#the formless spawn

[hippydippydruid]

I know the formless spawn is supposed to be like this big bad eldritch boss but it’s literally just a little guy in my mind.

Wdym that’s the big bad monster that’s literally a baby it’s adorable

[thenoeyebunnynobunsusmaingallery]

Formless Spawn

[theshyghost]

Track: The Last Autumn Theme Artist: Piotr Musiał Album: Frostpunk Expansions Original Soundtrack

[winepresswrath]

i'm watching an iu historical drama squinting at her love interest like i'm pretty sure the historical figure she's falling in love with actually married his sister she hates. i'm not saying you can't change that for a good transmigration romance but it is distracting.

[victusinveritas]

The Adventures of Tintin and the Horrific World of H.P. Lovecraft

✨✨✨

A Scottish graphic designer Murray "Muzski" Groat has created an incredibly fun series of art that takes Hergé’s classic comic character Tintin and throws him into the terrifyingly awesome universe of H.P. Lovecraft. I'd love to see how these stories play out! Maybe Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's next Tintin film should be The Adventures of Tintin: At the Mountains of Maddness.

Watch our brave adventurers flee from shoggoths, Deep Ones, fish folk, ghouls, Formless Spawn, Mi-Go, Elder Things, nightgaunts, Old Ones, Outer Gods and foreigners (i.e. non-Anglo-Saxons) as they face many an existential crisis regarding their insignificance on a cosmic scale!

What eldritch horrors await our companions as they unearth the secrets from untold aeons in the dark corners of the earth? Will they heroically flee from these abominations from the stars, or will they choose the merciful oblivion that is death by throwing themselves on squalid pavements or shooting themselves in the head? And what trick does Nyarlathotep have up ‘His’ sleeve this time?

Find out in The Weird Adventures of Tintin, by H. P. Lovecraft!

✨✨✨

Covers:

* Tintin in Innsmouth (originally posted 27 September 2010)

* Muzski's note: "Zadok Allen (the town drunk and ex-sailor) could be played by the villainous Captain Allen."

* Tintin in R'Lyeh (originally posted 5 October 2010)

* Muzski's note: "PLOT ENDING: Tintin uses a crowbar on Cthulhu (BONK!), while Captain Haddock kicks his groping tentacles and curses alot. Cthulhu see's stars and hears little birds chirping, and slumps back into his tomb. Our heroes slam the cyclopean door shut, then have a wee chuckle to themselves, while walking back to the boat. Once they sail off, only Snowy notices the great city of R'Lyeh sinking back into the sea, before he puts his head down for a long nap while the sun sets in the distance. The End. 🙂 "

* Tintin and the Reanimator (originally posted 29 October 2010)

* Muzski's note: "PLOT: Ok, here we have Tintin and Snowy investigating the dubious activities of (the misunderstood) Herbert West, who loves bringing dead things back to life with his lizard-gene-soup. Eeeek!"

* Tintin at the Mountains (originally posted 18 November 2010)

* Muzski's note: "PLOT: Tintin and Snowy travel to the newly discovered and very mysterious Mountains of Madness, in Antarctica. They are looking for a missing expedition party from the Miskatonic University. Their bold leader and their friend, Professor Calculus was with the doomed party when everything went wrong."

* From Beyond (originally posted 2 December 2010)

* Muzski's note: "THE PLOT: Prof. Calculus is too busy working on a top-secret project at the Miskatonic Uni involving an expedition to Antarctica, so he asks Tintin and Captain Haddock to check in on his old friend Prof. Crawford Tilling-Ghast. To make sure he is well. Crawford has recently been slandered by the scientific community, for his outrageous cosmic theories, and becomes a recluse. Our heroes visit Crawford, but they are surprised by his bizarre machine, humming away suspiciously with a feint violet glow around it. Something is wrong! Crawford acts strange. His house staff have disappeared. Snowy keeps barking. There is a sudden sense like that of a rushing incoming train. Slowly, and slippery, something ghastly appears above Captain Haddock's head....!"

* The Shadow Out of Time (originally posted 9 December 2010)

* Muzski's note: "I based the layout on the June 1936 issue of 'Astounding Stories' magazine cover, where Lovecraft had this story first printed -> [link] "

* The Dunwich Horror (originally posted 3 January 2011)

* Muzski's note: "PLOT: Prof. Calculus is currently teaching at the Miskatonic Uni. on the subject of Antarctica. He contacts his pals Tintin and the Captain about several strange goings-on in the area, which seem to relate to the scarey Book Of The Dead - The Necronomicon (the uni library holds a copy). At night, the mutated Wilbur Whateley has broken into the library, looking for THE BOOK, but he gets savaged by the watchmen's dogs. Our heroes here this, but are too late. Wilbur dies, muttering "YOG SOTHOTH!" Snowy sniffs around, and spots a very old book lying on the floor."

* The Whisperer in Darkness (originally posted 18 May 2011)

[adacatlovelace]

Alright I think I have a working theory of the events of elden ring. LOTS of spoilers for Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

In the beginning, there was The One, a singularity of intense heat and chaos until The Greater Will, causes the big bang and creates the universe to bring order to this formless chaos and usher in an age of order. However the side effect of that was the creation of The Greater Wills Sucessor, Space/The void/entropy.

The people of the lands between were known as The Numan, who knew of the coming age of stars, worshipped the moon (becuase it happened to be the closest celestial body). Around this time The God of Rot attacked in the form of a scorpion but was sealed away by a blind swordsman. What was left behind was its stinger which carried its rot. However it was discovered that the bodies who had been afflicted by the rot would turn to putrescence which the numen would begin to harvest bodies sent to and from the grand cloister where they would be tainted by The Lord of Rots stinger and turned into putrescence which would then be used to create living silver. (Congealed putrencense and silver tear husk harvestables even share the same model)

Fearful of the coming age of stars, The Greater Will sends down Mythra, mother of fingers. However on her way down she gives birth astel, fathered by The Void (Hence "Naturalborn of the Void" in english and "Bastard of the Stars" in Japanese) who in turn spawns the fallingstar beasts and later the Onyx lords.

As a result, Mythra was abandoned by the Greater Will, furthermore she was rejected by the numens who devised a method to kill her and her children with the fingerslayer blade. Desperate, she sends Astel down onto Nokron, who destorys the city and causes it to sink underground, so that the night sky may never be seen from the city again

Some of the survivors stayed, casting a false night sky over the ruins of the city while others left, becoming shamans in small villages.

Hundreds of years later there where the hornsent who were zealots of a religon centered around the crucibal, the primordial erdtree from which all life orginally spawned. Their faith in the crucibal and miracles of is currents cause them to grow horns, a symbol of divinity. They built a massive tower of babel and actually succeeded in it. As a result of the numens exposure to living silver (another name for mercury is "Quicksilver") their bodies have the ability to have deceased flesh grafted onto them. As a result, shamans are collected, have their skin flayed and then placed into living jars along with the bodies of criminals so that they meld together and are transported to the top of the tower where these "saints" are used to build a massive set of gates to the primordial currents of the crucibal itself and in doing so create a massive colemn of normalized primordial current, that reached the gods themselves.

Some time before this, The Greater Will sent down another envoy, this time a fierce beast that was little more than the embodiment of pure order, landing in farum azula where it would be worshipped by the ancient dragons and gives intellelect to the beastmen to serve as puppets to the greater will.

There was born a shaman named Marika, who swore revenge against the hornsent. Advised by the fingers and granted Maliketh, Marika surrendered her flesh to The Greater Will and entered the gates of divinity to ascend to godhood while The Greater Will takes over the crucibal, turning the massive colemn of primordial energy into the erdree, which in turn creates the Scadutree and Shadow Realm around the tower. This is the "Original Sin" and Marika's "betrayl" of the hornsent. Also betrayed and abandoned by The Greater Will, Placidusaax summons a powerful storm that engulfs Farum Azula and takes it outside time itself so that he may await the return of his god.

The flesh that Marika surrenders becomes a vessel for radagon. However, Their offspring are born cursed and fated for fire, Messmer would be sealed away in the Scadutree to wage an unending holy war against the hornsent and Milena becoming the gloam-eyed queen who Maliketh kills and takes the rune of death from.

This begins the golden age of erdree amd thr formation of the folden order. Queen marika takes powerful warrior Hoah Loux as her husband and the fingers place Sarosh on his back to queel his ferocious nature so that he may instead stand nobly as Godfrey, the first elden lord.

While this is happening, Radagon marries a Carian Princess and has Ranni, Radahn, and Rykard. Then dragons attacked the captial but are defeated by Godwyn the golden which creates the dragon cult.

However the crucibal didnt simply disappear. Children continues to be born with horns and demihumans had deep ties the crucibal. Marika, in her hatred of what the hornsent did to her people declared that children born with horns are to have them removed, likely killing them in thr process while those that survive are to be locked away underground.

With Godfrey, Marika has Godwyn the Golden but then has two omen children due to Godfreys Involvement with the crucibal knights and exposure to crucibal energy, leading to Marika casting him and his warriors away. No longer guided by grace and without the ability to die becuse of marika removing the rune kf death, they are sent off on boats to fight in the badlands.

With no Elden Lord, Radagon casts away Renala to become the new Elden Lord but leaves her with the rune of the unborn. Then has Miquella and Millena.

Ranni then traded torrent to Milena for info about the rune of destined death and made her move to rebel against the fingers by killing Godwyn the goldens soul so she could kill her empyrean flesh to set her spirit free to act against The Greater Will. This caused Godwyns soul to die but his body to continue living, creating deathroot and those who live in death.

With something horrible happening to her only son who up until this point had yet to have anything horrible happen to them, Marika is broken and decides to shatter the elden ring. The runes are distributed to the demigods in the hopes that one among them will prove themselves worthy of taking marikas place. However, the demigods aside from Margot would betray the golden order and a war broke out with no one winning.

Miquella then began his plan. Creating the Haligtree and then charming Mohg, he was able to secretly travel to the shadow realm to begin the process of apotheosis free from the influence of The Greater Will. Milena was thrn sent to kill Radahn, resulting in the scarlet rot blossuming in Caelid. From then the stage is set for his plan to wait until mohg and radahn have die so that radahn may be reborn in Mohgs body to user in the god Miquella

With the shattering war at standstill, the greater will returns to the tarnish and they in turn return to The Lands Between. Sir Gideon Ofnir is put in charge of the roundtable hold and made to assist tarnish who show potential enough gather runes from the demigods so that they may bring them to Lyndell. However, the tarnished of no reknown who was able to show off their ability to beat the asses pf demigods beats the ass of demigod morgot. Unfortunately, the tarnished have all been lied to and the greater will has no interest in the dishonor of a tarnished lord so radagon seals the erdtree with thorns, resulting in the burning of the erdtree.

[katyspersonal]

Okay the last post about SoTE progress for today!! (3/3)

1) So, after I defeated Romina, I of course....

came back and finally got to that bridge area that I wanted to get to!!!

Yes, I just wanted to get to that side of the map where I saw a Horned Knight that I just really wanted to murder for some reason XD However, to my surprise, I saw another Dancing Lion boss ;-; That one was a hard battle and I could not have imagined to need to do that AGAIN ;-; But my way layed through that spot, and also I am a perfectionist..

1.1) But surprisingly, at the Stage 2, it summoned several Basylisks and started to use Deathblight! That was significant for me! So yesterday I concluded that Scarlet Rot, Deathblight and Formless Blood (? is this even a correct term) all spawn flies and plants? And whereas Romina of course raised Scarlet Rot here since the buds in Rauh church she brought here were not always rotten, some Hornsent here use same flies swarms as Mohg's people! Seeing how a Dancing Lion here uses Deathblight, but no Deathroot was anywhere on its arena, I felt even more convinced that these three powers are basically Pokemon Eevelutions of the same initial concept, 'stagnation', whereas fly sickness that fell upon Hornsent is its initial unaltered form! + I guess all Hornsent in Rauh are runaways from Belurat particularly, then?

2) I finally killed that poor particular Horned Knight whom I had eyes on as soon as I saw them!!!!! They've dropped the greatsword if I remember correctly? Happy end! XDDD

3) So... Yeah, at last, finally, FINALLY I proceeded and burnt the sealing tree. I got to explore Enir-Ilim! It was already beautiful, with all the pale yellow trees. Took me some time to adjust, though, the place was tangled from the start!

4) Yeah yeah Inquisitors are female feminism wins whatever

Vfggghgjhgv unironically though, I love subversion of the trope xD

5) Something creepy/funny happened along the way though, I was laughing so hard wtfffff gfbfgcbfg

OKAY SO at some point my joy from the new location went down because my focus shifted towards the memory of the final boss, and I just remembered how much I dreaded them.. so, I broke my vow to not fuel the negativity which is already abundant and wrote a rant(ish) post about how much that decision soured otherwise amazing DLC and ranted about Radahn (disliking about his involvement, not the character jfhyggfg). And what do you think? That frankly sour post got eaten by Tumblr!

And yes, I know, Tumblr is a broken website and all that, but listen.. It never made the posts disappear for me. Ever. It could glitch out a post with bad internet and randomly publish it later as I log in, it could glitch an ask response and not have the draft saved thus losing it. It has invisible ask glitch and glitch where same post gets reblogged from 3 to 5 times. It never just made post disappear instead of being posted even with delay or giving me error message. Never. Ever. Ever. Except for now. The one time I spoke unkindly about that choice, not just "mannn weird how it wasn't foreshadowed :("

So since I am infamous amongst my friends for my super bizarre coincidences regarding fictional characters ( @heraldofcrow and @val-of-the-north witnessed so many they can swear I am cursed) me and my friend are joking that Miquella is real and he nuked the post for talking shit about his blorbo LMAOOOOOOO FFGDHTGG WTFFFFF 🤣

6) OK sorry hghgggggf Anyways, to my DELIGHT, I discovered variant of Hornsent Knights that wore smaller variant of Dancing Lions masks and use their powers like lighting and blizzard.... fun... :/

7) *points like in the meme* HEY I KNOW THIS ITEM, IT WAS SWORD OF ABUNDANCE AND DECAY REPRESENTING MALENIA AND MIQUELLA IN BETA VARIANT! XDDD

Kind of ironic how it is called 'Euphoria', because I could not be less happy about that lore being cut, all for...... *looks around in case if Miquella is somewhere in the walls*

8) There were so many nooks.. I found a secret passageway on accident, by trying to run from an old lady spamming so many spells under my feet that I was BARELY able to move! 🤦‍♂️

That eventually led me to a part of Belurat that I didn't get to explore before! Yes, the bridge above that area was where I picked Euphoria in! But below was poisonous swamp (truly a Miyazaki lol) where I got to fight a GREEN variant of Tree Spirit! It just dropped a Horn Charm that boosted poison and Rot resistance!

^ This find, though, was interesting for me, because it is a variant of a glove that was dropped by an NPC Maddening Hand earlier! That one had eyes and dealt Frenzy and specified to be weapon of Hornsent hunted by their own as heretics, but it was also forged in yearning for revenge! So, it is not even that exceptional; for Hornsent, it is a cultural thing to stitch a weapon of revenge from the skin of the victims! Kind of like giving victims a chance to strike back, albeit in death. Very poetic.

9) There was a lot of running, and a lot of getting lost. Found Spirit Ashes of Horned Knight, too (nothing new about them in description), had to use Rainbow Stones to finally stop running in circles, found Ancient Somber Smithing Stone secret via elevator (good because I ran out of them).. and THIIIIIIS:

I wondered where was the head piece of this set! Pieces of it are scattered and I found all previous three! And, again, isn't it interesting how white birds (death) are here, whereas bird variant of Horned Knights were favored 'gold' birds? Second half of Twin Bird is gold life bird guuuuuyyys-

10) Okay, eventually I've met Leda telling me to step away! I was given the choice to summon Thiollier and Ansbach, presumably because I finished their questlines, so I did! It just felt like it would be more fun.. and it WAS! Holy shit gfgggcbch I did NOT expect the ultimate NPC showdown XD And, again, Freyja and Ansbach had an actual CONVERSATION! Look, this is a breakthrough for Soulsborne games, trust me they just DON'T have characters interact "on screen"!

10.1) HOLY SHIT THOUGH DANE ACTUALLY SAID SOMETHING o_o GDGTHCJBB

10.2) No, seriously, I just wanted to jump on Tumblr and post just this! The best fucking moment

11) Instant interest:

Which Outer God? Is it one we know of, or some random guy? I decided to not think about it too hard, yesterday it ended in an over 3 hours long brainstorming and my brain still short-circuits! But maybe later! ...I am sure at some point I'll find a similar pattern in the game itself and it will all click..

^ They were both picked by a respective final boss personally.. Simon+Brador to Ludwig+Laurence moment and so on

^ *points like in a meme AGAIN* Hey I read about it in a post, she killed all other Needle Knights! And by the way, I never found the seal (?) that revealed that lore! @val-of-the-north help bvbgggvh

12) Ansbach also had a dialogue after that battle to praise Thiollier's poisoning skills! That was lovely!

13) I kind of wondered though: why could not we summon Vengeance-Seeking Hornsent in this battle too, if we did his questline correctly? That would make fair 4 Miquella Simps vs 4 of "us" battle! Like, why just cast away the character to have him die as invader somewhere in Scarlet Rot place? I later realized that it would crash the "balance" of the final boss later, and I guess he was the "safest" to leave behind since he already had his goal (to see Messmer die)! Whereas other two target Miquella in particular!

13.1) This distribution is still a meme material for shitposts about characters doing competitive sport, fighting in an online game etc hfgfggbhcbx 4 vs 4

14) I actually checked and just like I thought, the last painting secret was only accessible after burning the seal!

Yeah no shit man we could tell

15) So.... yeah, finally, I've met the final boss. I never wanted to fight Radahn again; he somehow gave me problems even on Torrent with all the friends summons, and now I have to somehow dodge him in a small arena т.т Or maybe I am dumb and this is just my skill issue idk gfggjhhy

16) I actually got to the second stage first try somehow! It often happens how I play better when I still don't even know what I am doing XD And...

Okay, is this a good time to say that so far I only was spoilered some footage and lore, but not the voicelines? So.. I shared that story already some time, but a few months before the DLC, I was simply one of the people here 101% convinced about Miquella being kind and the good guy and all! I wasn't like aggressive or anything about it unlike some more avid fans (got stabbed by Bewitching Branch, did you? :p), but still also said "they should read something besides Berserk" or "people are reading into 'fearsome empyrean' line too deep". However, as DLC was approaching, at some point I had an extremely vivid dream where Miquella appeared to me, and his vibe was exactly like in the DLC in retrospective! Okay, maybe more sinister; not cold or evil, just... "forceful" in a similar way, "for my sake".

So, back then, not only that dream permanently altered my brain chemistry to accept and become open to "evil/manipulative Miquella" interpretations, but also helped me to Expect Anything which softened the blow regarding the DLC xd I had a shock moment, but far not as bad as other fans from 'this' camp! ...... so now, I found out that his voice is EXACTLY like it was in my dream 2 months ago. 🌛I really am cursed LMAOOOO WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME XDDDD

_____________

Like I said I am a dumb looser with skill issue so I've been trying to beat the boss for next 2+ hours and still didn't.. I will probably get them next time, for now I have to travel for a week and then work again т.т Watching what insane ways YouTube come up maybe will help..

I also one time got a grab attack where Radahn snatches Tarnished and says "I promise you a thousand years voyage of compassion" which got me flustered a little and already made it harder to play, but NOW that I think of it, Ranni also said "a thousand years voyage (under wisdom of stars") 🤔 So that's at least two Demigods hinting at how whatever order (or lack of) they establish won't/can't last forever, but only for 'thousand of years'! Good to know that any system, good or bad, will eventually crumble x) Gwyn: TRIGGERED

All in all, it is a very hard battle and I can't see shit in second phase, everything is too bright. But also oddly enough, I no longer dread new lore/final this much..? Meeting the final boss in person helped to finally accept actual Miquella and get over my prior mental image for good, and I am no longer hung up on Radahn involvement beyond 'some more foreshadowing needs to go in base game via patch now'. I start to wonder whether I simply got caught in the shared disappointment mood and effect of not having the full picture rather than actually dreaded thing from the start? It reminds me of that time when I was clowning agreeing that Malenia was unfair boss but only when I fought her like 70 times myself I realized I exagerrated hfhyggh Not saying Twin Dunces is a good battle, but just saying I don't dread it as much as I thought from spoiler and getting there MYSELF helped

[monsterfuckerconfessions]

Haunted Mansion and Zombie anons have me thinking about a long stay in a haunted brothel full of desperate apparitions waiting to get off. Rotting corpses wandering the halls naked and moaning just looking for a living hole.

The ghosts of past courtesans dancing on poles their ethereal bodies fading in and out of clarity putting on the same shows they've practiced for a hundred years.

The feral beasts and possessive demons claw at the doors looking for hosts. Hungry Beasts seeking to fill guests with seed and spawn a like. Formless demons taking pleasure from possessing guests and working them in front of a mirror.

I would love a stay at this paranormal pleasure place

.

[dailycharacteroption]

Deity Drop 6: Abhoth

Just as we did when be touched on Great Old Ones in a previous deity special, we are heading back to cosmic horror with our first Outer God.

But what exactly is an Outer God and how does it differ from a Great Old One? Well, a Great Old One is a demigod-level entity that has a body that can be noticeably affected by it’s mortal environs, and for all their defying of sane physics and geometry, it is possible for a mortal to fight back against such an entity and with a little luck “kill” it, forcing it into torpor or at least making it decide that being there is not worth the annoyance.

An Outer God, on the other hand, is a true deity, albeit an unknowable one that doesn’t even try, or perhaps is incapable of understanding why one would try and take a form comprehensible to the majority of mortals.

Like the Great Old Ones though, most of these entities cannot be bothered to even notice mortals, their cults often calling upon deaf ears, with only a rare few ever being granted power, perhaps as an afterthought or even without the deity realizing. While some may have specific malevolent designs, most seem content to stew in their own incomprehensibleness with no real plan beyond just existing in a way that mortals strain to understand, seeming to embody the belief that the universe is truly uncaring.

Abhoth himself is the “Source of Uncleaness”, a monstrous parent figure to all manner of horrors. His children ranging from just as formless as himself to ambulatory limbs, to surprisingly complex entities both fully formed and malformed. Most are immediately seized and consumed by him, but some escape to wander away, wandering the extradimensional tunnels of his realm until they find their way into the underground of other worlds. That’s right, many true-breeding aberrations in Pathfinder, including the classic gibbering mouther, are descended from this foul god!

All of this reflects his nature as patron of the misbegotten, an avatar of life gone wrong in violation of every natural order.

Abhoth himself is described as having a twisted and cynical personality, seeing no beauty in the world and seeking only to add cruelty to it.

This outer god is originally from Clark Ashton Smith’s Hyperborean Cycle of short stories, where he made the jump to the Call of Cthulhu and other such RPGs and then on to Pathfinder.

Though the original source describes him as grey in color, Abhoth’s art in Pathfinder paints him as a bright light (possibly glowing) blue. This may have been to help distinguish him from another cosmic horror staple in the game, the shoggoth. Indeed, for like many formless horrors, Abhoth’s only defining feature is his formlessness and tendency to form and reform various random body parts from his mass seemingly at random with varying degrees of recognizability.

While it is not given a name in Pathfinder, Abhoth’s grotto is connected to many different underground realms across various planets, and his realm itself is a maze of tunnels that he wanders through aimlessly as the spawn that survive his hunger.

As a god of fecundity, I can see some twisted remote culture venerating the Source of Uncleaness as a fertility deity, or perhaps warded against with the hope that children are born whole and fully formed. However, those that delve into his monstrous true nature may come to believe that his formlessness and cruelty are the truest expression of life, and get up to the usual nasty cult business of trying to summon him, or more likely, some of his children, and generally venerate all manner of unnatural life forms, often to the detriment of their health.

As a particularly cynical outer god, Abhoth counts none among his friends, not even his own children.

He also lacks servants in the traditional sense, being directly served by no one. However, he is able to see many worlds through the eyes of his spawn, and may even invade such a world through them on a lark.

Abhoth favors the domains of Chaos, Darkness, Earth, Madness, and Strength, with the subdomains of Caves, Ferocity, Insanity, Night, Nightmare, and Resolve. All of which reflects his cruel but not overtly malevolent demeanor, as well as his connection to caves, physical might and the horror of his own existence.

While a handful of Outer Gods have been written up in 2e, Abhoth has not gotten that treatment yet, so no list of his domains exist there yet.

Like all cosmic horror gods, Abhoth is too uncaring to offer any rewards of obedience.

With all sorts of horrors found in the depths of countless planets, you can bet your buns that Abhoth is definitely still out there in the far future of Starfinder, even if he hasn’t been officially mentioned yet.

That does it today, and yes, Abhoth’s story did inspire the demon lord Jubilex, but we’ll talk about how Pathfinder sometimes doubles up on certain deific concepts some other time. For now, eagerly await the final deity we’ll be covering this week, the first non-evil one we’ve had in a while!

[thenightunfurls]

who are they btw? radagon's spawn? rykard if he was cool?? formless mother's adept???

[brightredslurpee]

An entire cavalcade of firsts

[Ao3 link]

[Pairing]: Astarion/Reader

[Rating]: Teen

[Content warning]: implied/referenced sexual assault

A precarious thing, firsts. Initiations always are. For two centuries now, Astarion had assumed the very concept entirely lost to him.

In the baptismal years of thralldom, the pieces of his previous life had flared open like a violent bloom, its discrete components bright when viewed through the newness of his subjugation. That which he had lost burned as luminous and forbidden as the very midday sun: the original color of his eyes, the simple luxury of choice, the names and faces and voices of anyone at all who might have known him when he walked still with his own blood warm in his veins. And like all blooms, the memory of these things had paled and withered beneath the cover of absolute dark. What can prosper in the tomb but the slow depredation of decomposition?

Astarion the magistrate undoubtedly had firsts aplenty. A first kiss, a first fuck. Perhaps even a first kill. All of them rotted to dust behind the stone partition of undeath, beyond any hope of recollection.

As for Astarion the vampire spawn— there must have been a first victim. A first hapless fool lured into his master’s house by a puppeteered seduction. A first blade dragged lovingly through his skin, a first boot to his face, a first squirming rodent in his jaws that might have seemed, in the wracking pangs of fledgling thirst, almost a mercy. Then another. And another. And yet another, until every agony ran together indistinct within the vast monotony of suffering, weeks to months to entire decades spent in a dull resignation that had developed like scar tissue over the invidious spread of time.

Under Cazador’s dominion, he frequently found himself operating under the illusion that it had always been thus. An interminable stretch of night, forward and back. No beginnings, no ends: only the smooth in-between of circuitous torment, and in that eternal repetition there had been no room for hope, and thus none for despair.

Then the mindflayer ship had come. And with it, an entire cavalcade of firsts.

The first tadpole ever implanted into his skull, for one. The first ragtag band of illithid survivors he’s ever felt compelled to join. The first benign touch of sunlight on his skin since his turning, first semblance of freedom in more than two hundred years, first delirious rush of autonomy, first mad grip of volition entirely his own.

Fucking hells, his first blessed mouthful of sentient blood. The rich, pure warmth of it, sweetened by the current of consciousness that courses through each swallow like alcohol through a draught of vintage Ithbank. Trepidation has a taste, it seems, as does curiosity. As does fear, as does arousal. It is on the savoring notes of the latter two that he feels your hand tug very politely at the collar of his shirt.

“Astarion.”

He ignores you with the kind of blissful disregard endemic to drunkards and dreamers alike, and relents only when you yank at the fabric nearly hard enough to rip. “Astarion,” you hiss. “Godsdammit, I’m getting lightheaded.”

“Hm? Oh yes, of course.” He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand as he gets back up, and the blood that streaks across his skin gleams like a smear of crushed ruby. "My apologies. I was simply swept up in the moment—”

“Well, learn to snap out of it,” you say rather irritably. You unstopper a vial of potion, replace the cork with your thumb, and give the bottle a quick shake. When you swipe your wet finger over the punctures in your neck, the wounds close amidst a shimmer of soft, blue light. “Or you might actually kill me next time. Which I assume will be fairly soon. Unless vampires, like leeches, only need to feed twice a year?”

Across the severance of memory, a thin strand reaches from the formless past to the inchoate present, and he recalls too late the peril of firsts.

Because a first is a flicker. An induction of sorts, and without the bulwark of experience to shore one up, it is entirely too possible to fall headlong into that chasm of nascent possibility. What lay dormant, now awakened. And since awakened, loath to close its eager eyes.

“When’ll you need it again?” you ask. “Tomorrow? Or in a week?”

When he knelt tonight to drink, it was without even the faintest hope of constancy; now that he has partaken, it is with a mouth newly blooded and an offer of repeated feedings. Frequently, even, judging from the willingness in your tone.

He would be a fool to believe it given freely.

Behind any perceived kindness lies transaction, and those who are honest spell it plain, while those who hide behind the mask of magnanimity obscure their terms behind pretty words and silent expectation. The currency too, he knows well. That which he has been forced to pay again and again through the course of centuries.

His first prostitution born of his own free will. It had to happen sometime.

“Oh, I can go a few days without, of course,” he says. “But I assume you’ll be wanting me at my best, considering the sea of goblins you seem intent on wading us through.”

“I get your point.” You dampen a rag with your waterskin and dab away the smear of drying blood on your neck. A waste. Tantamount to pouring the last precious inch of a fine Cormyr red down the gutter. “I can give you every other night. But no guarantees. And I’ll need something in return.”

An honest person, then. Having tasted the litmus of desire in your very blood, he anticipates now the inevitable demand to follow. His old instinct snaps in place, automatic as a switch.

Astarion bows. “Consider myself at your service.” He half-lids his eyes and angles his mouth to a crooked smile that curves sharp and darkly intimate, hooklike. “All of me.”

“Good,” you say. “So cover me.”

He blinks. “What? Like in combat?”

“I’ll be slower tomorrow. Weaker. I can tell that now.” You touch your newly mended neck and wince. “It’d be in your self interest too: I can’t feed you if I get skewered by a cultist— alright, I suppose technically you could get one last meal out of that, but— you get my meaning. Just… keep an eye on me.”

He waits for the rest of the request to drop. When none is forthcoming, he ventures uncertainly, “And… that’s all?”

“I can add more, if you like. Maybe lend me forty-three gold while you’re at it.”

Dilated pupils, flushed cheeks, a thin veneer of sarcasm in your voice that does not hide the fluster of averted temptation. His proposition has flown you by like a very large and ungainly bird, not unnoticed but deliberately ignored. And for once, he is content to leave it as such.

But a spawn is like an automaton— created to suit the purposes of another, and every piece of his being writ with his master’s intention. It runs in him like a mechanism, the arithmetic of seduction, and the cogs turn, the gears interlock, the cruel calculus churns in the back of his head.

You’re an easy mark if he’s ever seen one. A reticent shell that cracks with a well-placed compliment— it’d take perhaps a few drinks and an evening of strategic flirtation to break it to pieces. A touch on the shoulder, an innuendo or two. His voice so soft that you’d have to lean in close to hear him. The script rises in his throat. He has only to give it voice.

Or we might work something out to better suit our… mutual appetites.

It goes unspoken.

“That is an extremely specific amount of gold,” Astarion remarks instead.

“Gale ate my gloves,” you explain. “And the halfling in the grove drives a hard bargain.”

“I wouldn’t bother, if I were you. We’ve been turning up a veritable bounty of corpses lately. Surely one of them has a pair worth keeping.”

“What a perfectly ghastly suggestion.” You smile thinly at the scatter of weeds at your feet with the grim look of fraying moral conviction. “I’ll probably follow it. Ripeness of the corpse allowing.”

The gnaw of hunger still bites at him, visceral as a twitch. Your aftertaste lies filmy over his tongue like a retreating dream, and he licks his lips like the wretch that he is as he forces himself to step back. “If you’ll excuse me. You’re invigorating, but I need something more filling. Something four-legged,” he adds hastily, as your eyes dart from your sleeping companions, to him, and back to your companions again.

“Take care that you don’t drain a druid by mistake.” You slump back against your bedroll, yawning, yanking your pillow back into place. Trusting that the beast just an arm’s length away— beast born of appetite, beast warped beyond its own mortal recognition, beast wearing the stain of your own blood on its pale lips— won’t turn to drain you dry. An objectively stupid thing to do. Usually he meets such stupidity with little more than contempt. No longer.

“This is a gift, you know,” he says. “I won’t forget it.”

And descends back into the dark.

[astarionbae]

alone, break, ghost + Luna?

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

Luna is very much used to being alone, especially when she was first welcomed into the Bhaal Temple by her Butler Sceleritas Fel, because she was very different from the other Bhaalspawns that came before; having been brought back to life with his own mortal flesh and blood. She was kept from the others due to her 'pure' status and due to that, she was taught things and learned things, and done things on her own. That was until she developed a friendship with Enver Gortash who basically became everything to her. Post nautiloid crash and now having amnesia, Luna struggled a lot with a new sense of loneliness that's always been there but now manifested as conscious thing. Everyone knew who they were, what their lives were like, even Shadowheart knew where she was going and doing despite having some of her old memories removed for Shar. Luna didn't have any of that, she only had nightmares but even then they were formless with screams and whispers. The thing Luna knew about herself was that she had this urge inside of her that called on her to commit heinous acts and have intrusive thoughts. It terrified her because she cared immensely and had such empathy, that she felt that it was for the best to have her bedroll further away from them. Then when the Alfira Accident happened and she felt the judgement of these people that she came to know and understand, she becomes more isolated where she chooses to handle with her own struggles last because she puts everyone else first

break: What would cause your OC to break down completely? What do they look like when that happens? Has anyone ever seen them at their lowest?

The lowest Luna has ever been was when she learned about who she was, and how that came to be in Act 3. She's a Bhaalspawn, one of the most feared creatures in Baldur's Gate opposite of vampire(s)/vampire spawn. Learns that she was the one that was behind the idea of creating the Absolute Cult and stealing the crown of Karsus from Mephistopheles' Vault, and that it was in her hubris that she been struck down and tadpoled by her bloodkin Orin. But what broke her completely was the revelation that her birth father, Apolis, had died trying to protect her Karlach and Shadowheart has both seen Luna being very upset and depressed, but the only person who had ever seen her truly breakdown and become pure, unadulterated rage is Astarion. And that rage has only came out when she met Cazador because how he spoke of Astarion and called him a "means-to-an-end" because in hindsight, she was the exact same thing for Bhaal. And when someone recognizes themselves in another's situation, it unlocks a primal instinct to protect them from something that you cannot protect yourself from.

ghost: Who or what haunts your OC? What happened? How do they live with their ghosts?

Her father Apolis. He was the one that unknowingly struck up a deal with an avatar of Bhaal in order to save her life from a spell that he casted and indirectly struck her with. And because of that, Bhaal seen it fit to let him be Luna's first kill when the dark urge took over. She stabbed her own father in the chest with a short sword as a child and was led to the Bhaal Temple where she was then taught and conditioned to worship Bhaal as her lord and as her father because his blood now coursed in her veins. She gone a long time without any thought of her father, she was so young when it happened and didn't fully understand what she did since the urge took over. As the years progress, he merely became a distant echo and she forgot about him. But when her dream guardian of the prism visits her and has taken the shape of her late father, she doesn't necessarily recall / know straight away that it's him. But there's this undeniable sensation that tugs at her because the aura is loving and forgiving, and comforting. So imagine her destress once she learns that her dream guardian is actually the Emperor and he searched her broken mind, caught glimpses of her father, and used that against her.

tagging @endless-lilach because she sent an ask asking for break for Luna

tagging BG3 moots: @daughter-of-melpomene, @jewishbarbies, @starcrossedjedis, @seize-the-droid, @faerieroyal, @curious-kittens-ocs, @eddiebdiaz, @aliverse

[lakemojave]

The area that stumps many new players is the drowned city of New Londo, lost far below the firelink shrine and connected to the Blighttown and the nearby canyon filled with drakes. You can stumble into this zone by mistake very early, and all of the enemies are fast attacking ghosts who cannot be hit by your weapons at all unless you’ve been cursed or use a pretty uncommon expendable item before going in. It’s a very frustrating zone at first, even with the curse, because the enemies are so dense and numerous that I was often killed in the second or third little zone of the map. Like many late areas of Dark Souls, it’s pretty frustrating mechanically, but it fascinates and excites from a lore perspective. You’re here on your quest to fill the Lordvessel; the rulers of New Londo are a boss called the Four Kings, who were just about the worst I ever got stuck on my new game plus. The Four Kings fell to a fate similar to Manus, they were tempted by the knowledge and power of the Abyss, so they plunged into a small pocket of the abyss just below their city. The city was flooded, all its citizens killed, just to prevent the abyss from spreading like it did in Oolacile. The fear of the abyss and the corruption that it brings in its wake is so fascinating to me after playing the DLC because humanity came from the abyss in the first place, a connection the DLC makes quite explicit. If the current age, the age of fire, is powered by the fire’s connection to souls, then the corruption brought about by the undead curse comes from the withering of souls and their eternal existence. Souls only disappear if they are lost upon consecutive deaths, but even then your fallen souls have the chance to spawn rare enemies in their place--souls, like matter, are not destroyed, simply transferred from one form to another. Humanity is different. Humanity is finite, precious, the item for it is exceedingly rare and all it takes is one death to return to your withered and undead state. What happens when the finite becomes infinite, when the rarity of human existence becomes an endless void from which there is no escape? What happens to the immortal world when exposed to formless, boundless mortality? We are finite creatures, both in dark souls and in real life. Our time on this earth and in this existence will one day be snuffed out, and all we hope for is to burn brightly before it all ends. We are all human, we are all the same creatures with the same desires and needs, but we are also all unique, each one of us providing our own conceptions of color and beauty and personality to the world. Your character in Dark Souls is not a character, it’s simply a vessel to which you may pour yourself, but its existence is balanced on a constant flux between Humanity and Soul, fire and dark, life and death. For one to triumph over another means to lose yourself completely--the balance cannot be disrupted. Without these two disparate selves, all that’s left is an endless expanse of trees and fog and nothingness.

Check out the second half of my review for Dark Souls one! This part concerns the mid to late game stuff, some of the hidden areas and the DLC, and my own unwrapping of this game's big ol philosophical musings about cosmic balance and the endless cycle of life and death. Check out this and more for less than a dollar a month!

[nurrgleth]

𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘴 - 𝘋𝘢𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘒𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦

Though the effect of the Chaos Gods and their daemons is undeniable within the material world of Warhammer, the reality is that the vast majority of the endless Great Game takes place within the Warp, usually on the margins of a God's territory or within the Formless Wastes unclaimed by any but those few stalwart souls strong enough to maintain hellish fiefs and kingdoms in the spaces between the Godly Kingdoms.

And so it must follow that with his fellow gods and daemons as his primary enemies and his titles of Plaguelord and Master of Poxes being his foremost aliases, Nurgle's poxes must be concocted with the aim of weakening and killing his fellow daemons. Daemon-specific illnesses are unique in that, similar to Nurgle's rot, they target the soul itself rather than just the flesh. While daemons are said to be immune to mortal diseases, the mechanisms of the rot suggest that this does not encompass total immunity to all diseases.

And some of the most difficult daemons to infect and dispatch are the Children of Khorne. Khorne's tertiary aspect is a God of Fire, an element well known to scour even the most microscopic of life from the face of the world. Fire is particularly effective against Nurgle's forces, as it neutralizes their regenerative abilities and drastically lessens their infectivity. Add onto this that Khornate daemons are uniquely magic-immune as other daemons are not and a magic-based pox is particularly loathe to infect them.

However, determination is not just an aspect of the Blood Lord and to go along with it, Nurgle has diligence, patience, passion for his craft. With time, even the blood-hungry daemons of Khorne can fall to the poxes of the Plaguemaster.

Brass Rot

Brass Rot is one of the earliest successes to spring from the Plaguemaster's Cauldron of Maladies. Carried into war on the blades of Plaguebearers and Great Unclean Ones alike, it enters into the body through wounds made by such weapons. Eventually, the afflicted Khornate daemon notices their skin begin to rust and pit, turning brown like old blood or verdigris like oxidized metal. The active period and severity rate vary drastically; some cases are minor, with effects being largely cosmetic or limited to the lost of a few fingers or horns. Others are more serious loss of entire limbs, deep-tissue infections that interfere with organs, or a completely rusted state of paralysis. It bears some resemblance to gangrene or necrosis in humans.

Brass Rot's only flaw is it's very low infectivity rate from victim to victim. Afflicted individuals tend to not spread their disease, so while hailed as the first illness to afflict Daemons of Khorne broadly, it's sub-par infectivity makes it among one of Grandfather's least favorites. Still, some Plaguebearer Tallybands still carry this loathsome disease within their swords and rashes of it are known spring up every now and again in the Realm of Khorne.

Furor Cough

The Furor Cough was a "gift" from Nurgle to Khorne spawned after a perceived betrayal of the former by the latter. It was first discovered in the Blood God's beloved Flesh Hounds, a cruel disease that begins as a fairly innocuous cough, not dissimilar to kennel cough. This is where the disease gets it's name, but the prognosis is much more dire than a mere cough. This is followed by lethargy interrupted by increasingly frequent bouts of agitation and a loss of the Flesh Hound's normally impeccable balance as it descends into delirium. It finally becomes hydrophobic, salivating constantly and driven into violent hysterics when presented with water-- or blood. Spread through biting, Furor Cough is noted as being the first of the Khornate-viruses to to draw noticeable apprehension from the Daemons of Khorne.

Not at all restricted to Flesh Hounds, the disease can infect everything from Khornate Furies to mighty Bloodthirsters of Khorne and bears the most resemblance to the mortal Rabies disease. Unlike Rabies, however, it is not virtually fatal in all cases. The Khornate body undergoes a dramatic septic reaction in order to rid itself of the disease and while it might be successful, the damage to itself is also done. Cool blooded (hypothermia) and half-mad, very few Khornate Daemons who catch this disease recover to resume their old lives and none at all make a full recovery.

It was the Furor Cough that heralded the birth of the Slayers of Plague. While other denizens of the Ragelands fight mindlessly and for the sake of fighting, the Akhamshy'y'Nurgh specifically seek out and destroy Packs of Flesh Hounds thought to be infected by the virus.

Axeworms

Poxes are not the only things that the Plaguefather creates. He is also a connoisseur of Biological Weapons, though if asked he would claim this is a more of a dabble than a true trade. Axeworms are so named for their double-axe shaped heads and the amount of damage they can do when they enter the body. They are a Khornate specific parasite and contracted primarily during Khornate invasions within Nurgle's realm, namely his garden. Some Nurglish daemons act as intermediary hosts to these worms, resizing and multiplying within it's carrier's blood. When a Khornate kills the host and drenches itself in their life fluids, the worms are transferred to the Blood Daemon's skin, where they burrow into the body. Daemons of Khorne are their definitive host; these worms will remain in a dormant state if they find themselves within another type of daemon or even a mortal.

The Axeworms feed on blood, multiplying and enlarging itself as it feeds on the essence of it's Blood Daemon host whilst it violently rips its way through it's hosts flesh. Not only that, but it is a behavior-altering parasite, and one that causes the Blood Daemon to turn without warning on it's own kind. Since this behavior isn't abnormal among Khornates, detecting them is difficult, though chronic aches and pains are common. If the Infected Khornate is winning it's fight, it will continue to kill until there is nothing left but itself, then find more victims. However, if it is losing, it turns it's sword on itself, and sprays it's fellows in it's own infected blood as it lops off it's own head, spreading Nurgle's parasite and dishonoring the daemon it infected in one sweep of it's sword...

[anonymousreader4d7]

Primordial Ones

Primordial Ones: (eldritch beings) Before the Worlds, there was The Abyss. The Abyss was nothingness, even more so than the Void. From this Abyss spawned beings, beings Before Time and Beyond Comprehension. Many had no true shape, but instead were formless, and drifted lazily in The Abyss, while others were hungry and sought to consume anything they could find, while still others sought to simply see what lay beyond The Abyss. It was these that became the first "Players". The first of these curious beings to escape The Abyss and into a World took on a humanoid shape to explore what it had found. It wasn't long before a second one had followed it into the World, and they explored together. 

 Some were once, in the early days after the population of Players had expanded and forgotten the origins of these First Players, worshiped as gods - both by Players AND by Voidwalkers. While not gods, some Primordial Ones were empowered by this worship to a small degree, while others simply had a fondness for their worshippers. Others either didn't care for the worship, or went mad from it, gaining reputations as “evil” gods, and also drawing attention back to the Primordial Ones in general, particularly the “smaller”, lesser ones. A Hunt was incited, particularly by the Devs and the first Admins, and most of both the “evil” and lesser Ones were either slain or banished back to the Abyss, as well as what few mindlessly hungry Ones were in the Overworlds. Worship of Primordial Ones in the Overworld by Players died off not long after, but some select Voidwalker clans continue to worship certain particular Primordial Ones.  

Examples: Herobrine; Keralis; Steve & Alex; TFC (as Steve or Herobrine?); BigB

[bugs-and-grass]

🪬

🪬-tell me of gods

A story about the Gods, huh? Well, I do remember one tale of the creation of the world. One of a few interpretations, but it's the one I remember the best. Forgive me for any paraphrasing or details that I get wrong. Been a while since I read it.

When the universe was born, four primal forces spawned from the empty void.

Arceus, the Primal Force of Creation. Giratina, the Primal Force of Destruction. Palkia, the Primal Force of Space. Dialga, the Primal Force of Time.

With nothing around them but emptiness, each of the Legendary Forces followed their instincts to fill it.

Arceus created the physical world, filling the emptiness with rock and stone, metal and water, light and darkness. Giratina eroded the formless masses, breaking down each into smaller and smaller planets and crashing clouds of gas together to spark the burning stars. Palkia gave the universe its vastness, moving around the stars and planets to great distances as was seen fit. Dialga, last to spawn, finally put the universe into motion.

With their instincts satisfied, the Primal Forces looked upon the universe they had together formed. In it, they found one planet which held great promise. They set to work bringing about the other Legendary Pokemon into the world. Each one, given domain of their own facet of the universe, set out to refine the world as we know it. To make something beautiful of what was around them.

Yet even once they finished, something was missing. Arceus and Giratina, the forces of Creation and Destruction, came together for one final task. Together, they formed what would become the greatest of all of their works.

They formed the first Humans.

Saisfied, the Primal Forces left our world to rest and observe. To watch us from afar as We explored Their world.

And they were happy.