#lich lydia......

[soggedupfrog]

My Edward and Lydia designs :3 I enjoyed the clown themes they had in the graphic novel so I added some of that into my designs, Edward has spades/clubs patterns and Lydia has Hearts/Diamonds patterns ^_^

[sun-marie]

datv spoilers but

-

i think emmrich's quest decision might be the single most difficult one in the whole game for me and it's driving me mad

bc in the lich route, emmrich achieves the thing he's wanted his entire life, he confronts his fear (of dying in the ritual) in a legitimately extremely cool scene, his armor is undoubtedly superior, and i ADORE the ensemble scene where he reveals himself to the rest of the team SO MUCH

but on the other hand, i can't get the line he says in manfred's route where he's like "i wouldn't trade this for anything" (paraphrase) out of my head. bc he loves manfred!! and, as someone who relates a lot to his intense fear of death, i just think it's a lot healthier and more powerful to have him accept his mortality? it's something that literally every living thing on the planet has to go through one day, and i think it's more powerful that he creates meaning with those he loves with the time he has left, and finds the courage to face his own eventual mortality. and I get what he (and the game) are saying in his lich route, that manfred willingly sacrificed himself and it wouldn't be right to bring him back bc that's disrespecting the order of things, but a) i think the fact that manfred is a spirit is a meaningful difference, and b) if bringing someone back from the dead is disrupting the natural order then so is bypassing death by way of lichdom.

so like in my head i def prefer manfred's route. but i cannot deny the sheer Vibes of lich!emmrich, and i can't emphasize enough how much i love the team reacting to his lichdom, and there isn't really a compelling version of that in Manfred's route. pros and cons 😩

[mareenavee]

WIP WHENEVER! (Wednesday?!)

Hi, today is a bit of a write off day because it's spooky season and NY weather is telling me it's mid-July somehow.

I did manage a little writing :> And I'll be happy to share about ~300 words from two WIPS! But first, tags!

Tagging the amazing and wonderful: @paraparadigm, @changelingsandothernonsense, @thequeenofthewinter, @thana-topsy, @gilgamish, @archangelsunited, @wildhexe, @elfinismsarts, @throughtrialbyfire, @saltymaplesyrup, @snippetsrus, @rainpebble3, @kookaburra1701, @polypolymorph, @inquisition-dragonborn, @orfeoarte, @tallmatcha, @rhiannon1199, @expended-sleeper, @dirty-bosmer, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @nuwanders, @ladytanithia, @viss-and-pinegar, and @late-nite-scholar! Below the cut for shenanigans! WIP 1 has CW for creepy spooky season stuff and WIP 2 has CW for Neloth (yes) and his canon-typical racism (circa Nerevarine times in Morrowind.)

1) Spooky Collab pending a title with @thequeenofthewinter and @thana-topsy! Uldwin is his OC, and this is the downfall timeline. (: Writing is mine.

The ramp that led up to the mushroom tower was itself rotting through, stringy, toxic orange webs of slime mold eating away at the fungus. Lydia balanced precariously on the wooden support beams, cursing the weight of the daedric armor Uldwin had gifted her. Its enchantment sang to her, too—a whisper of some Bosmeri prayer. Like his voice, scratchy from use of the Thu’um. She swallowed hard against another wave of grief. This, perhaps, had been the last of his efforts to spare her whatever fate he’d willingly walked into.

The door to the tower swung open of its own accord, iron hinges rusted and knob caked with mud and grime. Then… Whatever it was had become aware of her presence. This did not bode well at all. She stepped through into the darkness, unable even to cast Candlelight to guide her way forward.

Lydia’s senses were assaulted by the stench of death—mildew and rot, must, pine, the uncomfortable sweetness of fermentation—not at all unlike the smell of Nordic tombs, long undisturbed. She brushed cobwebs away as she crept through the shadows. Dawnbreaker glowed, though its light seemed stifled in this place. Dread settled over her shoulders like a mantle. One step after another. It was all she could do, despite the fear. Despite how very much she wanted to turn and run. She knew she couldn’t. Uldwin didn’t. And now it fell to her to end this nightmare…and to bring him home.As Lydia took another step, something crunched audibly under her boot. A bone. No. She held back a scream as something screeched above her, the noise traveling through her skull like a jolt of Shock magic.

2) Light the Way which is pre-World. Backstory for Neloth and Teldryn, the Nerevarine (: And how they both ended up in the Twin Lamps.

“If I have your attention,” Im-Kilaya said after a particularly grating and reptilian-sounding throat-clearing, “we’ll need you both to help an injured once-shackled individual. His name is Tul, a fellow Saxhleel. Our Eyes have noted his injuries are beyond the help of what potions we have available.” He paused and turned to Sero, handing him a letter. “This, and he will need to be defended until you reach Sterdecan.”

“Do you expect trouble?” Sero asked, scanning the letter. Neloth glanced over his shoulder. It was written in some kind of cipher—it had to have been. Otherwise, it was an egregious misuse of parchment, describing in detail a few fictitious landmarks of Azura’s Coast. He watched as Sero folded up the letter again and tucked it behind the dark chitin plate of his armor.

“Yes, unfortunately. The farmhouse is becoming more visible than we’d like. It’s why this falls to you, Nerevarine. Protect Tul. I don’t know what waits out there in the dark, but the news brings me great discomfort.”

“Orvas has wind of us, doesn’t he?” Teldryn said after a moment. 

Im-Kilaya said nothing, and opted instead to grimace, hands tucked once again into the sleeves of his robes. Teldryn nodded; whatever silent conversation had just occurred between them seemed satisfactory enough.

Neloth knew that name. Duke Vedam’s younger brother, and, at least at one point, the more powerful of the two. There had been rumors about nefarious dealings, and a more recent loss of his position within House Hlaalu. Something Fyr had rattled on about, as he was wont to do, but Neloth hadn’t bothered to listen. He cursed himself for his lack of foresight. Not that Neloth was afraid per se, but what should have been a fairly simple task now seemed infinitely more complex than what he’d at first believed.

[autisticangus]

[allgather]

what if we were twin siblings and we were elves ( and we were definitely narrative foils to the other pair of twin elves in the story ) and we absolutely slayed on the runway but we were really a pair of liches, the oldest living things in this world, and we had given up our mortality in an ill-advised necromancy ritual in an attempt to bring our beloved little brother back from the dead? what if we had lived so long that our love for one another and our little brother, the emotions we used to keep us tethered to our humanity, were no longer strong enough to keep from losing ourselves entirely in the raw arcane energy, so we moved on to subsist off of the suffering of others, using more and more elaborate means to extract it from unsuspecting adventurers? what if we lost ourselves in that suffering too? what if we can’t remember what our brother’s face looks like or what the warmth of his embrace felt like? what if we’ve lived too long to let go of our empty, wretched existences? what then?

[into-the-clintoris]

Things that will be occupying my brain nonstop until the moment The Suffering Game releases

Lydia and Edward character design

Taakos face when he forsakes Rowan

Magnus giving up his memories of Governor Calen

Merle staunchly refusing to give up his memories of the birth of his children

Taako giving up his beauty

ARMS OUTSTRETCHED CAREY I JUST KNOW THOSE PAGES WILL BE FIREEEEEE

I just. I want to see Taako and Merles faces. I want to see their faces the moment Magnuss body is destroyed. When they see him in his mannequin form and there's nothing they can do. I wanna see their faces. (And Carey's face when she hears about Magnus dying)

DUPREEEEEEE

The magnet bomb

Lydia's face. When Edward dies.

IS IT?? IS IT REAL LOW?? IS IT ALMOST LIKE SOME LICHES OF YOUR IMAGINATION HAVE SUCKED MY HIT POINTS AWAY FROM ME, A WIZARD????

Cam. All of it.

THE PRINGLES HEIST???

Merle losing contact with Pan. So.

TAAKITZ DATE???? PRETTY PLEASE???

[barry-j-blupjeans]

There was not much that could scare Edward and Lydia anymore. In fact, Edward could count the things he feared on one hand.

The Reaper— or rather, The Raven Queen. Becoming liches hadn't been a hasty decision. They had known full well what they were doing, what laws they were breaking, and they had broken them anyway. The Raven Queen did not take kindly to those who played the line with life and death, but unfortunately for her, that was Edward and Lydia's preferred line of work. Even so, it would be rather foolish of them not to fear the wrath of a god, or her little soldiers, either.

The End Of All Things. This one was rather simple. Or, well, Edward could pretend it was, until it arrived. But somewhere out there, maybe not in their Planarverse, but out there nonetheless was a world-ending destructive force. It had been described as the Hunger, and although he felt a level of kinship with the idea (who wouldn't when your life was fueled by the very same things that the Hunger was made of), the fear overrid his other emotions.

And being separated from Lydia, of course. After all they had been through with Keats, it was rather hard to not be afraid of losing her, too. But of all his fears, Edward would admit this one was the most unrealistic. There was no Edward without Lydia anymore. If one of them went, well… Edward wouldn’t have to fear much, after that.

Even so, Edward's relationship with fear was far from the norm. His fears? Unnecessary, at this point. Annoying, even. Other people's, though? Ohoho, Edward lived, quite literally, for other people's fears.

The traction Wonderland had gained when the Animus Bell had first fallen into their hands was starting to die down. Edward and Lydia were masters of stretching a life to its thinnest, of course— why kill off anybody in the first act when the second could turn out so much better? But even with these carefully toned tactics, Wonderland seemed to have hit a wall. And it didn't take long to figure out why.

The world had forgotten all about the Animus Bell. And thus, the world had forgotten all about Wonderland.

They had been through worse, of course. And sure, all it took was a few changes here and there— stop advertising the Animus Bell so directly, start up with the classics again: Fame, glory, money. Who in the world wouldn't kill for any of those? But it was frustrating, to have your main source of business cut off without any sort of explanation. Edward personally felt a little cheated. The Animus Bell was supposed to have lasted much longer. They had been promised business and success, only for it to be cut off all at once.

So when the woman responsible for all their recent failures waltzed into the building? Well, Edward and Lydia had no such reason to go easy on her. After all, Lucretia had taken everything from them— all the delicious pain and suffering suddenly gone in an instant. It was only fair she made up for it.

Read the rest on Ao3!

[jerreeeeeee]

i don’t know if i’m ever gonna write the fic but i’ve been thinking abt like. the eternal stockade. the implications. lup, a lich who was trapped in a dark featureless cell for a decade completely isolated with nothing to keep her sanity but her own mind. she has to put people in the eternal stockade. how many liches does she see herself in. how many liches started out just like her. how many liches are truly too far gone. and the only liches we ever see other than her and barry are edward and lydia. they’re certainly evil, but mad? they seem pretty sane. they’re not, like, tattered echoes of souls, they’re definitely still people. even as much of a grudge as lup surely has against them, wouldn’t they remind her incredibly strongly of herself? do they deserve to be trapped just like she was? for eternity? isn’t eternity what turned john to existential despair in the first place?

[silverglimse-productions]

Am I crazy or is the Suffering Game issue the book where most plot has been cut out??? Cause it feels so weirdly paced. And just kinda weirdly written in general.

Like there’s no Betrayal/Trust game, they go directly from Wheel to Monster Factory (and only fights the bear) and directly from Wheel to Heart Attack (no explanation for why they would end up there, just that it’s the “next stop”).

Then they skip the last Wheel round (meaning we don’t get Taako’s loss of Elven Beauty - a pretty important moment for his character, Merle loses his eye in the second round instead, and Magnus keeps all memories of Governor Kalen - he was offered loss of Julia instead and didn’t take it. Which. Fair.. and also, no bad luck) and go straight to the Lich fight??? So no boss Rush either. We also never see a penalty in this book.

Speaking of things missing from this book. Where the fuck is Cam? Or Lord Artemis Sterling? Rowan and Antonia???

The book is almost 300 pages long. They enter Wonderland at p. 52. We see the full room at p. 107. They only spent 55 pages on the bulk of this arc. The rest of the book has good pacing so what the fuck happened here. The book should have been longer. The impact of the suffering game isn’t felt as hard when there’s less gruelling challenges that loses Tres Horny Bois hp, or when you cut out any other npc that was affected by Wonderland from the story.

Due to this limited number of pages we also get weird pacing like Merle asking Magnus whether he spent “all that time thinking up the move” during the direbear fight, even though there’s only like 2 panels between Taako ending his move and Magnus beginning his. Also Merle you didn’t do anything during that fight, so get off your high horse.

Also, we only actually see one spell of Merle’s fail, that being the healing spell, so for all he knows, nothing is wrong with his powers, so him commenting on the fact that it would be nice to “be able to commune with a higher power” once they’re out of wonderland makes no fucking sense. Cause he could just?? Try and contact Pan?? Like he does later anyways??? Like we actively see him reaching into the astral plane without issue, so clearly up until that point no magical foul play.

Now, did stuff like the boss rush and the like have to have been in the book? No, but it’s weird when you think of what was kept in and was removed. Like fx, why was Taako shown giving up his acrobatics prof but not his elven beauty?

Also side note about Heart Attack - this is not relevant but it just makes me personally crazy, the book seems to imply that the mannequins have free will??? In that Lydia and Edward literally whisper to each other about “oh no the audience and the hot hot hot contestant actually likes these guys”????? WHAY?? Like aren’t they the ones who control all of what happens inside wonderland??

[umbraastaff]

I'd love to hear your general thoughts on the new gn! I personally think Wonderland was a little rushed, but I loved reunion tour.

was fun in some ways and fell short in others! i overall i agree with you on that as well. more specific thoughts, in no particular order:

some really really cool visuals in this book. lucretia in the hourglass at the start, some awesome panels with space and the hunger and stuff... barry regaining his memories on page 212 is probably my favorite page in the whole book

the choice to make the Chug & Squeeze be painting instead of pottery is baffling to me. the title of the place made sense with the original… the choice to change it so that it doesn't fit, and then also make fun of that, feels a bit like i am being made fun of as a fan/audience member, regardless of whatever the original intent was

(compounded with the total loss of the original depth in this scene… no vulnerability from taako, just a good 'ol fanservice kiss…)

similarly bizarre, the choice to make lucretia lose 30 years instead of 20...? 20 not bad enough? she needed to be 60 instead of 50? what's happening lol

i feel vindicated on a spiritual level for being the only person i can remember drawing mullet ponytail barry - like 95% of fanart i see draws him either short haired or with long hair free n out like in HTBG graphic novel... never ponytails. im winning

more bafflement with magnus even THINKING on the question of forgetting julia... the kalen thing is a much more interesting conflict to me given (a) it makes sense to be uncertain about and (b) relates directly back to his love for julia. and they established AND NAMED kalen in eleventh hour, why not use that...

feels like they swing back and forth on how much they trust the audience to pick up subtext... being hit over the head with magnus continuing the "id hate it shut the fuck up" thing to rly look at the camera and wink and tell us how much he loves julia, but then the comic version of the "love barry trust barry" was VERY dependent on picking up cues and seeing taako's attitude change

speaking of, i did really love the "love barry trust barry" scene. and both times lup jumps into barry's arms is so cute ugh

i know it's a product of how rushed everything has to be putting 10+ hours of audio into a singular COMIC book, but for fuck's sake, removing KEATS..........?????? so now lydia & edward have no depth??? & no parallel/foreshadowing for the way liches work??? OKAY???

mannequin magnus design and the way they enabled him to do expressions was preddy good. enjoyed it. also the whole possession + wonderland final fight action is cool and fun

while i am disappointed the bell is all fancy and weird instead of being a very plain and small thing as it was described in canon (which felt more in character for barry), i DO really really really like the flower on top... the wither-and-bloom motif... tasty

oh yeah griffin disappearing is such a great way to foreshadow a thing beyond planes coming down to consume... ahh i love playing with meta stuff

so so much good barry content man. so much. thank god we got so much good fun reunion tour stuff. hes so dumb as rocks i love him

actually pretty cool they more explicitly canonized the explanation for barry physically attacking davenport. also barry/lucretia interaction so so so so good

as cute as the original scene is with them planning and writing the note for magnus' body, i think the way they split the party in this version was smart

i dont need to contribute more to the pool on fan feelings on blue twins, BUT given there was no choice but to have her be blue, lup is very cute

taako falling to his knees instead of like pointing the staff at lucretia... :/ eh

given how much literally this entire series has suffered from being so scrunched up, i'm also not SUPER looking forward to stolen century and S&S being condensed into one book, but ohhhh wellllll

TL;DR i don't really read these books because i have a lot of faith in the way they Tell The Story, but it still had a lot of fun moments and scenes and visuals that got my heart! fun to see thorough visual takes on my fave podcast.

[theadventurezoneoftruth]

SORRY IS YOUR REBLOG TAGS HOW I FIND OUT KEETZ ISNT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE SUFFERING GAME GRAPHIC NOVEL?? DO THEY JUST NOT GET LYDIA AND EDWARDS BACKSTORY AT ALL?

im so sorry to be the bearer of bad news 😔😔 but yeah i dont recall him being mentioned at all. we don't get any backstory from them theyre just kind of there - all we know is that theyve been doing the smoke lich thing long before they got the animus bell, which i don't recall being a detail we had in the podcast but i could be wrong. theyre out of the narrative by the halfway point of the gn and the rest is reunion tour

[captain-of-silvenar]

For Kerasil:

1, 3, 10

For Yera:

9, 11, 12

KERASIL

How are their parents? Are they good? Are they terrible? Are they dead?

I actually haven't really considered Kerasil's parents. If we look at the timeline, I created Yera first and then went backwards to make her parents. When I played ESO I never really thought to think one more step backwards.

Which could mean a few things tbh. Kerasil is a determined woman and I know she fought and worked hard to get her position as Captain of the Guard. I can imagine a little bit her parents or relatives are also of similar career paths and that inspired or encouraged Kerasil to follow suit. She also does have temper, and a desire to show that she is worth the position and bristles when she is told otherwise (directly or indirectly).

The temper had to come somewhere. The desire to show 'I am worth this!' had to come somewhere too.

I might have an inkling that Kerasil's parents were not as intense as her, more so relaxed and laid back and even this could've been a cause of conflict. Disinterested can hurt more than outright rejection, to try and get any sort of reaction than nothing at all.

I don't think Kerasil's relationship with her parents or extended family are in any means horrible, but there could've been more chances to get to understand why Kerasil had her interests in the first place.

Have they died before?

Once. Twice. Maybe too many times. Being a Vestige and knowing that your death is not permanent anymore is not always a blessing. It is different and othering; when time come and takes your friends and loved ones away to their final rest she cannot follow anymore.

What should be a checks and balances against risk are thrown to the wind; why worry when every wound and damage is healed over when she revives?

It's not something Kerasil likes thinking about. She doesn't want to use this to her advantage. Dying still hurts every single time and there isn't really anyone else out there that understands being immortal other than liches and dremora.

Not the kind of crowd Kerasil really wants to hang around if she wants to be honest.

How do their friends and family think of them?

Dedicated would be a word to describe Kerasil. Even when in the depths of darkness or world ending disasters, Kerasil is there to be a foundation and help everyone back onto their feet.

Loyalty amongs peers, she is reliable and if she can't solve it she can find someone else who can.

And amongst all of them, the one Kerasil likes to hear the most is that she is a caring individual. Her family at home is her greatest desire and gift. Everything revolves around them. Her duty to her city is important, but her family is in the city so it's almost a neat package to lace them near each other.

She's also stubborn, incredibly so. It has to be done this way, or it needs to be discussed argued otherwise. It would be at least a 'negative' trait that is openly discussed, though stubbornness can also have a positive. To not backdown at the first pushback, to keep ground when others would fall back.

YERA

Are they looking for someone to save them or do they think they’re beyond saving?

Yera does not want to be saved. From what? Oh there's a hundred answers to that.

Destiny, Fate, responsibilities, daily grind, her reputation, and the list goes on and on.

Being Dragonborn, being a Hero of Destiny, it comes with its own chains and burdens that Yera does not want anyone to carry. Yet even with all this future destiny stuff she had, she failed in spectacular ways (she thinks) in several situations.

There is nothing to save in her. Her duty is to save others. She can adorn herself in fine armor and golds, and good friends and peers. But despite all these beautiful trappings and coverings, Yera feels a deep turmoil in her that convinces her she cannot be saved.

Do they have a found family?

She does!

Lydia is her best friend and confidant. Anything Yera thinks and desires, Lydia has a 90% chance of guessing it right.

The Thieves Guild is a big ol' found family of the most unusual sorts. Sure, they're criminals and thieves, and honor is a loose idea among themselves only. But hey, they supported Yera when Mercer's betrayal was revealed. They keep supporting her after it was revealed she was Dragonborn and needs their services for a lot of her work.

They respect Yera as a Guild Master, and also her role in Skyrim's destiny. She has their best interests in mind, and in return they give their best to her.

The Thieves Guild Trust Fund is also an excellent way to pay for a lot of strange and unusual needs as Dragonborn.

Do they have any self-destructive habits?

Oh. Oh this is a good bad one.

Yera has a clear case of savior complex; more so she feels an overwhelming guilt to make up for not taking up her role in destiny sooner. So she takes any and all tasks giving to her, mostly. Nothing incredibly inane or purposely demeaning. But she'll go into that cave to rescue a family heirloom. She'll clear out that bandit encampment no one else has been able to. She'll fight that dragon solo if she needs to.

When Yera starts something, she does not stop.

For anything.

Not her own health, not for sleep, barely for food and water.

"Only I could do it, and why would I put it off?" would be her response.

A lot of her self-destructive habits are layered from trauma back at home, when she was unable to help defend against the Thalmor when they started taking over Valenwood. She knows she alone could not have saved her whole city, but the guilt lives in her mind.

When she came to Skyrim and did not start her destiny, people and towns were wiped off the map and she holds these as personal sins against herself.

She needs Lydia there to remind her to sleep, to eat, that another day of rest will not hurt the people. Yera has gotten better with her support network around her, but it's incredibly easy for her to fall back into these tendencies. Especially since her increasingly more draconic traits start bleeding into things: more stamina, more energy, more durability.

Yera is a master of burning herself out and not realizing it until her muscles and mind finally peter out and force her to collapse.

[most-gender-taz-npc]

[Image ID: The Adventure Zone logo overlayed with the genderqueer flag]

[nomaishuttle]

sooo wait a second... umbrastaff famously eats liches and the like. and i ws like why doesnt it eat barry or lydia but its specifically the ones that its wielder defeats which Makes sense but also . lup didnt defeat herself.. whyd she get in there

[anistarrose]

Image description: digital art of the Wonderland Round 3 battle from The Adventure Zone, lit in saturated blue, pink, and yellow colors. Magnus, a muscular man with brown skin, is possessed by Edward, glaring at Mannequin Magnus as he rips the mannequin arm off.

Taako, a fat elf with warm brown skin, is standing back and channeling a fog of blue magic, while additional mannequins cover the platform. Lydia, an elven lich with blue-ish skin and a thin build, hovers overhead in a flowing dress, spreading her arms as if casting a spell.

The additional panels are closeups on Magnus and Taako respectively. End description.

WELL that just became my favorite boss battle?? ?

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

for the Bonus Bracket, are liches allowed?

Lup and Barry Bluejeans (and Edward and Lydia) do not count. They are just normal people who have become emotionally-powered ghosts in a world where magic is normal.

If it's some other media, I will trust you to use your best judgement. Questions I would ask include:

What's the normal level of power over the physical and metaphysical worlds and does this character significantly exceed it? Did they exceed it in the past but now their power has waned as they've been forgotten?

Could this character be worshipped as a god?

Would this character be the embodiment of a nightmare for both a 3 year old and a 33 year old?

Is this character unique or are they pretty normal for their species or job? What's their peer situation like?