#i need to commit to making a character for the lore side of this server i think.

[pyrriax]

some lovely silly screenshots from a server that's been eating my time recently ^_^ i call the first one "moments before disaster"

(featuring several times where i got stuck in the chicken pit [this still happens frequently], plus @aperture-science-sys and the bear that HATES me)

[fantastic-nonsense]

Hi! I've never done this before but I'm new to comics (started with WFA and Zatanna and the Ripper) and I've basically got most of my information from posts on tumblr and r/hobbydrama (including yours.) I think I have a general idea of what Jason Todd is like, but I believe a lot of people are unhappy with his new characterisation.

So, if you were the one in charge, how would you write him? Would you write him with a team or as a solo character? Would you have him use the All-Blades or a crowbar or his guns? Would you have him properly rejoin the batfam or not?

Thanks!

Hi! Welcome to the fandom! I hope you're enjoying your time here.

In general, I think DC (and the fandom) has spent too much time milking Jason's death for trauma porn. They have refused to allow him to find closure, move past that, and exist beyond his daddy issues drama with Bruce. When DC has allowed him to have stories outside of that, they were often written with little consideration for what should be done with Jason beyond making him "badass."

None of this has been conducive to creating any kind of satisfying and coherent narrative or character arc for Jason, especially when both writers and editorial seem more obsessed with stealing traits, relationships, and stories from other people to give to him (most prominently Dick, Selina, and Helena). My hottake is that DC should move beyond "Red Hood" as an identity for Jason entirely, because it drags his character down and keeps him inherently tied to the same problems that have kept his character stagnant for years.

However! I don't think he's unsalvagable. I simply think DC needs to put a decent writer on him and commit to a character direction for more than 2 years at a time. I'm unsure of what Shawn Martinbrough is currently doing with Jason in his The Hill arc, as I'm not reading it, but I've heard that there might be some forward momentum finally happening there?

Anyway, my personal conception of Jason's future (as lovingly brainstormed by me and my friends in our comics discord server) is effectively this: he becomes a street-level paranormal detective who solves cold murder cases by talking with the victims' ghosts and providing closure to restless spirits. Think Lockwood and Co. meets Pushing Daisies with a superhero twist; basically, a supernatural detective noir book.

There's a lot of concepts and lore drops tied into this idea, but basically it was born out of a discussion where I was talking about Jason's many connections with the supernatural and occult across all continuities and how it's kind of a mystery why DC hasn't just formally connected him to the mystical side of the DCU. So I was like "they should just reveal that Superboy-Prime’s reality punch resurrection left him LITERALLY undead, make the event where he finds this out also spark his ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and make him an occult detective. Let him close cold case murder files and put those spectres to rest."

Which is also a great premise for a Bat book and a great unfilled niche for a Batfamily member. Kate's supernatural stories are much more high concept and connected to her family drama. Damian's supernatural/occult connections are traditionally very heavily tied to his family history and the Lazarus Pits. Dick's semi-regular magic encounters are usually stuff he deals with alongside his teammates in the course of working with the Titans. None of the other Bats have enough regular encounters with the supernatural and magic side of the DCU for it to encroach on their shtick, and a Gotham-based supernatural book is well within DC's ability to publish and market given books like Gotham by Midnight.

In terms of how that direction affects all the other questions you asked...I think Jason's relationship with the rest of the Batfam should be complicated. I personally don't think "good/bad relationship with the Batfam" is a particularly useful way to look at it because I think there are people he should never see eye to eye with, people he realistically shouldn't and doesn't have a problem with, and people he should get along with just fine. I don't think everyone needs to or should be friends or enemies with him, but his morals and past actions will (and should!) complicate those relationships in interesting ways.

And re: what weapons I'd like to see him use...using the All-Blades would certainly factor into my proposed narrative direction, as that would lean into the supernatural connections, but I generally prefer the concept of Jason using knives as his preferred weapon over guns/a crowbar/etc. That way he can still be a marksman without using guns, and I think that fits more with his character trajectory as someone attempting to be less lethal but also has no problem roughing people up when he thinks they need to be.

[cdroloisms]

I like messing around with the characters who have nothinburgers of lore its a fun playground

see c!eret doesn't even have nothingburger lore it's just. sighs. inconsistent. especially with what i'm preeetty sure was creator intent, especially near the end of things.

i can take the lore at face value, right, and tell you that c!eret was a character that got supremely fucked over by a vindictive harassment campaign, canonically at least partially fueled by jealousy (as well as c!wilbur obviously being. triggered as hell over the final control room and the loss of control he felt bc of it) that had very real ramifications in character (and outside of it, honestly). and i can tell you that the consequences on the character made them rewrite history in their own head and then like, literally, where they had to redeem themselves of their single sin that they got tempted into by the devil manipulated by c!Dream into committing, when from the beginning while c!Eret was partially motivated by self-interest she ALSO just thought that the FCR was the best way of returning the server to peace??? and either way ... it was a war like yes i'm sure there are ethical and moral ramifications to being a spy in a war yadayada but a lot of the assumptions that emphasize the FCR as being something ~supremely fucked up~ relies on the idea of L'manburg's side in the Revolution being So Much More Moral than the DreamSMP side, never mind that the FCR existed at a time where physical violence with long-lasting ramifications such as canon lives literally wasn't a thing yet and was explicitly a means of stripping them of their gear. that they returned to them after the war.

and it's just so crazy to me, because the actual FCR which became twisted into c!eret's Single Crime is just nawt that big of a deal at all but did become the major talking point for the campaign to treat her fucking terribly on the account of Being A Traitor Hey New Person Did You Hear That Eret SUCKS Because He Betrayed Us !!! but what does feel like more of an issue include a lot of the later actions, such as the excessive gloating towards L'manburgians in ways that were kind of meanspirited (but were hella funny shoutout to the prank war) and then the...kind of tyrannical actions lol umheyyyy do we remember the taxes. also just the knights of hope were ... well they sure were! (i wish wegot that lowkey yesssssssss go hunt c!dream like an animal please ^_^") mexican lmanburg negotiations cough cough anyway. TURNING LOGSTEDSHIRE INTO A MUSEUM EXHIBIT????????????????????GIVING TOURS THERE???????? HEY LOOK HERES THE POLE WHERE THIS KID WHO IS OUR NEIGHBOR BTW TRIED TO KILL HIMSELF. LIKE WHY. WHY DID THEY DO THAT.

i don't mind any of this, btw--if i were to give a kind of short explanation to c!eret's character i'd say that she tends to have good intentions overall, but drank so much of the lmanburg kool-aid that it became a whole new thing and also in general has a tendency to act in her personal self-interest and have a pretty short-sighted, self-centered view of the world more often than not. they're not evil, and they certainly don't go out of their way to hurt people, but they also push the blame onto c!Dream a lot, including in ways that don't make sense, and does things like the museum exhibits abt exile and the casual taxing of everyone just cuz and expecting all of dream smp to follow them in supporting a coup against the country they're allied with For Their Redemption Quest in ways that suggest that they tend to prioritize themselves and their wants over a more reasonable. consideration of the people around them. also he got SUPER fucked over by c!wilbur and continues to center their story around him because he thinks that he needs to be redeemed through him, and the thing he thinks he needs redemption for he simultaneously blames on someone else and also just wasn't. A Grand Crime For Her To Need Redemption For. she took the lmanburg story said 'what if i was the main character doe' made a new lmanburg koolaid chugged it and tried to make the whole server fall in line. essentially.

the problem is that i don't think that the character was ... meant to be written like this, and therefore there aren't that many satisfying conclusions. also just in general plot points kept getting set up with little follow through. (i'll limit any cc criticisms here, but i will say that the fandom was an obvious driving point in what happened with the character.) the biggest problem for me was the frequent retconning--it's kind of bad practice in general to Take Back rp frequently, tho c!eret is mostly forgiven bc most of the retcons did happen with solo lore (not ... all of them tho)

but yeagh. i appreciate what is there for c!eret dont get me wrong but ... i do wish it was utilized in a slightly different way

[vyeoh]

this is your chance: wax poetic about an Empires or DSMP character of your choice to a fan who is new to both. Explain why I should love them. I need guidance in this new and meme-populated land.

okok this is a lot of pressure haha. Spoilers for EmpiresSMP and DreamSMP below, obviously. I wrote a lot so prepare yourself, anon

I watch a lot of empires POVs but the ones I most anticipate every week are Scott and Sausage.

c!Scott (I'll call him Smajor for the sake of simplicity) starts off the series chilling, not really getting involved with the rest of the server, and staying aggressively neutral. After all, he's an elf. He has lived far longer than most of the other rulers already, and will most likely outlive them for many years. So, the best thing is to stick to his mountains and not get invested in the dealings of mortal affairs, maybe sometimes causing problems on purpose and dipping because what's life without a little spice right.

But then, this demon comes to the server, Xornoth. He's going around causing havoc and wants to send the world into an eternal winter, but he doesn't bother the kingdom of Rivendell much so Smajor stays tentatively cautious but ultimately unbothered. But then, the puzzle pieces start falling together. The first thing that the audience noticed was was Xornoth sounded like Smajor, but we mostly thought that this was just due to cc!Scott voicing both of them and there was nothing more to it. However, then, the people the demon starts possessing start chanting in elvish. The demon hates mortals, and the elves are conveniently one of the two confirmed not fully mortal races in Empires.

This culminates when Smajor stumbles across a cave that contains the backstory of the patron god of Rivendell, Aeor. Basically, there's two opposing forces, Aeor and Exor, and both have a champion. In a previous life, those champions were two brothers, where Aeor eventually prevailed and banished Exor. In this life though, the champions are - you guessed it - Smajor, and the demon Xornoth.

So now Smajor is like. Well fuck. It's my literal god-given destiny to be responsible for defeating this demon who is technically my brother, and if I fail the server gets plunged into an eternal winter. And I have no fucking clue what is happening because I've just been here on this mountain actively trying to stay out of the issues outside my kingdom. We watch him panic and teeter on the verge of spiraling for an entire episode, and when the followers of Xornoth go to the End to kill the dragon, releasing Xornoth's full powers, he fails to stop him. Smajor is a character who was used to being the smart one, the prepared one, the one who has the least deaths on the server. But he's also a character who runs away from his problems and ignores them. Before and during the dragon fight, we hear the desperation in his voice, as he's thrown into a situation he is wholly unprepared for, and it's bigger than him going to the Cod Empire to kill their king, or assisting in other people's plans to kill the codfather. He can't run from this. cc!Scott plays this scene so well as well, as I've said before, one of the best parts of Scott's acting is how he's never super dramatic, but he's so effective in the little things like inflection to make you feel, viscerally, the panic and dread.

So after the dragon fight, Smajor realizes, I can't do this on my own. I've tried and failed. So he gets allies. We watch him, someone who has so strongly been an isolationist, learn the benefits of allies and watch him learn to trust others and watch him learn how to get that trust in return.

My favorite thing about Smajor's characterization is that he's an incompetent protagonist, but not in the way of the "plucky young adventurer". He's capable skill-wise, and fairly jaded and very pessimistic. However, his issue is that up until recently, he did not care about the rest of the server at all, and by the time he learned to, it was way too late.

Also, in 3rd Life, cc!Scott and cc!Jimmy were canonically married and they reference it sometimes in Empires. Like, Scott goes over to the Cod Empire every so often both in and out of character to kill and/or flirt with Jimmy, the ruler of the Cod Empire, which may develop as a secondary plot into the future who knows. So ty Scott for giving the gays what they want o7

Now onto Sausage: his is a story of Icarus, his hubris and ambition being his downfall. He's one of the two followers of Xornoth, who promised him endless power in exchange for his servitude. He started the series being eccentric, but not outright unhinged, but slowly gets more and more extreme as the series progresses, as he gets brought more and more to Xornoth's side.

One of the best parts of Sausage's character, in my opinion, is how his gradual corruption affects the people around him. Initially, he got into a conflict with the Cod Empire and was allied with two other people in the Witherrose alliance. They were allies, but also close friends. The fandom liked to joke that the three had sibling energy, and I'm pretty sure the ccs played to that even more lol.

It was painful to watch the other two members, Gem and fWhip, watch Sausage get corrupted right in front of them, and see them desperately clinging on to this old idea of Sausage in their head because if they faced the truth, it would mean that their friend was gone. Eventually, they do finally cut him out of the alliance, leading him to fully commit to the side of the demon. Sausage felt very clearly betrayed by this, and declared the remaining two Witherrose alliance members to be enemies.

He gets more and more possessed, and we even see the other Empires, his enemies even, slowly realize that something is very wrong with the ruler of Mythland. He starts doing more and more evil things, like killing people more, making sacrifices to the demon, and eventually helping to kill the dragon to free Xornoth. So things are good for Sausage, for a bit. He won, and is more powerful than ever. Then he finds out: he's going to die. Xornoth's possession is slowly killing his soul, and eventually, his body going to be fully taken over and he himself is going to be trapped in the spirit realm. So how do you react to this? Over the next few episodes, we watch Sausage struggle between "the demon is literally killing me" and "the demon has given me so much, and I love it", all while Xornoth takes over more and more of him. We hear him exclaim that "don't worry!! I'm still about 15% there!" while trying to downplay every time Xornoth completely takes over his body. We watch him willingly oppose anyone who is trying to end the thing that is killing him.

My favorite thing about Sausage is that he is undoubtedly evil and proud of it, but he's also undoubtedly human. If you like to watch evil characters go absolutely feral, he's the guy for you. He makes the deal with Xornoth in the beginning, knowing and fully embracing the evilness of the demon, but at the same time he knows what he's doing is detrimental to both himself and everyone around him, but he's gotten in way too deep at this point, and to be fair the demon has held up its end fo the bargain, right?

Also, I would be damned if I don't talk about cc!Sausage's editing. Every one of his videos is like a movie. The way he does camera angles and uses music is so skillful- every lore scene feels like something out of a high fantasy action saga (think: LotR). Every big lore event I always wait in anticipation for Sausage's ep because his editing truly takes lore to another level.

I'm just generally very excited to see where this series goes. Empires is such a good mix of talented builders and good lore. Part of the reason why the series is so immersive for me, beyond any other lore smp, is that they have the settings to back it up. There is a certain charm to the DreamSMP's objectively terrible builds (with a few exceptions) but in Empires, the settings help sell the plot so much.

Another part of why I love EmpiresSMP is how much the ccs are involved with the fan community. I'm sure you've seen the memes about Scott being on tumblr, and Sausage regularly goes through the EmpiresSMP fanart tag on Twitter and likes art, even ones not related to Mythland. Most of the ccs, in fact, have brought up tumblr content on stream at some point or another. Like, several ccs have said that they read tumblr lore theories and hcs and stuff and sometimes take inspiration from them. Fun fact: Rivendell's church was inspired by my pinned drawing; confirmed by Scott Smajor himself. It's just such a good cycle of ccs and fans being excited about each other.

As for DreamSMP, I'm gonna be honest here, the only person I really am invested in in Technoblade. I started watching when he joined the server, and he's the only person whose lore I keep up to date with.

Techno's fun to watch because he's like the Deadpool of DreamSMP. Virtually unkillable, very skilled and scary, but consistently cracks jokes and breaks the 4th wall during plot. His POV is just fun. Like, he does wild plans and gives speeches and some of the stuff that happens to him should be called deus ex machine if it wasn't for the fact that Technoblade is the one who's doing it, and all the stuff is grounded in the fact that cc!Techno is just that good at the game.

However, the fact that he rarely takes anything seriously makes the few times Techno is 100% serious so much more impactful. His whole character has a basis in being perceived as inhuman and being treated as such, and therefore in return trying to hide his humanity. So, when he shows that humanity, whether that's fear, anger, or genuine love for his friends, it really makes you go "oh shit."

Techno's often said not to have character development, but I'd argue that while he remains steadfast in his moral code, he develops leaps and bounds as a person. Like, at the beginning, he's brought onto the server to help Wilbur and Tommy overthrow a government; them knowing he's 1) an anarchist and 2) very very powerful. His character was more of a plot device at that point and was treated as such in the canon. Wilbur and Tommy straight-up lie to him about their plans to establish another government after they overthrow the current one, while he was led on to believe that they were abolishing all governments in the area. But he isn't a plot device. He's a person, as much as he only shows the terrifying, blood god side of himself.

After the establishment of New Lmanburg (the new government its a long story), his friend Phil joins. And for the first time, we see him be fully human with someone and we see someone treat him like a human. Like, we saw glimpses before, with Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, but Phil is the first person we noticeably see he trusts 100%. Then Doomsday happens, and Techno essentially retires to the tundra. During this time, we see Techno learn to be more human, first with Ranboo, then Niki when he establishes the Syndicate. In fact, the two of them, along with Phil, canonically throw him a birthday party, which is a far cry from his treatment in Pogtopia.

Techno's development is one of a god learning to be human, and I just think he <3

[chitto]

I ANALYZED ALL OF THE NEW SONGS ON RANBOO'S LORE PLAYLIST - HERE'S WHAT I FOUND

Back in March, I listened to every single song on Ranboo's DMCA Lore Playlist. I came up with a solid theory, published my evidence and that was that. My work was done.

But nope! Ranboo's back and he's deleted a ton of songs and added more. And so I listened. Again. And I'm back with a theory, and it does not look good.

This new batch of songs shows us that this is a new era of c!Ranboo. Redesign Your Logo is meant to tell us that things are changing, and so is c!Ranboo. This could be do to the fact that something bad is most likely going to happen to c!Ranboo in the near future, probably the taking of his first canon life. Songs like Eyewishes and Goodbye heavily point to the ending of a chapter (or life) of c!Ranboo. The song Blue Monday isn’t anything revolutionary, as we were already well aware of the toxic relationship between c!Ranboo and c!Dream. Another thing to point out is that Everybody Wants To Rule The World sets up an interesting take on nuclear weapons, a thing that c!Tubbo has and c!Ranboo doesn’t know exists. If c!Ranboo were to find out about the nukes, it could lead to the two fighting over whether or not they were a good thing. Going into Time Moves Slow, the narrator there discusses a relationship that just ended between them and their lover, meaning there could be a c!Beeduo divorce arc in the near future.

Below are the analyses on each individual song and the added and deleted songs

Deleted: Prologue (StarKid), Introduction to the Snow (Miracle Musical), Dream Sweet in Sea Major (Miracle Musical), Turn the Lights Off (Tally Hall), The Mind Electric (Miracle Musical), The Ruler of Everything (Tally Hall), Ain't No Rest for The Wicked (Cage the Elephant), The Bidding (Tally Hall), Stranded Lullaby (Miracle Musical), Hidden in the San (Tally Hall), & (Tally Hall), I'm Gonna Win (Rob Cantor).

Added: Redesign Your Logo (Lemon Demon), Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears), Blue Monday (New Order), Eyewishes (Lemon Demon), Bystanding (Lemon Demon), Goodbye (Bo Burnham), Time Moves Slow (BADBADNOTGOOD and Samuel T. Herring).

Redesign Your Logo (Lemon Demon) - This song is about a pdf that went around during 2009 about the Pepsi company logo. In it, the Arnell group is trying to sell Pepsi a new logo, so that they can make tons of money. I feel that this song symbolizes evolution and growth, we’re entering a new era of c!Ranboo. He’s redesigned and rebranded. This song could also be on this playlist because of a fan animation on youtube set to the same song by Shyshui.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears for Fears) - This song was written about the Cold War between The Soviet Union and The United States that happened during the 20th Century. The main line of the song ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ is about how everyone wants power, and the misery that it brings with it. This is a theme we can see clearly on the DreamSMP, with many leaders such as c!Eret, c!George, c!Bad, c!Wilbur, and c!Dream all leading lives of misery in one way or another. This is also important for c!Ranboo, as he is the most powerful man on the server. It tells us that his power will soon be his misery. Also a small little thing I’d like to point out is the line ‘Say that you’ll never, never, never, never need it’ which is meant to be about the use of nuclear devices during that time period. Many governments had them but claimed they would only use them if another country was launching a nuclear attack. This could translate to c!Tubbo owning nukes and c!Ranboo possibly finding out, which could cause discourse between the two.

Blue Monday (New Order) - Blue Monday is about the singer pondering the mistreatment of their person by someone they trusted. The person seems to be manipulative and toxic for the singer but the singer is too far under their control to leave them. Immediately we can tell that this song is most likely about the relationship between c!Ranboo and c!Dream. c!Dream uses c!Ranboo as his errand boy, making him do all sorts of tasks, although this hasn’t really happened since the Disc War Confrontation. However, we know the c!Dream still has some sort of hold over c!Ranboo because we saw c!Sapnap trigger an Enderwalk episode by giving c!Ranboo a message from c!Dream.

Eyewishes (Lemon Demon) - Eyewishes is a song about a distraught man who has no eyelashes, as he used them all on wishes, and now he can make no more wishes. The man pours out his frustrations and then resolves to committing suicide. While I don’t believe c!Ranboo would take his own life, I believe that he soon will die. The last line of this song is ‘So take care of my plants and pets and now I’ll say good-’. c!Ranboo has many pets in his care and he would want them taken care of after he dies. I could see him saying this line to a character like c!Tubbo. However, c!Ranboo is still on three canon lives and would not perma died if killed.

Bystanding (Lemon Demon) - Bystanding is the direct sequel to Eyewishes, starting off with bi, completing the phrase ‘goodbye’ started at the end of Eyewishes. Other than this, the song has no real points of interest as it’s just the singer repeating different words, working his way up from 2 to 5.

Goodbye (Bo Burnham) - I’m going to split this song up into two sections, just because I think there’s a lot to cover here. Let’s start pre-bridge. For context, Goodbye is the final track from the comedy-musical special Inside, done by Bo Burnham. Bo says the special was a long project for him as he filmed the entire thing in his house during COVID-19 Quarantine. The beginning part of this song talks a lot about how Bo doesn’t want the special to be over because now he has nothing else to do, and he’ll just have to live his life. This could translate into c!Ranboo losing a lot of things that he worked for, such as his valuables (totems and riches) and just being a normal person again. It could also signify an ending of a chapter for him, maybe his marriage ending, his partnership with the Syndicate ending. However, I believe that its most likely to be c!Ranboo’s neutrality ending. During the recent lore stream he did with c!Wilbur, we finally saw c!Ranboo pick a side. He chose Wilburger over Las Nevadas, losing his trademark neutral stance. c!Ranboo thought his neutrality made him more than others, that he was the one able to see over the conflict, but now he’s just like everyone else. He has a side and an enemy. Let’s move into the bridge and ending of the song now. The first line I’d like to call specifically is ‘Wanna guess the ending, if it ever does.’ This line could maybe signify the fact that throughout the history of the SMP there have been many times that the conflict and story feel like they’ve finally come to a close, only for everything to start up once again. The next lyric is ‘If I wake up in a house that’s full of smoke, I’ll panic, so call me up and tell me a joke.’ This is a callback to another song on Inside, Comedy, in which Bo talks about using his comedy as a way to help people, but really it was he who needed help. c!Ranboo acts as a protector for a lot of characters, most notable c!Tubbo and tried hard to please most people and aid as many as he can, but most of the time he’s the one needed the most help. Similar to Bo, c!Ranboo doesn’t realize he needs help until it’s too late.

Time Moves Slow (BADBADNOTGOOD and Samuel T. Herring) - This song is about a person who’s lover has left them, and although it’s painful they know its for the better. This could, unfortunately, suggest a c!beeduo split but there is another part of this song that I’d like to touch on. ‘Running away is easy, its the living that’s hard.’ This is the chorus for the song and it talks about how running from your problems is easier than facing them but having to live without them is hard. Throughout the story, we often see c!Ranboo ignore his problems, most recently with the vandalism of c!Tubbo’s cookie shop. c!Ranboo found it and decided to fix it and tell no one it happened, which lead to a hostile confrontation between c!Quackity and c!Tubbo.

[stellocchia]

So, I’ve been thinking: where do the characters of the smp actually fit in the morality spectrum?

We’re all always pointing out how everyone is “morally gray” in the smp, but it’s not too hard to see that the level is different in different characters, for example: Puffy’s light griefing when she first arrived on the smp is in no way comparable to Dream blowing up a country 3 times... so how about we take an objective look through this characters actions?

First let’s establish what are the categories we’ll be talking about:

Morally gray characters: they are the intermediate between a villain and a hero. They are neither wholly bad nor good. 

Anti-Hero: someone who may perform moral actions but always for selfish reasons. Basically morally gray but with bad intentions.

Anti-villain: someone whose desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there range from evil to undesirable. Basically they think they have good intentions, but they’re actually villains. 

Sympathetic villain: an immoral character who’s backstory/character arc makes them sympathetic to the viewers. We can’t agree with their actions, but we can understand how they got there.

This is more or less the spectrum we will be moving in, as it would actually be rather hard to define anyone in the smp as a classic black and white hero or villain (with 1 exception). Also I believe we all kind of understand what the definitions for those terms are.

In this I will be only going over the characters I know the most about as there are way too many people and, I’m afraid, it’s impossible for me to cover everyone properly as I would need to watch their povs. Anyone though feel free to add on to this! 

Also I won’t be going in any precise order because that would take more effort then I’m willing to put in, so here we go: 

Tommyinnit: He is a bit of a trouble-maker. He has been involved in the most conflicts out of everyone in the server (although he didn’t start the big majority of them). He has griefed, stolen and caused a whopping total of 3 canon deaths (1 to Jack Manifold and 2 to Dream). He has however sacrified himself multiple times for his friends (both literally and by giving up his possessions) and he apologized and tried to make amends for his worse actions. He is mischevious but he also often proved that he can be very selfless. No doubt he earns a morally gray stamp.

Willbur: He is a difficult one because of the big split between his character pre and post election. That said, while Willbur was rather power-hungry before the election he also was very caring for those under him (sometimes slipping into being downright demeaning towards Fundy). He upheald his principle of “words over violence” and mostly wanted to build a peaceful nation. After the election however (because of his declining mental health) he did turn to violence and manipulation and ended up blowing up his own country. So I’d say he went from a morally gray character to a very sympathetic villain

Ghostbur: This one is being considered separatedly from Willbur, as it has been said multiple times that they are separate entities. Ghostbur, you would think, has never done anything bad in his life, he has however hurt some people. He refused to have an actual talk with Fundy or with anyone really when it comes to what Alivebur did, hurting them as a consequence and while they are separate entities, they’re still very much connected. His intentions in general though are good, he just wants everyone to be happy, he just doesn’t realize his incapacity to fully understand other people’s struggles can hurt them at times. He has however never intentionally caused harm to anyone and tried to help whenever he did so unintentionally. He lacks the qualities that would make him a “hero” but he’s morally good 

Tubbo: While people in this fandom have a tendency to portray him as a poor innocent bean he’s not entirely squeacky clean himself. He steals regularly, he has partook in Techno’s scuffed execution attempt and organized a festival with the clear intention of killing Dream. He has however, more often then not, done what he thought was right and what he felt he needed to do in order to protect his people. Even now he’s built a safe heaven away from everyone because he wanted a safe place for anyone wh needed it. So there you go, morally gray stamp of approval.

Techno: And here I already know there will be some contentione... oh boy... anyway! Techno undoubtedly thinks he’s always doing the right thing. He thinks that destroying the governament was the only way to get rid of corruption. He thinks he’s doing something good. He has however released weapons of mass destruction (aka withers) in L’Manburg 3 time, caused the most canon deaths in the server (yep, more then Dream) and he’s been manipulative (wether intentionally or not doesn’t really matter here). In general he’s caused so much pain to so many people that it cannot go ignored. For this reasons he gets an anti-villain stamp

Phil: He’s also one of the characters deserving of a split, in his case it’s pre and post Techno’s attempted execution. Pre execution he was a mostly uninvolved member of L’Manburg, he did however help greatly with the rebuilding and tried to give a family to Fundy when he realised he needed one. He did also kill Willbur. ater the execution however he joined Techno in committing atrocities for what he percieved to be something good (”teaching how bad governament is” was his perceived goal). So I’d say he went from morally gray to joining Techno in the anti-villain gang

Quackity: He is a very complex character and I’m sure opinions about him are rather split. He joined the election to insure it’s fairness. He stayed by Shlatt’s side to try and make the governament fair until he realised that he would never be litened to and then he joined Pogtopia to take down a tyrant. He tried to protect L’Manburg in every way he could, but did get carried away with the attemted execution and the festival, even arriving to suggesting executing Ranboo. Now he wants to build capitalism and is trying to fight the Egg in his own way. He is the definition of a morally gray character

Ranboo: Another split opinion incoming here! Ranboo does mostly have good intentions (at least in his non-enderwalk state, which we won’t talk about here, because there still isn’t enough lore about it to understand it). He would like to have a united server with no conflicts. In trying to achieve this however, as he noticed himself, he actually went against every single one of the people he cares about: not sticking up for Tommy at the trial, assisting with Phil’s arrest and Techno’s execution, giving back Techno’s weapons and armour with no fight and, in general, giving him resources, helping to plan the Green Festival and so on so forth. That said all this things are “bad” from one side but “good” from the other. He has also kept company to Tommy in exile more then anyone else and he was there in the final fight against Dream. In conclusion he gets a morally gray stamp as well

Punz: Punz fights for money and his own self interest. He showed before that his alliance was with those who paid him, even though he actually seemed to care and consider Dream his friend until a certain point. He fought in a few wars but was never overly involved in the petty conflicts. He did however end up being the reason Dream was defeated (athough that was also for money). This was also before the Egg’s corruption as we won’t be considering that as part of the character since, you know, the Egg literally mind-controls people... anyway he gets to be in the anti-hero club

Sam: The warden of the prison is someone with a great work ethic (though he doesn’t seem to care much were the money are coming from once a project gets commissioned to him) and a very kind individual, always ready to offer pumpkin pie or his help to anyone who seems to need it. He’s also building a bank with the express purpouse of building an economy to take control over the server... he is morally gray as well is what I’m trying to say here

And, our final one:

Dream: This man also actually needs a split to better understand him, and that split is before and after he received the necromancy book from Shlatt. Before that he started a few conflicts (Declaring war on L’manburg and the whole railway skirmish thing) nut in general he had mostly sound objectives. Toward the start he didn’t want trouble in his server and he went to extreme leghts to ensure there wouldn’t be any (stealing Tommy’s disks, the whole declaring war etc). He did try and help Pogtopia at the start for this very same reson, because he was hoping that the two indipendent factions would cancel out each other. At one point however the objective in his actions seems to have shifted between wanting to obtain unity for the server to wanting to obtain control for himself. It’s after this shift happened that he committed his most heinous crimes (blowing up L’manburg other 2 times and all the manipulation that went on). After the shift there is not a single redeeming thing he did. He went from an almost anti-villain to a straight up villain, he is, in fact, the only one aside from the Egg that I’m willing to deine as a true villain.

[lostfieldranboo]

AFTER FIVE OR SIX DAYS OF WORK: FINALLY. THE ENDERWALK ARG PLAYLIST ANALYSIS POST

i almost just posted the link to the google doc but that ended up becoming my overall theory doc so it’ll be getting written for as long as this thing lasts. just know it’s at 6k words and still going. help

anyway: analysis summary under the cut! might make a second post to explain all the little things i saw bc this is a pretty long post and i don’t want to interrupt my main points with my little thoughts

(tl;dr: it’s a summary of c!ranboo’s life)

prologue

ticking clock. ties in the theme of time and serves as an introduction

introduction to the snow

continues the “introduction” feel from prologue. has several lines that remind me vaguely of the end (mainly the mention of “the edge of the universe” and the “sparkling crystals”) as well as space in general

dream sweet in sea major

continues the space/end references from the last one (”the edge of the universe” again, “pillars as tall as another realm” and multiple references to stars,) as well as starting something new i noticed: a trend of references to flight or falling. i don’t know what exactly this means quite yet, but it runs through the entire playlist, so i’ll make note of it. 

these past two songs combined (since i often don’t notice when one ends and the next starts) would represent time in the end, i believe. with the location in the playlist, it would be early childhood, which means ranboo’s early life was spent in the end and then he left it for some reason.

turn the lights off

my main takeaway from this one is from the very first verse

this is the very first thing i thought of a few days ago when ranboo implied that he hadn’t always had green and red eyes (clip) which would also imply that something happened to him to change his eye color. with the location of this in the playlist, that thing would have happened soon after he left the end.

the mind electric

hoo boy. this one is... definitely something. yes i heard this song for the first time on this playlist. it sounds how a ranboo lore stream feels. that is a compliment.

(gotta make a “resident minor” joke, huh. this is a ranboo playlist. of course there’s one on here.)

but honestly. what i think this song is? first enderwalk. it has that “i don’t know who i am, i don’t know what i’m doing” thing going on. plus

i look at that and just think of enderwalk.

live and let die

not much here tbh? mostly the fact that “live and let die” means “ if somebody wrongs you then you have to kill them" and i find that pretty concerning,

ruler of everything 

I HAVE SO MUCH FOR THIS ONE. MANY THOUGHTS HEAD FULL. THERE ARE SO MANY HIGHLIGHTS ON MY GOOGLE DOC

for one: it’s a song about time ruling all. this ties into that whole overall time theme thing this arg seems to have going on so far.

then this part?

this almost feels like a convo between enderboo and ranboo. (hence my alternating green and blue highlighting,)

and then,

throughout the song, the clock, the timepiece, whatever it is, it’s used as a metaphor for life, yeah? and “the end” is death? if we take this literally.... the clock stops when the end is reached. (or possibly the end? as in the advancement for going through an ender portal)

and then. does this even need a description

merry-go-round of life

i have never watched howl’s moving castle but apparently this is the song that plays for the introduction of the main character. yeah.

killer queen

literally all i have here is a note of it mentioning explosions a ton. i have no clue how this connects

mr bad guy

hey remember when ranboo thought he was actually the villain on the server for like. two streams. remember that. yeah. also a ton of references to flight and stuff. i still don’t know what this means

ain’t no rest for the wicked

fits into the “when ranboo thought he was the villain” thing. also partially the whole “the villains on the server need to be taken out” thing, in a way? just. yeah

the bidding

sapnap sending dream’s :) message to ranboo. need i say more

i can’t decide

ranboo. ranboo did you commit a murder. ranboo who are you debating killing. ranboo go to therapy.

stardust crusaders

i uh. also don’t have much here. but i asked someone who hyperfixated on jojo what this one means and apparently it’s related to jotaro and he can control time so he can move faster than it. again. running time theme.

a mask of my own face

enderwalk! it’s about enderwalk! he does things in enderwalk that he’d never do on his own and he looks just like himself but it’s different, and if people found out they’d think it was weird and creepy, and-

and of course being unmasked as well. having yourself revealed to the world. kinda like being revealed as a traitor in front of the entire server, huh?

stranded lullaby

idk what’s up here really except the references to memory stuff and also the lyrics site says something about time travel. so. yeah

hidden in the sand

more music video than lyrics here, but. people turning on each other as they end up in more and more danger. selfishness. picking sides. darkness hidden just under the surface. kinda doomsday morality vibes i think

now i’m here

no clue here tbh! just a vague memory reference at one point

&

duality time,

yknow. ranboo’s whole deal. halves. not choosing. both, not one. 

yeah.

i’m gonna win

fighting inner demons is definitely a very ranboo thing to do. especially with the “merciless dream” reference. dream is definitely merciless,

=)

okay so this isnt confirmed confirmed but. this post said the song could be archaeopteryx by lemon demon. and the lyrics fit very well so i kinda ran with it

it’s all about time travel! a man goes back in time to wipe out the ancestor of all birds! just. man. also the running flight theme remains

also i am very sus about this part in particular

can’t explain why but i really am

so basically uhhh. it’s 1am and this is probably incomprehensible but yeah. c!ranboo timeline. that is all. yes i know this probably got worse as it went on but i genuinely just had a ton of thoughts in the beginning

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Tommy’s (and Tubbo’s) Character /rp /dSMP

This is a bit of a rant so like be warned. I have nothing against any CCs mentioned in this, this is all roleplay, lighthearted, and just a bit of fun analysis. Mostly this is a ramble about how I see certain people analysing Tommy’s character on tumblr and twt, and why I think they’re wrong. This isn’t directed at anyone specific, just a trend I’ve been seeing that kinda irks me. I don’t dislike the fandom, just a few ‘takes’ have been really weird for me.

TW for everything below: analysing the effects of trauma, abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, and lack of therapy.

I’m not really liking how victim-blamey everyone is getting currently in the dSMP, both in fandom and canon. In canon with certain characters but especially in fan analysis posts and especially about Tommy and Tubbo. People legitimately celebrating that Tommy might start ‘apologising’ for his actions more and 'growing as a person' somehow don’t realise that hes been made this way through a tonne of negative reinforcement. abuse, and gaslighting. And people blaming Tubbo for actions he had no choice in, rather than the actions he did choose.

Currently, as I see it, Tommy is so scared that anyone would find a reason to be pissed off at him that his fighting spirit has been completely crushed. He was exiled and abused when he should have been helped and given an understanding figure to guide him and teach him how to deal with things non-violently. In everyone’s eyes, the problem was that Tommy was creating violence with no real reason, acting recklessly and commiting crimes. Tubbo, having made him a part of his cabinet, knew that this would only harm the country. So instead of talking to him reasonably, he got angry, put him on trial, and punished him with the logbook (humiliating him by making him report back to Fundy, which he obviously hated). Tommy’s actions were, of course, bad, but did he deserve everyone ganging up on him? No. Especially when Tubbo was supposed to be in his corner, helping him out like he always said he would (”It’s me and you vs Dream” etc). This is the first betrayal of trust from Tommy’s POV. He doesn’t understand what he did wrong to its full extent, and no one can explain it to him. 

However, Tubbo was under a lot of pressure from Dream and George, and he’s a literal child President, so his ‘safety over friendship’ actions are understandable. I don’t believe Tubbo is solely to blame for anything he’s done in season 2, but it can’t all be excused. If you are to blame Tommy for his recklessness, you have to blame Tubbo, at least partially, for his disregard for Tommy’s feelings and mental state. There were other ways to go about the entire thing, including the trial, which was just horrible to watch, and agreeing to give Dream the disc, something Tommy gave him in pure confidence that it would be safe with Tubbo. Yikes moment.

At that time, Tubbo knew a lot of things about Tommy. In fact, he probably knew the most about Tommy out of anyone on the server. He knew the discs were incredibly important and a comfort item for Tommy. He knew Tommy had trauma from being exiled in the past. He knew Tommy was abused, or at least manipulated by Wilbur, in addition to growing up in war. Wilbur once told Tommy to stop being reckless, and Tommy listened, changing his attitude because he looked up to Wilbur so much. Then Wilbur said ‘let’s be the bad guys’ and stopped trying to mentor Tommy. There’s a conflict here, because Tommy was told by Wilbur that he wasn’t good enough to be President (links to the idea of ‘not being strong enough’) but he knows that Wilbur was a bad person. But Tommy is never given the chance to reconsile his feelings surrounding Wilbur, both because of Ghostbur and because of the conflict he starts with George. So he is harbouring a mixture of emotions about his mentor and brother, not understanding how to untangle the ‘real Tommy’ from the manipulated boy he became. 

What was going through his head when he stole from George and griefed him? Perhaps the thought that he needed to show he was still the same old Tommy. Maybe the need to ‘prove himself’ as a strong person? It could have just been an outlet for his trauma. He’s grown up in a world where everyone is either a friend or an enemy. George isn’t a friend. How was he supposed to know that hurting him was bad?

Tubbo was pressured into the actions he took against Tommy, but he was pressured far too easily. There is no moment where Tubbo turns to Tommy and makes sure he’s okay, he views him as ‘selfish’ and overdramatic, and sees his actions that way. This makes sense from Tubbo’s POV, he’s struggling to be President in ways that Wilbur *knew* he would, but in Tommy’s eyes this is the worst betrayal he’s ever known. The moment Tubbo (rightfully, but poorly executed) defies Tommy’s plan to hire Technoblade (ahem, seeing Techno as a weapon again) and exiles Tommy is the moment their friendship shatters. They’re two people who don’t understand each other anymore. Two people who are technically in the right, but only hurt each other. 

What Tommy needed was a therapist, instead he had Dream, who put out the fire of rebellion that made him so strong, and Techno, who was trying to help but doing it in the wrong way. 

People see tommy's change post-exile as a good thing because he's not as rebellious anymore and he’s thinking things through a lot before he does them, but they will soon realise that his rebellion was one of his best traits and the fact that no one saw it as anything but a problem really shows. He now second-guesses himself so much and is so scared of being wrong that everything seems too difficult and too dangerous. Every trait can have a positive and negative side. Tommy's defiant nature would have made him the perfect negotiator with a little practise. In fact, he had plenty of good ideas before he was exiled (using spirit against Dream, though it didnt work in the end, for example). The negative side of this was recklessness and the desire to cause problems on purpose, but what he needed was a friend (looking at you Tubbo) who understood that hes been through several wars, was manipulated by Wilbur, and hasnt known a time of peace where everyone who wasnt on his side was out to kill him. Now that ‘fight’ is gone he's just become easier to manipulate.

He may be getting better (see: telling Dream to go fuck himself) but there hasn't been any long-term growth because he was never told what kind of rebellion was good and what was bad. He was just told it was all bad. By Dream (and by Tubbo). Who he doesn't trust. So he's just going to revert back to his old ways because no one told him what was bad in a way that didn't make him feel like everyone was against him. Dream is the enemy (though Tommy’s feelings towards him are complicated, they make his brain go all ‘flippy floppy’) and Dream told him that rebellion was bad, so rebellion must be good always, right? 

And then there's Techno. Techno did nothing wrong except for when he did. Techno is 100% right except for when he isn’t. He doesn't understand Tommy because Tommy was never fully open about what Dream had done and how it affected him. That's not Tommys fault though, because who the fuck openly talks about their trauma? So neither of them are to blame for pretty much anything up until the confrontation at the community house. 

However, Techno's methods and ideology were not what Tommy needed. He was thrown from one extreme to another over and over again, from complete subservience to total rebellion. Neither of these inforce good attitudes in Tommy. One, as stated before, makes it so that he will regain his negative traits again. The other reinforces those violent traits as good, just like Wilbur did. The only difference is that Techno had good intentions, he wasnt trying to use Tommy, which is why he feels so used when Tommy 'betrays' him (Techno doesnt realise that he himself betrayed Tommy by teaming with Dream, he sees it more as a transaction than a personal thing). Techno feels so hurt by Tommy ‘viewing him as a weapon’ that he goes on with his no-mercy attack, completely dropping Tommy at his lowest point. 

Tommy says he doesn't want to be like everyone he's hated. In fact, he say's he is 'worse' than all the villains. This is very obviously untrue, though he was clearly going down a dangerous path with Techno's influence (see: bullying Fundy, spawning wither, kidnapping Connor, and saying that the discs are more important than Tubbo, more on that later). He's not a villain but who exactly has said he's not a villain. Dream? Techno? Neither of them can be trusted in his eyes. They say he's a good guy, Wilbur wanted to be the bad guy, who's right? He doesn't know. He has a crisis of morality. 

And? Some people want to point at that and say 'aha! Character development! He's finally realising his actions have a negative affect on others!' OH GOD NO??? He's a *child* who thinks that he is worse than his abuser. Does that sound like positive character growth to you? 

Lastly, the discs. We know theyre a comfort item blahblahblah. He hates himself for valuing them more than he values Tubbo. He's literally innocent in this. He’s been horribly manipulated by Dream to believe that the discs are worth anything. Theyre really not worth anything if they are being used as tools rather than, yknow, discs. My poor boy. He doesnt trust people, so what can he trust? The discs. But then he says it out loud and realises he misses Tubbo and he wants to be with his best friend again and and and WAHHHH. This also isnt really character growth its just fucking sad leave me alone. 

Anyways what the fuck guys. @ Niki and Jack what the fuck. Yeah we get it it’s miscommunication but wtf. Kinda worried that the actual lore will make Niki and Jack’s hatred of Tommy justified in some way and take on a big victim-blamey vibe, but I’m hoping that everyone is smart enough to not do that. I cannot praise Tommy enough for how he’s portrayed his character. I’m currently hoping that he himself understands the true complexity of it all. I’m sure he does.

Mostly though im actually pissed off at all the people praising tommy's character for 'maturing' when hes literally just got trauma. Nice one, tumblr and twt users. Thanks. Great job. He hasnt 'learnt his lesson', he’s traumatised. What the fuck.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, leave your responses in the reblogs and comments.

[yumgrapejuice]

Okay so I did a whole analysis on Ranboo’s lore music so now it’s time to use that for an actual analysis/interpretation!

There are a few themes in the playlist and I’ll go over the ones that I found one by one. I’ll also mention the songs that correspond to each theme.

(quick disclaimer,,, I’m honestly just having fun here theorizing about whatever lol, I’m hyperfocusing aight, nothing what I talk about can turn out to be valid and I’d just go !!!! new theory time !:D, so it’s just that lmao)

/dsmp /rp

1. Blurring lines between dreams/nightmares and reality. The songs are “Introduction to the Snow”, “Dream Sweet in Sea Major”, “The Mind Electric”, “Stranded Lullaby”. I think this theme is the most straightforward and easy to interpret. c!Ranboo has been dealing with feelings of derealization for a long while and these songs allude to that. I don’t think I need to really get into this one that much given how obvious it is lol. Ranboo at times is having issues telling what’s real and what’s not. The fight with his mind is especially highlighted by the song “The Mind Electric” where he is, quite literally, losing hold on sanity. His “ill” mind is causing him to commit things he wouldn’t want to.

2. The need to belong, be liked, have someone close. The songs are “Ruler of Everything”, “The Bidding”, “Hidden In The Sand”. The theme of isolation also fits here, highlighted by Miracle Musical’s tracks. Ranboo is one of the only characters on the servers that is mostly generally liked. He hasn’t yet got many any enemies or anything of the like, really. It’s often joked that Ranboo has no spine, and that’s a big reason why he hasn’t yet gotten in someone’s bad books. It’s very easy to get him to do whatever you want, pull him to a side. If he protests, it’s only vocal and meek, and soon enough, he gives in. He doesn’t want anyone to dislike him and that can also play into why he has such a hard time to say “no” to anyone. 

But it’s all... very surface level. People don’t mind Ranboo, they might enjoy his company, but that’s about it. It’s unfulfilling, it can’t be satisfying. Based on his speeches about people, not sides, we can assume he does value connections a lot. However, instead of trying to form more strong bonds, Ranboo had started isolating himself, choosing to stay away (perhaps in fear of being pulled into a side). His own anxieties is what’s keeping him like this. The longing is still there, though. Now the situation is better with Tubbo, but that brings its own peculiarities. Ranboo’s ready to join a side, the Syndicate, to protect Tubbo, the one he’s most attached to, going against his morals. Sometimes, it’s impossible to choose people without choosing a side.

3. The divide between good and bad, a mindset of black and white. The songs for this would be “Turn the Lights Off”, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”, “&”. As we saw from one of Ranboo’s latest streams (the one where he found out Tommy’s alive) and his other ones, Ranboo has a very black and white mindset. He has incredibly strong morals but they are also very skewed. I talked more about that in this post but in short, in Ranboo’s pov, there are the bad guys and then there is the rest. Ranboo seems... almost incapable of looking from a perspective that’s not his own or isn’t closely linked. He’s right in his own mind and that’s all that matters. The idea is that everyone has their own reasons for their actions and, if you looked closer, you could begin to understand them, but Ranboo is looking only through his own lens, is paranoid about making mistakes, and thus can get very harsh sometimes. Since the world isn’t black and white, though, and it’s never just their side or our, he often contradicts himself and goes against his morals.

4. A twisted sense of ego-centrism. My favorite and the one that’s most up to interpretation, I’d say. The songs would be “Killer Queen”, “I Can’t Decide”, “A Mask of My Own Face”, “I’m Gonna Win”. I’d say this one is least related to c!Ranboo as we see on stream, which leaves us with something else... That’s right, enderwalk Ranboo :D! I’d like to preface again that this is purely my own interpretation!! I like to do those a lot lol. But anyway—

A certain idea unites these songs, and it’s the idea of doing whatever you want for your own pleasure. Having no breaks. What’s most entertaining today? Oh, let me indulge in that. They’re also all about things that are actively malicious/frowned upon. Whatever you want to do without any regards to morals. And that got me thinking.

Let me talk about the idea of id, ego and superego. For those unfamiliar with these concepts, id refers to a person’s most primal instincts, their aggressive urges and hidden memories, superego is one’s moral conscience, and ego is the reality, the mediator between id’s desires and superego. The idea is that id operates on pleasures and the need to satisfy them immediately. It’s illogical, irrational, unconscious. Superego is the opposite, sort of—it’s a person’s moral system that dictates what is wrong and what is right, how one should behave. Ego controls both. So, I got thinking, maybe e!Ranboo is just... c!Ranboo’s literal manifestation of his id?

It’d make sense, I think! It’s still Ranboo, just “wild”, as he himself said. Uncontrolled. He has no regards for his image and indulges in his whims. Maybe it’s also part self-preservation. c!Ranboo is divided, he has barely any control of his life, people can make him do whatever they want whenever. And that must be frustrating. Maybe not consciously, but definitely subconsciously. That sort of frustrating of not being able to do what you want and always needing to listen to others could very well manifest as something like a whole different state where he does what he wants, maybe even purely for the hell of it. And to compensate for his id going out of control, he—his ego—might favor his superego, the morality part, more to compensate. That could make him harsher, too. More categorical. Causing a further divide.

And that’s about it for now, I guess. Yeah, this playlist really did... make me think lol.

(yes i am once again creating another theory for why e!ranboo could act the way that he does that doesn’t include manipulation idk sue me, i’ll die on this hill)

[girlvinland]

These are good questions so I kinda chose a lot, whoops

🍧🌙🙈🌌🎭✂️💧❤️

I'm gonna go ahead and slap the read more on here bc I just know

OC Ask Meme

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

You know, not...really? I have waffled on the idea that his Morne's ring belonged to his father (who was also a knight), but Idk if I've really sold myself on it yet. Covrin was raised by his grandmother after his mother died in childbirth and his father committed suicide since she'd been his maiden (like, the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree does it lmao). Anyway, he grew up in a very humble home and they didn't really have much. I might have to give this one some more thought bc I like the idea of him having something from his grandmother as he was really close to her.

-

🌙 MOON - what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

He just wants redemption some way, in whatever way it comes. At one point, his wish was perhaps for Avalea to be alive again, but thru current RP he's kind of learned why that's an awful idea and nearly let himself be consumed by the Abyss just to have access to a fucked up hallucination of her. Now that we've moved on from that, he really just wants to redeem himself and is trying to figure out how he can.

-

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

Absolutely the side of him that knows fear. He doesn't want to be seen as a coward and yet the thought that he is one constantly plagues him. It is better in his mind to just push it away and put on a mask of strength. He will let his guard down around people he knows well or cares for though.

-

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

I needed a DS OC for a discord server and knew he was going to be a simp, I just had to figure out what kind lmao. I really like Carim lore and characters and the first time I saw Eygon in DS3 I just stood there staring at his armor for like ten minutes going "Omg Zeke, look at this guys ARMOR. Look at this motherfucking BADASS" so I was like yeah sure we'll go w/ that, there are other Morne Knights after all and I love the fucked up idea of ppl getting indoctrinated into believing the bullshit about Caitha and Morne and acting out their story irl (although I suppose there are good aspects of it too like healing others and whatever but I do question some motives). The first thing I decided about him was that I wanted him to be a subversion from the typical Carim asshole simp man and instead be cute and happy (we see how long that lasted ope). Also as far as how he looks, my brain somehow latched onto wanting to make him a combo of like Bolin, Jim Hawkins, and that kid from We're Back (the dinosaur movie lmao) + the apparently traditional physical traits of ppl from Carim (that no one from Carim has in the games idk I won't question it thank you Dark Souls).

-

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

Not like...SUPER different. He might be more reserved around some people but he is pretty friendly (or at least, was, like before the PTSD set in). He is a guy who would be chatting up everyone at a tavern and being genuinely interested in what they had to say, as well as telling long-winded stories and whatnot. He would also go out of his way to help pretty much anyone who needed it and so he is somewhat easy to take advantage of bc he wants to see the best in everyone.

-

✂️ SCISSORS - what is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? how easily do they let go of people?

You would have to fuck up REALLY bad for him to cut you out of his life tbh. The way to do that is hurting someone he cares about. You can use him personally as a punching bag all you want but touch a friend/family member/love interest and RIP. Also he has a hard time letting go and is really sentimental. One of those people who is like "ok no one more hug. ok but one more after that. and one more" lmao (this is a trait I have as well I had to give him this).

-

💧 DROPLET - random angst headcanon

Didn't carry estus for a very, very long time bc he felt he deserved every death that came to him and wanted to feel punished for what he did (he still had access to healing miracles ofc but never used them on himself after Avalea's death).

-

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

For himself, words of affirmation + physical touch.

Towards others, acts of service.

[matter-of-a-pinion]

LIVANA FALLENRUTH- LFRP

Livana (Liv), while rarely outright unfriendly, is aloof and awkward around people. While she longs to find people she can connect with, she has put up a lot of walls to keep herself protected and does not find opening up to others easy or comfortable. A walking cliche perhaps, Liv feels far more comfortable around animals than around people and far more at home in nature than in bustling cities. Still, she is devastatingly curious. If there's ever trouble, she'll put her own discomfort aside and she will be there to lend a helping hand.

THE BASICS –––

Name: Livana (Liv) Fallenruth

Age: 25

Nameday:  17th Sun of the 5th Umbral Moon

Race: Midlander, Hyur

Gender: Female

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Marital Status: Single

Server: Mateus

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE –––

Hair: Dark blonde 

Eyes: Blue

Height: About 5′5 

Build: Liv is slim but strong. She is not afraid of hard work or labor. In fact, she enjoys it because it makes her feel self-sufficient. 

Common Accessories: Liv is an artist and obsessed with nature. She carries around ink, brushes, and parchment at all times. She also carries a book to help her identify species of plants. While this book is old (to the point pages are falling out) and bookmarked to hell, she rarely has need to use it anymore as she's committed so much of it to memory. Similarly, she has a book of birds in very similar condition. She is creating her own wildlife guide of (non-monsterous) animals she watches in Eorzea.

Apart from these items, she also carries rations with her (just in case), potions, daggers, her bow, and many arrows (she crafts these when she's killing time). 

PERSONAL –––

Profession: Liv works part time at Bentbranch Meadows caring for the chocobos there. As a side hobby she volunteers there caring for any other animals that are brought in that are injured and need rehabilitation. 

Hobbies: Drawing, painting, bird-watching, animal watching in general, volunteering to humanely catch animals causing a problem, herbology, alchemy, archery, petty theft, beating up abusers, tracking cult activity, secretly studying magic in hopes of dispelling a strange curse on her family she hopes no one learns about, reading up on dragon lore, you know… the usual. >.> Nothing out of the ordinary.

Languages: Common

Residence: Livana currently resides in a small cottage in the Lavender Beds as a house guest. She does not wish to overstay her welcome and does not know where she wants to move onto next.

Birthplace: Livana was born in a small town Coerthas and is very accustomed to colder weather… though she despises it.

Patron Deity: None. She's as anti-religion as one can possibly be.

RELATIONSHIPS –––

Spouse: None.

Children: See above.

Parents: Something tragic has happened to Leo and Mila Fallenruth and Liv is absolutely not talking about it. She's not talking about her parents at all. Ever. But they might have something to do with her interest in following cult activity and learning all about every form of magic and her obsession with alchemy.

Siblings: Liv has a twin sister named Nyra. Nyra is very aetherically gifted and has a natural talent for magic that Liv lacks. Her skin, hair, and eyes are also a shade or two lighter than Liv's. Livana is both extremely protective of and extremely jealous of her twin sister. Nyra is played by another player on Mateus. If you see her, say hi!

Other Relatives: She is unaware of other family but that doesn't mean she doesn't have any.

Pets: While she doesn't consider them pets she cares for a great many different animals.

TRAITS –––

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient (with people: impatient. with animals: so patient.)

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard working  / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION –––

Smoking Habit: Nope.

Drugs: Not with any regularity at all, but she's not morally opposed or anything.

Alcohol: Also not with any regularity. Still not morally opposed!

RP HOOKS –––

Nature Lover: Livana can most often be found in nature, primarily the Shroud. She has a profound affection and interest in animals and cares for any wounded animals she comes across, feeds strays, and volunteers her time at Bentbranch Meadows raising, grooming, and training chocobos. She also loves gardening and gathering/cataloguing plants that grow wild. 

Curious: Liv is shy and awkward in social situations, but she does want to make friends and won't avoid interactions if she becomes involved in any. If something interesting is happening nearby, she won't be able to stop herself from checking it out.

Thief and Archer: Little known information about Liv is that beneath the shy, animal loving, artist is a background in theft and expertise in archery. These days she tries not to draw attention to either of these skills, but should they be useful to someone in need she will not hesitate to offer to assist.

Artist: She is a practicing painter and can be hired to for art commissions. Note: I am not an artist and cannot do commissions. It's just for RP!

Protective: Liv detests those who abuse their power to hurt or bully others. If she sees mistreatment, she will step in to stop it regardless of the cost to her own personal safety. She carries grudges and will throw herself whole-heartedly into avenging any victims of abuse or mistreatment.

Cults, cults, cults: So many cults! There's a real evil cult problem in Eorzea. And this poses a challenge for Liv because her parents… well… turns out might have secretly been part of one. She is stalking several groups to get information on what happened to her parents and how to fix it. She does not like cults. At all.

Magic: Can you help teach Liv magic? Can you help her dispell it?

Family: Liv's twin sister is extremely important to her and she will risk her life to protect her from danger. Further, she and her sister have been attempting to undo a spell that has encased their mother and father in impenetrable, unmelting ice. This is not common knowledge, so should anyone comment on it or appear to have expertise in such matters, Liv will likely stalk them for information and to ascertain how trustworthy they might be.

CONTACT INFORMATION  –––

Contacting me here on tumblr or finding me in game is the best bet. If you see Liv out in  the world, please say hello! I’d love her to make more friends (or rivals, depending on what you think would be fun!)

I do have a Discord and I do RP on it. I don’t give that information out right away though. I’d like to interact in game or through tumblr a few times before I feel comfortable giving that information out.

I have craaaazy work hours. I work the night shift M-F. That means that I’m on very early in the morning and sometimes in the late afternoon/early evening. I’m usually not on very late unless it’s a weekend.

Notes –––

Ahhhh! I’m so excited to meet new characters and players! Nice to meet you! I hope we RP soon!

[moonstruck-ffxiv-blog]

LFRP - Celestin Bellerose on Mateus

the basics ––––

NAME:  Célestin Auguste Evaux Bellerose NICKNAME: Cel, Titi (he hates it), The Wilted Rose of Ishgard AGE:  46 summers old RACE:  Elezen, Duskwight GENDER:  M SEXUALITY:  Homosexual, asexual, aromatic. MARITAL STATUS:  Married SERVER:  Mateus TL;DR: The last of his bloodline, Celestin comes from a minor Ishgardian noble house. Detests politics, self-exiled from the Holy See. Loves knowledge. Hates people. Secretive and very dislikable. He is an airship engineer, serving on the Sky Fury, a pirate vessel. He is currently looking into a way to make a perpetual energy machine. Asocial, misanthropic, he is more a villain than a hero.

(Warning: long post)

physical––––

HAIR: Greasy blonde. EYES: Ruby red. SKIN: Ashy white. NAMEDAY: 15th Sun of the 6th Umbral Moon HEIGHT: 6’3’’ (193 cm) WEIGHT:  190 ponzes (Sickly frame) TATTOOS/SCARS: The scars he has around his testicles when he self-castrated himself, at the age of 19. He also has a long blemish around his stomach. It looks like a self-inflicted scalpel wound. DISTINGUISHING MARKS: He is a repulsive man. His traits seem they have melted on his face, they are sad and baggy. His skin is pallid: he has the complexion of a one-week-old cadaver that has been rotting in the Lominsa sun.  His hair is already starting to thin and that, in uneven patches. They are always greasy, limp, breaking, dull. His limbs are too long and too thin, his fingers are elongated and skeletal, his nails are yellowing. Really. A goobbue arse is more pleasant to look at than his face. COMMON ACCESSORIES: He's short-sighted so he never wanders far away without his glasses. He’s blind as a bat.

personal ––––

PROFESSION:  Engineer, alchemist, makeshift surgeon. HOBBIES:  Reading, genealogy, origami, currency collecting. LANGUAGES:  Eorzean common, Voidspeech (cannot speak but comprehend), old roegadyn, Mhachi, Allagan, some fundamental of Doman.   RESIDENCE: Mist BIRTHPLACE: Ishgard, Coerthas PATRON DEITY:  Atheist. Still, his Ishgardian upbringing could make Halone her patron deity. FEARS:  Failure, growing old especially getting senile, going blind, dying, getting irrational, falling in love. PERSONALITY: Celestin’s personality is as pleasant as rubbing sandpaper on one’s genitals. While he is polite, his tone is cold, bored and apathetic. He doesn’t care for Spokenkind interaction neither he seeks it. Every conversation serves a purpose. If he doesn’t, it is a chore and wishes to be done with it as soon as possible. OTHER: He has a permanent injury in his left leg that make him limp. He has to walk with a cane and he cannot run.

relationships ––––

SPOUSE:  Guolbryda/Guol Bryda, the captain of the pirate airship he’s serving on. While it is a sexless and loveless marriage, they did marry each other out of necessity, none of them plan to get a divorce. They are content with this union, has to present advantages. It is easier to pass the customs as a married couple. There is also the Eternal Ring, imbued with that Teleportation magic, that saved each other more than once.   CHILDREN:  None PARENTS:  Evaux Bellerose (deceased), his father. He died some years ago and with him, the noble name of Bellerose, as both of his sons are unavailable to take the mantle after he returned to the Life Stream. Celestin, in his diligence and seriousness, was his favorite child. Oh, how the Gods tormented him by making him his second born. Mariette Bellerose (71), née Sainte-Claire, his mother. The youngest of her sisters, she was from a minor noble family, with a status slightly better than her husband’s. After much cajoleries, she was married to Evaux Jr.; that was Evaux Senior last attempt to tried to salvage the Bellerose’s name. After the death of Aurèle, she sank into melancholy and depression.

SIBLINGS: Aurèle Bellerose (deceased), his older brother. Flamboyant, handsome and bold, he was everything Celestin never could be. Their fraternal love had a lot of friction, due to their parent’s pressure to “be what is asked you to be”. A harsh rivalry only kept growing with the years, fed with their conflicting personality.

Unable to bear with the politics of Ishgard and what his parents requested of him, Aurele committed suicide when Celestin was 18 summers old. He hanged himself to a spear of a Halonic statue, situated near the family’s favorite church -even in death, he kept his flair for the dramatic. The morning of that Iceday, while the community gathered to pray and praised Halone, the already cold body of Aurele was there to welcome them, slowly turning on its rope. All of his patriotic burden, the one that he needed to bring the family to great heights again, fell on his younger brother. Soon, Celestin understood what it meant to be Aurele and why he killed himself. The death of his sibling had a profound effect on him, realizing how fragile existence was. He keeps a portrait of his brother in his office, bringing the picture face down every time someone enters. GRANDPARENTS : (Father’s side) Evaux Bellerose Sr., Andrette Bellerose née Druirard. (Mother’s side) Auguste Sainte-Claire, Eldanne Sainte-Claire née Dupieu. OTHER RELATIVES:  Ashinne Berger née Ruinier, was Bellerose (43) his ex-wife. While Celestin was still in Ishgard, after the death of Aurele, one of the first things Evaux did was to find a woman to perpetuate the Bellerose’s name. The quite young Ashinne Ruinier (she was only 15 at that time), didn’t want to marry this ugly man, yet was forced to by her own family. She never bore him a child, as Celestin never slept in her bed once. After his disappearance and consequent declaration of his death by the Holy See, she remarried.

Fabienne Bellerose (29) His niece, only child of Aurele. She was only one summer old when her father died and she doesn’t remember him at all. She heard rumors her uncle could still be alive and that piqued her interest. Her only connection with the Bellerose part of herself was her mad grandmother and her brooding grandfather. At her age, she still hasn’t found a man. Nowadays, however, no one wants her. Not only she is “too old” by Ishgardian standard but she is also too weird.

PETS: B'zatr, an Ahriman. It’s more like of a minion than a pet: B'zatr takes care of all the heavy lifting, grunt work and whatever Celestin doesn’t want to do. It is also a garbage disposal, making everything compromising disappear in a jiffy. It serves him, as a slave to its master, no love or true loyalty behind its actions. One day, however, one day that Ahriman will be the master. It's only buying its time.

skills––––

IN-CHARACTER CLASS: Black Mage. READ: Yes WRITE: Yes COUNT: Yes

additional information ––––

SMOKING HABIT: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess. DRUGS: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess. ALCOHOL: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess FAVORITE COLORS: Dalamud red, royal blue, deepwood green, grey FAVORITE SMELLS: Ink, musty book, rust, motor’s grease FAVORITE TEXTURES: Metal, velvet FAVORITE FOODS: Ishgardian muffins, royal eggs, marrons glacés FAVORITE DRINKS: Black tea, red wine, hot cocoa

possible hooks ––––

“The dollmaster” Celestin does a lot of experimentation on corpses, Ashkin, Beastmen and Voidsents alike. Your OC could be the result of such scientific endeavor. The exact point of they are, is up in the air: Homonculus, golem, reanimated body, Voidsent chimera… however, now Frankenstein has a monster to call him his own. How is their relationship? Will the creature rebelled against its master?

“The teacher:” He could either be an engineering teacher, an alchemist teacher or a black mage teacher… if your character is nosy enough to find he owns a soul stone.  

“A fellow scientist”: Your character could be one of Celestin’s correspondent; he writes a lot of letters to different arcanists, biologists, surgeons,... he is interested in all types of science.

“The Void and forbidden knowledge.” Being a lore-seeker above all else, any ancient magic or musty old books will light that oh-very-rare glow of interest in his eyes.

“Oh, this is quite fascinating”: If your character has anything to do with the Void or Allagan, Celestin will want to know more about him/her.. and probably will want to perform a vivisection.

“I heard about an airship? What’s the name? The… Sky Fury?” While he is not the captain, he is still an officer aboard the airship. Trusted by Guol, he can carry on interviews and recruit new members.

ooc stuff––––

What I am looking for ✔Pre-established relationships ✔Dark, philosophical, mature plotlines. ✔Horror ✔Meeting other villains, doing character studies ✔Enigmas ✔RPing about/into the Mhach raids, Azys Lla, Alexander and Coils of Bahamut raid ✔Nerd talks. ✔IC mind games ✔Voidsent, Voidtainted, Nightkins, Black mages ✔ Having student(s) ICly

What I am not looking for ✘Godmode, metagaming I don’t have the interest to have the freedom of my character rob from me, neither I want to deal with OOC knowledge seeping ICly. ✘ Shipping & ERP Celestin is aromatic and asexual, I would appreciate if you could respect that about the character. ✘ No permanent maiming/death we didn’t first spoke and agree about it. I’m not completely closed to the option but let’s talk first. ✘OOC drama & toxicity Naturally. ✘ Grimdark for the sake of being grimdark Being dark must mean something, it must bring something on the table. I don’t want to murder thousands of children and wear their corpse as clothing, only to congratulate myself because “ Wow I’m so edgy and deep.” ✘ Fluff and slice-of-life This character is profoundly misadapted for that kind of plotlines.

Ask me about ✣ Kidnapping & long-terms imprisonments It’s a maybe. Celestin is far from being a defenseless being and taking him down, if cornered, will be a difficult task. ✣Long-term RP I don’t have much time for it, I prefer one-shot, short-termed or medium-termed. For me to want a long-term, I need a really good story and a good friend. Throw ideas at me!

☛If you are uncomfortable with body horror, gore and inhuman experimentations, Celestin is not a good match for you. ☛ The character is pretty inflexible, it’s his way or nothing. If it’s something you cannot deal with, I do have friendlier characters. (Ezrien and Ephraim are both good examples.) ☛ He is ICly a black mage, if you don’t like that, I do have more lore-abiding characters. (Narcisse, Medekhgui, Frydhaerz, Rhetizwyn.)

Disponibilities ➧EST ➧Weekday: Evenings (7h30 PM ~ 11 PM) ➧Saturday: Day & evening

I can RP... ➧In-game (favorite way to do it). ➧Discord I'm not going to display my Discord tag publicly so you will have to send me a DM to get a hold of it.

Send me a DM if interested! Thanks for reading all of this!

[aion-rsa]

New World: How to Choose and Change Your Faction

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Amazon’s New World is one of the most ambitious PvP-focused MMO experiences in the last few years, but you’re not going to get the most out of the game’s marquee feature if you don’t join one of New World‘s three factions and help your fellow faction members quite literally take over the world.

Of course, the prominence of the game’s faction features will undoubtedly leave most New World players desperately trying to answer the seemingly complicated question, “Which New World faction should I join?”

The good news is that New World‘s faction system isn’t like World of Warcraft: Shadowland‘s Covenant system and other “faction” mechanics in popular MMOs. In other words, you’re not immediately going to miss out on some incredible gameplay benefit or risk nerfing your own character simply because you chose to join the “wrong” faction.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The bad news is that the similarities between New World‘s three factions can sometimes make it more difficult to choose which is the best for you since there isn’t always an obvious best option. That being the case, here’s a better look at how New World‘s faction system works and a little advice on how to pick the “right” faction.

How Many Factions Are in New World?

There are three player-driven factions in New World: the Marauders, Covenant, and Syndicate. Here’s a brief breakdown of the stylistic/narrative differences between each:

Marauders – A military-like group of warriors looking to establish a “free” nation where the strongest are able to stake their claim to the land.

Covenant – A divine order tasked with cleansing the land of evil forces and heretics so that they can establish a new world in their image.

Syndicate – A mysterious organization that relies on intellect and subterfuge to acquire incredible knowledge they believe will help them reshape the world.

At this time, it doesn’t seem like your faction choice greatly impacts the game’s overall narrative (though that could change down the line). However, those who like to role-play as their created character may prefer to join the faction that best fits their personality.

When Can You Choose to Join a Faction in New World?

You won’t be able to join a faction in New World until you complete the “Commitment to the Cause” story quest. Thankfully, that’s one of the game’s earliest quests, so you should expect to reach it within the first hour of play (assuming you can queue into the game that quickly).

This buildup to that quest requires you to speak to all three faction representatives before making your choice, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn a little more about each before making your decision.

What Unique Benefits do New World’s Factions Offer?

Surprisingly, New World‘s factions don’t offer a lot of unique gameplay benefits. If you’re worried about picking the faction that will make your character as strong as possible, you’ll be happy to know that your faction choice won’t greatly impact your personal overall power level (at least not directly, but we’ll get to that in a bit).

However, it is worth noting that each faction vendor does offer unique gear. While those items all offer relatively similar power levels in the long run, their unique visual designs mean that you might ultimately decide to side with the faction that offers the coolest set of endgame armor (if you’re into that kind of thing).

Along with emphasizing your faction’s primary color (orange/yellow for Covenant, green for Marauders, purple for Syndicate), these unique sets of armor stylistically represent the goals and lore of each faction. High-end Marauder armor tends to be heavy plate gear, Covenant armor is clearly based on Knights Templar gear, and Syndicate armor pieces are typically cloth-based items that will ultimately leave you looking like a plague doctor.

Each faction also offers a series of objectives and quests via the job board system, though there doesn’t appear to be a lot of differences between the quests at this time as most of them are variations of gathering missions and PvP objectives.

On the PvP-side of things, being in the most “dominant” faction is certainly preferable. Not only does that mean there are theoretically always more faction members around to help you conquer and defend territories, but playing in a territory controlled by your faction yields additional bonuses. On the other hand, playing in a territory dominated by another faction will likely result in having to pay higher service taxes and, you know, getting killed more often.

What is the Best Faction In New World?

It would be lovely to say that the best faction in New World is the one that’s right for you, but the truth is that the best faction in New World has a lot to do with which is the most popular and which faction your friends want to play in.

Simply put, the faction that has the most members on a particular server is most likely to eventually dominate that server. While New World‘s developers have hinted at “underdog mechanics” designed to help the second and third most popular factions on a server regain territory, it’s not clear at this time exactly how those mechanics work.

Unfortunately, there is also no official way to tell which faction is the most popular on your server prior to picking your faction (though there is an “unofficial” way to acquire that information that we’ll discuss in a bit). While this feels like an intentional design decision meant to help ensure that everyone doesn’t just join the most popular faction right away, it’s still fairly easy to tell which faction is the most popular by keeping an eye out for how many members of each faction are running around the map and which factions currently control which territories.

Anyone who plans on playing New World with their friends should also know that the game’s Companies (essentially New World‘s version of MMO Guilds) can only be joined by people in the same faction. As such, it’s highly recommended that you coordinate with your friends to make sure you all intend to join the same faction if you’re hoping to get the most out of this title’s social features.

So while it hurts a little to say this, it really does seem like the best faction in New World is the one that’s the most popular on your server. So far as that goes, it’s worth noting that the Syndicate and Marauder factions seem to be the most popular at the moment across most servers, though some servers are certainly already dominated by Covenant players.

Of course, those fortunate enough to be playing on servers where there isn’t a significant difference between faction populations can feel free to choose the one they like best and simply see how things play out from there.

How Can You Change Factions in New World?

To change your New World faction, you first need to open up your character menu by hitting the “K” key. From there, click on the “Bio” tab and look for the “Change Faction” option at the bottom left of the screen. This will allow you to swap to one of the game’s other factions, though there are some rules and restrictions you need to know about this process.

It costs 100 Azoth (a magical mineral found throughout New World) to swap factions.

After you swap factions, you’ll trigger a 120 day “lockout” period. During that time, you will not be able to change factions again.

Each faction swap will cause you to lose your previous faction rank and faction badges, and you’ll pretty much be starting from scratch with the new faction you choose to join.

You are not currently able to swap to the faction who controls the most territory on your server (if territories are equally conrolled between the three factions, this restriction seems to be based on faction population). Interstingly, this restriction could be used as a way to see which faction on your server is the most popular, though you will need help from another player who has already reached this point in the game to make the most of this information before choosing your first faction.

The post New World: How to Choose and Change Your Faction appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3um73ab

[thalsianiii]

War, PTSD, and Role Play

So this might come off as ranty, for which I apologize.

Now, is it just me or is everyone rather desensitized to the fact that the warcraft universe is at war? More importantly, at war with some really terrifying shit? I get it, every expansion is a war. It’s that kind of game of course. World of Warcraft. But does that mean everyone is simply indifferent to the effects of such?

Admittedly, I’ve never actually been to war. And I’d like to preface all of this with a heart felt thank you to those of you who have been and what you’ve done for your respective countries. I’m also not oblivious to the fact that many soldiers come back from their deployment different. Veteran PTSD is a thing after all. Many soldiers go off to war and come back changed men and women. That kind of life is something many of us can’t imagine. On the flip side, many others come back fine. I don’t know the statistics. But we all know it happens.

So then there’s the role players in the warcraft universe. many of us (myself included) have played, or currently play, a character who has participated in different campaigns throughout warcraft history. Second & Third war, Outland, Northrend, Cataclysm, etc. Argus now being the most recent installment. and one thing I’ve noticed is many people seem to treat these events rather...casually.

There’s a few points I want to address about the scope of the world, some of these events and what it means to really participate in them. These are things I feel people don’t take into consideration. In the end RP your way. But perhaps consider this food for thought?

1) The Distance. This is something that is incredibly skewed due to the need to make the game at all playable. But I think a lot of people don’t realize how massive Azeroth (and the universe) is supposed to be. Dalaran has apparently 3000 citizens living in it. But it certainly doesn’t look like it could hold 3000 individuals in it. Elwynn is something like half a day to a days ride from Stormwind (Need source). Northrend, Kalimdor, Pandaria, entirely different continents. Consider how long it takes to fly to Europe from North America. Consider how long it takes to go by ship (which is warcrafts primary methods of mass travel). that’s potential weeks, if not months. but of course we have to cut corners here and there. Because this isn’t real life, it’s role play. But distance still needs to be considered. and it appears as though people don’t factor that in. It’s very much “oh I’m going to Plaguelands be back in half an hour” mentality as opposed too “I ride for Westfall in the morning. I’ll be back by weeks end” which, personally, cheapens the experience.

2) The enemy. With the exception of Vanilla and possibly Pandaria. We rarely fought a war against ‘normal’ threats (or each other in the PvP sense). We’ve fought insects, demons, old gods, undead, rampaging elementals, dragon aspects, literal feeling monsters, more demons, etc. If a soldier can go off to war on another continent and come back incredibly changed because of fighting other people. How terribly might someone be ruined by fighting the undead? Or demons? Or a literal god? I personally can’t fathom what that would do to a person because it’s fantasy. But I consider it in my RP as a Veteran character. Do I think fighting against demons, knowing what they do to people will fuck someone up? Hell yes I do. Imagine fighting in another country and watching your comrades get torn apart by attack dogs, or eaten by the enemy soldiers. That’s what we’re fighting on Argus. Just with cartoony graphics.

3) What it means to be a soldier. Here’s one I think a lot of people either don’t consider, or possibly choose to ignore because of how it does potentially hinder RP. But if you’re on duty, you don’t get to come home every night. You’re camped out at a Base of some sort. Whether that base camp is a fort in the middle east, or a spaceship on another planet. If you’re a soldier or mercenary of some organization you’re expected to be present for that period of time. You’re expected to sleep there, eat there, be ready for a counter attack at a moments notice. If you’re going home every night that base is left weakened. Each time you leave, you weaken that foothold and increase the chances that when you come back it will be overrun. My very very first RP campaign ever we were told that IC we’d be gone for a couple weeks. So we couldn’t really be seen in the city. Yes I appreciate that you want to go to the taverns and do walk up RP. But personally, if you want to play a character who’s going to participate in a war. commit to it. You’re not going to your job at the bank for 8 hours and coming home. You’re a soldier.

4) Portals. Mother trucking portals. Now remember this is me here, lore asshole who loooooves magic. Portals are my bread and butter. hearthstones, city portals, demonic gateways. They make getting around point 1) very easy without just using the compression of the game for granted. But it’s all to easy to abuse them in a war setting. “Well there’s a portal to Dalaran right there so like... I can just come and go as I please!” Yes. You have that ability for mechanical purposes of course. I.e. Blizz can’t lock us on Argus for the rest of the expansion. But refer to points 1-3. It will take time to travel from say, the Antoran Wastes to a transporter pad. A few hours at least maybe? Then When you come out in Dalaran. Maybe another 30 minutes to travel through the city to the stormwind portal? this list could get long but you see my point. And you can’t have a portal from your front door to the battlefield. That’s just inviting enemy forces right into your home. Portals, to me, always seem like the part of gameplay where realism and critical thinking is never used and people only think of the superficial uses and never the consequences or meaning behind their actions.

There are other lesser things to consider but these are the ones that I either focus on when I write, or I feel people abuse/don’t consider. When you say you’re fighting on Argus but come home every night and just wash the Fel away It cheapens the gravity of what were involving ourselves in, in my opinion. I get it, you don’t want to miss out on attending this weeks server social because you’re RPing being at war. No one is going to ask you too. It’s your game after all.

I can admit I’m personally annoyed by this, specifically because I find in trying to write someone with some Post Argus PTSD I’m met with a LOT of “oh pfft yeah I was on Argus too so what?” mentality and it bugs the shit out of me. I like to believe our soldiers here in reality don’t treat their brothers-in-arms like that. I’m not saying you should agree with them or give them a free pass when they do fucked up shit. Jump on them when it’s deserved. But please don’t discredit their actions in a war setting just because you take it less seriously than someone else. To me, that’s like a soldier looking at someone with PTSD and going “pfft it wasn’t that bad.” which, when you think of it in real world context, sounds pretty awful.

Now don’t take this as me telling you what to do or how to RP. Your money, your choice. Just in the same way it’s my money for my game. You can consider these points, Ignore them, If you have interesting counter points please share them! Like I said, it’s ranty and I apologize for that. If you want to be a casual player that’s your right of course, just like PvP and PvE, you don’t have to be a die hard. Play how you want.

Here’s a gif of a duck

[catboysimulator]

LFRP: Danyel Pesi on Mateus

THE BASICS –––

AGE: 24

BIRTHDAY: 16th Sun of the 4th Umbral Moon (16th of August, ♌)

RACE: ???

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

MARITAL STATUS: Single

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ––– 

HAIR: Coal black hair

EYES: Golden

HEIGHT: 5′8″

BUILD: Somewhat ectomorphic with slight muscle.

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Golden markings on either side of his face and the tiniest horns portruding from his head that he hides with his hair.

COMMON ACCESSORIES: Glasses! He can see without them, but it helps him read better.

FASHION OF CHOICE: Form-fitting clothes that appear to be lavish and well-tailored.

WEAPON/TOOL OF CHOICE: Rapier or staff.

MORE UNDER CUT

PERSONAL ––– 

PROFESSION: Scholar, adventurer, escort.

HOBBIES: Learning, documenting, flirting, exploring, writing.

LANGUAGES: Eorzean, Padjali

RESIDENCE: Currently the Free Company home, but eventually he’ll have his own home in the Mist.

BIRTHPLACE: Gridania

RELIGION: The Twelve

PATRON DEITY: Althyk

FEARS: Never being good enough, not living up to people’s expectations

ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good

MOTIVATIONS: Making new discoveries, meeting other people, reading, coughcoituscough

DISPOSITION: Elegant and calm.

POSITIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS: Compassionate, understanding, good listener, sympathetic, heart of the party

NEGATIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS: Petty, can be impatient, greedy, expensive tastes

LIKES: People, books, music, money, lingerie, events, parties, dancing, singing, being the center of attention

DISLIKES: Rudeness, ignorance, prudes, being devolved into a sex toy, being underestimated, talking about his background or past

FAVORITE FOODS: Fish, meat, delicacies, pastries, vegetables, anything “fancy”

FAVORITE DRINKS: Water, nectar, alcohol

FAVORITE COLOR(S): Red, gold

RELATIONSHIPS ––– 

SPOUSE: None

CHILDREN: None

PARENTS: Two Hyur parents a part of the Pesi family.

SIBLINGS: Three sisters.

OTHER RELATIVES: Unknown

PETS: A little fox kit named Ruby.

FRIENDS/ACQUAINTANCES: Xan (Friend/Partner-in-crime), Nysalei (Heaux Friend)

TRAITS ––– 

extroverted / introverted / in between.

disorganized / organized / in between.

close minded / open-minded / in between.

calm / anxious / in between

disagreeable / agreeable / in between.

cautious / reckless / in between.

patient / impatient / in between.

outspoken / reserved / in between.

leader / follower / in between.

empathetic / unemphatic / in between.

optimistic / pessimistic / in between.

traditional / modern / in between.

hard-working / lazy / in between.

cultured / un-cultured / in between.

loyal / disloyal / unknown / in between.

faithful / unfaithful / unknown / in between.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION –––

SMOKING HABIT: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

DRUGS: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

ALCOHOL: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

POSSIBLE PLACES HE’D BE SEEN/HOOKS –––

Ul’dah! He usually frequents this golden city and tends to roam around the streets. He may even be inside the Quicksand every now and then.

Gridania. He’s rarely there, but he is, usually spotted in Miounne’s inn.

Kugane! He loves the beautiful city within Hingashi and is often times found at the onsen.

He loves meeting other scholars or researchers, sharing findings and conversing about anything and everything they write about or discover.

Are you a customer looking for services? Then he does that, too.

Really, anybody can go up to him and strike a conversation! He loves meeting people and making new acquaintances.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR –––

Danyel just needs to meet more people. He doesn’t know many and also is in search for clientele and perhaps even regulars. His services are not only sexual, as he may also just be someone hired to go to events with or parties as a cover/lover.

He’s also wanting to find people to bond with and to talk to about new findings or exciting new discoveries. He’s a writer and loves documenting about anything, yet seems to favor experiments or studies revolving around aether or the elements.

Danyel isn’t really one to look for romance as he’s not one to be committed to a specific person, yet it is very possible anyway if he finds that right person.

If you’re from another server and still wish to RP with me, that’s fine! We can RP on discord or on tumblr, or make some sort of agreement in-game (whether I make Dan on your server or you make your character on mateus!)

OOCLY I AM –––

Lore friendly, but not lore strict! LGBT+ friendly, as I am LGBT+ myself. Open to any RP! Wanting communication with partner OOCly as well as ICly, getting acquainted with them. Respectful of partner’s time and working around their needs.

YOU CAN CONTACT ME THROUGH –––

my main tumblr! (it’s best to check my main blog on mobile) my ffxiv tumblr! discord! Jamey ♥#7826 or if you ever see me around in Mateus!

@mooglemeet

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Creating Sigma: Developing A New Overwatch Hero

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/creating-sigma-developing-a-new-overwatch-hero/

Creating Sigma: Developing A New Overwatch Hero

Sigma has been revealed as the 31st Hero in Overwatch, and the gravity-controlling mad scientist is currently playable in the game’s PC test server. With so many Heroes in Overwatch now, creating new ones has become a balancing act for Blizzard–one where brand-new mechanics must be weighed against the established lore of the game’s narrative. Sigma is no different, having started out as one character that had to be changed to fulfill specific criteria: someone who further fleshed out Talon and also acted as an anchor tank.

“[Sigma’s introduction] wasn’t really reactionary to the meta,” lead hero designer Geoff Goodman said in an interview with GameSpot. “We were looking to introduce a new barrier tank to the game, specifically an anchor tank that the team could rally around to push through chokes and take objectives. So a lot of the prototyping all began with him having a large barrier and being somewhat immobile, so he’s not running off on his own. The teammates had to gather around him and make a push.”

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Click To Unmute

Watch Overwatch’s New Hero Sigma In Action On PTR

Size:

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking ‘enter’, you agree to GameSpot’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

enter

Blizzard is always working on multiple Overwatch Heroes at once and adapting prototypes as the needs arise. So when it came time to introduce Hero 31, there already was an idea of what the team wanted to do next. “We knew, from a gameplay side, that we wanted this anchor tank, and even at an early point for him, we knew we wanted him to be part of Talon,” Goodman said. “So, he literally was just ‘Talon anchor tank’ on paper for a good amount of time as we were prototyping.”

Though Talon is partially made up of former Overwatch team members and is currently the main antagonist in Overwatch’s narrative, much of the organization still remains a mystery. It’s a trend Blizzard was looking to change, and Hero 30 and 31 allowed the developer to do it. “[Talon is] an extremely important group in the Overwatch universe and while there are already some really prominent and beloved characters in our line-up who are in Talon, I think when you look at it, they’re still a very small sub-section of the overall group,” Goodman said. “As we’re developing the universe, when we add new Heroes, we try and make sure that they call back to the core Overwatch story. So that’s why Baptiste and also Sigma are very related to Talon, because we were thinking, ‘Oh, this would be a good chance to be able to explore more of this world through them and see it through two new characters’ eyes.’ So with this two-pack of Heroes, you [learn] a little bit more about Talon and see Talon grow as a group as well.”

However, before Sigma was created, Blizzard looked to a previously established Overwatch character for Hero 31: Mauga, a Talon member introduced in the Overwatch comic that’s focused on Baptiste and who’s a former friend to Overwatch’s 30th Hero. His willingness to embrace the murderous side of the organization that caused Baptiste to quit made him seem like a good way to explore Talon from another point-of-view. Plus, the dude is built like a truck, making him a prime candidate for the tank role in a video game. “Originally, [Hero 31] started as a different character that we later called Mauga,” Goodman said. “[Baptiste and Mauga] were going to be together. However, we found it kind of difficult because, though we really liked Mauga, it was hard to imagine that guy as a slow-moving dude with a shield, marching with his team. That guy feels a little more like he’d be jumping in like Winston or Wrecking Ball and causing chaos. So somewhere sort of later in development, we decided to shift gears and go with a completely different character, and that’s how Sigma formed.”

Once Blizzard decided to focus on a brand-new character instead of a previously established one, it opened up the possibility of exploring previously established technology and powers in a brand-new way. Both Orisa and Zarya have gravity abilities, for example, but no Overwatch Hero had been completely built around gravity-focused powers. “It was clear that once we shifted courses on this character, that we were going to double down on the gravity abilities,” Goodman said. The idea of doing another scientist–we had some other ideas–came about pretty quickly too.”

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Click To Unmute

Overwatch: Sigma Origins Trailer

Size:

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking ‘enter’, you agree to GameSpot’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

enter

Goodman added that Overwatch’s story and gameplay are developed “hand-in-hand” so several of the add-on Heroes have had their design or backstory completely changed prior to their release, like Sigma, to better fit their abilities or vice versa. The prototype for Ana, for example, was an alchemist who operated as a close-range fighter with throwable potions that caused different splash effects. When it came time to implement the alchemist into the game, Blizzard chose to use the opportunity to add Ana as a playable Hero. As Ana had already been established as a sniper in Pharah, Soldier: 76, and Reaper’s backstories, however, most of the alchemist’s explosive concoctions became special bullets, with only one remaining potion-like: Ana’s Biotic Grenade.

Going forward, the creation of Heroes will be impacted by Overwatch’s new Role Queue feature, though perhaps not as substantially as you might think. Blizzard has had plans for Role Queue for a while and has thus already been working within the parameters of its eventual launch. “We have been talking about Role Queue for a long time,” Goodman said. “It took quite a while to implement it. I don’t even remember when we first started talking about it or really committing to it.” Sigma has always been designed with Role Queue in mind, for example, and changes to his character–like removing Accretion’s secondary ability to form a rock-like version of Mei’s Ice Wall–have been a result of balancing the character, not accounting for the new feature.

Goodman did add that Role Queue’s launch does currently eliminate the possibility of seeing a fourth class (beyond tank, damage, and support) in Overwatch, as introducing another class would mess with the balance Blizzard has been operating under with Role Queue in mind. However, there may be more hybrid Heroes–like Brigitte, who’s support class but can use Barrier Shield and Shield Bash to technically act as a tank for her team–in the future.

For now, the only way to play with Sigma is on Overwatch’s PC test servers, but the Hero will be officially launching on all platforms soon enough. Overwatch is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Source : Gamesport