#Archmage (regretfully)

[fidgetspringer-art]

✷ Archmage Tethry Ikos ✷

[fic--writer]

A surprise for Rolan

Tav and Rolan have a complicated relationship. He wants a quiet life, and she still longs for adventure. One day, endless arguments lead Tav to go on a journey. She has been away from the tower for six months, but circumstances force her to visit the tower's master again.

"Oh! Is that you? Of course it's you!" - Rolan slams the door in her face, not wanting to see her again. She had caused him too much pain. He thought he'd been abandoned and now she dares to show up unannounced.

"Please, please open the door. I have something to tell you." - Tav sighed regretfully and crouched down against the closed door. - "Okay, I'll just wait here until you're choking on book dust in your damn office."

Fifteen minutes later, the infernal screaming subsided and the door was ajar.

"Rolan, all I'm asking is that you listen to me. And... I have a surprise for you..."

"Zurgan! Tav, I'm not interested in your handouts. I literally begged you not to leave me, but your stupid adventures were more important to you. More important than me, more important than everything we've built and achieved, more important than our..."

She knew there was no stopping his tirade. She knew he was right, she knew how unfairly she'd hurt him. And so, without further explanation, she threw her baggy cloak to the ground. The buckle of his belt clanked on the floor and the Archmage looked back at the sound.

His face changed in an instant. He saw what he thought was his ex-girlfriend in a very interesting position. She carried the little troglodyte inside her. And he could count too fast in his head to realize that she was carrying HIS troglodyte.

He went over to her and put his hand on her round belly. Why hadn't she told him before? Was she afraid of him, thinking he would reject her? There was a wall of misunderstanding in their relationship, but this...

"That's the surprise, isn't it, Tav?" - Rolan still couldn't take his eyes off her new form.

"So you like it?" - She didn't know what to ask.

"Do i like it? You know, I love my family, unlike ... Oh, shit." - he paused and offered her a chair.

"I want to call her Lora" - Tav announced as she sat down in the chair. - "Just so you know, before she rips my body apart with her horns."

"What?! Tieflings aren't born with horns, they grow them after birth." - Rolan laughed nervously, pouring her tea. He tried to hide his fear behind that laugh, but it would take him some time to get used to the idea of having a daughter. His daughter.

"That's all right, we'll fill in the gaps in your education, ignoramus. But I have to wonder if you're planning to have a baby and leave it here with me, Lia and Cal and go off on your own adventures?"

"I'd like to grow she here, with you in the tower, if you don't mind." - Tav sipped her drink and crossed her arms over her bulging belly.

"You didn't think I'd kick out the mother of my child, did you?"

"I don't even know if you've got someone..."

"Oh, you'd know for sure if you'd written me a one damn letter!" - He burst out again.

A strange noise and fiddling was heard in the hallway. And the Archimage went to investigate.

Outside the door, Lia grabbed him by the collar and huffed:

"I don't care what you had going on before. From now on, I forbid you to hurt her. You hear me, you red-ass bastard?" - she shook him like a mother cat to a careless kitten.

"Ouch, easy!" - he whined.

"Be fucking civil, Daddy." - Cal added, tugging on his tail and shoving him back into the office.

A chilled Rolan went over to Tav and hugged her:

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, for the love of all the gods, I have no idea how hard this has been for you." - His mind was back and he knelt down beside her, pulled up her blouse and kissed her belly. Not because he was afraid of his brother and sister, but because he wanted to do it himself.

And he never again reminded her of that not-so-easy time in their lives.

Inspired by this art.

[tangent101]

I mean, it also depends on what Ludinus shows. Does he show the initial attempt to infiltrate the city? (Was that shown at all? Or is it just the moment the Gods enter the city?) Do we get to see a gnomish woman kicked so hard by a guard that she has broken bones? All for having a "token" of the Gods?

Will they see the destroyed temple to the Gods? Will they see how the Archmages of Aeor have a hatred of the Gods, and strove to kill the Gods? Or will he just show snippets showing the Gods sneaking in and destroying the anti-God defenses and then destroying Aeor once those defenses are gone? Will Ludinus cut-and-paste these elements together to create a visual of Evil Gods Working Together destroying this "grand city of the Age of Arcanum" while hiding the fact Aeor planned on murdering all the Gods?

And honestly... the Gods have a way out. They could reveal everything to their worshipers. They could show fleeing Tengar, and entering into Aeor and seeing how spartan and horrid Aeor was and that they fought to save Aeor and it was one Archmage deciding to burn it all that resulted in one Prime Deity regretfully choosing to send Aeor crashing to the ground.

Some worshipers might be horrified. Others might nod and go "that's legit, they were justified." And people who were anti-God at first might rethink because... these Gods were refugees who helped form life as Exandrians now know it and gave them magic and then these robber-barons in their flying city were stripping Exandria of food and resources even as the town they took resources from was starving and at risk of invasion by demons... while intending on murdering all of the Gods.

Ironically enough, the truth is the greatest threat to Ludinus because then his newest weapon will be shown to be lies... and if he lied by twisting events in Aeor, what else is he lying about?

a lot of posts right now seem to rely on the idea that what happened in Aeor is common knowledge throughout Exandria, but based on what we know I don't necessarily think that's the case? back in Bassuras, an 18 history check (which would be a very high roll for an "average" person) only got Imogen the names of Age of Arcanum cities and the vaguest of context. in the most recent Cooldown, Matt talked about how most people have a similarly broad understanding of the calamity, and didn't know the reason the gods were warring in the first place.

There are of course specificalists and experts, like Imahara Joe or the professor they met in Yios or many of the high-level clergy of Vasselheim, that likely already know what happened in some amount of detail. And of course, many people's opinions on the gods would not change one way or another upon learning the details. But I think there are a lot more people who don't know the gods decimated an entire city than people realize.

[pitiflame-archived]

❝ Everyone here is ancient. ❞ ( from the twins )

Hotel Transylvania Starters

It was not often that Rommath took his daughters with him for the day in the Spire but on occasion it was nice to have a “Bring your Kids to Work” day. It definitely helped that the apprentices were all smitten with his twins, always raving about how angelic the two were and how they would make such promising mages themselves in the future. Rommath always found it very humorous, knowing full well his children know how to sweet talk anybody into compliance.

Plus partnered with their big puppy faces was always bound for disaster for the poor soul it was directed to. Rommath and Eryis knew that particular ability of theirs firsthand. He would regretfully admit it’s efficiency on him as well so each time he witnessed this happenstance with another person, the Grand Magister immediately pitied and sympathized with them.

Of course it also made these days nice that even the Regent Lord and Ranger-General both had a soft spot for Sima and Feana. Both leaders fawned over the girls and even they were at the mercy of the twins power they evidently had over people. More so with Lor'themar than Halduron since the Ranger-General had babysat for the girls in the past and knew just what mayhem came at the price of those faces.

Yet that didn’t stop Sima and Feana finding new weak points in Brightwing’s armor. One pouty face and the threat of tears later had him quickly melting back into compliance. Upon seeing this display, Rommath couldn’t help the snickering he let loose at Halduron’s resigned expression.

On this day, the triumvirate had expected it to go as any other day had. Boring paperwork, monotonous politics, everything in between that came with leading an entire race of people. Just with the added bonus of Sima and Feana lightening the mood for the most part. At least that’s how Rommath had expected it to go, same as any other time he had brought his daughters along with him.

Upon entering the Spire that morning, he had been surprised to see Aethas Sunreaver and Lady Liadrin had returned from their expedition to Argus. They looked exhausted and battleworn, as if they hadn’t even slept before making their appearance. This was definitely a surprise, nobody had expected their return for weeks yet. But at least their victorious expressions eased everybody’s worries.

As Rommath started to greet the Archmage and Lady, he felt a slight tug on his robes and looked down to see both twins looking looking up at him with confused faces. At the not-too-quietly whispered sentence, Rommath couldn’t hold back a soft chuckle. It would seem the other patrons in the room also heard the comment though most took it in good humor, save for Aethas, who had been the youngest elf in the room aside from the twins, who looked clearly offended and huffed softly to himself.

“Yes, well, that may be the case from your perspectives. This is what you have to look forward to in a few centuries, though. Aging is inevitable so it’s best to cherish your younger years while you can.”

[jiubilant]

the thalmor don't arrive at the college to poke around about it for some time because traveling into stormcloak territory in wartime is in fact somewhat dangerous for them and diplomatically speaking a bad move. but at a party in markarth a year after the winterhold-based thalmor were presumed dead a still-suspicious justiciar ondolemar does manage to corner the current archmage who (after about half an hour of the most vapid wine-drunk prattle imaginable, at which point ondolemar is practically whistling like a kettle) regretfully calls ancano's disappearance "such a shame...he was rather dishy...once he invited me for tea"

i imagine that when ancano and his bureau disappeared the thalmor did take notice but ultimately chalked it up to his incompetence (his assignment to winterhold was a punitive demotion in response to a past fumble) and didn't investigate the matter with great interest. the college's official story as fabricated by the new archmage and the faculty was that ancano and his men had deemed it too dangerous to remain in winterhold once the warfront started creeping farther north and as a result tried to retreat to the aldmeri embassy in haafingar in the middle of winter. the scholars of winterhold advised against it and cited the terrible winter storms as a danger but ancano dismissed the risk and was resolved to make the journey anyway. and it seems that he and his men didn't make it. sad!