#minecraft diaries shad

[sleakrl]

A child’s death was the cause of it all.

Change my mind.

[dilly-dahlia]

guys i’ve been going about my Garroth x reader Hadestown au all wrong

so originally I had it where Aphmau is Persephone and Laurance was Hades for reasons being that Laurance was so in love with Aphmau that he ended up doing all this stuff he didn’t realize was hurting her and throughout the series Aphmau never really reciprocated and is sometimes in love with him sometimes not yada yada. I decided NO; Irene is Persephone and Shad is Hades

but that didn’t seem quite right. and then. I realized that Shad should be Persephone, and Irene should be Hades. walk with me.

now obviously Shad the Destroyer, Irene the Matron, matron = life and healing—the obvious choice for them is Shad as Hades and Irene as Persephone but remember that Irene turned their daughter into a relic to give Shad eternity so the Divine could protect their world

now I’m not completely brushed up on my MyStreet/MCD lore, but if I remember correctly then Irene used that cannon thing to sacrifice other human lives to create the relics, not just that of her daughter

now also consider Hades in Hadestown (not looking at political undertones); he misses Persephone so much that he starts making stuff in the Underworld to remind himself of her in her absence—even if the means to do it are inhumane and it ends up having weird consequences. he makes it hot to resemble the spring and summertime Persephone brings. he makes it bright to remind himself of the sun on her skin, which he initially fell in love with

IRENE SACRIFICED THE DAUGHTER SHE HAD WITH SHAD TO PROTECT HER LOVED ONES.

now obviously I need to workshop it more but I rest my case. Shad the Destroyer as Persephone, Irene the Matron as Hades

[skittlezmike]

Are...are these controversial opinions....😨

[will-do-anything-for-a-dollar]

WHO WROTE THISS

[jacob-the-human]

[dryya-doesnt]

"We all want happy memories, Irene. But some of us are cursed to never have them."

"You are a monster."

"So says the Matron Irene."

Errr so how's life everyone I just really wanted to draw out this idea that I had pairing the emerald secret one :D

[shuublebunny]

WIP time babeyyyyy! It feels like it's been eons since I last posted any art (school is crazy and art block is evil) so here are some crumbs for a DTIYS I'm doing on Insta :))))

[xyxofspades]

Laurence after the portal closed, probably

(Also yeah that's gene but I might change that design)

[warlocks-and-phoenixes]

[gumbootillustrations]

divine warriors loredump!

so yeah, the divine warriors! admittedly, i'm fascinated by them - i rlly rlly wish that we'd gotten to see more of them + their powers/domains/abilities in mcd, especially considering that they're a driving force behind the plot. so, i've gone ahead and done some redesigns for the sigils (above) and expanded on the domains and abilities of the divine warriors within the context of ashes, ashes.

more under the cut!

irene retains her matron title. for her domains, i rlly wanted to lean into her being a deity of life and family; as such, her official domains are  life, light, healing, childbirth and parenthood, fertility, marriage, tradition, beauty, and romantic/familial/platonic love. menphia also has domains over aspects of love (namely over sexual/carnal/manic love), but i wanted them to sort of have an aphrodite ourania (irene) and aphrodite pandemos (menphia) sort of vibe. in terms of the abilites that her relic gives its wielders, its a lot of what's seen in canon mcd: lots of healing and light abilities, but also some dimensional manipulation and time manipulation stuff thrown in there for the shits and giggles.

for shad, i rlly wanted to play into him being both a mirror and a foil for irene. where irene creates, he destroys; where irene brings life, he brings death. his official domains are that of death, darkness, chaos, the afterlife, change, rot and decay, the Nether, bloodshed, and madness. although he's also a war deity like menphia (and, to an extent, esmund and xavier), he's mostly associated with the worst bits of battle - the blood, the rot, the awful awful deaths, that sort of thing. his relic grants its wielders a lot of destruction-associated powers like disintegration and rot/plague/death stuff, but also some shadow and blood manipulation as well.

like a lot of other folks, i felt like enki was the best fit for a knowledge deity. he looks after scholars, librarians, witches, and inventors; officially, his domains are those of knowledge, air, magick, prophecy, the weather, winter, reason, and lightning. from here, you'll start to see pretty much all the warriors having some sort of like. elemental association? is the best way i can put it. i've sort of based it off of the minor arcana of the tarot; the suit of swords, which is associated with air, is the suit of knowledge and the mental realm, which i thought was fitting for enki. enki is also one of the four seasonal divine warriors (the others being esmund, menphia, and kul'zak); he gets winter, mostly because of his centre of worship being in gal'ruk. wielders of his relic get air and weather manipulation powers, as well as powers related to memory and access to witchcraft (if they aren't witches already). they also gain clairvoyance.

esmund! again with the tarot symbolism; esmund is associated with the element of earth and the physical world, hence the mountain in his sigil. his domains are those of protection, earth, wealth, autumn, boundaries, earthquakes, guardhood, and the harvest. the domain over the harvest might seem a little left field but it makes sense i promise! i sort of saw esmund's association with the harvest not only being because of him being an earth deity, but also because i feel like being able to provide is a form of protection, and given the setting of mcd, i feel like being able to provide a good harvest is a part of that. this is also why he is associated with autumn. regarding the abilities that his relic provides, there's a lot of earth manipulation and barrier/force field creation stuff in there; his relic wielders are also freakishly stronger and more durable than those who wield other relics, sort of playing into esmund himself being a tank.

i changed menphia's title to 'the conqueror' because i thought it'd be a bit more fitting for her, especially considering how i'm working tu'la in ashes, ashes (more on that later). i also changed her colour scheme to more of a blue/copper theme despite her being a fire goddess - i thought it was neat, considering that blue flames are those that burn the hottest. her domains are those of warfare (the glorious bits), fire, soldiers, political power, summer, passion and courage, festivals and celebrations, and sexual/carnal/manic love. i'm still not suuuper sure on the abilities that her relic gives its wielders, but there's definitely some pyrokinesis and emotion/heat manipulation, along with some combat-specific foresight in there. i'm open to suggestions!

nothing much really changes regarding kul'zak. he's a nature deity and watches over journeymen and particularly sailors, given that he's a water/ocean deity; he's often worshipped by pirates. officially, his domains are travellers, water, animals, the wilderness, the cardinal directions and navigation, hunting, and spring. i really wanted to lean into him being a man of the wilderness and not really having a home in urban environments. as such, his relic grants its wielders a lot of wilderness-based abilities, like shapeshifting, water and plant manipulation, and camouflage, with a bit of teleportation in there for all your wandering needs.

xavier is probably the divine warrior that i've changed the most. first off, he becomes a divine warrior in ashes, ashes where he isn't in canon mcd. i also really wanted to lean into him being the founder of the jury of nine, hence his title - the justiciar. he's associated with the domains of guardhood (along with esmund), loyalty, metal and metalworkers, justice, balance and order, peace, brotherhood, devotion, and artisans. where esmund looks after the more physical side of being a guard (being your lord's shield and spear, aka the protection side of things), xavier looks after the more emotional side of being a guard - the devotion to your lord and the comradery that you share with your fellows. his relic's abilities capitalise on that, with its wielders being able to both amplify and nullify the magick of the people they're fighting alongside/against. there's also a bit of metal manipulation and a lot of supportive magick in there too.

and, as a fun little tidbit - a lineup of the divine warriors! (the layout is inspired by @star-boi0720 - the way you lay out your drawings like this is mint as 🤩)

i'm still not suuuper happy w kul'zak or irene's designs but i'll get there in the end i guess :)

[sleakrl]

Shad just wanted to be a father…

But sometimes we can’t always have what we want.

Right?

[shadowqnights]

PART ONE of a MCD headshot page collection - DIVINE WARRIORS & CO., AND MAIN CAST. for rewrite reference and also enjoyment :3

[eyesoffthemaud]

Sometimes I think about the fact that Aaron is a descendant of Shad and not his reincarnation.

Like that implies at least that there was a lady (who wasn’t Irene) that had Shad’s child. I wonder what their relationship was like.

I wonder if Irene had any thoughts about her… Do you think that lady hated Irene for sealing him in the Nether?

Like, theoretically… She had to raise her kid by herself and led a village…. Do you think Shad’s living child/children contributed to Irene’s depression?

Do you think Shad actually loved this theoretical person? Do you think she knew that?

[insert-username-here566]

A thought about Laurance. I'm not "fixing" the love triangle, just making it make sense. Garroth makes plenty of sense to me, but Laurance?

So it's Canon in my rewrite that in order for a shadow to grasp humanity after being turned into a shadow knight, they must think of someone to ground them. This will turn into the person they must kill later on to gain immortality.

I think she was the first person he thought of. Not the only, but one of them. He knew he wanted to protect her, and he liked her. Emphasis on the liked. But after everything of all people, he thought of the shadow lord chose her.

Sure, the shadow lord didn't even know he forced laurance to fixate on her. He wasn't even fully formed.

Something Something laurance is in love with aphmau because shads influence. Something Something him not knowing how many of his emotions are altered by shad and not known what's real or fake. Cue Identity crisis.

[will-do-anything-for-a-dollar]

Shad or Irene but this

[goat-guy-tm]

Wowie those Divine Warriors are pretty cool. Hope nothing bad happens to them-

Would you believe me if I told you I didn't touch this for months and then finished it in one go pulling an all nighter.