#i was never really into morganthe

[pirate101wipper]

so they nerfed my girl dalia falmea and lady oriel so i am now going to become a furry and simp over moolinda wu

[anxiously-sidequesting]

To me personally malistaire is the funniest and most pathetic villain wizard101 has ever had AND I MEAN THAT SINCERELY!!! Between doomed children who have been manipulated, groomed, and isolated into becoming products of their environments, someone scorned who has been punished unfairly by having your biological heart torn out your chest and turning your children and all of reality against you to satiate their own ego, a nonhuman entity so powerful and so clueless they unintentionally threaten the lives of everyone around them, Malistaire FELL DOWN BRO. Like yeah you're bitchless now. You and me both. Get in line. Everyone in this room is bitchless. We are ALL living that ✨💅🏾💃🕺 Single Life™. You are a middle-aged man. Cope

[dani-luminae]

Has no one ever considered how nonsensical and even rather horrifying the Morganthe spells like “Morganthe’s Angst” (aka the “summon spider!Morganthe to attack your enemies!”) are in the game?

Like they spend an arc revealing to us her unfortunate backstory and her descent into Shadow, we literally see into her memories, then we fight defeat her, the Song of Creation overwhelms her and plunges her into an abyss...

And then randomly we just, get spells that can call her up to hit our enemies? And that’s not commented on at all???

[pinks-wizards]

One day I'll share with the class

i need everyone that has a wizard101 oc to tell me about them in the notes. like now. im so infatuated give me every thought

[dyvimwhitehart]

i will actually never be over the narrative importance of azteca. yes it’s the first time the wizard fails, but that failure results in the destruction of an entire world, which means the death of most of its denizens and a great deal of its culture. and the fact that it’s predated by worlds like dragonspyre and celestia, specifically

azteca was less accessible to the rest of the spiral (in comparison to worlds like wizard city, marleybone, zafaria, etc) already. by the time the yw reaches it, they’ve already been to their share of since-destroyed worlds. they are, however, always seeing the aftermath of the destruction

they’ve wandered around the destroyed academy in dragonspyre and seen the lava moats in the streets and talked to the ghosts, all those things coming together to slowly paint a picture of what was once a functioning society. and then the real tragedy of that, i’d argue, hits full-force in the hall of time when the yw gets to step into and witness the old dragonspyre in all its beauty and greenery. i think this has to be a really pivotal moment for the yw because old dragonspyre looks somewhat like wizard city. they’re a child that’s realizing, if i DONT succeed in beating malistaire, current dragonspyre is what my world and all the worlds i’ve visited since will become. and they DO succeed!

and then they are sent to celestia, another mostly ruined world. it’s brighter than dragonspyre, but there’s a hell of a lot more activity, and the overall tone is much different. however, the wizard has been introduced to destruction in dragonspyre and has had their worldview of places like that forever changed. they know what was at stake and what has since been lost. it’s a great way to start the second arc that i think can pair really well with the young wizard’s growth to young adulthood. this is where morganthe is introduced, and the next chase begins, and once again— they know what they have to do and the consequences of what happens if they don’t succeed

but there’s just absolutely no way they can see azteca’s destruction coming. even if xibalba is an ever persistent presence, even if ruin has been foretold— the wizard has never lost! morganthe plays them like w fiddle! and azteca is the first destroyed world they spend a long time in prior to its destruction. they get to know it’s citizens, they spend time in some of the most beautiful and lush locations in the game, they immerse themselves in aztecan culture and practices. they grow to care about this place before it’s all wiped away so that, when it is, stepping into the ruined zocalo doesn’t feel the same as stepping into the ruined basilica or the celestian base camp. it has to hurt so much more, feel so much heavier, like a personal loss rather than just a mission loss

and to go to khrysalis right after that? to immediately have to rally the burrowers and the mantises? to walk around a world that was thought to be lost, but is still clinging on, and have to do that all over again????? man

[extravalgant]

i looove azteca from like. a narrative stand point

because we have this hero and thats you. were practically the stuff of legends by arc 2 just because of what kind of experience we have under our belt. we've never lost a fight, and it's assumed that we never will. that's how powerful the wizard is—everyone expects them to win, expects light to triumph shadow

and when we fail.... well. it shocks everyone doesnt it? people get angry. people get disappointed. to the wizard, who has never known failure or disappointment, it must feel like an entirely new thing. this culture was here for thousands and thousands of years—a culture and a people you never knew about until you were brought into the spiral.

and now because of you its gone. because you failed to save it and stop morganthe, its gone. and i think merle's passiveness about this situation hits a little differently this way—i read it more as disappointment, anyways. and to someone who has never known defeat, not to this capacity, with this many casualities and victims, the disappointment feels a little more crushing, doesn't it? the wizard is supposed to be a hero summoned from the legends, from a place not beyond a spiral where they had not heard of magic, and it feels like they let everyone down.

this imo is where morganthe truly establishes herself as a villain. i mean she already was a villain before imo BUT bringing a grieving man back from the dead to puppet around AND destroying a world is just straight up evil (and i love that). people like to complain about the malistaire bit which is valid in some cases but i think it really does sell the frivolity in which she chooses to go about things. like hey heres a man you killed with your own hands. probably when you were young. i brought him back from the dead to use as my pawn and now you have to fight him again btw. using a dead grieving man for my own goals. and then the fact that we cant beat him at the end, to 'send him back', is just another way she gets a leg up on us. she leaves us with unfinished business and xibalba destroying azteca is just icing on the already fucked up cake she's given us.

shes TAUNTING us. and this is important because it does come back to us in khrysalis—no doubt the wizard is still haunted by the sins of their past; their failure to save azteca. they have to get through this bit, to learn to let it go, before they can learn shadow magic. after all this, it's still stuck with us—our failure, one that she spearheaded.

dont even get me started on the wizard learning shadow magic maaaaaan because now they share one thing in common—they know shadow magic. they wield shadow magic. and shadow magic is so reviled that it's forbidden. no one else but her can really understand the isolation that comes with learning shadow magic, and it parallels the wizard and her even more because neither of them had a choice! the shadow magi turned morganthe into the shadow queen she is today, and we are subsequently forced to learn shadow magic and do the same if they ever have a chance at defeating her. i love it. i LOVE it. i love azteca... i love khrysalis....

[pillowzilla]

my wizard ocs ft toxic yuri

ok context for these girls as quick as i can summarize it so tabitha is the one with the horns and allison is the one with the beret anyways so tldr tabitha has been trying to kill allison for a bit bc shes afraid shes gonna become morganthe 2.0 being the yw and all however tabitha herself gets so invested in this goal she ends up becoming what she fears and losing herself so much that allisons gotta kill her more abt this below

sososo continuing on throughout all this tabitha kinda does fall in love with allison however allison doesn't really feel that way romantically (for now i cant be trusted JHFIOJFW) but at the same time she does get use to tabitha trying to kill her and them playing this game of cat and mouse it was never that serious to allison really she loves a good fight and tabitha brings it and she loves that potential that she has to keep honing her skills but it all gets ruined when tabitha slips into shadow magic and she mentally just cannot handle it and the girl allison kinda enjoyed is rly no longer there its gotten too serious and to the point of no return

so anyways thats why i felt this audio FIT so well like tabitha being the one to say goodbye until tomorrow bc shes not ready to accept her death its not over she can't fail shes in denial meanwhile on allisons end shes giving her heart to tabitha to take to her grave she asks her not to break it because at the same time shes in denial about the situation like what happened what happened to the eager girl she met on khrysalis how did they get here ? taking someones life is never fun

[m00nveil]

11-14 for luna for the OC ask meme!

OMGGGG LETS GOOOO THANK YOU SM FOR ALLOWING ME TO RAMBLE!!!!

11: what is your oc's weapon of choice? have they ever actually used it?

she has quite some weapons but the weapon she uses the most is a huge scythe with a skull on it (it's the haros' scythe in game but i do not really tend to draw or consider the flames so)! she does not need it to cast spells whatsoever, but she does use it when she's about to kill somebody, which, does not happen often. she made the scythe herself after she killed morganthe. i've some lore made up about this scythe that i haven't quite perfected yet, so i need to give it some more thoughts teehee it's this scythe that she slayed malistaire the undying with.

12: is your oc self destructive? in what ways?

oh god you've never seen self destructive til you met luna. she does not, at all, give a single FUCK about her safety. not only will she willingly get herself into trashy situations, but any injuries she attains in the process, you couldn't ask her to care unless it's a terrible injury. she'll just shrug it off, even if it hurts like a bitch. even then, she's basically immortal at this point, so who cares. not HER, that's for sure!!!! injuries ain't shit. her mastery over necromancy surpasses anyone's, so if it's that bad, she'll siphon some health or something LOL. she's generally extremely careless when it comes to herself though. will barely eat at times, runs on 3-4 hours sleep most of the time, she could be on the verge of fainting during missions and this dumbass would just tough it out. azteca and khrysalis were especially hard times for her in terms of self destructiveness.

13: if you met your oc, would the two of you get along?

i'd probably like her, but she'd annoy the living hell out of me. i'd just tell her to take care of herself and she'd just disregard all of that. i'd be FURIOUS BROOO!!! i did give her quite some aspects of my personality (as i did with all my wizard101 ocs so far), but i'm trying my hardest not to make her a self insert. not that there's anything wrong with self insert ocs cause i fw them hard, i just don't want my main wizzy to be one! the whole reason i also go by hesperia on here (which is more of a penname and i match with my bestie) is cause i didn't want people to think i just self inserted myself haha.

14: how does your oc want to be seen by other characters?

having been made into a soldier as a child, it's in her very nature to want to be seen as this... strong pillar who always helps everyone and sacrifices her health and safety for them, even if she hates the people more often than not. but whether being a pillar is truly what she wants or not, is another entirely different can of worms... because she has absolutely no clue what she wants more. finally be ousted from society, which is unlikely asf to happen, or stay in this position forever because she has no clue what would happen to her if she stopped being THEEE wizard? it's her identity, it's what makes up who she is. even if people are never really thankful and always just want her to do more and more. she also wishes that people would just see her as part of the spiral. as someone who belongs. besides the stuff that was going on with dasein, novus and wallaru were just reminders to her that no matter if she's the spiral's scion, she will never ever truly become a part of it. she helped dasein integrate, but what about her?

[ravenwoodalum]

Round three of the Spiral Showcase is ready, and the bracket is weird, so it's time for...

spiral showdown, boys vs girls!

(anyone else remember this show? it slapped)

Anyways! Click here to vote, & polls are open until Wednesday, January 18th, 10pm EST. Vote for your favorites, and check out the detailed results for round two below!

One of the options on those customizable housing signs is "Tenure for Dworgyn" and, well... he would really appreciate that, after losing to Dasein with 33.8% of the vote (53 to 27).

Mellori's holding her streak of beating anthropomorphic professors, garnering 53.8% (43 to 37) against our favorite frog. An honorable defeat. The stuffed Kermit on my bookshelf is nodding in approval for Halston's fighting spirit.

Malistaire's dropping the Ice School into the abyss next, knocking Lydia Greyrose out of the tournament with 73.8% (59 to 21). Someone take the fly swatter away from him before things get nasty.

Morganthe won the milf-match, with 76.3% of the vote against Dalia Falmea (61 to 19). I wonder if Belladonna Crisp would have stood a better chance, but to be honest, we should NEVER be pitting bad bitches against each other like this.

Overall, a bad round for Ravenwood professors, with all those (currently employed by Ravenwood) knocked out of the running. Maybe now would be a good time to unionize... and also to do some infrastructure renovation (the fact the school sits DIRECTLY on top of a sewer system. That CANNOT be good. Hey guys? What's your healthcare plan like?? Do you get dental???)

[laurieellingham]

𝑪𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑬𝑫 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹 — @father-jude

— A CAFÉ IN MANHATTAN ; MORNING

Jude was one of very few people that knew Laurie Morganthal still existed. Their relationship began when they were both waiting on tables in a fairly decent place in the middle of the Manhattan bustle, when Jude was still in college and Laurie was in the early days of being a career criminal. Laurie found it funny that he, a man who lived his life in sin, was friends with a man of God, but he supposed that life was full of little ironies and that his little lies weren’t damaging his relationship with Jude. Hopefully they never would.

It was a pleasant surprise for Laurie, though, when, as he was sat at an outside table with a large cup of coffee and the day’s newspaper, he saw his old friend heading in his direction. It had been a considerable amount of time since they last physically saw each other, but Laurie was sure that he and Jude would pick up right where they left off.

With a smile, Laurie waved him over. “Good God,” he said before letting out a laugh. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

Laurie then covered his mouth with hand. “Oh, I don’t suppose I can use the Lord’s name in vain anymore, can I? I am sorry; it’s a force of habit. But it really is good to see you, Jude. Can I get you a drink? Unless you have somewhere to be…”

[zorphie]

🖊 tell me a little about eden!

GLADLY ty for the ask btw! ok ok so this was way longer than I meant for it to be so everything is below!

- he's a prince from avalon. ran away because his family situation is a little /Much/. not so sure about them siding with morganthe and their whole rebellion against king artorius. koda and amari led him to wizard city where he tries to leave his former identity behind and yea . they teach him how things work n everything :) he does end up changing his last name. he's all about having freedom to express himself and screw conformity

- he doesn't know magic prior to this and it's really hard for him to get it down- sets unbelievably high expectations on himself all the time . having cyrus as a teacher is ten times harder but he's Really determined to impress him and get ahead of everyone. his friends have taught him how to slow down and pace himself though and have healthier work habits. graduation is probably the second best thing that's ever happened to him

- he's a huge nerd and i love him for that. knows the most strange hyper specific facts. special interest in history 100%. also prone to visions of the past and future in his sleep. myth wizard things. future visions are a bit hard to decipher and blurry but he has the best memory known to man as myth magic's affected him overtime. he used to fizzle a lot because he could barely remember the names of things or the creatures he summoned came out weird because myth requires the user's full attention. or they straight up wouldn't get along and he didn't want to become part of the list of wizards who's summons went wrong and destroyed ravenwood property.

- the type of guy to go "oh my raven how did you not know that exactly 200 years ago zeus had breakfast on a sunday but this breakfast was special because he chose orange juice instead of apple and it symbolizes the prophecy that foretold the destruction of (world you've never heard of in your life)"

- his pet is a basilisk and it's not the average tiny size of pets. it's like huge and he's walking around campus with it. casually. he *Will* send it into duels against enemies, no pips or mana required. everyone is worried about its venom and stomping into classrooms unannounced but its friendly and likes sleeping all the time

- he loves building machines n stuff.. hands on projects are so fun to him. while storms are usually inventors and myths are usually the poets/writers(?) for eden and devin it's the other way around. oh yeah and they're trying to master astral magic together because eden's too confident to learn from the actual scholar and devin learned it unconventionally so it's safer to practice it with someone he trusts

- his scars are from a weird accident concerning .. erm. black holes and shifts in the fabric of time and realities. He's ok 👍

- personality wise he's calm n serious. full of sass but it's alrifht❤️. he does have a sense of humor around his friends, they mean a lot to him and he knows he wouldn't be here w/o them. he might come off as a jerk first impression but it's unintentional, he'd probably be Hella confused. he will make it obvious if he's holding a grudge against you though . he's very very blunt lol. also extremely competitive, Especially if you're putting in as much effort as he is. he's at the pvp arena with devin All The Time... eden has shifted from the idea that "competition means he needs to be the best" to "competition is fun" because of devin 100% though. They have so much banter. have i mentioned they're gay yet

[hazeldragonblossoms]

okay. memory dump. i’m gonna try to stick with the drakes for this one, but there’s gonna be some pre-game and stuff about me too, just for context.

by the time i started attending ravenwood, sylvia and malistaire had been married for years. they were well established and well loved. since there were three drake professors, we addressed them formally as their first initial, and more informally by first name. sylvia encouraged us to be informal with her, and it affected how people referred to malistaire and cyrus, too.

like i said, sylvia was my primary teacher. she was like a homeroom teacher, i guess — a class of life students of about new ten or so new kids each year, usually ranging from the ages of ten to their mid-late 20s, though sometimes exceptions were made for younger kids with nowhere else to go who got sponsored by the school, and there were a few outliers who got into magic later in life, too. primary schools were like family units, similar to the cabins in pjo, and sylvia was the theurgy kids’ mom.

i will note; the younger kids tended to spend a lot of time on/near campus, while the older students often went on adventures, bought castles, and eventually found jobs. although, the cutoff for “older students” varied significantly — it wasn’t uncommon to see ten year old novices getting patched up on the way back from firecat alley, but there were some students who never used offensive magic, and instead dedicated themselves to things like potionmaking, card crafting, and more practical applications. there was plenty of philosophy to be discussed in class at higher levels, and the professors were sneaking it into their curriculums from day one.

i wasn’t actually the “young wizard” of arc 1. that was morganthe. she was a lot older than me — i think by about ten years — and we never really talked before she was sent to find and stop malistaire. or after. but that’s a post for another day.

i did a lot of smaller tasks to support morganthe’s mission as she tracked malistaire down. i think i did a lot of the various street quests in wizard city — mostly the versions from before the world was reworked in the official release of the game. unicorn way, triton avenue, crab alley, firecat alley, and cyclops lane i know i went to, and i’m pretty damn sure i went to colossus boulevard, too.

i also went to grizzleheim! and i Did meet nick jonas. he was cool! we didn’t hang out often, but i always made sure to stop by to listen to whatever he was working on when i was passing through.

after arc 1 was over and done with, a memorial was built for sylvia and malistaire. i forget where, exactly — up by the tower from the tutorial…? regardless, it was nice. there was a bench with a sculpture of the two of them, a few tables with chairs, and a carefully-tended climbing vine behind the statue that had pink flowers. it was visited by students as a quiet study spot at first, then grew into a place to hang out, with a little garden to represent sylvia. i think people got more comfortable there as time passed — able to remember the good along with the bad — but at first, the only people who went there were a handful of theurgists and necromancers (including me), staff members (cyrus in particular), and morganthe.

some people never came around to it, saying malistaire didn’t deserve to be remembered. me and my friends didn’t let that shit fly.

ANYWAY, all that actually started out as a tangent! but sylvia always said that tangents were a sign of an active mind looking to make connections; nothing to be ashamed of. i’ve since reformatted the post, but i think this serves as a better intro for her.

man, now to describe sylvia drake? she was kind, and funny, and never afraid to get her hands dirty or to tell us to get weird. she was actually a lot like ms. frizzle, in some ways.

of course, she was a lot like demeter. very motherly, very gardeny.

but she also had a slightly unhinged side. she told us she’d ridden centaurs into battle, and her centaur buddies always backed her up, entirely seriously.

the vines and branches she could create could be an incredibly destructive force of nature, growing so fast around an enemy that she’d squeeze the life from them faster than a python, and much more brutally. she only demonstrated on inanimate objects (or, sometimes animated objects that just don’t feel pain, like if she needed to grab a wayward broom or an escaped accidentally-enchanted chair, which are both real examples), but still, it’s hard not to see a barrel get shattered and imagine what would’ve happened if that were your ribcage. because i’d bet my selena gomez statue and rockin’ outfit that the answer would’ve been Many Broken Ribs!

i think, thematically, it makes the most sense to talk about malistaire next.

“malistaire” was actually a portmanteau of the old avalonian names michael and alistair, and the meaning was something along the lines of a “defender/avenger” type of thing?

whatever. malistaire drake was, although very powerful, also very much a dork. i have immense respect for the man, but he was a damn sap. if professor sylvia drake was a theurgy student’s mom, professor malistaire drake was their well-meaning, if a bit distant stepfather who married their mother after they’d moved out.

luckily, i thought necromancy was cool as hell and made it my secondary school, so i collected both halves of the set as pseudo parents.

he did lose his arm at one point, similar to the outline provided in this post. i wasn’t involved in the initial incident, but it was really rough on him. i think i was about fourteen? i was in a ‘pigtails and braces” era 😭 BUT regardless, since i was close with both him and sylvia, he’d let me help out once in a while.

sometimes “helping” consisted of grading the littler kids’ homework (in exchange for extra credit, because death may not always be fair but malistaire drake is!) with malorn. malistaire would generally read over essays while malorn and i chatted and went over the basics of necromancy, deciphering the kids’ handwriting…

other times, he and sylvia would teach me interweave necromancy with theurgistic healing spells, which sylvia would boost, in order to help malistaire out with the residual pain and perceived muscle atrophy. i guess his symptoms were similar to extensive/prolonged nerve damage/paralysis? but after that, i pretty much aced all my practical theurgy classes until sylvia died without lifting a finger.

cw: miscarriage — i mentioned earlier that the head magic school professors were like parents to their respective classes. and that’s true, to an extent. they filled the parental role for a lot of us students, since we lived at the school, especially for little kids. but then we’d go out into the world, sometimes in a matter of months. malistaire and sylvia wanted something a little closer to home. they tried really hard to have a baby. several times, i might add. there were a couple of times where it seemed like they might finally have a baby on the way, but Sylvia never even got to the halfway point.

cw: terminal illness — apparently, in all those attempts, a necromantic infection started to take root, similar to cancer. the strength of the leyline of death magic imbued in the essence of malistaire’s very being had poisoned sylvia like radiation. that was what had been killing their children, and now it would take her, too.

he searched desperately for a cure. everyone did, from traders who frequented the bazaar in olde town to first year novice diviners to little old ladies who never left their houses if they could help it. but there was just… nothing, aside from pain management. sylvia drake was dying, and there was nothing anyone could do. it came down on her suddenly, and the only mercy was that she thankfully didn’t suffer for very long. one day she was able to hold my hand, tell me that my healing abilities were a great comfort… the next, she was dead.

i think i was… eighteen? or nineteen? when the death school was destroyed. it was only a week or two after sylvia’s death, but malistaire wasn’t the same in the interim. he didn’t sleep or eat properly, spending every waking hour he wasn’t teaching pouring over every necromancy text he could get his hands on. his resurrection of sylvia had to be perfect. and when he was “teaching,” he was flightly and nervous and distracted. malorn and i started grading papers again, this time without Malistaire’s help, and malorn was already tutoring a few of the younger kids — how hard could it be to fill in the little gaps malistaire was leaving in his grief? (ohhh, malorn. thankfully, i’m not his life school equivalent because ambrose had already arranged for sylvia’s replacement, professor wu, to settle in and start teaching theurgy classes back when sylvia first got sick. wu was fully instated and ready to take over once the classes started back up about a week later, and us theurgy kids got a lot of counseling from sylvia’s diagnosis onward. the necromancy kids weren’t so lucky, as their/our former mentor was also a wanted man.)

malistaire was presumed dead when the death school went down, and dworgyn was considered missing, and we worried regardless of the fact that he turned out to be fine. we had no way of knowing.

there were rumors, sure — regarding both malistaire and dworgyn, (but. mostly malistaire) — but classes were canceled, an impromptu candlelight vigil had set up around the crater, there was a memorial service being planned…

…and then ambrose had reason to believe that the old death professor was still alive after all, and called upon one of ravenwood’s top students, morganthe.

lastly, cyrus. i actually spent a lot of time with him during “arc 1” of the game’s canon, after what had happened with sylvia and malistaire.

going back to an early malistaire fact for a moment; cyrus’s name means “humiliator of the enemy,” so they both have warrior names. makes sense for twins sent to dragonspyre academy.

i didn’t really talk to cyrus much while i was growing up? he was like an uncle i didn’t put much effort into getting to know. and like, you know how it is. i was a busy student with my own life and friends, and he was a professor with plenty of other students to look after. hell, i wasn’t even all that great at conjury…

that being said, cyrus was a good dude. when he was able to get into it, his genuine passion for conjurative magic was a breath of fresh air.

but he was also strict, and harsh, and prickly. i was lucky to have known him before his sister in law died and his brother lost his shit, and also to know him as an adult myself with more empathy and emotional maturity to understand why he lashed out.

after malistaire’s death, i helped cyrus with malistaire’s body. he was… curt. clearly grieving. and i was, too. but his was more… angry. i just wanted my mentor to be at peace.

we consulted various necromantic texts, along with those on conjuration and sorcery, and eventually laid malistaire to rest with a bunch of protective talismans so that no one could raise him again as he had done to sylvia.

[anxiously-sidequesting]

So I've been Sinning because I've been making posts on Malorn and Duncan individually but I don't think I ever really touched up on how their relationship with EACH OTHER would be and that's literally the most traumatizing thing I can think of for either of them

This is like, moreso purely speculation and 🌈 imagination🌈 anyways because I don't think there's like any canon material on the two of them interacting and their arcs and backstories are as small as bacteria in the first place but literally those two on their own could have their own fucking show with how much UNTAPPED STORYLINE that can come out of "Borderline child prodigy forced into and struggling with important position" Malorn and "Troubled child with undiscussed emotional issues and a jealousy complex borne from said position" Duncan

Idk about any type of interaction or relationship these two might have had before Malistaire became the Joker, but I can imagine there's ALREADY some type of rivalry (at LEAST one sided) between two guys in the same school in the same class, one of them is blatantly better than the other at everything they do and it's not the guy who says he is. (Like, idek how Malorn himself feels about him being the best in his class, but from what we've seen he doesn't brag about, mislead, or exaggerate about it like Duncan does. And the insane thing is Malorn AT LEAST would have a BASIS on his claims and attitude even if he was being a jerk about it)

But the thing is, Malorn back then as a regular student would not have been in any position to be up close and personal with Duncan in any meaningful way during school hours. Like they're classmates, at best they get grouped on a project together, but Malorn and Duncan being together would not be required and important until AFTER Malistaire dips and Malorn is now Duncan's PROFESSOR. Now in a totally more complicated and intimate way than before, Malorn and Duncan HAVE to interact with each other, speak and work with each other because now Malorn is the new Death teacher and he has to handle the brunt of Duncan's education and progress. GIRLS YOU NEED TO READ THAT LAST PART AGAIN BECAUSE THAT IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!

Malorn and Duncan literally CANNOT escape each other if they wanted to do their jobs (good, unbiased educator and student still receiving education respectively). Yeah they may not be like, personal tutor and student but Duncan is in MALORN'S class now, and just that position alone puts a type of pressure on both of them to still maintain their respective roles and civility while dealing with the person who Does Not Make You Happy on a more personal level than before. That sucks actually

Like, Duncan couldn't even lie to Malorn about how "well" he's doing in Death class when he can SEE his papers. Duncan can't hide his grades papers from his professor, Duncan is no longer able to pull the wool over Malorn's eyes like he does with EVERYONE ELSE. Duncan already had some type of issues with being second best, but imagine one of the people that was threatening Duncan's spot as first place becomes his superior. His superior that can SEE that Duncan is in fact, not the best. Duncan can't even PRETEND that Malorn isn't better than him anymore because it's been proven, when Malorn was made Professor instead of him, and Malorn himself now has an inside view of Duncan's insincerity. What little ""power"" Duncan thought he had was now ALL taken away from him

AND THEN MALORN DOESN'T HAVE IT MUCH BETTER, because here's this little shit that just seems to hate him for no reason???? Idk if Malorn ever knew about Duncan bragging about himself or his jealousy of him in general before Malistaire left, but whether or not he did before he most likely knows NOW. With his new position and him having to care for Duncan as a student rather than a peer, now suddenly Malorn is in Duncan's DIRECT line of fire and he has no wiggle room to step aside or remove himself because in order for Malorn to be a good teacher *he has to be there for Duncan*. He no longer has the luxury to just "ignore" Duncan or even put him in his place if that's what he really wanted, because now Malorn has to be a certain type of responsible and not abandon or get into fights with students that give him any issues (looking at you Malistaire and Mabrose 😒)

Yeah ofc Malorn could always discipline Duncan or smth but what's the use if this one student is just adamant on causing issues? It seems like Duncan has more of a 'hands off' type of technique when trying to get what he wants (using other people to finish his homework for him), but it's super easy to imagine Duncan just doing little or petty things to undermine Malorn's authority in any way he can. Nothing evil but just like challenging or questioning Malorn's lessons during class, mouthing off whenever he can, things that are used to blow off steam and stick it to Malorn in what little way he can definitely sounds like some shit Duncan would do. And what are you supposed to do when this kid, someone who is YOUR AGE but is still essentially supposed to be listening to YOU, is lashing out at you and disrupting class every chance he gets? Discipline him for the hundredth time?

Imagine how this grates on Malorn's nerves how on top of everything else, on top of everyone else already being jumpy and snippy around him, in addition to his entire lifestyle being turned around, even with his tutor and someone he looked up to betraying him in the worst way, even with ALL OF THAT, this *ooooooone* person decides to go out of their way to continuously punish you for it. Malorn is doing his job, what he's expected of no matter how unfair or tiring or unrewarding it may be, and he is being persecuted by someone for a job *he never even asked for*.

Malorn did not plan or hope for ANY of this to happen. Yeah being a Professor sounds cool and shit at first glance but like I've said once before Malorn at that time is still like 12 years old and the change is so absolutely sudden and jarring that Malorn couldn't have even possibly PREPARED for this situation. Whether or not Malorn is actually good at his job now does not push aside the fact that Malorn may not have even WANTED to be in that job in the first place!! We have no way of knowing if Malorn was seriously like "man I wish I was a teacher right now" at ANY point of his life, but it's safe to say he most likely DID NOT because Malorn was never flaunting or showcasing his talent to everyone like Duncan was!! Perhaps the one person who wants this THE LEAST is being unfairly judged by the person who wanted it THE MOST

AND THAT ^^^^^^^ is getting to the core of this Malorn VS. Duncan thing going on here. Two opposites, two extremes that are forced together unwillingly and they're both unnecessarily suffering for it.

And at the end, when The Wizard is trying to do shit and Duncan pops up like "aaayyyy 🤪🖕" and is defeated in 2 seconds, how does that affect them both? Does Malorn ever like, know this about Duncan? Did Duncan even graduate before he was manipulated into a literal cult?

Imagine how messed up Malorn would feel if he ever found out. Would he take it personally, even though none of it was his fault? Would he still FEEL that it was his fault, that the one person who hated him sooo much it became the catalyst to his downfall? Would Malorn feel responsible for Duncan and all the hurt he's caused and all the hurt he's felt even though he shouldn't?

And the saddest part is even if Malorn did suffer any type of way from knowing how Duncan turned out to be, his responsibilities wouldn't leave him that much time to mourn before he had to go back to work. The saddest part is that even though Duncan was told over and over that he was alone and that nobody cared for him, he had Malorn by his side the entire time more than willing to support him. Their relationship is so interesting to me because it's so tragic and multifaceted when ultimately things could have been at least moderately better if the world hadn't let them both down

[wlwizard101]

hi i have so many thoughts about polaris + arc 3 as a whole so im just going to rant about them. spoilers for polaris and mirage under the cut. also monsquista in pirate101. also a little bit of emperyea. just a smidge.

polaris is probably my favorite world simply because of its writing and it does something kingsile and honestly a lot of media in general fails to do: how to write a good revolution.

first of all, the revolution has good motives and the writers want us to percieve as good. the penguins (proletariat. yes im doing a semi marxist analysist for a kids game dont @ me) are uprising against the polar bears (the borgeious class). the penguins struggles are seen as real. they do not simply want a return to the status quo or to 'bring back the king that was good' (looking at you mirage) - no, they want change.

and that is so refreshing! in pirate101, that goddamn ape (i literally hate him so much) does a revolution and. simply becomes king. thats it. the revolution itself is started by princesses and disgraced generals, not the people. which is not inherently bad writing, however this is portrayed as good. is the material conditions of the monkeys at all changed? nope! there's just a different king on the throne. its closer to a coup than anything. (i do enjoy the implications of the pirate doing much, much grimier things that the wizard due to them being well, a pirate, but i never thought it was handled all that well).

but back to polaris. there is changed, goddamnit! after overthrowing the monarchy, celebration happens in the central area of polaris. in a paralell to azteca, where everytime you go there you are reminded that everyone here is going to die soon holy shit, in polaris, you are reminded you fucking won. you did it. and this is especially refreshing considering it is based off of the french revolution, one that pop culture always tends to demean. but kingsile (though having napoliguen in pirate101 does have some implications) shows a different view point to the french revolution, one with much more empathy to the peasant class.

and this is where mirage kinda fell flat in comparison. i was half expecting ozy to turn out to be a twist villian, due to the writing competency of the previous world, but nope. hes just the rightful king guys! and now we have to defend against xerxes. who is evil because. uh. yeah. trust us guys!!! (his boss fight was also really underwhelming tbh. middle siblings always get the short end of the stick).

over all, arc 3 differs from the other arcs in that it is not about saving the status quo. in arc 1, you defended the world from malistairs gried. in arc 2, you defended the world from morganthes god complex. but in arc 3? we are shown grandmother raven to be a control freak, who'd rather let the spiral be destroyed than let her ex husband live, and we have grandfather spider, who is destroying the spiral to put everything back to the way it was. in some regards, yes, we are defending the status quo - but i would argue raven is infact that status quo. the gods as they are, under ravens plan, would stay the same. the spiral would soon be destroyed anyways because of the heat death of the universe, why try and change? let it be. we're here to change that! what it going to happen in emperyea i do not know, as i only just got to part 2, but im incredibly excited for it, even if the refrences are a little grating. no spoilers please <3

[kimberly-earthfriend]

Meet the Wizards - Rowan Duskhaven

Rowan has changed a lot since the last time I shared them, so I figured I better give an update!

They’re my young wizard, saviour of the spiral, hero from Earth etc etc. Until they aren’t. They started off being kidnapped by Ambrose and told to defeat Malistaire at just 12 years old. But honestly, they didn’t mind all that much. Their home life on earth had been pretty terrible, and school? Even worse. And besides, they quite liked the idea of learning magic and fulfilling a grand destiny (what bookish 12 year old wouldn’t?)

They got selected for the spiral cup, though according to the rules they were far to young to compete. Really, it was just a guise under which they could go to wysteria to meet their new mentor - Kimberly Earthfriend - and recruit her for the fight against Malistaire. This, unfortunately, would turn out to be the worst “decision” of their life, insofar as they were allowed to decide anything as the young wizard.

Things went well for a few worlds, they defeated Malistaire, and then Morganthe showed up. Rowan did not like how uncomfortably familiar the ambitious shadow mage seemed, and began to have some doubts about the quest. They had already seen that Malistaire was just a grieving man, a man who needed therapy, not violence. And now they were beginning to see what could happen if they ever dared to rebel against their Destiny.

Avalon. It was the turning point in Rowan’s wizarding journey, even though most would call it Azteca. Together with Kimberly and Anya Silverblood, they sought out the Lady of the Lake so they might be granted the sword of kings to defeat Morganthe. Unfortunately, it would not be Rowan who was granted the sword. Nimue, furious that Merle had put the weight of the spiral on the shoulders of a child, sought out the fates and rewrote Destiny, selecting Kimberly as the bearer of the sword and allowing her to become a knight of the silver rose instead. This did not sit well with the Young Wizard, but they supposed it made enough sense. After all, Kimberly was born and raised in Avalon. Of course the stone would determine her as the rightful ruler. It was just a blip, that’s all. But deep down in their soul, resentment was beginning to grow.

The fall of Azteca was not so much the turning point as the straw that broke the camel’s back. An entire civilisation destroyed, and Rowan believed it was all their fault. If they had just been better, if they had been good enough to get the sword, they could have defeated Morganthe before it came to this. But now they were gone. And Rowan was gone too. They fled Azteca, following the resurrected Malistaire to Darkmoor and beginning to learn Shadow magic. They became obsessed with “fixing” the wrongs they had caused, and wanted to bring Azteca back to its former glory. Malistaire informed them that sadly there was no shadow magic strong enough to stop Xibalba. But he once had dealings with a group who possessed a device that might just do it: the world synthesiser.

By the time Kimberly and the others arrived in Darkmoor under the law of Kan Dvasi, Rowan was long gone. They fled back to Wizard City, cloaking themself in shadows so as not to catch the attention of Ambrose or the other professors. There, they met with Duncan Grimwater and Greta Darkkettle, and began learning of the Schism. They were quickly initiated and began working their way through the ranks, determined to get the attention of the Old One and gain access to his World Synthesiser.

On a journey to Empyrea, they reunited with Micah Stormweaver, the astral wizard they had befriended in Celestia, and sparks flew. They hit it off in no time at all, and now they had a guide to the stormy wastelands of Empyrea.

It was though him that they discovered Mellori. If they caught her and broke the paradox chains, then surely the old one would take notice. Never mind that that could destroy the entire spiral. Their obsession with fixing Azteca had blinded them to the other destruction that they wrought. They no longer cared who they hurt, who got in their way. They just had to fix the past.

As the only person who could walk the Astral plane, it wasn’t hard for Rowan to heal Mellori. The problem was finding her body. Pretending that they wanted to make up for the past and help Kimberly, they offered to walk the Reverie together. But then, while Kimberly was fighting her nightmares, Rowan slipped away, “rescuing” Mellori and carrying her off into the night. Thankfully they were caught and stopped by the Luphilim before they could break the chains, but walking the astral plane and healing the Raven child had been enough. Finally the Old One was listening.

He asked them to the summit in Karamelle, and it was here that he told them of his office in Arcanum, and of Lemuria. If they could check in on Lemuria and get to his secret lab, they would have free reign over the World Synthesiser, and could create whatever they desired, provided it worked towards the final goal of reinstating the first world. They readily agreed, calling Micah to fly them to the Arcanum and sneaking into the old one’s office under cover of night

How they managed to get into the shrunken world of Lemuria, we do not know, but I suppose if anyone can do it, it’s the Young Wizard. They made it to the lab in the centre of Telos and discovered the template for the Scion of the Old One right along with the synthesiser. They donned his armour and decided to play along with his little test, just to prove that they were still a worthy and capable wizard. They joined the team of Lemuria heroes, and when the time came, they finally faced off with Kimberly, revealing their identity in the final battle and attempting to claim the synthesiser for themself.

If they had just listened to the Old One and taken the synthesiser right at the get-go, of course, they could have achieved their goal. But they were defeated, and stayed on in Lemuria, finally seeing the error of their ways and vowing to do better by truly helping the citizens of the lost world

Eventually, Kimberly invited them on a Walkabout in Wallaru, so that they might find themself and find their peace. They departed with Dasein to the Dreaming, finally at rest.

[dyvimwhitehart]

i gotta be the first to ask: ur wiz’s relationship w/ dyvim

send me an npc and i'll describe my wizard's relationship with them!

i never could have seen this coming tumblr user khrysalisposting...

with amber: to put it simply, dyvim is the second great love of amber's life and the one who restores her faith in the world/in her humanity. like many young wizard ocs, amber is at her lowest point when she enters khrysalis due to the fall of azteca. as if the loss of an entire world (and its denizens/culture) was not harrowing enough, amber's long-term boyfriend and arc 2 questing sidekick, a ravenwood classmate and master diviner named ethan, also perishes while trying to help aztecans escape. during a long, bleak break while the council of light finds a way to khrysalis, amber resigns herself to being alone forever. she resigns herself to, essentially, just becoming a weapon of war.

enter dyvim. the last thing she expects after saving him from roze is for him to stick around as an ally. she, in her isolation and grief, is simultaneously put off and intrigued by his loyalty, gregariousness, and charm. as they travel through the moon cliffs together, he slowly chips away at her walls, and they begin to realize how well they work together. when he is nearly killed by the broodmother, she forges on in his name. when he's able to be revived, she realizes she's in a lot deeper than she anticipated by how relieved she is to see him again. he isn't just another ally to her- as many before him ended up being.

cue amber burying any feelings she has for dyvim beyond gratefulness and friendship as much as she can for the sake of her mission. she can't afford to fail again, and she can't afford to lose another person. of course, this only half works... as they grow so devoted to one another that really anyone can see what's happening between them. still, they have an unspoken understanding not to push the envelope. amber isn't ready, and dyvim knows that. she may never be ready, and dyvim knows that.

before she leaves after morganthe's defeat, dyvim presents her a hand-crafted burrower's sword made with onyx. it's a token to remember him by, and one amber carries with her as her new wand for the future arcs. they keep up correspondence, which just gets more romantically charged with time, especially after they see each other again prior to karamelle. amber tries her hardest to shake her feelings for him, but finally admits to herself post-karamelle that she is in love with him.

she journeys to khrysalis prior to the discovery of lemuria for a burrower festival commemorating morganthe's defeat. during her stay, she and dyvim beat around the bush re: their feelings for a bit, but eventually have a conversation where they discuss what's between them (after amber grows jealous upon hearing he has been courted by others in her absence). amber remarks that, as long as she is embroiled in her work as scion, she cannot in good conscience begin anything. dyvim respects this, and offers to wait for her, which she tells him not to, not wanting to keep him from possible happiness. he waits anyway, even if only absentmindedly, and they keep up correspondence.

their feelings for each other become common knowledge to the denizens of bastion and those close to amber (such as mellori, bat, etc.). still, as of arc 4, they remain a bit more than friends. perhaps a reunion in selenopolis could change things, but that remains to be seen.

putting genevieve under a read more bc this got LONG...

with genevieve: if you're still here, now for something completely different. genevieve and dyvim are... fire-forged friends. to put it quite frankly, she wants to dislike him a lot upon meeting him. she thinks his constant good-natured attitude is annoying, and that he must be putting up some kind of front like everyone else. a lot of this stems from her own narrow worldview, as she believes that no one actually wants to be a hero, they just want the praise that comes with being one. she tries to shake him off in the beginning of their journey through bastion and the moon cliffs, and he makes it very clear that if she's the one that's been sent to save khrysalis, he is not going to leave her alone.

the irony of this is that they have pretty similar fighting strategies. while dyvim is a bit more dedicated/lawful than she, they're both very gung-ho and enjoy charging headfirst into battles. this is how they bond. when dyvim is poisoned, genevieve vows revenge on the bees because she wants to believe that he'd want to be avenged. she goes through the motions of saving him because, while she is self-centered, she knows he has good intel. the first thing he does upon seeing her again is tease her for taking the time to save him, which she thinks is... actually pretty funny.

they have a mutual respect and mutual annoyance of one another that leads to bickering and tag-teaming others alike. when they're in-sync, they're very in-sync. when they're out of sync, it's always a narrowly averted disaster. still, when she goes to leave khrysalis, she tells him that she thinks he should become king of the burrowers someday.