watching wild beasts in the field (ie me), yet is still extremely interesting if you're a specbio/behavior and sociology nerd (also me).

The likely ancestral layout of the tribes of Hallownest:

[ID: the map of Hallownest, now with regions marked over with light green, pale pink, pale blue, aqua blue, pale yellow, golden yellow, dark grey, and blue-grey. The pale blue indicates the range of the Mosskin and their relatives, the pink is the Moths, the pale blue are the Beetles, aqua is the Flukes, pale yellow is the Shrooms and Mantises, golden yellow is the Hive, dark grey is the remnants of the Void Civilization (potentially the snails/ancient beetles), and blue-Grey is the Beasts, aka spiders and centipedes. The writing at the top reads 'Likely Ancestral Layout of Mortal Tribes (based on architecture)'. Dashed lines indicate overlap of regions and/or areas where stragglers may wander despite not necessarily being based there.]

Personally, this was the easiest to indicate, as the bugs and architecture of each tribe are visually distinct. I chose to indicate ancestral regions, as the shifts in deity reign did not always lead to elimination of the tribes themselves, merely their expansion and contraction. Areas where there is no set culture or type of bug (like King's Pass and Kingdom's Edge) were left blank, as they seemed to either be transient places or areas where past dwellings were uncommon- though I did mark part of Kingdom's Edge as under the Hive's rule to account for workers leaving to collect nectar. Dirtmouth was similarly labeled as ancient moth territory because of Thistlewind's commentary on 'the caverns of Hallownest being dangerous', indicating that the moths stayed on or near the surface, and I marked off the Void because there's enough snail shells in there to potentially argue it was where the snail tribe originated, and PK produced so many vessels that they're practically a species of their own at this point, albeit one that is very much dead. They weren't a civilization, they were a family, but they were hatched and killed on the bones of a place where many likely died under the Radiance's ascension, and so that accumulated net loss was enough for me to mark it on the map.

What I find interesting to note here is that in terms of expected ranges, it actually...makes sense? The Mosskin had a large historic range because they are a historic, varied people, and though they experienced some changes after the White Lady took chunks of Greenpath, it wasn't enough to make them fully distinct from their ancestors. They're also possibly herbivorous, and thus can sustain their larger numbers relatively easily. The same can be said for the beetle tribe, as most beetle species are omnivorous and there is significant variation in the members that we see, indicating that there may be two or more species present in that tribe. The Flukes feed on detrius, and are most likely a much more recent civilization to have arose due to the plumbing installed in the City of Tears accumulating enough nutrients for them to gather in one place. Bees, as we know, generally tend to all be one family staying in one place, so they're less of a tribe and more just,,,well, a hive, and while the Mantises and Shrumal Warriors have the smallest territory, we know from the game that the Fungal Wastes are currently in the process of expanding, and the Mantis tribe is a singular-species group of carnivores with an insular community, meaning that smaller numbers are to be expected from them. When compared to the range of Deepnest, another society built primarily of carnivores, they seem very small, but one has to remember that Deepnest has at least two different species of spiders and centipedes living in tandem, and that much of their territory is tunnels and hunting-grounds instead of open space. The Hidden Village is only slightly larger than the Mantis Village, which fits with the carnivorous lifestyle (as there must always be more prey than predator). I didn't include the Oomas because they are very much not from Hallownest. When you step back and look at it, its interesting to note where the overlaps are between the territories of the gods were, and the ranges of the mortals they were so dependent on.

So there you have it! One super long post containing a detailed breakdown of the territorial boundaries in Hallownest, dealing with the generalized guess of where the ancestral lands of the tribes were and a three-part breakdown of different major god territories over different ages. Again, the only two that I'm even somewhat close to being certain about being canon are the maps of godly territories pre-fall and the ancestral lands, but its fun to think about regardless. Hope y'all have just as much fun reading this as I did with making it :>

[shock-micro]

sometimes i really wonder what the future of gaming will hold...

i only realize this now, but a lot of my gaming experience recently has been in retrospect, in a way. i played celeste years after, i played hollow knight after all of my friends who'd played it insisted, i played rain world after years of hype from one of them, i played oneshot... you get the point.

the closest thing i've been to "cutting edge" in recent memory is tears of the kingdom, and as my backlog dwindles, i can't help but think of what lies ahead. will the idea of console wars die out, with so many defining games being indie, or otherwise released across all platforms? how will triple-a companies fare as they continue to get upstaged in unique gameplay and style by much smaller developers? will nintendo go back to a more traditional split handheld/home console model, or will everything they release from now on be iterations on the switch? conversely, will sony and microsoft innovate for once in their recent lives? take gaming in some bold new direction? or will they remain stagnant, as consoles become increasingly irrelevant, "evolving" away physical media and losing their greatest benefit in the process?

i don't even think i've touched my switch since tears of the kingdom. ever since, i've been immersed in so many different games, stories, worlds, created by passionate people who had something to say. i have no doubt in my mind that the indie community will keep thriving, but it's strangely bittersweet? that the greater video game industry, that once focused on innovation both in technology and in gameplay, is losing its way, with gaming companies as a whole stagnating, iterating in pure numbers instead of ideas. i suppose that's what happens when two of the major players in the console markets are global tech corporations, with gaming divisions, rather than a dedicated company like nintendo. but even with them, i'm almost worried by the rumors that their next console will just be a more powerful switch...

ah well, all of that text just to say, at least there are still folks passionate enough about games to keep that spirit alive, and with games like silksong and earthblade ahead, i'm not worried for gaming as a whole- just thinking about how we very might well be living through the end of an era defined by the big names in the industry. as sega once cast their dreams away, perhaps it's finally time for nintendo, sony, and microsoft to join them, to go out with one last hurrah, giving their console, their new games, all the creative energy they've got, in one final push for the finish line, before fading away.

[authoralexharvey]

THOSE WHO EMERGE FROM ASHES, a NaNoWriMo novel intro by @authoralexharvey

GENRE — dark fantasy || adventure 

INSPIRATIONS — Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, Madoka Magica, Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson) 

POV — third person limited, alternating between three characters

TAGS AND TROPES — adventure, fallen gods, friends to lovers, gods as humans, language barriers, lgbtq, magic, queer worldbuilding, rebellion, recovery, reincarnation, religion, slow-burn, time travel, travel

WARNINGS — abuse, animal attacks, cults, mentions of genocide, murder, ptsd, religion and religious abuse, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, trauma (and lots of it), violence

STATUS — draft 7, which is a massive rewrite

GOAL — 30k for November, stretch goal of 50k for NaNo

THE DETAILS

CHARACTERS

Dakota Locke, a twenty-four year attempting to become a renowned historian. Winds up becoming the Scribe of High Priest Luriel the Seventh and following him around as He tries to bring the gods back.

Maka Willards, a twenty-four year old godling who is new to being such a thing. Wants to get away from the Scholars but doesn’t know how—and the curse on her certainly isn’t helping things. After a harrowing event shakes her cathedral, she has her chance.

Katalin Basurto, a twenty-five year old Scholar of the Lost. Sharp as a tack and conniving when she has to be. Though she is originally sent as the next Scribe of Luriel, her plans change when she finds someone else has taken her place.

High Priest Luriel the Seventh, an over eight hundred year old Priest. Feeling his age. Everyone thinks he killed the old gods, but he only defied them and has taken it upon himself to bring them back at the peril of his own health, which has been rapidly deteriorating.

SUMMARY

Three women find their lives deeply entangled at the hands of an eight hundred year old High Priest as He embarks on what may be an impossible task. Dakota Locke is an aspiring historian with little money and nothing to her name. When her guardian takes her abuse too far, Dakota flees, forsaking the scant chance she has at her dreams. Then she meets a strange woman in the woods who doesn't speak and her life changes forever. Maka Willards is a god. She knows this, no matter what the Scholars of the Lost say. Despite the curse binding her powers, she knows its hold is slipping. After a harrowing event shakes the cathedral she calls home, she abandons it all to find her High Priest herself and take her place among a new era of Gods. The Scholars of the Lost devoutly follow their High Priest as he resurrects the gods, no matter the cost. Unbeknownst to everyone else, they also aim to sway Him to their own shadowed goals. No one knows these truths better than Katalin Basurto. Having trained for years to be the next Scribe, she may finally have her chance when the last Scribe meets his untimely end. For years, she's suffered under the influence of the Scholars. She won't let anyone stand in her way now.

TAGLIST (Ask to be added!)

@linaket ,

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

AMY ROSE (SONIC THE HEDGEHOG)

1.) Amy’s characterisation has experienced several generations of misogyny, right from her genesis: She was designed as a girlfriend, but it eas then decided they didn’t want Sonic to have a girlfriend. First instance she’s a damsel in distress that he resents for being there and crushing on him, and this is echoed in the comics. She is then presented as pathetic, chasing and stalkerish, as well as sidelined in the games in favour of other characters despite being very strong. Her stories are often those with the most emotional weight, but the reading is coloured by other characters underestimating her importance there. She then enters a pushy and blind era where she becomes a mockery of her past self. A universe reset rebranded her as a feminist, but that often comes off as a bit pickme, and they frequently failed to hold her femininity and also combat capabilities in hand at once. She is finally getting a bit more stable characterisation and treated a bit better, but I still don’t trust the writers with her. Ultimately, it often felt like the creators didn’t like her, and only had her there because they were made to; and that sucked as a little girl sonic fan.

2.) She started out as the token Girl One in a 90’s property, and her first appearance was as a damsel in distress, which isn’t great to begin with, and she wasn’t playable for a long-ass time outside of spinoffs. The Sonic Adventure games redesigned her, made her playable, let her fight back against her would-be kidnappers, and gave her a major role in saving the world by letting Shadow talk to someone not game with destroying it. Then from Sonic Heroes to Sonic and the Black Knight, and the anime Sonic X, her character was reduced to ‘hehe funny obsessed fangirl is obsessed’ a lot of the time, losing her compassion and a good deal of her social awareness. In Sonic 06, she literally said that she’d sacrifice the rest of the world for Sonic, which, my girl would NEVER in SA2. The Archie comics weren’t kind to her either, as their explanation for the redesign was that Amy wished to become older, so they aged up her body, BUT NOT HER MIND EW EW EW. I’m sure there are other crimes the Archie comics did to her, but that’s not my knowledge base. THEN the writers tried to backpedal in the early 2010’s, but by attempting to undo all the 'crazy’, they took out Amy’s drive and convictions (Sonic Lost World just letting Amy sit and watch Sonic do all the work my beloathed). The Sonic Boom spinoff series tried to pivot and make their version of her a girlboss, but Rise of Lyric was SO BAD. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice made an alternate version of her a damsel in distress, again, which while technically true to Amy’s roots, does not fit her Boom characterization AT ALL. The Sonic Boom cartoon was a screwball comedy, and they at least lampshaded a lot of Amy’s previous writing problems, but they didn’t give her much to do either, mainly making her 'the sensible one’ whenever Sonic wasn’t available for deadpan responses. They’ve been doing a bit better lately, with Amy usually involved in world-saving matters, and she was prominently featured in Sonic Frontiers, even if she was trapped in Cyberspace. The IDW comics are also treating her wonderfully, from what I’ve seen.

3.) when she was created as a character, she was made solely to be sonic’s love interest. in sonic adventure, they tried to rewrite her and flesh out her character more by making her realize she’s more than her crush on sonic and she finally realizes she’s strong enough to do things without him. sonic team IMMEDIATELY undid that in sonic heroes which came out soon after. they made her entire character in that game obsessed with sonic and based her entire story around him. she was obsessed with him unhealthily in that game because god forbid team sonic let’s a strong female character exist. many of the sonic games took away her quality of being strong without sonic by writing her to only be obsessed with him and not do anything without him. in many modern games, she’s improved more, but misogyny has really screwed her over as a character.

ABBIE MILLS (SLEEPY HOLLOW) (CW: Racism)

1.) Abbie starts out as one of the two protagonists of the show, only to get almost entirely sidelined as early as season 2, getting less and less screen time and allowed no relationships, either platonic or romantic, while the other lead Ichabod Crane has a seemingly infinite amount of them. It got bad enough that her actor wanted to leave the show, which they did by having her sacrifice her soul in the season 3 finale for the male lead to live, and then they ended the show after season 4 anyway, because guess what, it’s a bad idea to entirely sideline and eventually kill off one of your leads!

2.) She was killed by the narrative to advance her white male co-protagonist’s plotline and I’m still mad about it, Abbie deserved so much better. This is an example of racism in the narrative too and it extended to the production of the show, see news coverage:

3.) Look, I only watched the first season but they killed her off the show SHE was a co lead of!! Misogyny AND racism, all rolled into one. I remember seeing the fan reactions and I was so mad on their behalfs. They wrote her off her own show and from what I recall, gave her less and less screentime leading up to that. Truly, she deserved so much better and I will always be upset by this.

[bracketsoffear]

The Radiance (Hollow Knight) "The Radiance is one of the few higher beings / gods in Hollow Knight. It was previously the main higher being of the land know known as Hallownest. Then along came The Pale King. The Pale King buried The Radiance’s religious relevance with his own, becoming the knew main higher being of Hallownest. This! is because The Pale King was able to give the bugs thought, and let them have minds of their own instead of being savage beasts.

Also yes, every character in Hollow Knight is a bug. very corruption aligned as well.

Eventually, eons later, The Radiance came back, upset about being replaced. It brought about a mind-controlling plague known as The Infection. This was a mass breakout of a disease in Hallownest, which caused bugs to loose their minds and become obsessed with praising The Radiance. Not to mention the fact that orange sludge / goop drips out of the infected bugs in a really grotesque way. This is MULTIPLE elements of the corruption. Corruption of physical form, Corruption of thought, and religious corruption, as well as general themes of bugs. literally this entire game and franchise revolves around bugs.

The Pale King tries to fight back many times, sacrificing his own children and failing. By the time the player character arrives, The Knight/Ghost, Hallownest is already in a post apocalyptic state of infection, very few bugs with thought and true being remaining."

SCP-049: The Plague Doctor (SCP) "SCP-049 is a plague doctor who appears human at first, put isn’t. Yeah that mask they wear? Yeah, that’s not a mask. That’s just their face (check their wiki page, there’s a really cool photo of their bone structure). It is implied that they came into existence during The Black Plague era of humanity. They have one goal in life - to eradicate “The Pestilence”, a disease that only they know the existence of, that only they can sense or detect in any way. They have a cure that only they know and can administer - going so far as calling themselves the cure itself. While this might on the surface detract from them being a Corruption Avatar, it’s actually quite the opposite because… the people they claim are sick show absolutely NO signs of illness. They are perfectly healthy people. And the cure isn’t really a cure. Their touch literally kills people and turns them into zombies, which makes them less of the cure they claim to be, and more of a patient zero. If you haven’t read their article, I implore you check it out, it’s not too long of a read, has some awesome photos to aid with world building, and even has some PHENOMENAL voice acting to go with the interview transcripts."

[imthepaladin]

Animation styles

Cuphead

The most impressive thing about Cupheads animation is that every frame of every sprite was hand drawn, making everything feel much more alive. However, this takes a lot of effort and wouldn't translate well into my game.

Adventure time

Adventure time is a more modern take on 'rubber hose' art style (compared to Cuphead, which looks a lot older and 'of its time') making its characters expressions and action very over-the-top and defined. I like the style but it's likely too childish for my game.

Risk of Rain 1

The first Risk of Rain's darker, more militaristic art style gives the sense of a cruel and unfeeling world, where everything is either dead or out to get you. This is a style that may be more fitting for my game, especially the design of the final level, the UES Contact Light (seen above) with it's metal walls and almost factory-like theme.

Enter the Gungeon

Enter the Gungeon's animation (and overall art style) has some nice shading that may work well in my game. Additionally, the bounciness of the characters when they walk may also be something I add to my game.

Castle Crashers

A perfect blend of goofy and serious is what makes Castle Crasher's animation stick out to me so much. Like adventure time, the animation is mostly silly but has it moments of high detail and seriousness. I don't think my game can take anything from it though.

Hollow knight

Different characters are presented clearly in Hollow knight's animation. Sword fighters have quick and fast animations, whereas old and big enemies have slow and bulky movements. I love the the clear animation, and could adapt it to my game.

Across the Spiderverse

Like Hollow Knight, the many different characters in Into the Spiderverse are designed and animated in unique ways to clearly show their differences, such as Spider-Punk looking like the 70's era of punk whereas Spider-Gwen's universe looks a lot more hand drawn. Another great thing about it is the whole thing is animated to look like a comic book.

Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit was animated using stop motion of hand-made plasticine models. This gives it a completely style unlike anything else covered here by being something different to look at. The animation style also somehow fits both Wallace's bubbly and bouncy personality and Gromit's more sarcastic and silent personality.

Gravity falls

Gravity Fall's is a lot more 'realistic' of a cartoon compared to Adventure Time (ignoring all the sentient gnomes and evil triangles) and it is represented in it's animation style as characters move more akin to real humans in other cartoons like the Simpsons.

Classic Tom and Jerry

The animation style in the classic (and even more modern) Tom and Jerry perfectly portrays the borderline torturous slapstick humor with grossly overexaggerated faces after getting crushed by an anvil or getting a tail set on fire. These faces are similar to Adventure Time or Cuphead in the fact they all have scenes where they're overexaggerated, but I think Tom and Jerry goes above and beyond in this regard.

[quirkle2]

Ok I know you said you didn't want to bother anyone with scarf lore but I'm just so curious! Why an orange scarf? Can you tell us about it? (only if you want, please and thank you!)

ofc!! always happy to share :]

(bit of a warning for parental death ! the Scarf Lore is a little heavy VGEYAIV)

wars' orange scarf was given to him by his beloved and cherished mother when he was eight! she'd made it for him for when he grew up, but he'd wanted to wear it then, jumpin up n down and bein all cute, and who could say no to that face ? so she let him wear it and he's been very attached to it ever since. wore it everywhere, even when it was much too big for him and dragged along the floor behind him (his mom tucked in the edges,, safety first)

then, unfortunately, his mother died of an illness when he was nine, and that scarf became that much more important to him. he held onto that thing for dear life bc when his mother passed, the house felt empty and cold and no longer held that warm, coziness that was there whenever she'd hum her way through housework. all wars had left was his father (who was not a nice man or a good dad) and that man felt just as cold as the rest of the household

he grew an attachment to that scarf to the point where if he didn't have it on his person in some way he'd feel panicked. it was sort of his lifeline, and the last thing in the world that felt even half as warm and wonderful as his mom had been

fast forward through his childhood, where he trained and trained to become a knight solely bc his father forced him to, and then we land right at the beginning of the war, the start of wars' game. he's revealed to be the hero, he's instantly promoted to captain rank, and he's forced to don the legendary blue scarf instead

the blue scarf never felt good to him. it had that same empty, cold, vacant feeling to it when he put it on, and the more lives that were lost in that war and the more blood that stuck to his hands, the heavier that scarf got. the more he was scrutinized by the public, the more he was shouted death threats by people who didn't agree with his leadership tactics, and the more political nonsense weighed on his shoulders, the colder and more hollow it felt. the more he was pushed over his limits by his "friends" (zelda, impa) and forced to work even when his legs threatened collapse, the more hopeless it all was

when he was off-duty, though, he donned that orange scarf again, and everything felt warm and safe. the blue one felt like it sucked the life out of him—putting it on actively shot anxiety through his gut, bc putting it on meant another day of political disagreements, battlefields on fire, and zelda and impa overworking him until he's bedridden

when he met the rest of the suncaster crew, he didn't have to wear that blue scarf. he put on the orange one and finally felt like himself for the first time in ,, maybe ever. the crew knows him as a wisp of sunshine, rather than the bloodied and blue shell of a man back "home"

i've mentioned it in the past, but wars eventually gets banned from his era as a whole bc he essentially "wasn't useful enough" to them. so wars gave zelda that blue scarf back, said good riddance, and put on his orange one instead. threw away the people and the world that treated him like shit and took up his mother's scarf and her kind ideologies instead. moved onto different worlds with different people who actually love him

the name "suncaster" has a lot to do with his scarf, actually. there are other, bigger meanings to it, but i went with suncaster bc wars is just that ! sounds cliche perhaps, but he rly is a warm, comforting presence in the face of danger to the others. it's why, in my latest piece where they're all lying down head-to-head, they're lying on his scarf. he's cushioning them, providing foundation. giving them a place to rest and smile rather than ache and trudge. being gentle and loving, rather than strict and lifeless, like zelda and impa had treated him. whenever he does that—shares his beloved scarf with the others—he's essentially sharing with them everything the orange represents to him. it's one of the kindest, softest things he can ever do for someone

[bingle-official]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite fighter characters? And what do you like about them?

They can weild any weapon (swords, spears, axes, clubs, knives, bare hands, etc.); they can be of any class or variety of combatant (ones who rely on strength like brawlers or berserkers, ones who use finesse like martial artists or technique masters, ones who balance defensive and offensive equipment like knghts or samurai, etc.); they can be of any race or species (from fantasy or sci-fi); they can even have access to special powers to improve their combat skills (magical, psychic, technological, superpowers, etc.).

What matters is that one of their primary skills, roles in the story, and traits as a character is physical fighting.

I fuckin love kaladin from stormlight because he has really overpowered abilities against normal people but he still has really good skill with a spear when no abilities.

Also, vin from mistborn because though she's small and lithe, she still fucks shit up

Also wax and wayne from mistborn era 2 cause they don't have all the powers but they use them in really inventive ways.

Also knight from hollow knight cause I live hollow knight

[wolfkice]

Hollow Knight - Bygone Era - Marmu

''I've kept it safe, this sacred garden! I've kept it safe for all this time, and soon the Queen will return and teach me to fly!'' ''我一直在保護這個神聖的花園！我一直以來保護它就是為了現在這一刻，很快王后就會回來教我如何飛翔了！''

...like HOW?! She's a TREE!!! Ow o ..樹會飛嗎？！Ow o

DeviantArt:[link]

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