#the divine order

[thewormsdontstop]

GUESS WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY

[adrianna-illustrations]

the little wizard

[random-xpressions]

There are holes in her which anyone can fill. But what of the emptiness that she feels within herself, the deep hollowness that mysteriously appears from nowhere and overwhelms her so much that she's no longer herself - what have you done to fill that emptiness, what have you done to efface that feeling of hollowness in her? A dangling thing between your legs barely makes you a man. There are far greater things to be accomplished: water her roots so well, that she begins to bloom once again - soul first, body later...

Random Xpressions

[runeaxx]

I think they'd be best friends

[dailyfatefigures]

Divine Arm of Dawn by Mad Hands

[olivier-with-a-sweater]

Love this goober

[loracarol]

In The Iliad, Diomedes is able to fight & injure both Aphrodite and Ares with Athena's help/at Athena's command.

In Epic, Odysseus is only able to "defeat" one immortal, and that's Circe, and only with Hermes' explicit divine assistance.

Except... He did actually receive another godly order. Another god made a demand of him; Poseidon explicitly told him to become more Ruthless. You could argue it was a divine command, intentional or not.

...I joked about him being a paladin last night, but I do think there's power in stories when it comes to oaths, and what the gods tell you to do, tell you to be.

Odysseus followed through with Poseidon's demands, and he was rewarded for it, even if perhaps not the way Poseidon would have appreciated.

[lizzybeeee]

Am I the only one who thinks it's fucked up that the Mortalitasi are parading about King Markus's corpse...as opposed to letting the next in line rule??

He's alive in DAI - old, but very much flesh and blood - and we know this because the venatori use blood magic on him to get him under their control. So, what is he in DATV then? Are they implying that he's a lich? That he still has his mind? That they've got a spirit in there?

What do they gain from this? Cassandra's, what, 64th in line for the throne? So there's a bunch of potential heirs just hanging about -> potential heirs who want the crown because we know that Cassandra's parents were executed for trying to overthrow him.

Cassandra may not be fond of her family, but I can't imagine her letting this slide. This is the type of shit that gets an Exalted March called down on you! Especially if she's divine?! Nevarran's can be 'death-focused'* yes, but they let the living rule and not the dead.

It's their belief that when their soul passes through the Fade it results in a spirit being displaced - so they have the Mortalitasi find the spirit a new home in the Necropolis. That is their job - they maintain the Necropolis and, according to DATV, sometimes deal with awry magic.

The potential relation to a Divine or the Head of the Seekers, the King of Nevarra, is having his corpse puppeted about by a mage...and no one seems to care?!

Is this not super fucked up to anyone else?!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit - I put this down in the tags but I think it's important to point out: In all the previous games up to this point not once has a mage, manipulating a corpse like this, ever been portrayed as quirky or funny. This is not the norm of what the Mortalitasi are supposed to do - they honour the dead they do not puppet them.

Thedas is a world very strongly intertwined with faith, especially the Chantry. It is Nevarra's attitudes towards death and their burial practices that distinguishes it from other Andrastian nations - they still have the Chantry, the Templars, and the Circle of Magi just as the rest of Southern Thedas has.

It's impossible to imagine any Divine (Leliana, Cassandra, or Vivienne) hearing of this occurring and not taking action against this. It's extremely strange that Emmrich bemoans that half the nobility know this has occurred when this action should be seen as nothing short of an abomination to the faithful - including Emmrich.

[utilitycaster]

I do think it's worth calling out that a lot of the arguments in favor of killing the gods treat their worshipers as the "haves" amidst a sea of "have-nots" and that's just...flat out false in Exandrian canon, in addition to obliquely pinging certain antisemitic canards I am unfortunately attuned to by necessity, even though I suspect that's largely unintentional.

There are powerful adherents to the gods, but there's a lot of worshipers who gain nothing but whatever meaning they personally draw. We saw the Schuesters in Hupperdook in C2, who were imprisoned for following the Changebringer within the Empire, and seemed to have no cleric or paladin powers; nor, to our knowledge, does Imahara Joe. Technically we learned that Molly did sort of get something out of the Moon Weaver, but he didn't know that during the campaign. Grog thinks The Stormlord is pretty neat but hasn't gotten any powers from him. We saw worshipers of the Lawbearer and Dawnfather in Whitestone and worshipers of the Wildmother elsewhere in Tal'Dorei during Campaign 1, again mostly without any specific powers. In this episode and during the Team Wildemount arc we've seen no shortage of people simply going to temples as a place to seek comfort and meaning. Hell, the Player's Handbook outright says it: "Not every acolyte or officiant at a temple or shrine is a cleric. Some priests are called to a simple life of temple service, carrying out their gods' will through prayer and sacrifice, not by magic and strength of arms."

I think a generous read is that a lot of D&D players who aren't playing a mechanically divinely connected character don't make their character religious in any way, and so it becomes easy, with a PC-focused mindset, to assume that the only religious people are clerics, paladins, and the handful of deity-connected subclasses from other classes, but that isn't true and never has been in Exandria.

[empty-dream]

That which heals all wounds and grudges, our glorious homeland. Manifest yourself. Lord Camelot • Now is a Fortress of Distant Ideals

[amekeii]

Criminal Minds Characters as Cocktails

SPENCER REID - ESPRESSO MARTINI vodka vanilla | coffee liqueur | brown sugar syrup | espresso

AARON HOTCHNER - OLD FASHIONED bourbon | sugar | angostura bitters | orange twist

EMILY PRENTISS - AVIATION gin | maraschino liqueur | simple syrup | lemon juice | crème de violette | cherry

DAVID ROSSI - NEGRONI campari | gin | sweet vermouth

PENELOPE GARCIA - PORNSTAR MARTINI vodka vanilla | passoã | passion fruit puree | pineapple juice | passion fruit half | prosecco

JJ JENNIFER JAREAU - GIN & TONIC opihr gin | yuzu tonic | lime wheel

DEREK MORGAN - MAI TAI dark rum | white rum | orange curacao | almond syrup | lime juice

PART 2

[fuluv]

just letting y'all know that me and @milkywaydrinker's oc betty exists in deadendia vol 3 and she's zagan's bff

[kittykatrattie]

POLYAMORY WINS

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

xxxHolic Chapter 84!

All aboard the Spooky Yuuko Lifestyle!

I’m living for this. I’m also living for those shoes. What are those, Yuuko. What are they. 

But that aside we love appreciate the most extravagant fashion possible in this world or the next.

And then the imagery.

Yuuko poised gracefully in the largest bird cage you’ve ever seen. The shadow in the background shows the cage is completely empty. 

The cage is held up by a wing. The wing is directly in line with the bell in Yuuko’s hand. They are not the same shape. 

The cage is held up by a curling hook. It’s directly in line with another big curl that Yuuko is sitting on. They aren’t the same shape either.  

Yuuko is dressed in the most amazing style that seems to be based on a phoenix, or a peacock. She’s also just… sitting right next to one. Which she completely outshines in every way. 

Yuuko holds the bell out behind her, right through the bars, as if she could have left at any time - or as if her power could never be restricted to the cage. Or if she was never actually in the cage at all. 

It’s very much like those birds that Watanuki delivered in a much earlier chapter, but the other way around - they were only visible as shadows, but here Yuuko is only visible without a shadow.

It’s also very much like the Birdcage kingdom, which also featured giant cages and a bell that I can't quite remember the details of but suddenly want to rewatch very badly.

Like Watanuki’s previous cover, it’s playing with ideas of being between existence and non-existence, of being sometimes visible but not always, of being between the real and the imitation, of having a sort of freedom but also being contained, of being sort of brought back from the dead but stuck half way back to reality - and being on the verge of bringing it all crashing down. 

It’s exactly what you’d expect from Yuuko!

[things-methinks]

HOW about an Oscar win and Lestappen podium at Spa?