#which you don't have to but this is where previous game lore becomes important

[angrykittybarbarian]

The "Mythal is Andraste" theory

I have seen this theory floating around numerous times now by various bloggers. It usually states that Andraste's myth was basically just Mythal's story falsified by humans. That Andraste never existed and it was all just remembered wrong. Regarding this I need to ask you one crucial question:

Do you know of the Temple of Sacred Ashes? The sacred Ashes of Andraste? Andraste's ashes? The ashes of Andraste's body. Those ashes specifically belonging to Andraste?

We have PHYSICAL proof since Origins of Andraste's existence. She is not simply an old myth remembered wrong, Andraste has lived. And there was something up with her because her ashes actually cured Arl Eamon after every other method has failed.

Now Mythal may have come to her because her life did resemble hers and Mythal could have related to her because of that.

But to say Andraste never existed is simply factually wrong. It would also destroy the whole world building because it was Andraste who actually led the rebellion against the Tevinter Imperium.

Her actions directly led to its downfall, it directly toppled its old religion and replaced it by the belief in the Maker. It also directly led to the Dales being given to the elves initially which was in turn one condition for the Exalted March against them later on, which then in turn led to the nomadic life style of the dalish elves and the living conditions of city elves. This all would come crumbling down if Andraste never existed in the first place.

To put it simply: Andraste is the foundation for why current Thedas is the way it is (although DATV seems to forget that).

She even had offspring that could be tracked down for a while before their traces were lost because they were all women who eventually married into different families.

Now wether there actually was a maker or if it was Mythal posing as or Andraste just misinterpreting her as such is a matter of debate.

But please stop with this "Andraste is Mythal and never existed like that" nonsense. It directly contradicts the whole setting.

It's enough that Bioware don't seem to give a fuck about their own lore. We don't need to enable this behaviour even further.

[rookinthecrownest]

Discussion about romances + expectations under the cut (I'd put it as like..mildly critical, but also coming from a place of understanding?). As usual, will tag as such so you don't have to engage/read on if you don't wish to. I always invite open discussion, just keep it respectful (as I will endeavour to do so myself).

This is going to be a bit of a ramble, so I apologize if my thoughts are not clearly laid out like they should be.

I think I've found the reason why I (and maybe others), feel that the romances in Veilguard feel a bit... idk, hollow, at times (not BAD!!! just feeling like there could be MORE). And that's because of the trap of expectations. I may also be speaking completely for myself here.

Anyway, let's rewind to 2014.

Be me, 10 years ago. You're not really a gamer, but indulge in action RPG's casually.

See a commercial for this hot new game coming out called Dragon Age: Inquisition. Be intrigued by the character designs, but know nothing about the world. Come to find out it's part of a trilogy. So naturally, you buy the first two games and play through them before playing the third.

Be amazed, and completely hooked on the characters, the lore, the world, the darker elements and themes. It becomes your favourite game series of all time.

But you had no idea that you could romance any of the companions going into the experience. And man, does it fundamentally rewire your brain chemistry to fall in love with cRPG and get ridiculously attached to your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor.

So, you romance Alistair first because he's funny as hell, and has a really interesting story/character arc. Then you romance Zevran, and love that too - he's charming and suave and awkward and funny. Then you go onto DA2 and romance Fenris and Anders, and each of those romances pack their own emotional gut punches. Then it's finally time for DAI, and predictably, you go for Solas (a veritable slow burn that spans TWO games), Cullen, and partially (I never finished those playthroughs lol) Blackwall and Dorian.

I had no idea you could romance companions going into these games. It was a pleasant surprise! It always felt like an important part of the story, while not overshadowing the main plot. There was enough material in the codexes, the cutscenes, and party banter to make each romance feel complete and whole and awesome and nuanced.

And then, like some of you I suspect, I read an article that touted Veilguard as "The Most Romantic Bioware Game Yet", and I thought - "Wow, if they're saying this then the romances must be something else", given the quality of the previous romances you've experienced in these games!

But you get to the game - and while you're having fun, it definitely leans more into the ARPG style where romances feel a bit more pushed to the side in order to tell a certain story than the traditional Bioware/Larian RPG experience you've come to love.

Which is fine! Again, once I stopped thinking of Veilguard as a classic Bioware CRPG, and more like GOW/The Witcher, I found I was able to appreciate it a lot more for what it is. Things have to Happen A Certain Way for the narrative to work, and that's not a bad thing. DA2 was similar - it was a harrowing, personal tragedy about the Hawke family and their struggle to survive in Kirkwall.

Just like DA2, there are aspects of Veilguard that make me glad things happened the way they did. I'm not mad that Rook has so much dialogue without a ton of player input and you can't 'be evil' - because the game doesn't make sense if you can. At its core, Veilguard's narrative is centered around Regret, after all - you can't have an evil protagonist running around because Solas' Regret prison would never work (evil people don't generally tend to regret their actions...)!

Now, if you're expecting a long-winded, fully researched academic breakdown of every romance I'm sorry but that ain't happening tonight lol. This is not based in any fact, this is all opinion.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but sometimes it feels like the romances in this game (and I say this with the biggest grain of salt as I've only done Emmrich and Lucanis' - and am going through Neve's now), are just missing....something, to take them from good to great.

I loved Emmrich's romance. I thought it was very well done. I think a lot of people would agree it's one of the stronger ones in the game - doubly so if you play as a Mourn Watch Rook (you get a TON of MW specific lines going this route, it's great). His side romance with Strife if you don't get together is very cute, I enjoyed it. But as superbly well done as it was, somehow, I wouldn't even put it in my top 4 Bioware romances.

With Lucanis' romance - whatever my hangups may be about how it was handled, certain parts of his romance were done excellently (even better than some of the previous Bioware romances, I'd say). You can read more about my thoughts on his romance here which is why I'm not going into detail about it. Unlike Emmrich's, I would put it in my top 4 because I fell in love with the character that much (both in the game but really, I've loved him since Tevinter Nights), and I've grown very attached to my first Rook and him as a pairing. I've seen others share a similar sentiment on here (and I hate to say it but I agree) - sometimes it feels like I fell in love with Rookanis despite the way it was handled, not because of it. I can't say that for many other romances. While it's been fun to think up a lot of HC/write fics/make art about those abandoned concept sketches and parts where I felt the game could have showed us more of their dynamic, I can't help but feel like his (and other) romances would have immensely benefited from even 1 or 2 extra small scenes to flesh it out a bit more if they weren't going to let us freely talk to our companions.

The issue with the romances might also have something to do with the pacing of the game itself. I think Act 2 is where the pacing goes a bit awry, before picking back up in Act 3 (which is great, I love it).

Sometimes I also felt that there was a little too much reliance on codex entries and party banter to tell the story of the romance rather than showing it explicitly through cutscenes. I think that's what makes the romances feel a bit truncated at times, compared to the previous entries? Some of the romance-specific party banter was so good, it probably deserved its own cutscene. But it's also highly dependent on the party you have, and it's easy to miss/not trigger. I remember absolutely living for the cutscenes in the first three entries and I can't explain why I feel like, subjectively speaking, Veilguard just has less romance content (this may not be objective reality - I haven't compared the amount of romance specific content head to head with other games).

I also couldn't tell you why I feel DA2 doesn't suffer the same problems as DATV in terms of romance interaction - because you can't freely talk to your companions in that game either. Yet somehow, it always felt like I was getting enough of them to not notice that. I do miss being able to chat my LI's ear off and ask them questions about their life/their views/etc. like I could in DAO and DAI. I think it's a shame we can't because the companions in DATV are SO interesting. I want to ask them all a billion questions about their lives/stories/etc even if they're not my love interest. The party banter in this game is immaculate but being able to talk to them individually about this stuff would've been SO nice. I feel that I've missed out on SO MUCH of these characters just because I didn't have two of them in my party at the same time!

Anyway, I need to wrap this up.

In closing, perhaps, if I hadn't read that article about how it was going to be Bioware's most romantic game ... maybe I wouldn't feel this way? I think it sent my expectations through the stratosphere, and that's no one's fault but my own. Not Bioware, not EA, mine.

I know that this game's development cycle was a unique sort of hell that the other games didn't suffer. To go from Joplin -> Morrison -> Veilguard. To have so many of the original staff leave the team when Joplin got scrapped. To have to pivot from Live Service and then back to single person RPG. More lay-offs. It's a miracle this game got made. I'm happy I can sit around thinking about it. And I hope its successful enough that we get DA5 so we can all sit around dissecting that in 5-10 yrs time.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the Veilguard romances for what they are. I'm enjoying them more I play and discover additional banter/codex/etc that I missed the first time around. Like any Bioware romance, there are spots where they hit their stride, and spots where they falter a bit. When they hit their stride they knock it out of the fucking park. But when they falter, you can really feel it. Romance is hard to write! And you'll never fully please everyone.

But a small part of me wishes I'd gone in blind, and checked my own expectations a bit.

Maybe you agree, maybe you don't. Tell me about it. What was your experience with the romances? Did you also read that article and get your expectations up?

I hope this makes sense.

Kind regards good fandom folks,

Keep the discussion respectful. And please don't use this post as an excuse to just blatantly hate on the game.

-Rookie

[dawnbreakerluna]

I really like this theory! Because I was thinking the same during the last few chapters when we finally get a glimpse of Sylus and MCs memories. This is the link - https://x.com/millecreupe/status/1813809147508613476?t=2YsqG032kliHKY18Z4QKZg&s=19

The way I'm so dedicated to this cause that I ended up making a Twitter account just to view this.

Let me preface that I am a bit freaked out right now because everything OP wrote about in this thread is pretty much accurately aligned with every specific detail I've predicted/theorized about Sylus and his purpose of changing fate/breaking cycles/etc. I've delayed making any posts about lore because I genuinely don't want to go back into the story chapters to take screenshots and shit, it's very tedious to me LOL 😭😭😭😭😭 I promise I remember what I can, even if it's not miniscule details, I just take away the important things!

(Side note: I've previously predicted/prophesized things before that have come true & I'm a little spooked by it. I don't like to put things out there unless I'm super passionate about a subject LMFAO)

[Warning: VERY LONG info dump/theory post ahead!]

Often when it comes to unveiling or creating monsters, there is always a price to pay. That's the common formula for any story involving someone who has an alternate form or is on the verge of becoming something non-human. It takes a special kind of trigger - often, it's intense emotional states - to unleash a creature or be granted a uniquely regal power. (ex. Eren from AoT, Nero in DMC5, Ignis in Final Fantasy 15)

I'm going to follow the evidence listed in OP's thread for my references + additional responses to the thread that are relevant, which I will link here for easy clickback! (Thank you so much again anon!)

I want to dive into one of the examples I listed first before I proceed. (Light spoilers ahead, and iffy details since it's been so long since I played the game.) While Ignis doesn't have an alternate form whatsoever, there's a DLC in FF15 where you have the opportunity to play as him during the climatic event of main story. Essentially, this would involve Ignis changing the planned fate of the protagonist where he would end up sacrificing himself in the very end to save his world and his people. Ignis pretty much defies that fate, going against godly forces and sacrificing a part of himself that ends up changing the canon ending. In short: Ignis saves the protagonist, everybody else, and everything's great. Yay!

I'm a broken record at this point by saying Sylus' involvement is going to defy fate and interrupt the timelines. TLDR; He's going to ultimately save MC from her curse and break the cycles, no matter the cost.

First, let's discuss Sylus' Evol (power). Energy manipulation can mean a lot of things, though as far as the story has shown us, this means he can bend anything/anyone at will through energetic binds. Also, he can know someone's deepest desires, which is activated when his right eye glows.

At a certain point in Chapter 9 (or 2.1), Sylus mentions something about the MC's Evol being weaker/not as strong as before. While we know Energy Resonance is the MC's power, there seems to be something more at play when it comes to it. It's a likely possibility that the MC herself is more powerful beyond resonating with others, perhaps to the point of causing re/destruction.

I like what OP says in part 3 of the thread: "I assumed MC didn't kill him but instead resonated with Sylus, making his self healing ability double in power, AND at the same time directly **pouring the energy of her aether core into the core the he would be implanted, forcibly reshaping a "heart" in his body."

[Previous quote was in alignment to: "Sylus turned into a wanderer. And if mc died and didn't kill him there, he might completely turn into a wanderer..."]

It's hard to deter me from the belief that in the flashback we saw towards the end of 9.2 that Sylus was literally in a Wanderer form. The arm that moves and reaches out to MC is a lot bigger than her own and when looked at closer, you can make out a textured hand with claws. You can see his palm held out faced upwards, and a weapon floating(?) just atop the center of it.

[10/25 UPDATE: The last time I touched this post was back in July, LMAO. This has been sitting in my drafts for months, but now with the Sylus Translation Project, I'm happy to add it to this mini dissertation.]

Here are some points from the Reddit post that struck my interest the most:

[Changed Facts] Changes how Sylus's powers work: specifically, there are invisible shackles inside of his body that prevent him from absorbing even more power. There is not a tether that prevents him from "tapping into" more power. This is a fundamental power difference and has created a complete misunderstanding about how his powers truly work amongst English-only speakers in the global community.

[Missing Fact] Sylus's Aether Core works by him invading and taking over consciousness; he does not merely perform basic mind control, it's actually far more insidious and terrifying.

[Power Nerf] Sylus's powers are actually described as "all-powerful and all-encompassing" but this was somehow reduced into merely blocking exits.

I encourage you to read the entire post in full, for it shifts so much about Sylus' character. Though for me personally, it only justifies all my speculations and conclusions about his character even beyond mistranslation. I will repeat myself over and over and OVER again: Sylus is beyond powerful, way more than we even know and I'm honestly just waiting for Infold to do something to show this grand transformation or show of power.

With these fixed translation points, it makes sense why he's so desperate to resonate with MC. A few comments on the Reddit post have the same speculation I did that it's possible him and MC have the same Aether Cores in their bodies. [OP responded to a comment with: "MC hears things like "Devour," "He's yours," "It belongs to you," I almost wonder if it's actually because they share two halves of a single Aether Core…"] [[THIS I AGREE WITH HEAVILY.]] If this is the case, I don't doubt that Sylus knows this, but he would rather MC find this out on her own due to some morale of integrity, building her inner strength, etc.

TLDR; Her resonating with him would unleash those shackles. I also don't think it's amiss that MC also has some kind of shackles, but that's just me thinking of other possible scenarios. Everything is so vague with this story because we've only been fed so much tidbits.

But one thing's for sure... I really, really think these two are the true fated pair, to a certain degree. And why it's difficult for them to resonate is due to the fact that they both wield a power that can shift the world, the universe... everything altogether.

[demonsfate]

I'm so tired but at the same time I just wanted to write that... TK8 may truly be one of the worst stories in all the games lol. Not as bad as TK6 (solely because I'm biased and TK6 ruined my favorite character) but like... with each game, it feels like they're just making more and more of a mess with the lore, and TK8 just felt like they stopped caring completely about consistency. And really? It is actually getting harder to care about the story because of that.

But why exactly? You see, it's just hard to care about anything at all. It's hard to even know what's going to happen next, and not in a good way either. Not, "they're so clever, they're good at surprising and subverting expectations!" But in a "they will literally just do anything even if it contradicts previously established lore." Like there are zero stakes. If a character dies, it means nothing. That character is very likely alive, and we'll even probably see them soon.

It's hard to even really like characters when they can be completely altered on a whim.

Like Claudio, who was clearly being set up to be a bad guy in next game.

Only for... that to not happen lmao. In fact, he's very good now. Which also just takes away stakes of Xiaoyu being placed in a situation where she could be harmed, and Kin having another adversary that isn't just Kaz. which yes, a lot of ppl prefer Claudio being a good guy after all. But again, it's a thing they completely disregarded.

Devil Jin is another example of a character just being completely changed for no good reason. How he went from a murderous, cannibalistic, highly violent and sadistic person, to... being a force of good, someone that was always trying to protect Jin but Jin was just denying it? Like yes, those two examples I show from Tekken 6 are technically "non canon", but it's clearly what Devil's character was supposed to be. He wasn't supposed to like Jin, he was ashamed of Jin, he saw Jin as a weakling. He was never meant to be his protector - he wanted Jin out of the picture so he can be free to do whatever he wants, which usually involves killing, maiming, and gaining power.

But see? A character can go from a parasitic force that corrupts the host, to being a guardian devil just because the writers decided they wanted to do that. Disregard to previous canon. The same thing happened to Jin in Tekken 6. Jin was a complete good guy, but then he was suddenly turned into a ruthless, heartless, warmonger all because Harada thought it was "cool", again - disregard to what Jin was, what his story meant, everything his character was.

Or how Zafina had Azazel in her arm, could've potentially became a more important character because of this new power she possessed. Only... for Kazuya to take it away from her at practically the start of the game. A story for her character that went nowhere.

Because of that, it's just so hard to even become attached to a character because you just don't know when they're going to be completely changed into something they weren't... or when their stories will be dropped and they'll go nowhere. (Paul from being a comedic relief who had amazing feats of strength, to just becoming a complete joke with no wins and that nobody takes seriously. Or Asuka, obviously meant to be Jin's cousin and even hinted at possessing Jun's powers of purification. Only... for her to become Lili's sidekick and completely irrelevant to the story. Even Lili gets more respect than she does in TK8)

Then of course, with characters not being able to stay dead... not even for a single game. It's becomes more difficult to care when a character "dies" or is "about to die" when you know nothing is gonna happen. The character will come back, regardless of how they died, just because the writers want to use them again. Even if it means ruining the weight of the other games, or the developments characters had.

There's also the problem with the game itself becoming too saturated with jokes. I've spoke about this somewhat recently, but before, a lot of the characters were allowed serious endings or side stories. (Like check out Tekken 4's endings, I think almost every character had a serious ending with real character development in that one). But now the majority of the character endings are just either fluff or wacky shenanigans. Which again, makes you feel less invested in the characters when nothing serious is actually going on, and also makes it feel like the writers just... don't care as much anymore.

And I get that Tekken is a fighting game, but like... it still has a story it "proudly" presents. Therefore, it's still something people are liable to get invested in, and become disappointed when all canon is thrown out the window. It just makes you wonder what's the point of caring about what happens if it's gonna be undone in the next game. It makes you wonder why care about a character when their story, or even the character themselves, can be changed completely next game?

Of course, I love Tekken, and I am interested in seeing how crazy it can get. But I will say, I am becoming less invested with each game lol! TK4 had amazing writing and aesthetics, and I really wish the game could've kept following in TK4's footsteps rather than going completely off the rails like this. Really, TK's writing peaked at TK2-TK4, then it started going downhill from TK5.

[gallopinggallifreyans]

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure Pyrrha's headpiece is the Relic of Choice.

(Buckle in, folks. This is a long one. Spoilers for all of RWBY under the readmore. You can find this crossposted to ao3 here.)

Pyrrha's entire character has always revolved around choice.

From the minute we meet her, we know that she's the top student, probably invited to Beacon by Ozpin (this is likely; Ruby showed similar skill). In volume 6, we find out that she wanted to go to Beacon and accepted the offer, whether by invitation or passing an exam, and left by her own choice.

We also learn in volume 2 that Pyrrha never had much of a choice in mundane events, like getting a date to the dance, which is something she laments. Her initial appearance where we learn of her skill and nobody asking her to the dance are two significant instances where Pyrrha's lack of choice is made obvious. This sets her apart from her peers and development-wise puts her in a position where she can never choose to have a mundane life — she is literally destined for greatness.

And then we get to volume 3, where the Maidens come into play. The Maiden plot was a late addition to the series, but it gave Pyrrha an additional role to play that further demonstrated the importance of choice. Qrow and Ozpin make it very clear that she was being given the choice to take on the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers, which, significantly, were taken by force from the previous Maiden, by Cinder. Qrow reminds Jaune of this in volume 4.

Volume 6 gives us that heartbreaking scene of Jaune and Pyrrha's mother standing before the honourary statue in Argus, and Pyrrha's mother says this:

"She understood that she had a responsibility to try. I don't think she would regret her choice, because a Huntress would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make."

And that all but proves that Pyrrha was determined to take her life into her own hands when it mattered most. She was given the choice to accept the Fall Maiden's powers, and she knew that she was the only one who could do it, so she did. It was an impossible decision and she knew it; there really wasn't a choice to make.

I won’t lie and say Oz hadn’t already chosen Pyrrha very early on. Qrow certainly wouldn’t have made Pyrrha become the Fall Maiden if she didn’t want to, but we know from later volumes that Oz can and will use underhanded methods to play his own game, just like Salem. The Maiden plot was developed late, but fortunately the lore is kinda fuzzy early on so we can draw conclusions, and we can glean from Oz’s later behaviour (volume 6) that he can be very manipulative.

We also know that Qrow and the rest of team STRQ, Glynda, and Ironwood have all been used as pawns by Oz to some extent, and Qrow is vocal about this several times. Not to say that he’s without fault, but he wouldn’t push Pyrrha into a role she wasn’t ready to take, and he wouldn’t have been confident and comfortable saying she was ready if he wasn’t sure. We see this behaviour in volume 4, and then consistently when he thinks the kids can't handle something.

The Relic of Choice is a tricky one, because it was supposedly hidden in the Beacon vault, which could only be opened by the Fall Maiden. However, nobody knows what happened to it after the fall of Beacon, and Salem concludes that Oz must have hidden the crown differently than the other Relics. In addition, according to the wiki, the appearance of the Relic is unconfirmed, though whether this was due to choices made in adaptation or made intentionally, is unknown.

Based on the two Relics we've seen on screen (Knowledge and Creation), we can guess that the crown would be visually similar — gold with turquoise accents. But, again, the physical appearance is weird and inconsistent. Fairy Tales of Remnant was released just after volume 6, when we first see Jinn, so the design choice is a little bit iffy considering they were probably in tandem development. Because of this, I think the Relic of Choice appears differently to each holder, and most importantly chooses its own appearance. We don't know when Pyrrha got her headpiece, but it was before Beacon. The colour scheme matches her overall appearance, but as I've already established, the design choice is probably not constant for thematic and plot reasons.

The design choices for each of the Relics and their respective Maidens are also connected to the kingdom crests. The four kingdoms each have crests representing the Relics they hold in their respective academy vaults.

Vale's crest incorporates the Relic of Choice as a laurel wreath, typically meant to represent victory in the Pythian games, and became a universal symbol of triumph by the Roman period (I believe — don't quote me on that, I'm not a Romanist). Point is, it's a symbol originating in ancient Greece. Pyrrha is based on Achilles. Symbolic association of Vale's crest with Pyrrha's character inspiration kind of identifies her with the Relic of Choice, and her status as would-be successor to the Fall Maiden combined with what we learn about the Relics later solidifies the association. The Relic is represented by a laurel wreath, Pyrrha is based on a Greek character, you get it.

This seems like a bit of a stretch until we consider the other known Maidens. Raven's emblem and the Mistral crest have similar visual and thematic elements: the flared "wings" and central circle with the diamond-shaped arrow design. Winter and Penny both share elements of their emblems with the Atlas crest — Winter and Atlas both have the double ringed concentric design, while Penny's emblem is more akin to the staff in the Atlas emblem. The gear/mechanical design of the Atlas crest represents both Winter and Penny's roles as cogs in the Atlesian machine. We don't know what Amber's (previous Fall Maiden) emblem was, but her character design has similar elements to Pyrrha, connecting them visually rather than thematically.

Notably, Cinder is the only Maiden whose emblem does not resemble her respective kingdom, because the Maiden power was not rightfully hers. She stole it while the previous Fall Maiden was still alive. Cinder may believe in destiny, but she is trying to work towards a destiny that is not for her, and quite literally, the shoe does not fit.

In the screenshot below, we see Cinder disintegrate Pyrrha, except her headpiece. This could mean that Cinder has great control over her Maiden powers and can precisely burn away the entirety of Pyrrha and her armour, but she doesn't keep the headpiece as a trophy. Or, it could mean the headpiece was made of something else, like the other Relics, which are not easily destroyed.

Pyrrha's final question to Cinder was, "Do you believe in destiny?" And it's clear that Pyrrha does to some degree, and understood her role and responsibility, her choice to play the bigger game even if she had no idea what it entailed.

What makes this even more interesting is that Cinder says she does believe in destiny, immediately before killing Pyrrha, and she drops the headpiece. Later in volume 8, Cinder returns the two Relics to Salem, and Salem explicitly praises her despite Cinder not able to stop Winter or the evacuation of Mantle. How delicious would it be if Pyrrha’s headpiece was the Relic of Choice, and Cinder had no idea, losing it in the ruins of Vale?

[prima-materia-ttrpg]

It Begins / How do I introduce over six months of development in a single post?

Salutations, I'm a gay nerd and I wanted to make a fantasy ttrpg with a setting that panders to myself and anyone else who might have my taste so here we are :)

The ttrpg in question is Prima Materia, and I've been working on it for a while and making ok progress so I figure I should probably start a devblog (that's what this is) so I can finally start sharing it rather than keeping the entire project within my own circle of friends, never seeing the light of day beyond that. Particularly because I'm finally playtesting some aspects and want to actually release it into the wild someday so people can share and play it as they please.

Ah, so you've clicked the keep reading link? OHOHO you fool I shall unleash an infodump of epic proportions onto ye!

*checks notes*

Right I should probably introduce this project in more depth and explain how I got to this point, and why I'm working on it in the first place. A chronological account should suffice.

Back in the days of yore (2020) when I was getting into ttrpgs for what would become the third time I had first gotten into them (previous times don't count), I was trying to create a setting for DND so I could become a DM for the first time, fueled by the disappointment that every other game I'd been a player in ended after about 2 sessions max. Making an entire setting is of course not recommended for first time DMs, particularly ones that ever want to play the game, but of course this did not dissuade me for I am built different [incorrectly].

I built a tidally locked planet for that campaign, filled it with lore and towns and cities and an apocalypse that happened some time in the past. All was well, and the campaign lasted about a year before the holiday season came and caused it to dissipate. Reduced to atoms. By that point I had been homebrewing creatures and items for my homebrewed setting, including new playable species and subclasses. Homebrew is like a glue trap, and brother, I'm a dead rat.

After that campaign ended the OGL scandal hit (among many other things I won't go into depth about) and I saw the need to create for myself a place where I can always and forever write fun stuff to share with others, in a system that I have control over. After all, integrating the system and the setting, building them explicitly to serve each other, would allow for much more creativity.

That setting still exists on my hard drive, and while I do import some of my original work for it into Prima Materia's setting from time to time, it is dead and shall remain dead until such a time I can completely re-write it to make sense in Prima Materia. But it's so ingrained with DNDs lore that it honestly would be more like an homage to the original campaign I had with my friends.

So, I got to work. I started, of course, with watching a million videos on the subject of making a ttrpg and not actually writing anything down. But eventually, an eternity later, I was ready. I started doing some science-adjacent worldbuilding to build the initial planet for the setting, in which the initial setting would be. I created continents that looked mildly plausible, charted out ocean gyres, wind patterns, and finally climates. This continued for a while, and I made the playable species and started figuring out where on the continents they would have evolved so I could figure out what their cultures would eventually be in the modern day after 10,000 years of history.

In short, I had worldbuilder's disease; and while I did make some decent progress on mechanics like dice rolling, some combat, skills, attributes and stats, it started coming to a head when I convinced myself that I needed to make a minimum of five conlangs in order to name seven continents (and various cities).

Enter stage left, one of my friends who thinks my project is cool but recognizes that I am not getting much done. This friend, Spinz (who I hear has their own project coming down the pipeline by the way >w>), has become my Screamer of Tasks and is reminding me of the important things to focus on to actually make the ttrpg a reality some time in this millennium. Thanks to their help, I've been able to get to the stage where I am able to inflict my project onto my friends so that I may playtest mechanics and generally have an otherwise fun time with them.

So what actually is the setting? That seems like a lot of buildup and waffling.

True! I felt it was important to explain where the project is coming from. As for the setting itself, I don't think I can do better than the introduction I already wrote for it in the PDF. So here's that.

After several hundreds of trillions of years the last known natural stars in the universe began to die, heralding the end of the stelleriferous period and the start of a new age full of the neutron cores and black holes they left behind. But the gods this universe spawned would not let their mother die so soon. They created new stars fueled by their own Prima Materia, the building block from which all other substance comes; a pure marriage between matter, energy, time, and thought through which the manipulation and creation of physics itself is possible.

The gods created massive bodies for themselves in orbit around their stars. Some fell into a deep sleep, some are content to watch as the eons of time give way to the fruits of their labor. Others still engage in grandiose projects of a more personal nature. But they all continue the work which allows for life to once again evolve in the small pockets of the universe which now continue to defy entropy, a constant stream of Prima Materia flowing from their bodies into the stars that they orbit. Some day, they too will reach the stars.

But that's old news, and there are none left alive to remember it but the gods themselves. In the world of Prima Materia, you play as a relatively normal sapient creature in a smaller corner of reality that has much smaller problems to contend with. Brigands, societal clashes, ancient ruins, dragons, and the wayward extra-universal threat to the planet. Many societies have also been able to harness certain powers of now free-floating Prima Materia through a process often known as "Alchemy." Alchemy, an involved study which requires just as much craftsmanship as it does ingenuity, has opened up an entirely new science for societies to develop in this age of the universe.

Who will you be? What legends will be written in your name?

There are several playable species in the setting, all of which have various distinct cultures. Koura, which are basically giant lobsters; Sepia, which are basically giant Cuttlefish; Humans, which are basically giant chimpanzees; Entari, which are strange bird pterodactyl things with feathers (they're hard to explain but I will get art I promise); Xente, which are basically giant amoeba (ones that can change their shape to be humanoid of course, what even would be the point if they couldn't); Possum, which are basically... bipedal possums and Ternaki which are basically short technicolor space elves (They believe in God). All of these species will get their very own blog post of course, but this post is hugely long and I'm getting worried about people getting bored so that's all for now.

In the future blog posts won't be this long I promise (hopefully) and they'll be a lot more focused on one thing. This blog is meant to record the development process, write down a lot of worldbuilding that has lived only in my head for too long, and link to playtests.

If you made it this far, holy crap you read a lot of my shenanigans thank you for your time I am indebted to you, truly. The next post will be about Dice Mechanics. Bye.

P.S. If you want to ask questions about Prima Materia (or me) you can send me an ask on my main blog @girlcodedcreature

[spectator-moon]

My thoughts on Martyn Secret life lore stream (Eyes and Ears AU)

first, Martyn why would you hurt me with that imagery? Poor scar ;-;

-I really like the idea of the logo being the pincer on the Watchers. Grian is a force of nature and should be represented as such

-I am of the personal belief that Jimmy did not break free from the canary curse, since he died right before Wither/Warden boss fight and the entire point of Canarys is to warn of danger

-slightly irralevently but I need to draw the Scar

-BOY do I love the idea of Gem being used as the Watchers new tool because of the Zombie outbreak (send Gem all the love for that skill!!!)

-love Gem being taken by Watchers in general, especially adding in her lore that in Empires she thought everybody was just roleplaying, so she came in thinking it was roleplay and got stuck.

-i also like the idea of Jimmy getting struck down because of the Watchers being confused by his "funeral" and once Lizzy dies, then going "wait no he's supposed to be dead hold on-" and striking him down immediately

-i need more ideas for art. Also references. Please more references proportions are awful

-"if given the right tools, how many seeds of chaos can {Gem} sow, and it turns out, she's a bloody good farmer." Good quote. Make art for quote

-negative emotions being ~spicy~

-martyn being the seperate party in the gang of winners

-the watchers pushed Jimmy off a ledge

-players still having that sense of connections and support (i.e. swapping out) despite being in murder games (also I love the idea that when the Listeners swap out players, the players get a choice, so it's all the much more heartbreaking)

-(personal headcanon that Ren was desperately hoping Martyn would recognize him in Tango's body)

-(personal headcanon that all players start new life series incredibly sore from being tensed as they fall, even though they're unconscious)

-(other personal headcanon that fragmented players i.e. life series players are the only ones who can see the fragments on other servers)

-Speakers maybe being part of a group which works as mercenarys (being paid in whatever currency they use to give players the task of helping each other) (speakers being true neutral)

-y'all imagine the cinematic beauty of the climax I want full animaticssss

-Grian couldn't cash in on success because he either isn't fully in, or because the Watchers are being petty

-the two watchers being the actually evil equivalent of Jesse and James from pokemon

-Grian has emotions about previous series absolutely stunning idea

-like the idea that Winners get to keep their emotions (hence Pearl and Tilly, Grian w/ Scar, etc)

-Fragement lore fragment lore fragment lore

-THE PLAYERS ALL HAVE FRAGMENTS AND I NEED TO CHECK THE POST WHERE EVERYONE PUT THEIR IDEAS FOR PLACES

-Martyn is furry (fragment dog collar) (very not serious)

-fragments appear as important moments from lore? (Can Scar just have a big ol' one where he got punched in the face by Grian from third life?) (I know they don't appear because final death but it was a generator of so much angst)

-autocorrect my beloathed. (Grian ≠ Groan)

-sometimes fragments become scars, and everybody gets confused because "this moment wasn't important I have no emotional attachment to this moment why is there a scar?"

-PLAYERS CANNOT REMEMBER THE EMOTION GOBBLING AND ARE JUST GENERALLY CONFUSED WHEN THEY HAVE AN EMOTIONAL REACTION TO SOMETHING SOMEBODY SAYS

-headcanon that the Watchers do a real shoddy job at emotion gobbling and often leave the memory, which can prompt an emotional reaction. Also, Watchers actively ignore certain negative moments in favour of those spawning more negative emotions (like a cobblestone generator but for negative emotions)

-datastream Martyn??? Please explain I have not the time to watch all the vods

-eeeee winner theory!!!!!

-we love Villain scar

-PEOPLE CAN SHATTER IF THEYRE TOO FRAGMENTED OH MY GODS PLEASE FANART AND FICS

-so wait if they get to watch how it ends does that mean they had to sit and watch Scar go insane???? That makes that sadder

-so without any knowledge of Datastream Martyn, can I suggest that mayhaps datastream means that literally Martyn leaps between worlds by moving through the literal data stream? I have seen references to a Doc, so maybe he and Martyn were experimenting and Martyn got stuck? I know something happened to Doc, probably bad given that the reference was 'yes the red stuff was definitely ketchup', so was it because of the knowledge he has gained? Again, never seen any data stream so take all of this with a grain of salt. I just like analysing stories and have read enough to be able to pick out plotlines fairly well.

-oooh lore comic i want to read that

-Secret Keeper is Watchers putting on a trench coat and going "yes yes no watchers here yes yes"

-imagine how invasive it would be to spawn in and just KNOW the rules, with no background for why or how you have that information. Boy that could be a cesspit for angst. Imagine the panic of that inserted information. (Grian has to calm somebody down fic???)

-new lore enjoyer, but I love this already.

-making a proper movie with this concept would be AMAZING

-players were kidnapped lmao

-Scott having that forewarning for Jimmy and Scar is a funny thought

-Listeners are oldest children fighting their middle siblings (Watchers) because Mom and Dad will blame them for the poor player hurt

Making a part two because this is so long already

[himluv]

DA Review Series – The Calling by David Gaider

<<< Previous Review: The Stolen Throne

At last, my media tie-in tour of all things Dragon Age continues! You can find the previous review linked at the top of each post and I will probably make a master list once all is said and done. But, let's talk about the next thing!

Title: The Calling Author: David Gaider Publication Year: 2009 In-World Year: ~9:10 Dragon (possibly 9:11 Dragon) Verdict: ... eh? There's much more to like here, particularly lore, but it's long and feels longer. If you're determined, give it a shot, otherwise maybe just read the wiki?

The Calling is the direct follow up to The Stolen Throne, but still a prequel to Dragon Age: Origins. In this book we meet Duncan just months after he has joined the Wardens, and they have travelled to Ferelden to ask King Maric for a favor.

The favor? Oh, you know, nothing much... just if he would lead them through the Deep Roads and back to Ortan Thaig so they can find their missing Commander who *should* be dead. So, you know. Typical Warden shenanigans.

And, as one might expect from a dummy like Maric, he agrees. Now, I am being a little hyper-critical. I actually found Maric to be much more likable this time around – he's grown up quite a bit, and he's grieving Rowan's death and a life he never had. He's got some complexities showing through in this book and it looks good on him.

I also really enjoyed the other Wardens we get to meet. Especially Kell, an Avvar, and his hound Hafter, as well as Orlesian battle couple Julien and Nicolas. We also meet quite a few important folks in this book! Obviously we have Duncan, and he is a delight, but we also meet Fiona, Utha, and of course, The Architect.

Which brings me to the point of this book. The Architect has concocted a plan to infect the whole world with the Darkspawn Taint in hopes that the survivors will achieve some sort of middle ground like Grey Wardens do in the advanced stages of their Calling. Ghoulish and horrible, but still retaining their minds.

Except... do they retain their minds? The evidence suggests that the further the Taint spreads, and the more corrupted one becomes, the angrier and more hateful they become. Which is interesting, because I don't know if that's really come up elsewhere in DA. It definitely makes me consider Red Lyrium a little differently, that's for sure.

Of course, if you've played DA: Awakening, then you know that The Architect and Utha escape and do continue... refining(?) their plans to bring a "lasting peace" to Thedas (read my tin hat theory here).

Also important to the series, Maric and Fiona do the nasty in the Deep Roads which results in the birth of one adorable wee baby Alistair. We also get some context about Duncan's promise to Maric to watch out for the boy, so we know his recruitment was hardly coincidence.

There's one more thing I really want to mention before I wind this down. I've been pretty critical of Gaider's writing in these reviews so far, and while I still think the writing isn't great in The Calling, it is GREATLY improved. It's obvious to me that he learned a lot and grew over the course of writing these books. But, there's one moment that I think really shines, where I actually got the sense that Gaider was writing something that mattered to him.

When the party is trapped in the Fade, Maric finds Nicolas in his dream with the recently deceased Julien. It's a poignant and tragic scene, where Nicolas knows he's dreaming, that Julien truly is dead, but chooses to stay anyway. It's beautifully done and made my chest ache with the weight of Nicolas's pain. It also made me think about when it was written, how it was "revealed" so far into the book that these two very buff warrior bros were actually devoted lovers. And how the gaming landscape in 2009 might not have looked upon that with the most kindness and empathy.

I'm glad it's there. To me, it was the best part of the book.

Overall, The Calling is a decent addition to the Dragon Age series. It struggles with pacing a bit, feeling like the pacing of a quest in Origins (which also struggles with pacing imho), but there is quite a bit of lore and extra context for characters we see later in the series.

So, while it took me a little while to get through, I am glad I read it again!

[krimsonkatt]

One of the earliest sprites of Ryuuta, the main character of Chronicles IV and the first character designed as part of my series. Back in my childhood he was known as "Super [Deadname]", then "Duper [Deadname]", then "[Deadname] the Ninja", then "Zinja", then "Karos" and then finally "Ryuuta" who's first incarnation developed somewhere around 2014/2015. Since all my previous childhood stories are technically canon to the Chronicles lore, I had to recon their names so that I don't have to use my deadname and to reduce confusion.

"Super [Deadname]" was from the original universe, now known as Circlia, and is now known as "King Zum". This version lasted from 2007 to 2008.

The second Ryuuta was from the second universe, now named "Neo", after the first major reboot and is now known as "Duper Zex." (first name Duper, last name Zex) This version of Ryuuta lasted the longest besides the current incarnation, lasting from 2008 to 2010 and then again from 2011 all the way to 2016.

The third Ryuuta was from the third universe, now named Galaxio, who's story was supposted to be told in a book series where only the first book/prologue was ever written. In modern times I took what story was already there (blatant Star Wars ripoff), rewrote it, and massively expanded it into a full sci-fi story about crystals, souls, existentialism, and the nature of life itself. This version of Ryuuta was renamed to "Zin" who would be later known as "Ji". This incarnation was very short lived only lasting for a single story in 2011. This character's story will be the first to be remade and fully told in the modern day with my game "Spirit Roamer."

The forth Ryuuta was the first incarnation who's story was told in a game, my first ever RPG Maker game "The Legend of Light". This incarnation lasted from 2015 to 2016. Originally called Karos in the first half of the game and then called Ryuuta in the second half, this forth incarnation of Ryuuta was renamed in the lore to be named "Karuta" and be a separate character lore-wise from both Koros and Ryuuta from the current universe.

The fifth Ryuuta was from the "Zero Gear Duology" featuring Zero Gear Fighters and it's sequel Dragon Ascension, both which have been publicly released (unlike LoL) and will be downloadable as soon as rpgmaker.net goes back up. This Ryuuta was the first to be ACTUALLY NAMED RYUUTA throughout the entire game, but in the lore was renamed to Ryuka to avoid confusion and to become a separate character from Ryuuta's current incarnation.

The sixth Ryuuta was from a cancelled game that I made known as either "Stardust Saga" or "Draco Anima Origins" depending on what engine it was made with. Now that game is known as Lost Anima and the protagonist is named Setana, later known as legendary hero Cu Cuchulainn. Setana was originally called Ryuuta in the lost SS/DAO builds, so he is technically yet another Ryuuta incarnation.

The 7th and final Ryuuta incarnation is the one you see here, albeit in an early design stage before a lot of his primary characteristics were firmly established. The current Ryuuta is the protagonist of Chronicles IV: The Last Dragon's Elegy and also one of the most important characters lore wise to the entire Chronicles cosmology. More on him when we get to the final, finished design.

[papirouge]

whats the fnaf thing all about? i only play pokeyman and mineycrafta like a fucking child

Uuugh it's too much to explain anon 💀 if there a NINE HOURS lore video about it, that's for a reason...

But to put it simply, it started off as a dumb jumpscare bear game > Markiplier makes a viral playthrough > became one of the most successful indie game serie of the last few years. It created a whole new horror genre : Mascot Horror, and a bunch of copycats have been consistently trying to ride that way (with more or less success) : Garden of Bangtan, Poppy Playtime, Bendy and the ink machine Choo Choo Charles come to mind.

What's important to not is that FNAF wasn't supposed to have a sequel, so Scott Cawthon (its creator) creator the lore as the games went by. It's surprisingly pretty consistent (although it got retconed 2 times lol - notably in FNAF 4 which momentarily established the previous games as a dream 😅)

Scott got cancelled a few years ago after being exposed as a registered Republican. Fans (mostly left aligned zoomer) started putting parallels between the game main storyline of child sacrifice and abortion criticism (which is super based idc lol). This prompted Scott to not being directly involved in the game development but still managed their overall direction as some sort of "conductor". However he's the co author of the books....which are now part of the lore (which confused many fans bc they originally weren't).

And it's without counting the fangames (that aren't developed by Scott's team)...but that still get Scott's approval (I heard that Scott created some sort of incubator to fund teams creating those fangames) and contain lore (example: Five nights at Candy's). So FNAF lore is now spread between to "official" games, the books, the fangames.

That's why the suspicion regarding Scott's personal beliefs extend to books. Such as the B-7 book story (cowrote by Scott), where a boy mutilates himself (to become an animatronic) only to realize once as an adult and after trying to unalive himself- that it was pointless and ultimately decide to accept himself as a (hu)man👀. Many have seen an anti trans narrative and I can't blame them 👀

There are so many other things to be said abt the whole remnant/soul ties thing (that makes the animatronic come too life) but I don't want to be too long.

As goofy as it may look, FNAF tackles extremely dark things but for unlike 99% mainstream media, it doesn't glorifies or donwplay it. The moral sensibility of that gaming license is STRONG. William Afton is an AWFUL person - a CHILD MURDERER. He's not displayed as anything but that. In one fangame you literally play him in "hell" where you have to fight against all the animatronics/children he killed.

I can't help but see a message of the perversion of childhood in it. The animatronics attack you the way the human spirit of the child possessing them died : chica does it screaming because the child screamed, Foxy runs super fast bc the child died while trying to escape, Puppets is crying because the child died a slow death crying...

Here's the 9 hours video btw

Just finished it and that's the far the best FNAF lore video I've seen. It's Extremely detailed though so it's definitely longer than other FNAF lore video (that also may not take into account the latest books/fangame for example )

[icharchivist]

So if Siegfried's VA is coming on Granblue TV next week, pretty much everyone assumes we're getting a new Sieg unit. What are we hoping for, here? Fanservice and sexy? Strong and intimidating? Maybe showing off some fierce draconian power? I guess it's all sexy

Grand Sieg Real!!! Grand Sieg Real!!!

i don't know if it's what you really want to know since your ask is more lighthearted but here's what have been my thought process about it all and i've thought about it a lot for the past two years:

ever since Grand!Lancelot dropped in December 2021, we've known that they were going to release a set of Grand for each of the Dragon Knights.

Grands are given to some of the most important characters of the lore and of the game in general.

The Dragon Knights also are in a situation where they're popular and powerful, but their very first units (except for Vane) have been relegated to the Classic Draw, making them difficult to access for new players. It also means that their original kit has been outdated (though they still have their use)

So the idea of those Grands will be to be an upgrade on the Base Units, while taking into account their development so far, and also recapping the important parts of their lore.

It's why Grand!Lancelot recapped from the ground up everything we knew from Siegfried being framed to the crimes of Feendrache and the way Lancelot has grown from his blindly patriotic days.

Since the announcement of the Grand series for the Knights, only Lancelot and Percival have been released. it's also noteworthy that before the current rotation of knights, the last released unit was Halloween Vane, meaning that in the rotation, next one has to be Siegfried.

If they continue on the logic of replacing the base units, it will be an Earth Grand Unit for Siegfried.

What to expect from it? well, it just needs a look at the previous grands to have an idea.

Grand!Lancelot gave him an upgrade by connecting him to the Fairies of Feendrache, finally coming out from their slumbers and blessing their new champion.

Grand!Percival meanwhile got an upgrade thanks to Cath Palug, the guardian creature of the rulers of Wales, who has been set since BFAF with looking over the possible rulers of the nation and eventually give them the power to do so if they're considered worthy.

Their new arts came with an overhaul on their armors and also something that strengthen their current affiliation. Lancelot leaves behind the blue armor to embrace a white one as the leader of the White Dragons. Percival's armor meanwhile ends up upgraded with regal designs reminding of the coat of kings, strengthening as well his goal to become a worthy protective king. His uncap also strengthen this imagery by showing him as a leader of the people, while Lancelot is a little more "battle generic".

The conclusion to drive from it with Siegfried, which i had at the time and have been strengthened by the preview, is that Siegfried is also going to get a power up from a specific creature that will lead him to reevaluate himself.

So obviously, for his Grand to actually have the impact it needs, Siegfried's storyline must continue on the Draconian front.

in Siegfried's Fire unit, following the event of SIEGFRIED, the dragon blood has basically been consumming him and he's losing himself more and more and is currently in a situation of near death or losing his mind if he doesn't find a way to ease up Fafnir's blood. One of the theory mentioned in the FE as to how to save Siegfried's life, is that he has to connect with Fafnir in some way again. (we also know now, from Naoise's storyline, another draconian, than a positive relationship with the dragon you have the blood of in your vein can help you control this power).

So it's basically been set up for years that the next logical step in Siegfried's journey would be related to Fafnir and to his condition as a Draconian, and with the current Grand trend, it seems likely that this will be the core componant to his upgrade.

The newest event is called "The Dragon weep before Daybreak" and will feature discussion of the Sins of Feendrache. The sins of Feendrache are many, and one that is important is the way Fafnir has basically been used to poison the people of Feendrache for years due to Isabela's influence, after all. Moreover, any sins of Feendrache would imply unveiling Josef's past.

So i believe Siegfried will get his upgrade because he will be forced to confront Fafnir, in one way or another, and will come out of it with more power. I also believe that the past we'll unveil, probably even more regarding Josef, are going to break Siegfried to some level.

So what it means for Siegfried's Grand Unit:

-I think it's going to double down on the draconian angle. Since Fire!Siegfried we expect so, Fire!Naoise showed us how a proper feral draconian can evolve, and we know from gbvs that Granblue is leaning harder in harder on Siegfried being fully a draconian now. (besides, in Summer!Siegfried, a huge plot point is that the dragon blood almost drives him to insanity again and he still has to fight it and he wants to enjoy the last few moments he has with his friends for now)

-Which will probably mean that the uncap at least might be Feral and unhinged

-There's the possibility that the uncap also actually reflect his dynamic with Josef.

-I don't really think it'd be sexy for the sake of it being sexy, i think for such a big unit moment, they'll focus on the lore itself. I just hope that they remove his helmet for it bc looking at the concept art for Fire!Sieg, where he wasn't wearing the helmet while in the final art he does, is painful.

-Siegfried's theme colors are already Black and blue, so i think if change to his design, rather than color palette, it will be a design change like Percival had.

tldr So personally i believe it'll be strong and powerful, with a high chance of feral depending on how in control he will be, but nevertheless i do think the focus will be on the draconian aspect of his characterization, or eventually on his relationship with Josef.

and yeah i've been thinking about all of this since 2021 so i have many thoughts alright

[bigbobbiehorror]

I think after finishing the game and then watch my brother beat it on his own, I've got a few thoughts in regards TOTK's story and a few nitpicks, so All Spoilers beneath the cut:

First of all, I feel like the game just kind of wasted a lot of potential gray morality that you could've found in the conflict between the Ganondorf and Rauru. Because, regardless of whether Ganondorf was a good leader to his people or not prior this, the fact that Rauru was looking to unify all lands and ultimately, to have them swear fealty to the Hyrule kingdom, it's all glossed over. From that point of view, at the very least, you can understand Ganondorf's hostility towards Hyrule (and this is where I get pretty mad: he doesn't need to be redeemed or even be justified in his evil, but I would've loved to see Ganondorf be written like a more layered villain. I was very excited to see him, but he just feels a lot like TP's incarnation: he looks cool and does memorable shit, but he doesn't feel like an 'interesting' character outside being a force of evil. He's definitely the most intimidating Ganondorf to date, but even with Matt Mercer's great performance, he comes across as very flat).

Also, how the only living zonai that we ever see before the imprisoning war are Rauru and Mineru, and there's never a clear explanation about what happened to the rest of them. It is assumed they once were living in Hyrule long before their times, so what happened to them to go extinct? There's no hints given on whether it was because of Demise or was it something else. And the fact that there's a lot of new facts that contradict previous lore doesn't make it easier to figure out (which isn't new for a Zelda game, but man you would think that they keep track of their own lore at this point).

Ultimately, I feel like the ending is wrapped up very eagerly with a positive note, with both Zelda and Link recovering what they lost (her humanity and his arm). Though this isn't new for a Zelda game, I felt like it would've been more impactful to have Link lose his arm forever in exchange of bringing Zelda back to her human self.

And to be honest... I am kind of getting a bit tired of having pieces of the story given to me out of order. It wasn't so bad in BOTW, but in TOTK I wish I could've watched these important events in their chronological order, because it's kind of anti-climatic to watch the scene where Zelda meets Sonia and Rauru for the first time and the next one I get is of Ganondorf killing Sonia. so.... yeah, not a fan.

Gameplay-wise, this game is my favorite out of all Zelda games. I loved the amount of freedom that the game gives to you, but after doing 90+ shrines, I think I'm starting to miss the old long dungeons.

(Also, feel free to disregard the following paragraph, that's mostly just me being old and complaining about things that aren't necessarily bad or a real concern for others) And about the open world: I loved exploring the world and doing the little side quests, but you know what I'm not a fan of? The amount of hours I spend doing the exploring. I'm a bit of a completionist and combining that with my reduced my free time has become and all other games I wish to play besides this, an open world this big is not a great thing for me. I think that this is why I don't play Wind Waker as often ad OoT in spite of the former being my favorite: the world is too big and I only have so much free time to dedicate to a videogame in which I could spend 30-20% of that time traversing a map from one objective to another. And WW is a pretty linear game: TOTK is not exactly linear, in fact, I may get a dozen of new distractions while I travel from one objective to another, so that's my problem amplified.

But other than that, TOTK is a great game, and if people wanna call it the best of 2023, it's very well-deserved. But personally, I think I'm a bit disappointed with how some things came out and how this may be the new direction they want to take new Zelda games, if there will be more in the future.

[ultimablades]

Okay, finally going to jot down my FFXVI thoughts, things I liked and things I wish had been different. No story spoilers so this is more about gameplay/game design choices, but I'm going to put under a readmore to be safe.

Pros:

Loved the main cast of characters. For me, the characters are the most important part of a Final Fantasy game, if i don't like the main party I'm going to have a hard time staying interested in the story. I ended up loving Clive so much more than I was expecting and he's quickly become one of my favorite FF protagonists. He is full of love and his journey was important to me!! Outside of Clive, I fell in love with a lot of the other characters. The Dominants were all so different and had their own unique stories and it was fun getting to learn all about each one of them. And there were so many secondary characters I grew fond of, I was excited to see them again. Also, last note, the main villain design was good. That's all i'm going to say about that.

Along with the characters, I thought the main story was really good. I don't want to say too much about it because I don't want to talk about story spoilers in this post but there were so many epic highs that had me going "Now this is a final fantasy game," nothing hits quiet like SE money does when it comes to jaw-dropping story moments and cutscenes.

I liked the side quests, yes most of them were fetch quests/go kill this monster quest, but that's just how side quests in most games are tbqh. They gave really good lore about both the characters and the lore so I didn't mind doing them. Some of them i think should've been part of msq.

I enjoyed the gameplay, Eikonic abilities are so varied and different, it's fun to mix and match and play around with them. The stagger bar was a good edition, I know FFXIII had something similiar but this reminded me of FFXIV's burst windows in a way, cause I found myself holding my LB4's and eikonic abilites for when I knew a stagger was about to happen. Dodging and parrying were fun once I got the timing for them figured out. I also like that you can't just eat potions and face tank your way through fights.

In that same vein, I liked the look of our ascension grid. Like, just aesthetically, I enjoy the design of it.

The size of the zones was really good I thought. This was another thing that reminded me a lot of FF14, but you basically have a set number of zones that are more "open world," that you can run around in, do side quests, find hunts, kill mobs, etc. None of those zones were too big or too small and I think they struck a good balance between FFXV's massive overworld that could take a long time to traverse and the more linear, straight hallways of previous FF games. Between your chocobo and the obelisks (which are just FF14 aetherytes lol), it doesn't take long to get where you need to go.

Boss design in general was really good. It's hard not to keep making comparisons between FF14 because some bosses literally look like HD versions of their FF14 counterpart and do the same attacks, I'm not mad about it but as an FF14 player I kept going "Hey it's blah blah blah." But boss fights were fun! Especially some of the endgame ones really made me think about my eikon setup and what abilities I needed to use.

Eikonic battles in general I think were a lot of fun and the biggest spectacles in the game. They don't happen frequently enough that I got tired of it, the controls for the eikon are simplified so I think it would have been annoying to do them too much. But they always happened at a story high point, so you're like "OOOOHHHHHHH" when you're doing them. The high point of the game for me was an eikon battle.

Active Time Lore in general. I love it. I'm kissing it. I want it in every game moving forward.

I didn't personally use these but I love the accessibility features they added that do things like making dodging easier, auto-linking your combos together, etc etc. More accessibility features is never a bad thing! This story is good and I want everyone who wants to experience it be able to. And now they've made it so you can turn off the motion blur, which didn't bother me but I know it bothers a lot of people, so I'm glad they included it. Should've been there on launch but hey, better late than never.

Cons:

The pacing in this game can be.....rough at times, in a way that is very FF14. The highs of this game are soooooo high, they are so good, but then the lows are like trying to walk through mud. You will do the coolest boss fight of all time and then the next quest will be "go do this boring task." I don't mind downtime in a story – it's good to have an ebb and flow, you need the slower bits to enhance the epic moments. I just wish they had used their downtime better. Again, it feels very FF14 msq in that regard, if you have played FF14 than you will know what I mean. I mentioned liking the side quests and I wish they would've used some of that downtime to integrate those stories into the main one instead of having them be optional. There is some good bits about our main cast members that you can miss if you don't do the side quests, and I think that could've improved the pacing a bit – slows things down without making it feel slow cause we're still learning about our party members.

The crafting system in this game is a joke. It doesn't matter, it feels like a tacked on afterthought. You don't have to think about it at all. You will never want for crafting material and sometimes you will upgrade your gear only for a stronger item to become available at the shop after the next cutscene.

RPG elements in this game in general are pretty weak. There are no elemental weaknesses or anything of that nature, there aren't a lot of stats, so you don't really ever focus on that, you're just going to use whatever gear is strongest. The ascension tree for your eikonic abilities is cool but beyond that, you don't really have much control over Clive's numbers, you feel me.

In that same RPG element vein, you have no control over your party member's gears or stats as well. This makes sense because who is in your party changes depending on where you're at in the story. I wish I would've had more input in my party's actions though, outside of Torgal who is very easy to forget about, you can't give commands or plan attacks or anything like that. The party is just always AI controlled and will go off and do their own thing. Mainly, I wish there had been more party synergy. This is something that FFXV does incredibly well, and since I just replayed that game before this one, I think it makes it even more stark to me. in FFXV, you can issue commands to your party members called "techniques" and you can do thinks like link strikes that are unique to each party member that really makes it feel like you're fighting together as a team, even if the other characters are AI controlled. I would've loved something like that in this game, party members doing specific team attack when they're near Clive or piggy backing off specific eikon abilities as his. It's very easy to forget they're even there sometimes. I literally just realized as I was typing this, you party members don't even have their own health bars!!! They literally can't die!!! I also wish there was more banter between party members, though that may just be a personal want, cause I loved that in FFXV. Idk I love a good party dynamic in an RPG and there just. Isn't one at all in this game really lol.

This story is really dark at times and I wish there had been more moments of levity and lightheartedness to balance it out. Maybe they just felt like it wouldn't fit tonally but I find having those lighter bits in a dark story can make us care about our characters even more! The story isn't all doom and gloom but there are no classic FF moments of silliness, you know.

Purely a personal gripe – there is no fishing mini game, gotta ding it for that.

Overall though, the game is legit like an 8.5/10 for me personally, I love it. I had a good time playing it. I'm still playing it when I'm not raiding. I'm going to beat it on Final Fantasy mode. I recommend it to anyone who loves Final Fantasy because this is without a doubt a final fantasy story.

I think the things that I listed as cons will be forgotten by most people in six months to a year and what will stick with people is the spectacle that was the boss fights and a story about the deep bonds of love that make us who we are.

TLDR: Game good

[fadebolt]

Personal room rankings:

1 - Submerged Superstructure: LAB14 (10/10) 2 - Shoreline: AI (10/10) 3 - Silent Construct: E02 (9/10) 4 - Metropolis: splitpath (8/10) 5 - Outer Expanse: RAIL01 (8/10) 6 - Chimney Canopy: S07 (8/10) 7 - Metropolis: LAB03 (6/10) 8 - Looks to the Moon: O02 (6/10) 9 - Arena Submerged Superstructure: Memory Bypass (4/10) 10 - Subterranean: G0R01 (4/10)

Extra comment: Okay, I'll admit it, this is quite the biased pick from me. Why? Because I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I did go to Submerged as a non-Rivulet Slugcat before (I believe it was Monk, specifically), and I found it weirdly enjoyable. Especially rooms like this where you have to figure out how to get up with your limited mobility, as they sort of brought back the feelings of exploring this game for the very first time, where you still had no idea about the optimal ways of traversing rooms.

As for the list, we've got two pretty neat ones for today.

The first is one that I expected to see lots of votes on, only for that to not really happen - RAIL01. Outer Expanse has 3 rooms like this, and while I would technically consider this to be worse than the second, it is only slightly below it. It's really hard to comment on it, because its layout is so strange and different, but in like, a good way. I guess I like that there's a decent bit of decision making that goes into traversing this thing, and it's nice that Squidcadas spawn here. Sorry that I couldn't come up with anything more to say, but I just like these kinds of unique and well designed rooms.

Now, there was one other room that I also expected to be highly voted, which did in fact live up to my expectations. And yep, it's AI. One of the most important rooms in the game. The place where we'd originally get all of our sweet lore and world building from (which still holds up for every Slugcat, except Spearmaster and Artificer). The design of this place is very iconic, and for a good reason - it perfectly communicates everything a player needs to know, and it makes for a very effective introduction to the character, one that makes her appear humble, lonely, quiet and powerless. And as many people have pointed out before, that makes for a perfect contrast for Five Pebbles' introduction, who is also lonely, sure, but absolutely not humble, powerless or quiet. The thing about this room is that its quality is very much dependent on the game's writing, the quality of its story. But since the story is excellent, the room also ends up becoming one of the greatest, as a result.

I uhh… don't really have a segue for this, cus y'know, AI is quite a special room and all. Anyways, we have two bonus rooms coming up!

First up is C11 from Chimney Canopy, which is alright. The one issue I have with this place is how most of it is basically always unused. Why? Because you have a decent amount of distance (try saying the last 4 words quickly multiple times) that you need to climb up, to reach the connection pipe to B12, which is a one-way leap that more often than not, you will not want to take, because no matter where you're going, it'll just unnecessarily make your route longer and more complicated. And unfortunately, there's nothing interesting about the lower parts, you just have that one jump, and sometimes, you gotta do some combat or pipe juking. So I'd say this is probably a 6/10. Really cool if you wanna climb it, you just usually don't.

And for the last one, there's G02 from Subterranean. For this one, I kind of have to look past how much this general area of Sub has tortured me on an Expedition recently, because in the grand scheme of things, the room is very well designed. You have the dangerous Adult Centipedes, but there's also plenty of Cherry Bombs, so players can easily learn that they're perfect for deterring these crawling batteries. There's also a Popcorn Plant that you can use whenever you won't eat the Centipedes (either they died in a previous cycle, and didn't come back yet, or you just avoided them). You do have unfriendly flora too, those being the Monster Kelps, but this place is often filled with spears, and even when it's not, the ground is perfectly flat, so you can just crawl. Oh, and the number of Mushrooms is quite the overkill, but honestly, I'd never complain about those. So yeah, this place is nice. I'd say it deserves an 8/10, maybe potentially even a 9/10. (Although…. the nasty Dropwigs on some campaigns…. cus I guess the Centipedes are just not enough. At least they only appear for combat focused slugs)

Pick Your Favorite Rain World Room, Day 215.2 R2

This is not single elimination! Every room with at least 15.0% vote will move on to the next round.

There is a hidden slugcat in one of the rooms (they can be in any color). If u can see it comment or reblog with where they are and if u are first, u get a cookie!

Credit for game screenshots goes to: Rain World Interactive Map, Rain World Wiki and me

Congratulations for day 214 winners!

[dxl44]

Character Spotlight #1 - Hal/The Player

Welcome to the Character Spotlight, where we put one of my characters at center stage! I don't have a good way to start out these yet. Sorry.

Character Spotlight is a new weekly (?) thing I'm doing where I'll take a deeper dive into one of my characters and talk about them at length. We're going to be stopping at nothing to go over all the lore bits and everything you need to know. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, and remember to keep your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the vehicle at all times.

Introduction - Who is the player?

In each of my Project Arrhythmia storylines, who you're playing as has significance. You aren't just being slapped onto some faceless nobody. The player is as much of a character as anyone else. However, they don't say much or do much specific - and the truth is, that's because most of the stuff about them is meant to be left up to headcanon. All the details of personality, reactions, etc...they're all much more fun if the one playing the game thinks them up, right? No, I'm not overlooking things. Stop.

That being said. This is not an excuse to disregard each player of any lore or story. Although those mentioned specifics aren't too relevant, there's plenty of lore put into each player character in each of my storylines. Maybe not enough to fill an entire one of these posts, but enough for me to combine em all into one post that breaks down the background of each player character.

Another World - Hal

In Another World, you play as the standard pink, square-tailed shape that you might all know and love. Say hello to Hal, a Hero recruited by the Navigator Star Sunrise. They're a small fella - without the crystals, they're just a tiny square. Hal comes from a world where most people are like this. That means they've been put in a place where everything is massive to them - totally out of their element.

Hal was handpicked due to their size, in fact - Sunrise wanted someone who could easily navigate the chaos of the world. Hal has next to zero offensive capabilities, besides maybe being able to dash towards others and try and land a small hit. They can dash repeatedly to increase speed massively, but it takes a lot of timing.

Reanimated - ???

Reanimated is a bit similar, yet a bit different than Another World. You're also playing as a Hero here, one chosen by the wiser navigator star Polaris. Polaris is an admirable mentor, always reminding you to never lose sight of your goal in the face of a daunting task. You have the standard Hero abilities, but you're also not actually a square that small - you just shrink down to that size because gameplay exists. As this unnamed hero, you are sent to retrieve a powerful staff that's taken control of one Rena Krual - a witch and necromancer who sought after it for it's rumored power to raise the dead. You spend a while silently watching and waiting for the right moment - until Rena realizes you were there all along (albeit very small and easy to miss, y'know) and lashes out in full force alongside the staff.

I should mention that Heroes can eventually become new Navigator Stars, and that this one does become a very important Navigator Star at the end of their journey. And that additionally, they don't complete their mission without any regrets. It might still haunt them to this day, while what they didn't do remains a rumor among Elevatian social circles.

Simulat10n - Tenth Iteration

Simulat10n is a story about a simulation run by a Navigator Star to try and find an "ideal Hero". The result is this - a small green square, carrying along crystals from behind like a tail. This is the Tenth Iteration - the 10th version of this simulation run. All previous ones failed, and you're the first to get past the initial tests. Go you!

The Tenth Iteration exists in the virtual space of the simulation, which itself is running on some good ol Navigator Star magitech. As the tenth Iteration, you have some communication with the outside world - mainly with your creator, Intaflare. Intaflare is a part-robotic/Dyson sphere Navigator Star who is the current person spearheading technological developments for the Elevatian Order. For the Simulations, though, they got caught up in trying to achieve a single successful result - and when they seemed to be chasing a lost cause, a success finally came through.

The Trials Series - {{s_display_name}}

Did you know that {{s_display_name}} is a way to display someone's Steam username in a game? Did you know PA will support this in custom levels in the future? Yes, it's kind of blunt, but the player in the Trials is exactly that. The player.

It's not a secret that Creator doesn't really care much about fourth wall things. Creator is the one who would give the player character...well, character, in a narrative. They haven't. The Trials are largely devoid of any sort of distractions of that sort. They dont want you to play someone else's role - they want you to play yours. So the player here is able to dash and go back to checkpoints and all, but that's because it's a gameplay mechanic both in-universe and out of it. Of note is that unlike most other player characters here, warnings are not a result of {{s}}'s power set. Creator adds those in, sort of just based on principle and fairness.

Creator views the player as a dependent variable. They are the only thing in a world that is not predetermined, not directly manipulable. For as much power as they have, Creator isn't the one playing. Sometimes this works in their favor. Other times it doesn't. You'll see.

In Conclusion...

Player characters are far and wide in what they've got going on for my storylines. They're all different and have different stories, while still having a lot of room for one to see them in different ways (as, y'know, the player).

That's all for this week's Character Spotlight! Please watch your step as you exit. I'll see you next week, for when the lore shenanigans resume. And I hopefully have a single big character to focus on instead of a few smaller ones.

[thefirstknife]

Sorry for the long ask, but as somebody who's recently been enjoying the tries revamp and the accessibility it gives to middling pvp players, I've been getting into the lore on the trials gear, and there's a lot of entries so I'm having trouble keeping track. I've mostly been interested in Sola, who only seems to come up a few times? She ends up torturing a guardian in the trials, looking for 'something inside them like in her.' It's interesting though, because the power she wields, (and seemingly seeks when Aunor catches her tracking an anomaly in arrivals) isn't described as darkness or stasis, but some kind of corrupted void light? I can't find mention of anything else like this, and I feel like there's lore entries I'm missing?

Anyways, Trestin, another trials guardian, gets killed unnecessarily viciously by Sola (I think, that lore entry mentions they're competing against Crimiq-5, who is on Sola's fire time, so this seems right) and later goes on to become obsessed with stasis, torture house salvation refugees as well as her own fireteam, and gets put down by Aunor as well. Is this a coincidence? Does Sola do what she does to Trestin because she sees the same temptation towards corruption? Or is it more direct? It almost seems like she passes it on, virulently, and I'm mainly wondering if that's something that has any other evidence when it comes to corrupted guardians. I figure you might know, I'm having trouble searching since some of it is trials gear, some isn't, and they don't all mention everyone's name

Took me a while to get the full info on this because I wanted to put all of the lore entries in order and they're kinda scattered around!

Okay, so, this story is told on Trials weapons lore. First batch was released in Season of the Worthy and then the sort of conclusion in Season of the Chosen. There's a minor update in Season of Arrivals on non-Trials gear (Temptation's Hook). The first batch of lore details a single Trials match between two fireteams.

One fireteam consists of Trestin, Yara and Sadhij. The other fireteam is Sola, Crimiq-5 and Katake. Roughly in some semblance of order, the lore on items is as follows:

The Summoner - This seems to be the start as it shows Trestin meeting up with her fireteam and going into the match. The one important thing to note here is that Trestin was apparently deeply affected by what happened on the Moon (during Shadowkeep and the discovery of the Pyramid) and seems to be resigned that the end is coming and that there's nothing anyone can do about it. It appears she was somewhat influenced by the Pyramid into despair and losing hope.

Astral Horizon - This is somewhere at the start of the match. Sadhij tells his teammates Trestin and Yara that he's going for one of the enemies (Katake). He charges with a shotgun and uses Thundercrash which completely obliterates Katake. No surprise there. However, at the end, there is a rifle shot and then silence.

Exile's Curse - This details the start of the match from the other team's perspective. We see the same event of Katake being Thundercrashed by Sadhij from the eyes of his teammate Crimiq-5 who warns Katake about being out of line of sight. Crimiq-5 witnesses Katake being obliterated.

Eye of Sol - Again from Crimiq's POV, he is standing in the back with a sniper rifle and he watches Sola attacking Trestin. He seems to be very distraught about this:

Sola had ripped through their previous opponents with off-putting ferocity, and Crimiq was ready for this to be their last match of the day. He looked over her through his scope. Sola's silhouette marinated in an eerie shimmer that distorted the air as she moved.

He shoots a warning shot at her position to keep the third opponent (Yara) in cover. Then he hears Katake's cry for help against the Thundercrash and aims there, killing Sadhij. That's the rifle shot at the end of Astral Horizon lore.

The Scholar - This moves us to Sola's POV, where it's described that she's torturing Trestin and telling her that she can feel "it" in her too. I assume that both Sola and Trestin were deeply affected by the Lunar Pyramid and were both in the early stages of corruption by it. Sola felt it in Trestin.

"So…" Sola's intent bit deeper, malleable claws that flexed against her prey's Light. They probed through blood and muscle to an umbral center. "…it's within you too."

After the torture incident, Saint steps in to end the match and reprimand Sola. He also reprimands Crimiq, but Crimiq says he doesn't want anything to do with Sola. This further angers Sola and she leaves, telling everyone they're "as good as dead anyway." Note the same kind of despair and loss of hope that Trestin exhibited even before she was attacked by Sola.

Tomorrow's Answer - This brings us a bit back to the final person who has a POV which is Yara who witnesses what Sola did to Trestin:

A violet shockwave pushed away the dust. Trestin knelt a few paces away, beaten. The Warlock bent her glowing hand into Trestin's chest plate, lodging a vortex grenade into her armor. Yara met her eyes and saw the Void overtake her. She did not hear the scream, or the splitting armor. She only saw flickers of Trestin break apart and scatter as the vortex ate away at her.

Sola lodged an entire vortex grenade into Trestin. Horrible way to die. Yara yells at Sola about Trestin not deserving that and Sola snaps back:

"None of us 'deserve.' It's about what you can get." The Warlock smiled and raised a hand of gnarled Void. "Brace yourself."

This shows how far gone Sola was. Definitely far more corrupted than Trestin. Presumably, Sola also finished off Yara in the match before it ended.

In Season of Arrivals, there's an update about this on Temptation's Hook. It's shown that Sola has been captured by the Praxic Order. The Praxics lead by Aunor know that Sola took another Guardian "to the outer system" and that they did not return with Sola.

I assume "the outer system" means Europa, but that's only because now we have additional information from Season of the Chosen. Since this is from Season of the Worthy, it could also mean that Sola and Trestin went out further into the outer system and met with the Black Fleet (the Black Fleet lurking at the edges of the system is mentioned in this lore). Sola also says some strange things:

"I learned the secret. The one your hounds have hidden away in that quaint little vault." Sola smiles red through split lips. "You're on the losing side."

"Do you think you have nothing to lose, or that I wouldn't take it from you? You're sorely, and soon to be regretfully, mistaken."

Sola spits in Aunor's face. "You have limits. You have masters." A twisted Light shimmers in Sola's hand as she moves to attack. "Enjoy hanging to death in your strings!"

This is probably referring to the presence of Darkness on Europa to which Sola and Trestin were either directly exposed OR they may have been told about it during their visit to the Black Fleet (depending on where they went exactly). It appears her Ghost was also exposed. Both Sola and her Ghost are contained by the Praxic Order: Sola killed and her Ghost disabled from resurrecting her.

The next, roughly chronologically would be The Messenger. Some time has passed. Aunor meets with Ikora about the problem of another corrupted Guardian who tortured Eliksni civilians, asking them about Eramis and how she accessed Darkness, as well as torturing her own teammates. It's revealed that the Guardian in question is still located on Europa and trying to access Darkness as well as that the Guardian's name is Trestin.

That leaves us with the final entry which is Sola's Scar. In it, we follow Trestin on Europa as she's nearing the Darkness obelisk, eager to get its power. She details how she betrayed her fireteam and what was driving her:

Over the radio, Lord Saladin's voice grew staticky: "Cabal incursion… Vex… up ahead." Without a word, Trestin's Ghost switched it off. There were others nearby to carry out the Iron Lord's orders. He wouldn't miss them.

She doubted anyone would—her ex-teammates least of all. She had betrayed them, or so Sadhij had screamed: "We're supposed to be the thin line drawn before the Darkness, you traitor!"

|| Thin indeed. So why not step over it? ||

Because they didn't have it in them. She checked. Cracked them both open and dug deep, just to be extra sure. But it wasn't there. That hunger, immense and buried, like the ocean under Europa's glacial crust. A riptide, undetectable from the surface, yet unrelenting in its pull. She never meant to betray anyone. She just wanted release.

|| Soon, you will have it. Soon, you will be freed. ||

She has brief memories of her fireteam, namely one of Yara's jokes. Darkness makes sure to tell her that such attachment is weakness. Just before Trestin reaches the obelisk, Aunor catches up to her and asks her to come quietly. Trestin disobeys and Aunor strikes her down with a sword.

I assume the name of the weapon where this lore is written, Sola's Scar, refers to the "scar" that Sola left in Trestin when she tortured her during the Trials match. Both Sola and Trestin seem to have been deeply affected by the Lunar Pyramid and it drove them to extremes which eventually led to both of them becoming corrupted and betraying the Light. It's interesting that in Sola's case, there's no Stasis involved: her Light was corrupted. Specifically her Void.

Not sure about Trestin and if she ever got Stasis and which other power and/or knowledge she was seeking from the Darkness, but either way the corruption of both of these Guardians came from the same source, entwined them together and eventually led to both of them being taken down by Aunor.

It's a really tragic story and the reason why I really like this type of lore about just some other Guardians and how they're experiencing the events we go through with in the game. Especially how it highlights just how much of an outlier the Young Wolf is and how things we do are really difficult or downright impossible for other Guardians to deal with. Both Sola and Trestin were victims of powers they could not handle.