#if you went his lore i posted about it in the past but tldr

[kittehbiscuits]

Doc Ock Beetlejuice... aughh... I rendered something for the first time in a really long time and I am very sleepy now uhhnsncjk I hopenyou like the gtuy

[sorinmarkov]

How much of the "Sorin spends all his days moping around" stuff is legitimate versus just am internet meme?

This is a very good question, and I think the answer is that it really depends.

We are meant to believe that a Pre-Zendikar Sorin is actually a very active and busy person. He travels the multiverse to learn, explore, and generally act as a positive presence on the plane; we don’t know a lot of details about what exactly he did that was good, but his Planeswalker bio and several other lore documents want us to believe that he has a long history of helping other planes aside from Innistrad and Zendikar (as much as you can call what he did there “help”.

Sorin does avoid helping with a lot of the main conflicts for a lot of the Eldrazi arc though. He is still out doing things that could help (resurrecting Ugin for example), but he is very much on the side and not exactly improving the situation beyond that. During SOI he even acts as an active detriment to the saving of Innistrad by killing Avacyn (a good choice for her, but really bad for the people of Innistrad) and choosing to fight Nahiri instead of Emrakul, considering Innistrad a lost cause to be avenged. He is active and doing things, but they’re not always the most helpful-

A Post-War of the Spark Sorin is a very different story.

Sorin was left in a deep depression after the death of Avacyn, and spent the next two years grieving and sulking in the ruins of his family home. He did not do anything to stop eternal night from falling on Innistrad despite not actually wanting it to fall, and when The Gatewatch + Adeline and Arlinn came to ask him to lend them an artifact that would help them put a stop to it, he refused to allow them to borrow it and was very much unhelpful, even attacking Arlinn for mentioning Avacyn’s name. He actively tried to prevent them from doing something he wanted done.

By the time Crimson Vow rolls around (about one month after eternal night fell at the end of Midnight Hunt) Sorin seems to be motivated enough to at least ask his grandfather for advice on how to help the plane, and with the motivation of The Gatewatch and being forced to confront his past and the trauma that led him to that behavior to begin with he seems to develop into a character who does want to help people and do things again by the end of VOW.

We haven’t seen him on screen since the end of the wedding, but in that time he has gone out of his way to take the sick and injured into his home so he could care for them, team up with Arlinn Kord to prepare Innistrad for the Phyrexian invasion, and went out of his way to warn a few of the necromancers of Innistrad of the Phyrexians, possibly because of the undead’s resistance to the oil.

TLDR: Sorin was a very active character to both good and bad ends before Innistrad was invaded by Emrakul, but ended up in a grief induced sulk until the beginning of Crimson Vow (a set released five years after Eldritch Moon and taking place about 2 years after in universe) to the point where he would actively prevent other people from doing things that he wants done. I think the whole joke originates from that, and from the fact that Sorin has generally just proven not to always be the most helpful character around despite how insanely powerful he is and how much potential he has to help other people.

Thankfully it looks like Crimson Vow really did help him grow as a character, and it seems like he is going to be more helpful than ever before considering he finally has a support group and cut off his shitty family. What we have seen of him since then all looks to be a massive shift and character and it’s all looking up from here :D.

[jackie-mae]

with your outfit drawings for the mystreet character. im so curious about with vylad having outfits for s2-s6, if you want can you expand upon on that?

I WOULD LOVE TOO >:3c

Long and Short of it is I've always hated how Vylad was there in Mystreet S1, PDH S1 and then he just... dropped off the face of the earth after that. It always irked me a bit when it would show Garroth and Zane having brotherly bonding moments (and trauma) and always having the thought of (Man wasn't there a third brother in all this?) there in the back of my mind.

I'm now going to do some little bullet points of my Vylads role in S2-6 but this is a great time to mention I've never seen past S4 so I'm running on Wiki Lore and the gospel of AO3 and @catzgam3rz; who collaborates (Read: Infodump and Ramble) on a hypothetical rewrite with me so it gets vague and murky for the later seasons.

S1:

Basically the same as canon (as in S1 is kinda just slice of life) but instead of Vylad just travelling around the world he is an off the grid hunter that wanders the wilderness all the time (The freak)

This is based on my very fuzzy memories of MCD Vylad always kinda just being in trees as he watched Lady Aphmau in the early seasons so I just put Mystreet Vylad in trees for fun this time

Has a vaguely similar relationship to his brothers as in MCD. in the sense it's better with Garroth and more strained with Zane

S2:

Goes to LLP with the rest of the main cast (which consists of the 11 big designs I made) because season 2 is not when you should be writing out characters Jessica

He wears little rainboots and unlike Laurance (Who FYI wears cowboy boots a majority of the time) the rest of the cast did not get him into flip flops before he went trudging into the ocean (again a freak)

I like to imagine that if any drama is going on in the story you could always see him floating around on an inner tube off in the distance

S3:

Again back to slice of life so he does a lot of shenanigans with the cast here

This is the season where the shadow knights feature but for the life of me, I cannot remember if Vylad was officially a part of them or not (And his Wikia is not even a paragraph~) But if it turns out he was there'll probably be more shenanigans around that.

He ends up leaving mid-season (Fall ish?) to go on a hunting expedition

S4:

Oh hey look Vylad is back because we don't believe in writing characters off with little rhyme or reason Jessica

Vylads hunting expedition ends up being in the same area as the lodge. and we all know nothing bad happens there!

there's now a little ski village downhill from the lodge which is where Vylad is staying at seasons start. He's good friends with a lot of the people there.

He's a werewolf now... Don't worry about it!

Oh, what's this? Is that relationship building between him and Zane on the horizon? Well, that won't hurt at all, will it?

AY:

A not-alone buddy comforts his not-alone buddy (I do not know much about Aphmau's Year but know it's short so that's all I got)

S5:

As he is a part of the Lodge crew he gets to go to Starlight!

Possibly is involved in a certain shenanigan with his brothers I'll be posting a comic about that in a few days

Get's lost constantly. Figures Starlight being an island means he can't really get lost since he'll hit ocean eventually and refuses to acknowledge how big said island is.

Doesn't float around like in S2 but you can still find him wading on the shore in his boots

being a hyperattentive freak, he get's some bad vibes from the island sooner than most

S6

Gonna be honest, me and Catz have not watched all of When angels fall but are planning to soon so I'll just leave you with the fun fact that all of my season 6 designs are supposed echo my MCD's designs for the characters (Since S6 is when it was decided hey maybe Diaries is really important here now)

TLDR: Vylad was shafted in Mystreet so I'm fix it

[iamdispleased]

Found Some More Hatchetfield Lore!

tldr; at bottom

I remembered that one of the Lang brothers said that Wiggly is based off of Cthulhu, so I decided to do something digging on a piece of shit author, H.P. Lovecraft and y’all… Okay, I don’t know if it counts as lore, but Hatchetfield is right under our noses.

CW: H.P. Lovecraft’s writing is full of bigotry, and if you plan on reading it, prepare yourself. For example, there is an evil entity named Shub-Niggurath. Yeah.

I don’t like H.P. Lovecraft, nor do I enjoy his writing in general, so here are some things that people should look up if you want to find out Hatchetfield’s inspiration. More thoughts on why I cannot write about him are at the bottom.

Also! I do not look down or dislike people who enjoy H.P. Lovecraft’s writing and his creations, and would really love for people to continue to look into things I cannot. I hope my little notes help!

(I’ve linked the stories in pink!)

SPOILERS: Hatchetfield? I guess? The Cthulhu Mythos & The Dream Cycle.

Cthulhu Mythos:

Just read ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. Everything makes sense.

Miss Holloway is based off of a character named Horvath Blayne from the anthology series The Trail to Cthulhu by August Derleth. Here’s one of them. ‘The Black Island, Being the Narrative of Horvath Blayne’.

Duke Keane is also taken from The Trail to Cthulhu.

The narrator of ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ is named Francis Wayland Thurston.

Professor Hidgens is based off of an art student named Henry who is known for being eccentric and living in solitude. (The Call of Cthulhu)

Emma Perkins is named after a ship called the Emma. The crew got into a battle with Cthulhu’s cult members, which resulted in the Emma having one survivor. (The Call of Cthulhu)

John MacNamara is based off of the police officer John Legrasse. (The Call of Cthulhu)

Willabella Muckwab resembles Lavinia Whateley, from ‘The Dunwich Horror’. She has a son, Wilbur Whateley (Wilbur Cross), whose father is the cosmic entity Yog-Sothoth (Wiggog Y’rath). Lavinia went missing on Halloween, and the assumption is that Wilbur killed her.

The Black Book is the Necremonium.

There’s always professors somewhere.

The Dream Cycle:

LOL. The Dream Cycle is a collection of short stories surrounding dream cities. I honestly haven’t read anything about this other than brief stuff from the Wiki, but the connections are painfully obvious.

The word ‘oblivion’ is written in the Black Book. H.P. Lovecraft has a poem titled Ex Oblivione. The narrator sees a gate in his dreams and wants to get past it, but he can’t access it. He eventually does, though. Yikes. Read this post, picture Willabella Muckwab as the narrator for Ex Oblivione, and enjoy.

Bonus: Some of the covers of the magazine that published H.P. Lovecraft’s work (Weird Tales) are sprinkled throughout Hatchetfield.

“Pete, get behind me! I’ve got a gun.”

“Steph… it’s a ghost. I don’t think that’s gonna do any good.”

Rosary? Killer Track, much? Also, the art style for the Black Book kind of resembles this… huh.

-

Note: I had planned to read all of H.P. Lovecraft and the associated work, but the racism is too much for me. I can’t “separate the art from the artists”, especially when everything evil is so obviously and horrendously based on Black people, as well as other races. Again— Shub-Niggurath. Like, seriously?

It’s a huge bummer, because I have so many thoughts— like the implications behind Willabella Muckwab associated with Lavinia Whateley, and Wilbur Cross also being associated with Wilbur Whateley. So much is at our finger tips.

I’m still going to be writing other things, though!

I have more of the Black Book deciphered, so that’s exciting, especially since I actually got some stuff right in my first post. (It was looked at through a more religious lenses rather than an H.P. Lovecraft lenses, though.) BUT STILL. MY EYES HURTING FROM INTENSE SQUINTING SESSIONS WAS NOT FOR NAUGHT! And I know I state some of these things as if they’re facts, but they’re ‘probably based on’ stuff.

Alright. I’m off to read about physics, the concept of nothingness, and the æther in the name of theatre kid.

tldr; the Lang bros made a the TTRPG Call of Cthulhu homebrew and turned it into musicals.

[linktoo-doodles]

you've probably been asked this before but if you could change anything (rewrite remove add) about ctntduo (character, dynamic,events) what would it be?

Interesting, haven't been asked this before actually!

One of the crucial issues with ctntduo especially once it was established as an actual plot point during Las Nevadas is that while ccWilbur was focused on his own arc and how he and quackity were paralleled, ccQuackity had his own story to tell. He clearly included cWilbur's influence on his character, but nothing past this. I think it impacted the weight of tntduo's dynamic in the story.

In his finale and pentultimate stream, Quackity focused a lot more on dapuo and his character's dynamic with Charlie. I don't even fully agree with how it went, because he clearly wanted to include more stuff with the whole las nevadas crew and his dynamic with Charlie kind of went into a direction that didn't really fully flesh out their nuances that I would have liked. Charlie was a bit... woobified in his writing. But most significantly for this post, Quackity did not have the same emotional investment for ctntduo for the same way Wilbur did, and it accidentally shifted the character dynamic to being less of equal stance too.

So firstly, I mean this is a common suggestion but to have more streams with Wilbur to intersect the burger arc was one thing. I really like how it was more in Wilbur's POV to make Quackity's role in this more uncertain! But I would have desperately wanted Wilbur to have taken part of the prison break, clearly idolized Dream for saving him, then wrestled with exile after Tommy told him. Pissed off Quackity got to Dream before he did. Wished it was him doing the heroic torturing to gleefully put himself as the hero "saving" his brother. Inconsolable differences, where Wilbur straight up fantasizes killing cDream over and over was one of the most beautiful streams ever tbh.

Another theory that my friend suggested and NEVER got out of my head is that after Wilbur planted tnt detonations to fuck with Quackity, Quackity actively destroys a part of his city and blames it on Wilbur. Vile. Underhanded. No one has any evidence and people are quick to turn on Wilbur -- Tommy believes him though.

And, I've never admitted this but I personally believe Wilbur's finale had initially involved asking Quackity run away with him to Utah. I know. Not Tommy, he'd idiotically choose Quackity. I know that sounds really stupid but for this to work, Quackity would immediately turn him down. It would parallel when Wilbur eagerly accepts the "offer" to join Quackity's Las Nevadas from the very beginning. During that time, Wilbur is so in disbelief that Quackity would turn him down. You can see him convincing himself that he's changed for the better, you can see him really believing he'd be the perfect man for the job. But this time, when Quackity says no, Wilbur accepts it.

They would never work out, bc that is not the POINT of ctntduo. Each have their own arcs that are not resolved by ending up together. They go their separate ways in the end, but respect each other. I never liked him anyway.

so TLDR

More burger lore streams... We really didn't get much of ctntduo

Dream's prison break with Wilbur's slow descent realizing his "saviour" is not to be idolized

Quackity destroys part himself in the process trying to get back at Wilbur

"Come to Utah with me?" "...I won't."

[starcrossedkaiju]

From this post:

all the unrealized concepts I had for a Third Life novelization with pretty in-depth world building and backstory that I never really got to see through because of circumstances but. Yeah.

If you don't mind, I'd like to hear more about it 👀👀👀👀 (not forced)

Yeah ofc!

Slight disclaimer that I did most of this back in the olden days of 2021 when 3rd Life was the only life series installment, and it wasn’t known for sure whether or not any more seasons would be made. I also unfortunately have not watched anything after Last Life, so I don’t really know The Lore past what I’ve made up.

The general idea was to write a play-by-play of the actual Third Life events, except the timeline spans multiple years rather than days/weeks. With the characters all starting out in their late teens to late twenties and ending about ten years later. There would be heavy focus on the world before the borders went up. As in, there used to be a functioning society that fell into ruin and division after years of civil war, and as punishment (and to cover up their own crimes), the Administration of the server (the equivalent of a governing body irl) basically locked everyone away and threw out the key.

The events that happened before the borders would obviously inform the characters’ decisions throughout their time trying to survive in the 3rd life map, as they all came from different backgrounds in the somewhat dystopian world they used to live in. Mainly in that a few of them were much closer to privilege than the others, and prejudice against one another must be overcome from the very start if they want to live through the first winter, and then the rest of their lives.

I won’t go into the specifics of every single character’s pre-game lives because that would be entirely exhaustive (though I may on a separate post if there’s interest); but I will give a little run down of Scott’s deal since his is the most different and he’s also the one that post is about.

Scott is not actually from the 3rd Life server (servers would be kind of like planets or something). He’s from another world which was taken over by greifers. It is subtly implied that this world used to be the Origins SMP map (this dates me significantly, I was not lying about this all being conceptualized in 2021), but it is unrecognizable now. He was twelve when the world was destroyed and taken over, and as a powerful Origin, he had to hide his identity as to not be press-ganged into working for the greifers. Hence the veil and the modest clothing. Eventually, when things went even more to shit, his father “broke the game” and forcefully sent Scott out of the world; and in a stroke of cosmic unluckiness he landed in the Third Life map when he was sixteen. Although much to the confusion of certain characters, Scott actually seems to like it there better.

So that’s the abridged version! Tldr I guess I would advertise it as a survival thriller with some political drama aspects.

[rezonan]

Cool new blog you're starting here, really liked your Red Hood post. So wanted to ask, what you would do with Tim Drake? Since your whole but about ways for Jason to move as a character interested me

How i would move Tim Drake as a character

I have no idea.

First question on this blog and I don't have a concrete answer for it, so I'll do what I do best and ramble.

My thoughts on Tim and why he's stuck in the first place

This might be a long section. There's a TLDR at the end if you want a summary of all this and just wanna know what I would do with him

So here's the thing, while I have been keeping up with comic lore and stories through wikis and the like for years since 2016 back when I was 10, I never actually read comics consistently at least as a hobby untill about a year and a half ago. In all those comics, I've only just seen the appeal of tim as a character, I just made a blog post talking about that not too long ago. Not to say I don't like him, I definitely do now, that's for sure. (Also wanna say to bare in mind I don't have universal knowledge of the character so give me some slack.)

So thing is, DC is stuck with him as a character, from what I can get from interviews and the older robin stuff, Tim was supposed to be the 'normal one', unlike Jason or Dick he wasn't brought into this life through tragedy, he went into the life because he wanted to and got into Into a lot of tragedies in a kind of reverse way. Which like I said before, is a beautiful piece.

He also was supposed to BE robin, as in he is THE robin, a lot of comics I've read of him so far before Damian (who we'll get to in a bit), he just seemed to feel like he would always be Robin, he was in universe from what I can see the best one to the point an out of character batman used bus girlfriend to get him back, Dick even said it once I think that he was the best robin, it kinda felt like he was always gonna be Robin and kinda grow the role past the sidekick status, I mean the man actually made the costume cool for the first time.

Then Damian showed up.

Now I don't have a definitive ranking of the robins but I wouldn't be surprised Damian is on top, he fits the asshole trying to be better archetype that I am a sucker for, I liked his stuff with Dick even if I haven't read a lot of it and bus arrogance while annoying to some with the good writers is just plain funny to me and like most of the Batfamily is badass. It also helps I grew up with the DCAMU movies where he was basically the main character.

But he kinda screwed Tim over. All that stuff I said about Tim growing the Robin role or any of that. GONE, I wouldn't say it was intentional on anyone's parts but it still happened.

In Red Robin #1, Tim’s Storyline following the Battle for the Cowl, Tim sees Damian in the Robin costume and that Dick has chosen him to be Robin. And you can really feel what I mean when I say Damian basically took what Tim had going for him at the time.

(lol early Damian was a dick)

Doesn't help that said DCAMU movies I mentioned basically omitted Tim meaning an entire generation of people (like me) didn't even know the dude existed. So now his identity as Robin was basically taken from him in the public eye, Dick had Nightwing and Jason has Red Hood, Damian is Robin now. And Tim is ... Red Robin? I'll get to that name but I wanna make another point.

Coming back to him being the 'Normal one' I meant not only that he was the dude who wanted to get into the hero life without tragedy or anything (which I'm now realizing is kinda a rehash of Barbara Gordon but whatever, I like Damian and his basically a male Cassandra at times) but it was also the fact he wasn't a orphan, yeah again Barbara again did this somewhat but her dad was Commissioner Gordon, Tim(forgive me if I make a mistake guys) had a normal dad and school life and everything. He was just a normal high school kid like you and me who just happened to be a crime fighting badass, kinda like Spider-Man.

Untill multiple tragedies struck and he did become an orphan

Now while in my ramblings I should have mentioned this before the Damian post, DC has taken another thing that set Tim apart from the rest of the robins away. So DC gets Bruce to adopt him, which I love but again, the uniqueness is gone a bit.

So now with have a Robin-less, orphan Tim. (Not sure if he's currently Robin or not, the costume confuses me).

So DC just has nowhere to go with him, they can't make him robin and bringing his dad back would be reductant. So that's where sigh... Red Robin comes along.

So at this point, Tim takes on a new identity and series written by Yost (one of my favorite writers) and it's awesome so far, Tim's smart and detective-like and god that costume just great.

(yes I know that's Jason in the costume but that's a point I'm gonna bring up)

But it also drops another issue with DC and it's direction with him.

I'm sure you've heard of the whole 'All the other robins graduated into better names, even his girlfriend but Tim still has robin in his name's and honestly I freaking agree. It just doesn't separate hum from robin enough for it to really catch on or make him look like he's a new entity. The costume is great but here's the thing.

Tim is the 3rd person to use it. It was originally created in Kingdom come for that universes Dick to use and then by Jason in countdown. So now we have Tim inheriting another costume from his two brothers and it just doesn't work for me

So over the years especially post New 52, DC has been making multiple attempts to go with the character from a costume change to naming him..... Drake??? Who did that anyway?? Dumb

They also made him come out as bisexual which I think is a cool change(I didn't 2 years ago but I was a shit person back then), it makes him more diverse and basically opened his character to a new market. The results and execution of this change has been... Interesting (WHY DID THEY BREAK HIM UP WITH STEPH AND WHY DOES BERNARD EXIST SO BORING!!)

So Tldr: DC got rid of what of what made his character orginally unique for the most part and removed his brand as the current Robin from him and haven't come up with a convincing replacement for a name and direction to take him.

What I would do with Tim

Again not sure since I still haven't read enough to make good judgement calls but there has been this idea in my head for a while now.

Tim Post-Red Robin was interesting mentally, I've talk about how he was so screwed by god at that point in my Tim Drake post. His friends and family even wanting to get him to have therapy.

I read a cool fic called 'New 52 redux' where the new 52 doesn't happen and he attempts suicide, he certainly feels suicidal or at least depressed in this comic, at least I think so, hope I'm not projecting on him there.

He feels like he thinks no one is on his side anymore in his mind, getting paranoid, cold Aka like Bruce, he was acting like Bruce in this run to me. Which was an interesting development since if you read the comics around the early 2000s you would think he would grow into the opposite.

So here's my idea, they lean into this identity Crisis and slow degrade into Bruce at his worst and take him to Hub City, the worst city in DC, yes even worse than Gotham. The question's orginal city that was so bad he quit for his own sanity.

A city so bad that homeless people used dead babies to beg for cash.

I would also give him a new name. Some of the fanon ones I see are pretty cool, Cardinal, Grey Ghost, Gotham Knight etc love em and any would be fine.

So the idea here is that Tim in his Post-Crisis Red Robin mental state, basically tries to singlehandedly take the city from crime, just like Bruce, leaning into how close they were acting but also wanting to prove to everyone else that he can be just as good as Bruce was. Get him to start a business hw would grow as the city moved on and use to profits to improve the city, would be incredibly depressing and brooding.

From there you can either show he's fighting a losing battle and make Tim fall more into his hole of mental issues and Bruce like behavior of pushing others away or let him actually start to win and feel better about himself and start to open up with his family and accept help. Then do the usually status quo stories in hub city.

Of course as usual I have another idea, If most of young justice are dead like I think they were at this time(Retcons and all that make this hard), try and set up a new hero team somewhere, in which he leads the next set of young heroes to avoid all the mistakes he faced as a hero.

Welp that was longer than I thought, hope that satisfied tour question.

[teeto-peteto]

Out of curiosity, and I apologise for any inconvenience, but what is it about Pyke that makes you so endeared with him?

okay at the point im writing this its 16:45 pm, im european and im going on and off writing between games, drawing etc. this is probably and im not joking the longest, hugest post i have ever written not only on tumblr but in any social media in general. I had to take notes to reorganize my thoughts cause trust me, there's a lot of things to unpack.

Short answer: cringely grabs the microphone while blushing ...i ...i like him...

Long ass fucking answer omw to make the longest tumblr post in history: My relationship with Pyke as a character its, somewhat, funny. Pyke was released after Zoe, and Kai'sa, and Neeko was released after him. In 2018 there was this ''drama'' around League Of Legends fandom where people was tired of, what they call, 'Disney style characters' like Zoe. Kai'Sa release didnt help the ''drama'' as how the character was designed and put together. I didnt mind much about the 'Disney style' drama cause, everything that has sparkles and glitter on i love it. Then this motherfucker came into picture. His new champion teaser popped on League Of Legends youtube channel and in the game client, and of course, i had to peek my eye.

Im saying this now, and I am being completely honest:

I hated his guts, i despised him.

I didnt like him, at all. Not that i was 100% only sparkle champions, but i hated him. I didnt understand him, i didnt get the design, and i again thought that Riot was pulling again on male champions being shirtless and just talking about war and fist fighting while being edgy. I vividly remember one of my friends asking my thoughts on him after the trailer was out, and i told him that i didnt like Pyke at all, i actually did hate him. But...

I literally changed my opinion in just days

I dont know what part of my brain activated or deactivated, but i blankly stared at this guys trailer and the leaked splashart and... i changed my mind. He went from a champion i was not interested on at all to stiking my chords like no other champion has ever done. I started liking him without a reason at first, unable to pinpoint why i suddendly changed my mind. I waited for his official release, and oddly enough, i started playing him. Im not used to play male characters cause its not my comfort zone but... Pyke felt... different somewhat? Im not even used to play engage/hook characters but i felt like playing him.

When his release was out in 2018, i was already on my first year of Art school, and i vividly remember being on the computer schoolroom for homework with my class and I started reading his lore in the computer screen trying not to get catched. I snucked out of classes to go to the bathroom and read his lore and short story, see fanart and the tldrs of his designs... I was literally behaving like a little girl when she sees a cute guy, and, techically speaking, its what was kinda happening. I had the shortest 'enemies to lovers' arc in history cause i hated him for, maybe, less than a week.

Lets talk about lore!! Yipiee!!

Focusing on League's original lore, we can see a glimpse of who Pyke was before becoming an undead. My views on his character are a mix of my personal thoughts of him and the canon lore. Seeing this little glimpse of the man he was before that he never wants to talk about again is, interesting. It makes my mind wonder. Did he believe that he was being underpaid and exploited as a butcher? Did he think that captains and rich/powerful people abuse their power? Did he ever raise his voice? Was he prideful, and its why he doesnt want to talk about his past self? Or was he just too naive to know and its ashamed of it? Pyke is the type of person who is not talkative, but that is very reflexive. As the other side of the coin, Illaoi is also very reflexive but clearly expresses her thoughts without filter. The fact that he was also a buhru makes my head spin. It makes me wonder, why didnt he stay with them? Why didnt he look for a job within the buhru, instead looking for it on the city? What was the relationship with her buhru mom? What happened to his dad? Was he around, present at all? How many time has passed? What is Pyke's actual age?

Pyke's tragedy is, to a very lower extend, relatable. Its easy to identify with him. Everyone's got their lifeline cut sometime. But what is truly interesting for me and always has me craving to hug this man is the extent of his trauma.

In 'And then, teeth', Pyke has flashbacks of his death after killing Mazier and staring at her body. He can remember how dark it was, how slimy it felt, how he couldnt see well because of the sweat covering his eyes. How he tried, with all his forces, to escape to no avail. Pyke also seems, somewhat, lucid at times. Allow me to explain. Pyke is still him, that is clear. Yes, he hears voices, and they are always there, but he is still his own person. He is able to remember things from the past, he's able to act by his own, to think by his own, but the voices are always there. When i say 'lucid', i mean when he's either killing, or interacting with the list. In this short story, Pyke stares at the list, after killing Mazier, unable to believe that he actually did kill his whole crew, but suddendly comes to a normal, realization, 'Where did i get the ink?'.

Before killing Bekke, he says that he was there, watching him die, smiling. Makes you wonder if he's actually talking with rage and bloodthirst, or, if he's actually talking seriously. What if, he was talking seriously, but not being literal? We know Bekke wasnt there, he is not even from Bilgewater. But what if Pyke actually meant that, every single captain, every single person with power, constantly watch him die? constantly watching the people working for them dying, only for the powerful ones to become richer? Is he actually completely doomed at this point, is it a mix of both the voices and his own thoughts? Or is he just... him?

People that isnt much interested in his lore often thinks hes a mindless killer. Not that in mad, i think its stupid being mad about it. But to say that it's a false state, its valid. Pyke would never, ever lay a finger on someone he knows its fully innocent BEFORE killing his whole crew. 'But what if Bekke, for example, was just innocent? Maybe he was powerful but a good man?' I think thats to very own interpretation. What can i say, i hate rich people ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ im good with my man killin them all, slay. To some extent hes kind of a Robin Hood but bloodier you know? In the end he steals from the rich to share the gold with others. Gold that he wished he had back when he was an underpaid butcher.

Back to Pyke's trauma again cause i got lost on my own notes, its interesting how he behaves. As someone as introverted, and after becoming an undead, you might believe that Pyke now doesnt trust ANYONE. He doesnt leave his guard down, never trusting never believing anything. But... its completely the opposite. Its clearer on his in-game interactions. 'I needed help back there' and 'I work better with a crew'... waahhhh. But you know where this becomes even more clearer?

Ruined King baby

I want to marry him. I want to marry Pyke in general but Ruined King Pyke hes a baby and i need him i want to pat his head and tell him everything is going to be fine AUGH. How he settled up with a bunch of random people, allow me to say, after one of them wooped his ass, and with a captain, clearly a target for him, and he was OKAY with it. What a king. Slay.

Illaoi removed his voices, thanks queen. And you know what we see? Pyke behaving like a more troubeled person than a violent one... It blew my mind. The fact that he sharpens and cleans his knives and harpoon because he's stressed, the fact that he talks passive aggresive with Illaoi even if he's thankful. The fact that he likes Sarah enough not to kill her, and that he trusts her. He's able to trust a captain, even after what happened to him. It broke me. It broke me seeing his relationship with Ahri, how she was sorry, how she just murmured 'thanks' and then stood quiet when Ahri said to Sarah that he was, probably, never going to be able to explain the complexity of his trauma and his feelings. Seeing him having nice conversations with Braum and Yasuo... seeing him feel, welcomed... you actually feel good for him, if you have been stuck with him in your mind like me for years you actually feel happy for him. Pyke has friends. It makes you also wonder about the end... Why did he go? Why did he never say goodbye? Its true he said that once he was done with Viego, he was out, thats his only achievement. But... in the end, we see him go with Braum, Ahri, Yasuo and Illaoi to the tavern... Did he change his mind in the way? Did he just randomly turned the opposite direction? What the hell hapenned i need to know. This game made me cry. Not with the end. This game made me cry everytime this guy opened his mouth. Because he's relatable at some extent. And knowing that at some time later, if Sentinels of Light was canon and better written... Pyke would have been betrayed. Again. By Sarah. Someone he trusted blindly again. Can you imagine? How could have that developed? Would Pyke ever be able to trust again? Would he return to his patterns or would he just promise himself not to ever trust again?

Something i really liked about Ruined king lays on the early hours of the game, when we first see Pyke when we play as Illaoi. She calls him a monster, an abomination. But Pyke refuses to fight, even if he considers it an interesting battle, he refuses, because he has no reason, confirming that Pyke's kills are always selective and he would never hurt an innocent, even if you treat him poorly. I have talked a lot about Ruined King so ill try not to over repeat myself. Lets talk about

Design queen slay yass pop off

I just think he's neat! Look at that guy!! They made a marbelous job. Referring to all his models and concepts of course. Its the creepy but cool looking bandana with the teeth that gives him that eery, but also dinstictive colour focus on his design. The bone jaws around his shoulders reminding us about his death, the ripped cape, the fish teeth and teeth knives hanging from his belt giving him this 'shark' style everyone likes to explore on him... the gloves, the nails in a lot of concepts and promotional arts, the now grey-ish tribal tattoos representing his past as a buhru... The list hanging from his side, the boots with spikes to work... Something i like of him in League is the CTRL-5 animation where you can change his harpoon to how it probably looked when he was alive to the eery, phantasmagoric and murky looking one. Its an amazing touch. I love his design and i love that they didnt go for the typical 'drowned pirate spirit'. He looks so neat. The scars, the eyes... the ropes hanging around, the baits hanging from his cape... waahhh

Point number 2343939

............he's pretty..............

im going to hell and its his fault. What can i say? I like him.

Moving onto a more serious, and now probably more directly answering your question. Why am i so attached to him?

Yes, i do like his lore, and i have a bunch of questions i love to fill the blanks myself with own headcanons, i do like his design a lot aswell and i loved him on Ruined King, and i love playing him on league.

But, Pyke suddendly became a recurrent thought on my mind. I wasnt on a very good moment back in 2018. I felt undesirable, in all aspects, my group of friends wasnt the best back in the day and i was often ignored when i vented about trauma. I then suddendly saw a character that i could relate to, but that was also strong willed, and stood up for himself. I realized that, maybe i just wanted someone to protect me. Its a thought that sucks, not being able to protect yourself and seeking others to hide behind. But... he was there on my mind in my darkest places, and honestly? he hasnt left not even a single day. Made me thought that, maybe he would actually listen through my problems, maybe he would have stood up for me and protected me, maybe he would take the care i desperately craved for real people to give me. Sometime's hes the only reason i decide to get up from bed and do anything, i dont have it the roughest but i struggle emotionally with a lot. He's like, my emotional support, ironically, he's a support champion, haha, funny.

I then started interacting and seeing people who also formed these bonds with fictional characters, and suddendly i didnt feel that weird. He makes me feel like a little kid in love, and... it helps me heal. It keeps my mind busy, and i like him a lot enough not to get tired from thinking about him. Skins and AU's are helpful cause i can also explore other contexts of him, other things i didnt ask myself yet...

Getting sappy, i love everything about him. And it makes me happy seeing people that also love everything about him. I love it. I love him. And its been 5 hard years, but that also contains a lot of healing thanks to a random character from league of legends.

Woah! Its 4:06 am! thats a while haha. I missed a lot, my mind was fuzzy. Well, i have to go back to my day dreaming <3

[spoolziecore]

you dont know how much that question means to me.

OKAY. SO. the characters pictured are like. artistic depictions of me and my friends characters in this minecraft smp were in (RebootSmp) that is a moreorless peaceful server (with no griefing allowed, keep inventory on and overall just a peaceful vibe to it,) but what it lacks in in gameplay, it makes up for with lore!!!

The lore for RebootSMP is really long, but TLDR; back then, before the tribes existed, hybrids and non hybrids lived peacefully, some friends, some neighbors, some even lovers. Until, a group named the Reservists was formed, a group of non hybrids that despised hybrids and saw them as overpowered. Years and years flew by as the Reservists grew and grew— until, chaos struck.

The Calamity; devastating event that destroyed the human and hybrid connection forever. By that point, the Reservists had gained enough members to take down several communities; and so they did. They targeted the strongest hybrids, seeking to make the go extinct - but not without getting what they desired most first.

All hybrid species lost a significant amount of members, but several went completely extinct, these being the cave spider, elder guardian, endermen, ender dragon, warden, iron golem, piglin brute, wither and wither skeleton hybrid species. These species now no longer exist, yet remnants of their past can be found throughout the world. At most, it's possible that one or two have survived, but it's highly doubted.

The fish (the sun in this depiction) is named Deez. Copy pasted from his official lore that the creator of Deez sent; Deez was a literal doorstep baby, aka orphan. Ended up on a sweet old lady(who lived alone)'s door one day and he was taken in, he doesn't know who his real parents were and is pretty clueless about it. After he grew up, he moved out. Trying to find a place to settle and stuff, where he met Rowan. The reason why he was like. ditched and stuff; They (Deez's parents) were blessed with this dumb little shit and were happy one day, until they realized "hey maybe our child could grow up and have elder guardian features." And just had to find a new home for him, obviously he didn't inherit the cool features but they didn't knew since, he was still just a little fish fetus. So, they just put him in a basket and put him on a doorstep. Why didn't they choose to put him at an orphanage? I don't know, maybe because they didn't trust him with an organization that's run by non hybrids.

Rowan is the cat (the moon in this depiction), i havent exactly made a full backstory for them yet, but, heres what ive thought of so far; Rowan was a golden child, winning competitions left and right, being loved by their parents, until they found out who they really were.

They tried to come out to their parents, but their parents told them what they are is 'disgraceful' and 'going against gods order' or whatever, and kicked them out at 17 or so years old.

They wandered the taiga forests for a while, their fur growing to adapt to the cold, unforgiving winters and snowfalls, that was when they found Deez.

yeah. thats it!! this post is. so long i am so sorry UMMM BUT YEAH!! also sidenote Deez and Rowan see eachother more as siblings compared to partners in crime so do with that information as you will ^_^

heres them in minecraft :3 ignore the fact deez is headless his skin is literally a fish. ummm. Their duo name is Inverted Duo because blue inverted is orange!

like. this is literally his skin.

Bore the shadows that you made, With ⠀ no ⠀ light ⠀of ⠀ my ⠀own.

[dailyadventureprompts]

I would love to see a Monsters Reimagined on Yuan-Ti. I really like the aesthetic of snake humanoids, but the way they are described as “evil because they have no emotions by default” and the fact that they play into some of the worst mesoamerican stereotypes has always rubbed me the wrong way.

IMonsters Reimagined: Yuan-Ti

I'll admit that this one was a little bit of a challenge from a conceptual angle, in no small part because yuan-ti are one of d&d's many "monstrous humanoids" who's presence in the game is pretty much summed up by what kind of animal they are. Very specifically, they embody what western audiences THINK snakes represent: decadence, hedonism, scheming, coldness, eastern exoticism, mysticism, and evil. They are snake cultists, in that they are snakes who are part of a cult, and they are cultists who worship snakes, everything they do in the game is in some way related to cults and/or snakes, and that makes this post more of a full on reinvention than a simple reinterpretation.

That said, I love both challenges AND chances for me to give my opinion on things, so I'm happy to share my top to bottom thoughts on the serpentfolk beneath the cut. For now, the TLDR is that if you want to do something interesting with them, use the snake-cult transformation gimmick, but set it in the past, meaning that modern day Yuan-Ti are the descendants of heretics, visibly marked out as untrustworthy much in the same way that tieflings are. Some may lean in to this sinister reputation, while others attempt to hide it. Others use their hypnotic charm to carve out a place for themselves as courtiers, merchants, hucksters and influencers.

What's wrong: Much like orcs, Yuan-Ti were a pulp-adventure monster made to decouple tropes about exotic and sinister eastern spiritualities from any one particular culture. They were the default enemies to throw in if you needed fodder for a forgotten desert/jungle temple, and they rode the snake gimmick HARD, having traps, weapons, buildings, minions, cultures and religions all built around snakes. Yuan-ti culture went about as deep as finding an excuse to capture players and stick them to an altar for sacrifice, and most authors left it at that.

The more recent interpretation of Yuan-Ti ( present in Volo’s guide) paints them as a priestly faction of a bronze-age human empire that unlocked a process to transform themselves into a “more evolved” form. The transformation requires human sacrifice, but specifically makes them smarter, which creates a feedback loop where great technological and magical advancement leads to territorial expansion, which in term leads to more slaves to fuel the yuan-ti’s evolutionary process. I’m not going to lie, this is some great worldbuilding, and is certainly something that fits into a fantasy bronze age.  The problem occurs that despite thousands of years passing canonically since the rise and fall of the serpent empire, the Yuan-ti are STILL AT IT, huddling in their decrepit temples and having made 0 social or technological process. Despite their updated lore, they still only exist to bushwack heroes traveling through equatorial wilderness and provide minions for greater campaigns. 

it’s also weird to me that the Yuan-ti are singled out as if they were a particularly wicked force in history as nothing about the ancient yuan-ti empire was particularly more brutal than any IRL culture of a comparative era. Expansion, conquest, exploitation, and enslavement is what empires DO, regardless of whether their priesthood happens to be cold-blooded or not. The fact that the rich and powerful of that era would sacrifice others for their own benefit is just a given, and the fact came along with a scaled transformation and “physical perfection” is no different than a feudal lord going to war for plunder, or a modern tycoon overworking his employees to afford a new yacht.

As D&D baddies go, Yuan-Ti are odd in that they somewhat subvert the the “always chaotic evil” trope by not being spiritually compelled to do evil the way orcs or gnolls are. Instead, they’re universal sociopaths and their culture is just laser focused on the “Other people aren't actually people” angle. Nevermind that a culture like this couldn’t actually sustain itself, as civilization is only sustained by people working together, compromising, and caring about one another. 

How do we Fix this: I think a lot of yuan-ti lore can be salvaged by thinking of them less as a “race” and more as the biproduct of a particular magical tradition that leaves a mark on  practitioners and their descendants. Likewise, I think we can say that the “ emotionless cruelty”  is more a styereotype about the serpentfolk given the callousness of their progenitors: the original Yuan-ti were sociopaths because sociopaths seek powerful positions, and people in powerful positions would have the resources required to perform the transformation into yuan-ti. 

We also should change how the transformation works: the basic level of yuan-ti ( the pureblood) are the “intended” results of the transformation ritual, as this ritual requires no human sacrifice. All the other forms known are biproducts of a perversion of the ritual by using more life energy, which explains why the end results are so varied, and why they carry names like “ Abomination” and “ Anathama”.  Those who are born purebloods/willingly transform into them carry this bloody legacy however, and the suspicion of those who remember the legends of the original Yuan-ti’s cruelty. 

There’s also a lot of fun things that can be done with the legacy of the serpent empire itself, and I encourage you to mix/match any of these options as they provide adventure hooks/lore for your own setting. 

The yuan-ti priesthood were smart, and when their empire crumbled ( as all empires do), those that survived the retribution of the peoples they had oppressed offered their services to the kingdoms and warlords that arose to fill the power vacuum.  Respected due to their intellect and powers, but distrusted due to their previous crimes, the serpentfolk settled into the positions of sages, courtiers, and royal mages, jealously guarding the secrets of their transformation as would any mystic sect. In this way they have endured the turning of ages, at once separate from the people of their former empire, and subtly interwoven with them. 

Every so often, someone discovers the lost lore of the serpent lords and attempts to claim a little of their power for themselves. Perhaps it is a pureblood descendant looking to reclaim their “birthright”, perhaps it is a sage reading ancient tomes hungry for the revelations of metamorphosis. Either way, this allows for Yuan-ti to pop up without warning, and can be used in a thematically similar way to someone trying for lichdom. 

Seeing the fall of their domain, some serpentlords fled into the far wilderness, in order to create isolationist enclaves and maintain their power. THESE are where you get the hypertradionalist “ snake supremacy” sort of people, but they should be treated exactly like you would cult enclaves in our own world. Interestingly enough this gives yuan-ti players a chance to indulge in religious trauma narratives, except with snake-gods swapped in for offbrand Christianity. 

There’s nothing the rich and powerful want more than being immortal, so lets say that some of the Yuan-ti elders figured out a way to do that ( possibly by reaching Anathema status). These elders would continue to exert cultural influence ( with the case of the court mages or enclaves options) or might have sealed themselves away in tomb-like strongholds for generations long hibernation. Awakening to find they’re no longer the dominant force in the world might not be a reality these regal reptiles could comprehend, so expect them to lash out at presentday authorities or try to reassert their positions from within. 

On Deities: While I’ve got more than a few problems with how d&d does its gods, I think they’re all present in how yuan-ti religion is handled. Namely, the serpentfolk religion is less an ethical philosophy or belief system, and more a transactional pact between the sacrifice providing cultists and an ever hungry cosmic being that grants them powers in return. Volo’s guide points to this being a byproduct of their ego and inability to feel emotions like devotion or reverence, but mechanically it’s almost identical to how every other religion in the default setting works. 

With Yuan-ti being so tied up with their religion, I figure it’s a good idea to give their gods a refurbishing like I did to Orcus, turning them from placeholders into real ideologies that people would actually want to worship, even if they were evil:

Merrshaulk: The default god for temple lurking Yuan-ti, the origin of all the sacrificial snake transformation rituals, currently in a millennia long hibernation where as his followers want to wake him and reassert their power over their empire. I’d go one step further and say that this was the patron god of the bronze age city-state that the Yuan-ti originated in, who was in-turn served by the priesthood who popularized the metamorphosis. Just like his followers, Merrshaulk began as a very basic humanoid god, and came to resemble a great snake more and more as the culture that supported him was transformed.    This transformation from harvest deity to a man-eating god of imperium to all-devouring serpent in response to his follower’s desires makes for a great addition to any mythology, and provides a lot of texture to a setting where the serpentfolk feature. 

Dendar: The “Night serpent” is one of the most amazing parts of default d&d lore that no one ever told me about; a titanic snake that arose from the first mortal dreams and has been devouring the multiverse’s collective nightmares ever since?  METAL AS FUCK. For some reason ( likely because the authors were trying to create yet another all consuming big bad,) Dendar’s goal is to eat enough nightmares to one day manifest and devour the world. Eh... pretty cliché if you ask me. Why not lean into the ragnarok influence and say that Dendar will emerge to eat the world when there isn’t enough nightmares for her to eat, leading some of her most zealous followers to create nightmares in the hopes of sating their world devouring patron. Whether these fear-bringers are justified or totally misguided, it makes for a waaaay more interesting story. 

Pharika: You couldn’t ask for a more serendipitous coincidence than for a whole other game to develop a snake based god of healing, transformation, and affliction, then for that game to lend it’s setting to d&d. Pharika SHOULD be the patron goddess of the Yuan-ti, as her mythology already has her filling the world with secret knowledge that her followers must learn to understand. Whether through the process of alchemy, medical service, or experementing on the bodies of other creatures, having Pharika as a patron gives the serpentfolk an amazing, thematically rich patron the way that dwarves have the Allhammer, or elves have the Archheart

Art

[kcatta-wodahs]

Making Lore Out of the Angel Event

Im the definition of 'its not that deep but I'm going to dig a hole to make it that deep'

In this case its me making it that deep because otherwise this event is upsetting so I'm making some dark lore theories to make it make sense to me.

I'll have a lot of spoilers below. For the event and everything I know, which is up to like lesson 32 I think.

Basically, TLDR; this was an attack by Michael/their Father on Devildom. Simeon and Diavolo have successfully negated the threat by turning it into a game.

TLDR Thesis; The Celestial Realm is governed through careful mind control. The Demon Bros are not "avatars" because of being demons- they have been cursed by their Father to suffer as no other demon nor angel has to.

First we hear direct from Michael, and he's giving these bangles that appear to brainwash the main cast.

This was an attempt by their Father to bring them back under his control. By control, I mean this literally.

I've felt for a long time that the way the Celestial Realm seems to be run is... shady. It's a utopia to outside appearances only, and those who have been most deeply embroiled in the Great Celestial War know this.

The Great Celestial War was over free will, rather than the specifics of Lilith's situation. She was the catalyst for a long-time-coming revolt against the rulers of the Celestial Realm.

My logic for this:

The reason for Lilith's expulsion goes against the current action plan of the Celestial Realm. Peace between the realms? Sure, but their Father is bound to realize that you put angels, humans, and demons together you're going to end up with more angels like Lilith, who fall for other races. Why would he accept this truce if he lost his favored children over an issue that is very similar? Did he have a change of heart? Heavens no.

Luke's behaviour towards the demon's seems case-and-point. Luke is not the strange one out of the angelic transfer students- Simeon is. Not only that, Simeon is chosen not in an attempt to promote peace, but to protect Luke from being influenced. (Which is, again, the whole point\of the exchange program.)

That time we went to the Celestial Realm for real - Lucifer was worried. Scared, even. This can be explained by, you know, the War and Lilith.. but I wonder if it may be more sinister. Like perhaps being brainwashed.

Diavolo and Barbatos weren’t required to wear bangles to become less “demon-like” for the “party”. This is because the bangles were a ploy to get the brothers back.

My theory is that when an angel begins to show signs of rebellion or questioning the divine order, they are forcibly stopped. Michael is that enforcer, and these 'gifts' are a method of stopping them.

The bangles cause a person to act *perfectly angelic* against their free will. The people affected become all smiles and sunshine, so clearly nothing could be wrong with it, right? They’re happy, right?

No. Very not right, and we can see that through Satan.

Poor Satan is always the exception to the rule of the Brothers, as his circumstances are different from everyone else's.

In this case though, he's the one who provides insight on this mind control. 

Let me remind you of the quotes Satan gives us during this time:

“I feel worked up.” “I don’t feel like myself at all.”

“It feels like something foreign is forcing my heart to be calm.” “Like my heart... becoming tranquil.”

Satan has never been an angel. He has never experienced this before. He has something the other brothers don’t: self-reflection. Satan can tell the difference between his feelings and feelings that are being imposed upon him. He tells you what he feels - “worked up” and “not like himself” and he is not smiling during this. He’s clearly unhappy, even though an angel might say he should feel unburdened by losing his anger.

He even mentions this.

“Normally, that wouldn’t seem like something bad, right?” “Something isn’t right.” “Maybe you shouldn’t come near me when I’m in this state.”

Satan is under the effects of the bangle, being forced to act angelic, but he can tell something “isn’t right.” He clearly shows that he thinks this is a “bad” thing, not because being calm is bad, but because it’s not “normal”. And can I remind you that he’s the Avatar of Wrath? The Sin that is most likely to be dangerous to be around - and yet it’s only when his anger is forcibly quelled that he thinks you should stay away from him. He knows that this is not something to desire. He knows that it is not happiness.

“I can’t concentrate on reading today.”

I mean, he’s obviously going through a lot, so that’s fair. But I have the theory that if he were to try and research this condition he wouldn’t be able to either. I have a theory about the Garden of Eden. My theory is about Paradise.

Remember when Eve ate the fruit? Do you know what that fruit was? Sin?

No. That fruit was knowledge.

Specifically, knowledge of good and evil. Now, why would this knowledge be something to keep from those under the control of the Celestial Realm? It sounds rather like they might be able to then make their own decisions of what is right and wrong.

Satan has known this from the beginning. Knowledge is power. The Ruler of the Celestial Realm, the other demons’ Father, knows this, too.

Why are there no other Avatars?

Sin was not something inherent to Devildom. Sin is a judgement sent from the Celestial Realm. There are no other Avatars because they are a wholly angelic creation. There are other posts that have examined the Sins as outlets, and how each of the brothers are attempting to find ways to allow themselves to express their sin so it does not overtake them.

From the get-go, we are shown that these Sins are a defining point for the brothers, but we’re also shown that they cause more trouble than anything else. Again, part-and-parcel of being a demon, right?

So why aren’t other demons like this?

Look at Diavolo and Barbatos, or even just the background demons who work across Devildom. Look at No. 2. They are all far more complex, and could even be considered normal. No. 2 is specifically meant to be based off of Mammon and his greed, but is much more rounded when we interact with it.

If Diavolo is meant to be the ruler of demonkind -- the paragon of what a demon should be -- then why would he not be the epitome of all of these Sins in one? What is Diavolo, instead?

Diavolo is accepting.

Hold up a moment here. What? Sorry y’all but it sounds to me like Mr. Demon Daddy King trusts his son enough to pass the kingdom on to him... so that must mean that Diavolo is behaving as a demon should.

Barbatos doesn’t question Diavolo’s choices. Nobody does. He’s an all around popular ruler. Devildom seems to be quite.. the opposite of what we’ve been trained to expect, huh? Trained by who exactly?

What are the Demon Brothers?

Cursed. They don’t act like other demons because they’re not like other demons. When they rebelled against their Father, they were punished for this act, but I posit that the punishment and the exile were two different acts. Their Father knew that leaving the Celestial Realm was not punishment to those who desired free will. So instead, he gave them Sin. Something that Demons are not normally bound to.

But how would the brothers know this? They only know what they’ve been taught by angels about demons. Surely these new, pressing desires come from turning into demons..? 

So, why was this not taken seriously?

Short answer: it was. But in the way that aligns with Diavolo’s ultimate goals.

Diavolo wants peace. 

Let’s Talk About Simeon

Simeon is an enigma and a half isn’t he?

Simeon is close with Michael, closer than Luke in any case. Now, I’ll be honest, I can’t remember if it was a fanfiction I read that said this or if it was canon so uh - forgive me. But Simeon was chosen to accompany Luke as an exchange student so that Luke would get some education. Simeon says this is to help relations, as Diavolo wants, but of course that’s what you would say as a sleeper agent?

Now, don’t get sad. Because we love Simeon here and we support him.

Simeon is wise and neutral. He seems to support the brothers, and even still wishes to foster a relationship with them. This could be seen as an attempt to bring them back, or some such, but I like to think that Simeon knows what’s wrong with the Celestial Realm.

Simeon, however, doesn’t think that a revolt can solve it. Simeon is working with Diavolo to create a form of peace - and has been transparent about the fact that Michael chose him to prevent Luke from being corrupted. I like to think he’s also been transparent with Diavolo about Michael’s actual goal. 

Simeon believes that the races should co-exist and love freely. How could love be evil, after all? Whether or not this is a new concept to him (because of his falling for you) or if this is just who he is, I’ll leave up to you and your preferences, but since he is now no longer undateable, it is established that he does not believe love between angels and humans to be bad - as his Father did with Lilith.

What happened, then?

My theory is that Simeon told Diavolo that Michael had given him a task - to give these bangles to the brothers to remind them of the joy they were missing by disobeying the Divine Order. Either that, or to brainwash them into coming back home. 

Simeon’s position would be revealed to Michael if he didn’t give the brothers the bangles, but he does not want to instigate another war either. So he told Diavolo Michael’s plan. 

Diavolo wants peace, and he knows that with time, the brothers can overcome this mind control as they had in the past - especially with his help. 

So thus comes the “party”. 

An excuse to make the bangles seem like a “harmless” gift, that had only gone wrong because of strange magical interference, when really they had done exactly what they were supposed to.

And a wonderful way to maintain peace while leaving the Celestial Realm to stew in their own pots. 

Simeon gets to maintain his facade for everyone - and put on a show for Michael as being loyal. He also gets to show Luke that perhaps being wholly angelic isn’t the way for some people, letting him learn a little more about peaceful coexistence. Nothing happens to ruin Diavolo’s grand plan for peace, and he gets to learn more about the curse that is set upon his friends - One that he hopes to be able to break someday, so they can live their lives unfettered by their Father.

[thestalkerbunny]

OKAY SO IVE GOT MILD BEEF

So if you’ve played the new dlc, Crown Tundra for Pokémon Sword and Sheild, you’ve met Caylrex and his mighty steed Spectrier

That’s a nice horse without ankles, boys

Now I don’t look at the wiki until after I catch it to learn about the myths and animals they’re based off of-but I was weak and broke and pulled up Bulbapedia

Now my beef comes here-if you’re like me and we’re a weird little kid whose interests spanned past Greek/egyptian/Norse mythology into world mythology, you know a thing or two about Celtic mythology and folk lore.

The Kelpie is a beautiful (usually a mare) that hangs out in water, basically baiting people to come ride them by pretending to be a ‘poor lost horse that got loose uwu come help the poor horse come ride the horsey’ only to have the rider be stuck on them and the Kelpie rushes to the water to drown them. (And then usually proceeds to the eat their entrails) charming yes?

Now my beef is that Spectrier is in no way associated with water nor does it appear in water at any point-if they wanted to make a Kelpie Pokémon-it would be water or at least duel typed with Fairy/Water. Spectrier is strictly Ghost.

Now let me propose a more appropriate creature from the same area that fits better

The Pooka

Now the Pooka is a nature spirit, known for its shape shifting talents of becoming a rabbit, goat, bull, dogs, cat and most importantly- a horse, always with a black glossy coat. It’s known to take people on wild rides if you jump on its back but unlike the Kelpie it doesn’t want to kill you, it just wants to do you a proper scare or play a trick on you

Now here comes the first evidence-

In legend, the High King of Ireland made a bridle from a Pooka’s tail hairs and was able to ride it safely (and went on to become a rather successful king of Ireland)

Now let’s go a bit further!

The Pooka is known for eating up farmers crops-to the point where the farmer has to set out ‘The Pooka’s Share’ so it’ll leave the crops alone (and hey! November 1st! That’s the day of this post, It’s POOKA DAY!)

Now let’s draw the parallels

The Pooka is a creature that can take on the form of a black horse, was ridden by a king using a bridle woven in from its own hairs, loves eating crops and terrorizing people for giggles

Spectrier is a black horse, is ridden by the high king of the area-Calyrex-using a bridle woven from Spectrier’s own hairs, and is known for eating crops and terrorizing people for giggles

The only small discrepancy is that the Pooka is from Ireland traditionally while the Crown Tundra is based off Scotland. However the Pooks is frequently regarded as Celtic in nature which is a large umbrella term

So it’s more plausible the Spectrier is based on The Pooka rather than the Kelpie

TLDR: the Bulbapedia says Spectrier is based off a Kelpie, I beg to differ, I say it’s a Pooka

[blooms-of-ice]

Wyda is officially retired...for now. She had a good run, and I loved writing for her! GOD the existential dread I felt as I drew closer and closer to running the event that would end her.

Her story continues through another. Give a follow here! :D

I’ll be keeping this blog up as an archive, although I might still post every now and again. But since her arc is done, here goes! An unedited, unfiltered slurry of words-directly-from-brain-to-keyboard about Wyda! I’m warning you, this is true farm fresh to you stuff. And spoilers for many events in FF14. Read on if you dare.

Strap in, it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride.

Did I say that I love Primals?

Primal lore gives the FF14 devs a lot of creative freedom when it comes to designing bosses. Want the arena changed? Want something/someone to look absolutely wack? Want to spin up a threat without having a villain train for years prior? Bam, primals.

It also gives us, the players, the same creative freedoms when it comes to roleplaying!

The requirements to summon one are humorously low. At first, primals result from misguided and zealous beastmen shenanigans. Ifrit, Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan, Garuda...but then we get a bunch of weird summonings. Like when Ga Bu summons a funky version of Titan through his despair alone. Or when Yotsuyu brings forth Tsukuyomi because she really, really wants to see the world burn. Hell, Gilgamesh just thinks about his friend Enkidu in the presence of some crystals, and that’s enough to bring forth a primal. So I guess the only requirements for a primal summoning are 1) crystals and 2) thinking kinda hard? Strong feelings, especially negative ones, seem to be more effective but then again! What the heck happened with Gilgamesh? Who knows?!

But this is one of my favorite things in FF14. It’s a powder keg of a situation that will, and HAS, gone off multiple times.

Being tempered, meanwhile, is a fate worse than death. You’re forced to change sides and fight for the enemy. You don’t even find peace when you die - tempered souls linger in Eorzea thanks to how messed up they are by the process. But you don’t become a mindless servant either. *Points to Emet-Selch who is....kinda...on your side (???) but also on Zodiark’s side*

Things aren’t nearly as dark now that tempering can be cured. I’m very thankful, since otherwise my campaign would’ve had a very, very depressing ending. One that I originally planned for but STILL. I’m weak. ;_;

Riding off the Rails

Primal lore is flexible. In ARR, the rules are established, but later expansions took those rules and went “Well, what about this? And this? And this?” In other words, this is me admitting that I’m shameless and will stretch this lore until I reach the moon.

Developing Wyda was a ‘chicken first, egg later’ sort of situation. Though trite, I gave her amnesia in order to give myself an excuse for knowing nothing about FF14 lore (and because I was new to roleplaying). When I finally sat down to flesh her out, my mind kept returning to primals. I love ‘em and their potential for drama! So yeah, I was determined to make it work.

There were a lot of questions I had to answer. If Wyda is a primal, then why isn’t she tempering everyone she meets?! How is she getting away with being a ‘normal’ person? And how do I avoid power creep? I know, for a fact, that if I walked into an RP event and just said...hey. My character is a primal, are you cool with that? The answer would be a solid no. Nooooo! I’d tell that to myself! So I wanted to solve these questions in a fair way that would allow others (and myself) to remain immersed in the roleplaying world. Luckily, FF14 lore is like a bottomless chest of building blocks. It was just a matter of stacking them carefully.

Primals are summoned when someone thinks around some crystals (Ah, Gilgamesh...)

The primal’s purpose is based on the summoner’s desires, but with a monkey’s paw twist (Ga Bu’s Titan punching the other kobolds away is indicative of this)

The amount of aether used in the summoning determines how powerful the primal will be (Shinryu being beefy as hell)

Primals can be summoned out of thin air, or be channeled into someone’s body

When a primal is channeled, the summoner needs the Echo to resist (Ysalye and Ryne). Otherwise the summoner is tempered by their own creation.

Now, with those blocks in hand, I started spitballing...and it led me to this thought. If a primal’s purpose is to NOT be a primal, what happens?

Would they know that they’re a primal?

Can they still use their primal powers?

What happens when the primal is based off of someone who still exists?

For Wyda, I chose to swing this way.

Her memory is garbage because she’s a primal based on someone else. Even if you know someone really well, you can’t perfectly recreate/emulate them.

She’s normal-powered because all her primal magic is going towards suppressing her powers. Extremely inefficient. And she’s very human-like because she’s possessing someone else’s body, as opposed to being made purely of primal aether.

Primals temper whether they want to or not - aether leaks, and it corrupts. To solve this for Wyda, instead of leaking aether out of the wazoo...thanks to the nature of her summoning, she just leaks a tiny bit all the time. Not enough to temper.

But I also wrote myself into a corner. If Wyda isn’t going to behave like a primal, then how does she exist for so long? They need a constant source of aether to survive, and she’s not doing primal stuff since she’s too busy being human. And so...the answer is that she doesn’t. Once her aether runs out, then poof.

See? Fun! (But also pain. So much pain.)

Playing with Fire

Eorzea (like most fantasy RPG settings) is a nightmare factory. Most, if not all, who make their living ‘adventuring’ are scarred from what they have to face. For every success story (WoL), there are countless more tragedies (Avere). And even if you survive...who wouldn’t get trauma if you were an adventurer and it was normal for your buddies to be eaten by a beast, tempered by a primal, possessed by a ghost?

Which is to say, Wyda's scars run deep. Shit goes down. 

To repeat that in slightly more words: Wyda is an accidental byproduct of Cravendy’s grief and longing. At her lowest moment, Cravendy (a Seawolf pirate) thinks of her friend Dots and the unfairness of it all. And oops, there are crystals nearby. So now, we got Wyda walking around in Cravendy’s body, thinking that she’s someone named Dots. By the way, Dots is still alive! Very awkward.

Wyda is a denial incarnate. She is Cravendy’s dream for safety, family, and happiness for Dots. But denial does not erase the past, nor does it change how you feel. By existing, Wyda suppresses those feelings for Cravendy and freezes the other woman in the past. With the both of them like this, Cravendy will never accept her trauma and Wyda will be plagued with a stranger’s guilt.

Primal souls are weird. I have no idea where they come from, but they seem separate from the summoner’s. So as Wyda’s influence wanes, Cravendy’s soul begins to resurface. This forces Wyda into a cycle of self-discovery and self-destruction that, unfortunately, convinces Wyda that she ought to disappear. It’s a tragic conclusion she reaches after having her worldview shattered. She’s a copy of Dots, she’s a primal. What’s real, and what’s not? What even matters?

The Power of Love

Love is a persistent theme for all of my characters. For Cravendy, love is why she hurts, so she would rather forget it than bear any more pain. But Wyda is the opposite - she loves too much. When all else is a sham, Wyda trusts that the love she feels is real. And ultimately, this love dooms Wyda and saves Cravendy.

Wyda’s fatal flaw is her self-destructive selflessness. Thanks to being mistaken for Dots all the time, Wyda develops a low sense of self. Then events of the campaign erode that into nothingness. She’s a second rate copy full of brittle memories, she’s a fake! And discovering Cravendy’s sleeping soul only pushes Wyda further into her flaw. Here is my purpose, she thinks! My original! And I’ll save her no matter what, because she deserves to live!

But it’s a mistake. Certainly, Cravendy is saved, but Wyda deserves to be saved too. Although she loves with all her heart, Wyda never learns to love herself and see her own self-worth. She doesn’t understand that her friends don’t share her view of herself - as a worthless copy that can only find value in saving another. Her selflessness loops into selfishness.

Maybe Wyda will come back...She certainly has a lot to learn still!

The TLDR version of all this is that I accidentally pulled a Kingdom Hearts plot with this character, and now I understand, Nomura. I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU BRING BACK YOUR CHARACTERS. ;_;

[valiantsword]

life ramble.  aka, i’m sorry for not being here and here’s an attempt to explain why.

even though i really don’t know. i know the world is crazy still and it’s messing with a lot of people’s mental health.  i don’t know if this is depression all i know is i feel particularly exhausted as of late.  brain blank zombie kind of exhausted.

when i took this job almost two years ago i was excited about the possibilities. maybe it was the pandemic.  maybe it was the intent all along.  whatever it was, there hasn’t been any kind of support from my job’s end on any kind of emotional or mental security.  not sure if that makes sense.  for context, i came here to try and help fix the location i’m at.  a lot of weird and crazy shit went down that resulted in like 75% of the facility being fired.  a bunch of us came in to try and fix this.

come the beginning of august we had a deadline to get every customer’s claims sorted out so we could move on.  but one of the bigger ones have lingered.  we still need to get in house things organize for the end of the fiscal year but that has less of a weight hanging over my head.  and with all the layoffs i started to wonder if they were just going to close the facility when stuff was finally sorted.  my salary got cut which made me worry i was next in line to be laid off.  it got so bad my partner and i had a huge argument about me quitting because i haven’t been happy.  and while that argument made me feel better for some weird reason i think i’m at this point where i’m just so god damn tired of being so worked up and hyper-stressed for the past six months.  

these past two weeks have been particularly bad in terms of insomnia.  i haven’t had this kind of trouble sleeping since i was with my ex.  i’ve been surviving on naps and a lot of twitch streams.  even though i’m awake and could be writing my brain has been so blank it’s frustrating.  that disassociative kind of blank that i don’t recognize until it finally dawns on me that i feel like a robot.

it also doesn’t help that the past six months has also been a fight with the people we DO have left here.  it’s a struggle to get them to do their job or even show up for their job.  i get it’s slow but we still have shit that needs to get done, you know?  and i don’t get why it’s been such a fight.  motivation, maybe.  i’m not saying it’s a bad thing.  again, the world is completely fucked and it’s affecting everyone.  i get that.  it’s just one more thing to throw on my own pile of “tired of life. “

but there’s so much to be happy about right now and i’m trying to refocus on that.  shadowlands prepatch should be soon. ( WRATH INVASION PART TWO AHHHHH )  the fates season just came out for tft ( teamfight tactics ).  more seraphine info should be coming out and i am REALLY hyped for her.  they’re fleshing out the kda lore which is making me so so happy.  shadowlands lAUNCHES in a month. holy shit.  cyberpunk 2077.  watchdogs legion.  WORLDS.  ( lots of league of legends references int his paragraph if none of that makes sense ).  fnatic and tsm are going, which is also super hype for me.  they drew into the same group which makes me a little sad but HEY.  i get to see nemesis and bjergson battle it out so that’ll be super amazing.  fun fact: i’m really into lol esports.

anyway.  i think that’s it.  tldr; i’m trying to fix my struggle with the motivation to do anything other than stare at twitch streams.  the fact that i pulled out my laptop for the first time in over a week to type this up makes me happy even if i’m going to get self conscious about posting it. ha.  maybe i’ll delete it after.  put the bad mojo into the universe to purge it, you know?

[drinstadiscourse]

what... is a komaedalovemail

ok brace yourself for this fuckign reply because i dug through 4 years worth of posts to try and explain this whole thing. tldr its a tumblr blog that was normal for 3 seconds before suddenly having lore and a story but its chilled out now and you can join the mod’s minecraft server . also im pasting this from a word document i wrote while i was “”””reasearching””””””

komaedalovemail is a lot of things. in january of 2015 it was posing as a positivity blog using komaeda as an avatar/roleplaying as him?? but after 5 months of being pretty normal they started posting cryptic shit like this and saying that they didnt have much time left

then they fucked off until july of 2016 where they started posting again, there were still some positivity posts but they started posting weirder and weirder stuff as the year went on. from september onward the blog was extremely active, posting a lot of the same weird and cryptic arg-like talk as well as some surreal joke posts. (if you dont know what an arg is heres the wikipedia page )

though at that point in 2017, they started posting links to other pages on the blog, which make things really interesting. these pages are mainly what made people think it was an arg, due to the amount of interactive dialogue-based pages. the posts tended to tie in at least somewhat with the linked and discovered pages, and some of the pages were more serious than others.

the blog has gone through a lot of phases, and on multiple occassions the blog was assumed to be dead bc of an announcement by the mods followed by a lack of activity.

ive been tryign to write this for a while so im losing motivation but the blog got REally active in late 2017 and at some point new pages werent being made as often. there was a phase where th eblog was horse themed and no one liked it. right now the blog is themed around the fuckign uh. komaeda deity thing they made. theres a lot of komaedalovemail lore because this shits been around for so long. they made like a whole page that was like a story about like komaedalovemail mod society or whatever the fuck. the blog was themed around clowns for a bit before it was themed around horses. and also fetus hinata exists and i dont know where he came from.

theres some pages that are formatted kinda like visual novels and theyre.. interesting. the ffirst one i foudn was one where you talked to a clown komaeda and he tells you to take his bloon and it scared the shit out of me for some reason. also its voice acted which is weird as fuck

this post is pretty much an accurate summary of the majority of the blog

i dont remember the status of updates on like all the pages and stuff like that, at some point the mods made a post about not updating stuff anymore or soemthing

heres a link to most of the main pages i think, sorted by phase and order of creation

its a mess and a rabbit hole and my original point was if someone did all this weird shit on an instagram discopurse account it woudl be fucking hilarious for one and for two it owuld be interesting. 

thanks for coming to my FUCKing ted talk. this was going to be way longer be glad i cut out the screenshots of individual pages and shit . this was about to be an in depth history of the whole ass blog.

[metalvsflesh]

Unprompted Friday Night Jayce Lore Post On My Blog That’s Mostly Dedicated To Blitzcrank and Viktor

ok so my takes on zaun champs have been heavily inspired by the DCU so hear me out:

Jayce but he has heavy Booster Gold vibes. If you don’t know who Booster Gold is, you’re missing out on an EXCELLENT superhero concept, go look him up. I promise you, you won’t be let down.

TLDR;

Initially became a superhero for the fame and attention, Jayce turned a new leaf when he realized the responsibility he holds and the power he has to influence the next generation of Superheros inspired by his + The Herald’s heroics in the past. After all, while he might not be there when it comes, he’s the Defender of Tomorrow, and he’ll make for damn sure tomorrow still continues to come once he’s gone.

Longer, WIP, Lore Take That Needs Fine Tuning:

Jayce went to school/used to work at the same place Viktor&Co. did. While he wasn’t the best inventor, his greatest strength was, by far, his troubleshooting skills. Anyone and everyone who had an issue with something not working right, they would call upon him to take a look at it and fix whatever was going wrong. He could find out, instantly, what was going wrong in anything - even those that weren’t anywhere close his field, like medicine or art.

The reason being for his Fantastic Troubleshooting is he has a semi-magical superpower that makes it so that he has like really vague future-vision. Like is manifests as a hunch or a gut feeling, and he somehow immediately knows how to prevent it. He thinks it’s him being smarter than everyone and like being able to predict things better because he’s smart and logical but it’s like a mix of being observant and logical and a legit magical power he has. He can see the kinda future, but he has to FIRST identify at least one or two patterns that COULD lead to that future outcome.

ex. he notices that a guard of a building at the school always takes his lunch at around 12:14 pm, and every now and again he forgets to lock the door after letting people in, THEN he gets like a gut feeling someone was going to attempt to sneak into the building while the guard is at lunch and has forgotten to lock the door, and it ends up happening a day or two later.

After graduating and working for some time at the school, he decides that he’ll use his predicto-skills to become a superhero - and there was a spot open, as there was only a Zaunite hero at the time. He fiddles with a scrapped invention of his, fitting it into a crazy multi-tool he could use to fight crime. And he starts to fight crime by using his future-vision. His superhero title becomes the “Defender of Tomorrow”, since he can kinda see into the future and he keeps predicting all these bad guy’s attacks n stuff etc etc. For short people like to call him “The Defender”.

Its fun, he’s popular, people love him and his face is plastered everywhere you can think. Action figures, comics, even a couple shitty movies later on in his life are made for him. Everything is fine and dandy for him, and he sees no reason to change that for many many years.

One night, he comes home to the Zaunite hero, known only has “The Herald”, waiting patiently while looking sickly and trembling despite his best efforts to stand sure and proud. Jayce felt a little bad, despite the circumstances, and offered him a seat and a glass of warm milk - knowing that was often the thing he’d request when people offered to give him something for helping them. He had came to inform Jayce of a strange trend he’s been finding down in Zaun: multiple factories and waste disposal companies were signing on contracts with a group based in Noxus, and rumors had spread of the infamous inventor Singed being allied with them. The Herald then confessed that he was gravely ill, despite it being rather obvious, and was unable to investigate them on his own. But he was sure this was something that needed to be stopped before it could become big, and thus he came to Jayce to give him the information in hopes he could take over the job of looking into them while he recovered from his illness, even offering to come to Jayce’s aid whenever he needed it in the future.

Jayce was initially inclined to refuse, but was suddenly struck with one of his hunches. This was going to be important down the line, and it was a matter of hundreds upon thousands of lives at stake. He didn’t know when, where, why, or how - but he had trust his gut for neigh-thirty years by then, so why stop now?

He promised The Herald he would look into it, and the man handed him a small gadget, claiming that activating it would notify The Herald when Jayce was in need of help. The Herald was also insistent on explaining to Jayce how to keep himself safe in Zaun, but Jayce waved him off and told him to go back home and rest.

Jayce almost immediately started researching, and as he does he starts getting intense hunches. They were so strong and felt so real it was like he was having flashbacks, or watching a movie, or visions - in them, a horrific war in what seems like some pretty, super magical land. Blood soaked battlefields, corpses blanketing the landscape as crows with strange eyes circling above, and a huge cloud of gas turning everything it touches dead and grey as if the very life in the land was sapped away by the slightest touch and the blue sky turns a sickly green and brown.

At first he’s intimidated, feeling small and helpless in face of such a large and devastating threat. He didn’t know where to start because all of the causes were so distant and scattered one man couldn’t possibly do it all on his own.

But doing nothing wasn’t an answer. Before, when he felt like he might not be able to stop something, he simply let it happen and help clean up the aftermath, because failing to stop it would tarnish his reputation. But he couldn’t just wait for it to happen. He had to do something about it. After all, he made a promise.

He tried his hardest, once or twice trying to get others to come help by asking them ‘super-favors’, but found the people of Piltover either didn’t care or thought the idea silly and far-fetched, and Zaunites either too scared or too powerless to stop the thing from happening on their very backdoor. It wasn’t until the war actually landed that people came out of the woodworks to try and help.

After the war, Jayce took a break from superheroing, trying to reflect and process everything he had gone through those past few years. He realized that it would have been a lot easier if there were more people like him to help. In fact, a lot of his job would have been easier if there were more people like him. People who had the power and influence to save people.

It was then he had one of his hunches, but he didn’t know what would come of it. He just knew one thing: he had to get back to superhero work, and try to gather a younger generation of superheros and get them to fill the shoes left behind by The Herald and, soon, himself, when he’s eventually forced to retire or dies defending the future he’s sworn to protect.