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poltergeist0002 · 3 months ago

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Some things you need to know about Kazuma Kaneko design

Throughout the years, I've frequently encountered people asking: 'Why do some of Kaneko demon designs differ from their original mythological depictions? Is he unaware of the authentic imagery? Or did he reference incorrect sources?'

There are multifaceted reasons, which typically include the following:

Game narrative requirements This is usually the main factor. For instance, in "Persona 1&2, all the demons were designed as a set of stage costumes with masks, reminiscent of ancient Greek dramas.In the DDSat series, all the demons are required to appear as carnivorous beasts without eyes.

Avoiding Visual Repetition‌ Some designs intentionally adopt less iconic representations to prevent stylistic overlap. For example, his depiction of Michael drew inspiration from a statue in Coventry Cathedral to distinguish it from the traditional imagery of the other three archangels.

Creative reinterpretation He often reinterprets mythological figures through his imagination and endows them with brand-new images. For instance, his robotic depiction of Metatron stems from the figure’s origin as the human prophet Enoch – the transformation from human → cyborg symbolizes Enoch’s ascension into an angelic being. While such designs may deviate from classical depictions, his conceptual explanations often reveal their underlying logic.

Pre-internet research limitations. he largely worked without online resources during his prime creative period, making occasional inaccuracies in references inevitable.(Just think about it. We didn't have wiki until 2003, and by then it was already the era of SMT3.)

Mystical inspiration. At times, he follows intuitive, almost revelatory impulses to create designs he cannot fully rationalize. For example, his insistence that Bellis should be cyan and Eligor red defies conventional logic or color symbolism.

To illustrate these points, I will elaborate with specific examples:

Cerberus。Yes, the Cerberus from Kaneko doesn't look like it was in Greek mythology. It usually has only one head. It doesn't even look like a dog but more like a lion. Why? Doesn't Kaneko know that Cerberus is a three-headed dog?

The first Cerberus, which originated from the Digital Devil Story： megami tensei (1986) novel and the OVA animation (1987) adapted from the novel. Design by Hiroyuki Kitazume

here is a requirement for its appearance proposed by the story: Cerberus must be massive enough because it needs to carry the male and female protagonists as they leap through the mountains. As a righteous character, it shouldn’t be too ugly. Thus, as you can see, to meet these conditions, the designer didn’t depict it as a hound but instead rendered it as a lion.

The second Cerberus comes from the first Atlus megami tensei game(1987).You can see that its appearance follows the design in the OVA animation, just changing it to white,a white lion.

The third Cerberus comes from the second Atlus megami tensei game(1990) Design by Kazuma Kaneko.

This is his first Cerberu art from SMT1(1992).Now you won’t question why it doesn’t resemble the imagery of Greek mythology – since the Atlus game has inherited megami tensei’s name and design. This "white lion Cerber" has become a traditional hallmark of megami tensei.

The fourth Cerberu comes from Soul Hacker(1997) This time Kaneko wants to make some changes. Cerberu has three heads. However, Kaneko still retained the tradition of the white lion and did not turn it into a hunting dog. So this time Cerberu is a white lion with three heads.You can still see the influence from the OVA animation.

The fifth Cerberos comes from reamek SMT1 (2001) It is basically a redrawing of the 1992 version, more detailed and more like a big white lion. The 3D models in today's Atlus games are all based on this art piece as a reference standard.

The sixth Cerberus originates from DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA (2004). DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA is not a member of the SMT series, so this time there was no need for Kaneko to keep Cerberus looking like a white lion. However, this version's design purpose isn't to perfectly recreate the Cerberus from Greek mythology either.Similar to the White Lion from the OVA, this design also serves for game narrative requirements.

In DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA, the setting revolves around a digital world, So Kaneko used reflected in the design through geometric lines, sharp angles, and glowing circuit patterns to emphasize this is a "digital Cerberus" and, In this story, It isn't a real Cerberus, but an "Asura"—Humans infected by the virus turned into demons, driven solely by predatory instincts. so,none of Asura have eyes (the red parts resembling eyes are actually the upper jaws of its mouths) So, this version is actually digital Cerberus, not Cerberus from Greek mythology

The seventh Cyperus, from Tsukuyomi: The Divine Hunter (2025)

As you can see, this time, its appearance is completely in line with the description in Greek mythology. It doesn't look like a lion. It has three heads. Its abdomen and tail look like a snake.

Because this game has nothing to do with the SMT series, it doesn't put forward any requirements in terms of game narrative either. So this time, Kaneko only needed to draw a Greek mythological version of Cerberus.

I believe after reviewing the seven design versions above, you now understand:

Kaneko had a clear understanding of Cerberus' depiction in mythology. Had he wanted to, he could have faithfully reproduced the exact Cerberus from Greek mythology. The reason his SMT Cerberus differs from classical representations is because the demand from the game.

This isn't an isolated case limited to Cerberus. I plan to continue introducing more such examples in the future.Thank you for watching.

#kazuma kaneko #shin megami tensei #persona #digital devil saga

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mystxmomo · 2 months ago

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hi hiii

so. what if. iiii. enabled u to be autistic on the internet again :3c

i wanna hear your thoughts on eilistraee and vhaerauns relationship! the nitty gritty, the dynamics, how they think of each other vs how they act, and how thats changed over time+how its reflected in their church

im ADORING all your posts on it if i could id print them out and eat them 🫶

Okay. So this is officially the third part of my "I need to go crazy on some character analysis" Saga. My analysis on Vhaeraun is Here, and my analysis on Eilistraee is Here. I recommend, if you're stumbling across this post in the wild as tumblr tends to do, reading those two first so that you have an idea of how I see these two characters and where the basis of my argument for their characterization comes from. If I need to reference something from either post, I'll quote it here. But y'know. Need be said.

Okay so.

I believe this post is going to the most subjective of mine. I am going to try and pull up canon screenshots from War of the Spider Queen, The Lady Penitent, and Evermeet, but unlike how you kind of get told directly how the drow gods behave and hold themselves and a lot of things end up getting built on them, I would argue so many hands have touched DnD and so many interpretations of their relationship have sprung up over the books that it's hard to give a truly simplified "This is how they see one another."

Water is wet statement, relationships are complicated.

Anyway. Given what my thesis is, I am going to be talking a fair bit about abusive family dynamics in this one as well. My goal for this (and any character relationship I do, really) if to try and keep it very fair. I think a of people make the mistake when talking about Eilistraee and Vhaeraun's relationship of picking a side. Like this idea of one of them being right and one of them being wrong and needing to "Fix" the other. And I don't think that's true at all. I think to be able to understand why they feel the way they do about one another and why their relationship is the way it is, you need to respect both of their characters individually.

(Granted, I think this should be true of any relationship you're writing for in fiction. If I can preach for a second, I think even if you don't like a character, you have to be able to respect the character to properly portray them.)

Final note before I get into this. Everyone thank @abracadav-r again for being on screenshot duty. The posts wouldn't get done nearly as fast without them, they know exactly where to find these little moments.

So. That all said. Lets get into it.

I've made a smaller joke post about what I think their dynamic is like before here. But now that you're giving me the opportunity to do so, I will go indepth about it. Yes.

I'm kinda of the opinion that Eilistraee is more incorrect about Vhaeraun than Vhaeraun is incorrect about Eilistraee (But also that this is the result of DND Canon not being entirely fair to Vhaeraun.)

Let's get the discussion about my thesis about the Elven Pantheon being an analogy for an Abusive family on a divine scale out of the way first, because it's something I've mentioned a few time's, but only every really shorthanded. And I think here, in the discussion about relations, is a GREAT place to start and actually explore that.

Now. I should probably start by saying, I don't think this was intended by DnD. Like, I think when they were originally making this lore, it was the intention to just make a justifiable evil worth killing. DND came out of a time of the romantic fantasy, the very Tolkien and Fairytale esc ideas of good and evil and have this classic hero's journey power fantasy ideal to it. Other people have gone into depth about that origin with far better sourcing and dissection than I can ever hope to, but basically: DnD is absolutely (as all art is) a product of it's time and of the community it stemmed from.

However, I personally think those themes and ideas are a little outdated, and a modern audience (myself being the modern audience) tends to be more enthralled by very nuanced interpretations of good and evil, and find indepth character driven narratives more engaging. And I think that for what this mythos has become over the course of it's 60+ years of evolution, you can reinterpret the narrative to be a fascinating depiction of a mythos that echo's the abusive family structure.

Copying and Pasting from my Eilistraee Essay:

It is of my opinion that, when you look at the Eilistrae-Vhaeraun Dynamic and how they were treated by Lolth and Corellon, you're looking at a classic Golden Child/Scrape Goat dynamic. This is important to mention here because I do think that's important context within how Eilistraee (the person) see's and understands the world, and where her mind is at when it comes to the perception of her sense of self. To VASTLY oversimplify about how emotionally abusive family structures work by a lot, when you look at emotionally abusive families with siblings, you tend to find a pattern where one child ends up getting the bulk of the favoritism and affection (The golden child), while the other takes the bulk of the abuse and tends to take a of blame and is seen as being deserving of the abuse (The scrapegoat.) I'll get a little bit more into the specifics of what that means for their relationship in a later post.[*] Now. Calling her the Golden Child, but I don't think being the Golden Child is strictly a good thing. In a lot of ways, I think a lot of golden children end up very emotionally stilted, and I think you kind of see that in Eilistraee. She HAS to be the perfect one. And she's had this expectation to be The Good One placed on her shoulders since she was young. Golden Children are often blinded to the abuse their siblings face because they themselves are not subjected to the same kind of abuse.

[*] And well. It's that later post!

In emotionally abusive families, siblings tend to be pitted against eachother, either unintentionally as a result of the Golden Child being the subject of a parents time, attention, resources, and affection, or as a purposeful attempt on the part of a parent to put divides in a family. In the real life world, it is more often the first. I think a lot of people think Abusers are more like Lolth where there's an intentional "I looked at you and from the day you were born decided to make your life hell."

But I would argue the tricky thing about abusive family structures (Especially with parent-child situations), is that more often then not, the abusers love the idea of the person they're abusing. To them, what they're doing is love. It is very rare that an abuser is this knowing evil schemer that actively sits and thinks to themself that "That's my least favorite child, they don't deserve my attention."

(Though, as a small side tangent not immediately related to the fictional character, you might see this logic manifest more in the way finances are weaponized in abuse, especially see in America where college is more expensive and therefore often used as a control tactic. IE; My wonderful son wants to go into STEM, why would I waste money by giving it to my son who wants to do art college. Because people get comically evil about money.)

Instead, emotional abuse is often more insidious. It's... I'm going to put the blame on everything that goes wrong on my son (Who I left in the hands of his physically abusive mother to have his arm constantly bent behind his back by her) I can't bring myself to believe that my daughter would ever want to scheme against me. YOU could have been good once, but you're evil because you're not happy, you're too moody, you're too violent. I'm not even going to give you the chance or the environment to grow, because it's just in your nature to be evil, and because you are evil because you were born evil that all that goes wrong is your fault.

You know. That kind of logic.

So. Eilistraee was Corellon's Golden Child. She was the free spirited happy one. She was the one that loved to hunt and dance. She was the good one.

(But often, when a scrape goat leaves the family, the golden child becomes the new target.

Y'know. Like..

Corellon gave up on the idea of trying to turn his son Vhaeraun to abandon his ways. He vowed to kill Vhaeraun if he ever tried to hurt his sister. Nevertheless, the Masked Lord did threaten the Dark Maiden's life, without known action against him on Corellon's part.

Corellon's servant Solars claimed that, with this act, Eilistraee had exhausted her purpose, because the willing had been saved, and the unwilling cast down as a necessary sacrifice.

The in-story context for this being honestly worse and kind of containing bad racial implications:

“Her soul was destroyed,” Felarathael said solemnly. “But before she died, she saved many. She cleansed the taint from hundreds of drow who might otherwise have been condemned.” “But the rest!” Lashrael wailed. “Thousands! Hundreds of thousands! No hope of redemption for them, with Eilistraee gone. Condemned to darkness and despair, forevermore!” “Another necessary sacrifice,” Felarathael said without a trace of emotion. “Else the game would have been lost.”

This, to me, is the framework of Vhaeraun and Eilistraee's relationship.

Likewise, the Masked Lord nurtures an abiding hatred of Eilistraee. The Dark Maiden always held Corellon's favor more than her hateful brother, and she thwarted Vhaeraun's early efforts to bring all the Ilythiiri (southern, dark-skinned elves) under his sway, enabling Lolth and Ghaunadaur to make great inroads among those who would become the drow.

I'm under the impression that Eilistraee doesn't know Vhaeraun. She has this idea of who he is in her head seemingly both based on the what their father thought of him, and as a result of being an outsider looking at the things he did at the hand of his mother. (And again, let's be clear and establish in this post. That wasn't WHOLLY Lolth. Vhaeraun did play his part. But I don't think Eilistraee see's that, I think she strictly see's an eager climb for power) And then she makes a lot of assumptions about his motivations based on the idea of him she's made in her head that reaffirm that idea.

On the other hand, I think Vhaeraun understands exactly the kind of person his sister is, because it's really not that hard to understand who Eilistraee is. She really does just mean well. While I consider her to be a lot more guarded and lonely then people tend to give her credit for, I don't think she's being insincere with her wants and wishes and you don't have to doubt what her intentions are. Instead, the ways that I think Vhaeraun is often wrong about how well she can handle herself and how strong her allies are by 4e, and what that could mean for drow as a whole. Because he's so willing to discredit her as a threat, he doesn't pay attention to her, and because he doesn't pay attention to her I don't think he realized she'd gotten friendly to people like... Mysta the goddess of magic.

And being realistic, even if he had known, I don't think he understands the weight of her being friendly TO people like Mystra because he himself only ever makes allies, not friends amongst gods.

Now. The reason I capped that whole screenshot above is actually because it contains a very interesting bit of framework that I think proves this. Even back in the 2e source books, the phrasing of these things matters. If it was a matter of Vhaeraun thinking that something was the case, they would have mentioned it. However, the specific way that it's set up in that passage is: "It's not that Vhaeraun thinks Eilistraee's involvement in circumventing his climb to power allowed Lolth and Ghaunadaur to gain power. Her involvement DID allow Lolth and Ghaunadaur to gain power."

And I don't think she's aware of that. But Vhaeraun is.

To further this, we're to copy/paste a passage from Sacrifice of the Widow. Now. This is from the perspective of a Vhaeraun worshiper, and it holds as much bias as Eilistraee's priestesses have towards him. But. Because it correlates with metatextual information we have from all the way back in 1998, I'm inclined to say it's not a full dishonesty, just a biased truth.

The dance might have been beautiful, had it not been a violation of the sacred order. Had Eilistraee not interfered, Vhaeraun might have united all of the darkelves under a single deity millennia ago, but Eilistraee had proved as greedy as Lolth and had stolen the females away from the Masked Lord’s worship. She’d taught them to exclude males from her circle, to subjugate and revile them instead. Vhaeraun’s followers had learned a bitter lesson. Females could not be trusted.

Compare this to how Eilistraee speaks of Vhaeraun's influence in Evermeet: Island of the Elves.

Like... Eilistaee. There are bigger threats out there than your brother But. She's so blinded by her history with him that she can only ever see her brothers influence is a bloodstain on the land.

As I mentioned in my other post, I think Eilistraee is a biased narrator in this scene. I don't think Vhaeraun wants his sister to die for the crime of existing. I think his feelings on his sister are way more complicated than his feelings on either of his parents. And we know when Vhaeraun explicitly wants someone dead, because the text would have told us that.

...

So, to understand Vhaeraun and Eilistraee's relationship, I do think we need to talk about The Masked Lady.

Given how much of DnD is oral tradition and people building on concepts that the games give to us, I think people feel more comfortable engaging with some of these things through the wiki and building off of the idea of the ideas they get from the wiki without searching out the original source. And to be clear, this isn't like, judgement for doing that. Nevermind that the IP is older than I am twice over, that a lot of old blog posts are only acceptable through niche internet archive links, and that a lot the source books are neither applicable to 5e or still within print. I'M personally guilty of doing it all of the time.

Instead, the point I'm making is because of how the realms is set up and how people engage with DND, not a lot of people know when plot point comes from a source book, a blog post, a prose book, an official magazine, when something was fan-submitted and made canon, or Ed Greens personal twitter/discord. They all kind of merge together to create a collective canon. I think, as a result, a lot of people end up engaging with these concepts with the same amount of abstraction. But the thing about The Masked Lady is that they're like. A book character. This isn't just a concept that was placed out into world abstractly, they're a fully fleshed out character within The Lady Penitent.

This is important to us and our purposes of engaging with these characters on a more transformative level rather than at a dnd table. Being a character, we can look at how they behave and what the actual intent of their portrayal was. And I want to show you a few things, because I have an argument I would like to make given that portrayal.

A voice called to them: a voice that was neither male nor female, but both. A moment later, it became a pool of utter silence. Then song, then silence. Opposites, twined together, yet somehow harmonious. Side by side, the awarenesses that were Kâras and Valdar drifted to the place where the song-silence was coming from. It caught them like leaves and swirled them up toward itself. They drifted in front of an enormous face. Moonlight bathed the face’s upper half in shining radiance; the lower half was shadowed in utter blackness. A glint of blue danced across eyes the color of moonstones. Masked Lord, Kâras asked. Is it you? A feminine laugh rustled the mask. Masked … Lady? he ventured. The chuckle deepened, became male. Hands moved to the blackness that was the deity’s mask. Fingers gripped its edges. Kâras tensed, and felt the eager anticipation of the awareness that was Valdar. The mask lifted. Kâras wept. So did Valdar—and as he did, Kâras saw into the other Nightshadow’s heart. The emotions that had prompted their tears were as different as moonlight from shadow.

“Masked Lord,” Kâras prayed. “Is it your will the breach be opened? Have you—” He hesitated, then forced himself to say it. “Have you allied yourself with the Ancient One?” This time, the god answered. Not in words, but in the distant peal of a hunting horn. That alone wouldn’t have convinced Kâras; it might have been one of the priestesses, signaling the others. But as the horn sounded, a rectangle of darkness with two eyeholes appeared in the air a short distance away, within the tunnel leading to the ruined temple. The bottom of this “mask” fluttered, as if the mouth behind it were lending its breath to the hunting horn’s peal. Dots of angry red blazed where the eyes would have been. That decided it. Kâras wouldn’t run. He’d fight.

===

My argument about The Masked Lady is this: Despite taking a lot of Eilistraee's visage and Churches Iconograpy, When you look at how The Masked Lady behaves in practice I would argue that this isn't actually strictly Eilistraee. The Masked Lady feels like a new character that is both Vhaeraun and Eilistraee..... but also Neither Vhaeraun and Eilistraee. In that strictly esoteric kind of way, by merging their aspects together they've created a new god made of their parts.

And on one hand, you can read some of this as Eilistraee Masquerading as her brother to try and get his church to work with hers, but on an authorial level? I don't know if that was the intent. For one, I don't actually think Eilistraee is good at being manipulative, she's too well intentioned. She'd have fallen apart under the weight of that lie.

Granted, I do think with both of them being in there Eilistraee is more "in control." Vhaeraun is absolutely ""Dead"" in at least some ways. The piece he puts down representing himself is destroyed in the Sava game, Eilistraee ends up with his mask, and Lolth is able to show off his corpse in the astral plane.

But even all of that aside, I'm tapping in both Ed Greenwood's thoughts for this and something from Faiths & Avatars.

(I'm going to copy this summary from the FR wiki page on dead powers because, as always, it's quite good at summarization. But as always, I've double checked Faiths & Avatars to be sure)

Sometimes, the memory and personality of a deity was separated from their power and true form at the moment of their death, typically by the interaction of the magical turbulence of their death with the magic of a powerful relic or artifact into the same area. In such cases, the deity remained awake but imprisoned, in a sense, though vastly uncomfortable with their much-reduced state.

As such, I think during The Masked Lady era, three things were true simultaneously.

There was a part of Vhaeraun that was dead. That's the part of him on the astral plane. And even that part of him seemed to hold mild consciousness. But I also think a part of him was trapped by Mystra in a dream, and another part of him existed simultaneously within his sister creating a new entity as The Masked Lady, in the same way that Eilistraee seemed to both exist as herself AND The Masked Lady separate from herself as she's playing the Sava game. Because these are gods. Their existence does not exist in singularity.

But. Why does this matter to Vhaeraun and Eilistraee's relationship. Why do I think this is an important talking point for them.

Because I think the fact that they exist together implies a level of respect and understanding towards one another. This is not how this would have happened if they truly hated one another. What happened with Vhaeraun and Eilistraee seems closer to what happened with Zandilar the Dancer and Bast (Absorbed and became Sharess) or (Sehanine Moonbow, Aerdrie Faenya, and Hanali Celanil) > (Came together to become Angharradh and notedly, can separate to spent time apart as times have changed.)

This feels like. Notedly different, compared to what happened with (for example) Ulutiu and Auril, where he got entirely subsumed by her.

For a moment, they were one god. And they could have only synergized as one if they understood eachothers intentions well enough to agree to be one.

It's worth noting before I get into this section. Both the idea that Vhaeraun didn't actually die and was put in ⋆ ˚｡⋆⊹❇Mystra's Dream Prison <3 ❇⊹⋆ ˚｡⋆ and that upon returning to life he started working with Eilistraee are not actually ""canon"" to 5e. They are, like many things, Ed Green-ism's that a lot of people (myself included, because I do actually think he's an incredibly creative person with good character building ideas) take as canon. Despite taking it as canon, I think it's worth mentioning that there is no official source material to pull from for these ideas, because unlike the masked lady, these two ideas exist as concepts to be built off of rather than media to be examined.

We can only logic and reason what happened between them and how it's changed their relationship using everything else we have.

Posted from the FR wiki:

"The Grand History of the Realms explicitly says that Vhaeraun's assassination attempt failed and Eilistraee killed him. However, Ed Greenwood suggests that Eilistraee didn't actually kill her brother. The Dark Maiden defeated Vhaeraun with the indirect help of her ally Mystra, as the Weave frustrated the Masked Lord's magic while enhancing Eilistraee's. The goddess temporarily took her brother's portfolio, and trapped his sentience in the Weave, where it was enfolded in a dream by Mystra. The Lady of Mysteries did this to ensure that the two drow siblings would survive the cataclysm that she knew was coming—the Spellplague—in which she would be "killed" to renew the Weave and magic would go wild. After Mystra and the Weave were completely restored in 1487 DR, the goddess of magic could finally give Eilistraee her own lost power and do the same with Vhaeraun, after having awakened him from his dream."

It was one of Ed Greenwood's ideas to have the two deities reach a reciprocal understanding, and to make the personal enmity between them was no more. More to read here

So here's my take on this situation.

I think a lot of people like to paint the "Mystra and Eilistraee put Vhaeraun in Dream Prison" Situation in a very limited light. In the same way Eilistraee tends to get romanticized as a wholly good and Vhaeraun demonized as a firm evil, it tends to get boiled down to the idea that Mystra and Eilistraee managed to convince him to be "Less Evil."

But, I don't know. To accept the Mystra/Eilistraee tag team as something wholly good, you have to also accept the sentiment of Vhaeraun as someone who is evil and needed "fixed," and I don't think that's ever been the case. As I think my multitude of arguments have implied, I have never been under the impression he's an actual evil.

As such, it's always felt little bitter-sweet to me. I think it's more impactful if they just managed to rub off on eachother due to their time spent together as one. I think it was especially a turning point for Eilistraee, given how many changes came to the structure of her church as a result of that merger. She understands why he uses the tactics he does, she understands that what he's doing is coming from a place of (what I would argue) is sincere love for the drow as a whole, and I think she got a little bit more of a nuanced understanding of the uhh Sexism. I also like to think she understood his experiences more, and that his love doesn't come through the same lens as hers.

Likewise, I think Vhaeraun came out of that understanding that he was stretching himself thin. I think that he learned that he NEEDS to be able to rely on others, he NEEDS to start trusting the outside world more. While he's more accepting of drow as they are now, I think his goal has always been to put them back in power to the extent that they were when he had worship from the Ilythiiri. But, thats not the world they live in anymore. Even if he did pull all the drow from the underdark, they could not and would not manage to be that. I think he comes out of The Masked Lady era understanding that to get the drow away from his mother and to coexist is stability in itself. They don't need to rule to be powerful, they just need to coexist.

You know. It's choosing to forgive. We can't change what we were, but we can start this relationship over and grow something new from it. And sometimes, that might be enough.

....

And ALSO I think they had to start getting along, because it really didn't take their churches THAT long to start meshing together when they fused as the masked lady.

At the word “died,” the priestess glanced down at the male. The cleric didn’t look good; his eyes had fully rolled back in his head and his skin was turning gray. Halisstra reached out and lifted the priestess’s chin, forcing her to look away. “It’s only a weak venom,” she lied. “You have plenty of time to heal him. Plenty of time, still.” “Yes,” the priestess repeated softly. “Plenty of time.” Her eyes reminded Halisstra of another priestess who’d succumbed to Halisstra’s bae’qeshel magic, years ago. Seyll had stared just as trustingly into Halisstra’s eyes a heartbeat before Halisstra plunged a sword into her. And yet Seyll had told Halisstra, as she lay dying, that no one was beyond redemption—not even Halisstra. She’d been wrong. This priestess had a wide mouth and creases at the sides of her eyes that could only have come from frequent laughter. The frown of confusion looked out of place on her forehead. The slight bulge of her stomach hinted she might be carrying a child. Halisstra hated her.

Come on guys, The Masked Lady hadn't even existed for half a decade and there was already pregnancies. We don't know what their churches are like 100+ years out. But, for as much as Ed emphasizes the infighting of the churches (And I have no doubt in my heart there ARE factions who refuse to mesh, that's canon to the text) we are inevitably met with 1-2 generations where the combined churches are all that they knew. Vhaeraun and Eilistraee had to work together, because I think as much as they're their own people with thoughts and opinions and experiences, they are also a reflection of their worshipers.

I think, to summarize what I think Vhaeraun and Eilistraee's relationship is like in a few paragraphs

With the way their relationships are described, I think Eilistraee was the golden child and Vhaeraun was the scrapegoat in the earlier parts of their childhood. They become reflections of the parent that favors them, because those were the parents that acted as their main influence. Eilistraee saw Vhaeraun as a reflection of her mothers evil, and Vhaeraun saw Eilistraee as undeserving of the favoritism their father gave her.

This view of eachother was cemented when she followed him to Toril. She saw him and his power as an evil and bloodstain, unhelped when he exiled her (probably out of spite and due to the grudge he had as a result of the earlier years). As such, she worked to undermine the influence he had. And when that allowed their mother and Ghaunadaur to take hold, it was the same kind of evil to her.

Her enabling them to take that power worsened the grudge Vhaeraun had of her, because he knows he isn't the same kind of evil as Lolth or Ghaunadaur, and them having that power worsened things for everyone.

This grudge between them kept itself in the legacy of their churches, all the way until The Masked Lady Era. The Masked Lady era was one where they actually managed to come together for a similar goal. It was the first time they were truly about to understand eachothers motivations, experiences, and perspectives, and the first time that divide between them and their communities truly lessened.

And when they finally came out...? I mean. That's going to change anyone. I think not only their relationship changed, but they sort of managed to change eachother a little.

I don't know. I think their relationship is complicated and messy and such a product of their parents influence on them. There is no forgiving Lolth, and there really shouldn't be forgiving Corellon (though, dnd might disagree with me on that.) But I think theirs one that could eventually heal. Out of all of the relationships in the Dark Seladrine, theirs feels the closest to being one that can be refounded on equal ground and with respect towards one another, especially as drow return to the surface and find more acceptance (even outside of their communities.) Because they are to me, two sides of the same coin.

#Eilistraee #vhaeraun #Character Analysis #Anyway. As an aside #I'm totally willing to completely destroy what I think their dynamic actually is for the sake a good comic bit #Sometimes its funny when vhaeraun gets kicked #I think Vhaeraun does care a little about her even when he's got a thousands year old grudge against her #And I don't think anyone is arguing that Eilistraee doesn't care about Vhaeraun #Shes Saddened by his Selfishness. and I think scared of him #But true hate... nngh.

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decemberblue · 9 months ago

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There's a little greenhouse abandoned on the hill, that it reigns on the valley... From where you can even see the city below... I always dream of taking refuge there, while it rains. The sound of the thunderstorm on the roof, maybe a good soundtrack like the one from Twilight saga... It is a lovely atmosphere.

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wings-of-fire-confessions · 6 months ago

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Cannot believe we witnessed an entire saga about someone most of us probably don't even know the name of all because people saw art of Sora with period cramps and decided to view it in the worst faith they possibly could. We really had an entire months long argument about the morality of drawing a dragon having period cramps, talking about how the original artist was projecting their genuine health issues onto Sora, and how they left the internet because people wouldn't stop accusing them of having a fetish even after they explained themself. Then we find out they turned out to be a shitty person for other reasons. All over the wings of fire confessions tumblr. Crazy

#wof confessions #wings of fire confessions #wof #wings of fire #wof drama #wings of fire drama #drama

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wsancho · 5 months ago

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What culture or region is Figaro?

In trying to define the culture of the nation of Figaro, I’ve decided to bring up the clues I got and try to put them together into something cohesive enough to resemble a culture/region of our world. The FF6 devs took inspiration from our world but doesn’t seem like they tried to make definitive references to the real world, other than some version of Imperial Japan (Doma) that didn’t ally with Nazi Germany (Vector).

As thorough as Soraya Saga was with her characters’ backstories, Figaro as a nation is not easy to pin down, but she did leave some clues, so I took that shit and ran with it 😌

The Figaro name

I’ve seen the fandom making the twins to be Italian. I don’t know if it’s solely because of the opera by Rossini (composed by an Italian based on a play by a French about a character from Spain).

I may have overlooked the Italian stereotypes that others found, but Japan gives its own spin to stereotypes, and their Italian stereotype is different. Based on the dynamic the countries had in times of war, the Japanese tend to stereotype Italians as Americans stereotype the French (it ain’t flattering). Go check Hetalia for the flawless, irrefutable wisdom on that 🧐

Searching the name “Figaro”, the Internet threw up a few hypothetical origins:

According to venere, “Figaro” emerges from the Latin “ficus” meaning “fig tree”.

According to houseofnames, it’s Spanish for “fig tree” (no, it ain’t 🤨) and it was first found in Galicia, Spain.

The most widely spread theories say it’s of literary origin:

According to babynamesbase, Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni based his Harlequin character, from The Servant of Two Masters, on a real-life barber named Figaro (I didn’t find any other sources supporting this idea, plus the origin here would not be literary, but it says the play is believed to have made the name popular, even though the name is not in the play 🤨).

According to behindthename, French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais named the hero of his trilogy “Figaro” based on the French phrase “fils Caron” meaning “son of Caron”. Later the word “figaro” would acquire the meaning “barber” based on the character's profession (The character is The Barber of Seville, so I infer that the name was supposed to be Spanish).

In order of relevance of these questionable theories, the name “Figaro” could be Spanish, French or Italian. The word means “barber” in all three modern languages.

Blond, blue-eyed desert dwellers

In Soraya Saga’s doujin, The Marriage of Figaro (homonym to Caron’s second play of the Figaro trilogy), she included side-characters with French, Italian, Anglo and Germanic names. The naming conventions are all over the place, as in the rest of FF6 🥲

I saw a couple of pages of the doujin that a generous soul shared on twitter, but they’re no longer available. I remember seeing the twins in European-looking gowns and hanging out in a European-looking palace.

The nation of Figaro originates in the desert (South Figaro is created later) and may be comparable to desert regions in our world that were heavily influenced by their European neighbors. The Sahara, as Figaro, is the largest hot desert in the world; plus it received influence from the Italian, French and Spanish. Works for me 😌

Some fanarts make Figaro castle resemble the architecture and aesthetics of Morocco and Algeria, so I looked to see if I could shoehorn in find a connection. The next easy thing I wanted to find was blond hair and blue eyes. These features are easy to find in Spain, France and Italy (not the majority, but fairly common), but I thought they’d be difficult to find in the Sahara, especially because blond hair and blue eyes are recessive.

Searching for that specific look led me to the Berbers (derogatory term) or Amazigh(singular) / Imazighen(plural), as they identify themselves. They are indigenous of North Africa since before the Sahara became known by that name (before arabization). Many Imazighen are white and blond and have blue eyes, and they are not late settlers as I first thought; their origin is ancient and still unresolved, but they are believed to be proto-Celts. Anyway, this checks out 👌🏼

Today, they mostly concentrate in Morocco and Algeria. The history of this region is a beyond deep rabbit hole that was not preserved in written form 🥲 They’ve been besieged, subdued, and culturally obliterated. Currently they still fight to affirm their culture despite –or adjacent to– the ongoing arabization and the hijacking of their traditions by national governments.

Figaro architecture

Given that Figaro has technological advancement deeply rooted in its culture, I wanted to check if the Imazighen pioneered technology at some point.

They had periods of growth, expansion and dominance; particularly flourishing in medieval Spain. The Spanish called them “Moors”, again using the term very loosely to refer to all peoples of Northwest Africa, so I went to check on that. Here the history gets very muddy with kingdoms, alliances, intermarriages and subjugation. The generalizations of the Moors couldn’t be more subjective depicting them as whites, browns, blacks, Muslim, Christian, Pagan, warriors, or pacifists; depending on who’s giving the account (the article in Spanish is way more complicated 😩). Many of the conquerors known as “Moors” were arabized Imazighen (blond, blue-eyed Muslims from Northwest Africa), but as time and influences passed, the term was applied to pretty much anyone and everyone who invaded Spain.

There are a bunch of notable Moors with different intellectual achievements, but I’m particularly drawn to their architecture.

The kingdom of Figaro is most notable for its moving castle, so I searched for some castles 🤩 All very beautiful, magnificent and ingeniously designed. But check out the Alcázar of Segovia 👀

Tower where the Figaro twins decided their fate with a coin toss of John II of Castile.

Throne room where the twins reminisced of the night when their father died.

Royal Chamber where the High Priestess reminisces about Sabin.

In the official website they have Edgar’s autocrossbow the crossbow of Charles V.

Figaro culture

Soraya Saga specified traditions and cultural aspects of Figaro that I don’t expect to find in any particular region of our world. But the Amazigh culture has a few aspects that I find fitting for the Figaro twins.

The Amazigh ethnic flag represents the culture. The colors blue, green and yellow represent the sea, the mountains, and the desert, respectively; and the red symbol means freedom.

Blue and yellow are sacred colors in Figaro, representing water and sand. I can’t overlook the coincidence of mountain and freedom being such sacred things to Sabin, and by extension, to Edgar… And the colors of the Figaro guards 👀

Lastly, I had to go back to meaning of the name.

I take for granted that Saga took inspiration from The Barber of Seville, so the name means clever, cunning and resourceful; very Edgar 😌By coincidence I found that it also means “fig tree” and it just so happens that Buddha meditated under one of those until achieving enlightenment; very Sabin ☺️🙏🏼

To summarize, I hc Figaro desert to be the Sahara, the Figaro brothers to be Imazighen, ancient Figaroan language to be Tamazight, and South Figaro could very well be Spain 🙃

#ffvi #ff6 #final fantasy vi #final fantasy 6 #headcanon #fan theories #edgar roni figaro #sabin rene figaro

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woahrarepairsagemare · 8 months ago

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A STEVE SAGA AU - INTERNET STAR ! ____________________

in this au , different steves get to be internet stars ! they can have huge fanbases that hang onto every word they say ^^ They get halos to represent that they're a star , with a twist ! these halos can have spikes on them . The spikes reference just how much influence a star has over the fanbase ! more spikes equals more influence , the sharper the spikes the more harmful this influence is !

____________________

THE CLASSES -

Fans | Haters | Stars | Celebrities | Managers

____________________

INFO -

FANS -

Fans are the base of all the stars you see ! They do not hold the most power in the ranks but without them , the system would not exist ! They help in boosting the popularity of stars , celebrities , managers , you name it ! They get a set of items that allow them to boost the reputation and popularity of stars , ranging between potions , blades and even sweet treats ^_^ They also have some varieties ! to put it short , there are:

stalker fans- These fans are obsessed with the stars they follow , angering them can result in a career going down hill ! They can change their class to be a hater

normal fans- These fans are , just normal ! Angering them isn't a good decision , but they'll forgive their stars eventually !

hyperfixated fans- These are fans that will love a star's content and create lots of fanart and the likes for them ^^

+ -----------------------------------

HATERS -

haters are the worst ! they will be horrible to any stars that do not please them , they are slightly more powerful that fans in terms of levels and sadly , without them the system would never exist ! they have items with them that help ruin a star's reputation and like fans , they too have a few varieties ^^ This includes:

irrational haters- They are , like I said , the worst . They will do anything they can to make a star's career miserable for no reason ! They will look out for any chance they can to shame a star , even if it had happened years ago and the star has been forgiven for it ~

justified haters-Their hate is actually justified and understandable , so long as they're respectful then they're not too bad ! Just , the star shouldn't be an actual bad person .

critics-I don't think I need to explain , they aren't exactly haters but fall under them .

x ---------------------------------------------------

STARS

They are internet sensations ! They get to have fanbases ! ... and haters , both of which give them a boost and make them somewhere in the middle of the power rank ^^ Many of them hold halos ! As I mentioned , they have spikes on those halos ^^ Depending on their influence , they can have either many or few spikes ! Depending on how harmful that influence is the spikes can also be very sharp or very dull . A part of their halos have a space without spikes which they can use to hold the halo and transform it into a weapon ! This weapon can be used to harm others ( metaphor for damaging their reputation ) or even kill them ! There are also varieties of stars , namely:

Vloggers-This type of star makes videos of themselves and how they live their life !

Artists- This type of star makes art and the processes behind it , they also give out helpful art tips !

Animators- This type of star makes art , and also animates it !

Musician- This star makes music ! Several genres exist but they all end up under musician !

documentarian- This star makes documentaries !

Gameplayist-This star makes gameplays !

*---------------------------------------------------

CELEBRITIES -

They are amongst the best , no seriously , have you seen their fanbase and their base of haters ?! They're huge ! They automatically get really spiky halos with insane sharpness , plus the weapons get extra deadly ! They have the same types as the stars but more extravagant , so I won't dive into that , but they have weapon classes like the stars do !

Whip- Yeouch ! if a celebrity uses this on someone , it immediately kills them and drives them off of the internet ! Easily the deadliest ! It's rare to find one of these !

Gun- Critical ! A quick kill ! The other person's reputation is now over ! It might be slow but it'll be painful , second most powerful in the series ! These are rare as well

Sword- Oh no ! A way to prolong someone's suffering before they eventually leave the internet ? what a monster ! the third most powerful in this series , an uncommon

Grenade-Quite the bomb shell , no ? This is a quick one but it's common , sorry !

A bow- Yeesh ! They won't see that coming ! But they might , cause that's a common , babes !

Oh an a bonus for those celebrities that are more popular than the others , they get their own customized weapons ! awesome , right ?!

? ---------------------------------------------------

MANAGERS-

Oh boy , they're at the top of the hierarchy ! Jesus cheesus , they can ruin your reputation with a single message , no weapon needed ! But if you happen to be a star or celebrity managed by them , they are all you need . There are no classes or divisions , everyone that's a manager has no face nor any defining features on social media ! Quite the enigma .

____________________

Don't tell me you thought that was it ?

Don't you wanna know the characters ?

then stay on with me won't you , yeah ?

____________________

THE MAIN PROTAGONISTS !

1. Reverse :-

Type and Class: A musician star ! specifically a rockstar !

Halo: Not very sharp ! medium-many spikes

items: A guitar , microphone and a spiked scene-type bracelet

Info: Reverse is a happy go lucky type of star who loves making rock music ! He is friends with Rainbow and Dark and makes music not for his fans , but for himself ! The poor chap normally has some self esteem issues but is always confident when around his friends ^^

Stats:

STRESS: [ 23 / 100 ]

CONFIDENCE: [ 56 / 100 ]

DEADLY ?: NOT LIKELY .

2 . Rainbow :-

Type and Class: Retired . No one is sure of what he used to make for content .

Halo: Since he retired , his halo is invisible , however , it is insanely sharp and the spikes literally cover it completely .

Items: A photo album .

Info: not much is known about him or his content as he has wiped all traces of his existence from the internet and goes by an pseudonym as a fan . How ever , his fanbase is still very active and have made countless archives of him . Rainbow is an apathetic and generally monotone guy but shows emotion when he feels the need to , he is friends with many people , Reverse amongst them . He doesn't seem to struggle but clearly hates attention that is focused on him .

Stats:

STRESS: [ 100 / 100 }

CONFIDENCE: [ N / A }

DEADLY ?: [ N / A ]

THE SIDE CHARACTERS !

1. Sage :-

Class and type: Hyperfixated Fan

Halo: None , he's a fan , what did you expect ?

Items: A green potion bottle , envelope ( fanmail written by him ) and a sharpening blade

Info: Sage is a sweet little guy who loves supporting small streamers ! He shares positive relationships with both Reverse and Rainbow , alongside Sanguine , his best friend ! He can help new streamers or stars by boosting them with his potion , his fanmail and also sharpen the spikes on their halo using his blade ! He is really polite and a big fan of Nightmare ^^

Stas:

SANITY: { 83 / 100 ]

CONFIDENCE: [ 65 / 100 }

DEADLY ? : [ NO . ]

2. Sanguine :-

Class and type: Justified Hater

Halo: Again , none .

Items: A dulling blade , a red potion bottle .

Info: Yeesh ! Sanguine 's hate is unadulterated and heated , for good reasons too ! He may seem rowdy and rough but inside he is the most moral person you'll meet ! He'll show nothing but empathy ! He shares positive relations with Sage . If a star is really .. urgh ! Then he can use his dulling blade to dull their spikes , rendering their influence useless ! The red potion is used to weaken a star's influence !

stats:

SANITY: [ 70 / 100 ]

CONFIDENCE: [ 70 / 100 ]

DEADLY ? : [ YES . ]

____________________

THE MAIN ANTAGONISTS .

oh boy .

1 . Nightmare :-

Class and Type: A Celebrity known for his fashion .

Weapon Class: A whip .

Halo: His halo is literally just spikes , nothing else , also they're sharper than a pencil made of tungsten .

Items: A phone , a cutting blade .

Info: Perhaps one of the most famous celebrities you'll see on the internet ! Beloved of all , and hated by all . He does not have any known relations with anyone . He can use his phone to boost his own reputation , his cutting blade to destroy the halos of stars he hates , and his whip to completely drive them off of the internet . He probably likes ruining a fan's day for fun .

Stats:

STRESS: [ 89 / 100 ]

CONFIDENCE: [ 93 / 100 ]

DEADLY ? : [ VERY ]

2 . Dark :-

Class and Type: A documentarian star .

Halo: Not many spikes , but those spikes that are on it are very sharp .

Items: A folder filled with files and a camera .

Info: As a star that makes really interesting documentaries , Dark is really good at keep track of events on the internet and what not ! He shares a friendship with Reverse and a close platonic bond with Nightmare . He can use his folder to bring up information about any stars or any of the horrible things they've done in the past to add a permanent stain to their reputation . He can use the camera to keep a permanent record of another star's actions as blackmail .

Stats:

STRESS: [ 50 / 100 ]

CONFIDENCE: [ 90 / 100 ]

DEADLY ? : [ MOST LIKELY . ]

____________________