#tyrian route

[dizzy-pixels]

I love how MC designates threat level by what it looks like they eat for breakfast

[crows-of-buckets]

I think one of my favorite ways to make ocs is to take the traits that were already there and amplify them. This has literally never missed for me once. ESPECIALLY negative traits. I'll come back to an oc four years down the line and suddenly they are twice as much of a Cunt and also have several new Complexes about shit it's great 10/10

[mistfallengw2]

This is about to get rambly, but I headcanon that queerness is a completely normal fact of life in Tyria and that no one really bats an eye about whatever floats your boat, be it gender identity or who you want relationships with.

Labels are just vague descriptors for those who want to say “that specific thing” in fewer words. To an average person in Tyria it's like finding out there's a word specifically for “person who eats just vanilla and chocolate ice cream” and just going “oh cool that's me”, but they're rarely used in general conversation unless that becomes the topic of discussion and thus not known by many. Due to it being so normal, there might still be some general genuine ignorance about queer identities one hasn't experienced within their own social bubble, but it's not seen a big deal, while actually "challenging" others' existence is seen as a pretty scummy thing to do.

That said, of course different races and cultures had their own words for certain things and slightly different points of view: charr and asura are more culturally used to temporary/open relationships and even polyamory, due to their societal structure and lack of "marriage" in the human sense of the word; humans and charr are under societal pressure to procreate no matter who you're sharing beds with, because of their wartime circumstances; gender matters little in general, and gender-based discrimination is a thing only in specific instances/communities, usually in more "traditional" settings and often in negative ways, like the Sons of Svanir and the old Flame Legion; humans are the ones who most obsess about marriage, though often for reasons beyond simple romance; norn don't care who wants to smooch/marry who, as long as they're worthy of each other; sylvari are still relatively new to life, so they've been the more open ones so far; etc.

Also also, I headcanon that the Tyria Pride event is a minor festival that originated in Lion's Arch not long after its first reconstruction under Cobiah Marriner.

It's not known how it started exactly, but at first it was just a “let's celebrate different races working together as one" kind of event, rowdy, very pirate-y and held in the taverns and ships across town with little fanfare and plenty of drinking, and it became a recurring thing. Then, smaller celebrations of love started getting lumped in as couples (especially mixed ones, as Lion's Arch was the first place that officially recognized them) chose to get married at the same time of those events, and eventually it evolved and consolidated into an annual event sponsored by the city.

As the event grew in popularity, even non-residents wanted to join the celebrations, but only in recent decades it turned into a march across Tyria. First it started as independent groups in major cities (primarily Rata Sum, Hoelbrak and Divinity's Reach) organized themselves to follow merchant routes towards Lion's Arch, as their journeys evolved into smaller celebrations of their own before the big one at their destination. While unofficial, the numbers of participants in these extra marches swelled each and every year, and eventually they were counted as part of the event by most. Then, after the treaty was stipulated between the Legions and Ebonhawke, a big collective effort was made to connect all of those marches into a single one and extend it so that the event could start in the human city, and it got consolidated after the Pact's victory against Zhaitan proved once more the strength of all races working together.

Tyria Pride is still a minor festival by Tyrian standards, but even if not all can join the weeks of marching and partying across Tyria, it remains the biggest celebration of love in all of its forms and across all barriers.

[howlingday]

Ruby: (In car, Stops) Excuse me, Mr. Scorpion Man! Could you point me in the right direction? Y'see, I decided to give the map to my pet dog here-

Zwei: (Sleeping on the map)

Ruby: And that was a bad idea because dogs... They can't read.

Tyrian: DIRECTIONS, IS IT?! Oh, how I love the youth of today~! They're so foolish...

Ruby: Hey, now, wait a minute-

Tyrian: WHERE IS IT you're trying to get to~?

Ruby: Holy- I'm just trying to get to the interstate!

Tyrian: The interstate? Oh, that's very easy, just take that road right there straight to the top of the hill and then down into the water~.

Ruby: ...The water?

Tyrian: THE COLD WATER~!

Ruby: Is- Is there a bridge?

Tyrian: No bridge~!

Ruby: Tunnel?

Tyrian: No tunnel~! Only your water grave~.

Ruby: Watery grave... Okay... Is there a second way to the interstate?

Tyrian: The scene route, young lady~? Of course~! It goes through THE DARK WOODS WHERE THE WOLVES PREY...

Ruby: W-Wolves, right? Like, funny wolves?

Tyrian: EEEVIIIL WOOOLVES~! (Cackling)

Ruby: Evil wolves? Okay, and now he's laughing...

[rwde-rewrites]

I find it deeply amusing that the show keeps going on about how Salem divides people and that's how she wins, even though she hasn't actually directly or successfully divided the heroes since V5 with Leo. Don't get me wrong, she tried to do this in V7 by having Tyrian and Watts frame Ironwood, but that attempt failed and both of her agents got arrested.

Every single time the heroes have turned on each other since V6 has been entirely of their own volition without any direct involvement on Salem's part.

RWBY chose to use the lamp on their own, and then they chose to ostracize Oz because of what they learned on their own. Neither Salem or her agents convinced them to use the lamp by suggesting that Ozpin was hiding something from them. Nobody twisted the information they learned to convince them the situation was hopeless and make them angrier at Ozpin.

Same with V7. No, I don't count Cinder leaving the chess piece on Ironwood's desk, because that ultimately wasn't the source of the fallout. It's not like Ironwood became paranoid that Salem's agents were still in Atlas and then thought Team RWBY was actually in league with her (despite that being a route they could have easily gone with, especially since RWBY was keeping secrets like the lamp, Ozpin, and telling Robyn about Amity a secret from him). No, the fallout with Ironwood had nothing to do with trust or paranoia. It was entirely a disagreement about if they should retreat or fight. There was no manipulation on the part of Salem's faction, all she did was ride up in her Gigantamax Wailord and the heroes turned on each other.

And this still could have worked. You just need to reframe it from "Salem divides people in order to win" to "The fallible nature of humanity causes us to fight amongst ourselves when we should instead come together in the face of disaster". But nope, instead, every time the heroes fight they go "This is what Salem wants" and "We can't let her divide us", even though Salem hasn't divided diddly-squat.

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

How would you rewrite neo and/or roman?

Roman

.Because I want to save Romans death for later, and the need to not have to make as many character introductions, and how kinda similar they are, him and Watts have been composited into one character, Watts even being Romans old name (so he can still be the W of team WTCH and doesn't make me wrong for mentioning Watts earlier) and he basically has Watts's backstory until after he fakes his death, where it becomes Romans backstory with the spiders in his new life (he is 100% more Roman then Watts overall)

.Consequently, he gains a second allusion in Dr. Victor Frankenstein

.Clearly recognizes Penny as he had a big hand in making her (there's a reason she's a green eyed ginger!)

.He upgraded the trains and paladin himself

.Ruby saves him from the griffon, much to his amusement

.Both him and Neo become the prospective characters in volume 4 for learning about Salem's cult

.Seems to actively want Penny to break out of his hack, it being one of few things that would make him proud of "that sad little tool"

.Ruby winds up killing him at some point in volume 8, she was never trying to kill him but it still happens and this haunts her during volume 9, with Meldic Cudgel taunting her at the Blacksmith's workshop and in the tree

.might secretly be Whitley's dad, but I'm not 100% sure if I'd actually go down that route

Neo

.Gains an additional illusion in Clerval from Frankenstein

.Already alongside Roman in volume 1

.Salem has her and Roman separated more then she'd like, she does take a liking to Cinder though

.Helps Tyrian with illusions during the Robyn rally

.Her Ever after power up is something she has very tenuous control of

.Her plan with the tea party was trying to goad Ruby into rage for her and "Roman" to get a real final battle, Ruby begging Neo to just kill her already was not part of the script and her powered up illusions go berserk and torture her as much as Ruby

.Yang taunts Neo to the point she can already fight back against the cats control even before the smoke

.Ruby takes Neo's unconscious body back to Vacuo and puts her in jail, she could have broken out when the crown did but she chose not to because her grudge with Ruby has been settled and she (nor Roman when he was alive) really want anything to do with Salem

.Cinder grabs her at some point post volume 9 and she helps Cinder after she takes over as main villain

.Fuck it, spicecream is a thing

[moth-tea-merchant]

I am honestly here for Peitha being on your brain right now, lol. I'm still not sure if we're gonna get a sudden betrayal at the end, maybe it's just how her voice filter and the actress pulls it off, but I still can't tell if she's just... got ulterior motives. *And I'm here for it*.

her speech patterns do such a good job of making you question if its just a Kryptis thing or if her long drawn out pauses are due to her carefully thinking over her words as to come off as trust worthy as possible but still a bit threatening. I mean when we first meet her she does so much teasing of "am I here to hurt you or help you?"

bcs i have so many of her lines recorded and have listens to them over and over I've kind of interpreted some of the things she says that come off more threatening to be due to lack of knowledge on how to properly interact with a Tyrian. We know Nayos is a dog eat dog world and Peitha is in no way the most physically strong looking kryptis we've seen, so its likely of her means of survival was her words. So suddenly shes thrown into being able to talk to someone who isn't outright trying to kill her and she has a few fumbling the bag moments of possible teasing just sounding like a threat. I personaly reeeally hope they don't go the rout of betrayal bcs it feels too cliche and also i don't want us to have to kill her. But I'm so here for the possibility of seeing her do some fucked up shit for the cause and us being like "woah isnt that a bit too far?"

[fanfictionsrookie]

11 Are there any ideas for your AUs that you're dying to use but haven't had the chance to yet?

I still really want to do a Vampire AU for Cinder and Ruby but I'm not sure which route to take with it.

...

Af first I wanted to write something that focused on Ruby and Cinder's relationship development, starting from when Ruby was the only survivor of Tyrian's attack on her family, her striking a deal with Cinder that would get her within killing distance of Tyrian and eventually ending up in the future, where Ruby is seen by humans as a paragon of what vampires should aspire to be while they have no idea how violent she was and had to be.

Then I decided to rather work on a different version of the AU set in modern times where people know of the existence of vampires. Ruby is a dhampyr who is trying to live as close to human as possible but when that backfires and she nearly ends up killing someone because of her hunger, Ruby turns to Cinder, a very old vampires, who teaches her about the life and culture of vampires. Ruby in turn, ignite Cinder's appreciation of what it means to be alive.

Lastly I toyed with a much darker idea where Ruby is employed at a vampire's brothel as someone to feed off, hoping to use the money she makes to take care of her family back home. Unfortunately, that was decades ago. With no sense of the passing time and only distorted memories to hold onto, Ruby takes comfort in talking to Cinder, the only person who is still alive to remember all the things Ruby holds dear.

...

I also want to do an AU with kid Cinder, but I have no ideas for it currently.

[powertaco]

Alright. So what would you do if CRWBY (RT) contacted you and asked you to help incorporate Whiterose into canon? Would you do it? If so, how, and if not, I’d still want to know how.

I'm sure most of us would like to. I don't know if I'd be the best person for the job, or what not, but I think at this point you'd have to play for the long game and aim for like last volume.

I think the general groundwork for a relationship, especially with V6 is there but needs built on. Ruby and Weiss have pink petals only when together and the color pink used as petals is used by Ren's new semblance when he detects love.

There's tons of symbolism and pictures/promo material of WR being very important with each other. I don't see Weiss with a shield in the promo material nor do I see her thirsting over Jaune in the spin off stuff or Ruby looking at Oscar or any symbols that represent him. Manga anthologies, the movie crossover, IQD are all supremely WR coded.

They need to talk and be partners again. They need to have conversations and set things right between them. Weiss needs to come clean about why she was taking Ruby for granted, and Ruby needs to apologize for not talking to her about things, and they need to have a real partnership going forward.

V10 (they said 12/13 was their planned end point at one time so we'll go based on that) would be about this in the background with the war against Salem likely taking center stage as well as the fallout of Atlas.

I'd like to see more Ruby still falling into bad habits (unlearning them IS hard) but her team, and Weiss in particular helping her plan and taking the work off her shoulders and helping to divide it up. Even if they don't want WR endgame this is something that needs to happen because they're supposed to be best friends.

Blake and Yang as much as people might hate it need to take a slight step back. I'm happy for them but they're too wrapped up in each other to the point that they're the others world to the detriment of everyone else.

More interactions with other partners. Yang and Weiss and Blake and Ruby need to interact a bit more.

Blake and Yang can talk to the others and in time start drop hints about things but mostly as teases for now.

Once Salem finds out Cinder lied to her...a lot I would expect her to have a less than pleasant time and probably not be doing much outside of not dying. We might get the start of a 'we found the summer maiden' plot here.

V11 I would focus on the relic of destruction. I'd probably have this be the volume Tyrian dies likely as the villain of the volume in a battle for the relic. Seeing as they wanted 9/10 to start turning around you need to give the team some wins. So either they win and get the relic or they kill tyrian but still lose the relic. Depending on how they run with Theodore he could live or die securing the relic.

Based on how little of a chance Team RWBY seem to have against someone like Cinder they need to upgrade their semblances or one of them is probably gonna have to end up a maiden at some point. If they go that route then Raven actually dying to give her powers to Yang is possible but we need more from and about Raven before I'll buy that she'd do something like that. Unless of course she somehow gets ambushed and is dying then she might think of Yang. If this does happen i imagine we'll get more of that flashback from earlier.

Good chance for Ruby and Blake to comfort her if that does happen because well if Yang does end up with them then I mean it's clear what happened and her mom is dead. I imagine Qrow wouldn't take it well either but he has Robyn so she'll prob be helping him a bit.

WR would start incorporating little touches like they used to. Shoulder grabs, little quick hand squeezes and hugs that go on just a second too long and more playful banter in and out of battle.

They should still be serious when it calls for it but not have an issue just hanging out in the limited downtime they do have. Others should notice they seem to be happier now and have WR not understand what they mean.

V12 would likely be the start of Ozpin/Ozma opening up with some more deep lore and hopefully someone calls him on the whole 'jinn only said you can't kill her' angle. Probably not.

From here it really depends on how they plan to resolve Salem. Is it gonna be a hail mary we're united and have the relics fix it gods thing or not.

If it's not then I'd like to see them ape the gods and use that to 'kill' salem for good. Ie Ruby's eyes represent the light and Weiss and her grimm summons the dark. Working together and in concert to kill her just like the gods combo powers cursed her. If you want it to be a more team thing then Yang and Blake can represent light and dark too. Jaune can amp up their auras to an extreme level for this to work. Whether this kills him or his ultimate fate is irrelevant.

Ruby would be a bit more mature after Ever After and talking with her friends and Weiss would start taking notice because as Kara said 'Weiss like maturity'

If you wanted a twist for after this then have the gods show up and be pissed that rwby undid their work. 'who are you to undo what we gods have done etc?

From here they can drop the knowledge bombs that they're no better than runaway kids who left and what not.

The gods can then either bring back salem again proving that they're massive hypocrites since they told salem earlier she didn't understand the value of life and death and cause the gods to want to wipe out humanity and faunus.

At this point I'd expect the blacksmith/tree to basically be like 'no you're done' and drag them back.

If they don't bring salem back they could be like 'well humanity has come together so you know what good enough stay that way or else.

Then you'd have a few after it's all over episodes.

Now that the war is over they're focused on rebuilding. Weiss is busy helping Whitley and Willow and Winter (if she's alive) rebuild the SDC.

Ruby appears and asks her to take a break for dinner. Weiss is going to refuse until Willow tells her they'll manage and shoos her out the door.

Weiss asks where they're going to meet Blake/Yang, and Ruby says 'oh i was kinda thinking...it could just be us two.' Weiss could say something with a small blush and be like 'I'd like that' and it could cut to the other couples then credits.

Admittedly part of me would find it hilarious if Weiss gets fed up with waiting and just grabs Ruby and smooches her mid final battle.

Or the safer route just have a scene set after the war 5/10 years and casually let it be dropped they married in that time to avoid having to do anything.

Personally if I was doing RWBY from the start I'd make the WF bigger antagonist along with Jacques and probably cut out the whole brother gods/salem deal. Maybe even magic and maidens. I think that could be a lot of fun and as attractive as mommy salami is I don't care much for her in the story. Great VA though who really nails the voice I'd imagine for Salem.

I'd probably also keep them in school for another year and have more inter-team friendships. Like Blake , Velvet, Ruby, and Ren having a book club, or Ren and Weiss bonding over having super high energy partners.

Yang and Pyrrha work out buddies. Ruby and Jaune playing games with Nora probably joining it.

That sort of thing.

Of course if I was writing RWBY I'd find a way to have Maria hold WR hands so you know.

I hope I understood the question and if not I apologize.

[dizzy-pixels]

I wonder if Tyrian S2 had a different writer from S1 because it doesn't seem consistent. Tyrian confesses his feelings for MC at the end of S1 because he didn't think he was going to see her again and couldn't let her go without telling her. But then in S2 when they're both safe, MC asks what are they because by this point they kissed, cuddled and shared a bed together, he says they're "friends." Um?

And when later MC says she doesn't want to be just friends, then he kisses her like "I've always liked you!" I know...you told her at the end of S1 already. Why are we confessing twice here???

Am I missing something? Did I misunderstand something???

And then there's other times where there's missing information but the story acts like we were supposed to know it. Like when Vyrnas sends them on a mission to get a precious metal he needs, he doesn't tell them what metal it is that he needs. But MC later asks Jaxon where to find "Odinite." Varnys never even told them the metal was called that yet. I feel like the writer forgot to have Varyns tell them what it is.

But then again, S1 was also weird with missing info, as Tyrian tells the Promise Crew that the guards on Olympus-7 said that Admiral Vyrnas was the guy who made the suit AI. But the guards didn't say that...they just said Vyrnas told them not to have the colonies become self reliant and to punish them if they start to do so. The guards said nothing about him being the one who made AI. I feel like there was a scene missing with the guards or something.

[crows-of-buckets]

I'm thinking that I may end up making Tyrian the legend mystic when act five begins. The longer I think about it, the more I can't see him willingly keeping his powers or becoming a dragon (I was gonna do dragon mystic however I remembered that he would outlive Daeran and it made me sad)

[strqyr]

I don't disagree with the mystery angle, but as a hypothetical (because I can't deicide which I like better), what do you think of having the mystery as is in show (ie. we know who, don't know what), then building that into who can be trusted? Like, going into mistral and atlas, yes we know who the big bads are now, but who are the pawns this time? Is that person just scared and caged because of Beacon, or because they're working for Salem? Having the audience losing trust alongside the mains

i think this was pretty much what they did with in V7. iirc the writers said the volume's theme would be "trust", which got the audience suspecting just about, well. any one of the new characters we were introduced to, and even some of the old ones; i vividly remember one of the big things after 7.2 being whether ironwood hugging qrow was genuine or if he did that to place a tiny microphone or something like that on his cape lol

and ya know, it was fun time! every new character could have been a double agent, or somehow compromised—watts is in mantle with near full control of its systems, who's to say he couldn't be listening in and scouring through video footage to find something, anything to help with their task?—so who do you trust?

of course, that lack of trust became the main issue between the Good Guys™, there were no surprises in terms of characters working for salem, but still, it worked well, and it kept people on their toes.

in contrast, they gave lionheart working for salem pretty much immediately, which is like. 50/50 for me because on one hand, building up those trust issues, not just in the characters but for the audience as well, already from the mistral arc would have been great... but there were no other characters to suspect besides lionheart, so the difference is hardly there.

but yeah, the "who is working for salem and who is not?" is absolutely an angle i've been thinking about a lot lately; mostly in a sense whether it would work or not if salem—and thus the rest of her followers—would not have been revealed when they were; that if emerald's illusion had been the first time the audience "sees" salem, where most of the information we get of her is from what other characters say about her, then the lost fable, and only then we see salem in present day during 'so that's how it is'. that way tyrian, hazel, and watts would be brand new characters with yet unknown alliances, with some revealing their standing earlier like tyrian, while for watts and hazel it would take a little bit more time.

like, taking watts as an example: he's just some guy who spends time with lionheart. maybe he passes by team rnjr at some point, has a short interaction with them, all cordial and so, because they'd be less likely to recognize him as someone who's supposed to be, ya know. dead. the main point is, everything seems normal about him; there's really no reason to suspect him as someone working for this salem everyone is talking about... and then he shows up with cinder at the branwen tribe's camp and uh-oh, who can you really trust? how deep does salem's network of followers actually go?

of course, these are choices were you win some, you lose some. it all comes down to what you want to focus on; keep salem and her followers hidden for a little bit longer, and you potentially lose the time spend building salem and cinder's dynamic—though this could be changed by simply not revealing salem's other followers while keeping the scenes with just salem and cinder around—but gain the extra layer of mystery and the build-up to "who can you actually trust?"

...rambling aside, yeah, not revealing the kingdom specific pawns immediately upfront could be a fun route to take, absolutely.

[evilrwbyfan]

Do you have any happy huntresses headcanons?

i actually did NOT. but JUST FOR YOU dappercat123 i went ahead and came up with some stuff

robyn likes coffee, fiona likes soft soda, joanna likes tea, and may doesn't have a preference robyn becomes more protective over fiona after the whole almost dying incident with tyrian (and most likely her whole team too) may either has a rant blog or a youtube rant channel joanna is a fan of parkour and watches parkour videos in her freetime, she tries to do it herself but shes still learning robyn confuses your and you’re for no proper reason other than its fucking funny (joanna: its yr’oue) fiona is an artist and she usually draws fantasy backdrops, but she does have a few original characters too (i could see her maybe being a dnd player or at least a fan) i think theyre all gay….. probably poly together (and autistic cause you can never NOT go down the autistic stamp headcanon route) when may is feeling dysphoric, usually rfj help her out with reassuring words and taking her to places that she enjoys (like maybe a quick walk through the forest or something more active like an arcade) joanna likes styling peoples hair and usually uses robyn for it both fiona and may get mad when playing video games very easily robyn likes making stuff out of cardboard so she has a mini neighborhood set she's been making for months purely out of cardboard and hot glue fiona is a sonic fan, joanna is a mario fan robyn is a writer but its a personal hobby rather than something shes open about, she doesnt post her works anywhere but she has let fiona take a few looks at some of her stuff may likes cosplay but she doesnt do it, she usually just looks up videos of cosplay vlogs or something

[mistfallengw2]

Anyway, from the OC standpoint, I think this expansion (at least so far) is starring just Aurelia, Ellara and Zehmik. Everyone else is just too busy, between being needed elsewhere and/or taking care of their own new families.

[more in-depth rambly stuff, some spoilers ahead]

So, as far as story goes:

Aurelia receives the invitation to the Tyrian Alliance from Crecia, and since they were together at that time, she goes to the meeting with Ellara as her plus one (she also received a letter from Malice asking her to make sure her mate would be there, and they talked with both Imperators before then). Ellara learns the news of the Astral Ward's existence along with everyone else, and she's even less surprised than Malice about Aurelia's involvement. To her ex-Imperator she admits she knew something was up but that it was nothing worthy of intel (at this point her being a double-agent is an open secret), and Aurelia intercepts her glare with a promise to tell her everything she can, which she does while they're en route to DR, since Ellara is deadly set on going with her.

Markus uses his influence as a Lionguard Captain to be present at the Alliance meetings as one of the guards. On one hand, he does so out of moral obligation (his mate Fynn was pretty shaken up after witnessing one of the kryptis attacks, and said attacks were the catalyst for the Alliance), but on the other he also wants to take advantage of the chance of hanging out with Aurelia more. Before things took a turn, he had planned to spend the rest of the day with her and she initially agreed to it, but then they agree to postpone that.

Zehmik is already at Moon Base when they get there, but initially stays behind as he's helping his previously-ex-now-again-bf with some stuff. Later when the kodan welcome them, his warclaw Marsee is introduced to the journeykin and she seems to be quite comfortable around them, and the similarities spark curiosity in him (he had to fight with her at first and then she kept play fighting with him) and he wonders if she could learn to jump like the journeykin (maybe being stuck in the Mist War made her forget things?).

Both Aurelia and Ellara get a journeykin of their own (details pending).

Ellara expects Aurelia to refuse the offer to take the Homestead, and she's more than surprised when she agrees to it, given they had been looking for a place to call their own for years at that point yet Aurelia never felt at home anywhere. When asked about what made her mind so fast, she admits that what Poised Arrow and Stoic Alder said just made her feel a connection to the place because she saw herself and Adamas in them, just with the difference that her new beginning was already at her side.

Aurelia is always on the lookout for potential similarities with the whole [redacted] thing she experienced. She isn't sure that's the right lead, but Titans might as well be it, so she is personally invested beyond her people's history. Also the Mistburned creatures spark curiosity in her.

During the vote, Aurelia is strongly on the nay side, and she's the one who says she'll just go back to Janthir and investigate further, as she doesn't want to go for the nuclear option ever if she can help it. Ellara doesn't agree with her and seems pretty annoyed, but doesn't say why. When later Aurelia teases her for being a bit too on the same page with her ex-Imperator, Ellara gets angry for a moment, then folds and admits she is worried for all the risks and just wants things to end asap so that they can go back to living a quiet life together. Aurelia apologetically points out that she spent the last year in another realm because "risks" always seem to come find her, and Ellara gives up on that thought, stating that she doesn't want to be left out anymore and at least enjoy the dangers with her, Titans and snobby wizards be damned.

After that, they go straight back to Janthir, but first Adamas, who had heard of the sudden meeting taking place, manages to catch a hold of them just as they're about to leave. He wants to come and help, but Aurelia first cuts him off by stating it's too dangerous and that she wants him to think of his family first, then promises she'll come visit as soon as she can. He is pretty peeved at being left out like that, but accepts it on the terms that they'll explain what's going on.

Rest goes as it does in the story, with Ellara just doing things as needed. Ironically, she gets along far too well with Malice and Caithe, which unsettles Aurelia at times since she's the only non-spy of the group, so she also hangs out with Zehmik a bunch.

-

>Bonus for characters outside of story

Ethanryel was left in charge of the Crystal Bloom while Caithe was on leave, and they're continuing clean-up efforts around Tyria. Being the quartermaster, Bunnie is often aiding them, and Farka and her warband are often "on lease" to them by the Iron Legion (with the mounting tensions due to Mia KindleShot gunning for Khan-Ur, they want to be away as much as possible beyond personal reasons).

Hagan was on extended leave since the end of the Dragon Cycle, and he and Flom were busy living the family life with Gretna, Nuvly and their kids (being an asuran-norn pod with an extra demon comes with a fair share of shenanigans). While they're mostly out of the picture, Zar'gol did suddenly possess Flom one time when it sensed kryptis getting too close, and even if nothing bad happened, Hagan is starting to get more involved with the Vigil again.

Speaking of, since their parents are all friends, the kids often meet to play (Hagan's and Flom's have to visit, but most live in/near Lion's Arch). While they are still very young, they've already got a krewe-warband-guild thing going on, which is both wholesome and a tad worrisome (the last thing those kids need is to be like some of their parents).

Hel has been constantly on the move, traveling a lot to aid matters in the Shiverpeaks (trying to make her connection to Raven do something), in Cantha (helping the Kestrels) and in Elona (checking on Zuri who is in the Sunspears and aiding them as well). Nari often tags along, acting as a sort of representative for the Kestrels and, most importantly, enjoying new experiences with her girlfriend.

Still got a few more characters who are still on the ??? table when it comes to post-EoD story, will probably need to figure that out first. Eurys was part of the original "Heart of Maguuma group" that has been scattered, and I wonder if she'll get a chance to involved now that the Pale Tree's fate is relevant... and who of them (other than Gareth) she'll drag along. My kodan OC Rime Breath and (her de-facto adoptive kid) Wraith could theoretically fit in Harvest Den (especially due to Rime's experiences with being a Voice's daughter and prospect-Voice of her late tribe), but I haven't touched on their story much lately so mhhh.

Now to ponder a Lowland Kodan OC... hopefully just one.

[nusa-jabber]

Need to say this as a Palestinian, too:

1) Where are Andromeda's Palestinian/Cana`an features and roots???

Her father was Ethiopian, her mom Palestinian/Cana`an from Jaffa (which is what Joppa is—we literally have the rocks where Andromeda was hung). Why is she dressed more like a Roman than a Cana`an, who'd also have some tatreez on her dress, since that's where Palestinians got it from (I know, a shocker we retained a tradition started by our ancestors)??? What she's wearing isn't even Tyrian purple! And where are her Stars of Ishtar if she's blessed by Astarte?

Guess the relationship is one-sided, which is ridiculous when you learn there is a theory that Andromeda and Astarte were the same person in earlier Palestinian depictions of the story!

First line is of Andromeda's Rocks in (now occupied) Palestine Second is from a book on antiquity clothing in the Mediterranean

2) Astarte is literally a Cana`an goddess Aphrodite was inspired by, and one mainly characterized for repping love, war and hunting, not healing (which she and her sister did partake in, but was not her main mojo). She and her sister, Anat, goddess of war—and who Athena took inspiration from—were famous for being sister-in-arms!

How Astarte was depicted by the Cana`an and her followers

3) Why is some Greek dude her bodyguard and not a Levantine/Palestinian/Cana'an man? Makes no sense, in-world, if you're going with the Andromeda was an Afro-Palestinian route. We come in blonde, too, if you want to emphasize the golden retriever aspect! We literally don't look different from the Greeks, either, we're cousins 😭.

Fifty shades of Palestinian blonde

If you're going to make an OC to be more "diverse," why not actually go with diversity that makes sense??? Which brings me to

4) Why was the Afro-Palestinian heroine of the original story delegated to side character??? And to an OC love interest??? Who's also Greek, like her original love interest—what was the point of divorcing her from Perseus, if you're just giving to give her his inferior knock-off (and who's not even the main character!)? All so Perseus can be shipped with Medusa, which is the other thing...

5) Why make Medusa a white Greek (from what I've seen), when her roots are North African? If you're going to go with the Afro-Palestinian Andromeda, then why not North African Medusa? Because now, what you did is break up the canon biracial pairing of Perseus and Andromeda to center a whitewashed pair you made up. Like, what? You know this is worst, right? The original myth is more progressive than you!

Medusa mosaic in Tunisia

Just 😭. If you're going to incorporate the whole "Greek Empire wasn't just the European Greeks" history of their myths (which was the reality! Since they were and are part of the Eastern and bigger Mediterranean; we've influenced, conquered and mixed with each other), why do it so half-assed, while also taking steps back from what was already progressive in the original myths?

You might think that the guy is Perseus 😀😀😀😀 nope!!! Just some fuckass oc 😀😀😀😀

[dizzy-pixels]

Soundtrack to Tyrian S2

You should know

That friends just sleep in another bed

And friends don't treat me like you do

And I know that there's a limit to everything

But my friends won't love me like you

No, my friends won't love me like you