#this wasn't so much as a necromancer specific post so much as it was a general vague wish to see how things could have been different

[anxiously-sidequesting]

are you sure you don't wanna yap about the necromancers some more

LOOKS AT YOU WITH EYES FULL OF TEARS...........

SO LIKE the unserious reason why i don't yap about the necromancers some more is because i don't think i've said anything that already hasn't been said (the unfair treatment that they're subjected to in ravenwood vs. the spiral, how malistaire's actions indirectly made the lives of his students worse/creating or even heightening ambrose's quiet distaste for necromancy, how the narrative ((understandably but unfortunayely)) largely moves past these characters because they're not the focus of the plot, duncan's ENTIRE CHARACTER, etc.) these are all things that I've touched on before and out of fear that i'd repeat myself every few months i just....... sadly put my favorite characters away BUT.... I WILL SAY THIS......

i feel like if wizard101 was a show that didn't have us as the main focus, i feel like it would be super appropriate to have Malorn or Penny or even Marla be in the young wizard's place as the Savior of the Spiral. I feel like the story would only be enriched from a necromancer's perspective; they're the ones more directly affected by pre-arc 1 situations and it would reveal a side to Ambrose that isn't quite highlighted with us because we're a blank slate - not a set character with a set school (like the Death school).

If Malorn was the young wizard that would be..... oh man. In a series where the fictional setting would have more freedom and options to explore itself rather than its game form, i can really see Duncan becoming one of the series' antagonists and being the perfect foil to Malorn. I already talked about this too but these two guys are PERFECT for each other as narrative parallels and focusing on their unique personalities, skill sets, backstories, relationships with each other and the outside world while also highlighting their glaring similarities would be METAL to see on television. Dare I say it will even give Duncan's "gets recruited into the Schism" arc actual substance and justice rather than the "surprise funny bully man from high school is now your plot twist boss fight and you get to see him squirm and cry pathetically after you beat him up!" thing..........

if Malorn WAS the main character i can already see Penny and Marla being supporting characters, maybe like THE three alongside other wizards like CEREN NIGHTCHANT, Susie and Artur/ maybe even throw Nolan Stormgate in there fuck it! But i definitely, DEFINITELY want to see Wizard101's story told through a necromancer's eyes more than anyone else's. There's just more at stake, more to care about, and more to connect with through the hearts and minds of someone under society's proverbial thumb like that

[lady-quen]

Was rambling underneath @thornethenorn 's post and it finally kicked me into gear to design Mael's unique Death Shroud, so thank you dearly for that 🫡

Anyway. I keep saying PoF is where my Comm got a bit canon-divergent, and this is why. I wasn't a fan of how "easy" the ordeal of death and clawing oneself back to life felt in the actual campaign, so I've essentially made his Shroud reflect that, forever. Detail talk below cut!

The open mouth that manifests specifically in Shroud form is actually the same mortal wound Balthazar inflicted on Maelmordha, splitting his entire chest open with his greatsword. The scar runs down from the top of the sternum to the abdomen and serves as a constant reminder of the dire encounter - as well as a conduit for dark powers. Death itself is a necromancer's greatest source of strength, after all - even and especially his own.

The ghastly fangs are a remnant of the Eater of Souls whose life force substitutes the Commander's own - he is using a demon's vital energy to stay alive, so he wraps himself in magical chains in case he were to ever lose control over the magic. He has also gained the ability to manifest weapons from that same creature's essence and likewise uses chains to bind them.

Staying in Shroud for prolonged periods of time tends to be painful due to the enchanted hooks holding his chest open, even if the portal seals itself immediately when the magic is dismissed. However, with harbinger powers, pain itself is also used as a source of energy.

Due to the controversial nature of Commander Maelmordha's magic, only his closest companions in the Pact (and whoever in the future manages to snoop enough - *cough* probably wizards) know its source and nature. Being feared too much isn't great for diplomacy, innit.

[liesmyth]

Your last rb on the John Gaius post how much John is the OPPOSITE of what that reblogger implied. Because like - we rag on him for not using his magical girl powers for C--'s "Good Wizardry", but it's specifically because he *doesn't* want to rely on a new untested "technology". He tries to incorporate it into the old project, make it better, make people trust it and give him money. Slow down the people who are trying to actually do the "promising new technology" bit without proof of concept.

It's "We all came up with trials to figure out what I could do, what I couldn’t do" vs

"...they were taking one discovery and acting like it changed the whole ballgame when really we now needed ten years of funding to discover whether it was any use, i.e., academia functioning as normal."

And I think that's neat, actually.

[post for context]

Ok actually #discourse aside, I think a lot about how John WAS a scientist, and that was the approach he used in his cryo project, and that was ALSO the approach he used when he started displaying magic powers. He tried to do experiments. He tried to make up scientific terms. He tried to write papers.

And nobody would listen and then he had to cosplay a wizard on youtube.

I think about that SO MUCH. Like... I think John never had a high opinion of the "cultists." He's obviously annoyed that one of the first guys who gave them attention was a flat earther. He only started calling himself a necromancer so that people would listen. It was a last resort and personally, I think he wasn't keen on it.

Like... I think John, an educated scientist who has successfully pioneered a potentially revolutionary new technology (the cryo project, not the magic!) AND is also an indigenous man of colour, might have felt some kinda way about putting on a cape and eyeliner and recruiting a gullible cult of followers because he wasn't being taken seriously in ~intellectual circles. I know we make jokes aboout God being a twitch streamer - Taz put that in for a reason! I think it's funny, I think the cult aesthetic is fun, I think the pre-Res gang HAD fun with it, eventually. But I also think that there's a lot to unpack about John going from the lead research on a project that had serious corporate and government backing ("We cannot keep diverting three percent of the country’s electricity to your vats") to putting on a cape for the memes.

Also! You're absolutely right that the FTL fleet IS "the special technology that shows no promise." John, Mercy AND Augustine all it as hooky because it's SO new that it can scale up to what they need, if it even works as advertised. I'm very curious if / how / on which scale it was tested, and I think Augustine was right to suspect that the FTL propulsion was just an initial kick and the fleet was gonna generation-ship it and never come back.

Also speaking of people wanting an "immediate fix" - John also explicitly brings up that some of the cryo project backers nagged at him because they though an imperfect technology was good enough but the team thought the chance of damage was too high, and worked to reduce it.

Like, the whole point of the cryo project is that it worked, but it wasn't an easy fix, it required literally global cooperation, and there was no priority access for first-class passengers.

I am once again pointing a huge neon sign in John's direction that says HE ATE THE SUN!! That's plenty enough! We don't have to directly contradict canon to sue him for ethics breaches.

[hmserebusadjacent]

Beautiful

Thought I would post my own humble fluffy Emmrich x Rook story here too.

Emmrich x Trans Male Rook (Pining, longing, all of that lovely stuff)

A story in which an origami ship is made and two men grapple with the enormity of their feelings for each other.

Word count: 771

AO3 link

“It was the silly dream of a child, I suppose. To run away to sea…”

Rook had thoroughly drifted off into the mists of time, Emmrich could tell. Practised hands carried on folding the paper this way and that without the maker even having to look down to check his workings. The logical part of the necromancer’s mind wanted to study the paper folding so he might perfect the art before giving Rook a ship of his own.

But Emmrich’s heart was already lost in the other details of the man across from him, as it always seemed to be nowadays.

The way Rook used his nail to press the lines on the paper more firmly and flatten them, the subtle colour change at the end of his nails a hidden bloom. The hunch of the assassin’s shoulders but the lack of stress lines around his eyes and mouth, showing the war between his need to relax and his instinct to be on guard. The small little gap between the man’s lips that moved ever so slightly as he breathed in and out…

Emmrich idly wondered if Rook’s lips would feel as soft as he had often imagined they would…

“Still, it was a nice dream to have, even if it was foolish”, Rook whispered, shattering both the quiet moment and the deep concentration Emmrich had been pulled into. It felt like something had been drained out of him but had also been refilled anew during his quiet contemplation, and Emmrich had to resist the urge to sigh almost wistfully.

When he looked up to the assassin’s eyes to find the man looking at his folded boat, the necromancer acquiesced and looked downwards.

The boat was much like the others that Rook had made, with the pleasing little sails and the flap at the back that allowed the ship to stand up. But this particular paper was such a pleasing shade of green that it almost seemed to dance in the firelight, casting its own shadows much like Veilfire does.

“Beautiful”, Emmrich found himself commenting, permitting a warmer smile than perhaps was wise to twist his lips.

When the necromancer looked back up to Rook he was almost startled to see a blush dusting the assassin's cheeks, the man only holding his gaze for perhaps a second before he was looking away. The little cheeky smile that graced Rook's lips and the little cough he let out too in the aftermath had Emmrich's heart rattling out a sudden realisation.

Did Rook want to be described as beautiful? More specifically by Emmrich himself?

Oh shit…

By the time Rook looked back at Emmrich the necromancer was still trying to form words, and even Emmrich himself knew there must be a certain desperation to his gaze. Desperation to cross the gap, to bridge to something wonderful and new and joyously…alive.

What was worse was that Rook seemed equally torn, heart almost certainly racing in his chest over a dilemma that the older man dared to hope might be similar to his own.

Thankfully the assassin saved Emmrich from needing to formulate anything else that night, effectively ending the line of discussion when he gave a little wink and stood up.

“I've taken up enough of your time. I'll leave you to it.”

The assassin's face was still holding some of that desperate hope, creeping out behind the mask of joviality that was trying to stay fixed in place.

Even then, Rook wasn't done with inadvertently playing with the other man's heart, for his shy gesture of holding out the ship was enough to make Emmrich want to swoon.

“For you, if you'll have it.”

With hands that he desperately hoped weren't shaking, Emmrich reached out and plucked the ship from the waiting hands before him. He couldn't help but cradle both of his hands around the ship now as he brought it back to his lap, intent on protecting it like the treasure it was.

“Thank you…”, Emmrich almost whispered, somehow making the moment feel all the more intimate.

Rook merely offered a small bow, letting Emmrich see the smile on his face as he stood back up to his full height and then departed and melted into the shadows.

The moment Rook was out of sight and earshot, Emmrich Volkarin gently placed his head in one of his hands and let out the wanton sigh that had been building inside himself all evening.

“What am I going to do…?”, he whispered under his breath, the usually stoic necromancer lost in the midst of feelings he hadn't felt for nearly thirty years.

[imagineitdearies]

Hello, I really love your fic Perfect Slaughter and it was wonderful to read the last chapter with Tyrus and Astarion finally defeating Cazador. I wanted to ask if you wrote it in advance? Did you knew from the beginning how Tyrus and Astarion would defeat Cazador?

Thank you for creating such a good long story. Some long fics I follow kind of lose the appeal a bit the longer they go on.

But Perfect Slaughter never did, it remained good from the beginning until now and until the last chapter I think :)

Hey morgain, thanks so much!!

I didn't write all of ch38 too far in advance, but I've known some things for a long time. First of all, right before I posted the first chapter of PS late October, besides ironing down my headcanon for what "The Rite of Perfect Slaughter" actually entailed, I'd been throwing around other more D&D-compliant ways for spawn to take down their masters (especially without help), because of course the goal has always been to give Astarion love and happiness 100 years earlier, not give it to him only to rip it away from him 😅 That was when I noted the "Command Undead" feature d&d characters can gain as a 14th level necromancer! From then on, I knew that was going to come into play.

But in February (right around the time I first posted Cazador's monster stats sheet), I was getting ready to roll some dice and realized it wasn't quite poignant and meaningful as it needed to be--sure, there's the moment that I still planned to cover from the game with Tyrus helping Astarion to not choose ascension in the heat of the moment having power over Cazador, but it just wasn't enough! And then I went on a long, inspiring walk and realized halfway through what needed to happen. That they needed to fail one more time, to win not only over Cazador but over his teachings.

More specifically: I made an outline for the climax in December, wrote out the "I'm yours" scene soon after writing its twin (in ch26) in February, and then have been plugging away at it every now and then ever since.

I'm so glad PS has kept up the appeal! It helps I think that I had a lot of this story outlined and a good amount of structure (with the three parts and such) to avoid meandering or losing track of my own plot lol. It's been good practice for novel writing 😊

[paradoxcase]

@turtletotem:

I saw an absolutely fascinating post positing that Cristabel may have been quite a lot like Gideon. You could certainly describe Gideon as joyful, after a fashion, and kind, and definitely a delight in her marvelous way, but also not much of an intellectual. (Smarter than anyone gives her credit for, including herself, but not an intellectual.) They share a certain propensity toward self-sacrifice, too. (continued)

This blew my mind, considering it was nothing at all like the way I had envisioned Cristabel, but it actually does hold up. And explains why Cris's necromancer (prissy and bad-tempered, not unlike our Harrow) loved her so much, and a lot of other people found her annoying.

Yeah, I was sort of thinking that Augustine's description of her called to mind the same kinds of himbo qualities that Gideon has, but I wasn't sure how accurate we could trust Augustine's account to be. Although, I don't think there were really a lot of people who found Gideon annoying? Crux hated her because he perceived her as being treasonous, and Harrow's family was just afraid of her, but other than that most people in Gideon the Ninth actually seem pretty well disposed towards her, with the possible exception of Mayonnaise Uncle, but I honestly can't figure out if he had any particular feelings about Gideon as a person. Jeannemary liked her enough that she specifically sought out her and only one other person out to tell about finding Protesilaus in the incinerator. But I can see how someone like Augustine wouldn't have been fond of her

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

So the holy resurrection Augustine mentions is literally that: those who were the first gen my gods were the first people resurrected by John. They became lyctors a few centuries later. It will be explored 😀

Right, but Augustine is specifically saying here that Cytherea was born long after that happened as a regular person in this world and wasn't resurrected in that sense, so it must mean something different in this context

[magebutts]

I did take notes on the full Q+A because I'm a little freak but I'll simply post some of my favs: (this got really long so under a cut)

there will be a "mysterious entity that assists you" with crafting? (to which the entire chat began screaming "ENCHANTMENT" which seems likely tbh. perhaps we will finally learn the nature of Sandal lmao). It seems like DA:I's version of crafting might be done and instead we'll be given just customization + modifications, but that is entirely my own speculation from subtext + what was and wasn't said

Bellara is a mage

implied that gender + pronoun selection will be separate from each other !!!

when asked about seeing locations that have been sort of veiled in mystery/never seen before, devs said "we're not completely filling out the map; there are new things we can be hinting at and drip-feeding you" so while we will be learning more about the world, there's still even more to uncover we've never seen before possibly

dialogue wheel seems like it will be a mix of previous versions of it; there will be tones, emotions, or more neutral choices. "We want players to understand as much as possible what it is that they're picking."

when asked about Davrin + Bellara's vallaslin, devs said there are a lot of new options for the face markings especially with the new regions. "Each area has its own visual language for that. ... We've customized them, they're a bit more specific to [the character's] personality." I believe that was from Matt Rhodes

just confirmed that the Inquisitor DOES physically appear in game and the customization for them in CC is not just for their choices.

When asked if blood magic will be a class included; "Rook has some pretty good reason to avoid blood magic, they don’t want to be interested in that. ... There is a necromancer class, there is an elemental one, there is a combat mage kind of one” (im guessing the veil being bad and demons and darkspawn being a problem is probably one of the reasons for no blood magic but again im speculating)

Assan is confirmed a very good boy. When asked if we can we pet Assan: “Yes you can. Not even just petting the griffon, I’ve actually hugged the griffon”

Will we get a dog? “Mabari are not very big in Northern Thedas. No, you will not get a mabari sadly”

Someone asked about Barkspawn's fate/current status. "Barkspawn is safely gnawing on a bone next to a fireplace somewhere in Ferelden. 'But John it’s been so long!' Mabari live exactly as long as you need them to."

character creator will get a preview closer to launch, they're working on a roadmap currently

“each lineage, depending on the lineage + bg you choose will have unique callouts” “your experience as a dwarf in the mournwatch will be different to a human or an elf ...giving them each their own little flavor how they fit into that faction as a whole”

Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, first name generator is available in the game if you want to use it.

“companions will take some time away” if you piss them off, but they’ll always be willing to come back to help save Thedas. “they will show up… unless…” ............ can we kill companions???

Who was left in the fade doesn’t show up here/it's not one of the decisions you will be asked to input. “That’s not to say it will never be important in the future, but not in this game” …. More DA games ???? DA5?

[cylisse-ae]

AQW Father's Day 2022 NPC Thread

Alright I'm going to just copy and paste everything verbatim from the twitter thread posted last year for /DreadForest, typos and all. Forgive me and the zilch amount of time I got

Omg all the time I had to censor words like kill and dead cause twitter would shadow ban you:

This isn't a Writer's Thread, just some extras for fun! 90% of the NPCs in the Father's Day release were already characters I had on hand I'll share where they came from as they may not reappear. They're DF Fan-OCs btw so info in the source material is non-canon to DF and AQW

If you've been here a while, you already know the dealio. Most of the one-shot concepts I turn into releases originated as Drakath/Hero Fanfiction. This Father's Day release is different in that the story itself is completely new and based on AQW canon, but includes DF OCs.

Lord Reignolds was originally a side character in the "Frog Fic" iykyk its available to everyone He got a downgrade from Duke to Lord but his abilities as a Necromancer got a boost in exchange to fit his purpose for the Telease. The details of that will be in the Writer's Thread

Within DF (non-canon fanfic, remember that), was a real wuss during the Rebellion. He's too squeamish to ever raise a corpse, and preferred to live quietly and not get himself into any trouble with the new King because of how terrified he is of Alteon

His paranoia is a constant but in the canon of AQW, Lord Reignolds' conspiracy crazy room had basis in fact while DF OC Reignolds was very much off of his rocker

Also in contrast- AQW Reignolds was able to bounce and take Marigold with him before King Alteon could find out about his unlawful activities. DF OC Reignolds was caught by Alteon when Marigold was much younger

As Chaos has no impact or presence in DF, Lord Reignolds did not become a Court Mage so that saved his daughter a lot of heartache DF OC Mari is removed from her father's care by Alteon earlier in her life so she's more expressive whereas her AQW version is sullen

DF OC Reignolds family has an estate where the flowers are care for more than the people who live on his land. And Mari is a curious and active child that has difficulties learning in conventional ways, which drove her Father crazy and made the servants protective of her

Within the "Frog Fic," Alteon puts his crown on the shelf for a moment and makes a decision as a Father. He wasn't comfortable giving custody of Mari to another, potentially opportunistic, noble. Rather, he arranged for Lady Celestia to find a quieter place for her to be raised.

Maybe I'll save the details for AQW Mari for later, since it also goes with what her purpose was for the Release

Moving on to Edward Vaughn who is also a pre-existing character I had on hand who would fulfil the needs for the release. Rather than specifically Ed who was the focus, his family and siblings are the main antags of the "Frog Fic" Ed himself is a special case however.

First though, thank you very much for your kind words! I have a lot of fun with any space I'm allowed to write in, and I find a lot of enjoyment creating scumbags like Ed! Funny you should say no face though

Edward has made no prior appearances in works I've made public. It's his brothers Henry and Richard (who's naming theme is based off of the House of Plantagenet) that are more active than he is as DF OC characters. Rather, Edward is solely an AQW Legion OC originally

Edward's family in general are supporters and big fans of the DF Hero, but are more subtle about their scumminess and deep hatred towards Alteon and the previous King But Ed gets no mention. He was far less subtle, was eventually caught for his crimes, and lost his head to a mob

As an AQW OC, Edward follows the conventions of his family where if they lose their heads, they'll still come back He manages to crawl out of his grave as a headless undead, and falls in with the Legion through unconventional means. None of his peers like him.

If you have something he wants, like gold or a pretty face, he'll act similarly to how he was in the release. But unmotivated, he's a lazy lout, enjoys picking on people weaker than him, and disrespecting his superiors. Idk he, wears a basketball as a fake head during meetings

Worse yet, he's a powerful fighter but will jump ship immediately if there's a paladin, warrior of good, or sweet hearted cleric that's cute around. "Bye guys, I'm a changed man, see you never." 6 months later, Ed comes back, said things didn't work out, does not elaborate.

As for Queen Eleanor and Ophelia, they are also DF OCs which we will have to go back...omg 9 years??? 9 years ago I made my first Modern AU fic that, of course, was Drakath/Hero At the time, I was making up placeholders thinking DF will eventually show Drakath's history.

WELL! 9 years later and here we are, the placeholders are now part of AQW's canon. I did talk with Cray about this and checked in with what AQ was doing. Messaged DF devs as well but didn't get a reply, then got scared, and didn't follow up with them

I promise I'll pull myself together in the future for the sake of AQW's lore quality. Lore is not the same across the AE games but checking in with each other, I feel, would be beneficial to get a robust understanding of characters as well as learn from different perspectives

I'm getting off track lol DF OC Eleanor is the wife of Drakath's father but is not his mother. Her family is affluent, rich, and a favorable marriage candidate. Problem was that she was unable to have children, but couldn't get a divorce because of the public shame.

Eleanor is a name come back to a lot because I really like Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was imprisoned by her 2nd husband (King Henry of England) and set free by her son Richard the Lionhearted. DF OC Eleanor feels that not only is she her husband's prisoner, Dkath is too

(remember this is all fanfic area that I made a long time ago, not canon unless something is expressly stated in-game) DF OC Eleanor holds no ill will towards Dkath, actually has affection for him as a son, and adopts a shivering/angry little dog that reminds her of him.

AQW Queen Eleanor was also married for her status and wealth. When Dethrix I successfully found and made a Vessel, he had her k*lled and framed it to look like she passed during childbirth. That way, there would be less suspicion on Dkath's origins

As for DF OC Ophelia, she was a teenage runaway who was too ashamed to return to her awful family when she realized that getting by on $200 she stole from her mom wasn't possible Eventually she finds work as a maid for Eleanor, but runs away when she realizes she's with child.

DF OC Ophelia is a scared, self-loathing person that makes big lies about how amazing, smart, and pretty she is. It's a way to force herself to get to that level, and eventually make those lies true. Fake it till you make it. Unfortunately, she's very unlucky.

Anyone named Ophelia is in danger of that cause of Bill the Bard, doomed to unfortunate and lonely ends which is why I have an affection for the name. DF OC Pheli would be a tool for her parents to gain wealth, wanted love but was only given fake affection if she was useful

She believes herself to be ugly, dull witted, and clumsy. A lonely and drab wreck that you'd have to put up with instead of want to be around. Having Dkath was actually a big turning point in her life, she cared for him a lot, and her life was a lot happier for a little while.

Then Dethrix's men found and threatened Ophelia into giving Drakath up. She only complied knowing that Dethrix was going to pass the baby off as his and his real wife's son. That way, he'd get to live like a Prince instead of having a cardboard box as a cradle.

After that, she fades into obscurity, once again alone in the world. In contrast to Drakath, she's a noble person in the ways of the heart but is invisible to others because of her poverty and unfortunate situation in life No one will notice or care if something happens to her

Meanwhile, no one will care if something happens to Drakath because he's a pathetic loser (Affectionate) Anyways, me and my friends joke that Drakath is cute while his dad looks like he spent too long in an air frier so we attributed Dkath's good looks to his unknown mother

That's how DF OC Ophelia, and now AQW Ophelia, came to be as a concept. She originally was a woman with black hair and pink irises but for AQW, they're green to better show the blood link to her son.

Bill is a completely new character for AQW, and softened things for AQW Ophelia. In the original concepts, he never existed so Ophelia really was all on her own. He could have been named Laertes but that's too on the nose and noble sounding. Bill is more down to earth sounding

That turned into a long but fun thread for me to make

This is all early concept/fanwork stuff outside of the context of AQW If you read this far,thanks for reading and I hoped you found stuff interesting! The Writer's Thread with Lore confirmations will be up on Monday

[shivasdarknight]

ask 2 of 3

12. How has their job affected whatever headcanon version is of the MSQ if any? 

{original question collection post - curious about anything else?}

Quite a lot, actually! Especially with regards to public image and how playing specific roles led to certain things happening.

For reference, here's what the four are classed as:

Surkukteni: LNC>DRG - ROG (ARR, only actual class as ROG isn't used seriously); DRG - RDM (post ARR); DRG - DRK/MCH/AST/RDM (HVW, DRG is still main class while the others are still being learned/use sparingly); DRG > DRK - MCH/RDM/DRG/AST (post HVW-SHB, DRK becomes main class); DRK - MCH/RDM/DRG/AST/WAR (post SHB, WAR is from Ardbert); DRK + RPR - MCH/RDM/DRG/AST/WAR/MNK (ENW, other things are mixed in); DRK+RPR+MNK+DRG - MCH/RDM/AST/WAR (post ENW)

Gwendoline: CNJ>WHM* - THM>BLM/ACN>SMN/SCH (ARR, only plays role of WHM and rest are...curiosities); WHM* - BLM/SMN/SCH (post ARR, other jobs see use but still WHM main); WHM*+MCH - BLM/SMN/SCH (HVW, basically just carries a gun on her now); WHM*+MCH+BLM+SMN - SCH (STB-post ENW, she's now figured out how to multi class and has become obnoxious about it)

*SHE'S A NECROMANCER.

Teodore: BLM - WHM/SCH/SMN/SGE (ARR-HVW, needs...a lot of explanation); BLM+SCH - SMN/SGE/WHM (post HVW-SHB); BLM+SCH+WHM - SMN/SGE (post SBH-post ENW)

Seraphin: GLD > PLD* (ARR, has been a GLD for a while); PLD* - RDM (post ARR, very serious about this); PLD* - RDM/MNK (HVW-post HVW, actively working on the latter); PLD*+RDM - MNK (STB-post ENW, MNK is more of an outlet than anything)

*He was not trained by the Sultansworn and is more of a rogue PLD, more below

The in depth stuff is below :3c

So each WoL has gone through ig a redefining of what each of their roles mean to them and the party, especially as they grow as adventurers and are confronted with things that don't particularly mesh with their preconceptions - with the exception of Teodore, but there's a reason there. Surkukteni sees the most change, Seraphin Teodore honestly sees the least out of them despite Seraphin only maining two classes - but Seraphin's two classes matter a Lot to him.

Let's start with Surkukteni.

The entire reason why she started with LNC was because it was what her captain Kitase was familiar with, and thus she was taught it. So she does not go to Ywain with no experience and instead comes in with naginata experience. Between her bullheadedness and leftover training from a former Doman soldier (plus her siding with Foulques), it makes early ARR!Surkie very prone to resisting teaching from Eorzeans. She picks up ROG more as a side gig than anything (which many of the skills from that will become useful), but her being an obnoxious 20something is what gets her thrown into Coerthas. Ywain sent two potential candidates to Alberic when the request was put through: Lillith (the genuine one, because he wasn't aware this was a way to shove accountability onto a foreigner) and Surkukteni (who he wanted to see broken by the much more rigid training structure of the Dragoons). This leads to confusion as to who the Eye picked between the two, but unfortunately for Ywain, the better candidate was Surkukteni - entirely because. I mean she's fucking based on Vergil Sparda while Lillith is a goody-two-shoes butch who just wants to find his dad (because ofc he does, he was a Lone Wanderer with the highest possible good karma originally); of course Surkie's the better candidate. So this bleeds into the public image of the Warrior of Light as "the Azure Dragoon Cloaked in Ivory," in part because she shifted from the "obnoxious greaser/biker in all black leather" to the white uraeus overcoat she began to favor in part because it made it easier to jump people from above (same logic as to why so many birds and fish have darker backs but lighter bellies), but also because she's an edgy bitch it's just flipped for her (she was a Borlaaq who are devoted to Nhaama and have the dark color scheme of black/purple/blue+some reds, and was raised in Hingashi by a Doman; she views dark colors as the more virtuous stuff because of Nhaama, but because of that same belief + Doman and Hingan ones, white is more associated with death. She's conscious of how Nhaama's colors are used, so she's openly edgy with both but Eorzeans didn't get the white association so it peters off eventually). So DRG became Surkukteni's identity as a Warrior of Light, and it influenced initial stuff with Ishgard more favorably...at first. It was at first, it doesn't really last because this is while Surkukeni's still under the hyur glamour and only Alberic (and Estinien, actually) know that she's an au ra.

During post-ARR, Surkukteni (and Seraphin) meet X'rhun - and because he's met prior to Stormblood, his offer to train them is more based in what he sees immediately. Yeah, he knows that the two are Warriors of Light, but he's more interested in their character and how they respond immediately. While Surkukteni is at her most obnoxious and sardonic, he extends the offer to her and this matters a lot because it's him extending her a courtesy she's never gotten before. She's outwardly auri at this point, but she's more surprised he's willing to work with her given her extremely volatile and powerful aether. She was rejected from every guild on the grounds of her being a liability to herself and those around her, so having someone be willing to slow down and work with her based on her needs? Yeah, it catches her off guard and it allows her to begin to learn magic through red magic. This is her first teacher since Kitase to actually care to teach her from the get go (Alberic doesn't count, it took a while for the priority to shift) and she ends up very close to the guy just because he took the time to meet her where she was at and help her grow into her style of red magic (which leans more into her Dominants (ice/levin/water) than the standard stuff). This nets her an ally in the Crimson Duelists, and becomes important down the line.

DRK becomes the most important aspect of Surkie's classes even if it's not her main one in HVW. She gets through the intro stuff very quickly, but the important impact is the fact that she's taken to getting rid of Temple Knights since nothing seems to come of their horrific acts against Brumites. That opening scene gets amplified as yeah remember the skills from ROG? They apply here now plus the little caveat that DRK is yes Dark Knight, but she's more of a Demon Knight. Surkukteni has a voidsent pact at this point with a Hellhound by the name of Sétanta, and in combination with her hyur glamour from ARR, the rumors of a "heretic in indiscernible armor that's as likely to maim you by sword as they are to maim you by devil" begin to circulate like wildfire and this gets back to Surkie through Aymeric. She was doing odd jobs in a sense for Aymeric with Estinien while her allies were caught up and not allowed in (gee it's like one of them was caught in the act of working with necromancy or something), so she does a lot of random stuff around Central and Western Coerthas along with the Sea of Clouds. It's during one of the meetings where they're going over recent heretical activity and attacks that Aymeric lets slip that there's been an increase of Temple Knight deaths from within the city. Estinien, to no one's surprise, is pretty pissed about it and assumes that some heretic must have slipped past their grasp - but he's mostly worried about how this is going to reflect onto Aymeric. So he's not catching onto what Aymeric sees, and that's the fact that Surkie keeps coming into meetings with injuries that don't line up with how easy these jobs were - and how much it isn't like her to be getting into petty fights (this was the only thing he misread about the situation - that was her excuse because she's picked so many fucking fights). What led him to this assumption was: the fact that the blood that he saw on her was weirdly dark, much like the fouled blood rumored of Dark Knights; she was seen more around Sidurgu; and she's the only one he knows of with a glamour that can mask traits like horns and tails. So after the meeting talking about the new Dark Knight, he asks her to deliver a letter to someone working on the Dark Knight case, which is so fucking obviously bait. Surkie tries to not fall for the bait, but it gets at her anyways and she opens up the letter to find a list of names and an already signed envelope addressed to Aymeric, so clearly meant for return. Against her better judgement, she investigates the names and finds them all to be Temple Knights? And each has done something pretty reprehensible, but she's pretty sure this must be some trap. But again, against her better judgement she hunts them all down because she doesn't want to allow them the free reign they already have since someone down the line of command is openly covering for them and against Aymeric's orders - which is almost definitely motivated by who he is. She delivers a "letter from Camp Cloudtop", and is handed one that's "for Falcon's Nest". She's well and truly been found out, but this goes on back and forth through HVW until she gets a letter asking her to come to his home in civilian clothing so they may discuss a more sensitive job in person. AND SHE STILL DOES IT, she still shows up and this is when they're finally on an upfront basis of what these jobs are and who's who and it's also where he admits to the fact that he's trans and these next names were extremely sensitive because they were people who were onto him and they needed differing levels of dealing with. So while HVW is going on, Surkie's got this whole fucking side job where she's acting as Aymeric's hitman and getting that much closer with him - and part of what let him know what was up was because Sidurgu's his ex, so he was already familiar with this. So when she's finally working with her allies again and they start seeing the DRK stuff slip in, they're all extremely confused because Surkie just seemingly pulled this out of her ass.

HVW is where it really gets messy. As the other Azure Dragoon, Surkukteni initially gets a few more privileges in regards to Ishgard than the others - to where she's the only one of the group who's initially allowed into the city (along with Alphinaud and Tataru, since they were vulnerable). She's still there on the graces of House Fortemps, but most of this is carried on her title. HOWEVER. This immediately backfires with the heresy charges and the trial by combat, in which she is now landed with Significantly more charges than the others - including those who are still trapped in Camp Dragonhead - by virtue of the fact that they were expecting a Highlander and they got an a 6'1" auri bitch. Instead of seeing it for what it was, they saw it as her revealing her heretical nature to get access to one of the most vaunted positions within the military and to destroy it from the inside out. Because of fucking course. Obviously, she wins but this haunts her during the limbo of trying to get her party into the city (because even the others like W'khittri and her siblings are stuck). She's trusted by the likes of Aymeric, Lucia, Estinien, and Handeloup since they know better, but the general populace just saw her for what happened in the trial by combat - so all of that capital she could've used as the Azure Dragoon doesn't work as well because they see her as the assumed-heretic Azure Dragoon. So it's during this limbo that she goes and tries to find things to occupy herself with and it results in being dragged off the street by Jannequinard and being taught astromancy. She tries to argue that it won't work, but he won't hear it and she learns anyways - mostly from Leveva, but y'know. Yes, the tarot and star stuff becomes a way for her to connect with an aspect of her home culture, but mostly she connects with this due to the secret fate stuff going on. This - however - isn't really applicable to HVW's story; instead, it's the gd butterfly wing flap turned into a hurricane that bites them in the ass in post SHB. What does matter is when she went to go investigate a body in the Brume and wound up with a lot of trauma.

But this is also where her connection with being a Dragoon was shattered, as she began to view it as something frankly horrific because of what her role was in the Dragonsong War, how close she got to Ysayle, and then everything at the end. The shift to DRK was already happening since Seraphin was injured pretty badly and needed to back off but also because Surkie was disgusted by what she had done to get there. The hard shift came when Nidhogg - with Gae Bolg - injured her so severely that she couldn't keep up with it. She tried one last time at Rhalgr's Reach, but by then that was that. She gave up the lance in favor of a claymore because she was too physically injured to keep up and Zenos had shattered the spear tied to her identity. Sure, she kept up with the other classes and being a RDM gave her some advantage with the Resistance and working with X'rhun advanced some of her other studies, but at this point that image of the Azure Dragoon Cloaked in Ivory was gone. Unable to continue in that class and having it thoroughly ruined by its history, she fell hard into DRK and found that her shit mood only helped fuel it (NOT A GOOD THING). Her inability to continue as a DRG was something that wound up coloring how she interacted with Estinien during the Steppe stuff for drg70, especially since the final nail was Zenos' fault. RDM70 gave her the three scars over one eye, her work with X'rhun and the side trip to the Steppe wound up with this spur the moment idea that WORKS and that's sending the teenaged Borlaaqi with the potential for red magic to be trained by him, which built interest and thus more people getting involved in the revival in Ala Mhigo but also it fostered good relations between the two groups, some of the Borlaaqi stayed as Crimson Duelists, while others took the magic back to the Steppe to work with it further. So now there's just a bunch of deadly teenagers with foreign magic that are gonna be so obnoxious during the Naadam.

It's more that the lack of being a DRG is what impacts Surkie through everything. She didn't get the chance to redefine it in the way Estinien managed to since she's unable to keep up. She leaned further and further into DRK, especially as breakdown after breakdown and pain over seeming to lose Ysayle gave her a fragile yet extremely potent form of power through the class itself. And through SHB, this was how Norvrandt was introduced to their Warrior of Darkness, which fit all too well and kinda had her spiralling. Dark Knight has resulted in Esteem acting as someone who can talk for her and talk her through stuff, Esteem is now actively recognized by the Scions and people she works with. Esteem is as apart of MSQ as much as regularly recurring non-Scion npcs tbh.

Post SHB is where AST comes back to bite Surkie in the ass because Werlyt and Zadnor are heralded by the addition of a new party member: Krystsyng. Who they are quick to discover (thanks to Teodore) is an agent of the Forum sent to hunt down Leveva and her pupil. And Krystsyng figured out Surkie quick, and so there is a running plot up until half way through Endwalker of trying to deal with the fact that the Forum didn't let up like they said they would, and Krystsyng would see Surkie dead. ...Until she's called off and now she's just this menacing neutral figure that is way too friendly with them, but that's for post ENW.

.............surkies class situation is messy anyways

MNK is tacked on as something for Surkie's recovery period between 5.55 and 6.0, since this is when she has the twins. She picks it up to stay active early on, but W'khittri helps her get more into it post-delivery to help her get back up on her feet and maybe help her get back into DRG. It's a bonding activity between Surkie and her sister's girlfriend, and while she doesn't fully class as it, fundamentals are now incorporated into her other classes. This is also when she summons Diarmuid Ua Duibhne as her Reaper contract. This part is crucial because of how it ties back to Donovich, Saoirse, and even Ammut. Diarmuid is 13th Estinien, aka Donovich; Donovich was the younger brother of Cylva, and a close companion to Saoirse; Saoirse is 13th Surkie who is now the Morrigna; Ammut (Surkie's previous life) was executed by Amon with Diarmuid, and now Surkie is using Diarmuid as her voidsent. Beyond it affecting her combat, she has now thrown herself into a further chaotic situation with Fandaniel and Tiamat, and it makes Fandaniel more of an antagonist than Zenos just by the virtue of her being Ammut and seeming to just drag up everyone from that past. Diarmuid is equally as much of an involved character as Esteem, and if she hadn't summoned him she might have just died in the void. He fused with her to get her back to the Ragnarok in time (not the canon stuff by any means) and so now RPR has evolved in a sense because she's now half Voidsent. She's got a deeper connection with 6.X, she has more direct info about the turf wars, she's now a direct target because of who she fused with (ty Saoirse, you're so fkn helpful), all of the trial fights have been 1v1s because of RPR stuff, and in order to even have that contract to begin with Surkie had to swear to work on restoring the 13th, which was already in the plans. She does start to get DRG back, and putting an end to Zenos does help her start to work through things, but what really marks her shift in attitude is that her relationship with being a Dark Knight has finally and firmly reoriented itself away from trauma and more towards keeping her loved ones safe. Because she went from "messy relationship with friends/co-workers she's sure would abandon her + messy sibling relationship = feels alone constantly" to "she suddenly has a lot of romantic partners, three of which are her fiances, and also she's a parent now??" very quickly. And it forced her to reconcile quickly so she could be more self sustainable and get her priorities straight.

so like the gist of it is that the DRG>DRK pipeline was Surkie learning that her original goals were very off (she sought power; she needed agency) and the way it affects msq is that it's the tangible mark of her growth as a person and how she's really grown for the better. Her classes are more of how she's viewed, but some - like RDM, AST, MNK and DRK - have led her to forge deeper bonds and allegiances with others as well as create powerful enemies that won't leave her alone lmao

More than anything, her spells allow her to not only gain a better understanding of people and how the world works - driving her through her own curiosity - but it also backfires in that she's constantly getting into hot water over the legality of her studies. And she wouldn't want it any other way because she loathes the fact that stuff (like phytomancy) is illegal for deeply petty reasons. It allows her to shift into working with the alchemists of Radz-at-Han, it gives her a place at the Great Work, and she's one of the people who helped develop a vessel for Venat after Endwalker to keep her around. She wants to keep challenging what people understand and think of magic while simultaneously redefining stuff that has been scorned. Her classes are her story, and they both help and hurt msq because she's stubborn and she's the fucking necromancer.

Onto Gwendoline.

Gwendoline's relationship with classes and MSQ is interesting because her entire reason for hiring Surkukteni in the first place was a scapegoat and alibi should she get caught in her studies. She's a very skilled CNJ and ALC from the get-go, but she prioritizes necromancy, some aspects of voidsent summoning, and eventually white magic, black magic and other banned magicks. She has a very antagonistic relationship with magical law, will not shut up about it, and will not stop breaking said law because she has a personal vendetta against it for very valid reasons. Part of what allowed her to become a skilled CNJ was the fact that she is a chirurgeon for a medical underground in Gridania that takes in people that are shunned by the Guild and any healers. This means poachers, outcasts, and most notably (and importantly) refugees. She knows from intimate experience with various magicks and these groups that most of the arbitrary bans are hurting more than helping and she refuses to fall in line with them. Her entire interaction with MSQ is causing problems with her classes to challenge their very bans because she's VERY cocky and she would love to try and see someone stop her.

She views necromancy as an extension of her conjury, especially since it's helped her expand her abilities in ways that include stasis and other forms of preservation to keep someone at the state they're in so that they don't run out of time. Over the course of ARR, she picked up what magicks she could for the sake of learning, and wound up falling deeply into black magic and summoning to a degree, but mostly to see how she could implement them into her already expansive abilities.

Yeah she's a lot like Y'shtola in this regard it's no wonder they're together. It also makes it very obvious as to why she works so well with Teodore, later Katsuro, and then later also gets with Nidhana: she values intellectual curiosity and this is how she navigates her own jobs. They're useful tools, but she sees them as something for her to tinker with and expand beyond what the nations allow. It's through this that she revives phytomancy to a degree (which is something I came up with; it's a nymian attempt at replicating white magic that has vestigial spells in arcanima through bio and all the other spells) because it's through phytomancy that they bring back the "graft" spell to aid in Surkukteni's recovery from Nidhogg, then implement it on a wider scale since its use as temporary flesh could save a lot of lives that current healing magic can't address.

Teodore's main proficiency is Black Magic, and a lot of his studies are looking into the classical spells of Mhachi mages and trying to figure out if they've documented everything that was available. While he was in Sharlayan, he used to cycle through jobstones due to the fact that each one held various experiences and often very different spells depending on the original user and what point in the 5th era they were from. This work has manifested in what was originally a very middling stone from the 5th era that wasn't anything special being used as his stone and a culmination of his research. So while it wasn't really anything better than a paper weight, it now contains a plethora of spells from across the reign of Mhach that range from "vestigial black magic in thaumaturgy" to "spells that were likely only used by the likes of Shatotto or other mages of legend or infamy". His goal through ARR - and this influences where they go and what they're involved in - is to create stones that act as an entire database of Black Magic, which is then applied to all of his other stones - with WHM and SCH having fairly high priorities. He maintains SMN as a way to see if he can manifest egis separate from the usual affair - especially with that known limit of 3 egis + demi- summons - which again leads the group down some weird diversions into what primals he wants to seek out. SGE is the only one that's not for research purposes as that's actually his stone. It's what he learned prior to getting into magical history, preservation, and experimentation. Like Gwen, he inherently challenges the idea of why these things are banned...but unlike Gwen, he's not keen on breaking the law that lets him have this power because he genuinely cares about preservation! It's just he can't do that preservation if everything is dead!! So yes, Sharlayan comes up quite a lot because he's in a lot of shit - politically and academically - for getting involved in Eorzea's business. His ability to be in Eorzea as a Black Mage is tied together, and he ends up developing more spells as time goes on just by virtue of that adventuring. So yeah he's another problem in that he's using illegal magicks like Gwen, but he's also breaking Sharlayan law like Surkie and that has consequences later into the story.

Teodore is a lot like Gwendoline in the regard that his magic directly correlates with his story. He's the only one of the group who openly wields 3rd and 5th era magic without being apart of the guilds initially. The reason being is that he's a fairly renowned experimental magician - a sage in the classic FF sense and not the XIV sense - and has all of these jobstones on loan from the Forum for his research on the condition he doesn't meddle in local politics.

That condition was long broken and he hasn't obeyed it since the fight with Ifrit.

And finally, onto Seraphin.

What's funny about Seraphin is that his main class doesn't have as much impact on story as his side class ends up having. Seraphin is a gladiator to make money for his family; he is also one of the best on the Bloodsands as of ARR, but he doesn't enjoy it which is what leads to the bodyguard work and why he and Teodore got caught in the Ifrit bullshit when they weren't involved with MSQ prior to it. If anything, Seraphin didn't want to be involved in MSQ because he was still a gladiator and he still needed to support his family first and foremost. But as he was exposed to the Scions and the state of things outside of it, his goals started to get lofty - especially with regards to the liberation of Ala Mhigo and getting his family back to their homeland. Which is why even if he is a canon Paladin, he is not a sultansworn. One of the problems through ARR is how the party deals with Ul'dah and its governing bodies, and beyond what I already said about Little Ala Mhigo and the Amalj'aa in that other answer, a sticking point is the fact that Seraphin is hired to take down a rogue Paladin, but ends up joining him instead. This is someone who's well versed in the old practices and is more in line of the morality of what Paladin should be, instead of just a cop for the Sultana and Syndicate. Seraphin holds an illegal jobstone, and this is frequently used against him as they try to work with the Grand Companies - and he doesn't like any of this! He tries to keep his head down to not draw attention by the Brass Blades or Immortal Flames, yet now he's embroiled in this nonsense because he wanted to do the right thing. It means that every interaction with Ul'dah is made significantly harder because an Ala Mhigan Duskwight refugee is embarrassing the Sultansworn through outperforming them, is working with someone who broke from them to begin with, and is aiding the local tribes. Frankly, they don't even need to do the false regicide plot (even though they do) because they were already building a case against Seraphin prior to being named Warrior of Light. Branching out and learning from Ishgardian Paladins (another state institution, he doesn't stick around with them) and even from Skuld (who is a ~120yo Sharlayan Paladin trying to get that part of herself back) lets him figure himself out and what Paladin means to him, and it sort of ends up a blend of Cloud's initial energy in ff7 to something more like Cecil after he ditched the dark knight stuff and became a paladin in ff4. It's not state affiliated, it's entirely morality driven, and it's the other side of the coin to Surkie as a Dark Knight because it's doing the right thing For The Sake of doing the right thing on a very wide scale vs doing the right thing to protect those closest to you. Like Surkie, this becomes tied to his identity; and like Surkie, he suffers a grievous wound that makes it difficult to keep up (Fenrir mauled his leg in Snowcloak) so he shifts to two things to help with recovery.

MNK and RDM mean a lot to Seraphin due to their connections back to Ala Mhigo, but RDM means the most to Seraphin. MNK is an outlet for him that he initially picked up from W'khittri (like Surkie) but continued to train in it with the likes of Widargelt and Lyse as something to keep his mind off of the stress of Stormblood and potentially losing his homeland to the Garleans again since shit was looking bad. He doesn't really use it in serious combat and just handles it as a social thing - not that it doesn't help with the others, he just doesn't main class it like W'khittri.

RDM is the one that has a lot of importance due to the fact that he grew up on stories of the Crimson Duelists and really admired them, and now he's working directly with X'rhun. Where Surkie goes off to utilize that to learn how to better manage her aether while making connections elsewhere, Seraphin is the one to work directly with X'rhun to build the Crimson Duelists back up with members of the Resistance and help train them. He does this, in part, through the Doman half of Stormblood since he's in Gyr Abania then, but building up a new faction of Crimson Duelists is something he works on while X'rhun continues to travel to see if he can help others. This means there's a fair group by Endwalker to help with things, and this means he has an outlet during post Endwalker and something to occupy himself after the "disbanding" of the Scions. When I said that this has the most story impact, I mean it in the sense that the most changes because now there is a fairly strong revival of the Crimson Duelists compared to the handful of practitioners as seen in canon. PLD has a lot of consequences early on, but it's more personal stuff for Seraphin; RDM, however, now has an entirely new dynamic and function within MSQ because he is one of the people working to revive the spellcraft. He's also the only one of the group who's not immediately torn into by Sharlayan, and frankly they want to see if he or X'rhun would be down to help archive what they know of the magic and what Seraphin (and Surkie, tbh) have developed beyond its standard teachings. There are way more Red Mages in this version of MSQ - and a VERY diverse group of them, btw - than in canon as Seraphin doesn't want to let this die. This is a part of his identity and it's a facet of reclaiming part of what Garlemald destroyed by working on this facet of restoration.

And that's.

That's a lot but that's it! :D

god help me.

[cryingeevee524]

ok i'm gonna address some points made in the tags first off yes i know, a necromancer who has proper training and a fancy degree can prepare a zombie in such a way that it won't rot but i think it's STILL inferior to a skeleton, for one something that i wanted to mention (but didn't wanna take up too much space for) on top of zombies rotting and such all that meat and flesh and organs weighs it down, and SLOWS it down, sure again, you can prepare it so that it won't do that but that is the time and effort you should be spending on something much stronger and more specific than a zombie!

also as someone in the tags brought up skeletons can be easily put back together and with the right spell can even do it themselves, so they can often be more effective even if you do choose to use them as soldiers.

that same person however brought up a great point that i didn't consider, in the heat of battle against some adventurers or whatever it SHOULD be more than enough to raise their fallen as zombies since you don't really have the time to produce anything greater, anything to bolster your number and make them have to fight what used to be their partners. however this post wasn't about that, it was about as a go to undead, use them for everything.

i know it's super easy to just raise a zombie but c'mon. just prepare a skeleton ONCE and then they can do any more prep, besides, if you're getting your bodies a little less than fresh there's usually not all that much to remove in the first place. just 2 or 3 skellies manually prepped and you're on pace for about 10 or 20 the skeletons strip of flesh and guts, that's a whole tower's worth!

i ALSO cannot stress enough how valuable the flesh abomination is, seriously, it's a lot of work and may be difficult to find good parts but here's the thing right? listen close... you can use the parts from anything. yeah! go for bears, relatively low level while still having real strong bits for you to take.

i can't see why anyone would choose zombies over skeletons as minions. sure, zombies can usually take a couple more hits but neither of these are front line soldiers! they're SERVANTS and lemme tell ya, zombies are TERRIBLE servants. for one the smell is AWFUL and it spreads EVERYWHERE as flesh falls off and leaves a trail wherever they've been, secondly they're WORTHLESS at servant work! "oh minion, could you pass me the forbidden book? yes, the blood magic one" congratulations! ancient secrets have been smeared and ruined from zombie residue! "oh minion, cook me a meal would you?" you WILL get several diseases. "minion, sweep the halls, they're quite dirty" it will be DIRTIER than when it started. the only thing they have over skeletons is you only need one to carry something heavy meanwhile you need 3 or 4 skeletons for the same job. but THAT'S WHY WE HAVE THE FLESH ABOMINATIONS! carefully cleaned and prepared as to not rot, choice pieces expertly stitched together for strength, and SUPER customizable! save yourself the pain and strip all the flesh and organs and whatnot and just raise that corpse as a skeleton.

[dintheanxious]

Din rambles about rp [Licorice Cookie] (Really long post)

Like I said in my Vampire Cookie post: Cookie Run does the thing I like where they give you a character, a basic personality and an idea of a backstory and then let you run with it. Though, when I rp Cookie Run I usually make them humans to be

yknow, less weird when they bang bc idk how that would work.

So I give them names, places of origin, (even doing a bit of extra world building myself), and families.

Licorice is more complex than Alchemist and Vampire so I'll try to be coherent for once in my life

Name and hcs below!

Name:

Latin Fawn Edwards. I honestly cannot give you a legitimate reason for his name, but I can give a reason for the name he introduces himself as: Lich

Which isn't even as in depth as my last post. It's just in reference of a necromancer specifically the Lich from Adventure Time because I think that Licorice would think it's a cool sounding name.

Basic Hcs:

I love Licorice Cookie so I got a damn list of these.

Bisexual Demiboy with he/they pronouns

Lich is about 23 years old, not a huge hc but just starting off small

He also claims to be a Scorpio because it sounds cooler, but that unravels when you find out his birthday is in early September (Virgo)

Story Hcs:

Lich wasn't intended to pursue magic since the Licorice tribe wasn't as magically educated as the Coffee one, so not only did he not receive the recognition he deserved most people didn't know how to give him that recognition or just didn't care. His parents were in the latter group.

It's hard to get him to even ADMIT that he was from such an "embarrassing" place and will claim he's from Magic City.

What actually happened was: one day to show off how powerful he was, Lich brought a dead cotton candy lamb back to life.

At first, it was finally enough to get him some recognition, with a little more work the tribe would be able to bring all their late livestock back to life and benefit from it!

That was until that lamb began to cannibalize the other sheep and had to be put down.

That was what ran Lich out of the tribe by pretty much everyone who could.

Cold and alone, Lich tried to find his way to the Coffee tribe or Milk tribe but got lost. The blizzard was getting stronger and Lich began to give up. However, Dark Enchantress saw the previous events and appeared from the snowy winds with a grin. She offered Lich a home, but more importantly... recognition. She praised Lich for his efforts and for being able to reverse the seemingly permanent.

Lich ate this up and quickly joined Dark Enchantress in her cause.

Other Hcs:

Lich is absurdly attracted to things/people that could kill him. Meaning he's most definitely attracted to Dark Choco, Red Velvet, and Black Raisin.

Though, he says it's because he finds power arousing he also wants a significant other who can protect him when he's weak. This he doesn't even admit to himself.

Wears light clothes under his robes, imagine walking around in black robes in the middle of summer. Especially robes that thick.

Lich sews, there is nothing else to mention. Just that he sews.

His necklace of skulls isn't real. This would be obvious to most, but not to Poison Mushroom (who I hc as someone who likes to collect random ass things) when they bring Lich the skull of a still decomposing animal they found. They said that maybe he could make a ring or something out of it since he makes jewelry out of bones and Lich just awkwardly disposed of it once they left.

Lich fucking LOVES horror movies but is prone to nightmares if he finds one that actually scares him good. One of the first movies that could make him that bad was when he was a kid and watched the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD.

At his current age, the only movies that freak him out are the kinda movies you'd find on Tier 3 and lower on the Disturbing Movie Iceberg. Don't ask him about it, he's still traumatized and it still makes him nauseous.

He also loves true crime, but can't stand torture cases. Even a necromancer like him wouldn't keep a living being alive just to cause it pain... the dead don't count, they can't really feel anymore.

His kind of magic needs to get living energy from somewhere to give to the dead. While most necromancers would sacrifice animals, Lich can't make himself do that so he uses his own living energy... that and if he finds an animal in pain and feels like he should put it out of its misery. The energy is then sucked into his scythe and can be used to reanimate the dead.

Meaning the more Lich does this, the more it slowly kills him.

The dead don't need much, just a drop of life (hell you can even recycle their own living energy as long as the body is still fresh). So it's not like it will kill him in one shot, however, he doesn't expect to see his 30th birthday considering that he's coughing up blood.

Bugs can count, but it's just a pain in the ass and if the dead need just a drop bugs provide like less than even a tenth of that energy

the amount of life energy a being has varies depending on many factors, just know that a healthy adult human can supply enough energy for THOUSANDS of reanimated corpses.

I couldn't find anywhere else to put this but bondage and knifeplay are *chefs kiss* to him

[dude1818]

I posted 755 times in 2021

53 posts created (7%)

702 posts reblogged (93%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 13.2 posts.

I added 441 tags in 2021

#tlt - 138 posts

#pokemon - 95 posts

#dungeon meshi - 53 posts

#dnd - 36 posts

#arcane - 31 posts

#mtg - 20 posts

#the locked tomb - 19 posts

#the boys - 19 posts

#lotr - 17 posts

#gideon the ninth - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#one of the players asked the moon phase question and the dm spent several minutes trying to do the math based on the established calendar

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I made this

24 notes • Posted 2021-01-08 17:46:32 GMT

#4

Gideon the Ninth was free on Tor's website last week, so I finally got around to reading it. I knew it was "good" just based on how much I've seen @deliverusfromsburb post about it, but I did not realize how much it was exactly the kind of hard fantasy/soft sf that is my jam.

Fortunately I hadn't seen any real spoilers going in. Basically all I knew was:

At least one necromancer

Sci-fi enough to take place across a whole stellar system

Lesbians? I think that was this series

The next book is called Harrow the Ninth, so obviously she survives

One major plot point for a later book

Detailed spoilery thoughts under the cut.

I knew the elevator pitch for the series was "necromancers in space," but I was wholly unprepared for the sheer scale of the Necromancy Religion that serves as the driving force for the entire series. That's very cool. The metaphysics behind it also seems pretty thought out, which I appreciate.

The writing style throughout was extremely good. It feels like a great modern Shakespeare adaptation: mostly this extremely formal register, with Gideon dropping f-bombs or memes with perfect comedic timing. I was enraptured. Even the diagetic reports and author's notes at the end were engaging.

The direction of the story flowed nicely. There were times where I could tell a twist was coming, but there was enough up in the air that how it was specifically resolved was still fun. (Take notes, Marvel.)

I think the biggest twist I didn't see coming, and actually pulled me out of the story a bit, was what happened to Harrow's parents. Obviously we find out that they're secretly dead very early on, but there's clearly a note of something left unsaid. I assumed that Harrow murdered them in cold blood to seize the throne of the Ninth House, and that Gideon's whole attitude towards her was based on the idea that if Harrow was willing to commit parricide and regicide at the age of ten, then she wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who got in the way of her reaching Lyctorhood. The reveal that Gideon blamed herself for the Reverend Parents' deaths felt wholly out of left field.

Also on the note of the two's relationship, I suspected the two would end up together, but enemies-to-lovers isn't really my thing. That ended up working better than I expected. In part it was that I was assuming Gideon felt "fear" rather than "guilt" towards Harrow, which is a lot skeevier. But also, the reveal that Harrow was wracked with guilt over the death of their creche and so was simply being tsundere the whole time makes it work a lot better for me.

The plot point I had spoiled for a later book was something about the death of planets. The glossary entries at the back for thanergy and thalergy do mention that planets are themselves a source of life and death energy, while in the same paragraph stating that those energies come from the life and death of cells. That's a contradiction that I'm sure is addressed later. I did pick up on one throwaway line thanks to having the planet idea in my head: when they discover what Teacher and the skeletons working the First House really are, Harrow exclaims something like "it would take a whole planet to power this magic!" Foreshadowing maybe?

One last thought, about the ending. I wasn't sure if Harrow would actually become a Lyctor, but during the final battle, it seemed like a good time narratively for a field promotion. Gideon's sacrifice felt good, and picking up with her ghost's narration after the chapter break was exactly what I wanted. I'm really sad that she disappeared entirely, though. I was sure that she would continue to exist at least as a voice in the back of Harrow's mind, and I'm disappointed that it seems like she won't be obnoxiously narrating Harrow's story in the next book. Gideon has one of the best character voices I've read in a while, and I really want more than just the one book with it.

Also, interestingly, while I have a decent mental image of a lot of the characters (Gideon is the "I am looking respectively 👀" meme), I have absolutely no idea what Gideon or Harrow look like.

36 notes • Posted 2021-10-18 04:02:32 GMT

#3

Thinking about Locked Tomb/Arcane crossover last night. This is how I picture Gideon and Vi’s first interaction:

Meanwhile Harrow and Caitlyn are both supremely uncomfortable about everything that’s happening (Harrow because we know she gets jealous when Gideon talks to other girls, and Caitlyn because black vestals are creepy and Harrow is shooting her death glares)

37 notes • Posted 2021-12-04 20:05:13 GMT

#2

A thought on Lyctors

Gideon: "That's me, I'm a Lyctor's thot"

One of the major benefits of Lyctorhood is gaining unlimited power, right? Normally a necromancer draws their power from the thanergetic planet they’re on, or in a pinch has their cavalier murder someone to steal their energy. There aren’t any thanergetic planets outside the Dominicus system though, and one person’s death isn’t that much fuel (Harrow mentions she could get 10 minutes worth).

In order to be successful on the front line, the Lyctors need an internal source of power. That’s why they eat their cavalier’s soul, to siphon its energy. I imagine conservation of energy still has to apply, even with these more exotic energy types, so why does that seem to last indefinitely?

My mental image is that it’s like extracting energy from the ergosphere of a black hole. The “source” of the energy is the ergosphere, but that’s not what part of the system is losing energy. Likewise, what’s being used by the Lyctors isn’t the soul’s energy per se, but the potential energy generated by holding the soul out of the River. By holding the potential energy of the soul fixed but extracting energy from the system, the Lyctors are tapping into the thanergy of the River itself. Technically finite, but should last well past the heat death of the universe.

41 notes • Posted 2021-10-19 23:53:25 GMT

#1

Transparent Izutsumi for all your surprised catgirl needs

88 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 21:58:04 GMT

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[dragonretirement]

Thanks for pulling in that other use of extramural-- it somehow slipped my mind to check As Yet Unsent. To me, that quote makes it sound like extramural=outside the Houses, though. Judith's dad is saying that making Marta a cavalier would keep her intramural, but it seems odd that being a cavalier would mean you had to stay in your House, especially with the Second being so tied up with the Cohort. I think what he's saying is that if she weren't a cavalier, she'd be on the frontlines on the colonies (extramural, outside the Houses), but if she were a cavalier, she'd have to stay within the Nine Houses to follow her necromancer as she does diplomacy.

I'm curious where you came to the conclusion that John's been periodically "waking up" people since the first wave of Resurrection-- the passage you quoted in that post you linked to sounds to me like John is saying this is the first time he's waking up any of those frozen souls. He could be lying, of course, but there's no indication elsewhere that he is.

I don't have any textual evidence for this, but in my mind the fact that only 3 of the 19 Canaan House/GTN cohort is specified as coming from a Resurrection-purity family (and the specification that the term refers to their family, not their lineage) means that whatever the criteria is, it's probably "all your direct ancestors must be this" and not "you must be a direct descendant of one person who is this", if that makes sense. That could also explain why both Fourth house kids are from Resurrection-purity families, as the Fourth have a tradition of posthumous parenthood, so there's not as much pressure to look outside the house for partners to have children with. You might compare that to the Ninth, who don't use any reproductive technologies and apparently let an extramural (so either someone from another House, or someone who wasn't born in a House at all) marry into their royal family.

I’m trying to puzzle something out TLT lorewise, namely: what the hell does “Resurrection-purity” mean with regard to family lineages?

The term shows up four times in the series. I put them under the cut for easy reference, but the gist of it is that in the Cohort Intelligence Files, Isaac, Jeannemary, and Babs are all identified as belonging to “Resurrection-purity” families. The fourth reference is in chapter 3 of HTN, where we learn that Drearburh “had never practiced Resurrection purity.”

I searched online to see if people have tried to figure this out before, and mainly found this post from a couple years ago where a few possible meanings were tossed around: maybe it means that the family can trace its lineage to 1) solely people from within their house, or 2) the founding necromancer/cavalier of their house, or 3) solely people who were resurrected by Jod during the Resurrection.

1 is contradicted by the fact that Isaac, who comes from a Resurrection-purity family, is described in the files as possibly being affianced (aka arranged to be married) to Abigail Pent’s nephew, presumably a Fifth-houser.

2 is contradicted by the passage in HTN, which states that Drearburh doesn’t practice Resurrection purity, as “their only aim was to keep the necromantic lineage of the tomb-keepers unbroken”, implying that Resurrection-purity is something different (since the first tomb keeper was also the Ninth’s founding necromancer, Anastasia).

3 is the most common-sense reading if you just think about the term, but I had initially dismissed it because my understanding after NTN was that the Nine Houses are populated entirely by descendants of the Resurrection, meaning all families would be “Resurrection pure”. The precise origin of people outside the Nine Houses (like the BOE and the colonies) isn’t 100% confirmed, though popular interpretation is that they’re the descendants of the ships Jod wasn’t able to capture during the Resurrection. I assumed that there was no significant intermarriage between the Nine Houses and the colonies, but then I went back to the HTN passage.

The line about Resurrection purity is preceded by the information that one of Harrow’s ancestors was “an extramural penitent sworn into the silent marriage bed of the Locked Tomb.” I had assumed this meant someone from another house, because there are other references in the series to the fact that the Ninth takes religious penitents from other houses. But what if “extramural” means beyond the Nine Houses– aka, from the colonies?

The word choice itself doesn’t really give us a solid answer- “extramural” means “beyond the walls/boundaries” of something, so the question is whether it means the boundary of the House or of the Empire. The only other appearance of the word extramural in the series is in Dr. Sex, where Dulcinea writes that she wishes Prot’s son would bring her “extramural magazines and cigarettes”. This also isn’t conclusive, she could be talking about magazines from outside the Seventh or from outside the Houses.

So that’s what I’m left with! The only definition of “Resurrection-purity” that makes sense to me is one that also uproots our (or at least my) understanding of the relationship between the Houses and the colonies, and implies that the Houses have absorbed enough people from the colonies into their House structures to make a family lineage traced back solely to the Resurrection an anomaly. I’m hoping there’s something I’ve overlooked that would help us say one way or another, so please offer your theories!

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