#i find the concepts of the avatars and all the background lore so interesting but i just could not care less about who killed gertrude

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

The urge to listen to the magnus archives again versus the knowledge that I get bored whenever it's not just a weird monster of the week situation

[ramblingdruid]

The Blade of Eilistraee

I have the itch to make another D&D Character. And of course it will be a drow. I'm gonna dive a little bit into Eilistraee's lore with this character and her backstory, and I will be bending the rules a little bit, but I'm a DM so I can do whatever I want. :)

Meet Ailah, the Blade of Eilistraee.

Coming off of Baldur's Gate 3 and a hyperfixation on Drow, I figured what better time to make a cleric? With how much the story of Baldur's Gate focuses on the gods of the realms, from Shar and Selûne, to the dead three, to Jergal, to Mystra, and more, the various pantheons of the Forgotten Realms are so ingrained into the culture, it's about time I made a cleric.

Two of my least-used classes are bard and cleric. Which is kinda sad, because they're both very interesting classes. So I thought why not use both? It's perfect for Eilistraee, a goddess of dance.

So let's get into it!

I like to start character creation with an idea, like the hook to a story. My working concept for Ailah is a drow cleric/bard and worshipper of Eilistraee. That is all that I have. So let's build off of that!

Starting off with a background, I try to think of what makes sense for a backstory for my character, then try to fit a background or make one of my own for it. As a Drow, Ailah was born and likely raised in the underdark. So I need to think about how she came to worship Eilistraee, and how she came to the surface.

Based on what we know about Eilistraee and the general time period of most Sword Coast campaigns, we'll assume "present day" is somewhere around 1489-1494 DR. For example, Waterdeep: Dragonheist and Baldur's Gate 3 both take place in 1492 DR.

As for Eilistraee, she made her return through the Second Sundering in 1489 DR, and her biggest temple, the Promenade of the Dark Maiden, was reclaimed by her followers in 1491 DR. So, I think I'm going to embed that into her backstory. It's a good inciting incident to have her come to the surface, I think.

So, let's do just that! A short and simple backstory that can be built on later.

Born in 1379 DR, Ailah spent her early years in Menzoberranzan as a middle-class citizen. It wasn't the best place to grow up, but she survived. From a young age, her mother encouraged her to practice music and performance. She learned the Violin and the Harp, and began to play at ballrooms and events for the nobility of the city. She later learned to play the Lute.

The year she turned 110, she had a dream. She saw glimpses of a beautiful Drow with flowing white hair, dancing along the Sword Coast, a place which she had only heard stories about. The scene changes, and Ailah sees an old temple to the goddess Eilistraee. She was afraid, because Eilistraee was seen as an enemy in Menzoberranzan. The goddess stood before the altar, looking up to a statue of herself.

"Ailah. Follow me, to the surface. I have returned, and you are needed."

And so she did. After some preparation and thievery, Ailah fled, and managed to find her way to the surface in about two years. She emerged within the High Forest, and was drawn to Darkmaiden's Leap, a shrine to Eilistraee. Feeling its divine energy, Ailah prayed. A few moonmotes appeared from the shrine, which formed into a silvery lyre at Ailah's feet. Understanding, she stood and played the Lyre, dancing through the clearing around the shrine. After an hour or so, a portal formed on the shrine, opening to the largest temple to Eilistraee in the realms: the Promenade of the Dark Maiden.

Stepping through, Ailah found herself guided by moonmotes to the altar, where she was given a magical blade by the goddess' avatar itself, which soon dissolved into moonlight.

There it is! Quite an interesting backstory, huh? There's a few options for a background that fits. We could do Far Traveler from the Underdark, or we could do Sage from time spent in the temple, or Entertainer from her work for the nobility in Menzoberranzan. I think I'll do a combination of Sage and Far Traveler, because I think that makes the most sense.

Skill Proficiencies: Perception, History Tool Proficciencies: One Musical Instrument or Gaming Set (I chose the Lyre from her encounter at the shrine) Equipment: A musical instrument or gaming set you are proficient with, poorly wrought maps from your homeland that depict where you are in Faerûn, a set of Common Clothes, and a pouch containing 5 gp.

I'm giving her the "All Eyes on Your" feature from Far Traveler.

All right, with the background out of the way, let's get onto the classes!

To start out, I want to give her two levels in Bard from before she traveled, then a level in Cleric from starting to worship Eilistraee. Now, because these classes do not have the same spellcasting ability, I'm going to use my DM power and just pick one of the two. I think Wisdom fits better for Ailah, especially because her later abilities through song and dance will be drawn from Eilistraee rather than her own charisma. I'd also add that she can use Wisdom for Performance rather than Charisma a few times a day equal to her proficiency modifier.

Okay, stats. As a wisdom-based character focused on dancing and performance, this should be easy. I'm going to be using point-buy for now, but I always ask the DM if we are going to roll stats or not.

Str: 8 Dex: 16 Con: 13 Int: 10 Wis: 17 Cha: 10

I'll also add that Ailah is a Twilight Domain cleric, and will eventually be a College of Swords bard.

Last but not least, I want to make the magical sword that she was given. I've always loved the idea that a character keeps the same weapon, so I'm going to be using an ancestral weapon, which basically improves with the character

Starting off, the sword is a simple longsword, though it has the Finesse trait. It gains bonuses based on acts that the character does. So, to start, this weapon counts as a spellcasting focus, and sheds bright light in a 15-food radius, and dim light for an additional 15 feet.

Great! We have a great level 3 character to play or write about, which is more likely for me. Expect stories or posts about Ailah in the future! I'll probably at least do a character design post sometime soon. :)

[ashbelero]

Obey Me!

~Theology Corner

So, we already know that the brothers all embody one of the seven deadly sins. But we also know that in the Obey Me! canon, they were (with the exception of Satan) angels before the Celestial War. With that in mind, could it be conceivable that they once embodied the seven virtues?

Well, let’s dig into that a little.

Warning: We gon’ be talking biblical up in this bitch.

Both the “seven deadly sins” and the “seven virtues” were penned around 590 AD by Pope Gregory, but were first mentioned less than 200 years prior in the epic poem Psychomachia by Aurelius Clemens Prudentia. There is no mention of either the virtues or sins in the Bible or the Torah, and prior to the “official” naming of them by Pope Gregory, the church recognized only four “Cardinal” virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. These, along with the Theological Virtues, are what are actually known as the Seven Heavenly Virtues.

But those are technically not the same as the seven virtues named alongside the seven deadly sins, so for our purposes here, the virtues are Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility.

Lucifer

Pride - Humility

Humility is the quality of being humble, the obvious counterpart to pride. In a theological context, it means to recognize one’s self in relation to and hold oneself in submission to God. By standard definition, it can mean a feeling of being unworthy. Canonically, Lucifer was the angel closest to God before the fall, and that kind of expectation could easily lend itself to pride if humility isn’t observed. Ironically, the only person to whom he still affords this virtue is Diavolo.

Mammon

Greed - Charity

Picturing Mammon as an angel of charity is... interesting. Charity isn’t necessarily to do with money, however. It actually has far more to do with love - a love of God above all else, and a love of one’s neighbor and self in equal measure. To embody this virtue is to embody pure love itself. Perhaps this is why, as the avatar of Greed, Mammon is often held in contempt and near disgust by his brothers, as he’s unable to hold himself in the same regard as them.

Leviathan

Envy - Kindness

Kindness, or compassion, is pretty self-explanatory, but often hard to pin down to any one human value. It can embody itself as a positive disposition, as concern and care for others above oneself, and a tendency to help others without expecting or wanting anything in return. Personally, I find Levi’s personification of envy as a little vague, but there are few times that one could say he expresses any of the traits typical in kindness.

Satan

Wrath - Patience

Satan is a little bit of an outlier in this, for the simple reason that in the canon of both Obey Me! and Christian theology, he was never an angel. But, just for the context of our “what if”, let’s examine Patience. As a virtue, Patience means persevering in the face of difficulty and tolerating things that provoke us to anger. And in this, Satan becomes an interesting part of this discussion, because he exhibits this virtue more than his own sin - relying on Patience to bridle his Wrath - despite never being an angel at all.

Asmodeus

Lust - Chastity

While we normally think of Chastity as being synonymous with sexual abstinence, that’s not necessarily the case. Chastity in theology is defined as refraining from sexual immorality - put simply, extramarital sex. Asmodeus wouldn’t have had to work hard to embody this one. Marriage was a human concept, not reserved for angels, and an overwhelming majority of sources depict angels with no genitalia at all - after all, why would they need it? Now imagine growing a whole new appendage after the fall from heaven.

Beelzebub

Gluttony - Temperance

As mentioned in a previous post of mine, gluttony isn’t only related to food. In that vein, Temperance means practicing moderation and restraint in all things, and is therefore closely related to many other virtues like Chastity and Patience. That self-control can extend from abstinence to forgiveness and mercy, reeling in one’s desires and impulses. In the absence of this virtue, this might explain Beel’s tendency to anger easily as well.

Belphegor

Sloth - Diligence

Theologically, Diligence is tied in the closest with faith and work ethic. Intention and effort are meant to be done without absolute certainty of any reward or specific outcome - work for work’s sake, trust in a power greater than one’s own, and a persistence in seeing things through. Belphie is one of few instances where we see the boys before the fall, and we see in him a blind faith in his family and a drive to ensure their happiness... something that sadly seems to have faded.

So there’s my theories. Now, I have my doubts that the developers really looked that deeply into the background behind their lore, and I’m not complaining if they didn’t. But this was just a neat outside look at what might be making our boys tick.

Thanks for reading.

[silvershears]

Alright, listen. This book honks. And I want to talk about why. No, I'm not getting into the book review scene, but please indulge me.

I never had any intention of reading this book. I'll be up front with that.

A new coworker is a newish fantasy reader who, upon discovering that I am a long-time fantasy reader who also writes and has some vague publishing background, asked, "Would you read this book and tell me what you think? I haven't read it yet, but I'm curious to hear your opinion."

Sure. Why not. I was only 50 pages into the book I was reading at the time, so why not put that on pause and give this a go? This became infinitely more complicated by the fact that my new coworker is acquaintances with his wife, and then add in that I've met this author, had a bad interaction, and decided I never wanted to read his books. Nevertheless, I was determined to give it a go anyway, and I wavered for a while on whether to even include that background here.

Wasn't I already predisposed to not like this book? Perhaps. But this book was an excellent learning opportunity, if not a good story, and I think it's important for us all to approach books we don't like this way: Each time I ran hard up against my own disgust, I paused to ask myself why I felt that way. What was it about the story, the writing, the character, the plot, the world that made me react this way, and how did that interact with the author's intent?

First of all, a disclaimer: This will have spoilers. If you intended to check this book out, perhaps don't continue further until you've read it yourself. Maybe then come back and compare your experience to mine.

> The worldbuilding is based on two-dimensional lore.

The world is comprised of what appears to be three human races split along religious lines. The three sibling gods each have their own race of followers with some individuals inheriting the magical power of their god. One is a magic associated with air and water with a father/older brother god figure; the next is a mother/middle sister associated with fire and light; the third is a little brother associated with... the hard labor of forging? It's unclear what he originally stood for, but by the time the immense lore dumps are complete, we see the little brother's transformation from a highly skilled craftsperson who takes immense pleasure in crafting gifts to his siblings into a petty, angry god bent on chaos and destruction of his siblings' domains.

What brings on this transformation? The gift of a song.

He is so enraged that his siblings gave him a song instead of a physical item like he gave them that he goes into a rage, evicts himself from the metaphorical house, and goes to live in the bowels of the world where he can forge in peace. He goes on to create all the various fantasy creature races in the world like dragons, fae, constructs, shadow demons, etc.

And his name? Keos. He's the chaos god and his name is Keos. I can forgive a poor name here an there—perhaps he never said them out loud—but add in that the sister's light/fire magic is called lumen—y'know, like what lightbulbs are measured in—and I have concerns.

Naming problems aside, the entire world's history and the racial relations all stem from a god's immensely childish reaction to a gift. I am well aware that many deity lore can be goofy or based on overblown reactions to things, but it feels so thin and flimsy that to prop the whole world and its cultures on top of it could not stand.

> Ableism is pervasive in the culture.

The story starts off with a prologue, which, as a concept, is not inherently a problem, but it was my first clue that this was not the story for me. In this world, being disfigured in any way physically marks you as an agent of the chaos god. Either these agents are killed or ostracized in order to better mitigate any mischief and evil they may commit or bring to their community. We are immediately thrust into this intensely ableist world with the birth of a child missing a hand and part of a forearm. The parents are killed and the baby taken to the woods to die.

I hate it already.

The author, being the sort of person to review their own book, states in his lengthy review: "Whatever you do, don't think for a moment that I'm blind to the tropes I've chosen to use. They serve a purpose and are conscious choices."

If this is the case—that he's aware of his tropes and they are purposeful—he must also be aware of the statement he's making by having all disabled and disfigured be labeled as evil ne'er-do-wells. Because this story takes place almost entirely within the small town of Chaenbalu where these beliefs are rampant, we're lead to believe that this is the way the whole world works. We get one glimpse of the outside world where it mentions a larger prevalence of disabled and disfigured individuals, but it's so brief and not at all explored that our understanding of the world goes mostly unchanged.

Is this part of Call's subversion of tropes? Perhaps Chaenbalu is indeed a backwards town, holding on to old traditions that the rest of the world has left behind, but the characters are so isolated they wouldn't know—and therefore we don't know whether that's the case. Bad news: It's so distasteful that I'm not interested in reading more to find out if it's just Chaenbalu that's the issue. I'm so put off by the whole concept.

> Every female character is cardboard, and they all die.

Centered in Chaenbalu is the Academy, a school with two gendered factions: the witwomen and the Master Avatars. (You'll notice that the sexism starts right off the bat with the fact that Masters get capitalized but witwoman does not.) The witwomen are trained midwives and kidnappers, sent out into the world to collect children and bring them back to the Academy as a "reap" or class of new students. The students are told that their parents submitted them to the Academy's care in a boarding-school-type thing, but that's spoiled in the prologue as being untrue.

Unfortunately, we don’t get a chance to really explore what it is the witwomen are up to, or what any of the women are like. There is only one female character with any amount of on-screen time, and even that is negligible. She acts as nothing more than a plot device, which I’ll talk about later, functioning only as an object for the main character to lust after. Anytime she is described, it is with delicate detail paid to her soft, plump, pink lips, the breasts, the hips. At every turn, she’s sexualized—and perhaps that’s due to the main character’s gaze being the narration we receive, but even in the epilogue scene when our main character is not present, the author continues to describe her this way, so perhaps it’s not a function of the main character at all. She receives no further development than who her father is, what her body is like, and how much she dislikes those marked by Keos, aka, the disabled and disfigured.

The other witapprentices and witwomen appear for two scenes, and by the end of the book, they are all dead in the midst of an attack on the Academy that serves only to move the main character's story forward. Without this attack, he would never have a story worth telling in a book. Without their deaths, the attack would not have happened. And even the romantic interest is faux-killed in order to provoke a specific emotional reaction in the main character to move the character's development forward.

> The characters are shallow.

While I can't guarantee that this problem is due to the two-dimensional worldbuilding, I personally feel they're probably related. There are a couple of friend characters around and a mentor that are all lacking in development, but let me focus on the main character.

The male students train at the Academy with the goal of becoming avatars, and then later, Master Avatars. As avatars, they are expected to go out on secret missions to retrieve magical artifacts and, if the artifact is a "dark artifact,"—that is, if it's built to do harm to another person, and by lore belongs to Keos—murder its owner.

The main character is one such student, testing to become an avatar, and worse yet, if he doesn't pass his test this go-around, he'll never be able to become an avatar and he'll instead be relegated to steward status, taking care of the upkeep of the Academy. And of course, no one wants to be a steward! You'd be a servant to everyone, and where's the action-packed fun in that?

But our main character has a motivation even more powerful than the dread of being a steward: a girl. Not just any girl. The headmaster's daughter.

To be fair, this book is not advertised as a romance. Which is good, because it's not a romance. The main character has a deadly crush. He even has a promise ring forged, ready to give it to her when he passes his test and becomes an avatar. His love for this girl is so powerful for him that it's quite literally all he thinks about, but because she's the headmaster's daughter and is also a witapprentice, he hardly ever sees her, and the times we do get them in the same scene, it's plain this relationship will literally never work out.

She may not know about his missing half an arm thanks to a magical prosthetic, but it's clear she holds on to the old ableist traditions with positive glee and with the same strength as a hippo's jaw. While our main character pines after her and even eventually when they are engaged, we are telegraphed again and again that it will never last, that she is a horrible person, and that she will never accept him with his missing hand. We know this and we watch the main character acknowledge this so many times that it is a failing of the plot that there is even a chance for her to betray him.

Which she does, of course.

This goes back to the author's assertion that he's aware of his tropes and to trust him in his plan. He sets up a male lead and throws the only female character at him, establishing the possibility for a romance—a common trope—and molds that romance into the core motivation for the male lead. She is his reason for wanting to succeed, and he waxes poetical about how terrible it would be if A) someone else got her first, or B) he didn't pass the test and he couldn't be with her. They must fall in love, yes? The author also tries to convince us that she is a likeable person, a person worthy of his devotion, all the while foreshadowing with a heavy hand that she's, frankly, ableist, racist, and a terrible person who is not at all worthy of his devotion. Ah-hah, a subversion! They are not at all meant to be together!

The problem is that she repeatedly shows her hand as a garbage human in front of him an innumerable amount. We the audience dislike her so intensely that to have her as the main character’s sole motivation is laughable. Perfectly inconceivable. A true weakness in the foundation of the plot that’s so profound that if the story struggled to stand on its weak worldbuilding, it almost certainly cannot stand on this. Her betrayal is so blatantly obvious and inevitable that his surprise is outrageous, and his hurt comes not with sympathy from us but absolute incredulity.

> The author’s prejudices taint the writing, and the writing needs editing.

I won’t talk too much in depth about a scene in which the romantic interest is stunned and the main character performs a grossly sexualized search of her body, but I will point out that later, the author writes, “he relived the seconds they had shared in the shadows...” There was no sharing of moments. She was stunned. There was nothing romantic about it.

Later, the main character is sent out on an assassination mission. The author writes, “He wondered what kind of a man he was about to kill - good or evil, father or bachelor - and whether the man would struggle.” Ah yes, an unmarried man. The opposite of having children. Of course, how silly of me to consider that being unmarried precludes me from having children, or that being married means I must have children.

At another time, a character who is well known to wear an eyepatch is described as “winking at him with his one eye.” I’m sorry, author, but that’s just blinking. I could have given him the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he’d forgotten this character is missing an eye and wears an eyepatch if not for the “with his one eye.” The author knew what he was doing.

These moments aside, many scenes dwell in the melodramatic, letting emotion set the scenes awash in a horribly garish light that fails to give the scenes their weight. The point of view was pretty tight to the main character, but with odd moments where it split away to document events that happened outside of that character’s view, even within scenes where the main character is present. It felt a bit sloppy. Passive voice is rampant, with sentences and whole scenes in dire need of better editing. “Myjun was walking in step with her father...” “His flyssa was caught by Annev’s flamberge...” It made the writing dull—hobbled by too many words that meant too little, and too specific of words amidst their plain neighbors that made it dissonant.

> The plot is overstretched.

This book is 576 pages. At page 250, something occurred that made me think that perhaps I’d just witnessed the inciting incident and that now the plot would begin. At page 330, I thought the same thing. At page 400, I thought the same thing. At page 525, I realized with a jolt that I was witnessing what this book would consider the climax, and I could put what happened at page 400 the inciting incident. Until that point, there was no clear indication of what the plot actually was, and there were at least 300 pages of unnecessary story.

I understand from a bit of research that this is intended to be the first of a four part series. Realizing that puts the entire plot of this book into perspective. This climax is the point of no return for the series, with a 500-page lead up. With a bit better editing and a cleaner line, this book could have been immensely less frustrating. Perhaps all these things that bother me are the point of the book—perhaps the next books in the series will overthrow some of these expectations as the main character ventures outside Chaenbalu and sees what the rest of the world is really like. Perhaps.

Do I trust that the author will do that? No.

Am I interested enough to continue reading this series to see if it gets better? No. Do I hope it does? Sincerely. I may not like the author, and I may not have liked this book, but there are people who do and I respect that. I hope it meets their satisfaction. It’s not for me.

Do I regret reading this over the last month instead of the book I was reading and will go back to reading? Surprisingly, no. I hated it, don’t get me wrong, but I also learned a lot about why I hate it—what made it not work—and I think there’s value there, too.

[rogue-hammer]

ENTRY #2: ELDAR (PART 1)

“I watched the Forging of the Widow Makers, the 12 swords of Kaine, I watched as one was stolen and hidden far away.”

Eldar. The ancient Race, one time masters of the Galaxy and Seers without equal.

ELVES IN SPACE! SPACE….Space….space…

Believe it or not there is quite the history to this race outside of the typical hum drum of being the most powerful psykers, or, dumbasses who gave birth to Slaanesh. The history of the Eldar and their varied kin goes all the way back to Rogue Trader, and their lore has seen many an interesting tale told. The question is, do you have what it takes to make something out of it all?

Will you follow the Path of Asuryani?

Become a Exodite?

Mayhap an Outcast?

Or have you followed the path of Damnation?

#1 Study the history and model scope of the Eldar

As much as I love poking fun at any Knife ear, and their fans, I admit to a love of how otherworldly GW have made the Eldar over the years.

Going all the way back to the RT era, when the eldar where mostly but Corsairs and Enigmatic Xenos who seemed to materialize from the ether and sow discord for some unknowable reason, to the Golden Era of GW where these space elves where given a giant and truly inspiring background of triumph, a fall, loss, and desperate measures taken to keep their now dying race alive in the face of a hostile Galaxy.

For this reason I suggest to anyone interested in Eldar as a faction, to go back in time and visit some old books and codexes, as well as the classical ranges of minis.

Eldar once looked the part of eerie and almost frightening Alien creatures from a time before man crawled forth from his birthworld.

#2 Throw out the meta

First things first. Many of us probably grew up knowing the Eldar in their Post 2nd ed form. From 3rd ed’s chopped down Codex, to the easily abused expansion, and finally culminating in the 4th/5th ed incarnation of what has basically been the Eldar mold in modern times.

Hordes of Aspect warriors, spam grav tanks, spam Wraith-units, Spam Psykers and yes now a days, Spam Wraith Knights.

Or if you lean to the dark side, ummm Spam Raiders. Yeah just, Spam Raiders.

To put it blunt, Eldar meta is probably the most boring of all git-tastic play styles in the game of 40k, challenged perhaps only by Tau.

Throw it out. Read the lore. Apply it.

Eldar don’t have Hordes of ravening Aspect warriors to send in waves at their opponents.

Raiders are cool, if you can afford to have them and risk losing them in a raid. And your not likely to toss your most veteran Kalabite warriors into an attritional grind against Mon’kei gaurdsmen.

Wraith constructs are a nigh unthinkable resource to ever waste, and oh yeah did we mention not every fucking Eldar Force takes an Avatar of Khaine as it requires a heavy cost in order to even summon one of those things?

The Aldaeri have an interesting and sophisticated way of waging war, and they have highly advanced tech and powers in order to over come their foes, even if your actually trying to put some theme into it.

Lets discuss some interesting ways to look at your Eldar, seperating them into the 2 official factions, as well as ways to whip up an Exodite army or Corsair force.

#3 Craftworld Eldar.

Craftworld eldar are the main stay of the Aldaeri race, and the one lots of people tend to flock to when it comes time to game. And why not? Aspect warriors? Wraith Constructs? Tons of psykers and Autarchs? Whats not to like?

So how does one go about making a CW Eldar army worthy of a true hobbiest?

First things first, find a theme that digs deep into the lore. Are you;

-A Craftworld Defense force, using the might of your titanic space fairing world’s militia forces to fight off attackers. Squads of Guardians/Storm Guardians, backed by mobile weapons platforms and War Walkers. Your troops sailing into combat aboard Wave serpents and Viper Attack craft, all under the covering fire of punishing Heavy weapons platforms? Remember that all Eldar serve in the defense of their CW, and guardian and basic military based tech in an Eldar army is still some of the best around ( The best in certain editions).

-A Specialized Craftworld force, highly trained in a certain area of combat? Crack open the old 3rd ed Codex Craftworlds sup. And find some excellent ways to theme an army based off the major worlds, or perhaps mix and match certain styles in order to create your own world, with a unique color scheme, heraldry and history streching back to the fall, or even farther. House rule in the various advantages and limits of the old CW sup. And enjoy playing with the different styles of balance. (Just do your friends a solid, don’t abuse it.)

-A Doomed host heading into the Eye of Terror? Many CW Eldar have made the perilous if not downright suicidal journey into the Eye. Within that hellish realm, the Crone Worlds lay, the ancient now consumed home worlds of the eldar. Within them are many secrets, Spirit stones and other relics the Eldar greatly desire to have returned to them. Is your army such a quest? A brave Warrior Autarch, or Visionary Farseer having gathered those warriors of the Aspect temples to fight through the horrors of Chaos and retrieve something of unimaginable value?

-The Fist of Asuryani mayhap? The biggest and most powerful weapons the Eldar can bring to bear, hammering their opponents into submission by sheer might of their advanced fire power? Fire Dragons and Dark Reapers scorching the earth and slagging enemy armor, while Prism tanks and War Walkers streak and sprint ahead unleashing salvos of lance and Shuriken firepower into the enemy ranks. Batteries of Heavy Platforms annihilating units from a distance all the while the ground infantry providing cover support to your valuable aspect squads.

-Perhaps the Quick Death is all you need. After all what is more fast and fleet than the Eldar? Eldar on fast moving grav vehicles of course! Jetbikes and Vipers, Falcon tanks combined with the Shining Spear Cavalry and swift Swooping Hawk and Shadow Specter Aspect warriors to run circles about your slower more primitive opponents, cutting and blasting them to pieces before they have a chance to react.

-Maybe you watched Predator one too many times and have a thing for Stalking and killing your enemy from the Shadows or from unexpected angles. The hidden strike is a component suited to the crafty Eldar race, able to hit opponents with Striking Scorpions and teleporting Warp Spiders. Speedy hard to hit Harlequins and deep striking Autarchs and Hawks can be used to to tie down valuable enemy units while Rangers pick off targets of value from the safety of range and cover.

However you manage it, always remember that the eldar war machine is a finely crafted tool, with all units having a value within the force, not just the big OP units that so many others enjoy spamming.

Choosing a backdrop for your army is an easy way to find what units to select for thematic purposes, from Militia, to Seer guardians, Maiden World security forces to simple insertion armies meant to retrieve something stolen by lesser races or eliminate a target of future threat seen by the visions of the seer councils or Lost Wraith Engines on a distant barren world, awakened by a roaming warlock and his followers. Any unit in your army can become a core idea for your force’s history and reason for fighting. Thats the beauty of an army whose whole design is one of unique characteristics and fighting styles.

#4 DARK ELDAR

The Dark Kin, The Damned Path, The Drukari.

Dark Eldar are certainly a far cry from their CW kin, yet they have lost none of the potency and ancient power of their race, and indeed are far more arrogant and vicious.

However, different as though they may be, finding a unique concept in the Dark Eldar may come with a bit of a challenge.

In the earliest days of 40k, the Eldar where a unified faction, and in so much where a bit of a melting pot of all of what we see today across their various sub armies. The Dark Eldar seem to have been born out of GW’s need to mirror the High/Dark Elf style of WHF, and so sliced away the more destructive and often times treacherous and debased acts of the RT-2nd ed Eldar and formed a faction that, while having its own unique character is a bit on the smaller and often mashed together side. But there is unpicked fruit in the thorn covered garden of ideas for Dark Eldar. Lets have a look at ways you can theme and structure your own Kabal, Coven or Cult, or an unholy alliance of the three.

-A new Kabal rises: An excellent theme often over looked by most players is the concept of a new and young Kabal, lead by an aspiring Archon, only just starting to take his/her place in the dark city. This lends an interesting way to re-model an army and veer away from the typical spam of Elite warrior units and raider craft and focus more on the unique character of each unit. Basic Warriors making up the core of your force, backed up by the toughened meat shields of Wracks, sent into battle by a Haemonculus that has attached himself to this rising star. Meanwhile your Archon sits secure in his own personal Raider the only one at first in the army, directing the flow of battle as he sends in payed off Street gangs of Hellion riders and Scourges to do the work he himself would not dare put himself at risk for, waiting until the enemy is bruised and bloody before descending down from his craft to feast on the pain, guarded by alien mercenaries kept for ease of their greed and less ambitious minds.

-Mayhap you enjoy the idea of just going full gang? An entire force of wild eyed crazed Reavers, Hellions and Scourges mounting up on wings and craft, screeching across real space in thuggish raids to secure flesh and power to rise about the lower scum of the city streets. The various elements banding together for mutual greater gain before fighting over their spoils giving rise to powerful Leaders that take the street alliance higher and higher into the spires of the Dark City.

-If lowly gangs and young archons don’t suit, then perhaps Highborn power and elite warrior code is more the poison of choice. Few can match the ferocity and skill with a blade that the dark kin possess. An army that worships the blade, made of Incubi, Veteran Wyches, Succubus’ and maybe even a powerful Archon, much a Swordsmen in their own right as any proud member of the Incubi Temple. Holding to a code of seeking out the greatest challenge to sharpen their blades against, engaging enemies head on with raider and Venom craft to quickly close and slaughter their way to infamy and higher praise in the ranks, shunning the pathetic court intrigue and power plays of the  other Kabals and cults, seeking only gain and perfection through bloody handed combat and death. A good alternative to the often typical Wych cult raid.

-Or the More Esoteric route? Haemonculus covens are all well and good, but do even these twisted flesh shapers come close to delving into the darkness that lies within the heart of the dark city? From the depths may rise an even more infernal and mysterious force for you to command. Born of the Beast masters who bend the creatures of the warp to their will, and the dreaded Mandrakes, sinister daemonic dark eldar who creep from the shadows and snatch their victims away. Truly an army lead by a Coven leader, so immersed in the dark arts of arcane science and flesh would be a terrible enemy to all sane life. Unleashing webway portals in the hearts of peaceful worlds, or worse, the middle of crowded hive cities for the vile things of the dark kin to reap bloody carnage on, dragging victims back to the benighted realm for sacrifice and experimentation too horrible to consider.  

-Take to the air perhaps and rule the skies above worlds who fear the dread shadow of your lightening speed craft as it passes over. An army made of Raider, Ravager and Fighter/bomber craft, even it’s troops never setting foot on the ground except to reek carnage in it’s aftermath, once all has been pulverized by shockwaves of horrifying munitions and bombing runs, the enemy position reduced to smoking craters of gore and blinded wreck. Their ears ringing with the echoing screech of your craft’s engines as they sore across the grim skies.

-Or maybe the final and most deadly of all weapons. Fear. Does your army not even dine to soil its hands in the proud defenses of your enemies? Do they instead send forth the most hideous and perverse works of the dark kin to shatter the mind, and break the soul before the body is even touched? Floating Talos and Chronos pain engines, their sanity blasting bodies shrouded by the dark wings of Shrikes and raider craft filled with wracks and beastial creatures ready to be unleashed once the damage is done. Medusae and other strange contraptions born of the Dark Eldar’s crazed intellect striding alongside Archons wielding the most horrifying weapons to inflict the worst possible trauma on a foe.

To quote the 3rd ed. Dark Eldar Book. The Dark Eldar are not nice. Not nice at all.

When considering the theme and characteristic of your army, not unlike your CW Eldar, ask yourself, what is the history of each unit on the table? Then consider what perversity and malign goals have brought them forth. Then, multiply that by something ten times worse. Are even a thousand Imperial souls merely an appetizer for your Archon who has fallen to such depths of need he must draw out even the most simple act of pain infliction to its most perfected measure?

Does your haemonculous make it a private goal to break and torture Astartes? His ambition to see the very limits the super enhanced minds and psychologies that a Space marine have can endure? Do they prefer the sweet meat of psykers, or the flesh of their more noble kin? Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is bellow a Dark Eldar and their arrogant quest for self sustaining torture and arrogant aggrandizement.

To be continued in PART 2 (Exodites and Corsairs)

[flatstarcarcosa]

@autistic-council-spectre

@therailwayarms

OKAY SO, it hit me the other week, like. thematically, right? zuko + regaining honor.........dishonored. hello??? 

but i had to go deeper and holy fuck did i ever??????

so for starters, it’s defs one of those au’s where instead of like a creative split of media, it’s just. “dishonored but the main characters are the atla cast instead of corvo and them”. 

the outsider has taken an interest in our royal fire family. he acts as if the affairs of humans mean nothing to him, but if anyone bothers to do the research, you can see he’s marked others in the family tree. 

azulon, notably, was not marked. 

sozin was, and used the powers of the Mark to start this setting’s take on the 100 year war. i have a background lore HC that he also marks a lot of the ‘airbenders’, and that the concept of an ‘avatar’ is something only they have, and it has to do w/ being marked. (the windblast power is clearly a placeholder for airbending, yfm?)

anyway. 

iroh was marked for a while, secretly. he went from being a normal commander to suddenly The Hero Of The Nation thanks to it, and no one aside from himself, the outsider, and his son knew. 

lu ten’s knowledge of his father’s mark is what got him killed. overseer’s mistakenly thought he was the one with the power due to his knowledge, and they murdered him for it. 

iroh killed about half of those responsible before he realized that not only is it not going to bring his son back, it’s also only going to reinforce the views the overseers have.

he piled his runes and his bone charms at a draped altar and sat in the candle light smelling burning chamomile until the outsider showed himself, and he renounced him. 

he gave up the mark, and the power, and he was the first human to ever do so. 

meanwhile, ozai has been watching his brothers successes from the sidelines and growing ever more frustrated with being unable to match it. 

one night, he awakens to a world balanced on end and awash in blackness, and the outsider taunting him by asking what would you do if you suddenly had the power to achieve your goals? 

he hides his own mark, for a time. he’s unable to completely hide it from ursa, and she is unable to accept it. she is unable to truly accept that the outsider is real and not a children’s fairytale designed to make kids behave, and she agrees not to involve overseers in exchange for ozai ‘banishing’ her and releasing her from a life she never really wanted. (she loved him ((because fuck what the comics say)) yes, and she loves her children moreso, but she never wanted to be royalty.) 

they swear to each other one day, they will reunite. perhaps not as partners, but maybe as free souls. and perhaps friends. 

he promises to care for the children. 

it is the first promise he breaks. 

ozai is plagued by the outsider. 

tortured. 

every time he closes his eyes, the black eyed bastard is there. 

is this all you can do with my gift? he asks. 

you were a dark soul all along, you just needed the proper push, he says. 

ozai suffers for years from exhaustion. he is unable to stop the outsider from visiting his dreams, and when destroying every shrine his soldiers find does not help, he resorts to refusing to sleep. 

it drives him mad, and will eventually lead to his downfall. 

at the height of his father’s madness, zuko is banished for speaking out of turn at a war meeting. his father holds him down into the smoldering embers of a fire in his office, and banishes him from the lands. 

the second night of his banishment, zuko awakens to a word balanced on end, and awash in blackness. 

“this is not the first time i have been with your ilk,” says the outsider. 

he marks zuko in spite of his protests, and it is here zuko learns that his uncle once carried the gift. 

“he calls it a gift,” says iroh sadly. “but really, it is a curse. i am sorry he has paid you visits.” 

iroh is now the one that begins to lose sleep. 

the outsider’s mark did not turn him into a maniacal tyrant, but he knows he chased the glory of being the dragon of the west because of it. he knows without the mark, he would not have slaughtered dozens of men in a blind rage. 

he knows the mark turned him into the worst version of himself, and he loses sleep with abject terror of what the worst version of his nephew could possibly be.  

in the end. 

he had no reason to worry. 

zuko turns out to be the one who should have been marked the entire time. the one who can turn the curse into a gift. 

among his journey, zuko discovers that while the outsider can visit whomever he chooses, and invade the dreams of mortals, 

so too can his family line. 

there is something inherent in this royal family, they can wander into the void when they sleep in the way that others sleep walk. 

ozai drove himself mad thinking the outsider was tormenting him, when in reality, he was the one trespassing in the other’s living room, and getting mad at the outsider being present. 

ozai’s control over, and power with the mark wanes the more mad he drives himself. 

zuko’s strengthens with every lesson he learns about the magic that enriches his lands. 

[echoslammin]

Press Start 2018 Letter

Dear Press Starter, Thanks so much for checking out this letter! Video games have been my favorite hobby for as long as I can remember, and I’m super excited to participate in an exchange revolving around them. 

General Information: DNW: Body waste kinks, futa, bestiality, character bashing, inflation kink, vore,  unrequested pairings as the main focus. Likes: Any kind of AU, friendship, worldbuilding, smut, canon-appropriate pop culture references, humor (all kinds - characters poking fun at each other or snarking, running gags, memes, etc. Seriously, if you've ever wanted to experiment with bizarre crack, I'd be happy to be your guinea pig). I also *love* metafiction and nods to quirky game mechanics and canon in-jokes. Most of my favorite works tend to be character studies and fluffy romance, but I definitely enjoy darker stuff as well. If you have an idea that doesn't exactly match with my likes/prompts, please feel free to go with that! Art likes: High contrast, portrait-style, characters posing in different outfits or showing off abilities, couples being cute together Video likes: Shipping montage, parody/humor - fake trailer, meme vid etc. (I would prefer it if you used in-game footage only). Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) - Any Character You can probably guess from my username who my favorite hero is! That said, you definitely don't have to force yourself to make something about Earthshaker or any character in particular (I like everybody in the tagset). I would definitely appreciate worldbuilding for this request, especially if it references abilities, item builds, or strategies. I'm more familiar with the Allstars version of the game, but I do play DotA 2 as well, so if you're more familiar with that, feel free to go by the new lore. Some of the changes did weird me out a little, like how Rylai and Lina became sisters and Mirana went from "priestess" to "princess." Other than that, I don't really mind. Prompts: -Shipfic for any of the following: Crystal Maiden/Invoker, Crystal Maiden/Drow, or Drow/Mirana. For the first two pairs, I imagine there could be some sort of common ground given their shared proficiency in ice magic, and for Drow/Mirana I like the idea of a contentious rivalry between two skilled archers. -Something meta-ish about the teams squabbling over how to spend resources at the beginning of the match. (Of course Crytal Maiden still gets stuck with buying the courier). -Anything referencing some of the weird mechanics of the items in this game. Ex: How the heck do Tangoes work? What does a tree even taste like? -Anyone remember the song "DOTA" by Basshunter? Anything referencing that song or the music video would be hilarious. Dungeon Fighter Online - Any Character

I originally started playing this game as a part of my ~research~ for a King's Avatar fanfic, and now I'm seriously hooked. Playing it really makes me feel like a kid again and makes me so nostalgic for old school 2D dungeon runners like Diablo 2 and Ragnarok Online, and I absolutely love the dozens of subclasses and their flashy skills. (I am a big fan of ridiculous rainbow-colored animations that take up your entire screen).

Prompts: -I love the idea of a female slayer interacting with a female priest. They both have a history of abuse at the hand of authority figures (the slayer by the De Los Empire and the priest by the False Prophet) and have some parallels in the theming of their subclasses. It would be really cool to compare and contrast the Slayer as a Dark Templar or Demon Slayer with the Priest as an Inquisitor or Mistress.

-Any kind of worldbuilding about Arad and Empyrean would be cool as well as any exploration of the backstories of the main player characters/NPCs. What does the daily life of a dungeon fighter look like? Are they actually having fun running into Hell all the time or is it just a terrible grind? (Yeah, I love meta stuff).

I generally like player characters to be referred to by their class only (as in being called just "the slayer" or "the priestess") but if there are specific names you prefer, feel free to use them. Master X Master - Any Character RIP dead game. This was basically NCSoft’s version of Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, and boy was I sad when the servers closed down in January. Flashback to last summer: The English version of MXM debuted with mild hype, and everyone's guild was named after one of the teams from The King's Avatar. This was a really fun MOBA with some very cool characters concepts and mechanics. So much lost potential :(

Prompts: -Anything Lua x Sizuka! These two were everyone's starter Masters, and it really amused me how they played off of one another in story mode with Sizuka's seriousness contrasting with Lua's overeager attitude.

-I loved Lorraine and her flashbang camera! Something about her combat paparazzi Master abilities would be awesome.

-For Vita, I would be amused by anything referencing "Upside Down" (aka MXM's meme song that people played on the lobby jukebox nonstop)

Liar! Uncover the Truth - Any Character

I'm a huge fan of this mystery/romance app with its feisty heroine and the quirky Liars she has to unmask before finding her Mr. Right. If you're interested, I maintain a sideblog dedicated to it over @whoistheliar (Warning for spoilers at the link). Kazumi and Haruichi are my favorite love interests, but I would definitely be happy to receive something revolving around other characters. I love how MC isn’t a blank slate and is very much her own character. She can be quite a mess at home and has a lot of insecurity about her humble background, seeing as she’s originally from a small country town (IIRC one of Joe’s side stories mentions that she’s from Akita prefecture). 

Prompts (just suggestions - please feel free to go with your own ideas!):

-Scenes from the Ayumi/MC route that Voltage is never going to give us.

-Out of all of the Liars, I felt that #8 was the most outright malicious. I wasn't convinced by the ending of his Lover's Route, and I would be curious to see something showing his mindset and feelings towards MC at the end of the game.

-It seems that people are really divided when it comes to the guy who ends up being "Mr. Right." Some see him as the most precious cinnamon roll, but I've also had people tell me that he comes off as a creepy stalker. I'm pretty sympathetic towards him myself, but I'd love to see your own take on him, whether romantic and sentimental or super dark.

-I really feel like the 9th Liar got the short end of the stick in the main story. His interactions with MC kept getting interrupted by unnecessary drama, and it felt like they never got the chance to really get to know each other. Fix-it fic with them ending up together would be great. BTW, I would love it if Rumi showed up - she was truly the savior of his route, imo.

I generally prefer for MC to be left nameless, but I do feel kind of bad for being so demanding about it in the past, so if there's a name you prefer, please feel free to use it.

Liar! Office Deception - Any Character

I love the Liar! sequel every bit as much as the original game. Workaholic MC is amazing, and you can bet that I'm super thrilled that Voltage is going to be releasing Office Deception Lover's Routes in the future.

-Post-game or redemption story revolving around any of the Liars, with the exception of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th. Ideally, this would end on a positive note with them being able to have a reciprocal friendship/romance with MC.

-Office Battle! I was so amused by the Star Wars parody that kept popping up throughout the story and how everyone seemed to be totally into it except for MC, who's just completely out of the loop. Maybe one of the Office Liars tries to teach her about the series or something like an Office Battle AU that's basically Office Deception in space?

-Narration of some part of the game from James' POV. I love MC's cat and found it hilarious how she kept spoiling him at home while being so disciplined at the office.

-The 9th Liar did some horrible things to get what they wanted, even putting the 8th Liar in the hospital. I’d like to see something that shows some of their inner conflict once they realize they're hurting someone that has actually become a friend to them. 

Thanks so much again, and hope you have a great exchange experience!