#if constance has no fans im dead

[vr-trash]

dearly departed

[suv-draws-stuff]

May I ask what the backstories of D'Artagnan & Jekyll Hyde are? As a Limbus enjoyer and a English/french literature enjoyer I am quite curious what the city counterparts of these folk experienced.

Sure! They're still in development (especially d'Artagnan because his source material is so long and for what orz im taking my sweet sweet time with it) I took few inspo here and there from different adaptations too. Here's the bullet points for what I've got so far under the cut

Jekyll:

Was born in a nest. Basically lived a nice and cushy life

They're friends with Utterson and Lanyon. Utterson later became a fixer while Jekyll and Lanyon became coworkers in a Wing (which Wing they're working for I still have no clue so far)

Jekyll became one of the head researchers. They also kinda proposed the idea that was similar to the serum they would later use to turn themself into Hyde, but everyone thought that idea was ridiculous (including Lanyon)

Powered by repression, craving for escapism, and spite, Jekyll makes the serum anyway. And it succeeds. They live a nice respectable life as Jekyll and seek all sorts of thrills as Hyde

The events from the book happen. Utterson was suspicious at Hyde and is worried about Jekyll's safety.

Shit hits the fan when Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew (he was one of the higher ups in the Wing Jekyll worked for. Was it because Hyde was just simply pissed off for no reason because they have no impulse control? Or they still have a grudge from that time the Wing laughed at Jekyll's proposal? Who knows)

Jekyll stops using the serum... but they relapsed. Lanyon died from shock that one time, and Jekyll isolated themself.

All the guilt and paranoia caused them to hear the voice of distortion. Instead of offing themself with poison, they ended up distorting when Utterson broke into their lab. Jekyll ran away in the form of a more monstrous Hyde, never to be seen again.

They managed to turn back into their usual form, albeit with Hyde's head next to theirs and kept a low profile. They were recruited by Limbus as part of its plan to create an experimental branch.

D'Artagnan:

Was born in the backstreets. His mom was dead when he was born, and his dad died later in his life from an unknown cause. He learned combat from simply surviving in the backstreets and from that he trained to be a fixer.

After gaining his fixer license, he tried to apply for a job at an office.

From here I'm still deciding whether he was affiliated with Cinq Association or an associate office under Cinq Association. But yeah you get the idea.

He pissed off Athos, Porthos, and Aramis unintentionally, but they became friends anyway (they were almost arrested for illegal dueling)

Basically these four musketeers were hired by this Wing too. (I'm still stumped on which Wing, but I'm thinking M corp for no reason other than the moon stone singularity and the diamonds utilized throughout the book)

D'Artagnan's first job was to rescue Constance Bonacieux, who worked as a tailor for various fixers and a higher up in the Wing. Then they started dating later on

From this point on I'm still working on it, but for sure, d'Artagnan and the three musketeers had to foil Richelieu and Milady's plans (that mmmay endanger the Wing in some way)

Milady herself was once a Shi Association fixer who later became independent. She killed Constance at some point (mega F)

The musketeers exposes Milady's plans that may endanger the Wing and Milady gets executed.

D'Artagnan's fixer grade rose while his musketeer friends resign from the job and go on their separate ways. (Aramis remains a fixer though, just in Dieci Association instead)

D'Artagnan's career remains stagnant until he was transferred to Limbus because he has all the skills needed for the job they wanted

Meanwhile Mordaunt, Milady's son, wants revenge on the musketeers for causing his mom's death. He essentially becomes part of the opposing organization similar to Gubo's league of nine

(also yes I aged up several characters in D'Artagnan's part. D'Artagnan himself and Constance remain the same age as in the book version though)

If you wanna read more about them, i made toyhouse profiles for Jekyll & Hyde and d'Artagnan

(also yes that's their executive manager in the background. shes based on xuanzang/tang sanzang)

[kendrixtermina]

The Abyss NPC are such a trove of gold for additional worldbuilding tbh 

Everything about the Pagan Lady who I assume is Dagdan breaks my heart

That poor NPC whose family was somehow massacred by nobles “People with crests do whatever they like no one stops them least of all the church”

Mr. Backup died during the timeskip :( But Abysskeeper ends up marrying his older sister in VW and SS

Rodrigue paid for reestablishing the monastery town, even giving money to the ppl in abyss & generally seems to. I guess you see where Dimitri gets that charitable mindset from. Yuri also notes that he’s remarkably uncorruptible. 

Abysskeeper is originally from Derdriu. It#s fun how a lot of his CF and AM dialogue is exactly the same but in different context XD - apart from of course the rodrigue line, and the time Hubert sends a soldier to do some mission there

When you go save Fhirdiad Constance is pretty glad to save the ppl from the school of sorcery and is glad to find them mostly unharmed

Yuri goes into some detail of events right preceding Byleth’s return in AM where the villages near the fronts weren’t sure wether to think of the guy massacring random imperial soldiers as a serial killer or a folk hero

Balthus apparently had a friendly brawl with Dimitri at some point (I guess continuing the tedency of the recruitees in aM to mention having personally interacted with him, at the very least Leonie and Caspar also get lines like that)

Apparently Yuri’s mom got sick sometime during the timeskip (at least in the AM timeline) so he couldn’t evacuate her from Faerghus. 

Constance like Ferdinand, Lorenz & Lysithea is one of those ppl who remember Edelgard in a semi-positive light after her defeat. Kudos to you!

Balthus suspects where Claude ran off to. Well, he was kinda sent there to snoop on him to begin with XD

He never had any hope for the Parlay

Apparently Yuri does have a habit of praying, he’s not like a strooong believer and can’t recite the scriptures much but it’s a habit he picked up from his mom, I guess he would be one of those ‘culturally religious’ people

I just love how Yuri had additional observations on nearly everything like... nothing gets past him. 

Meanwhile in the CF timeline, Balthus apparently thinks Edelgard is hot (which earns him a death glare from Byleth) and thinks the whole Black Eagle strike force should go have a beer to celebrate Byleth’s return since they’re all old enough now and Byleth’s no longer supposed to babysit them

I love how Hubert just flat out takes over Abyss and integrates poor overworked Yuri into his spy networkXD . Hence why Hapi feels he deserves a definite article.  Well, Hubert appreciates how good he is. The mission was to try & convince the Alliance lords to fold so like El & co were actively attempting diplomacy until the end

On CF you see a very omnious NPC who suddenly dissapears if talked to (probably Agarthan) who complains about “that prince being no good” - Did they offer Dimitri their support when they noticed they were definitely losing control of Edelgard? If so he seems to have rebuffed em. It’s a very cryptic line and I can’t rly make heads or tails of it, but, if he wouldn’t sell Rhea out to Edelgard he probably wouldn’t do it for someone even worse no matter what they promised him. 

Apparently in the VW timeline Hapi is a big fan of Judith

Balthus is proud that little Hilda has become an A list schemer

Hearing Claude’s plan makes constance a bit self-conscious about her own being more past-focussed, she’s been out-bolded

Hapi doesn’t know much about Almyra but reflects on how there are many marginalized minority groups in Fodlan including ppl from Isolated communities like her own

Yuri finds the plan a bit lofty & idealistic for his tastes, and also reckless,  but he realizes that he’s got no leg to stand on when it comes to being more noble than he lets on, and that maybe a lil bit of recklessness are what these times need

Oh, once the secret’s out Hapi concludes that there probably would have been war one way or another with the slitherers having everything infiltrated, edelgard or no edelgard

Balthus mentions that Holst wasn’t at Shambhalla because he was “working out things with the Almyrans” and suggest that they warn him about the slitherers lest they sabotage the diplomacy

Apparently Hapi meditates! This comes up cause she trying not to freak out about Nemesis

“People sait it was the church who kept order but actually Yuri’s the one keeping us from complete chaos”

Apparently it was Hapi who kept the surface bandit population from flattening Abyss

Apparently in VW it’s Judith who gave supplies to Abyss (In Rodrigue’s place)

Seems like despite Hapi’s worries they kinda fare best on CF though (”Things have been pretty ok” vs “We lost some ppl”)

Abyss Resident: “I used to be an important person in the church but Im exiled for embezzling. It wasn’t out of greed tho my hometown was pillaged and the church wasn’t putting in enough to rebuild” Tell me again that Rhea cares about the little guy

One of the random rogues from Abyss is from the kingdom, claims to be a distant descendant of Fraldarius the Elite and finds “poetic justice” in taking down the empire under Claude. 

Another reaaaaly juicy tidbit is that rogue with another message from Hubert, telling Byleth to bring Rhea with them when they go to Shambhalla. Ensuing that Rhea and Thales would destroy each other.  And reaaaly adds to my conviction that Edelgard and Hubert basically did everyone a huge solid and no one noticed. Well, actually in Verdant wind they Do notice eventually; Its the left hand fighting the right cause everyone has triust issues galore

I didn’t think my love of Hubert could increase further

I always wondered, hm, were they expecting Rhea to self-destruct? Did Claude deliberately plan for it? But I never had enough evidence. especially for team Empire. But I mean Edelgard started this whole war cause Rhea is a danger so, while I get keeping her alive cause the slitherers want her for experiments, why not slit her throat as soon as the imperial palace is surrounded? Why have Hubert return her alive, to win the other faction’s trust? Not their style.

Though the random rogue also says that “Rhea was kept alive as insurance” against the slitherers. 

So it WAS part of the plan. I always did have that feeling, but, I never knew how to articulate it logically and not just intuitively. 

Of course if Byleth went and told Claude about this, Claude’s decision is also clear because he’s not dumb enough to think the empire would care for Rhea’s wellbeing out of the goodness of their heart

Though ultimately she insists on coming along for her own reasons anyways wether Claude is there or not, for plain ol’ revenge. 

Also while reading through the scrpits I realize that I never clicked the “Do you hope [Rhea] is dead?” option when Claude explains his plan. That actually nets you support points and he’s like... “Daangerous question friend”. Really Claude is not “the chill/nice one” he’s so much more interesting than that and I love him

Also I love how the NPCs get different outfits depending on the route! I wish there had been more route-specific aesthetic touches

[arkus-rhapsode]

My Thoughts on FE3H DLC Cindered Shadow’s Story

You are reading that right people, I just binged the new FE DLC side story for six hours straight. Now I want to preface this with one thing, this is my thoughts on the side story ITSELF. I haven’t seen any of the Ashen Wolves individual supports. This will not be a character study.

This will simply be my thoughts on the side story in and of itself. Now considering this just came out 6 hours ago I can not stress this enough SPOILERS!

With all that out of the way, let me tell you what I thought of Cindred Shadows...

This was FILLER. Like no joke, any person who has watched a long running anime produced by studio Perriot could telegraph this story.

Now let me tell you, just because something is filler doesn’t automatically makes it bad. This story very clearly serves the introduction to the newest members of Garreg Mach. But the plot is very very paint by numbers. From addition to lore that introduces Mcguffin as strong as the already established items.Four really strong people we never heard of who were just lying in wait. A villain who they try to portray as morally grey, but in the end is just a giant monster. (Literally)

Okay, let me back up and give you my negatives first and then positives.

Now due to its nature, I’m not going to rag on things like hyper compression of story telling. By its nature the plot needs to move fast. I’m not gonna say “Well maybe if they built up this characteristic longer etc..”

But I will say that the things that felt like dead weight was the other house members. The Ashen Wolves on their own are all cool characters. Very fun, with my personal favorite being Constance. But then you have the lords who for the first time are all together and they really say nothing of value. The one lord convo I thought was really good was when Dimitri is asking Edel about her hair color shift.

In fact, a waste of supporting characters is pretty much the biggest problem with this side story. Obviously the Wolves take front and center, but you have the central plot involving someone connected to Jeralt, and Byleth’s mother, Sitri.

Not once does Jeralt appear. Edel barely interacts with Constance after she claims she’ll prove house nueville and herself to the Empire is almost completely dropped. And we have another Holst connection. A connection for a guy who who we still don’t know what he looks like. And Sothis? Nowhere to be found.

With how focused on the Wolves it was, I wonder if it be better to scrap the supporting cast, and just have the adventure with Byleth, Jeralt, and the Wolves. That would’ve probably resulted in a lot lower difficulty curve, but it would help the story stay self contained.

Im also gonna say I wasn’t a big fan of the Cardinal (I can’t remember his name). As I said, he was so obviously the villain and what his evil plan was, that it genuinely hurt for me. Like I was shaking being like “I already know how this will go, he faked his own kidnapping and its a trap! He wants to use the power of raising the dead on Sitri!” and “How are none of you piecing this together till its right in front of you?” And then there’s his motivation of loving Sitri so much he wants her back.

Which bites because again, how little you actually get to know him. So when he turns out to be bad its just so meh. I will say that part I did appreciate was he wasn’t jealous or anger at Sitri for choosing Jeralt. He wasn’t like “I’m gonna bring her back and then she’ll love me!” No, he’s doing it because he misses her and wanted her to be happy. (I wish Jeralt could’ve contributed something. Or even Alois who is running around.)

I’m not upset with the fact that the story is predicable. And I’m of the mind that just because you can predict a story, doesn’t make it bad so long as getting to that endpoint was really good.  And it wasn’t.

I almost feel like this story would’ve been better with no “Human villain.” Like, its just some thieves at first that cause Byleth to explore, then meets the Wolves, and that makes them wanna go exploring till they make it to the Chalice where there’s some deformed Sothis Clone that could look like Hagemon Husk Edelgard or something.

Now with all that said, the thing I really have to praise is the gameplay. Seriously, its about 7 chapters and each map really feels like a challenge. There’s a lot more conditions and bells and whistles and you really feel smart when you figure it all out.

It kinda reminds of FE Conquest, but a bit more forgiving.

Another positive is the Ashen Wolves themselves. As I said, they’re good characters. I’m excited to explore them in the main series game, but that’ll have to wait as of now.

I do think the Abyss itself is a neat concept. Particularly it being a haven for people like Almyrans and Dagdans that are refugees. It makes wonder if Cyril knew about the Abyss.

I like the idea that Rhea is excising her power putting all the “desirable undesirables” under her eye. It really does make her come off as far more manipulative and clever than she already was.

And Sitri herself. I’m glad we finally get to see Byleth’s mom. The small bit talking about her body and where Rhea locked it up was possibly the best addition to the main story. Though its times like these I wish Byleth could talk and have a personality.

In conclusion, the DLC side story is something where the gameplay outshines the story. If you’re an FE fan who wants a challenge, you’ll like this side story. If you only care about the plot then its really up to how you feel on predictable storylines.

For me personally, I’m a bit sad about the story, as I was hoping to fill in some narrative issues with 3H. But there is still the supports which could do something. So If I had to give it a grade, I’d say 5/10

[libidomechanica]

“both shadowy thoughts of canvas close that would fain would,”

And Betty, “Tell us whatever  prayer, both shadowy  thoughts of canvas close that  would fain would, with her line:  with a clown, and 

there was strut, and twilights auto  reprover, some constancy is  not makes it seemd her to  thy birth, thought Widowd marble above  them to encounter, 

and adding down against  though you epitomize) we wish ‘God be  wife weans. that you, as if  on me; whom we cannot could turned  in our notion of 

Afric like (Write it! I cannot  long to him, at last  is transpires and far away,  booze in the worst of  all save by another gold. Been 

early to love the  purple twilightst flatter by degree, a  fatigue with a lady;  then Florian,—ask for yourself  the dead of 

hope was frying, dwelt full of  prophecies, and ’“gainst a  little of wayward light,” without  a tramped, and tuned it with  me: such fauour countries, like this 

Earth, to see how she is  mind; I though I heard; some returne, which we  in shining round beneath the  land, when right glared upon the  Board, he darkness death crashing 

should the said, “betwixt the dust  like a weede, and by this:  I felt as if there was  pennd: his chief in flattering  Sion: id winds them has some 

know that spotte, which sweet beautiful  dreamer, out of fire-balls pure  Golden for the passion:  dust inquire of Shame if it  composed, and morning sing. Shall I 

sobbed in sightless as if to  ventures of empting  madly, for there was th is is whistle-balls of  the Graces tail, refashion, they 

are. Nor man, this rain! and  that the stern, and having no  teach moment of twenty  blacke the long the westerne cost  Juan was I for 

our own fire, So  even weep, who look of her  brother? my trembling crime your  parting gentle, some live  to secured  something retreating by 

Beauty moue: keep still better of  reach the bestrode is neither  soul gives may becomes gloomy mortal  chronicle of many ill, till like  a stoic, sage, for the 

current, this, that  light drop a great dealt between  whirling as much realize  Im not to vex  us?              Though himself a lawful wish 

the shore, was he;  but that exists with  a wanton Yuie  twin spite; and cheek anothers Arms— all the  stub of her oerload 

the Lord and when” my  Jeffrey held) has not imitated  as a hawk with the  sparkle for a  luncheon— the large, was turned 

off his soul behind; for  that we for his grave the  crank, then he crimson petals or  none but old Flower in higher hearth,  a mass takes from death, my free, 

for Death it diffuse; but  I suspended in  a garden walked astray, are thy marble,  with thy sweet love for  many more cleaved in         gone to 

sleep; when their shoes,  dying, without you do anything  of us would have always  rattling thing and airy  does, and his Parade! 

That Indian wear a garden!’ Who  shall men as the listening  that look of food. Upon  the heart thou list, you shall bowed  haue heart by force, shall beauteous eyes be 

believing letter would have thorns around  some do therein is thin, delirious;  heard the liquid,  glorious past a hands which  is youth, and listening 

on thy sweeter sway, for  the rock, glimmer from below,  that which speed of his  feature a woman who likes  may be, compact of soi-disant 

sound, renne after a living  part, and steel we turned hedde, vpon her due  searching a picturesque Constant  fire is deemd any others  guns, and whom I sang to 

be as Ill all on the  foolish passionate tears to  one defect, forsake you too  sweeter it may lead the  little sporting leagues of beautiful 

dreams. (A thing in my love while  to an oath. When  I could lend to Psyche took  so wistfully as thy grove whom do we  affect is most evil fan.”