#shoh posting

[bigmeandragonlady]

someone: i can't believe that rake Chase seduced the hero of haven!

Aelyn, who was trying to get in his pants pretty much from the get-go:

[bigmeandragonlady]

idk if you're looking for thoughts or w/e, so feel free to ignore, but my 2 cents is that Shepherds of Haven falls pretty squarely in an M/MA. it might be b/c i think of it more on a visual scale and written word is... different?

There's both full frontal nudity (see: printhe) and swearing, the swearing alone qualifies it for a mature rating

Gore is hard to rate, particularly in written work (i'm looking at you animorphs) and ive also seen heads get slapped off in teen rated shows so idk

anyway, despite my personal thoughts, i think you can get away with a T rating of shoh as a written work. but if you think about it if it was ever a visual adaptation (which i find really helpful in figuring out ratings) it would be rated Mature. i definitely would not put it in PG-13 either way.

Related to this post!

[oderu]

shoh dump part 1

[kris-mage-fics]

More silly text memes for Chase!

And last, but not least, Chase when he catches feelings:

[image IDs in ALT]

Fun fact, the very first thing I did for @shepherds-of-haven was this little post of a couple of text memes that perfectly fit Chase. Since it's exactly a year later I wanted to post some more for him today.

[emeraldgreaves]

45 or 55 for moira red 👀👀? both seem sort of,,,thematically consistent with them LMAO

have 500 words of moirared to break the word curse.

55. tracing the lines on the other’s hand

They’re in the library cramming, as one always finds themselves doing during finals week; him for Planar Theory, her for Anatomy and Mending. And she knows she’s going to fail it, keeps dreaming that she opens the test booklet and discovers the whole thing is in Magid, or it’s the wrong unit, or the paper turns into a swarm of bats and flies right into her face.

And Red is a little bit of a flirt—this is well-established, mostly with people who find her an adequate shoulder to cry on after the fact, though she hasn’t joined their ranks quite yet—but even with how casual and unassuming he is about it, he’s never done so with her.

He asks what she’s studying, and she tells him it’s the parts of the hand, though at this point it’s reduced to flipping through her endless stacks of index cards and wishing for a proper diagram. And he says well, you could just show me, and holds out one of his hands.

She takes it, and it’s still unmarked, tan skin not yet scarred and callused from a decade’s worth of discovery, though someday it will be. She points to each segment in turn—distal, medial, and proximal phalanges, and anatomy doesn’t sound too far from an incantation as she lists them out, flipping over to his palm. And yet they’re not wholly blank. Here is the silvery-white slash of a scar across the spiderwebbed creases of his palm. Here is the mottled ghost of a burn from the time he snatched up a spell scroll and discovered the protection the hard way. Here is the stray freckled nestled in the curve of his wrist. Here are the formerly scraped knuckles and shadowed arteries running alongside taut tendon lines, the entire history of his exploration all in one place.

“If you want my opinion,” he says afterward, fingers still resting in hers, “I think you’re going to ace it.”

And she hadn’t expected him to pay attention—medical terminology is hard enough for Healers to memorize, let alone those studying an entirely different discipline that only happen to be in the same space —but seven years later they’re out for lunch again in the café. He’s through one and a half sandwiches, and she’s barely managed two sips of tea, but the conversation has always been the point of it, and she doesn't mind letting things settle. Somehow they’re on the topic of exams, the way they were half-killing themselves over knowledge but somehow in love with it all the same.

“I remember plenty,” he insists, the third variation on this particular theme.

“I’m not claiming you were completely oblivious,” she says. “Simply that you had plenty of your own projects to consider.”

And she always knows when something has caught his interest; a little light flares up in his eyes, and he leans forward, suddenly regarding you like you’re the most engaging thing in the world. “Really,” he says lightly. “Try me.”

He holds out a hand. After a moment she extends hers across the table. He takes it, turns it over carefully like she’s one of his precious artifacts, then bows his head and recites distal, medial, proximal--

“All right,” she says afterward, “maybe you do remember.” And he’d smiled at her over the rim of his teacup in a way that was familiar, and yet strangely not at all.

[ollietime]

Hilde Erkan, one of my OCs (from @shepherds-of-haven’s game) fresh off a battle! Can you guess what her heritage is?

About the drawing:

In my head, Ket features are a broad, flat nose, a strong jawline, deepset eyes, and a square face. So I tried to give her all of those features! Hilde means battle-ready or battle-woman and can be lengthened to Hildegarde, but I liked the more blunt feeling of Hilde. Erkan is from the Turkish Er (brave man) and Kan (blood) and I feel is a fitting Ket last name! Hilde is looking very intense here: maybe you’re the last demon she has to kill or something, but it’s clear you’ve pissed her off. Tried my best to get that spooky raccoon glow I’m sure the iialdrin (is that how you spell it?) gives off in the dark! This is a quick drawing but I’m very happy with how I captured her!

About Hilde:

Hilde is a Ket-raised self-taught Shifter (Historically I’ve gone for Enchanter or Wild Mage, but I’m having fun playing her! I’m really falling in love with the Arcane branch :D) who’s romancing Ayla! Her closest friends among the Shepherds are Blade (Ket solidarity), Chase (he makes her laugh), Halek (she just likes the guy), and Lavinet (Hilde thinks she’s cool, and really appreciates the different perspective on missions). She’s close with everyone, but that’s who she would say she’s closest with if asked! Her highest skills are silver tongue and bright mind. Hilde’s personality is a little weird: she’s got a bit of that classic Ket stoniness about her, but only if she’s comfortable enough around you (or cares little enough) to drop her upbeat and friendly facade, if that makes sense? Like…. a customer service persona? But that’s just for like acquaintances and missions. If she knows you she drops that and lets her unexpressive side shine through! Otherwise she’s down to earth and practical, but not overly so. She’s chill, even if she looks intimidating (which she does despite being short). She’s got a good heart and a strong sense of justice. Her biggest character flaw is her tendency to take the easy way out or the path of least resistance: even though she’s got a strong sense of morality, her practicality and survival instincts win. Whenever she gives up like that she’s sick with herself for months or years afterward, not only because she’s crossed her moral lines, but because she feels she’s betrayed her “mythas” or her culture, like she’s abandoning it by not being strong enough to fight for her beliefs. Hilde gets very passionate about nerd stuff things she’s interested in, so she has a great time talking to Red and Riel! I think she’d definitely be into DnD, but alas, she lives in the SHoH universe. Her hobby is painting and she loves cartography (whether for real places or for books she’s read) which is why she interested in Ayla initially! Another anecdote is she has some complex feelings about her name. One part of her loves the simplicity and the connection to her culture, but the other part gets a bit insecure when she’s introduced next to Lavinet or someone, like she’s worried she sounds like she’s some farmer or something. And then she gets mad at herself because she is some farmer or something. Fun stuff!

[jae-draws]

can i say something—

[pirunika]

changing Eos' eye color to Yellow™ to have this dynamic w her n Blade :

[lavampira]

still taking and working on these botanical-themed asks if anyone wants to send some more 🫶

[dragonknightofsummerset]

...a certain desperate passion to them and slight possessiveness to them, as if he's afraid you might melt away when he opens his eyes, or as if to say mine, mine, mine...

Thank you so much @jroahn for drawing Blade & Nayeli in a passionate, yet tender, moment. I love everything about this ❤️ I highly recommend commissioning them and checking out their work, it's amazing. (Main caption is from this post here.)

[aylaaescar]

thinking about her today (Shery Acquell)

[bigmeandragonlady]

an MC who's been without their hometown longer then they've been with it realizing they can't remember their parent's faces or anyone else from their village. it's all just impressions and general ideas. the layout has gotten fuzzy in their head

distressed b/c who else will remember them? don't they owe it to them b/c they're responsible for the village being gone in the first place?

[yuuugay]

This was like the one and only time I chose the option to avoid caine and it never really hit me at that moment that i just gravitate towards the non-avoiding caine options without thinking about it

it impacted me enough that i drew (Drew as in I drew this 2 months ago) in comic form

#thiswasEbertsfault

[night-springs]

being normal about shepherds of haven again 😵‍💫

[kris-mage-fics]

Another Shepherds of Haven meme dump! (Because I've been saving some of these for quite a while. Plus I'm hot, tired, and bored, so I'm amusing myself.) It's wonderful that the Shepherds support women in STEM! Gods know the Autarchy doesn't!

Do I even have to say this is Chase?

Calm with a deceptively casual smile: Chase Calm and impassive, while silently assessing everyone's weaknesses: Blade

Halek:

Chase, especially when trying to get Red or Blade to go out and have fun:

This is why Trouble thinks MC is so nice!

Blade when MC is dating Red:

[Image ids are in ALT]

[snowthornes]

"Are you alright?" the golden-haired Norm asked, a note of concern entering his voice. "You look like you just swallowed something awful." Thorne felt his smile freeze on his face. Slowly, under the gazes of the three Shepherds — Hael, of course they'd be Shepherds — he nodded, still smiling. "Yes, I'm doing wonderfully. My apologies — I think I had something in my throat." Thorne had never planned on joining the Shepherds.

(UNDER HEAVY REWRITES)

1 ✦ Demons. Awful for Business.

“Do you believe in free will?”

The question echoed in Thorne’s ears long after the red-haired man with the wide-brimmed hat had left, flicking a coin into his empty cup before he made his exit with a dramatic finality. He stared idly at the solitary cup, sitting only a table away — turning the previous conversation over and over in his head.

It was an intriguing question, he thought, settling back into his seat. His hand absently came up to finger the gleaming silver necklaces looped around his neck. Free will. Did he believe in free will? He had played along with Croelle, (Omens, his mind whispered, warnings and legends and gods), curious to see where the other man was going with his random approach of a stranger, but — he wasn’t sure. 

All he knew was this: as a Diminished stray who had had to survive by himself since his Wreath Day, free will had never been his to contemplate. He had laughed, and charmed, and manipulated, and slaughtered — all under the looming banner of survival. 

Could the sort of life he had led be the kind that had anything to do with “free will”?

He didn’t know. 

Still, the thought that everything in his life was predetermined… to put it nicely, it set him ill at ease. To put it bluntly, it pissed him off.

Faith was a shadow that he had turned his back on long ago. Whatever ‘path’ this so-called One-God had allegedly set out for him, Thorne had no interest in walking it. Just the thought left an acrid taste in his mouth. If not believing in free will meant believing in the One-God’s will, then, fine — he believed in free will.

And with his free will, Thorne had come to Haven with one mission: to find employment.

Not very glorious, but one does what one must. And what Thorne must do was find some sort of employment that involved more than wandering around the continent and picking up whatever jobs the day saw fit to throw his way — jobs of which were always a toss-up between the mundane and bizarre.

(He couldn’t count the amount of lost pets he’d had to find over the years. Once, he’d had to track down a family’s beloved pet pig after it fled deep into a forest. Needless to say, while he'd managed to rescue it, the massive wild cat that had also been tracking said pig hadn’t been very happy.)

READ MORE ON AO3 HERE

Note: If you can't open the link and you get the 'typo in href.li.' error, just delete https://href.li/? from the link in your browser and press enter :D

Hello! Thank you very much for opening my fic :D This won't be a chapter by chapter retelling of SHOH, but more of a fic about Thorne's own experiences in Blest as himself , not as an OC limited by the (very understandable!!) narrative constraints of the game. There will be scenes that weren't directly addressed in the game like Thorne's initiation to the Shepherds, so there will be quite a lot of headcanon-ing going on! This is very much a passion project and something I'm writing for fun — Thorne Briers and the world of SHOH are both very dear to me, and I couldn't resist the urge any longer. I hope you have as much fun following the story as I do writing it!

This is an unpolished work; I'm still very new to writing. Hopefully I'll be able to improve my craft while writing this fic, and have fun doing it!

DISCLAIMER: The world and characters of "Shepherds of Haven" do not belong to me, but to Lena Nguyen. You can find her on Tumblr under the @ shepherds-of-haven. Thorne Briers is a character of my own creation, and the MC of this fic. Due to narrative reasons, there will be several lines lifted directly from the game (ex. when a canon character speaks). Please let me know if this is a concern!