#these were fun!! but took forever so i'm gonna go do the gpose in my brain before i answer the others in my inbox lmao

[azems-familiar]

WoL Thonkers: 6, 7, 14.

6. Who was their Azem? What were they like, and were they different from your WoL? Who were their family, friends? Or, if you don't care for the Azem angle or went in your own direction for their past self, how so? How does your WoL feel about their Ancient identity?

oh man you're asking me theeeee long questions. let's goo

Lelesu's ancient was named Seleukos. you've seen some art of them but if you want to peruse things i tag them the same way i tag her so it should be easy enough to search for. they have two moms, who i haven't yet named - one owns and runs a bakery, and yes, absolutely loves experimenting with new flavors and fillings and things, and one works as a secretary in the Capitol, though i haven't decided which Seat she's affiliated with. they had a pretty good relationship with their parents growing up, and were also close to Helios's parents (though less so with his dad, who was a keywarden in Pandaemonium before an accident there killed him). their absolute best friend is of course Helios, who they're only three months younger than, as well as neighbors with, so the two of them grew up together and basically did everything together as kids since their parents know each other pretty well. Seleukos also has some casual friendships with other kids they grew up around and some of the people they were students with in the Akadaemia Anyder.

obviously, their closest relationships however are with Helios, Hythlodaeus, and Hades - Helios is their best friend and other half, Hythlodaeus is their life partner, and Hades is a wibbly-wobbly nonromantic partner and close friend. they are also good friends with Venat (who was their first mentor), Pashtarot (their second mentor, and Halone (they work together), as well as Themis!

Seleukos is only Azem sometimes, depending on the verse we're in. when they aren't Azem, they work as a traveling judge, and are Pashtarot's confirmed successor, but have not ascended as of the Final Days. no i have not come up with Pashtarot's mask or anything because....yeah. we'll get there eventually.

as for how they're like Lelesu - the two of them are actually pretty similar in many ways. they have a lot of the same personality, similar morals and ideals, and similar fighting styles, though Seleukos relies more on magic than Lelesu does. with all her memories of the past regained as of post-endwalker, Lelesu considers herself a sort of natural extension of Seleukos - not the same person, since they were raised in very different times, but close enough as to not matter terribly much. she takes the legacy she inherited from them very seriously!

originally it was definitely complicated but honestly the reveal that the reason all these confusing feelings she was having about Amaurot and Emet-Selch and Hyth's shade were because of a past identity really did end up being a relief, because it was an explanation.

i could go more into this but. this is probably enough for this post.

7. Have they gone through any physical changes? What scars have they collected, and how do they feel about them? Did they sprout horns or other features as a result of spells or pacts gone wrong? How did light corruption impact them? Or have they walked away miraculously unscathed? Are they more peculiar for how eerily unmarred they are?

yes! though not as many as other wols i know. Lelesu obviously gets some minor scarring and things just from a very active combat life, but three of them are important: the first is a long scar down her torso from Zenos in Rhalgr's Reach, where he left her badly enough injured she had to return to Ishgard for several days of recovery. the second is a thin scar across her cheek and lip that Elidibus-as-Zenos gave her in Ghimlyt Dark when she collapsed. the third is probably the biggest one - when she and Corrain fought Zenos again on Ultima Thule, Zenos shatters her glasses and drives shards into her right eye, scarring the skin around it and blinding her. while the chirurgeons and the fast actions of the Scions saved her eye itself, it's gone totally silver from scar tissue.

she does also have some changes from the Light corruption! previously, her hair was black, and she dyed parts of it a pale green, because she thought it looked neat. after the Light cracked her soul, though, parts of her hair bleached pure white, a white that not only continues to grow in but that can't be dyed over. only a few people know the truth of it and that it isn't just a new color trend for her, and she likes to keep it that way, even though she no longer struggles so much with the changes. they were an uncomfortable reminder when she first got them.

she isn't too terribly upset with the scars, thankfully, but she was worried after Ultima Thule that Aymeric would no longer find her pretty - something he quickly reassured her about.

14. Do you have any headcanons for what happened post-Ultima Thule? What kind of injuries did they suffer, or did they walk it off like a boss? Did they take a lengthy vacation, did you shove a time skip in there before 6.1 hit? Or was it quickly off to the next adventure?

oh boy do i! in fact a whole outline section of them! the tldr version is that there are two years between Ultima Thule and taking the boat to dawntrail. during that two years we fit the void arc, pandaemonium, and myths of the realm, as well as Lelesu having her daughter Ismene. she also takes a month or so to recover from the injuries she sustained on Ultima Thule (addressed in the above question), and needs time to rebuild her strength. while she's recovering, she learns pld and adds it and her new weapons to her arsenal.

6.1 begins 3 months after Ultima Thule. both it and 6.2 happen first, and then Lelesu goes back in time while Corrain is still recovering and does p1-p8, working with Themis, Lahabrea, and Erichthonios. the Garlemald/reaper part (this is 6.3 iirc) happens once she comes back to the present, then p9-p12, then the rest of the trips to the Thirteenth and fights and things. all of this together takes about 9 months, meaning that it all settles down again about a year after Ultima Thule. Lelesu spends the next 6 months helping recovered ancients (Emet, Hyth, a resurrected Elidibus and Lahabrea, and a few of the remaining Ascians whom Emet was able to hunt down and cure of tempering) work on plans to build a "New Amaurot" and teach about their history and culture; she gets married to Aymeric and gets involved with our version of myths of the realm here. Corrain is finally able to walk around again, albeit with crutches/cane. ~6 months prior to dt, Lelesu gets stuck on light activity/etc when she finds out she's pregnant, and there's a decent gap of time here where everyone mostly just rests, recovers, maybe travels a little, and things settle down.

Wuk Lamat shows up to ask about the succession rite when Ismene is a month old!