#nether faerie dragon

[thebaronfelidae]

Sprite Darter Hatchling! Redesign!

The Recolors!

Nether Faerie Dragon

Kal'andu

Sun Darter Hatchling

Blinky colors!

(normal, baige, red)

Mount Colors!

Enchanted Fey Dragon (normal, baige, red)

Flourishing Whimsydrake

???

[chrominius]

🔮✨

[quonka]

"Hey, this pretty much universally beloved video game OST actually kind of hits-- why is no one else talking about this?"

Sometime last year in September while looking for more background music to study and write to other than the Neopets: The Darkest Faerie OST, I looked up the Minecraft OST on YouTube.

Then that same December, my personal 2023 Spotify Wrapped released with C418 as my number one artist, who produced the Minecraft Volume Alpha album in 2011 and the Minecraft Volume Beta album in 2013; along with his three 2018 singles for the OST Axolotl, Dragon Fish, and Shuniji.

with a total of 2,518 minutes listened to, in the span of a little less than four months; I was put in his top 1% of listeners-- something I had definitely felt a little embarrassed about at the time.

My number three artist then was Lena Raine, who also worked on the later entries into the OST, with Minecraft: Nether Update in 2020; Minecraft: Caves and Cliffs in 2021; Minecraft: The Wild Update in 2022; and also has a fair number of tracks in the most recent addition to the OST, 2024 Minecraft: Tricky Trials.

Mine-Craft

I can't even say that the reason why I can focus so well to this soundtrack is because I have a nostalgia for the game like in my Darkest Faerie Post. While I did absolutely play the game a lot when I was younger like every other twelve-year-old with computer access; for as long as I can remember, I've specifically turned off the in-game music so I could listen to my own.

That's why for so long, I never really had any palpable attachment to the music.

However, due to that whim in September, I have discovered probably my favorite Video Game OST ever-- one that I listen to for schoolwork yes-- but also one that I often listen to when walking around my college campus between classes, or when biking around my neighborhood, or reading a book for fun-- or when I just need to calm down.

Variety Hour

I think the one of the main reasons why it's so versatile is just the number of artists that have produced songs towards its collection. There's C418 and Lena Raine, but there's also Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, and Adam Cherof.

This could have been a drawback, where so many different contributors to the same project might've lead to some discordance in the whole sound of the OST-- but none of the artist's sounds really clash with each other all too much, which is incredibly impressive considering the time gap from the release of the first album to the most current album.

Probably one of the most different songs I've heard on the soundtrack so far is Adam Cherof 's 2024 Precipice -- and honestly, I couldn't care less because this song is genuinely incredible. There's so much passion, and energy, and it really feels like you're standing atop a precipice, with the faster tempo of the song and the airy echoing of chimes and keys acting to simulate the wind whipping past your ears-- it's fun, and adventurous, and different and I adore it.

Back to the Beginning

Because Minecraft: Tricky Trials released so recently, it was not in my 2023 wrapped, but with just how many great and repeatable songs are on that album, I fully except to see both Precipice and Creator in my 2024 wrapped.

The song that did take my number one spot though was Équinoxe, off that original album, with Ancestry off of Minecraft: Caves and Cliffs taking my second spot and Moog City again from that original album taking my third spot.

While both Moog City and Équinoxe are beautiful pieces that I could go on and on about, I specifically want to talk about Ancestry.

This song is this beautiful and unnerving atmospheric piece that specifically was designed to play in the Deep Dark Biome, which as the name suggests, is a haunting little area deep underground with little to no light.

I love all the echoing in this song, the crispy static just under the pulsating higher tones, the glitchy wind instrument sounds-- it all contributes to this gorgeous "mysterious and unknown scary" ambiance that the dev team was aiming for.

There are a couple songs like this one too, full of a darker, more somber atmosphere-- another one of my favorites being from C418's Minecraft Volume Beta, The End, or from his Minecraft Volume Alpha, Thirteen.

I guess I'm a sucker for a darker soundtrack because the Minecraft OST has more than its fair share of cold and heavy ambiance.

Looking Forward

I could genuinely talk at length for at least half of this soundtrack. There are so many rich pieces, and motifs, and melodies that I've grown incredibly found of. There are still songs on the OST that I feel like I'm discovering for the first time, where they might not have caught my ear the first couple listens-- but after a while I've started to really hear the intricacies in their scores and gain a new appreciation for them.

I'm honestly considering making a tier list for the soundtrack, or maybe even doing a couple posts at the very least.

I genuinely think that if anyone hasn't listened to the Minecraft OST, they should give it a shot, whether it just be for fun, or to study and write to. You really don't need to have an overwhelming sense of nostalgia to enjoy the music-- and I'm proof.

Here is the entire, currently up-to-date Minecraft OST playlist on Spotify neatly organized in chronological order by user Darra (Everybody say thank you Darra). If you don't have Spotify though, here is the similarly organized playlist by user NightBunny8 on Youtube (Everybody say thank you NightBunny8).

To anyone who is familiar with soundtrack though, what are your favorite songs? or the opposite; if anyone hates any of the songs off the OST, I'd love to hear which ones. I can't say I really Hate any of the songs... maybe one... but that can wait for the tier list or a subsequent post.

[activate-shadow-of-the-window]

Hermittober Day 28: Wilt

-

Bdubs was becoming increasingly perplexed, and he was not happy about that.

Even though he’d taken great lengths to hide the faeries he’d brought to Permafrost, someone or something had found out, and was teasing him about it. Teasing him, the Lord of Livingstone! The One Enthroned in Moss was getting teased!

He drew his sword and swung it around a bit before returning to pour over what clues he had gathered. A note attached to the back of his rascal footman, written in a teal, scrawling script. A wreath of lavender clamped around the mouth of one of the great hungers, sent back to his quarters whimpering. And a wilting bundle of vines tied to a tendril of his most trusted glare, returning from the special mission he’d sent it on.

“What does it mean?!? What!?! WHAT!!!”

A whooshing sound battered at his window, slamming the shutters open and revealing a whirling being of wind. “Lord! Lord!”

Bdubs rushed to let it in. “Cold Draft! What took you so long?!”

The breeze sighed as it settled its three detached limbs onto the empty desk chair. “I was discovered, lord. The reason poor little Sweetglow is mute is because she witnessed it all. Many came to the place called Lumbar, bearing harsh iron and fireworks. They captured all three of the ground workers, and found me when I took the bat-folk. I was… banished, I suppose, by that cross-dimensional blaze-stray-human. He also set me on fire. I left then, but the wind was against me. I can only assume that they interrogated the ground workers, and found Sweetglow. We have been had, my lord, if that is the proper use of the saying.”

Bdubs stood slack jawed for a moment before falling backwards onto his bed. “Oh. In the name of the Dragon, oh no. That’s gone and wilted my sunflowers right down. Could it get any worse?”

Cold Draft moved as if to speak, but it began to shudder and spoke in a strange voice— no, multiple voices, some delayed and all overlapping. “I-I-I-I-I’m through. It worked. Only short ones. Like we thought. Hello. Is this Bee. Double. Oh?”

The man in question chucked a pen at, and through, the breeze before answering. “Yes. Yes, this is the Lord Bee Double Oh. And who do I have the displeasure of speaking to?”

A smile came through in the multitude of voices very clearly. “Well then. We are a lot. Of people. Parrots, and a cat. And an ambiguous canid. And a nether-born. And the three. That were already here. The blood knight. The bird-sheep. And the mask. But the one. Who is speaking. Is a half vex. And also something. Known as. Plant that Eats Life.”

Bdubs straight up hissed like an ocelot. “*Plant that Eats Life?* … where do I know that name from … OH! YOU! Sculk! Sculk! How dare you possess dear Cold Draft! It’s a very dedicated breeze!”

A laugh, then another, and more, all overlapping. “Oh. It is not possessed. It is just being. A transmitter. You should know that. Since you took and. Copied that terminal. And that board. From the Coast.”

“…oh right! Yeah! So you’re using that Shrieker-Sensor thingie, right? Oh, that’s smart! And so inconvenient! Void’s name!”

More laughs. “Thank you so much. Anyway. If you understand. The technology. Then you should know. That we are close.”

The mossy faerie audibly gasped. “OH! No. No. No no no. You’re going to do the thing, aren’t you? Gonna tap me on the shoulder and—“

He didn’t manage to finish the sentence before a hole opened in the ceiling, blown precisely with a few choice pieces of TNT. As Bdubs choked on quartz dust, he was knocked downed by strikes from several wings, followed a paw planted firmly on his sword arm.

“Don’t move, moss-lump. We know what happened to you. Just keep quiet and close your eyes, and they won’t mind a thing.”

A firework suddenly went off, and then another, and then another, only the loudest of an impossibly loud cacophony within the study. As Bdubs laid prone on the bed, he realized exactly what the intruders were trying to do.

Heavy boots hammered down the hall and burst through the door. “My lord! What has happ—”

Welsknight’s voice suddenly cut off as the signature whoosh of Cold Draft rushed towards him, the whirlwind stealing the blue knight’s voice. Slowly the commotion grew quieter, and as the dust settled, Bdubs realized that all of his faeries were in the room. Sweetglow the glare was huddled in the darkest corner, while Andesite the rascal trembled at the tip of a cutlass. Cold Draft was still restraining Wels, while dear Steel Trap the great hunger was stuffed head-first into a chest. Quite the feat was the last one, given how large her head was.

Etho, staring down the point of a knife from on top of Bdub’s arm, winked his red eye. “We know exactly what’s up, Bee. Just sit tight. Once Tango gets here—“ he flicked an ear towards the hole in the ceiling “—we’re be set.”

[eregyrn-falls-art]

WoW: Sprite Darter and Nether Faerie Dragon (click to embiggen!)

Third of the Ko-Fi commissions, for my dear old friend @dragonsmirk (whom Tumblr will never let me tag for some reason), who’s into World of Warcraft.  The sprite darter (lower left) is a pet/companion you can get in Feralas, and her troll shaman Guchalag has one.  The nether faerie dragon is a variation on the sprite darter (obviously), more of a night creature (I think?), and many parts of it are transparent.  (The background, however, it based a bit on Ashenvale, which is a more purple-hued forest environment then Feralas. I kept it really simple so it wouldn’t compete with all the details in the figures.)

I used to draw a LOT of firelizards back in the day ;-), but haven’t done any in years, so doing these guys was lots of fun. Their wing shapes and design were fun to figure out!  They are, needless to say, reffed from a bunch of sources, including game screenshots, and a neat tool you could use to rotate them in 3D.  All done in CSP except for the glow effect, which I had to do in PS.

[ilvions]

an art trade with a mutual from DA !!! my first trade ever which was super exciting! i’m open for more trades if anyone is interested ! 

[raendown]

Soooo this started as just a simple commission and then rapidly got out of control, as seems to keep happening to me lately. xD For you @copyninken for inspiring me with such an excellent commission prompt!

Chapter: 1/9 Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 4660 Rated: M Summary: Walking patrol around a university for mages probably sounded like a wild time but Tobirama has never found it all that exciting. He's not even technically supposed to be here. When responding to a tripped alarm becomes a desperate attempt to stay alive, however, excitement is the last thing on his mind. All he's ever wanted is a quiet life alone with his books until he finds himself bound to Uchiha Madara in the most impossible way and finally learns to think about more than just himself - in a way.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Duality

He wasn’t even a professor. Tobirama scowled to himself and pulled the edges of his cloak tighter in search of whatever pocket he had dropped his warming stone in to. Such a simple rune and yet it was no help to him if he couldn’t find it. Of course, he wouldn’t need it if his brother hadn’t turned those puppy eyes on him and begged with his bottom lip wobbling pathetically, so disgustingly sad that Tobirama had agreed to do as he asked just to make that face go away. He wasn’t even a professor! He should not be out here in the evening chill performing a professor’s duties.

A huff of frustration escaped him and he dropped his handful of cloak, shoving it back so he could pat himself down for other pockets. His habit of misplacing things was the whole reason he’d started sewing extra pockets in to his clothing whenever he remembered to but the problem was that now he had too many pockets to look through and his things still ended up lost.

Fingers closing around something cool and smooth, he fought back the excess material to pull his hand out with a cry of triumph, expecting to see the warming stone he was certain he’d picked up that morning. Then he snorted in disgust when he found half a broken pestle instead. No one was around to watch him stomp one foot in irritation. No warming stone and now he was probably going to spend the rest of the evening wondering which mortar was missing its pestle. Had he taken someone else’s? Had he broken his own?

How was he supposed to properly grind faerie wings – willingly gifted, of course – if he hadn’t the right tools?

Contrary to his predictions, any thoughts of preparing ingredients for his various experiments came to an abrupt halt when he rounded the corner and saw the other person he was meant to be paired with for that evening’s patrol. Madara looked as dramatic as ever, clad in fiery red from head to toe as though his natural element wasn’t obvious in the way sparks clung to his hair and smoke rose out of his fingertips in fits and starts. Standing along one of the outer passages, positioned next to an opening in the wall, his hair rose and fell as the wind howled outside. The idiot would have frozen in minutes dressed down as he was if he wielded any other element.

After a few moments of standing in one place and scowling as hard as he could Tobirama accepted that the other man hadn’t noticed him there. White skin and sharp footsteps should have made him rather obvious in the dark but Madara had always been a little too wrapped up in himself to pay much attention to others.

Tobirama threw the broken pestle at him.

“What the fuck!?” Madara screeched in surprise when stone sparked against stone right next to his face, leaping away and spinning in a full circle until finally his eyes landed on where Tobirama had now crossed his arms with an expectant expressed. “Are you kidding me? I was supposed to walk patrols with your brother tonight; what the hell are you doing here?”

“Nothing pleasant, I assure you. Brother decided that planning a date with Mito on the same night he was scheduled to walk the halls with you was an excellent idea. One would think the security of his own university would be more important than gargling someone else’s tonsils but I have never claimed to understand how his mind works. And so here I am.” He smirked a little when Madara wrinkled his nose with disgust.

“Must you refer to it like that?”

“Have you seen them kiss? That is essentially what he is doing.” Tobirama slid his hands in whatever pockets were closest to ward off the winter chill. “Whatever you want to call it, he asked me to cover his duties while he is otherwise occupied.”

Visibly put off, Madara waved both hands aimlessly in protest. “You’re not even a professor!”

“I know!” It wasn’t often the two of them agreed on much but in this they were of the same mind.

Of course, Tobirama was more than old enough to be a professor here at the school should he have wished to be. He certainly had more than enough knowledge to teach any of several different subjects. Unfortunately for the masses he had very little interest in taking so much time away from his research, preferring to stick with his technical status as student and continue on in the life of a scholar. Nothing appealed to him more than the rush of discovering some ancient scrap of knowledge written by some unnamed mage and finding a use for it.

He did not appreciate errands like this one taking up precious time he could have been using to look more in to the effects of those crystals Touka had given him for his birthday a century or so ago. If his estimations were correct then they might have been formed from a naturally occurring phenomenon that only happened during a massive outburst of dragon magic. Such things had never been recorded!

“You’re off in your own head again already. Great. Well this is going to be just tons of fun, isn’t it? Babysitting you while looking out for students getting up to shenanigans. You know how they get when they catch the first hints of graduation! I’ve had three try to break in to my office in the past week and there’s still a month left of classes!”

“Looking for exam notes?”

“Obviously.” Madara snorted as though he hadn’t done the exact same thing when he was a student, sneaking a peak at his teacher’s notes so he knew exactly which spells he should study up on for the exam.

Tobirama snickered without bothering to hide it. Served the asshole right for being so uptight all the time. He hoped some of those students had got what they came for before Madara caught them. Later he would have to figure out who they were and provide them with the answers himself, having taken the class on a whim a decade or so back. The poor idiot probably didn’t have enough imagination to change his exam from year to year.

“Ugh, let’s just get this over with. We usually start with the western courtyard to make sure no one is trying to perform any summonings under the moonlight.” Spinning on his heel, hair and cloak flaring out with a wholly unnecessary amount of drama, Madara stalked away down the hall without waiting to see if he was being followed.

“I remember my first summoning.” Tobirama sighed wistfully. Ahead of him, Madara twitched.

Before he could get too far in to his reminiscing about the time he summoned a nether beast that took a liking to Madara’s hair – poor taste but it had probably been the funniest thing the university had seen in several decades – their patrol was interrupted before it could even truly begin.

As soon as the alarm went off Madara, long used to having it tripped by miscreant students, pressed one palm against the closest wall and murmured something in a low voice. The wards rippled under his touch and Tobirama could hear them deep down in the parts of himself that had been connected with the world’s magic since his very first breath. He knew as well as anyone else who had been here at the school long enough that the wards were alive in a way he couldn’t explain, although being a student he also knew that they wouldn’t listen to him as they did to Madara. More poor taste. That man had nothing to say that would be even half as interesting as the things Tobirama had floating around in his head.

“What have they to report?” he asked when his companion set off without saying anything, scurrying to keep up.

“The alert came from the northern edge of the property. What anyone is doing all the way out there is beyond me. If we’re lucky maybe they’ll fall in to the river before we get there.” Every word Madara spoke was dripping with offense as though whoever was out there causing trouble had done him a personal injustice by choosing to do so on the night it was his duty to watch over the massive castle housing their university.

Drifting along behind him, not half as worried, Tobirama snickered again at the image of someone falling in to the river. Long ago when the first mages had created this place of learning they had been just a wee bit suspicious of outsiders. History was a little vague on exactly which one of them did it but Tobirama’s theory was that it had actually taken all of them to convince the earth herself to raise up high and set the university grounds far above the rest of the surrounding countryside, sheer cliffs at every boundary line and only one set of stairs carved in to the eastern wall. Just imagining someone stupid enough to topple off the cliff and down in to the northern river left Tobirama smiling. People were idiots. If somehow a non-magic person had found their way to this hidden place and trekked all the way up a staircase that would be invisible to them he sort of hoped they fell back down the cliff just for being so insufferably nosey.

Neither of them spotted anyone on their way to where the wards had been disturbed, not another soul awake or at least none of them stupid enough to be up and about on a cold winter night such as this. Which was strange, actually, unless somehow the disturbance had come from outside the boundaries because if it had come from inside then they should have passed someone on the way to the scene. After exiting the front doors of the castle there was really nowhere for anyone to hide on the wide open grounds surrounding it.

As they drew closer, merely a few dozen feet away, Tobirama began to twitch.

“I don’t like this,” he grumbled.

“What?” Despite the fact that there was no love lost between them, he appreciated that Madara had the good sense to stop and listen to him. He did have his smart moments.

“The snow,” Tobirama pointed out. “It’s undisturbed. And there are no whispers.”

“Whispers?”

Cutting one hand through the air impatiently, he snapped, “Yes, whispers, the water in the snow. I can speak to my own element just as you can. No one has gone through here in the past few hours. If they had then the snow would remember.”

Madara eyed him contemplatively for a moment and then nodded. With absolutely no connection to water himself, he would have to rely entirely on Tobirama’s word for that. Unfortunately the fire in his veins did nothing to make him a cautious man, preferring to bull his way in to a situation while yelling his questions, and that tendency showed itself now. With a decisive slant of his brow he strode forward and stretched one hand out, probably intending to speak with the wards again and ask what they remembered about when the alarm had been tripped.

He cried out with surprise and stumbled back in to Tobirama, sending both of them crashing down in the very center of the glyph lighting up underneath their feet. Completely hidden by snow, diameter large enough that Tobirama could have stretched out completely and not been able to touch both sides, it glowed with a pale yellow light the moment Madara tried to pass beyond the far side and cast him back, trapping them both within.

“I told you I didn’t like this,” Tobirama murmured, already reaching out with raw magic to feel around the edges of the glyph.

“Shut up. What’s happening?”

“Oh, I really don’t like this.” That was all the answer Tobirama managed to give before the light doubled in intensity and the world around them began to warp. Madara screeched in his ear and Tobirama couldn’t help but agree – with the panic, not with the level of decibels he managed to achieve. This was definitely cause for panic.

They had barely a handful of seconds to process what was happening. One minute they lay in a heap together in the virgin snow outside of their beloved university and the next they were transported to what would have looked like an underground cavern of some sort if not for the wind blowing in from one end. Someone had forcibly relocated them to a cave. Someone was looking forward to an early grave when they found their way back home.

“If you even think the words ‘I told you so’ I will rearrange your face.” Madara sat upright just to snarl at Tobirama, covering his discomfort with the usual bluster.

“Now seems as good a time as any to tell you that my dearest wish is for you to someday learn to use your brain for thinking first before the yelling starts.”

“Fuck. You.”

“We may have to resort to that for entertainment, as abhorrent as the idea is. I’m sure you haven’t spent the brainpower to notice but we appear to be sealed in here.” Tobirama lifted one of his eyebrows and gestured towards where the cave twisted out of sight. No visible barrier could be found but he could already feel the muffling effect of some kind of dampening spell.

Not only had they been sent away but they had been trapped here. Wonderful. Tobirama wondered what he had done recently to piss the spirits off so much that he ended up trapped in a cave with only Uchiha Madara for company. Literally anyone else in the world would have been better – except for maybe Uchiha Izuna. Madara’s younger brother was probably the only person more annoying than him. Even worse, he somehow had less social tact than the world’s biggest buffoon.

Both men pushed themselves to their feet and moved towards the far side of the cave where a bend in the path would have led towards the outside world. A few meters before they would have reached it they were stopped, something unseen sizzling in warning. Neither of them were really all that interested in using themselves as a test subject to find out what they were being warned away from. At least, not without knowing who laid the barrier, what their element was, how willing they were to separate limbs from bodies, that sort of thing.

Edging backwards until the sizzling stopped, Madara dropped his face in to what was possibly the sourest expression he had ever managed, arms crossing and shoulders tensing until they were hiked up around his ears.

“This is bullshit,” he declared.

“I hate to say you’re right about anything but in this case I am compelled to agree.” Tobirama looked around for somewhere to sit, disappointed to realize there was nowhere that wasn’t covered in ice or snow. He ignored the offended the mess of huffs and snorts behind him as Madara tried to figure out if he was offended or smug.

After a while the man settled with, “Between the two of us we can find a way through it, why are you sitting down?”

“Because between the two of us I am not volunteering to get close enough to that barrier to make a physical inspection. If you would shut up for a few moments I could gather my concentration to look at it in other ways.” Scraping a small area clean with the side of one boot, he added, “Unless you also happen to have studied for as long as I have and understand how to connect yourself to another person’s magic? No? I didn’t think so.”

“Could you be any more of an asshole?” Madara snarled.

“Probably but they say imitation is the highest form of flattery and I have no intention of flattering you.”

While his companion took a few seconds to work through that Tobirama sat down on the cold stone floor, as free of snow as it was going to get, and turned himself inwards to the power flowing through him. Madara’s inevitable screech of anger went in one ear and out the other as Tobirama let his consciousness gather and then flow outwards, stretching himself until he could feel every inch of his surroundings. The bright sensation of fire-passion-fearless took concentration to think past, as Madara often did, but Tobirama forced himself to push farther towards the warm-forbidding-apology that awaited him at the mouth of their impromptu dungeon. Strange, he thought. Those weren’t the feelings he had expected to get from this little exploration. Whoever set up that barrier felt guilty while doing so.

Carefully brushing along the edges, Tobirama was able to feel for points where the spell was weakest and slip underneath them, filling the proverbial cracks with his own magic and leaving pieces of himself behind like those hidden landmines non-magical folk had been so fond of during their first couple of wars.

Retreating back in to his own body and opening his eyes felt like a loss. It was always a bit of a jarring experience feeling the world in such an intimate way and then opening his eyes to find himself nothing more than human once again. Existing as conscious magic made him feel free and unconstrained while coming back to his body left him overly aware of how cold his ass had become from sitting on frozen rock. Popping his eyes open, he grimaced and clenched both butt cheeks in an effort to encourage some blood flow.

“Well?” Madara demanded. “Did the oh-so-smart scholar find anything useful?”

“I’ve weakened the barrier but it’ll take time to fall apart completely. Until then there’s really nothing for us to do but wait.” Not the best news he’d ever had to deliver, although the irritation in Madara’s expression was at least a small lift to his mood.

“Seriously? We just sit here? And do nothing?”

“I have done something. That something will take time. If you have anything you would like to add to my efforts then be my guest.” Tobirama waited and when his companion gave no response he hummed in satisfaction. Being right was a pleasure all on its own but being right when Madara was wrong? That was always best.

Since it was already quite late his hope was that he could somehow fall asleep or at least doze off to pass the hours more quickly. Madara stomped around trying to find a place of his own to settle down while Tobirama closed his eyes again and told himself very firmly to ignore the cold seeping deeper and deeper in to his limbs with every passing moment. If he lost part of his ass cheeks to frostbite someone was going to pay very deeply for such a transgression.

More than an hour passed in complete silence after the other idiot with him finally settled down and yet still Tobirama couldn’t bring himself even close to dozing off. Water was his element of course but he certainly didn’t enjoy sitting around in the frozen form of it for ages on end. Around the time he realized he had all but stopped shivering he also realized that perhaps losing an extremity or two was the least of his problems, though it still ranked fairly high in his mind. His limbs were fairly important to his ability to perform certain spells.

Curious in a sluggish sort of way, he lifted one hand and tried to wiggle his fingers.

“Ah,” he murmured, voice slurring. “That’s not good at all.”

“What’s not good?” Madara’s voice demanded. Up until he spoke the man had appeared to be sleeping, hunched down with the snow around him melting, body heat raised to keep warm.

Tobirama forced his head to turn and meet his companion’s eyes. It took a few moments to process the sudden cursing, the way Madara scrambled across the cave to kneel in front of him. When large hands enclosed his own he felt nothing.

“Your fucking lips are blue! Actually blue!” Madara blew on his hands. Logically Tobirama could guess that he was heating the air but it appeared his fingers had gone entirely numb. At some point while he sat there and waited for sleep hypothermia had found him instead. Irritating. More so because he found thinking straight incredibly difficult once he actually tried to think about anything.

“Definitely not good,” he said.

“Why the hell didn’t you say anything?” Madara demanded.

“As if you would have cared.” Difficult as it was to concentrate on anything, the antagonistic relationship between them was as natural as his own heartbeat and required even less thought.

Predictably, Madara snorted, almost dropping his hands in retaliation. “Fine way to speak to the only one around who can keep you alive,” he snarled.

Contrary to his attitude he did continue to breathe warm air over the frozen digits between them. If they’d had a little warning before getting summarily evacuated from university grounds then maybe one of them might have brought along gloves or a scarf. Well, Madara wouldn’t have because he didn’t need either but Tobirama certainly would have bundled up a little more. Either their captor hadn’t thought of these particular consequences or they didn’t really care and he would only find out which if he lived through the cold night.

For the most part Tobirama sat still through Madara’s attempts to bring feeling back in to his hands, even if that was largely in part due to the fact that he was worried any movements would send him toppling over sideways. Only the fact that he had settle in place seemed to be keeping him upright. After a while Madara gave a frustrated growl and Tobirama blinked up at him wordlessly in question.

“This is taking too long. I can’t breathe the rest of you warm again – also that would be creepy and I hate the images in my head now. I need to warm all of you up at once.”

“So do that,” Tobirama mumbled.

“Well it’s not as easy as ‘just do it’! I could build a flame easy enough but it would burn you before it did much good. There’s…another option. But you’re not going to like it. Hell, I don’t like it.” At Tobirama’s grunt he took a deep breath and absently rubbed the hands between his own. “Open your pathways to me. Your core magic. I’ll merge it with mine and lend you my fire; that should keep us both warm.”

Staring at him in complete shock, Tobirama managed to ask, “Have you gone completely mad?”

It was, by all accounts, a perfectly understandable question. There were few things more intimate that one mage could do for another than allow them to touch their core magic. Not even most married couples would be comfortable bearing their souls in such a manner. To do so for someone he didn’t even like, let alone trust, the very idea was laughable.

Yet Madara was far from laughing.

“There has to be another way to get warm,” he insisted. Madara sighed.

“No. Your body temperature is so low, there’s no other way to warm all of you at once without killing you. I could wrap around you and raise my own heat but it wouldn’t work fast enough and you would burn.” Shaking his head, he frowned. “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I thought something else would work, believe me.”

Tobirama closed his eyes for a moment to think and realized a few moments later that there was no longer any time to do so. When he tried to open his eyes again it was a fight, a harrowing effort, and he recognized that Madara was right; he was too far gone.

“Fine,” he whispered.

Without asking he couldn’t be sure if Madara was doing this because he would never hurt Hashirama by letting his brother go out like this or simply because he was a man with enough morals not to let another human die right in front of him. Tobirama considered it but decided against asking. He probably wouldn’t like the answer and it didn’t truly matter. In the end he was still being offered a free ticket to survival, a one-time offer going fast.

At the very least Madara was merciful enough not to be smug about it. He nodded once before shuffling around behind where Tobirama sat and wriggling in between his frozen bulk and the wall to press their bodies together, chest to back.

“The closer we are the better this will work,” he said. “Don’t worry, I hate it just as much as you. One little cuddle and then we never speak of this again.”

“I’ll clam up if you do,” Tobirama assured him.

His companion grunted. With his body now slumped backwards against another form Tobirama found his head lolling forward to stare down at the hands interlocking with his own again to create two points of connection, making a circle of their pathways for their magic to flow along. Clever, he had to admit. Positioning them like this would leave them in a constant state of feedback with each other.

Despite already agreeing to do this, opening himself to Madara proved to be one of the hardest things he’d ever done in his life. Every instinct in his body cried out against the first touch of another’s magic where he should feel only his own and yet with sheer stubbornness he managed to keep himself from shoving the other man out. He expected the feeling of being invaded, the most sacred part of him violated when it should have remained pure only until the unlikely day he intentionally invited another in.

What he did not expect was the harmony. Madara’s core and his own merged together as easily as stirring the ingredients for one of his elixirs. Warmth suffused him as promised but it wasn’t quite the warmth he expected, less body heat and more a sort of inner peace the likes of which he’d never achieved in his life.

In the darkness his inner eye was blinded by a light, fire rushing along the rivers of his core magic, cool blue turned to burning gold and dancing in such a way he couldn’t distinguish fire or water.

And he wasn’t alone. Tobirama stared unseeing at the cavern around them and knew only the second presence inside his mind, the hesitant brush of a thought that wasn’t his own. Ever too curious for his own good, he pushed towards it and gasped as he encountered Madara’s mind, faint but there, the edges of that twisted and baffling mind just beyond an ephemeral and very much proverbial wall. He shouldn’t. Tobirama knew he shouldn’t. But his curiosity had gotten him in to trouble many times in his life and this would certainly not be the last.

He pushed. Just a quick gentle nudge, inching a little closer for a better look. What better way to understand a man’s actions and personality than to take a look inside his mind and the feelings therein? For a moment he could feel the edges of Madara’s curiosity echoing back at him and, incredibly, he got the impression that he didn’t so much break in rather than the door being willingly cracked open. It was a thrill until the unthinkable happened. He slipped. He fell in to Madara in a way that would have been impossible to describe to anyone who had not experienced the same thing before but if he hadn’t just given himself entirely over to another he would have had only one thing to say.

They were one.

[druid-kasskia]

My Resto Druid and his little faerie dragon friend

[cloudycrystalkpop]

One shots masterlist

AUs:

NCT U Predator AU Series Masterlist

Neo Culture Coven Technology AU Masterlist

Folklore AU Masterlist 

Reverse Folktale AU Masterist

Looking Glass AU Masterlist

Underground AU Masterlist

hybrid AU masterlist

covens AU masterlist

Groups:

* SUGA | RESILIENCE | (shifter!) Suga x (witch!) reader | MOODBOARD

she witnessed that no matter what came at him, he always pulled through. he was impossable to shake. | -

* SUGA | LEATHER AND GASOLINE | (Agust D!) Suga x reader + feat. JHope

“i told you one of these days i wasn’t gunna be able to watch your back, and here i am, supposed to be the one stabbing you in the back.” | language, gun violence

* RM | SMOKE | (blue caterpiller!) RM x (Alice!) reader

the way the smoke billowed and curled reminded her of they way his thoughts would whisp around him as they coiled off his tongue. | smoking

* RM | CRAZY = GENIUS | (arsonist!) RM x reader

you can set yourself on fire, but you’re never gunna burn. you can set yourself on fire, but you’re never gunna learn. | mild drinking

* JHOPE | REFLECT | (sun god!) JHope x (moon godess!) reader

she spent her world living in his shadow, but that wasn’t the way he saw it. | -

* XIUMIN | WONDERLOST | (cheshire!) Xiumin x (Alice!) reader

she was lost in the wonder of such a place, and he was lost in the wonder of her. | -

* XIUMIN | CLOVER | (wolf!) Xiumin x (witch!) reader | MOODBOARD

after so many years of being on your own, you now have a gentle wolf to watch your back. | gender neutral reader

* XIUMIN | CRESCENT EYES | (witch!) Xiumin x (hybrid!) reader

as winter melted into spring, so his power drained from him. for the first time in the countless years, he had received no sign from his creator. instead of the guiding light, he found his strength in the shy crescent eyes of a feline. | -

* BAEKHYUN | ATTENTION | Byun Baekhyun x reader

Baekhyun had been ignoring her, and she began to suspect him of possably cheating on her with another idol. | -

* CHANYEOL | LOST BOY | (changeling!) Park Chanyeol x reader | MOODBOARD

lonely little boy, you never really belonged. but that’s alright, nether did she. | -

* CHANYEOL | GUARD DOG | (hybrid! familiar!) Park Chanyeol x (witch!) reader | MOODBOARD

i can’t take care of you anymore | -

* CHANYEOL | STERLING | Park Chanyeol x reader

you always had a curosity with dolls. your father used to bring you robotic ones he made in his tinkering. sometimes, you wondered, if you could bring them life. you blamed that for your later intrest in necromancy. | voodoo, gore

* SEHUN | DARK SIDE | Star Wars AU (Jedi!) Sehun x (Nightsister!) reader

Sehun was unsure of whether or not to trust this witch with an affinity for the dark side. | smut

* JB | DRIPPING ROSES | (knave of hearts!) Im Jaebum x (alice!) reader

silly little girl, i don’t think you’ll much like what you find in the heart of wonderland. | slight gore

* JACKSON | SELFLESS | (dragon!) Jackson Wang x (mystic!) reader

he was cursed for his family, but she set him free. | character death

* JINYOUNG | OF FAERIES AND FORSETS | Park Jinyoung x (faerie!)reader | MOODBOARD

Jinyoung had always been curious about the forest, and what creatures wandered there. | duel endings

* YOUNGJAE | PRECIOUS | (blood slave!) Choi Youngjae x (vampire!) reader + feat. N

he was her most precious possesion. | a little bit of master/slave kink tbh, but not very sexual.

* BAMBAM | SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST | post-apocalyptic au! Bambam x reader | MOODBOARD

morals are simply a set back in the aftermath. they’ll get you destroyed. | mentions of sexual assault against minors

* BAMBAM | SNOWGLOBE | Bambam x reader

for as long as he could remember, the cold nipped at his nose. The snow dusted his clothes. The trees where always stickly, covered in a layer of shimmering ice. But he always wondered, what lay just past the old lampost. | -

* YUGYEOM | SALT WATER | (siren!) Kim Yugyeom x reader + feat. (cabin boy!) Jisung + NCT

she could hear it, that distant melody. it called to her, cared for her, looked out for her when no one else would. | impiled sexual harassment and assault

* JOHNNY | PROMISE | revolution au! Johnny Seo x reader 

we’ll shout it from the tallest building / we’ll be here when their heart stops beating (inspired by Wake Up by Black Veil Brides) | gun violence, language

* TAEYONG | FREEDOM | (run away au!) Lee Taeyong x reader | MOODBOARD

some kids never learn. | mentions of achehol and cigarettes

* TAEYONG | HARLEQUIN | (yandere!) Lee Taeyong x (psychopath!) reader | MOODBOARD

he would do whatever she asked, more than happy to simply be a member of her cort of jesters, even if that ment his silence. |  mental illness, emotional abuse

* TAEYONG | ROSE COLORED BOY | (prince!) Lee Taeyong x (knight!) reader

a beautiful, youthful prince, the crown jewel of his kingdom, kindhearted and breathtaking in beauty, locked away and lost. frozen in time, forever young as the years pass around him. | reverse sleeping beauty au

* TEN | RELEVE | (dance teacher!) Ten x (ballet student!) reader

he was born with the rhythm in his blood, and his words were kind to those who looked for guidance. | -

* MARK + LUCAS | PRAY FOR THE WICKED | Mark x reader x Lucas | PART TWO

 sin will find you | drug use, sexual themes and implied threesome, some guy x guy 

* RENJUN | EAST IS UP | Renjun x reader

it can take some time to compleatly wake up when you’ve been alseep for so long. | inspired by Jumpsuit by Twenty One Pilots

* HAECHAN | MALICE | Haechan x reader

not everyone get’s to have a happy childhood, some of them tread on shattered glass though hellfire. in that heat you eather burn or freeze. | violence

* JAEMIN | DISTORTION | (yandere! merman!) Jaemin x reader | MOODBOARD

your kind forgot long ago, that it’s sea water that falls from your eyes you simply renamed to tears. | drowning

* G-DRAGON | IN-SANE-ITY | (mad hatter!) G-Dragon x (Alice!) reader

what’s so weird about being a little weird? | -

* N | RHYTHM | (spirit!) N x reader

there is a rhythm in all living things. if you listen, you can feel it’s hum. | -

* N | REDRUM | (ghost!) N x (cannibal!) reader

all work and no play, makes you just so… hungry… | all the warnings. !!!

* LEO | CREATURE OF THE NIGHT | (skinwalker!) Leo x (medicine woman!) reader | MOODBOARD

you don’t talk about them. you never go out by yourself, for fear you might run into one. no one knows what they actually do, for everyone who encounters one and doesn’t get away, disappears for good. | dule endings

* KEN | POCKET WATCHER | (white rabbit!) Ken x (Alice!) reader

her curiosity seemed to always run away with her… but what was curiouser than finding a handsome young man alone in the woods? | -

* RAVI | THE SORCERESS’ APPRENTICE | (apprentice!) Ravi x (sorceress!) reader + feat. (vampire!) Xiumin | MOODBOARD

Ravi had left his coven in search of a sorcerer powerful enough to teach him his full magical potental. | adult and sexual themes

* RAVI | RITUAL | (apprentice!) Ravi x (sorceress!) reader | MOODBOARD

Magic like this is forbidden, and for good reason. | mild adult content

* RAVI | WARRIOR QUEEN | Ravi x reader

she had missed her chance, and now it tore her apart. | mental illness

* HONGBIN | ROOM 217 | Hongbin x reader

The Overlook Hotel is known to be home to some very… interesting spirits. | smut

* HYUK | SICKNESS | Hyuk x reader

sometimes the most beautiful rose in the pained broken one. | character death

* HYUNGWON | TEAPOT | (doormouse!) Hyungwon x (Alice!) reader

sometimes even the smallest things can become large depending on your veiw point. | -

* HYUNGWON + I.M | HALO | (witch!) Hyungwon + (witch!) I.M

divinity magic | -

* WONHO | FLOWER PETALS | (ghost!) Wonho x reader

everything has a story to tell if you are willing to listen. | mentions of rape and murder

* ALL | BELOW THE MARSH | seven deadly sins series

some things hide just below unassuming appearances | seven different endings

* WOOJIN | MONSTER | (vampire!) Kim Woojin x reader

if you look past the gentle smiles, you may find what you believed to be innocence is not as pure as before. | slight yandere

* BANG CHAN | SECOND NATURE | (wolf!) Bang Chan x reader

while she might look at first glance, just like any of the other humans, he could smell the wolf in her blood. Long quiet and sleeping patently. He itched to set that wolf free, and watch her dance under the moonlight. | -

* FELIX | THE BOYS WITH FLAMES FOR HAIR | (reverse little mermaid au) Lee Felix x reader

the deep but gentle voice seemed to haunt you. Playing over and over again in the back of your mind. The fuzzy outline of the boy who saved you waited just behind your eyelids. His vibrant hair reminded you sometimes of the mute boy who had wandered into your backyard… | suicide attempt mention

* TAEMIN | DOWNPOUR | (naiad!) Lee Taemin x reader

he is that heavy feeling in your chest when the sky opens up and pours. he glances at you through the curtain of rain drops, the embodiment of mother nature’s sweat and tears. | depression

* ZTAO | ORACLE | (witch!) Tao x reader

there are whispers in shadows of the magic world. Whispers of a cult of witches, fortune tellers. But these are no normal tarot readers, these are oracles. The whispers warn of the horrible things that happen to those who seek out the members of this cult. | slight adult themes

[traceemerald]

-November 23rd, Trainee Wizard's Journal, Entry 29-

I'm going to start today by gathering the materials to make an Emanation - Frost Damage spell with a Radius modifier, which will deal damage to anything around me.

Emanation and Radius both require pufferfish, meaning I had to use a fishing rod for the first time since starting the world, I enchanted it with Lure III to make things quicker.

Now that I've made the spell, I'm going to test it by going to the end to get some ender pearls, since I need those anyway.

Once I got back home, I made a transitory tunnel, which is basically the portable hole from Thaumcraft, I think it's called portable hole, at least.

Anyway, I need to go to the nether to get some ghast tears and blaze rods to make end crystals.

While looking for ghasts I found a second fortress, and decided to get blaze rods there.

After getting 16 blaze rods, I went back home, I think it might be easier to craft a 75 complexity spell that to craft 4 end crystals to get dragon's breath.

I actually have a few spells with 75 or more complexity, the reason I haven't completed the task for crafting one is because they aren't that complex when I craft them, because they would be more expensive if they were.

If you have a spell with modifiers, you can change how much the modifier affects the spell after crafting it, which will change the complexity and mana cost.

I'm going to craft a Sigil - Fire Damage spell with a Damage modifier now, not because I plan to use it, but because the ingredients are easy to get, and it can be at least 75 complexity.

Sigil is basically a landmine, casting the spell puts a magic circle on the ground, and when someone steps on it, the spell's component is applied to them.

I've now crafted a 75 (actually 78) complexity spell, meaning I can advance to tier 5 by preforming the ritual of the faerie courts one last time, which I'll do tomorrow.

What I will do today is gather the materials for the ritual of the faerie courts, but that's not too interesting.

-End Journal Entry 29-

[cindyrellacosplay]

Priesting again today with my Nether Faerie Dragon! Come say hi! #blizzardcosplay #warcraftcosplay #worldofwarcraft #vestmentsoffaith #worldofwarcraftcosplay #blizzardentertainment #dragoncon2018 #dragoncon https://www.instagram.com/p/BnMVwm4gybo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qedsu85n46o7

[moosecat11]

My Blizzcon badge(s) and pin club came in from @tsepish today, and holy crap it was so much it wouldn't fit on my wood background 🤣 She was lovely enough to go along with my idea of a 2-character double sided badge of my Horde/Alliance druids, and it turned out fantastic! -Double sided acrylic badge/standee -Double sided badge art keychain -Keychain, Button, Magnet, and plastic stock badge of each -Nether Faerie Dragon pin/sticker -Frost Lich Jaina pin/sticker from July Pin Club . . .

[anchracorpus]

BOI so i just spent like 30 years making this map of AC on Inkarnate! ignore the location thingies, i wrote descriptors for everything but then it exported as a jpeg instead of like a link :| so i might just add those in this post!

Anchra Corpus: The fantasy continent made up of four countries: Faruin, Evalia, Esria, and Myvana. A magical creature called a Flull, who is the last of the Creator's original helpers, oversees the region and is promotes new gods from extraordinary citizens, essentially being responsible for all religion. It is a largely tolerant place with many mixed religions and cultures, strong trade routes and solidarity between the cities' leaders. Still, life isn't perfect, with the dire threat of the Creator's traitorous child, the Nether Unspeakable, ever looming on the horizon, and the struggles of everyday conflicts and lingering xenophobia towards the newer races.

Esria: The great desert country known for its exotic treasures and vast trade opportunities. The capital city is Ashwan.

Ashwan: A desert city inhabited by humans. Ruled by an Empress, the first of whom gave the city its name. The capital city of Esria, Ashwan gets its water from a spring atop the nearby mountain range, and most food is imported.

Nomad Camp: A general area where the mystic Esrian nomads roam and live. They wander through the desert in groups, trading and learning; not having permanent housing, but preferring to call the whole desert region a welcome home for all its people.

Lizardfolk: The lizard people call this encampment amidst rainforest ruins their home. With great skill in magic, medicine and hunting, the lizards frequently trade with other Esrians, but otherwise are usually left in peace to live off the land.

Merfolk Kingdom: The children of the ocean live underwater in a vast, magical palace-city, amidst a small archipelago. They are not seen much on the surface, as they require an abundance of water to survive, but they like to trade undersea goodies with their neighbours on land.

Faruin: The middle nation in Anchra Corpus, and the most populated. Many communities live in this area, and the leaders of each come together and decide what happens. Faruin is a country that values trust and acceptance.

Feldenar: The capital city of Faruin, Feldenar is a melting pot of cultures and class. Everyone is welcome here, and there are many mixed race people living here due to the wide variety of parents they could have. The inner city is made up of four districts in which different classes of people live: the Commons, a residential area for working and lower class people; the Magic quarter, where the magic academy, churches, temples and hospital are located; the Merchants' quarter, where the market and artisans are; and the Noble quarter, where the high class citizens, militia, and government are. Many farms are outside the city gates. Overall the city is ruled by a Mayor, and the patron god is Tor.

Axemount: The dwarven city of Axemount is built within the bowels of a great mountain and is traversed via many winding paths up and around. The dwarves are regarded as a trustworthy and warm people with a knack for innovation. Atop the large mountain is a flat surface with a large crater, in which water is collected. Gnomes, genetic hybrids of dwarves and elves, live around this crater above their cousins, and the gnomish crater is known as a place of great magic. Axemount as a whole is ruled by a King or Queen, and the patron god is Kegorrom.

Mordskamir: Initially founded by migrating vampires, Mordskamir is a bustling multilevelled city that houses the undead. It is considered the hub of necromancy and magic in Anchra Corpus. Ghosts, skeletons, zombies, liches, vampires, necromancers and spirits are all common citizens here. Mordskamir and Axemount share a close friendship and are frequent trading partners, although other cities and communities are still wary of the undead due to the exiled ghouls from a hundred years past, and a timeless unease regarding death. The Mords are generally an open and friendly people, however, just a little misunderstood. They are ruled by an Elder Lich, and their patron god is Dami, goddess of the night and founder of the city.

Black Pool: The Black Pool is not a place many civilised folks like to visit. It is a large lake of fetid, black swampy water, the area around which is inhabited by wild ghouls, the ancestors of which used to live in Mordskamir, until the former Elder Lich was murdered by a group of methodical ghoulish killers and the whole community was exiled as a result for fear they may strike again. The ghouls' nature of being unstable makes it difficult for them to adapt to society for the most part, and since their exile, the lack of structure has led them to lose much of their civility and sanity. Mord forces patrol the area regularly, to make sure the ghouls remember not to wander too far from their home and cause trouble.

Druid Grove: A cluster of trees and plants just outside Feldenar is a sacred place for druids, rangers, and their animal companions. It is a very serene and peaceful location. Those who live here are ruled by the Grand Druid, and primarily worship Levan.

Lithan: Scattered villages of elves throughout southern Faruin collectively call themselves the Lithan. They enjoy living amongst nature and in smaller communities, though many elves from this area do go and live in the bigger cities. Each village has an Elder who leds them, but the area as a whole is ruled by a High Elf. The patron god of the Lithan is the god of nature, Levan.

Bonecleaver Clan Caves: A subterranean cave system where the largest clan of orcs resides - the Bonecleaver extended family. The orcs are known to have had petty problems with humans, but usually their quarrels are amongst themselves and they are willing to deal with other races - just not for too long. Orcish warriors and shamans have a reputation for being the best of the best, and they are a formidable ally - or opponent.

River Feld: A river that extends from Axemount's crater all the way over to the Great Ocean. The city of Fendenar was named after this river.

Werebeasts’ Camp: Beasts of all kinds live here - wolves, rats, tigers, bears and many more - but they are all capable of transforming into humanoid form and back at will. The village they built together is in the middle of the forest and is hard to find if you don't know the way. They are very wary of outsiders and prefer to stay among the trees where they feel safest.

Southern Forest: A large forest around the southern end of Tor's Shoulders mountain range. The Lithan, the werebeasts' camp and the only paths to Myvana extend through here.

Tor’s Shoulders Mountain Range: A vast range of mountains, which spans not only the southern and northern parts of the continent, but also connects them through the middle. It is so named because of the god Tor, who is likened to the mountains by the way they both carry the people above their shoulders (figuratively).

Evalia: Evalia is the country with the fewest settlements, and a lot of plain fields, snowy caps, and a dreamy, magical atmosphere. The capital city is Cathatoria, a city inhabited by humans.

Cathatoria: The capital city of Evalia, Cathatoria is a place that values law, strength, and cunning. The city is essentially a fortress on top of a snowy hill with a large moat surrounding it. Many Faruans are descended from Evalians. The city is known to be as cold personality-wise as it is temperature wise, and have some laws other places don't agree with.

Mountaineers: Many people live on the mountain range, in the snow. They are referred to as Mountaineers. A hardy and strong people due to the difficulty of navigating the mountain paths, they often form close knit communities and are very spiritual.

Fairy Circle: A secret, magical place where faeries live. Not too much is known about this reclusive species other than that they are the physically smallest race in Anchra Corpus, and have a natural aptitude for magic.

Halfling Homes: The largest halfling community lives here in the northeast. They aren't seen too often outside of their beloved home, but they are known Corpus-wide for their wonderful cooking and welcoming personalities.

Myvana: A scenic location which is sadly rarely visited due to the difficulty in getting here. The only walking paths are to the north, through either side of the Southern Forest ending in a set of massive gates; although it is possible to travel on the back of a dragon. The area is renowned for its beautiful views and pure state compared to the rest of the continent. It does not have an official capital city, and the residents of Myvana mostly keep out of the affairs of others.

Golden Valley: This lake is so named because of the gold that has been rumoured to have been seen below the clear waters. It is a large and wide body of water which stretches through most of the country. There are further rumours that the water here has magical properties.

Giants’ Village: The largest race in Anchra Corpus, giants are basically humans but doubled in size. They are an insular people, enjoying their simple lifestyle in the snowy woodlands. Giants are known as great builders and woodworkers, although they have trouble making things that are too small compared to them.

Dragons’ Caverns: These caves high up in the mountains house numerous dragons and their families. Dragons are curious and knowledge-hungry creatures, so they travel often, and sometimes bring back visitors. They are able to transform into a humanoid form, which they use while travelling in humanoid sized settlements, but usually they stay in their draconic form whilst in their home.

The Great Ocean: There's a lot of water and no one really knows what else to call it.

[thecommandsphere-blog]

Budget Tryhard: Heretical Healing

The first brew of the week (and the first ever on this blog!) is a discard-themed stax build with Liliana, Heretical Healer at the helm. Read on for more!

(Art by Bastien L. Deharme)

A lot of the decks we’re gonna be building here are fun; they try to do big stupid stuff and win with ridiculous combos. This deck (and this column) isn’t going to be like that, this deck is about as mean as they come. Often times, the stax archetype will attack people’s resources, most frequently their land - either by making them unusable or simply destroying them. Today we’ll be brewing a different kind of stax deck, one that attacks the opponent’s hands.

The Commander

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and Malfegor are the two most commonly played discard commanders, with 453 and 123 decks on tappedout.net respectively. Nath gets direct benefit from opponents discarding cards, and Malfegor is a freaking demon dragon that clears the board when he ETBs. Our plans are a bit different. Our commander is Liliana, Heretical Healer – when she sparks and becomes the Defiant Necromancer, Liliana gives us two huge advantages: her +2 is a discard engine itself, and her -X allows us to reanimate creatures that we’ve previously pitched away to the graveyard.

This deck isn’t blisteringly fast - but it is mean, oppressive, and resilient. It can survive in competitive metas, and often has complicated, versatile lines of play.

The Plan

Drop mana rocks/rituals and use early discard to attack tutoring/combo players in the early game.

Establish repeatable discard effects, ensure that people can’t reliable keep any cards in their hand.

Use Liliana, reanimation spells, and self-recurring creatures to beat people to death while they have no way to deal with it.

Our deck is built with symmetrical discard effects to make sure opponents can’t properly execute their game plans. We will be breaking the symmetry with our reanimating commander, reanimation spells, self-recurring creatures, and draw engines. Most of our creatures are low on the curve due to Liliana’s resurrection ability costing -X where X is the creature’s CMC. So let’s get into the card choices!

Discard

Our discard is split up into two categories – cheap one-shot hand attack, and permanent discard engines. The former is for controlling the early game and dealing with combo players, side in more of these if your meta has fast combo decks. The latter is the bread and butter of this deck – these cards will keep opponent’s hands empty and get your graveyard full very fast.

Necrogen Mists, Bottomless Pit, Creeping Dread, Honden of Night’s Reach, Cunning Lethemancer: These are the best discard engines in the deck. They make your everyone discard 1 card a turn. With one out, no one will be increasing their hand size without draw spells. With two out, everyone’s hands will slowly dwindle away into nothingess.

Oppression: Makes each spell have an additional cost of discarding a card. Powerful stax piece that shuts down combo and spam decks. Also allows you to get exactly what you want into the graveyard.

Mindslicer: Hands down my favorite card in the deck. This horror makes everyone discard their entire hand when he dies. Use High Market, Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, Pox, or even your own removal spells to pop this piñata full of evil. And even better, you can reanimate him! 

Cinderhaze Wretch: Easy-to-recur creature that taps to make a player discard. Synergizes well with Vampire Hexmage.

Words of Waste: Absurdly powerful enchantment. It flips card advantage on its head – you can skip your draws to make everyone discard. If we don’t get cards, no one does. Keep in mind that if you need to get creatures in your yard, this may not be the best option at the moment.

Pox, Delirium Skeins: Very powerful symmetrical stax effects. These are one-shot, but they’re low on the curve and cause a lot of damage early on. 

Duress, Distress: Use these to target players that are threatening in the early game, i.e. people who are tutoring, setting up combos, or ramping very quickly.

Reanimation

While our commander does provide a steady source of recursion, it’s always good to have a backup plan or 7.

Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy: Your bread and butter reanimation enchantments. We’re not in white so we can’t recur these, but their speed and power more than makes up for that.

Doomed Necromancer, Apprentice Necromancer, Phyrexian Delver: These are the money reanimator cards in this deck – they’re creatures themselves. You can reanimate these using Liliana or the other reanimation spells in the deck, and then use them to bring back even more creatures.

Victimize: One of my favorite cards. You get two creatures back for the price of one. Incredible value, especially since we have so many self-recurring creatures for sac fodder. Just imagine saccing a Reassembling Skeleton and bringing back a Rune-Scarred Demon and a Sepulchral Primordial.

Creatures

The core of our deck is made up of various utility creatures - creatures with graveyard related abilities, creatures that benefit from players having empty hands, and self-recurring creatures.

Nighthowler, Mortivore, Yahenni, Undying Partisan: These creatures grow as creatures die and are discarded – they can quickly threaten lethal damage if left unanswered.

Necrotic Ooze, Sepulchral Primordial: These are our late game threats – these creatures get ungodly powerful when everyone’s graveyard is full. Some key abilities from our own deck for Necrotic Ooze are Yahenni’s sac ability, Mortivore’s regeneration, and Cinderhaze Wretch’s discard ability.

Reassembling Skeleton, Nether Tratior, Despoiler of Souls, Dread Wanderer: These are our bread and butter sac and discard fodder; they can all bring themselves back from the graveyard! Later on when everyone’s hand is disassembled, they can serve as efficient beaters as well.

Shriekmaw, Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner: Removal effects that you can recur from the graveyard, what more could you ask for? 

Vampire Hexmage: One of my favorite cards, its versatility is off the charts. Instakills planeswalkers, blanks charge-based mana rocks, hoses +1/+1 counter decks, and even saves your own Cinderhaze Wretch from death. On top of all that, 2 power first strike is nothing to scoff at.

Faerie Macabre: One of the issues with a discard-centric deck is the reanimator match up. We have a few graveyard hate cards, and this is one of the best. It’s a 2/2 flying beater that you can discard at instant speed to exile two cards from graveyards – like a counterspell for reanimation spells!

Asylum Visitor, Blood Scrivener: These cards are amazing draw engines once everyone’s hands have been emptied, making our discard engines even more asymmetrical.

Grim Haruspex, Graveborn Muse: Both very powerful draw engines with the amount of saccing and zombies crawling around in this deck.

Ramp

Mono-black has a surprising amount of ramp options available to it, and we’ll be running most of them to ensure we can drop our discard engines ahead of curve.

Dark Ritual, Bubbling Muck: These rituals can make this deck very explosive, landing a discard outlet as early as turn 1, or a Rune-Scarred Demon on turn 3. Use them wisely.

Everflowing Chalice, Jet Medallion, Charcoal Diamond, Sol Ring, Mind Stone, Prismatic Lens: Just your normal suite of EDH mana rocks. Our choices are somewhat limited due to being monocolor.

Crypt Ghast: Incredibly powerful mana doubler that we can easily recur if it gets killed. If you have one of these get it out ASAP.

Waste Not: An amazing engine; it gives us tokens, draw, and ramp when opponents discard. Great target for tutors early on – if opponents don’t deal with it quickly it will easily carry you to victory.

Deck

Mono-black also has access to some of the best tutors and draw spells in the game. For budget reasons, we won’t be running all of them – but they’ll come in handy for getting what we need when we need it.

Night’s Whisper, Sign in Blood: Simple, low on the curve draw spells. It’s okay to keep one of these and two lands in your opening hand.

Skullclamp: 9 of our creatures have 1 toughness, and half of those can bring themselves back from the graveyard. This and Reassembling Skeleton = 2B, draw two cards as many times as you want.

Beseech the Queen: One of my favorite cards, Beseech is a very cool budget tutor. It won’t help you find something high on the curve early in the game, but it’s great for finding on-curve plays.

Rhystic Tutor: Another underrated budget tutor option. Cast it early on when everyone is tapped out and you’ll be set to go. Later on in the game you might have to play some politics to get it to resolve though.

Diabolic Tutor: Plain and simple budget tutor.

Rune-Scarred Demon: An amazing card, it’s a demonic tutor stapled to a 6/6 flyer. This is a prime reanimation target at any stage of the game.

Dimir Machinations: I love the transmute cards as budget tutor options, they create very interesting gameplay scenarios. In our deck 3CMC gets us pretty much anything: Beseech the Queen for more general tutoring, Faerie Macabre for graveyard hate, Fleshbag/Executioner for removal, Nighthowler or Yahenni for beatdown, Necromancy or Victimize for reanimation, Sudden Spoiling to stop combos or kill indestructible/hexproof creatures, and most of our discard engines (Necrogen Mists, Oppression, Bottomless Pit, Words of Waste, Cunning Lethemancer, Delirium Skeins)

Shred Memory: Powerful graveyard hate card, but also functions as a very versatile and useful tutor in our deck: Waste Not, Grasp of Darkness for removal, Night’s Whisper/Sign in Blood for draw, Jet Medallion/Charcoal Diamond/Mind Stone for ramp, Animate Dead/Apprentice Necromancer for reanimation, Despoiler of Souls/Reassembling Skeleton for beaters or fodder.

Removal

We’ll be running just a few removal spells to pick off any other early game threats. Our creatures should be able to handle the rest.

Dismember, Grasp of Darkness: Powerful and cheap kill spells that deal with most indestructible threats.

Snuff Out: Another one of my pet cards, this is like black’s version of Force of Will. Much worse, granted, but still a great card that can surprise opponents who feel safe comboing off.

Black Sun’s Zenith: While our repeatable sac effects will usually be enough to keep the board clear, sometimes board states get out of hand and you have to hit the reset button.

Sudden Spoiling: Great card that lets you deal with indestructible/hexproof threats or stop infinite combos that use creatures as part of the combo.

Land

Most of our lands will be simple swamps, but there’s a few nonbasics that would be helpful in our quest to destroy everyone’s hand and will to play EDH.

Barren Moor: Always good to have a cycling land in monocolor decks. It’s worse early on but great late game when you don’t want to be drawing lands.

Blighted Fen: Discard effect stapled to a land, what more could we ask for?

Bojuka Bog: Another graveyard hate effect for the reanimator matchup.

Crypt of Agadeem: Once you have 4+ creatures in your graveyard, this starts giving you huge amounts of ramp.

Geier Reach Sanitarium: Simple loot effect that fills graveyards and improves card quality.

Ghost Quarter/Tectonic Edge: Land destruction on the cheap, always good for picking off pesky lands, or someone who’s bouncing and replaying their Bojuka Bog.

High Market: Great sac outlet for our Mindslicer.

Sea Gate Wreckage: Lets us draw if our hand is empty. Perfect for this deck.

Sideboard

Despise, Inquisition of Kozilek, Shattered Dreams, Lay Bare the Heart: More targeted, fast hand attack cards to disrupt faster combo decks.

Perilous Vault, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Unstable Obelisk, Scour from Existence: High CMC colorless answers to artifact and enchantment heavy metas.

Nihil Spellbomb, Agent of Erebos: More graveyard hate for reanimator heavy metas.

Upgrades

Bloodghast ($18): An easily recurrable and powerful creature.

Sheoldred, Whispering One ($19): A powerful reanimation target that reanimates things herself and tears apart enemy creatures.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed ($20): An incredible infinite combo engine. Combine him with Puppeteer Clique or any creature that comes in with a -1/-1 counter and a sac outlet and you’re infinite baby. You can make infinite mana if your sac outlet is Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod’s Altar, make everyone else discard their hands with Sadistic Hypnotist, or just kill them if you have a Blood Artist out.

Crucible of Worlds ($62): A cheap artifact that makes our discard even more asymmetrical. This will give you access to all the lands you’ve discarded, allowing you to drop lands even when everyone’s hand is empty.

Phyrexian Tower ($27): A land that lets you sac a creature to add BB to your mana pool. Amazing ramp that synergizes well with our reanimation and self-recurring creatures.

Lake of the Dead ($12): Land that sacs a swamp on ETB, taps for black, and lets you pay C to sac a swamp and make BBBB. Great synergy with Crucible of Worlds.

Mana Vault, Mana Crypt ($15, $60): Powerful early game ramp that makes almost any deck stronger.

Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor ($15, $30): Some of the best tutors in the game, much better than our budget versions.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth & Cabal Coffers ($12, $21): Amazing ramp combo that can create huge amounts of black mana very quickly.          

Reanimate ($20): The best reanimation spell, hands down. Fast, cheap, negligible downside.

Bitterblossom ($30): Amazing token generator. If you manage to get this out while everyone is topdecking, your win is almost guaranteed. Also great fodder for sacrifice outlets like Sadistic Hypnotist and Phyrexian Tower.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ($9): Since our entire deck is mono-black permanents, this has the potential to produce huge amounts of mana. Our commander alone makes it mana-neutral.

Phyrexian Obliterator ($32): The staple mono-black powerhouse. Easy for us to cast, and an amazing reanimation target as well.

[alittlepieceofwarcraft]

These 2014 Blizzcon exclusive nether faerie dragon plushes are so adorable and I wish they’d make them a permanent item 😭

[bhryn]

Waaat, my friend Shaun dropped a bunch of hints about this from when he hit up SDCC, a Nether Faerie Dragon plushie! And it's signed. I also got some peppermint chocolate (sneaky guy knew I liked mint chocolate, still uneaten though - talk about a time to pick when I'm cutting refined sugar from my diet D: )

It'll sit with Kuro (Ao No Exorcist), Renji, Kakashi and Cloud to make sure I keep my spirits up, just as you wanted, I love ya!

Aww yeah pink wrist supports.