#not in the sense of wishing death

[boartits]

I can be a ghost inside your head, to all of you. I can speak without sounds and crawl inside your skull. don't you know that I want to be a part of you?

[sunlit-mess]

consumed by the inevitable

[oneblckcoffee]

alex to mercedes this alex to rbr that why not alex to p1 in a williams you COWARDS

[jannecapelleart]

trans/enby menace solidarity 💞💞

also con and vico in the tiktoks give me life

[willyhoos]

the mikes.. the michaels, even...

[val-of-the-north]

Tibia Mariners and Those Lost in Death

While I am at it, I should talk about a detail found in Messmer's Shadow Keep. On the way to the Specimen Storehouse, you'll be faced with a peculiar sight: boats lit on fire.

This seems to be a callback to Viking funerals, except the boats are placed in a row and burnt on land. It's certainly an odd practice, but it might only be done this way because Messmer's forces are far from an accessible shore or water that's deep enough to perform it normally.

However, something else caught my eye. The boats looked quite familiar so I went back to check and...

It was the EXACT model as the boats used by the Tibia Mariners! Perhaps it is obvious seeing as the Messmer boats are used in a funerary rite, but I think it's still quite a significant connection, especially since the old Mariners have gotten quite a bit of new lore in the DLC. In Charo's Hidden Grave we can find the skulls of boatmen as a crafting material, presumably that of previous Tibia Mariners.

This is outright confirmed after finding the lone Tibia Mariner in the area, who upon defeat drops the Tibia's Cookbook, which describes them as the oldest of grave keepers.

(Btw I love the detail of the piece of lace cloth and golden ornaments, they are the same found on the Mariners themselves. They even come with the same ghostly glow)

This is quite the revelation, as prior to Shadow of the Erdtree we had no way of knowing that these guys actually predated the spread of Deathroot and Godwyn's transformation into the Prince of Death. And how could we doubt that, since they even drop Deathroot themselves? But there was something that most people have neglected to note about the Mariners, me included.

In the base game, the Tibia Mariner found in the Wyndham Ruins drops a spell called Tibia's Summons. This inconspicuous sorcery of the servants of death actually holds a perplexing description which mentions a group known as "Those Lost in Death".

There was something seemingly redundant and unexplained about these guys. What does "Lost in Death" mean? Why aren't they simply called "Those Who Live in Death"? It wouldn't blame anyone for assuming that this description just contains an outdated term for the undead before they stuck with the one used in-game. However, through the Tibia's Cookbook, we find a NEW reference to this same concept.

Roughly the same title (Those Lost in Death = one lost in death), the same underlying sentiment, and we have verifiable proof that the Tibia Mariners are outright ancient... so what's the deal with this? Well, I have a theory.

The descriptions of these things hint at the fact that the dead have been wandering for a very long time, and that they are in need of leadership. Before the DLC, it was easy to assume that the undead were simply a result of Deathroot, and the game seemed to suggest the same thing by stating multiple times that it was the origin of Those Who Live in Death...

... but that's the thing! Prior to Deathroot connecting them to Godwyn, the undead amounted only to shambling corpses. They were not LIVING in Death, but simply LOST in it, which is how the Mariners were able to control them in ancient times through the use of sounds, both their horns and the Calls of Tibia. It's only through the guidance of a lord, in this case the Prince of Death, that they found an identity and new life.

It's likely the undead waned in the era of Marika because of her elaborate Erdtree burials and general control of life and death. Heck, the figure of Rosus, who guides us to the Catacombs, must have also played a big part in their disappearance. His axe has a similar power to the Tibia's Summons and it's called Rosus's Summons. Its description also mentions that the dead easily lose their way, meaning that Rosus was meant to lend the dead a guiding hand. "Those Lost in Death" would be lost no more.

Without people Lost in Death, the Mariners kind of lost their purpose and vanished for a long time... until the Shattering and the rise of Those Who Live in Death of course. It might mean that the only reason they hold onto Deathroot is because it attracts and connects the new undead.

I guess Godwyn was meant to be a sort of "lighthouse" for all undead. He would make sure they never lost themselves but also that they would be allowed to live instead of being forced back to rest like with Rosus and Marika. Him being a "lighthouse" also fits the marine theme that all this death business is going for quite neatly I think...

But to return to what started this... maybe those boats lit on fire are Messmer's way of making sure the soldiers of his army aren't lost to death after their passing. A way to give them a proper rest the way Marika would have wanted, even though he is limited in what he can do about it. The Catacombs are now corrupted with Deathroots and Godwyn's corpse bodies, and guarded by his fervent golden Death Knights.

(P.S. - I didn't know where to put this, but "Charo" is one letter off from Charon, the ferryman of the dead in Greek mythology. Seeing as the place is connected to the Tibia Mariners, who shepherded Those Lost in Death in an age long past, I find that this connection might not be mere coincidence...)

[beebfreeb]

I am just hanging out and being regular.

[dawnofiight]

Now presenting: Lucid (she/they)

She's a Seer.

Working for the Sodality.

Disguises herself as a dreamwalker.

She speaks in mostly a whisper because she always has a fucking headache.

Headphones are always on her head.

The way she dies is a bit confusing to her and she has yet to understand it so she takes time out of her day to dissect it.

Because why is there fog and why was she on a boat?

[doctor-disc0]

AU where Tamriel has invented phones. Featuring my dumbass HoK, Charlie.

[pocketramblr]

you know im thinking. im thinking maybe Yoichi wasn't even that into captain hero as an adult, but AfO kept bringing LITERALLY every conversation back to that because he decided to Be The Demon Lord and so Yoichi like, can't get an argument in unless he uses the same material so he's like 'oh my god i haven't even thought about that comic in ten years but even i know the bad guy didn't win. you should not be basing you whole identity, business model, and world destruction plan on your five-second impression of a comic book bad guy who didn't even win! also you shouldn't kill people!'

[uncanny-tranny]

I love you smile lines and worry lines and grey and white hair and wrinkles and purple spiderweb veins and the process of aging and living in a body that is standing the test of times. I love you experiences that make you wiser and stories that make you laugh, and every little process that happens to get to the point where you have so many memories because you have the fortune to be here and be so radiant

[crazy-fangirl2524]

Jeanneil and kandrew will always be my biggest what if

[kooldewd123]

Honestly the Hork-Bajir Chronicles gives such an interesting spin on Visser Three's character. He comes off as a bit of an arrogant buffoon most of the time, but actually getting a look at where he started, it's easy to see why. He's surprisingly smart, but insanely ambitious, and the latter tends to overtake the former. He researches Andalites endlessly before getting a proper host body, and seems like the most tactically knowledgeable Yeerk among his crew. And the big thing is - he keeps getting proven right. He knows that destroying Seerow's scoop is foolhardy. He starts out with a silent invasion of the Hork-Bajir, but his pivot to a guns-blazing attack is a major factor in their eventual victory. He successfully predicts Aldrea's actions multiple times and would have infested her had his ambition not gotten the better of him. And later, in the Andalite Chronicles, he quickly analyzes Elfangor's weakness and is able to exploit them to misdirect him and finally infest an Andalite, which was his goal from the very beginning. But because he's been right so many times, his arrogance has become so overinflated that by the time the main series actually starts, he can't even begin to fathom the idea that he's wrong.

[13eyond13]

love it when a character that's hard to read intuitively for you has like a dedicated fandom interpreter who can just glance at their blank face in a panel and then give you a 3k word essay on their innermost thoughts & desires & fears and neatly tie it back into the themes & whatnot as if it's the most obvious thing in the world

[demadogs]

oh my god guys why the fuck would they kill karen lmao

[justaz]

thinking about all those times uther's life hung in the balance and it was up to merlin to chose whether or not to save him and he chose to save him every time until the end when his healing spell backfired and killed uther instead.

thinking about how merlin is tied to every member of the pendragon family by destiny and is the reason for each of their deaths, in one way or another (magic taking ygraine's life, merlin killing uther, merlin stabbing morgana, merlin's actions setting the stage for mordred to kill arthur).

thinking about merlin and uther's bond through destiny and how merlin was uther's prey yet also his undoing. a game of cat and mouse where the mouse wins.

merlin was always destined to kill uther. it didn't matter when or how, but uther was always to die by merlin's hand. uther waged war on magic and the old religion and the gods of the old religion sent merlin as their reckoning. merlin was the righteous hand of god who struck down a genocidal tyrant.