#vaster

[penceratepoetry]

Brennan: "The Citadel's arm will break, but break where"

Me thinking back on EXU: Calamity: "Hey Brennan why do you have so many fucked up questions about arms?"

[tswwwit]

When bill sees thru an eye does he switch from one to another like channels or can he see thru all of them at once and pick on which one he wants to focus on?

He can see through multiple eyes at once, though probably not ALL of his eyes at once. There's simply too many around to spread himself that thin! And of the ones he's currently using, he'll only pick a few to really focus on.

[quotespile]

Into the night the girl ran and ran, and the cold and the dark and the wilderness and her fear and the depth of her losses, all things together, dwindled the self she had once known down to nothing. A nothing is no thing, a nothing is a thing with no past. It was also true that with no past, the girl thought, a nothing could be free.

Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

[desolatus]

Pendant in the form of a mermaid, C. 1870-95

Probably based on a design by Reinhold Vasters

[loving-n0t-heyting]

the relation of mamon souldrinker to the deep jungle qlippoths is narratively amusing

mamon is, effectively, a goatfolk qlippoth but scaled down in level, plus a bunch of surrounding flavour. graphically, mechanically, and lorewise. in fact, its hard not to come away with the impression that in the setting he isnt just another qlippoth, albeit a low level one and hanging around near kyakukya rather than far to the east in the shadow of the moon stair. this serves a clear doylist function: to give a tease of lategame enemies to a midgame player, both heightening the allure of more distant portions of the map and serving as a vivid introduction to the mystique of the jungle itself, both deep/far and shallow/near. and it works, thematically, from this perspective of a relatively fresh player, all tied together by a pretty cool and intimidating boss for the target player level carrying some very neat but well-levelled loot

but you can also take a watsonian perspective, which tells a story with a different tone. from the players pov, mamon comes first, and the qlippoths later. but from mamons pov, wouldnt it make more sense to assume he comes from the eastern qlippoths rather than vice versa? and how does it look then: an underpowered fellow qlippoth, many parasangs to the west and many rungs less intimidating than the obscurity of the deep jungle, surrounded by a host of thralls and worshipers more feeble even than himself, bearing with him a talisman draining his willpower while inflating his ego. an objectively mediocre novice, sapped of his drive and ambition as his sense of self importance skyrockets, abandoning the rigours of the real world to play god instead among the continents small fry. a sorry little narcissistic fish, abandoning the mystery and challenge of the sea for a flatteringly small pond

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

really weird poll time!

[numbersareimaginary]

spamsseship (wip)

[18catsreading]

Brennan: and you see a thorn of poison holly, a sprig of some plant meant to touch you and in a moment stop the beat of your heart with deadly venom - strikes Naram in the chest. You see him standing there ... you watch the poison spread across his chest.

Ame: no! No!!

Brennan: He turns to you and smiles. "My wife has poisoned me many times, my darling."

... The vines reach and touch the wound and begin to drink the poison back up out of it.

Naram: my wife can become very cross.

Ame: no judgement

Naram: she is the most beautiful of spirits. I know that she would never harm me in a way that she could not take back almost right away.

[virgin-martyr]

She had once believed that in the deepest reaches of everything was a nothing where men had planted god; but now she knew that deeper within that nothing was something else, something made of light and heat. It was this light and heat that endured, that was everlasting. At the center was not nothing, no. Out of the light and the heat all goodness poured.

Lauren Groff, excerpt from The Vaster Wilds

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[quotespile]

She became aware of eyes upon her. And though she imagined they were the hostile eyes of men, they were in fact the eyes of the forest itself, watching this new form of creature with its wheezing breath and crashing footfall and bitter human reek. All the night birds and roaming creatures stilled in silent wonderment as the girl went past.

Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

[inspiteofganon]

do you guys ever wonder if Ganondorf/Ganon has a Pinkie Pie/Pinkamena thing going on

[desolatus]

Pendant with a Triton Riding a Unicorn-like Sea Creature

C. 1870-1895

Reinhold Vasters

[qqivvee]

WHITE GASTER IS REAL🤯??

This is uhh like Gaster but not really, his name is Vaster Weissman . But it still counts as a Gaster OC ... Right ? I want to torn it into a gag where there multiple people just like Gaster but they are actually not the Gaster . So actuall gaster just literarlly does not exist . Like he does in OG UNDERTALE Because whole Wing Gings Gasster personality is FANON .

I also thought once what if: W.D.Gaster , Skelebro's father , man behind the tree who gives you eggs (in deltarune), the knight , mystery man is actually 5 diffeent people?

[moonpaw]

One of the elders being named saturn, and the fact that it's confirmed that one of the ancient weapons is a living person along with their planet names, I wonder if the ancient "weapons" were all living people/beings and if the three either defected or was a part of the same group as the elders way back?

There's also the whole thing with the sun too, as well

[whilereadingandwalking]

In the grand tradition of stories of man against nature, of survivor railing against the elements, comes this new book by Lauren Groff in which a servant girl flees a famine-drenched Jamestown to try to get to an imagined northern settlement. She strikes out into the American wilderness, fleeing shadows and discovering wonders of nature that she couldn't have imagined. In The Vaster Wilds, this woman discovers just how much strength is in her bones.

It's somehow bold and refreshing simply to read a story like this with a woman at its center. She knows basically nothing of nature, knows only the basic instincts of finding shelter and making fire and trying anything that looks edible and hoping for the best. She has been wronged and haunted in her life, over and over, and fleeing those demons and trying to find a salvation from the God she believes in powers her through unbelievable obstacles. It's a grand novel told in an incredibly zoomed-in way, through her own, isolated story, her internal quest, her battered body, that somehow covers the presence (or non-presence) of God, the imperialist future, the glory of America before it was "tamed."

It's a bold novel from Groff, but her excellent writing pulls it off. It was hard to put down. I wanted her to survive, I wanted her to be free, I wanted her to make it to a place I didn't think she'd ever reach. Her complex backstory and fierce disappointed loves over her young life mix with the wonder of hailstorm, bear, and forest to make a reflective, powerful book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Lauren Groff's newest is out on September 12.

Content warnings for violence, body horror, rape, animal death, racism, cannibalism, ableism.