#Antivan Crows

[proffbon]

Thanks for the reassurance?

[okthisway]

crow companions 🐦‍⬛

[niofo]

overthinking crows' inner workings, economy and politics, so here are some headcanons:

besides the assassins each house also employ a lot of civilians to handle their more legal businesses, like nero's pearl diving or cantori's casino,

each house has their own home base, like de riva having salle or cantori having rialto, but they would also have their spies and businesses in other big cities like antiva city and treviso,

original home base even of the talon's houses isn't that big, but they have all smaller cuchillo houses under themselves that provide them additional money and manpower,

stealing a cuchillo house from other talon is considered bad taste - if you get caught, that is, so the entire crow politics is mostly just trying to sneakily take over other houses' territory,

open war or assassinations between houses are really frowned upon and can warrant retaliation from other talons, but again - if you get caught and they can prove it was you,

stealing territory per se is usually between smaller houses, when they start taking contracts on their neighbors' land and see if they dare to react,

that's why it's important to have a powerful ally or protector in the strongest houses, but also that could make the cuchillos on a border or contested territory to easily switch sides,

most cuchillos are vassals to one of the talons and pay them part of their earnings, but sometimes it's worthwhile to make the house into an ally instead - you lose their money but you can work into pushing them into another talon position to strengthen your faction,

but also you don't want them to grow too powerful and eventually vassalize you instead,

in rare cases of all out war between houses the losing one is usually destroyed officially, but the winner takes over their businesses and also their fledglings and more valuable assassins - those crows are given new identities and no one even mentions them being part of the destroyed house,

every assassin has a tattoo of their house somewhere on their body done already as a fledgling, but in case of stealing people from other houses the crows perfected the art of covering or removing the tattoos of one's previous affiliation,

in general the bigger house tattoo the harder is to cover/remove if someone steals your assassin, but also it makes them mor conspicuous during undercover work, esp if the tattoo is in any visible spot,

after the qunari invasion caterina dellamorte froze any attempts at gaining higher ranks to force the crows to focus on the invasion instead of infighting - that means any cuchillos attempting to gain a talon position to replace house kortez would not be acknowledged by other talons.

[thedaswolves]

Did you wonder what actual Cantori Diamond casino looks downstairs, bellow the Crow's base? Took flycam down there and it's completely pitch black, you cant see anything, but than I added spot lights and saw it's actually HUGE nice space with tables, big hallway and tones of npc's hanging out down there in the dark lmao 👀 why did they put all those npc's and space down there only for it never to be seen?!?!? they must've had plans to show it as some point! 😁

This is directly bellow that little bridge at the entrance of Crow's hideout as you're walking towards Teia and Viago.

@flowersforthemachines you might like this :)

[gzeidraws]

faction swap ⚔

[dags-over-caravans]

A Word with Friends 7/28

Thanks to our host @hedwigoprah and thanks for the tags @woundedsoul12 @chaosherald; daisy-chaining hands to link in any buds who want to play @sorrygoldfish @adejareve @epiphany-jones @nevesserialwriter @madamemortem @bubblingooze @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai

Prodigious

1. Causing amazement or wonder

2. Extraordinary in bulk, quantity, or degree

3. Resembling or befitting a prodigy

4. [obsolete but I’m mad about it] Being an omen; portentous

Soooooo I already had something with this word in it and you know ya girl likes to reuse work to meet assignments. 😅 This is ch 2 of my fic We live by chance among the lightning strikes, in which Rook and Lucanis reveal their history to the VG companions. The idea is that the Crows hold annual Trials to test their fledglings as children (it isn’t fun) and Taash desperately needed to know if Rook or Lucanis had ever won these Assassination Games.

With how tragic and mournful my Back when you were mine fic is going, I hope you all don’t mind me forcefully reminding myself that these two have such delight in their future.

…

“So,” Rook continues, “as I earlier said: eight years and eight Trials, like the Eight Talons of the Crows.

“Our histories are poorly documented and even more poorly maintained, yet it’s not so of the annual Trials — the names of the winners have been written down and remembered for centuries now. I do not exaggerate to say that it is our best preserved historical document.

“And across all of this time, in all of these Trials, very few names repeat — to indicate more than one victory. The names which do recur are famous: there are a dozen or so whose names and stories every Crow child knows well, those that won four Trials.

“There are dozens more, lesser known names — a few dozen that won three Trials, some famous examples of double-winners… and the rest are lost amongst the crowd.”

“Only four?” Taash’s disappointment is evident. “Out of eight?”

“Remember that the fledglings all compete in the same Trial, from ages nine to sixteen. It’s most common for the winner of the Trial to be a senior fledgling — winners are very rarely younger than fourteen.”

“That seems likely,” agrees Neve. “The older fledglings would be stronger, smarter — have better skills.”

“Exactly,” nods Rook. “The first time that I won — which doesn’t count, as I’ve said — I was ten. When someone so young wins the Trial, it’s usually because all of the other competitors died.”

“But no one died that year,” Lucanis says, “and that’s because of Rook.”

“Wow,” chimes Taash, “You won when you were just ten? That’s awesome —“

“Wait —“ Rook interjects, but the table is now abuzz with this newfound gem of knowledge on their leader’s secretive (and surprisingly prodigious) backstory.

“Rook, you must have been incredible.”

“Don’t,” she warns.

“Amazing! Bet you outsmarted ‘em —“

“She was incredible,” Lucanis chuckles. She glowers at him as they wait for the praise for her around the table to subside.

“By the Maker, stop,” she says weakly, as soon as she can get a word in, “because that was the year that everyone had expected Lucanis to win his fourth consecutive victory.”

The table is silent as they all turn to the male Crow.

“It would be an understatement to say that Rook upset the betting tables that year.”

“You upset the betting tables!” Rook argues. “Because you’re the only reason that I won, and I’ve never understood upon what whim you did it.”

“Wait,” says Davrin. “Hold on. You’re telling me that Lucanis had already won three Trials before you were even ten years old, Rook?”

She says, “Lucanis is about two years my elder. Not only did he win three trials in a row, he won his first three Trials.”

“Rook,” Lucanis chides, his dark eyes flashing with mischief. “You make it sound as if I didn’t win three more victories after yours.”

(For those doing the math at home: yes — that’s six Trial victories. Lucanis is the winningest Crow in Antivan history. His name will be remembered.)

Davrin groans. “Stop. Rook, make him stop.”

She laughs a little, despite herself, into her coffee. “Sorry. What he says is true.”

“You may find it more palatable to learn, then, that Rook denied me a fourth consecutive victory again, during my last Trial.”

“Yeah, okay,” the warrior allows, grudging. “I guess that does make it a bit better.”

“And that one counts,” smirks Rook.

“Fascinating backstory and all,” drones Neve with an eye-roll, “but let’s get back to why Rook’s first victory, specifically, doesn’t count. I’m afraid the rest is likely destined for another night.”

“My apologies, Neve, but we aren’t through all of the backstory yet,” says Lucanis. “There’s… something you should all know, before we discuss this particular Trial. A bit of stage setting.” He sighs. He picks up his mug of coffee. He takes a steady sip. “When I was a boy of twelve, my entire family was assassinated in a coup that failed. I was one of three survivors, from my family of fourteen — Caterina and Illario are the two others.”

At the first note of sympathetic noises, Lucanis braces a palm mid-air to interrupt them. “Please,” he bites into his coffee, “this was a long time ago. I do not need your condolences now —

“The important thing to know is that my family was killed by poisoning.”

And in the silence that follows, Rook adds, “And four months later, at that year’s annual Trial, the Trialmasters decided to test our knowledge of poisons.”

“Whoa,” Taash expresses the stunned silence of the room. “That’s really messed up.”

Rook laughs, darkly. “You’ve heard nothing yet.”

[anemonetea]

Still getting to grips with posting/tagging stuff, so reposting this as a fresh post this time, with the post that inspired it 😂 (Thanks for the food, @vaguely-concerned!)

Please return this man to his cousin, just let him go home & rest, he's had a rough night 😭

[laurelsofhighever]

The idea that Treviso has special ziplines for the Crows to have an easier time going about stabbing people is hilarious to me because in my head Antivans have perfected hostile architecture in an attempt to keep Crows out. Roofs just crammed with statues and traps and dead ends and magical anti-grip paint (all tastefully appointed, of course)

You know, standard pigeon proofing. For bigger pigeons.

[scalycat]

Father figure Viago?

[proffbon]

Viago: Rook, last time you 'did things your way' you fucked up a major Crow operation. What went wrong this time?

Rook, trying to think of a way to tell about two blighted elven gods they accidentally released:

[okthisway]

I thought I'd never see you again

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

Viago, when playing as Rook De Riva: you IDIOT you were my favorite fledgling why did you have to make a mess of this now I have to jump through all these convoluted hoops to keep you safe. Teia stop telling Rook how much I missed them it's not funny they could have DIED. also your room is exactly the way you left it please come home

Strife, when playing as Rook Aldwir: Why hasn't this weird bug i kicked out of our camp ages ago died yet :|

[sageadvice]

Crow masks found in the Dellamorte Villa and their corresponding descriptions.

[thedaswolves]

he's the King of Antiva it's canon 🥰🥰💜

[savs-creates]

Local agent of chaos pisses off ancient elven goddess, more at 8

[necromosss]

my telenovela heart yearns for crownovela drama

part 1 (HERE) || part 2 || part 3 || part 4 - END