#when i started playing there were only 3 routes: asra's and nadia's and julian's

[ray-theoretical-trucker]

oh, you have too much faith in me, portia

i would definetely ask him to come to asra's shop to see me

i haven't played lucio's route yet and that's only because i am the most excited about his route (even though i enjoyed every other one; im currently playing portia's)

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Heya! We recently got back into the arcana after having distanced for a few years, and I have been playing Muriel's route.

Well I fell in love again, along with a lot of our system, and we were wondering, if you could use the prompt of "M6 finds out MC is a system" or something like that? If you in have trouble finding information that can help, looking up DID can help get a good grip on systemhood!

If you don't feel comfortable with that I have a back up since we do want to suggest a prompt "M6 reacts to MC age regressing" if you haven't done that? I'd imagine Lucio's would be absolutely amazing and hilarious.

The Arcana HCs: When MC Age Regresses

~ @selfcarecollective I went with the age regression prompt, if only because that's something I'm a bit more familiar with! I hope you enjoy these ^.^ - brainrot ~

-- for writing purposes, MC is age regressing in their shared space with the M6 because they feel safe and supported enough to do so, but haven't gotten around to telling M6 about it yet. this can be read with the M6 being either a romantic or platonic partner, however, ALL INTERACTIONS ARE PURELY PLATONIC WHILE MC IS IN THIS HEADSPACE. thank you ^.^ --

Julian

Genuinely terrified

Here is what he knows: something has happened.

He does not know what that something is, or why it's resulted in you acting and speaking like a child, but he can tell it's not fake and he doesn't like the way you start to get upset when he asks about it

Which is right about when his protective older brother instincts kick in. He doesn't know why you seem to be working with a child's brain, but he knows how to take care of kids

And he's definitely committed to taking care of you

Finds that the best way to calm you down (and to calm himself down) is to wrap you up in a nice, safe, long hug

Starts asking gentler, simpler questions about what you need and works with that

He quickly finds that you're very receptive to being entertained, so he launches into the first story he can think of

You both quickly get caught up in said story, and that's how you end up bundled in blankets on the couch while he paces the room and soaks up all your reactions to his tall tale

Spends three days buried in all the age regression information he can find and emerges with a five page list of questions

Asra

Low-key thinks it's a fun game at first and just goes with it

Until you stub your toe playing hide-and-go-seek in the closed shop and start honest-to-goodness crying in a ball on the floor

Okay now they're a little worried, that's not your usual behavior

Step 1: double check that touch is ok

Step 2: ask to hold your foot and then do a flashy magic spell to make the pain go away

Step 3: scold the shop counter for getting in the way of your poor toes and watch you start to giggle

Step 4: cuddle you close and use the safety to try to get a read on what's happening in your head through your bond

Step 5: quietly realize that your mind is reverted to a young state and resolve to give you the happiest glimpse of childhood he can

What follows is them taking the rest of the day/night off to spoil you and snuggle you and listen to you and do all sorts of silly things to make you smile

Yes, this includes covering yourselves (and the shop by extension) in glow-in-the-dark paint

Yes, this includes Faust playing peek-a-boo with you until you laugh yourself sick

Nadia:

She's not proud of it, but the first place her mind flickers to is the off chance that you're mocking her in some way

After spending her entire life trying not to be associated with childish things, seeing you acting in such a way touches on relational insecurities that she's trying to leave in the dust

This concern only lasts for maybe two seconds, though, because a quick look into your eyes tells her you're not faking anything

Well, she does love to care for you

She's still learning how to play the support role when it comes to emotional connection, but she thrives on the opportunity to physically provide for you

You seem like you could use some comfort. She can do that

She calls for your favorite food, she cradles you on her lap, she gently smooths your hair out of your face and wraps you in her softest blankets

And she talks with you. Just talks, not a discussion around improvement plans or a philosophical heart-to-heart. She finds out what your favorite color is and which part of her face you like most

Her first question when you're back to your usual self is how best to care for you like that in the future

Muriel:

Immediately notices you slipping but doesn't breathe a word because he wants to know what's happening before he does anything about it

Okay, this seems fine, you're clearly in a very child-like state of mind (he's had enough flashbacks to have a rough idea of what that's like) but you seem content and happy

Why are you smiling at him like that

Why are you climbing into his lap

Wait no no no don't curl up and go to sleep on his chest, he still isn't sure what's going on with you, what if he somehow hurts you while you're vulnerable like this??

Okay, you're just resting. And you seem extra happy when he holds you close and safe. ... and you're looking at the carving he's working on like you want to play with it

Well ... if it makes you smile ...

A few hours later, Muriel has unlocked several new skills: giving the carvings names. Giving the carvings individual voices. Helping you build an elaborate plot about the carvings' adventures

He eventually convinces you to get off his lap by having Inanna lie on top of you instead. She now considers you her pup

Does begin a new collection of carvings, specifically for you to enjoy next time you're in that headspace

Portia:

Baffled

But somehow instinctively knows what to do

She can tell right away from the way you're holding yourself to the change in your speaking patterns that your head isn't in the space it usually is. She just wants to make sure that that's a good thing

Also, you're oddly adorable like this

She'll ask you a few basic questions, but her nurturing instincts are strong, so as soon as she has a rough idea of what's going on she's jumping straight into gentle older sister mode

Will find a quiet, grounding activity to do with you so you can stay focused on something soothing while she keeps interacting with you and keeping tabs on your physical and mental state

She makes cookies (has it been mentioned that she stress bakes? she stress bakes) and has the time of her life rolling them out with you, making different shapes and counting chocolate chips

Pepi goes out of her way to lean on you and purr whenever she gets the chance so you stay extra grounded and safe

When you're back in your normal headspace, she's going to ask you about it first before trying to do any research. She wants to focus her efforts on your specific experience more than anything

Lucio

It's a good thing this is happening during down time or he would be beside himself with panic

He's still panicking a little, of course, but since you seem happy and uninjured and since Mercedes and Melchior aren't acting up he figures that this is just normal magician weirdness

He comes to the conclusion that you had an accident with a spell and now you have your child brain instead of your normal brain

Oh CRAP he's not good with kids, he knows he's not good with kids, he wants you to be happy, what does he do???

He tries asking you a few panicked questions, but it only seems to be distressing you and he hates seeing you upset

Sweets. Kids like sweets. He also likes sweets. And you don't seem like you're about to scold him for blowing his budget ...

He takes your hand in his non-metal one, throws a hooded cape over you that he knows you like, and marches you through the town until he finds the closest bakery

The rush of joy he feels from watching you light up at getting to pick as many sweets as you want is unrivaled

And watching you play tag and giggle with the dogs is even sweeter while you work off the resulting sugar high

[justanarcanasideblog]

Bit late, but I wanted to join in and actually (have the possibility to) be a part of The Arcana community. Course, I joined in at an… interesting time, but oh well. Thought I could start with

Late Apprenticember Prompts

1) Introduce your apprentice!

Male apprentice, Sarqen Xiloscient! Unfortunately I couldn’t manage to draw anything specific for the prompts, I may add images if I can draw them. For now, here’s just his reference image.

Within Arcana, he doesn’t have the sword or the as-fancy clothes, though I imagine Asra would’ve gotten him something nice. He’s quite reserved, stoic at times and doesn’t usually look too inviting. However once you talk to him, he’s usually pretty kind, if not a bit awkward at times.

Likes and dislikes, despite him being one of my favorite characters I haven’t thought much about them. He loves bears, just finds them way too fuzzy and round to be intimidating, though he knows they should be kept at a distance. Terrified of heights, which I don’t think there are many around Vesuvia, as well of Spiders, which there may be quite a few, especially within the shop considering how disorganized he and Asra are.

2) Love Interest

Julian! The two are quite the opposites on the outside, with Sarqen being reserved and having a resting bitch face, while Julian is loud and showy. Though they’re both family oriented, self sacrificing fools who may or may not have a thing for pain.

Though, while Julian has most of his heart, Asra is also very close to him, which has led to some awkward interactions. I imagine the three are in a polyamory relationship, where Asra and Julian have made amends. The route would be mostly the same as Julians, with Asra’s mixed in. To be honest, this is most likely just because I also love the two.

3) Other Main Characters

Nadia: Highly respects her, tries to be as formal as possible in her presence or the palace. Bit intimidated by her for… multiple reasons, but they’re still good friends. Though I imagine Nadia wishes he would be a bit more casual with her.

Portia: Great friends! Portia is cheeky, fun to hang out with and relentlessly teases him and Julian.

Muriel: Sarqen respects him, but doesn’t know a lot about him, nor talks with him much. To be honest, I’ve only played Julian and Asra’s route (and have lost the motivation to play the others routes due to Dorian, despite them not affecting the main game) so I don’t know much about the other main characters, and very very little about Muriel.

Lucio: Absolutely despises. The stories about his reign were horrible enough, especially when Sarqen learns what he did to Asra’s parents and how he treated Julian, but when he saw Lucio in-action, having just stolen his body? To Sarqen, he’s a self-absorbed and irritating asshole. Not worth a second chance, no matter what happens.

4) Couriers

Volta: Sarqen actually kind of likes Volta. She’s strange and small, doesn’t know much about her. A bit intimidated by her ability to devour anything and everything.

Vulgora: Honestly, not very intimidated by them. He knows their too hotheaded and eager to fight to have proper tactics, and can (probably) be easily evaded. Just dislikes them in general.

Vlastomil: Doesn’t like him much. Annoying, a gritty voice, constantly going on about worms of all things. Doesn’t help with what happened during Julians trial. Kinda popped off with the giant sand worm at the summer vacation though.

Valerius: Snobby, wine addicted jerk. That’s all. Literally his only interaction with him was when Valerius spilled wine all over him.

Valdemar: Absolutely despises them, almost as much as Lucio. They’re cruel, infatuated with death, and just a generally torturous monster.

(Why did I only just now notice their names all start with V?)

5) Any non-canon friends, minor characters?

As for non-canon friends, of course. Though, they haven’t seen each other in over 10 years, they think he’s dead, and Sarqen doesn’t even remember they exist! As well as the fact he left them in such a way, that they all despise even the memory of him!

Side characters, he admires Nazali a lot. He loves their personality, likes listening to their and Julians tall tales.

Mazelinka, he’s a bit intimidated by, maybe even more so than Nadia. He considers her a good friend, though, and appreciates listening to her banters with the siblings.

6) Rivals

None that haven’t been mentioned, namely the couriers, and Lucio if he’s somehow still running about like he is in the tales.

7) Physical Description

He has a bit more going on than the reference of him I attached shows. More scars over his face, one going across his nose and a chunk out of his ear, along with a straight scar over his throat. He doesn’t know how he got any of them, but tends to unconsciously rub it whilst trying to talk/think about his past, before even meeting Asra.

He also has scars over his body, not many though. He’s pretty self conscious about his ears, and hides them using a headband and stuffs his ears behind them. It isn’t comfortable, and it doesn’t work that well, but it’s enough. When not covered by the headband, they can kind of twitch about, go to his sides, generally pretty flexible though he can’t control them that well.

In The Arcana he doesn’t have the make-up sadly, and usually keeps his hair down rather than in a man-bun. The markings beneath his eyes aren’t actually tattoos but kinds of birthmarks. He doesn’t know why he remembers this and specifically this, but he does! Too bad it couldn’t be anything more useful. Or maybe that’s for the better.

8) Familiar

I’ve had a lot of trouble with his familiar, honestly. Nothing seems to fit him. The main 3 ideas I have are a Panther, Cockatrice and an Owlbear.

The panther would be kind of lazy, lounging around in the sun but a fierce combatant when need be. Often sniffs at Julian, much to his absolute terror.

The other two are quite obviously fantasy animals, one that I’m not sure if they even exist within The Arcana. They wouldn’t be from those lands, anyway.

The cockatrice would honestly be less of a familiar and more of a hassle. Kind of like Malak in a way, but much more irritating. Not even helpful, if anything more of a detriment. Chose a cockatrice to resemble Sarqens self doubt, and it’s personality is supposed to be a detriment.

Owlbear would be like a big, nervous dog. In the middle of the night the bed is absolutely destroyed by a huge, feathered and furred beast which then proceeds to lay on top of you. Hell. Chose an Owlbear because considering his past, I feel like it would make sense to have a magical creature as his familiar, he likes bears and may or may not have a gimmick to do with birds. Otherwise, no real reason.

9) Patron Arcana

Judgement. No one knows anything about his past, not even him. So why does the Judgement card call so earnestly to him? He has no idea, and maybe it’s better that way.

10) Other Arcana

I think the Hanged Man would kind of be a secondary Patron to him, but otherwise I’m not really sure. He likes the few interactions with Death that he had, as well as The Star. The others, he hasn’t really had any interactions with, besides The Magician. He doesn’t really know what to think about them.

11) Gateway

He doesn’t have one, but if he did it would be a small forest, with a pond in the middle of it, set at a silent night full of stars. The pond reflects the sky, but for some reason it looks like there’s only half as many stars as there should be. There’s dried blood mixed into some of the mud.

12) Home

Considering he doesn’t really has anywhere else, he mostly lives at the shop. He’ll occasionally stay at Mazelinka’s or Portias shack with Julian, and always has a room at the palace from Nadia if he and Asra need to do any work there.

13) Can they cook

God no.

He can do some baking, but also isn’t great at it. I’ve never thought about his favorite meals to be honest.

14) Magic

He had some trouble learning it, but eventually got the gist. His magic is strange, to say the least. It manifests usually in black, ink-like liquid usually, but other times it’s a bright light. In times where he blasted Valdemar away from Julian after his revival, it was like a bolt of lightning, still colored black with an explosive charge.

15) What are they proudest of?

Probably just.. Julian and Asra. Julian has come so far from the start of all this, and though there is still a way to go he’s made great progress, especially making amends with Asra after their past.

16) Deepest Insecurity

That he won’t be enough. Despite everything they’ve done, everything he’s managed, what if he fails in yet another time of need? What if he just breaks down at the wrong time? If people die because he couldn’t do something good enough, or fast enough, or at all, if his friends die because of him or his lack of ability to do so, then gods help him.

17) Family

The closest he has to family are the main characters and Mazelinka, really. Especially considering he doesn’t know much about his past before his death, and nothing from before Asra.

18) Childhood

Again, he doesn’t really know anything from when he was a kid. And honestly, I’ve never expanded much upon his childhood either..

Sorry to leave off on such an uninteresting note. I’ll try to draw some things for the prompts, but I haven’t been able to draw anything for a few weeks now, so it’s most likely just going to remain a wall of text. Hope this was interesting enough!

[adairctedgibbgirl]

Letter to the developers of The Arcana Game

@thearcanagame​

Nix Hydra

I've been playing the Arcana Game about 3 years now and always enjoyed it. It's an amazing game with wonderful characters. The character who made me download and install this game back then was Dr. Julian Devorak. He's just wonderful. He's not only the self-sacrificing Doctor who enjoys pain. He's attentive, quick-witted, intelligent and an amazing rascal. My absolute favourite scene with him is the one where mc pats him down for anything he might have stolen when he broke in the shop, and this was also one of the first scenes I unlocked in the game. And which you sadly completely deleted out of the prologue with this new update. I can’t describe how disappointed I was when I realised it.

You already changed the prologue once, but back then I understood it. At first it was a bit too long, yes. Yet I was sad when you dropped the part where mc had to remember Portia's code to get past the guards. But well, I got used to it.

And now you made even more changes at the prologue. Ever since I read it yesterday, it bothered me how much this story changed, and this drives me now to write this letter to you.

These were not only a few minor changes to improve the story. This totally changes the story/stories as a whole. And to me, many of them don't even make sense.

The Countess suddenly thinks something is wrong with the murder of the late Count from the start? Why so suddenly? What made her doubt everything her courtiers tell her?

Julian Devorak writes a letter to mc and tells them he can't remember if he killed the Count. This basically leads Julian's whole story into absurdity. Because why would he later, in his route, be convinced he killed him if he doubted it at first?

Mc having nightmares ... this is a good idea. But it felt to me that it already gives too much information that hints to Count Lucio in advance. 

A little bit more of Muriel was nice, although I wonder if he would really open up to mc so fast, especially since he’s negative towards them at the beginning of his route.

Mc goes to the fountain while sleepwalking to speak to Asra? Making them rush in an instant down in the garden and they are not even remembering it? Sorry, but even in a fantasy story this is not believable to me. 

The cute meeting with the dogs is cancelled and replaced by a portrait, a magical statue of a goat in the castle that makes the mc suddenly appear on the balcony, the scene with Portia where they are jumping out of the window is gone (I’m crying …), it is already revealed that there are lots of secret passages leading through the whole castle … 

It’s sad to say, but the whole prologue feels so rushed that it is no fun anymore to read it.

I must confess I don’t recognise the story anymore after all these radical changes. What I can do is to completely ignore the prologue or to delete the game from my phone. 

I also wonder now if you intend to change the finished routes to fit to the new prologue what would make it for me even worse. I love the Arcana Game, and I love the routes of Asra, Julian and Nadia as they are now. 

I’m sure there are many fans of The Arcana Game who think like I do. Some will have a bit different opinions, some would like to keep things of the new update, but all in all I read yesterday that many people are upset, especially because some amazing scenes were completely cut out. 

Yes, the pictures in the updates are beautiful, and I love them. But truly, I would rather do without them if this could bring the previous version of the prologue back. 

You once asked us to help to save the Portia route, and the fans did everything to help. Now you are driving them away with a new update to a prologue that was already perfect for the story. 

I’m just .. disappointed. 

@devofuck​ @potentiallymrsdevorak​ @sevrina-devorak​ @steponmemrasra​ @one-hell-of-a-user​ @mountain-man-cumeth​ @phwoarcana​ and everyone else I didn’t mention:

please help me to spread it so it reaches the developers!  

[flusteredmountainman]

@l3leh​ Same!! I do enjoy the rewrites more and from like a technical standpoint re: looking at the game as a text and how cohesive it is (my English lit major jumping out haha), and I definitely think that the prologue works better for the new content they’ve created - but that being said I also am Still on my “NH wtf is going on” train given that this is the second time in a year they’ve made major changes to the prologue, especially since the Muriel, Portia, and Lucio routes aren’t done yet - not to mention we still don’t have any word on what’s happening with Portia’s route!

People also paid for some of the options that were cut out, and I did feel that Julian in particular suffered from the rewrite (there are now 3 paid scenes - Asra’s confession, the walk with Muriel, and the snooping scene arguably covers Lucio, Nadia and Portia - Julian’s the only one who doesn’t get anything special or extra now). Even in his specific CG scene - they changed the paper he was reading to a grafiti-covered wanted poster - which undermines that originally it was either a letter to Portia or a diagram from his plague doctor days that gave a little more insight to his character and wasn’t as.... Joke-y? I guess? 

I think the biggest thing for me is just that the writing process seems unplanned and improvisational - and if they were going to make these changes they should’ve done so wayyyy earlier in the piece - right back when they decided to make the new 3 LIs available to romance so that a new shiny prologue with CGs would get existing players excited for the new routes, but also to provide a solid introduction to new players who (like me) only started playing right when those routes were first being made available!

[nazali-md]

Get to know my apprentice!

1. Name? Surname? Goes by Scilla. Surname not needed.

2. Any family? Only faint memories

3. Any familiar? A smartass fly named Myiagros

4. Love Interest? Every single one. How does that work timeline-wise? You're asking the wrong person, I don't even know how my day is supposed to work timeline-wise.

5. Best strength in magic? Her biggest strength would be using magic in creative, unconventional ways. Naturally talented in wind magic. Coming from a family of travelling story-tellers, blessed with a literally enchanting voice. Well versed in hiding her presence, altering her appearance, passing through unnoticed and being forgotten quickly.  

6. Favourite colour?  Royal blue, gold, and wine red

7. Favourite number? 4

8. Sexuality? Pan & Polyamorous

9. Weird hobby? Occasionally raising the dead.

10. Favourite season? Summer

11. Favourite weather? Warm but windy. Also night storms.

12. Favourite place in Vesuvia? The Fields

13. How does their laughter sound? Her honest laugh can only described as silent shaking. If you hear her laugh at you, she wants you to hear.

14. How do they look when they cry? 2 types: the Hollywood perfect fake crying, silent tears streaming down her cheekbones, artfully smudged facial paint; and the red eyes, voice breaking, lots of yelling, frustration crying  

15. What do they like to wear? Lots of colour, lots of layers, patterns resembling the night sky. Fond of cloaks, capes, headscarves, veils and flashy facial paint. Anything that helps her hide her facial features. She has little regard to fashion though, and mostly just wears whatever was on the top of the clean pile. It has some... interesting results.

16. What are their fears? Closed spaces, losing magic. Her biggest fear is that people important to her would abandon her after seeing her true shelf.  

17. What do they like to do Friday night? Clear weather? It's astronomy time. Otherwise she loves to go out dancing, and has no problem finding company. However if she's in the middle of some interesting magic stuff, well good luck, she's not going anywhere until it's finished.

18. Do they use makeup? Makeup, magic, magic reinforced makeup, it's all fair game. Mostly for fun. Illegal stuff, sometimes. All the flashy face paint. Lucio's crying in the corner.

19. Favourite food? Shrimps!

20. Favourite drink? Coffee

21. Zodiac sign? Aquarius

22. Day of birth? Classified information

23. Favourite play? Richard III

24. Favourite music? Her taste of music is somewhere right next to her fashion sense

25. Favourite song? Tinariwen - Nánnufláy

26. What are their aesthetics? The endless night sky, copper wind chimes, sand shifting, the piper of Hamelin, cornflowers in wheat fields, the call of the road, tall buildings with gargoyles, untameable hair, mountain peaks and open fields, scarf gone with the wind, dancing barefoot, the milky way

27. What is their style? Eclectic

28. What is their height? Taller than Asra, shorter than Nadia

29. Any mental health issues? Fear of abandonment, slight anxiety  

30. Any health issues in general? Not quite an issue, but very sensitive to cold

31. Favourite book? The Decameron

32. Favourite book genre? Folktales, short stories, anecdotes. Also a lot of non-fiction.  

33. Favourite time of the day? Night

34. If they weren’t a magician, who would they be? Hard question. Being a magician is a large part of her sense of self. She's already a successful shop owner and spy on the side, so probably one of those. She also made a decent healer.

35. Do they believe in ghosts? It kinda comes with her job.

36. Do they believe in demons? Same as above.

37. Do they like sports? Depends. She's pretty fit, but sports involving a lot of rules aren't her thing.

38. Favourite dessert? Chocolate. And those fancy pastries with a million layers.

39. What is their biggest motivation to solve Lucio’s killer mystery? Curiosity and boredom.  

40. What do they think of Lucio so far? (I'll answer these as how Scilla thinks of the LI's at the early stages of their routes) Very entertaining company, but oh boy, so dumb. It's endearing though. They both have secrets they're hesitant to share with each other, and neither of them is happy about the snow.

41. What do they think of Nadia so far? Ooh, challenge. Nadia not only pikes her interest, she really awakens Scilla's need to prove herself. She desperately wants to gain her respect and favour.  

42. What do they think of Asra so far? There's no life without Asra. He's already the centre of her world, but oh my god they were roommates. They love each other very dearly, but they can get under each other's skin in a second. Lots of frustration to work through.  

43. What do they think of Julian so far? She's having a ball, this man is chaos, and she thrives in chaos. He's one of the few who can keep up with her, both in incoherent trains of thoughts and semi-parkouring around the city.

44. What do they think of Portia so far? It was love at first sight, slow motion, cheesy music, everything. She tries to hide just how far she's fallen, because it's really stupid, she's not that easy to win over, but she's failing miserably. Scilla is prepared to do anything to save her from harm.

45. What do they think of Muriel so far? They got off the wrong foot, and he's really trying her patience, as Scilla is not used to people disliking her. They have a long way to go, and I have a long fic to write :(

46. Do they like animals? She grew up poor, so the concept of keeping animals as friends is weird to her. If Scilla sees an animal her mind automatically sorts it to edible/non edible, could be used for farm work/practically useless. This is one of her many conflicts with Muriel. Of course this changes with time and she'd never eat Faust or Pepi, but Camio's on thin fucking ice.

47. Are they allergic to anything? Humourless people

48. Do they have any talents (except magic)? Dancing and astronomy. Also has a knack for smooth social interactions.  

49. Do they get drunken easily? Hates to lose control over her actions, so she doesn't really drink.

50. What is their personality type?  no idea

51. What is their worst negative quality? Desire to control people, greed, mistrust, dishonesty, a tendency to start unnecessary arguments, impulsiveness, pettiness.  

52. What is their best positive quality? Creativity, attentiveness, sense of humour, willingness to help, friendliness, politeness, problem solving attitude.  

53. What is their position to fall asleep? CUDDLE. If only a pillow, then a pillow.

54. The most uncomfortable moment they ever experienced? Getting caught lying by Asra. She used magic to vanish on the spot.

55. Their happiest memory? Waking up surrounded by those she loves, and realising it's not Asra's turn to make breakfast.  

56. Do they blush? It doesn't really show on her skin.

57. Are they clumsy? Quite the opposite.  

58. Do they like jokes? Hell yeah.

59. How do they flirt? You've got to be careful with an enchanting voice, so it's mostly nonverbal, the right dress does all the talking for her. Casual touches, eyes lingering a bit too long. Letting the strap of the dress slide off her shoulders, or her shirt ride up a bit. In a relationship, she's ready to throw in some whispered dirty talk and not so casual touching.  

60. Favourite fruit? Grapes, blueberries and sour cherry.

Why, yes! I do have too much time on my hands due social distancing :)

The questions are originally from @gemarcana​ I think, picture made with picrew

[lunasilvermorny]

Apprentice April Asks #1

I’m so late, I know!

I meant to do all the asks this month, but we’re already at the end of it and I haven’t noticed how fast it past.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be able to answer all of them in time, so I’m going to do this one (#1) and  #5 in the next few days.

Thank you @starblazerm31 for the questions, it was really fun to answer and really helped me develop the headcanon :)

Okay, let’s begin!

1. The Basics. What is your character's name? How old are they?  How tall are they?  Skin color?  Eye color? Hair color?  Gender identification?

Her name is Luna Penumbra.

I made a post with a drawing and some basic information about her.

2.  Love Interest.  Who does your character love?  What attracted them to that particular LI?

So… I am an indecisive person and honestly unable to choose just one, so there are 4 AUs for her with different love interest:

Luna x Muriel - You can say he’s the main LI and the rest are the AUs.

Luna x Julian x Asra - I’m a huge Julian x Asra shipper and I feel like they’d be better as a trio.

Luna x Lucio - His route is too compelling, I couldn’t resist it.

Luna x Nahara - I really liked Nadia’s route, but Luna’s heart (and mine) belongs to Nahara.

3. Familiar.  Does your character have a familiar?  How did they meet?

She doesn’t have a familiar yet. (The furthest I got in my headcanon is about 1 year after the events of the game, so… who knows, maybe in the future I’ll find a match for her.)

4. Hobbies.  What kinds of things does your character like to do for fun?

She likes to paint, especially with blends of color she makes herself.

She really likes crafts in general – from building a small stool or knitting to creating weird artifacts with her magic.

She also used to play the Vielle, but after her death she lost the ability to play it.

And she’s really into tea. She can talk for hours and hours about blends and no one but her cares so much about it.  

5. Hidden talents. Is there something neat that your character can do?  Tie a cherry stem into a knot with their tongue?  Say any word backwards perfectly?

She is ambidextrous.

6. Magical talents. Is there a specific type of magic that your character excels at?  Any magic they aren't so great at?  Or do they actually shy away from magic altogether?

Celestial magic. I explain more of the context of her power’s origin in question 20, but the power itself:

Most of her magic is dependent on the sun and the moon. She can channel energy from the sun and remnant energy from the moon, although her magic is stronger at daytime.

Together with her other two sisters, they possess also the power of the Arcana – The Sun and The Moon.

She’s most powerful during a Partial Solar Eclipse. During a Total Lunar Eclipse, she loses all of her celestial magical abilities.

7. Interaction. How does your character typically interact with people?

She’s extroverted and very outgoing, so she usually has positive experience with people, even though there’s still a bit of gossip around her.

8. Romance.  What is something that your character and their LI love to do together?  How do they show affection?

Muriel and her like to do the simple things together, like fish, feed the chickens, just sit next to the fireplace while carving/knitting.

9. Travel.  Does your character like to travel outside of Vesuvia?  How often? For how long?  What kinds of things do they do away from home?

She really likes to travel, especially with Asra and sometimes Julian. At first Muriel used to join them, but after a while they realized that he’s not enjoying it as much as them, so they went without him but for shorter periods of time..

In the Luna x Nahara AU, she leaves Vesuvia to live in Prakra.

10. WTF.  Has anything just...weird ever happened to your character?  Something that made them stop and go "What just happened?!"

Constantly. Since she doesn’t have her old memories, sometimes her powers surprise her and sometimes mundane things she wasn’t aware of catch her off guard.

11. Crime.  Has your character ever been arrested?  If so, what did they do?  Have they ever helped stop a crime?

Nope, never arrested. But crimes in general... I mean, asides for assisting Julian when he was a fugitive? No.

12. Secrets.  What is a secret that your character has?  Are they in line for the throne in a far off land? Was there this one time at band camp...? Are they secretly involved in an assassin's guild?

Luna never recovers her memories, so she’s not aware of any secrets she might have kept. But she does meet her family and discover a huge secret that her father kept from her about her powers (Which I explain in detail in question 20.)

13. Overcompensation. Is there something that your character just HAS to do better than anyone else?  Or are they just that dang good without trying?  If they see someone else showing off, what is their kneejerk reaction?

It’s a weird one, but she has to be the most knowledgeable about herbal blends and tea.

Also, she is a very fast learner, but if she doesn’t put any effort at all, she wouldn’t be able to excel at things.

14. Fight Club.  Is your character a good fighter?  What kind of skills do they have?

No, physically she’s very weak. Without magic, she wouldn’t be much of a challenge.

15. The Arts.  Is your character a creative type?  What kinds of things can they create?  Can they act?  Street perform?

Crafts! (So, same answer as question 4.)

16. Goofy.  Is your character a clown?  Do they like to make people laugh?

She has a great sense of humor, but she also likes puns, so... I’d say it’s 50/50.

17. Language.  Is your character multilingual?  How many languages do they speak?  Do they have an accent?  Is it sexy?  Is it silly? Do they have a multilingual lisp?

In my headcanon, a lot of characters have accents that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s just how I perceive them. So Lucio and Julian have very dramatic English accents, Portia has an Irish accent, Nadia has a sort of Greek accent (even though the rest of her family has an Indian accent) and Muriel has a rough voice with a sort of American accent.

So… that wasn’t the question, but here it is anyway.

Back to the actual question - she’d have an English accent as well. (I know it’s super general, but I don’t know the specific name of the accent in my head.)

And no, she’s not bilingual, she speaks only the common language in Vesuvia. (Although before she died she was multilingual.)

18. Embarrassment. What is something really embarrassing that your character has done/said?

If something embarrassing happens, she tends to laugh it off, so she doesn’t get embarrassed easily, but too many compliments can make her self-conscious, especially when she feels it’s undeserved.

She’s can also get really embarrassed when people tell her about her past self, since she doesn’t have any memory of it, and her personality has changed since she came back to life. So when Asra tells her that she used to be very cocky and judgmental, it’s very embarrassing.

19. Memory.  Has your character gotten any of their memory back? If so, what?  Did it change them?

No, she didn’t get her memories back, but she did learn about her past from Asra and her family.

20. Family.  Talk about your character's family.  Who were they?

Okay, so this is going to be a long one.

The first time Luna learned anything about her family was when Asra told her about her father. The shop was originally her father’s and she inherited it after he died of the plague. Her father was a magician too and one of the first to get sick, because he tried to treat children that got infected.

Asra doesn’t know too much about him, he said they weren’t that close.

After the events of the game, Luna meets a woman that claims to be her sister that tells her about the rest of the family – her mother and the other sister.

The girls were known as The Eclipse Sisters and their birth was prophesied by their clan’s oracle. The eldest sister was born during an Annular Solar Eclipse and was named Antumbra, the middle sister (Luna) was born during a Partial Solar Eclipse and was named Penumbra and the youngest sister was born during a Total Solar Eclipse and was named Umbra. Their powers are fueled by the sun but bound by the moon. Together, the three have a very strong connection with both The Sun and The Moon Arcana.

Their mother was the head of the clan and wanted to harvest their power so the clan would prosper. When their father realized the amount of power the three possess together, he decided they must be separated and so he took Luna and ran away.

He came from overseas and found a cozy home for both of them in Versuvia. That’s when her father started to call her Luna instead of Penumbra. That’s also why Asra called her Luna (he thought that was her name), and since she referred to herself from time to time as Penumbra, he assumed that’s her surname.

----

As I said, that was really fun to make.

If anyone read it all - I hope you liked it! :)

[nbapprentice]

there’s so, so, SO much nonsense surrounding this game that i’m gonna do my best to separate it into digestible bits, with its own categories. even then this is... wow. it’s big.

Warning tags will be added at the start of every section, but the general gist is: incest, pedophilia mentions, fetishization of rape and abuse, fetishization of mlm, fetishization of people of color, racism, ableism, nb erasure and transphobia. aside of the warnings, this post will also touch upon Scummy Business Practices

let’s get going

Dana Rune’s and Elle’s lack of moral fiber: #incest #pedophilia#rape and abuse fetishization #homophobia

tl;dr: dana loves incest porn, elle loves guy on guy rape, and the both of them are friends with at least one pedophile

dana rune has run, is still running an incest zine (please visit my faq on what i think about “thats not really incest” and “it’s just fictional!”). The Arcana, as a dev team, clearly does not care, as shown in their e-mail responses.

dana also very much doesn’t care and has reacted to any criticism on this by dismissing people and blocking actual incest victims who tried to contact her about it claiming it was for her “mental health”

in some tweets she claims she “interprets” the characters as not siblings, but she never really cared enough to cover her ass when it all began (she happily admits she’d “cross the incest line”)

dana has commissioned artists who also ship incest, draw near-pedophilic art that’s supposed to pass as acceptable because the character involved is supposedly not a minor despite looking like a child down to wearing pigtails (the character is also wearing a racist-ass belly dancer outfit), AND even made white-washed fanart of The Arcana.

dana follows twitter user kapymui who also produces incestuous Fire Emblem art

dana has retweeted omocat long after it came out that omocat is, at the very least, consuming pedophilic content (on “omocat didn’t know what shota meant!”: yes they did)

moving on, elle has a long, long, LONG history of fetishizing mlm and the rape and abuse that comes with yaoi and had a rich, RICH “yaoi” tag before they deleted their tumblr

they curiously deleted their tumblr right after i made this reblog

shortly after that, tumblr user thalassiq remade and started attacking and insulting any blogs criticizing them - even people providing support in IMs. Since this doesn’t match Dana and Elle’s normal pity parties I’m personally willing to believe they were just a person wanting to start shit - but it’s so telling how Elle used this chance to dismiss everyone who disagrees with them by calling them “children” and did not even bother to offer a kind word to people who were harassed and even had their trauma mocked by this person. It costs 0 dollars to say “that was not me but I’m sorry about people who were hurt.”

Dana and Elle are close with Ava’s Demon creator Michelle Czajkowski aka that one person who endorses child porn of her characters, and even had her draw a promo image for the game. Michelle has been creating highly sexualized content of her minor characters for a while now.

ok so elle and dana are gross freaks, how is that related to the game?

oh it’s very very related

Dana Rune’s and Elle’s lack of moral fiber that’s Actually Inside The Game or The Game’s Blog: now with more #racism #fetishization of poc and mlm #whitewashing #fat hate #pedophilia #nb erasure #transphobia

tl;dr: the arcana is filled to the brim with racism! so much of it! haha holy shit! and that’s not even where it ends!!!

their game is rated PG-13 but includes incredibly sexual situations such as Julian making this fucking face while getting off on pain. This isn’t the only time Dana and Elle use their videogame aimed at young teens to showcase their kinks and fetishes. I have no issue with NSFW or titillating content, as long as it’s rated accordingly. This content is NOT and it’s a blatant disregard for their audience just to have a larger, more pliable demographic and have more money sent their way.

if you start your argument with “well, teenagers look at porn” 1. shut up 2. theres a HUGE difference between teenagers going after adult content aimed at adults, and adults creating content they know will be seen by kids barely starting puberty

as pointed above, dana has 0 qualms literally commissioning people who make whitewashed fanart of her own fucking game that’s supposed to be all about the inclusivity and safe spaces

thearcanagame blog has a pattern of reblogging whitewashed fanart (before you come in swinging with the good ole “ITS THE LIGHTING”: 1. no it isnt 2. the artist should’ve picked better lightning then 3. i draw and post shit online too so dont come telling me i just dont understaaaand),

fanart of their fat characters showed skinnier than they are in their sprites (although to be real for a moment - Portia is curvy at most and them behaving she’s fat rep is HILARIOUS).

going back to NSFW content: nadia and asra are overwhemlingly sexualized in the game, and were the first to have sexualized CGs and sprites introduced.

CGs: Asra’s here, here aND HERE, Nadia’s here with a NSFW warning because she’s just got her whole fucking ass out. Sprites: Asra’s thank god for whoever compiled it all in one image, Nadia’s and once again, NSFW warning lmfao!

Julian’s sprites on the other hand are noticeably tamer, including the one where he’s fucking strapped in leather. His only sexual (NSFW warning because its literally softcore tentacle porn WHICH, ONCE AGAIN, SHOULDN’T BE PUT IN A GAME AIMED AT 13YOS) CGs were also included months after Nadia and Asra received any of theirs.

Through all of the updates, people have constantly requested that Asra and Nadia’s sexualization be toned down, and time after time The Arcana just churned out fetishistic, hypersexualized content at an absurd rate, especially when compared to the one white love interest.

Oh, speaking of the one white love interest: Julian is based off of Jeff Goldblum (this is not spectulation - they p much bring it up at any given time) but like. If Jeff Goldblum was white. They base their favorite love interest off their supposed favorite man in the world but casually leave his skin tone behind. Lmao.

they also play favorites very obviously - in the prologue, Nadia and Asra have a romance paid scene each. Julian has a scene... that requires no coins. Julian was also the first LI to receive three CGs, two of them requiring no coins, while both Asra’s and Nadia’s first CGs were behind a paywall

Dana and Elle have been notoriously skittish about confirming or denying their characters’ ethnicities. After hyping for weeks on thearcanagame that they would confirm the character’s races they basically made a post that amounted to “well they’re not white lol!”

they only relented after the perfectly understandable outrage... and posted a thread about it on Elle’s twitter. Nothing on the actual thearcanagame blog. Anyway, here’s the thread. Note how there’s mention of Julian being Jeff Goldblum... but nothing about him and Portia being Jewish (or “fantasy Jewish” as it were).

The one time they did confirm their jewishness dana then backpedaled and said she shouldn’t have done that lol.

another fun tidbit of how well The Arcana handles race and how much it cares about feedback from fans: an ask was sent about an anon begging for Nadia to step on them. The blog, with the finesse of a bunch of horny dumbasses, didn’t just publish the ask, but approved of it (even though the fans of color had long, long, LONG been telling everyone not to fetishize Nadia into a “step on me kween” wet dream). People were outraged, of course, and the blog ~apologized~ and said they were still learning.... then a new chapter included a scene of Nadia stepping on the Apprentice. 🙃

not to mention elle, on their twitter, made a passive aggressive “women can be doms?” tweet, trying to twist it into a “yr oppressing women” angle (when the issue is that women of color are always constantly portrayed as aggressive and domineering)

Now for a wombo combo of racism and Elle’s fetishization of mlm:

the devs have spoken at length of how Julian’s and Asra’s relationship was quite unhealthy. In a paid scene in Asra’s route, they’re depicted as Asra being disgusted w Julian touching him+Julian following Asra to his shop when Asra refused his offer to go with him (aka julian... stalked him lmfao).

.......... this scene is promptly followed by a highly sexual scenario where Julian’s pain fetish is played up. Remember how this game is rated PG-13? Me neither. Asra’s previous disgust with Julian is also forgotten, for some reason (and by some reason i mean Elle wants to make them fuck w/o buildup or logic).

Then Asra’s route has yet another paid scene dedicated to Asrian, even though he’s supposed to not even like Julian! And be head over heels with the Apprentice! But Elle just has to make these two be entangled despite insisting their relationship was not good for either of them!

Now here’s the kicker: Julian doesn’t have any paid scenes related to his romance with Asra. Note how it’s one of the brown LIs whose route is highjacked by the white LI, but not vice versa. Hmmmmm.

Now, on the topic of Asra: thearcanagame has said repeatedly that he’s nb and uses he/him pronouns, and promised (since last year) that there would be dialogue where he speaks about his gender

as of the making of this post such dialogue still does not exist

so basically asra is the nb to dumbledore’s gay: anyone who just plays the game w/o keeping up with the official blog has no idea of what asra’s gender is supposed to be.

aka he’s not nb. he’s just a cis guy. the arcana just doesn’t want to put its money where its mouth is, i dont care if elle is nb themself. the team made a promise which has not been fulfilled yet and i suspect will not be.

instead, our introduction to canon nb characters is... these two.

By “these two” i mean neither vulgora nor valdemar are even fucking human, and stick out like sore thumbs with their monstruousness.

so our nb rep is... non-human villains. a few books later one of Nadia’s sisters with they/them pronouns shows up, but that’s too little too late on top of the fact that we should’ve known Asra was nb from the first to begin with. It’s a fucking embarrassment and an insult.

at least two villains are visibly disabled (Lucio’s missing arm and Volta’s blind eye+intentionally asymmetrical face). Julian’s eye doesn’t count because, spoilers, he’s not lacking an eye and even if he was it’d still be hidden behind a dashing eyepatch instead of grotesquely displayed as a sign of his lacking morality.

BUT WAIT! IT DOESN’T EVEN END THERE!

The Arcana Exploits The App Business Model To Price Their Full Game at $500, $1000 if the three extra routes make it out, and they never delivered their Kickstarter rewards:

tl;dr: you heard me

the original price per route was planned on being $1.99

they took that “subject to change” really seriously, it seems, because now each route, once the game is fully out, is estimated to cost around $170 each.

both those screenshots are taken from this post which explains in detail just how truly scummy all of The Arcana’s business model and decisions are: https://mysticmicrotransactions.tumblr.com/post/174308723344/dishonesty-from-the-arcana

the tl;dr is basically what’s listed in the beginning of this section, but other highlights from that post are: the use of addictive gambling mechanics such the Wheel of Fortune, and the dazzling calls to action in the new mini-game.

something that The Arcana supporters forget (or choose to ignore) is the fact that for a long, long time the game did not have the mini-game or the log-in rewards for coins. Players depended only on the gambling of the WoF or paying absurd amounts of money for the new chapters.

the devs went from playing the victims who were unable of controlling prices to (as spoken of in the link from mysticmicrotransactions) saying the making of the game (a pathetic little app game backed by a studio and a kickstarter) justifies the prices

they also gave people false hope about maybe changing the prices in the future, all while bleeding money from loyal players in “micro” transactions

the arcana literally added a $99.99 coins option on their latest update

in case it hasn’t sunk in yet: you can pay a hundred dollars upfront to the arcana, and you still will not have access to the whole game

there is no defense to this

none

“it’s free stop whining” let me explain:

“spend months on end accumulating fake currency or pay hundreds of dollars up-front to be able to play” is a scummy business model no matter how you look at it

if i can spend $60 upfront to play an AAA game there’s no excuse to demand more than that for a game with much smaller and, honestly, inferior content

the combination of there being already far and few games featuring lgbt characters and characters of color AND the little cult of personality set up by Dana and Elle makes people feel that spending money to support them is an acceptable expense.

it’s not

manipulating people into spending ridiculous amounts of money and then claiming “it’s their choice” is just scummy business, baby, and thats all the arcana does

the devs are brats who instead of admitting $500 is absurd for a game instead write petty little caricatures into their game - like, lbr: dana, elle, if i could afford diamonds in my hair i wouldn’t have even bothered with your shitstain of a game

despite bragging that ppl would get the full story w/o needing to pay, the paid scenes are pretty much required - the first few books of julian’s route have no romance without accessing any of the paid options. you dont even get so much as a kiss in without handing coins over. many, many people were baffled when julian had a teary break-up scene when from their perspective they hadn’t even started building a relationship.

wow that’s more than i ever thought it’d be

and i’ve been aware of their bullshit for near a whole year now!

i don’t have much of a note to end this on, other than: the arcana just isn’t even that good. it suffers from weak writing, pathetic character development and above all actually harmful content. do not try to argue with me on any of these points unless you’ve read all of that, because whatever you have to say i’ve likely mentioned before. if you still are that determined to yell at a me on the internet, please preface your argument with the phrase “I’m a pee pee poo poo man” so I know you’ve read everything in here. thank you!

[veiljumpernyssa]

could you just... like... answer all of those questions at once? I can't pick one but I wanna know all the things

Oh God okay

[[MORE]]

1. When did you start playing?

Oh a long time ago...over a  year ago I’d say? The main 3 were only up to uhhhh the Hermit book I think. I remember I stopped playing after that gross fetishy Asra CG came out.

2. What got you into the game?

The beautiful art and the tarot theme. This was before I knew what I know fdjhksd

3. Who was your first route?

Julian!

4. Who is your favourite route?

Honestly Muriel is shaping up to be my favourite so far. Before that, I loved Asra’s route.

5. Who is your least favourite?

So far, Portia’s. Don’t get me wrong - it’s nothing to do with Portia herself. It just feels a little stagnant and flat.

(I bet you expected me to say Lucio, didn’t you? Well, you’re wrong).

6. Who do you play in Heart Hunter?

Chibi Chandra!

7. Who is your favourite to chase in Heart Hunter?

Portia or Muriel!

8. Who of the not playable LIs do you wish you could romance?

The baker. Selasi route when?

9. Opinion on Asra?

Asra is often mischaracterised imo and held to an unfair standard that a lot of the other characters aren’t. I’ve seen many of these arguments and I’m tired.

Asra is not jealous, possessive, creepy, manipulative or shady. Not once does he act possessive towards the MC in any of the routes including his own (a possible exception could be made for the Reversed Ending, but what do you expect? That’s after the MC literally enables that behaviour).

Being sad or cautioning the MC against Julian is not being jealous or possessive. The way he talks about Julian it’s pretty obvious he felt more for the man than he realises, even if he doesn’t understand that himself.

Asra keeps secrets from the MC because canonically trying to remember too much too fast harms the MC. This has been established. In his route, he literally tells you that he hates keeping secrets from you. He takes you into his own personal gateway - an expression of trust and a willingness to open up to you. Does he do these things in the other routes? No, but that’s because you’re not spending that time with him.

I also see people angsting about how sad Asra is going to be when you tell him about Lucio in his route. Lucio harmed his parents and has been cruel to Asra so like idk what you expect. The MC doesn’t know this of course, but you do!

I think we also forget that Asra took a considerable amount of time and effort to rehabilitate the MC, care for them and reteach them basic tasks as well as magic.

Is Asra a perfect person? Of course not. He’s probably overly cautious, he can be a little distant and he reacts badly when in a crisis (see the deal he made with the Devil). He’s not always brave and not always strong, but why should we expect him to be? He’s a human being and he’s bound to have faults, but he has a generous nature and is remarkably well-adjusted considering the trauma of his childhood (don’t tell me that suddenly losing your parents is not traumatic).

10. Opinion on Julian?

I once said that Julian is likely hypersexual and I still maintain that. (For those of you who don’t know, being hypersexual is like..a tendency to engage in compulsive or self-harming sexual behaviour, sometimes as a result of trauma). I think Julian craves affection and associates sexual interest or sexual contact with his worth as a person. I don’t think he does it deliberately or to be manipulative, but because he has a definite self-esteem problem. I honestly see him as bipolar like me.

I think the way the fandom treats him as this dumbass uwu subby boy is kind of annoying. A lot of people I feel erase his bisexuality either by just ignoring it or by making homophobic jokes where the punchline is ‘ha ha he likes dick like you do!!!!’ like no shit, he’s BISEXUAL. But he’s also hard-working, brave, clever, pleasant and good-natured, and once he starts to really come into his own, he’s cheerful and optimistic. He has so many more good qualities than just ‘submissive and kinky’.

11. Opinion on Lucio?

This may surprise y’all but I actually don’t hate Lucio that much. I love to hate him as a villain.

I think he, like all of us, is a product of his environment. He grew up in a clan with a strong martial culture; his clan were warlike and frequently made war on his neighbours. We’re all influenced by our upbringing and I don’t think he’s an exception. I draw the line at saying he ‘just didn’t know right from wrong’ though. He’s not a baby.

But the differences between Lucio and the other LIs like Portia, Asra, Muriel etc is that Lucio’s life and his fate and the hardships he’s faced are almost entirely due to his own choices. It was he who decided on the eve of his eighteenth birthday to kill his parents. He sought out Vlagnagog with the intention of making a deal. He chose to continue to make deals. He knew he carried the plague and he chose to carry it across the continent including into Vesuvia, causing the deaths of thousands. He murdered and blackmailed his way across the continent. He wouldn’t have even needed to bargain for a new body if he hadn’t caught the plague that he brought into Vesuvia himself after making a deal etc.

Do I think he is a sort of cackling, villainous cliche or unrepentantly evil? No. I think he’s a person who has made deliberate choices that he is facing the consequences for and IMO it’s important that he face those consequences. I do think his main issue is entitlement and a profound lack of self-esteem (I don’t think he really believes any of the stuff he actually says about himself or other people; even Lucio’s not delusional).

I mean that’s about as generous and objective a take on Lucio as I can give you. I’ve made my feelings clear on him, but I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t actually understand him as a character, hopefully the above will prove I do haha.

12. Opinion on Muriel?

Out of all the LIs I think I relate most strongly to Muriel because of a few reasons: trauma, touch-starved, lonely and wants to connect but afraid of getting hurt (physically or emotionally).

Now that I’ve gotten personal, I really hate the way Muriel is treated by the fandom. He’s either called bland or boring, or he’s treated like he’s an animal, called feral and animalistic. He’s none of those things.

Muriel has a big complex about being alone. He was literally given away by his parents and left in Vesuvia on his own, to fend for himself on the streets. Being abandoned by his parents and not knowing why, not remembering is traumatic enough, but because of his size he’s often characterised as aggressive and strong when he’s always been gentle. Later in his life, Muriel was forced to fight and kill people against his will. I don’t think a lot of people get just how traumatic that is; not only being forced into doing Lucio’s bidding, but being forced to violently take someone’s life. I don’t blame him for leaving to live at his hut and resist connecting to anyone. It’s common for traumatized people to withdraw and isolate themselves, because the thought of getting hurt again is more frightening than being alone. But everyone needs human contact, and I think Muriel struggles a lot between wanting connection and contact (physical or emotional), between not wanting to get hurt again, to not feeling like he’s worth the effort. That struggle is something very close to my heart and that’s why I’m attached to him.

13. Opinion on Nadia?

Nadia has the biggest youngest sister complex and it’s almost amusing because I, too, have the same complex (even though I’m actually the older sibling!). Nadia, like me, feels like she’s always been compared unfavourably to her older sisters, and has felt like she has to work harder to prove she’s their equal.

It’s probably because she’s a Cancer like me. We have dual natures sometimes; the caretaker and the ringleader, who feel like we have to take it all on ourselves to get the job properly done, but who have moments where our self-doubt takes over.

I do find some aspects of Nadia’s route to be sort of odd, where it’s mentioned that the people of Vesuvia find her to be a tyrant. There’s literally no evidence to suggest that, so the only reasoning I can find next is she’s a woc. But race doesn’t matter in Vesuvia apparently so...what else could be the reason? Not to mention she’s been asleep for the past three years, so the people haven’t even seen the Countess in that time.

I feel like we didn’t really get to understand a lot about Nadia even from her route-why did she fall asleep? What on Earth did she see in Lucio? Why did she let him do all those bad things in Vesuvia before he died? (My initial thought was Cancers can be sloth-like and passive, so that could be why).

14. Opinion on Portia?

Of all the LIs I feel like it’s Portia I know the least about despite having probably the most appearances. Sure, she’s quirky and fun and cheerful, and that’s cute, but...what does she want? What does she fear? How does she feel about her brother being on trial?

I’m hoping we get to expand more of her personality in her route. I know her patron Arcana is the Star, so her route will likely be about learning to have faith in other people, but who knows.

15. What is your favourite Arcana card?

Justice. The Empress is a close runner-up.

16. Have you bought any of the official merch?

No, I refuse to give a single cent to Nix Hydra. (I really want those Tarot cards though hhh)

17. What is your favourite CG?

The one where Asra is sitting in the gondola. Squishy cheeks :3c

18. How many Arcana themed blogs do you have?

Three! This one, then I run an Ask Muriel blog at @ask-muriel-inanna and an Ask Asra blog at @ask-asra-and-faust

19. Do you draw any Arcana art? What is your favourite image you have drawn?

The cover I just did for my Arcana comic! I cant link but it's in #arcana comic and #my art

20. Self insert or apprentice insert?

Both are valid, but I have an apprentice OC.

21. Do you have an apprentice?

Yes I do! Their name is Daya

22. If there is one thing that could be made with the Arcana theme on it, what would it be and why?

Idk what this means I big dumb

23. What is your favourite ship?

Outside of the LI x MC ships I really do like Asriel and Portia/Nadia (but only if Portia isn’t her servant anymore).

24. What is your least favourite ship?

Muriel x Lucio, Asra x Lucio or Julian x Lucio. None of them would even consider ever touching Lucio with a ten foot pole and y’all know this.

25. On your first play through, what direction was your ending for the LIs?

Upright babey!!!!!

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Hello! A fellow arcana writer here - ( this is from my main account, the account where I post my arcana content is @thefishermansharbor ) just wondering, do you have an tips or tricks with writing for Lucio? I feel like I always make him too agitating, and I want to make him seem a little more human. Anyways, great work so far and answer this whenever! <3

Yes, I've read your stuff! I've really enjoyed it too!

I can't tell you how honored I am to be asked for tips like this, so there will a whole (very long and detailed) Lucio character analysis under the cut if you desire to read it ^.^ (spoiler warning, of course)

There's two things I like to keep in mind when I'm writing Lucio: who and what he is, and where he is on what he does with that. Lucio as a human being, for example, is an extrovert who loves parties and attention. What he used to do with that, on the other hand, was focus all of his attention on throwing lavish parties when there were more pressing matters that he chose not to address (pre-prologue).

So who or what is Lucio? You could start with his MBTI personality type (ESTP), or his sign (Capricorn), or how he presents himself. This is the person the reader gets to know in his route, and when I write headcanons, this is the person I pay more attention to. He's extroverted, he loves attention and excitement, he likes to act first and think later, he's an adventure seeker, he's loud and expressive and an open book, he likes to be happy, and he likes people to be happy with him. As person, that's who Lucio is, and that's who MC falls in love with in his route.

But that's not who we see in the rest of the story, whether it be the prologue, the "Dawn of the Grub" tale, or the other character's routes. That's because in those stories, we're meeting Lucio through the eyes of the characters we're with, and they see him for what he's done and continues to do. Julian's route shows us a self-centered tyrant, Nadia's shows a petulant teenager playing at royalty, Asra's shows him as useless scum, Muriel's as a terrifying demon turned clown, and Portia's doesn't even address him at all. This is all in line with the things those characters experienced (or didn't experience) because of him. Asra lost his parents and MC, Julian was locked in a dungeon and force-fed a plague beetle, Nadia was married to someone out of desperation who dimmed her spark, Muriel was enslaved and coerced into murdering hundreds of innocents, and Portia didn't even know who he was until she showed up in Vesuvia.

So how does all of this play into MC and Lucio's relationship? Assuming that we're working with the upright ending, most of this depends on how much time has passed since defeating the Devil. The game leaves off with MC and Lucio becoming journeymen, or traveling adventurers, deciding their future one new commission at a time. Because Lucio's relationship with MC is what transforms him from being himself with only himself in mind to being himself with the wellbeing of others in mind, the longer he's had the chance to practice that, the more of a good person he has practice being.

If it's been a few months, he is probably still rude to strangers out of habit and regularly puts himself before other people (including MC half the time) because he's still learning how to think of others when he makes decisions and how to say "I was wrong" after making a big mistake. He's probably still settling into the fact that someone loves him for him, and that if he asks for forgiveness there's a chance he'll receive it.

~ from here on out is much more speculative. some fans like Lucio for his more "villainous" traits, like his tendency to prioritize himself or his willingness to forget about people in the pursuit of his own pleasure. what I'm about to describe is a continued trajectory from his route and upright ending, where Lucio is committed to continuing to better himself and build a healthy future, and MC is playing an active role in reconciling and connecting him to the people around him ~

If it's been closer to a year, he's more likely to have learned how to make friends with new people out of his extroversion instead of trying to dominate them out of his need for attention. He's still working on his manners, but he's better at acknowledging his oopsies. This is most likely the point where he gets into the deeper work - his own trauma from growing up in a "hunt or be hunted" family, his addiction to deal making, his time on the battlefield, dying of the plague, spending three years as a tortured, incorporeal form while the world continues without him, etc.

This is also when the weight of all the things he's done wrong really starts to sink in. He'll likely go from "yeah, that was a thing I did and it was bad," to "oh, I'm directly responsible for thousands of deaths and immeasurable suffering, and nothing I do can change that." He'll be more love-hungry than he's ever been, and every day will be a struggle of living with the nuances of trauma and forgiveness and generational cycles of violence and death, all with a brain that doesn't like nuance or deep thinking at all.

Several years down the line, he has the potential to be one of the most intentionally healthy characters after the astronomical amount of work he'll need to do to build and maintain a good life with MC. While nobody becomes perfect, we'd see him fully become the person that MC fell in love with (an energetic, excited, creative adventurer who loves people and animals and who loves to be loved). At this point, he's also started to make his own reputation as the fighter who travels with a magician and takes odd jobs for a decent commission, and not the ex-count of Vesuvia. The people who meet him now will see the same person MC saw all along, and they'll most likely find him endearing and want to be friends with him. He'll have good connections that he's made on his own merit.

It's unlikely that he'll ever be fully welcome in Vesuvia. While he's changed and grown and likely addressed what he's done to the best of his ability, he can't undo the past. For the rest of his lifetime, memories of the plague will be fresh in that city's memory, with not a single citizen who hasn't suffered from it. It's very likely that he'll still stop by with MC a few times to catch up, but that's it. The city won't want him back after knowing the truth. And Lucio doesn't like living with his mistakes - he'd much prefer to move on and do better. As much as he's learned to apologize and do better, he'll do anything to avoid wallowing in his own suffering.

To write him, then, I like to start with who MC knows he is, figure out how long he's had to grow, and work from there. If I'm working with an MC-related prompt (an MC who likes to draw, or who uses a cane, for example), then Lucio will first encounter that quality as the person he is when he first meets MC in his route (ghostly mr goatman). It's also fun to track how his behavior is likely to change over time as he grows as a person.

If it's a future situation for an established relationship, like getting married, or having kids, or daily routines and domestic habits, then I write for the Lucio we see developing at the end of the Upright ending.

The two often play into each other, of course. If MC has PTSD, and Lucio's come far enough to help them with that, it also means that he's drawing from all of his own trauma. If we see him being petty about something, we have examples of how he would have reacted, and how he reacts instead.

That's the fun of being human, after all. We are the amalgamation of all the versions of ourselves we've ever been, and growth is the product of acknowledging every one of those and aiming for goodness in whoever we become next.

Hope that helped, @thefishermansharbor! Happy writing, and cheers!

brainrot

[gdrawsthings]

Heyyy we know your fav is Valdemar obviously but if you take in only the main 6 LIs from the arcana can you rank them from your least liked to most liked?

Hello there!

Before we start, let me just say 2 things:

1) there is no LI I truly dislike, just LIs that I feel less of a connection with2) I haven’t read Portia’s first chapter yet (no money 😅)

That said, this is my current personal ranking of the main LIs, with some explanations:

6)  Nadia (she’s such a queen, beautiful, inspiring, powerful… but I wouldn’t romance her personally) 5) Muriel (personality-wise, we wouldn’t be a good match at all)4) Asra (he’s just not really my type; very sweet though)3) Portia (fun fact: she was my first Arcana crush. I gave up on her once I realized I couldn’t romance her yet. I’m so glad her route is out)2) Lucio (I just see so much potential in him, haha! Can’t wait to play his route tbh. I’ll see where his story leads before changing my mind, if I change it at all, but for the time being I give him a hopeful #2!) 1) Julian (when only 3 of their routes were out, his was always the first I would play; loved his route, loved the mysterious doctor type; fun, knowledgeable, absolutely adorable. 10/10, best boy)

[katherineshep]

Arcana: Post-book 13 theories

Officially: Arcana's plot is BEAUTIFUL. It's rare to find a game of that intense story and I love it completely. Book 13 blew up my mind and the more I think about it, the more ideas I have about what actually happened in Vesuvia.

-- BOOK 13 SPOILERS BELOW! --

In the newest updates we have the note "In the meantime, see the story from different angle" after every route. This and one good talk with my dear bro @voidslantern were the last straw for emergence of new theories.

Theory 1: There are multiple Apprentices.

If you don't even romance anyone, the game leaves you with a feeling that you must be in many places at once. This clearly is seen in the trial chapter: we talk Julian to confession about what he saw in the lab... or we do not and we go out of the dungeon with Nadia. More than that: Asra may be arrested with Julian, or there are both Julian and Nadia in custody, or Julian is in the cell by himself. Julian may surrender with different details and different trial speeches. We might save Julian in his lab or he might wake up in the palace. This all leads me to the thought, that somehow there are three different Apprentices, and three Asras, Julians and Nadias as well. And then there's Muriel who's defensive against Apprentice for some reason, and jealous (!) in Asra's route (he once said "It's always just you and him"), and there obviously will be a plot with him (I just don't know when), so there might be 4th Apprentice. And 5th with Portia.

What's important is that lots of the main plot spots are different and they exclude another route's events. I think every event in the game after Apprentice's death is affected by Arcana. Duplicates never meet, their paths never cross. Though, it's quite complicated to have multiple copies of people walking around, so that's where the second theory, most pleasant, is born!

Theory 2: Apprentice held the ritual of her own before Asra's one, and this shattered the Time and influenced her friends' will.

Bro said, that there is something wrong with time flow, like in Lucio's dining room. And maybe it's true. Maybe Ritual broke the Time itself, shattered the timeline to multiple variants. So Appentice may be trapped in some kind of circled queue of events with some variables changing - that's where multiple routes come from. Maybe Apprentice's last regret was that she could play everything out differently, but in that moment plague wasn't cured and she was dying. Maybe then she, as powerful magician (she was one at that time), consciously or not called out to any of The Arcana, and one of them listened. So the Ritual wasn't what Asra was doing with Lucio much later. Ritual was about how Apprentice made a deal before she died. Maybe she wanted to end the plague... then I wonder, what was her price for what she got. If she wanted to not only end the plague, but protect Julian, Asra and Nadia, she might have asked for them to have the chance to change something if they happen to be in really desperate state. I don't know what might almost dead person give to Arcana. Maybe it (whichever of Arcana heard Apprentice's plea) asked for her magic for her friends's salvation (and it was win for the Arcana because it would make Julian, Asra and Nadia possible contractors who will be given some magic to contact with another Arcana gods). Because, well, supernatural forces of that power can't do good for nothing. There always is a price.

I think Apprentice's plea to change something has pulled the whole bunch of following events like, you know, she wrote fate of her friends in that exact moment and they act by it. She sacrificed her magic for saving Asra - and he probably reached Magician who told him of the plague reason and/or about the way to resurrect Apprentice. Julian reached Arcana too (he's no mage, but as his pre-death state could be a catalyst, as Apprentice's magic could channel through him to the Hanged Man too!). Nadia is a bit different - she originally had the connection with High Priestess, so maybe Apprentice's magic didn't reach her. Or did it, but eventually? Nadia started seeing prophetic dreams, maybe that is what Apprentice's sacrifice gave her.

Common desire of these three to take down Lucio could influence the outcome of the ritual, and Asra could tell Lucio that only so few people, him and Nadia and whoever was on that dinner, are needed for ritual completion. But I think Asra couldn't devise this all alone, he got the clue from The Magician about this complicated, twisted magic. Asra lost his beloved person, he was devastated, and this was his moment of despair that triggered Apprentice's magic to connect him and Magician. Julian's desperate moment was when he understood that he had not found the cure and has no more time. And Nadia's one happened when she felt completely helpless, being suppressed by her husband.

Theory 3: Apprentice is a magical creation.

We don't know fully the capabilities of Apprentice and what she did before she died. Her "home" place is the shore (where Asra's childhood was, though it was told that Apprentice came from another city). She was working with doctors on the plague (like Julian did). I haven't found yet parallels with Nadia, but doesn't it seem weird that Apprentice shares some of her past with Asra and Julian?

Who is she? Is she really human? Is she only a girl trapped in circled events, or she's only a reflection of Asra, Nadia and Julian's fates, thoughts and hopes, some collective magical illusion-hallucination? Maybe in exchange of her friends' salvation she became a will-less puppet of some Arcana, when she died, and now she unwillingly pushes Asra, Nadia and Julian to connect to their Arcana gods - in a bargain she did not know consequences of? Or she did something of magical nature before her death and became one of the Arcana herself and now she's playing with there three? Maybe she originally was some Arcana that got bored, went to mortal plane in a girl's body and created a bunch of plots to have fun? Or even she was Arcana, had parted ways with other gods of her kin and they cursed her to all this life?

Theory 4: It all may be agony hallucinations of Apprentice.

Agonizing brain can create those things, and in the end Apprentice might be very well dying of plague now. Or these are agony of the Apprentice in the next wave of plague which is about to happen.

[marsalaandthearcana]

The Beginners’ Guide for The Arcana

Hey there, you!

I’m here to introduce to you the beautiful game of The Arcana, down here will  be giving you a gist and a few tips on playing this game! I’ll be including an introduction on the characters and the plot (but I won’t give away the whole story!) 

Here we go!

What is The Arcana? 

The Arcana is a dating sim game that shows everyone has a secret to hide. The game is set in Italian renaissance looking Vesuvia, a province that has gone quiet after an epidemic of the Red Plague had occured. The Red Plague’s revealed to have symptoms of red sceleras and gradual deterioration leading to death.

This is also followed by the death of its arrogant Count, Lucio, who died in a blaze at a masquerade for his own birthday. You own a magic shop passed for generations to your family. Your mentor is dubbed a great magician, soft hearted and caring, Asra. Your character is the apprentice who has lost their memories and Asra has taught you all they know, despite you were said to be strong with magic. 

In the province of Vesuvia, it is run by a bunch of councilors and the Count’s wife, Countess Nadia. Nadia is determined to seek the truth of the murder of her husband and is determined to hunt the prime suspect, Doctor Julian Devorak, Count Lucio’s personal doctor when the Count received the Plague. With the lost memories and the lost answers, things become complicated when these three paths cross, it really becomes magical with its mysterious and mystical atmosphere, along with the blooming romances made. 

Tips for New Players: 

1. The Game is developing.

The game tries to upload once a month a new book that consists of three parts that you can play! 

2. Coins

It is recommended for you to earn your coins! For me, I earned a lot of money by actually avoiding to use the wheel of fortune with 20 coins. Always wait for the free spin and don't forget to claim your daily rewards on the tarot section.

3. Choices

According to the Arcana devs, the choices you make in the specific route may affect your end. Despite this, you can always repeat the game and correct your choices! 

4. Routes

There are 3 routes you can enter. According to the creators of the game, they might consider making routes for other characters once the main routes are done ;)

Keys and Books

A. Books

Books are parts of the story, a Book consists of three chapters. Books are updated at least once a month or so. The game always starts with the prologue that consists of five books, this is the general route of the whole game before it branches to the person you choose to pick.

To make the game more interesting ( ;) you know what i mean), there are some paid options to see some extra scenes on a chapter, you pay with your in game coins and that scene can be unlocked permanently. Another way to get all the scenes would be buying the book in the route you chose. Once you bought a book, all paid choices are available for permanent use :)

Books currently cost 500 coins each.

B. Keys

After the prologue, each book’s 3 parts can be opened by using a key. Keys can only be used once per chapter and if you run out, it takes 8 hrs to get another one or you can buy one from the store! Once you buy a book you can no longer use a key, but the book can be opened for unlimited times.

Characters:

So for this one, I won't go into too much detail and I'll let you figure this one out.

1. Julian Devorak

Lucio's Doctor during the Red Plague, he also amputated Lucio's arm to save his life. He is said to be the prime suspect of the murder of Count Lucio. He is now a criminal on the run. He is one of the three characters you can romance for now.

2. Asra the Magician

Asra grew without his parents and only with his friend, Muriel, Asra is known to be wondrous with his magic. Asra even taught you how to do magic. Asra seems to be an old friend of yours (maybe even more than friends). Asra took care of you before and after you lost your memories, maybe they'll help you find things about the past? Asra truly is mysterious, although they don't like keeping secrets from you. Asra is one of the characters you can romance for now.

3. Nadia Satrinava

Once the wife of Vesuvia's Count, Nadia had recently awoken from a deep slumber after she found out of her husband's death. She is from Prakra, born from the ruling family of the said province. In a family of nine, Nadia is the youngest out of seven sisters. She leaves her family to go to Vesuvia where she meets Lucio and is proposed to while both of them were drunk, were she surprisingly accepted.

After the Count's death, she hunts for the prime suspect of the murder, Julian Devorak and would do what it takes to find answers. She is one of the characters you can choose to romance for now.

4. Portia

She is the favorite handmaiden of Nadia. Known to have a sassy and bright personality, Portia is friendly to those people she passes, especially those in the palace, but she definitely knows how to handle herself in the real world. She also has a thing for gossip and knows her way with people well enough to get her through a lot of things!

5. Muriel

A mysterious and quiet giant who seems to know a lot about the Apprentice and everyone else. He lives in the deep forest where he is often left alone. His past is left as not being discussed often and he prefers it that way.

6. Lucio

Once known as a mercenary, he was given the job of becoming the Count of Vesuvia. His left arm was amputated by Doctor Devorak due to an unfortunate event to the Count's old mercenary days (correct me if i'm wrong). He is also known to have been arrogant and demanding, even dramatic. He's known for his fancy parties and vain personality.

 He is often feared by people than loved. Despite this, he is known to have a love for magic even though he is inexperienced, and animals, especially his dogs Mercedes and Melchior.

I'll update this soon but here's my take on setting you up in the world of The Arcana! It's a beautiful game and so is the plot's development :)

If you have any friends to recommend the game, feel free to tag! That's all for now, thanks for reading!

[theapprenticecinna]

Apprentice Week: Day 3

Love

Who is your apprentice’s soulmate?

Julian. 1 billion times, Julian.

I have a lot of thoughts on the romance options available in this game, both in general and with specific regard to Cinna, below the break, if anyone feels like diving into that.

@thearcanaweek

When I started the game, I started with Asra’s route, because he’s beautiful and there’s a very clear history there that I wanted to explore. Buuuuut while I’m sure he means well, I’m bothered by the secrets, and frankly playing that route sort of felt like when your crush finally asks you out and you go on the date and it’s...fine? but you realize that you had this whole version of them that you created in your head and the reality doesn’t quite live up to it so when you get home you’re just kind of disappointed, even if it was objectively a really good date.

So then I thought, “Well, let’s check out this doctor man, maybe he’ll be more interesting.” (I’ve...never had any interest in romancing Nadia. I think I must have made all the wrong choices to set her up as a proper love interest, because mostly she’s just kind of mean and bossy, and not in a sexy way. Maybe one day I’ll replay it and see if I can get her to be nice to mehahahaha just kidding I’m only ever replaying Julian’s route because Julian is my everything now.)

So I started Julian’s route, and then immediately went back and replayed the prologue chapters with Julian in mind. Because oh, my goodness, Julian is so much more than I ever realized at the start of this game. He’s the opposite of Asra--he’s the guy that you think you know and he’s fun and nice and cute but you don’t really have a thing for him exactly, but then when you go on a date you learn that he’s not just the cute funny boy whom everyone likes but he’s also got depth and he’s caring and he’s just so much more than you knew he could be and by the time the date is over you are completely in love with him and trying not to explode from it.

And I think that Cinna is surprised by all this as well. At the beginning of the game, she also thinks she’s in love with Asra. And then she meets Julian and she realizes that her feelings for Asra were a mere crush, that she will always love him but she’s not in love with him, and by the time she realizes that he is, actually, in love with her, she’s completely lost in Julian. She loves Asra because he is an important part of her life, but the Asra she was in love with doesn’t really exist, and she didn’t think she was even going to like Julian, but somehow she found herself falling headfirst into the most intense love she’s ever experienced and it’s wonderful and exhilarating and terrifying (because he’s, you know, wanted for murder, not because she’s afraid of loving him, he is very easy to love and she is absolutely certain that loving him is the right thing for her). She now realizes that Asra does love her, but she also realizes that he’s keeping secrets from her and also maybe manipulating her mind a little so that he can continue keeping those secrets? And she trusts that he has his reasons and means well and she wants to unpack all of that with him eventually, but right now she’s busy trying to keep her beloved alive. In spite of himself. Sigh.

[felikcs]

Okay so I've played through all three routes of The Lovers (minus bonus stuff in Asra's and Nadia's bc I can only afford to be hopelessly devoted to one of the three), and here are some Interesting Facts that have been revealed. I'm on mobile so I can't add a cut, but MAJOR spoilers below this point for all three routes!!

------------------------------

------------------------------

------------------------------

NADIA ROUTE

The Count died ~1 year 3 months ago

Shortly after his death, Nadia went into a "deep sleep" for about a year.

After awaking, Nadia's last memory involves the bridge into the palace, from when she arrived in Vesuvia long ago. She remembers nothing of the Count, and has based her current distaste for him off of what remains of his presence.

The MC also doesn't remember anything of the Count - their memories are all from after his death, though the time period of when their memory started wasn't made clear.

The MC used to get headaches like Nadia, before they learned to control them (seemingly by not trying to fill the gaps, but also maybe bc Asra?)

Lucio did have the plague, and according to the Consul/Nadia, that was the direct reason for the search for the cure - implying that if Lucio hadn't gotten sick, the palace would not have searched for the cure

On the night of the Count's death, the other four courtiers (other than the Consul) were at the door to the room as he died, and did absolutely nothing but yell about it apparently. (v suspicious if you ask me)

The Consul handles the day-to-day "minutiae" of running the city, and is in fact the one really controlling/directing the city guard

------------------------------

ASRA ROUTE

When we meet with Asra, he's sort of in a place between places. A "gateway"

He doesn't dodge the questions about the MC's amnesia (g o o d), but doesn't start piling memories back onto them in this Book.

Not revealed WHY MC lost their memory, but Asra has tried to restore the memories before, plunging the MC into various mentally unsound states, before wiping the memories again to protect them from that

The MC is apparently now strong enough to remember maybe? Exciting.

It's unclear (at least it was to me) whether Asra has gaps in their memory.

We see some memories tied to books the MC finds in the library, which seem to indicate that Lucio was a danger to specifically Asra in some way?

Also that Asra has loved the MC since before Lucio's death and may have been manipulating Julian by faking affection, but that last part is not entirely guaranteed

He does scoff at Julian's attraction though so. At least at SOME point Asra scorned the affection. 

EDITED: The nature of Julian & Asra’s relationship is confirmed by devs HERE. Since the two of them being Hot Messes has injected some contention into the fandom, I wanted to link to the Word of Law from Nik, the writer, which will hopefully answer some questions/lighten some hearts.

-------------------------

JULIAN ROUTE

The "curse" from Asra allows Julian to heal the wounds of others, which exhausts his body

But it also seems to heal wounds inflicted directly on Julian immediately, with no cost? He says that a knife in the back is nothing, but taking a wound away drains him heavily.

Parts of the city have been locked down/abandoned & left to ruin/overgrow - my guess is as a long lasting effect of the plague

Julian escaped imprisonment but then came back to try and get answers BECAUSE

He literally doesn't remember if he killed the Count or not

He clearly, definitely remembers Portia, and his relationship with Asra, so it seems that he has less memory missing than either Nadia or the MC.

The MC finds that there is "red poison" in the aqueducts, flowing from the palace, which is apparently the cause of the red plague BUT

Julian seems unconcerned by this, and all but states that a cure was discovered and that it's no longer any great threat to the people - seems to imply that he wasn't part of the final discovery in any way, so it probably happened after the Count's death

---------------------------

So from least to most memory missing, it seems to be:

Asra, Julian, Nadia, MC.

I'm so glad to have a solid time frame of when the Count died and things went into motion! More questions now of course, but a nice chunk of answers. Please add anything I forgot, and heavily tag it for spoilers if you reblog!

[katherineshep]

Arcana: Post-book 13 theories

Officially: Arcana's plot is BEAUTIFUL. It's rare to find a game of that intense story and I love it completely. Book 13 blew up my mind and the more I think about it, the more ideas I have about what actually happened in Vesuvia.

-- BOOK 13 SPOILERS BELOW! --

In the newest updates we have the note "In the meantime, see the story from different angle" after every route. This and one good talk with my dear bro @voidslantern were the last straw for emergence of new theories.

Theory 1: There are multiple Apprentices.

If you don't even romance anyone, the game leaves you with a feeling that you must be in many places at once. This clearly is seen in the trial chapter: we talk Julian to confession about what he saw in the lab... or we do not and we go out of the dungeon with Nadia. More than that: Asra may be arrested with Julian, or there are both Julian and Nadia in custody, or Julian is in the cell by himself. Julian may surrender with different details and different trial speeches. We might save Julian in his lab or he might wake up in the palace. This all leads me to the thought, that somehow there are three different Apprentices, and three Asras, Julians and Nadias as well. And then there's Muriel who's defensive against Apprentice for some reason, and jealous (!) in Asra's route (he once said "It's always just you and him"), and there obviously will be a plot with him (I just don't know when), so there might be 4th Apprentice. And 5th with Portia.

What's important is that lots of the main plot spots are different and they exclude another route's events. I think every event in the game after Apprentice's death is affected by Arcana. Duplicates never meet, their paths never cross. Though, it's quite complicated to have multiple copies of people walking around, so that's where the second theory, most pleasant, is born!

Theory 2: Apprentice held the ritual of her own before Asra's one, and this shattered the Time and influenced her friends' will.

Bro said, that there is something wrong with time flow, like in Lucio's dining room. And maybe it's true. Maybe Ritual broke the Time itself, shattered the timeline to multiple variants. So Appentice may be trapped in some kind of circled queue of events with some variables changing - that's where multiple routes come from. Maybe Apprentice's last regret was that she could play everything out differently, but in that moment plague wasn't cured and she was dying. Maybe then she, as powerful magician (she was one at that time), consciously or not called out to any of The Arcana, and one of them listened. So the Ritual wasn't what Asra was doing with Lucio much later. Ritual was about how Apprentice made a deal before she died. Maybe she wanted to end the plague... then I wonder, what was her price for what she got. If she wanted to not only end the plague, but protect Julian, Asra and Nadia, she might have asked for them to have the chance to change something if they happen to be in really desperate state. I don't know what might almost dead person give to Arcana. Maybe it (whichever of Arcana heard Apprentice's plea) asked for her magic for her friends's salvation (and it was win for the Arcana because it would make Julian, Asra and Nadia possible contractors who will be given some magic to contact with another Arcana gods). Because, well, supernatural forces of that power can't do good for nothing. There always is a price.

I think Apprentice's plea to change something has pulled the whole bunch of following events like, you know, she wrote fate of her friends in that exact moment and they act by it. She sacrificed her magic for saving Asra - and he probably reached Magician who told him of the plague reason and/or about the way to resurrect Apprentice. Julian reached Arcana too (he's no mage, but as his pre-death state could be a catalyst, as Apprentice's magic could channel through him to the Hanged Man too!). Nadia is a bit different - she originally had the connection with High Priestess, so maybe Apprentice's magic didn't reach her. Or did it, but eventually? Nadia started seeing prophetic dreams, maybe that is what Apprentice's sacrifice gave her.

Common desire of these three to take down Lucio could influence the outcome of the ritual, and Asra could tell Lucio that only so few people, him and Nadia and whoever was on that dinner, are needed for ritual completion. But I think Asra couldn't devise this all alone, he got the clue from The Magician about this complicated, twisted magic. Asra lost his beloved person, he was devastated, and this was his moment of despair that triggered Apprentice's magic to connect him and Magician. Julian's desperate moment was when he understood that he had not found the cure and has no more time. And Nadia's one happened when she felt completely helpless, being suppressed by her husband.

Theory 3: Apprentice is a magical creation.

We don't know fully the capabilities of Apprentice and what she did before she died. Her "home" place is the shore (where Asra's childhood was, though it was told that Apprentice came from another city). She was working with doctors on the plague (like Julian did). I haven't found yet parallels with Nadia, but doesn't it seem weird that Apprentice shares some of her past with Asra and Julian?

Who is she? Is she really human? Is she only a girl trapped in circled events, or she's only a reflection of Asra, Nadia and Julian's fates, thoughts and hopes, some collective magical illusion-hallucination? Maybe in exchange of her friends' salvation she became a will-less puppet of some Arcana, when she died, and now she unwillingly pushes Asra, Nadia and Julian to connect to their Arcana gods - in a bargain she did not know consequences of? Or she did something of magical nature before her death and became one of the Arcana herself and now she's playing with there three? Maybe she originally was some Arcana that got bored, went to mortal plane in a girl's body and created a bunch of plots to have fun? Or even she was Arcana, had parted ways with other gods of her kin and they cursed her to all this life?

Theory 4: It all may be agony hallucinations of Apprentice.

Agonizing brain can create those things, and in the end Apprentice might be very well dying of plague now. Or these are agony of the Apprentice in the next wave of plague which is about to happen.