#ren kanemaru

[crossroadsofchaos]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Thought I'd do a list of my TOH AU OCs with information about them. I have a few more that aren't listed here, a portion of which are from the 1600s era. I mostly included OCs that are currently alive, with only two dead ones.

Steven Bellamy (he/him; 53 y/o):

He was originally my take on Steve, created before season 2b, but since the face reveal he has become more like an OC inspired by Steve. Their personalities are somewhat similar, but Steven is older and has a different design. He's too old to be Matt's brother, but I liked the idea of them being related, so he is Matt's uncle instead.

During the tryouts for the Lord's Coven, he and his childhood friend Ren had a duel in which they performed very well for two teenagers without professional training and ended in a tie, which impressed the then Golden Guard, Anthony. Both were accepted into the Lord's Coven.

While being in the Coven since age 17-18, Steven didn't meaningfully interact with Belos until he was 40. When Belos fell asleep, 4 year old Hunter took that as an opportunity to explore the castle and snuck out. Steven was the first and only person he met outside before Belos woke up and took him back. This was how Steven found out about Hunter's existence.

Belos offered him a job as a part-time babysitter/nanny for Hunter, because he knew Steven was a friend of Lilith and was thus inclined to trust him, and because Hunter liked him so much. Steven loved the job, in part because he had wanted to be a father for years, but hadn't managed to do it yet, and this was the closest he got to it.

This job also brought him closer to Belos, and the two developed romantic feelings for each other, with Steven being first and Belos following later. Their relationship developed and deepened over the years, and recently they finally confessed and got married.

After Lilith was expelled from the Lord's Coven for betraying Belos, Steven replaced her as Head Witch and remained in that position until the dissolution of the Coven System. During the months where Belos, Hunter and the Hexsquad were stuck in the Human Realm, Steven was the de facto leader of the Boiling Isles.

Jasper Bellamy (he/him; 44 y/o):

He's the younger brother of Steven and the father of Matt. When he was young, he wanted to join the Lord's Coven, like Steven, but failed. He joined the Construction Coven instead. He also grew distant from Steven, feeling a mix of envy and abandonment. In recent years, he was gradually becoming more anti-Coven System, and he eventually joined the CATs.

He had Matt with his first spouse. He married them despite the warning signs, and the spouse became increasingly toxic. They eventually got divorced and cut ties, with Jasper becoming a single father to Matt. He went through a few brief bad relationships before ending up in a happy and stable relationship with his current partner Cass and marrying them a couple years ago.

Cassidy "Cass" Tholomule (they/them, she/her; 44 y/o):

They're the current spouse of Jasper and the stepparent of Matt. They encouraged Jasper to go to therapy, which helped improve his mental health. Despite negative past experiences with Jasper's exes, Matt accepts Cass as his parent and calls them "mom". They were aware of the CATs and supported Jasper's participation, but didn't get involved personally.

Until the dissolution of the Coven System, they were in the Bard Coven. They also enjoy making potions, and they got more into it after the Coven System was abolished.

Leslie Bellamy (she/her; 80s):

She's the mother of Steven and Jasper. She had Steven with her previous partner, and she became a single mother when he was still little. Opal helped her with caring for Steven, and in the process, the two fell in love, got married and had a second child, Jasper. During the existence of the Coven System, she was in the Construction Coven.

Opal Bellamy (she/her; 80s):

She's the stepmother of Steven and the biological mother of Jasper. She had already known Leslie before she became a single mother, but the two only became close after she offered to help Leslie raise Steven. In the process, they fell in love, got married and had a second child. During the existence of the Coven System, she was in the Potions Coven.

Ren Kanemaru (they/them; 53 y/o):

They are Steven's childhood friend, becoming close with him despite studying at a different school. During the tryouts for the Lord's Coven, they had a duel in which they performed very well for two teenagers without professional training and ended in a tie, which impressed the then Golden Guard, Anthony. Both joined the Lord's Coven and served in it until its recent dissolution.

Valerie "Val" Durand (she/her; 54 y/o):

She is the best friend of Steven and Ren, who they met during their training after they joined the Lord's Coven. Initially she was a bit competitive with them, but became a friend, forming a trio with them. She uses a lot of Abomination magic, and she's proficient with several weapons. She has a romantic partner.

Petra Barany (she/her; mid 20s):

She is the former assistant and bodyguard of Kiki, and her current best friend. She is a sheep-like demon. While she is bigger than Kiki, she is still under 150cm/5ft tall. She uses a lot of Construction magic. She was patient and supportive towards Kiki, who struggles with opening up and tends to be closed off, and Kiki gradually became more comfortable telling her a little bit about her emotional issues.

On some occasions, Petra realized that a problem Kiki was having could be solved or at least helped by speaking directly to some specific person and telling them about it, but if Kiki didn't want to do it herself and didn't agree to Petra doing it for her, Petra kept quiet, because she refused to violate Kiki's trust.

Laura Tran (she/her; late 60s or early 70s):

She is the former Head of the Plant Coven. She became Head Witch after Terra was removed from that position for her abuse of power, and for that Terra despised her and wanted revenge. Terra tried to assassinate her in broad daylight, and the two had a battle, from which Laura emerged victorious.

One of the reasons Laura was chosen was that, along with being a skilled and powerful witch, she was willing to fulfill harsh orders, but didn't go out of her way to cause pain or terror and didn't derive entertainment from it. Out of the other Head Witches, Laura got along best with Hettie, and the two are still friends today.

Alyssa Snapdragon (she/her; 70s):

She is the widowed wife of Terra. She met Terra in the years after her attempt to assassinate Laura. They became romantic partners and eventually got married. Alyssa was an ordinary woman and wasn't thrilled by Terra's activities, but cared about her and wanted to support her - and if possible, set her on the right path.

The relationship was mediocre, perhaps a bit toxic on Terra's end, but Alyssa was committed and stayed by her side. Her hope for Terra choosing a better path gradually faded the longer it wasn't happening.

Following Terra's death, Alyssa grieved her, but she understands why Belos did it - she would've probably lashed out too if someone had killed her child. They just agreed to leave each other alone. She spends a lot of her time caring for her and Terra's garden.

Diana Voskanyan (she/her; early to mid 60s):

She is the queerplatonic partner of Anthony, the previous Golden Guard. Due to that, she is somewhat close with Belos, and she knew of Hunter's existence when he was still little. She had always been humble and didn't think she was particularly remarkable, so she was surprised when Anthony showed interest in her.

When she was younger, she had her hair in long braids, but she has cut it short in recent years, in part so it's easier to take care of. She specializes in Healing magic and was the person Belos tasked with providing medical care to Hunter when he was younger.

Anthony Wittebane (he/him; mid 40s at time of death):

He was the Grimwalker before Hunter, the previous Golden Guard, Darius's former mentor and the queerplatonic partner of Diana. He was by Belos's side during his rise to power. During his time serving as the Golden Guard, he was widely respected and admired, leaving behind a legacy Hunter worried he couldn't live up to.

While he was grayromantic and his relationship with Diana was queerplatonic, he enjoyed performing traditionally romantic gestures, such as flirting or kissing Diana's hands.

Winston Khan (they/them; 80s at time of death):

They were a friend of Belos, the former Secretary and Kiki's former mentor. While Kiki was at a physical disadvantage, she demonstrated some nascent strategic and tactical skills during the tryouts, which caused Winston to take an interest in mentoring her for a more leadership-oriented position as opposed to a direct combat one. They passed away several years ago, with Kiki replacing them as the Secretary - and doing so earlier than expected.

[naritaren]

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[rennarita]

for @naritaren

[scarskelly]

[shock-arrow1989]

photo by me.

[elitehanitje]

House of Torture: Cry Me A River (T-Shirt)

[orangebapecamoprint]

House Bidness 👌🏾🏚️

[puroresu-musings]

NOAH "THE NEW YEAR" 2024 Review (Jan 2nd, 2024, Ariake Arena, Tokyo)

1, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title 3-Way Elimination Match - Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane (c) vs. Alejandro & Ninja Mack vs. YO-HEY & Tadasuke ***3/4

2, Jake Lee, Jack Morris & Anthony Greene vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Titus Alexander & Vinnie Massaro **1/2

3, Masa Kitamiya vs. Tomohiro Ishii ****1/2+

4, Go Shiozaki vs. Satoshi Kojima ****

5, Great Sakuya & Nagisa Nozaki vs. Haruka Umesaki & Miyuki Takase **1/2

6, Takashi Sugiura vs. Ulka Sasaki ***

7, Hiroshi Tanahashi & HAYATA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinari Ogawa ***1/2

8, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Daga (c) vs. Eita ***

9, NOAH/NJPW vs. House of Torture 12 Man Elimination Match - Kaito Kiyomiya, Shota Umino, Daiki Inaba, Shuji Kondo, Ryohei Oiwa & Junta Miyawaki vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo ***3/4

10, GHC Heavyweight Championship - Kenoh (c) vs. Manabu Soya ****1/2

11, Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kota Ibushi *

This was my first full NOAH show I've watched in forever and it was a great watch. They pulled in a great crowd of over 5K, it had very good matches up and down the card, two fantastic bouts, but unfortunately it ended with one of the worst matches you're likely to see all year...

Things started hot with the Jr. Tag Title 3-Way. You know what to expect here; lots of crazy spots, not much in the way of traditional "psychology", and 100mph action. The crowd loved this and it was a great way to kick things off. There was confusion over the elimination nature of this one, and had it ended after after the first fall, I think I'd have liked it more, but it was a great little opener with the GLG duo of YO-HEY and Tadasuke eliminating both opponents at 8:48 and 12:24 respectively to win the straps. Things cooled down a tad with the next match, which was decent enough but just your standard 6-Man, which saw the GLG were victorious again.

The next match was something of a Dream Match for me, one that's been teased for a good couple of years now as Ishii and Kitomiya, two of my favourite guys from their respective companies, had an absolute war that is a strong MOTYC only two days in! You know what to expect here, it was tsandard Ishii big match fair, which is always tremendous. They pounded each other with chops, Lariats, headbutts, forearms punches and suplexes for 15:04, before Ishii got the win with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Amazing. The next match too was excellent as Go Shiozaki went over ageless veteran Satoshi Kojima, in a battle of the Go-wan Lariats! This was great, and kept relatively short at 13:56. Shiozaki won after an exchange of Lariats. Go formed a new faction called Team NOAH in the post-match.

Next up we got a couple of interesting debuts. "The Great Muta's daughter" Great Sakuya (Riko Kawahata) debuted in a doubles clash which ended in a DQ after she blew the dreaded Dokukiri in poor Umesaki's face. This was very silly, and the crowd were dead for it, but whilst it certainly wasn't great, it certainly wasn't bad either. The next match was better as former MMA fighter Ulka Sasaki battled NOAH legend Takashi Sugiura in a nice little exhibition. Sasaki looked good here, and it featured some good sequences, before Sugiura naturally won at the 11 minute mark with the Olympic Yossen Slam.

After intermission we got the ZSJ/Ogawa vs. Tana/HAYATA tag match. This was really good, as you'd expect, though at nearly 18 minutes it was a little long. They teased a lot of stuff with Zack and Tanahashi for their TV Title match at the Dome tomorrow. Sabre Jr. won for his team when he submitted HAYATA with a crazy leg stretch. The GHC Jr. Title bout was decent enough, as Daga retained over Eita in exactly 13 minutes. I expected a bit more here, and it ultimatly came off as a bit of a squash as Daga dominated the whole thing, despite the crowd really wanting Eita to win. The 6 on 6 Elimationation match was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Like everyone else, I'm at the end of my tether with this HoT stuff (and don't even get me started on Narita's inexplicably asinine inclusion in this nonsense), BUT, this match proves if done right, it can be pretty great. Obviously we got all the token House silliness like the never-ending stream of low blows, interference and incompetent refereeing, but it built really well as it boiled down to Kaito and EVIL, with Kiyomiya looking like a hero as he overcame the odds and sent EVIL to the floor with a Shining Wizard at the 26:14 mark to win for the babyfaces.

The first half of the Double Main Event; Kenoh's GHC Heavyweight Title defence against former tag partner Manabu Soya came next and it was another fantastic, hard-hitting war, and another early MOTYC. We all know Kenoh's great, and I've always been a fan of Soya since his All Japan days, but he's kind of lingered in the NOAH mid-card since arriving and gotten lost in the shuffle somewhat. Well this was a coming out party if ever there were one, both guys looked fantastic here, and I was worried someone was going to get legit KO'd at points, given how hard they were hitting each other. Kenoh missed a Moonsault knee drop by a considerable margin at the end there, but recovered well by devastating the big man with some headkicks and got the submission win at 28:36 with the Kenoh Special. Excellent, excellent match. Shiozaki came out in the post match and challenged Strong Fist to a title match, which will be happening on January 13th. Count me in as these two always have great matches together. And this is where I'd recommend everyone just turn this show off...

The Marufuji/Ibushi main event *sigh*... look I'm sure everyone already knows about this match, something that once upon a time was a dream match, but in the harsh realities of 2024, was an abject nightmare. This match was all kinds of bad, as Ibushi came into this thing banged up to oblivion and physically incapable of doing... anything, really. AND IT WENT 33:26!!! Which honestly felt like a good couple of hours watching live. Ibushi announced he was working through a broken hand and foot in the days prior, and when he made his entrance with tears streaming down his face, I feared the worst. The reality is this match shouldn't have happened, or if it did, have it go like 10 minutes maximum or something. And certainly don't have it be the main event! It was total insanity to book this to go north of 30 minutes. But even then, nobody made Ibushi try to do his signature spots in this thing. The guy couldn't even get himself up to go over the ropes on a backdrop, so what made him think attempting a Moonsault to the floor was a wise move? Well, he seemingly broke his ankle doing so, and the match only descended into more of a train wreck from there. The crowd were dead, almost like they were at a funeral, the "action" was a level lower than snail pace, and watching it was a profoundly sad experience. I never thought I'd see the day when the Keiji Muto of 2023 looked more mobile and having more business being in the ring than Kota Ibushi ever. Ibushi won with Kamigoye to put everyone out of their misery, none more so than the two guys in the match, then there was a totally bizarre post match where Kiyomiya and Jake Lee came out and seemingly banished Ibushi from NOAH. Ibushi could barely stand or walk on his way to the back, and this is a match I'll never watch again in my life. I had thought about giving this a DUD, but I couldn't be that harsh given the circumstances. Also, Marufuji did try his best out there, bless him. But the fact is Ibushi needs some time away from the ring to heal. I mean, this could be the end of his illustrious in-ring career, which is beyond heartbreaking, and he's looked a shadow of his former self since he returned to wrestling last Spring, but he wasn't even the same person out there on this show.

All in all, this was a great supershow from NOAH, marred slightly by a catastrophically bad main event, for obvious reasons. But I recommend everyone check it out up the fab Kenoh/Soya match, and just pretend the Ibushi/Maru match never happened.

NDT

[debbiechanclub]

Okay, good. I was worried Ren had won.

Condolences Ren stans, but Finlay using the shillelagh was totally fair because Ren low-blowed him first AND Kanemaru spit whiskey in his face.

But Finlay is Irish so that attack has 0 hit points on him.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax quarterfinals preview

The A and B block matches for this year's G1 Climax are complete, so now we move on to the knockout stage. This is basically a six-man elimination bracket, with the top three from each block. Tonight's show is headlined by A2 vs. A3 and B2 vs. B3. The winners of those matches will advance to the semifinals on August 17, where it'll be A1 vs. A2 or A3, and B1 vs. B2 or B3. The two semifinal winners will meet on August 18, to decide the winner of the tournament.

Shingo Takagi vs. Great-O-Khan - In A Block, Zack Sabre Jr. finished on top with a 7-2 record, followed by four men tied at 5-4. Of those four, Takagi won block matches against the other three, so he took second place. Khan's tiebreaker wins over Tetsuya Naito and EVIL put him in third. So now these two will compete for the right to wrestle Sabre in the semifinals. Khan's KOPW championship is not at stake here.

This is, by design, a rematch from earlier in the tournament--Takagi defeated Khan on July 23. Whoever wins here will also give us an A Block rematch in the semifinals--Sabre beat Khan on July 20, and Shingo beat Sabre on August 3. I wouldn't have set it up that way, but oh well. Presumably New Japan wants the finalists to get a chance to avenge a key loss or two.

I'm delighted Khan has made it this far, because I think he's capable of more than he's been doing for the past four years, and I like that this year's format allows someone from out of left field to get this close to the big dance. That said, I absolutely don't believe he's going to win the G1, or even make it to the final. So I guess it's possible he could win here and lose to Sabre, I don't think they'll take it that far. Takagi vs. Sabre will look better on the marquee than Khan vs. Sabre, so I think that's the match New Japan will deliver. Shingo wins.

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji - Over in B Block, David Finlay wound up in first place at 6-3. Takeshita and Tsuji were part of another multi-man tie at 5-4, with Takeshita officially in second place and Tsuji at third. Finlay will face the winner of this match on the 17th.

From an AEW fan's perspective, it's probably not a big shock that Takeshita has made it this far. But I'm a little surprised an outsider got out of the block--I kinda wonder if it's a last-minute change to work around Yuya Uemura's injury. New Japan likes bringing in guys from other promotions, but pushing them is another story. So I'm betting this match will be about Tsuji avenging his loss on July 20, before moving onward and upward.

Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson vs. David Finlay & Gedo - Sabre and Finlay are waiting to find out who their opponents will be on August 17. Jackson, an Australian freelancer, appears to be stepping in for Kosei Fujita, who was sidelined earlier in the tour. Seems like he'd be the one to take the pin, but maybe if they like him enough Gedo will do the job instead.

Shota Umino & El Phantasmo & Jado vs. EVIL & Ren Narita & Dick Togo - Pretty standard good guys vs. House of Torture tag match. Jado or Togo will likely lose the fall. I guess Evil's team wins.

Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI vs. HENARE & Callum Newman - All but the top three matches are basically filler, but this one feels especially like filler. I guess Bushi loses.

Gabe Kidd & Jake Lee vs. Jeff Cobb & Francesco Akira - Kidd has started talking up the idea of pursuing the IWGP heavyweight tag team title with Lee. Akira will probably lose the match to help advance that storyline.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano vs. SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi - Tana's team holds the NEVER trios championship, but the belts aren't on the line here. If Evil or Ren Narita were in this match, I'd think the heels might get a win to set up a title bout on the next tour, but as it is House of Torture's team feels too weak for anything but an easy squash for the babyfaces.

SANADA & Taichi & DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI & Tomoaki Honma & Katsuya Murashima - Kinda nice to see Just 5 Guys (well, four of them) together again, and Goto and Yoshi reunited. Other than that, not much to this. Murashima should lose.

[crossroadsofchaos]

Retired Leaders AU Info Masterpost

Figured I'd compile basic info about this AU into one big post.

----

THE BASICS:

It's a "Good Uncle" kind of AU, where Belos is a better person. He actually tried to unite the realms, because he believed it would be beneficial for both, but it was doomed from the start and went horribly wrong. He has publicly admitted to and apologized for his wrongdoings and resigned from his position, and the Coven System was abolished. His family occupied leadership positions within his Coven and also left those roles behind, hence the AU's title.

I refer to the family as the Wolf Fam. It consists of Belos, Steven, Hunter and Kiki, along with their palismen. They all live together in a newly built house.

--

THE CHARACTERS:

This isn't a list of all characters that exist, just the Wolf Fam and a handful of others, mostly OCs.

Belos Wittebane (he/him; mid 410s): Former Lord of the Boiling Isles; now a palisman carver; husband of Steven.

Steven Bellamy (he/him; 53 y/o): Husband of Belos; former Head of the Lord's Coven; now a P.E. teacher at Hexside.

Hunter Wittebane (he/him; 17 y/o): Nephew of Belos, raised by him and Steven; former Golden Guard; now mainly focused on pursuing his interest in engineering and tech.

Kikimora Volk (she/her; mid 20s): A sort of adopted daughter to Belos and Steven and adopted sister to Hunter; former Secretary; now works at a history museum.

Crescent (they/them): A floating snow leopard palisman belonging to Belos.

Ash (he/him, they/them): A dark gray wolf palisman belonging to Steven.

Waffles (she/her, they/them): A winged red wolf palisman belonging to Hunter.

Grusha (she/her): A spotted hyena palisman belonging to Kiki.

Jasper Tholomule (he/him; 44 y/o): Younger half-brother of Steven; father of Matt; husband of Cass.

Cassidy "Cass" Tholomule (they/them, she/her; 44 y/o): Spouse of Jasper; stepparent of Matt.

Matthew "Matt" Tholomule (he/him; 13 y/o): Biological son of Jasper and stepson of Cass; nephew of Steven.

Leslie Bellamy (she/her; 80s): Mother of Steven and Jasper; grandmother of Matt; wife of Opal.

Opal Bellamy (she/her; 80s): Wife of Leslie; stepmother of Steven and biological mother of Jasper; grandmother of Matt.

Ren Kanemaru (they/them; 53 y/o): Steven's childhood friend; former scout.

Valerie "Val" Durand (she/her; 54 y/o): Best friend of Steven and Ren, who they met after joining the Lord's Coven; former scout.

Petra Barany (she/her; mid 20s): Best friend and former assistant of Kiki.

That's about enough I think, I won't be including the rest here. One thing to note is that the Collector doesn't exist in this version.

And you may have also noticed that "Steve" is a little different. I created this version back when we only had one scene with Steve and had no idea he was going to get a face reveal and more canon info, and I just chose not to change the name after that happened. So Steve technically exists, but it's not canon Steve. They do have some similarities though.

--

THE STORY:

Back in the 1600s, Philip did not kill Caleb, and reluctantly gave the Boiling Isles a chance. Though resisting it at every turn, he ultimately fell in love with it. He developed the belief that uniting the two realms would be beneficial for both, combining the less dangerous climate of Earth with the more open and progressive culture of the Isles. After Caleb died in an accident during the search for one of the ingredients for the portal door, Philip only became more committed to the idea.

He began to do extensive research into magic, digging for as much information as he could find, which included looking into lost and forbidden magic. The latter is how he discovered both Grimwalkers and a way to extend one's life by consuming palismen. As he formed a coherent plan for how to enact his goal, he began trying out his messaging on small groups of witches to see what works, as well as testing out Coven sigils on the earliest ones until they worked as intended. He also took the name Belos and began to wear a mask.

Slightly over 50 years ago he took power as the Lord of the Boiling Isles, becoming the chief religious figure and a sort of constitutional monarch, with his fourth Grimwalker nephew, Anthony, by his side as the Golden Guard. There was an elected government responsible for things like deciding on budgets and passing legislation unrelated to the Coven System, however Belos had ultimate authority and could override any decision. He largely stayed out of their affairs unless he thought what they were doing would undermine his ultimate goal.

However, his plan to unite the realms was doomed from the start. When he attempted to do it on the Day of Unity, it went horribly wrong and shattered his hopes. The Unification Spell didn't work and was simply draining people of magic. It ended abruptly once Belos's staff, through which the spell was channeled, exploded. He, Hunter and the Hexsquad barely escaped the blast by leaving through the portal door. They ended up stuck in the Human Realm for a time, before finding the same way back as they did in canon.

Belos publicly admitted that he had lied about speaking to the Titan, and that the plan to unite the realms was his own doomed idea. He apologized and resigned, with Steven, Hunter and Kiki following him. The Coven System was abolished, and the Isles became more of an actual democracy, without a single individual with ultimate authority being able to override the decisions of the elected government, which also became more transparent.

Belos helped with restoration efforts where damage had been caused on the Day of Unity, and he later took up palisman carving and caring for palismen in general to make up for consuming them to extend his own life. He also released many palismen souls that were previously trapped inside him, and is now aging at a more regular pace. Though some remain, in part because they have fused with his curse - he was cursed long ago, in a similar way to Eda, and his curse is a wolfcat. Both conditions have physically affected him, giving him scars, catlike pupils, sharp fangs, ability to purr, and making him much bigger than he was originally.

--

EXTRA:

spirituality on the Isles

Belos didn't invent a religion from scratch, but rather built on and expanded - or, to put it more harshly, exploited - already existing spiritual beliefs related to the Titan in order to achieve his goal of uniting the realms.

Before Belos, the Titan was rarely (if ever) viewed as a higher authority who, through messengers, gave witches rules to live by. He was mainly seen and respected as the origin of the Isles and all life on it. People thanked him for their existence, their magic, their harvests, etc. and payed tribute to him, but that was largely it. The prevalence of spirituality/religion has gone down over time.

Belos's rise to power with the claim of him being "the Titan's messenger" caused a resurgence of spirituality/religiosity, with him being seen as the authority on the matter by his followers. It has declined again once it was revealed that he hadn't actually spoken to the Titan.

glyphs

They were in frequent use by ancient witches, in part due to them having weaker natural magic and having to rely more on magical tools than modern witches. Over time, they fell out of common use and were limited to specific spiritual/religious rituals, and then only became more rare over time.

Disabled witches who had weak or no natural magic would simply rely on their staffs, due to which they wouldn't rediscover glyphs out of necessity. On top of that, when knowledge of glyphs was still more common, it may have been taboo to use them for non-spiritual/religious purposes.

Covens

There have been a number of different Coven systems throughout history. Some Covens were based around familial ties, some were based around what kinds of magic people specialized in, some were simply regional, etc. Though sigils had not been used before, and it was possible to move between Covens, with the level of difficulty depending on the type of Covens in question. Whether it was legal to be Covenless may have varied as well, with it being illegal in some places at some points in time. When Belos rose to power, he chose to use the specialization-based model of Covens to sort people into.

With Belos's system gone, the concept of Covens wasn't completely abandoned, but rather became non-official and based on voluntary participation, as opposed to a legally mandated system that also restricted what types of magic people could use.

the structure of Belos's government

As mentioned previously, it was a sort of constitutional monarchy. Belos was the Lord of the Boiling Isles, it's main religious figure and ultimate authority, but there was an elected government, responsible for things like budgets and passing legislation. Belos could override any decision they made.

The Head Witches of the main nine Covens were originally appointed by Belos alone, but after Terra turned out to be a disastrous choice and had to be pushed out, he handed the appointment process over to the elected government, and would now simply confirm or deny their appointments. Those officials could be bribed, though, to appoint someone who shouldn't necessarily hold a position of power, like Adrian. Belos tried to keep an eye on such issues - or more so tasked others with doing so, but some still slipped through.

The Lord's Coven was a separate branch of government, entirely under Belos's control, though he tended to be somewhat reclusive, so day-to-day coordination and such was largely handled by other high-ranking members of the Coven.

The top leadership originally consisted of three positions: the Lord (Belos), the Secretary (first Winston, later Kiki) and the Golden Guard (first Anthony, later Hunter). The third position was later split into two, the Golden Guard and the Head of the Lord's Coven (first Lilith, later Steven), with the latter taking on some of the former's responsibilities, which allowed Belos to keep Hunter in the castle more for his safety.

The Lord's Coven was the Isles' military, and they performed other tasks and missions for Belos as well, such as finding abandoned palismen for him to consume as "medicine" - something he agreed was unfortunate, and claimed he was looking for an alternative to - and searching for Titan's Blood. Regular law enforcement was typically done by members of other Covens, though some scouts, mostly newer ones, could get the assignment. Usually, experienced scouts were only brought in for emergencies, or to deal with particularly powerful criminals.

the basilisks

The basilisks were not tortured and were generally treated better than in canon, but they were made to do things they didn't like, and were still kept in captivity, in part out of concern that they'd start attacking people if released out in the wild, and they were unhappy with their lives, so they still escaped.

The basilisk that attacked the schools in season 1 had always had behavior problems, possibly a combination of being the earliest and thus least correctly created, as well as being mishandled by those responsible for their care. They have since been treated, and are no longer dangerous.

Vee had complicated feelings about Belos, but was not terrified of him when she saw him in the Human Realm, especially once he made it clear he had no intention of forcing her to return to captivity.

[naritaren]

for @rennarita

[doublearmbars]

Now that I have more space in my brain I can also think abt the stupid meetcute roughstyle au where ren is sent out with the HoT company card to get a new office pothos bc all the whiskey Kanemaru poured in the pot killed the old one. So he takes the plant to the nursery where Shota works and that guy has never seen a plant he couldn’t save if there’s still any green on it.

[manwithoutaspleen]

Something about kanemaru coming out for ren for the first time this g1 specifically against yuya, guy who took his place in j5g. Contemplating.

[scarskelly]

I saw this match and my brain shut down.