#relic answers

[callsign-relic]

(Not a request dw)

re: Titan! Megs purring

Yes, he does purr! Still. But I imagine that it's like a steady, low tremor of the ground beneath your boots the way that machines do when you put your hand on them. But, like, you know. On a larger scale. It's a little bit calming to know that the giant city you're navigating through is pleased with your presence.

Imagine Megs learning how to communicate through his cityspeaker, and purring through them to more directly communicate with the human he's sheltering within himself. If he cannot learn Earth languages to better communicate with them than he can, at least, make a noise they'd probably associate with something positive.

(Part of the research he's done on Earth involves how humans have animal companions, and how the feline variety will produce a similar low rumbling noise when pleased. He's trying his best to provide them with little pieces of home while he tries to figure out how best to provide for them.)

-Not a Request Anon

Ough omg this is so cute….. I’m not sure what would trigger it, but once the human finds out what makes Megatron purr, I can totally see them doing it over and over again both so they can make him feel good and also because it’s such a crazy thing to experience. The whole world shaking just cause the big guy is happy… next thing to do was to find something soft to lie on while it happens so they can use it as an impromptu message chair

[canisalbus]

I think the good thing about people being silly about the gay dogs is that the dogs get to be silly. No more murder. No more angst. Only worm.

.

[scrawnytreedemon]

Pale King Dude

What about him?

[kurithedweeb]

This is an elaboration of my answer about clothing culture in DoS (this one) on veiling within priesthood for @tsunami1022! There’s some context and the original commented question in the post, but my answer is too long to put in the comments so here it is. I myself am not religious or studying religion so don’t expect this to match up with any actual religion, this is just what I imagine for Ru’aun. We’re gonna talk specifically about veiling in the Church of the Matron Irene.

The act of covering their face is a way to elevate the veiled closer to the goddess. You don’t look upon a holy power without consequences, so being veiled is a disciple’s way of giving themselves a layer of protection and being able to look and be closer to the goddess. There’s different levels to it. I mentioned that devotees cover their eyes, members of the church cover the lower half of the face and the High Priest’s entire face is covered.

The covering of the eyes allows you to look up to the goddess. To see her and study her. It allows her to look back at you and take notice that you don’t have to shy away, so when you pray she may hear you above the din of the masses. Still, you may look at her, but you won’t see her clearly. She’s a vision to interpret, shapes to read like shadow puppets. The mask over the eyes is the only veil that may be removed outside of worship. It’s something you wear to church and for your prayers at dawn and dusk, and most people remove it when going about their daily lives but scholars and prayermen (staff of the church and those housed on church grounds) only remove it when washing or sleeping.

Covering the mouth allows your words to mingle with the words of the goddess. Outside the church, your word is taken as her message, you are the middleman between the divine and the mortal. Only the most dedicated to her teachings can interpret the Matron for the masses, those who have followed their entire lives and intend to follow until their deaths, the priests and nuns. These veils are never taken off, not even to eat and drink, and can be stripped from the veiled by the High Priest or local Lord if they act against Irene’s teachings. You cannot be seen without it, and the dorms on church grounds are all single rooms so you can wash and sleep without breaking this rule.

The High Priest is considered a vassal of Irene, a vessel if she wished it. He may speak to her and she may speak to him. He is the closest to divinity a person can get. To look upon his true face is seen as equal to looking upon the true face of Irene. She speaks through him. He doesn’t interpret anything, she and he are there together, his words are hers as far as anyone is concerned. He has several veils that suit different ceremonies and these can be exchanged for or worn together with different masks to show tone because you can’t read his expression. He may only remove the veil in the most intimate moments of his life: the embrace of a lover, the moment he is married, the death of a family member, the birth of his child, and as part of the ceremony to pass on the mantle of High Priest.

Aside from the different roles the different forms of veiling take, there’s also universal meanings. Veiling in real-world religions has a number of meanings: it’s seen as a symbol of holiness, purity, modesty, protection and mystery, and it can also be a connection between the veiled and their God. In Christianity, which I believe is what the canon church of Irene is based on, objects and people are sometimes veiled because they have a certain dignity and close relation to holy power—this includes the hands of the priest since they’re consecrated, the veil of a bride, and the habits of nuns who are supposed to consider themselves married to God. For the Church of the Matron, another important symbol is unity. 

When you devote yourself to the Matron, your veil becomes your new face, so much so that some disciples who have been best friends for a decade can’t recognize each other without their veils. You are the closest mortals have come to Irene’s divinity, your name and face are sacred things now that belong to her, and you are no longer an individual. You are an extension of her power. You are now a shard of the whole of the Church of the Matron; you too are just a touch holy.

Anyway, the veils are shields from divinity on both sides! It’s a huge scandal within the church (keep it hush-hush from the public for the public image) for a veil to be relinquished or stripped from a wearer.

[kedicatt-cotl]

Books of the different cults were very different.

In Darkwood, most of the books were quite simple, written on birch bark with sharp objects like stones. Leshy was never a big fan of writing, and most of his cult was illiterate. He just didn’t see a point in trading materials with his siblings Life in the Green Crown cult was quite chill. Darkwood is rich with resources required for surviving, so the followers always had plenty of free time which they spent to create folklore tales that was passed down generations. They worked on all different kinds of creative crafts including pottery and creating music instruments. Leshy wasn’t a big part of it himself, but he loved the stories and still rememers some of them.

Warlike Heket made sure Anura had enough paper and ink, imported from Shamura’s and Kallamar’s cults. The books were all about the technical stuff, like drawings of weapons and houses and things like most effective hunting tactics. The Yellow Crown cult was all about optimization and perfection. It had lots of great blacksmiths, including Heket herself.

Despite Anchordeep trading ink to the other cults, their land had humidity too high to use real books. They had to scribble things on large flat stones. The Blue Crown cult books had a lot of informations on the useless, shiny and pretty things. They designed decoration and found dozens of uses to the crystal shards, from putting them on rings to using them to make kaleidoscopes. The followers often worked with the other cults and combined the skills in order to make better things. Some of them even left to the Silk Cradle, wrote books and left them there for Shamura to store. Kallamar was never too good at inventing new things, but he always had a good taste in decorating.

Silk Cradle used to trade paper to the other cults. They got ink from Anchordeep and wrote books and scrolls on scientific and philosophical topics. The Purple Crown cult researched anything that could be researched, from dyes to plant types. Shamura was actively participating in the life of his cult. They taught all of his followers himself, leading learning sessions for them every once in a while.

Narinder’s cult and Narinder himself were busy writing about completely different things. Legends have it that the old Red Crown followers were writing made up stories. Most of them are likely destroyed by now, with no one to look after them for ages. Narinder himself was too busy with his experiments to see what exactly his cult was writing. He did all kinds of things, trying to find a way to use the Crown’s power to stop death. Restoring and reattaching bodyparts and bringing bodies back from death after different amounts of time has passed, this was the work of his life quite literally. He wrote multiple books, listing the results of his experiments and how he got to them.

The main issue is - they can’t do it again now. Narinder doesn’t remember what he wrote in enough detail, and Lamb’s skill of using the Crown is not yet good enough to just try and find the new ways anytime soon. Sure, Lamb may be able to resurrect people, but he doesn’t actually know how he does that - the ability was passed to him by Narinder while he controlled the Crown, and Lamb doesn’t have any clear understanding of it.

Narinder and Lamb are searching for those books now, hoping that the information in them would help to heal Narinder’s siblings.

[tswwwit]

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way but i recently reread the entire familiar au (its as amazing as always!) and its so impressive to see how far you have come as a writer especially compared to the new cult au its honestly pretty inspiring

Thank you! It's truly nice to hear that I've made progress. I mean, obviously - hopefully - I would have after all this time, but sometimes the improvement is hard to see when you're so close to it.

[anantaru]

why aren’t you changing your theme ever? /gen

stop

[sjofn-lofnsdottr]

🎀  to see them in a cute outfit

Yes, I'm finally answering the asks from this prompt list. It's only been, uh. Almost a month.

ANYWAY, this probably isn't what the prompt had in mind when it said 'cute,' but I always think Dusk looks comfy and cute in this glam. I dunno what to tell you!

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

ohh that was an inchresting memory 👀

[ironwoman359]

Crack theory here: the crystal is actually a fragment of The Mirror that the viewer aka Y/N aka we got put in, which is why it allows for transportation between universes aka "different points of view". also in Heist Warfstache mentions our "magic box" aka the crystal is good for "paus[ing] time" and then the YouTube pause menu appears. Crystal = piece of a broken 4th wall

OK do I think this is what the answer Actually Is, no, but holy shit is it a cool concept, and I need to know if there's any fic with this premise asap, this is so neat!

[callsign-relic]

Same anon. Imagine how frustrated Megatron must be, to once again have his thoughts taken from him, his words. That he has to force himself to focus, just to speak. The helpless feeling of it, knowing that even if he said something about it, no one would listen or care. That this is his punishment and he deserves it. The struggle of speaking to Optimus or Rodimus of Ultra Magnus, and then the long swaths of silence afterwards, because he's so frustrated and upset about it that he'd rather not talk at all. If they're going to take his words from him then perhaps he should never speak, again.

OUGH…. ANON….. ANON PLEASE 🥺 (positively, I think this is a great idea)

The origins of his cause was to fight for his people’s autonomy, was it not? And yet he twisted all of it and lost his way… it was only fitting that he lose his own autonomy as punishment, even if it was to a degree.

How it pains him to have so much to say, yet only be able to communicate one word at a time. It’s enough to make him not want to speak entirely. Perhaps he’d be better off forgetting even how to. He was of more use to his kind as a city than a mech now anyway.

[jamesshawgames]

Heyyy. I'm not trying to stir up drama or anything. I'm just genuinely curious,so feel free to ignore..how do you feel about hg still putting up your relics of the lost age 2 for voting in the underrated games so they can push your sales?It seems to me that they've decided to put the drama behind them or at least not be petty since you'd still get money from the sales? Or is that something being done without your consent?

Hi, thanks for the ask! I'm not that concerned about it, tbh. They have the rights to sell those games, and promote them however they want. They didn't ask my consent, but they don't need it legally, and I think they just do that automatically with whichever games meet the criteria, so it's no big deal as far as I'm concerned.

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Let's see. I remember the images of the characters dropping and EVERYONE had theories on who was what. Shinguuji was pinned as a Folklorist while people were losing There minds that there was a robot now.

I don't remember when but people were stoked that we finally had an artist among the cast.

THE VOICE REVEALS... I personally choked on my spit when I heard Ryoma.

Most of this is my personal experience, but I remember NDRV3 came out in Japan and the site I was using to watch all the new content KEPT CRASHING due to overload.

People thought Miu and Kaede were sisters? It's a bit fuzzy but I remember people thinking that.

THE HEEL TURN people had with Shinguuji when it came to leaning his whole twist. People up and dropped him, but now he seems to be decently liked.

When the English voices got revealed people were not happy lol. Esp with Ouma, people confused his voice with Shinguuji's and kinda flipped when they realized who was who.

(SDR2 story cause this cracks me up) Kyle Hebert (Souda's VA) accidentally confirmed SDR2 was coming to the west via a tweet. He thought the game released that day, but it was actually THH that released. So he basically gave us confirmation before any official announcements.

I HEARD THERE WERE STREAMS. What I would do to see screenshots of those chats, especially during the big moments....

I Saw that people thought Miu and Kaede were sisters! I think it was either misinformation from 4chan, confusion about Kaede's secret twin, or maybe both.

THAT STORY ABOUT KYLE HEBERT... That's so funny oh my god. I would've been horrified at myself, but they didn't seem too mad considering they brought him back for v3 LMAO

Re: Korekiyo, I think its a running trend from v3's initial release for there to be extreme knee-jerk reactions that people soften on over time, including with korekiyo

[kurithedweeb]

Reminder that my ask box is open. If you have any questions about my characterizations, any worldbuilding I’ve done, Drop of Sunlight or it’s companions, or my more recent work Wagers of War, please ask! I love hearing from all of you.

[kedicatt-cotl]

Did the Lamb got one of the relics that the former bishops asked? Like Leshy's eye?

Well.. kind of?

So far he only got Leshy's eyes back (yes, plural). Leshy was the first one to ask for this kind favour, just a little after Heket's revival.

I'll make separate posts on how, when, why and how the others asked for their relics.

...

But you can't just keep those relics forever and not try to use them to heal the former bishops, can you? So they are trying.

As a bishop, Narinder used to experiment with healing and resurrection with the use of the Red Crown, writing down everything he learned. It may be useful, but the only problem is that he doesn't remember any of that in detail anymore. The books were written to serve for a long time, so unless someone purposefully tried to destroy them, they are likely somewhere out there still.

There is no guarantee that it would work now that the Red Crown is in Lamb's hands. The chances to find the books lost so many years ago in such a huge forest are pretty slim.

They don't put too much hope in this idea, instead focusing on helping Nariner's siblings adjust and live with their disablilities.

Yet, when Lamb brings a new book to the camp, Narinder prefers to make sure that it isn't what they're looking for.

[randomnameless]

About that Listhea and Edelgard dialogue on crest and nobles, do you remember how in the begining of the game Hanneman wonders if Byleth as a Crest when they are a freaking commoner/mercenary ?

That's another reason why the doodoo about "crust = nobles" is, well, doodoo.

Thing is, Fodlan verse cannot be that well developed and written because Supreme Leader has to "have a point" for people who buy things at face value.

So we can't have succession crisis when commoners (maybe far far far far removed bastards?) pop up with a crest while the "noble line" doesn't have any to lampshade how the crust system is BaD because it decides inheritence... when Supreme Leader hammers that everyone with a crust is a noble.

Imagine a verse where Hanneman's crest detector machine is used to "discredit" or to give more credit to, say, someone's inheritance by checking if they have a crest or not, or House Goneril having to deal with Bob the fisher who has a Crest of Goneril, thus asks for his part of inheritance of the Goneril estate because that totes means he's part of this family?

In Supreme Leader and her court's views, Bob doesn't exist as a fisherman, Bob is already a noble! And if he isn't, well, he doesn't exist.

Are people anobled because they have a crust? Billy and Jerry are living proofs that no, they're not. But we can't focus on this too much, else Supreme Leader's spiel falls apart.

FWIW, there's a reason why I liked White Clouds, because, while it's a prologue, on its own, it gives a bit of meat to the Fodlan verse - because it's supposed to be a red herring route so you hear everything and yet see the dissonances for the big reveal (Flamey's identity!) to hit as "hard" as it does with all the sad uwus it entails, come the post-TS, we don't give a crap about Flamey anymore, and everyone drinks tea.

So, in a way, Hanneman could only wonder if Billy has a crest despite being a random in WC - because in the post TS routes, Supreme Leader has to have a point (they need those sad uwus!) and we don't care to find out or hear about magic blood, the player is hammered with "magic blood BaD because it exists".