#the fact that this game is so underground to the point where there's no information abt this on the wiki is insane. Like I have to trust-

[battlefrankies]

one piece is so fucking good at communication. oda's always aware of how information moves around the world, how it can be misinterpreted, deliberately twisted, censored. there aren't that many series where the interplay of fact + the telephone game of its dissemination is depicted so organically beyond a one time use as plot.

the marines rewarding smoker for defeating crocodile is deliberate propaganda, and the WG's decision to hide the mass breakout at impel down to obscure a massive governmental failure. the news that sabo killed cobra was as much gov't lies as interpretation by the third-party news org and that misinterpretation was actively used by the revolutionaries. we're told that the whitebeard pirates instigated the payback war through public channels but find out from marco that blackbeard invaded first and they were acting defensively.

there are underground information channels where information is bought and sold in WCI, the same arc where we learn that katakuri takes such pains to conceal his meriendas from his siblings who believe him to be perfect, the same arc where we learn that brulee knew all along. not everyone has the same information and the information that's spread isn't always true, nor is it always false.

and then you have god valley, lulusia and ohara straight up wiped off the maps and their existence & histories erased. you need an immense amount of power to do that, which we understand the WG to have. wano that's isolationist and thus cut off from information passing in AND out of it. roger's final words which too many people heard, the WG couldn't have hidden that or stopped the great age of pirates even if they'd tried. televising the death of whitebeard and ace to demoralize pirates and put the age to an end, then whitebeard's announcement that the one piece is real which only spurred it on harder. there are too many other examples to list

ig ultimately it's not surprising that one piece puts such emphasis on the transfer of knowledge & information considering the mystery at the foundation of the series, but it's refreshing to see it in a piece of media and to see so many levels of it, to see different characters with different kinds of access to it. it's a constant, ongoing theme that's touched on from all different angles at all levels of the world from the personal to the global.

part of oda's mastery of character is just this constant awareness of Who Knows What and how that will affect their interactions with each other. nami's secret that wasn't a secret at all, usopp's final lie to his village, the chefs at baratie trying to drive sanji away so he can follow his dreams... yet misunderstandings because of bad communication are rare, and when a fight does happen because of stubbornness and pride getting in the way, it's not a funky plot driver but a hurtful, friendship-ending blowout.

i don't dislike miscommunication in fiction, but the way it's done is almost always... bad? i don't want to see adults with the emotional maturity of 12 year olds fighting over middle school level beef, if I'm not seeing the careful interplay of differential access to information & character personalities causing realistic and understandable breaks in communication, what's the point!!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Villain?Izuku

Think I sent an ask about how Kurogiri could end up at UA with everyone, but I just had the thought of, like. So, AfO isn’t exactly keeping Izuku under lock and key. Izuku has likely MET most of the LoV. So I’m just imagining:

(I’m gonna add my notes in italics on this one!)

*

Izuku and Himiko

Himiko: Well, my Quirk makes me a monster.

Izuku: *long, detailed diatribe about why that’s bullshit*

Himiko: But, but I drink blood!

Izuku: Pretty sure you need to do that to be healthy. I bet I can prove it! Will you let me try?

Himiko: Uh, ok?

Izuku: *yoinks her Quirk* How do you feel?

Himiko: I’m … not hungry???

Izuku: And I’m suddenly starving! Point proven! But while we’re like this, would you like to know what your blood tastes like?

(Izuku just! Loves Quirks and loves every Quirk there’s no ‘bad’ Quirks to him!!!)

*

Izuku and Jin

Izuku: So, I’m pretty sure you’re real, I mean, I couldn’t take your Quirk from one of your clones, right? Plus, I broke the finger on one of your clones, and it vanished immediately, so-

Jin: *breaks his finger*

Izuku: OH MY GOD ARE YOU OK!?

Jin: Hey, I’m still here! I AM real!

Izuku: YOU DIDN’T NEED TO BREAK YOUR BONES HOLY SHIT-

(Izuku knowing him for like a week and figuring out exactly how his Quirk works is on brand lmao)

*

Izuku and Compress

(How it started)

Compress: -which is why my ancestor was one of the great thieves of- are. Are you taking notes?

Izuku: Of course! This is FASCINATING!!

(How it’s going)

AfO: Alright, Mr. Compress, do you know why I called you in?

Mr. Compress: I honestly have no idea.

AfO: I’m aware you taught my son poker. You then took him out to a Shie Hassakai gambling parlour, where he proceeded to clean out everyone who wasn’t working there. He is now buying every piece of All Might merchandise he can find.

Compress: … just to be clear, you’re mad about the All Might merchandise - NOT the fact that I taught Izuku poker, in fact, how to CHEAT at poker, or took him to an underground casino run by the yakuza?

AfO: When I said he couldn’t spend his allowance on All Might memorabilia, I was NOT expecting one of you to furnish him with another source of income!

(the skewed morals lmao. Also I feel like AfO would only have beef with it because it’s All Might. Any other Hero? Okay fine. But All Might? Really????)

*

Izuku and Magne

*for whatever reason, lots of time spent making scale models and doing puzzles. Cooking. Discussing the bullshit that is women’s clothing.*

(Izuku has vague recollections of how fashion works thanks to spending so much time at Kacchan’s house as a kid. He doesn’t /utilize/ any of this information but he has it!!)

*

Izuku and Spinner 

*several sessions of intense bonding via video games. Spinner teaches him to throw knives*

(Give the boy knives!! New skill unlocked!!!)

*

Izuku and Kurogiri

The weary uncle looking after his hyperactive nephew.

(it’s great because Kurogiri has known Izuku since AfO brought him home and like. That’s his kid now too damn it!)

* 

Izuku and Tomura (a summary)

Video games. Arguments about nothing. Nightmares weathered together. Getting on each others nerves.

Izuku: You should ask Spinner out, he’d totally say yes.

Tomura: *spluttering as he drives His character off a cliff* Wha- Who says I like that overgrown lizard!?

Izuku: Uh, you do? He’s all you’ve written about in your diary for the past three months.

Tomura: Ok, first of all, it’s a JOURNAL, not a DIARY, and second, YOU READ MY FUCKING JOURNAL!?!?

(late at night)

Izuku: Tomura?

Tomura: What?

Izuku: … do you miss your family? Your first one. Before Dad.

Tomura: … why.

Izuku: … I miss my mom.

…

Tomura: Yeah. Me too.

(Oh that HURT. Also you know that post about someone making a minecraft world and having a chest buried in the middle of the ocean that just has a notebook with their crush’s name on it? That has Tomura energy).

*

AfO: I have a plan to get the girl with the Rewind Quirk, but the best option involves Izuku. Hmmm. Well, maybe this will finally be a chance for us to bond over criminal activity … but his safety! Well, that League of Villains of Tomura’s is coming along nicely, they’ll make fine bodyguards! And surely their undying loyalty to both Izuku and myself will mean they’ll bring him back to me, where he will be safe!

*

(One miraculous escape via yakuza fight later…)

*knock on door*

Nezu: *opens door* … ah. The League of Villains, yes?

Kurogiri: Correct. Principal Nezu I presume? It’s an honour to meet you. We’re here about Izuku?

Nezu: I see. And you’re aware he has no desire to go back?

Kurogiri: Ah, you misunderstand. We have no desire to take him back.

Nezu: ?

Kurogiri: Our last order, just before the plan with the Shie Hassakai went into effect, was to keep Izuku safe while he was away from All for One. There was no mention of a time limit on that order, or HOW we were to keep him safe. In fact, given that All for One seems to be gearing up for another go around with All Might, well. It seems to us that Izuku would be safest far out of the line of fire. I see no reason why we can’t protect him here as well as anywhere, if this is truly where he wants to be. Might we come in to discuss the matter with you?

Nezu: Certainly! Why don’t you all come in?

(okay that’s the funniest option lmao. But also Izuku getting the LoV to reform via the power of friendship is always great)

(Also you don’t mention him BUT- Izuku absolutely clocks who ‘Dabi’ is pretty much immediately because he’s a nerd like that. May poke and prod at Dabi’s daddy issues because ‘fuck man I know a thing or two about complicated ‘loves you but is toxic af’ father-son relationships!’)

[theriverbeyond]

OH YOU'RE PLAYING DISCO??? HAVE FUN :D! what build do you have :0? (like for me, i played started with good purple blue and average red yellow, and had shivers as my crown skill)

some non-spoilery tips, if you want

get the horrible neck tie and wear it primiarily on the third day. you'll get a thought orb (the halo things) when you walk past a certain area that will make certain events down the line easier

next to where the corpse is hanging, there is a set of buttons you can press to contact now-defunct businesses. only one works. keep trying to press it for a special surprise.

fail the savoir fair check to flip of the bartender cafeteria manager again, and then really hammer home the fact that you're injured. he'll lower the cost of debt you owe him

a certain character will refuse to speak to you if you don't have your badge, and will offer a deal instead. if you don't want to do the deal (which is a long but not unrewarding side quest) don't talk to her further about information, because if you find it later she will still want you to do the sidequest anyway.

there are things called thought projects in the game, that offer backstory, characterisation, and skill de/buffs if you equip them. for the most useless (yet funniest) thought project, talk to a guy smoking to the north of the map. he will introduce you to a witness. after talking to this witness, come back to the motel and he will be hanging around. talk to him about...'the underground' and insist about learning about if for yourself. again, this is useless from a mechanical standpoint but is really really funny.

have fun playing :D

ahhh THANK YOU i am taking dutiful notes!! I have no idea what build I am doing. I started as the thinker (?) because that was the one that the selection screen started on and seems fairly (?) straightforward. I have figured out if i fain enough XP i get skill points which I can use on those uhhhhhhh stat characters? which will change how I can interact with things/info I get/check results. i THINK!! I have put a point into encyclopedia so far vecause that seems helpful, but I wish I had higher empathy bc i wanna figure out whats up w Cuno

[marbarmars]

I think I finally made y’all wait long enough (and procrastinated on writing this long enough) so you finally get Salem posting part 2!! I also changed up her design a lil very recently! It’s not much though, just more curl to her hair and a gemstone on her hat that resembles a gemstone on the Shadow Queen. I have the art on my art blog too, but here it is! I made the background myself too based off of a completely new location in my TTYD lore :3

So without further ado, lemme describe what it would be like if Salem was in TTYD!

Salem the Shadow Siren: Sidequest

Before chapter 4, if you talk with some NPCs, they speak of a lanky ghost-like creature that travels alone and seems to be afraid of its own shadow. It’s supposed to be vague for now but it’s foreshadowing to Salem. There will be a mandatory cutscene between Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 which you will see Salem physically for the first time in the Rogueport Underground. She’ll mutter to herself about how cruel her mother is for looming over her like this. Salem asks nobody why can’t she just live in peace and that the end will come soon. She starts rambling to herself about a garden she needs to keep up with in Petal Meadows. It will be then, mid sentence, that Salem notices the player. The room turns pitch black and then Salem is gone. You will have to remember this information after you get Vivian, because her veil ability is needed to make Salem comfortable enough to appear in her first secluded location in Petal Meadows. If you decide to pursue her, that's when the sidequest truly begins. Your second encounter with Salem in Petal Meadows will leave her shocked, as she is very scared of Vivian. Sadly your partner does not know much about Salem, but the physical similarities does confirm that Vivian and Salem are both Shadow Sirens, and thus related. Salem is scared that Vivian will try to drag her back home, or get Beldam to drag her back home. Confusion ensues on how Salem knows the Three Shadows, but Vivian hardly heard about Salem. Despite her kind nature, the lanky siren pleads to not hurt her plants and leave. A choice prompt will show up >Okay, we’ll get going. >Where is your home? If pestered enough about where Salem used to live she will get upset with you, and dim the lights. When you can see again and Salem is gone. Picking the first option will just make this go quicker. There is a note on the ground that tells you that she has a garden to tend to in Keelhaul Key. And no, you can’t actually hurt the pretty flowers Salem planted, that would just be rude. :( As you progress through the game new garden locations will open up, backtracking, yada yada yada. She sticks around for longer each time you see her, and you learn more about her. There’s a point where a battle is initiated, but Salem doesn’t attack, and after a few turns she flees. If Goombella uses tattle, her stats will be illegible, and not much is known about Salem. Once you have access to the Palace of Shadow…if you have successfully done all of Salem’s encounters, she will send Mario an email to meet her at her favorite place in the world: Shrinking Violet Summit. (There’s a new pipe that opens up that will lead you directly to the place, and it’s not very big either. This is more just to see how beautiful the place is and set up something important. This time you won’t need Vivian to have Salem appear in the room she’s in, she will be there waiting for you to talk to her. And if you do, she will thank Mario (and Vivian) for helping her gather the courage to open up. She’s aware that you opened the Palace of Shadow, and decides to tell you everything. The Mother she keeps talking about, is in fact the Shadow Queen. A long time ago, the demon decided she wanted to raise an heir to inherit her power and rule the world in case anything bad happened to her. That’s how Salem was born. In truth, she is over 1000 years old, and was there to witness the Shadow Queen sink the ancient Rogueport and create the Crystal Stars.  She did not however, witness the four heroes defeat her mother and seal her away. For the longest time, being the Shadow Queen’s daughter did not feel right. She was created to help drown the world in darkness…but she saw the light, the beauty of Earth. Salem decided enough was enough….and ran away from the demon. The Shadow Queen let her live…Salem does not know why. (It is revealed when you face SQ there is further context that she wanted Salem to orchestrate her return to prove that letting her live despite her traitorous actions was the right decision, not Beldam.)

Salem has known Beldam for a long time, and feared her loyalty to her mother. But she wasn’t aware that Marilyn and Vivian were created. She lived in fear of Beldam finding her and dragging her back to the Palace.

The partner Mario brought out will ask if Salem will come with them to confront the Shadow Queen. But….despite everything, she says she can’t. Salem is afraid to fight. But, she won’t leave you empty handed, and will give you a Jelly Ultra as a sendoff gift to help with their fight with her mother. (Which fun fact, that would be the only one you can get for free without needing to make a recipe! So she gives you something really valuable for all the trouble!)

The even cooler part is, she has one last email to send after Mario defeats the Shadow Queen. She asks him to meet her at Shrinking Violet Summit again, and with a newfound determination…Salem learns that she needs to stand up for herself. She will forever live with the regret of not facing the Shadow Queen herself…but she will try her best to make things right. She asks Mario if he would like to fight her, and reveals that she’s pretty tough. People used to fear her…instead of her fearing everything.

Waboom! Surprise she’s a superboss! You’re basically facing a Shadow Queen EX, with some differences in Salem’s attacks. But if you can defeat her, she will become recruitable as a post game partner!!

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m gonna have to make a part 3…this was even longer than my last post about Salem SOBBB

But this next part will be about what she’s like as a partner, and finally addressing her likes, dislikes, personality, etc.

I will see you tomorrow at noon folks :3

[mitchelldailygames]

Heroes of Song Devlog Part 13: Bosses & Playtest 3

Blows the dust off of this blog.

Where were we?

In the last post I said something like, “I feel like I got some momentum.” That was February 4th. Life’s been busy, both inside and outside my game design world, so there hasn’t been a lot of active work on Heroes of Song, but there’s also a lot I was planning on talking about but haven’t gotten around to yet.

I actually wrote this the first part of this and meant to post it before the last devlog. It relates pretty directly to the third playtest, though, so wrapping them up together works out.

Bosses

I’ve added some bosses to the test document! Remember the design principles:

The heroes are cute.

Kindness matters.

The world is weird.

Sometimes you don’t fight. Sometimes you do.

Health is hearts.

I think this is bringing in mostly principles 3, 4, and 5.

I’ve been working on one of the most Zelda-like aspects of the game, bosses! I’ve been having fun coming up with super specific vulnerabilities that could be acquired in the same dungeon where they’re found. I think these weaknesses are pretty clearly described in the stat blocks for these bosses in the test document, though I do have some unique items I plan to add at some point that would provide more options for unique vulnerabilities to exploit.

The bosses I added are:

Mysterimoth: An illusion-based moth adversary that makes duplicates of itself and shoots beams out of the eye-patterns on its wings. It’s vulnerable to strong winds, such as the Gale song. It also has a larval form that could be faced as a mini-boss.

Mirror Crab: A scuttling, shelled creature with a noticeable vulnerable spot on its belly and some obvious weakness to the Shatter song.

Vault: A hulking tank of a boss that litters the battlefield with bombs and keeps its weak point locked away in a chamber on its chest that just begs to be hit with a Lockpick song.

I think these all feel appropriately Zelda-y. I could picture myself encountering them in any Zelda-like. I also made an attempt to leave them open-ended enough that Songkeepers and Heroes could come up with their own ways of defeating these enemies.

Playtest Session 3

The last playtest I did featured an encounter with Vault.

This was with my usual game night group, so our goal was more about having fun than gathering a lot of information, but I think it was still a useful session. Players were a wide range of different character options, including some that are not in any document out there. It was my first time playing with four heroes so it was the most capable and powerful group I’ve had so far.

The session revolved around a desert town that fell under attack by bandits who stole the magical item that allowed them to grow crops. The bandit leader was a vulture guy and many of the avikin and furrikin were animals you might find in the desert (hares, coyotes, hyenas, hawks). The players had to first run off the lingering bandits in the town and then go after the main group and the stolen artifact.

After handily defeating the bandits in town, the players found the bandit’s hideout in an old fort/bank called the Keyless Keep. There were some creative uses of abilities, such as the bard blowing enemies off the walls of the fort with their Gale song. There was an easy bell puzzle that taught the Lockpick song and unlocked the underground portion of the keep.

Inside was a series of doors that needed to be unlocked while exploring and relocked in a particular configuration so that a the final vault door could be opened. The puzzle… kind of didn’t work based on how I had it written out, but I think has some potential. There were some extra encounters mixed in with navigating the dungeon and some special items to be found.

Finally, the heroes encountered Vault who was holding the special magic item in their chest. Vault maybe went down a little fast, but they did have to make a point to use the song they learned to open up Vault’s weak point. The fact they wracked up as much damage as quickly as they did also had a lot to do with effectively using runes on their weapons and other items and abilities well.

It was a fun session with a few takeaways. One was that giving dungeon design tools to Songkeepers is going to be quite a bit of work. I’m not sure I’m super confident in my personal dungeon design, so helping other people design dungeons is kind of intimidating. My other takeaway was that these bosses could probably be tougher. They don’t need to hit harder, but should be able to take a few more hits, especially tankier examples like Vault.

Wrap-Up

I’m not sure when I’ll have more to share. It’s been a busy (and, frankly, really stressful) time outside of game design. In my game design life, this has kind of meant that I’ve had more capacity for lower-stakes projects that I can put up on Itch without worrying too much about them making back the money I put into them. So, things are kind of stalled on Heroes of Song until I feel like I have the capacity for it again, but it will get picked up again.

If you want to check out what I’ve been working on most recently, pick up HELLDROPPERS, a game using the system from HELLGUTS inspired by Helldivers. I think it does a pretty good job getting the Helldivers feel without being overly granular.

That’s all I have for you for now!

The world is weird; kindness matters.

--Daily

[seraphdesire]

For RE

💛 and 🖤?

Ty for the ask!!! :> I'll answer for both re7 and re8!!

💛: What is a popular ship you just can't get behind, and why?

In general I can't get behind Ethan x Heisenberg or Ethan x Chris. Heisenberg openly said he wants to use Rose as a weapon to destroy Miranda. Considering Ethan's main objective in re8 is to save his daughter and he has that whole cutscene with Heisen where he rejects the offer and they argue as well - it just seems... way too forced. I don't think Ethan would want to even be around someone who thinks so lowly of Rose, let alone in an intimate capacity.

For Ethan x Chris, I don't like or understand the ship when looking at their canon relationship. One of the very first cutscenes in the Winters' house is Chris and his team quite literally breaking in and nonstop shooting Mia, right in front of his eyes. Chris then shoving the table out of the way and shooting Mia right in the face one last time before kidnapping Rose? Yeah. That would do a number on anyone. Ethan thought he could trust Chris, only to witness that.

^ not to mention everything that happened in Moreau boss fight area (that fishing village) and just before Ethan fights Heisen to the death. Chris is actively withholding very crucial information from him regarding his family and Mother Miranda, info that he really should've told him about (even one of the other soldiers in Chris's team told him so and he agreed).

I don't know much about re7 as I only played like 2 hours of it and avoid interacting with things to do with it so I'm not sure about ships. I can imagine people would ship Ethan and Jack though, knowing the fandom, and that wouldn't work for obvious reasons... I think Chris might be in a short cutscene in biohazard too, so same thing applies really :) also Zoe x Ethan might be a ship too? I'm not very familiar with the re7 side of the fandom but it seems plausible, especially thinking about the ending where you can choose to save Zoe (family member to the cannibals that tried to eat him and kill him and his wife) and Mia (his wife that he literally went there to rescue in the first place).

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone seems to think?

Oh boy... hmm, for re7, everyone's intentions and characters are pretty clear imo... the Baker family do nothing to hide the fact that they are cannibalistic murderers and the only good people in the game are actually good people. Perhaps Zoe? I don't know her character too well but she seems suspicious to me. Particularly with how it all ends if you do decide to save Zoe instead of Mia at the end.

For re8, that's also a tough one. I want to say Chris again. As I mentioned before he really should've told Ethan about everything. I get leaving him behind when they were about to explode the island, as Ethan stole the detonator off him and would've died regardless of if he was on the island or not (the megamycete being destroyed would've killed him as the mould is the only thing keeping him "alive" anyway).

Chris also just sorta? Killed Mia in front of him?? While it wasn't actually Mia, he still thought it was and fully believed that until towards the end of re8. And Chris kidnapped Rose too. Without telling him why. Not to mention, Chris still refused to let Ethan be a part of it - even though he'd already killed three of four lords by that point and snuck off to kill the fourth (Heisen).

Even towards the end Chris wasn't exactly a "moral" person. I get that he was in a difficult situation though and had a lot of hard choices to make. Ethan and Chris weren't friends, more acquaintances, which is something I think people don't really understand. There's care there, yes, but not too much of it is displayed. Like when Chris is telling Mia that her husband is dead and Rose is still in Miranda's clutches when he finds her in that cell underground, and when they're in the chopper and she's demanding to know where Ethan is and Chris just slams his fist on the side of the chopper and very bluntly tells her that Ethan is dead and won't be coming back. He's not as sunshine and rainbows as everyone wants to think. I know he's just doing his job but he's not as moralistic as people make him out to be. Yes he's a protagonist, a "hero" even, but I don't think his plot armour is thick enough to protect him in this case.

[dailycharacteroption]

Geomancer (Occultist Archetype)

Fun fact. Did you know that it’s possible to power a light bulb by sinking a wire connected to a power source into the ground and another connected to the bulb a surprising distance away?

I suppose the point of that little tidbit is that the earth beneath our feet is capable of channeling very real power, so it’s only natural to think that it might also channel mystical power.

The word “geomancy” has taken on something of an altered meaning in this day and age of fantastical and over the top special effects and video game animation. I’m sure many of you think of geomancy and imagine a mage ripping stones from the ground to bury and bludgeon foes.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, but much like necromancy, geomancy originally was about gaining information and wisdom from the earth. Hell, Feng Sui is technically a form of geomancy, albeit one peppered with legitimately good advice for designing homes that don’t suck, as is the concept of ley lines and the like.

Today’s subject seeks to reconcile the two, being a bit of tapping into the wisdom and magic of the terrain, with a bit of drawing actual magical power from it as well, as well as a touch of manipulating it in dramatic ways.

The occultist class, with its focus on reading psychic and occult impressions in physical objects, is perfect for this, reflecting the more esoteric mysteries of geomancy both western and eastern, in addition to using them with the more dramatic geomancy we see in the modern era. Just look up geomantic tools and charts and tell me that you can’t imagine a fantasy geomancer using them to summon power from the terrain.

The result is an occultist whose magic varies a bit depending on what terrain they are in, and can be quite formidable. I imagine they are most common in regions where esoteric and occult lore is given a lot of credence and respect, perhaps alongside strong druidic traditions.

In addition to storing mental focus in their implements, these mystics can store some in the very terrain itself. As long as they maintain contact with the ground, they can draw upon this investment for various powers.

Additionally, they use some of the focus that they would use to learn magic associated with an implement to instead draw magic from their environment, these spells changing as they change what terrain they are in. Cold regions grant icy spells; deserts grant those of heat, dryness, and sand; forests let them manipulate and commune with plant life; jungle taps into the poisonous and verminous life found there; mountain calls upon deadly stone attacks and utility; plains call upon wind, agile quadrupeds, and the multitudes of unnoticed insects; other planes draw upon useful utility and survival spells for extraplanar realms; swamps offer mud, rot, and insect life; underground gifts earth manipulation, enhanced senses, stifled air, and formless allies; urban grants magical understanding, agility, and stealth; and finally, water grants survivability beneath the surface and direct control over water.

The level of investment these mystics put into the terrain enhances their awareness of it, making it easier to survive and thrive therein.

They can, however, expend some to bolster their speed, the terrain shifting to remove obstacles , give them boosts, and otherwise quicken them.

These geomancers can also expend some energy to bolster themselves and nearby landbound allies, the terrain empowering their strikes and defenses alike.

Their most dramatic abilyt allows them to reshape the terrain into a strong barrier with a hefty expenditure of energy.

At the cost of one implement school, these mystics gain what is essentially a different implement school with ever-changing spells useful for whatever environment they are in as well as survival buffs, mobility, buffs, and battlefield control. Of course, all of these abilities require mental focus to be invested beforehand, so you can pick when to use them each day depending on the situation, investing a lot or a little and reallocating as needed. The spells and powers are guaranteed to almost always be moderately useful as long as you and the party don’t do a lot of flying, so you’ll probably enjoy it a lot. I recommend a build centered on buffing and battlefield control, appropriately.

This archetype doesn’t reference real-world geomancy all that much in the end, but you can totally use such tools and symbology as part of your character’s arsenal and aesthetic. It mostly revolves around finding ways to randomly generate symbols and then interpreting them, though other forms exist as well.

For decades, the journal known as the Wanderman’s Cypher has eluded decryption, but new evidence points to the key being tied to mystical signifiers tied to the locations where they were originally written and encoded. Of course, the text is centuries old, so acquiring the answers will need strong retrocognitive magic tied to the memory of the land rather than the memories of mortals.

It is theorized that the gargoyles of Nakkor created the Nakkori Lines, great shapes carved into the badlands earth that are visible from the air, as a way to navigate while high in the air, and while it is true that they do use them for such now, other sources suggest they are much older.

There are plenty of mystics that claim domain of the sea, but the ocean giant tyrant Ogzal claims not only his domain, but the shore beyond as well, backing it up with mystical arts tied to his esoteric magics. Stripping him of that power will help those seeking to dethrone him stand a chance.

[michainabox]

Okay so @cloveraex asked for my theories and rambles on where Frisk goes after the neutral run phone call with everyone.

All of this is my own interpretation and opinion! And I’m talking solely about neutral run and true pacifist where Frisk/Player didn’t kill and spared both Flowey and Asgore. This is another long post, hope you enjoy!

This theory is the mostly through all the context clues and information that we have. It also help we get key information through the game. The first one being that Flowey forcefully overrides the save with his own even after he looses the save power, and the second one is that a human soul needs a monster soul to cross the barrier. It can’t be a lone human soul.

So with that in mind, let’s get on to the theory.

We know that with Flowey’s save, even after beating him and he can’t use the save power, it remains until he talks to you and drops the hint of what he wants you to do like I talked about in my last Undertale ramble.

So Frisk can’t go back to their previous save with Asgore. Frisk can only go forward after everything. With only their human soul, and nothing else.

Frisk doesn’t have a monster soul, so they can’t go past the barrier.

We don’t know what happens when someone tries to force their way through the barrier without a human or monster soul. For all we know it can result in serious harm, or even death.

“But Micha? How did Frisk go back to the save point with Asgore if they didn’t have the save file and were dead.” I hear you ask. And that’s because well, do I believe Frisk is completely dead? Ehh.. Kinda? I think they’re mainly in a sense of limbo. Not quite dead, but not alive.

Which makes sense to me. Because while the body is technically in that limbo state, we experience throughout the game where the soul is pretty much staying alive out of pure determination. It is also pretty clear that Frisk disappeared off the face of the underground, after all Undying did state how Asgore was clearly gone. Leaving the others to believe Frisk killed him, and took his soul to leave. Yet the phone still rang, and went to voicemail.

(Which sure someone could argue that the number and the phone could work outside of the barrier. Or go to voicemail. But I don’t believe contact would be that easy with the barrier still there keeping monsters trapped from the human world.)

Either way. The body is gone. The barrier is still there. Frisk is in limbo, at least until Flowey had came to talk to Frisk.

In fact. Frisk can’t reach the save file until Flowey pretty much suggests to go back, almost like he is allowing that save file to return. Because if Frisk is gone, and only in that limbo state, he should have the power for minor resets to come back right? Who’s to say that he can’t basically dig up that save before Frisk went to fight Asgore? He just can’t use it because it isn’t his save, it’s Frisk’s.

So. He just needs Frisk to use it to come back to finish the happy end.

At least, that’s my theory and interpretation. The whole reason I love Undertale is how it is clear in the points it’s trying to make, but can also be vague enough that you can get multiple theories and interpretations. I love how it continues on to be a game I find comfort and enjoyment in still after all these years. And I’m glad to still be talking about it.

[undertale-predator-au]

Undertale AU Predatortale!Papyrus route- Chapter 8- Turning Point

Gaster was in his main lab when it happened. The alarms started to go off signaling a change in values that he hoped he would not have the misfortune of reading on the screen as the alert sounded off on the monitor. Looking over the signal being broadcast, he could only grimace in frustration and disappointment that his gut feeling had been proven correct.

“Sans…you fucking idiot…”

Slamming down his half finished cup of coffee onto the desk, splatters of the caffeinated beverage being flung into the air and peppering the cold marble table as the resounding echo of the ceramic mug’s resilience against the hard surface rang throughout the hallowed air vents with a smack. Gaster had wanted to be proven wrong about Sans’s possible betrayal, but he never thought he’d be so foolish to throw away monsterkind’s freedom just to sustain the life of one monster, one who had foolishly starved themselves to a point of near dusting. However, here he was, looking at the undeniable results on screen.

The human was dead.

Now had he been the wrathful sort, he would have gone straight to Snowdin and executed the fool where he stood after taking care of the only thing that Sans cared about in this hellscape, but such a thing was his emotions talking. No. It would be a waste of calories to do so at this moment, plus there was one more pressing issue. The screen, although it was alerting about the human’s departure, spoke nothing about a soul shattering, so perhaps there was still time for the fool to save face before the doctor.

Gaster had not been completely blind to his son’s repeated attempts to get Papyrus to consume live prey, it had been a constant thing that he would sneak around about with any humans he managed to catch, but previously it had been easy to liberate them from Sans’s hold, although at the smaller skeleton’s begrudging yield to the doctor’s plans. However, this time, no matter how many times he placed cameras to monitor, they had all been removed as quickly as they had been placed, which left him vastly suspicious. After all, the only one that could be of help to him in such a manner was now in his custody.

Yes, the flower was a curious creature, though after he had subjected it to various techniques of extracting information, he learned everything there was to know from it rather quickly. Gaster’s desire for knowledge and preparation for every scenario was borderline obsessive, and he often would find the quickest and most efficient means of getting what he wanted. Although this led to an annoying quiet sobbing becoming part of the background noise of his lab, it was a small price to pay to learn about the power that it had once held that had somehow managed to vanish one day unexpectedly.

The power of resets, to save and load, these things were practically unheard of in his memory. Like concepts in a video game, but from what he gathered the flower’s ability had faded mysteriously one day out of nowhere, with no explanation as to why. This power was something entirely new from Gaster’s view, one that had never existed before, not even on the surface. After all, from his research he had gathered human souls were weak, so perhaps the concentration of magic in the underground had led to the manifestation of such unworldly abilities that only gods should have keep of.

However, what was truly vexing was the fact that it no longer existed. It was gone. No explanation as to why, but Gaster had a theory on such a reason. After all, something of that magnitude, that defied logic and reason, that laughed in the vary concept of life and death itself, something like that didn’t just vanish. No. Something, or someone, had most likely ripped that power away. To what end he didn’t know, perhaps the flower’s constant prattling about all their horrible fits of murderous rampages was the reason? An abuse of that ability would likely get the attention of whoever may have blessed them with it, provided it wasn’t just an occurrence of chance due to a scientifically backed explanation.

Regardless of the reason, he had a theory someone was pulling the strings. His constant deja vu, the feeling that things were somehow different, that what was happening had not happened before. Someone was setting a different path into motion, and he would find out who. They knew where the cameras were, how to quickly and efficiently remove them without alerting his system to identify them, and he had his suspicions that it would be his very own son. Though that didn’t explain the other issue of why Gaster had no memory of him using such a power, or for that matter, why Sans didn’t just use it time and time again prior with the other six fallen humans. After all, Sans had captured the flower long before the first human even fell, after the passing of Asriel and the human child that the royal family decided they would raise with hope of a better future.

Fools. The lot of them.

Gaster never understood why, in a den of lions, did Asgore and Toriel think a human child could survive. After all, if it wasn’t for his constant interventions there were countless times the child would have died, though he had other reasons for wanting the child alive. He had a project in development, the hope of freeing monster kind, and it would require both the human child and a boss monster to bring to fruition. Though at this point there were only two options left at his disposal, neither looked to be a good prospect for what he had planned.

When the young Asriel had taken the human soul upon the human’s death all those years ago and ran to the surface for whatever reason they deemed worthy of such a frivolous act, Gaster had lamented the loss of his most ingenious project to date upon the news that Asriel returned terribly wounded, dusting shortly after in the arms of his parents. Truly tragic was the loss of his hours of research, all dashed with the hopes of monster kind by the whims of a child. Gaster had believed all of it was for naught, opting for a simpler means to acquire the freedom of monsters should it be deemed necessary, although lacking in the preparations that he was so keen on.

However, that was before Sans had brought him the flower. A curious sentient being. A creature that had no soul, yet was animate all the same. Talking, boasting, regaleing its god-like status, all while shrilling and cackling as though it was some kind of evil genius from one of the cartoons that his old assistant used to be so obsessive about. Though that boastful attitude didn’t last for long, it only took a bit of Gaster’s careful techniques to break through their pathetic facade to the seemingly scared child that laid underneath. They were no god, and it was his pleasure to remind them of such. Even so, he had carefully documented all that the flower had spoken of, down to every last detail, as was standard protocol for all research done under his direction. No detail left unwritten. No stone unturned.

It should be impossible…such a thing isn’t possible…

It was nagging at the back of his skull though, that deja vu, that feeling of having been there in that exact moment in some previous existence. He felt it rattle in his bones that he had been there before. This had all happened before, though the current results clearly brought about a sense of anxiety that someone had pulled strings to change the script that had been laid bare in his mind. Although it wasn’t clear, he vaguely felt like he remembered thinking that Papyrus would send the child away with his last embers of his magic, condemning himself to dust despite any efforts Sans might make. Papyrus was kind to a deadly fault, at the expense of his life, there was no way he would ever…

That’s when something came to mind. Gaster had recalled Sans had been caught in the lab prior without notice, seemingly rummaging through samples of various medicines that had been kept for use in Gaster’s many experiments. When the scientist had inquired previously about why Sans was going through the various stimulants and sedatives, he had given an offhanded excuse about having difficulty sleeping, having shown Gaster a sample of an experimental sleep aid he had tested prior with some rather dubious effects. At the time it seemed harmless enough, sleep walking shouldn’t have been an issue, but what if he had taken more than that? What if…

He didn’t.

Without a second thought, he quickly darted to the medical supply closet, opening the door in a hurried fashion and flipping the switch to bring the light to a buzzing life, illuminating the medicine-scented cloaked room. Scanning the shelves and various cabinets, he recalled which ones the cameras had shown Sans shuffling through and started to check the quantities that were present in the dispensary. Sure, the sleep aid was one of them, showing that it was one short with a signature documented down, but there was another that left the old skeleton’s eyes squinted in confusion.

A hunger stimulant…?

Pondering on the strange combination, he had not seen Sans snag this item prior, only taken note of the sleep aid, but for his son to grab a hunger stimulant in combo with a medicine with a side effect of sleep walking? The combination of the two, their effects in tandem, the dead human child…it all fell into place as his expression became unreadable. To say he was pissed about his son’s lies was an understatement, but it seemed beyond him to subject Papyrus to such a thing, Gaster had never considered it a possibility. Sans loved his brother more than life itself, so for him to drug his brother, just to get him to commit what the younger brother would see as unspeakable, was unimaginably cruel.

However, that was not what had Gaster’s non-existent blood boiling in this instant. He had long since accepted that Papyrus would no doubt dust due to his poor choices in diet and refusal to partake in what made monsters what they are. Even drugging the skeleton was not something that even got a flick of care or emotion out of the old scientist, it was the fact that Sans would put all that he had worked for, for countless years, in jeopardy just to save one of the weakest monsters in the underground. That idiot son of his would put their whole future on the line just to save his brother, and that infuriated him.

As his bones rattled with fury, Gaser slammed the door to the dispensary shut, not bothering to turn off the light as he marched back over to the monitor, biting his skeletal thumb in frustration as he glared at the screen. He hoped that there would at least be a chance for the soul to still be intact, but given the human was likely a child, like so many before them, there was a very real danger of it shattering before ever reaching his lab. If Sans had not thought ahead, which was a likely scenario given the circumstances, it was possible that even that soul was now consumed in some way and it was messing with the readings.

However, as he started to feel his boiling frustration simmer down, Gaster had to wonder what his son’s next move would be. There was no way the two of them would remain in Snowdin if the soul was somehow preserved, Sans wasn’t that foolish that he would risk them both being dusted, but if that bumbling buffoon did not show himself soon with redeemable results then the scientist would likely head straight to the old home they use to share just to teach him a lesson. While fuming in anxiety over the situation, he had not taken note that the flower had ceased crying, instead having its curiosity peaked as the alarms had been ringing throughout the lab continuously since the start.

Although the flower had long since given up hope, this situation was definitely a destabilizing one, and should an opportunity arise, they may just be able to escape the clutches of this mad scientist. They had a soul now, they could feel again, they were able to regret their actions, and they also knew that whatever awaited them at the conclusion of whatever experiment the old scientist had cooked for them would not be good. They had to escape somehow, all they needed was an opportunity. However, as they felt the flickers of a flame of hope in their currently held soul, the doctor glanced back at them. The blank expression clearly conveyed an almost knowing visage as the tiny flower shrunk back against their glass imprisonment. It was as if to say there was no way he’d allowed it, as he watched helplessly before letting out a painful screech as the doctor once again pressed that all too familiar button on the console to deliver an electrical charge through their roots.

No. No, there would be no more deviations from his grand design. No more upsets. He would not lose a second human soul as a result of oversight. Gaster, having confirmed the flower’s resignation in their crumpled form, turned his attention to the screen once again. His eye sockets widening at the sight of movement detected in hotland flashing as an alert as he quickly clacked away at the keyboard input of the interface, bringing up all the cameras within the vicinity and scanning over the footage to have his glare land on a camera leading up to the lab entrance. There, in a hoodie fit only for a winter’s chill, was his infuriatingly idiotic son, approaching the entrance in an almost irritating slow stroll with his head hung slightly, the expression unreadable on the footage’s limited capture quality.

There didn’t seem to be anything in hand, in fact, his brother wasn’t in tow either, leaving him rather curious as to when he had made the trek there and why his son had somehow not set off the other sensors throughout the underground. Regardless, he figured such inquiries could be saved for a later time, as there was the more pressing issue of what had become of the human soul. Gaster did not care about what excuses the fool of a spawn of his own genetics would provide should there not be a favorable answer to that question. With that in mind, his gaze drifted to the door as an echoing ring of the doorbell signaled the arrival of Gaster’s current focus of frustration. The scientist practically growled as he called out.

“It’s open. Come in.”

---

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Start

[aubins]

Lambert had taken his time to read more into his students’ records and profiles. Of course, the documents were vague and didn’t offer that much information about them- which was expected considering their condition as abyssinians, where anything about one’s self as past are kept well under a veil, an unwritten rule to not pry. But at the very least, he wanted to know their birth dates.

Regardless of what they did or didn’t do, of who their true self is, of how their past developed- Lambert wished to at least celebrate the very fact that they chose to defy fate, persevere and now live.

“It is good to see you, Yuri.” The professor approached slowly, an easy smile on his features. “Not much going on today, I assume?” Which was a blessing. As much as the Wolves tried to function like an academy house, in the end they doubled as the Abyss’ main line of defense. Days where everything was peaceful and attempts to infiltrate the underground’s many tunnels were few to none were incredibly rare. “One must keep their eyes open at all times, but taking a moment to rest both mind and body is also a necessity.”

A wooden box was produced from under his cloak, the cover a deep brown and unassuming as he handed it to the house leader. “For you. To make an already good day even better, or so I hope.”

It was a board game- chess. Lambert had found it in one of his days walking around Garreg Mach’s marketplace, eventually coming across a small store of antiques. It was a chess game like any other, but such resources in the Abyss were difficult to come across and depended solely on the merchant's willingness to bring business underground.

“I thank you for everything you do for Abyss and its inhabitants. And for what you have done for me, as well. You are the best student a teacher could ask for.” He smiled fondly. "We may play a match later if you would like. Enjoy your day, Yuri.” Happy birthday.

It is a quiet day in Abyss, as far as days in Abyss go. Unusual, certainly, but never unwelcome. Yuri counts the minutes of their shift in silence, time ticking even when there is no clock to hear. Even still, despite the quiet, the approaching footsteps do not earn the mockingbird's startle.

No, they come from the wrong side for an intruder.

Lilacs turn toward the professor, lips twisting into a grin in greeting. Where Lambert's is slow and easy, Yuri's is sharp, its pointed edges more familiar upon their features than a warm smile might have been. “Hello, Professor Lambert,” they hum, perfectly at ease. “No, it seems our usual friends haven't been up to it today, but there's never any rest for the wicked. I don't suppose you're here to relieve me of my shift?”

They've memorized the schedules; they already know he is not. Either Constance or Hapi will come around in the next ten minutes or so, and Yuri will be free to wander off to their own business. But until then, they doubt Lambert is only here for some idle chatter. He must have some business.

And he reveals such from beneath his cloak, the box accepted with a curious quirk of their brow as steady hands work to pry it open and see what secrets lay within.

Then, Yuri laughs. Not unkindly— perhaps it is merely innocent surprise.

Ah, chess. They suppose they must have an old set somewhere, stored away in some dusty corner to be forgotten. This one is new and pristine, and they pick a piece— the white king— to twist between their fingers as they glance back at Lambert. He makes no mention of their birthday, but they doubt there's any other reason for it. How thoughtful of their dear professor.

Their smile warms, just a little. Really, if you've been on their good side for long enough, it's not such a strange expression on their face. “Now, now, professor. You flatter me, but don't let anyone else hear you say that. You might be accused of favoritism.” They let the piece drop back amongst the rest of its peers, the box snapping shut. “But thanks. I'll hold you to that game later.”

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

Val Ocitie

(I’ve already made an information post like this, but said post is pretty long; in fact, it’ll just get longer and more expansive as I develop new characters and stories for [The Future Mob Project]. And I’m worried that the sheer length will make readers lose interest when they click on a link to look for a specific character. So, I’ll be making separate information pages for each character while still maintaining the all-inclusive post. Got it? Good.)

Who They’re Based Off Of: Lio Tipton

Their Method of Work: Tommy guns may be rare nowadays, but that isn’t a problem for Val. Their hidden arsenal is already impressive enough; you could say they have many, many neutral specials. Sure, they can see the appeal of blades and other deadly stuff, but guns are fast, efficient, and most importantly of all, devastating. (Especially if a silencer is involved. Ooh, does that help thicken the plot.) Don’t screw around with them or their family unless you want to cosplay as swiss cheese.

Red Attire: Chainmail bracelet (Vermillion)

Notes:

Val has long since learned to thrive in chaos, to the point of outright craving it. Sometimes they see underground business as a game. While their attitude is usually excitable around those they trust, their energy can turn aggressive in a heartbeat. They’re the type to get up in an enemy’s face, wearing a false, icy grin all the while.

Along with the hit-jobs they're assigned, Val is responsible for supplying The Pentas Family's firepower. Similar to how Caliban is an expert in organ-trafficking, Val knows the ins and outs of the illegal weapons trade. They've rearranged their personal gun collection several times now, selling and exchanging certain models to avoid leaving any patterns in their work.

Once upon a time, Val worked for a different mob; one that wasn’t exactly on good terms with The Pentas Family. Well, things ended up falling apart, and Val found themself at the mercy of Murdock and his peers. Of course, things were rocky at first. . .but somehow, Val eventually realized that they felt some kind of kinship with them. It took some time, but they were welcomed in, and are now following Pentas operations with strong loyalty.

They grew up somewhat rural, learning how to handle guns at a pretty young age. Though their family wasn’t poor, hunting game animals for food was still a big tradition that they helped to carry on. They don’t really do that kind of hunting anymore, but they still take monthly trips to shooting ranges to practice with clay pigeons.

They’re the only Pentas member who doesn’t live in/work out of a building connected to the abandoned subway tunnels. Instead, they live in a tidy cabin in Reilpi Woods, a huge forest about a fifteen-minute drive from the Cove Port Inlet’s city limits. Not that Val minds, though; the area gives them nostalgia. While they can appreciate all the conveniences of more urban environments, they’ve always enjoyed being surrounded by trees. Besides, it’s not like they don’t know where all the secret entrances to the underground dens are.

They’re a natural when it comes to evaluating another person’s character. It’s an important skill to have in this line of work, especially considering how the work is question is very much illegal. Despite their uncertain start in The Pentas Family, it hasn’t taken much time at all for Val to learn each of the other members inside and out. . .well, except for The Newcomer. (For now, at least.)

Current Stories: [TBA]

@sammys-magical-au

[miirshroom]

The Age of Wood and the Winds of Change

In Elden Ring the "Ruins" type structures are some of the most enigmatic to me. I have recently found an in-game strategy for reading the environment that may help shed more light on what they're all about, but first I have some thoughts that I want to record. This is a post about intersectionality between Elden Ring and other FromSoft games, using meta information to delve into the hidden distant past.

I was going through the Woodfolk ruins because I had some cleaning up to do there and found something that sparked a thought:

From the vantage point at the Altus Bloom behind this Wormface boss there is an optical illusion of a twister in a doorframe of the nearby ruins. That this can be seen from the location of an item that can be interacted with is important - the environment designers deliberately placed something in this spot to draw attention. The appearance of the twister recalls to me a theory proposed by another person on Reddit that Farum Azula was once located above the Woodfolk ruins and was picked up by the twister and moved around. But more importantly I realized that the last time that I spent a significant amount of time in this area I had not thought to look for hints in my spreadsheet.

Intro to The Spreadsheet

I don't think I've discussed on tumblr my FromSoft spreadsheet. The basics is that it's where I collect various date-based information that corresponds to the release days of various FromSoft games. It has sortof been evolving over time into the present monstrosity. First I started with the astrological zodiac, because I noticed some astrology trends in Elden Ring itself, and reading the synopses of Armored Core games there are enough hints to piece together an astrological timeline across the games. There is confirmation of this in ACV where you fight through the zodiac as enemies. Then I had the idea to search for whether anyone had noticed a zodiac trend in Sekiro and as it turns out 8 of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals are represented - and once again they match to release years of Armored Core games including matching elements (i.e. 3 visible Folding Screen Monkeys matches to 3 AC games in the year of the Wood Monkey - 2004). In fact, 2004 is practically a convergence point for all of the weird meta stuff that traces back to it.

Sometime later I saw a post where someone was speculating about numerology in Elden Ring and learned that numerology has ties to tarot. Coincidentally, the major arcana has 22 entries when "The Fool" is counted twice as both 0 and 22, which is exactly the span of time between Eternal Ring (2000) and Elden Ring (2022). So I added that to the spreadsheet, where 2004 is "the Emperor" and 2005 is "the Hierophant". And when anomalies started converging on 2004, I noticed that April 1, 2004 (April Fool's Day) provides a unique opportunity to set up a second lagging-behind tarot track. And it also happens to fall within the Gemini era of AC games, so it's the ideal time for an imposter zodiac to split off as well. Silent Line: Armored Core (2003) is about the discovery of a second underground twin city. Armored Core: Nexus sees the short-lived emergence of a new corporation who had uncovered an ancient superweapon - a spin on Gemini's trait of "communication between the surface and the underworld". This seems to create the headache that is AC games following the "false" but flashy Western Zodiac while the vibes-based vedic astrology continues to be expressed subtly, but lagging behind as it does in the regular calendar year. I have guessed that this is where twin cities Nokron and Nokstella enter the picture in Elden Ring - and their development of the mimic tear.

And what ties this all off nicely is that FromSoft axed 14 game franchises by the end of 2004. With the benefit of hindsight it can be seen that only two (2) game franchises were receiving new entries both before and after 2004: Armored Core and the newly acquired Tenchu. There was a deliberate change in direction this year.

At some point I had a thought to check the moon phase for every game FromSoft has ever released (in my defense - they really like referencing the moon), and found exactly 4 dates that they had ever released a game on either a new moon or full moon. Three of these dates are in 2004. The single instance in another year is Forever Kingdom on June 21st, 2001 - the date of a solar eclipse. The same eclipse occurred in 2020 without a single release from FromSoft directly - only Demon's Souls remake by Bluepoint. The Shadow of the Erdtree is scheduled for June 21, 2024. Applying a bit of math, this should be the year of the 20th major arcana "Judgement", which was in 2020 on the main track.

Basically, it is my belief that Elden Ring has a built in Augmented Reality Game component that can be uncovered by paying attention to what the writers pulled as inspiration from past games. Such as a past Age of Wood that correlates directly to the era of the Woodfolk Ruins. See below screenshots for what this data collection looks like for the years of 2004 and 2005, which were the years of the Wood Monkey and Wood Rooster:

Twisters and the Winds of Change

"The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning" - Wheel of Time Book 1: The Eye of the World

Following the trail of the Wood Rooster led me to discover that I am missing yet another column of data. I was on a wiki binge about the exact sequence of events at the end of WWII and from an article on the Potsdam Agreement I noted that Potsdam is on the Havel River. "Havel the Rock" is a character in Dark Souls who I was certain was inspired by Taurus because of his rocky, mountain-like design, and hoof-like feet and proximity to the Taurus demon. But actually looking at the name "Havel" it's a Gaul word that means "rooster", which would fit him to the year of the Rooster. And indeed his helmet resembles a cock's comb. But that made no sense for the spreadsheet - there is nothing "Taurus" about the year of the Wood Rooster in terms of the AC game matchup and there is no year of the Earth Rooster within the history of FromSoft. So failing all other options I turned to tarot. I knew very little about tarot before this little project, and did not realize that there is also zodiac tied to tarot suits. And sure enough, the zodiac attached to The Hierophant is Taurus. Strengthening the association, this is also probably why Havel's backstory has him as being a Bishop - the Heirophant is otherwise known as "the High Priest". Havel is known to hate the magic of Seath the Scaleless - I wonder if this hints that Seath is the Magician of the 2nd tarot track...

Some key art for Havel the Rock

So why was I looking at the Potsdam Agreement? The last game of 2004 was Metal Wolf Chaos. Of all of the games in their extensive library, FromSoft chose to bring back this game in response to popular demand. And of all of the dates to release a bombastic game about an over-the-top American President carelessly using weapons of mass destruction they chose August 6, 2019 - anniversary of the day that an atomic weapon was first detonated over Japan. I don't believe in coincidences when it comes to the release dates of FromSoft games, at least not in the past few years. Bloodborne: The Old Hunter's DLC released on November 24, 2015 - the birthday of Carlo Collodi, author of Pinnochio. This DLC sees the appearance of Lady Maria in the flesh, after previously meeting a doll fashioned in her image in the base game. I can only imagine that the developers of Lies of P sussed out some part of what FromSoft is up to and used it for their own Bloodborne-inspired game. Pinnochio is an impudent boy made of wood, perhaps what might be described as a Wood Monkey even. And once again, the Armored Core series pulls through in confirming that yes, FromSoft did have Pinnochio in their back pocket dating far earlier than you'd think. In Armored Core 2 (2000) and Armored Core 2: Another Age (2001) the corporation Balena has an "inside weapon" part called Puppet which "fires a dummy for enemy radar". Baleen is an archaic word for whale, from French - as in the whale that swallows the wooden puppet. The worm face in the Woodfolk ruins is not actually looking directly at the Minor Erdtree - it is looking at the pine tree in front of the tree. Pinocchio means "pine eye".

The 3 corporations of the AC2 generation. Zio Matrix I think to have the strongest ties to astrology, because Mars is the planet ruler of both Scorpio and Aries. Emeraude will be discussed below

As an observation of how this ripples forwards, 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon.

We're still a few meanders away from my point about the twister. In Metal Wolf Chaos, the president of the United States of America Michael Wilson has a lady on the coms named "Jodi". A charming gal who talks in his head and tells him what to blow up next on this whirlwind of destruction. I think it's a perfectly fitting origin for Marika ('murica) and her loyal shadow the Metal Wolf Maliketh. It's strange, isn't it, that Maliketh and Gurranq are the same, but displaced in time? Well, Metal Wolf Chaos (2004) exists beyond time trapped on the ancient device of Xbox Japan. Metal Wolf Chaos XD (2019) is much closer to the present, hence Gurranq's presence in the Bestial Sanctum. And maybe take a look at the white haired protagonist of Tenchu Dark Shadow (2006) - was not Marika's only use for her shadow as a place to keep Destined Death? I don't really think it matters if FromSoft always had the meta-narrative in mind when they picked up the Tenchu series or if this is a new lens applied with hindsight - it fits on the timeline.

Is it a weak connection that they both have white hair and hold sword in reverse grip and are Shadows? Maybe so, but I will grasp these straws

But Michael Wilson and Jodi are imposters - they are mimics of something older. That's what everything about the Gemini twins and the Wood Monkey and the new April Fool's Tarot are hinting at. Even on a surface level, it's a self-parody of the Armored Core format. And so the search continues with Armored Core (1997) where the major corporations are "Chrome" and "Murakumo Millenium" (murakumo means "a gathering of clouds"). The game has 29 template emblems, some of them generic and some silly and some obtuse, and the one that is most relevant for this train of thought is "Comet Judy". The name Judy being a very close corruption of Jodi. There are 3 leading candidates for what this emblem could be a reference to:

The Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (彗星) - a Japanese WWII dive bomber with a name meaning "Comet" but which the Western Allied reporting name was "Judy". A Suisei plane was used by 3 men in one of the final kamikaze ("divine wind") attacks by Japan in the hours after surrender on August 15, 1945.

A song called "St. Judy's Comet" which is a lullaby from father to son by Paul Simon (most famously from the musical duo Simon and Garfunkel), released on May 5, 1973.

Judy Garland - an actress who is most famous for playing Dorothy, a "good witch who fell from a star" in 1939's Wizard of Oz. Comets are not the same as shooting stars - that would be meteor fragments - but the actual art of the emblem does show a star.

Aside from Comet Judy I added 2 other emblems that are my favourites to make the embedded visual look better

The first two candidates will come up when you search "Comet Judy". And honestly, I would not count them out as being relevant in some manner (May 23 was the Japanese release date of Lost Kingdoms 2 in 2003 - and the ideal of a lost lullaby about a magical dreamland saint has some appeal there). The third only really makes sense with context clues. After all, there are dozens of Oz references in Elden Ring, and a handful here and there in Demon's Souls (the Twister-like shape of the Old Monk's Robe - perhaps a connection to think on between "Monk" and "Monkey") and Dark Souls (the "Homeward" miracle - good witches do "miracles", according to the 1939 film). They had to be inspired by something. And finally this is where the twister comes in. The one that picks up Dorothy's house and carries it off to Oz and a journey to find the wizard at the Emerald City. Another corporation of AC2 and AC2: Another Age is called "Emeraude", a French word meaning "Emerald". And after getting into the lore of the Wizard of Oz is when I start realizing that the twister can be a recurring phenomenon - The Wizard also arrived to the Land of Oz on a twister and it was through his influence that the Emerald City was constructed. Emeraude is a rival corporation to Balena - who is the corporation that manufactures the Moonlight laser sword in the AC2 generation of games. Luckily, following the guiding moonlight is where I find another solid point of comparison anchoring the Woodfolk Ruins twister to the years 2004-2005. Armored Core Nexus (2004) and Armored Core Nine Breaker (2005) are follow-ups to AC3. And in this generation of games the Moonlight laser sword is manufactured by the corporation "Mirage". As in Elden Ring's "Mirage Rise", which is found right next to the Woodfolk Ruins.

Here's another wrinkle to all this though. I know that the twister in the Woodfolk Ruins that I believe to be corresponding to Metal Wolf Chaos is not the first time a numen has fallen from a star/comet, or been carried in on the wind, or whatever. Both because of the pre-existence of the Emeraude Corporation, and because the name and context of Chelona's Rise tells the story of a witch who had a house dropped on her - and I think that Chelona's Rise pre-dates Mirage Rise by the nature of their puzzles. The question becomes: how many times before and after have the winds of change blown through, and when exactly were the other times? I think that there have been at least 4 twisters, as demonstrated by the 3 smaller twisters that can be seen accompanying timeless Farum Azula from the disconnected area through the Four Belfries "Crumbling Lands" portal. For the view of Farum Azula seen from the Isolated Divine Tower there is only one single twister seen spinning at the centre of the ruins - what possible meaning does this have?

The next lead that I have is Wyndham Ruins. Sometimes I'll idly do a "this day in history" kind of search for the various available dates. And it happens that July 10th is both the release date of the original Armored Core and the birthday of sci-fi writer John Wyndham, whose most famous work is The Chrysalids (as in how Roderika describes the Grafted Tarnished), and it's a story about a post-apocalyptic future where women are ostracized for giving birth to mutants. Wyndham also wrote The Day of the Triffids which is described as "After most people in the world are blinded by an apparent meteor shower, an aggressive species of plant starts killing people". And also The Midwitch Cuckoo "in which the women become pregnant by brood parasitic aliens". So, some interesting parallels there. For the Cuckoo in particular, this meshes with the knowledge that it's an old motif in the Lands Between - even the Moon of Nokstella has two cuckoos perched at the top of it.

Also notable that Wyndham Ruins is infested with deathroot. An aggressive species of plant that grows like a Cancer - which is one of the zodiac that spans across the "Age of Wood" according to my timeline project.

[dooptown]

i played through Scanner Sombre today, and it has such a cool central mechanic that it breaks my heart that its existence kind of prevents any other team from doing something similar

the game is completely pitch black, since you're miles underground, and all you have is a device that emits dozens of small lasers per second, painting every surface they touch with a dot that changes color depending on how far you are from it. You directly map out the cave as you explore, making for an extremely unique and immersive experience

under the cut is where i complain a lot

this game did not need a story. i feel like the devs weren't confident enough for the game to speak for itself, even though it's literally the perfect 'show, don't tell' avenue for both gameplay and story. instead we're spoonfed information about the area we're in via text from the player character's thoughts. i couldn't help but think how much cooler it'd be for the player to just make guesses at what on earth the things they were finding could have been, or how they got there

also, the game is just naturally frightening. Maybe it's cuz i just watched The Descent recently, but the combination of the sound design and pitch darkness just makes for creepy atmosphere. Add the fact that you're not even seeing the environment for what it really is, and instead seeing impacts of a laser. Big missed opportunity where there could be something picked up initially, but when you go over to it it's gone (of course the laser in the game doesn't work as it would in real life, objects painted with dots have the dots move with them...somehow)

But instead of leaning into that natural, subdued, subtle horror (which happens enough in the game that i was pleased with it at least), the game throws in some glitchy effects and a ghost plot. I've always preferred my horror to be grounded, so this might just be a me issue, but dramatic music stings and glitchy effect humanoid shapes popping in suddenly had me rolling my eyes

this is where i talk about my ideal version of this game:

first, you begin at the entrance of the cave. There'd actually be some light here, but quickly as you get deeper the light disappears. You'd set up a sort of base camp here before going deeper into the darkness and using the laser scanner to paint your map

the caves would either have to be huge and expansive or randomly generated in some way. Considering nothing would really need to be rendered digitally, it wouldn't be a huge undertaking (that i know of). At certain, arbitrary points you could set up new camps, but you'd be limited to a certain number of how many you could set up. These camps would also have lanterns by them, and would act as your save points

Since i love being totally immersed in stuff, i think that water shouldn't reflect the dots you place. Sure, it's pretty, but it makes no sense. The laser might have enough fidelity to understand when it's hitting water and not render, but water should remain black, and sound queues will tell players when water is nearby (again, like in the actual game)

Rappelling and other climbing mechanics should be integrated, allowing for even deeper traversal, and the deeper you go the more inexplicable discoveries you make (eg: a completely square room among the caves, manmade structures like in the game, a creature that moves constantly so you have to have your laser on it while you try not to make too much noise)

in conclusion, i loved this game purely for the gameplay it provided, but think it got totally kneecapped by the narrative. I hope someone else comes along and picks up this idea and runs with it (if introversion software would let them)

[valictini]

Okay I know I’m not the first one to point this out but man, not doing the main 4 quests at the beginning really ruined the progression of the story for me.

Tldr if you’re still early in the game, don’t hesitate to progress the story through the 4 objectives purah gives you, it will flow better this way.

From the start I decided to explore a lot and ended up stumbling upon the ancient memories/glyphs very often… and this meant that before i even started the second temple, I already had the master sword and knew what was going on. It completely destroyed anything the story tried to do regarding the mystery around Zelda. I already knew where she was but I still had to slog through the pointless cutscenes where everyone’s wondering why ‘zelda’ is around monsters and oooh maybe it’s not her?

I blame it on the fact that the glyphs are SO easily visible that it made it impossible for me to ignore when i spotted them. Botw didn’t have this problem because you had to really search for the spot with little information and you had to literally be on the spot of the memory to see it and interact with it. I wish they had done something similar in totk but alas… the glyphs ARE cool, but they’re just too easy to find!

Also, because I had done so much exploring and saw all the cutscenes, I already spotted the golem factory underground and was shown that minoru was in the tablet. Even though I was SO pumped to finally be able to interact with the floating ruins of kokoriko and the golem factory, the fact that I already had the master sword kind of ruined the end of the fifth sage quest line since you’re “supposed” to search for the master sword after this quest.

And I also didn’t wrap up purah’s questline before zooming to kakariko. Which means I kinda sped through the final conversation before you get the “go kill ganondorf” quest. It was painful to see how late the game was compared to what I knew. Plus even when we could FINALLY reveal what happened to Zelda, all we got is a pretty… lukewarm reactions imo…

Idk man, it feels like I speedran the game’s story when I thought I had gone out of my way NOT to go too fast. Turns out, I should have ignored the glyphs and focused on the 4 main quest lines first to get the best experience :’)

(I haven’t finished the game yet, I still need to kill ganondorf so yeah, just in case, no spoilers please)

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -9-

It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down.

When I last left off, Ichiban and friends were invited to speak with Nick Ogata at Earth Angel. Before doing that, though I spent a little bit of time grinding in the Kamurocho Underground Dungeon.

Ok, so... I may have gone a little overboard. But given how spongy these recent bosses have been I think a few extra levels would be helpful here.

Over at Earth Angel, we reunite with Nick Ogata, where we reveal that Ichi's claim of there existing a recording of Aoki ordering the hit was, in fact, a bluff -- but a bluff so strong that it will compel Aoki and Tendo to raid the Omi Alliance offices.

Turns out, the bluff worked. Aoki orders Tendo to raid the Omi Alliance office at the Millennium Tower. Tendo isn't happy about this, but Aoki reminds him of their mutually beneficial relationship. Awkward.

Adachi suggests that we head to a different bar -- Bar Serena (?) -- to regroup. We do so, and we meet with Makoto Date, a character who I assume is from a different game. More incentive for me to branch out to the other RGG Studio games I guess. Nanba and Saeko warn us that we are about to enter the point of no return, and that we should prepare ourselves. Given our massive jump in levels, I think we're prepared enough.

We head to the Millennium Tower, where Nick calls and informs us that we're about to enter the Demon Lord's lair. We then get this sick shot of the Millennium Tower. Kickass.

Like the other dungeons in this game, the Millennium Tower is mostly just boring set dressing with some fairly nonthreatening encounters. The only cool part is this sweet shot of the Tokyo skyline I got with my husband.

We enter the Arakawa Family office, which Tendo has ransacked for the elusive recording. Realizing it was nonexistent all this time, he challenges us to a duel.

Tendo technically isn't the final boss, but for all intents and purposes, I consider him to be the final boss -- the next two bosses are painfully easy compared to him. My high level and strong equipment ensured that he would do little damage to me, but he still had a ton of HP to work my way through. His sole weakness -- Lightning -- being a rarity and something I am in short supply of. Little by little, I manage to whittle away his massive HP to nothing. The battle ends with Ichiban and Tendo having one final punching match before fading to the next scene...

It's official: the Citizen's Liberal Party has swept through the elections. All hope seems lost, unfortunately. But as Aoki celebrates his victory, he gets a nasty surprise on the screen behind him.

Fucking. Nick. Ogata. The true hero of this story. His machinations have ensured that the public now begin to suspect Aoki is a possible murderer. He even has the balls to probe, in the middle of the chaos, whether or not his true identity is that of Masato Arakawa, son of the recently-deceased Masumi Arakawa. This is seriously such a good fucking scene, and it's shocking just how relevant Nick has been to this entire story. Godspeed, Nick Ogata. Godspeed.

Aoki rushes to the Millennium Tower, where he finds Ichiban's crew seemingly defeated by Tendo, who is unscathed. Tendo asks Aoki what the next steps are, to which Aoki responds that it's time to squash all the people who know the truth about Aoki and are trying to expose him as the murderer he is.

Unfortunately for Aoki, he just got Punk'd. Ichiban rises and reveals the whole scene he just witnessed was a ruse -- the "Tendo" that he was speaking with was actually Mirror Face. A bit of an asspull but.. sure, whatever. To add insult to injury, Joon-gi and Saeko were recording the entire interaction from their vantage point. The video of Aoki admitting his guilt is now loose on the Internet for all to see. It seems, finally, that Aoki's plans have been foiled. With nothing to lose, it's time for the true final battle...

Everything about this intro is so fucking badass. Unfortunately, the actual battle isn't. Fitting to Aoki's personality, he is surrounded by weak Yakuza grunts. The only moves Aoki seems capable of are calling for reinforcements. Unfortunately, the reinforcements prevent you from doing any meaningful damage to him. To truly defeat Aoki, we need to get rid of the reinforcements and then wail on him. A couple shots from the Orbital Laser is more than enough to bring down his subordinates...

And Aoki doesn't last long against a barrage of blunt attacks. Seriously, he is super weak and doesn't seem to actually fight back. In fact, once his HP is low enough, he actually runs away and ends the battle!

Of course, there isn't anywhere he can run to. Ichiban chases him and winds up fighting him one-on-one. The gimmick of this battle is that Ichiban is forced into the Freelancer class. You know, the one you probably stopped leveling up once you got the Hero class. I could see this battle actually being a pain in the ass if you didn't grind out Freelancer. Thankfully, I was desperate to get Release German Suplex, so I actually did grind Freelancer out to 30. Thus making short work of Masato. With Masato down, it's time to witness the glorious ending to this glorious game.

[asgoreyes]

Random Asgore Tangent-

I absolutely love Asgore. He is easily my favorite UT/DR character. The way Toby Fox set him up was great. Throughout the majority of UT, he was set up to be this menacing monster who ruled over all of the underground. A King who was the Undergrounds last hope of freedom. 7 Human souls was what he needed to free his people. 6 Human souls were obtained already. He was just one off. That fact alone could make you afraid of or even hate Asgore. The game isn't very clear if Asgore himself went and killed humans himself, or he had someone like Undyne or possibly Sans do it. I don't have enough information to confirm any of those. (In my opinion, I feel like Sans did it, but who is to say) Regardless of who killed the 6 humans, one thing was certain. Asgore was going to use them to break the barrier. Such a powerful monster seemed to be a force to be reckon with. But then you finally met him. And you find out he big ól goat that likes to garden and drink tea. Once he sees you, he knows what he has to do and hates it. Throughout the fight, he can't even lock eyes with you. The music and the setup make it all intense. That is what I love the most about Asgore as a character. From my perspective, he appears like a broken king who really cares the most about family. But as soon as he lost it, he lost his own sanity. He became an empty shell of a king and sought out to fulfill his one duty. To free the underground.......and then there is DR Asgore....I am gonna be honest. They did my man dirty here. I still love Asgore in DR, but it is more because I feel bad for him. From the current state of DR, with Chapter 2 being out, he was also in a respected position. But quit because something bad happened. Now he sleeps in his flower shop, living off of pickles. He is a sweetheart there, but maybe a little too sweet. To the point where he gives flowers for free. He is also in debt because of it. This version of him is a man who once had a good life but has fallen from grace. Although the two versions of Asgore are different, one thing remains the same. Family. They both really care about having a family. That is what I love the most about him. So it hurts that he is hopelessly in love with Toriel when she keeps denying him. Especially in DR. He needs Toriel the most in that universe. Regardless of what is to come of those two, I hope that Asgore is happy.

With that said, different tangent. Why are so many folks mad at Asgore? I don't get it? I'm not on the internet long enough to really get it, but it kinda seems goofy. Asgore child killer. Asgore Worst Dad. Asgore, whatever. It all seems goofy. Asgore is fine. Not perfect by any means, but I don't believe he deserves any hate.

(Imma be a little goofy here is a sec) Asgore, like Asgore. Did I say Asgore? Asgore. Imma stop. But seriously, I would love to be with that man. Alot of folks would. So it bugs me so much that Toriel acts the way she does with him. Like girl, if you don't take that adorable man, Imma take him.(I can't, but I can dream) Asgore is easily my favorite fictional husband. I might make a fanfic like that. Who knows.

In short, Asgore is great, easy favorite of mine from UT/DR. Toriel frustrates me. Just grab Asgore already, woman geez. Don't hate King FluffyBuns.