#i like the ranger constructs a lot....

[vesperosy]

finally drew totk fanart over a year later

[fedoraspooky]

The downside of having an old west gunslinger type character for a dungeons and dragons 5e game is that now i have to learn how the heck to draw guns

[morgana96]

On Elementals, Accountability, and Criticism

A few months ago, I made a post that gained a lot more traction than I expected. It started out as more of a joke about an ill-conceived mentality within the fandom, where certain players think their Warrior of Light should be allowed to kill off the Black Shroud's elementals.

But over the course of several days, my activity feed was suddenly swarmed with notifications. The post had unintentionally reignited preexisting fandom discourse about the elementals, Gridania, and flaws in the game's writing.

And before I knew it, I'd spent several weeks writing an essay about the elementals, since I wanted to use the opportunity to better explain my original post's stance.

While the original essay was posted as a reply, I feel it works better as its own post. I had a lot of fun researching and writing out my thoughts on this, and I hope it might contribute positively to the larger discussion within the fandom.

What is an Elemental?

To start off, I think it’s important to go over the nature of FFXIV's Elementals. I think understanding them physically and ecologically is crucial to understanding their place in the story, as well as proving that they’re existence isn't the unaddressed mystery some people think it is.

According to Encyclopedia Eorzea I & II, elementals are naturally occurring beings that are almost solely comprised of aether. They usually don't have the complex body structures seen in other lifeforms, and are considered "semi-intelligent" in regards to their level of sentience (E.E. II, pg. 269).

A misconception I sometimes see is that elementals are an exclusive entity to the Black Shroud. But the reality is that elementals exist in various forms all over Etheirys.

As the above reference pages show, there are various types of natural elementals, many of which players encounter regularly throughout various maps and instanced battles/dungeons. Furthermore, carbuncles, egi, and faeries are also classified under this category, as they are also constructs of pure aether — essentially man-made elementals.

Because aether is the "building block" for all life, lands rich with aether will be wellsprings of vitality, while areas where aetherial flows are disrupted or cut off see atrophy in the environment (Encyclopedia Eorzea I, pg. 8). The Black Shroud's simply an area known for its prominent and powerful population of elementals.

In Gridania, the Shroud elementals are associated with Nophica the Matron, their patron goddess. This is described as them having "been sprung from Her essence", implying that they are a part of her and enact her will (E.E.I, pg. 112).

However, it's important to remember that this isn't history, but rather mythology specific to Gridanian traditions (E.E. I, pg. 112). Both elementals and Nophica independently predate these traditions, and Myths of the Realm provides great insight into just how significant that time gap is. G’raha mentions that the Twelve were worshiped even back in the Third Astral Era — approximately five thousand years before the start A Realm Reborn (E.E. I, pg. 24). He also theorizes at the time that the Twelve are even older than that, which is confirmed by Eulogia following the completion of Thaleia.

The reason I even bring up Nophica at all is because of the frustration directed towards her by certain players. There seems to be a trend where fans forget to separate the true Nophica from her Gridania-specific myths, causing them to treat her like an irresponsible parent who refuses to discipline her young children.

But Nophica isn't the elementals' actual creator. They aren't actually a part of her, and nothing they do is by her will, the same way Halone never actually hated dragons and was deeply saddened by the Dragonsong War. Demanding that Nophica "control" the elementals' behavior is like demanding a forest ranger "control" the wildlife in a national park.

Personally, I've always viewed the elementals as animals deified in worship — an opinion I believe is supported by what we know about them from the lore. Associating nature, plants, and animals with the divine is a reoccurring part of real-world religions, such as we see with ancient Egyptian gods or koi in Chinese mythology. Gridanian reverence of the elementals follows a similar formula: a naturally existing creature becomes associated with the divine in specific cultures and mythologies.

How Does One "Talk" to Elementals?

As established in the lore books, certain types of elementals possess the potential for "communication". This is an ability usually exclusive to the following beings:

Spoken: Any intelligent creature that possesses an independent language that can be interpreted by another spoken of a differing genus, including but not limited to all of the game’s playable races and the myriad non-playable races (E.E. I, pg. 288).

Voidsent: Beings from the 13th shard of Etheirys who are warped by their shard’s umbral aether and the shard’s lack of ambient aether (E.E. I, pg. 296). This is a more conditional contender, as only select Voidsent have the ability to speak.

But this "communication" is significantly different from traditional language or spoken words. A difference Kan-E-Senna made clear during the main Heavensward storyline, when WoL and company approached her for help in rescuing Y'shtola from the Lifestream.

Kan-E's statement helps further clarify the biology of Shroud elementals; not only do they lack corporeal bodies, but also the common biological senses we associate with humanity. They don't have eyes (hence why Y'mhitra had to present as a aetheric reference to find Y'shtola), and they also don’t possess the auditory systems to perceive spoken words and languages.

Which leaves the crucial question: how do you "talk" to a being that doesn't possess the senses for that form of communication?

The answer is to utilize the only thing that the Shroud elementals can perceive: aether.

To help refresh my memory on this topic, I decided to replay the conjuror/white mage quests, along with referencing the encyclopedias for more regarding Gridanian Hearers. They made for great reference about crucial elemental lore, particularly the Gelmorran origins of humans "speaking" to elementals.

Because elementals don't actually speak and can't hear the voices of spoken races, "dialogue" between man and elemental is more like a muddled psychic connection. The term "Hearer" describes conjurors with a natural sensitivity to the elementals' aetheric waves — a sensitivity that the vast majority of the population doesn't possess.

While similar in their rarity and status as "gifts" in-universe, elemental sensitivity is uniquely separate from the Echo. The Echo's "power to transcend words" is a passive ability that can fully break most language barriers, creating an "internal understanding" of another’s intentions (E.E. I, p. 15).

Hearers, on the other hand, must actively manipulate aether when connecting emotionally with elementals. It took fifty years to develop this technique and requires more effort and proper training, but it's still not as precise or accurate as what the Echo's able to do. Any "words" a Hearer translates are rough interpretations of the elementals' intent — a well-known flaw in the process that's noted in the side story True of Heart.

Hearer sensitivity to the elementals can vary depending on the individual. Some are better at "listening" to certain types of elementals over others, like the guest instructors in the conjuror quests who instruct the WoL in their specialties.

Other Hearers are simply more attuned to the Shroud elementals' aether overall. Padjali Hearers usually possess the strongest sensitivities, which is why the Seedseer — the leader of the Hearers and the Seedseer Council that governs Gridania — is almost always a Padjal (E.E. I, p. 116). But even Seedseers aren't viewed as infallible; their "conversations" with elementals are also, at best, interpretations. These limitations are why Kan-E chose to share the role with her younger siblings, and why protocol for the Seedseer Council is to share their readings with each other, as different Hearers can end up with different interpretations.

A lot of this information comes to mind when I consider how elementals interact with spoken races in the game. It seems quite clear that elemental communions are meant to be portrayed as imperfect. The average person within the setting doesn't possess the ability to "speak" with them at all. Even trained conjurors and white mages don't always succeed in their communions, since frightened/agitated elementals aren't always easily "spoken" to.

Because of these factors, it really doesn't surprise me that characters have been hurt/killed because of elementals. I absolutely think a situation like that would be horrifying to find oneself in. But to me, it's not the same kind of terror that comes from a deliberate attack of spite — more like the terror of being caught in a stampede that you know you have little chance of outrunning.

Why "Evil" Elementals Aren't a Thing

Discourse about the Shroud elementals is nothing new in this fandom, and I think it's pretty clear that I disagree with people who think their WoL would be justified in slaughtering them.

Are the elementals gentle and harmless little creatures? No.

But they're also not some nefarious supervillain cabal plotting the demise of humanity.

I understand that getting vaporized by an angry nature spirit is a terrible way to go. But I think the reason why elementals lash out tends to fly over some people's heads, so they just assume that everything they do is out of human-adjacent hatred or disdain.

As you might expect, elementals are extremely sensitive to aetheric disturbances. FFXIV has never shied away from bringing up the dangers of aetheric imbalance; too little aether can turn environments into barren wastelands like the Burn, while too much of a specific aspect can warp not only souls, but corporeal forms. Raya-O-Senna explains the elementals' instincts in the white mage quests, and how they value aetherial balance over anything else.

Given the nature of their existence, it makes sense that elementals would crave aetheric harmony above all else; corruption and stagnation could easily lead to not only the destruction of their forest home, but also themselves. Like many wild animals in the real world, the elementals will prioritize their survival; they'll lash out the exact same way an animal who feels cornered or threatened would.

The Shroud elementals also don't single out spoken races with this behavior. They dislike any aetheric disharmony, regardless of whether the cause of that is man-made or natural. The conjuror quests even show that their agitation can be caused by other elementals; they're just as vulnerable to aetheric corruption as any other living creature, hence why those that are corrupted must be purged in order for the forest to heal.

Despite this, there are many fans who are hostile towards the Shroud elementals, and the language they use to express that disdain definitely stands out to me as part of the problem. Whether labeling them as immature “toddlers" or comparing their actions to human abusers, these players tend to heavily vilify elementals, painting them as the intentional architects behind Gridania’s biggest problems.

But these kinds of descriptors can't — and shouldn't — be applied to ANY type of elementals. They're human descriptors. Including ones for human children that are based on understandings of human development.

To treat the Shroud elementals like "toddlers" is to incorrectly apply human traits to beings that don't possess them. They are not human children, nor is there any known "childhood" phase of their life cycle. They are not creatures that grow and develop the way that human children do; they are naturally formed clusters of aether, many of which are older than any of the game's living characters. They don't do what they do because they're immature, or lack a parental figure to teach them "right" from "wrong".

I also don't agree with comparing their actions to intentional abuse. Again, there are canon events of elementals attacking humans, and those events would absolutely be scary and traumatizing. But it's also scary and traumatizing for someone to be mauled by a tiger, or to permanently lose an arm or leg in an unexpected shark attack.

Elementals aren't children throwing an unpunished tantrum, or abusers attempting to control their victims. These comparisons inaccurately associate their animalistic traits with human behavior. A correlation flawed by the fact that elementals aren't humans and don't think like them.

Would you call a grizzly bear evil or abusive for attacking a human that startled it in the woods?

Would you call a swarm of wasps immature or childish when they start stinging indiscriminately, and for not recognizing the difference between the person who disturbed their nest and those who just happened to be nearby?

Would you use these terms to refer to any of the aggressive creatures throughout in-game regions when they chase after/attack you, all because you got just a little too close while on your way to another location?

We can't predict what wild animals are going to do or control how they react to our presence in their space. Once one perceives you as a potential threat or meal, you are at risk of being attacked. It's why part of the respect we should show wild animals involves keeping a safe distance and respecting their territory.

The simple reality is that Shroud elementals aren't, never were, and never will be human. They are nature spirits living far outside the realm of human society, and canonically don’t possess the same sentience level as any of the game’s spoken races. They're a naturally occurring species that are deified in Gridania's Nophica mythology. They're alive, but the lore and game show that they behave more like wild animals.

This is why it's kind of frustrating when fans demand humanity — and human morals — from the elementals. The same way you can't explain the human condition to a butterfly or a redwood tree, you'll also never be able to explain it to a little cluster of pure energy floating out in the woods.

Nature is beautiful. Nature is terrifying. It's the comfort of a sunny day and a cool breeze. It's the destruction wrought by earthquakes and tornadoes. It's the budding life of beautiful plants and flowers. It's death in the piercing jaws of a predator, even if that prey is only a baby.

Nature is not bound by human concepts of morality or fairness. To expect it to abide by our rules is absurd, and to try and force it to is futile. And whether certain players like it or not, the elementals are irreversibly tied to that philosophy.

The Importance of Gridania's Self-Accountability

Like many others within the fandom, I find that the game's writing for Gridania has been painfully neglected compared to the other city-states. As a black fan, it’s vexing when fictional narratives don't handle the subject of racism with proper diligence and respect. While not every Gridania-related quest is bad, there are far too many that drop the ball; all too often, these quests fail to properly denounce in-universe prejudice, often to the detriment of the stories they’re trying to tell.

These problems are major motivating factors in my desire to rewrite several Gridanian questlines. I've made several posts about my ideas for a Lancer Quests rewrite in the past, and at some point, I hope to do the same for other questlines in need of reworks.

But while I'm desperate for the writing team to reevaluate Gridania's narrative, I find myself equally frustrated with the "Evil™ Elementals" crowd – mainly because I feel like they're failing to fully grasp the actual root of the problem.

The players I'm referring to are weirdly insistent on pinning all the blame on the Shroud elementals. In these fans' minds, it's these semi-sentient nature spirits who hate Duskwights, Moon Keepers, and Ala Mhigans, and they are the ones who instilled these prejudices into hateful members of Gridanian society.

Honestly, this stance has always been absurd to me, and I can barely understand how it came to exist. Especially since it’s so incompatible with the actual lore for the elementals.

I've already pointed out that the elementals can't perceive spoken languages, and that they "see" other life and living creatures the same way they "see" themselves — as aether.

Furthermore, it's canon fact that a Hearer's "translations" are not direct or word for word. They're readings are based completely on the Shroud elementals' aetheric waves, and this process shouldn't be mistaken for the Elementals knowing or understanding human words.

The names of different races and nationalities would mean absolutely nothing to elementals. They wouldn't perceive the pointed ears and tall stature of an Elezen, or the cat-like ears and tails on Miqo'te. They wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Midlander and Highlander, Duskwight and Wildwood, or any other clan distinctions that in-game characters or players can.

The Shroud elementals aren't capable of telling the differences between any spoken races.

Which means that if a Hearer claims the elementals dislike a specific race or clan, that Hearer is unquestionably spouting a bold-faced fucking lie.

There was already a situation like this in the 60-70 Leatherworker quests, which several people brought up in the tags of my original post. After showcasing a taxidermy dhalmel to raise awareness about endangered species, the WoL, Atelloune, and Enion are confronted by Hearer Marmaduke (yes, that’s actually his name and I’m honestly still not over it).

Not long after his tangent, he orchestrates the unfair seizure of the dhalmel. But Atelloune, suspicious of his claims, had already gone to the conjuror's guild, exposing Marmaduke's claims of elemental anger as a completely fabricated event.

Some might say that this isn't relevant because Marmaduke's lie wasn't told with prejudice in mind. But in the end, his motivations really aren't the most important thing here.

He openly lied about the elementals being angry, and seemed to have full confidence that he wouldn't be called out on it. He actively took advantage of his position — and the trust Gridanian citizens place in the Hearers — to falsely claim that something was wrong and force his misguided opinions onto others. Hell, I'd even argue that his behavior qualifies as a microaggression, since Atelloune is a Duskwight Elezen who he accused of a "crime" that never even happened. Not being a full blown bigot doesn't make someone incapable of racist behavior or actions (just like in real life).

This is not an incident that should be brushed off so easily. Sure, Marmaduke might have admitted to his own wrongdoings and ignorance. But the idea that this is an isolated incident within Gridania — that it's never happened before and somehow will never happen again — just comes off as terribly unrealistic.

Gridania is a five-hundred-year-old nation. How many times in those five hundred years has prejudice warped "translations" of the elementals?

How many Duskwights, Moon Keepers, and Ala Mhigans have been accused of infractions that never even occurred?

How many Hearers have abused their positions for everything from politics to petty squabbles? And how many times has someone gotten away with telling these kinds of abhorrent lies?

These are the kinds of questions the writing needs to tackle more with Gridania. Exposing the cracks within their system — and how those cracks have caused harm to innocents — will help to trigger the development and growth the city-state still desperately needs. Throwing all the blame on the elementals will never allow Gridania's narrative to escape stagnancy. At least not in a way that will actually feel genuine or satisfying to explore.

I understand that most people aren't trying to absolve Gridania of wrongdoing. But whether they realize it or not, that’s exactly what the "Evil™ Elementals" mentality does.

To claim that the elementals "made Gridanians racist" is to disregard the deliberate and intentional actions of racist Gridanians. It minimizes their level of accountability and responsibility in fixing those problems.

A prejudiced Hearer is not a gullible victim being strung along by scheming or "evil" nature spirits: they are intentionally taking advantage of their standing in society to persecute people that they don't like. They know the elementals don't understand the concept of spoken races, ethnicities, or nationalities. They also know that most of the population can't "hear" the elementals at all: a fact that can be utilized to mischaracterize the reasons for their agitation, or even fully fabricate incidents of anger all together.

One of my favorite parts of Myths of the Realm was Halone’s personal advice to the WoL.

This statement is so appropriate for Halone, especially considering Ishgard's history. But it's just as applicable to any other worshipers of the various gods.

A Hearer misrepresenting the "will of the elementals" is in the same vein as an Ishgardian priest misrepresenting the "will of the Fury". The game has so many examples of Ishgardians trying to use Halonic doctrine to not only justify their ignorance on certain subjects, but also enact unfair punishments onto others — including their own countrymen. Similar situations of false invocation have happened in Gridania, particularly when specific races and immigrants are unfairly targeted because they’ve supposedly "angered" the elementals.

This is why many fans — myself included — will make comparisons between Gridania and Ishgard. The citizens of both city-states are deeply devout to their patron goddesses. But that faith has been regularly misused and manipulated to persecute innocents and maintain unfair systems.

The Holy See's theocracy sanctioned generations of pointless bloodshed in a war they didn't want to admit they started. The Inquisitors killed countless of their own citizens based on flimsy accusations of heresy. Temple Knights have attacked and slaughtered Au Ra because they ignorantly and incorrectly assumed they were connected to and/or descended from dragons. If Ishgard can commit to reform and reparations after a millennium of atrocities, then Gridania is just as capable of taking the same accountability.

What the writing team needs to do is rethink their Gridania-centric storylines: not only do future questlines need to show more growth and change in their society, but older quests that were sloppily resolved need to be reexamined and even rewritten.

I don't agree with the claim that the writers have "written themselves into a corner" with the elementals. There's plenty lore that could be used to finally push Gridania in the right direction: they've just failed to utilize it effectively and consistently. It wouldn't be an easy task to go back and rework so much content. But in my eyes, it would be a major step forward in repairing these narrative problems.

True accountability for Gridania is taking responsibility for their own mess. No excuses. No justifications. No "the elementals made me do it". They need to establish better safeguards for their people — especially their minorities — and better checks and balances to prevent and punish blatant abuses of power.

Changing their city-state for the better will require long-term effort and commitment to reform. Not someone's WoL causing a mass extinction — which would certainly do more harm than good — and then demanding an entire nation bend to that WoL's will and abandon their beliefs. The former is Gridania taking actual responsibility for themselves; the latter echoes colonizer rhetoric and the racist ideologies these players claim to be criticizing.

FFXIV Fans and Constructive Criticism

To close this out, I'd like to shift focus to a fandom trend I've noticed for some time now.

Final Fantasy XIV is a major source of comfort for me. Besides just being a fun game to play, it's done wonders for my creative motivation, especially when it comes to my WoL and the fun I've had in building her lore.

However, there are also plenty of things about FFXIV that I'm critical of. There are class and job quests that fumble their stories (or at least falter at specific parts). Characters like Moenbryda and Ysayle were squandered in favor of lackluster "shock value" deaths. Certain quests in past expansions have come off as tone deaf to their subject matters, so much so that the script feels insanely out of character for everyone in the scene.

Criticism is important. It’s not pessimistic or ungrateful of the audience to engage critically with media, especially when it's media they love. My criticisms of FFXIV's writing don't diminish my love for the game. If anything, I want the writing to be reevaluated and improved, and for the writers to learn to avoid the same issues in the future.

But constructive criticism — at least to me — requires certain responsibilities. Responsibilities that not everyone keeps in mind before making sweeping judgements.

A good example is a certain "critique" I've seen repeated many times, usually during Stormblood discourse that tends to pop up from time to time. It relates to Lyse (a character who's regularly hypercriticized), and players who dislike how the writers gave her Raubahn's rightful place as leader of Ala Mhigo and the Resistance.

A rather odd complaint to have, considering it's about an imagined event.

Raubahn is Ala Mhigo's head of state, as well as head of the Resistance forces. Lyse commands only one faction of the Resistance — the faction based in Rhalgr's Reach — because that was the one under Conrad's command, and he had no authority over any other faction.

In other words, these fans dislike a "writing choice" that wasn't made to begin with, failing to realize that the actual scenario is provided both in-game and in Encyclopedia Eorzea II.

This is just one of many examples where players will mistake false presumptions for canon. Someone will criticize the game for a plot point that never happened, and suddenly other players will like, share, and comment about how they also hated that thing that never happened.

Even on my original post, there were people making various claims about the elementals. Some were 100% accurate. Others were slightly off. Others still were flat out untrue.

In this fandom — and plenty of others — fan-created concepts have a bad habit of getting mixed up with the actual facts. I don't think most players do it on purpose; they're usually just trying to share their thoughts and opinions on the game, and that's something I'll never try to discourage. But sometimes, they'll simply accept something someone else said in good faith, or rely too much on memory for parts of the game they haven't played through in a long time.

Criticizing the writing's handling of Gridania is perfectly valid, and I've done plenty of it myself. But those criticisms need to be based on the writing's actual faults and mistakes: not on misremembered plot lines and assumptions. Complaints need to be backed up by actual examples from the game and/or other canon sources, and can’t rely solely on muddled memories of a play-through that happened months or years ago.

It took me over two weeks to put all this together. I spent hours replaying relevant questlines and reading the side stories and lore books, not to mention the time it took me just to write all of it down. But I did all that because I wanted to be able to back up my claims with evidence. I didn't want to leave out important context or dialogue that I simply forgot or missed early on. If I were to forget about key events and fill in those gaps with hazy recollections, I'd not only weaken my argument’s strength, but also be guilty of blaming a writer for something I misremembered.

No one's EVER going to remember everything that happened in FFXIV; it's literally impossible for a game this large and with so many characters and stories. The Unending Journey and New Game+ are fabulous tools to make up for this, as well as the dedicated wikis and websites created by our fellow fans. But all of those go to waste if players never bother to utilize them.

I'll always support constructive criticism in this and any other fandom. But good constructive criticism isn't just making loud accusations on social media. It's taking the time to revisit the story and take notes on the things that could be done better. It's providing evidence to support your claims and prevent misinformation from being spread as truth. It's addressing biases not only in the writing room, but also those harbored by fellow players.

Constructive criticism requires effort and diligence. A fact I feel gets lost in fandom spaces sometimes.

[herbgerblin]

gonna ramble about worldbuilding

:0 come play with me in this space

I've been refining old concept art of the city of my story, Spiro and Nova, (because it sits in my head always and never truly leaves.) The sunflower skyrise is a giant, flower-like skyscraper that is supposed to open and peel back to protect the city beneath it from frequent, violent storms. In the setting of the story, it has been fixed in its closed position for several years.

(I am driven a little insane by how rapidly our climate crisis has increased since 2018 when I first started thinking about this story.)

I am not a true crime girlie, but I am a horrible history girlie. I listen to a lot of construction tragedy stories and I feel angry because they're all caused by corporate greed and negligence. I also read a lot about architectural greenwashing, when a building is marketed as eco-friendly and has all the stylings of a solarpunk utopia, but is really environmentally hazardous and costly to maintain/destroy.

I'll be real, my inspirations for the city are Power Rangers RPM and Attack on Titan. As a kid, they made me ask a lot of questions about urban design: What happens when your livelihood is dependent on a single, declining structure? What happens when that structure fails to work as intended? Who is hurt by this? Who benefits?

I live in a major city that is actively destroying the very forest that it is iconic for. I've been writing about that a lot as a journalist this past year. That experience (and the pandemmy) has made this idea not yet story hit too close to home sometimes. But at the same time, that's why I don't want to let it go.

[kyliafanfiction]

I saw a bit in a Taylor/Amy fic (the latest chapter of Desperate Times Call for Desperate Pleasures) where Amy compared Taylor to a Necromancer Princess (it fits in Context) and that immediately made me think of a Fantasy AU of Worm. No shards/powers, or at least not in the Worm way, but playing with the characters.

And of course that has me thinking about who everyone would be in such a story idea:

Taylor - necromancer, obviously, given the inspiration. Maybe not a princess, but of some high birth. Danny Hebert is still his canon personality, but as a necromancer. Probably a distant father since the death of Annette. Maybe he's consumed with trying to find ways to restore her to full life or something. Doesn't control bugs, maybe? Or maybe she controls swarms of dead insects in addition to or instead of the usual skeletons and zombies? I'd lean to no bugs, just skeletons and zombies, but YMMV. Keeping her bullied/etc experience may be harder, but if Emma is also a noblewoman, perhaps of higher status (maybe Taylor's low nobility? Or not at all?)

Amy - she's a cleric of some healing-related goddess, presumably? The rest of her family are probably all Knights and Paladins of some sort. Her birth father could be some sort of Bandit King type guy who played up a 'honorable highwayman' schtick (and may actually have been a noble as well as a bandit) akin to the 'code' and 'better than the other villains' thing he had going in canon. Her guilt over not healing all the time probably wouldn't be a thing because there'd be too many other healers, but you could still play with the idea, and she'd still have that separation from her family because she's not a warrior.

Tattletale - no magic, just really smart. Probably a 'Rogue', if we were applying classes to it.

Rachel - Ranger, obviously. Has a wolf animal companion, maybe actually gainfully employed as one of the Royal Huntsmen or someone who prevents poaching on a King's Forest type place. or maybe she's a poacher herself. Probably the latter, but the former could be done well, IMO. Either way, definitely still pretty feral from not spending a lot of time around most people.

Brian - maybe some kind of Paladin of darkness type thing. He could be sworn to Taylor's father as her bodyguard (and Taylor still has her canonical attraction to him).

Alec - I'm honestly not sure. If I were wedging it into D&D classes, some form of Bard, but I wouldn't necessarily want to be bound specifically to classes. Still, he could either have magic specially around manipulation and controlling of the body, or maybe he's like, half-demon, or quarter-demon (and Heartbreaker is either a demon or half-demon) and that's the source of his power. I lean towards the latter.

Aisha - Illusionist? Uses her magic for lots of pranks and stuff, and gets really good at making herself invisible, etc.

New Wave - as I noted, the rest of New Wave would probably be knights/paladins of some sort. Maybe Vicky, Sarah, Crystal and Eric ride griffons or some other flying beast? Vicky on a Pegasus sounds really fitting. Also probably a noble family, but definitely recently ennobled or low nobility, to play into the privileged WASP upper middle class vibe New Wave has in Worm

Lung - could be an actual Dragon, could be a guy who shapeshifts into one, maybe a half-dragon (playing on his half-chinese/half-japanese canon backstory and how he was an outsider in Japan as a result). Warlord or roaming bandit type guy, probably. Oni Lee would be a teleporting assassin who works for him, and Bakuda as an alchemist making explosive compounds and such is there.

Armsmaster - a master Smith and warrior. Already has a Halberd. maybe he does enchanted runes into his weapons or something to make them sharper

Miss Militia - either she's a super skilled archer of some sort, or maybe a magic who specializes in big, flashy attack spells (fireball, etc)

Dragon - Secretly a construct (or disembodied animating spirit?) of some kind that has free will and sentience, but pretends just to be a construct-crafting mage? Might not be able to keep using that name if Dragons are a thing in-setting. Depends.

Kaiser - probably a normal noble in his public face (Max, of the House of Anders), known for his charity towards the poor (only the humans, of course), but secretly the leader of a racist militia-type group that persecutes nonhumans in the Kingdom? Or specific groups of humans. Or both. Probably doesn't have magical powers, but does have some cool enchanted gear he paid a fortune for, and hides just how good he is with a sword, except in his secret persona?

Hookwolf - actual werewolf? Still works for Anders, presumably.

None of these thoughts are necessarily final, really, and I have a few more, but nothing quite formed yet.

Obviously, more might need to worked out, including plot and the particulars of the setting (is Brockton the whole Kingdom? Is Brockton Bay one city? A major focus? Maybe Brockton Bay is a larger region, and some of the various parts of the Bay are distinct cities and towns in the Bay area. I have a setting that involves both Paladins and Necromancers in prominent roles that I might repurpose if I was going to write this... which I still might, but not yet).

Other characters could play all sorts of roles, would have to think more on their equivalent versions. Can't just make everyone some flavor of wizard/warlock/witch/etc, and wouldn't want to be married to specific 'classes', but it's a solid starting point anyway.

What would you all envision 'Fantasy AU' versions of some of the characters? Do you think I'm way off the mark with some of them? Obviously 'Fantasy AU' covers a wide swath of possibilities, so there's a lot of variation. Still, curious as to people's ideas with it.

Obviously, if I wrote it, it would be Taylor/Amy in the long run, (I am nothing if not a predictable, hopeless shipper) maybe involving Taylor (and the AU's version of the Undersiders?) kidnapping Amy at some point, who knows.

[yccoffeesimp]

𝑊𝒉𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝐼 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑂𝑘𝑖𝑒 𝐷𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑒| ??? 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟

TW: G0r3 & C@nn¡B@lism at the very end.

You stayed up the entire weekend writing the short story. You didn't want to think too hard about what to write, so you went with the easiest option. Fantasy/ adventure. It was already time for the next club meeting when you finished.

You wanted to show the others but to whom? Choose-

-Blade

-Dan Heng

→ Jing Yuan

-Gepard

->'Best to show Jing Yuan first, after all, he is the president and the one who gave us the assignment.'

You thought. You then slowly began to walk to him with the two flat papers in hand. "Lovely to see you again, Y/n."The ivory white-haired man said, smiling at you.

→ "Nice to see you as well Jing Yuan."

"Oh before I forget, I'd just like to say. If you have any suggestions for anything regarding the club such as activities or problems, don't be afraid to inform me." He said, crossing his arms, his cat-like smile still present on his features.

→ "I'll keep that in mind but I'm going to go with the flow as I get settled in."

"We all need time to earn our footing." He slightly laughed.→

"Say you wanna read the short story I wrote?"

You ask, handing him the papers as he nods. It didn't take long for him to finish reading the two papers of the short story. When he gave the papers back, he had a light smile.

"Excellent work, Y/n, I underestimated your writing capabilities. Say Dan Heng enjoys this type of writing style, the fantasy and the way with words is extremely moving and it paints a picture in your head as if you were in it yourself." He closed his eyes as he spoke, nodding ever so slightly.

→ "You lost me."

"My apologies, I didn't mean to wander. But regardless, it's very well written, and I enjoyed reading it. It captivates the reader and that's what is most important in any form of literature."

→ "Yeah I guess so."

"Since I've read yours, would you like to read mine as well?" He offered.

→ "Sure."

"Sorry if it isn't any good, I'm not as creative as most are." He smiled awkwardly, unfolding his arms across his chest as they landed at his sides again. Reaching for the paper that he had written on, which laid on the desk beside him, before handing it to you.

You took the soft, thin paper examining the words written on it.The story was about a group that called themselves Space Rangers and one of their amazing adventures. The story was rather vivid and from what you could tell no spelling or grammar mistakes. This is to be expected from Jing Yuan after all he is the valedictorian student.

You set the paper down as you looked at Jing Yuan."Is it bad?"He then asked.

→ "Are you kidding me? This is amazing!"

You exclaimed, this caused him to smile."I'm glad you think so, I feel as if I could use more practice on wording it better and try not to go into details a lot. Just proves I have a lot more to learn."

→ "We all could. Well, I'm going to go see what the others wrote. See ya around Jing Yuan."

"If you want to chat more, I'll be here." He smiled before you walked away.

Who's next?

→Dan Heng

-Blade

-Gepard

→ "Maybe I should go see Dan Heng next. He probably has some constructive criticism for my writing. I mean he's writing his own novel so.."

You thought, before walking up to him. He was sitting near the back of the classroom, hunched over that notebook that was said to contain that novel of his. Dan Heng didn't notice you until he looked to see you approaching him.

→ "Hey Dan Heng."

"Greetings {name}, is something the matter?" He asks, setting his pencil down for a brief moment.

→ "I was wondering if you wanted to read the short story we were assigned to read."

You said, you felt your voice slowly become high pitched as to not knowing how to talk to the guy. All you knew was that he was Dan Feng's, the future owner of Vidyadhara Industries, twin brother. He paused for a moment, thinking about your words."I'd be happy to." That was all he said.

You handed your paper to him, his attention immediately went to the paper in his hands. It only took a minute before the paper was handed back to you.

→ "So how was it?"

"It was well written, I must say. The movement with the words... It's unique, it makes you feel as if you're truly there." His words carried honesty and truth, you somehow couldn't help but be flattered.

→ "Thanks."

You plainly said. "I take it that you want to read what I've written for the assignment?" He spoke. You nod as he takes a slip of folded paper out of the notebook he was previously writing in. He passed it onto you, your hands unfolding it. You lightly scanned the paper, his handwriting was neat.. Words were in clear and constructed sentences. It was a small script of the romance genre.

→ "Wow, it's really good. You wrote this by yourself?"

Dan Heng nodded. "Just a small script, a friend of mine says I need to try to write new different genres.Some authors get boresome if they write the same genre over and over.. Or at least that's what they said."

→ "I kinda agree, sometimes the plot just repeats itself a lot."

"Speaking of such.. Any suggestions?"

→ "Huh-For what?"

"For my writing attempt at romance."

→ "Oh- Well I'm not an expert. It's good by my standards. I frankly enjoyed it."

You handed the paper back to him, it was folded neatly as it was before. Dan Heng took the folded material before staring at it for a short while. "I'm glad you enjoyed it." He spoke, putting the piece of paper back into the notebook. He then opened to a page and began writing, ignoring your existence once more.

Choose-

→ Blade

-Gepard

Might as well see what Blade wrote. Maybe you could learn more about him. All you knew was that he was one of the troublemakers of the school. Easily had fights and many were sent to the nurse's office on several occasions because of him. You remember having him in your biology class once, he didn't show up except for when it was final exam season.He sat at the back next to one of the windows. His arms crossed along his chest, with his hair covering a majority of his face.

As you walked up to him, you got a closer look. He seemed to be holding a small piece of paper. You didn't realize you were staring at him before he spoke. "Is there a problem.?" He asked, his voice was laced with irritation and annoyance at your actions.

→ "Uh- Not really.. I wanted to ask if you wanted to uh- read the short story thing we were to write..."

He scoffed. "You do realize there are others here who can read the damn story, right.?"

→ "Yeah well I want you to read it."

"Hard pass. Now if you'd excuse me, I'd like to be alone."

→ "Well can I still read yours in the meantime?"

Blade didn't reply but he did look at you for a short while. He groaned, handing you the small piece of paper."If it only means you'll leave me be, take it."

♡- You received Blade's short story!

→ "Don't you want it back?"

"No." His answer was blunt and he looked not in a good mood to continue chatting... Best to leave him be and move to the next person.

But first do you want to read the short story now or later?

Choose-

-Now

→ Later

→ ' I'll read it when I get home from the meeting. I still have to read Gepard's.'

Gepard was near the podium of the classroom, he seemed to be writing something down before his eyes caught you walking towards him."Oh- Hey {name}, is there something you need?" He asked, trying to cover up the paper he was writing on.

→ "Yeah, just wondering if you wanted to read my assignment and to check up on ya."

"Oh- Well, I'm doing fine at the moment. Also, I'd be glad to read it. I heard from Jing Yuan that it was really good." The blonde smiled. You hand him the piece of paper. He gently took it in his hands before reading it. Now that you looked closer at him. He almost looked tired yet he always slept in. The eye bags he had were barely noticeable but they were still there. Your train of thought was interrupted by Gepard handing the piece of paper back. "Like I said, it's amazing."

→"H-huh?"

Did Gepard say something when you were spacing out? "{Name}? Are you alright?"

→ "I'm fine, Gepard... Just thinking and thank you for thinking it was amazing."

You smiled. A small smile followed from Gepard when you did.

→ "Can I read yours now?"

Gepard froze, looking away from you for a moment. "The thing is...-"

→ "You forgot to write one."

Gepard nodded. That was probably why when you left Jing Yuan, Gepard went up to him. Probably to inform him that he forgot to write a short story. "I haven't had time to, you know how much of a handful five-year-olds are..."

→ "Lynx really is giving you and Serval a rough time then if you didn't have enough time to write a story."

He nodded.

→ "Ah, I see. Anyways, what were you writing earlier?"

Your gaze falls on to the piece of paper on the podium. Gepard followed your gaze to the paper. "The short story.."

→ "Speed writing?"

"I have it already written but I haven't proofread it yet."

→ "I can do it for you."

Gepard smiled at you. "I don't want to bother you with it {name}, I can proofread it-"

→ "I insist. It's the least I can do for you."

Gepard thought for a moment before sighing. He gave you the now slightly wrinkled paper for you to read.Some sentences didn't make sense but then again it wasn't proofread. The short story was a historical fiction of the history of Gepard's hometown. The scenery of Belobog was different from the scenery of the Honkai Star City. Snow-covered meadows, a chilling breeze... It was a winter wonderland from what Gepard described it to be as back then before the Eternal Freeze. You took a pencil and helped Gepard rewrite some sentences.

As you helped him though, you couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes watching you as you did so. You looked up from the paper the paper briefly and saw no one was looking and the feeling vanished. But when you looked back at the paper, the feeling returned. You pushed the feeling away as you tried to focus on the story.

"Thank you,{name}, for the help," Gepard said once the proofreading was done.

→ "No need to thank me, just doing my duty as your friend."

"Still... It means a lot." He shortly smiled. He opened his mouth to say something else before a loud crash sounded. Your attention snapped to a broken teapot on the floor at the back of the classroom. Boiling water poured from the now shattered object. Dan Heng and Blade stood in front of it, a shocked expression on Dan Heng's face and a rather annoyed expression on Blade's. "Crap.." Dan Heng mumbled as he went to grab the broom from the closet at the back.

Blade simply stared at the mess before completely walking over it. "Well, that's the first.." Gepard mumbled.

→ "First of what?"

Gepard looked at you before looking back at Blade and Dan Heng. "Normally when they even interact with each other, there's always an argument that follows before Jing Yuan breaks it up. But strangely they haven't been arguing.."

→ "They argue a lot?"

The blonde nodded. "We don't know why but they really hate each other. We never really questioned it either." He shrugged as Dan Heng came back to clean the broken ceramic.

→ "Imma go help Dan Heng real quick."

You grabbed some stray papers from your bag before walking to Dan Heng to pick up the spilled water. The floor was dried and the teapot was thrown away. "Thank you for helping, {name}."

→ "It's no problem. Just helping a fellow club member."

Dan Heng gave a short nod, but you could've sworn he smiled too.

-×-

Jing Yuan clapped his hands together. "I'm happy to say this concludes our second meeting with our new member." He started, his cat-like smile on his features. "After sharing our short stories, how does everyone feel?" He turned to look at Gepard first.

"It was nice," Gepard answered.

Then he looked at Dan Heng.

"It was quite helpful." He replied.

Then at Blade.

"It was... eventful." He scoffed.

And then lastly at you.

→"It was interesting."

Jing Yuan nodded, his arms crossing in front of his chest. "I'm glad to hear we all have at least positive outlooks on today's activity. Perhaps we can do the same tomorrow but as for now, the club meeting is over." And with that, you began to walk home. The sun was already setting with the moon peeking its head out ready to take its shift in the sky.

-♡Blade's Short Story: ......The blood sprayed over the walls. Agonizing screams echoed throughout the halls, a blade dragging across the skin of the captive. A maniacal laugh follows, their eyes looking longing at the beating heart in their hand. Blood oozing from the organ as its former owner's limbs became limp. "Finally mine... all, all mine..."

A voice said. They tilled the organ upside down over their mouth. The blood poured from the heart's atriums into their mouths."Not enough, not enough.." They gasped before throwing the dead heart away. Now ripping at the throat and torso of the dead body. "I can't- Need more.." They gasped one more time before all humanity in them was lost...

~Fin~

Pins: @sarcastic-cookie

[toulousewayne]

Batfamily Halloween Special🎃

Bruce was throwing his annual Halloween Costume Party, and let every year all the kids always dress up. Most of kids weren’t in the Manor as they would arrive later to join in the spooky festivities.

Alfred was overseeing the staff with last minute decorations. Fake blood, cobwebs, fake skulls, fog machine. Anything you could find at your local Spirt Halloween Alfred had gotten to first. The DJ was finishing his last few technical checks and the catering company was always done with the last few creative dishes.

Meanwhile, upstairs Damian was fidgeting in his sit,”Are we almost Sister?”

“Hold still or you makeup will get messed up.” Y/n was the only person home that could help Damian finish with his costume. After a few moments she pulled back and smiled,”All done.”

Damian flung out of his seat and into his sister’s bathroom to look at his makeup.

“Wow, you managed to make me look the skeleton from that film Grayson made me watch.”

“Jack, you look like Jack Dames.” She took a comb and finished smoothing out his hair. “What’s your costume?” He inquired taking the combing to fix his own hair.

She went into her closet and came out dressed as cowgirl Barbie from the movie with hat and boots.

“Now go put on your costume Dames Dick said he’s five minutes away with the girls.” She fixed her wig and adjusted her scarf. Damian walked to his room around the corner and changed into the costume his brother had gotten for him a few days ago.

When he emerged from his room, Dick and Y/n were laughing at a his phone and noticed Damian.

“Aww Little D, you look so frightening.”

“Tt. And what are you supposed to be Grayson.”

“Aladdin,Kori’s running late but she’s going to be Jasmine.” The three went downstairs which was now in full effect and Alfred greeted the siblings dressed as Count Dracula.

“Nice fang Alife.” Alfred smiled at the three and offered them red punch in black and purple plastic cups. “Why Thank you Master Richard, I must stay though they do take a lot to get used to.”

Barbara arrived with Cassandra, Stephanie and Duke all dressed for the party.

“Aww Dami you look so adorable.” Steph fussed taking pictures of the youngest. He huffed and walked away into the main ballroom where the music was blasting but only a few people from Wayne Enterprise and Queen Construction had arrived.

———

Y/n snapped a few pictures with Duke and Barbara aka Spider-man and Kim Possible.

Jason arrived with Tim and Bernard not far behind him. “May wanna close that vest up Dickhead your getting cold.” He teased Dick who rolled his eyes.

“IT’s October Jason.”

“My nipples aren’t sharing at everyone entering the house.”

“Jason knock it off.” Y/n huffed, Dick self consciously pulled his vested.

The group had moved to the ballroom mintues ago and more people from Wayne Enterprises and some League members had arrived. Jason stretched standing from the table,” Okay this Skywalker needs food.”

Stephanie and Cass followed dress as the Pink and Yellow Power Rangers.

Selina entered the room dressed as Marylin Monroe and waved,”Why do glum kittens,your parents go trick or treat without you?”

Fred or Tim shook his head,” They’re not here yet, it’s just boring right now.”

Bernard played with the green scarf on his Daphne shirt.

She sighed and saw a several costumed adults and looked back the way she came. “Well looks like the Calvary just arrived. Have fun.” She slipped away into the now bigger crowd.

Members or Young Justice, Titans and Birds of Prey arrived in costumes and soon the kids mingled with their friends and went away from the table only living Y/n and Damian.

“You should ask Uncle Clark why he didn’t come.” She spoke up over the Monster Mash song.

“Tt, if he cared he would have came sister.” He spat.

She stood up from the table and turned to him, “He’s your best friend and he’s been through a lot. Maybe Halloween is just a lot for him, if you tell him how much it would mean to you to show up I’m sure he’d fly here in a heartbeat.”

Damian didn’t answer his sister but did glance across the room to Clark and Lois dressed as Frankinstein and the Bride who chatted with Diana,John and Wally dressed as a Fairy, Boxer and a Race Car Driver.

Damian grab his cup and pondered as he made his way to the refreshment table. He grabbed a few pieces of cheese and felt like his wished the night was over.

The music stopped as DJ announced the arrival of the hosts Bruce and Batmom entered the room dressed as Gomez and Mortica Adams. Once they thanked everyone for coming the party once again went into full swing and Damian slipped away into the gardens.

“Damian?” A voice called to him after what felt like a short while. Bruce sat next to him.

“Are you not having fun?”

He sighed,”Yes father the party is very good.”

Bruce was silent for a few moments and then let out his own deep sigh.”Your sister told me you miss Jon. You should call him, Clark told me the only reason he didn’t come was because he figured you wouldn’t want to participate.”

Damian turned to his father,”Really?”

Bruce smiled at his son and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “He’s your best friend, just call him.” After that Bruce returned inside and Damian remained seated.

He signed before looking at the ground.”Kent,I know listening���I think—I want you come to the party. It’s rather…dull.” He spoke barley in a whisper.

For a while it was just the distance sounds of Gotham noises and the booming sounds from the music inside and then a sudden gust of wind blew a few strands of hair.

“Hi Damian.” Damian’s gaze fell ontop the floating teen before him in full costume.

A grin painted his figured,”And what are you supposed to be Kent?”

“Uh Duh, I’m Danny Phantom.”

Damian laughed and Jon rolled his eyes.

“Come on I’m starving I heard Alfred has jalapeño poppers.” Damian joined Jon as they headed inside.

Y/n elbowed her brother and Jason spilled his punched on himself. He followed his sister’s gaze and they watch from a far.

Dick beamed as he got closer to them,”Aww Little D’s not lonely anymore.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “I don’t know how he can be, you Mother Hen him to death every two seconds.”

Dick shoved Jason and the rushed of his punched spilled on his costume. Dick nervously sprinted away with Jason bolting after him.

“Imbeciles.” Y/n sighed eating a eyeball cheese.

[thisisnotthenerd]

this stoat family is going to be truly something in these coming weeks. first episode and i'm already feeling it.

siobhan and izzy's character interactions as jaysohn and lila are so so good. true sibling behavior. kids who can kick ass. little rascals. even though this is a full family season i have a feeling they're going to have a whole thing of their own. and watching siobhan get to really go ham is delightful.

thorn vale and viola. my god. talk about making an impression in the dome right there. jasper and rashawn are just excellent. the way that every interaction with the cult members goes tells you so much about who they are as stoats.

that first scene with ava and tula. mammalian grooming. erika ishii, never change. i knew brennan was playing a single mother this season, but by god is it coming across so well. tula is stretched thin. and erika is in their element with ava. first non-caster of her d20 characters. the werther's original. a grandmother.

everyone is leaning towards partial casters and martial classes this season. 2 paladins, a ranger, a monk, ancestral guardian barbarian, and an inquisitor rogue. it tells you a lot about the world dynamic and how this is going to be constructed. they aren't your average stoats, that's for sure. dex is the most common high stat with wis following--i'm anticipating a lot of stealth and perception checks.

anyway, i'm very excited for the next episode. the spreadsheet is updated with class information for this season; assuming they level up at some point that may change. they may not. take a look if you'd like.

[titenoute]

Wait a minute. I have a theory for S2.

I remembered someone saying that the prompt for the show looked a lot like the initial prompt of the cancelled Rayman 4 game by Phoenix Studios. Aka the fact this is a huge Ubisoft crossover and....This got me thinking.

There's two Rayman right ?...In the show I mean. At first I thought he got cloned but then... Lazehawk died. Yet S2 is announced with the idea he'd come back. Now ok, maybe he got the time to upload his consciousness in the virtual reality but...I'm not sure... Specially with Sam Fisher being there. Why would he still be there ? Maybe, unlike Sarah said, it IS a game... Maybe Lazerhawk is about to RESPAWN. Hear me out here. What if Rayman wasn't cloned. What if his double was just...A previous save state ? One that wasn't microaggressed by Red Ranger (forgot his name, fuck him) Also the promotional arts...

They tend to show the characters as if they disappeared in a digital void

And the background can also get Glitchy. Like they are in a simulation. I know I'm constructing this theory out of nothing. But at least it's out there ?

[jisuto]

On the topic of game reception, what are your thoughts on the current state of pokemon?

OK THIS ASK WAS SENT BEFORE THE HUGE LEAK LOL but I have a lot to say:

I watched VHS tapes, played the games, and owned merch since a young age so the series is very special to me. But I don't like the current direction at all and it's not because of the designs or nostalgia. The quality and game performance plummeted so how can I enjoy playing when there's mad lag or low frame rate that hinders my progress and worsen the experience??

It took too many years for them to realize they need to put quality over quantity after the SWSH mess, seeing that they can get away with pretty much ANYTHING and still make huge profit. You see people say that Pokemon should've never went 3D and stay 2D but tbh, it's a series that improves it's graphics as technology advances so it's not a surprise for them to finally go 3D and personally I think that's fine but just keep it looking good and fun (though I would love a 2D/3D hybrid). XY introduced a lot of new features but still lacked in some aspects that still haven't really been solved or added.

Reusing assets is common in the industry but only to a certain extent. They claimed that SWSH was taking a while to make because they were making brand new models which turned out to be a lie and they look like bootleg figures with the new lighting. The 3DS models were ripped from Pokepark, including some animations, but a lot of them still barely have any character. They have their own in-house team (Creatures Inc) so they made the decision NOT to have pokemon properly animated or look alive.... Also they made spin-offs like Ranger, Colosseum, Pokepark, and Pokken which look AMAZING

FRLG took only one year while HGSS was being developed at the same time as Platinum and took 3 years to finish that turned into one of the best games and remakes ever made. As the franchise expands, the team also needs to add more manpower but Game Freak can definitely afford to get more resources to help them?? They can't continue having a ragtag team of like 20 people to make a game back then and do the same now then expect good results... Hire more people who know how create with current gen consoles IT'S COMMON SENSE PLS also I can't believe they had a different company create BDSP knowing how beloved and groundbreaking DPPT was?? No redesigns like the previous remakes and thought it was a good idea to keep it looking a carbon copy to the DS style...

Also it's shocking to see how fan reception can change how the devs direct the next gen ESPECIALLY when it's not even real constructive criticism?? When Unova came out, I remember seeing all the online outcry about "OH THEY HAVE AN ICE CREAM CONE POKEMON AND A TRASH BAG, THEY'RE RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS EW" then actually hear it being repeated at school.... I WAS TRYING TO SURVIVE SINCE DAY 1 IN THE TRENCHES DEFENDING THIS GAME IT WAS ALWAYS GOOD AND DIDN'T NEED 10 YEARS TO AGE WELL. It's crazy how these are the same people who want another Kanto when Trubbish is Grimer (garbage waste) and Vanillite is Voltorb (based on literal items) then you could not catch any other pokemon from different regions in the main game. And the leak confirmed that the disgruntled hate from the west made the devs not release new pokemon in B2W2 and move them over to XY instead AND NOT GIVE A SINGLE GEN 5 MEGA EVOLUTION. So we were robbed because of genwunners who were fixated on the wrong things and ignored all the great content Unova brought us. It's strange how players keep complaining they want a different and fresh game, but want it to continue being super formulaic and binary like wtf do you want make up your mind

None of the switch titles really got me invested and I always end up replaying the older games but hopefully PLZA will break the curse and finally give us a nice game. Also why don't we have more spin-offs on the switch if there's so many of them floating around like the DS had a bunch??? STOP BEING COWARDS I WANT A POKEMON NINTENDOGS GAME OR THAT FIRE EMBLEM CROSSOVER WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET. I JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN AGAIN ;w;

[rennybu]

hi.... i'm just a poor boy . who does not know the loam lore. would you be willing to share.... a summary.... (so curious i am a loam enjoyer)

oh my gosh hi griff..! oh there is so much to tell... i will h ave no choice but to put this under a readmore. the shortest answer is that he is my character of 3+ years in @jawsandbones homebrew dnd campaign and he is like a son to me. but to start off with baby pictures:

LOAM was born 52 years ago in a city called TILDEN, which is blocked off overland by a CURSED* SWAMP that creeps closer every year.

*Misremembered and only Recently Re-Contextualized Major Historical event

His mom is a shy, worried, and loving woman named Bayla - she's a druid and sells medicinal mushrooms of all sorts. His dad is an unwaveringly positive (but incredibly serious) mason named Uttara who proudly works on all sorts of projects around the city, especially major infrastructure. Yay stoneworkers!

(Because fantasy lifespans are strange and somewhat silly to me I just imagine Firbolgs to be stuck in their mid-20s existential dread until they're like at least 150. The backstory part of this spans literally 51 of his 52 year s of life. he's so young)

He got equal enrichment from time spent in nature with his mom as from time spent in the city with his dad. His nickname in the Tilden Firbolg community To This Day is "Always With Questions" - a kind of affix to differentiate him from any other Loams. He may not know much but he really would like to find out, please!!!! He sees a lot of beauty in the natural world, but his idea of what's natural is skewed somewhat by the uh, Curse. He once fell through some algae into a deep body of water and had a very fun memento mori experience as a kiddo (beautiful golden sunbeam shining onto a silty skull)

He got the name Loam very young from his interest in both his parents' work, which lead to him learning about soil types and uses in gardening and construction aklfhglskg. Loam was important for both jobs so he (in guess-what-I-just-learned little kid fashion) told everyone who would listen about it. The association STUCK and he's Loam now :].

His birth name is actually Rahara! but that's secret knowledge only his bestest friends and Tzip and some scarycool important NPCs know.

He loves beasts and magic and plants so much. And on the flip side he also loves and is fascinated by architecture and engineering. He never got any like, higher academic schooling or whatever, but had many many different apprenticeship type training relationships from his parents, other tradespeople in the city, from the senior rangers etc etc.

Small break to plug @jawsandbones lore packets for the Quarter Cities (including Tilden), Scarabae, and the overall campaign setting!!!! I'm just gonna talk about stuff without adding too much context of my own because AAA WORD COUNT!!!

The hole in Loam's ear was brought about by a shit ass Tilden local trying to tear his earring off him, since he'd bought it from a foreign merchant from a city Tilden/the Quarter has historically warred with. Loam's always been open minded and deeply curious about other cities, due to how isolated the bog is. Any visiting merchants are sources of wonder!!!! Even though he only bought the one hoop earring from the Quietus merchants (Mirjam and Mihail, mother and son!), after the ice was broken he stayed by their stall the rest of the day and talked about all kinds of things, and befriended Mihail!

Loam trained as a ranger as soon as he was old enough to do so!!!! He saw it as the next logical step past what his parents would be able to show him and was incredibly eager to get hands-on experience in the wilds. He met his first ever boyfriend among his peers there!!! Bragi... he has had many lovers and situationships in Tilden since, BUT only recently feels comfortable trying monogamy again after meeting Tzipporah.

Bragi unfortunately died badly to a creature in a traumatic backstory incident that left young Loam super fucking bereft and hyper aware of how easy it is to die. (Big monster attack + group of trainee rangers accompanied by a few more senior rangers + chaos and bloodshed. Loam carried Bragi to safety and tried resuscitating him but he was already gone. The experience made him uncomfortable with the idea of being in a defined, monogamous intimate relationship for the next like. 19 years. He felt like he got ripped in half!)

After the ranger's guild recovers from THE CREATURE ATTACK, Loam meets his close friend, Reece, a fellow ranger and Kenku (she looks like a masked shrike)!!!

He gets his septum pierced by the same visiting merchants from Quietus a few years after Bragi's death. It's a very important moment for him, where it feels like he can finally start to let himself change and grow beyond that event. He also spends more and more time in the city, away from the more rural/overgrown districts, and chases a love for the arts and partying and people, where he meets Kallirhoe (human, not a even a classed bard but like. an indie musician. an eboy if high fantasy had eboys. a tattooed twinkish fellow. you know the type)! They are very good friends who also have sex. Many days spent waxing poetic about THE BIG WIDE WORLD and how they'll never get to see it. (Spoiler: He sees it)

Loam gets into tarot as a hobby, and makes his own deck in a very scribbly freehand style with ink and charcoal!!!! he's slowly replacing them with more Worldly artwork - the deck he left home with was very. Tildencore

Many good years of being a party girl who has to go work a construction job tomorrow and then go be a ranger at 6. A rich and storied life. AND THEN THE GAME TIMELINE STARTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A path Through the bog has recently finished being built by Dagda, the Southern representative to the other Quarter Cities, making more trade possible overland, and making local tensions go even crazier. Also there are strange Awful Huge Scary Monsters appearing WORLDWIDE, so the Directions and the Three Kings of Scarabae and the remote island of Geest (ADRA'S HOME!) and the mysterious magical Widow's Wood are all like "STOP WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING RN". Trials are held in the Western city of Dina to appoint FOUR TEAMS OF FOUR to help defend against the new threat. Loam is like. Well I've gotta fucking do that. I've got to try. If I'm not chosen, at least I've set foot outside. He has a fight with his mom about this, because she is terrified she will lose him, like she lost her mother in a previous conflict when Scarabae was occupying the Quarter, before Loam was born. He stands firm and his dad has his back, and ultimately he leaves with both their blessings, but his dismissal of his mom's feelings weighs heavy on him the longer he's away from home. (He has a big cry and reconciliation about this when he is next able to come home.)

I'm clapping and cheering and skipping joyfully because now he HAS MET HIS BESTEST, DEAREST, CLOSEST FRIENDS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD: ADRA ILSA AND TALEE!!!!!!! I have to be so careful now because we have no joke hundreds of pages of notes. I cannot read that shit on google docs mobile app. We are approaching session one hundred and fifty of this game. They love each other so fucking much. THEY ARE THE INFORMATION GATHERERS!!! A PARTY OF SLEUTHS!!!

He also has his meet-cute with Tzipporah at the trials, which in hindsight is hilarious, because of the whole, "Tzipporah was sent to the trials as a spy (by the very people responsible for the giant awful monster crisis) and immediately pegged Loam for an easy mark to get information from" thing. And he was 100% correct. But a lot has to happen before that gets revealed. They took a nice night walk and write each other big long letters. And Loam tells him soooooo much <3

At one point while exploring a wizard tower he attunes to a lightly cursed ring and forgets what his parents look like, like their likenesses are Gone from past and recent memory. Which is a big thorn of homesickness that he writes to them about. He has a big cry and stares at them both for a LONG time when he next sees them.

Also they save an orphaned Kenku from some bandits and now Loam has a little shoulder-sniper named Bubby. We have a son. A perfect little crow son who is really good at killing, with arrows. He hides things in Loam's hood regularly

Other major things include ummm umm Loam's TWO deaths, one during a dungeon-rescue type scenario in a room that was Flooding and full of Phantoms and also a charmed Druid (Feyan, good friends now) wildshaped into a big scary water snake. He was hurt bad and (comedically) levitated so he wouldn't DROWN but then got Phantom Speared right through the torso. Second one was because Tzip's evil half brother Vences was like, mad at him for being a good influence on Tzipporah and interfering with the spy duties. Chill touch so no healing + dagger in the ribs! Ow. Also the reveal that Tzip was a spy was happening like, simultaneously here so we were yowling and screaming. (Well. Talee and Co had their long time hunches about this. Loam and I had turned a beautiful blind eye to all suspicious activity)

ANYWAY HIS DEATH SCARS LOOK LIKE A COMET ABOVE HIS BELLY!!!! The spear scar made a patch of his fur turn white (front and back), and the dagger scar is its crude tail!

I am skipping over so many plot revelations i. This is just the Loam Cut. and it's not even all of it.

His buzzcut was for emotional superstitious reasons!!! He cut it after Death 2 and Tzipporah getting taken against his will back into Evil Gang. Loam's mom has a lock of his hair at home now. ALL THIS TO SAY TZIP IS OKAY, NO LONGER SPYING, WE RESCUED HIM AND RIPPED A MASK OFF HIM AND SAVED HIM FROM GETTING HIS MIND EXCAVATED ! SO LOAM IS GROWING HIS HAIR OUT AGAIN!

The deaths of his close friends and their allies have also been. insane for him to process. To return someone to life in this setting u need to like. entreat a Titan. plead on the deceased's behalf and offer something up for the chance to revive them. (NO player spells like revivify. house rule) So interacting with these entities he sees as like Both forces of the natural world AND of huge religious/cultural importance regionally. And to have their requests be HEARD? He loves magic he loves Titans. And the plot is unfolding in such a way that scares me so bad. He loves his titan (The Curious Spear) SOOOO MUCH he has like the foundational belief that it can see through his eyes. Even if not true it motivates him to always seek understanding of strange new things.

Oh my god I didn't even talk about his multiclass into druid. He's a druid also. Circle of the Stars!! As a navigational point. He loves them. He loves space. He loves geography and regional interpretations of constellations. He used to just do freehand observations but truly became dedicated to charting the skies of every place the party travels to, after Tzipporah gifted him a grid-lined journal <3 <3 <3 STARRY FORM!!!!!!

His awe and inspiration and hunger for knowledge is the well he draws magical power from. My Boy is thematically bound up in the soggiest parts of this earth and also the unknowably distant stars above and I'm normal about it (lie) (There is a new and scary Third Thing rising which is the space between. I <3 Void). I know i draw him beige and green but his like, character colour theme is. Dusk to me. Gloaming. When the world is lit like a dream <3

In summary. In conclusion. He and Adra and Ilsa and Talee (and the rest of the Four of Four) are trying to prevent Global Disaster of an existential scale never before seen and are being very brave about it.

Loam wants to understand everything about Everything. Because understanding is love. Unfortunately there are hostile resentful and vengeful forces making this hard to do. Most recently by saving a city we Unmade a magically sustained centuries-old library. And we haven't had time to like fully let that sink in. Because of the horrors of war and being Four of Four means responding to emergencies and protecting cities as best we can against a foe that was forgotten by history until like, 10 months ago. Less, even. I hope this is anything. I hope u are his friend now too because he is yours

good lord how could i forget. His gender is male in such a way that he does not give a shit about it. He's one of the girls. He's genderless. Like a knight. His sense of identity is built on Living Laughing and Loving.

his personal goals are 1. to uncurse the bog in such a way that the wrongs committed by Tilden historically are brought to light and righted, 2. to get super married to Tzipporah and build a house together, and 3. to somehow, eventually, through great teamwork and effort, cure(?) the dreadful lingering soul plague on the island of demeter. HUMBLE! OH and to make a finished star chart covering the entire planet. humble.

thank u for reading here are his current stats

[sanctus-ingenium]

Inver - relief map relative to the continent with otherworld territory marked, broad habitat map, detailed local landmarks map, and political map of the northeast atlantic peninsula as of 1862

i was just having map fun for two days lol. i make habitat maps a lot already but the difference with this one is that i can't just download a handy shapefile and do some GIS magic. this was hand drawn (but obviously. somewhat traced over the actual irl map)

for the outline of the north sea coast i used bathymetry data to figure out where the true coastline would occur. the north sea recedes but the atlantic doesn't (to the same extent). because this landmass was formed through some ancient Event, i felt pretty okay about changing the bedrock because like, whatever, we can't be fully realist all the time. so the northern half of inver is mainly limestone, the southern half is silicaceous - so we got the bog/marl divide there, though lough cánamac (in volume slightly larger than any of the north american great lakes) appears to be the remnant of the north sea, it is freshwater with a relatively low pH. the water of the lough is black to dark brown due to the run-off from the southern bogs and swamps.

in the north, the mountain ranges are calcareous. calcareous grassland, scrubland, heaths and fens dominate with a largely alkaline profile. limestone marl lakes which regularly flood due to groundwater input make the region pretty unsuitable for crops other than rice.

the ruad is the name for a stretch of otherworld territory which contains the lough, though generally used to refer to the forested area. it is completely uninhabitable throughout the majority of its range due to the non-euclidian structure of the land making it impossible to navigate consistently, and the strange and frequently hostile creatures living there. the ruad is faery territory and belongs to an entity known as the Red King, who uses the symbol of a stag. so although inver may look like a large country compared to its neighbours, it has a relatively small population concentrated on the west coast.

however, sailing across the lough is the quickest way to trade with countries in the east, far quicker than trekking through the forest and over land. the trade route through the ruad from invergorken to the cánamac town is one of the most valuable in the continent. it consists of an old road with regularly-spaced ranger safehouses and patrols, and a newer pair of railway lines which can cut through the supernatural aura of the ruad due to their iron rails. the first and older line is no longer in regular use. it was constructed before the development of wrought iron and before the build crews learned how to blast through rock, so it takes a very slow and winding route and required a lot of maintenance. safehouses were constructed to board the workers while the tracks were laid. but without this original track, the construction of the second, far more advanced wrought iron track would have been impossible. workers for the second track were able to commute and sleep on the first track's train, keeping them from harm. the second track can fit two trains side by side and is in constant use ferrying cargo and passengers between the two towns

the country of inver, once The Event wiped out all of its original inhabitants a couple thousand years ago, was settled by hibernians and vikings from the north moving south, and aquitanians from the south moving north (thus the place names). the ruad mostly blocked incursions from the east. there was a long history of dispute over who truly owned the land, and that remained sort of up in the air for most of its history until the 1400s when armorican warlords (like Olivier) decided to make it theirs for realsies and waged war against their old hibernian trade partners (like Finbarr) for control of the land. the hibernians lost because finbarr fucked it up at the last second, and this cemented a ruling class of werewolves in inver until the 1860s

inver consists of three large duchies which cover 70% of the population. Moya in the west is the heart of lycanthrope rule, everybody worships a faery known as the immortal hound and the ruad is far enough away that it is not a fact of life as it is for everyone else. Inver duchy covers the capital city and the south-western farmland, the main sites of production in the country. And Cánamac duchy covers the trade port in the lough and surrounding territories, where forest clearing has led to new farmland and a thriving population. There was a fourth duchy in the north, Aber, but it was historically somewhat isolated and cut off from the south of the country and had developed its own customs and traditions, and its own form of the country's currency. In the 1840s, the duchy of Aber was dissolved and reconstituted into the king's lands, and southern customs were enforced in the north to prevent any more divergence. the palaces of the ruling families in each territory are shown in the local map alongside the family names.

Due to The Event causing massive damage in this region of Europe, forbidding the development of britain and france etc as colonial empires, the last great Empire of this continent was the roman empire, and even that didn't manage to overcome the Ruad. technology is rudimentary in Inver and the people living there are largely considered to be weird backwards superstitious barbarians. aquitan has been threatening annexation for decades, led mainly by the church of suzette, which forbids interaction with otherworld entities. the church holds in disregard the nobility of inver and their cultish ways, and as a result has been banned from attempting to convert inver citizens. but the church is still allowed to make minor inroads into inver for one very important reason: penicillin and antibiotics are the sole creation of the church, and the secret of how they are made is unknown outside suzette. so for the sake of good, advanced healthcare, the church is allowed to set up clinics and hospitals, on the condition that nobody is converted, and members of the church are strictly banned from engaging in any business but importing and selling antibiotics

[lordturkish-robomallcop]

Gimme 11, 7, 26, 27 and 28 (Drawing not required). For Ana and/or Marcel, but also for anyone whom you'd feel have interesting answers for these!

Taking that and and running with it straight under the fold!

11 for Marcel, Anatol and Roman because he's bundled in with the Ana package: Marcel was my first WoD pc, so he's largely a port of my main DnD guy (Dillup the Diviner) who also got blended with Midnight Gospel dissociative ennui and Mackgyver goofiness. Anatol... less fun and goofy, this one. Ana/Roman were originally built to be kinda a parable tackling my thoughts/feelings regarding to "trans widow/er" narratives and spiraled out from there. I haven't posted their full origin story outside of the snippets in Limits, but a lot dwelling in that uncomfortable zone of folks reaching for things they do not have language for, so they reach into the phantoms they construct of loved ones as mooring points and then freaking out when those points prove to be imagined/changed. Also just a general exploration of "toughing through" a relationship that perhaps has reached its sell-by date. Roman is married to an image of Ana that never was/will never be but has convinced himself that is a natural state that must be returned to. Ana is married to an image of Roman (the man who was disowned by his family to be with Ana, who despite being a bit of a patriarchal terror in his own right was one of the few folks who begrudgingly gave him space/grace outside of his own father) that Anatol has convinced himself is someone he needs to rebuild/is the touchstone he needs. This is also mirrored with Mihal/Kliment, except Mihal in a shocking twist is probably the only motherfucker in this generational pain cycle to recognize, in that one moment, that he was chasing a construction and just... letting go, letting that fixation die. Understanding it was making him and the person he claimed to do everything for worse. That he was unconsciously doing what his own sire did to him, and ooooh no if there's anything he hates more than being passe it's being reminded he's very similar to the Old Dragons. Also the fixation was immediately resurrected when Ana entered the picture, because pobody's nerfect but lil ruffly bugboi tried.

Wow I've already done a massive ramble anyhoot there's a healthy dose of Artemy Burrakh from Pathologic 2 in Ana as well bc I had Pathologic brainrot when I was first drafting him, lmao. He also got his last name Stamatin from that game.

7 for All Assortment of Lads: Marcel is a Divination Wizard, as was his Dillup Double! And like Dillup he'd def find a way to become a Hag. Ana would def be a Warlock of some stripe, likely a Great Old One patron. He'd be a human and be grumbly about it. Eliza is pretty straightforwardly a halfling Rogue. Roman starts as the lvl 1 Runescape farmer and ends up as a pretty bomb ass Ranger. Mihal would be the patron Ana's praying to, lol. 26 for All Assortment of Lads: Ana compulsively categorizes people he meets as different types of flora so this is the perfect question!! Ana- Venus fly trap Roman- Strawberry Blossum Mihal- Eidlewiess Kliment- Red Rose Eliza- Blue Hydrangea Marcel- Ivy/Kudzu 27 for Ana and Macel: Marcel is a Cuckoo Shrike bc he barrels in out of nowhere and completely wrecks other people's houses for his own ends. Like, look at this stupid son of a bitch, I hate him:

Ana is def some kind of weird lizard or stickbug. Part of me wants to say "do dragons count bc he's genuinely the type of kid who'd buy one of those Dragonology books growing up and also his grandfather was an Obertus Monk so Big Lizard Stanning is just a family tradition" but also another part of me feels like that's a cop out tzim answer lol.

28- Ana and Marcel: Marcel rolls with the skaters/burnouts smoking by the dumpsters after school before doing some light shoplifting at the Casey's down the street. Ana rolls with the theater kids to Perkins at 1am as the designated Butch Carabiner Haver of the department. Roman is the single jock at the end of the queer theater table struggling as the "Sure I Am An #Ally bc my S/O is queer but don't get it twisted I'm straight ha-ha" boyfriend. Maybe someday I will dig out the wacom tablet that I know to be existing in a desk drawer somewhere to do my own OC doodles but today is not that day lol.

[the-greatest-magic-of-all]

I know it's been months since you posted about it but. I want to hear about the Bad Moms.

No worries! I'm always happy to chat, no matter the time! This one's gonna be a long one though, so strap in!

First things first, all of the Bad Moms are at least 15th-level adventurers, if not higher. All of them, excluding Sklonda, have canonically either adventured or did something like it. And Sklonda is high-level because she's just that badass.

In order of first appearance, we'll start off with the imposing Hallariel Seacaster, who, side note, I truly believe is almost seven feet tall. Just a tower of a bored housewife who used to be the best swordswoman in Spyre (Think Morticia Addams but slightly less goth). This leads me to believe that she'd be a straight Fighter (all of the Seacasters are) with the Samurai subclass. A heavy hitter who just won't drop yet still smoothly transitions into being an elegant courtier when need be. Oh, and I'd love for them to bring back the sober trigger mechanic from Unsleeping City S2 for her! It'd also be a treat to watch her deal with other Elves who make pointed backhanded comments about her finally settling down with another Elf and how it's good to see that she's done playing house with that human husband and half-human son of hers.

Next up is Wilma Thistlespring! My most precious Artificer Bard! With the subclasses Battle Smith and College of Creation, respectively. Battle Smith because in "Family in Flames", while Digby had a Tesla-coil laser canon (a hallmark of an Artilerist), Wilma had a fleet of spinning gyros instead. It'd probably take a little reflavouring but I think she could have her Steel Defender be this swarm of bird-like constructs that fuck a bitch up. And for the College of Creation part, I mean... It's the Bard subclass all about having a Song in your heart and that Song being one of the most ancient and powerful magic of all. If that's not Wilma Thistlespring to a T then I don't know what is. Also, btw, I'd love for her to be played by Elaine Lee because, if I remember correctly, Brennan took inspiration for the Thistlesprings from his parents!

Next is Mom of the Year, Sklonda Gukgak, who is obviously a straight-up Inquisitive Rogue, just like her son! This one is one of the more obvious picks for her and one of the only ones really. None of the other Rogue subclasses fit quite right while still making sense for her character. Like, maaaybe she could be a Mastermind Rogue, but I think it's a stretch. And it's the only subclass that she could conceivably get to a high enough level without her being a straight-up adventurer. I honestly think it'd be so funny to watch her get pulled into an adventure. Because I think she's a lot like Carameldina and Steel in the way of absolutely hating that they live in a DnD world, but instead of being utterly baffled by why her son is acting like an adventurer, she knows. She knows she lives in a world where adventures happen and the Call to Adventurer is a real phenomenon that wraps people up with Quest Fever. She's been trying to keep Riz from it ever since Pok died. So getting to watch her finally get the Call herself would be fantastic.

Sandra Lynn Faeth, the messiest bench ever, is next up and she's pretty straightforward, just like Sklonda. She's a Beast Master Ranger and that's all she wrote! Obviously, most of the fun of watching Sandra Lynn take center stage would be in witnessing her past come back to haunt her and seeing how she deals with it. The most glaring plot hook for a Bad Moms season (as long as they don't do it in Junior Year) would be her serving justice to the older adventurer creep who got her blacklisted from adventuring! I want her to kick ass, take names, and call Jawbone whenever she wants to make out with someone because she's still too anxious to do it impromptu even though they've talked about it!

Second to last, we've got Cathilda Ceili!!! Fight me if you think she doesn't count as a Bad Mom!!! She does!! She and Roz are picking up the slack that fucking Arianwen and Donna are dropping, okay? Okay. Now, while her being a Swashbuckler Rogue is a given. What else was she going to be? I'm also kinda leaning towards her multiclassing into Banneret Fighter, is that crazy? It's just that it feels that she'd also have some support mechanics in her roster (like Rallying Cry) and having Action Surge and Second Wind could tie why her work ethic is so tireless. Plus, as a Fighter, she'd fit in with the rest of the Seacasters! Listen, i want to see Cathilda let loose for once. And I feel like the other Bad Moms could get her there.

Finally! Roslyn "Roz" Fukumoto! She's such a wild card because we literally know nothing about her, but I think it'd be fun to include her in a Bad Moms season. Getting to know another Aguefort Alumni like Sandra Lynn and learning about what life is like outside of Elmville in another small town in Solace. I don't know if there'd be any tension between her and Wilma, (mostly because Wilma's such a sweetie) but getting to see their dynamic would be a treat. Now, for what class she could be. Another spellcaster would round out the party nicely, leaning more toward like a Warlock or even a half-caster, like a Paladin. But if she'd had to be a martial, a Fantasy High hasn't had a Monk PC yet and they are always a joy to watch.

Whew! That's about it for the Bad Moms class wise. It's such a pipe dream but it'd be such a joy to watch a group of older women play DnD as this badass team of Moms. I hope this satisfies your curiosity, @deconstructthesoup!!

[honourablejester]

My thoughts on Ravnica’s Ten Guilds

Since I’m reading through Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica for D&D 5e. I have some obvious favourites, but just some general thoughts counting down the line. Also, apparently, some character concepts as well. What I'd play if I was playing this guild. Heh.

Azorius Senate

The Law, capital letters. I have mixed feelings on the Azorius. I tend to have a mildly chaotic bent, so they automatically ruffle my feathers slightly. On an ideological level, they are complicated for me. Especially since they appear, at the moment in time this book is set in, to have lost their foundation and started becoming increasingly autocratic in response. Kneejerk, that inclines me to fight them. Heh.

However. I deeply enjoy investigators, librarians, functionaries and general paper pushers as a character archetype, so I could actually see myself playing an Azorius. An investigator or advocate for the accused or legal secretary who is getting increasingly alarmed at the direction things are going, and who might be looking for ways to investigator or reform the Azorius from within. The Azorius feels like somewhere my favourite knowledge cleric/fey ranger build could do some good. Or a bard. Might be a good place to try a bard. Heh.

Boros Legion

They don’t really spark joy, for much the same reasons as the Azorius. Worse, in some ways, as the Boros are the true enforcing arm. A paranoid military army led by angels that fears it will be undermined from within by corruption and temptation … Not generally my cup of tea, despite being primarily a cleric player.

That being said. A while back I had a thought for a warforged paladin who’d been blasphemously built in the form of an angel. And, well. That could go interestingly with the Boros? Given what they’d likely think about such a creature, especially as paranoid as they are. Did someone commission a blasphemous construct from the Izzet? To what purpose? Sure, she says she only wants to do good, but can we trust her? A warforged redemption paladin who doesn’t know who made her and who genuinely is a good (and trusting) person, but who may actually have been built for a less salubrious purpose. Could be interesting!

House Dimir

Now, see. House Dimir is everything I should adore. Spies! Messengers! Couriers! Lies and secrets and misinformation! Knowledge being power! A guild of assassins and spies disguised as couriers and reporters. Such a juicy tangle. I really should adore them, and kind of do? It’s just. One tiny thing. The Dimir rely on memory magic to hide their dealings, quite casually, and that … can go thorny places for me. They are, in a lot of ways, quite cyberpunk, actually. Mind wiping, implanted memories, orders given by thought transmission. It is cool and thorny and interesting. It just could go bad places for me.

Which is such a shame, as I really want to go play old-school spycraft with these guys. Dead drops and coded messages and deceptively simple orders that have snowballing effects. Maybe not even someone who willingly joined, as such, but who did a favour for someone once and got pulled in progressively deeper, trying desperately to keep their head above water and not let on. Rogue is the obvious first thought, but also I’m thinking GOOlock, because Dimir kind of behave like a warlock patron anyway, in the sense of ‘inscrutable instructions’, and Ravnica also has ‘old gods’, Nephilim, who have equally inscrutable goals. A messenger torn between two equally terrifying and inscrutable masters might be fun! If I play very carefully around the idea that my memories might not be my own.

Golgari Swarm

My far and away favourites! A subterranean undercity built among the sewers and the ruins and the deeper things beneath, full of farmers and sanitation workers and shamans and necromancers. The guild that’s shat on by everyone else, and who patiently wait until the time is right to prove otherwise. Assuming their own factional politics allow, of course. Anyone who knows me, it should be obvious why I love these guys.

Here I would play a rogue. A phantom rogue. Or a gloomstalker ranger. Or a swarmkeeper ranger. Or a spores druid. Or a grave cleric. Or a life cleric. I do suspect this would be the guild I’d play most if I had the opportunity to do so. Lots of options. Though I think swarmkeeper might get first dibs, for, well, obvious reasons. An urchin drawn down into the deeps by the gentle chittering of vermin, the welcome of those equally despised. The artifice and arcane rules of the city above is not for them. There is a simpler, warmer sort of existence down here.

Gruul Clans

Again, mixed feelings here. On the one hand, I feel like Ravnica is playing a little too hard into ‘raging barbarians’ for the Gruul, with the repeated emphasis on just tearing it all down and ‘might makes right’. The Gruul as predators and enemies of all softer or weaker peoples feels reductive. However. This is a power to the image of a people of the wilderness hunted into smaller and smaller reserves, into the rubblebelts and run down sections of the city, into nature restored by tearing the city down to make way for it. There’s something post-apocalyptic about them, both in the sense of their world, the world of nature, having been ended by the city, and then the city in turn being torn down to make way for them again. I feel like if they had a bit more of the Golgari’s ‘it’s all cyclical’ sort of philosophy, plus a little less ‘band of savage warriors led by the toughest and most brutal’, we could really go somewhere with the Gruul. I do quite like the Slizt and Gravel Hide clans, for example.

I would play a Gruul. I don’t know if I’d want to rise within the clans, especially if ‘might makes right’ is the mechanism, but I wouldn’t mind playing a defiant inhabitant of the wastelands, determinedly defending my patch from encroachment, taking pride in survival, in holding to a way of life that the city would destroy. Stars druid, possibly? Or ranger. Or ancestral barbarian. Or wild magic barbarian, the strange, stubborn magic of those places where the city and the wilderness have destroyed each other and become entwined. Yeah, that could be fun.

Izzet League

Ravnica’s mad science guild. BUT. And this is actually the fun part for me. They’re also the guild in (at least nominal) charge of public infrastructure. Plumbing. Transport. Power. Lights. The plumbing for your toilet is in the hands of people who will accidentally clone two million rats in your piping while trying to build a sewage system around the principle of mass shit teleportation relays. Which is fantastic. I love them completely. Second favourite guild after the Golgari. The fact that they’re mostly goblins does not hurt at all. Also, with the current unrest, they’ve all somewhat taken a turn for the Bond villain and are researching superweapons, so that’s extra fun. In the people, again, responsible for your plumbing.

I fully want to start out as a plumber. Attached to the Laboratory of Orientation (aka the teleportation lab). Because, look, a sewage system based on the teleportation of shit is an efficient sewage system! No pooling, no piping, no leaks. Stench teleported away before it gets bad. I’m telling ya, it’s a great idea! Do we necessarily want a bunch of tiny portals honeycombing the structure of our buildings? Absolutely. Don’t even worry about it. I got my engineering degree right here! (Fully a conjuration wizard. Maybe some rogue, maybe some artificer. And yes, they’re a goblin).

Orzhov Syndicate

I mistyped that as ‘sindicate’, which is likely apt, given that they’re mostly an undead banker mafia with a thin veneer of Catholicism on top. Think the Borgias and you’re close. They’re currently getting closer and closer to outright war with the Azorius, because the thin legal veneer over a lot of their racketeering is getting ripped up by the Azorius’ growing paranoia and dedication to writing out loopholes, but for the moment they’re just doing their best to increase the divide between their legal and illegal ventures to hide them better. It’s all very much ambition and greed and a veneer of respectability.

Which is why it baffles me that bard is not a suggested class for them, because whispers bard was my literal first thought. The suggestions are cleric, fighter, rogue or wizard, and I’m baffled, because unless you’re playing a straight enforcer, the Orzhov would seem to be the Charisma-based guild? Deception, Persuasion, Intimidation, no? Whispers bard, conquest paladin if you’re aiming enforcer, assassin or mastermind rogue if you’re aiming for the blackmail route, order cleric or celestial warlock if you want to act the part of churchman better. Orzhov is about vicious social climbing in a system where the top spots are all jealously held by undead oligarchs who most certainly won’t be clearing a path for upward mobility unless forced to do so. My first thought was whispers bard, a lean, handsome young thing who has tasted poverty and will do anything to avoid sinking so low again.

Cult of Rakdos

Not going to lie, I get a strong tang of Warhammer 40K’s dark eldar from the Rakdos. Dark hedonism and violence, the seedy underbelly of the city. They don’t do a lot for me, not gonna lie. They’re probably my least favourite of the guilds. I do like the theatre aspect, the circus of fear, the ideas of ‘backstage’ including basically spycraft, but they’re a chaotic evil guild and it does show.

If I was playing a Rakdos character … guild-owned dark speakeasies are mentioned. And if we’re talking that, something a little noir flavoured … I could be a Rakdos femme fatale, maybe? Less ‘evil’ and more ‘amoral’, a songstress who likes to destroy her enemies in interesting ways. Bard again, possibly glamour bard, although I really like creation bards, and there’s an interesting bit of blasphemy about the song of creation in the mouth of demon-worshipper that could add something. Glamour does work better for the femme fatale, but creation tickles me more. Yeah.

Selesnya Conclave

If the Dimir are giving cyberpunk vibes, the Selesnya are giving me … also cyberpunk vibes, with a solarpunk skin. The ‘city and nature entwined’, green gardens and growing cities, very solarpunk, but the emphasis on collectivism, on the destruction of selfishness and desire, on the subsummation of the individual into the peaceful, coherent whole … there’s a dystopic edge running under them. Less obviously than the Azorius or the Orzhov, but definitely present. (I’m realising that, in MtG terms, I don’t vibe well with White). And, see, I like a lot of their overall goals. I love the natural cities thing, I love striving for overall good. I tend to play neutral good. They just … I get a ‘death of the self’ sort of vibe from them that weirds me out a bit. They seem weirdly more culty than Rakdos to me.

Playing a Selesnya character … I want to be a gardener. No higher ambitions, no greater thoughts. An innocent, who genuinely just wants to help the plants grow. A dreams druid, I think. A gentle druid focused on healing and shelter. And maybe I meet some things for the first time that make me … question. How innocent can you afford to be?

(I am probably being unfair to them, and it probably says a lot about what I’ve been trained to see, given that the Selesnya are broadly good, decent people. I just … I kneejerk distrust it about them. I want to cleave my own path).

Simic Combine

My third favourite guild. Mad science, biology edition! With bonus lovecraftian oceanic vibes. And yes, they are just as dystopic as the Selesnya, and they’ll do it rewriting your body, but I just vibe with them more. I love the zonots. Simic home territories are sinkholes called zonots that pierce through the layers of city and undercity to the buried ocean beneath. Immediately, this adds a whole other layer to Ravnica as a city and a planet for me. The city is at least partly built over top of an ocean. The Simic are also currently divided between the isolationist faction, who believe that slow, cyclical evolution and staying connected to nature will win out, and the adaptationist faction, who believe that we need to evolve now, by hook or by crook, because the system is collapsing and we need to keep up. These are the Simics gearing up for war, by way of aquatic supersoldier experiments.

I think I would like to play an adaptationist spy. Or information-gathering operative, at least, I would want to be a mutated Simic hybrid, so I’m not like Dimir level passing for any old joe soap on the street. I think I’d want to be either an alchemist artificer or a fathomless warlock. Maybe the fathomless, the result of an experiment, more than the one performing the experiments, which would be the alchemist’s wheelhouse.

Other Thoughts

I would so love to play like a Golgari-Simic campaign that’s about exploring the depths of the undercity/underocean for secrets. The zonots and the undercity are so cool. This is a city planet where the city has eaten the world, but strange things lie underneath, and I’m vibing with that so much. We could bring along a Gruul, digging for the foundations of the world that was lost. A Dimir, making sure nobody unearths any superweapons or nothing. Possibly an Izzet, in the hopes that we do. I just really, really, really want an explorer party to go digging under Ravnica.

I also wouldn’t mind a Golgari-Gruul ‘scavengers living on the edges’ sort of campaign, a sort of post-apocalyptic urban scavenger, literal ‘seed of new hope’ where the cycles turn back towards wilderness again.

And then there’s a noir campaign, your Azorius-Dimir-Rakdos sort of game, with possibly some Izzet spice in the sense of ‘why was this Izzet plumber murdered: what did they build or what did they find?’. Heh.

Ravnica does have such a lot to recommend it as a setting. Feelings on WotC aside, this place has such cool, complicated vibes.

This is my VtM Nosfertu talking, though: Golgari for the win!

[bohioeveanga]

Oh, boy do I got a dumb Zelda theory that I will not be translating into any other language because this will be long as heck...🙃

And I do mean long, so buckle up and get ready. Because the theory goes as follows: what if the Zonai and Minish are somehow connected?

I know I'm grasping at the stupidest straws and I actually thought about it while falling asleep last night, I've only got one open eye this morning while writing this, so these are really rambles of a madwoman!🤣 Still, I think this needs to be discussed. I think there might be, in the smallest of chances, a connection.

Let's start with the obvious, physical traits. There's not much, I know. We only have the extremely large ears and snout. That's about it, really. Minish have lighter skin, and seem to have a feathery tail coming from behind. On the other hand, Zonai have a grayish-greenish skin, overall white hair, and don't have tails. The biggest and most obvious difference is size, with the Minish being small and the Zonai, well, do I really need to explain that? The Zonai are even much taller than Hylians in comparison.

Though it seems they can have a lot hair, both, if we compare Rauru and Ezlo in his Minish form. Who knows if Zonai can grow beards too?

Also, the Minish came from the sky, much like the Zonai did. Coincidence?!

But wait! There's more. Let's talk about designs.

Can you see it? The eye. That effing eye! Took one look at that shield, and all I could think was the Four Sword Sanctuary. Now, granted, that's in FS and FSA, but those stories are connected to MC. I saw the Elemental Sanctuary, and while there's no eye, it's safe to say that maybe there's a connection to the sanctuaries, housing the Four Sword and elements. And the Ranger Constructs seem to have an akin eye to the shield and sanctuary, even hanging at the side of their faces. It's so similar, that I can't help but think there might be a connection. (Low-key, I actually thought the Ranger Constructs would be a new version of the Eyegore.)

Still on the eye-theme, the Zonai themselves have a third eye. You know two other people who seem to have a connection to a third eye? Hmm, yeah, Vaati and Astor.

Now, Astor is from AoC, so I'm not too worried on him, but he's eerily similar to Vaati, to the point I actually believed he was an incarnation of him back before AoC came out. And why not? Similar dark clothes, gold accents, red highlights in magic, the circlet with red jewel, gray skin, maniac tendencies, need I say more? But Vaati used to once be a Minish, remember? He turned human with his newfound powers through the magical cap Ezlo made prior to the MC events. The Minish are creatures of magic and desire good. Zonai too. If we analyze at a slightly scientific and magical perspective, maybe the Minish might have evolved into a large and superior advanced race, even going as far as abandoning there small stature and simplistic lifestyle. Similarly to our smart Sheikahs from BoTW/AoC/ToTK and 10,000 years prior.

Eye these other shots! (See what I did there? No, okay, I'll shut up.😏)

Dark Hyrule Castle in MC? Filled with eye-related puzzles. Zonaite armor? Eye on the freaking helmet! Mazaal, boss for the Fortress of Winds in MC? Eyes on his hands, literally! Plus, who's to say that Mazaal isn't some super ancient prototype of a Construct? Look at the shape of the head and Zonaite helmet! (WHAT IF THE SHEIKAH TOOK INSPIRATION TO CREATE GOHDAN FOR THE TOWER OF THE GODS IN WW?! Theory for another day.)

Now, finally giving a shut-eye to that topic (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself,) let's talk about Constructs. Asides from Mazaal above, you know what device is super similar between Minish and Zonai?

A classic Zelda staple seems way too similar for this particular theory. Sure, the Remote Bomb is gray, but the aspect between the Remote and Time Bomb are way too similar. Even the 'fuse' is pretty much the exact same look and color! On top of that, its usage is exactly the same. It's a small stupid piece of circumstantial evidence, but I'm going with it.

Now, finally, for my last bit. TotK brought some new flora into the game, fitting naturally. But there's one that's unique and stands out, and surprisingly shares a part of its name with a plant that makes an appearance in MC. Can you guess?

Aren't they pretty? The shape and look of the Brightbloom and Pico Bloom, respectively, are identical. When the bud is close, its shape is similar as well. When the bud is open, it provides lighting in its general area. Pico Blooms, in particular, offer different lights, asides from the above yellow, including, yes, white. Pico Blooms lights glow very obviously while the Brightbloom's glow is steady and unwavering. While it's hard to guess if Pico Blooms are able to provide as much light as a Brightbloom in the darkness, maybe the Depths, the similarities are impossible to ignore. Even the way the leaves at the bottom of the stem are similar. Brightblooms don't make an appearance in BotW, much like the Pico Blooms do not exist, or at least, not seen, in any other Zelda game. And while Pico Blooms serve more as a side quest appearance, they still form a part of the Minish's general flora. Brightblooms appeared right after the Upheaval, a crucial item to explore the Depths. And they seem to have a strong connection with the Zonai, as they are seen as a part of the Ranger Constructs decoration, as well as within the shrines, and even in the mines and other architectural locations found in the Depths.

The entire Miner's freaking Set is an entire copy to the Brightbloom!

Welp, that's my tea and essay for today, y'all. I think I'm still kind of asleep, despite everything I wrote and all the above images. Am I crazy and seeing too much into it? Probably am, but it seems there's a connection. Maybe the Minish evolved into the Zonai, much like the Zora evolved into the Rito. Maybe the Minish, while trying magic, backfired into the Zonai? Or maybe they're just completely separate from each other. The possibilities are endless. At the end of the day, that's what makes the games so great, and makes me just another sleepy Zelda theorist.

See later ya later guys! Back to bed!🤣