#aurelius dragalia lost

[bestest-brackets]

Round 2: Block B

Who is your Favorite Ambiguously Dead Friend?

Reblog to support your favorite!

[satsuha]

individual images for my dragalia tribute video here!

[valeriefauxnom]

Of all the baffling tiny details that the Dragalia art team kept consistent, I always loved how they kept the same clothes between Aurelius here when holding baby Leonidas:

Look at that smug little smile even as a baby

...And the chapter 20 art here when he was holding baby Euden:

Same golden decorations and everything! I am 99.99% sure someone has had to have made this joke already, but you could say that it was his 'birthday (of his child) suit' since that's the only time we see Aurelius in such clothes!

I also am laughing at the thought of Aurelius carting his deathly sick little newborn all across the continent in the same fancy suits he seems to favor, because how else is he wearing this right here??? This is Audric (with Aurelius' memories) seemingly reminiscing on the first time Aurelius held Euden and how all his internal angst about what he'd just done to get a baby boy back vanished. And since he hasn't exactly had the time to change his wardrobe since fleeing Alberia, well...

In any case, this is just a tiny tiny little thing, but I supposed I'd throw it out for the 6.5 'birthday' of Dragalia!

[dragalialife]

#407: Postal Panic

[ailheim-art]

Compilation of my Dragalia Twitter doodles from this month.

[willofwinnie]

This is an artwork based on chapter 15/4-6 where Euden's life shatters in front of his eyes. This has been a piece that has taken several hours and has been extremely nerve-racking but certainly worth it!

All the family Euden knew and grew up with are depicted, Leonidas, Phares, Chelle, Valyx, Emile, Zethia, and King Aurelius. But after a certain revelation, Euden's connections with them will be forever changed (at least what it would feel like in the moment. Emotions were definitely running high!).

Enjoy!

[pluralmedia]

the game's post-eos now so you'll have to look at old videos and the wiki or go to the trouble of connecting to a fan server, but from dragalia lost:

laxi and mascula (fantasy saving a life by adding one to the other's body)

aurelius and zodiark, alberius and cthonius (see below)

aeleen (realistic plurality with frustrating writing)

lathna and nyarlathotep (girl who's also an eldritch being. it's weird, but definitely plural)

depending on how you look at it, anyone with a dragonpact? this one's messy though, as sort of a specific repeatable temporary fusion. aurelius/zodiark and alberius/cthonius come from this fusion becoming permanent.

additionally, there's malevolent possession style plurality with morsayati and his various hosts during the story.

laxi & mascula and Lathna & nyarlathotep have been added

The dragon&human pairs do not seem to say clearly if its a fusion or a multiple people in one body situation or what very well and neither the wikis we have found nor tv tropes are really helping.

Aeleen we are also having trouble finding stuff for.

They will live in the maybe section for now.

Thanks!

[halidom-confessions]

That new wyrmprint of Zodiark with both Aurelius and Euden is making me emo

[incorrectdragalialost]

Leonidas: Father why does Gatov call you babygirl

Aurelius: How about we stop talking for a while

[bestest-brackets]

Block B: Round 1

Who is your favorite Ambiguously Dead Friend?

Please reblog to help your favorite out!

[mxdotpng]

just thinking. the one constant in every single world really is that euden was loved. he may turn evil, or start war, or get possessed, or even die before all that can happen. his friends could betray him, he could betray them, he may not even have any in the first place. his siblings could be on his side or against him. but in every single world he is still loved. loved enough for a selfish and grieving father to try and make sure he lived, or to go back through time and make sure there is one world where he survives. that is the one thing that remains the same.

[valeriefauxnom]

Royal Matchmaking...

...Is and was a very serious thing in the real world, and even generally fictional ones. It makes sense: if you're investing real, lasting political power into a singular bloodline, you wanna be sure that that blood stays locked down and only gets out when you intentionally let it as much as possible.

This is a philosophy that, while not explicitly addressed, seems to be carried to the Alberian royal family. Nobility, at least, explicitly are in this boat, per Ranzal.

But of Alberia's 7 'feasible' heirs, -subtracting Beren and Nedrick, -to this generation, only one was known to be set up in an arrange marriage (Chelle, of course). Moreover, this was a marriage within the country to a regional noble, made to help the royal family exert more influence in their distant lands that have distaste against them from NoName Previous King. Makes sense. Gotta throw a bone to the local nobles every once in a while, too, maybe help keep them wanting to be in the family's good graces to possibly get an in, sometime in the future.

But it's odd that that's where this ends. Leonidas has made it to late twenties at least without even a whiff of hint about him seeking, having, or otherwise involved in royal matchmaking, which is usually a priority for the expectant heir. Let's just say he's being exceedingly cautious and picky, since, again, expectant heir.

Then why wasn't the likes of Euden thrown to the Royal Dating Market? He's prime fodder as the seventh son. So would Emile and Zethia, but one's so abrasive that I very well could see Aurelius just kinda setting that aside since he's not going to be winning anything, much less other nations' hands and the other is out of the throne running and additionally likely constrained by religious vows.

But Euden's a nice lad, a good boy eager to serve the interests of his father and country, and seems so devoted to royal standards of appropriate affection and behavior that his best idea to sell the idea he's newly married is to hold hands.

No, that's not hyperbole:

Now, as much as me and my friend like to joke that Aurelius might have indeed tried, only to discover that Euden is just so aroace that he somehow offputs everyone by being so platonically friendly he decided to give up the effort, much as the royal family seems to struggle in its 300 history to find a mate or be interested... What's the actual case?

There's a few interesting arguments I could make. First, for Euden specifically, that Aurelius was worried that somehow Euden didn't truly possess dragonblood from his 'odd' creation. Dragonblood is going to be a major drive for other nobility/royalty for why Alberia's royals would be so compelling (on top of the whole 'they're the continental power' thing). As such, if someone partnered with Euden, eager to get ahold of sweet sweet dragonblood, and any offspring failed to produce dragonblood (since we know of at least some things that can test it, like the book and the one thing in the lawyer event that they needed Euden's blood for, Delphi's story, etc etc).... There would likely be a lot of angry people at Alberia. They could blab to other nations about Alberia swindling them of their 'dues' for why they agreed, and now nobody wants to risk getting a 'dud' in a partnership.

Then again, Aurelius doesn't seem wholly afraid of Euden potentially lacking dragonblood. While he's let Euden go without seeking a pact for a while, he's also not afraid to send him out on a critical mission to pact. You could argue that this gives credit to the fear that he didn't have it if he only ordered him in concerning straits, but it goes both ways. In the end, I'd say it's a moot point.

Instead, I'd like to focus on another potential, more broad argument for why the family is so stingy with all that romance drama that usually ensues in royal families: their dragonblood, again.

Sure, it makes them a very compelling option in the Royal Dating Market... but not necessarily to Alberia's own interests. Dragonblood gives the royal family a very tangible safety wall around their nation, a constant threat that there is at least one dragon at all times that is probably ready to wreck house (and since we've had recorded dragons who can destroy kingdoms on their OWN, this might be similar to possessing the first living nuke) plus corresponding royalty that are ready to also kick butt. Alberia is an explicitly martial place that even Aurelius thinks that they rely on it too much, a thing reflected in much of its scions, even the likes of Phares, being strongly pushed to pick up weaponry and master it.

Oh yeah, and that royal family can effectively double the number of dragons in combat if they choose to shapeshift. Between the active threat, and the passive security it brings the family to nearly always have a defensive option if needed, it's no wonder that they're as secure a position.

How strong? Well, I'd like to stress that they have an established navy, despite its capital and known important cities not being near the oceans, its lands bountiful of food and material, and seemingly few major waterways even inland. I tried guestimating their territory, and, well...

Mind you, this is a conservative guess. Saint Lotier is explicitly a city-state, so it likely doesn't have too much sway on much outside the immediate territory of its city. We never really hear of the snowlands and sandy area to the east, so I just used the assumption that they might not be Alberian. They still very well could be. That's still the vast majority of a continent being eaten by a single nation. Even after splitting into three pieces (after Leonidas reforms Alberia in Valkaheim), note that no other nations tried to launch invasions to eat up the probably disorderly and weaker continental power.

...So why would they want to pass that power, security, and threat onto another nation? Sure, they might gain a nifty trade deal out of it in the short run, but next generation or two? Now there's another kingdom that has that special blood, free to seek their own living nukes (not that it stopped historical nations in the past to try without dragonblood to disastrous effect), and start threatening Alberia. Possibilities are endless even aside from direct threats - it siphons regional influence as smaller nations start to kowtow the latest dragon power, reduces Alberia's influence...

And yet the most we see to my immediate recollection is Svenitla start making idle pokes at trying to get Euden for the dragonblood, or further destabilize the region.

In short: even when there's active civil war, Alberia's lands are still scary enough a threat that other nations are scared of taking them head-on and need to further cripple it. You know you made it when that's the case.

But I digress.

Hopefully that made it a bit more understandable why the family might be especially hesitant to hand out their special trick to other nations. There's a very valid reason for why Yurius' father in Dragalia would've been so so upset for losing that golden goose ability as they lose functional dragonblood. And while the risks might be smaller when dealing with the country's own nobility, it's still a source of risks in the future for coups and the like. Ironically, despite being the stronger partner in every aspect, they might as well be terrified of the Royal Dating Market for this unique combination of risks!

So, how do you try to reconcile this very risky Royal Dating Market for the family, this very serious business that they need to triple-check they're making the right choice?

More irony: limiting arranged marriages, that Royal Dating Market, in favor of a return to typical love matches. In an arranged marriage, both parties are walking into it more like a trade or a diplomatic tool. Both are knowingly doing this for reasons other than love, even if they may not hate each other.

But when both parties mutually love the other?

Well, now.

Whatever in-marrying partner is likely to be more loyal/devoted to their partner and the Alberian Royal Family's interests to a lesser degree. It helps keep things in-country by simple proximity, giving those benefits. It helps keep dragonblood on better lock in Alberia and stop that Special Sanguine Stuff from escaping to other nations.

Of course, it's not entirely without risks - it opens the way for your classic seduction plots to the throne, if they can just get to one of the royal family - but no solution is truly perfect, here.

It'd also mesh with Euden's weird mishmash of attitudes regarding marriage. Sure, he's got the aforementioned 'hand holding is for after the marriage' attitude... but he also seems baffled by the concept of marrying someone you don't know:

If there's a cultural norm in the family to really know a person before marrying them, that might point towards this predominantly love-marriage focus.

We can also potentially use Cassandra's framing of Aurelius' marriage as a love match, if we use the 'you finally convinced someone to marry you' line as a silly jab to his ability to attract people. It's not like Alberia would be a hard sell politically, after all.

Half-jokingly, I'd also throw in Chelle's willingness to forego most all subtlety in her chasing Leif. If it's more expected the fam to truly find someone they love and loves them, it stands to reason she wants to get through Leif's thick head to start getting on with more formal courtship.

Hence her willingness in this official promo art to just... blatantly try to feed him in front of several siblings.

(Also royal fam why are you eating what seems to be pie with your hands???)

Leif's also exactly the sort that would probably be green-lit in the fam. His family (noble) has had close ties for several generations, he's fiercely devoted to them... By all accounts, it'd be a strong political move. A safe play.

So Chelle doesn't mind being a bit obvious with her chase because it's just another politically sound move, nothing like the sort of thing that she'd need to keep in the shadows. Heck, this might even make wider social gaps more acceptable to the royal fam, as they could view that commoner families possess much less risk (as they have less resources, defenses, everything, really) than a noble family.

All of this combines to the very weird and slightly funny picture/theory/whatever you want to call this that the Alberian Royal Family might have tricked themselves into marrying for love solely by the virtue of them having almost nothing to truly gain from empowering other nations/nobles with dragonblood. Instead, they use it more as a tool of last resort when it comes to keeping their power in line, and do so preferably with domestic nobles to exert more influence over them.

And now, for our third and final possibility I can think of: there's really really really aroace genes in the blood.

Evidence: Out of the 9 members of the current generation, only three express any actual, even vague romantic interest (Chelle, Emile, with a very vague case of Valyx). Their father also apparently was blind to romance.

Make of these ideas what you will, but no matter what, it's still funny.

[dragalialife]

#411: Contains Spoilers for Chapter 20

[fiannalover]

Aurelius: This is Emile. He plays 15 instruments, has mastered avant-garde painting and sculpted a perfect recreation of the lost bust of Alberius. He's the family failure.

Aurelius: Here is Euden. His plans for the future consist of doing nothing. I'm banking his every move

[xtarart]

With Dragalia lost’s 3.5 year anniversary beginning, Here’s some Euden x Mym fankids to celebrate,

a new pair of royal twins ready to get in to all sorts of misadventures, meet Butterfly and Aurelius!

[claitea]

ch 20 pt 2 spoilers

this specific picture of new audric is going to haunt me for the rest of my life LOOK AT HIM I'M GOING TO BAWL MY EYES OUT

but also baby euden <3