#you do know i already designed armour for you right? if you wanted to embody my image so badly all you had to do was ask

[goodboytown]

using my own technology against me? and out of the bodily remains of my troopers, hm. how brazen.

[silvermoongirl10swfics]

I will be your armour

For @codywanweek 2021 Day 6: Armour.

You can also read this fic here on A03.

No warnings.

Cody sighed to himself as he stared at his armour pieces. The battle that had just ended had been a hard one, with Cody needing to replace some of his armour pieces, thankfully they had what he needed in storage on the Negotiator. Getting the new armour pieces wasn’t the problem, it was deciding what to paint on his armour. Just recently some of the Ghost company boys had said apart from his sun burst design, his armour was a little plain. When Cody had stared at their amour, the word hypocrites came to mind. Most of his brothers had pretty standard designs, so he had no idea why they were telling him to make his armour ‘more interesting to look at’. But with Cody needing new shoulder pauldrons he found himself considering new designs for his pauldrons. He was sat cross legged on the floor of his quarters; his armour pieces spread out in front of him as he stared at the two pauldrons in consideration.

The door to his quarters slid open and he looked up from his position sitting on the floor, his shoulder pauldrons shiny white by his knees. He found Obi-Wan looking down at him with a smile on his face and a pot of 212th gold paint in one hand. “To paint new pauldrons, I thought you could use some paint,” his cyare teased gently.  Cody smiled and shook his head as the Jedi walked into his small quarters, placing the tin pot of paint on the floor by his knees and pressed a kiss against his lips. Cody raised one of his hands to rest at the back of Obi-Wan’s head, his fingers tangling with the copper strands. They both pulled away when the angle began to make their necks ache.

Cody sighed as he looked back at his armour pieces. “I was told to make my armour ‘more interesting’ but I don’t know what to do,” he complained. He wasn’t whining. He wasn’t.

Obi-Wan snorted in amusement and trailed his fingers through Cody’s dark curls as he moved to sit on Cody’s bed. The Jedi sat on the bed, his feet remaining on the floor, allowing Cody to lean his back against Obi-Wan’s legs. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about painting armour cyare. So, I will leave this challenge in your capable hands,” replied Obi-Wan softly.

Grumbling under his breath about the vagueness and unhelpfulness of Jedi, Cody turned to look at his cyare only to find Obi-Wan had dropped into a state of meditation, for once not crossing his legs. Cody rolled his eyes and turned back to his armour pieces with a mutter of, “you don’t know the first thing about painting armour because you don’t wear any.”

After a few minutes of pondering designs in his head, Cody craned his neck back to look at Obi-Wan and smiled fondly to himself. This wasn’t the first time someone had asked Obi-Wan for advice or ideas for painting their armour, and honestly, Cody should have expected Obi-Wan not to help him. Obi-Wan was constantly finding ways for the men to create things or find individuality wherever they could. The 212th had been the first Battalion to paint their armour, Obi-Wan used the sound reason that it helped differentiating between different Battalions on the field of battle. But it was also a way for the men to be individuals. Obi-Wan also encouraged the men on leave to look around the Jedi Temple when they had leave on Coruscant, other Jedi Generals did the same. But Obi-Wan was the only one Cody knew of who ran tours of the Jedi Temple for his men. Cody had often found himself in the Temple Archives, and on numerous occasions talked with Master Nu regarding the Jedi Code and old art artifacts the Archives had in its collection. The stern Archives Master would also share tea and stories of his cyare as youngling with a mischievous glint in her eyes, so Cody loved spending time with the older woman.

Thinking about how his cyare embodied the true meaning of the Jedi and how he always did his best to uphold the values of the Jedi Order. Cody decided on a design and got to work. First, he touched up the paint on his other armour pieces, as there was no use having fresh paint on his shoulder pauldrons but not on the rest of his armour pieces or helmet. Then he picked up his left shoulder pauldron, and with a steady hand he began to paint the Jedi Order’s symbol, as he finished the symbol he turned to smile once more at his cyare who looked peaceful in his meditation. Then he turned to his right shoulder pauldron, as he picked up the paint brush again, he thought about how his brothers in the 212th were trying to design an unofficial symbol for their Battalion, they had learnt about their General’s love of varactyls when he told them a story about riding one while a Padawan, and felt the friendly-yet-fierce animal could be a perfect symbol for their Battalion. So, Cody went about painting the silhouette of a varactyl the best he could from memory, while recalling the smile on Obi-Wan’s face as he told the Battalion the story of his mission as a Padawan on the planet of Pijal.

As Cody set his right shoulder pauldron back on the floor to dry, he leaned back against Obi-Wan’s legs feeling satisfied at his work. His satisfaction must have shone in the Force because he felt Obi-Wan stir and then lean forward so he could look at the armour pieces over Cody’s shoulder. A hand came to rest on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “I knew you would think of something worthy to be on your armour,” stated Obi-Wan. Cody reached his own hand up to cover Obi-Wan’s hand with his own. It seemed Cody did not have to explain why he painted the symbols he did, his cyare seemed to already know.

“Would it be too much to ask for you to get some armour pieces? I can help you paint them,” asked Cody as he turned to look up at Obi-Wan.

“I do not need armour Cody,” responded Obi-Wan with a roll of his eyes.

Snorting in disagreement, Cody stated blandly. “I beg to differ.”

Obi-Wan leaned forward so his chin was resting on Cody’s other shoulder. “My robe is my armour.”

“Osik it is,” swore Cody. “Your robe isn’t much protection. Especially when you drop it everywhere.”

Chuckling to himself, Obi-Wan moved his arms so they were wrapped around Cody’s chest and hugged him. “But cyare. Boil, Waxer and Wooley rely on my robe drops to rate them for entertainment purposes.”

“I would prefer you disappoint them,” growled Cody lowly. “And a battlefield is no place for entertainment.”

Obi-Wan didn’t answer, instead he lifted Cody up beside him on the bed and then stretched them both out to rest together. Cody wanted to put up some resistance, but the warm presence of his cyare on a rare quiet day, led him straight into sleep.

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

Two weeks later, on yet another battlefield. Cody watched as his cyare, who had yet again shed his robe in a dramatic fashion, was facing down some droids who were throwing grenades. Even though Cody wasn’t Force sensitive, he sensed danger when he noticed some droids start to throw grenades towards his General, and so he ran towards his cyare. He knocked Obi-Wan over and together they tumbled and rolled for a couple of meters on the ground and then Cody covered Obi-Wan’s body with his own.

After the droids had been dealt with, Cody leaned up on his hands and looked down at Obi-Wan through his visor. “Now will you listen to me and get yourself some armour?” he sniped, but there was no anger in his voice, just worry.

Obi-Wan smiled up at him and rested a hand on the side of Cody’s helmet. “But that is what I have you for cyar’ika.”

Cody sighed in exasperation but found himself leaning his head forward and rested his forehead against Obi-Wan’s. He couldn’t feel his cyare’s skin through his helmet, but the action was comforting nonetheless. “I love you,” he murmured, only heard by the person the words were meant for due to the loud sounds of battle.

Obi-Wan’s hands traced the new symbols adorning his shoulder pauldrons. “And I love you. I do believe that your new pauldrons suit you very well cyar’ika.”

“You inspired them, cyare,” Cody readily admitted, his voice fond.

“Hey Cody! Stop smooching the General and give us a hand!” yelled Longshot, his voice holding too much mirth for Cody’s liking.

Obi-Wan’s eyes sparkled with laughter as he gently helped Cody to his feet. “Well, we had best do as Longshot says and give him a hand.”

“Just so long as you don’t take it literally and get your hand cut off,” remarked Cody dryly.

His Jedi frowned at him and mockingly put a hand over his chest. “Would I Cody? How could you doubt me so?”

“I just know you too well,” teased Cody. With one more press of their foreheads together, they marched back into the battle side by side. Just as it was meant to be. Cody figured, if Obi-Wan continued not to wear armour, he was indeed going to have to act as a second pair of eyes and armour himself, because he would not let anything bad happen to his cyare. The galaxy would have to get through himself and his 212th gold painted armour to do so.

[shortiedreams]

Nobles in the night

Requested by @jwxei

Pairing: Bakugo x (fem) Reader 

Synopsis: You’re a princess set out to kill the king of your nation. Will you succeed?

Word count: 1,821

CW: Attempted murder

A/N: Played ‘Phantom of the Opera’ soundtracks whilst writing this. Dying right now ✌️

_

“The hour of the ball has transpired.” a hushed voice came from behind the entrance.

With the help of his usual dynamic tone, Bakugo immediately recognises the familiar voice of his fidus Achates, Kirishima Eijiro. 

“Very well.” he sighs, and Kirishima could almost hear a frown through his raspy voice. 

None of this was going the way Bakugo wanted it to, yet he couldn’t back out anymore; it was simply too late.

“I’ll be taking my leave then, your majesty.” Kirishima reports.

“Please do.”

Bakugo examines his profile in the gilded mirror. He glowers at his own reflection, how outlandish he looked in his formal attire. Even short of the mantle cloak he was supposed to wear tonight, everything about what he’s dressed himself was far too extravagant for his liking.

He poses again with several new angles as if his judgements will change in one swift movement, but of course, it still feels improper.

He drops his eyes in defeat, succumbing to the unadorned fact that he was going to have to get used to the policies of being king.

He has no idea why everyone worshipped the throne. All he ever wanted was to live a secluded life with his family and friends. 

In actuality, that was what he had before the Mediterranean War a year prior to the present, wiping out the entirety of his family, ergo his newfound entitlement: the king. Kirishima was the only part of his childhood that remained, the only part of his childhood he still had physical contact with. It wasn’t surprising to say that he was very attached to the man, granting him the chancellor’s position. 

Which is why with Kirishima and his family’s former support, it was impossible for him to deny the tradition of the annual ball no matter how much he opposes it. He hates the notion of prattling aristocrats shattering his peace and quietness. Even more so of his invitation to you, the Princess of Agathinos, under the monarchy’s recommendation. This would be the first time a guest with royal blood would visit the palace ever since his family’s death. 

As always, Bakugo initially wanted to decline, but Kirishima advised him that he should accept it since it was ‘time’ for him to start courting. He thought Kirishima was being a nuisance, then again he also didn’t want to be looked down on by the aristocrats. He already knows there are rumours of him, calling him all sorts of names like ‘boorish to women’ or ‘ a  critter of another nation’. 

Bakugo was a smart man, so it didn’t take him much to realise that if he really terminated these accustomed traditions, the public would cause unnecessary commotions. Therefore, for the sake of his future peace and his reputation, the ball is set to commence tonight.

Bakugo snaps out of his sombre daze as he reaches the doors to his chamberlains. He fixes himself, coughs a little, before the doors open and he’s now striding out into the hallway. 

Two handmaids are waiting outside his chambers on cue, guiding him to the ballroom. Bakugo glances around the normally dimmed hall, spotting the marshals line-up in armour and the walls decorated with large candles and Renaissance artifacts. He could hear the distant melodies of the orchestra, currently playing some melodramatic composition. Amidst the lively energy of the hall, Bakugo thought that these attributes only made the area more inhumane.

Bakugo soon enters the top of the stairway, where he adjusts himself as he sits on his throne. He doesn’t even get a few seconds to himself and the guests are already flooding into the ballroom, producing a discord between the music and the chatters. 

“Just great.” he grumbles to himself, resting his chin atop a fisted hand.

_

“For the stead of my parents and the kingdom.” you remind yourself.

You too were sitting in front of your vanity mirror, questioning yourself of your affairs. 

You stare into the mirror long and hard. The dress you were currently wearing is the embodiment of an icy blue oasis. The crystal embroidery embellished on the outermost tulle of the skirt was your definition of a wintery wonderland. The rest of your body was touched up with matching accessories too: diamond earrings, silk gloves and silver hair ornaments. Everything about your outfit shone under the moonlight, but you didn’t, you merely blended in with the dark. Especially with the expression you were holding, no one was going to see you as a ‘princess’.

The reason for your morose mien was your parents, who weren’t attending the ball alongside you as they were busied with engagements arranged overseas.

The only thing they left behind for you was the invitation card, and a letter explicitly telling you to the murder the king. 

At the time you read the letter, you were shocked at how your parents could possibly craft up an assassination plot with such detail. You weren’t oblivious to your parents being megalomaniacs; it was why they were away most of the time, focus directed towards any other royalty overseas rather than their own daughter back at home. 

Another reason why they never really bothered with you was because you were a daughter. Although you were an only child, you understood that society’s misogynistic ways definitely influenced their lack of attention towards you.

It's not like you and your family had a bad relationship but you weren’t exactly close either, therefore you didn’t have enough memories to form any opinions on them. Well that is up until now, when the confidential letter telling you the kill the king ceaselessly echoes through your mind. 

Brazen of you, but you wanted to get some of your family’s attention for once. In a sense, you inherited their selfishness. 

You temporarily shake off your thoughts, and with the minimal amount of dignity left in you, tread along to where your chauffeur was, waiting to escort you to the plaza - the location of the castle. 

Inside the privacy of your cart, the thoughts of how the assassination will go runs through your mind as you fiddle nervously on the holster underneath your dress.

You just hope you’ll manage to come out in one piece.

_

The moment you make your ‘grand’ entrance at the ball, strangers are already gushing at you as a peculiar redhead announces your status. 

You realise that this was probably your first official appearance in public as your parents never let you out, contradicting their own actions. 

You waste no time to ask around for the location of the lavatories. Luckily, the same redhead fills you in on the information you need, and you manage to make a quick escape to the toilets. 

You shut the doors behind you, puffing in pure relief. You were never good with crowds since you haven’t even been outside after all, so the comfort of this cloistered space warms you a little. 

Anyway, you’re here to collect yourself before you even dare to think about killing anyone.  

It takes you a while to calm your breathing as the plan continues to play through your mind for what feels like an eternity. Killing really is all that disturbing.

When you finally muster up enough courage, you step out of the lavatory with undeveloped confidence. Flushing, you look down at your feet as you attempt to make your way back into the ballroom, not even noticing the man standing straight ahead. You stumble into him ungraciously, earning you a merited knock on the head.

“Ouch.” you wince in pain. 

Your eyes drift up to meet with a prepossessing blonde who gazes down at you with an amused guise. He was dressed in haute couture, a form-fitting navy suit pinned with the golden emblem of the Bakugo’s: a griffin.

Without a second glance, you instantly note that he’s the king. 

“Careful, Princess of Agathinos.” he alerts, his voice suiting as the most soothing cord of notes you’ve heard pour out of a mouth in a while.  

How did he recognise you?

“You dropped something, princess.” Stupefied, you watch in awe as he bends down to pick up your possession. 

Moments later, you finally knock yourself out to check what’s fallen off your outfit. In vain, you find all your accessories precisely in their designated locations.

Wait.

“A dagger?” he taunts, raising a brow in your way, “Mind explaining why you need this in a clearly guarded place?”

“My King, I-”

“Don’t have anything to defend yourself with?” Your eyes widen at his accurate observation.

Unnerved, you flee from his light grasp and begin pacing in the opposite direction witlessly.

“Running away from me in my premises. How fatuous.” he chuckles to himself, inspecting the dagger that played in his hands.

_

You dash tirelessly past the postern and into what appears to be a garden. You don’t give a second thought as you bolt through a vineyard, the chiffon fabric tufting together under the remiss handling of your silk gloves. 

Reaching the mouth of an inviting forest, you feel a pair of arms repelling you from going any further. Your eyes widen once more, not being able to tell if you were gratified or terrified, or a genuine mixture of both. 

“I wouldn’t go there if I were you.” the flattery music blows into your ear.

Absent from warnings, two strong arms spin your waist around to engage you with a  handsome physique under the moonlight. You shudder at the enchanting sight of the king. 

If he’s run all the way here for you unaccompanied, it is only alright for you to assume that he doesn’t care about the incident back there.

He seems to be more interested in you, like you are with him.

“Please don’t run, princess. I’m not the beast that everyone deems me to be.”

You show no apparent reaction to his comment, still fazed.

“Don’t be afraid.” he adds, sounding ever so sincere. 

“Oh, I won’t.” you promise. It was the only thing you could say after being completely infatuated by him.

“If you’re saying that on account of me releasing you, then you’re wrong, princess.”

“I mean it, your majesty.” you clarify challengingly.

He hums, palpably entertained, “Will you allow me to try something?”

Was the king seriously asking you for permission even after he knew you were a threat?

Oh lord.

“S-sure.” you stutter, making a downright fool out of yourself.

“Well then, forgive me for my bold deed.”

Before you could even say anything, you feel the sensation of his soft lips pressing against yours, juxtaposing to his unyielding image beneath the moonlight. It sent butterflies fluttering down your back impetuously.

Slowly pulling away for air, a silence hovers above the both of you, utterly enraptured by each other.

“Bewitching.” he comments as he leans in for another kiss. This time you lid your eyes, prepared to devote yourself to your king, Bakugo Katsuki.

[honourablejester]

Ideas for Deities and Cleric Domains (D&D)

I absolutely love clerics as a class in D&D. They’re up there with warlocks for customisation, it’s fantastic. But clerics, more than many other classes, really seem to be dependent on the setting and worldbuilding, because a huge chunk of their story and background is dependent on their deity. A cleric’s power comes directly from their deity, and they can possibly lose it if the deity disapproves of them or their actions. I know a lot of DMs won’t do this, but in-universe it does make sense that a deity is not going to keep giving power to a servant that is actively acting against their goals. If I’m building a cleric, I do feel a bit of a desire to have their personality and history either fit in with or comment interestingly on their deity’s personality and domains. They’re a class you really have to build in collaboration with the DM, I feel.

So. On that worldbuilding end, going by the cleric domains. Some (admittedly highly biased) thoughts on the associations of each domain, and some ideas for deities and maybe clerics for each. It got LONG (as in, 7000 words long), because I have thoughts apparently. If you want to skip around, the domains are in alphabetical order of:

Arcana

Death

Forge

Grave

Knowledge

Life

Light

Nature

Order

Peace

Tempest

Trickery

Twilight

War

Arcana

This domain feels slightly sticky to me in D&D because of the difference between arcane and divine magic. Like, do wizards view arcana clerics as essentially cheaters? Oh, sure, no study for you, you just get it for free! Arcana gods who were once mortal wizards, do they view clerics as cheaters? Especially given that a lot of the existing arcana gods are also knowledge gods, how do they feel about just granting magic without, so to speak, the effort of acquiring knowledge by your own means? Or do some of them prefer clerics? Gods of magic that are embodiments of magic as a force, do they like that clerics have an intuitive grasp of them and thus magic? Knowledge deities who believe that all knowledge should be available to everyone, they’d be fine with it too, presumably. There are lots of paths to knowledge, and for some people that would be through a teacher, in this case the deity. If knowledge and magic should be shared, then the path of the cleric is just as valid as the path of independent study.

And then there’s deities for whom magic, arcana, is a secondary domain, in service to their primary one, who’re happy for their cleric to use any power at their disposal to enhance their service (for example, deities whose primary domain is war or forge or death might not care how their arcana domain servant gets their power, provided they use it for the right causes).

Arcana is an interesting and slightly sticky domain for me. But. Some other domains it combines interestingly with, for deities with different views:

Knowledge. The most obvious. Fits well for a wizard-type deity, magic as study, but maybe also a more … theoretical physicist sort of deity? Deities who like people who just appreciate the raw wonder and intrigue of magic on an emotional level, a vast and beautiful unknown that needs to be interacted with and both studied and experienced. You know those people who just want to babble about their field of study, and you don’t even have to understand, though it would be great if you did, they just want you to come up and look at the cool thing? Deities like that.

War, Forge, Death. Like I said above, these would be big domains for gods who view magic as a fundamental tool to serve other causes. War, the destruction or defense of things. Forge, the making of things. Death, the breaching of the walls between states. Trickery could also go here, for sneaky deities who view magic as an obvious tool-kit. In worlds with magic, it’s such an obvious factor to deal with when it comes to their primary domains that these deities have sort of been forced to acquire the expertise, and sometimes they might want servants who specialise in supplying that tool-kit for the cause. Forge might also lean a bit in Knowledge’s direction as well, your ‘tinkerer with the universe’ sort of deity. Trickery also works because Arcana clerics get a few nice scout-and-secrecy type spells, like Arcane Eye, Nystul’s Magic Aura, and Leomund’s Secret Chest, so a trickery deity having an ‘agent’ cleric with a disguise as a pious scholar and a toolkit for spying and smuggling feels like a fun idea.

Order, Twilight, Life. These also work as primary domains for deities who view Arcana as a toolbox domain to supplement their primary one. With features like Planar Abjuration, Spell Breaker and several of the abjuration, divination and conjuration spell options, arcana clerics feel like they could be good ‘civil defender’ sort of agents. The sort of magic civil servants for deities of civilisation, making sure that things stay where they’re put and that the righteous are not influenced unduly by arcane powers.

Death

The necromancy domain, for when you want a divine boost on your path to lichdom. I’m going to say, though, that I do like the disease aspect of this domain. I blame reading The Legend of Huma as a teen, and Morgion’s corruption of a certain knight to the shock and betrayal of all his fellows. On the cleric end, I really, really like this domain as an expression of, not so much malice, as just absolute despair. It’s the necrotic domain, the domain of entropy and rot and decay. Murder, secrecy, death, decay, despair, disease. Miasma. It’s an evocative domain.

Deity-wise, this domain is the four horsemen (or three of them, Death, Pestilence and Famine – pair a War god to add Conquest and War). The walking wasteland. The crawling oblivion. It’s the Black Death, the Red Death, the White Death. It’s a pale figure atop a pale horse. Poison in a cup, rot in a wound. Petyr Baelish, sowing chaos just to see where all the pieces fall. It’s false dawn. The calm shallows of despair. It’s black and white and green. Every Outer God ever, from the crawling chaos to the blind idiot god at the centre of the universe.

I love the disease aspect. Start with plague. Start with fire and drought and famine. The aftermath of war. The fevered, skeletal survivors. Have a voice in the dark make them an offer. A shelter, an assurance, that the worst has already happened, and nothing more can trouble them now. All they have to do is … offer other people the same thing. The fire and the fever and the pain. And then ... the quiet place beyond it, where there is only peace and purpose.

As a domain, Death feels perfectly capable of standing alone. Add Arcana, if you want more a focus on necromancy. Add Trickery, if you want more chaos and entropy, toppling towards annihilation. Add War, that old friend and partner. Add Tempest, the scourging storm, or Light, the searing, radiant fever. Add Life, to pair and partner with Disease, the poison and the antidote in one cup. Add Peace, for the quiet oblivion when all pain and strife has been toppled gently away.

Forge

This is an odd domain for me, because I absolutely love the image of the smith deity, Hephaestus, Wayland, Prometheus, and I love characters like Tony Stark in the MCU, people who forge their way out of captivity and pain by raw force of will and ingenuity. But. A lot of the available deities for the Forge domain feel a bit on the lacklustre side, and I don’t know if that’s because the smith imagery for me is so bound up in image of conflict and captivity, Prometheus, Wayland, Tony Stark? It might just be a case where the domain evokes such specific imagery for me that I’m a bit blinkered by it.

The Forge domain is bound up in imagery of fire and metal, war and craftmanship. As a cleric domain, it’s fairly focused on weapons and armour, rather than the wider applications of the craft, so the clerics will likely be a bit more specialised than the deities. Mythologically, forge deities are often creation deities, civilisation deities, discovery/exploration deities, even healing deities. There’s a lot of ‘whatever the problem, we can build our way out of it’. Which is awesome.

So. Some interesting domain combinations:

War is the obvious one. Forge clerics are pretty clearly designed as front-liners. And on the deity side, war is often a necessity for a forge deity, both as a primary market for their wares, and also because they tend to be prime targets for forces who want to have exclusive access to said wares. There’s a reason I associate the forge with captivity. Going to war because the enemy forced your hand and you had to build your way out of captivity seems to be a typical job hazard for a smith deity. An interesting addendum, put Life with it, for deities of War, Forge and Life, who build prosthesis and solutions to the aftermath of war. A lot of actual RL forge deities do seem to have a ‘mechanical solutions to biological problems’ sort of mindset.

Knowledge is the other immediate aspect. Discovery, invention, civilisation. Tool-makers, more than weapon-makers. Prometheus. Fire and the taming of the natural world. Craft. Trade centres. In more industrialised settings, invention and industry. So, Order and even Nature might be good domain mixes as well, for the civilisation and harvest/nature-tamed end of things. The plough as much as the sword. Forge has some hearth associations, for gods of city, home and protection. On the darker side, Order, forges are also where you make shackles. But then you have my favourite image. Prometheus, Wayland. The chained or hobbled smith god forging his way to freedom. I like chaos in a smith god. Fire and freedom, creation, wringing possibility from the raw material of the universe. Forge, Knowledge, Arcana, Life. Tempest, even Trickery. The smashing of chains.

Grave

I love this domain so much. I’ve always loved psychopomps, guides, and the gentler aspects of death. Hades and Persephone, Isis and Osiris, Hermes guiding souls. Charon the ferryman. Death-the-Gatherer, rather than Death-the-Hunter. I’d love a dual-aspect deity, Life and Grave domains, the Lord/Lady of First and Last Respite. Peace, ease from pain, freedom from slavery.

Grave pairs very well with Twilight. They have the feel of boundary guardians, the liminal deities. Grave’s use of necromancy spells feels very much like something drawing power or essence from the boundary between life and death itself. A border guardian, authorised to open the gates when needed and ensure that they are safely closed again. Twilight sits so well with that.

Life, Knowledge. Medicine. Hermes and his caduceus. Peace. Laying to rest what should not have been disturbed. Nature. The acknowledgement of natural cycles of decay and reinvigoration. Grave lies very much on the ‘slow and steady, all things in their course’ sort of feeling. It really does pair well with Life in a single deity, not a raw striving against death as an enemy, but a more balanced understanding of what to push and how far, before life itself becomes a tyranny of captivity. First and Last Respite. You strive and you strive and you strive, and then you rest.

It also goes well with War in this regard. Again, its partner aspect. Death domain pairs more overtly with War, but Grave also has a place. Poppies in the fields. Last rites. The soldier chaplain. War as necessity, and then the aftermath. A grave domain cleric has a lot to do in a war.

Interestingly, with the likes of Hermes, and even Isis to an extent, there’s also a Trickery association. Thieves on the boundary line. Stealing knowledge or wealth or time past the line of death. People who have seen things that were never meant to be seen. Truth behind illusion. Journeys, exploration, knowledge. Outcasts. Death is the great equaliser, after all. It welcomes all, even the most wretched. There’s the interesting balance for a thief god, ‘you can’t take it with you when you die’, but maybe you can? Or a thief who will not be stolen from, and that includes their life, the one possession everyone should have the right to defend. Trickery and Grave have some interesting mixes, and a grave cleric with a criminal background would be fascinating to me.

Knowledge

Again, I adore this domain with all my heart. Knowledge domain is the seeker archetype, both in deities and clerics. A shared wellspring of knowledge, and a mission to perpetually add to it, to ask questions and then go and find the answer.

A thing I find with deities for this domain, they can have an oddly static feel. Like the sum of all knowledge already exists, is already stored in some library somewhere, and no knowledge deity ever needs to discover anything themselves. It’s a danger to get stuck in the static ‘archivist’ image of a knowledge god, even though the collection and processing and classification and archiving of information is a whole dynamic activity in itself. Knowledge changes, is always changing. Knowledge is about seeking, archiving, analysing, understanding, drawing linkages. Disseminating, teaching, sharing. Though there are and should be gods who focus on recording information, because that’s a right and necessary thing we like to do with knowledge, there’s a lot more to the domain than that.

On that note. I feel like Knowledge and Trickery are a very nice pair of domains for a deity. What’s that quote about the basis of trickery being knowing one extra fact? Plus. Espionage is a whole industry based on, essentially, the theft and dissemination of protected knowledge. And the flipside, that to protect knowledge, you have to know how people will try to steal it. A lot of the knowledge domain’s abilities and spells lend well to spying. Even your static ‘archivist’ god, with his library and his scrolls, has probably seen just about every idiot seeking forbidden knowledge, and was possibly the cause of what happened to quite a few of them. Heh.

With that in mind, War is also a potential partner domain as well. Finding information that your enemy doesn’t want you to know is a huge part of warfare, and messengers and couriers are also vital during wartime. If you wanted to make a god of espionage, Knowledge, Trickery, War and maybe Arcana would be a good mix of domains.

Knowledge also just goes well with a lot of the civilisation-focused domains. Order, Life, Arcana, Forge, even Nature. And with more chaotic areas as well. Knowledge is about exploration, discovery, invention. Maybe even Tempest can fit alongside, especially combined with Forge as well, for that ‘lightning strike of inspiration’ idea. Knowledge over tradition. The heretical pursuit of truth in the face of order. The defiance of demanding answers to questions people don’t want asked. Prometheus, after all, is one of the archetypal deities of knowledge.

Knowledge is just … about seeking. The pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge clerics are seekers, especially in the adventurer mould. The explorer, the archaeologist, the pilgrim, the messenger, the spy, the broker, the medium (Knowledge pairs well with Grave too). The teacher, the protector. If a god of knowledge wants a mortal pair of hands, it’s to find, protect or spread knowledge. Or to use it for a specific purpose. Ideas can be the levers on which a world turns, after all. Not all knowledge deities might be neutral …

Life

The bog-standard domain of the jobbing cleric. The domain people maybe feel they get saddled with if the party needs a healer. But I like the Life domain a lot, although for some reason it’s locked on to orcs and half-orcs in my head (every life cleric I’ve ever built has been one or the other). I like the feeling of striving and equality you get with the Life domain. The endless fight against evil, destruction and even just normal decay. Life is the bulwark domain. Life is the stubborn domain (which, actually, might be why I associate orcs with it). And I like a lot of the existing life deities.

Life is about preservation. It doesn’t create, but it preserves. Life holds the line. It’s considered the bog-standard domain, and to be fair it does fit most anywhere. You can tack the life domain on to the portfolio of nearly any deity you please, and it’ll probably fit.

And! It doesn’t have to always be good. I don’t even just mean that you can have a racial life deity for an ‘evil’ race, like Luthic for the orcs (which is a whole other thing, racial pantheons are … a tricky thing), but Life itself can be an enemy. If you’ve ever read the fairytale ‘The Soldier and Death’, you’ll know what I mean. And, for a more recent example, the Many-Faced God in Game of Thrones is an example of a death-as-mercy deity that moved towards punishing and/or preventative medicine later down the line. Life without cease can be a hell without escape. Life is as much a force that needs to be tempered and balanced as any other. You have options with Life deities.

So. Domain combinations. I LOVE the Life/Grave duality. I said it above with Grave, and I’ll say it again down here. Pair the two. They work beautifully together.

Life has the obvious solar association, so Light is a common pair for it. Twilight actually works very well as well. Life is the bulwark. The preserving line that enemy forces founder against. Pair it with a domain that ventures protectively into the darkness, or with one that vengefully shatters it. Life, Light, and Twilight are a nice mix of domains.

Peace and Order are an interesting set, in that they can edge Life over into its darker aspects if left unchecked. The rigid, tyrannical end of lawful. Stepford smilers. Whatever happens, we can fix you right up! So just smile, and take whatever happens. Life is a torturer’s dream domain. You can go dark, dark places with it if you want to, and these two are a good pair of domains to set alongside that journey. Make a deity of Order, Life and Peace that would put the greatest Archdevil of Tyranny to absolute shame! Though you can take them gently too. You can take them as they were intended. Make bulwark deities. Protectors against the dark. Holding the line.

I also love Life, the same as Grave, as an equality domain. This is more on the cleric end, but I love outcast characters who take up the mantle of a healer god because the deity just accepted them. I do like Ilmater for this, for example. Life as the healer domain knows all about what people do when they’re in pain, and it works to heal rather than punish that. The ideal of a medic who heals regardless of nationality or creed. Dr McCoy from Star Trek, because I adore him. Make an angry healer, an outcast who works to help other outcasts, who struggles with the ethics of helping even evil people, because if you ignore pain when you see it, what does that make you? But if you cause untold pain with an act of mercy, what does that make you? There’s a lot you can work with here. Life is more than just a jobbing domain.

Light

The spear of god, the lance of the heavens. Light is the glorious, radiant, blinding, burning domain. The domain for when you want to smite people and set the world on fire. There’s also a vigilance, eyesight, ever-burning, all-seeing sort of association. The lantern ever-burning in the dark, the eye in the sky that sees all. So it has a sort of a, a half-and-half sort of feeling. Light will wait for all eternity, as patient as the sun, for their enemies to move. And as soon as they do, Light will smite them with fire from on high. Light is a distinctly decisive sort of domain. You can’t take back a fireball once you’ve launched it, so be sure you know where you’re aiming it first.

Light is honestly such a fun domain. It pairs well with a lot of things. Life. Tempest. War. Knowledge. I love a lot of RL mythological figures here. Helios Panoptes. Light and Knowledge are such a good mix. Light is knowledge as in surveillance. The big staring eyeball in the sky. The sniper’s little red dot on your forehead. I see you. Light is the crusader deity. ‘I’m going to see what’s happening, and then I’m going to act on it’. Add War in, sure. Tempest. The lightning bolt from on high. If any deity is going to have combat celestials to throw around as well, it’ll be Light domain deities. It’s a very smitey domain.

Light does have a gentler aspect. Light clerics tend to be blasters, mobile artillery, but they still have the standard cleric options. And light is the dawn of life. So. Life. Nature. It has a preservatory feeling against the forces of darkness and decay. Stand in my radiance and I will shelter you. And a sower of life feeling. Show me your grain and I will ripen it. Energy is epitomised by light. So you could pair Twilight as well, a deity with twin aspects, the light and the twilight. The spear and the shield. A deity who will venture out watchfully into darkness, keeping faith with it, until crisis point is reached and they bring the sudden dawn instead.

Nature

Gods of the natural world. I’ll be honest, while it makes absolute sense that you would have nature deities, as a cleric domain it feels slightly superfluous and like it’s stepping on the druid’s toes a bit. But. On the deity side, lots to work with.

With raw elemental might mostly given to Tempest, the Nature domain focuses on plants, animals, the land, the waters. Nature in its neutral state. There’s also a bit of an emphasis on survival, with things like heavy armour and Dampen Elements. Nature is very much about working with the land and creatures around you to survive. It can lean towards the wilder end, unspoiled nature, or the tamer end, the gods of harvest and field. You have things like your gods of the hunt, your gods of the wood, your gods of the field. Hearth, home. Freedom. Travel.

If you want to lean towards the wilder side, Nature combines well with Tempest, Trickery and War. These are your gods of the hunt, gods of the storm, gods of the jungle, the defenders of nature unspoiled. But you can also combine with Life and Light here as well, for the raw majesty and vibrancy of the wilderness, and with Twilight and Peace, for the shadowed forests and wilds.

On the tamer end, the gods of field and harvest, of fertility, Nature combines with Order, Life, Light, Knowledge and even Forge. Order, for the rolling fields of agriculture that feed the cities. Life, Light, for the sun that ripens the fields, the harvest that feeds the world. Knowledge and Forge, for the craft and the tools that tame the land, the knowledge of plant and soil and properties that provide food, medicine, systems of produce. Also, a deity of Nature, Trickery and Knowledge as a god of trade, of travel and produce and negotiation and knowledge. I like that.

Trickery combines well with either end as well. On the wilderness side, for nature’s more fey aspects, the gods of travel and wilderness and getting lost, the trickster deities of echoes in the mountains and lights in the swamp that lead people astray and protect their secrets. On the tamer side, I love Trickery and Nature (and Life) for a god of hospitality, the arcane rules and soft power that prevent violence by alternate means. And, I mean, if you want Hotel California, the little god of the vanishing inn, try some combination of Nature, Trickery, Life, Death and Twilight. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave … I actually really love the idea of a Nature deity that defends the wilds just by luring and trapping intruders under the guise of civilised hospitality. The liminal deity of the boundary between the fields and the wilds.

On the deity end, Nature is actually a really versatile and lovely domain. Add it to everything. Heh.

Order

Apparently, I tend towards neutral or chaotic, because I kneejerk don’t like the Order domain. For much the same reason I’m not too fond of the enchantment school of magic. It’s by nature on the far end of lawful, and the focus is on control and conformity before free will. It’s a hard domain to balance. Gods of Order are going to be on the hard lawful edge, deities of law and cities and justice. Justice is the better end of the domain, but the spells and features … This domain leans a bit dystopian, yes? Law by compulsion. It’s ridiculously easy to slant towards evil.

But. Let’s try and get past the kneejerk. At its best, Order is the domain of cities and civilisation, centralised law, law by consensus. It’s a domain focused on discipline, on justice, at least in the sense of rigid adherence to the law. At it’s worst, it’s the domain of empire and tyrant and dystopia. Zealotry. The slaver domain. Deities with Order in their portfolio will lean in one of those directions. Justice and discipline, or conquest and control. Either way, there’s a focus on civilisation, on the polis, on centralised authority.

The natural domain pairing is War, for the conquest end, and Peace, for the civilisation end. Peace is very much the gentler, more consensual partner to Order, enabling willing communal links, while Order enforces unwilling ones. Peace encourages people to act together, Order forces them to act correctly. There’s an interesting tension there. On War’s end, I feel a deity with both Order and War domains will prioritise Order, viewing War as a tool to extend the reach far enough to ensure control, but the reverse is also possible, viewing Order as a way to maintain a strong enough army to feed War. You can sit anywhere on the lawful end of the alignment chart with any of these. A crusader for justice all the way down to a tyrannical despot.

On the polis end, civilisation, Arcana and Knowledge both sit well with Order, as well as Forge. A Knowledge and Order deity will be one of those ‘gods of lists’. Everything in its place. Arcana will be a toolbox, less a focus on the exploration and experimentation of magic. Though you could have an interesting tension of a deity of Order and Arcana trying to fully map and thereby control magic as a force. That is an arcana deity who will very much not like magic’s more chaotic expressions, which could go interesting places. If you want a theological war on certain types of magic (especially sorcery), that could be an idea.

Order as a domain feels very overbearing. It’ll dominate any domain mix its part of. You could put it with Light, with Nature, with Life, and it will bend and shape the other domains around it. It even goes with Trickery, which feels like it should be a chaos domain, because again, espionage is a fundamental part of warfare and control, and a domain that doesn’t balk at enchantment won’t balk at illusion either. Tools in the toolbox.

The one domain that doesn’t feel like it pairs well with Order is Tempest. Tempest does feel too rawly chaotic to sit nicely alongside Order. If you want a pair of gods to set in opposition, try Order vs Tempest. The city vs the sea, the storm vs the doldrums, raw force vs overbearing will.

Peace

I’m calling this the Hufflepuff domain, and like a good badger, it has the potential to be absolutely terrifying. Peace is one of those domains that you really, really don’t want in an enemy. This is the siege domain, the tank-generating domain. Come and have a go, dear, because you are guaranteed not hard enough. Put this with Life and then Order or Light or War, and you are dealing with an absolutely terrifying unified force that won’t go down. If you don’t like the Hufflepuff comparison, you can also try Starfleet. Walk softly in the sure knowledge that you are carrying the bigger stick.

An evil peace deity is such a fantastically terrifying thought. A long, calm walk into night, hand in hand, carrying each other when we falter. I want this domain for a post-apocalyptic setting so much. William Hope Hodgson’s Night Land. Dying Earth. A philosophical debate between two deities of peace, whether it is better to be the last bulwark standing firm against the darkness, or if true peace is found in gently letting go together. Put one with Life, put the other with Grave, and debate in a world of horror and darkness and madness and despair which one of them is ‘good’ and which one of them is ‘evil’.

But. Even normally, in non-dying settings. Peace is an exciting domain that can go in some interesting directions. The line between good and evil for this one will be what we’re willing to do to have peace, and what we’re defining as ‘forces that prevent peace’. Obviously if you’re going for a Peace/Order evil combination, ‘freedom’ is a thing that could prevent peace. If you’re going with Peace/Grave/Death, life is a thing that could prevent peace. It all depends on how you want to play it. But you can go gentler as well. Peace with Life, with Nature, with Grave, as a genuine, gentle attempt to help as many people as possible find a life free from pain or fear. Peace with Order as a good-aligned hope for civilisation and diplomacy triumphing over fear and war.

It’s just very fun for me personally to imagine the darker aspects here. An evil peace cleric as a cult leader. ‘Stand with me, help each other, stand together, and no one can stand against us’. All the worst aspects of group-think. Genuine loyalty, genuine camaraderie, and just a complete lack of actual morals. It would be terrible and fantastic. Hang an evil party around a peace cleric and have your loving, psychotically loyal bunch of clowns go to town on the rest of the world.

Tempest

The first D&D character I ever made was a high elven Tempest cleric, ex-slave, ex-city official. Looking back up at my thoughts on the Order domain will probably give you an idea why. Tempest is just a gorgeous domain for me. Distilled chaos, and all its tricky balances. Where’s the line between raw destruction and needful freedom?

It helps that I’m from an island nation and strongly associate Tempest with the sea. In the absence of an actual Ocean domain, Tempest is where that part of me gravitates. So Tempest gets all the associations of freedom and power and terror and awe that the ocean gets from me. The volcano and earthquake aspects aren’t as fun for me, though elemental storm very much is. Air and water and lightning and sky.

Tempest isn’t a kind domain. It doesn’t really feel nurturing or safe. At its worst, it’s raw destruction, power pitted against all comers. At its best, it’s freedom for those strong enough, a storm to break the oppressive swelter of summer, a sea wave to smash through walls. Like Order can sit at any end of the lawful spectrum, Tempest can sit at any end of the chaotic spectrum.

Tempest deities will probably lean towards one end or the other. Destructive and overbearing, or fierce opponents of tyranny. It pairs fantastically with Light, as the celestial realms’ shock troopers, with lightning as a nice conceptual bridge between them. Tempest probably lacks Light’s more patient aspects, though. Although maybe not. The sea is always power held in potential, after all. The promise of the storm is always there, even when it’s calm. So. Light is a good mix. War and probably Forge will work just as well too, though for Forge you will want the more volcanic/seismic end of Tempest.

Tempest is an interesting mix with Trickery. Whatever else Tempest is, it doesn’t tend to be subtle. But misdirection is as much an aspect of trickery as disguises are. Sound and noise, signifying nothing. Until the right moment. If you want Tempest to match Light’s patient aspects, pairing the two of them with Trickery would be a very interesting mix. Add War, and you have a deity with a full martial suite of domains, from the espionage and information gathering stages all the way through to shock troops and invasion. Or go Tempest, Trickery, Knowledge, to emphasise the secrets of the ocean depths, and the powerful forces that protect them.

On the gentler end, Tempest pairs naturally with, well, Nature. Wildfires and ocean storms serve their purposes too, clearing ground to help systems rebuild and refresh. Rainstorms to break droughts. It’ll still be a bit on the survivalist end of nature, cruel to be kind, but it can be much gentler than its more destructive outbursts imply. You can have a deity of Life, Nature and Tempest quite easily.

Trickery

The domain of illusion, secrecy, misdirection, stealth. Okay. So. I adore this domain in terms of deities. Adore it. Anyone who knows me will tell you I love trickster deities with a passion. I will say that cleric-wise, this domain feels oddly blinkered, purely focused on stealth and misdirection, though the spell list does add some more fun, chaotic things. But in terms of deities, oh, I’m gonna have fun here.

On a base level, trickery is about accomplishing your goals by indirect, unexpected or subtle means. It’s about stealth, misdirection, leverage, diplomacy, theft, murder, guile. It’s about breaking the rules, taking the unexpected path. It isn’t necessarily chaotic, you can do an unexpected thing that is purely within the rules of the game, and for certain stripes of trickery deities I would suggest valuing exactly that, a matter of pride in pushing the rules to breaking point and highlighting all their absurdities in the process. White hat hackers. A lawful good trickery deity whose sole purpose is to test the bounds of law and tradition and show where it can be improved.

It also doesn’t have to be evil. It seems to come up a bit, that Trickery is added as a domain to an evil god’s portfolio simply to emphasise that they’re a liar. Which is … valid, fine, but it’s just … Lying is not all that Trickery is. You can do more with it.

I’m also not fully certain of the association with luck for Trickery. I feel it’s because 5e doesn’t yet have an actual chaos domain, so Trickery is used as a stand in for anything on the more chaotic end of concepts, but the thing with luck is that it’s random. The Dice Gods are the gods of fate, destiny and chaos. I’d give them … Order domain, Chaos domain, Balance domain, something like that. If you want good luck and bad luck, I’d give them the Life and Death domains, positive and negative energy, creation and entropy. But Trickery … implies more intent than luck allows. You have to set out to trick someone. Trickery is to accomplish goals. A roll of the dice, outcome uncertain, feels like something a trickery deity would go out of their way to avoid where possible. Tricksters try to play with loaded dice. I feel like they don’t like to rely on luck.

But. Moving on. Trickery deities are your gods of subtlety or change. Your thief gods, your spy gods, your gods of revolution, your gods of motion and change. Your gods you send out to accomplish things that other gods can’t. Your gods of desperation, your gods of last resort, your gods of hope. And, yes, also your gods of lies, of deceit, of hidden things. Your gods of manipulation and planning. Your gods of murder in the dark.

In terms of domains, Trickery goes with everything. Seriously everything. There is nothing you can’t put with Trickery, because it’s all about your methods, not your goals. In that sense it’s a bit of a toolbox domain, like Arcana or Knowledge. There are so many ways to go.

Trickery, Knowledge, Order, War. Your god of spies and espionage. Trickery and Light, your god of surveillance. Trickery and Knowledge and Arcana, your god of hidden, illusory and experimental magic. Trickery and Grave, your thief psychopomp. Trickery and Twilight, all in on illusion and hidden things, the god thieves pray to for protection and silence in the dark. Trickery and Nature, hospitality, trade and soft power. Trickery and Peace, diplomacy in all its forms. Trickery and Tempest, the god of sound and fury who knows how to level it strategically. Trickery and Life is a god that’s going to help and heal by whatever means prove necessary. Forge and Trickery is Prometheus and all my other beloved tricky smiths. Trickery and Death is your chaos-sower, your force of subtle entropy, your silver-tongued dark messiah.

Honestly, you can never give Trickery to too many deities! Add it everywhere! Well, no, you do need a contrast to it, deities who are genuinely honest and straightforward or blunt as the face of a hammer, but it is a versatile domain. You can do a lot with it.

Twilight

This is such an incredibly gorgeous domain. Twilight, dusk, shadows, borders, liminality. The quiet secret spaces. Flight. Second star to the right and straight on til morning. There is nothing I do not love about this domain. Here is the gentle end of Peace, the balm of Grave, the sheltering arm of Life, the watchful care of Light. Here is the darkness made gentle, a shelter, neither pitch black nor blindingly bright. The borderland, the crossing point, where all are treated equal, where the thief finds as much shelter as the righteous man. Good gods, I love this domain.

Like I said. Life, Light, Peace, Grave. All of them are natural combinations with Twilight. Grave, for the borderlands. Peace, for a peaceful crossing. Light, for the vigilance against the dark. Life, for the shelter and solace there. And Trickery, too, for those who live in shadows and draw their comfort there. A deity of Trickery, Grave and Twilight, the thief god with the hooded lantern who guides souls to their rest. A deity of Life, Light and Twilight, the hermit, the patient watcher, who shields travellers under their cloak and stares unblinking out into the night, standing guard until dawn. A deity of Trickery, Arcana and Twilight, the god of dreams. A deity of Nature, Twilight and Peace, the god of the twilight woods, of still pools, of unicorns.

This domain feels like magic to me. I mean the wonder of magic. The feeling you had as a kid watching The Last Unicorn for the first time. I can’t be analytical or eloquent about this. This is the bus stop at 4am domain. The silence in the desert at night domain. The domain of flying dreams, where a god or a fairy touches you in your sleep and tugs you out the window to walk on air. Here are illusions, here are secret truths, here are fairytales.

It’s a good domain. Make me some gods who evoke the quiet wonder of it. Please, I love you.

War

Ending on a bit of a blunt note, really, in that War is arguably one of the simpler thematic domains. To quote Fallout: ‘War. War never changes.’ Maybe not, though. There are a fair few dualities and contradictions bound up in the domain.

There’s your obvious, Athena vs Ares, intellectual vs physical war, strategy vs combat, civilisation vs barbarism. There’s your theological, Augustine of Hippo and Thomas of Aquinas and the concept of ‘just war’, the surgeon vs the soldier, under what circumstances and in defense of what ideals does violence become justified. War for conquest vs war for defense, and the boundary where one becomes the other. Ideological crusades. The honesty of violence vs the hypocrisy of honour. War as ritual, war as necessity, war as a vehicle for personal advancement.

All right. So maybe War is not a simple domain at all. You have a lot of options of what other domains to pair War with in a deity’s portfolio to put a different slant on them. War with Life or Peace, war for defense of values. War with Order, war for conquest and crusade. War with Death, war of annihilation. War with Tempest, blitzkrieg, lightning war, war of force and sudden might. War with Grave, the god of warriors, who cares for war’s people. War with Light or Twilight, guardian against invasions from beyond. War with Knowledge or Trickery, the wars of states and nations and intelligence, wars of trade, black ops, espionage. War with Forge or Arcana, strategic, toolbox thinkers, getting the tools to do the job.

War is one of those domains that works just fine alone, but you can also add it on to any other domain that someone would have to fight for. Now, granted, War is organised fighting, large-scale fighting, so it’s not just picking a fight in a bar, but even then, War gods who value warriors who strive to prove their might at any provocation can still pay attention. But you have a lot of potential variety with war. You could have one war deity in your pantheon, or have six or seven who at least dabble in the domain. There isn’t a single other domain that you couldn’t add War onto. Nature is probably where it strains most, because War is usually the opposite of helpful for fixing problems Nature might be having, but even Nature has her champions. Even Peace, which you think would be the opposite of War, can happily stand alongside as the end goal, and War the means.

And as a stand-alone domain, you have a LOT of philosophical room for argument with War. Fittingly enough. Heh.

[ianite-simp]

dark!karl pt. 5

finally here boys, it’s a good bit longer than the other parts, but that’s cause things are going down :)

The strange black cat was back again. It seemed to follow Karl around his island, sneaking closer whenever he wasn’t looking, always just out of the corner of his eye. If Jordan hadn’t mentioned it when he stopped by one day, he would have been sure he was hallucinating. Cats never showed up on his island. And it was a fairly long swim from Tom or Jordan’s places - so its appearance was really just a total mystery to Karl. It was a cute cat, he’d have to admit. But he was too occupied with his purge preparations to pay it much attention - he only had a few days, after all, to get ready for it. Apparently it was a tradition the others had in their other dimensions, and Karl was determined to do his absolute best - at least, not get completely destroyed by the others.

It was quite convenient for him, the timing of the purge. Any time Tom, Jordan, or even Dec approached him about the results of the judgments, he could just make up an excuse about being behind in his preparations and bolt off. Especially given his physical condition - the strange, cracking pattern had spread across most of his face and was covering his neck and shoulders. Doing simple tasks grew excruciating as tiny chips flaked off with his every move. Luckily he had gotten his hands on a bandanna that he could tie around his face instead of the itchy scarf he used to use (though Tom found the look hilarious, and constantly called him Cowboy Karl). But because of the spreading condition, sleeping became entirely out of the question. As such, he had spent numerous sleepless nights thinking about his judgment. It just didn’t seem right. He was just as loyal to Mianite as Jordan was to Ianite, and definitely more loyal than Tom was to Ianite. So why did it decide he was with the Darkness? Had his doubts of Mianite’s strength really given the Darkness that much power over him? 

Is it really a bad thing if that’s the case? He couldn’t stop pondering that question. Mianite was a totally different creature from what he had once been, suddenly seeming incredibly self centered and a bit of a snitch. He was nothing like the welcoming, strong god that Karl had once been proud to call his. 

Hello, Karl.

Without so much as a flinch (the sudden voice and hair-raising chill he associated with the Darkness had grown quite familiar to him at that point ) Karl raised a hand in the air greeting. He trusted the Darkness was able to see it, the sneaking thing he was. He was occupied with trying to calculate the amount of spare supplies he’d need on hand for the purge; a frustrating task, given that he’d never participated in anything like it, as far as he knew. 

You haven’t acknowledged my presence these past few days, Karl.

A sceptical look crossed Karl’s face. “You didn’t talk to me, I’m not going to be talking to thin air like an idiot just to get your attention.”

The Darkness let out a laugh - strangely, it was a warm laugh, almost sweet. I’ve been here the entire time Karl, trying to get your attention. Just turn around.

Feeling slightly bemused, Karl obliged them, turning to look behind him. All he saw was the odd black cat sitting primly atop one of his bookshelves. “What exactly am I - oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t tell me you’ve been spying on me as a bloody cat.” He rolled his eyes, hoping his exasperated tone was evident enough.

I haven’t been spying on you Karl, the Darkness reprimanded as the cat’s eyes narrowed slightly, I’ve been watching over you, and your preparations. The cat stood up, arching its back to stretch before it hopped to the ground, strolling over to the chests. It paused alongside one, rubbing against it with a faint purr. I think you’ll find something to help you if you’d spare a moment to check.

“Must be a trap or something,” Karl muttered, still walking over to the designated chest. He nudged the cat to the side with his foot, lifting the lid of the chest to check inside. It was entirely empty, with only a violently red potion sitting in a small flask at the bottom. Pulling it out, he scanned the label on the side. “Potion of darkness… this is absolutely insane.” His eyes widened as he read the effects listed. One sip of that thing and he’d be practically invincible. “Wait, I can’t even use this during the purge. Potions aren’t allowed.”

I’m sure you’ll find a use for it, the Darkness said mildly. Consider it a gesture of goodwill. 

Karl held the potion in his hand for a long moment, the cool glass bottle heavy in his palm. “Right then,” he mumbled, tucking it back into the chest for safekeeping. It was just a potion, after all. It couldn’t be a bad idea to hold onto it, at least for a little while.

The morning of the purge arrived quickly, the five individuals participating in the challenge loosely huddled on the beach of Tom’s island. Karl felt like his entire body was trembling with nerves as he stood alongside the others, drumming his fingers on the sheath of his sword as Declan went over the rules a final time. “The gods will revive you when you are on the point of death, only that will qualify as a kill. One kill equals one point, and…” Tuning out what Dec was saying, Karl shifted his shoulders slightly, his infected skin stinging painfully from the pressure. He had spent nearly an hour that morning, carefully adjusting every piece of his armour to cover every bit of exposed skin on his torso. The strange, creeping infection had almost reached his waist, his fingertips the only healthy skin remaining on his hands. He had resorted to constantly downing health potions, the only things that offered temporary relief to the burning pain he endured every time he moved.

As Dec finished his short speech, he presented them with the swords of their gods. Karl took the new blade he was offered, eyes wide as he studied the shining blue weapon. 

Come now, Karl. You don’t need something like that.

Ignoring the low voice in his head, Karl slipped the sword under his belt for temporary safe keeping. It didn’t seem much stronger than his own, but it was a gift from the gods. He couldn’t toss something like that away. 

At the sound of a wailing siren, the group split apart, each person picking their own direction. Karl bolted for the boat he had left at the shore, determined to put some distance between himself and the others. He climbed in, using broad pulls of his oars until the currents began to pull him along, and he could rest his already tiring arms. Glancing back, a faint feeling of dismay set in as he spotted Jordan and Declan not too far behind. By the looks of it, though, Jordan was faltering slightly, as Dec scored hit after hit - Tom only adding to the problem by firing arrows from the shoreline. Jordan had practically reached his boat by that point, it would be the work of a moment to draw his sword, lunge forward, and sink it deep into the Ianitee’s chest.

That was precisely what Karl chose to do. Jordan’s eyes widened with shock as he let out a strangled gasp and splashed back into the water, his limp body vanishing within the moment as he was revived. Ignoring the faint whoops and cheers from Tom and Dec, Karl grabbed his oars, pulling with all his strength to get as far away as he could. Within a few moments he was halfway between his own island and Tom’s, his small boat bobbing gently in the calm waves.

A strong wave of pride and adrenaline washed over him as he sat, taking deep breaths to calm his racing pulse. He had managed to get the first kill, despite it all. That meant something, surely.

Congratulations, Karl. I knew I chose you for a reason. The familiar rasp of the Darkness rang in his ears. A faint smile crossed his face. Despite it coming from what everyone thought to be the embodiment of pure chaos, the praise was nice.

“I’m still not working for you, you know,” he remarked, sliding the sword of Mianite out from where he had stashed it in the boat, resting the heavy blade across his knees.

You wouldn’t be working for me if you joined me, Karl. I’ve been trying to explain this to you. The voice was calm, patient. That’s the difference between myself and those godlings. You can’t lie to yourself, Karl. You and Mianite were never equals.

Karl shifted uncomfortably, his eyes rising from the sword he held to the horizon, scanning for any signs of the others getting near. “Never said I thought that, man.” That was a lie. He knew it was. All the times he had spent talking with MIanite, the god had given him his undivided attention. He always made Karl feel at ease when he spoke to him, joked with him. But when he remembered the scorn that had filled the god’s face when he last saw him…

You deserve better, Karl. Someone who actually values you, cares for you. The Darkness’ voice softened reassuringly. All I ask is that you trust me.

Karl was silent for a while, completely still as his thoughts wandered through the mess of emotions the past few weeks had been. He knew the choice he was going to make. It didn’t seem like he had any better options. But a small part of him still questioned it, the part that still wanted to be loyal to Mianite, his god. No, he couldn’t refer to Mianite as that. He had lost the connection to the god the moment he put on that armour. He couldn’t go back on this decision.

“I trust you.” 

The potion. He knew what he had to do, even as the Darkness spoke. Before he could change his mind, he stood, and dropped Mianite’s sword over the edge. It only made a faint splash, before sinking silently beneath the waves.

It hardly took five minutes for Karl to row to his island, ascend the elevator, peel off his armor, and open the chest where the potion rested. He felt something push against his legs as he scooped the delicate bottle into his hands. He glanced down, and met the eyes of the cat. It was purring, and seemed almost pleased to see him. Popping the cork out of the potion, Karl took a deep breath before he quickly downed it in one go. A faintly bitter taste lingered in his mouth as he swiped a stray drop from his chin. For nearly a minute he stood there, unsure if anything was actually going to happen. Then it hit him, fullforce.

An excruciating pain filled him, forcing him to first his knees, then into a crumpled heap on the ground. His skin burning, his insides churning as though they had been coated in lava, everything hurt.. It felt as though his eyes had been ripped from his skull, his head throbbing with the waves of pain that just kept coming, and coming, and coming. He felt himself convulse, his head flying back, his limbs twitching sporadically. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop. He wanted to peel himself from his own body, to fall unconscious, anything that would just make it stop,

And then it did. It took a long moment for him to force his eyes open, to realize the pain was gone. His throat felt raw, his mouth dry. He must have been screaming, cursing, without even realizing it. But otherwise, he felt fine. He felt even better than fine. The weight that always seemed to drag him down was gone, he felt positively light. Slowly, he rose to his feet, holding onto the chest beside him for support as his strength slowly returned. It was incredible, he could move ease, without putting any thought into it. He looked down at himself. He didn’t look significantly stronger but oh, god, he wasn’t himself any longer. Every bit of skin he could see had taken on the cracked texture, darkened to a dusky grey. He could feel something wet on his cheeks. Some black substance as dark as the void, he found, when he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. It seemed to flow steadily, soft plips barely audible as it slipped from his cheeks to the floor. Experimentally, he flexed his hand, causing a small dusting of the flaking skin to detach and drift downwards. He felt nothing. None of the burning, none of the aches, none of it. He felt normal.

I’m glad you’ve joined me properly, my friend. The voice of the Darkness, rather than giving him the faint chill he was so accustomed to, made him feel almost warm. We will achieve many great things together, so long as you continue to trust me.

Karl smiled as he reached down to scoop the cat into his arms. The others were always underestimating him, but it wouldn’t happen any longer. No, with the Darkness at his side, he would be unstoppable, undefeatable.

He would be happy.

[planet-bryyo]

What do you think a Metroid Horror game would be like?

Sorry it took me a while to answer! Now I'm not an expert at game design and I have pretty much no experience in pure horror games, but I can throw out some general ideas that someone with more experience could probably refine or refute.

Metroid already has spooky and unsettling elements, to make a horror game I suppose you would have to over-exaggerate those aspects- claustrophobia, underground darkness, monsters thirty times your size- and downplay one of the biggest factors that makes the Metroid games as they are less horrific: Samus Aran's sheer awesomeness.

You know what might be a good concept for a horror game? The Federation Trooper game idea that was floating around for years before Federation Force kinda killed everyone's dreams. Because in that scenario you could play into the Metroid lore without having Samus Aran, vaniquisher of all evil monsters, actually on scene. I think that might be a good first step in making the game scarier for the player. As a protagonist, you really are vulnerable then.

One of the big reasons why Fusion is so scary is because the SA-X IS the most powerful Samus on the scene, because Samus is the embodiment of all that is strong and durable in the universe and that carries over to the SA-X when the real Samus is at her weakest. Even then, she regains enough strength to combat it, but until the end it remains scary because Adam never tells you "okay, you're 100% ready to kill this thing." You feel like you're at a permanent disadvantage, even if you are technically strong enough to beat it by the end.

Strip away the armour. Strip away the beams. Perhaps keep to traditional Metroidvania aspects- like the ability to get bigger, better items and build up to reaching new places and new items, but make sure that even in late stages, the environment is dangerous and scary to traverse. Don't ever hit that point that Samus does, where she's got the best suit and plasma beam and is suddenly superpowered. It's an awesome point, but for this hypothetical game, you don't necessarily ever want to reach that, or else the fear is diminished (something that could carry over with the player even if they restart. Like Guardians in Breath of the Wild, they're TERRIFYING but once you get strong enough to shrug them off you'll be prancing through Hyrule Field without a care in the world.)

As compromise, maybe actually cut down on the number of creatures, or make the common creatures easy to kill by the endgame. But make sure there's plenty enough creatures and other environmental features that are tough and dangerous, and require you to carefully navigate around if you want to avoid or destroy them. I say creatures, maybe have non-living environmental elements too, like flooding caves or rising and falling acid pits which will kill you if you don't time your movement through the cave right. Maybe you get some kind of armour that lets you move through acid safely, only to find that there are monsters hiding INSIDE the acid, and they aren't easy to see or kill down there.

Have cool environments like Metroid Prime, but emphasise places with unsettling undertones- sorta like Phazon Mines. Dark and bioluminescent is a cool way to go to create that vibe, but have some variety for the sake of not being generic and boring (or too dark- there's a fine line between atmospheric darkness and "I can't see what the fuck I'm doing and I'm not having fun". A lot of movies are guilty of sitting on the wrong side of this line.)

And have some safe, beautiful spots. The occasional visual spectacle to lull the player into a false sense of security, or give them a genuine safe room to recover after particularly intense parts of the game. Want to make things scarier? Start destroying these safe spots as you progress towards the endgame. The safe tunnel between areas A and B with the cute worms is now deadly because those worms grew up and turned into death bees. You come back to a save station after getting a nearby item upgrade, only to find it smashed up by some unknown entity you've unleashed (drawing both of these ideas heavily from Fusion, with the likes of the Kihunters, the Nightmare, and B.O.X.)

Metroids themselves would make for unsettling enemies, with their mobility and the speed at which they can drain you- sometimes faster than your brain can process what's happening in order to remove them. More dangerous still if you're not Samus Aran and you have poor armour and hardly any energy tanks. Perhaps late stage Metroids could virtually insta-kill players who haven't collected energy tanks, making them incredibly dangerous. Have visual and audio clues to their presence- like that Metroid gunk in the background of Metroid battle rooms in Samus Returns, down a corridor you know you can't avoid forever. Or Metroid chirps echoing along a very, very dark tunnel, and you aren't sure where they're coming from, but you know they're coming.

Pirates could also make for good opponents, because of their intelligence and cooperation- perhaps have them interact around you, have a sense that your motions are under surveillance if you aren't extremely careful, and that Pirates will tactically approach your presence. It adds a layer of tension if you feel like you're up against an intelligent force that will hinder your efforts and just shoot you dead on sight if you aren't in top form, either able to sneak around them efficiently or REALLY quick and good at shooting back.

Don't over-use blood and gore. Avoid it altogether if you can. Gore is just... gorey. Instead, use dust. Some of the most haunting scenes in the Metroid franchise use dried-out, drained husks. Make them your horror pieces instead of rotting corpses. You get dust in front of your visor, you look up, and there's the dried, grey shape of your former colleague. The legs are in the process of breaking away with the slight breeze passing through the tunnel, causing them to fall in front of your visor gradually. You wonder how a Metroid managed to attach them to the ceiling- just what ARE these things metamorphosing into?

I'm not sure if I can come up with much more than this right now, but those are just a few ideas. Like I said, I'm not familiar with the horror genre for the most part.

[choicestrash]

Utopia

"We are made of all those who have built and broken us.” – Atticus

Rated: T for dark themes.

Word Count: 2023

A/N: This is my entry for Round 18 of Choices Create, hosted by @kittenmusicals and @hollyashton! I kinda deviated from the prompt (and overwrote which is why this is kinda late) but hopefully not too much oops hahaha. Set in the trilogy of The Crown and the Flame and focuses on the dynamic between Hex and Whitlock.

Hex had never seen such a crude prosthetic in her life. Scraps of metals were being held by wires that looked as if they would be snapped by the smallest of strains, pulling the barely hand-like contraption together. Devious handiwork must have been behind the design, since it had survived the labyrinth (perhaps with the aid of prayer).

The fact that it had been put together by a boy no more than fifteen astonished her. It seemed to still be receptive to touch, given the almost indistinguishable flex of pain made after one of the other Technocrats clasped the shoulder of the young boy in pride. Yes, this boy was indeed a wonder, positively brimming with potential that had yet been realised.

Even aside from the raw spectacle of his prosthetic, the boy had proved himself well worthy of citizenship at the Foundry, having managed to survive the dozens of traps laid around the Foundry. Without outside help too, it seemed, assuming from the fact that the boy had nothing on his back aside from his own clothes. And the marvellous prosthetic.

For the entire time Hex had stood there, the boy had made no attempt to move, a lost expression on his face. That confirmed her hypothesis: the boy was indeed truly alone, unaccompanied on the journey he had undertaken. For all the accomplishments the boy had made today, he was still a young boy who had been desperate enough to walk through a deathtrap in search for sanctuary.

What horrors had he faced outside to drive him so?

Hex narrowed her eyes at the gathering crowd, glancing daggers at her fellow Technocrats. “I understand that this boy had done something quite, remarkable, but I will take him from here.”

The boy met her glance, fear creeping in his gaze as Hex marched over to him, parting the crowd that had come to observe. Shrank against her outstretched arm, an attempt at gaining his trust. He was so young.

Hex softened her gaze. “I’m not going to hurt you. What’s your name?”

He paused, as if weighing the options in his mind. Oh, he definitely was bright. “Whitlock,” he said, after a beat.

“Whitlock, that’s an impressive prosthetic who’ve got there. I’ve never seen such spectacular work on the wiring.”

“Really?” a bright smile made its way on Whitlock’s face, who had unconsciously scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, wow! One of the legendary Technocrats actually impressed! It’s just, I never expected it since the wiring is a little faulty on the index finger, and—“

“Slow down, Whitlock, or you’ll trip over your own tongue.”

“Oh! Sorry, uh,”

“Hex, and you don’t have to apologise. What would you say to becoming my apprentice?”

“Yes!”

She’d keep her word. She’d take him in, let him flourish in a world even if the outside had let him down, keep him from the evils the world offered. Including her own.

Whitlock had indeed flourished, under her care and guidance. She’d become quite taken with him, and he had returned the same. Hex often found herself filling in the role of a mother, his building block to the glory that she was certain he was heading for.

“I’m home!” said boy called from the front door, lugging some gears for their stash.

Hex smiled and called him over. “Whitlock! Your timing couldn’t have been better, my most astute apprentice. I have something I want to show you.”

He moved forward, dropping the bag in front of the table. “Is that another device for the Labyrinth? What does it do?”

“I’ll show you!” grasping Whitlock’s shoulder, Hex steered him to the opposite end of the table. “Come here, yes, this side of the table. Wouldn’t want you in the line of fire.”

Hex could feel Whitlock’s eyes boring into her, watching her every move with an unbidden curiousity. Sweet boy, never change. Lightning strikes across the room, bathing the room in an electric blue, stopping just short of the opposite end. A mini heatwave, if you may.

“Whoa! How did you get it to store that much charge? What material did you use for the wires? Mine are always overheating!” He bounded over towards the contraption, observing the wires with admiration.

“I’m glad I can still impress you! This will be a fine addition to Labyrinth section 11. Though,” Hex paused, taking in the somewhat singed air, “can you imagine what this would do to a fully-armoured knight? You could strike down armies, easy as swatting flies.”

Whitlock went rigid, his face clouded with conflict.

“Oh dear, I know that look on your face. Speak your mind, Whitlock. You know I value everything you say.”

“It’s just… It’s just that it shouldn’t be so easy to kill.” Whitlock looked at the floor, eyes downcast.

“I, see. So how easy should it be?”

He talked of fairness and equality, of how both lives should be in equal danger. For all the talent he has, the naiveté was ever present. How he still retained it was beyond Hex. Hadn't he learnt that the outside world was cruel and vicious?

He was the walking embodiment of reality, an orphan spat out by the harshness of conquering kingdoms, left less whole than before. He'd seen it with his own two eyes, the destruction curling up from his own town, extinguished as if it were a mere blight in its glory. How could he still carry those wonderful visions of a peaceful utopia?

I wish it could be true, sweet boy.

"Tell me it isn't true, tell me–"

"Are you really trying to explain away evidence because you don't like what it's pointing to? I taught you better than that."

She should've been more careful, should've stashed the plans deeper within the cabinets, should've shredded the notes of praise from the kingdoms. For Whitlock has now seen, seen the monster she had tried in vain to cloak in secrecy.

She didn't want this. All she ever wanted was for him to see the utopia he had so desperately dreamt for, and for that, she was willing to go behind his back to make way for his dream. So as long as he does not see.

But now he's standing in front of her, chin locked as he stares her down, his eyes staring at anything but her.

"Hex, I'm sorry, but by the authority given to me by the people of the Foundry, I hereby revoke your citizenship."

Fitting. The one she raised is the one throwing her out. Survival of the fittest.

Hex doesn't know what she said, in the fit of fury and simple confusion over what had transpired, but Whitlock's now backing away, his prosthetic – the very same she'd help him to make – grazing the walls of the foundry as a metal creature bounded in front of him.

"Oh!" The Mechataur loomed over her, nostrils slightly flaring as it raised an arm between them. He'd thought she was going to hurt him. "Oh, Whitlock, you know I'd never hurt you."

Whitlock, the very same boy who had looked at her with rapt wonder as she demonstrated one of her inventions, the same sweet boy who had stayed up late telling her of all his big dreams for a better world, was scared of her.

"Please, Hex, just go."

He still wasn't looking at her.

She turned around. "I hope you're right, sweet boy, about everything."

The door slammed shut between them.

One more down. King Luther will most definitely be pleased. One more to the peaceful reign.

After this waste area is demolished, there'll be more room for conquest, more room for the people to live in safety, without the oppression of the brutes who simply wanted to rule for power. More space for the utopia.

A safer world, a better world for–

"Hex?"

She snapped around, dagger at ready, until she lands on the broken boy.

"Whitlock?"

Crimson stained his clothes, his prosthetic chipped near the wrist. She blinked, once, twice.

"You said he wouldn't be here!"

Feral rage flooded her entire being, fueled by the blood that flowed from Whitlock's one good arm. The guard beside her didn't even have time to blink as she rammed the device into his neck, his body jolting with less pain and anguish that swirled around her.

Whitlock was hurt, on the account of her. He'd seen everything, the pain and the death and the destruction that lay beneath her. The winter before the spring, the dystopia before utopia.

He'd seen it all.

"Whitlock! Wait!"

He'd started running, blood splattering the wreckage-filled ground that was once his home. Their home. Smoke rose between them as she gave chase, never quite reaching him as he shut door after door between them.

He was so far away, metal and cogs barricading them when it had brought them together.

"Whitlock!" her voice was raised, earning her another flinch from his already weakened body. His back was facing her, wrecked fingers scrambling to pull more walls between them.

"You... weren't supposed to see this. They told me you were away, still following that Rys girl around the Five Kingdoms."

He didn't listen, mumbled something that sounded faintly like a threat. The inferno raged on behind them, crackling wood and clattering metal crashing around them.

A door slammed hard in her face, missing her by centimetres. "Whitlock... Whitlock! Come back here! Do you have any idea what I've done for you, for the world?"

He didn't reply. Didn't he know that she valued everything he said?

The howling winds answered her, the empty space that stretched between the two.

"Whitlock..." she tore her nails on the wall, metal unforgiving.

One obstacle brought down for peace. One obstacle brought up between her and her sweet boy.

Whitlock's aiming a crossbow at her, hands wavering with the weight.

Her sweet, precious boy preparing to kill. Everything he's ever been against.

"All I ever... wanted was to protect you from the evils of the world."

She built him up, nurtured him and let him flourish, a young boy who could only comprehend the good in people. Even after he had lost all he held dear.

His aim didn't waver.

"I should n-never have taken you in... but you were so brave, and so bright! I thought– I thought maybe if you never saw who I really was..."

Neither did his expression.

Her actions had driven him to kill. Oh gods, what had she done? Whitlock, who wouldn't even harm a measly fly, begging her to wait for the insect to fly away before testing. And he was now poised to end a human life. With his own hands.

No.

She's not going take that away from him.

Not his last wisp of innocence.

She ripped her dagger out of its hilt, silver flashing in the dim light.

"Hex, stop, I'm warning you! I'll... I'll pull this trigger, I–"

"No. You won't."

The blade felt cool against her skin.

"I won't let my sweet boy become a murderer."

Hundreds upon thousands of Luther's forces killed. On the account of Whitlock's inventions, the wires and circuits he'd put together personally. All because of her.

All the souls that haunted him, made present in his weary eyes that burned with hate and surprise.

She'd do this one thing for him, even when she knew it was not enough.

"Just promise me... promise that you won't follow the same path I did."

Whitlock will succeed where she had failed. Whitlock will rise above the broken pieces of his past, the pieces she herself had unknowingly destroyed, and build the world she had failed to make. He'd be better than her, kindness and empathy the leading force.

The utopia he'd always wanted. Forged from his actions. The right ones.

"Promise me that you'll stay my sweet boy–"

"No!"

After all that, he's saving her. After he had pointed a crossbow at her.

He still wanted to save the same soul that had broken the very one she built.

Hex had never seen a purer soul.