#Caster of Shame

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Death Angel - Caster of Shame

[cardinalbiggles]

[dmitriyuriev]

Limbo and their doll

[cheeto-flavoured-pasta]

Okay. So. I'm trying to make an OC playlist and I don't know enough songs that fit him so I'm turning to you guys for song recs. Any ideas for what kind of tunes would fit a guy who drags his guilt-ridden past mistakes like weights around his ankles and has been shunned out of society for it, but instead of wanting people to love him again, he just accepts the idea that he's some sort of monster that should never be seen or interacted with?

.... Is that too specific?

[ladyblueberrymuffin]

[sequentialprophet]

Watching the MJF vs Leo Sparrow match with Max Caster on commentary and the gems so far -

Max: I wanna hug him!

Max: Yeah Leo's great but I love Max!

MJF: People say that I don't like to wrestle too much

Max: People say that, they're wrong!!

MJF: Who wants to see me bash this vegan's nuts in

Max: *moans*

MJF: *repeats*

Max: I DO! I DO! Leo is not my boy! Max is my boy!

Max: He's saying MJF pulled his hair but MJF would never resort to that

Other Commenter: no, he's a straight up guy in that ring

Max: I don't know about *straight* up but...

I need Max Caster to commentate all of MJF's matches from now on.

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

Poor arjuna…needs to be cuddled…kissed…instead he has to go fight caster a third time

[jhessail]

Fan servant Ester. I’d like to think she’d be a 3 star Ruler class, BUT the argument could easily be made for Pretender in that (at least the wiki) says “but someone who deceives even the soul until more power and greater achievements than the real thing remain.“ And supposedly the Ester story isn’t a true story of Persian history and even then her story is about getting the courage to speak up to the king so you could even weave a story of her pretending the courage comes from God and etc.

But honestly that’s just my opinion, and hell, it’s just a fan servant.

[serious2020]

We Must Defend Imane Khelif

Imane Khelif of Algeria celebrates victory against Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary in the Olympic women’s quarterfinal 66kg boxing match on August 3, 2024, in Paris.(Richard Pelham / Getty Images) By Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin https://www.thenation.com/article/society/imane-khelif-olympics-paris-boxing-transphobia Here on the streets of Olympic Paris, people have been protesting numerous…

[dollfat]

all ive thought about for days is respecing ranger wyll, he doesn't need a familiar

[ofglories]

❛  when i wake up, you're the first person i think about.  ❜ [ rulervere to caster arthur! ]

|| Love Confessions starters ; accepting!

"As I hope to always be, fy seren arian anwyl," Arthur responded, brushing his hand through shortened silver hair with a fond smile.

The mage would always and always had loved Bedivere. How could he not when the older man had captured his attention from the very moment they had met, when they were but children? That first meeting in the forest, not far from Merlin's cottage, was a treasured memory for Arthur. Even now if he closed his eyes he could recall how the sunlight had streamed through the leafy canopy, making the dust motes swirl and dance like sparks of light in the air. How it had landed on Bedivere, making his hair shine like the moon, The sight had caught Arthur's eyes, drawing the young mage out of the bushes curiously, like he was a bird drawn to a shiny stone.

How many years had he spent courting the older boy, trying to ensure that Bedivere would fall as in love with Arthur as he had him!

And now here they were, with Arthur gently adjusting his beloved's clothes in the morning. The royal attire suited him, though in the mage's most expert opinion Bedi could make anything look good if he wore it. His love was just that beautiful a man.

"I know that you're always the first person on my mind when I wake, the one always forefront in my thoughts throughout the day. And when I sleep it is to thoughts of you. Perhaps then it is time we sleep in the same bed at night, hm? Not just for pleasure but... sharing a room?"

[comicaurora]

do you have any tips on writing soft magic systems? I only ever see them talked about when people are comparing it to hard magic systems or criticising it, which is a shame because I love systems where magic is just in the background being unimportant, with implied rules that will never be explained

god I wrote up like eight paragraphs of explanation and I was really working out some cool stuff there and then the app glitched and destroyed it all and I'm so upset

Unfortunately this reduces to a previous problem, which is "figure out how Tolkien did it and then do that."

Middle Earth is laden with magic. Hobbits being good at hiding is magic. There's a random throne in the ruins at the end of Fellowship that lets whoever sits in it see literally the entire world, and that's hella magic. Aragorn radiates One True King magic and occasionally heals people with a touch. Galadriel's mirror lets people see any point in time, past or future. Gandalf knows several spells, but most of the time he's doing less granular stuff by making lights or small fires or going all Servant Of The Secret Fire Wielder Of The Flame Of Anor etc etc. Elves are inherently so magical that the words of their language are never forgotten by anyone who hears them, the laws of physics don't apply to them, their havens are magically pleasant and beautiful, and the planet itself is magical for them - flat for the elves, round for everybody else.

The benefit of a soft magic system is that it produces a feeling in the characters and audience that the world is vast, wonderful and unknowable. It's at its best when it can answer why, but not how.

Why did the old empire of men have a throne that let you see the entire world? That makes sense! It's hugely tactically advantageous! HOW did they get the damn thing? No idea, doesn't matter, they clearly made it work somehow because the throne's right there. Why does Galadriel's mirror give you limited, randomized omniscience? Because while it's a useful tool if you can use it, seeing the future is a dicey and weird game, and the future can change if someone knows it's coming. HOW does riverwater in a birdbath do that? No idea.

Soft magic systems start running into difficulties when the writer needs to decide how it can or can't solve a given situation, which is a very common issue in storytelling, a format almost entirely centered on problems and solutions. For hard magic systems with clear parameters on what is and isn't possible, this is comparatively quite easy. The wizard can't magic this problem away because-

They're out of spell slots :(

They don't know a specific spell that can do that specific thing

There's another caster nearby stopping them

The object that lets them do magic isn't working

They need to speak words/do gestures/use materials to cast, and they can't for whatever reason

There's something "antimagic" around stopping them

Etc etc. The possibilities are easy to run through, because the "how" is clearly defined, and can be negated into a "how NOT." If magic uses spell slots, stop the characters using it by taking those slots away. If magic needs a material focus, break or destroy it. This prevents magic from feeling like an unsatisfying "a wizard did it" fix for all difficulties because the wizards can only do specific things under specific circumstances.

Soft magic systems can contrive answers to this too, but it can be a bit tricky to justify, and if it's Too Convenient it can feel like the magic system really just does what the writer needs it to do. When asked "why can't magic solve this problem?" soft magic systems can answer in several ways:

Too tired, sorry :( magic is Taxing and stuff so the caster can tip over whenever's convenient

They're in a Bad Vibes zone that's hindering their ability to cast because soft magic can be impeded by soft problems like "somebody was very mean here once"

That specific magic is tied to a specific location, like a magical elf forest, and doesn't work outside of it because it's intrinsic to the place and can't be replicated

There's another magical being around and their kung-fu is more powerful

These explanations work, but that's conditional on the story not making the audience think the magic SHOULD work in this situation, and this is entirely based on what's been established in the story thus far. If the wizard has been able to fly up until now, parking the gang at the bottom of the cliff and saying "sorry, fly machine broke" feels contrived. But if we've only ever seen other, intrinsically magical beings fly, the audience is unlikely to expect that the party's humble wizard will suddenly bust out a set of feathery wings as a gift from baby jesus himself. On the writing side, it's really a matter of feeling it out and making sure nothing feels too jarring - if the character who's previously displayed a certain specific space of abilities suddenly does something completely unrelated (like going from clairvoyance to slinging fireballs, or from a healing touch to earthbending) that feels inconsistent AND it teaches the audience that this soft magic system is softer than they realized, and can then make it much harder for the writer to then convince them that this caster CAN'T spontaneously manifest a power or gimmick that'll save them. But if the magical characters or objects operate within a specific space - one character that specializes in fire, one object that specializes in remote viewing, one artifact that lets its holder control the winds - then the audience will expect and accept things that fit in those broad, soft categories without speculating too much on the underlying "how" of their mechanics.

But the temptation to explain "how" is very strong for writers, and soft magic systems especially have trouble with this, because soft magic systems start calcifying into fragmentary hard systems when they're forced to explain "how". It locks in a hard-defined axiom that can be logically extrapolated. Because a soft system is not DESIGNED for that kind of internal logic, doing that will usually cause axiomatic collisions as they contradict one another. If a hard system is a crisp, geometric crystalline structure where any tangent line drawn through it will intersect cleanly with other lines in very predictable ways, adding "how"s to a soft magic system is like drawing tangent lines through a bowl of pudding - you're gonna get a lot of intersections in awkward places.

To pull an example out of absolutely nowhere, if a soft system without clear rules establishes something like "this spell can be used to summon an object towards the caster, but it DOES NOT WORK on living things", there are a number of questions that can become relevant:

Who made that spell to have those limitations?

Why can't WE make spells that DON'T have that limitation?

How is the spell defining "living things"? Would it work on a plant or a skeleton or a piercing in someone's body?

Why did you let this character use it on a living thing anyway, joanne?

In a lot of soft systems that try to lock in hard spell parameters, "who made these spells" and "why can't WE make spells" become the first and most obvious axiomatic clash. If magic can be created to do what the caster wants, why and how does that work, and why can't WE do it? This forces the writer to come up with an explanation to solve the clash without letting the protagonists make up whatever spells they want, therefore solving all plot problems forever - sometimes something like "the inventors of spells were intrinsically magical beings, like elves or dragons or whatever, and thus we ordinary scrub mortals can't make new ones." That's a functional explanation, but it reduces to a previous problem again - that this hard-ish magic system was created by someone with access to an unstructured soft system.

In a soft magic system, the only answer to the question "how does this magical thing work" is "because magic." If any other explanation is needed, things rapidly collapse into hard lines and axioms and covering for edge cases. How can elves run on powder snow, shoot targets in the dark and see for hundreds of miles? They're magical. Does that mean they can fly like a balrog or sling fire like gandalf or control weather like saruman maybe can? No, of course not, that's not their kind of magic and we have no reason to expect it from them. They're just magic. Magic means a lot of different things, and in a soft system the audience has to operate based on vibes rather than rules.

This can be difficult to balance. For instance, Star Wars has a soft system in The Force, and if you squint, every single movie and show uses it differently. It's not super disruptive to the audience's immersion because it's never framed like a Hard System with Hard Rules and it almost never pulls something out of COMPLETELY nowhere, but if you look at what it does from movie to movie and then show to show, it expands from "influence the wills of the weak-minded", "seeing the future a little bit" and "force choking" to "general telekinesis" and "limited telepathy" to "FUCKING LIGHTNING FROM THE HANDS MAN" which is a hell of a twist the first time you see it, to some even more buckwild stuff in the two different animated Clone Wars (like Mace Windu fighting an entire droid army Samurai Jack style and using the force to pull every bolt out of one of them at once, or the planet with the living incarnations of the Light and Dark Side) and the explanation never goes further than "The Force is magic, it's in everything, people who are good at The Force can use it to do a buncha stuff." It's not consistent, it doesn't have rules, but the audience accepts that Force users can just kind of do stuff that fits the Vibes of the stuff it's already been shown it can do. And as SOON as they tried to say "The Force is strong in people who have LOTS OF MIDICHLORIANS" everybody hated it, because it gave us a "how" answer to a question nobody wanted to ask and it made this pervasive, wonderous, soft magic system that Surrounds And Binds Us Luminous Beings Are We into "we are space wizards because we contain an above-average number of bugs."

As a chronic worldbuilder myself, I absolutely understand the impulse to explain and overexplain and lock in the Hows and the Whys, but as far as I can figure it, soft magic systems live and die on the writer's ability to restrain themselves from saying "how." The answer is "magic." The rest is just writing the story in such a way that "magic" doesn't become plot-breaking.

[whiteirisif]

"Living with yourself is hard. Living without yourself is even harder."

Demo (release date: when the time is right)

Part One: Memories of the Phoenix

Intro: In this world, magic is split in two, no longer something one individual could wield all on their own. Instead, the art is now divided and shared between those who write spells on enchanted talismans and those who unleash the power. From this discovery, the roles of Casters and Enchanters were born. This brings us to Nanta, the ever-bustling port city near the shores of Fen – known as the sea of stars – that is home to many who seek knowledge rather than fish. Some claim that it's the epicentre not only of trade but also magic across the continent of Yulan, and they're right. Stationed on its hills is the proud Academy of Dives, which houses thousands of children and young adults of all upbringings and social standing, teaching them the art of either enchanting or casting.

You are one of those lucky students - a caster with the highest magical strength across the entire Academy paired with an equally impressive enchanter to write talismans for you. Life handed you the easiest path to glory on a silver platter.

So, what was preventing you from dominating the world at the tender age of fourteen?

Merely the fact that you want none of it.

Features:

Play as a depressed kid in a fantasy world filled with magic. It's not the best place to have mental issues. Either you or the world will have to adapt.

Try to change your bad habits - wake up on time and attend classes like everyone else. You could even show up to write the midterm exam! Or succumb to the endless cycle of running away from your problems. There's no shame in that, only consequences.

Meddle with the life of another student and help them decide their fate. You could even stop an ancient ritual from happening if you're lucky.

Mend or worsen the relationship between you and the enchanter assigned to you. Just how deep does his patience run?

Characters:

Nadir - Enchanter

Nadir is your enchanter and the first-ever friend you made after arriving in the Academy, though you doubt he shares your opinion. He is everything a student should be and everything you are not. Even though you both share a rare gift, only one of you appreciates it, which often leads to arguments between you.

Shuli - Enchanter

Shuli is your beloved roommate. She agreed to stay behind with you in the abandoned dorms, which has made your life easier. Her kindness and patience towards you knows no bounds, and when you squint, you can almost see a shining halo on top of her head. If you hadn't seen her beat up a bunch of thieves with her bare hands, you, too, would be fooled into thinking of her as someone on the weaker side.

Eris - Caster

Eris is called ‘The Darling of the Academy’ due to being everyone's favorite despite being quite the troublemaker. You even heard that so far they never lost in a single popularity contest due to their beautiful doll-like face, but that is pretty much all you know about them. That is, until - all of a sudden - they start randomly approaching you all the time.

Other Characters:

Sol & Leto

Leto and Sol - the inseparable duo with completely opposing personalities. Sol glares at people like she never had a peaceful day in her life - while Leto is a walking cloud full of smiles. People wonder how these two get along so well. You may find the answer to that soon enough.

Kara

Kara is the spirit you bonded with when you were seven. He is the closest thing you have to a family.

Gias

A carefree soul that also happens to be a teacher. Gias is a mysterious person, and you suspect they know more than they let on.

Not recommended for people that don't like:

Slice of life, age progression - or who want to play a touch-averse or a completely blank mc

Credits:

Help with the intro post @unsanctioned-if

[morsking]

there has been a thematic thread linking marisbury's vision for humanity's future to kirschtaria's own desire to elevate humanity and protect the crypters, and morgan's own effort to protect the land of britain that contains the memories she made as aesc alongside the original tam lin and uther. this also reflects in artoria caster's existence post-avalon le fae as a simulacrum of the actual artoria caster that died in the lostbelt, preserved and embodied by artoria avalon so in some way the memory of that girl who remembered only sadness could be embraced by happiness. additionally, meltryllis in SE.RA.PH. breaching time and space to protect fujimaru is also a link in this chain. morgan's summer form, waking up after her spirit origin manifested her memories of being aesc, makes mention of the butterfly's dream: a philosophical thought musing that there is a transient boundary between dreams and reality.

the chinese philosopher chuang tzu once dreamt he was a butterfly, untethered and free to float in the air. he woke up questioning whether he dreamed he was a butterfly, or whether the butterfly was dreaming it was him. reality can feel like a dream, and a dream can feel more real than anything, underscoring how transience is an unavoidable part of the human condition. people will live their dreams and watch them end from the moment they are born to the day they die, and heroic spirits are the same because humanity lives every day chasing its dreams and heroic spirits are those dreams.

but starting with marisbury, we contend with the idea that sometimes, the dreamer does not wish for the dream to end. if dreams are transient because the dreamer must wake, then the only way to preserve the dream is if the dreamer fades away into the dream instead. marisbury seemingly committed suicide to preserve the animusphere grand order. meltryllis burned through the remnants of her existence to protect her memories of her timeline's fujimaru by saving them in their own. kirschtaria, already at death's door, stayed alive only to ensure his ideal and his friends could survive beyond his death, his soul being described as a bird taking flight with caeneus chasing in tow as he dies. morgan sacrificed being aesc so the land of britain could survive, and wiped her own memories of totorot and mash so they wouldn't be erased from existence for being time paradoxes. artoria caster used her entire life force to forge excalibur so the time she treasured could live on with her friends in chaldea as they fought to save proper human history, and themselves, from the rampage of cernunnos's corpse.

on top of all of that, there have been very cryptic visuals associating mash and butterflies since fgo's first opening. "shikisai" had the visual of a butterfly floating in ruins, and "yakudou" has a shot of mash's gaze following a butterfly flying into the sky. the butterfly is her guide, leading the way to the end of her dream. kinoko nasu himself once shared that cosmos in the lostbelt is a story about accepting that ends will come, and thus the butterfly is the lesson that she must take to heart to grow into a person who can claim what the purpose she chose is without shame or hesitation as the end draws near. this is something she did once saving fujimaru from goetia's ars almadel salomonis at the end of observer in timeless temple. and i would not be surprised if she did the same against marisbury at the end of cosmos in the lostbelt (which has yet to finish, as paper moon's trailer demonstrates having it be part of the chapter's title).

but what is the dream she is dreaming that is inevitably coming to an end that she will choose to protect at the cost of her place in it? if you've been reading this far, then the answer should be obvious.

but nasu wouldn't be much of a romantic if he believed an end is all you could really look forward to. the journey is far more important than the destination, because it's the only thing that can give the end meaning, as romani archaman rightly puts in his final conversation with mash. you can only extrapolate the significance of something after it's already over. not at the start, not in the middle of it, and not at when it's over, but at the moment that lies beyond the end of the dream.

and when a dream ends, that is the moment when another begins.

[moonlightazriel]

Son of the Darkness XIX /// Azriel X F!Reader

Summary: Hidden for so long The court of shadows thrived, and things were great until the high lord's death, now the next in line should assume the crown of high lord of shadows, will he accept his duties?

Warnings: More dying people and blood hehehe

Word Count: 3K

Notes: Not so many chapters left. I used my break to go into a writing frenzy and I wrote last chapter and this chapter in sequence ahahahah

Son of the Darkness Masterlist

Main Masterlist

He ran, dropping everything he was holding, pushing forward so fast that his wings almost lifted his body from the ground. The tent was empty, her scent was still recent. His shadows urged him outside, until he was entering Archeron's tent.

The covers from Elain’s bed were dragged along the floor, her scent was tinted with panic, while Y/N’s was mixed with confusion. The other two females appeared a second later. Nesta fell to her knees, sobbing as they saw their middle sister was missing.

“The cauldron took her.” Nesta sobbed.

“Them.” Azriel corrected. “He took them both.” Anger shimmered inside him, burning his heart, he couldn’t think straight, the only coherent thought was to get his mate back.

“We need to get them back.” Feyre said. They all gathered outside the tent. “It was calling her, I saw it in my dreams.”

“Well, it makes sense to take Elain as she was made. But take Y/N too?” Cassian dared to ask what everyone was wondering. Azriel felt the anger burn brighter. He didn’t care about the reason, he would make them pay.

“This doesn’t matter now.” Rhys tried to talk some sense into all of them. “We need to get them back.”

“You can’t.” Nesta said, her voice distant as she looked at something on the ground. “I saw the king and I saw the army, you’re getting killed as soon as you get too close to that camp.”

“I will take them back.” Azriel said, cold fury lacing his words.

“Then you will die.” Nesta snapped.

“I will bring them back.” He repeated more firmly this time. Rhysand approached him.

“Azriel you can’t go, it’s too dangerous!” Rhysand tried to hold his brother back, Az quickly pushing him out of the way.

“I don’t care, he took my mate!” He yelled and Rhysand stepped back, everyone surprised at the statement, Feyre stepped forward, a hand on Azriel’s shoulder.

“I’ll come with you then!”

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

The silky nightgown had turned to shreds, mud clinging to her face and hair as they dragged her to the King’s tent. Elain quietly sobbed by her side.

They had tied the Archeron with iron cuffs, and something else that reeked of magic. Y/N however, her cuffs were different, claws digging into her skin, blood pouring from the wounds, her body felt weird, empty. She was hanging from a wooden pillar, the position making it way more painful as the cuffs pierced further her skin.

She tried to move and release her shadows, but nothing came, her body felt weak and unprotected, she didn’t like that feeling. The tent opened and the King of Hybern himself entered, admiring Elain and then placing his eyes on Y/N.

“I’ve heard about you Shadow-Caster, you didn’t think I would be fool enough to not protect myself did you?” Y/N smiled spitting in his face, saliva mixed with blood dripped from the King’s face.

The male just smirked, wiping his face. The punch that hit her face split her eyebrow, blood started to pour from the wound, directly into her eye, she bit the inside of her cheek to control the pain, she wouldn’t give him this satisfaction.

“You would be such a good weapon in my arsenal.” He wiped the blood from her eyes and she moved her head to the side, not wanting to be touched by him. “It’s a shame that my deal states that you need to be killed.”

The king turned around looking at Elain.

“So pretty.” She flinched but the King laughed, turning around and going away.

“I will find a way to get us out.” Y/N spoke and Elain turned to her, her brown eyes looked scared and she just wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be fine.

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

Feyre took a calming breath, Azriel following her closely in every shadowy corner he could find. Ianthe was dead, she was sure, the camp just didn’t know it yet, which made it easier to walk around wearing her face.

They watched the soldiers celebrating, singing and drinking around a huge fire. Beaten up and tied against a wooden pole, a female stood. Feyre had to hold the urge to throw up as she saw the scene. Her guts twisting in agony as she looked at the face.

A child of the blessed. The woman moaned in pain, barely moving. Someone screamed in the distance, and Feyre grounded herself in the thought that it wasn’t Elain. She thought about the girl, they could rescue one more, but how would she remove the girl without blowing their cover?

“He’s been looking for you!” A voice startled her and she turned to see Jurian. Feyre looked at the altar that held the girl, and just by the side of the pole, the King of Hybern sat, watching and smiling at the celebration. The urge to throw up came again.

“I’ve been busy with my sisters.” Feyre replied, her voice a few notes different, mimicking every aspect of Ianthe. Jurian looked at her up and down, his eyes looking at Azriel’s siphon resting on her forehead. “Where is she?” She whispered.

“You’ve been flirting with me for weeks, act like it.” Jurian mocked. Feyre rested his hand on his arm and the male laughed again. “I doubt that’s how you won Rhysand’s heart.”

“Where is she?” She demanded again.

“Safe, untouched. Can’t say the same about the other one.” The shadows behind her moved and she had to tell Azriel to calm down. “He was surprised when the cauldron took her, but it was the only way to get the other one. He came out here to think about what to do with your sister while those pigs had their time with Y/N.”

Feyre stiffed, Elain was just a bait to get what they really wanted. Did they plan to use the cauldron to change her mind? Force her to work against them? Could they do it? Screams caught her attention again, and she turned to the tent, two guards dragged a body out. A blonde male stumbled out after the guards.

“Do you know them?” She asked Jurian.

“They came to the King a few weeks ago, they wanted her and in return they would give an army to the king.” He simply answered. “As you may have guessed, they’re inside. Hurry.”

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

The tent had opened again, and she couldn’t hold back the scoff that came out of her, of course they would do something like that.

“Why am I not surprised? That’s what you two have always been, rats in search of crumbs, feasting on any leftovers you can find, I think it’s quite pathetic.” Illipetor’s face contorted in anger.

“Yet, you’re the one at our mercy.” The older male approached her. “The King is a very generous man. He kills you and that bastard, we give him the Night Fall and I become High Lord.” Y/N laughed.

“You’re still holding onto that little fantasy? That anyone in the Court of Shadows would accept you as their leader?” Illipetor’s hand slapped her face, making her laugh even more.

“They won’t have a choice.” She rolled her eyes.

“Worked so well for you last time.” He grabbed her face.

“You always needed to learn manners, a savage bitch just like your mother.” The grip on her face grew stronger. “I’ll love to see her legacy be erased from history. No one will remember her and most certainly no one will remember you.”

“Just because you’re a traitor asshole, you think that everyone is like you, and that’s what you don’t understand. People are loyal to me, in a way they will never be to you, but you can try.” He slapped her once again and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.

“You talk too much. Especially for someone that clearly doesn’t have any chances here.” The male turned around. “And what do we have here?” He eyed Elain. “Luther will certainly be happy to have you as a bride.”

Elain watched in silence, her eyes glued to the male’s face, a little smirk adorning her face as Y/N forced her body up, blood ran down her arms even more as she did it. She swung forward, grabbing Illipetor and forcing him back with her. Y/N locked the male in between her thighs, squeezing the air out of his lungs, if her shadows couldn’t do it, she would be a little old fashioned.

The male tried to get out of the iron grip, Elain watched the life be drained from him. Y/N moved her legs again, and the male’s neck snapped in two, she let it go, and the lifeless body fell to her feet.

“Hey Luther, you’re coward fucker, come inside, I have a surprise for you?” She yelled and the male entered the tent a few seconds later, his eyes falling to his dead uncle.

“YOU FUCKING BITCH.” He spat, his fist connecting to her face a few times while she laughed, she knew this would drive him even more insane. “If you would only behave, I could’ve given you everything, but you can’t even act like a decent female.” He said, holding her by the hair. “You wasted your chance, I’ll kill you.”

“I’ll open you like the pig you are, and you’ll be begging for my mercy.” She spat the blood on the corpse laying on the floor. “I would be fast if I were you, rotten things tend to decompose faster.” The male screamed at her, two guards appearing and taking the body with them.

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

“Say that you want to pray before you rest.” Jurian suggested and Feyre did just that to the guards.

“Be fast.” One of them ordered.

“You have five minutes, take her to the west limit of the camp, there’s a ravine there. I’ll be there.” He promised. “If you hear screams, don’t panic, hopefully you can carry three, High Lord.”

Azriel didn’t answer, not indicating he was there, but he followed Feyre inside. He watched with horror how bruised and covered in blood Y/N was. Stepping out of the shadows he helped her down while Feyre took care of Elain.

“Are you okay?” He asked, wincing as he saw the cuffs.

“Yeah I’m fine, we will think about this later, we need to go.” She urged the four of them.

“Are you sure you can walk?” Azriel checked again.

“I am, let’s just go.” She kissed his cheek.

“We have a problem.” Feyre warned and they looked at her. “ I can’t undo the spell.”

“I’ll carry her, we just have to go.” Azriel said, gently placing Elain on his shoulder, the three of them started to dart out of the tent. Feyre took the lead, Azriel in the middle with Elain and Y/N following close behind.

It took a minute to realise that Azriel was using his shadows to make a cover for them, make them invisible, just enough to create some distance between them and the King.

“Keep running, my shadows won’t last long.” He urged the three, dashing forwards without looking back. Feyre grabbed a bow as they ran past a weapon station, turning to shoot one of the creatures that followed them. Y/N groaned in frustration as she tried to release the cuffs.

“Azriel, dagger.” She asked and the High Lord quickly threw the Truth-Teller her way, she catched, almost missing it. Turning backwards, fast enough to stab the nearest creature, the thing agonised and blood splashed out of the head.

Feyre kept shooting arrows, the commotion waking up everyone in that camp. At this point the shadows had completely dissipated and they were uncovered in the night. The archers aimed against us, thousands of arrows trying to find anything. Azriel projected a shield, protecting them.

Standing near the cliff, the girl from the pole was there. Shaking in absolute fear. Y/N looked at her, there was no way they could get all of them out at once.

“Take Elain home, I’ll take the other girl.” Feyre begged, completely forgetting about his mate.

“I’ll take all of you.” He snapped at her.

“Please Azriel.” She begged again. Her pleads stopped as an ash arrow pierced through her shoulder and she fell to the ground, the king and his man slowly approaching them.

Y/N jumped close to Feyre, holding his dagger up, protecting her friend. Azriel pulled both Elain and the girl close, his heart twisting in his chest as he saw his mate so far away from his reach.

“Torturing you would be very boring.” He pondered, slowly walking closer. “At least the traditional type of torture.” He laughed. “Rhysand will be so mad, knowing I have his mate.” He turned to Y/N. “I like you, I might take my promise back, you’re too good to be killed by ego.”

Two of the creatures jumped on Feyre, Y/N managed to stab one of them but the other was close to digging its rotten teeth on Feyre’s skin. Suddenly a roar sounded by the camp.

Feyre watched Tamlin with surprise, as he took the dogs down one by one, their eyes meeting for just a second. “Run!” He seemed to say. And then Y/N was helping her up, pulling her towards Azriel. Feyre gripped the arrow, yanking it away from her body.

“We need to fly.” Azriel ordered as they were close enough. Feyre looked at him, she needed to do it, and she needed to do it now. Tamlin kept fighting the creatures, his pain filled screams piecing the air.

Feyre took a deep breath, conjuring her wings, flinching with the pain that took over her body.

“Hold onto him and don’t let go.” Elain ordered to the human girl, she quietly obliged, Y/N watched the two females clinging to him, swallowing the jealousy as Feyre offered her a hand.

Azriel jumped to the skies, and Y/N held tight on Feyre’s hand, the two watched as a dog ran past them, its nails digging on Azriel skin. Y/N screamed in agony as she saw the beast clinging to him too, forcing him down. It was Elain that kicked the beast away, sending it to the bottom of the river.

The two ran towards the end of the land, not daring to look back at what was certainly chasing them, Azriel kept yelling instructions, and when Feyre leaped to the sky, holding Y/N by the chains that still held her wrists together, the female sobbed. And Feyre forced her body up.

She could feel the shields, and forcing that magic that Helion gifted her, she exploded on white light, creating just enough space for them to fly out. They held onto each other as Feyre winnowed them away back to their camp.

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

She hadn’t managed to get them further, appearing in the limit of the camp. Both Elain and the girl could walk, but Azriel needed help. Y/N almost barked at Elain when she reached for him.

“Feyre needs help too.” She ordered, helping Azriel to his feet. The five of them walked slowly until they reached the healers tent. The inner circle and the High Lords were waiting for them already.

She refused to leave his side, as Ellora slowly patched him up, taking extra care with his wings. Helion was working on freeing Elain and the other female was also being taken care of.

“Hey, you need to rest.” Eva approached her friend. “Or at least shower, you stink.” Y/N laughed. “Thalia is going to watch over him, come with me.” She ordered.

Eva slowly put her towards her tent, a bath waited for her. The witch helped her undress, and she sank in the water.

“Let me take care of this for you.” She held her wrists above water, and Evanore started to work on the intricate spell that held the thing in place and blocked her magic. After 10 minutes, the cuffs fell to the ground and Y/N felt her magic back full force, the wounds starting to heal.

“I killed him.” She confided in Evanore.

“Who?” Her friend asked, rubbing the blood from her arms.

“Illipetor, he and Luther sold me so they could have power.” Eva looked at her friend.

“That’s why the cauldron took you.” She rested her forehead against her shoulder. “I was so scared.”

“I’m not going anywhere. We have more trouble to cause.” Y/N reassured her friend, but truth be told, she also felt scared of not coming back, not seeing her best friend again, not seeing Azriel again.

She pressed her eyes shut, the swelling from the left eye already feeling better. She sat there in silence with Evanore until the water was cold and her belly loudly groaned.

“Get dressed, you should eat.” Y/N allowed herself to be conducted by Eva, eating as much as she could and fetching a plate for Azriel.

His wounds were already closing, just tiny scratches marred the leathery skin of his wings. She cleared her throat and he opened his eyes.

“Hey, you.” He greeted her. She sat by his side, breathing his scent, and feeling the tears falling from her eyes. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m fine.” He reassured, quickly sitting and pulling her closer.

He held her as she sobbed, her head buried in the crook of his neck. He never had someone crying over him before, which made him feel a bit funny.

“I came here to feed you, not be consoled by you.” Azriel stilled.

“Feed me?” He looked at the plate. “Did you cook this?” He looked at her incredulously and she snorted.

“I can cook okay. But for now you have to be happy with whatever the kitchen made for you.” She pushed the plate to him and he took a bite.

“You have to stop scaring me like that, okay?” He asked and she turned to him, watching the ring in his fingers, made with the same stone as her necklace. She grabbed his hand, drawing invisible patterns in it and then kissing the scarred skin.

“As long as this stone keeps glowing, it means that I’m alive and I’m coming back to you.” And just as she finished, both the ring and the necklace started to glow.

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

Taglist: @allison-rosewood-maximoff @devilsfoodcake22 @fieldofdaisiies @valeridarkness @brekkershadowsinger @margssstuff @patdsinner33

[shuttershocky]

i was wondering if you could give some general tips for is3? i have a decently developed account but i still cant manage to even get to the first boss every run, let alone beat it. like most runs in is2 i could at least beat Lucian but here i feel like im hitting a brick wall

I've prepared something special for this ask today.

We will be doing a full breakdown of a squad I've run with restrictions. It's a run I just completed as I'm typing this, so I can go over my thought process on both team building and path taking. I also won a run on my first try with the restrictions in place (in fact my IS3 winrate is actually much higher than my IS2 winrate at this point), so I'm fairly confident my strategies are sound. If the massive text scares you, don't worry. I'll also make a TL;DR version at the bottom.

My Three Restrictions:

Ch'en the Holungday, Gavial the Invincible, Mlynar, Kal'tsit, Texas the Omertosa, Pozyomka, Horn, Ling, Goldenglow, and Yato x Kirin are banned - This is a combination of both CN's usual ban list for IS3 competitions, as well as the latest ban list on Lungmen Dragon's latest IS3 competition for Global. This is to show that I don't need meta ops to win that proper teambuilding is what wins runs

Must be Wave 5 - This means the difficulty is low enough to still be considered "low level IS3", but high enough to have the +1 hope cost, +10 RES, and +15% ATK and DEF on all bosses

CANNOT pick People-Oriented Squad - This means I've got to deal with the big hope costs.

And here is my results screen

Now I know what you're thinking. "What the fuck Shutters, your run got the -2 hope costs for 4 stars, AND for 5 stars, AND the 6 stars! Carried by RNG!" While it is fucking hilarious I got all three Hope cost reduction relics when I was trying to starve myself of hope, be assured I didn't get 6 stars - 2 Hope until late Floor 4 where it was hardly relevant. i'd actually rather have gotten combat relics since I still had Hope leftover by the ending.

Let's get into teambuilding and decision-making.

I started this run with 8 Hope (got the pre-run bonus for +2 starting Hope), which let me recruit one 6 star at the very start (I always go with As You Wish so I can get a 4 star for free). In this case, the random shuffle I got was a 4 star Defender voucher, a Vanguard voucher, and a supporter voucher. My starting squad was Gummy, Ines, and Orchid.

In both IS2 and IS3, a usual strategy is to have one core 6 star operator carry you through the early game until you grab more vouchers. Ines is an incredible starting core in this difficulty, since she sees through Invis, is a fast redeploy, is a vanguard, can block enemies, and has enough damage in S2 to get you through Symbiosis in the worst case scenario. I'm actually surprised she isn't considered ban-worthy.

Your biggest threats in the first two floors are Symbiosis, Sniper Squad (if emergency), and Malady. Always, ALWAYS try to have one operator capable of blocking enemies on the ground. If you get all ranged vouchers, bring someone with a summon such as Beeswax if Caster (or Amiya then change to Guard Amiya), an Artificer for Supporters, or Totter (to kill invis) or Rosmontis for Snipers. If you get Emergency Sniper Squad and have no way of blocking or killing invisible units, you autolose. Malady wants you to have either two melee blockers, or one melee with a medic and some ranged damage. Symbiosis is the biggest threat — One unit has to be able to block, and you need strong DPS to cut through the horde. There's no shame in losing to Symbiosis, you either got the operators you need, or you autolose, so I always make a starting team assuming I'm gonna get Symbiosis.

I got lucky with a medic voucher and got Pith (who is so damn good), and on my next defender voucher I got Spot instead of upgrading Gummy. This is because I wanted to get two sources of melee block-3 ASAP since I was lacking in AOE, and Spot is one of the best 3 stars in IS thanks to being Block-3, tanky, having a heal, and evasion. He's worth the 1 hope.

Once you get ground units and a heal, hopefully by Floor 2, you want to start preparing for Floors 3-5. In this case, I got a Sniper voucher and immediately got Kroos the Keen Glint. I consider Kroos the strongest Sniper in IS3 just behind Pozy herself, because she has two traits any IS3 team needs: a source of stun/bind/freeze, and strong anti-air. The Stun/Bind/Freeze counters two gimmick enemies, UFOs (I forgot their real names but you know which ones) and the hated Nethersea Predators from Stulifera Navis. Both enemy types get countered by crowd control.

So by early Floor 3, I had Ines (promoted), Kroos the Keen Glint, Pith (promoted), Spot, and Gummy. At that point I had pretty much everything I needed to make a run to Floor 5 (to reiterate: one fast redeploy, several ground operators, good anti-air, at least one source of stun that can also hit air units), so I began grabbing operators that synergized with my collectibles. Hand of Pulverization meant Rosmontis, uh, pulverized everything, Gnosis was a second source of crowd control in case I got unlucky with Kroos' stun crit RNG (protip: In IS, getting two different kinds of operators who have overlapping roles will carry you deeper into runs since it gives you leeway to make mistakes), and I got Firewatch for that mix of AOE burst damage, invis if need be, and for her incredibly high damage against ranged enemies.

I got two cursed relics on the way. - light per battle, and all operators start with -15 SP. I always try to pick a path with Fortuitous Opportunity since you can trade cursed relics for good ones. Luckily, I had two such nodes, one in Floor 3 and one in Floor 4.

If operators get cursed (which can indeed be instant losses if it's a bad curse very early on and on your core operator), I go for the node that lets you send units out for supplies, it removes curses and promotes operators. At Wave 5 or below you always start with 100 Light, so it's possible to avoid instant loss curses by playing well in Floors 1-2 and not losing any lives (so even if you roll a 1 you don't get cursed)

While you can start freestyling team building once you have your important roles all assembled, I personally like grabbing counters to Floor 4/5 stages that have the biggest chances of ending my run. For this run in particular, these are

Lin, for Out of Control - This stage is one of the most terrifying no matter how experienced in IS3 you are, simply from the sheer amount of Possessed and Bonethrowers coming at you. Lin hard counters this, since with her module active, Bonethrowers cannot break her shield, giving you a tank that doesn't need medics.

Franka for Ubi Bona Somnia - Those spear-zombies from originium dust have 2000 DEF and 80 RES (90 at Wave 5), Franka is there to kill the one that spawns in this stage specifically.

Pompeii (Territorial Tendencies) - I didn't need to grab a counter for in case I met Pompeii since I already had Firewatch and a hand-powered Rosmontis, but if I didn't, it's always a good idea to grab an anti-Pompeii unit like Jaye.

Then once I got to Highmore it was a simple matter of knocking down Highmore with Gnosis' freeze, pulverizing Phase 1 with Rosmontis S3, knocking down Highmore again with Gnosis, then killing Phase 2 with Ines. If you're aiming for Last Knight or Ishar-mla, your team needs will be different of course!

So! I hope that helped you understand how to think about approaching an IS3 run, but in case none of that made any sense and I wasted 3 hours writing this, here's a TL;DR

What do I generally need?

Floor 1

Ground units because you need to block

DPS to counter Symbiosis specifically

Heals

Floors 2-3

Strong Anti-air (IS3 has a lot of flying enemies)

One fast redeploy like Agent Vanguards or Executor Specialists (effective in a vast majority of stages in IS3)

At least one source of Stun/Bind/Freeze that can hit aerial units (to deal with UFOs and Highmore that need to be knocked down, Nethersea Predators so they stop fucking dodging)

You may realize that Texas the Omertosa has all 3 of these qualities. This is why she's considered an automatic ban in all IS3 tournaments

Floors 4-5

Specific counters to the stages that kick your ass the most

Specific boss counters if necessary

Specific operator combos with your collectibles (for example Cutter + Any spinach type collectible)