#i got patroklos

[bifairywife]

I made a uquiz assigning you kin with an epic Greek hero

[littlesparklight]

Who is the most underrated Trojan character

I think, for me, that that's Troilos.

Not the Troilos that gets used in Dictys and Dares (the one that's old enough to be on the battlefield) and turns into the Troilos of the Medieval and forward Troilus and Cressida tradition.

The sacrilegiously murdered child Troilos.

Not really because I don't like Achilles (even if Troilos is definitely one of the reasons for that), but because -

Plot-wise, and narratively? Troilos the murdered child, killed in Apollo's sanctuary, adds so much. Does so even if he would "only" be Priam and Hecuba's son instead of Hecuba and Apollo's. Because the murder in the sanctuary would earn divine fury either way. And yeah, there's Tenes (in his own way underrated), but Tenes was at least an adult, and is generally portrayed as both able and getting the chance to defend himself (and his sister). Tenes is important, too, since it's actually to him you have the "if you kill this son of Apollo, he WILL come mow your ass, son" prophetic warning from Thetis.

But Troilos.

Probably no older than thirteen, pursued and Achilles choosing to kill Troilos in the sanctuary instead of pulling him away from there.

Apollo has (many) other reasons to protect Troy (the walls, his affection for Hektor, Tenes, his affection for Troy in general), and he's probably rather needed in the way Patroklos dies. Not because of the attempt to breach the walls - Apollo could have stopped there! But Peleus got the armour Achilles is wearing from the gods (at his wedding), and so that set is presumably what's keeping Patroklos' safer than usual, so it needs a god to remove it (or, later, with another set of armour and Achilles now in it, needs him to circumvent it in another way).

But look.

Troilos, so brutally murdered (and possibly sexually assaulted, if you want to add that dimension), within the shrine/on Apollo's altar. No wonder he so viciously goes after Patroklos. Strikes him not just to get the armour off, but simply to disorient. Pain for pain, punishment before death of the perpetrator.

Especially since he's already had to wait by the point Patroklos dies, and Apollo has to wait yet longer. So until he can kill the perpetrator, he will take what he can get and make sure it hurts.

And then there's Troilos himself, shining child, one of his father's favourites even if (and/or because?) he's not his father's son, but the son of a god. A reckless child simply out playing, a child who means so much to so many, and so brutally taken away from them.

His (violently caused) absence is as meaningful as his presence, and has such an impact on the story if he's acknowledged; vase arts showed all the important steps of the tragedy, and it'd be one of the few times Achilles and Hektor clashes before the Iliad itself.

[sc-intothedarknightofthesoul]

The Spirit of the Sword

<- With retro effects ~ Without retro effects ->

My power got knocked out twice while working on this (first was my breaker during the heatwave, then a storm came in and knocked out my power completely which luckily lasted a few minutes, but was super annoying that they set me back a bit).

But never mind that, here's my prompt entry from the Soul Calibur group, in which case asked to feature either Elysium or Inferno manipulating their hosts via illusions of their loved ones.

Since I was working with her already for another drawing I'm working on, I thought I do one with Xianghua, one of the canonical wielders of Soul Calibur alongside Siegfried and Patroklos.

Of course, we don't actually see her get possessed or get manipulated by Elysium, the obvious being that Soul Calibur was hiding out as Krita-Yuga, but also probably because she fought Nightmare and Inferno alongside Kilik who held the Dvapara-Yuga with him, and Elysium started playing a more active role in Soul Calibur 4 and 5.

But what if Xianghua did?

I figured the loved one Elysium would take the form of would be Xiangfei, Xianghua's mother, drawn as the ethereal crystal lady floating behind her as a stylistic choice.

Other than the power outages, I had a lot of fun drawing this.

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

Was anybody going to tell me than in some versions, both Achilles and Patroklos have sisters?

@t0yearnf0r made me discover Patroklos’ sister, through my little research I found out about Achilles’.

Polydora (Achilles’ sister) do is mentioned in one passing line during the iliad (which I can’t believe I forgot) but it’s have been up for debate. The line is

"Menestheus of the dancing-breastplate led one contingent, son of the swift-flowing river Sperkheios whom the daughter of Peleus, beautiful Poludôrê bore when she shared the bed with the indomitable river-god, Sperkheios, although by reputation he was the son of Boros, the son of Periêrês who wooed her openly by offering countless gifts."

-Iliad. 16.173-178

(No idea who the translator is, I got that passage from the internet + my copy of the iliad is not in English)

Some say she’s the daughter of another Peleus, that’s she’s a bastard child and she’s just never mentioned because her birth is shameful, or that Achilles never mentions her because she’s dead.

What’s more confusing, she has different possible mothers regarding who you ask (she might be a child of Peleus, but certainly not of Thetis). Some say her mother was Antigone (not our tragic girl Antigone, but Antigone, supposed wife of Peleus and daughter of Eurytion).

She must have been a bit older than Achilles since by all accounts Peleus fathered her before (1) the Kalydonian Boar Hunt, (2) the sacking of Iolkos and (3) the Voyage of the Argo. She would likely have been raised in a separate household from Achilles and married off before he went to study with the centaur Chiron!

Excerpt from this article

Another version makes her the daughter of Patroklos' mother and Peleus. Which makes her both Achilles and Patroklos’ half sister. Wtf happened over there.

We know less about Myrto (Patroklos’ sister), but she’s mentioned once by Plutarch.

Now Eucleia is regarded by most as Artemis, and is so addressed; but some say she was a daughter of Heracles and of that Myrto who was daughter of Menoetius and sister of Patroclus, and that, dying in virginity, she received divine honors among the Boeotians and Locrians. For she has an altar and an image built in every market place, and receives preliminary sacrifices from would-be brides and bridegrooms.

-Plutarch, Life of Aristides 20. 5

(Don’t know the translator either)

She was apparently one of herakles’ lovers, and mothered a daughter who is pretty successful (has an altar and image in every market place and is regarded by most as artemis).

I don’t know if she’s related to Patroklos’ by mother too

[laikaflash]

concept bc im curious to hear what you think of it: sc5 but sophitia got the cervantes treatment where the astral chaos spit her out as younger than she was when she entered it so now shes canonically on the roster. how do you see something like this playing out in the larger plot?

Ooh, where to start? First off, I could easily see her being torn between saving Cassandra from the Astral Chaos and finding both her children before it's too late. But I'm going to be real on this one: Sophitia isn't going to know right away that Patroklos isn't at home, so Pyrrha would be her first priority. (Not to sound a little callous, but with the Astral Chaos being what is...)

Regardless of which of the two she meets first, Sophitia's going to throw a wrench into Elysium's plans just by showing up. Patroklos would have to reconcile the fact that his own mother had to defend Soul Edge so his sister could survive. Pyrrha might be emboldened enough to escape Tira quicker, but she'll still have years' worth of angst behind her. And when Pyrrha's malfestation kicks in, Sophitia would leap in shield-first between her and Patroklos before either can strike the other. One way or another, she'll try to save them both. Then they'll try to get Cassandra out of the Astral Chaos (which may or not be helped by some weirdness ensuing with Algol awakening).

Elysium itself would take on a different form entirely. Its influence might be more subtle up until the climax. Maybe Patroklos would be only one to hear it for most of the story. I'm thinking this form could be a sort of angelic-looking ice creature to contrast with Inferno.

Kind of spitballing a bit, but sometimes I can't help myself.

[name-s-are-not-important]

Woah, the anon who got mad over a story a stranger writes in their free time and posts on the internet for free, was hilarious actually. I almost laughed.

To the point: Your answer to their ask inspired me to ask my own question - would you like to maybe share some historical inspirations that lead you to create The Iron Song the way it is? Or maybe drop some more historical facts; the one about ages of royals' marriages was really neat.

Wish you a nice week, love your stories, byeee~

I laughed too, what a beautiful scene.

Oh wow, I love this question…. You have hereby opened Pandora's box, dear questioner, for this is a subject I love and could rant about endlessly. So, get ready, here's the short version :) (Thank you so much for this question!).

Alternate versions of a story when we change one detail in the whole course of events. This is a construct that has fascinated me for a long time, and which, as part of an ‘exercise’ in history and social theory repetition, I have long used. We take one event out of a process or add an event that wasn't there. What impact will it have if we leave the rest. In this case it was a change of two elements, i.e. Halt's disappearance became a more important event than in the canon because…. well… and this is where my undying love of fantasy and quasi-mythological stories reappeared, hinting at a magic-fantasy setting, but with ‘canon-ish’ realism. No dragons, but with magic. The second element to be knocked out of the sequence of events is Caitlyn's death. Caitlyn is fine and the second most important character besides Halt. What's happening politically, socially, plot-wise now that we have a strong princess who is, to put it lightly, pissed off at what happened to her dear brother. We have a mother who will fight for her child no matter what, we have a sister who will stand up against her brother to protect her brother. We have a princess for whom the nation will go to war, in an age of sexism, misogyny, patriarchy and a prevailing religion that despises women. How did this happen?

I love the role of women in history. I hate the version of history we are taught in schools, kings without mothers or wives who ruled and killed and died, and women in general were there but are not. Hundreds of books in ‘medieval’ realities wonderfully replicate this pattern. One female character per plot and that's enough. Absolutely no RA book would pass the Bechdel test. Not a single one of them. We have so many guys all birthed by women. We have a princess heir to the throne, a bunch of couriers, a queen, a queen mother…. and none are important enough to get even one scene with another woman to talk not about a guy. So my story will be half about Caitlyn, half about Halt. The sequel to ‘the Iron Song’ is already about Caitlyn. That much I can reveal. She is the main character. Give me more strong female characters who are strong beyond the fact that they say they are different from all the girls and are so much more masculine that they can deserve to be cool.

Erasing queer love in the pages of history. We know that history hates queer lovers. A few couples have managed to survive this hatred. We know that Achilles killed Hector only to avenge Patroclus. The grief of how many other Achilles was never recognised as their official reason for changing the course of history? How many Patroklos were buried in oblivion by books written before clerical historians, altered centuries later, censored and castigated? And how many women, queer women, have never moved beyond being ‘dear friends’ with their loved ones? I wanted a story where every important character would be queer. A story about a civil war heroes who met on two sides of the barricade, in love with each other and forced to fight each other. Soldiers who gave up the option of a comfortable life just to be with each other even a few days longer, in danger but together.

Again women, but this time mothers. Such as Eileen, but also such as Caitlyn, and such as Rosalind, and such as Siobhan, and such as several others whose names the plot has not yet given us. Women who was never cared about and whose names we don't know or remember because no one considered them important enough to be recorded in history.

The tragedy of civil wars. My country's history is littered with uprisings. For more than a century we did not exist on maps, trapped under the occupation of three other countries. When ww1 erupted, people called to serve in the occupying forces were pitted against each other. Shoulder to shoulder with the people who had occupated them, but against their neighbours who already belonged to another country. Brothers against brothers, acquaintances, friends. All because someone in power decided the fate of hundreds of thousands. The canon speaks of civil war, but from the POV of a king betrayed by a baron. I like Duncan, I love Duncan, but he was not the person most devastated by the war. He lost his wife later, but saved his daughter. Thousands of people went to fight for him and never came back…. In the history of probably every country there are plenty of dates marked with the notation ‘war’. The king died, long live the king. How many hundreds lay in the ground splashed with the blood of other hundreds is irrelevant to history. What matters is that the king is still there. And if he is gone, another one will be put on the throne.

Religious trauma. Yes, generational, and that of mine a little too. Without going into private details, the topic of religious trauma and its impact on society and the formation of social, behavioural and even legal norms is something that has interested me for a long time. This time I created a new religion, just for the purpose of this story. I was not inspired by any existing religion and if there are elements in common with any, it is a work of chance. This religion was meant to be the most atrocious form of violence against the most innocent, so that the full extent of the revulsion of what kind of person still supports it can be seen. The idea of cutting a child with a knife to rub an infusion of herbs and incense into the wound is meant to horrify and disgust. We experience this religion from the POV of people who have been harmed by it. Directly, like Halt and Óengus, or indirectly, like Caitlyn, or by stories in general, but still, like Crowley. And then we get into the head of someone who was so sure of his faith that he would sacrifice everything and everyone for it. Religious fanaticism, especially mixed with politics, its social effects, the propagation of religion by fire and sword, or in general the idea of religion being imposed on someone by force for the grace of a deity…. all this I wanted to show as horrifyingly as possible, before looking at it from the perspective of the people who grew up with it in a less cruel form than Halt, and the people it gave power to.

Family trauma and violence within the family, especially a high-profile one. Children in good clothes and in a rich home. Screaming behind closed doors. Now it is talked about, but so many centuries of these cries have passed and no one listened to them. In the records we find references to the fact that some king there was ‘eager to anger’. That is to say, he probably beat his wife, children, servants and anyone else who got near. And all of these people had stories that were not told.

8. Brothers but enemies, enemies but brothers. My beloved concept. Right next to unreliable narrator and haunted narrative.

9. Military history, especially medieval history. I love it. It makes my blood boil when I read the ‘bigos’ made by many authors who write about the ‘Middle Ages’. For non-Slavic: bigos is a dish made of cabbage, bacon and sausage, but it was often made with whatever you could find in the pantry after a week's work. A heavy, indigestible, not-so-good-for-your-belly-even-if-smells-yummy bigos. Such is the ‘bigos’ of military history, weaponry, military formations, armour, castles, architectural styles, ways of fighting and commanding an army that is made into many books. I fell in love with ken-jitsu at one time, and then fencing because of it. My country also has a very long history of knights and one heavily-armed cavalry, of which some misunderstood patriotism people are veeery proud. Anyway, this is the knowledge that everyone remembers from the most famous historical movies. It didn't help my special interest in the military through the ages to not develop.

10. The 10th, and probably last, eves of major historical changes. We remember dates when things changed. But how did it change? Well, the king changed. Why? What was happening one, two, ten years before? Sometimes some teachers tell us, and praise them for that, but generally it's just about remembering dates and events. But history is about people. People made it happen. Someone once hit the table one too many times and changed the world. Someone else hit him and there are two political parties with the same idea but great hatred towards each other. Someone else risked everything to protect his family. Who was he in history, a traitor, a hero, a fool or a loving brother/husband/son? Or maybe it all depends on whose song we listen to….

And now 3 funfacts, if anyone made it all the way here - congratulations!!!

The most known type of armour, the full plate armour appeared in the late Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries). It was composed of metal plates joined by leather straps to shield the knight from the blows of swords, lances and arrows. It weighed approximately 20-30 kg. A tunic with an embroidered coat of arms, the knight's family mark, was sometimes placed over the breastplate. Armour was bloody expensive, so if someone could afford it, they were rich and important, and unlikely to fight with a sword against just anyone. The heavy cavalry as a formation was mostly made up of men from noble families, serving in it was a great honour. For all the rest, there was room in the terrified, poor, dirty and poorly armed crowd that was trampled and murdered. In addition, this beautiful armour had one veeery important function - to prevent it from being pierced by a sword. A knight wielding a sword did not hit another knight in full armour with a sword, because this would not be very effective. Against each other, knights fought with lances. The sword was for the hoi polloi. And NO ONE, I repeat no one, rode into battle with their head uncovered. All the epic scenes of taking out a sword against a huge army and knights with bare heads, dishevelled hair and madness in their eyes…. it's as if we took away the soldier's bulletproof vest and sent him in swimming trunks instead.

The whole theme with the heavy cavalry is different in ‘The Iron Song’ but for reasons of social change initiated by religion. Claíomh Deartháir are a religion of warriors, and have controlled the state for three hundred years, training their commanders and dictating political terms. They have introduced quite a few changes. Some of you may have heard the opinion, dating back to the golden ages of chivalry, that one who has the heavier cavalry rules the world. Let's just say that Claíomh Deartháir agree.

Contrary to popular belief, people in the Middle Ages were as concerned about hygiene as they could be. In historical sources, one can find information about city baths available to everyone. The poor and peasants had designated places by rivers and streams where they could wash. The nobility enjoyed oils made from flowers, herbs and fragrant spices. A tiny nod in this direction is, of course, the scene at Araluen Castle where Crowley, brought up in a more poor, farming family, has the opportunity to come across the strange-smelling oily soap-shampoos that Halt was given by the medic. Previously, as a soldier, he preferred the traditional bathing methods for this social stratum. Halt sees nothing strange in this, having been brought up in other realities.

The strangest medieval footwear comes from Kraków (Poland). These shoes are ciżemki, flat with a short upper with an incredibly long ‘nose’. They appeared in the trade around 1330 and became very popular in Western Europe as cracoves or poulaines. The length of the top lengthened and shortened as fashions changed to reach a length 60 cm longer than the foot at its peak. Often the tops of shoes were decorated with additional elements. They were associated with promiscuity and decadence, so much so that at one point the Church issued a decree on who could wear them and who could not. An English poem from 1388 said that because of the long tops of the ciżemki, men were unable to kneel during Mass. The ciżemki fell out of favour around 1480 and did not reappear on a mass scale until the 20th century.

(To take care of the facts and not to rely on AuDHD's sometimes unreliable memory, all facts have been described based on online sources)

And if you'd like more rants, I have a whole lot more :)

Anyway, thank you so much for the opportunity to share this. You've made my day!

You have a great week too, thank you so much!!!

[soulofamy]

Tira for the “Send Me a Character & I’ll Tell You”

Send Me a Character & I'll Tell You✨️

My first impression i was the "beyonce?!" meme but instead "harley quinn?!" my first exposure to tira was sc5 lol

My impression now there is so much potential for her to be a great and deep character but the devs just want to focus on the psycho split personality aspect too much. i love the foundation for who she is but the devs dont know what to do with her

Favorite thing about that character her background is so interesting, the birds of passage have SO much lore and add so much to the soulcalibur universe so im glad that we got that

Least favorite thing they wont let her be multidimensional even though the building blocks for it are right there. they actually nerfed her back story in this new timeline, because in the old timeline part of her trauma that really messed her up was being forced to kill her own mother figure. they just completely erased that this time. she had a lot of range in the old timeline, i feel like that range is gone in sc6 and thats so upsetting to me

Favorite line/scene "oh look! now that he knows your his sister he suddenly gives a hoot!" but also just anything she says to patroklos is so good. like yeah she has terrible intentions but shes also oddly extremely perceptive. patroklos was a horrible human being, and she did a really funny job of calling him out for it

Favorite interaction that character has with another just any time shes prodding patroklos and pushing his buttons, its really funny to see

A character that I wish that character would interact with more anyone in nightmares horde tbh. i feel like she and azola especially would have a lot of interesting interactions. also siegfried

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character i mean how can we not see the resemblance to harley quinn

A headcanon about that character tira and azola actually worked together to ruin sophitias life. azola was the one to give sophis kids a soul edge shard, which was their first exposure, and that was done to sort of "prepare" one or both of them for tira to kidnap. they had more planned than to simply manipulate sophitia

A song that reminds of that character tbh i am not sure lol

An unpopular opinion about that character i feel like i would have been more intrigued by tira if she was a set of twins instead of one person with DID

Favorite picture probably this unused concept art from the new legends of project soul artbook

thanks for the ask!

[fleetsummers]

assigning you kin with an epic Greek hero  ||  patroklos

oof, im so sorry babe you literally invented bury your gays AND dying for the hero's character development. you did then ask your boyfriend to mix your bones together in a single urn, so you maybe invented romance also? I wish we knew more about you beyond your relation to your partner, but maybe you’re happier that way. I think that you could be more than just him but I also think you really don’t want to be. Most of our fates out tragic but I think you’re happy that at least you got to choose your path, even though it was always going to end in grief

[soulcalibur-bracket]

Here's the initial bracket!

In order to keep it a reasonable size, I excluded guest characters and non-playable characters, so sorry if one of your faves got left out! I also combined characters who are the same person (such as Patroklos and Alpha Patroklos) and characters who have been multiple people (like Yoshimitsu and Yoshimitsu II). If any of these characters ends up winning, I’ll do a follow-up poll to determine the best version of that character. I left Siegfried and Nightmare separate since they’re not always the same person, but I did combine the different versions of Nightmare into one.

I seeded the bracket based on averaged data from the official Facebook poll and the unofficial Eventhubs poll. However, neither of them included bonus characters or SCVI newcomers, so I used a combination of Reddit polls, my own intuition, and randomness for the rest. I ended up with an odd number of characters, so the first matchup will be between three instead of two.

The polls officially begin on October 1st and will be open for 1 week each. I’m going to spread the first 32 matchups out across a few days so as to not fill up your dashboard or the Soulcalibur tag with a bunch of polls in a row. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to send me an ask.

[revvywevvy]

y'know i was thinking more abt Pyrrha. specifically the final cutscene of the scv storymode and stuff, when Pyrrha and Patroklos made up and were gonna go home or w/e. (even though i think it shouldve been pat groveling for forgiveness more but pyrrha's too much of an angel and instantly blamed herself too to make him feel better but anyways.) like. when Pyrrha held her arms out offering a hug to Patroklos despite all the dumb shit he did and then the next few seconds passed I instantaneously remembered another reason why I hate Patroklos so much like BOY THE FUCK YOU DOIN HESITATING SO LONG THAT SHE THINKS YOU DON'T WANT THE DAMN HUG LIKE LOOK AT THAT EXPRESSION CHANGE YOU HURT HER FEELINGS.

LIKE BITCH IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THAT HUG RIGHT NOW I'M GONNA SLAP THE FUCK OUTTA YOU-

I mean he did hug her back though. but im just sitting here thinking 'YEAH YOU BETTER- got her thinkin you still aren't accepting her and shit,,,, dumb ass mf- YEAH. VALIDATE YOUR SISTER BITCH-BOY QUIT LOOKIN BACK AT ME KEEP COMFORTING HER.'

[jitters-art]

[ ID: image 1: chiron talking to a young achilles on a walk through the forest. achilles is laying on chirons horse back.

image 2: an oc charlie rogers standing in an alleyway infront of a tattoo shop during dusk.

image 3: sebastian from stardew valley standing in his smoking spot in the rain with a cigarette and frog.

image 4: hestia kneeling in the grass surrounded by fire.

image 5: an oc pablo sokolowski sitting in a bathroom stall.

image 6: achilles and patroklos sitting in the grass cuddling. END ID. ]

[littlesparklight]

Since epithets (all? only some?) can be used in speech and aren't just a convention of/in the narrative itself, I got to think about one of Hektor's.

The manslaying one, in specific.

A quick check with Perseus' word tool gives us this: "manslaying Hektor" in speech, 3 from Achilles, 1 from Ajax, 1 from Hektor himself, but by putting words in Achilles' mouth (so, pretty accurate lol even if it wasn't what Achilles actually said in the moment Hektor is imagining). (Another one in speech, Diomedes to Glaukos about Lykourgos.)

In narrative, you have one appearance in Book 6 ("manslaying Hektor's house"), and then the rest are all after Patroklos has died. Which is interesting but accords rather well with how much the narrative wants to press Hektor's bloodthirstiness here.

(There's also the couple times this epithet is attached to Achilles himself, but it's specifically about his manslaying hands. His manslaying hands being laid on Patroklos' corpse, his manslaying hands in relation to Priam's embassy to Achilles to get Hektor's corpse back. Hektor might share his epithet more "straightly" with Ares, who is also called manslaying, but he also shares it in this way with Achilles.)

Menelaos and Nestor both use 'Hektor of the shimmering helm' in speech, so manslaying Hektor isn't the only epithet Hektor is given in speech from an Achaean. But - given how Hektor's prowess and danger to the Achaean warriors are emphasised (mostly in narrative and not where we can see it play out), would it not perhaps fit that "manslaying Hektor" is an epithet that the Achaeans have given him?

Specifically because of how much trouble he is/has been to them through the years, and even if it might be a point of ironic pride for Hektor to claim it for himself, he only does so by laying it in Achilles' mouth. And Achilles has, indeed, used it of Hektor, exactly to emphasise how much of a danger as a warrior he is to the rest of the Achaeans in Achilles' absence.

It would fit rather well together with how, before Hektor and Ajax's duel in Book 7, the Achaean leaders are all afraid to accept (but ashamed to refuse) Hektor's challenge, and Agamemnon points out to Menelaos that 'even other men' dread to meet Hektor - even Achilles who is such a much better fighter than Menelaos himself.

[sc-intothedarknightofthesoul]

Ezra for the OC bingo?

I got a bingo! Yay!

Probably the few things that separate my Into the Dark Night of the Soul fanfic from the Libra of Soul game mode are the few changes that kinda diverge from the canon plot just as much as it follows it, the fleshed out moments that lead up to the major plot points, and the fact that Ezra Fontaine exists.

Ezra is an OC created specifically for the fanfic adaptation, but sometimes I play the Soul Edge Route as her in Libra of Soul to see how THAT will play out.

To start off, like Kasta, I didn't realize the significance of her name until I looked up her first and last name.

As I mentioned, I created Ezra on a whim while writing my rough draft a few years ago now, and she was named after a catchy tune I played a lot at the time made by Flume.

As for name meanings, Ezra is mostly Hebrew for "help" or "helper," and refers to one who is humble but is no pushover.

Given that Ezra is also a Virgo (putting her on the bracket with the likes of Voldo, Astaroth, and Patroklos)--who are known to not only be the detail-orientated and observant minds of the Zodiac ruled by Mercury, but also serve to uplift others--it's kind of funny in an ironic way. The dark side of Virgos is that in their bid to serve others, they also risk sabotaging themselves in the process and/or have bad faith actors take advantage of their willing acts of service.

Sorry guys, my Astrology slipped.

Her surname Fontaine (yes, she's French) means "fountain" or "spring" and refers to one who is whimsical yet sophisticated and lives near a body of water.

Putting her name together, it'd be "helper of the fountain."

I also like to address the elephant in the room that, yes, she is also one of the Qualifiers, the cult Azwel created after defecting from the Aval Organization and taking some of the members with him, cos I kinda wanted to go in-depth and write exactly HOW I think his cult works.

Not to spoil my fic, but what sets her apart from the likes of Daniel is that she joined after the defection under the naive assumption that the Qualifiers do what they do for the genuine charity of the people. She's kind of like Valtro in a way, as they both got out of bad situations in their lives thanks to Azwel. But what also sets her apart from Valtro is that she still has her head on her shoulders and that she is considered meek and shy.

Gods, I have so many ideas for how the Qualifiers cloud the suspicions of the regular people and get on their good graces while secretly experimenting on people behind closed doors.

There is more to Ezra's story with how she ended up with Azwel and the Qualifiers that I will eventually get into at some point in the fanfic, but I will note that he got her out of a shitty situation.

An idea I have for why Ezra kinda looks at the Aval Organization sideways is because of who's side of the story she heard first, that being Azwel's. And how he told Lord Dumas in Amy's Soul Chronicle (in a chapter that happens during the events of Libra of Soul) of how the Aval Organization betrayed the Lady of the Lake is giving me ideas as to how exactly Azwel was successful at wrapping newcomers of his cult around his fingers.

He could just easily flip the script, go all Lorax-mode to speak for the humans, and tell you "Well actually, the Aval Organization betrayed me, therefore, they betrayed the human race, and you by extension" and even if you knew the whole truth, who are you to call out a guy that, in the public eye, has done nothing but heal the sick, hunt down the demons wrecking havoc on your home, and has done so out of the kindness of his heart on his bullshit?

Anyways, back on track.

She is technically made for a relationship, but not the romantic kind, as I mentioned at some point that Ezra is also a childhood friend of Kasta's, although in the fic she has yet to recognize them as she often stalks observes them from far away to avoid getting caught. When she does recognize them, catches up with them and later finds out they joined forces with the Aval Organization despite being what they call an outsider, that creates new problems for her. What those problems lead to will be revealed in future chapters.

So yeah, she's the worst (endearingly) and the worst (derogatory).

Compared to Kasta, Ezra's easy to write and I enjoy writing her POVs in the fic adaptation and to see what troubles she gets herself into, and like Kasta, I also put a bit of myself in her.

She loves to talk about animals (especially spiders and rabbits) and it's a running gag in my story that she has a habit of referring to them by their scientific names (look, I know scientific names weren't thought of yet, but please let me have this).

She also has a love for playing the violin (she's also inspired by Lindsey Stirling's songs).

But yeah, like I said for my previous post with Kasta in regards to fanart, I don't care if you're an experienced artist or just starting out, as long as it's not made through an AI generator, I keep the fanart made for my OCs to cherish them for the rest of my days.

I have more OCs in the works, but until I actually introduce them into my fanfic adaptation, this is probably it for now. Thank you for the ask and have a wonderful day/night!

[laikaflash]

au where sophitia didnt die in the aftermath of sc4

My mind immediately went into avoiding any chance that Pyrrha dies, which I could never see Sophitia willingly allow to happen. Fortunately, there's her SC4 ending to build from, so...

The story diverges with Sophitia refusing to let Siegfried take on Nightmare unless he leaves Soul Edge to her afterward. Reluctantly, he agrees. It takes every ounce of self-restraint that he has to not stop her when she picks it up.

Since Pyrrha is still four, she doesn't completely grasp why she's drawn to Soul Edge when the sword itself and everything around it terrifies her. More than anything, she wants to go home with her mother and aunt Cassandra.

Patroklos is also malfested, albeit to a lesser degree since the shard's power was partly depleted after Pyrrha was born. He can, however, be made worse. Tira intends to kidnap him as well, just in case Soul Edge needs another spare vessel.

Algol frees Sophitia and her children from Soul Edge's curse, though far from the end of things. (There's a lot going on around Ostrheinsburg that could fill this list.)

Where is Cassandra? She vanished into the Astral Chaos before Sophitia's eyes. She'll reemerge from it, but not unchanged.

With a lot of variables in Ostrheinsburg alone at this point, there's a lot of room to set up a butterfly effect, if you're so inclined. I was this close to including a scenario where Nightmare won, but got too caught up in the before.

[juls-art]

quick Casity warm ups + Merci 

-- gonna change up her chest plate n shield business, but i needa think more

[revvywevvy]

BRO I GOT A MAGNIFYING GLASS AND READ THIS MF SO FAST THE SECOND I GOT IT OUT THE PACKAGING YOU HAVE NO IDEA

all I can say so far is this was a very good purchase. very happy i got this. i loved seeing the concept art for everyone and seeing all of the production stuff!! i'm going to get little post-it notes and bookmark every single page that includes Pyrrha <33333

also. i read some of the storyboards. the storyboard for after Pyrrha's Nightmare fight made me hate Patroklos even more 'why do you have to be my family?!' WHY CAN'T I GUT YOU LIKE A FISH HUH??? boy better be thankful that wasn't what he ended up actually saying in the story or we'd be on a whole different level of hatred here. already bad enough his ungrateful ass abandoned Pyrrha after she saved his life if that mf said that then OOOOH BOY. *biting patroklos's fingers like an angry dog* NO MORE SPIRIT SWORD FOR YOU STINKY

anyways enough of his tool ass PYRRHA IS SO LOVELY!!! I LOVED SEEING THE ART AND CONCEPTS FOR HER!!! I LOVED SEEING HER STORYBOARDS!!!! SHE'S AMAZING AND PERFECT AND SOSO INCREDIBLE AWAWAWAWA