#the faithless spoiler

[green-loaf]

[genshin-projection]

i took a few liberties but... Sunday-inspired playlist!

some highlights:

master of the heavenly yard (off-vocal) (mothy/akuno-P)

portrait of the pirate F (hitoshizuku-p)

rock in god's shoe (sushi soucy)

worst case scenario (the hoosiers)

but never a key (dirt poor robins)

hello my old heart (the oh hellos)

rule #35 - microphone (fish in a birdcage)

into the unknown (over the garden wall)

collared (vane lily)

taixu (sasakure.uk , lasah)

ship in a bottle (fin)

a couple ender lilies OSTs

a few omori OSTs

a few hsr (penacony) OSTs

[lavellane]

btw just so we're clear as punishment for no well choice in datv among other countless crimes im saying its canon now that morrigan can turn into a dragon and ashara was riding across thedas on her whenever eluvians werent available. thanks 👍

[crimeronan]

i'm still fucking thinking about faulkner silt verses i haven't stopped all day. i just keep intermittently replaying parts of the ep and working my way thru the transcript. just now i was trying to explain to rafi how elated i was about everything that went down during this ep and rafi, horrified, was like "BUT I - I DON'T WANT HIM TO BE SUICIDAL????" and i was like "rafi. listen to me. i cannot express enough how much the suicide attempt was POSITIVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT."

[unmerrymagdalene]

"She probably wants to spend time with you, Syd. … It's not rocket science." Sirris, your kid said “Not to be rude, but are you going to leave” to a pretty lady staring at him. It might as well be rocket science.

HAHA OH MY GOD

In all fairness, Lene was not making a good case for herself

Sweetie you can’t just stare at a boy you like, you gotta open your mouth and form sentences-

[nonasbirthday]

we do love a gold-eyed butch in skull paint around here

[mongeese]

The “my prophet and me” scene makes me craazyyyyyyy I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I listened to it. The fact that Paige gave Hayward something to actually believe in for the first time in his life. She gave him something to work toward, something to give himself to that he can actually support and not just something he can lie to himself about. He feels like he’s doing the right thing for the first time ever. He feels like he belongs. He loves his g-d. Paige is his g-d personified. Paige is the one who brought his g-d into the world, the one who gave him a will to live again. His prophet. And him, steering her forward. I’m gonna fucking lose it

[the-rebel-archivist]

Ooooh how about 14 and 18 for the Questions About Creating Your OCs? Tags and Durges 'cause I got Lucien on the brain ❤️

Ahh thank you so much for the questions! Excited to talk about Lucien ❤️

14. The two biggest things to keep in mind while working with him are his intensity and self righteous paladin fervour that led to his devotion to making his father proud and his almost sociopathic charm. His morals were until recently twisted and upside down with what should be evil turned on its head and considered good and he threw himself into bloody worship as an act of devotion.

He’s not mean, he’s generally quite polite and friendly. He’s accepted that he looks off putting and wrong but in the same way that a tree frog does; people still want to get close against their better judgement. That high charisma for both his sorcerer and paladin spells is absolutely a learned skill for him and something he has to re-teach himself… but he’s observed social cause and effect and he knows well how to manipulate it. He’s not much of a liar, he usually means what he says, (there’s that paladin) it’s largely social masking with ulterior motives that aren’t always conscious, mostly habit. He has such a force of personality without ever needing to raise his voice.

18. The thing I’ve learned most recently about Luci is that I don’t think he and Minthara are going to work long term. At some point in her conquest hers would be the sort of regime he would feel honour-bound to overthrow as an oathbreaker. For now it’s okay; he can tap into that vengeance past and draw the poor and dispossessed to their cause, but he’s ideologically opposed to conquest for conquest’s sake. It’s got to have a real purpose beyond gaining personal power, and should the conquest start to trample over others well… they would be right to seek vengeance.

So they can have their fun for a while, maybe even many long years, they’re drow, they’ve got time. But there’s definitely an expiration date there

[drastrochris]

Me, reading The Faithless: You two just need to bone. Touraine, three octaves higher than usual: What did you say? Sabine, stage whispers: Don't say it again! Me: I said, you two just need to bone. Luca: How...dare...you?

[modwyr]

yippee yayyyy! scorn her make her feel lost!

[corpsesoldier]

in the argument they have in the salle, touraine says what she says to hurt luca (why do you think they sent me?) but that doesn’t mean the implication is unwarranted. why shouldn’t touraine think that trading herself to luca is the best way to get what she needs for her people?

luca textually is unable to internalize the disenfranchisement and cultural genocide of the shālans except through the clarifying lens of touraine. she visits the duke’s droitist school alone and grudgingly thinks it’s a net good. she only changes her mind after visiting with touraine, seeing touraine’s reaction, and internalizing touraine’s pain.

in the unbroken she utterly fails to make any decisions for the qazāli’s benefit unless she thinks it would ultimately benefit her bid for the throne, or if touraine makes her feel bad about it. she materially worsens the situation when she feels like she’s about to lose power and no longer has touraine around to check her jealousy and fear.

luca feels empathy for the condition of the shālans but, so far, never quite makes the leap to really processing her role in the systems that exploit and demonize them. she depends on the interpersonal relationship with touraine to come to any kind of political decision about qazāl or shālans in general.

so why shouldn’t touraine think that trade is necessary? is what’s expected? it’s already her experience with balladaire, just in less explicit terms. give them what they want, and they won’t hurt you.

[maegalkarven]

And yeah, it might look strange what Bhaal allowed Nemo just bring all these children in and make them into prodigal murderers.

But also it really doesn't if you consider what at the moment of Nemo's birth the Church of Bhaal is practically unexistent.

Sarevok literally has to start from the scratch.

Half of the first unholy assassins die in a fight with Flaming Fists because they're not property trained and act reckless.

But then Nemo grows up and starts contributing. A lot.

He brings a child in and for some reason father Bhaal doesn't mind. This is...strange, but whatever works, right?

Some disease kills several unholy assassins and Nemo goes to investigate. He returns with more people to train and mold into assassins.

Some child almost burns half of the town. This is useful. At this point Sarevok, who watches young Clotilda surpass Orin on some occasions, doesn't mind.

Meanwhile the amount of unholy assassins joining the traditional way is scarce and they need to be very careful and very patient to not bring the attention of the authorities. Sarevok learned the lesson of being arrogant, he won't be repeating the same mistake twice.

Nemo starts a plot to recruit urchins and it works. He seems to really have a knack on finding assassins who will be loyal till the end. This is smart. The power of the cult grows.

The clash with the smugglers guild leaves them with their numbers thinning out, BUT the children Nemo brought are growing up and passing the rites with honors. They're more efficient than other assassins, they work together better, they make less mistakes.

It repeats two more times with three more recruits, and every single of them is an exemplary future murderer. So much promise in them.

By the year of 1491 DR Nemo creates a strong backbone of the cult; unbreakable, unshakable. Perfect.

[sunflowerdigs]

Just started Good Omens S2, and I'm liking the emphasis on Crowley constantly having to drive to Aziraphale instead of just...being there because they live together. It feels like a waste of time to me as a viewer and I think that's on purpose.

[ckiramman]

luca’s crazy uncle whom she can’t control and actively fears: *maims a child for no reason*

touraine, immediately: how could luca do this

[stubbornvulpixquotes]

Regardless, this was my second Saturday off in ten years. The first one had been spent recuperating from attempted murder. And now for this one, I got to go to the Aureum building and answer questions I didn't want to answer about incidents I'd rather forget.

Apparently weekends were never going to be my favorite.

-Sam Burns, Fluke and the Faithless Father

[eruvadhril]

A fun example of The Cruelty Is The Point in Forgotten Realms lore is The Wall of the Faithless, a big plot element in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. It was created by Myrkul, and is the destination for all souls who did not worship a god, or only paid lip-service to the gods. Souls are cemented into the wall and are agonisingly dissolved over the course of centuries, unless they happen to be snatched in a demon raid and get turned into Blood War fodder.

Because the gods work on more-belief-equals-more-power rules, this was intended to act as a deterrent to anyone who might, as you say, get uppity and start to think that Jack might be as good as his master. Even if we don't do a thing for you while you live, you need us to prevent this horrible fate after you die, so get worshipping, peons. All of the gods tacitly approved of the sentiment, if not necessarily the execution.

After the current god of the dead, Kelemvor, achieved apotheosis and took over Myrkul's duties, there was a brief period where he abolished the Wall and tried doing his actual job of Judging Where Souls Ought To Go Based On Their Deeds In Life, rather than just leaving it up to the gods to come and claim their petitioners and chucking everyone else in the Wall. Unfortunately, the writers pulled out an extremely stupid diabolos ex machina to reinstate the status quo.

You see, with no fear of eternal torture after death, nearly everyone just stopped worshipping the gods. Everyone on the planet 1) knew for complete certainty that the rules around what happened to your soul after death had been changed, and 2) was apparently only worshipping their god of choice solely for the “not getting eternally tortured after death” benefits.

This meant that every good-aligned person in the entire world lost any amount of survival instinct. Everyone who would have worshipped a good-aligned god both ceased paying any homage to their gods, and began deliberately throwing themselves into deadly situations because they knew for a certainty that Kelemvor would send them somewhere nice after they died, and therefore they had no reason to avoid death any more.

Evil people did this a bit less, because the evil gods tend to be a bit more forthcoming in the short term when it comes to delivering on their promises of wealth and power, and people figured that if they’re going to be evil and Kelemvor is going to send them to the hells for being evil anyway, then they might as well be in the boss’s good graces when they get there.

You may notice that this is extremely silly and not at all reflective of how actual people behave.

This caused something of an inbalance because the evil gods were now getting more worshippers than the good gods, and also just made all of the gods really angry because everyone had experienced a nett decrease in worshippers and power, which was apparently All Kelemvor’s Fault. This was attributed to him being an ascended human, and trying to apply human morality and standards to his work with human(oid) souls, rather than the proper godly behaviour of, I guess, being a cruel and mercurial bastard.

Unfortunately, Obsidian removed the planned “Destroy the Wall” ending of Mask of the Betrayer because they didn’t think WotC would let them get away with making such a huge change to Forgotten Realms lore. Then, about a year later, D&D 4th Edition came out and completely blew up all established canon about the Forgotten Realms...

Listening to Wyll's backstory in context of all the details we're acquiring on devil's contracts and soul selling is fascinating.

See - I listened to Lann Tarv's three tales to get my soul coins. I felt bad for making Karlach listen to that, obviously, but to be honest I didn't even want the coins that much. I actually wanted the stories. I wanted a better understanding of how this works.

And what I'm learning is - for the gods (and godlike beings) of this world, cruelty seems to be the point. I mean - it's possible there's a god in this world I wouldn't want to stab to death with a rusty fork, but if so I have not met them yet.

These beings have the power to save people and places, to change lives, to do anything. And when someone asks them to - they demand a terrible price. But they don't just demand a price. They subvert the original request in such a way that they utterly fail to deliver on the original promise.

An abused woman wishes to be loved - and her true love appears, but dies instantly. A man wishes to save his children from starvation, and ends up personally growing masses of meat on his own body - not only painful for him, but forcing his children into survival cannibalism, which they were trying to avoid.

Auntie Ethel works the same way. Every one of her customers is left in a tortured state, while Ethel still takes her payment.

The idea is that the person must come to regret their wish long before the payment comes due. Every cry for help must be met with a boot to the face. Or else the mortals will get uppity? Or something.

What is interesting is how consciously Wyll defies that. And how much Mizora is dancing around, trying to force him into that state of miserable regret.

Wyll was manipulated into selling his soul. He was a kid, and he was summoned into a terrible situation - and in that moment, he could see no other way to save the city. Mizora did need to save Baldur's Gate to serve her boss's purposes, so she couldn't take that victory from him - but she did everything she could to take the joy of it.

He didn't get respect, or admiration, or his father's pride for saving the city. He lost his home and his family. He was assumed to have done something monstrous because he was denied an opportunity to defend himself.

That was supposed to fill him with bitterness and regret - but he got to work building his own life instead. By the time you run into him, the Blade of Frontiers is a hero of some renown. He's remade himself, and found a way to enjoy what his powers can do, however he came by them.

So that didn't work.

Then Mizora sent him after Karlach, and that was a mission tailored to break him. Karlach is kind and heroic herself, and that the start she has been sold into slavery, mutilated and forced to fight in a war against her will. If Wyll killed her, and then found out who she really was, then he betrayed everything the Blade of Frontiers is supposed to stand for - and he would lose the life he made for himself.

But he didn't, and that didn't work either. He's got a friend, now, who at least knows part of what he's dealing with.

So Mizora gave him demonic features. That would destroy the life he's made for himself, because no one would trust him to help them.

Except now Wyll basically goes nowhere on his own, and a small army of people can attest that he got those horns and eyes as punishment for being a good man. Mizora might be able to shut his mouth, but she can't silence his friends - and the group absolutely have shouting sessions about everything. Wyll's horns become a battle scar, like his missing eye, and nothing more.

And beyond that, if you are playing as a heroic character, a significant throughline in the game's story is the journey of the tiefling refugees. The story makes it clear that these people experience a constant barrage of racism, due to their appearance and "demonic" heritage. It also makes it abundantly clear that this prejudice is entirely undeserved - they're just people, with virtues and flaws like everyone else, and what is happening to them is terrible. So Wyll turns up to assist a bunch of people whom he now at least somewhat resembles - and with Karlach along, you have two people in the group who technically count as "infernal", but haven't got an evil bone in either of their bodies.

Mizora created solidarity. Oops.

Wyll is deeply suspicious of gods and higher powers. He doesn't want to make more deals with devils. When Elminster arrives to tell Gale what Mystra demands of him, he explicitly says he does not do religion. When you get Mizora to agree to let his contract expire in six months, he starts by casually invoking the gods - but switches to thanking the player character instead, because he knows who helped, and who did not.

But he utterly refuses to regret the pact he made. That can be a struggle. He clearly misses his dad, and would like that relationship repaired. The fact that he was transformed very much against his will is clearly a source of distress from him.

But if he regrets, then Mizora wins. That's it. Game over. She gets what she wanted all along. So he doesn't.

The main companion characters all have this kind of problem, and naturally have different ways of dealing with it. You have characters like Shadowheart and Lae'zel, who were indoctrinated as children, or Gale, who was literally seduced by one of these nightmare deities - and with them you have to start out by convincing them they they were the wronged party in the first place.

But Wyll knows exactly what game he's playing, and he's been screaming defiance the whole time. It's just that, in his case, the "defiance" is grinning and carrying on every time Mizora inflicts some more bullshit on him.